"This report provides an overview of the discussions and conclusions from the International Partnership Meeting in New York on 26 January 2010 organised by the Open Society Institute and International Media Support. At the meeting, 30 media support and press freedom organisations from across the wor
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ld met to discuss partnerships and countries in which the partnership process might be pursued in 2010. Nine target countries in 2010 were selected for partnership action in 2010." (IMS website)
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"A decade ago, mobile phone usage in Afghanistan was almost nonexistent; now there are 13 million subscriptions for a total of 29 million citizens, and the annual growth rate of subscription is estimated at 53 percent. A number of factors have fueled this dramatic increase, including the sheer popul
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ar demand for communication, an absence of viable landline substitutes, government deregulation, and a competitive market that flourishes despite the conflict. Each of the major telecommunications companies in Afghanistan identifies the same five challenges to future expansion: poverty, high illiteracy rates, corruption, an untrained workforce, and lack of security. Despite these challenges, Afghanistan has proved an exceptional case study in the use of mobile phones for social change in support of peacebuilding, as it has been the focus of numerous pilot application programs conducted by the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector. Mobile money transfer (MMT) applications have proved to be powerful mechanisms for helping to reduce corruption, foster security sector reform, and promote economic development. Yet neither the international community nor the Afghan government has shown the will or the capacity to move MMT programs forward at a pace commensurate with their demonstrated potential. At least two other high-value mobile applications were cited during the June summit as having improved conditions for stability and reconstruction in early deployments: (1) the provision of market information through mobile phones, especially in the agricultural sector, and (2) the use of mobile phones to strengthen local governance and civil society. Both applications have sufficient promise to warrant large-scale rollouts and merit careful consideration by international donors, whose support is vital during the transition to sustainability." (Summary)
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"This book looks at religion in a transnational and global context and presents a systematic account of the methods undertaken by modern day missionaries to convert people. The author seeks to understand the outworking of the American phenomenon of televangelism in India, in a new historical, cultur
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al, religious, political and economic setting. He likens global televangelism to 'McDonaldisation', because of its standardised, 'one size fits all' approach. 'Glocal' televangelism - the fusion of the American and Indian evangelism - is referred to as 'Masala McGospel' because of the overwhelming presence of the global, American grammar and logic in the presentation and style of these programmes in India. The author then goes on to show how a disjunction is being created in Hindu televangelism because of such blending of American techniques with the holiness of ancient scriptures, making them subservient to the modern day aspirations of globalisation and consumerism." (Publisher description)
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"The study found evidence that mobiles are being used in ways which contribute to productivity enhancement. However, to leverage the full potential of information dissemination enabled by mobile telephony will require significant improvements in supporting infrastructure and capacity building amongs
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t farmers to enable them to use the information they access effectively. As mobile penetration continues to increase among farming communities and information services continue to adapt and proliferate, the scope exists for a much greater rural productivity impact in the future." (Abstract)
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"FAO and the Italian Ministry of Environment and Territory have agreed to a joint initiative named Communication for Sustainable Development Initiative (CSDI) to strengthen national efforts in the applications of ComDev approaches and strategies to sustainable development policies and programmes, as
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well as to food security and rural livelihoods. Special attention is given to the application of ComDev activities and initiatives to climate change adaptation in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors and in sustainable natural resources management. Within this framework, CSDI fielded two missions in Bangladesh to support FAO Livelihood Adaptation to Climate Change (LACC) project, which is currently in its second phase. Particularly, two consultants in Communication and in ICT for Development and Environment visited LACC stakeholders at both national and local levels. This was done to systematize lessons learned on the role of communication within project activities as well as to design a proposal for an ad hoc ComDev and ICT component for the next phase of the Project." (Introduction, page 1)
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"The 52-page report summarised here is the result of the three-year partnership between UNDP Oslo Governance Centre and the Communication for Social Change Consortium in piloting the C4E approach in five least-developed countries: Mozambique, Madagascar, Ghana, Lao PDR, and Nepal. The report present
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s key learning from the information and communication needs assessments conducted in these five countries, funded by a grant from the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). The implementation of the C4E approach consisted of: (i) information and communication assessments to identify the information and communication needs and identify gaps in meeting those needs; (ii) review of the media context based on the existing research at the national level; (iii) programme interventions informed by the findings of the assessment to ensure economically poor and marginalised groups' participation in decision-making processes. Experiences and lessons from testing the C4E approach in Madagascar and Mozambique in 2007-2008 enabled further refining of the C4E approach and informed the information and communication assessments carried out in Ghana, Lao PDR, and Nepal. As a result, the concept of C4E also widened: from an initial conception as part of UNDP's Access to Information work primarily geared to meeting the information and communication needs of the people through specific media strategies - to an approach that promotes inclusive participation, empowerment of economically poor and marginalised people, and accountability of the state to its citizens. These aspects of C4E, thus, make it an integral part of broader democratic governance and development work." (Summary at the "Communication Initiative" website)
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"There are various risks at the local level. On one hand, Nepal lies on a seismically active zone and has a fragile geological structure and, on the other hand, proper policies, government access to rural and remote places, and public awareness and knowledge are lacking. There is an urgent need for
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all sectors to address disaster related issues. Awareness campaigns should be conducted for the initiation of comprehensive disaster risk management. The mass media has to raise its voice on the frequency and intensity of disasters, vulnerabilities, risks, rights, and responsibilities and shape mainstream disaster risk reduction (DRR) programmes into development efforts. The disaster management (DM) cycle should be considered while news and information are collected. Voices of affected communities need to be captured and experts consulted. Information should be provided capturing the voices of communities, experts, civil societies, and government authorities. To make information more accessible, programmes should be catchy, attractive, and entertaining. When does a particular disaster occur? What possible impact can it have? Which community and economic class is eff ected? What are the causes? Such questions and issues have to be considered while preparing reports and terminologies have to be accurate. Media personnel can also focus on disaster preparedness and possible disaster risk reduction measures." (Executive summary)
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"More than 20 million people in Pakistan were affected by the worst floods in the country’s history in late July 2010 [...] The humanitarian response included efforts to inform people about the services available, and communicate with them about accessing these services. It also included efforts t
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o provide platforms by which people could tell the aid workers about particular help they needed or register complaints about services. However, during the flood response, there was no consistent, broad research that could indicate which communication efforts were most effective. This study is an attempt to start providing this data, and thereby directly support the communication plans and efforts of humanitarian organizations. It assesses the impact of humanitarian information provided to flood-affected populations in Sindh and Punjab three months after the flood, and examines to what degree people received information about help available and how well that information enabled people to get that help and to help themselves." (Executive summary, page 2)
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"Media in Balochistan - the largest of Pakistan's four province in land mass - in general and provincial capital Quetta in particular has visibly expanded since 2000 in a trend that largely reflects the shifting media landscape in the rest of Pakistan. With the doors thrown open to private ownership
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of the airwaves, independent TV channels and FM radio stations have come to be a part of daily life for many. And with competition has come the rush for news, to be the first to break news. Even though one still has to see a critical mass of private, independent TV channels and radio stations, locally owned and voicing local concerns in languages of Balochistan - something needed and often stridently demanded - media has crept into the consciousness of the people, if not through independent news and analysis then through the sheer volume of its presence. In a province long engaged in a monologue with itself - cut off as it is from the rest of the country through huge distances, lack of infrastructure and the Pakistani state's Orwellian contr over news and information from Balochistan - the proliferation of media in recent years has fueled a hunger for information, a desire to have a say and be heard." (Page 7)
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"In 2004-2005, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Transition Initiatives commissioned Altai Consulting to conduct the first comprehensive media evaluation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, looking at the impact of the Afghan media on opinions and behav
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iors three years after the beginning of the country’s reconstruction. The evaluation found, among other things: that Afghans were avid and sophisticated media users and that cultural barriers to media use were less significant than previously expected; that the radio played a predominant role throughout the country; and that media are instrumental in social progress and education. However, since publication of that report1, Afghanistan’s media sector has seen important changes. To inform future assistance from the international community to the Afghan media, it was deemed necessary to assess the current state of the Afghan media – by reflecting a full and accurate audience profile, to determine program preferences, to measure the impact of the Afghan media on local opinions and behaviors and to gauge Afghan expectations in terms of programming and messaging. A large-scale research project was thus planned and conducted from March to August 2010. This research included a deep probe into the media sector and the public’s behaviors and expectations. The methodology used to achieved this included a combination of: literature review; direct observations; key informant interviews with most relevant actors involved in the media sector; 6,648 close-ended interviews in more than 900 towns and villages of 106 districts, covering all 34 provinces of the country; an audience survey on more than 1,500 individuals run daily for a week; about 200 qualitative, open-ended interviews; and 10 community case studies. Such an effort guarantees that results presented here are fairly representative of the Afghan population at large. This document provides a comprehensive synthesis of data collected during the survey. A database of media actors, 16 priority district reports, 10 case study reports, a complete description of the methodology and the original datasets from the main quantitative research and the audience research are publicly available, allowing anyone interested to access more focused information as needed." (Introduction, page 8)
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"Internet censorship and surveillance becomes more sophisticated. The first-generation controls like China's "Great Firewall" are being replaced by techniques that include strategically timed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, targeted malware, take-down notices and stringent terms-of-usa
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ge policies. Their aim is to shape and limit the national information environment. This publication reports on these new trends and their implications for the global internet commons. In addition, it offers 32 detailed country profiles on internet surveillance from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East and North Africa, Asia and Europe." (CAMECO Update 2-2010)
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"Real-life practice is poorly understood and undervalued as a distinct professional domain. Written by practitioners, this innovative publication is designed to make capacity development more professional and increasingly effective in achieving development goals. Practical illustrations draw on expe
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riences from the civic, government and private sectors. A central theme is to understand capacity as more than something internal to organisations. This book shows how capacity also stems from connections between different types of actor and the levels in society at which they operate. The content is crafted for a broad audience of practitioners in capacity development: consultants, managers, front-line workers, trainers, facilitators, leaders, advisors, programme staff, activists, and funding agencies." (http://www.snvworld.org/en/Pages/CapacityDevelopment.aspx, 24.3.2011)
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"The Anthropology of News and Journalism is the first book to explore the role of news and journalism in contemporary culture from an anthropological perspective—as a form of cultural meaning-making in its creation, content, and dissemination. Anthropology's global, comparative perspective and eth
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nographic methods provide powerful insights for analyzing case studies from around the world. Essays by leading scholars explore communities of professional and nonprofessional journalists. They describe news-making processes ranging from the local to the global digital environment, as well as how news is disseminated and received in a variety of cultural settings." (Publisher description)
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"Asia’s Media Innovator’s Vol 2 is the offspring of the earlier book that appeared in 2008. This new volume consists of studies of innovations at media companies in the region. The success of these media companies shows the dynamism in the region, and reflects its potential for growth. Each chap
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ter covers various forms of media, including online newspapers and broadcast outlets. Every couple of weeks a new chapter will be published online." (KAS website)
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"Probably one of the most relevant pieces of military legislation affecting the media has been the establishment and formalisation of a media regulatory authority. The Regulatory Authority for Media Broadcast Organisations (RAMBO), the predecessor of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authorit
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y (PEMRA), was established in 2000, and one of the four components of its mandate was to ‘facilitate the devolution of responsibility and power to grassroots by improving the access to mass media at the local and community level’. This was apparently in response to specific clauses in the country’s constitution about decentralising broadcasting, and it was probably also linked to the devolution process initiated by Musharraf in 2001. In spite of what was stated by the Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, according to most of the people interviewed, ‘Pakistan’s mushrooming media’ is not yet manifestly ‘journeying towards maturity’. It actually suffers from an over-accelerated growth and its connected physiological pains. Rather than the perspective of within-reach maturity, what seems to emerge is a landscape filled with opportunistic and sensationalist journalism. Unrelenting growth, stimulated by commercial and political interests, seems to have marginalised the need to guarantee professional news reporting. Moreover, in this media wasteland, obscure powers have found a vast array of naive and for-sale journalists ready to produce or reproduce stories according to the dictates of their customers." (Executive summary, page 8)
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"The Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) organized a series of policy dialogues to seek expert opinion on a PIPS research report titled ‘Understanding Militants’ Print Media in Pakistan and its Impact’. The report maps the militants’ media, its genesis and evolution, and impact on the Pak
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istani state and society. The report also profiles publications of the militants’ media, colloquially known as ‘jihad media’, along with publications of madrassas, sectarian groups and/or associated individuals, and mainstream media groups which support the narrative of the militants’ media. Besides content analysis of the four types of publications, the report also discusses at length the parallel propaganda campaign by militants in the form of leaflets and Shabnamas (night letters). The report finds that the militants’ media is gradually expanding its influence and outreach, having frustrated government efforts to close it down by continuously resurfacing under new names." (Page 1)
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