"This article examines the relationship between emphases on ethics within journalism programs in the developing world and the subsequent work practices and conceptualisations of journalists who participated in them. It hypothesises that particular normative emphases within such programs, whose bases
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are contested adversely, affects the preparedness for participants to work ethically in those environments. An analysis of the experiences of journalism trainers and students in Cambodia highlights several tendencies supporting the hypothesis, including that a vocational Western-oriented approach to program implementation correlated with poor understanding of critical ethical ideals among practitioners, which contributed to low occupational confidence, poor ethical practices and the development of a two-tiered press system." (Abstract)
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"The study explains how strategists set campaign objectives based on input from their political clients, then delegate political marketing responsibility to a team of digital influencers and fake account operators. These operators infiltrate online communities, artificially trend hashtags to hijack
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mainstream media attention, and disseminate disinformation to silence enemies and seed revisionist history narratives. While the Philippine public’s moral panic about fake news is often directed at high-profile digital influencers and celebrities such as Mocha Uson who are seen to incite political divisiveness and harass journalists, Ong and Cabañes argue that the real chief architects of disinformation are hiding in plain sight—wearing respectable faces as leaders in their industry while sidestepping accountability." (http://newtontechfordev.com)
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"When Wyborcza.pl was launched back in 2008, besides its quality, one of the best things about it was that its content was freely accessible. Once the paywall was up in 2012, the publisher had to find a way to present this content differently. According to Bregula, this was the most important task w
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hen they introduced the paywall: audiences had to understand what was unique about content if they have to pay for it. This could be more reporting on local news or expanded foreign news coverage. Moreover, Gazeta Wyborzca learned that readers tend to pay if the coverage is relevant to them." (Page 12) - "Implementing a paywall at a time of severe financial pressure saved the site from closure (or reliance of foreign donors) and allowed Malaysiakini to grow into a stable, popular and important media presence. Advertising revenue only overtook subscription revenue eight years after the paywall was implemented [...] Underlying the success of this paywall is Malaysiakini’s uniqueness in providing independent news within a partially unfree media context. As such, the case of Malaysiakini’s paywall must be understood within the movements of wider political and ideological processes." (Page 24)
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"More men than women work in the media, including in management positions. Women have joined the industry in greater numbers in recent years, particularly through recruitment of university graduates; radio has the highest proportion of young women journalists. A higher proportion of women had full-t
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ime contracts; freelancers (a relatively smaller group overall) are dominated by male journalists, particularly in provincial areas. Women journalists faced pressure on their careers from family primarily around security fears for journalists in the field. Cambodia’s journalists face many threats covering political and other disputes. Women are assumed to be more vulnerable. Men therefore receive greater opportunities for field travel. Nevertheless women covered almost the same breadth of beats as men, with the main exception being male-dominated crime reporting." (Executive summary)
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"These are the background case notes complied for MEMO 2018.1: Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation. For details on the methods behind this content analysis please see the methodology section of the report. This document contains data from over 500 s
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ources organized by country. The sources include high quality news articles, academic papers, white papers, and a range of other grey literature. As an annotated bibliography, the country cases here make use of significant passages from these secondary sources, and every effort has been made to preserve full citation details for future researchers. The full list of references can be found in our public Zotero folder, with each reference tagged with a country name." (Page 3)
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"Myanmar’s local media outlets face a variety of internal and external obstacles hampering their prospects for sustainability. Key among these today, and the focus of this report, are the business realities that every media outlet must tackle." (Introduction)
"Facebook commissioned BSR to undertake a human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of the company’s presence in Myanmar. BSR undertook this HRIA between May and September 2018, using a methodology based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). This assessment identifies and
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prioritizes actual and potential human rights impacts, reaches conclusions about those impacts, and makes recommendations for their mitigation and management. This HRIA was funded by Facebook, though BSR retained editorial control over its contents." (About this report, page 1)
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"Media in small emerging democracies face multiple obstacles caused by “smallness” and the state of “late democratization.” “Smallness” raises the question of how to develop financial independence in these countries. “Late democratization” gives rise to the challenge of maintaining p
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olitical independence. In general, small emerging democracies lack an environment that can enable a culture of independent media. This study selected two Eastern European countries–Slovenia and Macedonia, with a population of about 2 million each, and two Asian countries–Bhutan and Timor-Leste, with populations of around 740,000 and 1.2 million respectively. They all emerged in the “Third Wave” of democratization and were characterized by features of underdeveloped political institutions, insufficient public discourse, and financial vulnerability according to the previous scholarly work. Based on literature review, the researcher found that smallness, along with confounding factors of national identity and economic context, shapes the way media policy is envisioned and developed [...] Using a mixed methodology of interview and documentary research, the researcher found that the reaction of small emerging democracies to the sudden social and political changes tended to have patterns, although they differed in the paths to democratization. Furthermore, the role of media as a watchdog is undermined by the financial dependence on the government of the day. With respect to media governance, the four countries are all marked by the hierarchical mode of governing. This casts light on the fact that media policy should be constructed with input from private sectors and civil societies. A conceptual framework provided by this study can work as an analytical tool for researchers who are interested in studying similar-sized countries." (Abstract)
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"The study found that there is a widespread preference towards local media as people feel that these media outlets provide them with information relevant to their local communities and daily lives. Television is a preferred medium for consuming news but social media, and Facebook in particular, is c
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atching up. A culture of sharing news and information ensures that even people without access to Facebook know of the platform and get updates through friends and family. People’s trust in media differs but with many preferring state-owned media to deliver trustworthy and reliable news and information. Some news consumers showcase a natural skepticism towards news and information, but limited access to reliable information makes it difficult for them to verify what they read, see or hear. Despite some people’s ability to critically reflect on the information they encounter, the level of media literacy in Myanmar remains low with many finding it difficult to decipher media content and grasp the role and purpose of media and news. Based on the findings, the report ends with 12 recommendations. Six are directed towards the Myanmar media industry, journalists and other content producers while the remaining six are targeted at media development organizations and learning institutions." (Executive summary)
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"From the analysis of one week of conflict coverage in May 2018, this study found that the media relies on a limited number of sources to cover conflicts. Stories are often reported with a single or no sources and elite sources are preferred over people who have experienced the conflict and its cons
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equences. Furthermore, limited access to information forces private-owned media to rely on information brought by government-owned or military-owned media, which increases the risk of circular reporting and spreading of mis- and disinformation. Limited access to information also impacts news selection as journalists in Myanmar are often restricted from entering conflict areas (or do not have the necessary safety training nor equipment) to report from the field. Although the media is able to cover conflicts from a human-interest point of view, this choice of framing is not consistent. There is a big difference in how the conflict in Rakhine is being covered compared to other conflicts. Particularly the coverage of the Rohingya Muslims is inadequate and unsettling. The Rohingya appear to be a non-priority for the media, and the presentation of the minority group is marked by prejudices." (Conclusions, page 18)
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"The 43 country reports included in this year’s Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) capture the different experiences and approaches in setting up community networks across the globe. They show that key ideas, such as participatory governance systems, community ownership and skills transfe
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r, as well as the “do-it-yourself” spirit that drives community networks in many different contexts, are characteristics that lend them a shared purpose and approach. The country reports are framed by eight thematic reports that deal with critical issues such as the regulatory framework necessary to support community networks, sustainability, local content, feminist infrastructure and community networks, and the importance of being aware of “community stories” and the power structures embedded in those stories." (Back cover)
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"The Gender-in-Media Landscape Study (Vietnam) aims to inform the activities of the Southeast Asia Media Training Network by exploring gender equity in the media workplace. Towards this end, data was gathered through a broad survey and multiple focus group discussions. The survey found: More women w
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orked in the media than men, including in recent years increasing numbers in management positions. Balancing work demands with family pressures – which by far fall disproportionately upon women – was a significant challenge to many careers. Women and men worked across a wide range of roles and beats within the industry, with the main exception being relative dominance of male journalists in sport and science and technology reporting. Media institutions followed legally-mandated leave requirements, including maternity leave. However, any further policies and operations in support of gender equity – such as some exibility in hours, or carer’s leave – were inconsistent, and generally ad-hoc or dependent on personal arrangements where they exist. They often don’t adequately meet staffing needs. The great majority of respondents received at least some training in the past two years which was valued; the main complaint was the limited number of training sessions. Men had greater general access, although majorities of both genders received training. Experiences of sexual harassment among female journalists were high at over 27%. Perpetrators include in many cases journalist sources, as well as workplace colleagues and superiors. There was a wide variation in the understanding of what constituted sexual harassment, and few consistent policies (or industry advocacy) against it." (Executive summary)
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"Contemporary mobile phone technology has brought millions of apps into the pockets of users, including a wide variety oriented towards religious concerns. Such apps appear to be creating new forms of religious engagement, a process that is particularly visible within Indonesia. This paper will exam
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ine the so-called ‘Aa Gym’ app, one of the Islamic apps launched by the Indonesian popular preacher, Abdullah Gymnastiar, an early adopter of mobile technology for religious purposes. The paper argues that the Aa Gym app illustrates how the mediatization of religion inherent in mobile technologies is reshaping the way that Indonesians engage with Islamic teachings. First, ‘Aa Gym’ app has created new forms of religious engagement through an extension of religious interaction and communication in a media landscape. Second, ‘Aa Gym’ app has described that media has become a new site for the discovery of religious meanings as a result of the spread of religious authority. Thirdly, ‘Aa Gym’ app is a kind of embodiment of accommodation of media logic performed by the religious figure in order to remain accessible to the public which is increasingly media-saturated." (Abstract)
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"This chapter reviews the laws of apostasy and blasphemy in the Muslim world, by looking particularly at Pakistani and Malaysian cases. It strongly argues that the death penalty in the laws of apostasy and blasphemy is untenable in the modern period. The chapter demonstrates that these laws conflict
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with a variety of foundational teachings of Islam and with the current ethos of human rights, in particular the freedom to choose one's religion and the freedom to express oneself." (Abstract)
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"In this moment of unprecedented humanitarian crises, the representations of global disasters are increasingly common media themes around the world. The Routledge Companion to Media and Humanitarian Action explores the interconnections between media, old and new, and the humanitarian challenges that
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have come to define the twenty-first century. Contributors, including media professionals and experts in humanitarian affairs, grapple with what kinds of media language, discourse, terms, and campaigns can offer enough context and background knowledge to nurture informed global citizens. Case studies of media practices, content analysis and evaluation of media coverage, and representations of humanitarian emergencies and affairs offer further insight into the ways in which strategic communications are designed and implemented in field of humanitarian action." (Publisher description)
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"This volume explores how societies are addressing challenging questions about the relationship between expression, traditional and societal values, and the transformations introduced by new information communications technologies. It seeks to identify alternative approaches to the role of speech an
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d expression in the organization of societies as well as efforts to shape the broader global information society. How have different societies or communities drawn on the ideas of philosophers, religious leaders or politicians, both historical and contemporary, that addressed questions of speech, government, order or freedoms and applied them, with particular attention to applications in the digital age? The essays include a wide variety of cultural and geographic contexts to identify different modes of thinking. The goal is to both unpack the 'normative' internet and free expression debate and to deepen understanding about why certain internet policies and models are being pursued in very different local or national contexts as well as on a global level." (Publisher description)
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