"This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere. Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical evidence, this book defines “the digital divide” as the unequal access and utility of internet communic
...
ations technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at: highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan); emerging large powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China); Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia); Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel); under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa)." (Publisher description)
more
"This paper presents the results of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) pilot survey on media statistics conducted in 28 countries in 2011. The survey instruments were designed to provide an initial set of quantitative indicators identified by UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators project. G
...
iven the limitations of this sample survey, this report is intended to highlight the scope of the questionnaire items while describing initial results. Further analysis of the indicators and trends will be made in the future as the data collection is expanded to include a greater number of countries. Chapter 1 focuses on indicators related to the regulatory environment in which media operate across countries. Chapter 2 presents data on the supply of different types of media (radio, television, newspapers) before discussing distribution by ownership and geographic coverage, as well as the availability of radio and television equipment and related issues on the penetration of broadcast media channels within each country." (Introduction)
more
"This technical report seeks to understand the impact of improved access to information technology on farmers’ agricultural production and marketing practices in sub-Saharan Africa, with a specific focus on Niger. Related research suggests in that access to mobile telephony can reduce communicatio
...
n and search costs, thereby increasing rural households’ access to price and labor market information. Reducing information asymmetries should, in theory, allow households to better respond to shocks. We find that increased access to a mobile phone via an adult education program increases the diversity of crops planted, particularly marginal cash crops grown by women. This also increases the likelihood that these cash crops are grown, but does not increase the farm-gate price received." (Abstract)
more
"This paper analyses how the French media perceive the advent of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahel, and particularly in Niger. It shows that the French media are constructing Niger as a ‘grey area’, a dangerous place and a ‘failed state’ through a monolithic discourse rooted in
...
French cultural and ideological presuppositions about Africa and Africans. I argue that the monolithic discourse of French media on the War on Terror in the Sahel is the result of similar educational trajectories, cultural backgrounds and positions shared by journalists within the field, which tend to produce similar patterns of thinking. The paper is based on a critical analysis of ‘representative’ articles written between 1 January 2008 and 30 September 2011 in three leading French newspapers. It uses a qualitative approach and takes place within the framework of media content analysis." (Abstract)
more
"The history of development in Africa is littered with all sorts of experiments and projects centred on new technologies often presented as a panacea to the problems of health, education, or agricultural production. The failure of some of those projects shows the limits of the technocentrist approac
...
h which has recently resurfaced in the developmentalist discourse and which is based on the idea that technology (and technology alone) can solve all the social and economic problems Africa is facing. This is the case of the educational television in Niger that was supposed to ensure a rapid access to universal education. It started in 1964 and was abandoned in 1979. It failed to transform the educational system in any significant way, the school enrolment rate in Niger still being under 60 %, 46 years after the experiment started. In this paper, I intend to show that this failure was not due to a lack of community involvement as generally advanced by project evaluations, but the result of a confrontation of divergent views of the world and society. Indeed, the educational television has become an issue of both social and political struggle, which resulted in the victory of one of the parties and the allocation of the educational television to other purposes for which it was not previously designed." (Abstract)
more
"In Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the rate at which listeners’ clubs are being formed and the fact that the approach is now being reproduced in various settings are indications of the success of this strategy and the extent to which it is proving sustainable. In South Kivu, for
...
example, a new formula has been tested with excellent results: the introduction of Farmer Field and Life Schools has been supported by existing community listeners’ clubs. In addition, a process for evaluating the impact of the clubs has revealed an unexpected but promising factor: the improved capacity of club members to engage in more formal rural structures. In this sense, the clubs are paving the way for greater participation of women in producers’ organizations and rural cooperatives. The success of the clubs has led to the setting up of new projects in Burundi, Senegal, Mauritania and the DRC (Oriental Province). At the request of various organizations and agencies, FAO-Dimitra is helping to implement these projects based on gender sensitive participatory methodologies that are flexible and well adapted, with a goal that remains unchanged: the empowerment of men and women in a rural environment." (Editorial, page 2)
more
"This article explores how computers and the Internet are represented among young, educated people in Niger and the social expectations that are attached to their use. It argues that pre-existing social and economic conditions play an important role in shaping the meanings associated with these devi
...
ces. Thus, in a context of poverty and unemployment, the Internet and computers are perceived as technologies that may help young people and their country integrate into a modern world of economic opportunities and well-being via the transnational and transcultural interactions that take place in cyberspace. The Internet is associated with the ideas of modernity and ‘leapfrogging’ development. However, because of the lack of computer equipment and adequate infrastructure, these expectations are largely exaggerated, and they divert attention from the actual possibilities for change that reside in people and not in technological devices. The research is based on fieldwork conducted among young, educated computer and Internet users during the summers of 2003 and 2004 in Niamey, the capital city of Niger and further complemented by data collected in 2008." (Abstract)
more
"Cette publication fait le récit de l’expérience unique des clubs d’écoute communautaires mis en place au Niger et en République démocratique du Congo par la FAO-Dimitra et ses partenaires. Mécanismes d’information et de communication centrés sur l’action, ces clubs ont remporté un s
...
uccès tel que Dimitra a souhaité partager l’expérience. Le premier chapitre présente de façon succincte les clubs d’écoute communautaires, leur finalité, leur fonctionnement interne et les résultats obtenus. Le deuxième chapitre inscrit son récit au plus proche des initiatives des communautés, en donnant la parole aux protagonistes et en racontant la création des clubs d’écoute dans les deux pays. Le troisième chapitre fournit des orientations plus pratiques sur les étapes de création des clubs d’écoute communautaires." (Dos de couverture)
more
"This publication is particularly relevant for radio stations intending to establish listeners' clubs. It presents the experience of community listeners' clubs established in the mid-2000s in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger by the FAO and its partners, and the results that these initiativ
...
es produced. It shows that listeners' clubs proved to be an effective means for isolated rural communities to access information and engage in participatory communication. The clubs especially enabled women to assume a pro-active role in the development of their community and to receive recognition for doing so. The last chapter of the publication presents guidelines for creating and maintaining community listeners' clubs, and the main success factors to be considered." (CAMECO Update 1-2012)
more
"This report provides the results of an evaluation of a CRS adult education program and a mobile phone-based adult education pilot program in Niger. The study found that students in the villages where the pilot project was carried out used mobile phones more frequently and in more “active” ways,
...
particularly by making calls and writing texts, which require more advanced letter and number recognition than for simply receiving calls. Students also had higher math scores after the program was over." (www.crs.org)
more
"This study assesses the impact of the African Charter on Broadcasting, a blueprint for broadcasting reform in Africa, approved in 2001 at a conference of media practitioners and freedom of expression advocates held in Windhoek, Namibia. The geographical focus of this study is five countries in West
...
Africa - Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. The purpose of the study is to contribute to the strengthening of pluralistic media and the democratization of communication in countries in transition in West Africa. Its observations and recommendations are also of relevance to those engaged more widely in media reform advocacy and democracy promotion as well as scholars of broadcasting law and policy." (Introduction, page 13)
more
"L'Afrique dans son ensemble : 28 chapitres présentant le continent par rapport au reste du monde. Tous les aspects de la géographie physique : relief, hydrographie, climat, végétation, et aussi l'histoire, les religions, les langues. L'Afrique par régions. Les cartes de localisation avec visua
...
lisation géopolitique aisée, toponymie française et toponymie des Nations unies, indexation. L'Afrique pays par pays. Par ordre alphabétique les cinquante-quatre Etats du continent et les territoires dépendants (La Réunion, Mayotte, Ceuta et Melilla, etc...) - Nombreuses cartes illustrant : relief, hydrographie, agriculture, pêche et élevage, commerce, industries et ressources du sous-sol." (Description de la maison d'édition)
more
"Around the developing world, political leaders face a dilemma: the very information and communication technologies that boost economic fortunes also undermine power structures. Globally, one in ten internet users is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community. In these countries, young people ar
...
e developing their political identities—including a transnational Muslim identity—online. In countries where political parties are illegal, the internet is the only infrastructure for democratic discourse. In others, digital technologies such as mobile phones and the internet have given key actors an information infrastructure that is independent of the state. And in countries with large Muslim communities, mobile phones and the internet are helping civil society build systems of political communication independent of the state and beyond easy manipulation by cultural or religious elites. This book looks at the role that communications technologies play in advancing democratic transitions in Muslim countries. As such, its central question is whether technology holds the potential to substantially enhance democracy. Certainly, no democratic transition has occurred solely because of the internet. But, as the book argues, no democratic transition can occur today without the internet. According to this book, the major (and perhaps only meaningful) forum for civic debate in most Muslim countries today is online. Activists both within diasporic communities and within authoritarian states—including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan—are the drivers of this debate, which centers around issues such as the interpretation of Islamic texts, gender roles, and security issues. Drawing upon material from interviews with telecommunications policy makers and activists in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Tajikistan, and Tanzania and a comparative study of seventy-four countries with large Muslim populations, this book demonstrates that these forums have been the means to organize activist movements that have lead to successful democratic insurgencies." (Publisher description)
more
"This report documents the results of a two-month field research evaluation in Niger and Chad on the media component of the Peace Through Development (PDEV) program funded by USAID under the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP). Equal Access, a non-governmental organization (NGO) speci
...
alizing in development communications, implements the media component of the PDEV project and works in collaboration with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) to 1) improve local governance in target communities; 2) empower at-risk youth to become active participants in their communities and the economy; and 3) render superfluous ideologies that promote violence. The major activity of the PDEV media component is the production of four radio programs (two in Niger and two in Chad), which are broadcast by a network of PDEV radio partners in each country. The radio programs are supplemented by community-level activities including the organization of listening clubs, the training of community reporters and ongoing training and material support offered to radio station partners in both Chad and Niger." (Executive summary)
more