"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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"This manual is for anyone who provides training and capacity-building for investigative journalists in Africa including facilitators, trainers, lecturers and teachers. It has been written to support journalists in Africa to investigate and report stories of land corruption; a subject that remains u
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nder-reported and poorly understood." (Introduction)
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"This study focuses on the role of media ownership on the press coverage of the 2015 presidential election campaign in Nigeria. Using content analysis, the aim of the study was to identify the themes and examine the direction of the coverage of election campaign news items between the two main polit
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ical parties in the country-Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) published in The Nation on one hand and the Nigerian Tribune on the other hand, between January 2015 and March 2015. Findings from the study indicate coverage replete with biases, although with some remarkable incidents of objectivity and balancing, and show that the two newspapers analysed in this study merely reflected the political leanings of their respective publishers." (Abstract)
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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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"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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"The purpose of this article is to shed light on a Christian Reformed version of media ethics, more particularly one that was applied for just more than half a century (1960–2014) during the apartheid era and thereafter at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (PUCHE), now No
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rth-West University (NWU) in South Africa. The contribution of the two main exponents of Christian Reformed media ethics as applied at PUCHE/NWU (and consequently in South Africa), page G. (Calvyn) Snyman and J.D. (Johannes) Froneman, is discussed. It is argued that their approach to Calvinist media ethics, based on a particular Calvinist interpretation of the Bible, was largely that of pillarisation (verzuiling). It is further argued that since the early 1960s, Snyman’s Reformed media ethics approach at PUCHE was fundamentally divorced from the external sociopolitical reality of South Africa. Later (shortly before the end of apartheid in 1994), Froneman was well aware of the South African sociopolitical environment, but his version of media ethics mainly remained embedded within a pillarised Christian Reformed research publishing context. The way in which media ethics was taught at the biggest Afrikaans journalism school over a period of five decades, with generations of students entering mainly the Afrikaans media world, is interrogated." (Abstract)
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"Domestic journalists covering Kenya’s 2013 General Election worked in an exceptionally challenging media environment; one which was significantly shaped by the 2007 election and post-election violence (PEV). Rooted in literature on peace journalism (PJ), we examine how the PEV of Kenya’s 2007 p
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residential elections informed and shaped journalists’ practice around the 2013 Kenyan General Election. The article is based on qualitative interviews with 16 Kenyan print journalists and editors at the Daily Nation and Standard newspapers as well as interviews with 6 Kenyan media specialists. Our analysis finds the 2007 PEV significantly constrained journalistic practice in three ways: first, journalists witnessed violence in 2007 which anchored their 2013 coverage; second, interviewees felt a ‘collective guilt’ at journalism’s failure to provide responsible coverage in 2007 creating a ‘culture of restraint’ and third, journalists felt compelled to ‘sanitize’ potentially inflammatory language creating a tension between journalists’ duty to inform and strong desire to avoid contributing to conflict. This article concludes by siding with a growing critical chorus of PJ scholars critiquing its often “individualist” approach and calling for greater attention towards structural factors such as perceived social constraints when conceptualizing and theorizing the agency of journalists working in post conflict environments." (Abstract)
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"This is the second in a series of annual reviews of select new literature in English that has appeared on the topic of publishing and book development in sub-Saharan Africa. Extensively annotated and/or with abstracts, the present list brings together new literature published during the course of 2
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016, a total of 164 items. The literature review covers books, chapters in books and edited collections, journal articles, Internet documents and reports, theses and dissertations, interviews, audio/video recordings and podcasts, as well as a number of blog postings, Records are grouped under a range of regional/country and topic-specific headings." (Academia.edu)
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"The Africa–China media and communications field is a nascent but rapidly growing one. This paper provides an overview of the field, followed by a discussion of the theoretical pathways that can be considered as productive in taking the field forward. The paper argues for the need for rigorous the
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ory-building approaches, and makes some suggestions about how this field of study can be developed. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential further research issues." (Abstract)
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"Although not always consistent, Boko Haram has ensured its narrative is publicly disseminated, which is revealing for a group that is extremely secretive. Messaging creates awareness about the group and its activities, which can tie into recruitment. Messaging demonstrates a clear pattern of expand
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ed target groups and geographic areas, while outlining group grievances. Boko Haram’s intended audience has shifted over time, but core groups have likely been augmented by expanding dynamics, rather than supplanted. Further research on Boko Haram messaging and its resonance within the local population should be conducted." (Key points, page 2)
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"The conventional method for studying media systems has been to analyse the relationship between media and politics, based on Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) seminal research Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Their approach automatically places the nation-state as the key un
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it of analysis to understand why media systems are the way they are and why they change. Research that has advanced this endogenous method of analysis in countries outside of the Western, democratically advanced context, has brought to light the importance of including external factors in studying media systems. Building off this analytical direction, this thesis introduces three new external factors; foreign aid, the conditionalities attached to foreign aid, and the role of externally created Pan-African media policy agreements. Using a case study of Malawi, a small aid-dependent country in Southeast Africa, this research interrogates these three factors to reveal that foreign aid is a coercive foreign policy tool that has been used for manipulating change and shaping the type of media Malawi has. Based on the country’s recent transformation from its authoritarian populist past towards the dominant liberal media model in 2012, this research also reassesses Hallin and Mancini’s convergence thesis, which claimed that most countries are ‘naturally’ heading towards the dominant liberal media model. Drawing on theoretical contributions made from the fields of international relations and international development, this thesis develops a critical international political economy approach to the theory of foreign intervention to challenge this claim." (Abstract)
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"Education in the Global South faces several key interrelated challenges, for which Open Educational Resources (OER) are seen to be part of the solution. These challenges include: unequal access to education; variable quality of educational resources, teaching, and student performance; and increasin
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g cost and concern about the sustainability of education. The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project seeks to build on and contribute to the body of research on how OER can help to improve access, enhance quality and reduce the cost of education in the Global South. This volume examines aspects of educator and student adoption of OER and engagement in Open Educational Practices (OEP) in secondary and tertiary education as well as teacher professional development in 21 countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. The ROER4D studies and syntheses presented here aim to help inform Open Education advocacy, policy, practice and research in developing countries." (Publisher description)
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"The development of free, independent, and sustainable news media in Africa is bedevilled by the “brown envelope syndrome,” the widespread practice of accepting money for news coverage. This paper reveals the pernicious effects the brown envelope syndrome has on African journalism and its abilit
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y to function as a sustainable, democratic tool for nation-building. To curtail the brown envelope, a model to develop an institutional infrastructure for professional journalism is proposed. The model provides a collaborative framework for media and non-media actors (i.e. government, non-government organisations, and foundations) to strengthen the professionalism of journalism work through: higher education programmes that teach professional values and reveal damaging practices, professional associations that define and advocate journalism values that inform practices, and professional news management that incentivises and rewards best practices." (Abstract)
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"There are currently 280 community broadcasting services (275 community sound and 5 community television services). According to AC Nielsen and All Media and Products Survey (AMPS) data, community broadcasting services collectively take up an audience share of 6.3 million people in South Africa. How
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ever, this has not necessarily translated into advertising revenue, for example Community TV has a 9.5% reach but only yield an advertising spend less than 1%. Likewise, Community radio reaches 25%2 of the population but only receives 2% of the advertising spend. At face value this can be attributed to the profile of the community sector’s audience, that is, this sector does not deliver audiences that are attractive enough to advertisers to derive revenue that is comparable to commercial and public broadcasting services. However, factors contributing to the success of the community broadcasting sector are more complex. The study highlights the fact that the community broadcasting sector’s challenges emanate from a lack of corporate governance, management capacity and revenue diversification strategies. There is also a limited concerted institutional support, capacity building and funding strategies for community broadcasting in South Africa. Currently the Authority ‘s regulation of corporate governance, financial accountability and community participation is limited. Given the time and resources expended on addressing compliance challenges associated with this sector, it may be necessary for the Authority to consider Regulations or guidelines to address these shortcomings." (Executive summary)
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"The sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) co-hosted by China and South Africa in Johannesburg was historic in that it was an event to chart the next stage of China-Africa relations. The event was also symbolic in showcasing that FOCAC is co-owned by China and Africa. In view of the growin
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g China-Africa relationship under FOCAC, this study investigates how the media from four main regions in Africa framed this FOCAC. The voices that narrate the FOCAC story, dominant themes and tones were examined from the selected media in South Africa (The Star), Kenya (Daily Nation), Nigeria (Vanguard) and Egypt (Ahram Online). The findings shows that voices of Chinese officials dominated the media in South Africa and Kenya while African voices were given overwhelming focus in Nigeria and Egypt. Optimistic frames and themes were largely used by the media. On the whole, there is evident convergence of outcomes of FOCAC and the narratives in the media which suggests more balanced representation of the China-Africa relations. However, there is bias towards hard and event focused news at the expense of in-depth features that create understanding on fundamental issues such as how FOCAC interacts with the African development goals. Against this view, it is argued that the challenge for the media in Africa is to explore more approaches for effective narratives that dispel misrepresentations and resultant misunderstandings about FOCAC and the China-Africa relationship." (Abstract)
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