"This book departs from the universalising and rescue narratives of poor children and technologies. It offers complex stories on how children's social identities (gender, caste, and religion), cultural norms, and personal aspirations influence their digital experiences. How do children challenge, ci
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rcumvent, or reinforce the dominant sociocultural norms in their engagements with digital technologies? What can we learn about digital technologies and poor children's jugaad and aspirations in the urban sprawls of India? This book explores these questions ethnographically by focusing on how children in three urban slums in India access technologies, inhabit online spaces, and personalise their digital experiences, networks, and identity articulations based on their values and aspirations. It utilises insights from studies on jugaad, expression, and sociality to argue that poor children's material realities, community relations, and aspirations for leisure, class mobility, and belongingness profoundly shape their engagements with digital technologies." (Publisher description)
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"More than three years after the coup, a significant majority of the 40 senior media executives interviewed for this report say they are still dependent, partially or fully, on grants to run their operations. While they cannot control the external factors impacting on their work, be that the conflic
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t or the unpredictability of digital platform policies, they recognise that if they want to survive and attract funding and revenue, they need to build strong, professional operations and to prove their resilience. That includes doing independent, ethical journalism, developing strong financial management and inclusive HR policies, engaging with their audiences, experimenting with diverse revenue streams, planning for the future, and preparing for the unexpected." (Looking ahead)
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"We provide a historically informed analysis of the media in post-communist Mongolia thirty years after the transition. In 1990, Mongolia chose a peaceful transition towards liberal democracy following the seventy years of the communist regime. Our analysis first establishes that amid the challenges
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and changes since the new constitution was adopted, a plural and commercial media system has undeniably been established. However, only a few established themselves as independent media with editorial, business, and ethical norms. While the plurality of media outlets created a media landscape aberrant from the socialist-time propagandistic media, the media market failures, along with rudimentary legal and professional institutions, contributed to the media instrumentalization and media capture in Mongolia." (Abstract)
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This book illuminates the complex relationship between social media, identity, and youth in the Global South. By examining the profound impact on the psychosocial well-being and economic prospects of young people across diverse regions, the collection present empirical evidence from scholars spannin
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g Asia, Africa, North America, Central, and South America. Contributors show how young people experience adverse side-effects online, such as social withdrawal, or animosity to others, and how good social health and social media use can help young people develop economic resources, become independent, and socially responsible. Additionally, the book explores the role of social media channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, in the rise of cyberbullying, sexting, and online radicalization; how these platforms re-negotiate identity in developing countries and compromise productivity; and how the behaviour of celebrities on said platforms influence youth behaviour. Structured into five thematic sections, this book presents a nuanced understanding of the well-being implications arising from social media use among young people hailing from diverse socio-cultural and economic backgrounds and political exigencies.
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"This article explores the challenges faced by the media education and curricula development in Pakistan, and how the safety of journalists is apportioned in the courses and curriculum of mass communication in different universities. The study uses a mixed method research, including quantitative app
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roach through surveys from one hundred and fifty media students from different universities of Pakistan, it further uses qualitative in-depth interview method in which fifteen media academics are interviewed. The research reveals that safety of journalists has never been a priority in the curriculum, even if the future journalists are really hungry to be educated and trained to cover any hostile event, pandemics and conflict sensitive reporting, and to cope with post coverage traumas. Safety of journalists has been occasionally discussed in lectures on the demand of students, but can never get a space in the mass communication curriculum. This study lays the foundation of ESCR Model of Journalism Education that deals with ethics and safety in crisis and risks. It further suggests the training of academics themselves; and collaboration of media professionals with the academia to realistically develop a curriculum taking into account what media industry and future journalists actually need to mug up." (Abstract)
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"Soziale Medien haben die Verbreitung von Antisemitismus revolutioniert. Algorithmisch verstärkt verbreitet sich Antisemitismus auf den Plattformen in Sekundenschnelle, kostenlos und global. Die daraus resultierende Gefahr für Jüdinnen*Juden ist eine große gesellschaftliche Herausforderung. Das
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Buch gibt Einblicke in Fallstudien auf verschiedenen Plattformen und zeigt, wie soziale Medien durch die Verbreitung antisemitischer Inhalte von politischem Akteur*innen instrumentalisiert werden. Es werden innovative Methoden und Tools (CrowdTangle oder Voyant Tools) und neue Konzepte (Social Media Literacy, tertiärer Antisemitismus, antisemitische Eskalation) vorgestellt und Strategien, um Antisemitismus auf den Plattformen zu bekämpfen, kritisch evaluiert. Dieses Buch bietet eine umfassende Einführung für alle, die sich mit der Problematik Antisemitismus in den sozialen Medien auseinandersetzen wollen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Sie stammt aus einfachen Verhältnissen vom Land, doch heute ist die gerade mal 24 Jahre alte Noeun Sreynoch Moderatorin und Programmmacherin beim Sender „Women‘s Radio“ in Phnom Penh. In ihren Sendungen geht es vor allem um die Anliegen von Frauen und soziale Themen." (Einleitung)
"The 2024 Europe and Eurasia Vibrant Information Barometer (VIBE) covers 18 countries throughout Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia. With VIBE, IREX strives to capture a modern and evolving media space where people are simultaneously producers, transmitters, consumers, and actors in the information t
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hat influences their lives and environments. This year’s edition focuses on the media and information space across the countries in the study during calendar year 2023, capturing the impact of the second year of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, along with other issues related to the work of media like the lack of gender equity within the media sectors and issues with how gender is covered throughout the region." (Executive summary, page 7)
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"Grounded in the intersections of culture, gender and occupation, this paper explores the challenges and barriers faced by “elite” Pakistani women working in a journalistic profession steeped in male dominance shaped by patriarchal values. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted with nine
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highly experienced women journalists from television, radio, digital and print media. The findings reveal a range of occupational hazards confronting women journalists in Pakistan: (i) Pervasive exclusion and discrimination relegating women to soft news beats and imposing hard glass ceilings’ hindering career progression; (ii) Systemic income disparities and job precarity, emphasizing pronounced economic disadvantage for female journalists; (iii) Instances of sexual and emotional harassment at the workplace; (iv) Prevalent online public harassment and cyberbullying; and (v) Psychological stressors arising from the trauma of harassment compounded by the stigma of seeking psychological help. These findings underscore the critical interplay of gender and culture within the journalism profession, accentuating not only employment disparities but also exclusion, discrimination, and harassment. These factors not only obstruct career advancement but also inflict psychological trauma." (Abstract)
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"This article examines the semantics of populist rhetoric and conspiracy narratives in the Philippines to understand how they can be operationalized for governmental purposes. Focusing on Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency (2016–22), I argue that conspiracy narratives simplify socio-economic issues an
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d aid the transformation of collective discontent into an instrument of governmentality. Evidence from public speeches, news articles and online ethnographic research shows that these narratives enable populist actors to emotionally charge the political landscape, framing society in moral binary terms: the virtuous people, depicted as victims of corruption, vs. a morally compromised elite. In this context, populism simultaneously forges an antagonistic frontier and promotes an elitist agenda, thereby silencing dissent and leaving little space for resistance. The findings suggest that while populism can inspire and mobilize marginalized communities, its co-option for governmental purposes can subvert its emancipatory potential." (Abstract)
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"Since the 2000s, China has deepened public relations in its engagement with Africa primarily through economic investment and assistance. The present work looks at China’s African public relations and the mechanism that shapes public perception of China, focusing on Mali. Mali is not a major desti
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nation for Chinese investment, yet public perceptions of China appear to be uniquely positive. How may we explain this trajectory? The work undertakes a longitudinal examination, comparing China’s economic developments in Mali (2010–20) with Malians’ perception of China’s influence on the Malian economy that shapes the general perception and attitude towards China (2010–20) and the media’s role in this process. Some questions guide this study: how do Chinese economic activities in Mali shape Malians’ perception of China? How does the media contribute (if any) to shaping Malian perception of China’s developmental programmes? Employing a mixed research method and a range of datasets, I find that economic investment does not necessarily shape positive public perception of China in Mali. Instead, how the public receives information about economic investments shapes and enhances a positive perception of China in Mali. Consequently, China would substantially enhance its image-building effort when its foreign economic development assistance is linked with public relations, making economic programmes more visible through media representations. I based the theoretical discussion on the media agenda-setting framework." (Abstract)
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"This research article answers calls for a greater understanding of science journalism in the Global South. Taking the case of environmental journalism in Pakistan, we present a thematic analysis of data from interviews with nine environmental reporters working for a range of news titles, representi
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ng the major media organisations in the country. We find that a range of factors on individual, routine, organisational, and extra-media level influence media reporting of the environment in Pakistan and shape the professional identities of environmental journalists. The environmental beat is regarded as lacking in prestige compared to politics or the economy, and resource constraints prevent on-the-ground reporting. Access to sources and data also hamper environmental reporting. A “balance as bias” approach, whereby contesting views concerning climate change are presented without reference to the weight of evidence, persists. The commercial imperatives of proprietors, and the demands of advertisers, means that environmental coverage is often excluded or relegated to the margins. There is a difference in the ways in which English-language and Urdu-language titles approach scientific topics." (Abstract)
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"Short videos are very popular in China. The provincial TV stations in China use short videos to disseminate information. Curiosity about the influence of short video news is the primary motivation of this study. This paper integrates theories of news and place, focuses on local visibility, explores
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how short videos can serve as media infrastructure to report news, construct local visibility and change public life. Taking a sample of official short videos from 31 provincial TV stations in China, this paper uses the narrative analysis method to decode the videos. It is found that short videos create a unique news space which are reflected in narrative language, narrative framework and narrative theme, respectively. This study argues that the short video platform has shaped a place with public vitality, participated in local image management, and built the “visible community”. This has innovated the existing theoretical relationship between news and place, and the short video media practice of TV stations in various provinces has provided the world with the Chinese experience of creating place." (Abstract)
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"The GeoPoll Afghanistan Media Audience Landscape Establishment Survey comprised of 2,000 Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI) with respondents across the country, conducted in from December 2023 to January 2024. Based on the survey data, approximately 67% of the adult Afghan population wat
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ch television at least once a month." (Page 2)
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"Organisation-centric approaches in development communication and public relations that privilege the organisation can restrict communication to organisational mandates and goals. Organisation-centric approaches can reflect a modernist view of development or communication and have been critiqued for
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favouring technocratic development rather than serving marginalised groups. Currently, scholars in development communication and public relations place greater emphasis on publics or community participation and the processual nature of communication to overcome adverse organisational influence and propose better solutions. This article recognises theoretical advances in development communication and public relations and adopts the Collaborative Communication Approach, integrating current concepts from these two fields. The Collaborative Communication Approach facilitates an examination of communication in development in relation to five elements of power, context, participation, agency, and profession. This article shows how the five elements prove useful in addressing communication challenges in development through primary research and offers eight distinct categories to advance practice." (Abstract)
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"China’s biggest media conglomerate, Xinhua, has 37 bureaus in Africa. This dwarves any other news agency—African or non-African—and is a dramatic increase from just a handful two decades ago. Another Chinese media giant, StarTimes, is China’s biggest player in African digital TV and the sec
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ond largest in Africa after South Africa’s DSTV. StarTimes is installing satellite dishes in 10,000 rural homes across 20 African countries, linking them to Chinese digital TV, further embedding itself on the continent.
Many of Africa’s young journalists are trained in China and paid by Chinese media entities. In Kenya alone, 500 journalists and local staff are employed by Chinese media agencies, dispatching 1,800 news items monthly. Veteran China-trained Kenyan journalist Joseph Odindo, the former editorial director of Nation Media Group (East and Central Africa’s largest media conglomerate), notes that he had to keep close watch on his workforce while at the Standard Group. “[W]e had to draw up a chart which would enable us to see who was out on a Chinese training at any given time, who was due to come back, and who was next—otherwise you could find half of your newsroom is in Beijing undergoing training.”
The surge in Chinese investments in the African media space is part of a global strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to gain influence in the developing countries by shaping their information environments. The CCP views the media as a battleground for “telling China’s story well,” a phrase coined by CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping in 2013 at the party’s National Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference. China’s ruling party, according to its own policies, regards the media as an arena of combat to advance its narratives and policies and to discredit those of its adversaries without using military force. This invokes the Sun Tzu concept of “winning battles without fighting,” a concept CCP propagandists frequently use to describe their media offensives." (Introduction)
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