"This research analysis aims to assess perceptions of media coverage of social cohesion in Ninewah and understand how content is consumed and assessed by audiences in the province. What this report has demonstrated is that while there is a distrust of the media at a national level, local media are p
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laying a fundamental role in providing citizens with information and news about topics that are important and relevant to reconciliation and rebuilding communities in post-IS Ninewah. Social media and activist accounts are also playing a significant role in the media information ecosystem in Ninewah. However, the political environment in Iraq is having a huge impact on both media coverage and analysis of key topics as well as on audiences’ perceptions of media coverage of such topics. There is still a clear need for increased content and a focus on topics that will support peace-building and social cohesion as the province of Ninewah recovers from the events of its recent past. The report concludes that audiences across different groups are fairly coherent and in agreement that the media should be playing a larger role in covering important topics related to diversity and religious difference in particular. They felt that the media had painted a false picture of Ninewah as a sectarian society and should be providing more positive and inclusive programming in order to combat the challenges that they faced as a society. Levels of awareness of the positive role that the media could play were high although trust in the media in general was low. This view was tempered by reactions to inaccurate portrayals of life in Ninewah post-IS and audiences also wanted to see the realities of their life in media content. Violent content and images were rejected however which is a significant point to demonstrate the impact and trauma incurred as a result of the occupation by IS." (Conclusions, page 28)
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"This study was launched with the aim to deepen our understanding of how women related topics are debated in social media in Iraq. It is based on a social media monitoring exercise conducted between April 2019 and November 2020 across two topics of interest: the kidnapping of women rights’ activis
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t Mary Mohammed and the current push for comprehensives domestic violence legislation." (Introduction, page 4)
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"This book investigates the ways in which the mobile telephone has transformed societies around the world, bringing both opportunities and challenges. At a time when knowledge and truth are increasingly contested, the book asks how mobile technology has changed the ways in which people create, disse
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minate, and access knowledge. Worldwide, mobile internet access has surpassed desktop access, and it is estimated that by 2022 there will be an excess of 6 billion mobile phone users in the world. This widespread proliferation raises all sorts of questions around who creates knowledge, how is that knowledge shared and proliferated, and what are the structural political, economic, and legal conditions in which knowledge is accessed. The practices and power dynamics around mobile technologies are location specific. They look different depending on whether one chooses to highlight the legal, social, political, or economic context. Bringing together scholars, journalists, activists and practitioners from around the world, this book embraces this complexity, providing a multifaceted picture that acknowledges the tensions and contradictions surrounding accessing knowledge through mobile technologies. With case studies from Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Syria, Egypt, Botswana, Brazil, and the US, this book provides an important account of the changing nature of our access to knowledge, and is key reading for students, researchers, activists and policy makers with an interest in technology and access to knowledge, communication, social transformation, and global development." (Publisher description)
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"Using the example of Iraqi refugees in Jordan's capital of Amman, this book describes how information and communication technologies (ICTs) play out in the everyday experiences of urban refugees, geographically located in the Global South, and shows how interactions between online and offline space
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s are key for making sense of the humanitarian regime, for carving out a sense of home and for sustaining hope. This book paints a humanizing account of making do amid legal marginalization, prolonged insecurity, and the proliferation of digital technologies." (Publisher description)
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"Using the Syrian war as a case study, this article examines the theoretical frameworks of media dependency and selective exposure during the war. Through a survey of 2,192 Syrians living in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey during the conflict, the study examined the media needs and trust of four
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groups of Syrians: non-displaced, internally displaced, externally displaced living inside refugee camps, and externally displaced living outside refugee camps. The study aimed to understand how these four groups trust and rely on different media sources to meet their information needs." (Abstract)
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"This report sets out a new methodology for assessing cyber power, and then applies it to 15 states: Four members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia; Three cyber-capable allies of the Five Eyes states – France, Israel and Japan; F
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our countries viewed by the Five Eyes and their allies as cyber threats – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea; Four states at earlier stages in their cyber-power development – India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The methodology is broad and principally qualitative, assessing each state’s capabilities in seven different categories. The cyber ecosystem of each state is analysed, including how it intersects with international security, economic competition and military affairs. On that basis the 15 states are divided into three tiers: Tier One is for states with world-leading strengths across all the categories in the methodology, Tier Two is for those with world-leading strengths in some of the categories, and Tier Three is for those with strengths or potential strengths in some of the categories but significant weaknesses in others. The conclusion is that only one state currently merits inclusion in Tier One. Seven are placed in Tier Two, and seven in Tier Three." (Back cover)
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"There is a heated debate about the social-sustainability implications of infrastructure. We engage this debate by delving into China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR), an important component of China’s infrastructure-centric Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Optimists and pessimists have offered strong v
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iews about the DSR’s social-sustainability implications. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of analytical tools and in-depth studies which can be used to judge their competing arguments. In this article, we address these problems in two ways. First, we advance an original scheme for operationalizing social sustainability. Second, we use our framework to systematically analyze the DSR’s social-sustainability effects in Ethiopia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Hungary. Our research indicates that much of the positive and negative commentary about the DSR’s social-sustainability implications is problematic. None of our cases show significant year-to-year changes in political or quality-of-life social-sustainability benchmarks. Indeed, our analysis indicates that analysts must pay close attention to the political and economic context to understand the social-sustainability patterns associated with DSR infrastructure. Finally, it suggests that the social-sustainability implications of DSR infrastructure are dependent on its scale and nature. These findings have ramifications for broader debates about the socioeconomic impact of infrastructure." (Abstract)
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"Through a combination of qualitative in-depth interviews with alternative media outlets, quantitative audience surveys involving over 1500 respondents, and focus-group discussions with women and youth civil society actors, this media and information landscape (MILA) evaluates the level of trust tow
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ards different information sources and explores the information flow, dynamics, gaps, and needs experienced by vulnerable groups in marginalized areas. The findings detail gaps between alternative media outlets’ objectives and its organizational structure or capacity needed to achieve its vision, legal and regulatory constraints that limit the accurate sharing of information with audiences, and the detrimental impact of Lebanon’s economic hardships on media financing. The report thus analyzes the information needs of women and youth in marginalized areas, explores linkages between alternative media outlets and civil society actors, and offers recommendations to strengthen media outlet’s capacity to delivery quality news and scale up their reach." (Publisher description)
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"This volume provides a comparative analysis of media systems in the Arab world, based on criteria informed by the historical, political, social, and economic factors influencing a country's media. Reaching beyond classical western media system typologies, Arab Media Systems brings together contribu
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tions from experts in the field of media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to provide valuable insights into the heterogeneity of this region's media systems. It focuses on trends in government stances towards media, media ownership models, technological innovation, and the role of transnational mobility in shaping media structure and practices. Each chapter in the volume traces a specific country's media - from Lebanon to Morocco - and assesses its media system in terms of historical roots, political and legal frameworks, media economy and ownership patterns, technology and infrastructure, and social factors (including diversity and equality in gender, age, ethnicities, religions, and languages)." (Publisher description)
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"This article focuses on international news channels in the Global South and the perceptions by audiences in Latin America. Designed with the intention of re-shaping global narratives, international broadcasting is considered instrumental to public diplomacy and improving the image of particular cou
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ntries. While many studies focus on global media policies of specific countries or the messages broadcast by international media outlets, less attention has been paid to the impact on audiences. Based on a series of focus groups conducted in Mexico and Argentina, this article discusses how Latin American audiences perceive public diplomacy efforts as channelled by international news media and their effect on country image perception, by focusing on China’s CCTV-E, Russia’s RT and Iran’s HispanTV. The findings show that preconceived images contribute to undermine the acceptance of international broadcasters. In addition, participants were optimistic about RT’s prospects of success in Latin America, hesitant about HispanTV and pessimistic about China Central Television." (Abstract)
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"In terms of quality of media coverage, there are various outcomes: In Asia, for example, small and independent outlets, able to provide reliable information, gained momentum, whereas citizens in the MENA-region turned to social media in search of trustworthy facts on the coronavirus. In South-Easte
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rn Europe, pseudo-journalism and fake news spread mainly via the Internet, while in sub-Saharan Africa innovative formats emerged, which also enhanced the quality of reporting. In many regions and countries, not least in Germany, demand for factbased, reliable reporting increased, offering an opportunity for quality-oriented media to regain audiences’ trust. The economic situation is difficult for almost all media outlets worldwide, although there are some differences. In Central and Eastern Europe, for example, pro-government media continued to benefit from state-sponsored advertising, while other media suffered even more acute drops in revenue. In many regions, media outlets expanded their online presence to partly compensate these losses by introducing additional paywalls, as was the case in the US, for example. In Latin America, many news outlets had to reduce their staff shortly after the outbreak of COVID-19 due to a shortfall in revenues. Small, independent outlets in Asia and Central Eastern Europe could raise their income through an increase in memberships or subscriptions. In Central Eastern Europe, especially younger generations acknowledged that quality journalism requires financing, while in Southeast Europe, it is still uncommon to pay for online media consumption, which is a setback for independent online journalism." (At a glance, page 2-3)
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"The pandemic marks a new technological milestone in audiences’ media usage and habits, one that has thus far been both positive – through the interconnectedness and agency – and negative – because of a lack of access for some – for cultural diversity and intercultural relations. The adopt
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ion of mobile internet skyrocketed in the region, and some countries, particularly Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have ranked among the countries with the highest penetration rates globally for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube." (Page 1)
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"This report provides an overview of trends and developments in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, access and use in the ITU Arab States region, which includes 21 Member States plus the State of Palestine under Resolution 99 (Rev. Dubai, 2018), and is home to a population
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of 423 million people. The report highlights changes in ICT adoption since the last World Telecommunication Development Conference in 2017 (WTDC-17) and during the COVID-19 pandemic, tracks the evolution of regulation and reviews progress and challenges in implementing the ITU regional initiatives for the Arab States. Its objective is to serve as a reference for the ITU membership in reviewing progress and identifying ICT development priorities in the Arab States region." (Abstract)
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"Although internet penetration rate in Israel stands at 88%, internet infrastructure, and notably the roll-out of fiber-optics, was not properly regulated until December 2020. Therefore, among other things, Israel’s internet speed was in decline in comparison to OECD countries, although it is expe
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cted to rise in mid-2021. Moreover, frequencies for 5G network deployment have been allocated only as late as August 2020, in significant delay compared to technologically progressed countries. Following global trends, Israelis draw on different technological means to use the internet, and especially to consume media. While fixed telephony demand is in decline, smartphones took over the market with 88% of smartphone ownership. Israel records a specific digital divide among marginalized groups like the Arab population and ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jews. Together with the 65+ age group, these three main sectors are susceptible to be affected by digital illiteracy.
The international technology conglomerates that control the Israeli market are Facebook (with its daughter company WhatsApp) in the field of messaging applications and social media, and Google Chrome browser, while the operating system (OS) market is dominated by Microsoft (on desktop) and Google (Android on mobile). The four main Israeli groups operating in the communications market are: Bezeq, HOT, Cellcom and Partner. They are all active in five telecom segments and market them in bundle packages for relatively low prices: cellular, fixed (telephony and internet) infrastructure, internet providing, international calls and multichannel TV. This highly saturated and competitive market has damaged the revenues and future incentives of these companies to invest in cutting-edge infrastructure.
Israelis get most of their political information from online news sites. Some 76% of the public in Israel consume news content on social media at least once a day (40% of Jews and 66% of Arabs). The leading social media platforms are YouTube, Facebook and Twitter; they make a central source for the dissemination of politics, and have significant power in shaping public opinion. Nevertheless, “fake news” is also circulating fast and efficiently on these platforms, making disinformation a troubling phenomenon for Israeli society. Few journalistic initiatives took upon themselves the responsibility for public fact-checking. Traditional media struggles with fragile financial sustainability and business models. Given the populist effect that fake news has on consumers and, consequentially, on revenues, it is risky to rely on traditional media solely, in this matter." (Page 4)
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"Over the past two weeks, 7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media has worked to document and respond to the digital rights violations occurring during the 2021 Israeli attacks on Gaza, Palestinians in mixed cities in Israel and forcible displacement of Palestinians in East Jerus
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alem as a part of ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. There has been a dramatic increase of censorship of Palestinian political speech online, coupled with increasing examples of hate speech and incitement against Palestinians including organizing of violent Israeli lynch mobs online. This pattern of censoring Palestinian and Arabic political speech, while allowing hate speech directed towards Palestinians and Arabs to remain online, is exasterbating the human rights violations already occuring on the ground and is preventing people from exercising their fundamental rights and documenting violations." (Page 2)
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"Social media increasingly shapes the way in which we perceive conflicts and conflict parties abroad. Conflict parties, therefore, have started using social media strategically to influence public opinion abroad. This book explores the phenomenon by examining, (1) which strategies of external commun
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ication conflict parties use during asymmetric conflicts and (2) what shapes the selection of these communication strategies. In a comprehensive case study of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Bernd Hirschberger shows that the selection of strategies of external communication is shaped by the (asymmetric) conflict structure." (Publisher description)
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