"While in 1990s media assistance efforts focused on ensuring the survival of independent media outlets under the authoritarian rule of the Miloševiæ regime, the scope of the assistance expanded after the regime collapsed in 2000, to address a range of issues, such as legal reforms, the establishme
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nt of regulatory bodies, the transformation of the state TV into a public service broadcaster, professionalization of journalism, and management of media outlets. However, in many ways the reforms still depend on continuous external support. Hence, this policy brief outlines key challenges to the media reforms, and lists several lessons that could inform the future media assistance efforts in Serbia." (Summary)
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"Führen Globalisierung und Digitalisierung bei Journalisten zu einer weltweit einheitlichen Rollenvorstellung (= Illusio)? Rund 70 Leitfaden-Interviews mit Online-Journalisten zeigen das Fortbestehen nationaler und internationaler Unterschiede - aber auch eine klare Tendenz: Auf der Suche nach mög
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lichst vielen Klicks verlieren die Journalisten den Glauben an die klassische Gatekeeper-Rolle; sie werden "Gatepusher'." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"En Manual de comunicación ambiental, el lector encontrará una guía para definir una política de comunicación ambiental. Con tal fin se aclara este término diferenciándolo de otras prácticas que se apropian del «discurso verde» sin creer en él. Además, se esbozan las estrategias, las cla
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ves de un plan de comunicación y las técnicas que se pueden utilizar. A través de una selección de casos prácticos se quiere inspirar a estudiantes y profesionales de la comunicación estratégica y del marketing, así como a directivos, a realizar una comunicación efectiva de los valores ambientales desde la empresa, la Administración y las asociaciones ciudadanas." (Cubierta del libro)
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"The transformation of state media to public service media (PSM) is one of the most ambitious endeavors in the field of media development. Not many efforts to free the national media from government control have succeeded in the past decades. In this paper the comparatively promising cases of Kyrgyz
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stan, Mongolia, Moldova and Serbia are discussed. The PSM in these countries all have a new legal basis, including a public service remit and a relatively independent governing body in which civil society is represented. The services delivered to the public by these media are analyzed according to a number of societal functions which are assembled under two general headings: “creating a public sphere” and “supporting integration”. Based on this analysis, a differentiation between “PSM in initial transformation” and “PSM in advanced transformation” is suggested. In all cases studied, different actors successfully used windows of opportunity: general political agendas to reform the media, a specific engagement from the management as well as support from the population and civil society. Media development actors here helped to advance the processes of change in different ways. Recommendations for future media development include strategic planning, inclusion of local actors, the pooling of legal expertise as well as structured processes of organizational development and capacity building." (Abstract)
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"We are very, very pleased to advise you that we have added dozens of new languages to our multilingual database, more than doubling the 42 which appeared in the first edition. At the same time, we are very happy to report that there is a great deal of interest in maintaining this database as an imp
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ortant single, central and authoritative repository of multilingual information literacy resources worldwide." (Preface)
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"Communication Rights and Social Justice offers historical perspectives on struggles to use the instruments of state and political participation - power, inter-governmental treaties and declarations, and various forms of political advocacy and protest politics - to articulate the concept of communic
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ation as a fundamental right. The contributions make up an intergenerational and multi-vocal dialogue. Different generations of scholars, activists and practitioners, who have been engaged with mobilizations at different times, present their views; some adopt a more academic style, others reflect autobiographically on personal experiences. The collection acknowledges the plural geo-cultural roots that compose what have eventually become a network of transnational mobilization dynamics that are increasingly global, digitally mediated, multi-stakeholder and faced by new and forthcoming challenges." (Publisher description)
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"Based on the case study of the cyber war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008, this paper is a theoretical deliberation in an attempt to illustrate connection between the Digital Divide and cyber security. Through a qualitative study of cyber warfare between the two countries, one on the devel
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oped and one on the underdeveloped side of Digital Divide, it shows that disadvantaged states are subject to cyber insecurity. As a result, even though relatively low dependence of their vital systems on online networks supposedly makes them less vulnerable to cyber offensives, disruptions to communication infrastructures cause these states turn dysfunctional. To test the dependence of cyber security on Digital Divide, this paper also reviews other instances of coordinated cyber-attacks between countries, but in these cases, with both parties digitally advanced (Russia vs. Estonia, China vs. USA). These cases show that differences in states’ capabilities and available resources allowed them to withstand and relatively quickly repel cyber offensives without outside support and great harm. The general conclusion is that country’s position along Digital Divide translates into the level of that country’s cyber security, which serves as a litmus test for the level of its cyber power that, in turn, is indicative of the country’s strategic political standing among other states." (Abstract)
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"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fourth consecutive year, with a growing number of countries introducing online censorship and monitoring practices that are simultaneously more aggressive and more sophisticated in their targeting of individual users. In a departure from the pa
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st, when most governments preferred a behind-the-scenes approach to internet control, countries are rapidly adopting new laws that legitimize existing repression and effectively criminalize online dissent." (Page 1)
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"Fuelled by the Arab Spring, the question of how the rise of internet-mediated communication affects authoritarian regimes has received unprecedented attention within the discipline of communications. However, in this debate, scholars have not yet turned to the concept of literacy and addressed the
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role of citizens' knowledge about political media in any greater depth. This is surprising since the concept of literacy as 'emancipatory knowledge', in Sonia Livingstone's words, has a 'long and proud history' of being linked with processes of enlightenment, political empowerment and democratization. The present study contributes to filling this gap by suggesting four highly consequential facets of critical news literacy in contemporary Russia, a high-profile hybrid regime. The conceptual development is grounded in western literature and 20 in-depth interviews with young, urban and educated Russians." (Abstract)
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"Das Radio galt in Russland lange als Biotop – ein Rückzugsraum für professionellen Journalismus. Die Berichterstattung über den Krieg in der „Volksrepublik Donec’k“ offenbart jedoch das Gegenteil. Manche Radiosender begreifen sich als Verlautbarungsorgane der Aufständischen, Moderatoren
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wirken als Agitatoren. Sie gehören zur neosowjetischen Generation der 20- bis 30-Jährigen. Das ist die Generation Putin. Doch am Mikrofon sind sie längst keine Putinisten mehr, sondern viel radikalere Revanchisten vom Schlage Girkins." (Abstract)
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"This Global Information Society Watch tracks the state of communications surveillance in 57 countries across the world – countries as diverse as Hungary, India, Argentina, The Gambia, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. Each country report approaches the issue from a different perspective. Some analy
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se legal frameworks that allow surveillance, others the role of businesses in collecting data (including marketing data on children), the potential of biometrics to violate rights, or the privacy challenges when implementing a centralised universal health system. The perspectives from long-time internet activists on surveillance are also recorded. Using the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance as a starting point, eight thematic reports frame the key issues at stake. These include discussions on what we mean by digital surveillance, the implications for a human rights agenda on surveillance, the “Five Eyes” inter-government surveillance network led by the US, cyber security, and the role of intermediaries." (GIS website)
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"This article develops a number of conceptual and methodological proposals aimed at furthering a firmer agenda for the field of socialist television studies. It opens by addressing the issue of relevance of the field, identifying three critical contributions the study of socialist television can mak
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e to media, communication and cultural studies. It then puts forward a number of proposals tied to three key issues: strategies of overcoming the Cold War framework that dominates much of existing literature; the importance of a multilayered analysis of socialist television that considers its cultural, political as well as economic aspects; and the ways in which we can challenge the prevalence of methodological nationalism in the field." (Abstract)
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"Konfessionelle Medien stehen vor gewaltigen Herausforderungen. Sie müssen zum einen auf den Medienwandel mit seinen veränderten Produktionsbedingungen und Rezeptionsmustern im Zeitalter crossmedialer Massenkommunikation reagieren. Zum anderen sind sie von massiven Veränderungen der kirchlichen M
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itgliederstruktur, dem Wandel religiöser Glaubenspraxis und Kirchenbindung sowie der Säkularisierung der Gesellschaft betroffen. Diese Studie zeichnet ein detailliertes und problemorientiertes Bild vom Zustand katholischer Medien und diskutiert eingehend Handlungsoptionen und Zukunftsszenarien. Die Prognosen stützen sich auf eine Delphi-Studie, an der sich mehr als 200 Experten aus Kirche, Medien und Wissenschaft beteiligt haben." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This article examines representations of indigenous peoples in Swedish and Canadian press coverage of the Copenhagen climate summit (COP15). It discusses tensions between the international character of UN summits and the often transnational character of indigenous peoples as well as the issue of cl
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imate change. It considers how conceptions of nature, culture and politics intersect in the coverage, and in what roles indigenous peoples appear. Building on theories concerning the representation of indigenous peoples, traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) and identity politics, the study combines content and framing analysis with discourse analysis of a small sample of articles about indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in the coverage. When indigenous voices emerge they appear as victim-heroes and important intermediaries of urgency and spirituality. They also appear as intermediaries of de-nationalization, but they are misframed politically, recognized in terms of their culture rather than represented in terms of their status." (Abstract)
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"Das Ziel dieser Einführung in das Medienrecht besteht darin, Journalistinnen und Journalisten einen Überblick über die rechtlichen Regeln zu geben, die den normativen Rahmen ihrer beruflichen Praxis bilden. Eine möglichst genaue Kenntnis dieses Rahmens ist zum einen vonnöten, um unerwünschte
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Folgen des eigenen Verhaltens zu vermeiden. Da die Neigung der von der Berichterstattung Betroffenen weiter zuzunehmen scheint, ihre Rechte einzuklagen und Journalisten sowie Medienbetriebe für negative Folgen der Berichterstattung schadensersatzpflichtig zu machen, kommt es darauf an, die rechtlichen Risiken des eigenen Tuns zu minimieren. Zugleich können solche Kenntnisse aber auch dazu dienen, ungerechtfertigte Einschüchterungsversuche zurückzuweisen und die durch Presse- und Rundfunkfreiheit gewährten Handlungsspielräume zugunsten von Lesern, Hörern und Zuschauern zu nutzen und so zu der freien öffentlichen Kommunikation beizutragen, die zu den zentralen Wesensmerkmalen einer freiheitlichen Gesellschaft gehört. Unter „Medienrecht“ werden hier in erster Linie die Teile der Rechtsordnung verstanden, die die Rechte und Pflichten des Journalisten im Berufsalltag betreffen. Das Organisationsrecht der elektronischen Medien wird nur insoweit berücksichtigt, wie es sich auf diese Rechte und Pflichten auswirkt. Die Rechtsbeziehungen zwischen Journalisten und ihren Arbeit- bzw. Auftraggebern werden nur behandelt, soweit es um die Nutzung ihrer urheberrechtlich geschützten Werke geht." (Einleitung, Seite 13)
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"In conclusion, it should be reiterated that the use of the Western liberal media models as a guiding model for the media set up in Kosovo might have been too ambitious a goal. It gave too much credit to the cultural ethos at the time, assuming it to be an environment in which a liberal media sector
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could firmly take root. Obviously, Kosovo is on a path of progress, having moved from a point where there were no institutions to the point where, however imperfect, the new institutions continue to operate. Overall, however, Kosovo media institutions, judging by their current condition, might still be years away from achieving functional independence." (Discussion of findings, page 52)
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