"This book studies tabloid journalism newspapers within the broader context of press freedom in Africa. After defining tabloid journalism and professional practices within various political contexts, the book then proceeds to consider tabloids in Southern Africa and emerging cyberspace laws. Many fa
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ctors of press freedom are considered, including the impact of public order and national security laws on tabloids in North Africa, the impact of defamation laws on tabloids in West Africa, the impact of the fake news laws on tabloids in East Africa, and the impact of sedition and treason laws on tabloids in Central Africa. Exploring tabloid journalism and press freedom in Arabic, Portuguese, and Francophone speaking countries across Africa, this book is a unique addition to this emerging field. The book concludes by providing a synthesis of the developing patterns from the cases analysed and by looking to the future to make recommendations and map the challenges and the successes." (Publisher description)
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"Le présent ouvrage, qui procède à la nécropsie des cellules cancéreuses des différents aspects de l’espace médiatico-journalistique de la formation sociale haïtienne, offre un cadre procédural à l’aune de l’Éthique de la discussion de Jürgen Habermas et de l’Éthique reconstruct
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ive de Jean-Marc Ferry devant servir de tablature à l’autorégulation de la presse haïtienne." (Dos de couverture)
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"Defining tabloid journalism practice as an infotainment genre, the book examines corruption exposure by tabloids in Arabic, Portuguese and Francophone speaking countries across Africa, making it a unique addition to the field. In doing so, it also builds an understanding of the evolution of anti-co
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rruption tabloid journalism in Africa and gains insights into the relationship between the anti-corruption actions of the state and the anti-corruption reporting by tabloid journalists focusing on major corruption scandals. Providing evidence of the successes and struggles of journalistic practice in Africa, the book concludes by providing a synthesis of the emerging patterns and divergences from the cases analysed, looking to the future of corruption in the continent and the role of tabloid journalism in uncovering and challenging it." (Publisher description)
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"The volume digs beneath the standardised and universalised veneer of professionalism to unpack routine practices and normative trends shaped by local factors, including the structural conditions of deprivation, entrenched political instability (and interference), pervasive neo-patrimonial governanc
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e systems, and the influences of technological developments. These varied and complex circumstances are shown to profoundly shape the foundations of journalism in Africa, resulting in routine practices that are both normatively distinct and equally in tune with (imported) Western journalistic cultures. The book thus broadly points to the dialectical nature of news production and the inconsistent and contradictory relationships that characterise news production cultures in Africa." (Publisher description)
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"The end of apartheid brought South Africa into the global media environment. Outside companies invested in the nation's newspapers while South African conglomerates pursued lucrative tech ventures and communication markets around the world. Many observers viewed the rapid development of South Afric
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an media as a roadmap from authoritarianism to global modernity. Herman Wasserman analyzes the debates surrounding South Africa's new media presence against the backdrop of rapidly changing geopolitics. His exploration reveals how South African disputes regarding access to, and representation in, the media reflect the domination and inequality in the global communication sphere. Optimists see post-apartheid media as providing a vital space that encourages exchanges of opinion in a young democracy. Critics argue the public sphere mirrors South Africa's past divisions and privileges the viewpoints of the elite. Wasserman delves into the ways these simplistic narratives obscure the country's internal tensions, conflicts, and paradoxes even as he charts the diverse nature of South African entry into the global arena." (Publisher description)
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"This research project focuses on media reporting of and in crisis situations, with case studies of examples mostly from 2016. Political and social crises have been recurring in recent years, aggravated by unstable political environments, underdeveloped economies, ethno-national divisions and unreso
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lved legacies of war. They ranged from political clashes, government crises, through crisis involving citizen protests or pertaining to response to natural disasters, to refugee crises. As indicated by the national reports from five successor states of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia) and Albania, in the analysed cases of crises, the media largely failed to fulfil their public service role and to an extent did just the opposite, providing sensationalistic stories, favouring particular sources (mainly official ones, from one political faction or one ethno-national group), sometimes accentuating security threats and possible conflicts, or simply by failing to provide relevant information or in-depth analysis necessary for substantive understanding of related public interest issues. In this research we start from the assumption that weaknesses of the media sector manifest themselves with particular severity in crisis situations. We also recognize the pivotal role of media in what the dominant framing of the crises is, by which they can contribute to, or thwart, democratic communication. The experience of media in former Yugoslavia in the 1990 is a reminder of how devastating the consequences can be." (Pages 2-3)
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"This volume examines the lived experiences of Africans and their interaction with different kinds of media: old and new, state and private, elite and popular, global and national, material and virtual. By offering a comparative, critical and largely qualitative account of audiences and users across
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a range of national contexts in different regions of Africa, the book examines media through the voices and perspectives of those engaging with it rather than reducing audiences and users to numbers and statistics, ready to be exploited as potential target markets or as political constituencies. The critical, qualitative research perspective adopted in this book enables us to gain a better understanding of how African viewers, listeners and users make sense of a range of media forms; what role these play in their everyday lives and what audience and user engagement can tell us about how citizens perceive the state, how they imagine themselves in the wider world and how they relate to each other. The book argues that the experiences of audiences and engagements of users with a range of media—newspapers, radio, television, magazines, internet, mobile phones, social media—are always grounded in particular contexts, worldviews and knowledge systems of life and wisdom: ‘It is akin to the tortoise. The tortoise never leaves its shell behind. It carries it wherever it goes’ (Chivaura 2006: 221). African media audiences and users carry their contexts and cultural repertoires in the same way a tortoise carries its shell. Thus far, the bulk of academic research on media and communication in Africa has addressed the policy and regulatory aspects as well as the relation between media institutions and the state (Willems 2014a). While studies on media, democratization and press freedom are invaluable, the ways in which ordinary people make sense of, and relate to, media in their everyday lives are largely left beyond consideration. As Barber (1997: 357) has pointed out, ‘[w]hat has not yet been sufficiently explored is the possibility that specific African audiences have distinctive, conventional modes and styles of making meaning, just as performers/speakers do. We need to ask how audiences do their work of interpretation’." (Page 4)
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"This book provides a timely and important summary of tabloid journalism in Africa, which clearly shows how tabloids in the African context play a unique role in the democratization process. Prior to this book, very little was known about how tabloid journalists operate in Africa. The book first exp
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lores the global practice of journalism and then focuses on tabloid journalism - finally situating the discussion within the African context. As well as concentrating on how tabloid journalism can be seen as part of the broader neo-liberal thinking in Africa, in which democracy and freedom of expression is promoted, it also looks at how tabloid journalism practice has been met with resistance from the alliance of forces. Chama draws on examples from across the continent looking at success stories and struggles within the sometime infotainment genre. 'Tabloid Journalism in Africa' concludes that even though challenges exist, there is a strong case to suggest that the practice of tabloid journalism is being readily accepted by many people as part of the unique voices of democracy - even those which might be shocking yet true." (Publisher description)
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"Esse Guia é decorrente de forte demanda do movimento social brasileiro, provocada pela proliferação de narrativas midiáticas que violam direitos elementares, previstos em lei. Capitaneada pela TV, a tendência espraia-se por outros meios e dilui as fronteiras entre jornalismo e entretenimento,
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afetando a credibilidade da imprensa e colocando em xeque as regras da democracia [...] No Volume I, o leitor encontra um guia prático para identificar violações de direitos no campo da comunicação de massa, com exemplos extraídos de programas de rádio e TV de todas as regiões do País, e um apanhado inédito dos dispositivos legais que buscam harmonizar o direito à liberdade de expressão com outros direitos dos cidadãos, como o de terem a imagem e a privacidade respeitadas." (Contracapa)
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"Esse Guia é decorrente de forte demanda do movimento social brasileiro, provocada pela proliferação de narrativas midiáticas que violam direitos elementares, previstos em lei. Capitaneada pela TV, a tendência espraia-se por outros meios e dilui as fronteiras entre jornalismo e entretenimento,
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afetando a credibilidade da imprensa e colocando em xeque as regras da democracia. [...] cidadãos, como o de terem a imagem e a privacidade respeitadas. No Volume II, são reunidos artigos que refletem o teor dos debates travados pela sociedade civil em relação às produções em foco. São reflexões de estudiosos, militantes e observadores em geral do campo, abrangendo diferentes perspectivas, a partir mesmo do perfil dos autores, oriundos da academia e de organizações que defendem a liberdade de expressão e o direito à comunicação." (Contracapa)
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"The tabloid news genre has been chastized for depoliticizing its public by causing cynicism about the democratic process and lowering the standards of rational public discourse. Counter-arguments point to the alternative public sphere offered by popular media such as ‘tabloid TV’ which is the f
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ocus of this study. The ‘tabloid TV’ genre is relatively new in Zambia and in the African context in general. This article sets out to examine the rapid rise in popularity of the Zambian private television station, Muvi TV. It examines Muvi TV’s main evening news as an example of the ‘tabloid TV’ news genre vis-à-vis the criticisms levelled against tabloidization. The article presents results from a reception study of viewers in the capital city, Lusaka. A three-stage qualitative study was carried out, consisting of a thematic/content analysis of news bulletins, focus groups and individual, semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that audiences attach greater credibility to Muvi TV’s news broadcasts than those of the public broadcaster, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC). As such, Muvi TV can be seen to fulfil a political function despite its sensationalized approach." (Abstract)
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"Die Medienbeziehungen zwischen der Türkei und Deutschland stehen alles andere als still. Vielmehr haben sie sich seit Mitte der neunziger Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts drastisch verändert. Das Verhältnis der beiden Länder zueinander hat sich inzwischen derartig verdichtet, daß bei Medienberic
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hten nicht länger klar unterschieden werden kann, ob deutsche Innen- oder deutsche Außen- resp. türkische Innenoder Außenpolitik davon betroffen ist. Für die Entwicklung türkischer Medien innerhalb von Deutschland zeichnen sich mehrere Szenarien gleichzeitig ab: Zunahme von Medien von in Deutschland lebenden Türken, Bedeutungsverlust von aus der Türkei stammenden Medien und verschiedenartige sprachliche Formen (türkisch, deutsch, bi-lingual). Auch die deutsche Berichterstattung über türkische Migranten wird sich sehr unterschiedlich gestalten: Es wird genauso eine Zunahme von Toleranz und Empathie wie eine Zunahme von Rassismus nach dem Medienevent „Sarrazin“ geben." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"El tema de la in/seguridad ciudadana fue central en las propuestas electorales de diciembre de 2009 en el país. La “chica mala” del periodismo, tal como denomina Cecilia Lanza a la crónica roja, policial o periodismo amarillista o sensacionalista, se ocupa precisamente de este asunto. Pero,
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cómo lo hace? ¿Desde qué perspectivas asume ese rol de contar los hechos que generalmente cercan la vida de sectores marginales y excluidos de la sociedad? ¿Por qué deberíamos ocuparnos ahora de este tan despreciado e híbrido género? ¿Qué tiene que ver con la responsabilidad social del periodismo y la posibilidad de construir sociedades más democráticas? Y más: ¿realmente el periodismo sensacionalista sólo se restringe a este tipo de géneros? Habida cuenta de su estigma de irresponsabilidad y espectacularidad, ¿debe prescindir de una cierta mínima conducta ética para su desempeño? Son varias las preguntas que trata de responder la presente publicación, fruto de un productivo proceso de capacitación a periodistas llevado adelante en la ciudad de La Paz en noviembre de 2009. Este encuentro/entrenamiento produjo las once historias de crónica policial contadas." (Presentación, página 5)
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"Less than a decade after the advent of democracy in South Africa, tabloid newspapers have taken the country by storm. One of these papers—the Daily Sun—is now the largest in the country, but it has generated controversy for its perceived lack of respect for privacy, brazen sexual content, and u
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nrestrained truth-stretching. Herman Wasserman examines the success of tabloid journalism in South Africa at a time when global print media are in decline. He considers the social significance of the tabloids and how they play a role in integrating readers and their daily struggles with the political and social sphere of the new democracy. Wasserman shows how these papers have found an important niche in popular and civic culture largely ignored by the mainstream media and formal political channels." (Publisher description)
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"South Africa offers a rich context for the study of the interrelationship between the media and identity. The essays collected here explore the many diverse elements of this interconnection, and give fresh focus to topics that scholarship has tended to overlook, such as the pervasive impact of tabl
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oid newspapers. Interrogating contemporary theory, the authors shed new light on how identities are constructed through the media, and provide case studies that illustrate the complex process of identity renegotiation taking place currently in post-apartheid South Africa. The contributors include established scholars as well as many new voices. Collectively, they represent some of South Africas finest media analysts pooling skills to grapple with one of the countrys most vexing issues: who are we?" (Publisher description)
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