"According to Argentinean law, the government can transmit on television and radio broadcasters in grave, exceptional or institutionally significant circumstances. Nestor Kirchner, Mrs. Fernández de Kirchner’s predecessor and deceased husband, spoke to citizens by nationwide broadcast twice in hi
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s time in office between 2003 and 2007. The current president has made 52 of these broadcasts in the last three years. Opposition organisations have used the social networks Twitter and Facebook to call on people to disrupt the broadcasts with noise." (Page 22)
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"The rise of new media in Thailand has occurred during one of the toughest periods in Thailand’s recent political history. A political crisis since 2005 has created an increasingly divided society. Whilst Thailand’s press freedom was previously considered “free,” existing political challenge
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s are immense and challenge directly Thailand’s taboo topic - the monarchy. The state controlled and anti-competitive nature of Thailand’s traditional media has meant a siding with the status quo. State censorship and even self-censorship in the media is common. New media seems to be the only way people can discuss freely their political beliefs. Or is that really so? This report is an investigation into the political usage of new media in Thailand from varying viewpoints of politicians, activists and Thai internet users." (Abstract)
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"Der arabische Frühling war nicht nur der Beginn eines gesellschaftlichen und politischen Umwälzungsprozesses in Nordafrika, sondern auch der Startpunkt einer neuen außenpolitischen Ära im Zeichen / Web 2.0. Auch wenn die Bedeutung der Mobiltelefone und sozialen Medien, mit der die Oppositionell
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en die ganze Welt an ihren Aktivitäten in Echtzeit teilhaben ließen, zuweilen überschätzt wird, so ist es doch unumstritten, dass sich für diese Instrumente neue Wege eröffnen, grenzüberschreitend zu kommunizieren. Welche Konsequenzen ergeben sich daraus für die Außenpolitik? Was sind die Chancen und Risiken virtueller Demokratieförderung in autoritären Staaten? Welche Rolle kann der Auslandsrundfunk im Zeitalter / Web 2.0 übernehmen? Wissenschaftler, Journalisten und Social-Media-Aktivisten aus der ganzen Welt nehmen Stellung zu Themen wie Partizipation 2.0, Kriegsführung im Cyberspace und digitale Sicherheitspolitik, journalistische Verantwortung in der digitalen Gesellschaft, soziale Medien in der auswärtigen Kultur- und Bildungspolitik und den Hype um die Facebook-Revolution." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Social media, particularly blogging, Facebook and Twitter, have played a key role in instigating, accelerating and even organizing some of the uprisings and revolutions that have been taking place all over the Middle East. This role has been effective in galvanizing the youth and empowering them in
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their fights against repressive regimes and their plight for more freedom and independence. This study looks into the social media role in the so-called “Facebook revolution”, which took place in Egypt in January 2011 and the so-called “Twitter uprising”, which took place in Iran in June 2009. The Egyptian revolution did succeed in toppling the regime, while the Iranian uprising failed. Why did the calls for political change that started in the virtual world lead to actual change in the real world in Egypt but not in Iran? This study addresses this question by providing a critical analysis of the available literature and interviews with online activists in Egypt and Iran. The authors used the SPIN model (Segmentation, polycentrism, integration and networking) as a theoretical framework and concluded that the model helped social media succeed in Egypt, but not in Iran." (Abstract)
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"This article studies the 2011 Arab uprisings as social movements for political reform and regime change. Social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, are perceived to be playing a central role in these events, which have even been described as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter revolutions’. Using
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diffusion theory, this article examines the role of social media and the extent to which they can be credited for the emergence and achievement of the goals of the uprisings. It argues that while social media played important facilitation roles in terms of inter- and intra-group communication as well as information dissemination, mainstream mass media are still highly relevant to the process. However, the success or failure of the uprisings largely depends on domestic factors and broader geopolitical contexts. This article demonstrates that the use of social media in the Arab uprisings has significant implications for diffusion theory in terms of contact and identity among the social movements involved." (Abstract)
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"The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is increasingly being played out in parallel on the internet. Recently, a great deal of media attention has been devoted to a series of spectacular hacker attacks that caused dozens of Israeli and Palestinian websites to crash, including thos
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e of the secret service agencies Mossad and Shin Bet. However, for Israelis and Palestinians who are willing to participate in dialogue, the internet also offers much needed opportunities for contact and the peaceful exchange of ideas." (Page 6)
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"This edited collection provides a much-needed interdisciplinary contextualisation of amateur media before and after Web 2.0. Surveying the institutional, economic and legal construction of the amateur media producer via a series of case studies, it features contributions from experts in the fields
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of law, economics and media studies. Each section of the book contains a detailed case study on a selected topic, followed by two further pieces providing additional analysis and commentary. Using an extraordinary array of case studies and examples, from YouTube to online games, from subtitling communities to reality TV, the book is neither a celebration of amateur production nor a denunciation of the demise of professional media industries. Rather, this book presents a critical dialogue across law and the humanities, exploring the dynamic tensions and interdependencies between amateur and professional creative production." (Publisher description)
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"To deepen our understanding of the relationship between social media and political change during the Egyptian uprising of early 2011, events in Tahrir Square must be situated in a larger context of media use and recent history of online activism. For several years, the most successful social moveme
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nts in Egypt, including Kefaya, the April 6th Youth, and We are all Khaled Said, were those using social media to expand networks of disaffected Egyptians, broker relations between activists, and globalize the resources and reach of opposition leaders. Social media afforded these opposition leaders the means to shape repertoires of contention, frame the issues, propagate unifying symbols, and transform online activism into offline protests." (Abstract)
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"In the 2012 elections, the internet – and particularly the social networks – became more important than ever before and took up an unprecedented amount of space in the media. The role played by Web 2.0 in the 2012 elections in Mexico cannot be assessed without bringing the #YoSoy132 movement in
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to the equation. This phenomenon brought together the two elements of “youth participation” and “Web 2.0 tools” to enliven the political debate during the election campaign." (https://www.kas.de)
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"The Egyptian revolution was characterized by the instrumental use of social media, especially Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and text messaging by protesters, to bring about political change and democratic transformation. This article focuses on how these new types of media acted as effective tools fo
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r promoting civic engagement, through supporting the capabilities of the democratic activists by allowing forums for free speech and political networking opportunities; providing a virtual space for assembly; and supporting the capability of the protestors to plan, organize, and execute peaceful protests. Additionally, it explores how these new media avenues enabled an effective form of citizen journalism, through providing forums for ordinary citizens to document the protests; to spread the word about ongoing activities; to provide evidence of governmental brutality; and to disseminate their own words and images to each other, and, most importantly, to the outside world through both regional and transnational media." (Introduction)
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"The article addresses the use of the internet by Islamic social movement organizations (SMOs), focusing on the case of Justice and Charity (JC), the biggest opposition political group in Morocco. It examines the extent to which the SMO exploits the potential of the medium in collective action, and
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the implications of this use for the SMO’s capacity to advance its cause and resist state repression. Drawing on social movement and radical democracy theories, the study highlights the implications of the internet for collective identity-building in the political project of the Islamic SMO. The article argues that while JC draws extensively on the internet to enhance collective identity-construction and build an antagonistic public sphere, it fails to benefit from the potential of the medium to promote gender equality and genuine participative communication, and to build an agonistic political sphere." (Abstract)
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