"Since August 2017 over 671,000 people (mostly Rohingya) have crossed the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape violence in Rakhine State. There are now more than one million Rohingya refugees staying in campsites along the Bangladeshi side of the border. In September 2017 Internews conducted
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an information ecosystem assessment, which found that 77% of the Rohingya population do not have enough information to make decisions for themselves and their family and 62% reported that they were unable to communicate with aid providers. Additionally, the assessment found that 96% of refugees use Rohingya as their primary language. In the meantime, the funding requirements for Communication with Communities (CwC) went from 4 million USD in the Humanitarian Response Plan (September 2017 – February 2018) to 5,9 million USD in the Joint Response Plan for the period of March until December 2018. This shows at the very least an increased understanding of the importance of CwC among individual agencies, sectors and the wider humanitarian system. Moreover, it highlights that more agencies have integrated CwC in their plans and rolled out CwC-related activities. So, while the first assessment of Internews looked at the demand-side of CwC, this report looks at the supply side of communication and investigates what kind of CwC services are on offer half a year after the initial assessment. The survey, conducted in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh from late February to early March 2018, not only captures different activities but also highlights the gaps in communication activities." (Introduction)
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"This article examines how privacy is understood, lived, and negotiated by youth users of information and communication technology (ICT) in slum communities in the Philippines. In the context of shared and public access arrangements prevalent in many low-income communities in the Global South, the a
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rticle discusses the intersections of space, technology, and the sharing economy underlying socio-technical practice that shape the privacy notions. It argues for rethinking the ICT for development and privacy policy discourse to integrate experiences from shared access settings." (Abstract)
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"Die kommunikationswissenschaftliche Öffentlichkeitsforschung hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren verstärkt mit transnationalisierten Formen von Öffentlichkeit beschäftigt. Allerdings gehen nur wenige empirische Arbeiten über die (mögliche) Entstehung einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit hinaus.
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Daher analysieren wir anhand der medienöffentlichen Debatten in 15 Ländern über die Klimapolitik – ein Thema, das oft als möglicher Kristallisationspunkt für die Entstehung transnationaler oder gar „globaler“ Öffentlichkeiten dargestellt wird – inwieweit die Akteursensembles in der Berichterstattung von Qualitätstageszeitungen, Regional- und Boulevardzeitungen transnationalisiert sind und welche Reichweite eine etwaige Transnationalisierung aufweist. Die Analyse zeigt eine beträchtliche Transnationalisierung, die teils über eine Europäisierung hinausgeht. Allerdings ist die Berichterstattung je nach Untersuchungsdimension unterschiedlich transnationalisiert: Transnationalisierte Bezüge zeigen sich eher in „schwacher“ als in „starker“ Form: Ausländische oder supranationale Akteure werden häufiger in der Berichterstattung erwähnt, als dass sie selbst zu Wort kommen. Zudem ist die horizontale Transnationalisierung stärker ausgeprägt als die vertikale: Bezüge auf Akteure aus anderen Ländern finden sich häufiger als Bezüge auf supranationale politische Organisationen. Die Analyse zeigt zudem Länder- und Medienunterschiede, die grosso modo die Befunde der Forschung zu Klimawandel-Kommunikation und europäischer Öffentlichkeit bestätigen: In wirtschaftlich von Klimaschutzmaßnahmen betroffenen Ländern ist die Berichterstattung stärker national geprägt. In Qualitätstageszeitungen ist die Berichterstattung stärker transnationalisiert als in Boulevard- und Regionalmedien." (Zusammenfassung)
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"Publics around the world overwhelmingly agree that the news media should be unbiased in their coverage of political issues, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of 38 countries. Yet, when asked how their news media are doing on reporting different political issues fairly, people are far mo
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re mixed in their sentiments, with many saying their media do not deliver. And, in many countries, there are sharp political differences in views of the media – with the largest gap among Americans. To build off Pew Research Center’s earlier findings about U.S. news media habits and attitudes, this new cross-national survey begins to study these dynamics globally. The survey finds that a median of 75% across 38 countries say it is never acceptable for a news organization to favor one political party over others when reporting the news. Just 20% say this is sometimes okay. People in Europe show the greatest opposition to political bias in their news." (Page 3)
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"The model of journalism we practice in Asia is an adversarial one driven by conflict reporting, a model we have borrowed from the West. This book is an outcome of a project implemented by the Faculty of Communication Arts of Chulalongkorn University and funded by the International Program for the D
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evelopment of Communications (IPDC) of UNESCO. The project incorporates Asian philosophical ideas and communication theories emanating from Buddhist, Hindu, and Confucius teachings for developing a curriculum to train Asian journalists. It is designed to frame a new paradigm of reporting tha could form a new approach to development communication. It covers areas such as realizing social harmony, protecting nature and environment, respecting cultural diversity, and encouraging sufficiency economic models. This book focuses on using such a path of communication to promote sustainable development." (Preface)
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"The main purpose of this report is to analyze the documentary feature film called 'The Opium War' based on the civilians' antidrug movement in the author's home place, Myanmar's Kachin state. The film mainly focuses on the antidrug movement 'Pat Jasan' organized by Myanmar civilians and which liter
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ally translates in the local Kachin language by "stop and clean off drugs". This documentary does not follow one single character but a group of civilians who are activists in the antidrug movement. The film covers a series of incidents that occur between the antidrugcivilian activists and farmers producing opium. The report is a step-by-step analysis of the film's production process from the conception of the idea to the completion of the film within the period of the years 2016 to 2017 [...] The main shortcoming of this film is that the author didn't manage to obtain as much information from the government and from the drug lords as he wished. But not only some police officials declined interviews, but basically the crew was risking the whole time being arrested by the officials for exposing the drug problem to a wider audience. Additionally it was life-threatening to approach too much the drug lords and the opium farmers who woul become aggressive towards people with cameras. Because of those issues coming from both the police and the drug lords the crew had to shoot many of the scenes in the film secretly from rootops or from trees in order to avoid being spotted. Still while shooting the film, the crew witnessed the death of an antidrug activist who was shot dead by drug lords and the serious wounding of another fifty people by an attack from opium farmers." (Abstract)
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"This chapter focuses on the role of Myanmar's fastest growing form of media—social media—in formulating notions of citizenship and nation amid Myanmar's transition. It begins with an overview of the history of mobile and internet access in Myanmar. The chapter explores the new social and politi
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cal opportunities, tensions and dynamics that are emerging as a result of Myanmar's liberalisation, particularly of the telecommunications sector. It explains how the technologies interact with and alter pre-existing social networks, relationships and communication practices, opening up new spheres for activism and advocacy of various kinds including the reforging of civil-military relations and notions of citizenship. The chapter discusses a call for future research to recognise the interaction between online-offline action, and how this may influence the emergence of a 'national' culture in Myanmar. In addition to enabling civilian humanitarian action, cyber-space has also become one of the primary domains through which civil-military relations are being reforged after decades of authoritarian rule." (Abstract)
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"This mapping of the Myanmar media development sector is informed by three activities: a status update of the recommendations in the 2016 Assessment of Media Development in Myanmar report based on UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators, an online survey conducted in March and April 2018, and a seri
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es of key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The two Top 10 lists of priority areas – the first for the Union Government and the second for media donors and implementers – are informed by the research findings." (Executive summary)
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"Conspiracy theories are a ubiquitous feature of our times. The Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion is the first reference work to offer a comprehensive, transnational overview of this phenomenon along with in-depth discussions of how conspiracy theories relate to religion(s).
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Bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines, from psychology and philosophy to political science and the history of religions, the book sets the standard for the interdisciplinary study of religion and conspiracy theories." (Publisher description)
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"Introduite dès les années 1930 sur les terres africaines et durablement ancrée au lendemain de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, la radio s’est peu à peu adaptée à l’environnement culturel, social et politique africain. Ses évolutions successives ont suivi la courbe des mutations culturelles
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et sociopolitiques qui ont traversé l’histoire contemporaine du continent. Car, comme le dit André-Jean Tudesq, « on ne peut séparer les médias des sociétés dans lesquelles ils se diffusent. Ils ne forment pas un système autonome, mais participent à la fois aux systèmes politique, économique et culturel locaux » (2009). Mais si l’on s’intéresse uniquement à la situation de ce début de siècle, on pourrait noter plusieurs changements par rapport à celle de la dernière décennie du XXe siècle." (Résumé)
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"Conspiracy theories are a ubiquitous feature of our times. The Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion is the first reference work to offer a comprehensive, transnational overview of this phenomenon along with in-depth discussions of how conspiracy theories relate to religion(s).
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Bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines, from psychology and philosophy to political science and the history of religions, the book sets the standard for the interdisciplinary study of religion and conspiracy theories." (Publisher description)
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"This study based on a content analysis and a nationwide survey examines Taiwan’s suicide coverage and general public evaluations of the World Health Organization media guidelines, alongside the copycat effect. Key findings show the daily newspaper Apple Daily essentially failed to follow the guid
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ance, and survey respondents who perceived a strong copycat effect downplayed its sensationalism. The study discusses the implications of the findings for policymaking, public health advocacy, and journalistic practices in how to promote compliance with the WHO guidance." (Abstract)
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"Han reveals how the state, service providers, and netizens negotiate the limits of discourse, interrogating our assumptions about authoritarian resilience and the internet's democratizing power." (Publisher description)
"Until the state and its aligned media operate in a fair and competitive media market, there will be little space for independent news media to survive, much less make the investments needed to innovate and survive in this raucous, frontier environment. Myanmar has a much smaller overall advertising
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sector than neighboring countries, and audiences are rapidly shifting to digital/mobile platforms. Outside Yangon, ethnic and regional news media, often operating in rural and conflict-filled environments, have little possibility of generating sufficient amounts of market-derived revenue to support their operations. To lose their voices would be to lose the plural, local and diverse voices of an inclusive society. To create a vibrant overall media sector, the government must have the political will to create a vibrant public service media sector. To repeat: at the very least, it should stop competing for revenue against the news media it licenses, regulates, can sue, prosecute and imprison. The Broadcasting Law has provisions for this; the government should embrace them. It must also further develop the legal infrastructure supporting media, including copyright, intellectual property, and online privacy laws. For all the laws governing journalists and journalism, there are few that protect their work product or that support the news media industry and its role in the broader economy." (Conclusion)
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"Is China's engagement in the global governance of global public goods (GPGs) credible in terms of China's projected image as a new responsible power? Only through global cooperation can GPGs such as climate and security be effectively provided. International decision-making structures are currently
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undergoing major changes due to emerging economies such as China. Despite common interests regarding GPGs and global challenges such as climate change, there are still many obstacles for the cooperation between China and Europe." (Publisher description)
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"This unique transdisciplinary publication is the result of collaboration between UNESCO’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme, the United Nations University’s Traditional Knowledge Initiative, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and other organizations. Ch
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apters written by indigenous peoples, scientists and development experts provide insight into how diverse societies observe and adapt to changing environments. A broad range of case studies illustrate how these societies, building upon traditional knowledge handed down through generations, are already developing their own solutions for dealing with a rapidly changing climate and how this might be useful on a global scale." (Back cover)
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