"The study identified resource gaps relating to broadband connectivity, affordability, digital literacy and skills, and priority digital services. It identified the need for reliable and quality telecommunication network coverage; digital literacy and skills training (sales and marketing resources a
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nd skills); a reliable power/energy supply; banking services; an improved education environment with reliable Internet services; an improved health environment with digitally literate health workers; clean water and sanitation; adaptation to the effects of natural disasters; and, importantly, climate change mitigation and adaptation. It also identified the need to promote South Malekula as an attractive domestic and international tourist destination. The National ICT Development Committee of Vanuatu recently (2021) agreed to pursue the Smart Islands Vanuatu Programme, in which government stakeholders and citizens have indicated keen interest. Partners such as the Vanuatu Rural Electrification Project have also expressed interest in how the programme could stimulate demand for a local solar power grid." (Executive summary, page iv)
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"Muslims in the Movies provides a series of essays that explore the portrayal and reception of Muslims in Euro-American film, transnational productions, and global national cinemas. The volume brings together a group of internationally recognized experts to introduce Muslims in the films of Europe,
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North America, Australia, Iran, Egypt, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The interdisciplinary collection explores issues of identity, cultural production, and representation through the depiction of Muslims on screen and how audiences respond to these images. Together, the essays operate as an introduction to the subject of Muslims and film for new readers while also serving as new works of critical analysis for scholars of cinema." (Publisher description)
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"The intersection of media with theology is reciprocating: media boosts theology in its functions to inform, connect and educate; theology humbles the globalizing media with a reminder – media is in mediation but not in domination. Media and theology thus intersect at mediating (negotiating, inter
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ceding, resisting, protesting) and they should avoid the temptation to colonize. The essays are presented in two overlapping clusters: Mediascapes (intersection of media and a selection of land- and sea-scapes) and Mediations (implications of mediating theology for interrogating hegemonies). The topics addressed include social media and #tag cultures, the fourth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence, homiletics, social resistance, Palestine, Latin America, climate change, and Covid-19." (Publisher description)
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"In this article, addressing the absences of cultural memory from existing institutional archives is accounted for in the development of new curatorial display territories, both online and in the gallery. The imperatives to claim new digital territories as extensions of homeland territories are cont
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extualized within the discussion of the curated works in the first in a series of exhibitions titled 'Samoan Hxstories, Screens and Intimacies' supported from Tkaronto/Toronto by imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival for the Indigenous world and for all Samoan diasporas. The co-design of new Indigenous language terms including siapo viliata are also discussed." (Abstract)
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"Featuring contributions from a diverse range of internationally-recognized experts and practitioners, this timely volume discusses recent developments in the field in the context of related scholarship, public policy, formal and non-formal teaching and learning, and DIY and community practice. Offe
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ring a truly global perspective, the Handbook focuses on empirical work from Media and Information Literacy (MIL) practitioners from around the world. The book’s five parts explore global youth cultures and the media, trans-media learning, media literacy and scientific controversies, varying national approaches to media research, media education policies, and much more." (Publisher description)
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"This book focuses on ethnic journalism in the Global South, approaching it from two angles: as a professional area and as a social mission. The book discusses journalistic practices and ethnic media in the Global South, managerial and editorial strategies of ethnic media outlets, their content spec
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ifics, target audience, distribution channels, main challenges and trends of development in the digital age." (Publisher description)
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"This year's report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 92,000 online news consumers in 46 markets including India, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, Colombia and Peru for the first time. The report looks at the impact of coronavirus on news consumption a
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nd on the economic prospects for publishers. It looks at progress on new paid online business models, trust and misinformation, local news, impartiality and fairness in news coverage." (Overview)
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"The popularization of radio, television, and the Internet radically transformed musical practice in the Asia Pacific. These technologies bequeathed media broadcasters with a profound authority over the ways we engage with musical culture. Broadcasters use this power to promote distinct cultural tra
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ditions, popularize new music, and engage diverse audiences. They also deploy mediated musics as a vehicle for disseminating ideologies, educating the masses, shaping national borders, and promoting political alliances. With original contributions by leading scholars in anthropology, ethnomusicology, sound studies, and media and cultural studies, the 12 essays this book investigate the processes of broadcasting musical culture in the Asia Pacific. We shift our gaze to the mechanisms of cultural industries in eastern Asia and the Pacific islands to understand how oft-invisible producers, musicians, and technologies facilitate, frame, reproduce, and magnify the reach of local culture." (Publisher description)
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"This case study on the state of the media in Fiji in 2016 highlights some problems of development journalism in the practical, applied sense. The case study looks at the changing nature of journalism in post-coup Fiji, reputed to have the South Pacific’s toughest media law. The analysis is conduc
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ted through a review of the media sector in 2016. Major issues pertaining to the sector were documented over the year and analysed to assess the impact of the 2006 coup and the punitive 2010 Media Industry Development Decree. Using 2016 as the case year allowed for the situation to be examined over a prolonged 12-month period. The review reveals a cornered media weaned on the Anglo-American watchdog tradition under constant pressure to produce development journalism, resulting in a possible identity crisis within the national journalist corps. The review concludes that normative discussions notwithstanding, achieving a compromise between the watchdog and developmental journalism models are harder to achieve in reality." (Abstract)
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"Drawing upon a year-long study of journalism in Tasmania, Bill Dodd develops a tripartite theory of solutions journalism at the intersection of three core concepts: hope, leadership, and expertise. In Australia’s lagging southernmost province, where development propositions have sparked global pr
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otest movements, ‘New Tasmania’ represented a newly optimistic spirit of bipartisanship. Yet, in this book, a close reading of solutions-focused discourse reveals deeper asymmetries regarding whose voices are routinely privileged in framing the future. On this basis, the book argues for a solutions journalism founded on a nuanced understanding of hope and a plurality of community leaders and practical expertise." (Publisher description)
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"[...] this book explores the complex construction of democratic public dialogue in developing countries. Case studies examine national environments defined not only by state censorship and commercial pressure, but also language differences, international influence, social divisions, and distinct va
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lue systems. With fresh portraits of new and traditional media throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia, authors delve into the essential role of the media in developing countries. Case studies illuminate the relationship between the State and the media in Russia, as well as the challenges faced by journalists working in Kurdistan. Further cases reveal bureaucratic censorship of books in Brazil, regulatory dilemmas in Australia, state policies in post-colonial Malawi, and the potential of oral culture for the strengthening of democratic conversation. Media, Development and Democracy brings the liberal democratic media model into new terrains where some of its core assumptions do not hold. In doing so, the authors' collective voices illuminate pressing issues facing our current global dialogue and our liberal and democratic expectations concerning communications and the media." (Publisher description)
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"Featuring international migration in all facets from the migration of tech sector specialists through to refugee displacement, leading contributors offer strategic insights into the future of migration and mobility. Covering diverse geographies and using interdisciplinary approaches, contributions
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provide new analysis of migration futures. A discrete chapter on digital technology and COVID-19 global pandemic offers reflections on how migration and mobility are being profoundly reshaped by the global pandemic. The practical applications and limitations of digital technology in relation to international migration are also highlighted and supported with key case studies." (Publisher description)
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"Religion has ‘returned’ to news discourses, since 9/11, with a focus on Muslims and Islam and more recently on Catholicism (in the wake of paedophile priest scandals) and anti-Semitism (with the rise of the far-right movements). These news discourses, however, tend to adopt limited perspectives
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, and do not reflect the diversity of practices and viewpoints within these religious traditions. As Australia becomes increasingly ‘superdiverse’, there is a greater need for the inclusivity of cultural perspectives of these religions. Current research findings show that religious literacy among media practitioners in Australia is not only limited to specific notions about a small number of religions, it is exacerbated by an Anglo-Celtic dominance in the media workforce. This article suggests that for news media to provide a more culturally and religiously inclusive public service to promote societal understanding, current and emerging journalists require a more reflexive understanding of religions, through journalism studies and humanities more broadly, and how they have historically shaped the world, and continue to do so." (Abstract)
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"Through a combination of scientific and community activity, our environment is increasingly registered and documented as data. Given the expanding breadth of this digital domain, it is crucial that scholars consider the problems it presents as well as its affirmative potential. This article, arisin
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g from collaboration between a practitioner and theorist in digital design and a film and screen scholar with expertise in documentary and environmental studies, critically examines biodiversity data through an ecocritical reading of public-facing databases, citizen science platforms and data visualizations. We examine the 'Atlas of Living Australia'; 'Canberra Nature Map'; the City of Melbourne’s 'Insects'; and the experimental visualization 'Local Kin'. Integrating perspectives from screen studies, design and the environmental humanities, including multispecies studies approaches in anthropology, we examine how digital representations reflect the way biodiversity data is produced and structured. Critically analysing design choices – what is shown, and how it is shown – we argue that biodiversity data on-screen provides specific affordances: allowing, encouraging or discouraging certain insights and possibilities that condition our knowledge of and engagement with living things. An interdisciplinary approach allows us to ask new questions about how users might experience multispecies worlds in digital form, and how biodiversity data might convey the complexities of an entangled biosphere, amplifying understanding, connection and attention amongst interested publics. We examine the visual rhetorics of digital biodiversity in order to better understand how these forms operate as environmental media: designed representations of the living world." (Abstract)
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"The Church Media briefing provides a summary of the role and importance of church media in Papua New Guinea (PNG), with a view towards outlining its role, importance, management, and operational policies. Dedicated focus is also directed to how church media address information gaps around COVID-19.
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The objective of this briefing note is to provide a fundamental overview of the cultural relevance of church media, including its points of differentiation and potential opportunities for fostering a more robust and community-driven information landscape. The findings reflected in this briefing were formulated through a systematic literature review of publications on church media in PNG and a scoping study conducted by MDI to identify media training needs and opportunities for media capacity building amongst community church media." (Background, page 1)
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"Three notable trends punctuated an especially dismal year for internet freedom. First, political leaders used the pandemic as a pretext to limit access to information. Authorities often blocked independent news sites and arrested individuals on spurious charges of spreading false news. In many plac
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es, it was state officials and their zealous supporters who actually disseminated false and misleading information with the aim of drowning out accurate content, distracting the public from ineffective policy responses, and scapegoating certain ethnic and religious communities. Some states shut off connectivity for marginalized groups, extending and deepening existing digital divides. In short, governments around the world failed in their obligation to promote a vibrant and reliable online public sphere. Second, authorities cited COVID-19 to justify expanded surveillance powers and the deployment of new technologies that were once seen as too intrusive. The public health crisis has created an opening for the digitization, collection, and analysis of people’s most intimate data without adequate protections against abuses. The third trend has been the transformation of a slow-motion “splintering” of the internet into an all-out race toward “cyber sovereignty,” with each government imposing its own internet regulations in a manner that restricts the flow of information across national borders." (Pages 1-2)
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"Offering a collection of invited contributions from scholars across the world, the volume is structured in seven parts, each exploring a particular aspect of local media and journalism that provide the framework to bring together and consolidate the latest research and theorisations from the field,
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and fresh understandings of local media from a comparative perspective and within a global context. Addressing the significant changes local media and journalism has undergone in the last decade, the companion explores the history, politics, ethics and contents of local media, as well as delving deeper into the business and practices that affect not only the journalists and media-makers involved, but consumers as well. For students and researchers in the fields of journalism studies, journalism education, cultural studies and media and communications programmes, this is the comprehensive guide to local media and journalism." (Publisher description)
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"This report finds that the potential of ICTs to enable stronger governance, efective public service delivery and better government services is there. In all countries that are part of this study, critical foundational infrastructure is in place [...] But there’s still a lot to be unlocked. Increa
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sed internet connectivity, the availability of mobile devices and online services and access to information are creating a greater demand from users to their governments. International donors similarly focus on the delivery of ‘digital aid’, using ICTs to provide international assistance more eficiently and efectively [...] The report reaches five main conclusions for the implementation of e-government and digital government initiatives, and it concludes with four recommendations for future programming of international support in the area of ICTs and e-government." (Summary)
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"The review found that while there is a growing global body of evidence around effective education programming to prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), much of the available evidence is from high income countries (HICs) and largely focuses on programmes which address offline rather tha
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n online abuse. The evidence that does exist on prevention of online CSEA is also from HICs, is of low quality overall and tends to focus on whether the intervention enhanced knowledge rather than changed behaviour. Further, as Internet use amongst children varies between high income and low income countries, it is important to be cautious in applying lessons learned across different contexts. Although online and offline CSEA are closely linked, it was also found that there is often an artificial division, with programmes tending to look at only online or only offline CSEA. Therefore, there is limited evidence of how programmes impact on both online and offline CSEA. In the East Asia and Pacific region, the evidence base on what works to tackle CSEA in education programming is at an early stage in scope and scale. Few comprehensive assessments or evaluations of education programmes tackling CSEA have taken place and/or are publicly available. It is also unclear whether majority of existing interventions are being evaluated and whether they were designed using evidence-informed theories of change methodology. Despite the constraints faced, this review draws on promising global and regional practice, emerging lessons and findings from available data on online risks, to highlight key factors to consider in the development of effective educational materials in East Asia and the Pacific." (Executive summary)
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"This book traces the trajectory of the community archives movement, expanding the definition of community archives to include sites such as historical societies, social movement organisations and community centres. It also explores new definitions of what community archives might encompass, particu
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larly in relation to disciplines outside the archives. Over ten years have passed since the first volume of 'Community Archives', and inspired by continued research as well as by the formal recognition of community archives in the UK, the community archives movement has become an important area of research, recognition and appreciation by archivists, archival scholars and others worldwide. Increasingly the subject of papers and conferences, community archives are now seen as being in the vanguard of social concerns, markers of community-based activism, a participatory approach exemplifying the on-going evolution of 'professional' archival (and heritage) practice and integral to the ability of people to articulate and assert their identity." (Publisher description)
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