"The Russia-Ukraine war’s ramifications for Vietnam are felt beyond the economic and diplomatic realms. It has in fact become an online hotbed of conflicting and confounding narratives that demonstrate different worldviews and political leanings among Vietnamese netizens. An examination of 28 Face
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book pages/groups active in trending pro-Russia narratives finds an ‘echo chamber’ that is on a constant lookout for Russian, Western and even Chinese news sources that peddle and amplify pro-Russia and anti-Western voices. The most salient pro-Russia narratives in Vietnam’s cyberspace revolve around justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, echoing anti-America and anti-imperialist worldviews, and lionising Russia while demonising Ukraine. These online groups have likely carved out a niche for the conservative segment of the Vietnamese state to shape a propaganda environment where there is space for pro-Russia and anti-Russia narratives, so that pro-Ukraine sentiments will not become predominant in the public discourse. Pro-Russia narratives in Vietnam’s cyberspace are the result of cross-pollination between sentimental attachment since the Soviet era, psychological bias towards Russia embedded in Vietnam’s education and propaganda system, and the overriding imperative to preserve the Vietnamese state’s political and ideological interests." (Executive summary)
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"This report offers the most comprehensive assessment to date of Beijing’s global media influence and the ways in which democracies are responding. Drawing on media investigations, interviews, scholarly publications, Chinese government sources, and on-the-ground research by local analysts, it cove
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rs developments in 30 countries during the period from January 2019 to December 2021. It updates and expands upon two previous Freedom House studies published in 2013 and 2020, and it focuses largely on democracies to provide a more in-depth understanding of the deployment and reception of influence tactics in countries that possess relatively strong institutional protections for media freedom. Finally, the report offers recommendations to governments, the media sector, technology firms, and civil society groups on how they can bolster democratic defenses against CCP interference." (Page 3)
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"To illustrate the dynamics of the digital information ecosystem and how disinformation is seeded within this environment, Rappler explored cascades around the following themes: war on drugs, attacks against the press, and messaging around Martial Law and authoritarian rule. The themes were selected
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based on prevailing issues that have confronted the Philippines and the Duterte administration over the past 6 years. These are findings of the study specific to the Philippine context: Already addicted to social media, Filipinos became more deeply immersed in the internet due to the pandemic; [...] At least 1 in every 3 Filipino internet users is new to digital, is potentially unfamiliar with how it works, and vulnerable to disinformation and online manipulation techniques [...] News organizations are still among the most followed information sources online. But they are increasingly drowned in social media noise [...] Trustworthiness is the primary consideration in following groups, pages, and channels on social media. But entertainment value and agreeableness are also major considerations, making audiences vulnerable to sources that deceptively use celebrity content to build online following [...] Majority (78%) of survey respondents say they can distinguish between real news and “fake news,” but focus group discussions (FGDs) reveal that some believed previously debunked claims [...] There are similarities between disinformation in the Philippines and the “Firehose of Falsehood” Russian propaganda model ..." (Executive summary, pages 7-12)
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"This study points to several recommendations for how international donors can improve support for media sector reform in countries at critical political junctures, and how they can build upon and strengthen approaches that have been effective in the past. Donor support is more likely to be effectiv
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e when it is driven by a deeper understanding of the political dynamics surrounding media sector reform, including the potential weaknesses in state capacity and threats to sustained political will. As such, donor agencies need to provide robust funding and technical support for rigorous media sector assessments led by local experts, targeted efforts to cement local leadership, and dedicated technical and financial support for consensus building. A common blueprint for assistance does not exist—different strategies are needed that are attuned to the strength and commitment of the state, the capacity and cohesion of civil society, and the persistence of anti-democratic forces. Intervening early in a transition, when priorities are established and plans are drawn up, pays better dividends, and long-term assistance is critical to ensuring the sector is not co-opted by political and societal rivalries." (Conclusion, page 31-32)
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"The author used her stay at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, to interview Hong Kong journalist. This document gathered seven archetypal stories of the consequences of National Security Law (NSL) on journalists' lives. For security reasons, all names (bar the first) and some identi
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fying details have been altered." (commbox)
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"The first handbook on global media ethics; provides a valuable resource for teaching media ethics in a global era; addresses all major approaches to global media ethics; contains contributions by leading, internationally recognized authors in the field of media ethics." (Publisher description)
"Through carefully curated essays, Salazkina and Fibla-Gutiérrez bring wider meaning and significance to the discipline through their study of alternative cinema in new territories, fueled by different historical and political circumstances, innovative technologies, and ambitious practitioners. The
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essays in this volume work to realize the radical societal democratization that shows up in amateur cinema around the world. In particular, diverse contributors highlight the significance of amateur filmmaking, the exhibition of amateur films, the uses and availability of film technologies, and the inventive and creative approaches of filmmakers and advocates of amateur film." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing from various disciplines including media studies, political science, and cognitive science, this study adopts a holistic approach to understand the dynamics that influence the impact of false information on Singaporeans. We provide empirical evidence on Singaporeans’ susceptibility to fal
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se information and how it is influenced by their demographic (e.g., age and education) and non-demographic traits (e.g., information-seeking behaviours, and political and psychological traits). In addition, we examine different aspects of false information that Singaporeans are susceptible to, such as their exposure to and belief in false information of various topics (e.g., health and medicine, government and politics), formats (e.g., image, text, audio), and on different media platforms (e.g., social networking sites, Instant Messaging platforms). Furthermore, using an approach that is novel in the field of misinformation and disinformation studies, we evaluate how well Singaporeans performed in terms of assessing information veracity, by embedding a manipulated news article in the survey for respondents to read and judge." (Executive summary)
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"This report is the product of an effort to understand the scale and scope of “transnational repression,” in which governments reach across national borders to silence dissent among their diaspora and exile communities. Freedom House assembled cases of transnational repression from public source
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s, including UN and government documents, human rights reports, and credible news outlets, in order to generate a detailed picture of this global phenomenon.
The project compiled a catalogue of 608 direct, physical cases of transnational repression since 2014. In each incident, the origin country’s authorities physically reached an individual living abroad, whether through detention, assault, physical intimidation, unlawful deportation, rendition, or suspected assassination. The list includes 31 origin states conducting physical transnational repression in 79 host countries. This total is certainly only partial; hundreds of other physical cases that lacked sufficient documentation, especially detentions and unlawful deportations, are not included in Freedom House’s count. Nevertheless, even this conservative enumeration shows that what often appear to be isolated incidents—an assassination here, a kidnapping there—in fact represent a pernicious and pervasive threat to human freedom and security.
Moreover, physical transnational repression is only the tip of the iceberg. The consequences of each physical attack ripple out into a larger community. And beyond the physical cases compiled for this report are the much more widespread tactics of “everyday” transnational repression: digital threats, spyware, and coercion by proxy, such as the imprisonment of exiles’ families. For millions of people around the world, transnational repression has become not an exceptional tool, but a common and institutionalized practice used by dozens of regimes to control people outside their borders." (Executive summary)
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"The Philippines is one of the first countries where the potential for online disinformation threats to undermine democratic processes, especially during elections, was noticed [...] This report takes a deep look at an online survey that Internews conducted, explores the cultural and emotional dimen
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sions of disinformation and how they form part of the broader political transformations taking place in the Philippines, examines how the Philippine disinformation ecosystem fits into the regional landscape, looks into financial incentives and legislation, and formulates a set of strategic and programmatic recommendations to better tackle the issue of disinformation in the Philippines." (https://internews.org)
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"China has used Covid to benefit its global image through the activation of existing media dissemination channels overseas and the use of new tactics such as disinformation and misinformation. China’s largescale medical diplomacy campaign has also provided propaganda wins in many developing countr
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ies, burnishing Beijing’s image as a reliable partner. Anecdotal reports indicate that Beijing has stepped up its content offerings, in particular by tailoring content including disinformation for specific countries and translating state-run messages into local languages. In some countries, China was also seen as the purveyor of the most accurate information about the new coronavirus, showing its growing influence over global narratives. For Beijing, Covid diplomacy clearly offers another means through which it can exert its influence. This research shows that countries that are recipients of China’s Covid vaccine clearly have more positive coverage of China, but it cannot draw conclusions as to the factors behind that. This strategy has largely been acceptable to global journalists, who — judging by the results of our focus groups in three separate countries — do not perceive China’s advances as a threat at a national level. Such views are in part due to the incremental nature of the changes, the clumsiness of China’s propaganda effort and the irrelevance of much of the material provided to local audiences. However, the survey does reveal that when viewed globally, there does appear to be more concern about China’s influence, in particular in the Asia Pacific region. The survey indicates that the overall impact of Beijing’s outreach is a redrawing of the global media landscape — one story at a time, one country at a time — shifting the China coverage in a more positive direction. China is using a multi-pronged approach to redraw the information landscape to benefit its own global image. In 2020, Beijing effectively shut down journalistic access to China, through visa denials and freezes, partly driven by international border closures. This had the effect of creating a vacuum in China coverage, creating a demand for stories from China, which could then be filled with statesponsored content already available through content-sharing agreements." (Conclusions, page 7)
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"The Multistakeholder Dialogue on Electoral Disinformation (MDED) project sought the perspectives of pro-democracy actors and key agents in the electoral process to map out election integrity initiatives, assess organizational capacities for disinformation mitigation, and identify influence operatio
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ns trends for 2022. Phase 1 of the project cast a wide net in sampling diverse participants both old and new players to fair elections projects. This report summarizes common themes from the focus groups and individual interviews with my own critical assessment of important gaps in coalition work and donor programming that MDED aims to enhance." (Page 8)
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"This book lays out the history of entertainment-education and discusses the boundaries of what counts as entertainment-education and narrative persuasion, includes both authors who work within academia and authors who are practitioners, and chapters focusing on developed and developing countries; d
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raws upon communication principles and theory but prioritizes actionable lessons for how entertainment-education actually works." (Publisher description)
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"The handbook is divided into five parts, each taking global developments in the field into account: Theoretical Reflections, Power and Authority Conflict, Radicalization and Populism, Dialogue and Peacebuilding, Trends. Within these sections, central issues, debates and developments are examined, i
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ncluding: religious and secular press; ethics; globalization; gender; datafication; differentiation; journalistic religious literacy; race, and religious extremism." (Publisher description)
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"[...] Filipino youth characterize bullying and harassment on social media as an intersection of three key dimensions: targets, acts and, spaces. We thus need to account for this by rethinking our understanding of how young people identify and experience them. Bullying and harassment on social media
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happen both in social and technological contexts and, as such, include a wide range of targets [individuals, groups and ideas], acts [direct or veiled], and spaces [bounded and open]. Since the youth interpret the many configurations of these dimensions in personal ways, we should broaden how bullying and harassment have been traditionally defined [...]" (Executive summary)
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"China is wiring the world, and, in doing so, rewriting the global order. As things stand, the rest of the world still has a choice. But the battle for tomorrow will require America and its allies to take daring risks in uncertain political terrain. Unchecked, China will reshape global flows of data
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to reflect its own interests - and the lives of countless individuals enmeshed in its systems. Taking readers on a global tour of these emerging battlefields, Jonathan E. Hillman reveals what China's digital footprint looks like on the ground, and explores the dangers of a world in which all routers lead to Beijing." (Publisher description)
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"This book investigates the ways in which the mobile telephone has transformed societies around the world, bringing both opportunities and challenges. At a time when knowledge and truth are increasingly contested, the book asks how mobile technology has changed the ways in which people create, disse
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minate, and access knowledge. Worldwide, mobile internet access has surpassed desktop access, and it is estimated that by 2022 there will be an excess of 6 billion mobile phone users in the world. This widespread proliferation raises all sorts of questions around who creates knowledge, how is that knowledge shared and proliferated, and what are the structural political, economic, and legal conditions in which knowledge is accessed. The practices and power dynamics around mobile technologies are location specific. They look different depending on whether one chooses to highlight the legal, social, political, or economic context. Bringing together scholars, journalists, activists and practitioners from around the world, this book embraces this complexity, providing a multifaceted picture that acknowledges the tensions and contradictions surrounding accessing knowledge through mobile technologies. With case studies from Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Syria, Egypt, Botswana, Brazil, and the US, this book provides an important account of the changing nature of our access to knowledge, and is key reading for students, researchers, activists and policy makers with an interest in technology and access to knowledge, communication, social transformation, and global development." (Publisher description)
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"On the basis of the results of an ongoing research project on the activities of the Chinese media company StarTimes in Nigeria and Côte d' Ivoire, this paper analyses the fluid and fragmentary dimension of the engagements between Chinese media and African publics, while equally emphasizing the pow
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er dynamics that underlie them. Focusing on a variety of ethnographic sources, it argues for an approach to the study of Chinese media expansion in Africa able to take into account, simultaneously, the macro-political and macro-economic factors which condition the nature of China–Africa media interactions, the political intentions behind them (as, for example, the Chinese soft power policies and their translation into specific media contents), and the micro dimension of the practices and uses of the media made by the actors (producers and consumers of media) in the field." (Abstract)
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