Describes a wide range of democracy assistance activities, among them media assistance, and critically analyses their outcomes.
"How do religious audiences react to and use the mass media? Religion and Mass Media is an audience-centered examination that reveals how a variety of Christian traditions experience media news and entertainment - in the context of institutional religious influences and expectations. Drawing on soci
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al science theories and empirical research methodologies, the contributors explore responses from Roman Catholics, Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, and Mormons and a variety of other traditions. In the first section, contributors set the framework by describing recent theoretical developments in the sociology of religion and communication theory. Section two provides an overview of the particulars of certain religious beliefs, section three looks at audience behavior, section four describes specific case studies (including one on rap music), and section five looks at the changing information environment and the future." (Publisher description)
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"The first part [...] deals with [...] topics as copyright protection, desktop advances, the role of the editor, multinational publishers, scholarly publishing, best-sellers, and more. Major essays explore the nature and impact of the new technologies, changing patterns of readership, scientific pub
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lishing, developments in textbooks, encouraging literacy, economics, and other important issues. The second part of the Encyclopedia focuses on international aspects of publishing. It surveys the industry in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Japan, and examines how developments in the evolving economies of Eastern Europe, the European Community, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world have an impact on publishing worldwide. The Encyclopedia also offers insights into Africa's drastic book shortage and how the publishing community might reach this market." (Publisher description)
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"This new theory of transmission extends its vision beyond the boundaries of television to the still-shifting territories of interactive media. The chapters in Transmission investigate the impact of video and interactivity and virtual reality on the social, cultural, and economic environment of tele
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vision. Comparing the recent past with the present–and the immediate future–this groundbreaking work examines aesthetic values as they are shaped by gender, race, and class issues. Since video looks at how television (mis)represents culture, Transmission examines the effects of communication tools and technologies on its participating constituents." (Publisher description)
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"How and to what extent are women in grassroots communication creating avenues for democratic communication and fostering social change? How is grassroots communication consolidating women's views and perspectives on gender subordination and social transformation? Women in Grassroots Communication b
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rings together a stellar cast of contributors from across the globe–Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America–to answer these and other questions. First, they review the various frameworks for addressing the relationship between women, participation, and communication, looking at the ways women have been perceived. Next, the authors look at the social roles of women in their communities, their capabilities to communicate, and their informal networks at the local and community levels. The third section focuses on media production and the issues of media competency, identity, representation, evaluation, and group process. Finally, by looking at the connections between women's participatory practices and wider sociopolitical initiatives, the final chapters examine the issues of organization, leadership, and communication strategies." (Publisher description)
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"Rund 20 Jahre nach der letzten Dissertation zum Themenkreis »christliche Medienarbeit« [Joachim Schmidt. Rundfunkmission: Ein Massenmedium wird Instrument. Erlangen 1980] legt Hansjörg Biener nun eine umfassende Monographie über die Hörfunksender vor, die weltweit die christliche Botschaft tra
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nsportieren. Bieners Studie, bereits 1991 von der theologischen Fakultät der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg angenommen und für den Druck leicht aktualisiert, bietet eine umfassende Übersicht über christliche Rundfunkarbeit. Die Fakten sind in diesem Buch ordentlich zusammengetragen, und nichts Wesentliches fehlt. Biener geht das Thema wissenschaftlich-objektiv an, was vor allem bei der Behandlung evangelikaler Rundfunkmissionen positiv auffällt. Der Verkündigungsansatz christlicher Radioarbeit wird von Biener scharf herausgearbeitet, von ihm aber - im Gegensatz zu Schmidt - nicht als »Instrument« und kirchenfeindliche Entwicklung eingestuft, sondern als Ergänzung kirchlicher Verkündigung und Seelsorge, durch die wichtige »Impulse von auswärts in das Leben der Ortsgemeinde« eingebracht werden. Damit trifft er zweifellos das Selbstverständnis der weitaus meisten christlichen Rundfunksender." (Renzension von Peter Fischer in Jahrbuch für evangelikale Theologie (JETh), vol. 9, 1995, Seiten 397-398)
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