"Journalists in many countries are experimenting with how to build trust and engage with audiences, and our report examines their efforts. In our study we profile organizations that are working to build bridges with their readers, viewers and listeners and deliver relevant news to local audiences. W
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e surveyed 17 organizations and conducted interviews with representatives of 15 organizations, one of which chose to remain anonymous. Among others we spoke to Chequeado in Argentina, GroundUp in South Africa, Raseef 22 in the Middle East, 263 Chat in Zimbabwe, Krautreporter and Correct!v in Germany, as well as Bristol Cable in the UK [...] Although the groups we surveyed are concerned by the broader phenomena of falling trust in media and media credibility, they are also, by necessity, focused on immediate fixes important to their organizations and readerships. Some believe that media credibility depends on engagement with readers. Some place more emphasis on journalism practices, including audience engagement, ethical standards and news gathering practices. The outlets we profiled use digital technology to communicate with audiences. Some also involve their readers in sourcing and sometimes verifying information. Some conduct focus groups and online surveys. Responding to comments online is part of their engagement efforts. Readers appreciate investigative reporting as well as stories that touch on their daily lives [...] There seems to be a tradeoff between audience size and the quality of content produced. Some groups with large followings (Hivisasa and 263Chat) promote headlines and short snippets rather than carrying out deep investigative reporting [...] Several groups said their audience is different from what their founders had originally expected. The reach of the outlets we surveyed is generally not as diverse as they had hoped. Their audiences tend to be educated and urban and, in some cases, include large diaspora communities. The outlets largely cater to niche audiences, but they have broader reach through their online presence and national influence when their stories are picked up by legacy media or other outlets." (https://gijn.org, accessed: June 8, 2018)
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"Age is the key factor that differentiates among children’s online experiences, with gender also significant. One in ten children to one in five young teens say they encountered something worrying or nasty online in the past year. Children’s top worries are pornography and violence; they say the
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y encounter these most often on video-sharing sites, followed by other websites, then social networking sites and games. Children are also concerned about the levels of advertising online, their spending too much time online, inappropriate contacts, rumours and nastiness. Top parent concerns include online violence. There has been little increase or decrease in online risk in recent years, although there are some indications of a rise in hate and self-harm content. It is not possible to determine whether the internet has increased the overall amount of risk children face as they grow up, or whether the internet instead provides a new location for risk experiences, but the nature of the internet itself surely alters and amplifies the consequences." (Executive summary, page 2-3)
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"Currency research organisations, i.e. organisations conducting research into media use, whose results constitute a nationally valid standard (“currency”) for the advertising business, are of prime importance for developed media systems. In 2017, the global advertising market will reach a volume
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of more than 500 billion US dollars. Nearly a third of that is spent in the USA, but countries such as China, Brazil and Mexico are registering big increases too.(199) Therefore, currency organisations and their research findings contribute not only to the allocation of economically significant resources, but also determine the very existence of media companies and products. Their relevance is thus not only of an (advertising) economic nature, but indirectly bears a political dimension. First and foremost, however, the function of the currency organisations is to provide transparency for the advertisers in terms of the advertising media’s contact performance. The current situation of currency research organisations is heavily shaped on onehand by developments in the media markets, and on the other by historic circumstances and the institutionalisation of the media systems in the various countries. As a general rule, in countries with strongly libertarian institutionalised media such as the USA and Brazil it seems to be harder to establish nationally recognised currencies – in the USA this is even banned through anti-trust laws. Then again, the institutionalisation of currencies may also hit difficulties in a country such as South Korea, where the boundaries between the media and (the rest of) the economic system are somewhat fluid, as the major industry conglomerates have their own media and advertising agencies." (Conclusions)
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"In focusing on the twin processes of marketization and mediatization, the intention is by no means to argue that markets and media constitute the only factors shaping religion today. Nor is the intention to argue that a focus on marketization and mediatization would provide the “best” way to st
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udy contemporary processes of institutional religious change. Having said that, the approach of this book is nevertheless grounded in the firm contention that a serious and systematic consideration of the impact of processes of marketization and mediatization as key vectors of social and cultural change in the post–World War II era has great potential to nuance and enrich already existing theoretical thinking on contemporary institutional religious change. This potential is, however, crucially dependent on the capacity of researchers to provide firmly empirically grounded arguments about exactly how processes of marketization and mediatization work to effect social, cultural, and institutional religious change. This book directs particular attention to the ways in which processes of marketization and mediatization have been accompanied by the spread of a set of powerful discourses and discursive formations that have proliferated throughout ever more social and cultural domains and increasingly come to underpin contemporary criteria of eff ective institutional and organizational life, agency, practice, and communication. The focus of this book thus lies firmly on the ideational and discursive dimensions of processes of marketization and mediatization. The book is further based on the premise that the ideational and discursive dimensions of marketization and mediatization have had the strongest and most clearly observable effect on long-established institutional Christian Protestant churches that have retained close structural relationships to states and core social establishments, and for which the gradual general transition from a previous vertical national-statist model of social organization toward a horizontal, deregulated, and market- inspired network model has been most challenging." (Introduction, page 8-9)
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"This edited volume discusses the theoretical, practical and methodological issues surrounding changes in journalism in the digital era. The chapters explore how technological innovations have transformed journalism and how an international comparative perspective can contribute to our understanding
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of the topic. Journalism is examined within Anglo-American and European contexts as well as in Asia and Africa, and comparative approaches and methods for journalism studies in the digital age are evaluated. In so doing, the book offers a thorough investigation of changes in journalistic norms, practices and genres in addition to providing an international and comparative perspective for understanding these changes and what they mean to journalism." (Publisher description)
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"The literature on the social uses of social technologies is substantial and expanding. Using over 400 sources, the current review outlines the key themes emerging from academic, grey literature and online material in this field. Much of this literature argues for the transformative power of social
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media, through its capacity to democratise and generate action through horizontal networks. The literature is dominated by studies of and commentary on the political impact of social media use, in particular in forms of protest. But while these technologies may have helped to change some processes, there seems to have been little lasting impact on broader outcomes in terms of empowerment, equalities or social justice. Nor is there evidence, at the less-publicised level of the community sector, that such outcomes have been or will be affected by uses of social media. Within the third sector literature, the dominance of material relating to marketing and fundraising for charities obscures a lack of case studies of community organisations’ use of social media. Research suggests that networked individuals may now carry out community action roles more efficiently than organisations. There is evidence that social media is changing the way social actions are organised: not just collective action but also ‘connective’ action. Community organisations will need to adjust to a changing role in the processes of knowledge generation and sharing." (Abstract)
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"Remembering the Holocaust is a central part of historical awareness and political culture in reunified Germany, Israel, and the United States. But can the same be said for other parts of the world? How have societies that were not affected by occupation and extermination measures under the Nazi reg
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ime dealt with the legacy of the Holocaust? How have minorities with their own experiences of persecution reacted to specific acts of remembrance? How does demographic change affect memory? In what ways have immigrants come to terms with the central significance of the Holocaust? From a global perspective and in different national and regional contexts, international experts analyse the worldwide transformation of Holocaust remembrance. The fourteen case studies focus on the genesis and functions of remembrance in Europe, North and South America, Israel, North Africa, South Africa and Asia. The volume identifies and discusses contradictions and challenges in a process often referred to as the ‘globalisation’ or ‘universalisation’ of Holocaust remembrance." (Publisher description)
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"This chapter examined compassion as a news value in the humanitarian coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza by French and UK broadcasters to show the extent to which victims of foreign conflict can be portrayed with greater and lesser degrees of compassion … The study demonstrates that compassion as a
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news value is highly contextual, and in some cases was found to be insufficient as a dominant news characteristic. Coverage displayed other dominant news values such as negativity, violence and graphic imagery of the dead and wounded, and the elite value of world leaders. It confirmed that a hierarchy of victims can be identified in coverage of humanitarian suffering. For example, coverage by 20 Heures of related protests in Paris revealed that domestic victims may quickly displace remote others because of their cultural and geographical proximity. News at Ten provided a predominantly humanitarian coverage with direct interaction with victims while 20 Heures preferred less emotive and more one-dimensional coverage supported throughout with analytical, factual information. The findings not only provided insight into compassion as a news value but also shed light on it as an emotion among the warring parties, demonstrating the difficulty, if not impossibility, of displaying compassion for the enemy, regardless of their state of suffering." (Conclusion)
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"The report provides an overview of the most recent rules, case law and policies across Europe with regard to the privileges that are given to journalists when exercising their activities. As a rule, when identifying the relevant legal aspects, three features are taken into account: the correspondin
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g provisions shall a) be aimed at guaranteeing through special information rights that media are able to fulfil their opinion-shaping function, b) ensure through special procedural mechanisms that freedom of the media is safe from state interference, and/or c) prevent people affected by media reporting from being in a position to suppress it under civil or criminal law without taking into account the freedom of the media." (Foreword)
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"What does it mean to support local media? How should we define local media in the first place? Christopher Ali delves into our ideas about localism and their far-reaching repercussions for the discourse of federal media policy and regulation. His critique focuses on the new interest in localism amo
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ng regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. As he shows, the many different and often contradictory meanings of localism complicate efforts to study local voices. At the same time, market factors and regulators' unwillingness to critically examine local media blunt challenges to the status quo. Ali argues that reconciling the places where we live with the spaces we inhabit will point regulators toward effective policies that strengthens local media." (Publisher description)
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"This article examines how three Chinese and two British newspapers sourced content from social media in their coverage of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, the 2013 Ya'an Earthquake, and the 2015 Tianjin Explosion. The media outlets citing of social media content present different patterns in line with
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their political and commercial interests, ideologies, and journalistic values. Diverse images of the three disasters as revealed on social media (social media reality) were constructed in the newspapers' coverage. Journalists gate-keep information from social media and dissolve it into daily disaster reporting, accepting selected aspects of social media reality but rejecting others. Especially in the case of the Chinese newspapers, meeting the needs of domestic political and commercial interest groups, journalists endorse social media content that is favorable to these groups." (Abstract)
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"Africa’s Media Image in the 21st Century is the first book in over twenty years to examine the international media’s coverage of sub-Saharan Africa. It brings together leading researchers and prominent journalists to explore representation of the continent, and the production of that image, esp
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ecially by international news media. The book highlights factors that have transformed the global media system, changing whose perspectives are told and the forms of media that empower new voices. Case studies consider questions such as: how has new media changed whose views are represented? Does Chinese or diaspora media offer alternative perspectives for viewing the continent? How do foreign correspondents interact with their audiences in a social media age? What is the contemporary role of charity groups and PR firms in shaping news content? They also examine how recent high profile events and issues been covered by the international media, from the Ebola crisis, and Boko Haram to debates surrounding the "Africa Rising" narrative and neo-imperialism. The book makes a substantial contribution by moving the academic discussion beyond the traditional critiques of journalistic stereotyping, Afro-pessimism, and ‘darkest Africa’ news coverage. It explores the news outlets, international power dynamics, and technologies that shape and reshape the contemporary image of Africa and Africans in journalism and global culture." (Publisher description)
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"Applied Theatre: Performing Health and Wellbeing is the first volume in the field to address the role that theatre, drama and performance have in relation to promoting, developing and sustaining health and wellbeing in diverse communities. Challenging concepts and understanding of health, wellbeing
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and illness, it offers insight into different approaches to major health issues through applied performance. With a strong emphasis on the artistry involved in performance-based health responses, situated within a history of the field of practice, the volume is divided into two sections: Part One examines some of the key questions around research and practice in applied performance in health and wellbeing, specifically addressing the different regional challenges that dominate the provision of health care and influence wellbeing: how the aging population of the global north creates pressure on lifetime healthcare provision, while the global south is dominated by a higher birth rate and a larger population under 15 years old. Part Two comprises case studies and interviews from international practitioners that reflect the diversity of practices across the world and in particular differences between work in the northern and southern hemispheres. These case studies include a sanitation project in a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand in the 1980s, and the sanitation and rural development projects initiated by the traveling theatre troupes of a number of University theatre departments in Africa – Makerere in Kampala, Uganda; Botswana; Lesotho and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – which began in the 1960s. It considers the emergence of Theatre for Development's use as a health approach, considering the work of Laedza Batanani and the influences of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed." (Publisher description)
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"The report is based on a survey of more than 70,000 people in 36 markets, along with additional qualitative research, which together make it the most comprehensive ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world. A key focus remains in Europe where we have added Slovakia, Croatia, and Ro
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mania for the first time – but we have also added four markets in Asia (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore) along with three additional Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, and Mexico) [...] In particular we have focused on two areas: (1) the extent to which people are prepared to pay for news or the different ways journalism might be funded in the future, and (2) understanding more about some of the drivers of low, and in some cases declining, trust in the media. For the first time we’ve attempted to measure and visualise relative levels of media polarisation across countries and identify a link between media polarisation and trust. Another focus has been on the media’s relationship with platforms – in particular how news is discovered and consumed within distributed environments such as social media, search, and online aggregators." (Foreword)
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"This paper presents the results of a comprehensive scoping review of empirical research into US and UK media representations of Africa published between 1990 and 2014. The results show that existing research has a remarkably narrow focus on a specific number of countries, events, media and texts. R
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esearch into representations of North Africa, Francophone Africa, non-news genres, non-elite media and radio content, is particularly scarce. This, I contend, provides an insufficient basis for reaching any firm, generalisable conclusions about the nature of media coverage of Africa. The common assumption that representations are dominated by Afro-pessimism, for example, may be accurate – but it is not currently substantiated by the existing evidence. In short, the widespread belief that we know how Africa is represented in the US and UK media is shown to be a myth. This paper also discusses how this myth has been maintained through certain citation practices and interpretations of evidence as well as the implications of these findings for the many corporations, governments, non-governmental organisations and researchers whose activities depend upon, or have helped to preserve, this myth." (Abstract)
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"Social media is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives yet the impact on people with disabilities has gone largely unscrutinised. Similarly, while social media and disability are often both observed through a focus on the Western, developed and English-speaking world, different global
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perspectives are often overlooked. This collection explores the opportunities and challenges social media represents for the social inclusion of people with disabilities from a variety of different global perspectives that include Africa, Arabia and Asia along with European, American and Australasian perspectives and experiences." (Publisher description)
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