"In 'Media Compass: A Companion to International Media Landscapes', an international team of prominent scholars examines both long-term media systems and fluctuating trends in media usage around the world. Integrating country-specific summaries and cross-cutting studies of geopolitical regions, this
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interdisciplinary reference work describes key elements in the political, social, demographic, cultural, and economic conditions of media infrastructures and public communication. Enabling the mapping of media landscapes internationally, Media Compass contains up-to-date empirical surveys of individual countries and regions, as well as cross-country comparisons of particular areas of public communication. 45 entries, each guiding readers from a general summary to a more in-depth discussion of a country’s specific media landscape, address formative conditions and circumstances, historical background and development, current issues and challenges, and more." (Publisher description)
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"How can current debates on ‘media capture’ be understood within the contexts of Africa and Latin America? This edited collection provides a nuanced exploration of media capture—a critical yet contested concept that examines and illuminates how media can become skewed in favour of power—whil
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e also highlighting spaces and strategies of resistance. By adopting a South-South perspective, it brings together scholars focused on these issues in both regions, featuring a dialogue between two leading scholars, Herman Wasserman and Silvio Waisbord in the Foreword. The book not only demonstrates how media practices in Africa and Latin America are influenced by the political economy of their media systems, but also contributes significantly to advancing empirical, theoretical, and comparative research on media in non-Western settings." (Publisher description)
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"Responding to mounting calls to decenter and decolonize journalism, The Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South examines not only the deep-seated challenges associated with the historical imposition of Western journalism standards on constituencies of the Global South but also the opp
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ortunities presented to journalists and journalism educators if they choose to partake in international collaboration and education.
This collection returns to fundamental questions around the meaning, value, and practices of journalism from alternative methodological, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives. These questions include: What really is journalism? Who gets to, and who is qualified to, define it? What role do ethics play? What are the current trends, challenges, and opportunities for journalism in the Global South? How is news covered, reported, written, and edited in non-Western settings? What can journalism players living and working in industrialized markets learn from their non-Western colleagues and counterparts, and vice versa? Contributors challenge accepted “universal” ethical standards while showing the relevance of customs, traditions, and cultures in defining and shaping local and regional journalism." (Publisher description)
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"Who owns the media and communications in Africa today and with what implications? The book elegantly answers this urgent question by unpacking multiple dimensions of media ownership through rare and authoritative perspectives, including both historical and contemporary digital developments. It trac
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es the evolving forms of ownership of media and communications in specific African contexts, showing how they interact with broader changes in and outside the continent. The book also shows how Big Techs, such as Meta (formerly known as Facebook), are involved in a scramble for Africa’s digital ecosystem and how their advance brings both opportunities and concerns about ownership and control. The chapters analyse evolving forms of ownership and their implications on media concentration and democracy across Africa. The book offers a nuanced account of how media ownership structures are in some instances captured with an ever-growing and complex ecosystem that also has new opportunities for public interest media. Offering a significant representation of the trends and diversity of existing media systems, the book goes beyond the postcolonial geographical divisions of North and Sub-Saharan Africa to highlight common patterns and significant similarities and differences of communications ownerships between and within African countries. The contributors expose media and communications ownership patterns in Africa that are centralised and yet decentralising and in some cases, battling, resurging and globalising." (Publisher description)
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"Non-state media journalists in Ethiopia traditionally faced safety threats emanating from state-sponsored attacks and punitive legal frameworks. Recently, however, state hostility is being replaced by non-state actors’ aggression against journalists. By framing emerging threats of reporters’ sa
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fety in Ethiopia within normative vis-à-vis alternative debates of journalism practice in the context of transitional, unstable, pluralistic-partizan societies, this study examines the prevalence of non-state actors in remapping threats of journalistic impunity in Ethiopia. Key findings from interviews conducted with editors, reporters, and other practitioners indicate, while the government cannot be ruled out as a safety threat for journalists, there is an emerging consensus that identifies non-state actors such as vigilante groups, influential social media political personalities, and weaponized media as the most perceptible safety risks to journalism practice. Although threat levels vary depending on journalists’ regional affiliation or perceived ethnic identity/political worldview, domestic journalists face increased native othering that amounts to mobility restrictions and physical aggression compared to foreign correspondents." (Abstract)
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"Non-state media journalists in Ethiopia traditionally faced safety threats emanating from state-sponsored attacks and punitive legal frameworks. Recently, however, state hostility is being replaced by non-state actors’ aggression against journalists. By framing emerging threats of reporters’ sa
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fety in Ethiopia within normative vis-à-vis alternative debates of journalism practice in the context of transitional, unstable, pluralistic-partizan societies, this study examines the prevalence of non-state actors in remapping threats of journalistic impunity in Ethiopia. Key findings from interviews conducted with editors, reporters, and other practitioners indicate, while the government cannot be ruled out as a safety threat for journalists, there is an emerging consensus that identifies non-state actors such as vigilante groups, influential social media political personalities, and weaponized media as the most perceptible safety risks to journalism practice. Although threat levels vary depending on journalists’ regional affiliation or perceived ethnic identity/political worldview, domestic journalists face increased native othering that amounts to mobility restrictions and physical aggression compared to foreign correspondents." (Abstract)
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"This research confirmed an upward trend in number of women journalists working in newsrooms. Over 30% of the journalists employed in the seven surveyed media houses are women. Women are however disproportionately represented in managerial (15%) and editorial decision-making positions (26%) compared
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to men. Most female journalists report on so-called “soft news” topics compared to hard news. Historical and informal preferences for men reporting on certain topics, the gender bias of supervisors, and the personal interests of some women journalists appear to be the key factors determining this. However, in some newsrooms as many women report on hard news topics compared to soft news, while men also work on entertainment, cultural and children’s programming. This suggests that the editorial roles in the newsrooms surveyed is not always strictly gendered. Most newsrooms lack a gender desk to co-ordinate reporting on women’s issues, or to respond to the needs of women journalists in the newsroom. While several newsrooms have adopted gender-sensitive guidelines developed with the help of UN Women, the extent to which these had been applied in a practical way in newsrooms was unclear. Gender-sensitivity training for journalists in newsrooms is also limited without outside intervention." (Executive summary)
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"International Media Support (IMS) carried out two initial assessment missions in Ethiopia in June and August 2018, and the community radio sector was identified as an area of possible cooperation and support. In order to follow up on this finding, an IMS team consisting of Mr.
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Tewodros Negash and Mr. Per Oesterlund was assigned to carry out an assessment of the community radio sector in Ethiopia. This report synthesises findings from desk research and field-work conducted by IMS. The first phase of the assessment analysed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the community radio sector based on literature reviews, discussions and interviews held with relevant actors such as government regulatory authorities, radio station managers, journalists and listeners. Subsequently, visits to selected community radio stations in rural areas and urban centres outside Addis Ababa were undertaken." (Introduction)
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"Recent trends in journalism education in Africa indicate a substantial increase both in scope and specialisation. While this increase is usually attributed to higher education institutions’ response to market trends, certain journalism education programmes are born out of development assistance i
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nitiatives that envision nation-building imperatives of democratisation and development. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) is notable for its involvement in higher education journalism training at a graduate level in select countries in the Global South. This article assesses the presently discontinued involvement of NORAD in the establishment of a graduate journalism programme at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia between 2004–2007. In doing so, it reviews what has been learned over the lifespan of NORAD's sponsorship of the programme by discussing what worked and what did not work. Findings generated from document analysis, an online survey, and interviews indicate the project fell short of its mission due to its top-down, “magic-bullet” conceptualisation of democratisation that failed to take into account the political and legal-rational conundrums of the Ethiopian state. However, unanticipated yet useful contributions emerged from the project in terms of forging small-scale partnerships that yielded favourable results in the development of journalism education in sub-Saharan Africa." (Abstract)
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"Global Media Giants takes an in-depth look at how media corporate power works globally, regionally, and nationally, investigating the ways in which the largest and most powerful media corporations in the world wield power. Case studies examine not only some of the largest media corporations (News C
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orp, Microsoft) in terms of revenues, but also media corporations that hold considerable power within national, regional, or geolinguistic contexts (Televisa, Bertelsmann, Sony). Each chapter approaches a different corporation through the lens of economy, politics, and culture, giving students and scholars a thoughtful and data-driven guide with which to interrogate contemporary media industry power." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing from hegemonic notions of development statism, this article looks at the extent to which digital platforms have become viable alternatives to traditional electronic and print media in Ethiopia. I argue that, despite its potential to promote freedom of speech, the Ethiopian online sphere is
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systematically policed through state-sanctioned legal frameworks. Through analysis of an online survey, I also demonstrate how perceptions of users about online experiences show skepticism toward the role of the Ethiopian state in Internet monitoring." (Abstract)
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"On its issue of March 1, 2010, Time magazine reported that Sheik Fuad Mohamed Shangole, a leader of an Islamist group known as al-Shabaab (the Youth), which is fighting for control of the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia, made a public declaration of allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The purpose of th
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at report, entitled "Somalia: How it became Terror's New Home," is exactly what the title suggests-to portray how the fragmented Horn of Africa nation is fast becoming a host to terrorists and a major threat to the region and the rest of the world. As evidence, the article quotes a Western soldier in Somalia saying, "There's no longer a serious risk that southern Somalia could become a jihadi operational deployment facility. It already is." It is interesting how a closer look of the article reveals no local Somali sources are implied or quoted in any of the commentaries given. To be precise, three sources are indicated, identified as "a Western soldier working in Somalia," "an intelligence officer," and "Michael Ranneberger, U.S. ambassador to Kenya". This pattern in sourcing is not uncommon in international reporting, particularly in dealing with conflict/war stories (Lee & Maslog, 2005; Shinar, 2009)." (Introduction)
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"The essays in this volume reflect a wide-range of issues and concerns related to children’s media culture in Africa. For example, several address the role of entertainment television in Addis Abba, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, and Zambia and in the lives of Muslim children. Other essays introduce
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us to children-centered media from Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, and the innovative programs of PLAN-International. In addition to entertainment media and children-centered media, media education and digital media literacy are also discussed." (Publisher description)
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