"This evaluation of USAID’s Kosovo Media Assistance Project (KMAP) took place close to the end of the three-year project, and addressed two main issues: (1) what has been the impact of KMAP? and (2) based on findings related to KMAP, what recommendations can be made to guide possible future USAID
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media programming in Kosovo? The Scope of Work (SOW) poses 19 questions and directs that the body of the evaluation should answer these questions. Therefore, we address each question below." (Page 1)
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"Um die Medienlandschaft Bulgariens steht es nicht zum Besten – trotz zweier Jahrzehnte Distanz zum Fall des Kommunismus und eines von zahlreichen Medien vereinbarten Ethik-Kodex, der von Wahrhaftigkeit und Achtung der Menschenwürde, von Zensurfreiheit und redaktioneller Unabhängigkeit spricht.
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Als Handelsgesellschaften registriert, entziehen sich die Medien in der Regel einer Kontrolle ihrer Finanzierungsquellen. Ausländische Investoren fördern zwar die Modernisierung etwa der Printmedien, behindern aber durch ihre Preisgestaltung die Etablierung einer unabhängigen Presse. Beherrscher des Printmedienmarktes sind die WAZ-Gruppe mit Produkten wie Trud, 24 tschassa und 168 tschassa sowie das auf Wirtschaftsthemen spezialisierte Verlagshaus Economedia. Im Rundfunk- und TV-Bereich, der durch das Hörfunk- und Fernsehgesetz reguliert ist, wacht der Rat für elektronische Medien über die Einhaltung von Bestimmungen etwa zu Werbung, Urheberrecht und Jugendschutz. Doch fördern weder die Politik des Rats selbst noch die Besitzverhältnisse der Einzelmedien deren tatsächliche Freiheit und programmatische Souveränität. Als weitgehend unabhängig gilt allenfalls das Internet. Die Zeiten sind nicht günstig für anspruchsvolle Medien und einen selbstbewussten, investigativen Journalismus in Bulgarien. Zu hoffen bleibt nur, dass die zunehmende Verwurzelung des Landes in Europa auf lange Sicht positiv wirkt." (Seite 6)
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"Von einer konsolidierten Medienlandschaft ist Rumänien noch entfernt. Gewiss, die Pressefreiheit hat sich nach 2004 verbessert und die Verfassung spricht von Gewissens-, Meinungs- und Religionsfreiheit, verbietet Zensur und sichert das Recht auf Information. Doch hört „freie Meinungsäußerung
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da auf, wo „die Ehre” anderer und die „nationale Sicherheit” betroffen sind. Die Medienlandschaft des Landes selbst ist vielfältig: Lokal und regional gibt es ein breites Angebot an Tages- und Wochenzeitungen. Im TV-Bereich sind die Privaten im Kommen. Der öffentlich-rechtliche Hörfunk hat zahlreiche Kanäle sowie internationale, lokale und regionale Sender. Noch kaum verbreitet ist das Internet. Bei den Besitzverhältnissen sind Korruption und „oligopolistische” Marktstrukturen kennzeichnend. Die Werbung für Staatsfirmen und die Subventionierung vieler Medien schaffen wirtschaftlich-politischen Druck, setzen journalistischer Unabhängigkeit Grenzen. Soll Medienfreiheit in Rumänien Wurzeln finden, wäre eine Reform der institutionellen Voraussetzungen ebenso vonnöten wie eine Rückbesinnung auf ethische Standards." (Seite 44)
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"Whether discussing Maori cinema in New Zealand or activist community radio in Colombia, the contributors describe how native peoples use both traditional and new media to combat discrimination, advocate for resources and rights, and preserve their cultures, languages, and aesthetic traditions. By r
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epresenting themselves in a variety of media, Indigenous peoples are also challenging misleading mainstream and official state narratives, forging international solidarity movements, and bringing human rights violations to international attention. Global Indigenous Media addresses Indigenous self-representation across many media forms, including feature film, documentary, animation, video art, television and radio, the Internet, digital archiving, and journalism. The volume's sixteen essays reflect the dynamism of Indigenous media-making around the world. One contributor examines animated films for children produced by Indigenous-owned companies in the United States and Canada. Another explains how Indigenous media producers in Burma (Myanmar) work with NGOs and outsiders against the country's brutal regime. Still another considers how the Ticuna Indians of Brazil are positioning themselves in relation to the international community as they collaborate in creating a CD-ROM about Ticuna knowledge and rituals. In the volume's closing essay, Faye Ginsburg points out some of the problematic assumptions about globalization, media, and culture underlying the term "digital age" and claims that the age has arrived. Together the essays reveal the crucial role of Indigenous media in contemporary media at every level: local, regional, national, and international." (Back cover)
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"For policy making, the 24/7 news cycle means high levels of exposure to fast-breaking international stories receiving global attention and producing a powerful 'do something!' effect. This topical book widens the debate beyond US media and policy making by considering the case of Western and Easter
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n European media and policy processes. It tests the wider application of existing theoretical approaches and provides useful comparisons, allowing the reader to draw conclusions on the media-policy relationship." (Publisher description)
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"The experience of citizen involvement in public policy advocacy around the world has shown that the status quo tends to prevail unless political will to implement change is strengthened by active citizen participation. A “Global Information Society Watch” is needed to make governments and inter
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national organisations accountable. This publication, the first in a series of reports covering the state of the information society on an annual basis, focuses on the theme of participation. The report has three interrelated goals: surveying the state of the field of ICT policy at the local and global levels; encouraging critical debate; and strengthening networking and advocacy for a just, inclusive information society. It discusses the WSIS process and a range of international institutions, regulatory agencies and monitoring instruments from the perspective of civil society and stakeholders in the global South. Alongside this discussion, we present a series of country reports which examine issues of access and participation within a variety of national contexts." (Introduction)
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"This project advances the existing theoretical work on the CNN effect, a claim that innovations in the speed and quality of technology create conditions in which the media acts as an independent factor with significant influence. It provides a novel interpretation of the factors that drove Western
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policy towards military intervention in this area." (Publisher description)
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"This paper intends to look at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a communication tool instead of an object of communication. The MDGs possess the potential to make development more understandable to people at the centre of development policies: the poor, vulnerable and socially excluded. Th
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e potential to make development interventions more effective and, ultimately, to achieve the MDGs, lies in improving the capability of these people to use information about development to claim their rights and to hold authorities accountable for their commitments. Based on the available literature and international conventions, the paper will elaborate a framework for the application of communication for development in promoting the MDGs at the country level. The framework will be used to examine the Albanian experience in using the MDGs to mobilize participation around national and local development strategies. It will also highlight the contribution that communication can make in Serbia to the social inclusion of marginalized groups such as Roma, refugees, internally displaced persons and people with disabilities. The proposed framework can be used to identify gaps, opportunities and entry points in each country. It can help make the best use of the MDGs at the national level through including excluded groups in the policy debate, which will enhance transparency, accountability and responsiveness to their needs." (Abstract)
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"From 1995 to 2005, the international community provided significant support to media in the Western Balkans. Based on a meta-analysis of 37 project reports and interviews with a broad range of media experts, this study finds that direct support to independent media was a key factor in helping the c
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itizens of several Balkan countries to rid themselves of authoritarian regimes. At the same time, the publication states that often journalism training - the greatest share of media support - has had few lasting effects. Support for legislative and regulatory reform has been efficient and effective, but the new media legislation has not been sufficiently well implemented. The overall conclusion (page 36): 'Media assistance in the Balkans proved itself an effective way to promote democracy by removing barriers to the enjoyment of fundamental rights to information and expression as protected by international law, and without intervening in political choices themselves. When media support was perceived as being primarily driven by political objectives, it was in danger of being like the problem it sought to alleviate and obscuring the concept of independent media." (CAMECO Update 1-2008)
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"Discussions on how to support sustainability of independent media generally focus on the political conditions, the legal framework and – especially in German development cooperation – on the quality of journalistic coverage. Nevertheless, economic factors are of equal importance, not only for p
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ure survival but also with respect to editorial independence and the resources available to enhance or guarantee the quality of media outlets. The German Forum Medien und Entwicklung (Media and Development) highlighted in its annual international Symposium, “Money Matters – How independent media manage to survive”, two dimensions marking economic sustainability: factors constituting a restricting or enabling media environment; factors supporting the business management of media in their endeavour to become self-sustainable." (Executive summary, page 5)
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