"On the basis of an online survey conducted among young Chinese adults, this study examines how the association between media usage and political trust can be explained by three factors: the mediating roles of the perceived credibility of traditional and social media; the moderating roles of trust i
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n sources – media and non-media sources alike; and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) membership. Analyses support the idea that (1) the perceived credibility of political information obtained from traditional and social media is a significant mediator, and that (2) traditional media credibility has a stronger effect than social media credibility." (Abstract)
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"The Global Handbook of Media Accountability brings together leading scholars to 'de-Westernize' the academic debate on media accountability and discuss different models of media self-regulation and newsroom transparency around the globe. With examination of the status quo of media accountability in
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forty-four countries worldwide, it offers a theoretically informed, comparative analysis of accountability regimes of different varieties. As such, it constitutes the first interdisciplinary academic framework comparing structures of media accountability across all continents and represents an invaluable basis for further research and policy-making. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of media studies and journalism, mass communication, sociology and political science, as well as policy-makers and practitioners." (Publisher description)
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"Multifaceted, uncensored, promoting democracy - that is the internet, many people had long hoped. But from today's perspective, this is not true - or only partially. Because the big digital platforms and the world wide web are both: media of freedom and control. In many places, they support civil s
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ociety, but often they also pose a massive threat to it. On the one hand, civil society organisations, activists and bloggers use digital tools to organise their work and make it more efficient: Through them, they disseminate reports and campaigns and exchange information. On the other hand, governments restrict freedom of expression and the press through online censorship: They block access to certain websites or platforms or shut down the internet entirely and monitor activists and journalists with digital technologies, often made in Europe. Policymakers, platforms and civil society face major challenges: They have to negotiate and decide how to deal with hate on the web and in social media without compromising freedom of expression. How more people, especially in the Global South, can get better access to the internet. And, how the data collection frenzy of the big tech companies and the dangers posed to democracy by Facebook & Co can be contained. Civil society voices call for more human rights based regulation and containment of digital capitalism." (Summary, page 6)
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"Vielfaltig, unzensiert, demokratiefördernd - das ist das Internet, hofften viele Menschen lange. Doch diese Attribute passen aus heutiger Sicht nicht - oder nur teilweise. Denn die großen digitalen Plattformen und das World Wide Web sind beides: Medien der Freiheit und der Kontrolle. Sie helfen d
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er Zivilgesellschaft vielerorts, gefährden sie aber oft auch massiv. Denn einerseits nutzen zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen, Aktivist:innen und Blogger:innen digitale Tools zur Organisation und Effizienzsteigerung ihrer Arbeit: Sie verbreiten über sie Analysen und Kampagnen und tauschen sich darüber aus. Andererseits schränken Regierungen weltweit durch Online-Zensur die Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit ein: Sie blockieren den Zugang zu bestimmten Webseiten oder Plattformen oder sperren das Netz ganz und überwachen Aktivist:innen und Journalist:innen gezielt mit digitalen Technologien, oft Made in Europe. Die Herausforderungen an Politik, Plattformen und Zivilgesellschaft sind groß: Sie müssen aushandeln und entscheiden, was dem Hass im Netz und in den Sozialen Medien entgegengesetzt werden kann, ohne dass die Meinungsfreiheit eingeschränkt wird. Wie mehr Menschen gerade im Globalen Süden einen besseren Zugang zum Internet bekommen. Und wie sich die Datensammelwut der großen Tech-Konzerne und die damit für die Demokratie von Facebook & Co. ausgehenden Gefahren eindämmen lassen. Die zivilgesellschaftlichen Stimmen mehren sich, die mehr menschenrechtsorientierte Regulierung und eine Eindämmung des digitalen Kapitalismus fordern." (Zusammengefasst, Seite 6)
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"This study examines the use of social media by individuals during protests in China (Hong Kong), Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. Method: Surveys in the four countries assess the relationship between people's attitudes toward the protests and their selection bias on social media, manifested through selecti
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ve sharing and selective avoidance. Findings: Regardless of the different political and media systems in each country, social media usage was largely similar. Overall, our findings established that people's attitude strength toward the protests was associated with their selective sharing behavior; those who scored high on supporting the protests were more likely than those who scored high on opposing the protests to share news that supports the protests, and vice versa. As for selective avoidance, social media protest news use emerged as the strongest predictor. The more individuals followed and shared protest news on social media, the more likely they were to engage in selective avoidance by hiding or deleting comments, unfriending or unfollowing people, and blocking or reporting people for posting comments with which they disagreed." (Abstract)
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"The pandemic made inequality, discrimination, exclusion and structural inequity more palpable, and rather than stagnating in indignation, it reactivated a sense of rebellion and contestation. The strength and sharpness with which we connect social justice, gender justice, environmental justice, eco
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nomic justice and racial justice with the potentials and limitations of digital technologies is undeniable. Using this intersectional lens, we need to document and build our own narratives about the challenges that we face related to the impacts of the pandemic and reflect on how our advocacy priorities as well as the ways we do advocacy are changing and keep being modified and adjusted. At APC we have strengthened capacity to design and implement collective and contextual community responses to the multiple challenges and crises that we face, while having a greater awareness of the kind of global responses that should be prioritised, based on shared but differentiated responsibilities [...] GISWatch 2021-2022 focuses on responses to some of the fundamental questions brought by the pandemic to inform civil society’s advocacy around digital technology issues and their potential to shape future horizons. As illustrated on our cover, a sustained struggle will be necessary in the years ahead, but not only in the public spaces. A nuanced approach to advocacy will be essential to open multiple ways to bring about positive change." (Preface, page 6)
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"Between January 2019 and May 2022, Amnesty International recorded at least 328 physical and/or digital attacks directed against civil society, resulting in a total of at least 834 victims. The victims include human rights defenders (HRDs), activists, journalists, environmental defenders, students,
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and protestors, while the alleged perpetrators of the attacks and intimidation include both state and non-state actors. This report highlights recent repressive tendencies in Indonesia with reference to some of the cases recorded by Amnesty International between January 2019 and May 2022. The report is based on 52 interviews carried out with HRDs, activists, students, lawyers and journalists, as well as media reports and case files. The report exposes how the space for civil society in Indonesia has shrunk during this period as a result of an ongoing assault on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, personal security and freedom from arbitrary detention." (Executive summary)
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"This study looks at how online misogyny is impacting the work of women journalists in India. Journalists here are encouraged to have a social media presence and publicize stories online, but organizations do little to protect them from the relentless trolling and misogyny that characterizes the onl
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ine sphere in India today. Analyzing interviews with female journalists who actively covered the recent #MeTooIndia movement, this study found that when women reporters covered stories of sexual violence, their voices online were condemned, and they were subject to horrific sexual innuendo that implied violence. As journalists are forced to rethink the notion of public, how do they respond and cope with incivility online? They are expected to do stories that serve the public, but when a section of that public is extremely uncivil, how are journalists impacted and how does this affect their work? Journalists in India have developed a variety of strategies to deal with social media vitriol, but incivility online is an issue that organizations refuse to do much about. As the interviews show, social media platforms in India are more pulpits of hate than reasoned debate. This study looks at their implications on journalism from a gendered perspective in India." (Abstract)
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"Despite rising scholarly interest in online violence as an “occupational hazard” for journalists, we know little about the dynamics that shape the often-limited support given by media organizations to media workers affected by online violence. In this study, I explore how the working environmen
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t of journalists constrains opportunities for addressing gendered online violence. Through a total of 27 interviews with experts and media workers in the United Kingdom and India, I find that these structural barriers play out through three main dynamics: stratified access to support resources, workplace norms that punish reporting online violence as signs of “weakness,” and precarious conditions that leave journalists with little control over their work. Adverse press freedom conditions also appear to exacerbate the impact of these dynamics. Relating these findings to broader inequality regimes in the contemporary working world, I argue that online violence both reinforces and is reinforced by inequality regimes within media organizations. In the same way that organizations often fail to adequately address other forms of workplace harassment, structural barriers complicate newsroom responses to online violence." (Abstract)
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"An international survey reveals that Internet users' trust on the Internet has dropped significantly since 2019. That is among the key findings of a 20-country Ipsos survey released by The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany. Only six in ten (63%) Internet users on average across the 20 countries sai
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d they trust the Internet. That is down 11 points since a similar survey was conducted in 2019. The singular exception is Japan, which showed a 7 percentage-point increase in trust. But Japan is the rare exception, as the findings reveal that Internet trust shrunk by double-digits in India (-10 points), Kenya (-11), Sweden (-10), Brazil (-18), Canada (-14), the United States (-12), and Poland (-26)." (Publisher description)
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"Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Filipino reporters and editors from three influential media outlets that then President Rodrigo Duterte targeted as enemies – the broadcaster ABS-CBN, the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the website Rappler – this paper offers novel i
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nsights on journalists’ counterstrategies with appeals to their strengthened roles as watchdogs, interpreters and disseminators of populist communication. Findings indicate that journalists discard practices like false equivalence and shift roles including from being detached observers to media freedom advocates and truth activists to respond to institutional attacks, rising disinformation, and perceived democratic erosion as they seek to speak truth to a populist in power. The study provides theoretical and empirical contributions by combining paradigm repair and role perceptions as tools in analyzing journalists’ responses to legitimacy threats, and by presenting an understudied case of anti-media populism in the Global South." (Abstract)
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"This book offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and digital media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of digital media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From mobile apps and video games to virtual
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reality and social media, the book provides a detailed review of major topics including ritual, identity, community, authority, and embodiment, includes a series of engaging case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations, considers the theoretical, ethical, and theological issues raised [...] Thoroughly updated throughout with new case studies and in-depth analysis of recent scholarship and developments, this new edition provides a comprehensive overview of this fast-paced, constantly developing, and fascinating field." (Publisher description)
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"This paper experimentally tests the effectiveness of two short edutainment campaigns (under 25 minutes) delivered through Facebook Messenger at reshaping gender norms and reducing social acceptability of violence against women in India. Participants were randomly assigned to watch video clips with
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implicit or explicit messaging formats (respectively a humorous fake reality television drama or a docuseries with clear calls to action). After one week, the intent-to-treat effects of the implicit format on knowledge, gender norms, and acceptability of violence against women oscillated between 0.16 and 0.21 standard deviations yet impacts diminished after four months. By contrast, the explicit format was more impactful in the short term in increasing willingness to share video clips with friends and promoting online information-seeking behaviors. In the medium term, individuals who were exposed to the docuseries were 7.5 percentage points more likely to add a frame against violence against women in their Facebook profile picture, a public display of their disapproval of this harmful practice. The general lack of heterogeneous effects across social status indicators suggests social media as a potential medium for reaching different online populations, including vulnerable ones." (Abstract)
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"This Open Access book examines the ambivalences of data power. Firstly, the ambivalences between global infrastructures and local invisibilities challenge the grand narrative of the ephemeral nature of a global data infrastructure. They make visible local working and living conditions, and the reso
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urces and arrangements required to operate and run them. Secondly, the book examines ambivalences between the state and data justice. It considers data justice in relation to state surveillance and data capitalism, and reflects on the ambivalences between an “entrepreneurial state” and a “welfare state”. Thirdly, the authors discuss ambivalences of everyday practices and collective action, in which civil society groups, communities, and movements try to position the interests of people against the “big players” in the tech industry." (Publisher description)
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"This report proposes solutions on how best to equip journalists and other key actors to fulfil their vital role in a changing landscape. While censorship is an alluring option in the face of disinformation over the internet, it is important to find avenues to facilitate the responsible and ethical
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use of the medium." (Acknowledgements)
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"In sum, this evaluation provides evidence that the Kembali ke Hutan (Return to the forest) project through drama, discussion show, and social media output can engage young Indonesians in topics that they previously were not interested in by breaking down the issues of deforestation in climate chang
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e into tangible topics that they can relate to. By connecting with young people, the media content has been able to increase their knowledge, motivate them to be involved and encourage them to take simple actions. Whilst this phase, has also driven more discursive dialogue in these issues, the results show that there is more scope to increase participation in these issues, stimulate discussion and increase people’s risk perception that these issues need to be taken seriously as they will impact their lives." (Conclusion)
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"This edited collection explores the role of digital inclusion in the welfare and social inclusion of vulnerable people. With interdisciplinary contributors from six continents, working in diverse fields such as digital media studies, social computing, community informatics and cultural studies, the
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collection brings together theoretical and applied research evidence on three vulnerable population categories: ethnic minorities, older people and people with disabilities. Each section is accompanied by a critical commentary on the research insights presented, from third sector community and policy experts. The collection explores whether vulnerable populations face similar experiences and challenges in relation to their digital inclusion status, stressing the central presence of intersectionality, and arguing for the inclusion of the age, ethnicity/immigration status and disability aspects of one's identity. At the same time, it argues for multi-directional action that tackles intersectional discrimination in the digital realm on behalf of more than one single population category or group. Challenging popular discourse on the overcoming of digital inequalities in the West, this essential book contends that accounts of non-western contexts do not focus on the parameter of vulnerability or on particular population groups." (Publisher description)
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"The transformation of Hong Kong is “unstoppable,” as one official has said. And journalists should not expect any special privileges. Journalists, including foreign journalists, are welcome. But they must stick to reporting basic facts, not align with what Beijing called the “anti-China force
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s” seeking to undermine the Communist Party, and not appear to challenge the local government and police. Chris Tang, the Secretary for Security who formerly headed the police, said: “Journalists must act in good faith to provide accurate and reliable information in accordance with the principles of responsible journalism, in order to be protected by the right to freedom of expression and the press.” But the “red lines” to be avoided remain vague. Journalists are unsure what is permissible and what might be considered a violation of national security. The consequences are grave, including possible imprisonment without bail, a presumption of guilt, and if convicted — as is likely in any national security offence — a lengthy prison sentence." (Conclusion)
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"This report summarises learnings from BBC Media Action’s landscaping study of the gendered dimensions of social media access and use in India. It addresses 10 questions that have implications for designing digital solutions for women’s empowerment in India." (Page 2)