"This report is an evaluation of the $8.8 million, four-year (2008–2012) Serbia Media Assistance Program (SMAP) implemented by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The program sought to: (1) strength
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en the legal and regulatory environment for media, particularly the role of media support institutions in ensuring fair, timely, and transparent implementation; (2) increase the managerial and financial capacity of independent media outlets, particularly local and regional television stations following privatization and licensing; and (3) enhance the quality and availability of information important to citizens, with a focus on news and program production at the local and regional levels and coverage of reform issues at the national level." (Executive summary)
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"Though Facebook’s near-ubiquitous lead might indicate that the global social network landscape is simplifying, it quickly becomes clear this is not the case. This report aims to help marketers assess the social network landscape in 27 countries by briefly examining four key factors: top social ne
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tworks, usage, social media advertising and mobile social trends." (Executive summary)
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"Initially launched in 2004 by Eurasia-Media, the Russian Independent Print Media Program (RIPMP) provides intensive training and assistance to promising independent local Russian newspapers, under the premise that by nurturing select publications into ‘beacons of excellence’, best practices eff
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ectively reverberate through the wider regional Russian newspaper industry. The organization's work over the past 8 years has helped develop and launch quality independent media outposts in small-to-midsize cities across Russia. These publications – in relatively little known places such as Berdsk, Krasnoturinsk, Kachkanar, Zheleznogorsk, Zhukovskii and Pervouralsk to name a few – now regularly receive independently juried awards for their journalism, are admired by like-minded regional newspapers seeking to improve their coverage, and actively work with Eurasia-Media and the AIRP in promoting both organizations’ goals towards fostering quality independent sources of local news in Russia's regions." (Executive summary)
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"GISWatch 2013 shows that gains in women’s rights made online are not always certain or stable. While access to the internet for women has increased their participation in the social, economic and governance spheres, there is another side to these opportunities: online harassment, cyberstalking, a
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nd violence against women online all of which are on the increase globally." (www.giswatch.org, July 6, 2014)
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"The first part, “Fiction in the Ibero-American Space”, presents a comparative synthesis of fiction in the Obitel countries. This comparison is made from a quantitative and qualitative perspective that allows to observe the development of fiction in each country, highlighting their main producti
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ons, as well as the topic of the year, herein, “Social Memory and Television Fiction”. The second part, “Fiction in the Obitel Countries”, is composed by twelve chapters (one for each country), with a structure of fixed sections, though some are more specific than others [...] The third part is an “Appendix”, where are collected the top ten TV fictions in the Obitel countries with basic and necessary information about these productions." (Pages 19-20)
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"Este estudio presenta un análisis de las distintas variables que afectan a las industrias culturales y creativas (ICC) en el contexto de un mercado global, tratando de determinar su potencial de la internacionalización. Partimos de datos que tiene un gran peso en nuestra economía: las ICC alcanz
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aron el 5,6% del VAB a nivel nacional y el 6,3% del empleo en 2008. Pero partimos también de la base de que disponemos de un desactualizado que responde a una realidad obsoleta, basada en el ámbito de intercambios analógicos. Y lo mismo ocurre con las políticas públicas. Pensamos que tanto las normas como las políticas deben cambiar su enfoque de manera radical. Entre los factores que influyen positivamente, detectamos que las Industrias culturales y creativas españolas tienen generalmente altas tasas de retorno de inversión, altos niveles de competitividad en comparación con otros sectores, y un capital humano más cualificado. A esto se suman otros factores relacionados con nuestro capital cultural y simbólico: la lengua, el patrimonio, la creatividad… Dado su potencial real en la economía digital y como principal recurso para la competitividad, el crecimiento sostenible y la creación de empleo, se ha puesto de relieve en los últimos años la relevancia que la cultura ha ido adquiriendo como elemento fundamental de la imagen que nuestro país proyecta en el exterior. El estudio trata de los aspectos fundamentales que deben ser tenidos en cuenta a la hora de impulsar la inserción de nuestra industria en un mercado global: Un análisis por sectores culturales y creativos, puesto que cada uno atiende a especificaciones concretas y parte de momentos diferentes respecto de su internacionalización; Un marco de análisis de la legislación y de las políticas públicas en los ámbitos del comercio internacional, el empleo, las tecnologías, el arte y la cultura y la educación y formación; Una apuesta decidida por el entorno digital como espacio propicio, de referencia y de oportunidades para la internacionalización del sector cultural y creativo. Concluimos que las ICC españolas, aún estando lejos de alcanzar todo su potencial de internacionalización, tienen los mimbres necesarios para crecer y salir y para ello proponemos una serie de medidas y recomendaciones, tanto en el terreno de la intervención pública, como en él ámbito de las necesarias transformaciones estratégicas del sector." (Resumen ejecutivo, página 4-5)
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"Seen from the perspective of film directors in the Middle East, the NFSD‘s Middle East Project makes a clear contribution in a number of areas: focusing on documentary flimmaking, it provides opportunities for flimmakers from the region to engage with realities that are important to them, but per
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haps difficult to expiore without the framework that a training program provides; it introduces flimmakers to a kind of film pedagogy that is seen as deviating from what tends to be on offer in the region‘s established institutions, a pedagogy that is liberating, engaging, and enabling; finaily, it fosters networks, and aithough some of the ties in question may be weak, they are perceived as a potential basis for further. worthwhile filmmaking activities, and thus as enabling. In some cases, student filmmakers from the Middle East have become central to the NFSD‘s project and key figures within the network. This is clearly the case, for example, for Corine Shawi. The art-based network(s) that the project helps to create may be its most important contribution. Hala Galal, from partner NGO Semat in Cairo, speaks of the “regression and increasing intimidation“ that she encounters in her “daily work as a female filmmaker“ in Egypt. And she goes on to underscore the importance of the kind of support that a network of friends and fellow travelers can provide: “Th are people in other nations who can appreciate my work, despite the differences in ethnicity, religion, and language. This. . . has strengthened my conviction that we, as human beings the world over, can stand united against injustice and intolerance in all its forms.“ Film training, in this way of thinking, extends well beyond mere technical skills and into the domain of “world making.“ Admirably, those working with this kind of model are not afraid to recognize and, indeed, embrace the responsibilities that this entails." (Conclusion, page 147)
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"The quantitative content analysis identified the amount and the patterns of media reporting on delicate interethnic and interfaith issues, focusing on respect of different aspects of professional and ethical standards. The method of Critical Discourse Analysis is applied for the qualitative analysi
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s of the media coverage of three events that shacked the fragile interethnic relations in the first half of 2012: the European Championship in handball in 2012, the Carnival of Vevchani, and the Smilkovsko Lake Murders. The synthesized findings clearly “detect” the extent to which basic standards of impartial, accurate and balanced reporting are being observed and the practice of using violent and emotional language through the prism of 'one’s own' ethnic group." (http://mediaobservatory.net)
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"The potential of audience participation constitutes a most important characteristic of digital journalism. This article presents an inductive study of audience participation in the production of online news in a Danish context, analysing how audiences participate, and what relationships between jou
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rnalists and audiences accompany this participation. The article discusses the concept of participation, arguing on the basis of sociological theory that it should be understood as those instances where the audience influences the content of the news through their intentional actions. Applying this definition, it proposes four ideal types of audience participation in the production of online news, namely sharing of information, collaboration, conversation and meta-communication." (Abstract)
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"The first component of this report focuses on the improvement of the performance of public sector broadcasters. Based on evidence that the team gathered during field research, and the preparatory survey of the existing body of knowledge, 23 main problems were identified in this component [...] The
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second component deals with media self-regulation. Although the push to strengthen selfregulation is high on the agenda of the media communities in the region, such institutions have either not been established or the existing ones need to be overhauled and strengthened [...] Component three concentrates on judicial practices in freedom of expression cases and capacity building of the judiciary in this regard [...] Component four assesses the options for the introduction of an EU award for investigative journalism in the Southeast Europe IPA region." (Executive summary, page 9)
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"Die Arbeit bietet eine Literaturübersicht zum aktuellen Stand des Forschungsgebiets „Jugendliche und Medien”. Dabei werden die folgenden vier Schwerpunktthemen bearbeitet: Mediennutzung von Jugendlichen, Medienrezeption von Jugendlichen, Medienkonsum der Eltern und ihr Erziehungsverhalten sowi
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e die Medienkompetenzstärke der Jugendlichen. Der Fokus liegt auf 12- bis 19-jährigen Jugendlichen. Als Grundlage für die Übersicht dienen repräsentative Studien ab dem Jahr 2009." (Zusammenfassung, Seite 7)
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This is the second of the annual Reuters Institute Digital News surveys published by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at Oxford University. You Gov online polls commissioned by RISJ were conducted with 11,000 online users in the UK, US, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Bra
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zil and Japan. For instance, the survey shows surprising national differences in the rate of online participation. The Spanish (27%), Italians (26%), and Americans (21%) were more than twice as likely to comment on a news story via a social network as the British (10%). Meanwhile urban Brazilians were five times more likely to comment on a news site than the Germans or Japanese surveyed, and nearly half (44%) shared a news story on a weekly basis via a social network, with around one third (32%) doing so by email. Study author Nic Newman, a Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and digital strategist, said: ‘Our findings suggest that the culture of a country is the main driver for how we engage with online news – playing an even greater part than the technical tools and devices we have to access it. People living in Brazil, Italy and Spain have much higher levels of interaction, both with the news sites and with each other, sharing and commenting about news stories. By contrast, although the Japanese appear to embrace the non traditional news sites, they have the lowest level of online and offline participation, followed by Germany, Denmark and the UK.’
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"Estonians have demonstrated a keen appetite for digital media uptake. More than three-quarters of the population accesses the internet regularly, and more than half of those are active on social networking platforms. Recent surveys suggest that nearly a quarter of internet users now connect via sma
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rtphones. As for traditional media, newspaper circulations have experienced a steady rather than dramatic decline over recent years, while television and radio audiences remain relatively stable. The press and news organizations remain in general relatively free of political influence, and although there is significant cross-media ownership and little opportunity for new entrants, digitization does not appear to have exacerbated this situation, and there remains a degree of competition and pluralism within all sectors. This report calls for the development of media policy that will incentivize television service providers to introduce the additional digital television services that were promoted during switch-over. They also call for long-term predictable funding mechanisms to ensure that public service media, Estonian Public Broadcasting (Eesti Rahvusringhääling, ERR) above all, provide quality output." (Open Society Foundations website)
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