"Drawn from multisited fieldwork conducted among Cameroonians in Germany and Cameroon, the article reveals that the liveness of mobile phone communication influences expectations and narratives of remittances in Cameroonian transnational social relationships. These expectations are meaningful within
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a cultural context where economic resources are expected to flow from migrants to nonmigrants. As this case demonstrates, the general belief in nonmigrants' entitlement to the achievements of those who migrate regardless of their status abroad, also means migrant students are involved in remittances practices. The students are expected to remit and at the same time, they are conscious of their obligation to support people who stay back in the home country. As such, the mobile phone ideally provides an infrastructure through which monetary resources could be coordinated and channeled to Cameroon. While exploring this possibility of remittances transfer, I argue that instant communication contradictorily generates and fuels conflicts mainly as a result of unmet expectations of deploying the phone to directly request money from abroad." (Abstract)
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"In today's Africa racism and ethnicity have been implicated in serious conflicts - from Egypt to Mali to South Africa - that have cost lives and undermined efforts to achieve national cohesion and meaningful development. Racism, Ethnicity and the Media in Africa sets about rethinking the role of me
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dia and communication in perpetuating, reinforcing and reining in racism, absolute ethnicity and other discriminations across Africa. It goes beyond the customary discussion of media racism and ethnic stereotyping to critically address broader issues of identity, belonging and exclusion. Topics covered include racism in South African newspapers, pluralist media debates in Kenya, media discourses on same-sex relations in Uganda and ethnicised news coverage in Nigerian newspapers." (Publisher description)
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"Entre hybridation et réinvention, les pratiques communicationnelles liées à la téléphonie mobile offrent des perspectives de recherche stimulantes. Pour les opérateurs de téléphonie, il s’ouvre un réel champ, où d’observation en expérimentation, se créent de nouvelles offres. Au-del
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à des chiffres inespérés, on voit se dessiner des pratiques inattendues : Happy Snapping, crowd-funding, m-commerce, mobile learning. On peut aussi évoquer les usages de la téléphonie mobile dans les pratiques religieuses – avec des « maraboutages » à distance –, dans la lutte contre les fraudes électorales, et dans la mobilisation sociale, notamment lors des manifestations à caractère politique. Les articles rassemblés dans cet ouvrage interrogent la contribution réelle de la téléphonie mobile au développement économique et social des popu-lations, ses modes d’appropriation, les formes de socialisation qu’elle induit et les innovations qui la caractérisent ou qu’elle suscite. La technologie n’étant pas neutre, il s’agit de penser les modalités de son intégration et ses conséquences sur le système social." (Dos de couverture)
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"New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa casts a critical look at Africa's rapidly evolving religious media scene. Following political liberalization, media deregulation, and the proliferation of new media technologies, many African religious leaders and activists have appropriated such me
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dia to strengthen and expand their communities and gain public recognition. Media have also been used to marginalize and restrict the activities of other groups, which has sometimes led to tension, conflict, and even violence. Showing how media are rarely neutral vehicles of expression, the contributors to this multidisciplinary volume analyze the mutual imbrications of media and religion during times of rapid technological and social change in various places throughout Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This Global Information Society Watch tracks the state of communications surveillance in 57 countries across the world – countries as diverse as Hungary, India, Argentina, The Gambia, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. Each country report approaches the issue from a different perspective. Some analy
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se legal frameworks that allow surveillance, others the role of businesses in collecting data (including marketing data on children), the potential of biometrics to violate rights, or the privacy challenges when implementing a centralised universal health system. The perspectives from long-time internet activists on surveillance are also recorded. Using the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance as a starting point, eight thematic reports frame the key issues at stake. These include discussions on what we mean by digital surveillance, the implications for a human rights agenda on surveillance, the “Five Eyes” inter-government surveillance network led by the US, cyber security, and the role of intermediaries." (GIS website)
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"How are images used in the aim of governing migration? This article probes this question through the example of the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) information campaigns (ICs) in Cameroon, through which it seeks to ‘manage the perception’ of potential illegal(ized) migrants t
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o the European Union (EU). Taking the self-reflexive perspective of a filmmaker who has documented migrants’ rights violations in several projects and is thus struck by the use of imagery of suffering migrants as a deterrent, I first draw a comparison with the practice of colonial educational cinema, which I argue bares many similarities with the IOM’s ICs. Second, I inscribe them within broader trends in migration management, which have in common a simultaneous spatial expansion beyond the EU’s boundaries and a broadening of the domains they attempt to shape. I then attend to the particular ‘media dispositif’ the IOM constitutes in its campaign in Cameroon and question the actual effects of its campaigns." (Abstract)
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"This manual is an opportunity for the Civil Peace Service (CPS) networks to share the experiences of some of the people and organisations who use theatre as a tool for communication, change and peace. You will find theoretical bases, concrete examples related to the contents and some techniques and
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methods we would like to make available to as wide an audience as possible. While the goal is not to turn you into professional entertainers, you will find techniques, tips, and other people's hands-on experiencience in the discipline. The purpose of this manual is to de-dramatise the art of the sketch, the role play, the theatre and add it to the toolkit of the CPS peace workers. This is theatre practice as a tool for reflection and communication, for expressing emotions and points of view, be they diametrically opposed, which can open a chink in apparently sealed situations weighed down in dead ends or which seem to be impossible to resolve and let some light into conflicts between people and communities. All the experiences described in this manual have been developed in a community-based way with the help of experienced peace workers and African artists." (Introduction)
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"This is the first collection to de-Westernize the scholarship on women, politics and media by: 1) highlighting the latest research on countries and regions that have not been ‘the usual suspects’; 2) featuring a diverse group of scholars, many of non-Western origin; 3) giving voice through pers
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onal interviews to politically active women, thus providing the reader with a rare insight into women's agency in the political structures of emerging democracies. Each chapter examines the complex women, politics and media dynamic in a particular nation-state, taking into consideration the specific political, historic and social context. With 23 case studies and interviews from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Russia and the former Soviet republics, this volume will be of interest to students, media scholars and policy makers from developed and emerging democracies." (Publisher description)
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"Through the methodological framework of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), the report measures the extent to which 144 economies, from both the developed and developing worlds, take advantage of ICTs and other new technologies to increase their growth and well-being. The NRI identifies the most r
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elevant factors driving ICT readiness and impacts, providing policymakers, business leaders, and civil society at large with a useful tool for designing national strategies for increased networked readiness and for benchmarking their country’s performance against other relevant comparators. The Global Information Technology Report 2013 features the latest computation and rankings of the NRI, and in referring to this year’s theme, dives deeper into the connection between ICTs and economic growth and job creation. As in previous years, it also showcases a number of ICT development stories of particular interest. In addition, the report includes detailed profiles for the 144 economies covered this year together with data tables for each of the 54 indicators used in the computation of the NRI." (Back cover)
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"The Internet will generate economic growth and social transformation in six sectors in particular: financial services, education, health, retail, agriculture, and government. In financial services, for example, M.Pesa's mobile money solutions have brought millions of Kenyans onto the financial grid
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for the first time. Remote diagnostics are expanding medical services to rural areas that have few healthcare professionals. Students are beginning to learn with new digital education tools, and e-government initiatives are connecting citizens with services. This report examines the progress and potential of the Internet in 14 economies that together make up 90 percent of Africa's GDP. In addition to measuring the size of their current Internet economies, it evaluates the strength of five fundamental pillars of Internet readiness: national ICT strategy, infrastructure, business environment, access to financial capital, and the development of ICTrelated human capital. By combining these factors, it is possible to map each country's progress on its digital journey. Kenya and Senegal, for instance, are not Africa's largest economies, but they have nevertheless emerged as the continent's leaders in terms of the relative economic contribution of the Internet." (Executive summary)
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"The current UIS Questionnaire on Media Statistics provides information for three UNESCO frameworks, namely the Media and Information Literacy Framework, the Media Development Indicators Framework and the Framework for Cultural Statistics. The questionnaire collects data for reporting global progres
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s on Action Lines C2, C3, C8 and C9 of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in UNESCO’s fields of competencies. In particular, Action Line C9 recommends appropriate policies to foster and sustain media and information development. This document provides country profiles for each of the countries that participated in the two pilot surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012." (Background, page 3)
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"GISWatch 2013 shows that gains in women’s rights made online are not always certain or stable. While access to the internet for women has increased their participation in the social, economic and governance spheres, there is another side to these opportunities: online harassment, cyberstalking, a
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nd violence against women online all of which are on the increase globally." (www.giswatch.org, July 6, 2014)
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"The digital switchover (DSO) is the commonly accepted name given to the process of changing the underlying radio broadcast technology from the outdated analogue system to a system based on equipment capable of transmitting and receiving digital signals. This guide was produced to help with the proc
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ess of implementation and is aimed at those involved in the process. Of course, the DSO is a process that affects citizens as part of the broadcasting audience and potential users of mobile broadband, but this guide is aimed at groups and individuals implementing the DSO, including policy makers, regulators, telecommunications operators and service providers, and broadcasters and media professionals." (Introduction)
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"This book is about the workings of networks of the mobile in Africa, a continent usually associated with the ‘global shadows’ of the world. How do changes in the possibilities for communication, with the recent hype of mobile technology, influence the social and economic dynamics in Africa’s
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mobile margins? To what extent is the freedom associated with new Information and Communication Technologies reality or disillusion for people dwelling in the margins? Are ordinary Africans increasingly Side@Ways? How social are these emergent Side@Ways? Contributions to answering these and related questions are harvested from ethnographic insights by team members of the WOTRO funded ‘Mobile Africa revisited’ research programme hosted by the African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands." (Publisher description)
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"The Report is composed of four thematic parts. Part 1 describes the conceptual framework and relates the findings of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2012. In addition, Part 1 features selected expert contributions on the general theme of hyperconnectivity. Part 2 includes two case studies showi
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ng the efforts that two countries, Azerbaijan and Mauritius, are making to develop ICT and fully leverage their potential benefits. Part 3 comprises detailed profiles for the 142 economies covered in this year’s Report, providing a thorough picture of each economy’s current networked readiness landscape and allowing for international comparisons of specific variables or components of the NRI. Part 4 includes data tables for each of the 53 variables composing the NRI, with rankings for the economies covered as well as technical notes and sources for the quantitative variables used." (Executive summary, page xi)
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