"This article examines the role of language in the constitution of a common identity through its liturgical use at the Eastern Orthodox church of St Andrew’s in Edinburgh, Scotland. Open to individuals who have relocated, the parish has
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a rather multinational character. It is a place of worship for populations that consider Christian Orthodox culture part of their long-established collective identity and for recent converts. Based on ethnographic research, archival work and theoretical contextualisation, the article examines the atmospheric materiality of the written text as performed by the readers, the choir and the clergy. This soundscape is an amalgam of different kinds of reading: prose, chanted prose, chanting and antiphonic, depending the part of the Liturgy being read. The language of the book is performative: the choreography and its symbolisms perform the words of the texts and vice versa. Additionally, the use of at least four languages in every service and two Eastern Orthodox chanting styles in combination with European influences expresses in the most tangible way the religious inclusivity that has been carefully cultivated in this parish. Through closer examination of literary transformation processes, I demonstrate the role of liturgical language in the creation of communal space-times that negotiate ideas of home and belonging in a new land." (Abstract)
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"For two decades, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) prepared pedagogical materials for Canadian schools. This article reviews the role of visual media in the hundreds of publications prepared for Development Education. Samples collected by Marc Rockbrune, Distribution Clerk respon
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sible for their expedition in schools, libraries, and homes, and donated in 2016 to Carleton University Archives and Research Collections, are read with the help of the ‘psychopedagogical guides’ prepared by CIDA, and the testimonies of two workers of the agency linked to their preparation and dissemination: Mary Bramley, curator of the International Development Photo Library, and Rockbrune himself. Prepared with a large measure of autonomy by a sizeable team of visual artists, designers, and third world reformers, the program outreach was large, and its popularity strong. The expected and effective roles of visual media in the history of this short-lived institution of Development Education is explored to suggest elements of understanding of their impact on a generation of Canadian children and youth." (Abstract)
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"One-third of all African stories in news outlets on the continent are sourced from foreign news services. As a result, stories about Africa continue to be told through the same persistent and negative stereotypes and frames of poverty, disease, co
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nflict, poor leadership and corruption. To understand how the media in Africa covers Africa, we surveyed 38 African editors and analyzed content from 60 African news outlets in15 countries (Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, DRC, Egypt, Tunisia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal) between September and October 2020. In addition, four facilitated focus groups were held with 25 editors of African media, editors of Pan African outlets and international correspondents. The results confirm challenges and experiences that are common knowledge within the industry: advertising revenue and newsrooms are shrinking, influencing the kind of news that Africans read and that news is largely negative and conflict-filled. Key findings from the report show that the sources for news gathering on African countries are problematic, the resulting content continues to feed old stereotypes, and often the quality of local journalism doesn't allow for nuanced and contextualized storytelling that is critical for telling stories about the 54 countries in Africa." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing from various disciplines including media studies, political science, and cognitive science, this study adopts a holistic approach to understand the dynamics that influence the impact of false information on Singaporeans. We provide empiric
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al evidence on Singaporeans’ susceptibility to false information and how it is influenced by their demographic (e.g., age and education) and non-demographic traits (e.g., information-seeking behaviours, and political and psychological traits). In addition, we examine different aspects of false information that Singaporeans are susceptible to, such as their exposure to and belief in false information of various topics (e.g., health and medicine, government and politics), formats (e.g., image, text, audio), and on different media platforms (e.g., social networking sites, Instant Messaging platforms). Furthermore, using an approach that is novel in the field of misinformation and disinformation studies, we evaluate how well Singaporeans performed in terms of assessing information veracity, by embedding a manipulated news article in the survey for respondents to read and judge." (Executive summary)
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"In this review of the literature I have attempted to show how researchers in different areas of communication have conceptualized and operationalized trust and trust-related concepts. Trust has been associated most with the concept of credibility, but other words that have been used to operationali
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ze it include believability, accuracy, honesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness, sincerity, competence, expertise, reliability, and goodwill, to name some. The concept of trust, just as credibility, is multi-dimensional, and it seems to depend on the context, the person, and the task that is evaluated, as one may not necessarily trust another with a personal secret but may trust that person to complete a work-related task well. As might have become evident to the reader, our discipline's interest in measuring trust has been mostly utilitarian: trust as a means to an end (e.g., persuasion, credibility, and effectiveness of the communicator, to name some). While not all of the trust-related research in communication has been self-serving, it has focused mostly on the benefits that communicators can derive from growing others' trust in them, and less on the benefit that the act of trusting may have on others beyond the communicator, or other possible outcomes stemming from trust. One of the few exceptions has been in the instructional communication literature, where measures of trust have been used to study levels of student satisfaction, development and learning; interpersonal communication, where measures of trust have been used to study satisfaction in relationships between friends and romantic partners; and health communication, where communicating trust in the patient-provider interaction can increase the patient's self-awareness and sense of well-being. The mostly transactional and utilitarian view of trust that has dominated so far is perhaps a reflection of the increased professionalization of the discipline, the need for practical applications within the business setting and the cultures that sustain them and are in turn sustained by them. It would be interesting for future research to consider trust from the perspective of the person who is doing the trusting what impact does trust have on them beyond being persuaded and returning as consumers of information and products? It would be interesting for future research to approach the study of trust from that perspective as well as from non-traditional (read non-Western/Anglo-Saxon) socioeconomic and cultural perspectives." (Conclusion, page 21)
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"Cultural heritage organizations face at least three main challenges. First, the volume of digital archives makes it extremely difficult for archivists to assess records. Applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to archives is still at an experimental stage, but AI/ ML could b
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ecome an integral part of archival processes. To manage the sheer bulk and potential sensitivity of records, archivists will also rely on creators to help them make appraisal and selection decisions at the point of deposit. Second, most born-digital collections are currently closed due to a wide range of reasons (including technical issues, copyright, and data protection). Regardless of whether archives are digital or not, archivists need to balance individual rights and the public interest in the context of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. Nobody would reasonably claim that all born-digital data should be unlocked and openly accessible. Yet, it is important to recognize that “dark” archives contain vast amounts of data essential to scholars – including email correspondence, drafts of manuscripts, digital photos and videos. Within current legal frameworks, making born-digital archives more accessible is an urgent priority to fully make sense of our cultural heritage. Third, data science and AI are becoming essential tools, but very few scholars (particularly in the humanities) have been trained to master these research methods, a skills gap which in turn has an impact on the training we offer to students." (Introduction, page 7-8)
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"[...] la presente Guía Práctica aspira a condensar soluciones posibles y recomendaciones relativas a la multiplicidad de variantes que hay que tener en cuenta al momento de construir productos
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de difusión que consideren las distintas necesidades de accesibilidad para incluir a todas las personas. También vale adelantar que, de ser viable, resultará conveniente contar, para cada producto, con la validación por parte de usuarios con formación en accesibilidad para personas con discapacidad, personas mayores o con poca alfabetización digital, o recurrir a la validación por parte de usuarios con discapacidad. Ello habrá de generar un aporte muy valioso desde la perspectiva experiencial, ya que facilitará la realización de ajustes razonables y fundamentados en cada producto. A continuación abordamos, en forma de guía simple, distintos aspectos que deben ser considerados a la hora de elaborar diversos productos de comunicación, sea para el desarrollo de campañas de comunicación, con propósitos educativos, periodísticos, etcétera." (Página 6)
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"Crime perception has increased in Peru, as in other developing and developed countries, in spite of the reduction in crime victimization figures. Our hypothesis is that the news industry is partially responsible for such opposing trends. As Peruvians are great consumers of written news, we focus on
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the written press. Using a unique database of written news, we georeference the location of each reported crime to identify short-term deviations from trend in the coverage of crime news at the province level and estimate their effect on crime perception. We measure coverage as the area an article occupies in cm2. We find that a spike of negative crime news increases people’s perception about the probability of being a crime victim. The effect of positive news is opposite. However, the effect per cm2 of negative news is almost three times larger than the effect of positive news in absolute value, signaling a potential asymmetry in the revision of people’s expectations. The effect of the written press is stronger for men and non-victims. Moreover, perception changes are mostly driven by increases in the fear of house and car theft and common street crime, rather than more violent crimes like kidnapping or sexual abuse. Finally, we delve into the possible consequences of worsening the mismatch between crime perception and crime victimization." (Abstract)
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"This book sheds new light on the study of journalism and communication, considering why and how journalism is studied in the 21st century. It notably offers both an international and interdisciplinary comparison of journalism and communication, examining the history of Chinese and Western journalis
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m and addressing the similarities and differences between them. Focusing on the education and training of future journalists, it also provides a comprehensive study of news coverage systems in China and in Western countries, including the processing of news sources, attitudes towards news communication and comparative communication scholarship. Researchers of media and journalism will find this a key read, as well as practicing journalists and students of journalism." (Publisher description)
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"The aim of the study is to investigate Estonian female journalists’ experiences with harassment resulting in self-censorship. We carried out three studies: one in 2015, a second in 2016 and a t
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hird one in 2018. The data were gathered by in-depth interviews (2015 and 2018), journalists’ diaries (2015) and a questionnaire (2016). The sample consisted of eight sports journalists (2015), 12 female journalists from different fields (2018) and 181 respondents (115 female, 66 male, 2016). The results of the three studies revealed that comments made towards female journalists aimed at degrading their authority (emphasizing age, experience or gender); and argued that female journalists should work elsewhere or find a more “female” profession. Female journalists did not read comments on their stories not only because of the lack of time, but to avoid harassment and insults. Secondly, to avoid harassment from sources or audiences, journalists showed signs of self-censorship as they avoided writing on topics that bring along more attention, such as refugees, minority groups, and corruption cases, or avoided writing on topics that include sources with whom they have had negative experiences." (Abstract)
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"Rights related to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and gender equality are often seen to be in contradiction with one another. Underlying this (mis) perception of a normative clash between the two is very often an understanding of FoRB as
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a right that protects religion – and often conservative, patriarchal religion. For some, this means that FoRB is seen as an inherent obstacle to achieving gender equality; for others, gender equality is seen as a threat to the protection of religious values and practices. This antagonistic construction of the two human rights norms has consequences. A lack of attention to, or an unwillingness to engage with, the intersections between FoRB and gender equality may result in unnecessary clashes, unsatisfactory handling of factual conflicts, and lost opportunities for synergies, learning, and cooperation among actors engaged in the promotion of respectively FoRB and gender equality [...] Against this background, the present report should be read first and foremost as a basic introduction to the relationship between FoRB and gender equality, providing a snapshot of the examples, experiences and ideas discussed in the workshops and hopefully encouraging further research and analysis." (Introduction, page 6-7)
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"We believe every child should own a hundred books by the age of five. In South Africa, that means giving 600 million free books to children who could never afford to buy them. Every day we lose, more children grow up unable to
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read and write well, and to enjoy the worlds that books open up. Every one of us can help to give lots of free books to very young children. Most importantly, these books should be: new, African stories; with characters they recognise; in languages they speak; beautiful enough to love for a lifetime. There are two sides to getting new, better books into children's hands: 1. Book creation: writing, illustration and design, guided by an editor (Output: print and digital files than anyone can download and share); 2. Book distribution: printing, delivering and handing out to children and parents (This includes reading on mobile phones). Book Dash creates books. We support others in distributing them to children. Our book-creation process is where our name comes from: a Book Dash is a single day when volunteer teams of skilled creative professionals come together to create new children's storybooks in just 12 hours. Each team comprises a writer, an illustrator, and a designer. The teams have twelve hours to create one book per team. We provide expert editors, tech support, a great venue, great food and lots of coffee." (Page 3-4)
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"The handbook is a consensus document that was created by an innovative process that involved a series of predefined steps, all of which were followed and documented and are publicly available. Th
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e authors were invited based on their scientific status in the field, and they all agreed on all points made in the handbook. We therefore believe that the new Handbook reflects the scientific consensus about how to combat misinformation. Read more about the consensus process. The Handbook distills the most important research findings and current expert advice about debunking misinformation and contains information about these topics available in four excerpts." (https://digitalcommons.unl.edu)
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"This guide focuses on medicines and medical devices. It aims to provide journalists with the tools and knowledge to independently assess the evidence, critically appraise the risk-benefit ratio of any given product or policy, and expose corruption and malpractice. It can be
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read as a textbook, one chapter at a time, or used selectively to support your work. Investigating behind-the-scenes is consuming but rewarding. As we’ll discuss in Chapter 2, combining the methods and standards of muckraking and Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) can be highly effective. EBM, defined as “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients,” has been constantly revised to include a wider public health approach. But as Students4BestEvidence, a network of students from around the world who are interested in learning more about evidence-based health care, put it: “It’s about asking the right questions and using the best research evidence to answer those questions.” EBM is an approach that matches the ethics and standards of investigative journalism." (Introduction, page 8-9)
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"The aim of the report has been to identify data about reading habits of the population in a selection of countries, then to summarise them. Our hope is that this report will form an empirical base and a
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starting point for further research and discussions regarding this important topic for the international publishing industry. The results can be summed up as the following: There is a global and clear trend that the traditional reading of books has declined over the last 20 years; The level of decrease in reading varies from country to country; In many countries the curve has flattened, and there is now a slight increase; The decline is strongest in the younger age groups, specifically for older youth and young adults; Women generally read more than men. Older readers are the most faithful readers; More readers read fewer books than before; More readers read less frequently; The number of readers who read every day is decreasing, while the number of readers reading several times a week is increasing; The number of non-readers is declining; Several countries show an increase in leisure reading; There are plenty of reading stimulation activities directed at children, fewer for adults; Reading stimulation activities are often quantitative, such as reading competitions rewarding the highest amount of read pages; Many reading activities are directed at children and aim to stimulate reading during holidays; There are also reading measures that have a qualitative focus, for example days focusing on reading out loud, book purchasing or particular dissemination activities; • Book donations are important in many countries in order to augment the selection of books." (Executive summary)
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"Speaking of trust in the Catholic Church necessarily leads to talking about the management of the crisis of clerical sexual abuse by its leaders. The focus is on managing responsibility and information, with case studies by Paulina Guzik and Patrick O'Brien. The first deals with the case of Poland,
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emphasizing the need for accountability and suggesting five actions to regain trust. O'Brien offers a map of the management of abuses in the 197 dioceses of the United States, and points to transparency in communication and government as a key to regaining trust. As you will read in these pages, neither the communicator nor the communication serves to mask a negative reality. The institution must justify its existence only if it is a good for society, even if it makes mistakes. This question is approached from a theological point of view: Is it still possible to trust the Church? To answer this question, Marco Vanzini highlights the tensions that characterize and define the identity of the Church: such as her divine origin and her human composition, or the inner coexistence of holiness and sin, among others. On the other hand, Gabriel Magalhães, taking a cue from passages of sacred and universal literature, invites reflection on the contrast between human and divine justice, highlighting the excessive and almost ‘scandalous’ nature of divine mercy. Faced with the reality of a certain human solidarity in evil, he explores the need for collective guilt and forgiveness as a common horizon that allows trust to be recovered at the social level.
It is precisely ‘the Church communicator’ on whom the article by Professors Gil and Gili puts the focus. His role as spokesman for an institution and bearer of a message gives him great responsibility. The credibility that he demands and needs, the authors maintain, depends to a great extent on his human and professional virtues. Creative fidelity, reliable transmission of an ideal and embodiment of the values he communicates are expected from him. Internal communication in organizations, with the transformation of the channels through which trust travels – more horizontal and collaborative than vertical and hierarchical (Botsman Citation2017) – represents a challenge for those who govern the organization. Receiving trust from the leadership in turn generates confidence in the workers. To put these ‘spirals of trust’ into action, Gara and La Porte analyze one of the most important moments in the relationship between an employee and an organization: recruitment. Trust, they say, must be considered one of the great strategic tools of the Human Resources department.
In the legal field, Moreno and Díaz show with a case study the ‘legal defense of corporate reputation’, where law and communication work in a complementary way. In recent years, especially with the digital revolution, new fields of interaction have opened up with their own followers, as well as new spaces for vulnerability (e.g. privacy, personal data, copyright…). In this context of the Internet, the authors present the crisis of reputation of an NGO linked to the Church and show how law and communication are two strategic tools of the organizations destined to collaborate. Looking at trust management in the public sector is a necessary source of inspiration for an institution like the Church. María José Canel conducts the academic interview with Steven Van de Walle on trust in public administration. He deals with a wide range of topics: from the ways of measuring trust and its typologies, to the influence of emotions on the inspiration of trust. The interview offers some comparative considerations between some other institutions, such as NGOs, and the Church. It also includes a final reflection on the new scenario created by COVID-19, which is testing citizens’ trust in the state and the health system.
In the public sphere, the management of vulnerability takes on a particular nuance in the case of high reliability organizations, entities that by their nature must avoid errors at all costs (Lekka Citation2011). Sanders takes the criteria of the HROs as her model to measure the trust that the British government has earned (or lost) with its public communication during the pandemic generated by the COVID-19, a situation that has tested the strength of social relations – especially trust toward public services – and that will merit another special issue of this journal." (Editorial: Contents of the special issue, pages 295-296)
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"This report offers an overview of journalism training and education centres in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on 10 countries. Although the primary emphasis of this research was on institutions such as universities, schools, colleges and institutes, we took
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a loose definition of ‘centres’ to include some initiatives in the non-profit sector, as well as those closely aligned to the commercial media. The purpose was to try to identify trends in journalism education and training in sub-Saharan Africa, challenges and areas of creativity and teaching, and what we called ‘centres responding to a changing environment’. The last mapping study of journalist training centres across the continent appears to have been done over 10 years ago by Unesco, although country-specific studies have subsequently emerged. Journalist training needs are also currently being researched in at least two new studies that are likely to appear soon. This report then should be read in the context of these studies." (Page 8)
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"Key finding 1: A trusted thirdperson is the most important information provider. When asked for their main source of information, family, friends, and religious leaders accounted for 89% of the response choices combined. Additionally, 97% stated t
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hey trust their family and friends. Key finding 2: Social media, the new player in the game? Even though radio remains the main channel of information used by the population (76%) – followed by television (48%) – WhatsApp (29%) and Facebook (28%) combined total 57% of respondents’ choice. Moreover, among participants who have Internet access, the leading applications to receive news areWhatsApp (82%) and Facebook (70%). Key finding 3: News on current events and sports are the most preferred content in traditional media channels. Participants mostly responded they like to see “news on current events” and “sports news” in traditional media channels. Radio listeners mostly enjoy “news on current events” (61%), newspapers readers like to read about “news on current events” (65%) and “sports” (33%), and television consumers mostly favor “news on current events” (49%) and “sports” (37%). Sports are ahead of educational and/or health programs in all types of media. Key finding 4: Residents in Port-au-Prince have unmet information needs. When asked about the information they need the most – at the time –, 52% of participants selected “how to find a job”, followed closely by “general news about what is happening in the country including COVID-19” (51%). Respondents also mentioned the need for information on “access to food and drinking water” (48%), as well as information about the “security situation in Port-au-Prince” (47%). Key finding 5: Information consumers are not passive actors: trust and relevance are key points. Content and source are the two main factors affecting the information ecosystem in Port-auPrince. Even among their preferred source of information – family and friends – or their preferred channel – radio –, trust is not blindly granted. In the focus groups, participants point out the lack of training of journalists, the fact that many confuse facts with opinions or place greater value in sensationalism, often leading to unsubstantiated claims and misinformation [...]" (Pages 5-14)
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"This original new book researches into the praxis of this democracy and its media, delving into Ghana's evolvement, media practice, leadership aspirations, pressure group politics and ethnic and tribal cleavages. Written in accessible language it will provide valuable source material for readers in
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terested in the development of a democratic culture. A rich data source for students, scholars and researchers on both the African continent and in the diaspora, it examines the growing influence of social media in political discourse and provides an insightful analysis on debates surrounding political communication and its implications for strengthening democratic culture. Its intention is to challenge the intellectual rigour of scholars, academics, researchers and students. The analytical frames it offers are to generate intellectual discourses. Provides an overview of the history of the press in Ghana and how that has shaped the current media landscape, and draws attention to the growing influence of social media in political messages and debate. The historical analysis of the political situation of Ghana and its relationship to the press is informative, comprehensive and stimulating to read. Ideas discussed are revealing and relevant to current discussions on the contributions of the media to the growth and development of democracy in Ghana in particular - and in Africa as a whole. The unusual and highly original comparative analytic approach used here is in dealing with the media-democracy paradox through comments and analysis that challenges the orthodoxy of western idealism. The discussion of media and democracy, with private and state media operating side-by-side in a multiparty democratic setting regulated by a constitution, adds significantly to the wider field of knowledge on the media and democracy." (Publisher description)
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"Specifically, the review focuses on the means, barriers, and associated cybersecurity and privacy concerns that refugees face around connectivity. This includes but is not limited to mobile connectivity and social media, particularly in displacement contexts. While these subjects may at times inter
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sect with parallel conversations on digital identity or biometrics, the latter are not the focus of this chapter. UNHCR provides support and international protection to forcibly displaced persons, including refugees, returnees, stateless people, the internally displaced and asylum-seekers. This report will reference ‘refugees’ and this can be read broadly to encompass refugees and other persons of concern, unless explicity stated otherwise. This literature review is divided into different sub-themes. An annex also provides a brief overview of who are the main actors writing about connectivity in humanitarian contexts, and with what angles and / or interests." (Introduction)
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