"Using case studies from countries such as Burma, Mexico and Uganda, the study explores whether the use of technology in citizen participation programs amplifies citizen voices and increases government responsiveness and accountability, and whether the use of digital technology increases the politic
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al clout of citizens. The research shows that while more people are using technology—such as social media for mobile organizing, and interactive websites and text messaging systems that enable direct communication between constituents and elected officials or crowdsourcing election day experiences— the type and quality of their political participation, and therefore its impact on democratization, varies. It also suggests that, in order to leverage technology’s potential, there is a need to focus on non-technological areas such as political organizing, leadership skills and political analysis." (NDI website)
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"La cultura es la riqueza de los pueblos que defienden su identidad y que tratan de reinventarse en un mundoglobalizado, multicultural y diverso. Es imprescindible, pues, impulsar la reflexión sobre el papel de la cultura en su desarrollo. Esta segunda edición del estudios "Cultura y desarrollo ec
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onómico en Iberoamérica" aborda el efecto de la cultura en el desarrollo económico de nuestros paíse, y llega a una conclusión impactante: los aportes de la cultura al desarrollo económico de los países son muy superiores a los presupuestos que los mismos países beneficiados invierten en el desarrollo de la cultura. Finalmente, el estudio pon en relieve que aún falta mucho camino por recorrer para que todos los países lleguen a destinar al menos el 1% de su presupuesto a la inversión cultural, tal como se aprobó en la Conferencia de Ministros de Cultura celebrada en Chile, en Julio de 2007." (Tapa posterior)
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"Mexico ranks as one of the most violent countries in the world for journalists, and especially for those who work on the country’s periphery such as its northern border. Given the dire situation for Mexican reporters covering the northern part of the country, and the continued responsibility of U
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S journalists to report on the area just south of the border, this qualitative study addresses the overarching research question that examines how Mexican and US journalists who cover northern Mexico are using social media, given the heightened levels of violence in the region. The authors utilize a modified version of the conceptual framework of scale-shifting to investigate how journalists in a specific transnational environment of conflict are using social media. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of 41 interviews gathered in fall 2011 in 18 cities with news media outlets along the United States–Mexico border. Findings describe the innovative ways that journalists are circumventing online security risks (what the authors call scale-shifting) and how social media are used to build cross-border relationships." (Abstract)
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"Global Journalism Practice and New Media Performance provides an overview of new and traditional media in their political, economic and cultural contexts while exploring the role of journalism practice and media education. The authors examine media systems in 16 countries, including China, Russia a
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nd the United States." (Publisher description)
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"Se presenta un ejercicio de análisis crítico del discurso cuyo propósito es establecer las representaciones construidas por periodistas de opinión acerca de la pobreza, reproducidas en uno de los principales diarios de México en el momento estratégico de la crisis económica mundial de 2008-2
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009. Utilizando un andamiaje de niveles y categorías textuales, retóricas e ideológicas, se analizó un corpus de catorce piezas publicadas a lo largo de nueves meses. El análisis constata la utilización amplia de falacias y recursos retóricos dirigidos a construir una caracterización estereotípica de la pobreza, representando a los sujetos como víctimas sin agencia y carenciados particularmente en el plano material, elidiendo otras dimensiones de la problemática. La atribución reiterada de la pobreza al gobierno, sin explicaciones vinculantes con la crisis económica, apunta a que el abordaje del tema es un medio utilizado para criticar a las instituciones gubernamentales, más que un intento de explicación del mismo." (Resumen)
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"El objetivo de este trabajo es ampliar la información y difusión sobre el contexto real en el que las radios comunitarias posibilitan el ejercicio de la libertad de expresión desde las comunidades. Con este informe esperamos contribuir a visibilizar e impulsar el análisis sobre el tercer sector
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de la comunicación en el país. Este trabajo ha sido elaborado a partir de los resultados obtenidos de la investigación de campo levantada en siete estados de la república con contextos diversos que han incidido en el quehacer radiofónico de la ciudadanía y de las comunidades. Con la ayuda de nuestras asociadas se contactó a otros colectivos radiofónicos en Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Sonora, Nuevo León y Chiapas, con quienes se organizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas grupales e individuales." (Presentación)
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"El Manual tiene el propósito de presentar los contenidos principales de las recientes reformas normativas en estos temas con el objetivo de que las y los comunicadores cuenten con una herramienta de apoyo para su labor comunicativa y de difusión [...] La reforma constitucional en materia de derec
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hos humanos, que entró en vigor el 11 de junio del 2011, es un hecho trascendente en tanto reconoce y aporta al sistema de fuentes legales federales y nacionales, un sistema enriquecido con todas los intrumentos internacionales de protección de los derechos humanos, todas las disposiciones y los estándares que México ha firmado. La Ley para la Protección de Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos y Periodistas que dio origen al Mecanismo de Protección para Periodistas y Personas Defensoras de los Derechos Humanos, que entró en vigor el 26 de junio de 2012, es de suma relevancia en el contexto nacional actual, dado que crea un dispositivo especializado para que el Estado atienda su responsabilidad fundamental de proteger, promover y garantizar los derechos humanos de periodistas, comunicadores y defensores que se encuentran en situación de riesgo como consecuencia de su labor en la defensa y promoción de los derechos humanos, del ejercicio de la libertad de expresión y el periodismo [...] Los contenidos de este manual están organizados en cinco apartados: el primero se refiere a la Reforma constitucional en materia de derechos Humanos; el segundo a la Ley de protección para Periodistas y Personas Defensoras de los Derechos Humanos y al Mecanismo que originó; el tercero corresponde a la Reforma Constitucional en materia de Telecomunicaciones. El cuarto apartado contiene referencias de utilidad relacionadas con los temas y posteriormente de incluyen las versiones en mixe, zapoteco, mazateco y purépecha, a fin de que comunicadores/as indígenas tengan acceso a la información legislativa." (Presentación, página -6-7)
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"Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America proposes, tests and analyses the liberal captured model. It explores to what extent to which globalisation, marketization, commercialism, regional bodies and the nation State redefine the media's role in Latin American societies." (Publisher
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description)
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"Campaigns and movements targeting corruption often face decentralized targets rather than an identifiable dictator or external government, and can be found both in undemocratic and democratic systems. Graft and abuse are manifested in a systemic manner rather than a hodgepodge collection of illicit
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transactions. Consequently, this research brings to light new applications of civil resistance beyond the more commonly known cases against occupations, such as the Indian independence movement, and authoritarian regimes from Chile to Poland. It also expands our understanding about the dynamics of how people collectively wield nonviolent power for the common good. The focus of this research is on citizen agency: what civic actors and regular people—organized together and exerting their collective power—are doing to curb corruption as they define and experience it. Hence, the analytical framework is based on the skills, strategies, objectives, and demands of such initiatives, rather than on the phenomenon of corruption itself, which has been judiciously studied for more than two decades by scholars and practitioners from the anticorruption and development realms. I selected cases that met the following criteria: they were “popular” initiatives. They were civilian-based, involved grassroots participation, and were led and implemented by individuals from the civic realm, rather than governments or external actors, such as donors, development institutions, and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs); they were nonviolent. They did not threaten or use violence to further their aims; they involved some degree of organization and planning, which varied depending on the scope—objectives, geographical range, duration—of the civic initiative; multiple nonviolent actions were employed (thus, instances of one-off demonstrations or spontaneous protests were not considered); objectives and demands were articulated; the civic initiative was sustained over a period of time." (Introduction, pages 2-3)
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"The structure of this Yearbook is divided in three parts. The first part is an introduction chapter that makes a comparative synthesis of fiction in Obitel countries. This comparison is made from a quantitative and qualitative perspective that allows us to observe fiction development in each countr
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y, pointing out its main products as well as the topic of the year: transmedia production strategies in television fiction. The second part includes 12 chapters (one for each country) with an internal structure in which sections of the Yearbook are usually constant, although some are more specific than others." (Pages 19-20)
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"During President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s administration, the military was called on to confront organized crime, and dozens of journalists were killed in Mexico. Attacks on journalists have continued under the new administration. This study focuses on the erosion of the democratic institution
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of the press in Mexico’s northern states, for the majority of journalists murdered in the last decade worked in that region. Utilizing Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy of influences model, this study examines pressures constraining the press working in a tide of violence. The thirty-nine semistructured, in-depth interviews with Mexican journalists, who report in five of the northern states, indicate the strongest influences came from outside newsrooms, where intimidation and unthinkable crimes were committed against the press along the entire border. Individual-level influences, such as lack of conflict-reporting training, safety concerns, and handling the trauma of covering violence, were among the strongest pressures often leading to self-censorship. Organizational-level influences, including newsroom policies and financial arrangements with government and business, also influenced journalistic practice. The study added an inter-media level for analyses of news organizations and individual journalists working together to increase safety. Additional findings show major disruptions in border reporting where news “blackouts” exist amid pockets of lawlessness." (Abstract)
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"John Sinclair and Joseph D. Straubhaar provide a comprehensive account of television production, distribution and reception in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin American countries, showing how Mexican and Brazilian programmes have dominated in the region, and placing regional output in the con
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text of the global television industry." (Publisher description)
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"At the beginning of 2008, the war between two powerful Mexican drug cartels generated an incredible wave of violence in some cities along the US-Mexican border. In Ciudad Juárez, located in the northern state of Chihuahua and to the west of the Texas-Mexico border, the feud over control of drug-tr
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afficking routes between the Cartel de Sinaloa and the Cartel de Juárez has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people since the war began. Figures from the Chihuahua’s State Attorney Office offer a clear picture of the escalation of violence: in 2007, 307 people were killed in cases related to drug traffi cking; in 2008, the number rose to 1,607; in 2009, it was 2,601; and by 2010, the most violent year in the period, assassinations escalated to 3,156. At the height of the drug war, killings became so randomized that anyone could fall victim, including journalists, as the next chapter details. An entire society was affected by an increase in kidnappings, extortion, robberies, and a vast array of crimes, with youth often becoming favorite targets. The massacre of 15 teenagers and football players during a birthday party the night of January 31, 2010, was an indicator of the level of deterioration of the city. In July, a car bomb exploded in the middle of a busy avenue in downtown Juárez. It was the first time that drug cartels used a car bomb to attack civilians and police. The explosion of the vehicle, packed with 22 pounds of a powerful water gel explosive, left three people dead and a dozen civilians wounded. The violence was reaching an unprecedented level, particularly on the weekends. Reports of slaughtered scores were the top stories in local newspapers every Monday morning. During one weekend in February 2010, 53 people were massacred in different incidents. The violence had yet to reach its peak." (Abstract)
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"Aquí está la historia de medio siglo de la televisión mexicana, desde su primera transmisión una misa, hasta los líos familiares para hacerse de su control. Por sus páginas desfilan lo mismo comediantes, cantantes, productores de telenovelas, conductores de noticieros, que presidentes de la R
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epública, gobernadores, jefes policiacos. Nación TVcuenta la historia de la televisión y del poder, sea éste partidista, presidencial, religioso o económico. Medio siglo de una televisión monopolizada cuyo espíritu se mantuvo inamovible: "entretener a los jodidos". Esta novela es, también, una reflexión sobre las relaciones entre padres e hijos, de tres generaciones de Azcárraga que quisieron imprimirle a su herencia un estilo personal para adueñarse de México." (Editorial)
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"This report demonstrates the soft censorship and corrupting influence that unconstrained official advertising exerts on Mexico’s media. These practices negatively impact media quality, limit freedom of expression, violate the right to public information, and stifle public debate that is essential
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to democracy. Mexico’s governments and some media outlets continue to preserve this symbiotic status quo that serves their economic and political interests. The country’s political leaders and some media owners must be made accountable for such abuses. Until these practices are changed, many Mexican media will remain tools of politicians and special interests, rather than independent watchdogs and platforms for democratic debate." (Conclusion, page 31)
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