"What we lacked was a set of simple instructions that could help navigate the workflows and procedures of a digital security helpline, while focusing on the specific demand of offering
...
a service to groups that are often underfunded, understaffed, non-hierarchical and exposed to disproportionate threats and the consequent risk of post-traumatic stress disorder among their staff or volunteers. In publishing this guide we aim to fill this gap, enabling smaller organisations and grassroots groups to set up a team to respond to the digital safety needs of the people they work and fight with. It can be read by techies who want to organise and join forces to help their movement, but also by managers and organisers, who can follow the steps outlined in the initial chapters to start planning the creation of a digital security help desk for civil society and then look for people with a technical background to staff their help desk during the implementation phase." (Introduction, page 10)
more
"Following an extreme event with severe impacts, a great deal of public interest is generated in its causes. Increasingly, the dominant question is: "Was this event caused by climate change?" This guide is intended to help journalists navigate this
...
question. First, it introduces the science of 'extreme event attribution' - the method of attributing (or not) the degree to which the weather event was influenced by climate change. Second, it lays out the statements that can reliably be made about some of the extreme weather types of greatest public interest, even when no specific scientific study is being performed. This is based on current state-of-the-art knowledge using studies of recent extreme events and the latest IPCC report. Further down, you will find an easy-to-read checklist for each type of extreme weather event. The aim of this guide is to help journalists to accurately report extreme weather events in the context of a warming planet: how can you best inform your audiences about the effects of climate change on the extreme events we are increasingly experiencing, without overstating (or, indeed, understating) the link?" (Introduction, page 7)
more
"This open access book deals with cultural and philosophical aspects of artificial intelligence (AI) and pleads for a “digital humanism”. This term is beginning to be en vogue everywhere. Due to a
...
growing discontentment with the way digitalization is being used in the world, particularly formulated by former heroes of Internet, social media and search engine companies, philosophical as well as industrial thought leaders begin to plead for a humane use of digital tools. Yet the term “digital humanism” is a particular terminology that lacks a sound conceptual and philosophical basis and needs clarification still – and this gap is exactly filled by this book. It propagates a vision of society in which digitization is used to strengthen human self-determination, autonomy and dignity and whose time has come to be propagated throughout the world. The advantage of this book is that it is philosophically sound and yet written in a way that will make it accessible for everybody interested in the subject. Every chapters begins with a film scene illustrating a precise philosophical problem with AI and how we look at it – making the book not only readable, but even entertaining. And after having read the book the reader will have a clear vision of what it means to live in a world where digitization and AI are central technologies for a better and more humane civilization." (Publisher description)
more
"This Tool 7 is an online version of Tool 5 of the WIEGO MLE Toolkit: How to conduct a participatory workshop: harvesting outcomes. That tool discusses the rationale and gives illustrative examples of running
...
a participatory OH workshop, and these are not repeated here. Please read them first. Tool 8 is the online version of Tool 6 on outcomes analysis and strategic learning. A great way to find out if WIEGO’s interventions – trainings or other kinds of supports to Nets and MBOs – have worked well, or if people have used our tools and materials, is to engage them in a follow-up evaluation workshop. This Tool takes you through the process of supporting participants to describe changes they or their organizations have influenced since WIEGO’s interventions, or since they got WIEGO’s toolkits or materials. The online workshop in Tool 8 should take place one or a few days after this first workshop, giving you time to analyse the harvested outcomes before the workshop. It engages participants to interpret the analysis of the outcomes they harvested. They consider if and how well they are using the materials and having the influence they hope to have, whether on their own institutions or on external actors. The online workshops described in these two tools (7 and 8) aims to strengthen capacity of participants in telling their stories and in analysing their influence and its strategic implications." (The Focus of this Tool)
more
"This essay examines the history of the PAIGC radio station Rádio Libertação, broadcast from Conakry from 1967. The essay asks how to read the radio station today, and suggests we might see the radio station as
...
a manifestation – albeit limited in scope and life span – of the commitment Amílcar Cabral sketched out in his theoretical writings to collapsing the dichotomy between the practical-utilitarian and the poeticartistic. The essay reads the radio-magazine as a form that responded to the Portuguese colonial authorities’ information mania, but also as an heir to the journal cultures that sustained black internationalism in earlier decades. It takes the radio as a form in flux, emerging from and remediating the PAIGC’s print journal Libertação. The essay aims to show how the radio-magazine can help us understand the evolution of anticolonial debates about form, culture and society in the 1960s and 1970s." (Abstract)
more
"Waarneming.nl is the largest nature observation platform in the Netherlands, with over 70,000 users contributing data on biodiversity through their website and mobile applications. Using Waarneming.nl as an example, the theoretical exploration in this article offers
...
a new lens to look at platforms for nature observations. Users of Waarneming.nl read and write digital traces of encounters with other species, creating a ‘hybrid experience’ of nature, where digital and physical information are intertwined. As physical experiences become scarcer in threatening times of species endangerment and extinction, Waarneming.nl should additionally be understood as a place to memorialize lost nature. By conceptualizing Waarneming.nl as a digital 'lieu de mémoire' (‘place of memories’) and a place where hybrid experiences of nature are inspired, this article reflects on the positive and negative consequences of such platforms for humans and their multispecies relationships." (Abstract)
more
"This report is intended to provide a broad review of the use and emerging governance of AI technology in Southern Africa. It aims at initiating public discussions and policy dialogue not only on the technological implications of the use of AI, but
...
also on the social, political, and ethical significance and consequences of it. Through this report, UNESCO’s objective is also to provide the evidence that AI technologies are already being used in many domains and sectors in Southern Africa, thus countering the narrative that the ethics of AI is still premature to be discussed and taken seriously by the local actors in the region. The analysis comprises four parts that, read together, present a review of key policies, use cases, risks and opportunities for the design, development, governance and usage of responsible AI in the region. These are: (i) AI Regulatory and Policy Mapping; (ii) Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Applications; (iii) Ethical Risk of AI Use (derived from the findings in the policy mapping and use case analysis); and (iv) Key Opportunities and Recommendations." (Introduction)
more
"Developed and delivered in 2021/2022, the Digital Media Arts for an inclusive Public Sphere (Digital MAPS) programme brought together three universities, a data science and software company, an international Digital Peacebuilding NGO, as well as 1
...
8 country-based media-arts initiatives, to explore local responses to affective polarisation – defined as the increasing dislike, distrust, and animosity towards those from other cultural or identity-based groups. As you will read, through Digital MAPS, we worked with young leaders from the creative and media-arts sector, across eight countries in MENA (Libya, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Tunisia and Syria), providing them with the skills, resources and technology to understand polarisation and depolarisation approaches, conduct their own social media analysis and on the basis of this design and deliver pilot interventions to undercut affective polarisation - whether it be centred on gender, ethno-sectarian conflict, intergenerational conflict or hate speech in general. We hope the information contained here within, will be of interest to digital peacebuilding and digital cultural relations practitioners, policy makers and academics. More especially, we hope it can stimulate a conversation on the intersection between the two and the role of Cultural Relations in addressing the drivers that undermine it." (Introduction)
more
"The production of knowledge in Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) research has been characterized by an ongoing shift from dominantly Western-based to Indigenous theory formulations. This editorial puts forward core concepts in the decolonization of ICT4D, arguing that
...
these are fundamental to the creation, reading, and interpretation of ICT4D know ledge. Drawing on a decolonial read of the articles published in Vol. 28.3, we advance the argument that decolonizing ICT4D, rather than simply a means to read and analyze data, is an emancipatory practice to be adopted in an open challenge to Western-centric modes of doing ICT4D research." (Abstract)
more
"Questions of reconciliation and memory after genocide and conflict in Cambodia remain finely poised. Young people often do not believe the stories of hardship and loss of the older generation, and cleavages remain between divided and stigmatised former factions. This article reflects on
...
a series of participatory video projects led by young Cambodians that sought to engage and explore complex ‘perpetrator’ memories with the aim of building dialogue across communities and generations. Working in partnership with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia through 2018, our participatory-video project sought to document the experiences and accounts of former lower level Khmer Rouge community members. Through a discussion of the 11 films produced, and young filmmakers’ reflections on their involvement in the project, we show how participatory video allows and produces interventions on memory that can renegotiate, augment and contest dominant narratives of past violence. Crucially, we argue, that when read together, the films outline the contours, ambiguities and contestation of claims for ‘complex victimhood’ in Cambodia, and the problems of stabilising singular stories of past violence. We argue that this has implications for transitional justice more broadly, which is a field that tends to rely on neat distinctions of victim and perpetrator and shared accounts and meanings of past harm in the ways it intervenes on memory." (Abstract)
more
"The book offers a systematic approach to news and feature writing that starts with the basics and builds to more complex and longer pieces. The authors give the reader the tools they need to deliver engaging and authoritative writing that works ac
...
ross print and digital. Drawing on professional insight from writers across the industry, the book guides readers through the essential elements needed to write powerful and effective news stories, from hard news pieces to features on business, science and travel, and entertainment reviews. New to this edition are hands-on writing exercises accompanying each chapter to help reinforce key points; chapters on how to build a professional profle, pitch stories and get commissioned; and a section on online writing, SEO, analytics and writing for social media." (Publisher description)
more
"The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997) is one of the most important thinkers of the 21st century, figuring among the most quoted authors in the fields of education and social sciences all over the world. He is also a core reference to an
...
infinite number of grassroots and activist initiatives globally. This book celebrates his birth centennial with a collection of 19 contributions from both experienced and young media and communication scholars and activists working in 11 countries. They reflect and debate Freire’s principles and ideas, revisiting their origins and interrogating their relevance to current challenges and struggles. The result can be summarized as a claim for affect as the core feature of social change and a tool for yielding resistance." (Publisher description)
more
"International contributors assess a variety of key contexts that impact access to digital technologies, including contextual variations related to geography and infrastructure, as well as individual differences related to age, income, health and d
...
isability status. Chapters explore how variations emerge across the life course, illustrating the effects of digital disparities on personal wellbeing. Intervening in critical debates relating to the digital divide, this Handbook offers key insights into privacy and trust issues that affect technological usage." (Publisher description)
more
"The stories presented here are some examples of how the Multi-Donor Programme for Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP) works to provide countries and their populations with the necessary tools to nurture a free and independent med
...
ia. This includes promoting the adoption of policies and standards on freedom of expression and safety of journalists, and fostering diversity, gender equality and media and information literacy through and with the media." (https://en.unesco.org/themes/fostering-freedom-expression/mdp/stories)
more
"Taking a public relations campaign from planning through to implementation can seem overwhelming. Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns provides a blueprint for success, and is widely
...
regarded as one of the best 'how-to' guides for students and practitioners. Digestible and easy to read, this fifth edition presents a 12-point plan for ensuring success of campaigns of all sizes, covering vital areas including the role of public relations in organizations, the importance of context, research and analysis, setting objectives, strategy and tactics, timescales and resources, evaluation and review. With discussion of new developments in the industry, from the gig economy and online influencers, to disruptive models, this fully updated new edition addresses the need for agile planning and draws on fresh case studies to provide up-to-date examples of best practice." (Publisher description)
more
"Lack of trust is a paramount problem facing journalism. Solutions reporting, which focuses on credible responses to societal problems, could help improve news trust. In addition, narrative journalism has been associated with several positive outco
...
mes. This study tested the novel idea that solutions stories and narrative transportation can positively impact news trust and story-specific beliefs. A 2 (story frame) × 3 (story topic) between-subjects factorial design experiment with a representative sample of US adults (N = 608) was used to test these relationships. Participants who read solutions stories and who were more transported had greater faith that the articles they read were fair and truthful and also indicated greater agreement with story-specific beliefs. However, analyses indicated that transportation did not act as a mediator between solutions stories and the outcome variables. Findings suggest that crafting engaging journalism stories including solutions could be good for the industry and for democracy." (Abstract)
more
"Adherence to protectiv emeasures is a major component of COVID-19 epidemic control. COVID-19 health literacy is a major driver of this adherence, and the evaluation of health literacy levels is t
...
he basis for designing an effective communication strategy. We conducted a quantitative socio-anthropological study of the knowledge of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and perception of the prevention messages in Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone. There are widespread erroneous ideas regarding the transmission of and the protection against COVID-19. The majority of people are unaware that asymptomatic individuals can transmit the virus. Knowledge of the risk factors for severe disease is not sufficient, and the majority of individuals fear contracting COVID-19 by visiting a health center. Our study also shows the achievements of communication campaigns on several aspects: almost everybody has heard of the virus and heard or read the messages on the protective measures and a large majority of people think that these measures are effective against COVID-19. Based on these results, we propose a communication strategy that will emphasize that asymptomatic individuals can transmit the virus, emphasize the risk factors, reassure individuals regarding the safety of frequenting health centers, and design specific messages targeting young populations." (Abstract)
more
"Digital technologies have enabled the spread of all kinds of information, displacing traditional formats of usually more carefully curated information such as encyclopaedias and newspapers. The massive information flow of the digital era demands that readers be able to distinguish between fact and
...
opinion. Readers must learn strategies to detect biased information and malicious content like fake news and phishing emails. What the PISA 21st-Century readers report reveals is that students’ access to digital technologies and training on how to use them greatly vary between countries and students’ socio-economic profiles. This report explores how 15-year-old students are developing reading skills to navigate the technology-rich 21st century. It sheds light on potential ways to strengthen students’ capacity to navigate the new world of information. It highlights how countries need to redouble their efforts to combat emerging digital divides. It also explores what teachers can do to help students navigate ambiguity and manage complexity." (Publisher description)
more
"In the first pandemic of the datafied society, the disempowered were denied a voice in the heavily quantified mainstream narrative. Featuring stories of invisibility, injustice, hope and resistance, this book gives voice to communities at the marg
...
ins in the Global South and beyond. The multilingual, polycentric and pluriversal narration invites the reader to enact and experience “Big Data from the South(s)” as a decolonial lens to read the pandemic." (Back cover)
more
"This compact guide provides helpful hints and advice to support you in your PR work. It should inspire you with ideas and suggestions for your daily engagement. It is designed to be practical and useful, no matter whether you are a greenhorn just
...
starting out or a seasoned old hand. The topics and content are tailored to foundations working in the so-called non-profit sector. We look forward to receiving your feedback for the next edition and hope you will enjoy the read." (Foreword)
more