"In Chapter 1, the international and European legal frameworks are outlined with a focus on the existing definitions of hate speech and current freedom of expression safeguards, the challenges posed by online hate speech, the role of IT companies in addressing these issues, and possible ways to resp
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ond to it. In Chapter 2, strategies to counter hate speech are explored and guidance on how to plan, design and run an online campaign is provided, with a section focusing on safety measures to ensure personal security and wellbeing. Chapter 3 of the toolkit provides information and tips concerning the organization and development of a training event, covering various aspects from logistics to evaluation. Chapter 4 includes references to useful resources as well as tools developed by the Minority Rights Group Europe (MRGE) that offer a starting point for developing an online campaign or delivering a training session on countering hate speech online." (Introduction)
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"Through an exploration of Facebook groups designed for Russophones and Russians in the Netherlands, this study considers online community belonging negotiations. In doing so, the article aims to address the role of online administrators (admins) in online community construction, seeking to enrich t
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he algorithmcentric literature covering customized feeds. The authors argue that by moderating discussions, approving and banning users, and setting the agenda more generally in the online environments that they create and manage, admins acquire and perform functions that may surpass or compliment algorithmic biases." (Abstract)
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"Misinformation is a lucrative business in several Eastern European countries, reliant on advertising revenue, and pulling in cash from a variety of other sources including government subsidies, crowdfunding, tax designations, donations and sales of merchandise. The Business of Misinformation projec
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t, run by the Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS), set out in its first phase to map the misinformation business in six countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia. Our researches identified the individuals and businesses that own local misinformation websites and their links to institutions, parties and other individuals." (Publisher description)
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"Three notable trends punctuated an especially dismal year for internet freedom. First, political leaders used the pandemic as a pretext to limit access to information. Authorities often blocked independent news sites and arrested individuals on spurious charges of spreading false news. In many plac
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es, it was state officials and their zealous supporters who actually disseminated false and misleading information with the aim of drowning out accurate content, distracting the public from ineffective policy responses, and scapegoating certain ethnic and religious communities. Some states shut off connectivity for marginalized groups, extending and deepening existing digital divides. In short, governments around the world failed in their obligation to promote a vibrant and reliable online public sphere. Second, authorities cited COVID-19 to justify expanded surveillance powers and the deployment of new technologies that were once seen as too intrusive. The public health crisis has created an opening for the digitization, collection, and analysis of people’s most intimate data without adequate protections against abuses. The third trend has been the transformation of a slow-motion “splintering” of the internet into an all-out race toward “cyber sovereignty,” with each government imposing its own internet regulations in a manner that restricts the flow of information across national borders." (Pages 1-2)
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"Media Imperialism: Continuity and Change advances applied theoretical research on 21st century media imperialism. The volume includes established and emerging researchers in international communications who examine the geopolitical, economic, technological and cultural dimensions of 21st century me
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dia imperialism. The volume highlights and challenges how news, entertainment and social media uphold unequal power relations in the world. Written in an accessible style, this volume marries conceptual, theoretical sophistication, and concrete illustration with rich case studies and global examples. Chapters cover the complete media spectrum, from social media to Hollywood, to news and national propaganda in national and transnational analyses. Readers will find discussions that range from soft power and China to the USA's empire of the internet to the rise of "Chindia" in a post-American media world." (Publisher description)
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"Christiche Akteure im Netz: Die einen bieten allerlei Lebensdienliches, die anderen punkten mit Provokationen. Die Kirchen sollten sich von diesem Medienphänomen nicht zu viel versprechen. Denn es steht für ein Christentum, das sich der digitalen Marktlogik unterwirft und nicht in der realen Welt
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konkret wird." (Seite 28)
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"This book explores the potential of the Internet for enabling new and flexible political participation modes. It meticulously illustrates how the Internet is responsible for citizens' participation practices from being general, high-threshold, temporally constricted, and dependent on physical prese
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nce to being topic-centered, low-threshold, temporally discontinuous, and independent from physical presence. With its ethnographic focus on Icelandic and German online participation tools Betri Reykjavík and LiquidFriesland, the book offers plentiful advice for citizens, programmers, politicians, and administrations alike on how to get the most out of online participation formats." (Publisher description)
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"The mediation of migration as a crisis has worked to shore up various forms of militarized surveillance, humanitarian response, legislative action, and affective investment. Bridging academic inquiry and artistic and activist practice, the essays, documents, and artworks gathered in Moving Images i
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nterrogate the mediation of migration and refugeeism in the contemporary European conjuncture, asking how images, discourses, and data are involved in shaping the visions and experience of migration in increasingly global contexts." (Publisher description)
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"The present study brings together a unique collection of open testimonies from 20 journalists working in different member states of the Council of Europe. Each of these journalists spoke about the risks and pressures they perceived and experienced in exercising their profession, as well as their st
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rategies to build resilience and carry on in their “mission to inform”. At times, the price these women and men have had to pay for standing by their obligation to inform the public in an impartial and complete way was enormous, ranging from intrusions and limitations on private and family life, to putting their lives at risk. This was, for example, the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who reported fearlessly on sensitive issues, notably corruption, and who was murdered just 10 days after giving a powerful interview for this book. This was the last interview Daphne Caruana Galizia ever gave. A sample of 20 interviews cannot be representative of the situation in the Council of Europe member states. The merit of these interviews is to further exemplify different forms of interference with press freedom already identified in the 2017 study, as well as journalists’ perceptions regarding the dangers of the profession and the strategies they employ to persevere in their work." (Foreword)
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"The study revealed the lack of sufficient knowledge on the part of journalists on violent extremism and terrorism. Furthermore, alongside a lack of expertise on violent extremism, journalists in Albania also display a poor level of knowledge about religions, which makes it even harder for reporters
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to do their jobs, especially when it comes to cover events related to religious extremism. Journalists in traditional and online media outlets suffer from a shortage of training courses and other similar forms of continuing education. The findings of the study showed that nearly 60 percent of journalists in the Albanian media have never received any training on covering and reporting on these topics. Lack of training is evident even amongst media spokespersons and communication officials in public institutions. The study also revealed that journalists are aware of their lack of skills in covering violent extremism and terrorism, but they appear eager to participate in training programs on such topics. This indicates that media professionals are willing to get a better grasp on the phenomenon and improve the level of their knowledge." (Conclusions, page 29)
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"The findings show a general stagnation or deterioration of media pluralism and media freedom in the four major areas encompassed by the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM): Basic protection, Market plurality, Political independence and Social inclusiveness. The study comprises the European Union Member S
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tates (UK included, considering the timeframe of the project-the UK left the EU in 2020) as well as in candidate countries, Turkey, and for the first time, an assessment of Albania. The MPM 2020 has confirmed the findings of the previous four rounds of monitoring – showing that none of the countries analysed are free from risks to media pluralism." (https://cmpf.eui.eu/mpm2020-results)
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"The study shows that the data giant’s rise to become a patron of the media began in France, where, responding to political pressure, it set up a 60-million-euro fund to support press publishers’ innovation projects in 2013. The French fund was the blueprint for the Digital News Initiative (DNI)
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that Google launched throughout Europe in 2015 and whose core element was the 150-million-euros Digital News Innovation Fund that the company used to promote innovation projects from 2015 to 2019. Examining the political context of these funding programmes reveals that Google’s initiatives consistently came about in response to growing political pressure, which the company’s managers describe as a “wake-up call” to the corporation. One key issue is the debate surrounding the introduction of a “Google tax” and an ancillary copyright law. Using publicly accessible sources, newspaper articles, press releases, and discussions with industry representatives and Google, the present study sets out how the French Fund and the European DNI became a global undertaking from 2018: the 300-million-dollar Google News Initiative (GNI) [.] the typical beneficiary of a DNI grant was an established, for-profit, western European publisher. Non-profit media and journalism start-ups were not the focus of funding. Across Europe, some three quarters of the funding millions went to commercial media organisations, the largest share – 21.5 million euros – to Germany. Only four of the 28 large projects to receive funding of more than 300,000 euros in Germany were at regional publishers. At the other end of the spectrum are major publishing empires such as Dieter von Holtzbrinck Medien, Funke Mediengruppe, and Gruner + Jahr, each of whom received between 3 and 10 million euros. More precise figures cannot be provided, since neither Google nor the majority of recipients espouse transparency regarding specific funding amounts." (Summary, page 89-90)
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"Ammann hat den Aufstieg der sozialen Medien von Anfang an begleitet und zieht Bilanz: Sie bieten auf der einen Seite große Chancen für die Demokratie. Die effektive Nachbarschaftshilfe während der Pandemie oder der immense Erfolg von #fridaysforfuture und #blacklivesmatter basieren auf der Reich
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weite von Social Media. Auf der anderen Seite unterminieren sie aber zugleich die demokratischen Grundlagen: durch die Verbreitung von Fake News und Verschwörungstheorien, vor allem aber auch, weil die global agierenden Betreiber sich nur an ihre eigenen Regeln halten. Was dem Einzelnen Freiheit verspricht, begünstigt eine manipulative Gegenöffentlichkeit, die Falschmeldungen und Hass verbreitet. Ammann hat zahllose Beispiele und Fakten zusammengetragen, die deutlich machen: Der Kampf um unser politisches System hat bereits begonnen – aber die Machtprobe ist noch lange nicht entschieden." (Buchrücken)
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"Längst ist die Kirche auch in den sozialen Medien angekommen. Gleichzeitig reagieren viele Bistümer aber noch verhalten auf die digitale Glaubensverkündigung und Evangelisierung im Web. Dabei bergen die sozialen Medien das bislang wenig genutzte Potenzial zur Beziehungspflege, das oft verloren g
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eht, wenn hauptsächlich eine Kommunikation 'von oben nach unten' gepflegt wird." (Seite 30)
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