"This article explores the bipolar structure of communication in Afghanistan, where the latest technological advancements in media coexist with a complex system of traditional communication. After 22 years of civil war and the destruction of most modern media facilities, Afghanistan's traditional ch
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annels of communication have become even more significant. This article examines the history of the press in Afghan politics and society and asks what roles modern and traditional communication systems and values may play in the future." (Abstract)
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"The Handbook for Afghan Journalists is designed to help Afghan journalists in three ways. First, it serves as an explanation in their own language to many of the ideas and concepts behind international journalism. Second, it provides practical guidance on many of the basic techniques of journalism.
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To this end there are 12 exercises in the book. Some of them have answers provided at the end, and others either have no correct answers or are designed to be worked on in the classroom with a teacher. Third, the glossary at the back is intended to serve as a reference to explain and introduce many concepts which may be new to Afghan journalists. A wider range of reporting on economic and humanitarian issues is essential to strong public debate - and good government and international community strategies - if Afghanistan's bid for peace and development is to succeed. Journalists need familiarity with basic concepts in these fields to report on them properly." (Introduction, page 2)
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"In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Rahmenbedingungen für Markteintritte ausländischer Fernsehprogrammanbieter in den chinesischen Rundfunkmarkt dargestellt, analysiert und Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten aufgezeichnet. Dabei ist festzustellen, dass das Rundfunksystem der VR Chinas darauf ausgelegt
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ist, den Binnenmarkt mit Hilfe des Auslands zu verbessern. Die Begründung für unterschiedliche Ausmaße ausländischer Markteintritte kann aus theoretischer Sicht mittels produktiver und allokativer Ineffizienzen des Binnenmarktes dargelegt werden, dessen Produktionen qualitativ unterdurchschnittlich und zu teuer sind. Produktive Ineffizienzen treten auf, da planwirtschaftliche Organisationsstrukturen wettbewerbliches Verhalten zwischen den Marktteilnehmern verhindern und darüber hinaus kein Anreiz besteht, Fernsehprogramme effizienter zu fertigen. Allokative Ineffizienzen treten auf, da der Staat mit der Bereitstellung von Fernsehprogrammen das Ziel verbindet, Propaganda zu verbreiten. In diesem Sinne kˆnnen entsprechend dem ersten Zwischenergebnis die Bereitstellung hochqualitativer und eine hohe Einschaltquote versprechende ausländische Fernsehprogramme als Propagandarahmenprogramm verstanden werden: Den Konsumentenpräferenzen entsprechend werden Fernsehprodukte bereitgestellt, um eine allokative Verbesserung zu erreichen und zugleich das politische Ziel zu erfüllen, im Rahmenprogramm ausländischen Programms Propaganda zu verbreiten." (Zusammenfassung und Ausblick, Seite 69)
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"Taking 14 radio serial dramas from around the world shows that many aspects of the way they are organised are not replicable: what works in one context would just not work in another. This is because of the very nature of pro-social media projects: they depend so much on the personal contacts of th
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e producers, and the specific needs and tastes of the target audience. A successful model for one country may well not work in another, simply because there are so many variables. Having presented this caveat, the following is a list of replicable features gleaned from the 14 projects studied. More detail about how these features work in practice can be found in each case-study. The features have been selected because they either show up strongly across all projects, have been singled out by project-holders as the key to their success, or because they seem to have the potential for translating across countries and sectors." (Recommendations, page 21)
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"The use of folk arts in rural development clearly has limitations as to the role that it can play in changing people’s behavior, but it is an effective tool for communication in most cases. The greatest strength of this type of informal education lies in its ability to capture the audience’s at
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tention through entertaining spectacles and to convey new ideas and information to people. In addition, the Bhats’ social position plays an important role in the education process, as they are a marginal community that has provided social commentary through performance arts for centuries. Thus by employing them, NGOs and government agencies appropriate the benefits of their ritual discursive authority. Also, these organizations are aided by the inversions of the social order that occur during shows because the folk artists are able to command the attention of large audiences and thus disseminate their messages among diverse groups of people. In addition, the kathputli tradition of North India is steeped in mythology and symbolism, and these traits give the puppets themselves special ideological status as metonyms and liminars. In turn, these attributes allow the puppets to exist in a realm that is different from that of live actors, and thus they can communicate more effectively as they are exempt from many of the rules and biases that are linked to human behavior. Despite the numerous benefits of using folk arts in development programs, follow-up sessions and more extensive education for villagers and performers are needed to change behaviors regarding complex issues. These performances are quite successful at conveying information, but people are unlikely to incorporate into their lives new ideas regarding issues like folk medicines." (Conclusion, page 63)
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"The information campaign that IOM Tbilisi is implementing in Georgia during the year 2002 aims at preventing irregular migration and trafficking in human beings from Georgia. IOM will seek to raise the awareness of potential irregular migrants of the pitfalls of irregular migration and to alert the
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m about the inherent dangers in trafficking. This information will give potential migrants a more realistic picture of possibilities for regular migration and help them to counterbalance misperceptions and deliberately misleading information. IOM conducts the information campaign in the framework of the “Cluster” process, which is an ongoing dialogue on irregular migration between countries of origin in the South Caucasus and those of destination in Western Europe." (Executive summary)
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"Ce qui suit, c’est un fascinant catalogue de cinquante expériences qui permirent à des résidents de communautés pauvres de par le monde de prendre le contrôle de leur histoire, et de commencer à changer les circonstances de leur pauvreté, de leur discrimination, de leur exclusion. Alfonso
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Gumucio a passé presque un an à rechercher et interroger des sources pour ce travail, et s’est impliqué dans chacune des phases de la conception. La « voix d’Alfonso » résonne dans toute cette oeuvre qui est un hommage à ce qui fait de lui le communicateur par excellence : il a l’âme du poète et du réalisateur de talent qu’il est, combinée à un sens inébranlable de la justice et de l’équité. Après le chapitre introductif sur le rôle que joue la communication participative dans le changement social et son évolution, vous pourrez lire cinquante exemples qui illustrent le pouvoir que donnent l’action et la prise de décision communautaires. La plupart d’entre eux relatent de radios communautaires. Nous espérons que vous ne trouverez pas cela fastidieux, mais nos recherches et conversations nous ont conduits à conclure que la radio communautaire représente l’un des meilleurs moyens d’atteindre les communautés exclues ou marginalisées, et ce de manière ciblée et utile." (Préface de Denise Gray-Felder, page 1-2)
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"Harnessed to its full potential, basic e-mail and Internet facilities can serve as a powerful tool in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In South-East Asia, UNAIDS has coordinated an infoDev project, a global grant programme funded and managed by the World Bank to promote innovative projects on the use of
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information technologies with a special emphasis on the needs of the poor in developing countries." (Back cover)
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"This is a book about an inter-continental community theatre project. It is an attempt to gain a better understanding of this increasingly popular cultural practice that operates on the cutting edge between performing arts and sociocultural intervention. The main emphasis in this book, and in the ac
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companying video, has been placed on the diverse mechanics and inspirations of community theatre as an artistic process that always evolves under very particular local sociocultural conditions. Through written word and moving image, this package thus documents, contextualizes, and theorizes the methods that were used to create six community performances in distinct locations around the world in the course of 1997. Both in the video and in the book I have opted to tell these six tales as relatively independent narratives. I recommend watching the appropriate video segments before reading each book chapter, which provides the background about (community) theatre in each particular region, the facilitators, the organizations they work in, the evolution of their method, and a more technically oriented case study of the distinctive approach they used to create one specific community theatre performance in 1997." (Introduction, page 1)
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"In Indonesia press freedom is still just a few years old. When president Suharto fell in May 1998 the democratisation process begun. Hundreds of new newspapers and magazines were established, but many of them had difficulties to survive for economic reasons. The well-established daily newspapers an
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d magazines seem to be the ones who will survive. One of the newly established magazines is Pantau. The name means to monitor in English and the purpose of this monthly media magazine is to elevate the standard of journalism in Indonesia and to institutionalise media freedom. Its target group is journalists, public relation officials and advertising executives. The whole magazine is written in the local language Bahasa Indonesia. During August to October 2001 I was in Jakarta to do a Minor Field Study about Pantau and media’s role in the democratisation process of Indonesia. Together with Maria Nilson I interviewed the journalists of Pantau and the readers of the magazine. I focused on the content, while she focused on the layout of the magazine. The aim of my study is to understand the role of the media in a democratisation process, drawing conclusions from the experience of Pantau. Can Pantau start a debate which indirectly strengthens democracy and press freedom? Does it reach the target group and is this the right group which can be influential in the democratisation process?" (Abstract)
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"In this paper, I will try to briefly summarize the present state of electronic publishing of science in the People’s Republic of China, and to explore how Chinese scientific publishers seem to be more successful in resolving the very same issues that confront their Western counterparts." (Introdu
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ction)
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