"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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"Over five years Facebook has grown from practically no users in Sub-Saharan Africa to become the most widely used social media platform. In the four countries where face-to-face surveys were carried out for this research, between 14% (Tanzania) and 27% (Ghana) of all respondents were using it [...]
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Over the last five years, the number of Africans who own or have access to mobile phones, computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets has grown considerably. These both act as media carriers (a mobile with a radio or TV receiver) or a media in their own right (a mobile accessing the Internet and Social Media). African newspapers face the same dilemma as many developed country newspapers. Their print version generates almost all of their revenues but increasingly their online users are either close to or above their print readership." (Page 8)
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"Mobile ownership in all of the four surveys [in Ghana, Nothern Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania] was around 90%, making the mobile phone the most widely owned device media device, both used as a media carrier (radio) and a media in its own right (Internet, SMS) [...] Radio remains the dominant medium
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for obtaining news and information and only in Ghana (where electricity access is wider) does TV come close to the percentage of those listening to radio. In each of the countries examined, the media has been liberalized and the radio and TV audiences are fragmented so that only a relatively small number of players reach over 25% of the audience [...] As the continent’s most owned device, the mobile phone is used most regularly for: voice calls; radio; SMS; Internet and Social Media. Between a fifth and a third of all those surveyed used the Internet on a daily basis [...] Between 14-27% of all those surveyed used social media and the dominant platform is Facebook [...] Radio and TV channels scored most highly in terms of those surveyed trusting the health information they heard on saw on them. The level of trust in these channels in Senegal was significantly lower than in the other countries." (Summary, page 5-9)
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"Drawing upon feminism and participatory communication, this research has used multiple methods to explore the rich and innovative experiences of the women’s radio stations in Senegal. The case of Gindiku FM, one of the four women’s radio stations in Senegal, is used to assess the community radi
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o’s revolutionary potential for development and progressive social change. The findings show that women’s community radio has emerged as a response to women’s marginalization in both mainstream media and in alternative community media, as well as to women’s need to have their own communication means. The findings reveal that Gindiku FM is an outstanding model of a women’s community radio station that has successfully articulated gender and participatory communication to empower rural and poor women living in a context dominated by a Sufy Islamic Order. The findings show that three key factors have contributed to the success of Gindiku FM. The first factor is a clear commitment to integrating a gender perspective in all of their actions and therefore to question gender-based discrimination and marginalization. The second factor is the set-up of a network of 60 rural women reporters and 60 listening groups, in as many villages, as a scheme to ensure women’s inclusion and participation in the radio station. The third factor is the implementation of gendered programming targeting inequality, social injustices, and women’s subordination. The findings of this study indicate that Gindiku FM has produced changes both at individual and community levels. Women have been empowered technically, culturally and socially. The traditional image of a silenced woman, lacking agency and self-esteem, is fading for a new one that is more vocal, dynamic and less entrenched in traditional and patriarchal values. Therefore, Gindiku FM has emerged as a powerful model that can inspire women’s media activists, as well as donors willing to support initiatives in gender and communication for development." (Abstract)
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"Der Autor porträtiert 23 Länder aus sechs Weltregionen. Anschließend bildet er mittels des pragmatischen Differenz-Ansatzes sechs Modelle heraus: Das liberale Modell, das Public-Service-Modell, das Klientel-Modell, das Schock-Modell, das Patrioten-Modell und das Kommando-Modell. Dabei zeigt sich
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: In Ländern wie China, Syrien, dem Iran oder auch Weißrussland fungieren die Medien als Lautsprecher der Herrschenden. In den USA, Brasilien oder auch Deutschland und Frankreich sind sie eher Widersprecher. Doch auch dazwischen gibt es ein breites Feld von Ländern wie Russland, Libanon oder Italien, in denen eine Ambivalenz zwischen Lautsprechern und Widersprechern besteht, deren Kräfteverhältnis sich immer wieder verschieben kann." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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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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"For several years now, the FAO-Dimitra project has been supporting community listeners’ clubs (CLC), which facilitate a process for strengthening rural communities, with a special focus on women’s leadership. At this stage in the project’s progress, we think it is necessary to take the time t
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o capitalize on several years of experience with the clubs. So included with this newsletter is a fact sheet describing the key features that make the Dimitra community listeners’ clubs a unique approach. You will also find in this issue a dossier which outlines the impact of the CLCs in the Orientale Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A listeners’ club forum in Isangi, which brought together members of 60 listeners’ clubs in the Province, offers a starting point to examine the results obtained. Marguerite Atilomoi, a young woman leader from Orientale Province, was chosen to feature in this issue’s Portraits Series. Marguerite is the moderator of a Dimitra community listeners’ club, and also serves on the Board of a local producer organization and is Vice-President of the Producers Union for her area. Several articles describe the launch of new clubs in Mauritania, Niger and Senegal with FAO’s regional Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM) programme, as well as in Ghana." (Editorial, page 2)
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"Out of the twelve countries surveyed, only four have specific access to information laws. These countries are: Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe. However, a significant indication of the shifting tide on the continent is that six of the countries surveyed have some form of specific access to
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information in a Bill or parliamentary process. These countries are: Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia." (Page 5)
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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 media sector in West Africa has seen significant region-wide improvements, attributable not just to improvements in isolated cases but to general improvements in all countries. Nevertheless, despite general improvement, aspects of the media sector lag behind others, including: 1) government har
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assment of journalists, 2) weak or lacking media criticism of government, 3) unequal distribution of citizen access to media, and 4) gender imbalance among journalists. Countries where the media sector is faring less well than in other nations are Guinea, Nigeria, and Togo. Detailed analysis of four critical indicators reveals that: government censorship persists even in relatively democratic countries like Benin and Senegal, and remains a major problem in Togo and Guinea; government harassment of journalists is occurring in several countries, particularly Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Benin, and Senegal; media bias has diminished across the region compared to the past, except in Nigeria; media corruption is very significant in most West African countries. The problem may now be the region's largest single threat to democratic rights in this sector." (Executive summary)
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"La Radiotélévision sénégalaise (RTS) est en retard sur l’évolution politique du peuple et de l’Administration qui ont réussi deux alternances pacifi ques à la tête de l’État. Elle reste la chasse gardée des pouvoirs successifs qui en ont toujours fait un instrument de propagande à
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leur dévotion. C’est la première fois que cette discordance est examinée de l’intérieur de la RTS par un journaliste qui en distingue les raisons et identifi e les forces politiques, religieuses et sociales qui dominent l’audiovisuel public. Les liens entre ces forces sont également établis de manière claire ainsi que les soubassements idéologiques et les projets de société à l’oeuvre dans ce partage. Grâce à un travail d’archéologie qui part de l’histoire et des origines coloniales de l’audiovisuel public sénégalais, l’auteur arrive à la situation actuelle pour démontrer, sans vraiment surprendre, la continuité d’un service docile guidé par l’obéissance aux pouvoirs dominants. La question du fi nancement de l’audiovisuel public est également abordée et rappelle l’État à ses devoirs." (Dos de couverture)
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