"Comprising 41 chapters by a team of international contributors, the companion is divided into three parts: histories; approaches; thematic considerations. The chapters offer wide-ranging explorations of how forms of mediation influence communication, social relationships, cultural practices, partic
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ipation, and social change, as well as production and access to information and knowledge. This volume considers new developments, and highlights the ways in which anthropology can contribute to the study of the human condition and the social processes in which media are entangled." (Publisher description)
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"This article examines the war discourse on Russian television, particularly in political talk show broadcasts aired after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The question of how the two conflicting parties, Russia and Ukraine, are portrayed verbally and visually in these shows is s
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pecifically emphasized. While the quantitative analysis traces a massive increase in Russian talk show broadcasts since the beginning of the war, the Critical Discourse Analysis demonstrates which strategies are utilized to demonise and defame the Ukrainian side and to legitimise the war. By comparing the current war discourse with the Ukraine discourse in 2014, this study shows that talk shows have undertaken a significant role in supporting the war and have become a puissant didactic tool to influence and manipulate public opinion by perennially repeating key governmental messages and efficiently orchestrating all visual, verbal, and non-verbal means at their disposal." (Abstract)
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"At its core, data journalism blends together different data sources, analysis tools, and visualizations to create powerful stories. However, with this also comes the challenge of upskilling in non-journalistic domains such as statistics, data visualization, and programming. Data journalists face th
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e same challenges as other media players, including shrinking resources and time scarcity, which have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data journalism is an established field within journalism, which is often at the core of factual reporting, and as such its development should be tracked. In 2021, we conducted the first State of Data Journalism Survey, the largest and most recent survey on data journalism. Its results highlighted the widespread practice of self-teaching and the unequal access and quality of data across different countries. With the 2022 survey we sought to resurface the aforesaid information. Also adding a module on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine was covered. (Our mission, page 3)
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"Die DW Akademie will ihre Präsenz in Partnerländern mithilfe ihres vielfältigen Netzwerks aus Partnerorganisationen in nahezu allen Teilen der Welt weiter ausbauen. Gemeinsam fördern wir menschliche Entwicklung durch die Stärkung von Meinungsfreiheit, Qualitätsjournalismus, gleichberechtigter
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gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe, friedlicher Konfliktlösung und guter Regierungsführung. Der vorliegende Strategische Plan 2022-2025 der DW Akademie ist von der gesetzlich geforderten Aufgabenplanung 2022-2025 der Deutschen Welle abgeleitet, die der Rundfunkrat am 17. März 2023 mit Zustimmung des DW-Verwaltungsrats beschlossen hat." (Seite 4)
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"Neben großen Themen wie Beauty, Kochen und Katzen haben sich wachsende Nischen für religiöse Kommunikation im digitalen Raum etabliert. Instagram, das heißt heute auch: gelebte Religion, Bibel, Spiritualität, Kirchenpolitik, Seelsorge und Bildung. Der Band gibt Einblick in die Entwicklung von
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Instagramkanälen, zeigt neue Formen der Gemeinschaftsbildung und behandelt religiöse Influencer. Er beleuchtet, wie authentisch erklingende Instagram-Stimmen von religiös und kulturell interessierten Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen wahrgenommen werden und zurückwirken auf die Wahrnehmung und Entwicklung von Kirchen und religiösen Gemeinschaften." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Due to the nature of their jobs, journalists reporting from theaters of war, destruction, and violence are frequently exposed to potentially traumatizing experience. This study explores how journalists go about trauma exposure, how they deal with its emotional fallout, and what support they get in
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the process. In doing so, we use 35 qualitative interviews with conflict journalists working for news media in German-speaking countries, and draw on established theories of trauma exposure, its mental consequences, and ways to cope with them. Findings show that conflict journalists run a significant risk of experiencing trauma, either directly as targets of violence, or indirectly as eye-witnesses and as recipients of narrative accounts and vivid images of human suffering. Respondents noted a glaring lack of organizational support and prevention structure, which they connected to a problematic newsroom culture characterized by sexism, machoism, and a fierce competition." (Abstract)
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"Die grausamen Handlungen dschihadistischer Gruppierungen wie der „Al-Qaida“ oder des „Islamischen Staates“ schockieren und verbreiten Angst. Immer wieder scheinen neue Attentäter nachzurücken, ein Phänomen, das Asiem El Difraoui mit den stets nachwachsenden Köpfen einer Hydra vergleicht
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. Um sie zu bezwingen, müssten das Wesen des Dschihadismus und die Bedingungen seiner Verbreitung besser verstanden werden. El Difraoui versteht die Bewegung mit ihren Heilsversprechungen als Sekte, die ihre islamischen Ursprünge verzerre und missbrauche. Im Kampf gegen sie müssten die vielen Ursachen für das Wachstum dschihadistischer Gruppierungen angegangen werden: klandestine Netzwerke müssten enttarnt, die Propaganda eingedämmt sowie Prävention und Deradikalisierung weitergedacht werden. Zudem müssten westliche Staaten selbstkritischer mit den Folgen ihrer kolonialen Vergangenheit, den Diskriminierungserfahrungen von Minderheiten und den destabilisierenden Wirkungen ihrer militärischen Einsätze umgehen. El Difraoui fordert, weltweit soziale Gerechtigkeit, wirtschaftliche Perspektiven und funktionierende Zivilgesellschaften zu unterstützen. So würden junge, nach Sinn suchende Menschen resilienter gegen radikale Verführungen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Throughout the twenty-first century, genocide denial has evolved and adapted with new strategies to augment and complement established modes of denial. In addition to outright negation, denial of genocide encompasses a range of techniques, including disputes over numbers, contestation of legal defi
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nitions, blaming the victim, and various modes of intimidation, such as threats of legal action. Arguably the most effective strategy has been denial through the purposeful creation of misinformation. Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century brings together leading scholars from across disciplines to add to the body of genocide scholarship that is challenged by denialist literature. By concentrating on factors such as the role of communications and news media, global and national social networks, the weaponization of information by authoritarian regimes and political parties, court cases in the United States and Europe, freedom of speech, and postmodernist thought, this volume discusses how genocide denial is becoming a fact of daily life in the twenty-first century." (Publisher description)
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"The book identifies and explains the unequal power relations in place that limit the possibilities of communication justice, the challenges and difficulties faced by activists and communities, the ways in which communities and movements have confronted power structures through discourse and materia
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l action, and their successes and limitations in creating new structures that promote the right to, and facilitate a future for, communicative justice. The volume features contributions based on experiences of resistance and transformation in the Global South—Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Malawi, and collaborations between the continents of Latin America and Africa—as well as notable studies from the Global North—Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom—that defy hegemonic models." (Publisher description)
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"This open access book is the product of three years of academic research that has been carried out in the EU-funded Jean Monnet Network on "Post-Truth Politics, Nationalism and the Delegitimation of European Integration" since 2019. Drawing on the multidisciplinary expertise of the network's member
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s, the book explores the impact of the phenomenon of post-truth politics on European integration and the European Union. It places particular emphasis on how post-truth politics has played out in the public sphere and asks what impact the phenomenon has had on public deliberation, but reflects also on its implications for democracy in a wider sense." (Publisher description)
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"This study offers a systematic theory of the institutional solutions to the dictator’s dilemma, which arises from the incapacity to calibrate repression and concessions due to the lack of information about elite and popular discontent. Empirically, the book presents a detailed discussion of the t
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ypes of information-gathering institutions created in autocracies, paying particular attention to the difference between standard mechanisms for the retrospective assessment of overt dissatisfaction and the more sophisticated channels for anticipatory evaluations of latent discontent. The book argues that the creation of institutions for the involuntary collection of information is straightforward, but that only certain regimes successfully promote the voluntary provision of information, which is essential for anticipatory governance. In ethnically heterogeneous countries, compactly settled ethnic minorities present a further obstacle for establishing a panoptical authoritarian vision. These problems notwithstanding, communist regimes are especially adept at developing sophisticated systems that mobilize the party, State Security, and internal journalism to assess levels of discontent. Methodologically, the book demonstrates that documents prepared for regime insiders are more likely to shed light on a secret activity like information collection than officially released materials. Theoretically, the book argues that although the dictator’s dilemma can be solved and abundant information does extend authoritarian lifespans, information cannot ensure the indefinite survival of dictatorships. The book is based on detailed analysis of the origins and evolution of information-gathering systems in communist Bulgaria (1944–1991) and in China (1949–present), supplemented by eight case studies of information collection in the complete range of authoritarian regimes." (Publisher description)
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"In den vergangenen Jahren wurde vermehrt darüber diskutiert, ob und in welchem Ausmaß das Vertrauen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger in mediale Berichterstattungen abgenommen hat. Begriffe wie „Lügenpresse“, grassierende Falschinformationen und die von vielen Beobachtern festgestellte gesellscha
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ftliche Polarisierung verleiten zu dem Schluss, dass das Vertrauen in die etablierten Medien gesunken sein müsse. Aber lässt sich dies auch empirisch feststellen? Die Mainzer Langzeitstudie zum Medienvertrauen hat über mehrere Jahre hinweg Daten erhoben und ausgewertet. Ihre Ergebnisse und Schlüsse zeichnen erstmals ein systematisches, auf repräsentativen Meinungsumfragen basierendes Stimmungsbild zur Einstellung der deutschen Bevölkerung zum Mediensystem und zur Berichterstattung für die Jahre 2015 bis 2020. Die Autorinnen und Autoren belassen es nicht bei der Darstellung der Forschungsergebnisse, sondern leiten daraus Vorschläge ab, wie das Medienvertrauen künftig gestärkt beziehungsweise zurückgewonnen werden kann." (Verlagsinformation)
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"This edited collection illuminates the scope with which identities and intimacies interact on a wide range of social media platforms. A varied range of international scholars examine the contexts of very different social media spaces, with topics ranging from whitewashing and memes, parental discou
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rses in online activities, Spotify as an intimate social media platform, neoliberalisation of feminist discourses, digital sex work, social media wars in trans debates and 'BimboTok'. The focus is on their acceleration and impact due to the specificities of social media in relation to identities, intimacies within the broad 'political' sphere. The geographic range of case study material reflects the global impact of social media, and includes data from Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the USA." (Publisher description)
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"The two essays in this report highlight ways in which two global authoritarian powers, Russia and China, provide surge capacity to kleptocratic networks in Africa. In his essay J.R. Mailey dissects the Wagner Group’s illicit activities in key parts of Africa. The Wagner Group’s activities are c
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omplex, but Mailey zeroes in on the fact that the military support offered to African kleptocrats has little to do with providing security and stability for the African people. Rather it is focused on extracting resources, advancing geopolitical goals, and serving as a brutal cog in the authoritarian mutual support machinery. Even if the ultimate fate of the Wagner Group remains unclear, these trends are unlikely to abate. The opaque economic relationships that the Wagner Group has developed on the continent no doubt are too lucrative for the Kremlin to surrender [...] Andrea Ngombet Malewa’s essay highlights the ways in which Beijing facilitates Congo-Brazzaville’s deeply kleptocratic regime. In addition to long-standing Chinese involvement in the timber and extractive industries, Ngombet’s analysis spotlights the establishment of a Sino-Congolese Bank for Africa that could allow kleptocrats to bypass the transparency requirements of Western-linked banks, thereby affording opportunities to launder money with impunity. This development has significant implications for accountability norms worldwide." (Executive summary)
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"During the six months of the gender-based disinformation study (January 1 – June 30, 2023), the following trends were revealed: A total of 42 cases of gendered disinformation were identified, of which 24 were homophobic and 18 were sexist or attacked women based on moral criteria. In most cases,
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the target of homophobic or gendered disinformation was the West, while false content related to Ukraine was predominantly homophobic. In connection with internal socio-political processes in Georgia, disinformation was directed against politicians, persons associated with them, journalists, and civic activists, who, in addition to disinformation, were targeted in discrediting campaigns." (Key findings, page 8)
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