mediadev library

Filter

263

Sort by:

Direction:

Download (1)

Digital Access in Africa

Chris Locke, Jonathan Donner, Bryan Pon, Savita Bailur, Francis Hook, Ambacontributors Kak

Farnham (UK): Caribou Digital Publishing (2016), 60 pp.

"The mobile industry has, for the past 15 years or so, done a phenomenal job of connecting users in emerging markets to voice, SMS and Internet access services. But as we strive to reach the remaining unconnected users, we may need new models of connectivity to reach them. In the first section of th ... is document we discuss the need for new Internet access models, and ask the question of what we mean by “Internet Access” and why it’s important to understand what the impacts of limited service and capability are. We then move on to look at the barriers to scaling Internet access, and why, despite the availability and affordability of mobile phones, Internet access remains sub-scale. On the supply side, we discuss the issues around the costs of delivery access, and the difficulty of making connectivity affordable. Many attempts to reduce the cost have been tried, with varying levels of success. From Universal Service Funds delivered at a policy level, to zero-rated services from the private sector, it is important to understand the considerations around subsidizing access for poor or hard-to-reach users. The debate around this is nuanced, as the recent decision by the TRAI to ban Facebook Free Basics in India has shown. Supply side barriers are not easily solvable, and some mix of new industry business models and policy efforts to make regulation fit for purpose is required. Providing affordable—or free—Internet access will require negotiating the original principles of the Internet, the desire for an open and fair architecture, with the real costs of delivering this vision. From a user perspective, even when the available infrastructure enables connectivity, it doesn’t always drive adoption. Users require a reason to go online. A certain amount of this can be demand driven by access to essential government services, but a carrot as well as a stick is required. We have previously researched the digital lives of users in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, and have shown how users come online for non-instrumental reasons (social media, games, etc.) but then often use these platforms for instrumental activities such as self-directed education, searching for employment, or sourcing essential information.3 User research can show us how these needs can be balanced, and we discuss this within this report." (Introduction, page 4-5) more

Download (1)

Freedom on the Net 2016. Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure
Top Insights

Sanja Kelly, Mai Truong, Adrian Shahbaz, Madeline Earp (eds.)

Washington, DC; New York: Freedom House (2016), 1021 pp.

"Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year, with more governments than ever before targeting social media and communication apps as a means of halting the rapid dissemination of information, particularly during antigovernment protests. Public-facing social media platforms like Fac ... more

Download (1)

Last Mile Connectivity in Emerging Markets

Developing Telecoms (2016), 28 pp.

"This report focuses on the difficulties faced by operators in emerging markets looking to deliver data bandwidth cost effectively to challenging locations, including remote communities and busy cities. While the challenges are myriad, improvements in technology are increasingly making the business ... more

External Link (11)

Media Freedom on the Internet: An OSCE Guidebook

Yaman Akdeniz

Vienna: OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (2016), 110 pp.

External Link (20)

Citoyenneté numérique: Ce que l’Afrique prépare. Bénin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, République démocratique du Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Sénégal

Cédric Kalonji, Philippe Couve, Julien Le Bot

Paris: CFI Coopération Médias (2016), 39 pp.

"L’approfondissement des pratiques démocratiques dans les pays étudiés passe non seulement par le renforcement des capacités des médias et des journalistes, pour qu’ils puissent s’emparer pleinement des outils numériques, mais aussi par la montée en puissance d’un grand nombre de nouv ... more

External Link (19)

Google Scholar (17)

WorldCat (18)

Digital Discrimination: Political Bias in Internet Service Provision Across Ethnic Groups

Nils B. Weidmann, Suso Benitez-Baleato, Philipp Hunziker, Eduard Glatz, Xenofontas Dimitropoulos

Science, volume 353, issue 6304 (2016), pp. 1151-1155

"The global expansion of the Internet is frequently associated with increased government transparency, political rights, and democracy. However, this assumption depends on marginalized groups getting access in the first place. Here we document a strong and persistent political bias in the allocation ... more

Google Scholar (22)

WorldCat (24)

Bolivia digital: 15 miradas acerca de internet y sociedad en Bolivia

Eliana Quiroz Gutiérrez (coord.)

La Paz: Vicepresidencia del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia; Centro de Investigaciones Sociales (CIS) (2016), 536 pp.

External Link (21)

Measuring the Information Society Report 2016

Geneva: ITU (2016), 256 pp.

"This annual report presents a global and regional overview of the latest developments regarding information and communication technologies (ICTs), based on internationally comparable data and agreed methodologies. It aims to stimulate the ICT policy debate in ITU Member States by providing an objec ... more

External Link (20)

Freedom on the Net 2015: Privatizing Censorship, Eroding Privacy

Sanja Kelly, Madeline Earp, Laura Reed, Adrian Shahbaz, Mai Truong (eds.)

Washington, DC; New York: Freedom House (2015), 986 pp.

"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fifth consecutive year, with more governments censoring information of public interest and placing greater demands on the private sector to take down offending content. State authorities have also jailed more users for their online writings, wh ... more

Download (1)

Bridging the Gender Gap: Mobile Access and Usage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Connected Women 2015

Shireen Santosham, Dominica Lindsey

GSMA; Altai Consulting (2015), 128 pp.

"Women on average are 14% less likely to own a mobile phone than men, which translates into 200 million fewer women than men owning mobile phones. Women in South Asia are 38% less likely to own a phone than men, highlighting that the gender gap in mobile phone ownership is wider in certain parts of ... more

Download (0)

ICT Facts and Figures

Geneva: ITU (2015), 8 pp.

"In 2015 there are more than 7 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide, up from less than 1 billion in 2000. Globally 3.2 billion people are using the Internet of which 2 billion are from developing countries. ICTs will play an even more significant role in the post 2015 development agenda a ... more

External Link (19)

Online Media Overview: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia

Laurent Giacobino

Paris: CFI Coopération Médias (2015), 27 pp.

"This document is an abridged version of a wide-ranging survey conducted between July 2014 and January 2015, which attempts to provide an overall view of the complex, ever-changing and fluid landscape of the online media in the Arab world. It is based on over 45 in-depth interviews, 130 applications ... more

External Link (12)

Panorama des médias en ligne: Algérie, Égypte, Jordanie, Liban, Maroc, Palestine, Syrie, Tunisie

Laurent Giacobino

Paris: CFI Coopération Médias (2015), 78 pp.

"La présente étude, menée entre juillet 2014 et janvier 2015, est basée sur plus de 45 entretiens approfondis, sur 130 candidatures reçues par CFI dans le cadre de sa compétition EBTICAR-Média1, soutenue par l’U.E., ainsi que sur l’analyse de nombreux rapports, articles et essais. Cette � ... more

Download (1)

The Sub-Saharan African Media Landscape: Then, Now and in the Future

Balancing Act (2014), 50 pp.

"Over five years Facebook has grown from practically no users in Sub-Saharan Africa to become the most widely used social media platform. In the four countries where face-to-face surveys were carried out for this research, between 14% (Tanzania) and 27% (Ghana) of all respondents were using it [...] ... more

Download (1)

Face-To-Face Survey Overview Summary Results

London: Balancing Act (2014), 50 pp.

"Mobile ownership in all of the four surveys [in Ghana, Nothern Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania] was around 90%, making the mobile phone the most widely owned device media device, both used as a media carrier (radio) and a media in its own right (Internet, SMS) [...] Radio remains the dominant medium ... more

Download (1)

Freedom on the Net 2014. Tightening the Net: Governments Expand Online Controls

Sanja Kelly, Madeline Earp, Laura Reed, Adrian Shahbaz, Mai Truong (eds.)

Washington, DC; New York: Freedom House (2014), 986 pp.

"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fourth consecutive year, with a growing number of countries introducing online censorship and monitoring practices that are simultaneously more aggressive and more sophisticated in their targeting of individual users. In a departure from the pa ... more

Download (1)

Ignorance is Bliss! Internet Usage and Perceptions of Corruption in a Panel of Developing Countries

Alberto Posso, Meg Elkins

International Journal of Communication, volume 8 (2014), pp. 2561-2577

"In a world of open-ended access to social media, the ability of governments to control information is slipping away. It is plausible in countries with limited Internet access for citizens to remain ignorant of the true amount of corruption. We built a cross-country panel of 124 developing nations t ... more

Download (0)

ICT Facts and Figures

Geneva: ITU (2014), 8 pp.

"The new figures show that, by the end of 2014, there will be almost 3 billion Internet users, two-thirds of them coming from the developing world, and that the number of mobile-broadband subscriptions will reach 2.3 billion globally. Fifty-five per cent of these subscriptions are expected to be in ... more

External Link (19)

Google Scholar (19)

WorldCat (20)

Cross-National Comparative Perspectives from the World Internet Project

Gustavo Cardoso, Guo Liang, Tiago Lapa

In: The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies

William H. Dutton (ed.)

Oxford: Oxford University Press (2014), pp. 216-236

"This chapter reviews the diffusion, uses, and impacts of the Internet worldwide and over time. The World Internet Project has been intended to become the vehicle for tracking what happens as households and nations adopt and use the Internet. The study of the connection between the Internet and soci ... more

Download (1)

Baseline Study Report on Women Access to Information Through Mobile and Media Communication Services

Liberia Women Media Action Committee (LIWOMAC); United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) (2014), 38 pp.

"Out of a total 400 participants, 374 respondents, representing 93.5%, know how to use cell phones, while 26, representing 6.5%, have no knowledge whatsoever about cell phone usage. This finding is indicative of a relatively high knowledge of mobile phones utility. The result also indicates that Lon ... more

Freedom on the Net 2016. Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure Top Insights

Freedom on the Net 2016. Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure
Top Insights