"The internet is a double-edged sword: civilians can mobilise it to assemble and voice dissent, but illiberal regimes can also weaponise it to consolidate power and suppress any form of opposition. Internet shutdowns – intentional disruptions of internet services – represent one method used to l
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imit citizens’freedom of expression, information, peaceful assembly and other associated rights in the name of national security. Julia Ryng, Guillemette Guicherd, Judy Al Saman, Priyanka Choudhury and Angharad Kellett examine the cases of Myanmar and Belarus: two distinct political regimes that nonetheless converge on similar strategies of repression. Through this comparative analysis, the authors highlight how future repression is likely to work and how compelling policy responses can be formulated." (Abstract)
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"Medien sind aus dem Alltag von Heranwachsenden nicht mehr wegzudenken. Kinder sind von zahlreichen Medien umgeben und wachsen in Haushalten mit einem breiten Medienrepertoire auf. Fernsehgeräte, Smartphones, Computer/Laptops und ein Zugang ins Internet sind in nahezu allen Familien vorhanden. Auch
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Radiogeräte, Drucker, DVD- und CDPlayer, Streaming-Dienste, Digitalkameras, Tablets und Spielkonsolen sind weit verbreitet. Im Vergleich zu 2020 sind insbesondere bei Smart-TVs (+15 PP), Streaming-Diensten (+14 PP), Pay-TV-Abonnements (+12 PP) und Tablets (+9 PP) deutliche Anstiege zu sehen. Damit setzt sich der starke Zuwachs, welcher bereits in den letzten Jahren zu beobachten war, weiter fort. Kinder besitzen selbst noch vergleichsweise wenig eigene Geräte. Am häufigsten sind mit 44 Prozent Smartphones im eigenen Besitz der Kinder. Jeweils etwa ein Drittel hat einen CD-Player und ein Fernsehgerät im Kinderzimmer, eine tragbare Spielkonsole ist bei 28 Prozent vorhanden (feste Spielkonsole 19 %). Mit zunehmendem Alter nimmt der Gerätebesitz deutlich zu. Insbesondere der Anteil an Kindern, die ein eigenes Mobiltelefon haben, steigt an (6-7 Jahre: 9 %, 8-9 Jahre: 27 %, 10-11 Jahre: 58 %, 12-13 Jahre: 81 %). In der Freizeit der Kinder nehmen das Treffen mit Freunden, Fernsehen, Hausaufgabe/Lernen und das Spielen den größten Platz bei den häufigsten Aktivitäten ein. Über 85 Prozent gehen diesen Tätigkeiten mindestens wöchentlich nach. Knapp drei Viertel der Kinder unternehmen ein-/bis mehrmals in der Woche etwas mit der Familie. Etwa jeweils zwei Drittel hören regelmäßig Musik, nutzen ein Handy/Smartphone und betätigen sich sportlich. Jeweils drei von fünf Kindern sehen sich mindestens wöchentlich online Bewegtbild an oder spielen digitale Spiele. Jeweils etwa jedes zweite Kind liest in der Freizeit Bücher, hört Radio oder wird beim Malen/Basteln kreativ. Die Beschäftigung mit Tieren folgt mit 45 Prozent. Mit zunehmendem Alter verändert sich die Freizeitgestaltung der Kinder in einigen Bereichen. Ab einem Alter von zehn Jahren spielen Kinder weniger, Unternehmungen mit der Familie werden seltener, ebenso wie das Malen/Basteln, das Anhören von Hörspielen/Hörbüchern sowie die Beschäftigung mit analogen Spielen. Dafür nehmen Hausaufgaben und Lernen mehr Freizeit der Kinder ein. Der stärkste Anstieg im Altersverlauf ist bei der Nutzung von Mobiltelefonen (6-7 Jahre: 28 %, 12-13 Jahre: 96 %) sowie bei der Internetnutzung (6-7 Jahre: 21 %, 12-13 Jahre: 92 %) zu sehen. Auch digitale Spiele, die Nutzung von Computer/Laptops und die online-basierte Bewegtbildnutzung nehmen mit steigendem Alter zu. Das Aufnehmen von eigenen Fotos/Videos wird ebenfalls im Altersverlauf bedeutender. Mädchen betätigen sich häufiger kreativ, lesen Bücher und beschäftigen sich mit Tieren, während Jungen eine stärkere Affinität zu Sport und digitalen Spielen zeigen." (Zusammenfassung, Seite 82-83)
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"This edited collection seeks to better understand how journalism across cultures differs, presenting an in-depth exploration of global practices that departs from the typical Western-centric approach. Journalists across the world are trained, generally speaking, within Western models of reporting a
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nd are taught to do so as a practice where reporters need to aspire and aim for. Yet what such training is short of achieving is teaching reporters how to 'do' journalism within their own environments. In turn, what is required is a method of journalistic training and practice that is reflective of the actual practice reporters encounter on the ground. In order to do so, a better understanding of how journalism is practised in different parts of the world, the context surrounding such practices, the issues and challenges associated, and the positive practices that Western journalism can offer, is necessary. Promoting and deploying a culturally-specific and politically-relevant journalism, this book provides just that." (Publisher description)
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"Disinformation represents a danger to the integrity and legitimacy of the electoral process. From our research based on the 2021 Czech parliamentary elections, we introduce a model for measuring the resilience of citizens to disinformation. This model is then used to draw conclusions about the impa
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ct of disinformation on their voting behaviour. We argue that it is important to understand this impact in the context of pre-existing beliefs and opinions, and therefore in terms of disinformation reinforcing rather than changing existing views. In particular, we demonstrate how feeling disappointed with one political party can make people more inclined to endorse disinformation that targets it." (Abstract)
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"This article advances extant research that has audited search algorithms for misinformation in four respects. Firstly, this is the first misinformation audit not to implement a national but a cross-national research design. Secondly, it retrieves results not in response to the most popular query te
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rms. Instead, it theorizes two semantic dimensions of search terms and illustrates how they impact the number of misinformative results returned. Furthermore, the analysis not only captures the mere presence of misinformative content but in addition whether the source websites are affiliated with a key misinformation actor (Russia’s ruling elites) and whom the conspiracy narratives cast as the malicious plotters. Empirically, the audit compares Covid-19 conspiracy theories in Google search results across 5 key target countries of Russia’s foreign communication (Belarus, Estonia, Germany, Ukraine, and the US) and Russia as of November 2020 (N = 5280 search results). It finds that, across all countries, primarily content published by mass media organizations rendered conspiracy theories visible in search results. Conspiratorial content published on websites affiliated with Russia’s ruling elites was retrieved in the Belarusian, German and Russian contexts. Across all countries, the majority of conspiracy narratives suspected plotters from China. Malicious actors from the US were insinuated exclusively by sources affiliated with Russia’s elites. Overall, conspiracy narratives did not primarily deepen divides within but between national communities, since – across all countries – only plotters from beyond the national borders were blamed. To conclude, the article discusses methodological advice and promising paths of research for future cross-national search engine audits." (Abstract)
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"Probablemente, el indicador más elocuente del descenso en la producción es que, sumados, los mismos países produjeron en 2022 un 54% de lo que producían en 2012. El gráfico 3 muestra las caídas ocurridas en cada país. A nivel agregado, los niveles de producción de 2012 son similares a los
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de 2017, pero a partir de ahí empieza una disminución que se agudiza durante la pandemia, se recupera parcialmente en 2021 y vuelve a caer en 2022. A los factores ya mencionados como algunas de las posibles causas de la caída, el descenso inversión publicitaria y desplazamiento de hacia las plataformas, cabe considerar otros dos que apuntan a la sustitución: la ya consolidada presencia de telenovelas turcas y de otros orígenes incipientes y también la competencia de las reposiciones. La brecha en la calidad visual de las realizaciones de fines de los años 90 en adelante, respecto de las actuales, es baja. Telenovelas históricas como Terra Nostra, Betty la Fea o Pasión de Gavilanes se reprograman y son consumidas de un modo parecido a las actuales.
Un elemento recurrente entre los capítulos nacionales de este informe es relevar la importancia de la reposición de materiales ya exhibidos. Los intercambios de contenidos audiovisuales entre países iberoamericanos han estado presentes por décadas, pero hay fuertes diferencias en las cantidades de producciones que cada país importa o exporta. Asimismo, también hay diferencias en la variedad de orígenes desde los que se importan contenidos.
En los capítulos nacionales se muestra la cantidad de títulos y horas de ficción televisiva de estreno iberoamericana de exhibida en el país durante 2022. Vistas individualmente, muestran los consumos locales. Sin embargo, al combinarlas, revelan los flujos de intercambios de producciones entre países.Eso es lo que se muestra en la tabla 3, usando las horas como unidad de medida. La tabla 3 puede leerse vertical y horizontalmente. Leída verticalmente, muestra el origen de la ficción televisiva de estreno exhibida en cada país. Horizontalmente, muestra los distintos países en que se exhibió ficción televisiva originada en un país [...]
La tabla 3 muestra que el principal país exportador de ficción televisiva en Iberoamérica es México, al igual que en los años anteriores. En 2022 vendió contenidos a todos los países, salvo Portugal, siendo además, con la excepción del cono sur, el principal exportador hacia cada uno de los países de la región. En segundo lugar, tanto en volumen como en cantidad de países a los que exportó, está Brasil. Un caso llamativo es Colombia: no sólo redujo sus exportaciones en casi un 60%, sino que su producción se redujo en un 53%, fundamentalmente por la reducción en la producción de telenovelas. Los casos de España y Portugal son interesantes en 2022 por la misma razón que lo fueron en 2021. Su volumen de producción los ubica sólo por debajo de Brasil o México y muy por encima de todos los demás países. La factura de sus realizaciones es de alto estándar. Sin embargo, sus niveles de exportaciones no alcanzan al 5% de lo producido." (Páginas 26-28)
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"Insgesamt zeigt sich sowohl in der internationalen als auch in der deutschen Berichterstattung über Gewalt gegen Frauen ein recht einheitliches Bild. Gewalt gegen Frauen muss besonders brutal sein, um die Schwelle der medialen Berichterstattung zu überschreiten. Dies gilt insbesondere für Gewalt
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in Paarbeziehungen. Dass in den Medien vor allem über Tötungsdelikte an Frauen berichtet wird, kann auf den ersten Blick als Sensibilisierung für Femizide verstanden werden. Tatsächlich wird eine solche Sensibilisierung durch die Berichterstattung aber nur dann erreicht, wenn Femizide auch als solche eingeordnet werden. Eine entsprechende Einordnung findet jedoch in den meisten Fällen nicht statt: Die mediale Berichterstattung erfolgt überwiegend in Form von Einzelfallberichten, ohne Bezugnahme auf das Ausmaß von Gewalt gegen Frauen oder eine Einordnung durch Expertinnen und Experten. Geschlechtsspezifische Gewalt gegen Frauen als strukturelles Problem wird vor allem dann thematisiert, wenn es einen aktuellen Anlass gibt, wie zum Beispiel die jährliche Veröffentlichung der Polizeilichen Kriminalstatistik zu Gewalt in Paarbeziehungen. Obwohl die überproportionale Fokussierung auf Tötungsdelikte der allgemeinen Medienlogik entspricht, erscheint sie im Kontext von Gewalt gegen Frauen besonders problematisch. Studien zu Gewalt in Paarbeziehungen zeigen, dass eine Tötungshandlung häufig nicht spontan erfolgt, sondern der letzte Schritt in einer langen Geschichte von Zwangskontrolle und Gewalt ist. Diese Eskalation verläuft häufig nach ähnlichen Mustern. Mediale Berichterstattung, die sich nur auf diesen letzten, irreversiblen Akt konzentriert, verdeckt, dass Tötungsdelikten in Paarbeziehungen in der Regel viele alltäglichere und weniger drastische Formen von Gewalt vorausgehen." (Fazit)
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"Digital transformations have had catalytic efects on African and European governance, economies, and societies, and will continue to do so. The COVID-19 pandemic has already accelerated the penetration of digital tools all over the globe and is likely to be perceived as a critical juncture in how a
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nd to what purpose the world accepts and uses new and emerging technologies. This book ofers a holistic analysis of how Africa and Europe can manage and harness digital transformation as partners in a globalised world. The authors shed light on issues ranging from economic growth, youth employment, and gender, to regulatory frameworks, business environments, entrepreneurship, and interest-driven power politics. They add much-needed perspectives to the debates that shape the two continents’ digital transformation and innovation environments." (Publisher description)
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"The purpose of this Report is to help the countries that are in the process of migrating from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting. The Report examines the reasons why this is happening and the technologies involved. It provides an overview of digital terrestrial sound and television broadc
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asting technologies and system migration. The Report outlines the available options for making that transition and the route to be followed. The Report is divided into two parts. Part 1 deals with the main issues related with the transition to digital, presents the principal problems and possible solutions. Part 2 gives more detailed information on important aspects which have already been covered in Part 1." (Page 1)
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"In recent years, links between selective news exposure and political polarisation have attracted considerable attention among communication scholars. However, while the existence of selective exposure has been documented in both offline and online environments, the evidence of its extent and its im
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pact on political polarisation is far from unanimous. To address these questions, and also to bridge methodological and geographical gaps in existing research, this paper adopts a media repertoires approach to investigate selective news exposure and polarisation in four Eastern European countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Serbia. Using a combination of population surveys, expert surveys and qualitative interviews, the data for the study were collected between November 2019 and May 2020. We identify five types of news repertoires based on their relative openness to counter-attitudinal sources, and show that selective news repertoires are present in 29% of the entire sample. Our findings also reveal significant cross-country differences, with the more selective news repertoires more prominent in countries characterised by higher levels of polarisation. Furthermore, while the selection of news sources is in line with" (Abstract)
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"Responding to widespread concerns about misinformation’s impact on democracy, we conducted an experiment in which we exposed German participants to different degrees of misinformation on COVID-19 connected to politicized (immigration) and apolitical (runners) issues (N = 1,490). Our key findings
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show that partially false information is more credible and persuasive than completely false information, and also more difficult to correct. People with congruent prior attitudes are more likely to perceive misinformation as credible and agree with its positions than people with incongruent prior attitudes. We further show that although fact-checkers can lower the perceived credibility of misinformation on both runners and migrants, corrective messages do not affect attitudes toward migrants. As a key contribution, we show that different degrees of misinformation can have different impacts: more nuanced deviations from facticity may be more harmful as they are difficult to detect and correct while being more credible." (Abstract)
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"The open access edited volume addresses children's rights and their ability to act in the digital world. The focus is on the position of children as subjects with their own rights and developing capacities. Their consideration by parents, courts and legislators is critically examined. Aspects of di
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gital parenting, especially educational practices and strategies in the context of social media, are analyzed with regard to the tension between protection and participation of children. The edited volume brings debates on privacy and data protection together with those from tort, family and intellectual property law, while also examining the role of families and children in the regulation of data and digital economies, especially online platforms. Legal reflections from Germany, Israel, Portugal and the United States of America are complemented by perspectives from media studies, political science, educational science and sociology of law." (Publisher description)
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"This paper draws evidence from a national survey conducted in the Republic of Cyprus. Respondents provided evidence about their own self-promotion on social media while assessing other users’ personal salience online. Furthermore, they provided evidence about their own reactions toward other peop
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le’s personal salience. The study shows that respondents display affective, perceptional, as well as behavioral reactions toward other people’s online visibility. Demographic characteristics along with certain types of control variables are associated with individuals’ personal salience. Although transferring personal salience constitutes a segmented social media influence, this survey shows that it is recognized as a widespread objective and priority by ordinary individuals." (Abstract)
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"This article offers a qualitative analysis of how, by adopting identity-related discourses whose meanings resonate within a given culture, Russian state propaganda strives to bolster “the truth status” of its Ukraine war claims. These discourses, we argue, have long historical lineages and thus
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are expected to be familiar to audiences. We identify three such discourses common in many contexts but with specific resonances in Russia, those of colonialism/decolonization, imperialism, and the imaginary West. The article demonstrates that these same discourses also inform war-related coverage in Russophone oppositional media. Russian state-affiliated and oppositional actors further share “floating signifiers,” particularly “the Russian people,” “historical Russia,” “the Russian world,” “Ukraine,” “fascism/Nazism,” and “genocide,” while according them radically different meanings. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of studying how state propaganda works at the level of discourses, and the acutely dialogical processes by which disinformation and counter-disinformation efforts are produced and consumed." (Abstract)
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"Established in 1957, the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) has facilitated international exchanges and research collaborations among academics, journalists, and other practitioners, addressing media and communication problems and influencing theory and practice
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through research and participation in global, regional, national, and local debate. The chapters focus on prominent areas of research that have attracted the interest of scholars; political struggles of a membership engaged in research across East and West, global North and global South divides; selected country and regional contributions to the association; and reflections on significant scholarly and institution-building contributions to the association by George Gerbner, James Halloran Stuart Hall, Herbert I. Schiller, and Dallas W. Smythe. Readers will find a history of an academic professional organisation and insights into the controversies, conflicts, failings, and achievements of IAMCR members who developed the field of media and communication research and journalism practice." (Publisher description)
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