"Music is an omnipresent part of the often so-called great Indian election circus and much more than a mere by-product of what is the greatest democratic exercise worldwide. Songs and tunes are an integral part of political communication, strategically used by political actors which are confronted w
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ith an extremely complex and heterogeneous electorate. In the last decades, underlying changes in the media technology and the party system transformed music from a mere vehicle for messages on a regional level to a powerful tool of political advertisement for a nation-wide, professional planed and media based campaign. In course of this study the analysis of both, the historical development of Indian election music and the national election campaigns in 2009, clarify this trend. As part of their media based campaigns the two biggest Indian parties, INC and BJP, used the same song not only to entertain the electorate but – following patterns of brand advertisement – to convey different symbolic messages linked to opposing images of the Indian nation." (Abstract)
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"This report addresses the challenges of supporting independent media in countries where media freedoms are restricted, based on country case studies in Bangladesh, Cambodia, South Sudan, Syria and Uganda. According to Myers, the dilemmas of foreign support include short-term donor strategies, the l
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ack of reliable local partners, the patchy evidence of the positive impact of past media support, the management of inflammatory media coverage and sometimes hate speech in countries that face inter-ethnic tensions or sectarian conflict. On the other hand, the publication also details strategies that have had some measure of success like foreign and UN broadcasting, training and advocacy from the outside, emphasizing neutral and 'public interest' topics when working from inside a country and supporting local rights organisations and media advocacy groups. The study concludes - among other factors - that media should be a key area of political economy analysis, that media assistance should be incorporated more explicitly within broader development systems, and that support should concentrate on media outlets and not just on individual journalists." (CAMECO Update 2-2012)
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"This article is an attempt to explore the issues of online representations of orphans in China and India in the intersection of power, voice, and placement. Textual and visual representations of orphans at www.homeofhopeindia.org and www.homeofhope.org are analyzed using the theoretical frameworks
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of voicings, whiteness, and the colonial (technological) gaze. We examine how online networks are spaces for discursive reproduction of existing offline hegemonies. We pay particular attention to the reproduction and representation of the so-called voiceless Other in online settings." (Abstract)
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"The United Nations pointed out in 2010 that more Indians have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet. There are over 800 million mobile connections, although the number of unique users (excluding inactive connections) is estimated at around 600 million. Together with the fact that 60 percent of
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all households have cable and satellite television, providing access to many of the 700-plus television channels licensed to broadcast, it becomes clear that in garrulous India, mass poverty and marginalization do not result in a perfect “digital divide.” This, together with the fact that the public broadcaster’s prime terrestrial channel, DD National, covers about 92 percent of the 1.2 billion-plus population, clearly suggests that the users of digital technologies in India include many of the 300 million still below the official poverty line. In the case of the digital switchover, it is broadly in this area of public interest that most attention needs to be focused, whether it be in the area of greater accountability and autonomy of the state broadcaster, the governance of private media infrastructure, transparency and equity in licensing criteria and in mechanisms of allocating resources, and compliance with global standards of professional journalism. These values will go some way toward giving India a plurality of voices and media outlets that would properly reflect what may be the most diverse social and political landscape on the planet." (Open Society Foundations website)
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"The author makes a serious discernment of the values and the dangers of the media or the virtual world developing as a result of the communication revolution in the last decades. He pleads for an effort on the part of the church to enter the secular media so as to be within it a seed that bears fru
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its for the Kingdom of God and a new egalitarian society." (Abstract)
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"How do students' online literacy practices intersect with online popular culture? In this book scholars from a range of countries including Australia, Lebanon, Nepal, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States illustrate and analyze how literacy practices that are mediated through and influ
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enced by popular culture create both opportunities and tensions for secondary and university students. The authors examine issues of theory, identity, and pedagogy as they address participatory popular culture sites such as fan forums, video, blogs, social networking sites, anime, memes, and comics and graphic novels." (Back cover)
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"This publication provides readers with fresh insights into the practice of participatory educational communication. The first section explores the educational potential of community media, reaching from participatory radio campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa to school radios in Brazil. The second secti
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on, "stories of learning", shows the power of experience-based stories through interviews with community stakeholders or through drama and other cultural forms. The third section, "Praxis in Latin America", emphasises the centrality of popular and engaging formats, the importance of blended approaches, and the role of mobile and social media in reinforcing and complementing community-based broadcasting. The fourth section, "Praxis in the Commonwealth", examines strategies for enabling participation, experiences of collaboration at the local level, and the importance of assessing programme outcomes. The final section looks at how broadcasters and other community-based groups can make use of the voice and text functions of mobile telephones across different aspects of educational programming, including content provision, programme logistics and learner support." (CAMECO Update 2-2012)
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"In the twenty-first century, community radio is fulfilling an increasingly important role in the world’s mediascape. This book documents the ways in which community radio broadcasters and activists are using the medium in countries around the world to challenge political corruption, aid the trans
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ition to political democracy and broadcast voices that are otherwise unheard. The contributors to the volume are academics and practitioners from five continents, many with first-hand experience of community radio. Each chapter demonstrates the pivotal role that small radio stations can play in developing, sustaining and invigorating communities. The book charts campaigns for the legalisation of community radio and relates them to a theoretical context, while providing illustrations and examples from community radio stations around the world." (Publisher description)
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"[...] Afghanistan is a fragile, fractured state and has one of the most fragile and fractured media, where almost anyone with sufficient funds and the opportunity to move quickly has been able to establish a media presence. This environment has enabled the flourishing of television, radio and other
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media established and owned by powerful political and religious leaders, or by those with allegiance to them. Some fear a future of increased ethnic, sectarian and factional strife being played out through the airwaves. Though there are some very successful commercial television channels, there is no independent and widely trusted national media capable of transcending or creating communication across the fracture points in Afghan society. Most media is either localised or seen as serving political, religious or other agendas. The future of the national broadcaster, RTA, still the only broadcaster with a truly national presence, is uncertain. While journalism as a whole has expanded greatly, investigative journalism remains limited. The sustainability of the newly established commercial media is widely questioned. With the total annual advertising market in the country estimated by some at little more than $20 million, there are real concerns that if donor support declines much of the media will wither or fall prey to factional, religious or extreme forces. There is no shortage of such forces. A number of media outlets already play upon ethnic and sectarian tensions. The Taliban, notorious when in power for shutting down media and banning video tape, have embraced the web and run one of the most effective media strategies in the country. In 2012, the mood music is one of compromise with the Taliban. Concern in the country is growing that new found media freedoms may be the price of that compromise. The role of donors in media support in Afghanistan is probably greater than in any other country at any other time. Such support is largely responsible for the development of a substantial media sector, but it faces criticism that it is poorly coordinated, short term and not informed by aid effectiveness principles; that it focuses too heavily on advancing the agendas of the donors; and that in some sectors it is distorting the media market in ways that create dependency and inhibit the development of genuinely sustainable Afghan media ventures." (Executive summary)
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"The main objective of the media component of the Environmental Planning and Disaster Risk Management (EPDRM) programme of GIZ in India is to enable journalists to better and more efficiently perform their roles, functions and tasks in the context of disaster risk management, i.e. information to the
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public, awareness building with regard to disaster risks and preparedness, warning in case of disasters, information on response, relief and reconstruction. In order to achieve this objective, the project has been planned under different components, viz., orientation workshops for the practicing journalists in different high-on-disaster-risk states; facilitating a virtual platform for information exchange and knowledge sharing among participants from the orientation workshops as well as other experts; and developing curriculum on reporting disaster for the journalism students of various Indian journalism institutes. Orientation workshops were conducted in seven states (Tamilnadu, Odisha, Gujarat, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Assam and Punjab) during 2010-2011. A Facebook community and a web portal have been established to facilitate the virtual exchange among the journalists and thematic experts. In order to extend awareness and capacity building activities related to disasters to journalists, the project also facilitated development of a curriculum on reporting disaster to be used in journalism departments of universities and media training institutes. A core-group of experts and trainers from media training institutes, as well as from other relevant organizations was formed, which deliberated upon the overall structure and outline of the DRR curriculum required to be introduced to the students of journalism. A team of authors and editors had then put together the contents of the curriculum along with guidance on how to use the contents, which is being produced in the form of this handbook. This curriculum was piloted in September this year, with journalism students in the North Eastern Region of India, and inputs on the training methods used were also received from faculty members during a ToT of this curriculum. This Training Handbook on "Reporting Disaster and Disaster Preparedness" provides basic concepts, case studies, and examples that can be customized as a module in a course or an entire course as part of the overall curriculum of a journalism course in Indian universities and institutes." (Preface)
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"The exponential media growth in Afghanistan over the last decade is due to the enthusiasm of Afghan entrepreneurs and to support from the United States and other nations, states this report. According to the executive summary "support from the United States, the biggest donor, has waxed and waned.
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From 2002 to 2005 USAID spend $23 million to launch news media outlets and train journalists, and from 2006 to 2010 funding totaled $20.64 million. That included a couple of lean years, 2007 and 2008, when spending was only $3.3 million each year. But with the Obama administration’s Afghan military surge of 2009 there also came a media spending surge. USAID funded a $22 million project called the Afghanistan Media Development and Empowerment Project (AMDEP) for 2011, and a separate $7 million project to put news on cellphones was put to bid. Meanwhile, $183 million was allocated to the U.S. embassy in Kabul for a wide array of media projects in 2010 and 2011. And the Defense Department budgeted $180 million for information operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2011 alone, some portion of which went to support Afghan media. The effectiveness of all this spending is difficult to gauge, but the smaller and more focused projects–such as creating new radio stations–tend to be seen as generally successful, while the value of the larger and broader projects–such as an anti-insurgency message campaign–is harder to judge." (Executive summary, page 4-5)
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"While the empirical emphasis of this book is on diasporic groups and their experiences with mainly new communication technologies, the topic is embedded in a broader set of questions that inform social sciences today. The book speaks to and analyses convergence cultures, community building, transna
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tional connections and processes of identity formation in the midst of these processes and relations. One of the overriding premises for the book seems to be the development within media and communication technologies and the exploration of their influence upon the increasingly mediatized social and cultural practices. New media geographies, growing virtual spaces, mediated social networks and processes of mass self-communication are all part and parcel of the contexts in which identity formation - diasporic or not - is taking place." (Foreword, page 9)
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"The Handbook of Global Health Communication offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the role of communication processes in global public health, development and social change. It brings together 32 contributions from well-respected scholars and practitioners in the field, addressing a wid
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e range of communication approaches in current global health programs; offers an integrated view that links communication to the strengthening of health services, the involvement of affected communities in shaping health policies and improving care, and the empowerment of citizens in making decisions about health; ddopts a broad understanding of communication that goes beyond conventional divisions between informational and participatory approaches." (Publisher description)
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"This book explores the role of media in democratic societies and specifically that of PSB's in Asia. It presents case studies from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kampuchea, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Macau, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. These studies document the Asian experience in PSB while exploring if there
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is a role that such networks are playing (or can play) in creating a civic conscious society." (Back cover)
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"GISWatch 2012 explores how the internet is being used to ensure transparency and accountability, the challenges that civil society activists face in fighting corruption, and when the internet fails as an enabler of a transparent and fair society. The eight thematic reports and 48 country reports pu
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blished ask provocative questions such as: Is a surveillance society necessarily a bad thing if it fights corruption? And how successful have e-government programmes been in fighting corruption? They explore options for activism by youth and musicians online, as well as the art of using visual evidence to expose delusions of power. By focusing on individual cases or stories of corruption, the country reports take a practical look at the role of the internet in combating corruption at all levels." (Back cover)
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