"In this article, we analyze the spread of political disinformation in events of discursive struggles on Twitter, during the 2018 presidential election in Brazil. These were disputes for the hegemonic narrative between two stories based on opposed hashtags: one based on news from mainstream media an
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d the other, based on disinformation, mostly from hyperpartisan outlets. Our goal was to understand how hyperpartisan outlets created and shaped these discursive struggles and the strategies used to spread disinformation to create an “alternative narrative” to the facts. Our case study is focused on two discursive struggles, for which we will use critical discourse analysis and social network analysis. Our findings suggest that (1) the structure of the hashtag wars was very polarized and right-wing groups had higher exposure to hyperpartisan content and disinformation, while traditional media discourse circulates more among other different ideological clusters; (2) rightwing hyperpartisan media mostly used biased framing and polarized ideological discourse structure as manipulative strategies to reframe the events and create a counter-narrative (and thus, to create the dispute); and (3) opinion leaders were major spreaders of disinformation among far-right users, as they reinforced hyperpartisan content and became key actors in the discursive struggles (and thus, reinforced the dispute)." (Abstract)
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"With attacks against storytellers increasing year-on-year, concern has grown about the lack of safety and security resources available to them. This is the focus of our study. Through a series of 120 interviews with artists, filmmakers, journalists, funders, activists, academics and others, along w
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ith desk research, we have sought to identify how storytellers can be better resourced to continue to confront and speak truth to power. The study is global in its overview, with a spotlight on Central and South America where in-depth research and interviews were conducted." (Abstract)
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"As of July 2021, Telegram had 550 million active users worldwide – more than the individual user bases of Twitter, Snapchat or Discord. It is the fifth most-popular messaging app after Facebook-owned Whatsapp and Messenger, and WeChat and QQ which dominate the Chinese market [...] For this paper,
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I looked at Telegram’s policies and functionalities to help understand what made it so attractive to misinformation actors both in the Ukraine, which has a long history of Telegram engagement, and Brazil, Spain and Germany where it has had more of an impact in recent years. According to the journalists and digital researchers I interviewed about investigating misinformation and disinformation on Telegram, there are ways to address the issue, both on and off the platform: by investigating movements and their political or financial interest, by producing more responsible journalism, through clearer communication from governments, and through the continued moderation efforts on other social media platforms." (Pages 7-8)
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"There is a growing recognition that journalists are exposed to dangerous or hazardous working conditions in many places worldwide. These conditions are suggested to be linked to greater macro-related structural risks, including changes to the political economy of news that increase labor precarity,
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cultural and identity-based risks from oppressive normative systems, aggressive partisans and extremists, and risks originating from weak or changing enforcement of the rule of law that increases journalists' vulnerability to corrupt officials, security forces and criminal groups. While previous research has linked these structural risks to acts of workplace victimization of journalists, it has not considered how structural risks are connected to the subjective experience of victimization, which includes emotional upheaval and varying coping strategies. Anchoring this study in the sociology of risk literature with general strain theory, this study considers how greater, macro-level structures are tied to journalist’s victimization, emotions and coping using open and closed survey response data from 21 Mexican and 33 Brazilian journalists. Survey data was collected through matched subnational context designs and snowball sampling strategies. Findings show that journalists recalled victimization experiences that were linked to labor market and workplace risks, risks associated with the rule of law, culturally based risks, and identity-based risks. As a result, journalists engaged in short and long-term coping strategies. Coping strategies were also either individualistic or collectivist in nature, with coping strategies ultimately being influenced by country and regional contexts." (Abstract)
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"This year's report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 92,000 online news consumers in 46 markets including India, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, Colombia and Peru for the first time. The report looks at the impact of coronavirus on news consumption a
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nd on the economic prospects for publishers. It looks at progress on new paid online business models, trust and misinformation, local news, impartiality and fairness in news coverage." (Overview)
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"Social media technology is having a dramatic impact on social and political dynamics around the world. The contributors to this book document and illustrate this "techtonic" shift on violent conflict and democratic processes. They present vivid examples and case studies from countries in Africa, So
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uth and Southeast Asia, Latin America as well as Northern Ireland. Each author maps an array of peacebuilding solutions to social media threats, including coordinated action by civil society, governments and tech companies to protect human minds, relationships and institutions. Solutions presented include inoculating society with a new digital literacy agenda, designing technology for positive social impacts, and regulating technology to prohibit the worst behaviours." (Publisher description)
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"Starting from the assumption that media play a crucial role for populist discourses of authenticity, the volume moves beyond conventional and social media by expanding its focus to media in formal education, notably school textbooks and curricula. These two particular media formats lastingly shape
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younger generations and thus the future. The proposed volume adopts global perspectives from three postcolonial countries that are often beyond the scope of studies dealing with populist discourses and media entanglements - insights that contribute new aspects to international scholarly debates." (Publisher description)
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"Este texto busca analisar a práxis religiosa digital da Igreja Católica no Brasil, isto é, as práticas católicas brasileiras no ambiente digital e as reflexões eclesiais sobre tal processo, ao longo da pandemia do coronavírus. Para isso, realizou-se um estudo de caso sobre o site da Conferê
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ncia Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB), instância máxima do catolicismo no país. Foram analisados 82 textos, entre notícias, entrevistas, documentos e artigos de opinião publicados entre março e dezembro de 2020, referentes às reflexões e às práticas católicas no e sobre o ambiente digital durante a pandemia. Este artigo, primeiramente, descreve as diversas práticas religiosas digitais que foram surgindo a partir do “confinamento litúrgico” provocado pela pandemia. Em seguida, analisa-se a reflexão feita por autoridades da Igreja sobre tais práticas. Diante das limitações e potencialidades da internet levantadas nessa descrição indiciária da práxis católica digital, fazem-se algumas inferências sobre o deslocamento espaço-temporal das práticas religiosas para o ambiente digital devido a um processo de ubiquização e sobre a ressignificação das noções de presença e participação em rede, tecendo-se críticas à perspectiva de uma suposta “virtualização da fé”. Com isso, conclui-se que a pandemia evidenciou que a práxis religiosa contemporânea emerge a partir de um processo de reconexão entre o humano, o digital e o sagrado, como no caso da formação e da articulação de comunidades eclesiais digitais." (Resumo)
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"This book focuses on ethnic journalism in the Global South, approaching it from two angles: as a professional area and as a social mission. The book discusses journalistic practices and ethnic media in the Global South, managerial and editorial strategies of ethnic media outlets, their content spec
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ifics, target audience, distribution channels, main challenges and trends of development in the digital age." (Publisher description)
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"Recognised telenovela writer and scholar Rosane Svartman considers the particular characteristics of the telenovela format – number of episodes, melodrama influence, and influence of the audience on future writing – to explore how these can be preserved on multimedia platforms, and the challeng
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es this change may present. Svartman further charts the transformations of the telenovela throughout its history and its major influences and unveils the main storytelling elements and writing processes. Chapters examine the business model of Brazilian corporate television within the current context of hypermedia and analyse how this relationship evolves as it is influenced by the new interactive tools and technologies that amplify the audience’s power." (Publisher description)
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"This report provides an overview of the comparative innovation capacity of the Americas region through ICT-centric innovation policy monitors and insights on how good practice can strengthen capacity to integrate ICT innovation into national development agendas.
Overall, the Americas region has sho
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wn divergent scenarios in reaching the full potential of the innovation ecosystem. Few countries have a traditionally strong innovation system, and most performances in one or all three engines of growth must improve for the region to become a real actor on the global stage. Canada and the United States of America perform well, while emerging economies such as Argentina, Brazil or Mexico are struggling on the technological, entrepreneurial or innovation ecosystems, and others such as Haiti need further support to turn the country into a thriving digital innovation ecosystem.
To understand these discrepancies, the report introduces two ICT centric innovation monitors: the three engines of growth monitor and the digital transformation enablers monitor.
The report notes that there are many good practices in the region fuelling the entrepreneurial journey. Each practice presented in the report was analysed based on its impact in a third ICT-centric innovation policy monitor, the ecosystem maturity map monitor. Each stakeholder group, at each of the five stages of the entrepreneurial journey, is assessed by its level of engagement to assess the maturity of the ecosystem. For example, the first stage of the journey for entrepreneurs is entrepreneurial interest, while for the public sector, it is having a vision and strategy. The monitor enables stakeholders to visualize the maturity of the ICT-centric innovation ecosystem and identify which practices to keep, which must be improved and which to replace." (Introduction)
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"[...] En este número leemos relatos de personas de varios países de América Latina que encontraron en Freire y sus obras inspiración para su trabajo en las áreas de educación, derechos humanos, investigación y comunicación. Descubrimos en Freire un referente intelectual, pero también pers
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onal, por una postura que combina crítica, posicionamiento político y una acogida generosa y confiada a todas las personas. Para Freire, cada ser humano tiene un conocimiento único que complementa el conocimiento de todos sus pares; por tanto, sólo el horizonte de la colectividad, fundada en el respeto a la igualdad en la diversidad, lleva a la verdadera liberación. Hablando sobre el papel de la Iglesia católica en este proceso, valorando su perspectiva profética, dijo: “Sabe igualmente que no existe ‘yo soy’, ‘yo sé’, ‘yo me libero’, yo ‘me salvo’; como no existe “yo te doy conocimientos”, “yo te libero”, “yo te salvo”; al contrario, “somos”, “sabemos”, “nos liberamos”, “nos salvamos.” (Nota editorial, page 3)
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"This article summarizes the development of education and research in Communication Studies in Brazil. It is argued that different factors contributed to the development of the particular features that Brazilian Communication Studies present nowadays. They include: the late development of Brazilian
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universities, in comparison to the western societies, but also to other Latin American countries; the relatively early development of Communication programs, beginning from the late 1940s, following the example of the United States; state interventionism in the universities’ curricula, and the influence exerted by other non-academic social actors, such as journalists’ unions. As the result of the influence of these factors, Communication Studies organized according to two entirely different logics: undergraduate studies focus on specialized professional fields (such as Journalism, Advertising, Public Relations, Cinema) and adopt a practical approach with respect to them; otherwise, graduate studies employ a much more general and academic approach focusing on Communication as a whole. The article also discusses the challenges faced by Communication Studies at present, resulting both from the changes in the media landscape and a hostile political scenario, associated with the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, an ultra-rightist politician who openly disdains science (and human sciences in particular)." (Abstract)
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"Why and how can records serve as evidence of human rights violations, in particular crimes against humanity, and help the fight against impunity? Archives and Human Rights shows the close relationship between archives and human rights and discusses the emergence, at the international level, of the
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principles of the right to truth, justice and reparation. Through a historical overview and topical case studies from different regions of the world the book discusses how records can concretely support these principles. The current examples also demonstrate how the perception of the role of the archivist has undergone a metamorphosis in recent decades, towards the idea that archivists can and must play an active role in defending basic human rights, first and foremost by enabling access to documentation on human rights violations. Confronting painful memories of the past is a way to make the ghosts disappear and begin building a brighter, more serene future. The establishment of international justice mechanisms and the creation of truth commissions are important elements of this process. The healing begins with the acknowledgment that painful chapters are essential parts of history; archives then play a crucial role by providing evidence. This book is both a tool and an inspiration to use archives in defence of human rights." (Publisher description)
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