"This study presents the results of research into the media's capacity to carry religious messages. It is based on a qualitative content analysis of original texts inspired by religious motives in Slovak Catholic and secular press. The main focus is the messages as such, related topoi (bases for arg
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uments) and their epiphenomena. The study focuses on the topoi and seeks an answer to the following key question: What ‘common ideas’ (in Greek topoi) do mass-media messages and religious messages refer to? Based on the comparison of the topoi of original religious messages and messages covered by media, the study concludes that the key topoi of religious messages and of media messages resulting from it differ significantly. The difference in topoi arises mainly from a different pre-understanding –that is, attitude of faith / absence of faith in a journalist, and the related trust / distrust of the church. Apart from basic personal predispositions, the study points to a number of important factors such as comprehensibility, attitude on the capacity of mass media to evangelize, compliance with journalistic form, understanding of the role of news values (conflict in particular), and level of religiousness of the language used in massmedia communication. Finally, the study offers several recommendations and outlines the challenges faced by church and secular media communicators." (Abstract)
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"The Report is composed of four thematic parts. Part 1 describes the conceptual framework and relates the findings of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2012. In addition, Part 1 features selected expert contributions on the general theme of hyperconnectivity. Part 2 includes two case studies showi
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ng the efforts that two countries, Azerbaijan and Mauritius, are making to develop ICT and fully leverage their potential benefits. Part 3 comprises detailed profiles for the 142 economies covered in this year’s Report, providing a thorough picture of each economy’s current networked readiness landscape and allowing for international comparisons of specific variables or components of the NRI. Part 4 includes data tables for each of the 53 variables composing the NRI, with rankings for the economies covered as well as technical notes and sources for the quantitative variables used." (Executive summary, page xi)
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"Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World offers a broad exploration of the conceptual foundations for comparative analysis of media and politics globally. It takes as its point of departure the widely used framework of Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini's Comparing Media Systems, exploring
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how the concepts and methods of their analysis do and do not prove useful when applied beyond the original focus of their "most similar systems" design and the West European and North American cases it encompassed. It is intended both to use a wider range of cases to interrogate and clarify the conceptual framework of Comparing Media Systems and to proposed new nidels, concepts, and with processes of political transition. Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World covers, among other cases, Brazil, China, Israel, Lebanon, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Thailand." (Publisher description)
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"Chapters explore what happens in praxis when digital media are implemented across cultures and are contested and negotiated within complex local and political conditions. The book showcases interpretative and critical research from voices with diverse backgrounds, from locations around the world."
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(Publisher description)
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"Media and Terrorism brings together leading scholars to explore how the world's media have influenced, and in turn, been influenced by terrorism and the war on terror in the aftermath of 9/11. Accessible and user-friendly with lively and current case studies, it is a perfect student text and is an
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essential handbook on the dynamics of war and the media in a global context." (Publisher description)
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"This book aims to provide a context in which a clear link can be traced between the politics of memory and its manifold representations and misrepresentations in public media towards a viable politics of justice. The assumption is that public awareness and perceptions of injustice, whether they are
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political, economic, or social, depend on the mass media of communication for recognition and valorization – including, today, new communication and information technologies such as social media platforms. Undoubtedly this assumption is based on a system in which mass media can operate independently, fairly, and in a balanced and unbiased way: in other words, according to a much vaunted and fast vanishing ‘public service ethos’ imbued with high standards of truthtelling, objectivity, balance, and accountability. A parallel assumption is that if the public is made aware and has access to relevant information and knowledge, it will be motivated to pressure governments for reform, reparation, and – in the best possible scenario – some kind of consensus between all parties on ways to move forward as a nation. As we have pointed out above, this argues for an a priori ‘right to memory’ that affirms and protects those frameworks and structures of collective memory that guarantee the physical, psychological, and symbolic integrity of a group of people or, indeed, a nation. There are many aspects to the debate." (Introduction, page 17)
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"This report is the third in a series of comprehensive studies of internet freedom around the globe and covers developments in 47 countries that occurred between January 2011 and May 2012. Over 50 researchers, nearly all based in the countries they analyzed, contributed to the project by researching
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laws and practices relevant to the internet, testing the accessibility of select websites, and interviewing a wide range of sources. This year's findings indicate that restrictions on internet freedom in many countries have continued to grow, though the methods of control are slowly evolving, becoming more sophisticated and less visible. Brutal attacks against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, proactive manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online are among the diverse threats to internet freedom emerging over the past two years. Nevertheless, several notable victories have also occurred as a result of greater activism by civil society, technology companies, and independent courts, illustrating that efforts to advance internet freedom can yield results." (www.freedomhouse.org, January 14, 2013)
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"In the twenty-first century, community radio is fulfilling an increasingly important role in the world’s mediascape. This book documents the ways in which community radio broadcasters and activists are using the medium in countries around the world to challenge political corruption, aid the trans
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ition to political democracy and broadcast voices that are otherwise unheard. The contributors to the volume are academics and practitioners from five continents, many with first-hand experience of community radio. Each chapter demonstrates the pivotal role that small radio stations can play in developing, sustaining and invigorating communities. The book charts campaigns for the legalisation of community radio and relates them to a theoretical context, while providing illustrations and examples from community radio stations around the world." (Publisher description)
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"As a post-Communist emerging democracy, the Czech Republic has seen a transformation of its society to embrace the recognition and legitimacy of independent broadcast media. Those media include the government-funded public service broadcasters and, of course, the advertising-supported commercial br
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oadcasting sector. What we have yet to see emerge is a community broadcast media sector. A third sector recognized as a legitimate counterpart to the aforementioned public service and commercial operators, fully legal with access to licences and support from the regulator. Recognition is the natural first step in the ultimate establishment of a vibrant community media sector. The process of recognition of the community media concept from community idea, to organized interest, to political policy somehow has not taken hold in the Czech Republic, resulting in a bipolar broadcast media landscape without a community radio component." (Conclusion, page 138)
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"Community radio in Europe is maturing more and more. However, in Central and Eastern Europe, in which countries are still coping with a fatal heritage of the totalitarian history, community radio is now struggling for its rightful place. This is also the case in Poland. Because of insufficient lega
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l recognition of the community sector in media law, radio stations with non-commercial goals exist often outside the official licensed third sector of media. These are, for example, religious stations, student broadcasters as well as stations run by NGOs and local governments. Moreover, in some communities closed circuit radio stations play a significant role – for example, in prisons, at schools and student hostels. There are also a lot of internet radio initiatives in very diverse communities. In this article I would like to explain the legal situation of community broadcasting, to characterize the community media movement as well as to shortly present stations with non-commercial goals in Poland. Moreover, a research project about such stations in Poland will be discussed." (Abstract)
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"Anfang Mai 2012 wurde Vladimir Putin erneut ins Präsidentenamt eingeführt. Die pompöse Zeremonie unterschied sich nur graduell von seinem ersten Einzug in den Kreml im Jahr 2000. Man glaubt ihn inzwischen zu kennen. Doch Putin ist ein Verwandlungskünstler. Die mediale Inszenierung als omnipoten
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ter Herrscher, Feldherr, guter Zar und Retter seines Volkes verwendet nationale Traditionen aus vorrevolutionärer Zeit. Rückgriffe auf die internationale massenmediale Ästhetik sowie populäre Stereotypen versetzen Putin in die Rolle eines modernen Helden, Sexsymbols, Medien- und Popstars. Die symbolische Politik unter Putin ist im Zeitalter des Politainment angekommen." (Abstract)
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"The project investigated foreign TV news in 17 countries from five regions in the world: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States of America. The data of the content analysis in all
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these countries in 2008 contain over 17,500 news items. The analysis concentrates on ‘news geography’, a term that is used to describe the extent to which the countries of the planet are represented in TV news. The results show a complex, multifaceted picture of foreign news reporting in the world. This multifaceted picture demands multi-causal interpretation. Several factors are discussed, i.e. the types of countries, their political order and integration into the international system, trade, different degrees in political power, but also historical connections, cultural ties, etc. Principally, the foreign news outlet depends on the selection criteria of journalists. On the whole the findings seem to question the world’s globalization, which is often taken for granted." (Abstract)
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"This anthology aims to portray the “soft” power of Bollywood, which makes it a unique and powerful disseminator of Indian culture and values abroad. The essays in the book examine Bollywood's popularity within and outside South Asia, focusing on its role in international relations and diplomacy
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. In addition to contributions that directly engage with the notion of soft power, a number of essays in the volume testify to the attractiveness of Bollywood cinema for ethnically diverse groups across the world, probe the reasons for its appeal, and explore its audiences' identification with cinematic narratives." (Publisher description)
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"This study brings journalists back to the centre of inquiry about the media’s role in covering ethnicity and religion. It asks: What professional norms guide editors and journalists when reporting on ethnicity and religion? What news gathering tools are most commonly used? What are the institutio
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nal constraints in producing reports? What could have been done better? What makes excellent coverage? What type of journalistic work fuels intolerance instead of providing information that supports intercultural understanding? Based on extensive interviews with 117 journalists and editors in nine EU countries and analysis of 299 news stories, it offers a review of reporting practices as related to the coverage of ethnic and religious issues. The study finds that the main obstacles to good reporting are the poor financial state of the media, overloading of reporters, lack of time, lack of knowledge, and lack of in-house training." (Executive summary, page 2)
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