"While much has been said about individual disinformation campaigns in specific countries, this book offers a panoramic view of how these campaigns are conducted, who they target, and how they are spread. By bringing together research on specific countries and international data mined from questionn
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aires and online studies, the understanding of the term 'fake news' is greatly expanded and the issues we face are brought to light. The book includes contributions by experts such as Jean-Baptiste Vilmer (Macron Leaks), and includes case studies from Asia, such as Singapore and Myanmar, written in an accessible manner for the general interested reader, practitioners and policymakers in the field." (Publisher description)
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"This year's report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 92,000 online news consumers in 46 markets including India, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, Colombia and Peru for the first time. The report looks at the impact of coronavirus on news consumption a
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nd on the economic prospects for publishers. It looks at progress on new paid online business models, trust and misinformation, local news, impartiality and fairness in news coverage." (Overview)
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"Internews’ work on disinformation in the Philippines aims at uniting the strengths of stakeholders in the media community, civil society, academia, private sector, and social media companies, along six axes: factchecking and myth busting, media and information literacy, public policy advocacy, di
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sinformation investigation, investment in trustworthy news and media, and algorithm accountability. The latter requires to understand the role each social media platform plays in the information ecosystem, to tailor specific strategies of engagement on and with these platforms. In that context, the Understudied Digital Platforms in the Philippines (UDPP) research project sought to understand the role of lesser-known digital platforms, such as TikTok and WeChat, in the Philippine information environment and draw out strategies to mitigate disinformation among their users. Internews worked with three researchers Jose Mari Hall Lanuza (University of the Philippines, Manila) and Rossine Fallorina and Samuel Cabbuag (University of the Philippines, Diliman) to conduct an Information Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) to look deeper into the role that these platforms play in the media and digital landscape, what their current and future impact may be, and where information actors need to focus their attention. The research provides an in-depth dive into these platforms, examining their affordances, information flows, user demographics, and disinformative potential. The research also offers preliminary recommendations for platforms, policymakers, and public stakeholders to establish regulated but democratic online public spheres within these platforms." (Publisher description)
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"The media is considered to be of utmost importance in all phases of disasters, before, during and after, with different types of media having different proactive roles to play in disaster risk reduction. Before disasters, they play essential roles not only in bringing early warning to people but al
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so in enhancing their perception of the need to take action. At during- and post-disaster response recovery phases, community radio and social media are the key. These necessitate a resilient media infrastructure as the core of uninterrupted coverage. Media literacy has become an important issue for several stakeholders, including governments. In addition, more focus is placed on media governance to look at the priorities of disaster risk reduction initiatives within the media. All of these are considered to lead to trust in the media, which further improves people's disaster response actions based on information from the media, before and during disasters." (Publisher description)
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"This study examines the effects of media coverage on the Rohingya refugee crisis based on articles from two liberal, elite newspaper sources, The New York Times and The Guardian between 2010 and 2020. The study reveals that the attempts of international pressure to stop the crisis have increased th
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rough media coverage and political pressures; however, the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar intensified due to worsening violence and human rights violations committed by the Myanmar army. Findings are discussed using the lens of cultural and ideological context. The study suggests that in Myanmar, where authoritarian military culture is pervasive, there is a limited influence of the international press on the state-sponsored ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population and questions whether consistent international pressure could have changed the outcome." (Abstract)
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"This report analyses two Chinese state-linked networks seeking to influence discourse about Xinjiang across platforms including Twitter and YouTube. This activity targeted the Chinese-speaking diaspora as well as international audiences, sharing content in a variety of languages. Both networks atte
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mpted to shape international perceptions about Xinjiang, among other themes. Despite evidence to the contrary, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) denies committing human rights abuses in the region and has mounted multifaceted and multiplatform information campaigns to deny accusations of forced labour, mass detention, surveillance, sterilisation, cultural erasure and alleged genocide in the region. Those efforts have included using Western social media platforms to both push back against and undermine media reports, research and Uyghurs’ testimony about Xinjiang, as well as to promote alternative narratives. In the datasets we examined, inauthentic and potentially automated accounts using a variety of image and video content shared content aimed at rebutting the evidence of human rights violations against the Uyghur population. Likewise, content was shared using fake Uyghur accounts and other shell accounts promoting video ‘testimonials’ from Uyghurs talking about their happy lives in China." (Introduction)
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"The online harassment of female journalists is a rising concern around the world and also in South Asia. Bangladesh, a South Asian country, recently, has experienced an increasing number of harassments against female journalists online. Various studies explored the online harassment, mostly from th
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e Western perspectives. Scholars have argued that the online harassments may negatively affect the freedom of expression. But little is known about Bangladesh. Drawing upon feminist theory, this study investigated the experiences of online journalists in Bangladesh. The objectives were to explore the nature and forms of online harassment and to find how this experiences of harassments affect the freedom of expression of the victims. Data were collected through content analysis, semiotic analysis of the uncivil comments available in the online news feedback and in-depth interviews. Results of the study indicate that online harassment is a frequent phenomenon where the victim journalists feel vulnerable in the ‘unsafe' online ‘patriarchal' environment." (Abstract)
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"As you might expect, there were regional differences among the digital news media in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, which we include in this report. But what struck us most as we reviewed the data were the similarities that emerged among these news organizations as they strive to cover
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their communities and build sustainable business models. Although most operate with relatively small budgets, they have an impact that punches above their weight when compared to the size of their teams and resources. Many specialize in investigative and data journalism, and more than 50% have won national or international awards for their work. Inflection Point International represents the deepest and broadest research ever done into the state of digital native media in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. As with so many things in our not-quite-post-pandemic world, what we discovered was a mix of alarming threats and inspiring breakthroughs." (Executive summary, page 7)
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"The book is a collection of perspectives and creative possibilities of programming on CR, not exclusive to disaster. The book is for anyone who believes in employing reflective creative practices as an approach to their work. It proposes a different way of seeing and listening. It also includes exe
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rcises and games that can be adapted to their own context. The book is a step forward in collectively thinking of a utopia in times of a pandemic, through creative practices." (Metamorphosis: a call for transformation)
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"Journalists, across the world, are ever more at risk of surveillance from state and non-state antagonists. However, to work safely in a monitored environment is a substantial challenge for journalists. In such regimes, journalists and media organizations are often prone to attacks by the state auth
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orities. Surveillance, no matter real or implied, the presence of state panopticon power is felt strongly by the journalists, especially in competitive authoritarian countries like Pakistan. While international organizations monitoring media freedom and journalists’ protection do regularly highlight the increasing surveillance of Pakistani journalists, it is imperative to investigate the way they experience it in their real lives and its implications for them. Thus, informed by the theoretical approaches of panopticism, post-panopticism and competitive authoritarianism, this study aims to address the journalists’ lived experiences of surveillance and its impacts on their professional and personal lives in Pakistan. To accomplish these aims, this study uses the qualitative methods of document review and in-depth interviews, and offers a thematic analysis of the gathered data." (Abstract)
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"This research analyzes the media landscape in Georgia from a gender equality perspective to identify the existing stereotypes dominant in Georgian media organizations. Georgia (country) faces the challenges related to femicide, domestic violence, employment of women, early or forced marriages, sexu
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al harassment, blackmailing of female journalists, and there is a lack of awareness regarding gender equality. The study answers research questions: What sociocultural context and basic psychological motivators drive females to choose journalism as a profession? Is there any gender inequality regarding the workplace and positions in Georgian media (TV, print, radio, and online media) and if ‘yes' how does it present? Are there any predefined topics/themes covered specifically by the male or female journalists? What gender-related stereotypes (if any) dominate/take over in Georgian media?" (Abstract)
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"Dieser Bericht besteht aus drei Teilen. Im ersten Teil finden sich Informationen über den chinesischen Bucheinzelhandel im Jahr 2020, auf Basis einer im Januar 2021 veröffentlichten Marktanalyse von Open Book. Der zweite Teil enthält Branchenstatistiken der chinesischen Regierungsbehörden, die
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von der National Press and Publication Administration im Oktober 2020 veröffentlicht wurden. Diese Statistiken beschreiben die Entwicklung des chinesischen Verlagswesens in 2019. Die Zeitspanne und Schwerpunkte unterscheiden sich von der Analyse im ersten Teil. Der dritte Teil stellt einige wichtige Themen der Branche aus dem Jahr 2020 vor. Der Bericht Buchmarkt China 2020 wurde im April 2021 verfasst." (Seite 1)
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"Between 2012 and 2016, UNESCO registered 530 deaths of journalists. They also published a statistic showing that television journalists were the most killed, followed by print media, radio and online journalists. Hinted in this statistics is the need to understand the relationship between the mediu
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m through which and in which the journalists produce news and the threats and dangers posed to them. In this article, we discuss this interlinkage and call it medium-specific threats. As examples of this interlinkage, we describe the cases of community radio journalists in the Philippines, photojournalists in Afghanistan and online journalists in Venezuela. Based on these examples from independently conducted studies from very different parts of the world, we make the broader case that while recognizing the prevailing political-economic and socio-cultural factors and forces at work in these media systems-in-flux, investigations of medium-specific threats to journalists are needed for more nuanced understanding of and thus mitigation of journalists’ insecurities." (Abstract)
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"In this article, we employed communication infrastructure theory (CIT) to analyze Gram Vaani’s (“Voice of the Village”) Covid-19 Response Network in India. We reviewed key CIT components (i.e., storytelling network and communication action context) and their applications in civic engagement,
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health disparities, and crisis mitigation. Our results showed that Gram Vaani’s Covid-19 Response Network merged all three types of CIT application into an integrated whole and extended it to marginalized rural and migrant/resident worker communities in India. In 15 months, 870,000 individuals used the organization’s Mobile Vaani platforms, made 2.5 million calls, recorded 24,880 voice reports, and shared 2,327 impact stories. Taken together, they amplified the voices of the most vulnerable, provided direct assistance, and held government agencies accountable in three major areas: health promotion and healthcare access, livelihood support and working conditions, and safety nets and essential services. We identified (1) storytelling network actors at all levels (micro, meso, interstitial, and macro), (2) enabling and constraining communication action contexts of pandemic community mobilization, and (3) specific impact pathways for different storytelling network actors to overcome barriers and leverage Mobile Vaani as an enabling and empowering communication action context." (Abstract)
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"Through these mediations on gendered disinformation, and the variety of perspectives that the authors bring, we call into question hegemonic structures of knowledge production. The anthology forces us to call into question the very idea of objectivity, blurring lines between 'truth' and 'lies'. The
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report contains experiences where women have been harmed equally by untrue information, half-truths and narratives that reflect deep-seated biases rather than deliberate lies. For the discourse on gendered disinformation to encompass all these experiences requires a larger contemplation on what we mean by 'objective truth'. (Contribution of report, page 4)
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"This book focuses on ethnic journalism in the Global South, approaching it from two angles: as a professional area and as a social mission. The book discusses journalistic practices and ethnic media in the Global South, managerial and editorial strategies of ethnic media outlets, their content spec
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ifics, target audience, distribution channels, main challenges and trends of development in the digital age." (Publisher description)
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"Due to the relative lack of media comparison studies within Asian contexts, theoretical frameworks based in Western societies have been applied to knowledge production in the global South. Using a ‘most different’ design, this study compares the dimensions of media systems reflected in two Chin
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ese and two Korean newspapers in their initial coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Content analysis showed statistically significant differences in distribution of sources, topics and valence, usage of frame types, and actors including domestic government and foreign entities held responsible between the two groups of media. Based on political implications of crisis on Chinese and Korean news content, we mainly discuss political instrumentalization and parallelism in the media in an Asian context. Finally, we open up the dimensions of media system from an Asian perspective and address the need for future research." (Abstract)
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