"This article explores the uses of sources in coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in social media posts of mainstream news organizations in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. Based on computational content analysis, our study analyzes the sources and actors present in more t
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han 940,000 posts on COVID-19 published in the 227 Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts of 78 sampled news outlets between January 1 and December 31 of 2020, comparing their relative importance across countries, across media platforms, and across time as the pandemic evolved in each country. The analysis shows the dominance of political sources across countries and platforms, particularly in Latin America, demonstrating a strong role of the state in constructing pandemic news and suggesting that mainstream news organizations' social media posts maintain a strong elite orientation. Health sources were also prominent — consistent with the defining role of biomedical authority in health coverage—, while significant diversity of sources, including citizen sources, emerged as the pandemic went on. Our results also revealed that the use of specific sources significantly varied over time. These variations tend to go hand in hand with specific global milestones of the pandemic." (Abstract)
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"This paper analyses the predominance of the ‘negativity’ factor as the primary determinant of news coverage in the German press – Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Tageszeitung and Der Spiegel – of events in Latin America. Based on a sample of 3831 articles published
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between January 2000 and December 2014, this study finds a general concentration of negative events (43.05%) with regard to 20 Latin American countries. However, since this number does not exceed 50%, the research assumption of a conflict-oriented news reporting has to be relativised. The ‘negativity’ rate stands out as sectorial depending on specific countries and areas of news coverage. Considerable interest in cultural issues helps to provide a more balanced image. While Honduras, Haiti, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Paraguay exhibit a strong negative balance, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile and Cuba boast a dynamic, positive image. Brazil and Mexico account for two ambivalent cases." (Abstract)
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"Fake News, Hate Speech und Rassismus im Netz: Soziale Medien bieten Menschen und Organisationen auch dafür eine Plattform. Wie kann man gegensteuern und selbst aktiv für Demokratie, Meinungsvielfalt und die Entgiftung des gesellschaftlichen Klimas eintreten? Said Rezek, Politikwissenschaftler und
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Journalist, bezieht seit Jahren als Blogger Stellung gegen Rassismus und Hass im Netz. In diesem Buch vermittelt er das Handwerkszeug dazu: Was macht einen reichweitenstarken Blog aus? Zu welchen Themen und Anlässen lohnt sich die Positionierung? Welche Beitragsformen – z.B. Tweets, Memes, Listicles oder Offene Briefe - kann man speziell in Social Media einsetzen? Wie arbeitet man selbst gleichermaßen rechtssicher und kompetent und schützt sich vor Verletzungen der eigenen Privatsphäre? Das Buch bietet zahlreiche praktische Beispiele, wie, wann und wofür es sich zu bloggen lohnt, um Gegnern einer vielfältigen, friedlichen und demokratischen Gesellschaft nicht das Feld zu überlassen." (Buchrücken)
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"Straddling the boundary between historical inquiry and personal reflection, this extraordinary text unfolds as a series of encounters with eponymic Holocaust photographs. Although only a small number of photographs are reproduced here, Fresco provides evocative descriptions of many well-known image
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s: synagogues and Torah scrolls burning on the night of Kristallnacht; deportations to the ghettos and the camps; and, finally, mass executions in the killing fields of Eastern Europe. The unique set of photographs included in On the Death of Jews shows groups of women and children from Liepaja (Liepaja), shortly before they were killed in December 1941 in the dunes of Shkede (Skede) on the Baltic Sea. In the last photograph of the series, we see the victims' bodies tumbling into the pit." (Foreword, page vii-viii)
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"Media Culture in Nomadic Communities examines the ways that new technologies and ICT infrastructures have changed the communicative norms and patterns that regulate mobile and nomadic communities' engagement in local and international deliberative decision making. Each chapter examines a unique com
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municative event, such has how the Maasai of Tanzania have used online petitions to demand government action. How Mongolians in northern China have used micro blogs to record and debate land tenure. And how herding communities from around the world have supported the Lakota Sioux protests at Standing Rock. Through these case studies, Hahn argues that mobile and nomadic communities are creating and utilizing new communicative networks that are radically changing local, national, and international deliberations." (Publisher description)
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"The chapter identifies the new threats posed by digital developments and how they affect women journalists in particular. There are three main converging safety threats confronting women journalists in the digital age: online harassment and abuse against women journalists; orchestrated disinformati
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on campaigns targeting women journalists; and digital privacy and security threats exploiting women journalists' vulnerabilities. Online violence targeting women journalists manifests in a variety of ways that, nevertheless, share a number of common characteristics. The chapter exposes how a trend has emerged involving the specific targeting of women journalists by state and corporate actors engaged in “disinformation wars”. To illustrate the “new frontline” and bear witness of a rampant cyber-misogyny now confronting women journalists, the chapter presents four new international case studies from the Philippines, South Africa, India and Finland, and shows how all four female journalists used the techniques of research and investigative journalism against their attackers. Based on the research and policy analysis, the chapter ends with a series of recommendations, which could be used as part of a “combat plan” for key actors seeking to counter online violence against women journalists." (Abstract)
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"In den Comicgeschichten werden drei Generationen antikolonialen Widerstands in Kamerun skizziert. Das zentralafrikanische Land war 35 Jahre lang deutsche Kolonie. Die Geschichten des kamerunischen Königs Duala Manga Bell, der Anlu-Rebellion der Kom-Frauen sowie des Aktivisten André Blaise Essama
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ermöglichen historisches Lernen aus einer antirassistischen Perspektive. Hier schreiben die Kolonialisierten Geschichte und wehren sich gegen das System von Unterdrückung, Gewalt und Ausbeutung. Ihre Kämpfe machen das Ausmaß der kolonialen Gewaltherrschaft deutlich und bieten einen Ausgangspunkt dafür, über das koloniale Erbe ins Gespräch zu kommen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This collection investigates and critiques the dynamism of children's lives online with contributions fielding both global and hyper-local issues, and bridging the wide spectrum of connected media created for and by children. From education to children's rights to cyberbullying and youth in challen
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ging circumstances, the interdisciplinary approach ensures a careful, nuanced, multi-dimensional exploration of children's relationships with digital media. Featuring a highly international range of case studies, perspectives, and socio-cultural contexts, The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Children is the perfect reference tool for students and researchers of media and communication, family and technology studies, psychology, education, anthropology, and sociology, as well as interested teachers, policy makers, and parents." (Publisher description)
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"The euphoria that has accompanied the birth and expansion of the internet as a "liberation technology" is increasingly eclipsed by an explosion of vitriolic language on a global scale. Digital Hate: The Global Conjuncture of Extreme Speech provides the first distinctly global and interdisciplinary
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perspective on hateful language online. Moving beyond Euro-American allegations of 'fake news,' contributors draw attention to local idioms and practices and explore the profound implications for how community is imagined, enacted, and brutally enforced around the world. With a cross-cultural framework nuanced by ethnography and field-based research, the volume investigates a wide range of cases-from anti-immigrant memes targeted at Bolivians in Chile to trolls serving the ruling AK Party in Turkey - to ask how the potential of extreme speech to talk back to authorities has come under attack by diverse forms of digital hate cultures." (Publisher description)
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"Those working in media face plenty of challenges when it comes to handling issues around conflict more sensitively. In some countries, these difficulties could include forced or unsolicited loyalty, a lack of information, or physical and psychological threats. In others, challenges could arise from
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prejudice fostered by excessive homogeneity in newsrooms, or a lack of consciousness for the limits of certain views. In DW Akademie’s publication, authors from around the world approach the question of how media workers can cover conflict better. This includes reflections on how to cope with the deluge of hatred online and on how to deal with trauma. Rather than academic, analytical texts, the publication is made up of thoughtfully written, carefully illustrated and often personal pieces." (Publisher description)
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"While much has been said about individual disinformation campaigns in specific countries, this book offers a panoramic view of how these campaigns are conducted, who they target, and how they are spread. By bringing together research on specific countries and international data mined from questionn
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aires and online studies, the understanding of the term 'fake news' is greatly expanded and the issues we face are brought to light. The book includes contributions by experts such as Jean-Baptiste Vilmer (Macron Leaks), and includes case studies from Asia, such as Singapore and Myanmar, written in an accessible manner for the general interested reader, practitioners and policymakers in the field." (Publisher description)
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"The courageous acts of whistleblowing that inspired the world over the past few years have changed our perception of surveillance and control in today's information society. But what are the wider effects of whistleblowing as an act of dissent on politics, society, and the arts? How does it contrib
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ute to new courses of action, digital tools, and contents? This urgent intervention based on the work of Berlin's Disruption Network Lab examines this growing phenomenon, offering interdisciplinary pathways to empower the public by investigating whistleblowing as a developing political practice that has the ability to provoke change from within." (Publisher description)
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"Wie steht es aus Sicht der Katholikinnen und Katholiken um ihre katholische Kirche? Betrachten sie diese überhaupt als "ihre" Kirche? Welche Medien nutzen Katholikinnen und Katholiken, um kirchliche und religiöse Inhalte und Botschaften zu erhalten? Diesen und weiteren Fragen geht der "MDG-Trendm
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onitor - Religiöse Kommunikation 2020/21" nach. Die Trendstudie wird seit 1999 zum vierten Mal im Auftrag der MDG erhoben und kann somit Daten aus ca. 20 Jahren vergleichen. Durchgeführt wurde sie vom Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach in Kooperation mit der SINUS Markt- und Sozialforschung. Dem Wandel der Zeit folgend fokussiert der neue Trendmonitor insbesondere die digitalen Angebote und Kommunikation der katholischen Kirche. Darüber hinaus werden auch kirchliche Medien betrachtet, die erst seit wenigen Jahren am Markt sind, wie zum Beispiel Mitgliedermagazine. Eine weitere Neuheit des neuen Trendmonitors ist das letzte Kapitel. Hier finden sich Kommentare von renommierten Medienexperten und Wissenschaftlern: Die Daten der beiden Institute werden durch unterschiedliche Perspektiven wie eine religionssoziologische, kommunikationswissenschaftliche oder pastoraltheologische betrachtet." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This report sets out a new methodology for assessing cyber power, and then applies it to 15 states: Four members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia; Three cyber-capable allies of the Five Eyes states – France, Israel and Japan; F
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our countries viewed by the Five Eyes and their allies as cyber threats – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea; Four states at earlier stages in their cyber-power development – India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The methodology is broad and principally qualitative, assessing each state’s capabilities in seven different categories. The cyber ecosystem of each state is analysed, including how it intersects with international security, economic competition and military affairs. On that basis the 15 states are divided into three tiers: Tier One is for states with world-leading strengths across all the categories in the methodology, Tier Two is for those with world-leading strengths in some of the categories, and Tier Three is for those with strengths or potential strengths in some of the categories but significant weaknesses in others. The conclusion is that only one state currently merits inclusion in Tier One. Seven are placed in Tier Two, and seven in Tier Three." (Back cover)
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"Top-down approaches have limited potential to reach long-lasting and innovative solutions for the settlement of refugees. There is a growing consensus among scholars and policy-makers that governments alone cannot solve complex societal problems, and that participation of non-government actors, sta
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keholders, media companies, civil society, and the refugee themselves is crucial to achieving more positive outcomes in the long-run. In this special issue, we seek to contribute to this growing research field by exploring the issue in a variety of contexts, using different methodologies and with a focus on the inherent linkages between media, society and political authorities in the management of migration and integration processes. Communication Research, at its diverse layers and from a wide array of topics and methods, is expected to contribute to the analysis of social, political, demographic and cultural changes, so tackling the ongoing refugee crisis in the Mediterranean area is an opportunity to connect theoretical and methodological advances with a relevant topic which certainly requires practical, technical and applied contributions. In doing so, screening the online activity turns into an additional sphere to be kept under attention, as a new space for social discussion and action. The origin of the special issue entitled ‘From fragmentation to integration: Addressing the role of communication in refugee crises and settlement processes’ is a Pre-Conference organized by the guest editors as part of the 68th Annual International Communication Association Conference held in Prague, in 2018. The main purpose of this pre-conference was to open a space for dialogue regarding the way refugee crises and integration processes are tackled by political, social and media actors, aiming to set some guidelines to avoid those mistakes previously noticed and leading to a more constructive and conscious coverage and social action. This event brought together researchers, policy advisors, NGO representatives and refugee migrants to discuss the intersections between refugee migration and communication processes. A selection of original articles that were presented at this event form the basis of this special issue. The main themes addressed in the articles of the current special issue are: (1) inclusive digital forms of literacy and activism for/with refugees; (2) local responsesto refugee crises, (re)settlement and their communication strategies; and (3) media representation of humanitarian crises and refugees in their receiving countries." (Page 4)
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"Drawing upon ethnographic investigation, this article analyses the digital media practices of second-generation British Somali women who live in London. It addresses the dynamic relationships between digital media and diasporic identity formation by focusing on how second-generation women articulat
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e their diasporic urban and transnational identities via youth-oriented online cultural spaces. It demonstrates that they use the internet and social media platforms to position themselves as urban dwellers in London and members of the global Somali diaspora at the same time. In this context, the author proposes that these young women’s digital practices create a translocal nexus that intertwines urban and transnational social fields in line with their gendered and generation-specific experiences and aspirations. Through this translocal nexus, these young women produce multilayered identities and negotiate their multiple belongings with a youth-oriented perspective and style in a digitally interconnected world." (Abstract)
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