"This chapter therefore proposes steps toward closing the gaps in the research on the safety of journalists and media workers in the Philippines and across the globe. While there is no absence of research on the subject, there is a preponderance of anecdotal research and a lack of empirical studies.
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This is a significant gap, as empirical research – in the form of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies – is crucial in providing evidence-based information that can inform policies and action agendas intended to deter threats and violence against news media workers. Another gap is the lack of systematic documentation and dissemination of studies on the topic. There is a need for coordinated efforts among schools and research institutions to encourage the inventory and utilization of existing research. The latter may include policy advocacy based on study findings. Yet another gap that needs to be filled is the development and use of a framework that can provide parameters for future research on the topic." (Abstract)
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"Chapters are extended works of papers presented at Communication/Culture and The Sustainable Development Goals (CCSDG): Challenges for a New Generation, an international conference held in Chiang Mai University in December 2015. The chapters address assessments of Millennium Development Goals in se
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veral Asian countries and the region as a whole. The book also identifies and discusses the changes and potential improvements in the transition from Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) to Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030). Areas that are covered in the book, which are illustrated with case studies, include Corporate Social Accountability, Information and Communications Technologies, and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)." (Publisher description)
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"This book explores the transnational mobility, everyday life and digital media use of childcare workers living and working abroad. Focusing specifically on Filipina, Indonesian, and Sri Lankan nannies in Europe, it offers insights as to the causes and implications of women’s mobility, using data
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drawn from ethnographic research examining transnational migration, work experiences, family, and relationships. While drawing attention to the hidden, largely invisible and marginalized lives of these women, this research reveals the ways in which digital media, especially the use of mobile phones and the Internet, empower them but also continue to reinforce existing power relations and inequalities. Drawing on a wide range of perspectives from media and communications, sociology, cultural studies and anthropology, the book combines theoretical perspectives with grounded case studies." (Publisher description)
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"To support joint efforts to protect journalism, there is a growing need for research-based knowledge. Acknowledging this need, the aim of this publication is to highlight and fuel journalist safety as a field of research, to encourage worldwide participation, as well as to inspire further dialogues
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and new research initiatives. The contributions represent diverse perspectives on both empirical and theoretical research and offer many quantitatively and qualitatively informed insights. The articles demonstrate that a new important interdisciplinary research field is in fact emerging, and that the fundamental issue remains identical: Violence and threats against journalists constitute an attack on freedom of expression." (Back cover)
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"In this essay, a different way to approach reporting on natural disasters has been suggested. It requires news reporters and their editors to recognize that there are progressive unions and allied organizations that exist, and because of their rootedness in their various communities across the coun
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try, that they can help provide more honest and accurate accounts of natural disasters than can be gained from government officials and outside NGO staff-members. It has been argued that gaining access through these local organizations can provide approaches to news reporting that actually help the affected community heal, by portraying survivors as active protagonists to overcoming the death and destruction instead of helpless victims." (Conclusion)
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"The author bases her analysis on five years of fieldwork in the conflict zones of Mindanao, the Philippines, where child protection is of critical importance. She works with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, which specializes in Unarmed Civilian Protection in close cooperation with the United Nations and
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UNICEF to report and respond to Child Protection issues in Mindanao and the surrounding islands. In the field, she sought to implement the humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality among the parties to the various conflicts. She established an active presence, and gained access to remote conflict-affected areas. Such work seeks to document and ultimately protect children, civilians and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are suffering as a result of the armed conflicts. This chapter offers a close examination of UNICEF's communication and media strategies, as well as behind-the-scenes advocacy and in-person contact under difficult physical conditions and terrain." (Introduction to part 6, page 306)
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"This volume captures the domestication of mobile communication technologies by families in Asia, and its implications for family interactions and relationships. It showcases research on families across a spectrum of socio-economic profiles, from both rural and urban areas, offering insights on chil
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dren, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. While mobile communication diffuses through Asia at a blistering pace, families in the region are also experiencing significant changes in light of unprecedented economic growth, globalisation, urbanisation and demographic shifts. Asia is therefore at the crossroads of technological transformation and social change. This book analyses the interactions of these two contemporaneous trends from the perspective of the family, covering a range of family types including nuclear, multi-generational, transnational, and multi-local, spanning the continuum from the media-rich to the media have-less." (Publisher description)
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"Radio broadcasting is an important means for reaching, informing and engaging rural communities in the Philippines. Many households in fact rely on radio for their information and communication needs. Media practitioners are therefore important actors in the communication process, especially in com
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municating to communities about climate change, agriculture and food security. Most of the times, however, media practitioners and rural broadcasters do not have the skills and technical knowledge to report effectively and efficiently about these subjects. The PFRB initiative to hold seminar workshops on reporting climate change and related issues for rural broadcasters and information officers of government agencies in the Philippines aimed to address this gap. As one of the outcomes from the media seminar workshop series conducted by CCAFS-SEA in the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the PFRB workshop series discussed climate change and agriculture in the context of the communities wherein the broadcasters work. It also enhanced their skills in packaging technical information in messages that appeal to their audiences, the rural communities." (Conclusion, page 19)
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"Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year, with more governments than ever before targeting social media and communication apps as a means of halting the rapid dissemination of information, particularly during antigovernment protests. Public-facing social media platforms like Fac
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ebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but in a new trend, governments increasingly target messaging and voice communication apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. These services are able to spread information and connect users quickly and securely, making it more difficult for authorities to control the information landscape or conduct surveillance. The increased controls show the importance of social media and online communication for advancing political freedom and social justice. It is no coincidence that the tools at the center of the current crackdown have been widely used to hold governments accountable and facilitate uncensored conversations." (Page 1)
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"Two giant broadcast networks dominate the Philippine media industry both in terms of economic market power and audience reach, which gives them a major potential to shape public opinion. Despite a high number of media outlets and being described as one of the most freewheeling media systems in the
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region, Philippine media continuous to be owned by and to depend on the economic and political elite [...] Five families in the Forbes List of 2016 Philippines’ Richest are in media, four of which made their money predominantly from media. Even though the political and economic elite are interweaved, those links have not led to targeted discriminatory actions in the recent past, with in general little political control being openly exerted. It poses, however, a potential risk to media as soon as the political elite start to exploit the vulnerability of media owners." (http://www.mom-rsf.org)
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"As the world's urban poor increase in numbers, they become acutely vulnerable to hazards from extreme weather events. On 8 November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan struck the province of Leyte, Philippines, with casualties numbering in the thousands, largely because of the ensuing storm surge that swept the c
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oastal cmmunities. This study investigates the role and dynamics of risk communication in these events, specifically examining the organizational processing of text within a complex institutional milieu. The authors show how the risk communication process failed to convey meaningful information about the predicted storm surge, transmitting and retransmitting the same routine text instead of communicating authentic messages in earnest. The key insight is that, rather than focus solely on the verbatim transmission of a scripted text, risk communication needs to employ various modes of translation and feedback signals across organizational and institutional boundaries. Adaptation will require overcoming organizational rigidities in order to craft proportionate responses to extreme weather events that may lie outside personal and institutional memory. Future work should build upon the textual processing approach to risk communication, expanding it into a comprehensive relational model of environmental cognition". (Abstract)
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"As part of their academic requirements, graduate and undergraduate development communication (DevCom) students of the Visayas State University (VSU) in the Philippines are required to write a thesis. This study aimed to identify patterns and trends in DevCom research by VSU students. It examined th
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e development context, focus, theoretical bases, methods used and the major findings of their research. A total of 203 studies were content analyzed. Results showed that between 1979 to 1989, most of the students' research were on agriculture, mass media and health. In the recent years, there has been an accommodation of other development issues including health, environment and information communication technology. Most of the studies, however, focused mainly on two areas of communication research – audience and effects. Although communication books list more than 200 communication theories, only 18 were used in the students' research. Most of the studies used quantitative methods, but an increase in the number of qualitative studies or a combination of the two was noticed in recent years. A good number of the studies tested relationships among variables. The major findings of most of these studies were: (1) information exposure significantly influenced knowledge, attitude and practice; and (2) the socio-demographic variables that most often emerged to have significant relationship with knowledge, attitude and practice were age, sex, educational attainment and income." (Abstract)
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"This article shows how results were merged from a study conducted in four countries-Australia, the Philippines, South Africa and Mexico-in which differently versioned television news stories about conflict were played to audiences, and their responses gathered through a mix of methods, to yield bot
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h quantitative and qualitative results. These versions were coded according to the Peace Journalism model, a set of distinctions in the representation of conflict, originally conceived by Johan Galtung. A Peace Journalism bulletin and a War Journalism bulletin were produced in each country. Viewer responses-both emotional and cognitive-showed significant differences, depending on which version they watched. This article compares selected stories in each country, which had the strongest measured effects in the original study, and identifies common thematic elements. The most significant of these is that, in the Peace Journalism version of each of the selected stories bar one, viewers were provided with the personal narrative of a carefully chosen individual protagonist, which prompted both their empathy and, through that, their cognitive engagement with counter-hegemonic arguments in favour of non-violent conflict responses." (Abstract)
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"In terms of professional role orientations, Filipino journalists found it most important to report things as they are, educate the audience, and advocate for social change. Most journalists were in strong agreement in the importance of these roles, as reflected by the relatively low standard deviat
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ions. In contrast, there were significant disagreements in the roles that were ranked the least important: providing entertainment and relaxation, being an adversary of the government, supporting government policy, and conveying a positive image of political leadership. A majority of journalists in the Philippines also found it important to promote tolerance and cultural diversity, let people express their views, monitor and scrutinize political leaders, provide information people need to make political decisions, and provide analysis of current affairs." (Journalistic roles, pages 1-2)
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"This book addresses the persistence of the optical media piracy trade in the Philippines and Vietnam. It goes beyond arguments of defective law enforcement and copyright legal systems by applying sociological perspectives to examine the socio-economic forces behind the advent of piracy in the regio
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n. Using documentary and ethnographic data, in addition to resistance and ecological theories in sociology of law and technology as the overall theoretical framework, the book investigates factors that contribute to this phenomenon and factors that impede the full formalization of the optical media trade in the two countries. These factors include the government's attitude towards the informal sector and strong resistance to tougher IPR protection, unstable and sometimes conflicting policies on technologies, burdensome business registration process and weak enforcement of business regulations, bureaucratic corruption and loopholes in law enforcement system as well as trade ties with China. In addition to that, the book highlights the social background of the actors behind the illegal business of counterfeit CDs and DVDs, thereby explaining the reasons they continue to persist in this type of trade. It invites policymakers, law enforcers, advocates of anti-piracy groups, and the general public to use a more holistic lens in understanding the persistence of copyright piracy in developing countries, shifting the blame from the moral defect of the traders to the current problematic copyright policy and enforcement structure, and the difficulty of crafting effective anti-piracy measures in a constantly evolving and advancing technological environment." (Publisher description)
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"Ending the culture of impunity requires strengthening the culture of resistance. Impunity results in the dearth or absence of press freedom which, in turn, has deleterious effects on the practice of journalism as the people are deprived of relevant information that could help shape public opinion.
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Effective governance can only be achieved if there is an atmosphere conducive to press freedom and other basic freedoms. The local and global campaigns to end impunity should continue so that the culture of resistance would be strengthened and the specter of the culture of impunity would be finally gone. The Philippines proves to be an interesting case study as it is one of the freest press in Asia but has one of the most number of journalists killed worldwide. The most notable example of media killings is the massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao (located in the southern part of the Philippines) where 32 journalists and media workers were among the 58 people killed. The situation in the Philippines is alarming given the prevailing culture of impunity." (Abstract)
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