"This article examines German public service broadcasting and its message for African female audiences. It situates the activities of Deutsche Welle (DW) within public diplomacy theory and analyses the content of DW's Learning by Ear series, which is geared towards young African women. The article i
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nvestigates DW's view on gender and education in Africa and positions the broadcaster's activities within the broader context of the German and European Union's (EU) development assistance to the continent. Through critical discourse analysis, the article examines the broadcaster's perception of Africa. It argues that DW constructs a flattened, reductionist and often incorrect image of Africa. In its stories, Africa is depicted as a continent of harmful traditions that need to be abandoned, gender-biased schooling practices which are a product of regressive African communities, and women who are voiceless and powerless. The article concludes that although well intended, DW fails to grasp the complexities of African realities. Its broadcasts emerge as a series of culturally insensitive programmes that perpetuate well-worn stereotypes. Supported by Germany's Federal Foreign Office and designed to dispose of ‘backward’ African traditions to make space for the ‘new’ and the ‘modern’, the Learning by Ear series echoes the language of the mission civilisatrice of Africa's imperial past – something that contemporary development discourse has significantly moved away from." (Abstract)
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"This article examines the discourse surrounding Kibera, a highly populated low-income community in Nairobi, Kenya. Based on 11 months of fieldwork and interviews with 56 Kibera residents, this article discusses the disconnect between the lives experienced by residents and the hyperbolic and essenti
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alised discourse that depicts Kibera as a community defined by sickness, crime and despair. While residents do not deny many of the hardships that are central to the Kibera discourse, they articulate maisha mtaani [life in the neighbourhood] as complex, diverse and contextual. Sadly, several groups that claim to serve the good of Kibera are partially responsible for perpetuating this harmful discourse. In fact, some NGOs, journalists and residents benefit from reproducing a discourse that actively marginalises Kibera and its people." (Abstract)
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"Both in form and in content, this publication is unconventional in its approach to deconstructing and debating some prevailing imageries of migrants across Europe and specifically in Spain, the UK, Turkey and Poland. In this publication, four individual case studies of incidents that occurred recen
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tly in the media provide the starting points for an analysis of country-specific, cuitural and historical contexts that influence public perception of, and general attitudes to, migrants and migration. An eclectic mix of images from mainstreain rnedia sources - footage "found" and introduced by the cultural organisations of the DocNext Network -. represent how migrants arc portrayed, or in some cases, made invisible in each country. The images are snapshots of the representation of migrauts in media: they show how migrants are stereotyped, criminalised, racially categorised, objectified and subjected to hate speech, all of which serves to deny their individual voices and agency." (Preface)
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"Im Kontext einer nord-süd-politisch relevanten Information interessiert besonders die Frage der Repräsentation, der Klischeebildung, der Ermächtigung. Ein Foto kann empathisch aufmerksam machen oder zur Schau stellen, aber auch Nähe erzeugen, berühren. Nicht immer folgt auf eine gute Absicht e
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ine gute Praxis. Entwürdigende Fotografie ist, wenn Menschen stilisiert oder als Platzhalter eingesetzt werden. Das kommt in der Fair-Trade-Werbung vor (S.25). Oder wenn sie – wie häufig in der Spendenwerbefotografie von Hilfswerken – viktimisiert werden. Das Foto einer Person kann etwas sehr Privates weltweit und öffentlich kundtun. So zum Beispiel das Foto eines Mädchens ohne Kleider, das – mit Entsetzen im Gesicht – vor dem Napalmangriff südvietnamesischer Flieger weg- und einem Pressefotografen entgegenläuft. Und damit den Augen von Millionen BetrachterInnen in der westlichen Welt, nachdem das Bild mit der Vergabe des World Press Photo Awards 1972 schließlich zum Symbol für die Grausamkeit des Vietnamkrieges wurde. Ein Foto kann Gewalt sichtbar machen. So vermag ein Bild von Gefangenen die Willkür ihrer Peiniger ausdrücken. Der Blick in eine Fabrikhalle mit einem Nähmaschinenpark kann den vernichtenden Charakter eines Systems darstellen. Ein Foto kann vom unmenschlichen Grauen erzählen. Oder es kann Verstoßene rehabilitieren; etwa wenn Personen ihre Versehrungen zeigen (S.17) und dabei Momente des Vertrauens und des Glücks zum Ausdruck bringen. Ein Foto kann Zuversicht schaffen. Der abgelichtete Moment eines Handschlages – wie zwischen Nelson Mandela und F.W. De Klerk – hat ein Zeitalter der Hoffnung auf das Ende der Apartheid eingeläutet. Ein Foto kann ermächtigen. Die Porträts von Trans-Personen der Aktivistin Zanele Muholi sind wie eine Ausstellung der Existenz des Schönen, der Liebe und des Menschseins gegen eine homophobe Stimmung (S.30). Die Kraft eines Fotos im emanzipatorischen Sinn – liegt oft in der Irritation. Ein kleiner Zweifel, ein kurzer Knacks im herrschenden Diskurs. Fotografie kann – das klingt schlicht – Sichtbarkeit schaffen. Die Fotos der Gruppe Lampedusa in Hamburg Professions (S.31), erinnern daran, dass hierzulande viele Menschen eine Vorliebe dafür hegen, sich über ihren Beruf in Wert zu setzten, anderen diese Repräsentation aber gerne aberkennen." (Editorial)
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"Aims to map the implication of the political economy dynamics of the media on citizens’ right to media from the perspective of citizens, in particular those who are vulnerable and weak(ened). Due to the effect of the contemporary political economy of media in Indonesia, the premise of equal citiz
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ens’ right to media has not yet been met. Business-powered media tend to prioritise the concerns of the majority over those of the minority. Since the existence of media remains vital to the society, it is essential that the media (industry) should first serve the interests of society, in particular in providing for the needs of minority groups and the vulnerable. The report provides four case studies from vulnerable groups (Ahmadiyya, Diffable, LGBT and Women-Children), in order to map the bigger picture on citizens’ right to media." (CIPG website)
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"The present analytical list of the most common clichés, stereotypes and examples of inaccurate (or reasonably questioned) information in the media of Armenia and Azerbaijan is based on the findings of a number of joint studies, administered by Yerevan Press Club and “Yeni Nesil” Journalists’
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Union of Azerbaijan. It also reflects the observations made of Azerbaijani and Armenian media in 2001-2010 by the two organizations." (Page 3)
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"Seit Jahrzehnten wird die mangelnde Qualität der Afrika-Berichterstattung in deutschsprachigen Medien kritisiert. Zu Recht: Die Überbetonung von negativen Aspekten wie Bürgerkriegen, Hungerkatastrophen und Krankheiten entspricht den aktuellen Entwicklungen auf dem aufstrebenden Erdteil kaum. Afr
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ika heute – das ist auch der Kontinent enormen Wirtschaftswachstums, beispielloser Innovationen und herausragender Persönlichkeiten. Warum aber bekommen wir von diesen Entwicklungen nichts mit? Und wie kann die Afrika-Berichterstattung organisiert werden, um eine realistische Darstellung des Kontinents zu ermöglichen? Das sind die beiden zentralen Fragen, denen Martin Sturmer in seinem Buch nachgeht. Ausgehend von Erkenntnissen der Kommunikationswissenschaft zeigt Sturmer, welche Faktoren und Akteure das gegenwärtige Afrika-Bild beeinflussen. Er dokumentiert schwere journalistische Fehlleistungen und beschäftigt sich mit ihren weitreichenden Folgen auf die Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten des Kontinents und seiner Menschen. Schließlich belegt der Autor auf Basis einer Medienresonanzanalyse, dass eine differenzierte Afrika-Berichterstattung auch unter schwierigen medienökonomischen Bedingungen möglich ist. Sturmer spricht sich für einen Perspektivenwechsel aus, in dem afrikanische Journalisten selbst über ihre Heimatländer berichten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Bad News for Refugees analyses the political, economic and environmental contexts of migration and looks specifically at how refugees and asylum seekers have been stigmatised in political rhetoric and in media coverage. Through forensic research it shows how hysterical and inaccurate media accounts
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act to legitimise political action which can have terrible consequences both on the lives of refugees and also on established migrant communities." (Back cover)
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"There is a vast scholarly literature tracing western stereotypes of Arab women from medieval times to the present. From 1800, the dominant western stereotype of Arab women depicts them as passive and oppressed. Thirty years of social science media research in the west has shown that media images of
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Arab women reinforce this two hundred year old stereotype. Much of this research has studied silent "image bites" of Arab women, where women are pictured in veils and their own voices are replaced by western captions or voice-overs. This book sets out to answer this question. To answer it, we contracted with a global news translation service from the Middle East to collect and translate a sample of 22 months of new summaries from 103 Arab media sources belonging to 22 Arab countries. Filtering the summaries that contained one or more female keywords (e.g., woman, mother, aunt, sister, she) yielded 2, 061 summaries between September 2005 and June of 2007. Using the 2,061 summaries as input data, a coding scheme was developed for "active" and "passive" female behaviors based on verb-phrase analysis and conventions of English-language news-reporting." (www.bloomsbury.com, January 19, 2015)
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"Diversos estudios han observado el efecto que puede tener el consumo de televisión en los estereotipos o rasgos con que las personas identifican a los grupos minoritarios (Busselle y Crandall, 2002). En el caso mexicano, aunque el colectivo indígena de la población ha sido estudiado desde divers
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as disciplinas, sin embargo siguen siendo escasos los análisis sobre su representación mediática o sobre la percepción pública que se tiene de este colectivo. A tal efecto, se realizó una investigación mediante cuestionario, aplicado a 447 estudiantes de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, el Tecnológico de Monterrey y la Universidad Anáhuac, a los que se les preguntó por su consumo de televisión, los rasgos que consideraban que definían a los indígenas mexicanos y sus percepciones prejuiciosas respecto de este grupo social. Los resultados mostraron que el consumo de televisión no explicaba la generación de estereotipos negativos o positivos. Además, se detectó que el prejuicio aumentaba cuando era mayor el consumo televisivo y la presencia de estereotipos negativos, mientras que disminuía si los estereotipos positivos estaban presentes." (Resumen)
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"Esta unidad Linguapax es una colección de ejercicios y actividades relacionados principalmente con los ámbitos de lenguas y ciencias sociales, pensados para que el alumnado reflexione, opine y cuestione cuáles son los estereotipos que predominan en nuestra sociedad y cuál es la mejor manera de
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darles la vuelta para favorecer actitudes de respeto y tolerancia. También se proponen actividades destinadas al autoconocimiento, a la reflexión sobre la imagen que podemos tener de nosotros mismos y cómo ésta es percibida por la gente que nos rodea. Este libro pretende ser un trabajo de refuerzo de las actitudes personales, de la autoestima y de la construcción de un criterio personal más allá de las opiniones de los otros, y quiere, en definitiva, fomentar la autonomía de pensamiento para favorecer la diversidad de ideas en los trabajos en grupo." (Introducción, página 4)
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"The guiding principle behind the development of this tool has been to produce a ‘user-friendly’ resource for journalism educators who want to include what we might term as ‘anti-discrimination or human rights awareness’ dimension into their teaching. To that end practical exercises which ar
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e easily adaptable and transferable in terms of context and duration have been collected, and are presented here in a brief and “jargon free” manner. The main aim is that these exercises be read, used, adapted and integrated into current teaching practice. In addition, it was taken for granted that all teachers and academics are familiar with the media culture within which they operate and, therefore, this toolbox does not include specific information of that nature. What is included is a selection of links to relevant European codes and laws. This is to help bolster students’ understanding of the importance given to human rights and anti-discrimination at European level and to provide the relevant sources of information for investigating the legal frameworks. The bulk of the content comprises teaching examples. These have been used by tutors in a variety of situations. For the most part, they have been taught to journalism students at Universities and Colleges, but some techniques have also been applied in-service with media professionals." (Descritpion of the practices, page 13)
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"This handbook is an illustrated and easy-to-read guide and resource material for journalists. It evolved primarily out of a desire to equip all journalists with more information and understanding of gender issues in their work. It is addressed to media organisations, professional associations and j
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ournalists’ unions seeking to contribute to the goal of gender equality." (Website FAO-Dimitra, December 1, 2009)
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