"This study reviews and analyses what has already been documented on the links between radio-based communication strategies and rural development outcomes, particularly with regards to smallholder farming and food security outcomes. The report explores best radio practices, including issues related
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to optimal formats, schedules, production qualities, and station management, based on 17 case studies from India, the Philippines, Tanzania, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, and South Africa. The key findings include: testimonials and jingles facilitate the best recall and comprehension of messages (Philippines); radio forums strengthen rural decision-making structures (Tanzania); radio programmes created by communities attract high listenership (Malawi); and farm radio is more effective when linked with new information and communication technologies (Ghana). The research also identified some knowledge gaps: the lack of evaluation as an integrated element in radio campaign planning; the need to conduct regular audience surveys; the limited use of non-participatory effectiveness studies and the limited scope of evaluations focusing on the impact of just one or two programmes." (CAMECO Update 5-2008)
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"This report investigates the impact media and ICTs can have on the lives of the poor, based on the experiences of nine donors and NGOs forming part of the "Building Communication Opportunities (BCO)" alliance. It suggests that radio will have the most influence on social and political change where
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it is widely accessible, trusted by listeners, and open to inclusive participation. ICTs can help make markets work for the poor, but the surrounding circumstances are highly influential in determining in how far they make a difference. Communication networks appear to be particularly effective in building communities of activists where they enable the pooling of resources and expertise and leverage wider influence on decision-makers. However, the report concludes that evidence of the impact of ICTs is still weak. More debate is needed about how ICTs are best deployed. This requires learning how people really use the tools, as well as a more effective assessment of past and current experiences." (CAMECO Update 1-2009)
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"Die Arbeit untersucht, welche Rolle die Medien für die Demokratisierung des von 24 Jahren Krieg zerstörten Landes spielen können. Vor allem internationale Hilfsorganisationen sind gefordert, die aufkeimende afghanische Presse auf dem Weg zu Demokratie und Freiheit zu begleiten. Nach theoretische
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n Überlegungen zu Demokratie und Medien sowie der politischen Situation Afghanistans richtet sich das Hauptaugenmerk auf die praktische Medienförderung vor Ort. Die Verfasserin bereiste im April 2004 das Camp des Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) der Bundeswehr in Kunduz und besuchte eine Woche lang verschiedene Presseprojekte der Deutschen sowie weitere Medienprojekte internationaler NGOs in Kunduz. Es wird deutlich, dass Medien in Zeiten des gesamtgesellschaftlichen Umbruchs eine wichtige Rolle für den Demokratisierungsprozess eines Landes spielen können. Medienhilfe muss zudem mit konventioneller Entwicklungshilfe kooperieren und sich an die Gegebenheiten des Landes anpassen. Nur so kann eine Presselandschaft entstehen, die zum jeweiligen Volk passt und sich somit auch nach dem Abzug der internationalen Hilfsorganisationen weiterentwickeln und finanzieren kann." (Abstract, aus: Transfer 1/2005, http://www.dgpuk.de/transfer)
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"There is very little undestanding of the role that communicartion processes play in the numerous starnds of post-conflict reconstruction, including peacebuilding, governance, and long-term development. This paper addressess this gap by distilling lessons learned from the media and communication str
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ategies of different donors. It takes as its primary case study the Office of Transition Initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has long track record of media and communication work in post-conflict environments. In doing so, it seeks to present a new model for understanding and working with communication in post-conflict and fragile environments." (Foreword)
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"There have been an estimated 3.8 billion mobile phones in the world in 2008 and most of the growth has been taking place in the Global South. 15 million people in Africa now individually own mobile phones but do not have access to a TV at home. A higher percentage of Kenyans use mobile commerce tha
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n Americans or Finns. More Jamaicans access the web from mobiles than from desktop computers. The publication provides a roadmap for media professionals on how to navigate the world of mobile media, based on in-depth interviews with media executives and technologists, and extensive research into latest best practice. It points to areas of potential like free-to-use short message service (SMS), Bulk SMS gateways to deliver messaging to networks, M-Commerce, mobile news alerts and voice-driven information services. Apart from many concrete examples both in the South and the North, the publication also includes summaries of mobile market conditions in 20 countries across the developing world. For media considering entering the mobile market, it suggests that mobile Internet access will continue to increase and that text (rather than voice) messaging is growing. It recommends starting one's own mobile news outlet rather than feeding news to others." (CAMECO Update 1-2009)
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"A handful of members and persons close to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Indonesia’s most prominent extremist organisation, have developed a profitable publishing consortium in and around the pesantren (religious school) founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Abdullah Sungkar in Solo, Central Java. The cons
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ortium has become an important vehicle for the dissemination of jihadi thought, getting cheap and attractively printed books into mosques, bookstores and discussion groups. The publishing venture demonstrates JI’s resilience and the extent to which radical ideology has developed roots in Indonesia. The Indonesian government should monitor these enterprises more closely, but they may be playing a useful role by channelling JI energies into waging jihad through the printed page rather than acts of violence." (Executive summary)
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"Having a vibrant media scene is a necessary prerequisite to human development and good governance. But, the time has come for us, media practitioners and support organisations, to accept and recognise that this is too complex to bring about on our own. It would be prudent to recognise the limitatio
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ns of our sector, and create appropriate evaluation and impact assessment tools. The existing tools and methodologies are devised to give a macro picture of the overall environments but fail to clearly demarcate the roles played by various actors: State, Judiciary, Executive, Civil Society and Media. Media is just one contributing factor, albeit an important one at that. Hence, it is imperative to track the spheres of influence wielded by the sector so that support organisations are not misled into tracking and measuring overall environments while attempting to quantify the impact that media support organisations have in the process of change." (Page 2)
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"The purpose of this handbook is to lay out some principles that could function as guideposts for journalists in Afghanistan as they seek to grapple with the evolving complexities of democracy in action. It seeks to provide concrete suggestions on how global best practices in political reporting and
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election coverage could be adapted for the Afghanistan context. Interactions between the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) have arrived at several conclusions about current media awareness of the democratic electoral process. Journalists find they have little access to the inner workings of the electoral process. They think that political leaders do not want to face journalists who ask difficult questions. The referee of the electoral process, the Independent Election Commission established under the constitution of Afghanistan, also is in need of media oversight, as are the election observers deployed by international agencies. Journalists are keen to join debate about the most appropriate pattern of electoral democracy for Afghanistan, in terms of assessing the presidential and the parliamentary system, and all the variants on these basic models. Journalists want an agreed charter of rights regarding their powers of scrutiny over the electoral process, so that they can report irregularities that ordinary people and public authorities can then seek to correct. Journalists want to understand better the principles of neutral and non-partisan reporting. In the specific situation of past and present conflict in Afghanistan, journalists want to understand how they can expand the limits of “safe reporting”, particularly in relation to the influence and coercive power wielded by erstwhile “warlords." (Introduction, page 3)
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"Independent media have expanded and diversified in Afghanistan, though the country remains a precarious and hazardous place for journalists and media organisations. Nine journalists have been killed between January 1, 2007 and the writing of these lines (though one case remains a little unclear), w
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hile abductions, physical violence, threats and intimidation against journalists continue with worrying frequency. While the establishment of a number of print, broadcast and online media outlets creates an atmosphere of hope for the growth of free media in the country, attacks on journalists, death threats and intimidation from armed insurgency owing allegiance to the Taliban continue. Worryingly, there has also been an increasing trend of official and governmental sources, not to mention the various armed groups that continue to have immense influence in the national houses of parliament, to threaten and harass media and media workers. The threats are clearly intended to silence debate about the new Afghanistan, and to stifle the development of an independent and critical media through which such debate would be conducted.
Religious hardliners continue to apply pressure on the Government of President Hamid Karzai to impose or support harsh measures against individuals and institutions who do not bow to fundamentalist ideas about the direction of Afghan society. This is despite the clear guarantee in Afghanistan’s Constitution of the right of citizens to freedom of expression. The most prominent example is that of Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, a young journalist with the Jahan-e-Naw weekly and a student at Balkh University, Mazar-e-Sharif, who was sentenced to death after a four-minute closed-door hearing in January 2008, on charges of blasphemy." (Page 3)
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"In this second publication in our Access to Communications Publication Series, the authors examine real-life examples of and trends in wireless technology solutions being used to drive change in the areas of health, humanitarian assistance, and environmental conservation. The compelling stories por
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trayed in this report demonstrate that telecommunications can be a powerful tool for positive change in our world." (Foreword)
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"This edition (2007/2008) continues the tradition of providing an analytical overview of the state of ICT4D in Asia Pacific. It covers 31 countries and economies, including North Korea for the first time. Each country chapter is an attempt to provide a relatively comprehensive coverage of the variou
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s aspects of ICT4D in each of the countries at the time that the chapter was written (in 2006). To provide a broad perspective of the issues covered, the chapters are written by a team of authors representing different sectors, such as government, academe, industry and civil society. There are also fi ve thematic chapters providing a synthesis of some of the key issues in ICT4D in Asia Pacific today." (Introduction, page xii)
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"This book includes 17 articles on the current state of communication for development from renowned communication practitioners and scholars. It covers five areas: an introduction to the relationship between development, participation and communication; the theoretical underpinnings of development c
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ommunication; the development communication strategies of international institutions like UNESCO, FAO and UNICEF; concrete experiences in HIV/AIDS communication and the concepts behind; and case studies on community media and media projects in conflict areas. The special value of this book is that the project examples are not just presented in a descriptive manner, but analyzed in detail according to the underlying communication concepts. In addition, various contributions trace the history of participatory communication approaches to development. This is a revised and updated version of a 2003 UNESCO publication called Approaches to Development: Studies on Communication for Development." (CAMECO Update 4-2008)
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"Internet filtering takes place in at least forty states worldwide including many countries in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. This publication examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives. The six introd
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uctory chapters (only available in the print version) discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking, and the implications of Internet filtering for civil society groups that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions. Regional overviews and reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow (which are also available online), with each country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings. The study relies on the results of the "OpenNet Initiative", a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge." (CAMECO Update 4-2008)
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