"This investigation is about how Chinese overseas online commentators (COOCs) respond to political discourses on China. COOCs present the ideological heterogeneity of Chinese overseas. Their diverse responses to different ideological debates show patterns that manifest how the Chinese diaspora enact
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their positional cultural identification. The analysis of the data showed that on both sides of the divide, the debate leads commentators to assume positions of attachment to, or detachment from, their Chinese cultural affiliations not in a set of binary oppositions but as a continuum with varying degrees. Along this division line, internal fragmentation can be further identified by different views of China’s external tension with other world powers. The notable internal complexity can arguably represent the nation’s maturation." (Abstract)
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"The study focused on the following themes: how and under what conditions are priority target groups for engagement with development policy issues in China, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States most likely to engage; what factors influence and motivate both engagement and policy dec
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ision-making by members of these target groups; through which communication channels can members of these groups be accessed most readily and with the greatest impact. The research included a total of 128 in-depth interviews with influentials and government decision-makers; surveys of 3,824 interested citizens, and focus group discussions with 160 interested citizens." (Summary of key findings, page 3)
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"Die Nutzung von Mikroblogs durch staatliche Stellen und Parteikader ist Teil der Strategie des chinesischen Partei-Staates, das Internet zur Stabilisierung des politischen Systems einzusetzen. Über staatliche Mikroblogs werden offizielle und fundierte Informationen verbreitet; ein Angebot, das von
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der chinesischen Gesellschaft durchaus aufgegriffen wird. Einblick in die öffentliche Meinung gewinnt der Partei-Staat über die Auswertung der auf „zivilen“, also nicht staatlichen, Mikroblogs geführten Online-Debatten. Diese liefern dem Partei-Staat Informationen über Anliegen und Bedürfnisse der Bevölkerung, welche dieser präemptiv aufnimmt, hierdurch die Effizienz seiner Regulierungs- und Steuerungsmaßnahmen erhöht – und letztendlich dadurch den Legitimitätsglauben der Bevölkerung bestärkt. Mit der Einführung neuer Informations- und Kommunikationsmedien wandeln sich die staatlich-zivilen Beziehungen. Für „zivile“ Akteure eröffnen Mikroblogs neue Möglichkeiten der Vernetzung und Interessenskoordination. In diesem Sinne beenden „zivile“ Mikroblogs das Informationsmonopol des chinesischen Partei-Staates und erhöhen den Druck auf das System, Informationen über aktuelle Entwicklungen möglichst zeitnah zu veröffentlichen. Mikroblogs übernehmen somit eine Korrektiv- und Kontrollfunktion." (Seite 1)
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"Cette enquête exploratoire s’inscrit dans une interrogation sur la façon dont des collectifs dispersés créent des mondes qui leur sont propres, l’objectif ici étant de voir comment l’usage de l’Internet configure leurs espace et temps singuliers (leurs mondes propres). Les résultats i
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nattendus sont que le Web diasporique chinois est principalement anglo-saxon et que la géographie des sites ne correspond pas du tout à celle de la diaspora chinoise. Est-ce seulement l’effet des critères utilisés pour sélectionner les sites, ou cela révèle-t-il un phénomène plus profond ? Ces questions incitent à une nouvelle enquête." (Résumé)
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"This article addresses the emerging patterns of contemporary media-based engagements between China and Africa and argues, after an examination of current media systems in both China and Africa, that, despite expressed worries to the contrary, because of reasons spanning from history to geo-politics
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, the Chinese model of media system as it currently stands does not stand a chance, at least in the foreseeable future, to be exported to Africa – a continent whose current media landscape is, and will arguably remain, significantly Western-oriented. The article concludes with a call for scholars to exercise analytical restraint in their examination of the potential impacts of recent China–Africa media relations." (Abstract)
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"This report evaluates the risks and vulnerabilities of mobile phone services and apps in 12 specified countries: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the People’s Republic of China, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Libya, the Sultanate of Oman, the Kingdom
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of Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Tunisian Republic, the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Rather than focus on a single innovation, this study analyzes multiple mobile technologies – including operating systems, applications and mobile protocols – to determine their capacity to protect security and privacy and to combat censorship and surveillance. Throughout this study the protection of mobile phone users was of paramount importance." (Executive summary)
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"This publication seeks to identify the relationship between freedom of expression and Internet privacy, assessing where they support or compete with each other in different circumstances. The publication maps out the issues in the current regulatory landscape of Internet privacy from the viewpoint
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of freedom of expression. It provides an overview of legal protection, self-regulatory guidelines, normative challenges, and case studies relating to the topic." (Foreword, page 5)
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"For decades, television scholars have viewed global television through the lens of cultural imperialism, focusing primarily on programs produced by US and UK markets and exported to foreign markets. Global Television Formats revolutionizes television studies by de-provincializing its approach to me
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dia globalization. It re-examines dominant approaches and their legacies of global/local and center/ periphery, and offers new directions for understanding television’s contemporary incarnations. The chapters in this collection take up the format phenomena from around the globe, including the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, South and West Africa, South and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Contributors address both little known examples and massive global hits ranging from the Idol franchise around the world, to telenovelas, dance competitions, sports programming, reality TV, quiz shows, sitcoms and more." (Publisher description)
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"This article provides an empirically grounded assessment of China’s increasing role in the African mediasphere. It examines the strategic importance of Chinese media assistance to Ghana along three dimensions: the potential appeal of the Chinese approach to information regulation for countries st
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ruggling to balance development and risks to political stability; the direct intervention of Chinese companies in the media and telecommunication sectors through the provision of loans, equipment and technical expertise; and the stepping up of China’s public diplomacy strategy through the expansion of international broadcasters and the increase of exchange and training programs targeting African citizens." (Abstract)
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"This article investigates what the news says about inequity-driven civil wars and economic underdevelopment. Dewey argued that the lack of causal knowledge that distinguishes between symptoms and root causes would limit potential effective and transformative public action. Political scientists have
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demonstrated that increases in just the number of news stories about a foreign country in both US print and TV news in one year produced a clearly significant relationship to increases in commitments of US foreign aid the following year. This study of reporting on a 2003-2005 African crisis by ten news organizations over 26 months found few articles predominantly focused on causes against conditions on the ground or remedies. It raises questions about the conditions under which news organizations might be expected to provide causal knowledge and when such information can lead to more enlightened long term aid for national transformation." (Abstract)
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"From the massacre of the Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee to the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, from famine in China to apartheid in South Africa, Picturing Atrocity examines a broad spectrum of photographs. Each of the essays focuses specifically on an iconic image, offering a distinct approach
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and context, in order to enable us to look again; and this time more closely at the picture. In addition, four photo-essays showcase the work of photographers involved in the making of photographs of brutality as well as the artists' own reflections on these images. Together these essays cover the historical and geographical range of atrocity photographs and respond to current concerns about such disturbing images; they probe why we as viewers feel compelled to look even when our instinct might be to look away." (Publisher description)
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"In order to maintain competitive edge over both domestic rivals and international competition, Chinese television companies have been looking abroad for ideas. A number of political and commercial concerns have come together to inform a sudden interest by Chinese media companies in creativity and i
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nnovation. Hunan TV has been at the forefront, carefully deciding on the United Kingdom and selecting partners with which to work. In the course of its explorations abroad, Hunan has changed its objectives from narrowly technical and managerial ones to strategic ones. It now buys foreign formats, develops its own ideas, and looks forward to exporting those ideas and perhaps formats abroad, a hitherto inconceivable ambition that reflects urgent Chinese government concerns about the country's need to expand its international 'soft power'. Meanwhile, Hunan TV's initiatives have not gone unnoticed elsewhere in China, and other television companies are following suit. This article describes how this came about and what measures are being undertaken as a result of it, and discusses the implications of such ambitions." (Abstract)
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"Audience segmentation is generally associated with strategic communication (such as advertising and public relations), where content is manipulated to suit reader preferences. News has generally been considered truth-telling unvarnished by such concerns. This article compares how news of the same h
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umanitarian crisis [in Darfur, Sudan] was designed by 10 news organizations in seven countries for different market segments. Comparisons showed statistically significant differences in representation, influenced in part by what the audience-market was. Like advertising, news seemed to share an attribute with the strategic design of advertising and public relations. Increasingly carried online, news will be vulnerable to click-based customization of content like advertising is, taking us beyond currently observed geopolitical influences on segmentation to advertiser and market-based differences." (Abstract)
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"Chapters explore what happens in praxis when digital media are implemented across cultures and are contested and negotiated within complex local and political conditions. The book showcases interpretative and critical research from voices with diverse backgrounds, from locations around the world."
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(Publisher description)
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"In the field of citizen media research, considerably less attention has been paid to countries other than the US and those in Western Europe. This article is a case study that focuses on citizen media in Beijing – specifically, the Dazhalan [participatory video] project. Combining in-depth interv
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iews and textual analysis, the article demonstrates the uniqueness of citizen media under China’s state-party media system. The article also suggests that it was the collaboration among ordinary citizens, professionals and journalists that made it possible for citizen media to influence the mainstream media frame-building process." (Abstract)
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"This report is the third in a series of comprehensive studies of internet freedom around the globe and covers developments in 47 countries that occurred between January 2011 and May 2012. Over 50 researchers, nearly all based in the countries they analyzed, contributed to the project by researching
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laws and practices relevant to the internet, testing the accessibility of select websites, and interviewing a wide range of sources. This year's findings indicate that restrictions on internet freedom in many countries have continued to grow, though the methods of control are slowly evolving, becoming more sophisticated and less visible. Brutal attacks against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, proactive manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online are among the diverse threats to internet freedom emerging over the past two years. Nevertheless, several notable victories have also occurred as a result of greater activism by civil society, technology companies, and independent courts, illustrating that efforts to advance internet freedom can yield results." (www.freedomhouse.org, January 14, 2013)
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"This article is an attempt to explore the issues of online representations of orphans in China and India in the intersection of power, voice, and placement. Textual and visual representations of orphans at www.homeofhopeindia.org and www.homeofhope.org are analyzed using the theoretical frameworks
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of voicings, whiteness, and the colonial (technological) gaze. We examine how online networks are spaces for discursive reproduction of existing offline hegemonies. We pay particular attention to the reproduction and representation of the so-called voiceless Other in online settings." (Abstract)
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"Traces China's media engagement in Africa since the 2000s, including a list of financed projects (pp. 13-15), and explains how strategies have changed. While the extension of hardware assistance continues to play an important role, China's media engagement in Africa started to diversify after the 2
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006 Beijing Summit. According to the author "China has begun to express its opinion on media practices to African media practitioners. For instance the Chinese government invited African journalists to learn about its development experience, including the development of Xinhua as an international news agency. The Third Workshop for African Journalists, under the supervision of FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation), covered topics that included discussions on Chinese journalism. The result is clear in a country such as Equatorial Guinea, where qualified media professionals are divided into those journalists who were trained in Spain three decades ago, and the newer generation who are increasingly being trained in Cuba or China. Such media training introduces the Chinese media system, in addition to the usual education on media equipment and other types of hardware supplied by China. China-Africa media ties have therefore developed on the back of official ties." (Page 16)
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