commbox Central Asia & Caucasus

Central Asia & Caucasus

Filter

718

Sort by:

Direction:

External Link (82)

Lessons on Communication, Community Engagement and Accountability for the Türkiye–Syria Earthquake Response

London: CDAC Network (2023), 9 pp.

External Link (69)

An analysis of the communication and engagement ecosystem in earthquake-affected Türkiye

London: CDAC Network (2023), 26 pp.

Download (30)

Debating Religion and Forced Migration Entanglements

Elzbieta M. Gozdziak, Izabella Main (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2023), xiv, 196 pp.

"This open access book brings into dialogue migration and religion scholars with spiritual leaders and representatives of faith-based organizations assisting refugees. Migration has always been part of spiritual development. The current 'refugee crisis' has brought to the fore debates regarding the ... more

Download (22)

Internet Censorship in Kazakhstan: Extensive But Unnecessary

ConnexUs (2023), 5 pp.

"An increasing number of states resort to various tools to control the dissemination of information on the internet. The government of Kazakhstan has also become adept at employing censorship methods to silence alternative voices and prevent the public from seeing undesirable critical content. Yet s ... more

Download (30)

Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective

Michael Butter, Peter Knight (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2023), xvi, 397 pp.

"Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective examines how conspiracy theories and related forms of misinformation and disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic have circulated widely around the world. Covid conspiracy theories have attracted considerable attention from researchers, journalists, ... more

External Link (71)

Google Scholar (63)

WorldCat (60)

Uncensored journalism in censored times: Challenges of reporting on Azerbaijan

Arzu Geybulla

Journalism, volume 24, issue 2 (2023), pp. 313–327

"Azerbaijan is an authoritarian regime, whose government maintains a tight grip over the media landscape. Independent and opposition media are regularly persecuted, with journalists and their family members intimidated by law enforcement agencies via arrests, beating, threats and other forms of pers ... more

External Link (91)

Georgia: Media Freedom in Decline

Elena Zondler, Ekaterine Basilaia, Alexander Matschke, Evelin Meier

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2023), 14 pp.

External Link (89)

Google Scholar (76)

WorldCat (70)

Transnational Turkish Television Production and Consumption

International Communication Gazette, volume 85, issue 3-4 (2023), pp. 193-344

Download (39)

The Unfreedom Monitor: Kyrgyzstan Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 24 pp.

"[...] The research has revealed that the incumbent Kyrgyz government is actively suppressing dissent by engaging in information manipulation, passing restrictive laws and attacking free media and investigative journalism. The Kyrgyz government has introduced new laws to regulate online activity, an ... d is proposing additional legislation on foreign agents to control and to limit the activity of NGOs and foreign media, and on mass media to gain greater control over bloggers and social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers. The government has been using the “Law on Protection from False Information,” also known as the fake news law, to silence its critics. This has included shutting down the website of Azattyk, a foreign-funded media outlet critical of the state, and detaining and censoring individuals who share or repost information critical of the government on social media. Similarly, investigative reporters in Kyrgyzstan have had to deal with multiple accusations, various attacks, or legal action taken against them. One of them, Temirov Bolot, was forced to leave Kyrgyzstan and move to Russia in November 2022. Furthermore, the research has examined how the Kyrgyz leadership is exploiting social media platforms to launch influence campaigns and boost the president’s popularity. Pages and groups supportive of Zhaparov on various social media platforms, including Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp, have emerged with the aim of garnering backing for the president during critical moments, and are run by individuals associated with his informal network, while receiving funding from unknown pro-president groups or individuals. The support pages promote the current regime’s decisions and policies by creating pro-regime content (usually videos) that is disseminated through multiple social media platforms, while also commenting on contentious news items published by critical media channels. These videos are directed towards under-educated Kyrgyz-speaking people who tend to trust unverified sources, conveying unconfirmed and intentionally exaggerated information. Overall, the situation with media freedom and freedom of opinion in Kyrgyzstan is worsening and these developments are worrying because the country has been a champion of democratic reforms in the region since 1991." (Analysis and conclusion, page 21) more

External Link (71)

Communication Science in Türkiye: How Communication Research and Education Developed Over the Years

Füsum Alver, Aynur Sarisakaloglu

Publizistik, volume 68 (2023), pp. 89-108

"In Türkiye, communication science falls under the category of social sciences and is regarded as an interdisciplinary scientific field focused on empirical research. The field is influenced by communication science developments of the West in terms of developing theories and methodology, and it fa ... more

External Link (90)

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Kirsten Eddy, Craig T. Robertson, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2023), 158 pp.

"Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) now say they prefer to start their news journeys with a website or app – that’s down 10 percentage points since 2018. Publishers in a few smaller Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are ... showing a weaker connection with news brands’ own websites and apps than previous cohorts – preferring to access news via side-door routes such as social media, search, or mobile aggregators. • Facebook remains one of the most-used social networks overall, but its influence on journalism is declining as it shifts its focus away from news. It also faces new challenges from established networks such as YouTube and vibrant youth-focused networks such as TikTok. The Chinese-owned social network reaches 44% of 18–24s across markets and 20% for news. It is growing fastest in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. • When it comes to news, audiences say they pay more attention to celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities than journalists in networks like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. This contrasts sharply with Facebook and Twitter, where news media and journalists are still central to the conversation. • Much of the public is sceptical of the algorithms used to select what they see via search engines, social media, and other platforms. Less than a third (30%) say that having stories selected for me on the basis of previous consumption is a good way to get news, 6 percentage points lower than when we last asked the question in 2016. Despite this, on average, users still slightly prefer news selected this way to that chosen by editors or journalists (27%), suggesting that worries about algorithms are part of a wider concern about news and how it is selected. • Despite hopes that the internet could widen democratic debate, we find fewer people are now participating in online news than in the recent past. Aggregated across markets, only around a fifth (22%) are now active participators, with around half (47%) not participating in news at all. In the UK and United States, the proportion of active participators has fallen by more than 10 percentage points since 2016. Across countries we find that this group tends to be male, better educated, and more partisan in their political vie ws. • Trust in the news has fallen, across markets, by a further 2 percentage points in the last year, reversing in many countries the gains made at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. On average, four in ten of our total sample (40%) say they trust most news most of the time. Finland remains the country with the highest levels of overall trust (69%), while Greece (19%) has the lowest after a year characterised by heated arguments about press freedom and the independence of the media." (Summary, page 10) more

External Link (101)

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024
Deep Insights

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2023), 167 pp.

"In many countries, especially outside Europe and the United States, we find a significant further decline in the use of Facebook for news and a growing reliance on a range of alternatives including private messaging apps and video networks. Facebook news consumption is down 4 percentage points, acr ... oss all countries, in the last year. • News use across online platforms is fragmenting, with six networks now reaching at least 10% of our respondents, compared with just two a decade ago. YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of our global sample each week, WhatsApp by around a fifth (21%), while TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (10%), now rebranded X, for the first time. • Linked to these shifts, video is becoming a more important source of online news, especially with younger groups. Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection. • Although the platform mix is shifting, the majority continue to identify platforms including social media, search, or aggregators as their main gateway to online news. Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) identify news websites or apps as their main source of online news – that’s down 10 percentage points on 2018. Publishers in a few Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are showing a weaker connection with news brands than they did in the past. • Turning to the sources that people pay most attention to when it comes to news on various platforms, we find an increasing focus on partisan commentators, influencers, and young news creators, especially on YouTube and TikTok. But in social networks such as Facebook and X, traditional news brands and journalists still tend to play a prominent role. • Concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to online news has risen by 3 percentage points in the last year with around six in ten (59%) saying they are concerned. The figure is considerably higher in South Africa (81%) and the United States (72%), both countries that have been holding elections this year. • Worries about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content in online platforms is highest for TikTok and X when compared with other online networks. Both platforms have hosted misinformation or conspiracies around stories such as the war in Gaza, and the Princess of Wales’s health, as well as so-called ‘deep fake’ pictures and videos." (Executive summary, page 10) more

External Link (96)

Google Scholar (89)

WorldCat (98)

The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology
Deep Insights

Elisabetta Costa, Patricia G. Lange, Nell Haynes, Jolynna Sinanan (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2023), xxv, 617 pp.

"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 ... more

Download (16)

The Türkiye–Syria earthquake response six months on: Lessons on communication, community engagement and accountability

London: CDAC Network (2023), 9 pp.

External Link (83)

Google Scholar (83)

WorldCat (99)

What it Takes to be Religious: Religion Online Vs. Online Religion

Filiz Çömez-Polat, Göklem Tekdemir

Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, volume 16, issue 2 (2023), pp. 161-179

"This study aims to examine how active users of social media in relation to their religious values and commitments evaluate the construction and byproducts of religion online. The results show that there are three main repertoires related to the use of social media and religiosity in Turkey: religio ... more

Download (13)

The uses of Twitter in the construction and maintenance of Occupy Gezi’s collective identity

Duygu Karatas

Information, Communication & Society, volume 26, issue 7 (2023), pp. 1401-1417

"This empirical research investigates the uses of Twitter and longterm communication practices in the construction process of Occupy Gezi’s collective identity since the eruption of the Gezi protests until the constitutional referendum campaign in 2017. This article emphasises the latent phase of ... more

External Link (84)

Google Scholar (74)

WorldCat (74)

Communications in Turkey and the Ottoman Empire: A Critical History

Burçe Çelik

Champaign: University of Illinois Press (2023), 287 pp.

"The history of communications in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey contradicts the widespread belief that communications is a byproduct of modern capitalism and other Western forces. Burçe Çelik uses a decolonial perspective to analyze the historical commodification and militarization of communicatio ... more

External Link (80)

Google Scholar (85)

WorldCat (77)

Mapping the Media and Communication Landscape of Central Asia: An Anthology of Emerging and Contemporary Issues

Elira Turdubaeva, Evangelia Papoutsaki (eds.)

Lexington Books (2023), xiii, 365 pp.

"Central Asian post-independence media and communication industries, professional practices, education, persisting and evolving values, and traditions remain critically understudied with a notable scarcity of research and scholarly publications on the complex and increasingly changing communicative ... more

Download (21)

Understanding safe digital space: A study of perspectives of young people in Georgia

Mariam Tskhovrebashvili, Tamar Gagniashvili, Mariam Tsutskiridze

RNW media (2023), 60 pp.

External Link (73)

Google Scholar (73)

WorldCat (61)

Worsening Safety Conditions for Women Journalists in Turkey’s Alternative News Media

Özlem Erkmen, Bora Ataman, Baris Çoban

Journalism Studies, issue 7 (2023), pp. 857-875

"This study, drawing on alternative journalism theory takes a postcolonial feminist approach to investigating the lived experiences and gender-based safety problems of women journalists working for alternative media in Turkey. It evaluates the impact on their professional and private lives of Islami ... more

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 Deep Insights

The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology Deep Insights

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024
Deep Insights

The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology
Deep Insights