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The Future of Learning and Technology in Deprived Contexts

Tim Unwin, Mark Weber, Meaghan Brugha, David Hollow

London: Save the Children (2017), 51 pp.

"This report has focused on predicting what basic education, the use of ICTs, and the ways that these technologies will contribute to education will look like by 2025, with a particular emphasis on the implication for those living in the most deprived locations. Three broad conclusions are appropria ... te. First, there is immense diversity, not only in education delivery but also in access to, and use of, ICTs. This will remain the case in 2025, and the resultant inequalities might well be very much worse than they are today. If current trends continue, then the use of technologies by the rich will be markedly different from the use of ICTs by the poor. The most deprived will continue not to have access to ICTs, will continue not to benefit from them, and will become relatively more disadvantaged. However, millions of slightly better off poor people will indeed be able to benefit from the potential that existing ICTs will be able to deliver over the next decade, especially in terms of access to educational content that may enable them to live more fulfilled lives. Second, for education systems to be improved, especially for the poorest and most marginalised children, there must be a fundamental rethinking of the vision for education in almost every country of the world. Educational change is slow, but some of those consulted for this report were optimistic, and thought that the pressure for change will soon become so high that governments will have to respond by instigating fundamental reforms. These, though, will be very expensive, and it still remains unclear how they will be funded and implemented. While the ICT sector is still likely to experience much rapid innovation, it is much more probable that the education sector will only evolve slowly. It is therefore also important that these technologies are used to enhance opportunities for learning everywhere, even where the education systems are slow to evolve. Third, there have indeed been many exciting and innovative uses of technology within education over the last two decades, and some of these are already being applied in contexts of both physical and socio-cultural deprivation. However, all too often those implementing ICTs initiatives in the education sector focus primarily on the technologies, rather than the education. If technology is indeed to be used to support learning, both in school and out of it, there needs to be a complete reversal of much current practice. The focus must be first on the education, and only then on the various technologies that can help deliver it." (Conclusions, page 20) more

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Social Media Education Trainer's Manual: For Media Education Trainers

Magimai Pragasam (ed.)

Chennai: Signis Asia (2017), 172 pp.

"This publication is the result of two workshops. The first was held in March 2016, in Chennai, during which 14 scholars and media education specialists identified ten broad areas on which to build a lesson plan. The second workshop was in July 2016, in Sri Lanka with a similar group which continued ... more

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Media and Transitional Justice: A Dream of Symbiosis in a Troubled Relationship

Refik Hodzic, David Tolbert

New York: International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) (2016), 18 pp.

"Arriving at a collective memory of the past is one of the greatest challenges facing a post-conflict society because it implies reaching a degree of consensus in a polarized context. While truth commissions attempt to present an objective account of the events of a society’s repressive or violent ... more

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Power is Everywhere: How Stakeholder-Driven Media Build the Future of Watchdog News

Mark Lee Hunter, Luk N. Van Wassenhove, Maria Besiou

Stakeholder Media Project (2016), 161 pp.

"Social or not, we contend that there is substantially more room for commercial practices and enterprises in the independent news space than has generally been recognized. A primary goal of this book is to show journalists and entrepreneurs how they may occupy that space through stakeholder-driven m ... edia. First, in Chapters One and Two we will set out key components of business models. From that base we will distinguish stakeholder-driven media (SDM) from mainstream media (MSM), in particular where their value propositions are concerned. We will then explore current variations on these principles in SDM. At the end of the book we will return to this theme, through outlining SDM enterprises that may soon emerge. Our predictive track record is not perfect, but it’s not bad; in 2010 we predicted that media focused on fact-checking would become a growth sector, and in 2016 there are well over 100 of them around the world. Replace: Fact-checking played a key role in the 2016 U.S. election, too. We also believe that stakeholder-driven media are changing the strategies by which “impact” is achieved in journalism; this is the subject of Chapter Three. The landmark research of David L. Protess and his colleagues showed that investigative journalism achieves reforms most often through a sustained effort involving a coalition of social and institutional forces, and rarely from a single “mobilizing” article or series in any media. Put another way, the broader story – how events play out over time – trumps the scoop; the last word beats the first word. That finding directly inspired our own research into how SDM achieve reform, and sensitized us to why MSM may not always be the ideal vehicle for journalism that seeks to change the world: In practice, MSM rarely stick around for the broader story. Likewise, non-profit investigative journalism centers – who, as we noted, typically rely on MSM to publish their stories – rarely follow their blockbuster stories across the years required to achieve reform or relief for victims. This is considered advocacy, not objective or even credible reporting. In contrast, stakeholder-driven media consider advocacy part of their mission. They exist, precisely, to defend the interests of a community of practice or interest, to help carry through its agenda. That may not make them credible to MSM, but it certainly makes them credible to their users. SDM do not go on to the next story and forget the preceding one. They pursue a story so long as it matters to their stakeholders – their community. They are thus capable of achieving results over time that MSM rarely attain. For that reason, serious journalists are well advised to see how they may collaborate with SDM as well as MSM. Because of stakeholder-driven media, the notion that the attention of MSM is required to set reform agendas is no longer as true as it was when sociologist Michael Lipsky famously described how activists use news media to dramatize their demonstrations and embarrass authorities into action.3 We have studied numerous cases in which SDM, not MSM, determined the outcome. We have seen that the MSM have lost a surprising share of their previous agenda-setting influence, and SDM have gained it. We will show you how, and we will show you how you can capture and wield that influence yourself. We hope you will do it for the benefit of your own community, as well as the rest of the world." (Page 9-10) more

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Countering Russian Propaganda

Per Concordiam: Journal of European Security and Defense Issues, issue special issue (2016), 38 pp.

"In this issue we discuss some of the arguments and debates related to the highly charged and topical issue of Russia’s strategic narrative and how it is disseminated. Propaganda, in numerous forms, creates a barrier to more constructive engagement and dialogue. This issue’s contributors find th ... more

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The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and its Reception in Film

Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch (ed.)

Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter (2016), xviii, 921 pp.

"This two-part volume contains a comprehensive collection of original studies by well-known scholars focusing on the Bible’s wide-ranging reception in world cinema. It is organized into sections examining the rich cinematic afterlives of selected characters from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament; ... more

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Media and Elections: A Guide for Electoral Practitioners

David Ward et al.

New York: UNDP (2014), vi, 110 pp.

"This guide is designed to be a key reference tool for electoral practitioners including electoral management bodies (EMBs), independent broadcasting authorities and international assistance providers. It aims at improving an understanding of some of the key issues related to media and elections. Th ... more

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Digital News Report 2014

Nic Newman, David A. L. Levy (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2014), 93 pp.

"The use of smartphones and tablets has jumped significantly in the past year, with fewer people using their computers for news. More than a third of online news users across all countries (39%) use two or more digital devices each week for news and a fifth (20%) now say their mobile phone is their ... more

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Global Citizenship in a Digital World

Sherri Hope Culver, Paulette Kerr (eds.)

Göteborg: International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media;Nordicom (2014), 404 pp.

"We are pleased to be sharing with you the second yearbook on media and information literacy and intercultural dialogue. The first MILID Yearbook was published in June 2013 [...] The theme of the 2014 Yearbook is Global Citizenship in a Digital World. Global citizenship assumes ease of participation ... more

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Diplomacy, Development and Security in the Information Age

Shanthi Kalathil (ed.)

Washington, DC: Georgetown University, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (2013), v, 142 pp.

"[...] This series thus proposes to unpack the concepts of transparency and volatility across three major arenas of international affairs: security, diplomacy, and development. Each issue-area features two essays, each focusing on different aspects of transparency and/or volatility. Two additional e ... more

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Social Media and Elections in Asia-Pacific: The Growing Power of the Youth Vote

Alastair Carthew, Simon Winkelmann (eds.)

Singapore: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) (2013), 164 pp.

"Undoubtedly, politicians have awoken to the political power of social media and it will be increasingly adopted as a mainstream means of information distribution and communications as voters and young people are becoming more politically active in a number of the jurisdictions surveyed in this book ... more

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Special Issue on Youth, ICTs, and Civic Engagement in Asia

Weiyu Zhang, Emmanuel C. Lallana (eds.)

International Communication Gazette, volume 75, issue 3 (2013), pp. 249-337

"The articles collected in this special issue share a common focus: young adults’ use of new media for civic engagement in South and Southeast Asia. Youth engagement problems are evident when established democracies witness a decline in youth participation in traditional civic activities (e.g., vo ... ting) compared to the participation levels of older generations. MacKinnon et al. (2007) stated, ‘[y]outh are turned off by the game of partisan politics and increasingly refuse to learn or apply the rules. In large measure, they are reinventing civic and political engagement.’ We began our project with the observation that the youth in South and Southeast Asia demonstrate distinctive patterns of civic and political engagement, and we sought information about whether these patterns are a consequence of a generational shift or a result of contextual changes, such as those in political systems and media technologies. We examined two propositions that are often associated with youth engagement and new media. First, new media change the relationship between youth and existing political systems. Second, new media change the nature of civic engagement itself, especially for the youth. As we inquired further, we found that using established democracies as our reference point might have been incorrect. The difference between the so-called young or semi-democracies and established or mature democracies is not that the former is an inadequate version of the latter. Instead, the political systems found in South and Southeast Asia have their own characteristics, and these systems cannot be simply classified as a lack of democratic components. The same thing can be said about new media. The difference between the region in question and other regions, such as North America and Europe, is not that the former lacks access to technologies that are common in the latter. Instead, the type and use of technologies in the region show unique patterns that cannot be simply defined as less advanced. When we refer to the region, we make no attempt to generate a singular discourse for all the countries involved. Instead, we are highly sensitive to the diversity presented in the individual cases that belong to the region in this study. The end product, therefore, becomes a juxtaposition of multiple reference points that can be not only compared to established democracies but also compared to the other countries in Asia." (Page 249) more

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The Media of Afghanistan: The Challenges of Transition
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David Page, Shirazuddin Siddiqi

London: BBC Media Action (2012), 27 pp.

"[...] Afghanistan is a fragile, fractured state and has one of the most fragile and fractured media, where almost anyone with sufficient funds and the opportunity to move quickly has been able to establish a media presence. This environment has enabled the flourishing of television, radio and other ... media established and owned by powerful political and religious leaders, or by those with allegiance to them. Some fear a future of increased ethnic, sectarian and factional strife being played out through the airwaves. Though there are some very successful commercial television channels, there is no independent and widely trusted national media capable of transcending or creating communication across the fracture points in Afghan society. Most media is either localised or seen as serving political, religious or other agendas. The future of the national broadcaster, RTA, still the only broadcaster with a truly national presence, is uncertain. While journalism as a whole has expanded greatly, investigative journalism remains limited. The sustainability of the newly established commercial media is widely questioned. With the total annual advertising market in the country estimated by some at little more than $20 million, there are real concerns that if donor support declines much of the media will wither or fall prey to factional, religious or extreme forces. There is no shortage of such forces. A number of media outlets already play upon ethnic and sectarian tensions. The Taliban, notorious when in power for shutting down media and banning video tape, have embraced the web and run one of the most effective media strategies in the country. In 2012, the mood music is one of compromise with the Taliban. Concern in the country is growing that new found media freedoms may be the price of that compromise. The role of donors in media support in Afghanistan is probably greater than in any other country at any other time. Such support is largely responsible for the development of a substantial media sector, but it faces criticism that it is poorly coordinated, short term and not informed by aid effectiveness principles; that it focuses too heavily on advancing the agendas of the donors; and that in some sectors it is distorting the media market in ways that create dependency and inhibit the development of genuinely sustainable Afghan media ventures." (Executive summary) more

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Empowering Women Through ICT

Caroline Wamala

Kista; Stockholm: Spider – The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions;Stockholm University (2012), 72 pp.

"This publication covers five different projects carried out in six different locations. There were two projects in Bolivia, one focusing on empowering female indigenous leaders and the other provided female victims of domestic violence with a safe virtual environment where they could receive suppor ... more

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Depletion Design: A Glossary of Network Ecologies

Carolin Wiedemann, Soenke Zehle (eds.)

Amsterdam: Insittute of Network Cultures (2012), 192 pp.

"Eager to assist, organize, and structure our lifestream logistics, new corporate actors offer communicative freedoms based on commercial user-as-product philosophies of expression. But we now design our own interfaces to face our others, our algorithmic others. Our collective reflection on nature a ... more

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The Internet in the Print Newsroom: Trends, Practices and Emerging Cultures in Zimbabwe

Hayes Mawindi Mabweazara

In: Making Online News, Vol. 2: Newsroom Ethnographies in the Second Decade of Internet Journalism

David Domingo; Chris Paterson (eds.)

New York et al.: Peter Lang (2011), pp. 57-69

"This chapter focuses on the work practices of newspaper journalists in Zimbabwe and explores the role that the Internet plays in their information gathering and relationship with sources." (Page 57)

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A News Portal Without a News Team: Journalistic and Marketing Logics at the Malaysian National News Agency

Amira Firdaus

In: Making Online News, Vol. 2: Newsroom Ethnographies in the Second Decade of Internet Journalism

David Domingo; Chris Paterson (eds.)

New York et al.: Peter Lang (2011), pp. 141-150

"The internet has offered national news agencies the opportunity to extend the reach of their services to non-media consumers. This chapeter analyzes the case of BERNAMA, highlighting the tensions between journalism and marketing in the process of blurring the traditional definitions of news agency ... more

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The Campus and the Newsroom: Papua New Guinean Media in Education Profile

David Robie

In: Communication, Culture & Society in Papua New Guinea: Yu Tok Wanem?

Evangelia Papoutsaki; Michael McManus; Patrick Matbob (eds.)

Madang: DWU Press, Divine Word University (2011), pp. 205-217

"A 'typical' Papua New Guinean journalist is more likely to be female (very marginally), single, under the age of 29, with about five years experience, a Tok Pisin [indigenous language] speaker but working on English-language media and to have a university diploma or degree in journalism from either ... more

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Mobile Communications in Zambia: A Demand Side Analysis Based on the AudienceScapes Survey, Including Insights on Mobile Money Use

David Montes

Washington, DC: Intermedia (2010), 54 pp.

"Youth and young adults (15-29) are often assumed to be leaders in mobile phone use, but this is not entirely the case in Zambia. While those 15 to 29 make up the largest segment of overall mobile phone users, they do not show the highest rate of weekly (regular) users that is taken by those 30 to 4 ... more

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Religious Internet Communication: Facts, Experiences and Trends in the Catholic Church

Daniel Arasa, Lorenzo Cantoni, Lucio Adrián Ruiz (eds.)

Rome: EDUSC (2010), 250 pp.

"The authors present a broad corpus of data and suggest some potential theoretical patterns for their interpretation. Through this they invite the readers to look with a critical eye at their research and draw their own conclusions as to the potential implications these forms of usage have for the C ... more

The Media of Afghanistan: The Challenges of Transition Top Insights

The Media of Afghanistan: The Challenges of Transition
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