"About 39 percent started to read regularly at elementary school age, and 44 percent at primary and high school age. As compared to the last five years, 37 percent of respondents stopped reading completely, 43 percent read less, 6 percent read as much as they read before, and only 14 percent said th
...
ey read more as compared to the last five years. The more the dynamic of reading decreases, the more the number of male representatives increases (from 34 percent to 51 percent). The more the dynamic of reading increases, the greater the share of young people (18-34 years old) becomes (from 29 percent to 61 percent) The more the dynamics of reading increases, the greater the number of people with higher education becomes (from about 18 percent to 53 percent), while the number of people with a secondary education decreases (from about 42 percent to 16 percent)." (Summary of quantitative research results, page 43)
more
"This report [is] the first compilation of the global data on how women in developing countries access and use the Internet. I am convinced this report provides key insights for policy makers, the development community and industry. Based on interviews and surveys of 2,200 women in developing countr
...
ies, as well as interviews with experts and a review of existing literature, this report found that, on average, 23 percent fewer women than men are online in developing countries. This represents 200 million fewer women than men who are online today. In some regions, the size of the gap exceeds 40 percent. In addition, in many regions, the Internet gender gap reflects and amplifies existing inequalities between the sexes. We know that many women who use the Internet derive profound benefits through it, including economic and educational opportunities, a community of support, and career prospects. As the report indicates, expanding Internet access for women would also provide a significant boost to national income." (Foreword)
more
"Cette enquête exploratoire s’inscrit dans une interrogation sur la façon dont des collectifs dispersés créent des mondes qui leur sont propres, l’objectif ici étant de voir comment l’usage de l’Internet configure leurs espace et temps singuliers (leurs mondes propres). Les résultats i
...
nattendus sont que le Web diasporique chinois est principalement anglo-saxon et que la géographie des sites ne correspond pas du tout à celle de la diaspora chinoise. Est-ce seulement l’effet des critères utilisés pour sélectionner les sites, ou cela révèle-t-il un phénomène plus profond ? Ces questions incitent à une nouvelle enquête." (Résumé)
more
"The Philippines is a palimpsest where traditional, modern and postmodern influences manifest themselves contemporaneously. Its politics is traditional, its culture modern and its media postmodern. Understanding the role of new technologies, such as digital media, under these circumstances requires
...
an appreciation of incommensurable factors that are nevertheless intercalated. The surface of Philippine politics appears imperturbable but underneath it, notions of the political are being reformulated as a consequence of the new media and its globalizing influence." (Abstract)
more
"This report evaluates the risks and vulnerabilities of mobile phone services and apps in 12 specified countries: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the People’s Republic of China, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Libya, the Sultanate of Oman, the Kingdom
...
of Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Tunisian Republic, the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Rather than focus on a single innovation, this study analyzes multiple mobile technologies – including operating systems, applications and mobile protocols – to determine their capacity to protect security and privacy and to combat censorship and surveillance. Throughout this study the protection of mobile phone users was of paramount importance." (Executive summary)
more
"Zoroastrians are an ancient ethnic-religious community that goes back to the prophet Zarathustra. Today they number some 120,000 people, based in India/Pakistan and Iran; diaspora communities are settled in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia. On the Indian sub-continent, where Zoroastrian
...
s are known as ‘Parsis’, communities are ageing quickly, due in particular to a low fertility rate and massive outmigration. Projections show there will be virtually no more Zoroastrians in Pakistan in a few decades, and figures in India may drop to 20,000 individuals by 2050. For such a scattered community, the Internet represents a unique platform to discuss community matters and bring together far-flung groups. Zoroastrians use the Web and other digital media to organize themselves and remain connected to their homeland. This e-diaspora not only highlights some traditional characteristics of Zoroastrian communities, it intertwines with the apparition of a new leadership. It also accelerates the emergence of a universal conception of what it is to be Zoroastrian, transforming the Zoroastrian socio-cultural and religious identity and reshaping past and present divisions." (Abstract)
more
"For two years running, Pakistan has been ranked by international media monitors as the most dangerous place on earth for journalists. Media workers have been kidnapped, tortured, and beaten to death for delving into the nation’s potent military apparatus and spy agencies. Bodies have been found w
...
ith throats slit and flesh punctured with electric drills by Islamic militants, political extremists, and gangsters who take umbrage at what they write." (Abstract)
more
"Music is an omnipresent part of the often so-called great Indian election circus and much more than a mere by-product of what is the greatest democratic exercise worldwide. Songs and tunes are an integral part of political communication, strategically used by political actors which are confronted w
...
ith an extremely complex and heterogeneous electorate. In the last decades, underlying changes in the media technology and the party system transformed music from a mere vehicle for messages on a regional level to a powerful tool of political advertisement for a nation-wide, professional planed and media based campaign. In course of this study the analysis of both, the historical development of Indian election music and the national election campaigns in 2009, clarify this trend. As part of their media based campaigns the two biggest Indian parties, INC and BJP, used the same song not only to entertain the electorate but – following patterns of brand advertisement – to convey different symbolic messages linked to opposing images of the Indian nation." (Abstract)
more
"This report addresses the challenges of supporting independent media in countries where media freedoms are restricted, based on country case studies in Bangladesh, Cambodia, South Sudan, Syria and Uganda. According to Myers, the dilemmas of foreign support include short-term donor strategies, the l
...
ack of reliable local partners, the patchy evidence of the positive impact of past media support, the management of inflammatory media coverage and sometimes hate speech in countries that face inter-ethnic tensions or sectarian conflict. On the other hand, the publication also details strategies that have had some measure of success like foreign and UN broadcasting, training and advocacy from the outside, emphasizing neutral and 'public interest' topics when working from inside a country and supporting local rights organisations and media advocacy groups. The study concludes - among other factors - that media should be a key area of political economy analysis, that media assistance should be incorporated more explicitly within broader development systems, and that support should concentrate on media outlets and not just on individual journalists." (CAMECO Update 2-2012)
more
"This article is an attempt to explore the issues of online representations of orphans in China and India in the intersection of power, voice, and placement. Textual and visual representations of orphans at www.homeofhopeindia.org and www.homeofhope.org are analyzed using the theoretical frameworks
...
of voicings, whiteness, and the colonial (technological) gaze. We examine how online networks are spaces for discursive reproduction of existing offline hegemonies. We pay particular attention to the reproduction and representation of the so-called voiceless Other in online settings." (Abstract)
more
"Concerns are growing in Asia about offensive and extremist material on the internet. New laws have been passed to remedy this, but they have collided with the ways that search engines, social networks and internet cafes run their operations. These service providers have therefore been resisting cal
...
ls for self-censorship, which is often technically difficult, too. And the media are worried that press freedom and freedom of speech will be put at risk. The threat of retribution could lead to even more content disappearing from the Web than is actually stipulated by law." (Introduction)
more
"The United Nations pointed out in 2010 that more Indians have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet. There are over 800 million mobile connections, although the number of unique users (excluding inactive connections) is estimated at around 600 million. Together with the fact that 60 percent of
...
all households have cable and satellite television, providing access to many of the 700-plus television channels licensed to broadcast, it becomes clear that in garrulous India, mass poverty and marginalization do not result in a perfect “digital divide.” This, together with the fact that the public broadcaster’s prime terrestrial channel, DD National, covers about 92 percent of the 1.2 billion-plus population, clearly suggests that the users of digital technologies in India include many of the 300 million still below the official poverty line. In the case of the digital switchover, it is broadly in this area of public interest that most attention needs to be focused, whether it be in the area of greater accountability and autonomy of the state broadcaster, the governance of private media infrastructure, transparency and equity in licensing criteria and in mechanisms of allocating resources, and compliance with global standards of professional journalism. These values will go some way toward giving India a plurality of voices and media outlets that would properly reflect what may be the most diverse social and political landscape on the planet." (Open Society Foundations website)
more
"The author makes a serious discernment of the values and the dangers of the media or the virtual world developing as a result of the communication revolution in the last decades. He pleads for an effort on the part of the church to enter the secular media so as to be within it a seed that bears fru
...
its for the Kingdom of God and a new egalitarian society." (Abstract)
more
"How do students' online literacy practices intersect with online popular culture? In this book scholars from a range of countries including Australia, Lebanon, Nepal, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States illustrate and analyze how literacy practices that are mediated through and influ
...
enced by popular culture create both opportunities and tensions for secondary and university students. The authors examine issues of theory, identity, and pedagogy as they address participatory popular culture sites such as fan forums, video, blogs, social networking sites, anime, memes, and comics and graphic novels." (Back cover)
more