"This book explores the role and place of popular, traditional and digital media platforms in the mediatization, representation and performance of various conflicts and peacebuilding interventions in the African context. The role of the media in conflict is often depicted as either 'good' (as symbol
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ized by peace journalism) or 'bad' (as exemplified by war journalism), but this book moves beyond this binary to highlight the 'in-between' role that the media often plays in times of conflict. The volume does not only focus on the relationship between mass media, conflict and peacebuilding processes but it broadens its scope by critically analysing the dynamic and emergent roles of popular and digital media platforms in a continent where the semi-literate and oral communities still rely heavily on popular communication platforms to get news and information. Whilst social media platforms have been hailed for their assumed democratic and digital dividends, this book does not only focus on these positive aspects but also shines a light on dark forms of participation which are fuelling racial, gender, ethnic, political and religious conflicts in highly polarized and stratified societies." (Publisher description)
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"This publication is the outcome of the “East Africa Regional Peace Journalism Training Workshop” for journalists covering conflict and peacebuilding in East Africa. Organized by Rongo University’s Center for Media, Democracy, Peace, and Security (CMDPS) in partnership with the African Peacebu
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ilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the two-day event brought together journalists from five East African countries—Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda—to develop their capacity for reporting on conflict-related issues in an objective manner based on the tenets of the theory and practice of peace journalism." (Introduction)
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"This article examines the constructive roles of community and faith-based radio in building resilience and trust in Kenya after post-election violence. Since the 2007/08 post-election violence, Kenya has had two hotly contested elections (2013 and 2017), which have contributed to the lack of trust
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in electoral institutions and government and the ongoing mistrust between and among different communities. Both mainstream and community media have been criticized for playing destructive roles during post-election violence in Kenya with little focus on any of their constructive roles in the post-conflict period. A key point in this article is that community radio can be used to facilitate peaceful social dialogue and build trust and resilience between and among different communities in Kenya. This is based on the fact that they actually show promising potentials to promote dialogue and better understanding among conflicting communities." (Abstract)
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"Propaganda in the Information Age is a collaborative volume which updates Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model for the twenty-first-century media landscape and makes the case for the continuing relevance of their original ideas. It includes an exclusive interview with Noam Chomsky himself. 2018
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marks 30 years since the publication of Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s ground-breaking book Manufacturing Consent, which lifted the veil over how the mass media operate. The book’s model presented five filters which all potentially newsworthy events must pass through before they reach our TV screens, smartphones or newspapers. In Propaganda in the Information Age, many of the world’s leading media scholars, analysts and journalists use this model to explore the modern media world, covering some of the most pressing contemporary topics such as fake news, Cambridge Analytica, the Syrian Civil War and Russiagate. The collection also acknowledges that in an increasingly globalized world, our media is increasingly globalized as well, with chapters exploring both Indian and African media." (Publisher description)
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"This book focuses on the reporting of human rights in broadly defined times of conflict. It brings together scholarly and professional perspectives on the role of the media in constructing human rights and peacebuilding options in conflict and post-conflict environments, drawing on case studies fro
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m Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. It also provides critical reflections on the challenges faced by journalists and explores the implications of constructing human rights and peacebuilding options in their day-to-day professional activities." (Publisher description)
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"This publication is the outcome of the “East Africa Regional Peace Journalism Training Workshop” for journalists covering conflict and peacebuilding in East Africa. Organized by Rongo University’s Center for Media, Democracy, Peace, and Security (CMDPS) in partnership with the African Peacebu
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ilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the two-day event brought together journalists from five East African countries—Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda—to develop their capacity for reporting on conflict-related issues in an objective manner based on the tenets of the theory and practice of peace journalism." (Introduction)
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"This volume brings together scholars from different disciplines and nations to examine and assess the effectiveness of China's soft power initiatives in Africa. It throws light not only on China's engagement with Africa but also on how China's increasing influence is received in the African media."
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(Publisher description)
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"Grounded in the critical political economy of the media tradition, it is argued in the article that, in the highly commercialized media environment in Kenya today, market forces pose the greatest threat to media freedom and responsibility. Through in-depth qualitative interviews of twenty journalis
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ts from the Nation Media Group (NMG), the article shows how the expectation of private media to be purveyors of public interest while trying to maximize profits for shareholders leads to a clash of journalistic and capitalist values. The article answers the following questions: how do advertisers meddle in journalists’ ethical decisions at the Nation Media? How do journalists respond to advertisers’ influence? How does their response compromise their professional ethics? The findings show that there is a clash of journalistic values and capitalist values as journalists strive to meet shareholders’ expectations and maximize profits for owners." (Abstract)
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"This article analyses how ethnicity influences the ethical decisions of journalists at the Nation Media Group (NMG) in Kenya. Ethnic identity is regarded as one of the key factors that shape the political beliefs of Kenyans in general, and for journalists and media practitioners in particular ethni
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c identities also influence their normative positions. The conflicting loyalties between ethnic belonging and journalistic norms of professionalism and independence especially come to the fore during democratic processes such as general elections and national referenda. Based on Shoemaker and Reese’s Hierarchy of Influences Model, the article draws on qualitative interviews of journalists at the Nation Media to argue that the highly ethnicized publics as audience and the media institution at the macro level and individual journalists at the micro level act as key levels of ethnic influence in the news production process at the NMG in Kenya. Shoemaker and Reese in their model argue that the power to shape content is not the media’s alone, but is shared with a variety of other sectors in the society, including the public. The article then proposes the inclusion of ethnicity as a ‘key level of Influence’ in Shoemaker and Reese’s model, especially when applying the model to the African media context. The article will address the following questions: How does ethnicity at the micro level of individual journalists and at the macro level of the media institution influence the ethical decisions of journalists at the NMG in Kenya? How do the highly ethnicized publics in Kenya influence the decisions of journalists at the NMG? How does this ethnic level of influence impact on the Nation Media’s capacity to fulfil its democratic roles in the society?" (Abstract)
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