"This study carries out an independent assessment of the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) of Albania. The scope of the study is to apply the INDIREG methodology to the AMA and provide contextual interpretation of the results with policy recommendations. The INDIREG methodology offers a scientifical
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ly backed methodology to appraise the formal and de facto independence of supervisory authorities in the audiovisual media sector on five different dimensions: (1) Status and powers, (2) Financial autonomy, (3) Autonomy of decision-makers, (4) Knowledge and transparency and (5) accountability." (Executive summary)
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"Das Radio galt in Russland lange als Biotop – ein Rückzugsraum für professionellen Journalismus. Die Berichterstattung über den Krieg in der „Volksrepublik Donec’k“ offenbart jedoch das Gegenteil. Manche Radiosender begreifen sich als Verlautbarungsorgane der Aufständischen, Moderatoren
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wirken als Agitatoren. Sie gehören zur neosowjetischen Generation der 20- bis 30-Jährigen. Das ist die Generation Putin. Doch am Mikrofon sind sie längst keine Putinisten mehr, sondern viel radikalere Revanchisten vom Schlage Girkins." (Abstract)
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"Social Media and the Politics of Reportage explores the journalistic challenges, issues and opportunities that have risen as a result of social media increasingly being used as a form of crisis reporting within the field of global journalism, with a focus on the protests during the 'Arab Spring'."
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(Publisher description)
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"The study analyses media freedom and pluralism in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia) in light of the EU enlargement policy. Despite the different stages of their EU accession paths, these countries share si
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milar challenges, even if they are of different intensities. The study analyses the overall legal framework and its unsatisfactory levels of implementation, the role and the independence of PSB, the media market, and the status of journalists. It also outlines country-specific profiles, regarding these categories. The paper outlines and analyses the current EU policies and financial instruments to foster media freedom and media pluralism in the region, including the Stabilisation and Association Process and specific acquis. It also analyses the issues in the context of the EU ‘internal’ and ‘external’ policy on media freedom and media pluralism. The study outlines the complementary roles of the CoE and the OSCE as setting common standards on media freedom in Europe and the EU institutions as being the main engine and guarantor for their implementation. Finally, the recommendations point towards the EU establishing a more long-term, integrated and comprehensive strategy of external help, monitoring and capacity building." (Abstract)
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"Despite the importance of media ownership transparency for both the individual and the state, only two of the surveyed countries—Italy and Romania—address media transparency directly in their constitutions but in both cases the focus is on transparency of fi nancial sources not ownership. In th
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e Turkish Constitution the state is empowered to require information as a precondition to publication. None of these constitutions therefore impose an express positive obligation on the state to ensure that the public has access to information on media ownership. Although the Constitution of Norway does not expressly refer to media ownership transparency, Norwegian media ownership rules, which do provide for ownership transparency, refer back to the provisions on freedom of expression in article 100 of the Constitution. These impose on the state a positive duty to create conditions that “facilitate open and enlightened public discourse”, thus underlining the link between freedom of expression and media ownership transparency." (Key findings, page 3)
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"This volume addresses the tension between loud and often spectacular histories and those forgotten pasts we strain to hear. Employing social and cultural analysis, the essays within examine mnemonic technologies both new and old, and cover subjects as diverse as U.S. internment camps for Japanese A
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mericans in WWII, the Canadian Indian Residential School system, Israeli memorial videos, and thedesaparecidosin Argentina. Through these cases, the contributors argue for a re-interpretation of Guy Debord's notion of the spectacle as a conceptual apparatus through which to examine the contemporary landscape of social memory, arguing that the concept of spectacle might be developed in an age seen as dissatisfied with the present, nervous about the future, and obsessed with the past. Perhaps now "spectacle" can be thought of not as a tool of distraction employed solely by hegemonic powers, but instead as a device used to answer Walter Benjamin's plea to "explode the continuum of history" and bring our attention to now-time." (Publisher description)
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"How do memories circulate transnationally and to what effect? How to understand the enduring role of national memories and their simultaneous reconfiguration under globalization? Challenging the methodological nationalism that has until recently dominated the study of memory and heritage, this book
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charts the rich production of memory across and beyond national borders. Arguing for the fruitfulness of a transnational as distinct from a global approach, it places the issues of circulation, articulation and the scales of remembrance at the centre of its inquiry. In the process, it sheds new light on the ways in which mediation, post-coloniality, migration and regional integration affect both the way we remember and the role of memory in contemporary societies. In this interdisciplinary collection, humanities and social science scholars examine a rich sample of cases from the nineteenth century on, stretching across the globe from Vietnam to Europe and the Middle East, to the USA and the Pacific, and involving a wide range of cultural practices from quilting to films, from photography to heritage sites and monuments. In the process, the volume develops a new theoretical framework while proposing new methodological tools and resources for studying collective remembrance beyond the nation-state." (Publisher description)
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"Contributors to the volume explore various questions concerning the opportunities and constraints for governance associated with the startling growth in digital technologies in the Global South. In areas of limited statehood, places where the reach of the state is limited and weak, can mobile phone
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s, geographical information systems, and other digital technologies help fill the governance vacuum? In general, Livingston and Walter-Drop conclude with the contributors that where missing governance is information-based (bits), digital technology has a tremendous impact. Yet a major constraint is found in its ability to fill the governance vacuum concerning the provision of material collective goods (atoms)." (Abstract)
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"The election protests in Moscow in December 2011 signified an important moment for Russian society. Political dissent, historically reserved for the private domain of Soviet kitchens and in recent years to the regulation-free space of the Russian Internet (RuNet), entered the public space of Moscow
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streets. Just like the protests revealed the long-held tension between the political discussion (and action) in Russian public and private spheres, the coverage of the protests by different media brought to light similar struggles in Russian journalism. This project combines the textual analysis of the protests' coverage by two progovernment and two oppositional media with the analysis of their connections to the RuNet-a space that played an important role in the protests' organization and coordination. The project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the role RuNet-a private space that increasingly becomes more public-plays in the development of Russian journalism." (Abstract)
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"This article defines feminist media activism in terms of counter-public communication and provides a brief overview of activities, functions, types of activists and historical contexts relevant to this kind of feminist activism. Following this research approach, it then examines the specific cases
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of feminist media activism in post-authoritarian and post-conflict Serbia and Croatia. More specifically, it looks into women's NGOs' (non-governmental organizations) attempts to advance gender equality perspectives in and through the television media through providing education for journalists and acting as television sources and pundits. It shows how NGO education can be an effective means of creating pockets of pro-feminist journalism in the mainstream media, whereas feminist activists' performance as television sources results in more mixed outcomes. While some activists' television appearances established women's NGOs as credible parties in popular discussions about gender, other activists shied away from television due to what they saw as anti-analytical, confrontational and stereotypical approaches to feminism on television. Finally, the article identifies the main factors in contemporary Serbian and Croatian societies resulting in comparatively better opportunities for feminist media activism in Croatia than in Serbia." (Abstract)
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"Russland versucht seit Jahren, sein Image zu verbessern. Für dieses Ziel werden Auslandsmedien ausgebaut und PR-Firmen beauftragt. Aber es fehlt eine Gesamtstrategie und das Grundverständnis, wie demokratische Öffentlichkeit funktioniert. Trotz teilweiser Erfolge wird Moskau ohne einen politisch
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en Wandel und gesellschaftliche Modernisierung in Russland nicht viel erreichen. Das zeigt auch der Blick auf einige der Akteure staatlicher Imagepolitik in Deutschland." (Abstract)
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"Digital Russia provides a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which new media technologies have shaped language and communication in contemporary Russia. It traces the development of the Russian-language internet, explores the evolution of web-based communication practices, showing how they have
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both shaped and been shaped by social, political, linguistic and literary realities, and examines online features and trends that are characteristic of, and in some cases specific to, the Russian-language internet." (Publisher description)
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"Seit Januar 2014 bietet Russlands Fernsehen einen besonderen Blick auf die Ukraine. In ihrer Aggressivität und Demagogie ist die Berichterstattung beispiellos. Sender rücken vermeintliche „Konzentrationslager für prorussische Aktivisten“ ins Bild, sprechen von einem „Genozid“ an den russ
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ischsprachigen Menschen in der Ukraine und diffamieren die Protestbewegung des Euromajdan als „Faschismus“. Keine Diffamierung ist zu abwegig, um sie nicht zu senden. Polittechnologen stehen hinter dieser Desinformationskampagne. Doch um sie durchzuführen, bedarf es willfähriger Journalisten. Redakteure, Reporter und Moderatoren geben sich dazu her – aus Zynismus und politischer Überzeugung. Dass dabei ihr Berufsethos und die professionellen Standards verloren gehen, ficht sie nicht an. Sie sehen sich in einem Informationskrieg mit dem Westen." (Abstract)
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"What are the particular characteristics of the media in small nations? What challenges do broadcasters and other media institutions in these countries face, how can these be overcome, and are there advantages to operating in a small national context? How are small nations represented on screen, and
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how do audiences in small nations engage with the media? Bringing together perspectives from across Europe, including case-studies on Catalonia, the Basque Country, Wales, Scotland, Iceland, Portugal, Slovenia and Macedonia, this collection answers these questions. At the same time, it provides readers with insights into broader issues of media policy, representation, national identity, transnationalism, audience reception and media research methods." (Publisher description)
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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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