"Blogs have become a communicative alternative for Cuban civil society in recent years. Cuban communities, inside and outside the island, are characterized by substantial ideological differences and economic gaps that highlight the challenges for consensus building and collective action in the count
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ry’s politics. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), however, are gradually facilitating the creation of spaces outside the control of the state for the exchange of ideas about the present and future of the nation. Through content analysis and qualitative interpretation, we undertake a case study of the most renowned Cuban blog, ‘Generación Y’, to evaluate users’ participation, the content they generate for the site, and the nature of debates taking place within it. Our findings show that while this blog opens an unprecedented opportunity for Cubans to engage in relatively unrestricted political dialogue, its users tend to favour expressive participation and antagonistic exchanges over the rational deliberations associated with traditional conceptualizations of the notion of the public sphere." (Abstract)
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"The June 2013 protests in Brazil caused a veritable political earthquake. Initially demanding the right to affordable public transportation, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to express their discontent, which gradually came to include the sluggish progress made in public heal
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th and education, corruption and high spending on the upcoming sporting events, all the while demanding more rights and the strengthening of democracy in the country. The media played a decisive role in the protests. While commercial broadcasters sought at first to stigmatize and criminalize the protesters as “vandals”, they were later forced to change, at least partially, their editorial stance by the excesses of police violence. Live coverage of the events on the streets by the alternative press provided diversified information and alternative interpretations that were disseminated on the social media, thus contributing to move up the debate on the democratization of communication on the public agenda. Any political reform must be preceded by a reform of the broadcasting regulatory framework or, at least, of the articles of the Constitution specifically addressing communication. The right to communication is a crosscutting issue as it not only strengthens media plurality, but also ensures civil, economic, and collective rights." (Abstract)
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"Entre ver televisión, escuchar radio, leer diarios/revistas y navegar por Internet, los peruanos le dedican más de 12 horas con treinta minutos al consumo de medios de comunicación." (Página 5)
"Con excepción del consumo de radio y televisión abierta -que es bastante transversal-, los resultados dan cuenta de una “dieta medial” altamente diferenciada entre los individuos en situación de pobreza y el resto de la población. Esta diferencia se ve especialmente reflejada en el consumo
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de diarios impresos, la televisión de pago y de medios digitales. Finalmente, se observa un patrón de uso de redes sociales muy distinto en los sectores en situación de pobreza, especialmente en el caso de Twitter. Este grupo de la población no sólo tiene un nivel de acceso más bajo a estas tecnologías, sino que también las ocupa de manera distinta al resto. Por ejemplo, los comentarios respecto a temas políticos o de interés públicos son escasos, predominando un uso más privado o familiar. Además, las redes de contactos de las personas en situación de pobreza son mucho menos extensas y es probable que suelan estar compuestas por muchos familiares y conocidos, lo que reduce el potencial de las redes para acceder a nuevas ideas y espacios de conversación." (Página 5)
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"Libraries, telecenters, and cybercafés play a critical role in extending the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to a diverse range of people worldwide. However, their ability to contribute to development agendas has come into question in recent times. The Global Impact S
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tudy was designed to address this debate by generating evidence about the scale, character, and impacts of public access ICTs in eight countries: Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Lithuania, the Philippines, and South Africa. This report summarizes the study’s key findings, situating public access in the context of national development, discussing some disputed issues, and providing recommendations for policymakers, public access practitioners and researchers. The results show that a central impact of public access is the promotion of digital inclusion through technology access, information access, and development of ICT skills. Both users and non-users report positive impacts in various social and economic areas of their lives." (Abstract)
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"Die Rolle von Medien und media assistance im praktischen peacebuilding kritisch untersuchend, erläutert der vorliegende Artikel Aspekte für eine erfolgreiche und konstruktive Konflikttransformation. Anhand von Erfahrungen aus Kolumbien werden allerdings auch jene gesellschaftspolitischen Determin
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anten herausgearbeitet, die eben einen solchen Beitrag begrenzen. Es wird das Fazit gezogen, dass es in jedem einzelnen Konflikt eines interdisziplinären Lernprozesses bedarf, in dessen Verlauf zusammen mit policymakern, Geldgebern und Medienschaffenden sorgfältig evaluiert wird, wann, wie und warum Medien und Journalisten ins peacebuilding eingebunden werden sollen." (Zusammenfassung)
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"At an international level, the media development community should advocate for standards governing media cross-ownership limitations, best practices in media licensing, and the licensing of the broadcast spectrum. States should adopt net neutrality and support increased uncensored access to social
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media and Internet news sources. They should scrutinize media ownership sales and declare non-transparent sales of media companies illegitimate and make their ownership visible. Media owners, governments, and media development funders and practitioners must modify the belief that advertising will always automatically support independent media. It won’t. It is not in any advertiser’s business model to underwrite news reporting; first and foremost, it is their fiduciary duty to build their own customer bases. If that means redirecting marketing strategies to more effective platforms, they will. And they have. The media development community should commit to aggressively accelerating the financial management, business, advertising, and digital media skills of media managers, particularly in transitional countries. When entering transitional markets, media outlets should first conduct audience research to establish a baseline for advertising rates. Cronyism and coercion lack force when advertisers, particularly large international advertisers, are given legitimate choices among alternatives. Media developers should support independent community and investigative reporting, especially local radio, through multiple funding sources, including helping to build local revenue bases, even if they exist outside traditional media business models." (Recommendations, page 31)
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"O presente artigo tem como tema central o programa Fala Que Eu Te Escuto, produzido pela Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. Exibido diariamente no início da madrugada na Rede Record, trata-se de um programa em que o sagrado traveste-se de profano. Embora dê a impressão de ser um programa secular
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, se utilizando de todos os ingredientes típicos de um espetáculo televisivo, de forma subliminar veicula mensagens que buscam persuadir os telespectadores. Para tanto, tem como um de seus focos discursivos a demonização do cotidiano." (Resumo)
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