"The Internet in Africa has become an increasingly contested space, where competing ideas of development and society battle for hegemony. By comparing the evolution of the Internet in Ethiopia and Rwanda, we question whether policies and projects emerging from two of Africa’s fastest growing, but
...
also most tightly controlled countries, can be understood as part of a relatively cohesive model of the ‘developmental’ Internet, which challenges mainstream conceptions. Our answer is a qualified yes. Ethiopia and Rwanda have shared an overarching strategy which places the state as the prime mover in the development of Internet policy and large-scale ICT projects. Rwanda, however, appears to have developed a more open model which can accommodate a greater variety of actors and opinions, and incorporate them within a relatively coherent vision that emanates from the centre. Ethiopia, in contrast, has developed a more closed model, where all powers rest firmly in the hands of a government that has refused (so far) to entertain and engage with alternative ideas of the Internet. In the case of Rwanda, we argue, this approach reflects broader strategies adopted by the government in the economic domain but appears to counter the prevailing political approach of the government, allowing for a greater degree of freedom on the Internet as compared to traditional media. While in the case of Ethiopia, the opposite is true; Ethiopia’s Internet policies appear to run counter to prevailing economic policies but fit tightly with the government’s approach to politics and governance." (Abstract)
more
"The first book in Why We Post, a book series that investigates the findings of nine anthropologists who each spent 15 months living in communities across the world, including Brazil, Chile, China, England, India, Italy, Trinidad and Turkey. This book offers a comparative analysis summarising the re
...
sults of the research and exploring the impact of social media on politics and gender, education and commerce. What is the result of the increased emphasis on visual communication? Are we becoming more individual or more social? Why is public social media so conservative? Why does equality online fail to shift inequality offline? How did memes become the moral police of the internet? Supported by an introduction to the project’s academic framework and theoretical terms that help to account for the findings, the book argues that the only way to appreciate and understand something as intimate and ubiquitous as social media is to be immersed in the lives of the people who post. Only then can we discover how people all around the world have already transformed social media in such unexpected ways and assess the consequences." (Back cover)
more
"La descripción del perfil laboral y los roles profesionales de los periodistas de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador y México aporta evidencias de ciertas tendencias que ayudan a entender en qué consiste ser periodista en América Latina. Dentro del marco del proyecto World
...
s of Journalism Studies (WJS),1 equipos de investigación de estos países analizaron los datos obtenidos a partir de una encuesta común durante los años 2013 y 2015 (véase anexo de este capítulo). Este estudio de la situación profesional de los periodistas en América Latina se enmarca dentro de las redacciones de los medios de comunicación donde estos desarrollan su trabajo. El sistema mediático en el que participan estos medios y periodistas se inscriben, a su vez, en los contextos particulares de cada uno de estos países latinoamericanos, con determinadas peculiaridades definidas por sus sistemas político, económico, social, cultural, académico, tecnológico, entre otros." (Página 11)
more
"This paper explores how Egyptian, Kenyan, Serbian and South African civil society organisations (CSOs) use communication and relationships with media to engage in democratic contestation. Individual interviews were conducted with 91 CSO members who participated in the various democratisation confli
...
cts listed in MeCoDEM’s research design [...] The study found that key sources of conflict identified by the interviewees included group identity (e.g. religious and ethnic identity) and contestations around notions of citizenship. Interviewees also identified the distribution and control of power was another key source of conflict - Egyptian, Serbian and South African activists all placed significant importance on networked civil society. Thus, communications among members and with the outside world was key to redistributing power. However, Kenya’s CSOs saw their power as stemming from the ability to build healthy relationships between different groups of people, and so the primary communication activities centred on citizen education. Egyptian, Kenyan and Serbian activists viewed regular elections as a key marker of democracy, and the media was correct to focus on such issues. But South African activists suggested that the media focussed too much attention on elections, and not enough given to local participatory mechanisms of listening to citizens." (Executive summary)
more
"This report provides an overview of core comparative findings from MeCoDEM interviews with journalists in Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa. It investigates the role of journalistic actors in transitional societies across a set of comparable democratisation conflicts and themes of inquiry: jour
...
nalistic work practices, role perceptions, and ethical principles and dilemmas. Empirically, the study builds on qualitative semi-structured face-to face in-depth interviews with 100 professional journalists working for local news organisations in the four countries." (Executive summary)
more
"In this comparative regional overview of the governing and funding models of public service media in the countries of South East Europe, we see a variety of solutions. The information we have gathered and presented here demonstrates once again that these media organisations use large amounts of pub
...
lic money – either through the licence fee collected from households, or through state budgets, but the supervision mechanisms for their programming and finances are predominantly politically driven. Almost all governing bodies are entirely or partly appointed by parliament, and despite formal requirements for qualifications, their members are commonly appointed on the basis of political affiliation and compatibility with the political parties in power. It is not only the apparent political interests that make public service media in the region into their playground that have made these media rather devastated giants, but also the particular, private interests of the representatives of civil society, their organisations or the fields they represent. Their representation in the governing structures of the public service media in the region has often been misused and trust in the genuine representation of the public in the governing structure of public service media has been compromised. There are deep differences in the funding and governing models among the countries in the region. Particularly Hungary, with its giant PSM governing structure and solutions such as nomination of members of the Board of Governors by the political majority and opposition, or the indefinite term of office for a Director General appointed by that Board of Governors, seem to constitute an environment far from supportive of independent, open and inclusive public service media operations. The size of the governing bodies also differs significantly, but that provides no particular guarantee of quality and efficiency in their work." (Conclusions)
more
"The community radio has made an impression in all grounds of rural society with specific need of sustenance in the long run. The study was taken up to compare the status of three community radios operational each under State Agricultural University (SAU), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Non-Governme
...
nt Organization (NGO). Four villages have been selected randomly from one purposively selected block. Forty (40) respondents from four randomly selected villages from each CRS coverage were selected for the study. Thus, a total of 120 respondents constituted the sample of the study. Sustainability of radio station is considered as the combination of social sustainability (social capital and social equity), operational sustainability (suitability of approach and training-cum problem solving) and financial sustainability. The sustainability index of NGO-CRS was found to 0.60 followed by KVK-CRS (0.58) and SAU-CRS (0.57). It is also revealed that financial sustainability of NGO-CRS was found more important than other indicators of for its long term sustenance." (Abstract)
more
"This year we have evidence of the growth of distributed (offsite) news consumption, a sharpening move to mobile and we can reveal the full extent of ad-blocking worldwide. These three trends in combination are putting further severe pressure on the business models of both traditional publishers and
...
new digital-born players – as well as changing the way in which news is packaged and distributed." (Overview & key findings)
more
"This publication surveys 48 public regulators in 26 countries to try and gauge their level of independence in practice and identify areas where undue influence may hinder performance. It looks at potential entry points for undue influence in financing arrangements, staff behaviour and the political
...
cycle. The key findings are: 88% of the regulators surveyed receive annual rather than multi-annual budget allocations, which can increase the risk of undue influence; most of the regulators have their head appointed by the government’s executive branch. In 15% of cases, the appointment is made by parliament. Only eight regulators use a search committee for hiring a new chair; over half the regulators place no restrictions on pre-or post-employment of professional staff, opening the risk of "revolving doors" and conflicts of interest with industry; only a quarter of the regulators are given a government statement of expectations on their conduct. Such formal statements can be useful to clarify roles, goals and activities; regulatory independence is not an end in itself but a means toward ensuring effective and efficient public service delivery by market players; independence is not static, but is an active objective which regulators must be prepared to approach continuously, requiring a mix of formal and informal, de jure and de facto elements; the life of a regulatory agency is fraught with potential entry points for undue influence, from issues linked to finance, leadership, staff behaviour to links to the political cycle. A real culture of independence will help navigate these “pinch points”; independence cannot come at the price of accountability or engagement. Regulators need to be part of a well-functioning and transparent governance-ecosystem. Keeping their fingers on the pulse of the market through interaction with industry and consumers and having effective interactions with government institutions." (Key findings)
more
"The dissertation investigates journalistic news narrations. It aims at assessing their deliberative qualities by applying a quantitative instrument for a content analysis of newspapers that focuses comparatively on climate change coverage in Brazil, Germany, and the United States . Results reveal t
...
hat there is no general relationship between narrativity and the deliberative quality. There is no indication that narrative news writing is either good or bad in deliberative terms; it is rather context dependent. The results show that the newspaper coverage of all three countries differs in the use of narrative elements, the application of different story types, and in their general deliberative quality. While the Brazilian coverage generally has a high degree of narrativity and mainly uses story types that emphasize the urgency of climate change, it has a rather low deliberative quality. The opposite is the case for the US, which has a lower degree of narrativity, mainly using unexcited story types, and provides a higher deliberative quality. In both cases, narrative writing compared to non-narrative writing accounts for higher or lower deliberative quality only on some dimensions, but no consistent pattern was found. The picture is more diverse in Germany, with a less unambiguous use of narratives and story types, and a mixed deliberative quality. However, the relationship between higher narrativity and deliberative quality is most salient in this case." (Abstract)
more
"The KAS Task Force on Journalism Education in South East Europe has conducted a survey among journalism undergraduates and graduates in five countries – a first-time initiative in the region. Their response can be seen as a testimonial of a media sector in turmoil. In the Western Balkans and othe
...
r countries in South East Europe, such as Romania, the general challenges for media outlets precipitated by the internet revolution are compounded by specific deficiencies of the media landscape. In many cases, media outlets in South East Europe operate at a loss. National media markets are too small to accommodate the relatively high number of media outlets. Citizens are largely reluctant to pay for a high standard of journalism – one of the reasons why employment conditions are volatile and often unattractive. Fewer journalists are expected to deliver a greater news output in the cross-media era. Moreover, media are often owned by business moguls with inclinations to use media ownership as an instrument for gaining political influence for whom journalist entrepreneurship is not a primary concern. Despite these daunting challenges in the broader environment, many still consider journalism a dream job. On the other hand, the study shows that half of media students envisage working in other fields following graduation." (Foreword)
more
"Bullets and Bulletins takes a sobering and holistic look at the intersections between media and politics before, during, and in the wake of the Arab uprisings. It is a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic, with the research backed up by in-depth and rigorous case studies of the key countries of
...
the Arab uprisings. The protests were accompanied by profound changes in the roles of traditional and new media across the Middle East. What added significantly to the amplification of demands and grievances in the public spheres, streets and squares, was the dovetailing of an increasingly indignant population—ignited by the prospects of economic and political marginalisation—with high rates of media literacy, digital connectivity, and social media prowess. This combination of political activism and mediated communication turned popular street protests into battles over information, where authorities and activists wrestled with each other over media messages. Information and communication technologies were used by both government authorities and protestors as simultaneous tools for silencing or amplifying dissent." (Publisher description)
more
"The central thesis of Crtl+Z is that a digital right to be forgotten is an innovative idea with a lot of possibilities and potential. The idea simply needs to be opened up, reframed, and restructured. The extreme options currently on the table limit the many ways to think about digital redemption a
...
nd polarize regions. By utilizing new theories of privacy, breaking down the concept to organize its many meanings, and reframing the problem as one of information stewardship instead of information permanence, a host of choices become available for consideration. In order to make these difficult choices once they are on the table, the issues must be configured to fit within a digital discourse, existing legal cultures, and the international community. My approach to analyzing digital redemption is inherently comparative. The right to be forgotten is indisputably a European creation, but there is a great deal to be gained from studying digital redemption beyond European borders. The right to be forgotten sits at the intersection of change: change in national and transnational policy and change in everyday information technology practices, demands, and expectations. Situated in this unique position, the right to be forgotten encompasses many of the big questions surrounding information technologies and offers a particularly valuable site and moment for comparison of democratic information societies. Comparison among regional treatments of information technology should help us make sense of legal particularities and assumptions that otherwise go unnoticed." (Introduction, page 21)
more
"Many resource-strapped developing country governments seek international aid, but when that assistance is channeled through domestic civil society, it can threaten their political control. As a result, in the last two decades, 39 of the world’s 153 low- and middle-income countries have adopted la
...
ws restricting the inflow of foreign aid to domestically operating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Governments recognize that such laws harm their international reputations for supporting democracy and may invite donor punishment in terms of aid reductions. Yet, they perceive foreign aid to NGOs as supporting political opponents and threatening their grip on power. In the aftermath of competitive electoral victories, governments often take new legal steps to limit these groups’ funding. We test this argument on an original dataset of laws detailing the regulation of foreign aid inflows to domestically operating NGOs in 153 low- and middle-income countries for the period 1993–2012. Using an event history approach, we find that foreign aid flows are associated with an increased risk of restrictive law adoption; a log unit increase in foreign aid raises the probability of adoption by 6.7%. This risk is exacerbated after the holding of competitive elections: the interaction of foreign aid and competitive elections increases the probability of adoption by 11%." (Abstract)
more