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Media Influence Matrix: Israel. Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism

Roni Dorot

Budapest: CEU Center for Media, Data and Society (2021), 30 pp.

"Although internet penetration rate in Israel stands at 88%, internet infrastructure, and notably the roll-out of fiber-optics, was not properly regulated until December 2020. Therefore, among other things, Israel’s internet speed was in decline in comparison to OECD countries, although it is expe ... cted to rise in mid-2021. Moreover, frequencies for 5G network deployment have been allocated only as late as August 2020, in significant delay compared to technologically progressed countries. Following global trends, Israelis draw on different technological means to use the internet, and especially to consume media. While fixed telephony demand is in decline, smartphones took over the market with 88% of smartphone ownership. Israel records a specific digital divide among marginalized groups like the Arab population and ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jews. Together with the 65+ age group, these three main sectors are susceptible to be affected by digital illiteracy. The international technology conglomerates that control the Israeli market are Facebook (with its daughter company WhatsApp) in the field of messaging applications and social media, and Google Chrome browser, while the operating system (OS) market is dominated by Microsoft (on desktop) and Google (Android on mobile). The four main Israeli groups operating in the communications market are: Bezeq, HOT, Cellcom and Partner. They are all active in five telecom segments and market them in bundle packages for relatively low prices: cellular, fixed (telephony and internet) infrastructure, internet providing, international calls and multichannel TV. This highly saturated and competitive market has damaged the revenues and future incentives of these companies to invest in cutting-edge infrastructure. Israelis get most of their political information from online news sites. Some 76% of the public in Israel consume news content on social media at least once a day (40% of Jews and 66% of Arabs). The leading social media platforms are YouTube, Facebook and Twitter; they make a central source for the dissemination of politics, and have significant power in shaping public opinion. Nevertheless, “fake news” is also circulating fast and efficiently on these platforms, making disinformation a troubling phenomenon for Israeli society. Few journalistic initiatives took upon themselves the responsibility for public fact-checking. Traditional media struggles with fragile financial sustainability and business models. Given the populist effect that fake news has on consumers and, consequentially, on revenues, it is risky to rely on traditional media solely, in this matter." (Page 4) more

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Media Influence Matrix: Jordan. Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism

Mohammad Abu Hawash, Marius Dragomir

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2021), 28 pp.

"As for internet use, the percentage of the population with access to internet rose to 89% in 2019 from 48% in 2015. Access to a mobile phone and internet in Jordan has become a matter of choice rather than affordability or accessibility. The Syrian refugee crisis explains the overshooting in mobile ... phone penetration in Jordan during the 2010s. During the past decade, the Jordanian telecommunications industry has transformed from duopoly to oligopoly. Jordan’s three major telecommunications companies together worked to protect their positions in the Jordanian telecoms market. The market saw constant growth and a rapid introduction of new media technologies. Due to these technological advancements, the country has become known in the region as an increasingly influential tech hub [...] In the public sphere, Jordan has experienced an unstable legal and regulatory landscape for the media. The government constantly revises its audiovisual media and publications laws. This places those media networks with a proximity to the state at an advantage, since they have deeper insight into the expectations of the state. Independent media, on the other hand, suffers from the successive governments’ meddling in the foundational laws of the media industry. The work of journalists has been often obstructed by the blocking of hundreds of websites for failing to comply with one or another rendition of the publications law. Many journalists found their employers losing investors and/or funding after the state issued a registration requirement for websites publishing content out of Jordan. Due to strong public pressure, this requirement in the publications law was later revised. Jordan’s journalism sphere had a more difficult decade than the technology field. Restrictions on internet access and high taxes on independent media (compared with tax-exemption status for some media agencies that are close to the government) hurt several media organizations. Stagnation and decline in consumption of print media added to the woes. Jordanian newspapers are enjoying higher readership than ever but also the lowest revenues per reader in history. This is due to declining subscription rates. Jordanian journalists were stunned in the first half of the 2010s to see Jordan’s daily newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm end print circulation and shut down operations completely a few years later. Subscriptions to daily newspapers declined by 50% compared to their 2000s levels." (Pages 4-5) more

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Reaching 50 Million Women with Mobile: A Practical Guide

Dominica Lindsey et al.

London: GSMA;Altai Consulting (2020), 41 pp.

"The persistent gender gap in mobile access and use is already well documented, as are the significant benefits of closing it. Across low- and middle-income countries today, women are eight per cent less likely than men to own a mobile phone, 20 per cent less likely to use mobile internet and 33 per ... more

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The Huawei Model: The Rise of China's Technology Giant

Yun Wen

Urbana; Chicago; Springfield: University of Illinois Press (2020), x, 239 pp.

"In 2019, the United States' trade war with China expanded to blacklist the Chinese tech titan Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. The resulting attention showed the information and communications technology (ICT) firm entwined with China's political-economic transformation. But the question remained: why ... more

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Digital Neo-Colonialism: The Chinese Model of Internet Sovereignty in Africa

Willem Gravett

African Human Rights Law Journal, volume 20, issue 1 (2020), pp. 125-146

"China is making a sustained effort to become a ‘cyber superpower’. An integral part of this effort is the propagation by Beijing of the notion of ‘internet sovereignty’ – China’s supreme right to govern the internet within its borders and keep it under rigid control. Chinese companies w ... more

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Human Rights Guidance for the Mobile Industry

John Ruggie

London: GSMA (2020), 23 pp.

"The aim of this document is to provide an introduction for companies to consider the relevance of the following issues for their operations, as well as inspiration and resources to begin to formalise their management of human rights. It is recognised that many of these issues cannot be solved by on ... more

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Media Influence Matrix: Pakistan. Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism

Ifra Asad, Mackenzie Nelson

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2019), 20 pp.

"With particularly low internet penetration rates, intense state censorship and heavy Chinese investment, Pakistan presents elements of an authoritarian internet culture where surveillance is a barely-questioned norm, unless probed by civil society organizations or journalists. Social media giants s ... more

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Media Influence Matrix: Romania. Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism

Dumitrita Holdis, Marius Dragomir

Budapest: CEU School of Public Policy, Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2019), 23 pp.

"Convergence of services usually affects the quality and price of services offered by providers. However, this has not been the case in Romania yet. People benefit from a very competitive market and enjoy fairly cheap services, but the implications of convergence on the content made available to con ... more

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Media Influence Matrix: Bulgaria. Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism

Marius Dragomir, Mariia Altergot

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2018), 24 pp.

"Technology plays an important role for news media distribution in Bulgaria: 88% of Bulgarians get their news online, first and foremost on the online platforms of popular television channels and their social network pages. Bulgarians are some of the most active social media users in the EU (ranked ... more

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2015 Corporate Accountability Index

Ranking Digital Rights (2015), 77 pp.

"Ranking Digital Rights’ inaugural Corporate Accountability Index evaluates 16 of the world’s most powerful Internet and telecommunications companies on their commitments, policies, and practices that affect users’ freedom of expression and privacy. By opening the door for greater corporate tr ... more