Category Media Development

"What makes an independent regulator is not simply institutional design. Moreover, independence does not imply that regulators are anonymous, silent, or above and beyond the policy arena. Regulators interact with ministries, who are ultimately responsible for developing the policies for the regulate... more

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YouTube and evidencing warcrimes: the role of digital video for transitional justice in Syria

Josepha Wessels

Tidskriftet POLITIK, volume 19, issue 4 (2016), pp. 30-52

"The enormous collection of user-generated content (UGC) in the form of YouTube videos from the Syrian war provides an unprecedented and diverse collection of shared digital memories of conflict and violence. The central question of this article asks what the value is of UGC on YouTube for legal evi...dence of war crimes and future Transitional Justice. It is beyond doubt that the surge of uploaded videos from the Syrian uprisings revolutionized the way in which contemporary wars are observed and documented. The sheer amount of user-generated content online has given rise to manifold ways of interpreting what is happening on the ground, inspired creative resistance, led to a surge of professional and independent Syrian documentary films and increased the connectivity between those who undergo the war inside the conflict zone and those who are observing the situation from a safe distance. Many YouTube clips from Syria are likely to be rejected as stand-alone legal evidence though, as it often lacks sourced information about meta-data, date, time, geographical coordinates, identity of the participants, the identity of the perpetrator, and other contextual information crucial to establishing judicial facts for war crimes prosecution. The everexpanding body of videos from Syria will give rise to a wide and varied landscape of interactive media that has surpassed the old approach of political mainstream media to inform and possibly manipulate their audiences for their own agendas, whatever those may be. As a platform of digital memory and space to express moral outrage, YouTube served a crucial and important role in the Syrian crisis and the UGC is of immense value for digital memorialisation and historicization of the Syrian crisis. The vast amount of UGC on YouTube was categorized in 8 different types of footage and we can conclude that only small number of videoclips on YouTube can in fact function as crime-based evidence for war crimes. This does not mean that the UGC on YouTube has no value, however as a legal evidence it can be problematic to use YouTube videos if not corroborated and verified properly. The main issue is the lack of meta-data in many of the UGC on YouTube. The YouTube video revolution in Syria did bring to the surface many brave video activists who are now professionally involved in producing high quality footage for international news broadcasters, the most recent example of that is the important work of Waad al Kataeb inside eastern Aleppo with the British Broadcaster Channel Four News (Channel 4 2016). Through a series of edited 5-6 minute mini stories from the ground, Al Kataeb’s work provides a credible and important source of evidence." (Conclusion, p.22-23) more

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The kidnapping of journalists: reporting from high-risk conflict zones

Robert G. Picard; Hannah Storm

London: Tauris (2016), vii, 100 pp.

ISBN 978-1-784535896

"This book explores the complex organisational issues surrounding the capture or kidnapping of journalists in areas of conflict and risk. It explores how journalists 'becoming news' is covered and the implications of that coverage, how news organisations prepare for and respond to such events, and h... more

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Assessing Russia’s influence in its periphery

Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG); Gallup (2016), 40 slides

"Russian speakers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania rank Kremlin-backed media as the least trustworthy among international, Russian Federation and domestic news sources, according to research presented by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. In addition, only those survey respondents who considered R... more

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Zimbabwe’s state-controlled public media and the mediation of the 1980s genocide 30 years on

Shepherd Mpofu

Journal of African media studies, volume 8, issue 2 (2016), pp. 145-165

"Since the end of genocide in 1987 Zimbabwe has remained a zone of ‘conflicts’, and the enduring debates surrounding this genocide, especially in public-owned but state-Controlled media, call for critical attention. Three years after independence, in 1980, Zimbabwe was plunged into a genocide na... more

Annual plan 2016

Amsterdam: Free Press Unlimited (2016), 27 pp.

"2016 marks a new phase for Free Press Unlimited. The funding cycle of the Dutch Co-financing for development (MFS) ends in 2015. Free Press Unlimited was active in 5 alliances set up under that system, representing roughly one third of its annual turnover. In 2016 a new long term grant from the Dut... more

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Guía para el tratamiento periodístico responsable de noticias policiales

Buenos Aires: Defensoría del Público (2016), 106 pp.

ISBN 978-987-45791-8-8

"La organización del texto que sigue recorta, con fines analíticos, diez nudos críticos de la tarea periodística en materia de cobertura de casos policiales. Para su exposición se han tomado materiales que fueron objeto de reclamos ante esta Defensoría o que fueron seleccionados de los monitor... more

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Der Vergleich als Metamethode in der Kommunikationswissenschaft

Barbara Thomaß

In: Handbuch nicht standardisierte Methoden in der Kommunikationswissenschaft

Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz; Michael Meyen (eds.)

Wiesbaden: Springer VS (2016), pp. 49-65

"Der Beitrag stellt die Erkenntnisgewinnung durch Vergleich als das zentrale Merkmal komparativer Forschung vor und erläutert, wie das Komparative als Kern eines Forschungsvorhabens in der Kommunikationsforschung einzulösen ist. Er zeichnet die bisherige Entwicklung der komparativen Kommunikations... more

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Desecrating expression: an account of freedom of expression and religion in Asia

Gayatri Khandhadai

Bytes for All; Asian For Human Rights & Development; Global Partners Digital (2016), 80 pp.

"This report outlines the international human rights standards and processes related the protection of freedom of expression and religious belief, and discusses regional trends and challenges. The nine country case studies include the stories of many people across the region struggling to defend fre... more

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Postcolonial studies meets media studies: a critical encounter

Kai Merten; Lucia Krämer (eds.)

Bielefeld: transcript (2016), 262 pp.

ISBN 978-3-8376-3294-1 (pbk); 978-3-8394-3294-5 (online)

"The book brings together experts from Media and Communication Studies with Postcolonial Studies scholars to illustrate how the two fields may challenge and enrich each other. Its essays introduce readers to selected topics including »Media Convergence«, »Transcultural Subjectivity«, »Hegemony�... more

Der Film Hara Harwaa Reihaby von Emma Chodzaa als Instrument der staatlichen Beeinflussung des kollektiven Gedächtnisses in Abchasien

Annika Gläser

Frankfurt, Oder: Bachelor Thesis Europa-Universität Vidriana (2016), 53 pp., 7 illustr., bibliogr. p.42-45

"Die Fallanalyse hat gezeigt, dass eine Erzählung vom Krieg 1992-93 propagiert wird, die einer abchasischen Version des Narrationsschemas 'Die Vertreibung von fremden Feinden' entspricht. Ein zentrales Element der Erzählung ist zudem, so ergab die Interpretation, eine betont positive Darstellung d... more

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The war correspondent

Greg McLaughlin

London: Pluto Press (2016) 2nd ed., x, 267 pp., index, bibliogr. p.245-258

ISBN 9780745333199 (hbk); 9780745333182 (pbk); 9781783717583 (pdf)

Other Editions: 1st ed. 2002

"This book has presented a critical, historically grounded analysis of the role of the war correspondent. It has highlighted the risks, the problems and the failures that have defined the role but it has also given credit where that is due and acknowledged the inspirational example of correspondents... more

Disaster drawn: visual witness, comics, and documentary form

Hillary L. Chute

Cambridge, Mass.; London: Belknap Press; Harvard University Press (2016), 359 pp., illustr., index

ISBN 978-0-674-50451-6 (hbk); 978-0-674-49564-7 (online)

"In hard-hitting accounts of Auschwitz, Bosnia, Palestine, and Hiroshima's Ground Zero, comics display a stunning capacity to bear witness to trauma. Investigating how hand-drawn comics has come of age as a serious medium for engaging history, Disaster Drawn explores the ways graphic narratives by d... more

The other air force: U.S. efforts to reshape Middle Eastern media since 9/11

Matt Sienkiewicz

New Brunswick, New Jersey, London: Rutgers University Press (2016), ix, 216 pp., illustr., bibliogr. p.191-198, index

ISBN 978-0-8135-7798-2

"As it seeks to win the hearts and minds of citizens in the Muslim world, the United States has poured millions of dollars into local television and radio programming, hoping to generate pro-American currents on Middle Eastern airwaves. However, as this fascinating new book shows, the Middle Eastern... more

Die Deutsche Welle und die Politik: deutscher Auslandsrundfunk 1953-2013

Anke Hagedorn

Konstanz; München: UVK (2016), 554 pp., illustr., diagr., bibliogr. p.525-554

ISBN 978-3-86764-625-3 (print); 978-3-86496-839-6 (pdf)

Other Editions: Universität Konstanz, Doctoral Thesis, 2015

"Der erste Teil geht auf die Anfänge des Auslandsrundfunks in Europa Ende der 1920er-Jahre sowie auf seine Rolle während des Zweiten Weltkriegs ein. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird anschließend die komplexe Gründungsgeschichte der DW nach 1945 dargestellt. Der zweite Teil des Buches beschäftigt sic... more

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Video as evidence: field guide

Witness (2016), 200 pp.

CC BY-NC-SA

Other Editions: also published in Russian and Ukrainian

"The goal of the Field Guide is to provide methods for filmers to use so that their videos can be as valuable as possible in exposing abuse and bringing about justice. This resource will help ensure that more cameras in more hands can lead to more exposure and greater justice. Activists producing fo... more

Comunicación política y elecciones en México 2015

Martín Echeverría Victoria; Carlos Enrique Ahuactzin Martínez (eds.)

Puebla: Instituto de Ciencias de Gobierno y Desarrollo Estratégico Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) (2016), 258 pp.

ISBN 978-607-525-216-2 (pdf); 978-607-525-217-9 (print) CC BY-NC-ND

"El estudio de los fenómenos comunicativos en las elecciones de México de 2015 constituye el punto de análisis en el presente volumen. En el marco normativo de un órgano electoral nuevo, el Instituto Nacional Electoral, las variaciones del tratamiento informativo y la presencia de estrategias me... more

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Fake news: the narrative battle over the Ukrainian conflict

irina Khaldarova; Mervi Pantti

Journalism practice, volume 10, issue 7 (2016), pp. 891-901

"The crisis in Ukraine has accentuated the position of Russian television as the government’s strongest asset in its information warfare. The internet, however, allows other players to challenge the Kremlin’s narrative by providing counter-narratives and debunking distorted information and fake ... more

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Social media in the Arab world: communication and public opinion in the Gulf states

Barrie Gunter; Mokhtar Elareshi; Khalid Al-Jaber (eds.)

London: Tauris (2016), xv, 258 pp., bibliogr. p.239-257, index

ISBN 978-0-85772-835-7

"Following the Arab Spring, the use of social media has become instrumental in organising activist movements and spreading political dissent in the Middle East. New online behaviours have transformed traditional communication channels, enabling young people of all backgrounds to feel politically emp... more

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Protéger les libertés de presse et d'expression en RD Congo: fondements juridiques et rôles du pouvoir judiciaire

Charles-M. Mushizi

Kinshasa: Internews; USAID (2016), 97 pp.

" ... la présente brochure analyse le cadre juridique dans lequel s’inscrit la collaboration du pouvoir judiciaire avec les autres structures institutionnelles et non institutionnelles engagées dans le domaine de la liberté de la presse. Elle explique ensuite l’importance de l’information, ... more