"Do existing structures of media accountability - such as press councils, codes of ethics, and ombudspersons - suffice, or do we urgently need new instruments and initiatives in today's converging media world? These questions were tackled in an international survey of 1,800 journalists in twelve Eur
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opean and two Arab states conducted by the EU-funded research project, «Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe» (MediaAcT). The results provide a solid empirical basis for the discussions taking place. This book advances research on media accountability and transparency, and also offers innovative perspectives for newsrooms, media policy-makers, and journalism educators." (Back cover)
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"Internet Studies has been one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding interdisciplinary fields to emerge over the last decade. The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies has been designed to provide a resource in this area, bringing together scholarly perspectives on how the Internet has been studie
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d and how the research agenda should be pursued in the future. The book aims to focus on Internet Studies as an emerging field, each chapter seeking to provide a synthesis and critical assessment of the research in a particular area. Topics covered include social perspectives on the technology of the Internet; the Internet's role in everyday life and work; implications for communication, power, and influence; and the governance and regulation of the Internet. The book aims not only to help to strengthen research on the key questions, but also to shape research, policy, and practice across many disciplines that are finding the Internet and its political, economic, cultural, and other societal implications increasingly central to their own key areas of inquiry." (Publisher description)
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"Quality assurance (QA) systems applied in educational contexts are generally concerned with inputs — how much money is spent, what staffing, resources and support are provided, what kinds of teaching and learning are involved, and so on. There is an assumption — not always fulfilled — that th
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e higher the standards of the inputs, the higher the quality of the outputs. In this toolkit, we propose a different approach: the evaluation of the programmes’ outcomes, outputs and impacts. We examine the differences between informal and self-directed learning, nonformal education and training (NFE) and formal education; provide examples of NFE programmes using a variety of face-to-face, distance education and technology-based teaching and learning methods; examine the approaches to QA that are required in NFE; consider the outputs, outcomes and impacts that can be achieved in NFE programmes; propose the adoption of a rigorous but simple-to-use QA framework which is based on outputs, outcomes and impacts." (Back cover)
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"This book explores the power of print and the politics of the book in South Africa from a range of disciplinary perspectives—historical, bibliographic, literary-critical, sociological, and cultural studies. The essays collected here, by leading international scholars, address a range of topics as
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varied as: the role of print cultures in contests over the nature of the colonial public sphere in the nineteenth century; orthography; iimbongi, orature and the canon; book- collecting and libraries; print and transnationalism; Indian Ocean cosmopolitanisms; books in war; how the fates of South African texts, locally and globally, have been affected by their material instantiations; photocomics and other ephemera; censorship, during and after apartheid; books about art and books as art; local academic publishing; and the challenge of ‘book history’ for literary and cultural criticism in contemporary South Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This article reviews the authoritarian regimes, and the subsequent transitions to democracy, that existed in Latin America in the last third of the 20th Century. It is argued that, unlike in other cases, the political science account of such changes, usually self-described as “transitology”, do
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es indeed fit the evidence fairly well. On the other hand, such an account demonstrably fails to illuminate very important features of the experience, notably the relative lack of change in the ownership, structure and practices of the mass media, which is very strongly marked in television. The same large companies that collaborated with, and benefited from, the authoritarian regimes, are still in a dominant position. At the same time, many of the extreme social inequalities that characterise the continent have either hardly been addressed or have actually been exacerbated. It is therefore concluded that these examples are equally well or better explained by a theory that stresses the degree of social continuity between the different political orders." (Abstract)
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"Mobile phones are the most ubiquitous communications technology in the world. Besides transforming the way in which we communicate, they can also be used as a powerful tool for conflict prevention and management. This book presents innovative uses of mobile technologies in the areas of early warnin
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g, disaster and humanitarian relief, governance, citizens’ participation, etc. and cuts across different regions. The book brings together experts and practitioners from different fields—mobile technologies, information systems, computer sciences, online dispute resolution, law, etc.—to reflect on present experiences and to explore new areas for research on conflict management and online dispute resolution (ODR). It also reflects on the transition from present ODR to future mobile Dispute Resolution and discusses key privacy issues." (Publisher description)
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"Media scholars and students, professionals and policy-makers alike will be introduced to the specific problems and perspectives of media accountability in different media systems and journalistic cultures. The status quo of media criticism online across Europe will be a key issue and provide insigh
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ts into the innovative potential of media accountability in the digital age. Looked at from a comparative point of view, the reports hint at the formation of different cultures of media accountability within Europe and its adjacent countries. These media accountability cultures partly overlap with the journalism cultures identified in the well-known model by Hallin & Mancini who differentiate between North Atlantic or Liberal, Mediterranean or Polarised Pluralist, and Northern European or Democratic Corporatist media systems. At the same time, the development of media accountability and transparency shows distinctive features incongruent with established models of journalism cultures." (Back cover)
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"While the safety of children and young people in digital spaces has become an important issue of qualitative as well as quantitative research in the developed world and has led to a significant body of knowledge, the research efforts in the developing nations, with few exceptions, are still relativ
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ely early stage. A brief analysis of digitally relevant developing world characteristics suggests that various contextual factors such as technological, economic, market, educational, and cultural parameters need to be taken into account at the levels of risk analysis and risk evaluation and with regard to response strategies." (Summary/conclusions, page 30)
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"This book gives a comprehensive and critical account of the theoretical changes in communication studies from the early theories of development communication through to the contemporary critiques of globalization. It looks at the ways in which the media can be used to effect change and development,
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and traces the evolution of thinking from attempts to spread 'modernity' by way of using the media through to alternative perspectives based on encouraging participation in development communication. It explores the theory of media imperialism, the criticisms that it provoked, and its replacement as the dominant theory of international communication by globalization.." (Publisher description)
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"The 'Inclusion Through Media' partnership has involved many imaginative and productive collaborations between creative media professionals and young and excluded people in cities and regions of the UK and Europe. Using media as a means of working with, and empowering marginalised people in their co
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mmunities is a practice that has emerged strongly in recent years, nurtured by the extraordinary growth of digital media and the Web. These developments have enabled a participatory culture -particularly online- one in which young people are now more able to represent themselves and their concerns through digital media. This book offers first hand accounts of work across and beyond Inclusion Through Media, alongside critical analysis of many of the processes involved, and the policy issues it raises. It suggests ways in which working with media with disenfranchised groups can contribute to social cohesion and inclusion, and so points the way towards new media, youth and social policy." (Publisher description)
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"This unique dossier was assembled by the activist Copy South Research Group, a loosely-affiliated group of researchers based in a number of countries across the South and the North who seek to research the inner workings of the global copyright system and its effects on the Global South. The dossie
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r contains more than 50 articles examining many dimensions of the issue of copyright across the Global South, such as access, culture, economics, libraries, education, software, the Internet, the public domain, and resistance. The dossier is addressed to readers who want to learn more about the global role of copyright and, in particular, its sometimes negative role in the Global South. The articles critically analyze and assess a wide range of copyright-related issues that impact on the daily lives, and future lives, of those who live in the countries of the South. It aims to do so in a manner which the editors hope will bring these questions ‘alive’, show the direct human stakes of the many debates, “and make the issues accessible to those who want to go beyond the platitudes, half-truths, and serious distortions that often plague discussions of this topic." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1815)
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"In passing and implementing the Access to Information Act 2002, Jamaica has established a new and more open form of governance and accomplished what many other countries are still attempting. The Act, which provides citizens an enforceable right to official documents held by public authorities, is
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key to enhancing democracy, ensuring citizens’ participation, and building greater trust in Government decision making. Access to public documents can assist citizens in exercising their other fundamental socioeconomic rights, such as the right to housing, appropriate health care, and a clean and healthy environment, and it can serve to make government more efficient and effective. Passing an access to information law is, relatively speaking, easy in comparison to the practise of implementation, which can be challenging for any country. Successful implementation of an open information regime requires a commitment of resources (human, financial, and time), preparation of public bodies, development of procedures, change in culture and behaviours, and expertise. It is clear that the Jamaican Government and its public authorities, who entered into effect in phases with the final large group beginning in July 2005, have made great progress in the implementation of the Act including training of civil servants in the law and best practices. Many of the efforts in Jamaica serve as a model for other jurisdictions. However, as with any new regime there is the potential for constructive reform and advancement." (Introduction)
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