"This study proposes a classification framework for conflict journalism with respect to its potential for conflict escalation and de-escalation in Pakistan—a country marred by a number of deadly conflicts. While building on the existing literature, the study proposes the varying levels of intensit
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y of a conflict and the resulting escalatory and de-escalatory coverage as important factors in the process. Through content analysis and focus group discussion, it was found that de-escalatory coverage is inversely proportional to the intensity of a conflict in terms of its perceived threats to national security. Secondly it was found that the coverage was spread across a range of thematic frames though certain perspectives got more prominence as compared to others. Noting the variations in the presence of peace journalism, the study concludes that critical pragmatic approach to peace journalism is better suited to address queries relating to its theory and practice than other approaches because it accommodates the retention of peace as a value and at the same is pragmatic and hence honors the requirements of journalistic profession." (Abstract)
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"Information and Communication Technology interventions have the potential to improve outcomes in health and other development sectors in low-income settings. Large-scale impact, however, remains the central challenge for the HCI4D community as significant and diverse resources are typically require
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d to scale such interventions beyond the pilot stage. In contrast, voice-based entertainment services accessible over simple phones, designed for similarly low-income, low-literate populations manage to scale ‘virally’ to tens of thousands of users with little to no advertising cost. Our study compares the outcomes of using voice-based entertainment to spread a maternal-health hotline against conventional advertisement channels including paper flyers, posters, radio, TV, social media and robocalls. Through an 11-week deployment in Pakistan where the hotline reached 21,770 users over 32,625 calls, we find that the entertainment service outperformed other channels on all popular user acquisition metrics, with the exception of robocalls, which lead in terms of spread." (Abstract)
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"This paper attempts to have insight into the media landscape of Balochistan and issues too. Balochistan is considered to be a conflict zone due to many religious and ethnic issues. The safety of journalists and media workers are a prime concern for journalistic bodies and government. The violence's
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against journalists leads them to self-censorship, and it has limited the topics and geographical access covered by media. National media is working as bureau offices only; Bureau Chiefs of the media outlet are working as reporters. Balochistan and issues related to Balochistan are wipeouts from national media, and it has brought a sense of deprivation among people of Balochistan. Less coverage to Balochistan is one of the threatening elements for journalists, and different pressure groups have threatened journalists and few even killed." (Abstract)
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"This book highlights key words for modern India in everyday usage as well as in scholarly contexts. Encompassing over 250 key words across a wide range of topics, including aesthetics and ceremony, gender, technology and economics, past memories and future imaginaries, these entries introduce some
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of the basic concepts that inform the 'cultural unconscious' of the Indian subcontinent in order to translate them into critical tools for literary, political, cultural and cognitive studies. Inspired by Raymond Williams' pioneering exploration of English culture and society through the study of keywords, Keywords for India brings together more than 200 leading sub-continental scholars to form a polyphonic collective." (Publisher description)
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"This report analyzes the content of traditional media and social networks on religious freedom and violent extremism in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. At the same time, the study seeks to examine hate speech against certain religious groups and how pre-labeling affects those officially accu
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sed of extremism. For the most part, the policies and legal frameworks of the three Central Asian states focused on CVE (counteracting violent extremism) are structurally repressive and do not always protect religious freedom. State information resources are informative, poorly represented in the online environment and do not have a high level of citizen confidence due to their policies. The securitization and politicization of religion resulted in repressive state practices in respect to religious freedom, which is one of the driving factors in the radicalization of people. The need for alternative ways of expressing opinions and finding answers to religious questions has resulted in the emergence of alternative (parallel to the state information resources) media channels mainly on social media: YouTube, Facebook, Telegram, Odnoklassniki and online websites with a large number of young subscribers." (Abstract)
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"The book has covered a wide range of topics within a specific area of mobile journalism. It presents the case studies and first-hand experiences from different parts of the country. As the chapters are written by the academicians, proessionals and practitioners, it has an appropriate blend of theor
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etical and practical aspects of mobile jornalism. It is a pioneering work in the are of mobile journalism and mobile film making." (Foreword, page 6)
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"Although Nepal has entered a new era of democracy and press freedom since 2006, self-censorship still exists in the reporting/editing of many Nepali journalists. Nepal has more than 100 years of press history, most of it has faced pressure from the government if not censorship. Drawing upon intervi
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ews with journalists, the chapter demonstrates how self-censorship is being practised in Nepali media houses as a result of state power, the culture of impunity, commercial interests, and political inclination of journalists. While highlighting these agents, the chapter also aims to explain the difference in practices of self-censorship by gender and type of news media." (Abstract)
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"Preaching has been central to Muslim communities throughout the centuries. The liturgical Friday sermon is a prime example, although other genres that are less commonly known also serve important functions. This book addresses the ways in which Muslims relate various forms of religious oratory to a
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uthoritative tradition in 21st-century Islamic practice, while striving to adapt to local contexts and the changing circumstances of politics, media and society. This is the first book of its kind to look at homiletics beyond a specific country focus. Taking into consideration the historical developments of Muslim preaching, it offers a collection of thoroughly contextualised case studies of oratory in Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Sweden and the USA. The analyses presented here show shared emphasis on struggles for legitimacy, efforts to speak authoritatively, as well as discursive opportunities and constraints." (Publisher description)
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"Taking a global and interdisciplinary approach, the Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories provides a comprehensive overview of conspiracy theories as an important social, cultural and political phenomenon in contemporary life. This handbook provides the most complete analysis of the phenomenon
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to date. It analyses conspiracy theories from a variety of perspectives, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It maps out the key debates, and includes chapters on the historical origins of conspiracy theories, as well as their political significance in a broad range of countries and regions. Other chapters consider the psychology and the sociology of conspiracy beliefs, in addition to their changing cultural forms, functions and modes of transmission. This handbook examines where conspiracy theories come from, who believes in them and what their consequences are." (Publisher description)
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"An increasing number of media platforms - from newspapers and television to Internet social media networks - are the major providers of indispensable information about the natural world and environmental risk. Despite the dramatic changes in the news industry that have tended to reduce the number o
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f full-time newspaper reporters, environmental journalists remain key to bringing stories to light across the globe. With contributions from across the world broken down into five key regions - the United States of America, Europe and Russia, Asia and Australia, Africa and the Middle East, and South America - this book provides support for today's environment reporters, the providers of essential news in the 21st century." (Publisher description)
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"Worin besteht eine visuelle Kultur der Migration? Ömer Alkin liefert hierfür die erste umfassende Geschichte und Analyse des ›deutsch-türkischen Kinos‹. Mit seinem Konzept der »Polyzentrierung« macht er die populären Yesilçam-Filme aus der Türkei in der Historie des Genres sichtbar und
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wendet sich so gegen eurozentrische und epistemologisch vereinseitigende Modelle. Die postkolonialtheoretisch informierte Auseinandersetzung mit der Historie mündet so in medientheoretische Reflexionen: Ästhetische und kulturtheoretische Analysen zeigen, als was Migration in den Filmkulturen überhaupt sichtbar wird. Dabei werden die populären Filme zu »denkenden Medien«, die zu grundlegenden Erkenntnissen für die Bestimmung einer visuellen Kultur der Migration führen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"An increasing number of governments around the world are forcing internet service providers to slow their services during critical sociopolitical junctures—a practice known as throttling—infringing on citizens’ right to information and freedom of expression. Despite its deleterious impact on
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media development and foundational rights, throttling remains an often-neglected topic and risks becoming a pervasive, yet hidden, threat to press freedoms, democracy, and human rights. Throttling refers to the intentional slowing of an internet service by an internet service provider. It stifles the free flow of information during critical moments and prevents journalists from providing vital information to citizens abroad and at home. Due to its difficulty to detect, throttling shields authorities from public scrutiny. Businesses have a duty to be transparent about how and when governments force them to disrupt their services, yet often remain silent on the issue." (Key findings)
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"This study analyzes professional ethical perspectives and practices of Central Asian journalists by examining and comparing the four former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. This study uses in-depth interviews with 24 journalists to examine their ethical ideals
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in the profession and how their ethical perspectives impact potential democracy. Its significance lies in revealing the gravity of ethical misbehavior where journalists call ethics a “Western luxury” and where public life was filled with falsehoods." (Abstract)
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"This book presents five cases that reflect on the experiences of using practices consistent with the 'Evaluating C4D framework' [published by June Lennie and Jo Tacchi in 2013]. Case studies are important to help move from a set of ideal principles to an understanding of how the framework may be op
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erationalized within the actual realities of development institutions, organizations, and communities. The authors of each chapter focus on a few key principles from the framework and contextualize how they interpreted those principles in relation to various methods, models, and projects. As well as showing the usefulness and opportunities, they illustrate the challenges of balancing the various principles as well as real-world practical needs." (Overview of the book, page 10)
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"Since the start of the Trump era, the United States and the Western world has finally begun to wake up to the threat of online warfare and the attacks from Russia. The question no one seems to be able to answer is: what can the West do about it? Central and Eastern European states, however, have be
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en aware of the threat for years. Nina Jankowicz has advised these governments on the front lines of the information war. The lessons she learnt from that fight, and from her attempts to get US congress to act, make for essential reading. How to Lose the Information War takes the reader on a journey through five Western governments' responses to Russian information warfare tactics - all of which have failed. She journeys into the campaigns the Russian operatives run, and shows how we can better understand the motivations behind these attacks and how to beat them. Above all, this book shows what is at stake: the future of civil discourse and democracy, and the value of truth itself." (Publisher description)
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"The findings show a general stagnation or deterioration of media pluralism and media freedom in the four major areas encompassed by the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM): Basic protection, Market plurality, Political independence and Social inclusiveness. The study comprises the European Union Member S
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tates (UK included, considering the timeframe of the project-the UK left the EU in 2020) as well as in candidate countries, Turkey, and for the first time, an assessment of Albania. The MPM 2020 has confirmed the findings of the previous four rounds of monitoring – showing that none of the countries analysed are free from risks to media pluralism." (https://cmpf.eui.eu/mpm2020-results)
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"At Video Volunteers, we will always remember this year as the year that our network of correspondents came of age. They demonstrated their commitment not just to the work but to the organization; they proved to the world that Video Volunteers is a resilient organization, and thanks to them, we fini
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shed the year stronger than we began it. Though we did launch several new initiatives, this was a year where we consolidated our core work and reaffirmed our commitment to: Building the strongest network of activist journalists in rural India; Creating concrete, tangible impact in people's lives through local action campaigns; Broadening society's ideas of who is an expert, who deserves our attention and whose voice should be listened to." (Introduction)
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