"[…] The studies presented here […] seek to explore two questions: how have Arab diasporic communities in Europe used Arab media in transnational political action formation since 2011? And how does the use of different media platforms stimulate or confine particular diasporic action, and what do...es this mean for our understanding of mediatized diaspora? The project conducts a comparative study between the use and users of Syrian, Tunisian, Bahraini, and Egyptian regime-critical and politically mobilized media. The four Arab countries have been selected because they represent different patterns of immigration that are formed by colonial connections and current conflicts." (Introduction, p.2)
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"In recent years, China’s playbook for expanding influence under the banner of “common destiny” is well known, with tactics ranging from ‘soft power’ incentive structures to ‘wolf warrior’ diplomatic brawls played out on the front pages of local newspapers. But how consistent is China...s approach, especially against the backdrop of two years of pandemic disruption and a recalibrating global political environment? The purpose of this IFJ research project is to understand how the Chinese government ad media apparatus attempt to influence the global narrative about China’s role and place in the world. Since 2019, IFJ research has been gathered and compiled in collaboration with journalists’ unions in countries including Myanmar, Tunisia, Serbia, Italy, Kenya, Peru, and the Philippines. Through a series of surveys, round table discussions, interviews and other types of research, data and information has been gathered to help inform understanding about China’s approach to the media and its efforts to shape a global narrative on China before and after Covid-19 ... This report, which surveys working journalists directly in China’s high-priority investment and infrastructure locations (Kenya, Peru, and the Philippines), finds evidence that overt ambassadorial gestures and direct pressure on local journalists is not common. On the flip side, attempts to influence international perceptions via ‘vaccine diplomacy’ and investment in expanding Chinese media networks in international markets appears to be thriving." (Summary, p.2)
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"The Russian state-funded international broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) has attracted much attention as a purveyor of Russian propaganda. To date, most studies of RT have focused on its broadcast, website, and social media content, with little research on its audiences. Through a data-driven ...application of network science and other computational methods, we address this gap to provide insight into the demographics and interests of RT’s Twitter followers, as well as how they engage with RT. Building upon recent studies of Russian state-sponsored media, we report three main results. First, we find that most of RT’s Twitter followers only very rarely engage with its content and tend to be exposed to RT’s content alongside other mainstream news channels. This indicates that RT is not a central part of their online news media environment. Second, using probabilistic computational methods, we show that followers of RT are slightly more likely to be older and male than average Twitter users, and they are far more likely to be bots. Third, we identify thirty-five distinct audience segments, which vary in terms of their nationality, languages, and interests. This audience segmentation reveals the considerable heterogeneity of RT’s Twitter followers. Accordingly, we conclude that generalizations about RT’s audience based on analyses of RT’s media content, or on vocal minorities among its wider audiences, are unhelpful and limit our understanding of RT and its appeal to international audiences." (Abstract)
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"Der Umsatz der 50 größten Medienkonzerne der Welt hat sich in den vergangenen zehn Jahren verdoppelt. Ihre Macht ist so groß wie nie zuvor: Medienunternehmen beeinflussen politische Berichterstattung und produzieren eine nie dagewesene Fülle von Unterhaltungsformaten; sie bestimmen, was im Radi...o gespielt wird, und entscheiden über die Platzierung von Suchergebnissen, sie sammeln persönliche Daten und vermarkten Benutzerprofile; und sie kontrollieren Lehrpläne und akademische Fachzeitschriften. Ihre Lenker und Manager zählen zu den bestverdienenden Angestellten – Milliardäre und Millionäre mit exzellenten Kontakten zum politischen Establishment. Lutz Hachmeister und Till Wäscher porträtieren die 50 größten Medienkonzerne der Welt und beschreiben dabei Konzernlenker, Geschäftsstrategien und historische Grundlagen." (Klappentext)
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"Over the past decade, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has employed unorthodox foreign policy tools with increasing frequency, intensity, and success. Perhaps the most effective of these tactics has been the use of information warfare designed to affect decision-making in countries Russia considers to be ...its adversaries. In the target countries, these measures aim to destabilize civil society, erode trust in democratic institutions, and foster uncertainty among allies. If the United States and Europe hope to defend their economies, institutions, and identities, an immediate and effective policy response is required. To date, however, the United States and many of its European partners have struggled to develop policies that combat and counter Russian information warfare. The articles gathered here examine the tools that Russia has used against Ukraine, Poland, the United States, and the European Union, as well as the strategies that these countries have employed to combat Russian information warfare. The joint article by the four authors concisely summarizes the findings and proposes policy options by means of which the democratic countries of the West can address the challenges information warfare poses. The final article looks at Russia, examining controversies around the political role of the aggregator Yandex.news in prioritizing media news." (Introduction, p.2)
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"The geopolitical implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has dislocated global life, shaken economies and caused over 4 million deaths, continue to play out. For China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP), China’s status as the virus’ origin posed political risks, heightened by international s...peculation about the disease’s origins and criticism of Chinese authorities’ early handling of the outbreak. But with the virus relatively quickly brought largely under control at home, the pandemic has also offered the CCP political opportunities. With Xi Jinping (General Secretary since 2012) determined to reinvigorate Party rule and lead China to the centre of the world stage in what he has dubbed a ‘New Era’, Beijing has acted decisively both to mitigate the risks and seize the strategic opportunities created by the pandemic ... › In Africa, Beijing has positioned itself as the solution to the virus, rather than its origin. It has provided medical supplies in a broad-based, ongoing campaign; donors include not only government entities but also Chinese companies and diaspora groups. Chinese medics with experience of treating the Coronavirus have been mobilised to share expertise with African counterparts. China has provided upwards of 16 million doses of Chinese produced vaccines to 31 African countries, often as donations (including as ‘samples’ ahead of potential sales). The delivery of this support has been designed for maximum visibility, with high-level handover ceremonies and media coverage used by Chinese ambassadors to promote CCP talking points. Just as importantly, Beijing has sought to shape narratives, speaking through a multifaceted messaging apparatus developed in Africa in recent years to ‘tell China’s stories’ to African audiences, both elite and popular. Africa was the first step in a major global expansion of Chinese Party-State media, with Africa-focused television, radio and text output. State media are increasingly joined by Africa-based diplomats taking to social media such as Twitter and Facebook – where some have adopted the strident voice of China’s so-called ‘Wolf Warrior diplomacy’." (At a glance, p.2)
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"China is wiring the world, and, in doing so, rewriting the global order. As things stand, the rest of the world still has a choice. But the battle for tomorrow will require America and its allies to take daring risks in uncertain political terrain. Unchecked, China will reshape global flows of data... to reflect its own interests - and the lives of countless individuals enmeshed in its systems. Taking readers on a global tour of these emerging battlefields, Jonathan E. Hillman reveals what China's digital footprint looks like on the ground, and explores the dangers of a world in which all routers lead to Beijing." (Publisher)
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"This book is about television in Latin America. Its national and regional industries create most television programming there within genres developed over time in the region. However, part of the programming has always come from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. With cable, satellite and now streamin...g TV, that inflow of foreign programming has increased substantially. While many in the audience still prefer national or regional programs for their cultural proximity, an increasing number among the upper-middle and middle classes, particularly the young, are turning to the new foreign services, like Netflix, Amazon and Disney for class distinction, cosmopolitanism or other motives. Among the television industries global regional and national actors are creating a variety of programs and channels (broadcast, pay-TV and streaming) to segment and appeal to different parts of the audience." (Publisher)
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"International broadcasters are driven by several distinct, yet often overlapping, goals. They can aim to: provide international perspectives in areas without a wealth of local media, such as former colonies (i.e. France, UK, Germany); remain connected to diaspora populations (Poland); to preserve, ...protect, and promote local languages (Netherlands/Flanders); to counter Western media hegemony and political narratives (Russia, Turkey); and to proffer a positive image of a country, including its value and culture (China, US). Competition in global media has increased substantially in the last two decades. At the beginning of the 2000s, for example, there were only three foreign television stations in English. Ten years later, more than 30 stations from various countries were already courting an international audience, and the number has grown steadily since. These countries go far beyond the Anglo-American sphere; it is usually resurgent powers like Russia and China that use the English language to reach countries and target groups that are regarded as politically and economically important. Foreign media today are far more than just mediators of a national perspective or ambassadors for understanding and solidarity. They see themselves as actors in a global dialogue of values and competitors in a quest for international interpretative sovereignty." (Introduction)
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"Brings together diverse issues and expert perspectives of twenty-two notable and accomplished communication scholars, representing eight countries around the world. Together they discuss international communication, public relations and advertising, cultural implications of globalization, internati...onal law and regulation, transnational media, the shifting politics of media, trends in communication and information technology, and much more. The Third Edition is fully updated to reflect major events that have impacted our global communication environment. Three new chapters on “global journalism” and “gender, ethnicity, and religion,” and “Shifting Politics in Global Media and Communication” have been added to make this volume more comprehensive." (Publisher)
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"The aim of this report is to offer a broad overview of migration (both immigration and emigration) discourses in European media for researchers in comparative media and migration studies in the coming years. It also aims at those involved in journalistic news production as well as policy decisions ...related to European migration in general, and intra-European migration and mobility in particular. We focus on the concepts of salience, sentiment and framing to qualify dynamics in media discourses in seven European countries – Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and Romania – using semi-automated approaches to computational media analysis. In our report, we tackle three main gaps in the existing work: (i) a lack of comparative studies dealing with European migration media discourses of the last decade(s); (ii) insufficient attention to the intricacies of multilingual text analysis in computational text analysis; (iii) insufficient evidence on country-specific differences in discourses about intra-European mobility and migration compared to migration discourses more generally." (Executive summary)
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"Transnational Media: Concepts and Cases provides a clear and engaging overview of media communication from a global and a region-based perspective. Rather than focusing on just complex theories and industry-specific analyses, this unique book offers an inclusive, comparative approach to both journa...lism and entertainment media--introducing readers to the essential concepts, systems, transnational influences, and power dynamics that shape global media flow. Broad coverage of different media forms from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania offers country-based and transnational perspectives while highlighting examples of media trends in television, radio, film, journalism, social media, music, and others." (Publisher)
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"The chapters in this collection offer original interrogations of the representation of humanitarian crisis and catastrophe, and the refraction of humanitarian intervention and action, from the mid-twentieth century to the present, across a diverse range of media forms: traditional and contemporary ...screen media (film, television and online video) as well as newspapers, memoirs, music festivals and social media platforms (such as Facebook, YouTube and Flickr). Addressing humanitarian media culture as it evolved over a period of more than seventy years, the chapters offer a critical assessment of the historical precedents of our contemporary humanitarian communications. The contributors to the book are all specialists in the fields of media and communications, film studies, cultural studies, history or sociology: these different disciplinary perspectives inform their approaches to and understanding of the relationship between humanitarianism and media culture. Our authors reveal and explore the signific nt synergies between the humanitarian enterprise, the endeavour to alleviate the suffering of particular groups, and media representations, and their modes of addressing and appealing to specific publics." (Introduction, p.2)
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"As many as 1,967 anti-Western comments were detected in the 17 monitored media outlets in 2017. In contrast to 2016 and 2015, when negative messages targeted human identity and rights, in 2017, a dominant topic was the foreign policy with the messages aimed at increasing the polarization on the for...eign policy orientation of the country. This change in the strategic communication of pro-Kremlin actors shows that “loss of identity” was a rather tactical message that prepared the ground, while the messaging aimed at demonizing Georgia’s strategic partners (USA, NATO, EU) is of strategic nature. The United States of America accounted for the highest share of negative comments (25.9%), up by almost three times as compared to the previous year, followed by NATO (18,4%) and the West (14,1%). Compared to 2016, messages against the European Union have almost doubled (13.4%) whereas the comments about the loss of identity and human rights in anti-Western context have almost halved (12.9%). Comments against nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and the US philanthropist George Soros have trebled, as compared to 2016, and comprised 7.3%; this increase can be explained by a stepped up activity of far-right groups and their campaign to smear Open Society Georgia Foundation. Yet another change as compared to the previous years were clearer messages showcasing Russia as an alternative to the West and idealizing the Soviet system (7.2%). Comments against Great Britain (0,8%) have been mainly detected in two pro-Kremlin online media outlets – Georgia and the World, and Sakinformi. Alike previous years, the main source of anti-Western messages was media (827), followed by politicians (463), society (411), civil organizations (230) and the clergy (37). The structure of the Kremlin narrative in the Georgian discourse consists of three stages and aims at: 1. Creating threats; 2. Sowing distrust towards partners and Western institutions; 3. Ingraining a belief that Russia is the only option in fighting against the threats and that authoritative/Soviet-style governance is necessary. Four major threats were emphasized by pro-Kremlin actors: threat of war; threat of loss of territories; threat of bio subversion; threat of loss of identity." (Key findings, p.7)
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"Increasing number of reports, initiatives and efforts are focused on addressing women’s ability to enjoy universal, acceptable, affordable, unconditional, open, meaningful and/or equal access to information, the internet and ICTs. These include, but are not limited to, the recent work of civil so...ciety organisations, research institutions, various private sector organisations and intergovernmental organisations. There is also a widely acknowledged need for more gender-disaggregated data to accurately measure “gender digital divides”. But there also needs to be more locally relevant data (as opposed to aggregated data at a global level) to better understand underlying local factors and circumstances that hinder women of specifc regions in the global South from accessing and using ICTs, the internet and/or information. But why access is important perhaps also needs to be interrogated from a feminist perspective, which entails not taking for granted that access to ICTs is necessarily a positive and empowering development. What is also relevant is to view the dynamics of race, caste, region (urban-rural), ableism, age and other factors, in relation to gender and access." (Conclusion, p.98)
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"Designed as a text with introductions to each section and chapter, the volume brings together diverse perspectives on globalization and communication and includes significant emerging aspects of International Communication research such as diaspora audience and global publics." (Publisher)
"This toolkit is aimed at a wide range of audiences interested in conducting both qualitative and quantitative research on women’s internet access and use. The primary target audience are researchers and research agencies who have skills and practice in conducting quantitative and/or qualitative r...esearch. They can use this toolkit as a guideline for incorporating gender into their research studies, helping deliver comparable data on this topic that can build a global picture of the internet access and use gender gap." (p.6)
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"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...ussian-backed media to be credible showed a majority support for President Vladimir Putin’s domestic and international policies. In the three Baltic nations and Moldova, consuming Russian-backed media did not correlate with support for Russia’s policies. The BBG data found that domestic media ranked first in trustworthiness in Estonia (80 percent) and Latvia (79 percent). International media took first in Lithuania (74 percent) and in Moldova there was a statistical tie between international media (45 percent), Russian-backed media (42 percent) and domestic media (42 percent)." (BBG website)
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