"As academia, development experts and policy-makers have continued to search for the right mix of technology, methodology, easy-to-use and understandable scientific elements and infrastructure that would suit the nation’s peculiar circumstances towards meeting her developmental needs. This situati
...
on, no doubt, calls for adaptation of social media’s unique opportunities and adjustment of its weaknesses to aptly blend with the forces of innovation and ability of cultural and behavioural changes. Concerted efforts are required of the Nigerian government and its agencies in awakening the consciousness of the citizenry to integrate social media culture into the mainstream of Nigerian culture so as to produce positive changes that are evidences of sustainability." (Abstract)
more
"Bamako adults are avid news users; 92.5% say they receive news from television, radio, the Internet or newspapers at least once a week; 78.4% report they receive news from these sources at least once a day. Mobile phone, radio, and television ownership is widespread in Bamako. Nine in 10 Bamako adu
...
lts say they have a mobile phone in their household, 86.6% report owning a radio, and 83.8% say they have a working television. Bamako adults are most interested in the topics of religion (93.1%), health and healthcare (89.8%), and education (89.0%). Bambara is the preferred radio broadcast language. It is also the most commonly understood language (99.3%), and the language the majority of those adults (99.4%) report they would understand in a newscast." (Page 1)
more
This is the second of the annual Reuters Institute Digital News surveys published by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at Oxford University. You Gov online polls commissioned by RISJ were conducted with 11,000 online users in the UK, US, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Bra
...
zil and Japan. For instance, the survey shows surprising national differences in the rate of online participation. The Spanish (27%), Italians (26%), and Americans (21%) were more than twice as likely to comment on a news story via a social network as the British (10%). Meanwhile urban Brazilians were five times more likely to comment on a news site than the Germans or Japanese surveyed, and nearly half (44%) shared a news story on a weekly basis via a social network, with around one third (32%) doing so by email. Study author Nic Newman, a Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and digital strategist, said: ‘Our findings suggest that the culture of a country is the main driver for how we engage with online news – playing an even greater part than the technical tools and devices we have to access it. People living in Brazil, Italy and Spain have much higher levels of interaction, both with the news sites and with each other, sharing and commenting about news stories. By contrast, although the Japanese appear to embrace the non traditional news sites, they have the lowest level of online and offline participation, followed by Germany, Denmark and the UK.’
more
"This report has eight core sections. In the first three sections we outline the overall purpose of the study, the methodological approach and the overarching insights that emerged from the study. This is followed by a section on key citizen information needs and sources. The fifth section discusses
...
the media landscape in Vanuatu, varying media access and media consumption patterns and audience’s preferences for different media outlets, media formats and genres. The next section provides an overview of citizens’ attitudes towards development aid, their perceptions of international organisations and entities working in Vanuatu. Section seven focuses on assessing the impact of communication efforts on civic participation and exploring the attitudes and behaviour related to domestic violence and land issues. We conclude with considerations for the development, media and policy community working in Vanuatu and a more detailed description of the methodological approach applied in this study." (Introduction, page 5)
more
"This cultivation study examined the effects of South Korean soap operas on Vietnamese female audiences. It also assessed cultivation effects in combination with the theory of reasoned action. Based on a survey of 439 female viewers, it explicated the link between South Korean soap opera consumption
...
and the emergent phenomenon of transnational marriages involving Vietnamese women and South Korean men. Cultivation effects were confirmed in an international setting. Results also have important real-world implications." (Abstract)
more
"This article attempts to highlight a new perspective on African audiences’ engagement with global media and point to new postulates in audience research. It briefly reviews key reception theories, ranging from the effects tradition to active audience paradigm and encoding-decoding model. It then
...
offers a case study on Northern Nigerians’ interactions with international media, particularly the BBC World Service, to unveil the patterns and consequences of such interactions. The mainly Muslim Northern Nigerians were found to be high consumers of western media products, especially the BBC’s, but with high level of selectivity. Although they regard BBC as the most credible broadcaster that aids their understanding of international affairs and influences their everyday lives, they still see it as a western ideological instrument that portrays the West positively and depicts the Islamic world and Africa negatively. The findings reveal patterns and particularities of postcolonial audiences’ consumption of transnational media that suggest new theoretical postulates in reception research. They indicate the audiences’ tendency to exhibit a phenomenon of ‘selective believability’ in their interactions with international media. They also highlight the mediating roles of religion, culture, ideology and other extra-communication factors in such interactions, and identify the dynamics of credibility and believability. Credibility appears to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for believability in audiences’ consumption of dissonant messages." (Abstract)
more
"Since China implemented animation control policies in 2004, foreign animation programmes have almost disappeared from Chinese television. At the same time, the Chinese government has invested enormous amounts of money in developing the animation industry as a creative industry. A questionnaire surv
...
ey was conducted to explore how the Chinese audience views domestic and foreign animation programmes. The results indicate that pirated Japanese animation is widely viewed via the Internet by adolescents; on the other hand, domestic animation is popular only among children. Preferences for domestic animation correlate positively with age and patriotism but negatively with Internet use, while preferences for Japanese animation correlate negatively with age and patriotism but positively with Internet use. These results show that nationalistic sentiments are associated with preferences for either domestic or foreign animation programmes. However, preferences for Japanese animation are not significantly associated with anti-government attitudes." (Abstract)
more
"There has been a growing debate about the extent to which the Internet influenced the Arab World’s recent revolutions described as the “Arab Spring”. This belief that the Internet had a contribution is supported by several events and evidences that occurred prior to these revolutions and prov
...
ided clear indications about the Internet’s power. This paper investigates the effect of the Internet on shaping politics in Egypt. Research was conducted a few months before the revolution (January 25, 2011) covering the relevant literature, and the news and events that took place. A questionnaire was sent to a sample representing different segments of Internet users in Egypt to recognize their perceptions towards the value of the Internet in politics. Findings indicate a high interest among Egyptians in accessing news online, especially international and privately owned media. In addition, survey participants recognize the Internet’s potential for committing political change. Survey results show that the Internet is perceived in Egypt as a strong tool that political candidates could use to communicate with citizens; however, it is still used primarily for mobilization and information dissemination. Moreover, it was proven that age, gender, education and reading frequency of online news all have varying effects on civic engagement and perception of the role the Internet can play in politics in Egypt." (Abstract)
more
"Digital media should be a part of any communications strategy for Nigeria. Previously ¡§underserved¡¨ groups entering the digital mainstream fast. Internet outreach should be mobile-centric. Take advantage of penchant for information-sharing. But don't forget the continued primacy of broadcast
...
media!" (Conclusions, page 42)
more
"Television is the most widely used media among this population: 9 out of 10 interviewed reported watching it at least once last month; satellite dishes are the dominant way of receiving television signal in rural areas (Cable more prevalent in urban areas). Chinese channels are largely reserved for
...
entertainment (Distrust the news on most Chinese television channels). Local dialect programming [is] important (Amke, Khamke, or Uke): No single dialect is dominant across all regions; Chinese and English broadcasting has limited audience." (Slide 30)
more
"The rise of e-books in American culture is part of a larger story about a shift from printed to digital material. Using a broader definition of e-content in a survey ending in December 2011, some 43% of Americans age 16 and older say they have either read an e-book in the past year or have read oth
...
er long-form content such as magazines, journals, and news articles in digital format on an e-book reader, tablet computer, regular computer, or cell phone. Those who have taken the plunge into reading e-books stand out in almost every way from other kinds of readers. Foremost, they are relatively avid readers of books in all formats: 88% of those who read e-books in the past 12 months also read printed books.2 Compared with other book readers, they read more books. They read more frequently for a host of reasons: for pleasure, for research, for current events, and for work or school." (Summary of findings, page 3)
more
"This sampler is the result of a common research project of 16 Latin American universities and the Informatics Network of the Catholic Church in Latin America (RIIAL) on "the impact of digital culture in the Latin American societies". The first part consists of seven contributions studying the use o
...
f and access to social media and ICTs by young people, especially university students, in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Panama and Paraguay. The second part, also consisting of seven articles, covers quite different issues like the "One Laptop per Child" initiative in Peru, "socio-affective capacities" in e-learning in Colombia or a reflection on the evangelisation mission of the Church. The articles differ widely in scope and methodology, as there was no agreed research framework. Nevertheless, the contributions are a helpful stocktaking of digital culture in a variety of country and cultural contexts." (CAMECO Update 1-2012)
more
"El presente reporte nos entrega información sobre hábitos y prácticas de consumo en relación a medios masivos: televisión, radio, diarios y revistas. Los datos arrojan que la televisión tiene tal grado de penetración que estamos hablando prácticamente de un acceso cotidiano y universal (con
...
cifras superiores al 95%) sin distinguir edad, sexo, estrato socioeconómico, residencia en regiones, etc. Para los otros medios en tanto, el acceso es decreciente y diferenciado siendo signifi cativa, entre otras, la variable socioeconómica. Así en el caso de la lectura de diarios, donde se advierte una clara preponderancia de acceso entre los sectores más acomodados marcando brechas de cerca de 40 puntos porcentuales respecto a los sectores más bajos." (Presentación, página 3)
more
"Based on a representative survey of online news consumers across five countries – UK, US, Germany, France and Denmark – the report is the start of an ambitious project to track changing digital news behaviour over the next decade. Key international findings: There are significant differences in
...
how regularly people keep up with the news across our surveyed countries. More than 9 in 10 Germans access the news at least once a day compared with only 3 in 4 people in the United Kingdom. The rapid switch from print to digital in the United States is not being replicated exactly in European countries. Germany is showing the strongest allegiance to traditional viewing and reading habits and has the lowest levels of internet news use. In the UK, news about politics is perceived to be less important – and celebrity news more important – compared to the other countries surveyed. There is more interest in business and especially economic news in the UK and the US than in the European countries surveyed." (Publisher description)
more
"State media will continue to play a critical role in Iran. The audience for external media platforms is large and will remain so absent any significant reforms in domestic media. Attitudes towards specific media outlets are rarely uni-dimensional, and few enjoy unqualified trust. Satellite TV remai
...
ns the medium of choice for reaching Iranians from outside of the country. The audience for digital platforms continues to grow, but future will partly depend effectiveness of the Iranian's 'walled garden' approach. There continues to be an important role for international broadcasters like VOA, Radio Farda, BBC, and others." (Conclusions, slide 30)
more
"We find that among both the general population and the technologically savvy youth, television – and especially the state-controlled broadcaster – was among the most often used news sources (with the Internet being the most important news outlet for the youth). This finding is surprising given
...
that – in general – in Middle Eastern societies “traditional state control of the information media has often meant that more reliance is placed on oral and unofficial means of communications, in the mosque, the coffeehouse, or the marketplace” (Fandy, 2000, page 378). This finding is especially surprising among our technologically savvy, educated and metropolitan youth the demographics of whom overlap with the profile of those who took to the streets in the post-election protests in Iran and who might be more likely to distrust the government and its sources. These results may indicate that perhaps this young population is not uniformly politicized, mistrustful of governmental sources, or primed for revolutionary action. Several of our other findings underlie this idea. Contradicting the claims that Twitter played a central role in the uprisings in Iran and despite the evidence that 90% of Twitter users in Iran live in Tehran, Twitter was the least prevalent new media platform used by both the general population and the youth samples." (Summary, page 38)
more
"Despite the country’s long history of censorship, Burmese do not currently appear to be apathetic about news coverage. Almost half (47.5%) say they access some type of news – whether via radio, TV, Internet, newspapers, etc. – at least daily, and 78.5% do so at least once a week. Radio remain
...
s the primary medium to which Burmese turn for news. Currently, 62.8% of Burmese say they listened to a radio program in the past week. The results indicate past-week FM listenership continues to rise -- and suggest that AM listeners have migrated heavily toward new options on the FM spectrum. In 2012, just 18.3% of Burmese say they used a MW/AM band to listen to the radio in the past week. However, shortwave radio use remained steady in 2012, continuing to garner a strong weekly audience at 34% of all Burmese. Television is the secondary source, with almost half (44.7%) tuning in for news at least weekly. Overall, 56.8% of Burmese have a working television in their household, with TV ownership far more concentrated in urban areas (82.9%) than small towns and rural areas (45.7%). Just under half of Burmese overall (45.2%) say they watched television in the last seven days, again with a stark difference between those living in urban areas (68.9%) and those in small towns and rural areas (35.1%)." (Page 1)
more
"Burma s media environment is underdeveloped and firmly anchored in old media, but changes have started. Radio is the most used media for entertainment and news in Burma, and domestic outlets have expanded rapidly in recent years. Television s growth in urban areas has been striking in recent years.
...
A very limited number of private players have gained market access, tapping into a deep desire for entertainment, religion, and "news you can use." Burmese are cautious but appear to trust local media more than in the past. Web and mobile infrastructure lags with slow connections and low use. Mobile phone growth potential is high." (Conclusions, page 52)
more
"Research on Internet usage in developing regions typically focuses on user demographics or challenges to usage. However, few studies explore the needs and desires of users in developing regions—that is, what users want from the Internet—and even fewer connect those needs with the skills require
...
d to meet them. This article addresses that gap by exploring Central Asian Internet users’ expectations of Internet utility and relating those expectations to usage patterns. We found that the users whose expectations were met were those who engaged in a diverse range of online activities. We also investigated the relationship between usage characteristics and diversity of online activities and concluded that frequent and occasional Internet users were equally likely to seek information online, but frequent users engaged in more diverse activities related to interaction with others, entertainment, and financial transactions." (Abstract)
more