"Drawing on social-legal, cultural and media theory, this book is one of the first to examine the media politics of human rights. It examines how the media construct the story of human rights, investigating what lies behind the apparent media hostility to human rights and what has become of the orig
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inal ambition to establish a human rights culture. The human rights regime has been high on the political agenda ever since the Human Rights Act 1998 was enacted. Often maligned in sections of the press, the legislation has entered popular folklore as shorthand for an overbearing government, an overzealous judiciary and exploitative claimants. This book examines a range of significant factors in the mediation of human rights, including: Euroscepticism, the war on terror, the digital reordering of the media landscape, press concerns about an emerging privacy law and civil liberties." (Publisher description)
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"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fifth consecutive year, with more governments censoring information of public interest and placing greater demands on the private sector to take down offending content. State authorities have also jailed more users for their online writings, wh
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ile criminal and terrorist groups have made public examples of those who dared to expose their activities online. This was especially evident in the Middle East, where the public flogging of liberal bloggers, life sentences for online critics, and beheadings of internet-based journalists provided a powerful deterrent to the sort of digital organizing that contributed to the Arab Spring. In a new trend, many governments have sought to shift the burden of censorship to private companies and individuals by pressing them to remove content, often resorting to direct blocking only when those measures fail. Local companies are especially vulnerable to the whims of law enforcement agencies and a recent proliferation of repressive laws. But large, international companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter have faced similar demands due to their significant popularity and reach." (Page 1)
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"The five reports that make up this collection are variously concerned with humanitarian aid, social and cultural evolution, crisis response, the mitigation of cultural divides, and political unrest. The themes that bind them are an international movement towards public safety; a trust-based relatio
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nship between states and citizens; community led social development; and the capacity of social media and big data to make use of, and amplify, the thoughts and voices of under-represented elements of society. Importantly, the reports also begin to question the inluence these violent contexts are having on the development of social media, where communities in crises utilise and shape these new technologies though real-time engagement. The potential of these media is being maximised to such an extent that these platforms are under strain, and developers are increasingly learning how to adapt to the needs of a variety of audiences in volatile contexts." (Introduction, page 6)
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"Mediated Communities brings together a diverse, global cohort of academics and professional communicators to assess the current state of democratic mobilizing around the world and the ways in which protest movements are being transformed in the midst of a communication revolution. The volume’s co
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ntributors draw on a variety of international settings—from Greece to Lebanon, China to Argentina—to demonstrate the ways in which community organizing in the digital age relies increasingly on digital media to communicate, help participants find common ground, and fight for change. The contributors acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead for creating real and lasting democratic change but at the same time are able to draw attention to the potential that digital media hold for strengthening citizen voices around the globe." (Back cover)
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"At once both guide book and provocation, this is an indispensable companion for students and practitioners of applied theatre. It addresses all key aspects: principles, origins, politics and aesthetics in a concise and accessible style designed to appeal both to those who have recently discovered t
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his sub-discipline and to experienced practitioners and academics. Part 1 is divided into two chapters. The first introduces the sub-discipline of Theatre for Development, covering its origins, principles and history, and providing an overview of theatre for development in Western contexts as well as in Africa, Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and Latin America. The second focuses upon theoretical and philosophical issues confronting the discipline and its relationship to contemporary politics, as well as considering its future role. Part 2 consists of seven chapters contributed by leading figures and current practitioners from around the world and covering a diverse range of themes, methodologies and aesthetic approaches. One chapter offers a series of case studies concerned with sexual health education and HIV prevention, drawn from practitioners working in Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Southern Africa, and China. Other chapters include studies of intercultural theatre in the Peruvian Amazon; a programme of applied theatre conducted in schools in Canterbury, New Zealand, following the 2010 earthquake; an attempt to reinvigorate a community theatre group in South Brazil; and an exchange between a Guatemalan arts collective and a Dutch youth theatre company, besides others." (Publisher description)
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"There are more than 400 active hyperlocal websites in the UK, compared with 1,045 local papers. New sites are being uncovered by researchers on a daily basis. One in ten say they use local community websites or apps at least weekly (7 per cent in 2013). 17 per cent of UK internet users use websites
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or apps each week for news about their local area or community; a further 31 per cent do so quarterly. Consumption of this content online is increasing. The most common topic covered by hyperlocal media is community activities e.g. festivals, clubs and societies, local councils and the services they provide. Functional information about community events, services, local weather and traffic, are the most popular content types with hyperlocal audiences. Investigative reporting, which has helped uncover controversial new information about local civic issues or events, has been produced by almost half of the UK’s online hyperlocal publishers in the last two years." (Pages 4-5)
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"The report examines what role the internet plays in trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation. It considers in particular methods of online job recruitment and looks at cases studies from several EU Member States – Czech Republic, UK, Ireland, and Romania – and discusses to what exten
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t the internet plays a role and if so, how significant the role of the internet is in facilitating human trafficking. The report provides examples of potential solutions." (Introduction)
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"The way you design your service can have a real impact on children and young people. The type of safeguards shown in this guide lead to immediate positive benefits (e.g. limiting exposure to inappropriate content) and longer-term effects (such as helping users to understand how to share their infor
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mation responsibly). But online safety is also critical to your platform’s future, and this guide will be particularly useful to: • protect the health of your brand, and reassure sponsors, advertisers and investors who all need to consider their own reputational risks; • implement the basics (and more) of safety policies and procedures before launching your service; • overhaul or strengthen existing user safeguards; • give confidence to both users and parents that you can manage safety risks; and • implement even tighter safety provisions for users under 13 years old." (Page 7)
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"Prison radio is a particularly valuable contribution to the investigation of opportunities for social activism and the potential of radio for social change, able to support prisoners through their sentences and contribute to reducing re-offending. This study is the first to document the growth of U
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K prison radio, focusing on the accounts of the people involved in the formation of the Prison Radio Association (PRA). Established in 2006, the PRA was the first organisation of its kind internationally. Initially set up to network and support individual prison radio projects, it has now grown to the extent of creating and managing the world's first National Prison Radio service. This research outlines the process through which relatively small-scale media activism, based on prisoners' rights, came to be an intrinsic part of prison culture, playing a central role in institutional operations. It considers prison radio growth within the context of the economic reworking of broadcasting, prisons, and social activism in post-Thatcher Britain, acknowledging the emergence of the PRA as both a product of New Labour technologies of governance and of the counter-discursive opportunities they p6roduced. Against a backdrop of public service privatisation and media commercialisation, the development of the PRA illustrates the complex processes of working in partnership with institutions and agencies to develop a prisoner-led service. It is a story which highlights the enduring importance of social values in broadcasting, represents new opportunities for social activism, and presents radio as a powerful force for social change." (Abstract)
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"Our media advisory service was set up to provide advice and support on mental health storylines and documentaries. We inputted into 75 soap opera storylines, as well as mental health seasons for BBC 3 and Channel 4. We also developed an online resource for media professionals, and supported media o
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rganisations, including the Sunday Mirror, Channel 4 and Top Santé, to make a pledge to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination. We organised 12 meet the media events, mostly aimed at professionals working in specific sectors, including sports journalism, documentaries, and entertainment and reality TV. Our Get the Picture campaign, launched at an event for picture editors, encouraged media agencies to stop using stigmatising images to illustrate stories about mental health. What we achieved: Input into 75 soap opera and drama storylines; 12 events attended by 594 media professionals; 77% used their learning within two months of the event; 54,450 visits to our media online resource; nine media organisations signed a Time to Change pledge." (Page 2)
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"Adopting a truly global, theoretical and multidisciplinary perspective, Media Pluralism and Diversity intends to advance our understanding of media pluralism across the globe. It compares metrics that have been developed in different parts of the world to assess levels of, or threats to, media plur
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alism." (Publisher description)
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"This report, which has been produced by a group of distinguished journalists and their supporters, examines the broad scope of the crisis. It covers countries where media are on the frontline of tough political battles, such as Egypt and Turkey. In Ukraine, for instance, the practice of paid-for jo
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urnalism is a tool routinely used by politicians at election time. The same is true in India. In other countries, including Nigeria, Philippines, and Colombia the precarious working conditions of news staff provide fertile conditions for corruption and “brown envelopes” or under-the-table cash payments to reporters and editors which are a routine feature of journalistic work. The struggles facing journalists in settled democracies, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark, are less brazen, but no less challenging and in a range of countries across the Western Balkans with a shared and painful history, media corruption hinders aspirations to break free from the legacy of war, censorship and political control during decades of communist rule. The story is of an uphill struggle. Everywhere there is a crisis of confidence inside newsrooms caused by crumbling levels of commitment to ethics, a lowering of the status of journalistic work and a pervasive lack of transparency over advertising, ownership and corporate and political affiliations. Government control over lucrative state advertising, which is often allocated to media according to their political bias, remains widespread. At the same time, the elimination in most countries of the invisible wall separating editorial and advertising has created a surge of so-called “native advertising,” hidden advertorials and paid-for journalism. It was this conflict of interest that plunged the crisis-prone UK press into a new bout of handwringing in February 2015 when Peter Oborne, a leading political journalist, quit his job at the Daily Telegraph accusing the management of censoring stories about HSBC bank, a leading advertiser caught up in a tax scandal. These reports tell essentially the same story of deep cuts in editorial investment, undue pressure on newsrooms, and media increasingly dependent upon atypical models of ownership in which media have become the trophy possessions of powerful figures and institutions in pursuit of wider corporate and political objectives." (Introduction, page iii-iv)
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"The internet is often celebrated for the abundant opportunities it appears to offer citizens to become more informed about and inspired to act on issues related to international development and distant suffering. But to what extent do users actually make use of such opportunities? And what social p
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rocesses are such decisions governed by? This article begins to answer these questions by analysing the results of a two-month study of UK internet users’ online behaviour. The results reveal, not just a general resistance to using the internet to develop a cosmopolitan consciousness, but also the dominant modes of avoidance that participants used to justify their inactivity. I conclude that the potential for digital cosmopolitanism appears to be primarily governed, not by the peculiarities of individual texts or even the properties of the technology, but by the nature and acceptability of pre-existing discursive resources and how they are deployed by users." (Abstract)
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"This volume explores the way governments endeavoured to build and maintain public support for the war in Afghanistan, combining new insights on the effects of strategic narratives with an exhaustive series of case studies. In contemporary wars, with public opinion impacting heavily on outcomes, str
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ategic narratives provide a grid for interpreting the why, what and how of the conflict. This book asks how public support for the deployment of military troops to Afghanistan was garnered, sustained or lost in thirteen contributing nations. Public attitudes in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe towards the use of military force were greatly shaped by the cohesiveness and content of the strategic narratives employed by national policy-makers. Assessing the ability of countries to craft a successful strategic narrative, the book addresses the following key areas: 1) how governments employ strategic narratives to gain public support; 2) how strategic narratives develop during the course of the conflict; 3) how these narratives are disseminated, framed and perceived through various media outlets; 4) how domestic audiences respond to strategic narratives; 5) how this interplay is conditioned by both events on the ground, in Afghanistan, and by structural elements of the domestic political systems." (Publisher description)
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"Video games have become a global industry, and their history spans dozens of national industries where foreign imports compete with domestic productions, legitimate industry contends with piracy, and national identity faces the global marketplace. This volume describes video game history and cultur
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e across every continent, with essays covering areas as disparate and far-flung as Argentina and Thailand, Hungary and Indonesia, Iran and Ireland. Most of the essays are written by natives of the countries they discuss, many of them game designers and founders of game companies, offering distinctively firsthand perspectives. Some of these national histories appear for the first time in English, and some for the first time in any language." (Back cover)
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"We asked writers and researchers to examine the quality of coverage and to highlight reporting problems as well as good work. The conclusions from many different parts of the world are remarkably similar: journalism under pressure from a weakening media economy; political bias and opportunism that
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drives the news agenda; the dangers of hate-speech, stereotyping and social exclusion of refugees and migrants. But at the same time there have been inspiring examples of careful, sensitive and ethical journalism that have shown empathy for the victims. In most countries the story has been dominated by two themes – numbers and emotions. Most of the time coverage is politically led with media often following an agenda dominated by loose language and talk of invasion and swarms. At other moments the story has been laced with humanity, empathy and a focus on the suffering of those involved." (Introduction, page 5-6)
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"We see the smartphone more clearly as the defining device for digital news with a disruptive impact on consumption, formats, and business models. Our data suggest it provides an environment dominated by a few successful brands, with others struggling to reach a wider audience, both via apps and bro
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wsers. The move to online video, new visual formats, and social media coincides in many countries with a fall in audiences for traditional TV bulletins. The trend is most pronounced amongst the under 35s. We see a strengthening in the role played by Facebook in finding, discussing and sharing news. Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp are playing a big role amongst younger groups." (Executive summary)
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