"Serbia has a strategy for switching over from analog to digital broadcasting, prepared with broad public consultation. The basic legal framework is in place, but implementation is not yet underway. Moreover, if fair access to digital licenses is to be ensured, a new media law—harmonized with the
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EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive—is still needed. Broadband internet has had by far the most significant growth among the available distribution platforms over the past five years. More than 23 percent of Serbian households had an internet connection at the end of 2009—more than doubling the number of such connections just four years earlier. The internet as a platform for activism is rapidly expanding, with the number of petitions, initiatives, and debates online growing considerably. The internet has also led to more diversity and to a plurality of voices in political life. All that said, Serbia remains a television nation, with almost all households owning a TV set and three quarters of the population still using television as their main source of information. Serbia’s private media sector continues to be plagued by opaque ownership structures, with the owners of various media hiding behind off shore–registered businesses. Additionally, there is no publicly available register of media owners. Without mechanisms to render media ownership transparent, Serbia’s media sector will not achieve its potential for independence and diversity." (Website Open Society Foundation, 19.12.2011)
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"The explosion of digital media and their impact on journalism and democracy in Lithuania coincided with the country's second decade of independence and with the economic crisis of 2009-2010. With the rapid growth of internet penetration, websites dedicated to news appeared and traditional media wen
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t online. The near-doubling of internet subscriptions from 34.3 percent of the population in 2005 to 60.5 percent in 2010 was accompanied by dynamic growth in ownership of PCs, laptops, mobile phones, and later smart phones. The internet took on an increasing role as a news source for the public, especially younger audiences. Formerly marginalized groups, such as ethnic and sexual minorities, have gained a platform on the internet which they were almost entirely denied in mainstream media. Also, politicians have taken up communicating through new media; some have begun blogging, while others are active on social networks. Government transparency and civic engagement in politics have been enhanced by a range of online tools and initiatives by civil society groups which let voters access and analyze government data, and occasionally generate mainstream media coverage. However, there are no separate regulations or legal liability provisions concerning internet content that differ from those which apply to other media. Media regulation is in practice independent from government, but the regulators are lax in exercising their powers, e.g. to enforce ownership transparency rules. A weakness of the regulatory system is its dispersion among several bodies which don’t always coordinate among themselves. Their composition raises questions about competence and impartiality. This report calls for the creation of a single regulatory body with robust appointment criteria as well as for clear and transparent rules for allocating EU funds to the media. It recommends that the government introduce legislation restricting media concentration and intensify efforts to ensure universal public access to media after switch-over." (Open Society website)
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"In Moldova, the combination of digitization and political change has increased the diversity of media outlets and their news, the plurality of opinions, and the transparency of public institutions, while it has diminished political interference in the media. Yet the lack of independence of regulato
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ry institutions, the nontransparent media ownership structure, and the slow pace of digital switch-over continue to undermine these achievements. In order to reinforce positive change, this report proposes four kinds of reform. Firstly, the legal framework for digital switch-over must be completed in the near future if the country is to be ready for the transition before the switch-off date. The provisions for public interest, access, and affordability should be given priority and, for this purpose, participation of civil society groups in the drafting process is vital. This framework will also speed up the adoption of the new Broadcasting Code, a historic document that will end the era of non-transparent media ownership, the second area that needs urgent reform. Thirdly, with public awareness of the purpose and implications of switch-over virtually nonexistent, an information campaign and public debate on the issue need to start without delay. Finally, the independence of two key institutions, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council and the PSB, needs to be strengthened. In both cases, this can be done by changing funding models and adopting clearer regulatory safeguards against government interference." (Publisher description)
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"Dieses Handbuch bietet einen Überblick für Einsteiger, die ihr gedrucktes Kulturgut durch Digitalisierung schützen und zugänglich machen möchten. Es stellt die einzelnen Phasen des Digitalisierungsprozesses vor und bietet weiterführende Informationen für die detaillierte Beschäftigung mit d
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iesem Thema." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The process of ‘media convergence’ has far broader policy implications for ownership and audience access to diverse information. Dwyer critically analyses the political, economic, cultural, social, and technological factors that are shaping these changing media practices. There are examples of
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media convergence in everyday life throughout, including IPTV, VoIP and Broadband networks. The impacts of major traditional media players moving into the online space is illustrated using case studies such as the acquisition of the social networking site MySpace by News Corporation, and copyright issues on Google’s YouTube." (Back cover)
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"Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Auswirkungen der digitalen Ökonomie auf die Buchbranche. Während sich die Branche über einen langen Zeitraum in einem relativ stabilen Marktumfeld befand, ergeben sich aus der Digitalisierung ihres Kernprodukts und der Entwicklung neuer Technologien wie z.B
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. von Lesegeräten, die in der Lage sind, Texte in einer dem physischen Buch vergleichbaren Qualität darzustellen, vielfältige Herausforderungen. Die Musikindustrie sah sich Ende der 1990er Jahre mit einerähnlichen Situation konfrontiert, weshalb sie in dieser Arbeit als Referenz für die Auswirkungen von Digitalisierungsprozessen dient. Für die Musikindustrie führten diese Prozesse durch den Markteintritt neuer Wettbewerber und durch eine illegale Verbreitung der Inhalte zu einem tiefgreifenden Wandel des gesamten Sektors, der auch als Krise der Industrie bezeichnet wird. Es stellt sich die Frage, ob die Buchbranche mit ähnlichen Entwicklungen rechnen muss. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es also, die für die Krise der Musikindustrie verantwortlichen Faktoren aufzuzeigen und ihre Relevanz für die Buchbranche zu untersuchen, um daraus das Krisenpotential für die Branche abzuleiten." (Gegenstand und Ziel der Untersuchung, Seite 8)
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"Digital communications technology does many new things. Its spread means that it is no longer a case of a tiny minority of professionals and politicians having a monopoly on mass communication. Implicit in the observations of this report, is the recognition that - amongst other things - digitisatio
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n also disrupts old boundaries between inter-personal and mass communication. What used to be the subject of, or product of, communication between a few individuals, can increasingly be put into the public sphere. Much of this content remains personal in quality, despite it being public in availability. But there is also much that is of public interest. In some ways, this therefore threatens those institutions supposed to be specialising in public interest information. In other ways, it can help them not only reinforce this mission, but to also take a step towards expanding their role into becoming wider public interest content and commun-ications agencies. They can, in short, be the motive force that pulls personal conversations into focussing on journalism that is of common public interest. That image of leading the transformation of mass communication is, however, just one of the scenarios outlined in this report. The others point to lesser roles, even including extinction. It should be noted that scenarios are not predictions of the future, but attempts to highlight a range of possible options. They help guide action in one or other direction. The complication is that digitisation and all that comes with it can deal a surprise to even the best-considered scenario possibilities. Who would have thought that a search engine company (Google) could become such an effective player in the advertising arena? Or that newspaper newsrooms would start hiring video-capable staffers, or that some cell-phone companies would move into distributing content? Could anyone have guessed that a company like Twitter could attract and burn millions of dollars of investment without even a proper business plan about how it intends to make money? The digital revolution, if it is to succeed, needs to have top quality cadres in the newsrooms. In the face of these kinds of developments, it is tempting to throw up one’s hands and take a come-what-may approach. That’s preferable to the illusion of controlling and managing the process. At the same time, between these two extremes of paralysis and over-planning, there is a broad direction that can be identified and pursued. We may not know exactly where we are going, but - as this Report seeks to do - we can look at where we are and what’s immediately ahead. More fundamentally, however, there’s worth in remembering from whence we come. In other words, while looking at the present and near-present, and keeping an eye on what future scenarios we can imagine, we can hold onto our values. In the context of public broadcasting, these values are - in a nutshell - to focus mass communications on deepening democracy and development. These public interest values remain all the more valid in a time when the historical informational “service” model is being expanded to also function as a public interest communicational mode. Keeping these ideals aloft helps state-owned broadcasters steer a course between delivering government-interest and commercial-interest content. They help to define the meaning of universal access in the face of financial pressures and socio-economic divides. They empower people to see the big picture and to bring concerted action to bear on it. In sum, they help us reinvent “public service broadcasting” in a fashion appropriate to its contemporary possibilities. Roll on digitisation in Southern Africa - and the transformation of at least some state-owned broadcasters to become leaders in this process." ("Summing up", page 53-54)
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"This report, entitled “digital.life” is the eighth in the series of “ITU Internet Reports”, originally launched in 1997 under the title “Challenges to the Network”. This edition has been specially prepared for ITU TELECOM WORLD, to be held in Hong Kong, China, from 4-8 December 2006. [.
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..] The first chapter of the report, Going digital, explores the meaning and importance of being digital. Chapter two, lifestyles.digital, examines the key technologies and services enabling new digital lifestyles, including higher-speed networks and content distribution. Chapter three, business.digital, considers the challenges and opportunities facing businesses in adapting to fast-paced innovation, before addressing whether a fresh approach to policy-making might be required in light of rapid media convergence. Chapter four, identity.digital, explores the changing nature of the digital individual and the need for greater emphasis on the creation and management of digital identity. Chapter five, Living the digital world, concludes by examining the social impacts of digital technologies and imagining how lifestyles might further evolve in the digital age. The Information Society Statistics in the annex present the latest data and charts for some 206 economies worldwide in their use of digital technologies." (Foreword)
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"The purpose of producing a second edition of the World Communication Report was pragmatic: the aim was to provide a reference work for decision-makers, planners, researchers, students, media professionals and the general public. In view of the scope of the subjects covered and the rapid outdating o
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f certain features, this Report makes no attempt to be exhaustive, but brings out the convergence between information technology, information and communication and their applications in the various media (written press, news agencies, radio and television) and provides statistics on the changes observed in this field. It also attempts to highlight the major problems connected with the development of new information and communication technologies, such as the regulation of networks, media attitudes to violence and access of women to the media. The question that lies at the heart of this report may be summed up as follows: how are we to reinvent our patterns of thought and knowledge in the context of the technological multimedia revolution, which is proving both profound and irreversible?" (Preface)
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"Papers from an international conference held by the Protestant Academy of Arnoldshain (Schmitten, Federal Republic of Germany), the Protestant Association for Media Communication (Frankfurt, FRG) and the World Association for Christian Communication (London), with the common theme that all people a
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re entitled to equal rights of access to information technology. Articles discuss concentration of the media in both state and private hands, with its inevitable result on public opinion as it becomes more and more powerful; the danger that the increasing internationalization of media may prevent democratic control; and a final article, "Advertising and the Creation of Global Markets," contending that the new information technologies are creating an infrastructure that is making the 20th century "information age" a "commercial age" at a global level." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 29)
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