"This book provides an overview of fake news detection, both through a variety of tutorial-style survey articles that capture advancements in the field from various facets and in a somewhat unique direction through expert perspectives from various disciplines. The approach is based on the idea that
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advancing the frontier on data science approaches for fake news is an interdisciplinary effort, and that perspectives from domain experts are crucial to shape the next generation of methods and tools." (Publisher description)
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"This book investigates the ways in which the mobile telephone has transformed societies around the world, bringing both opportunities and challenges. At a time when knowledge and truth are increasingly contested, the book asks how mobile technology has changed the ways in which people create, disse
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minate, and access knowledge. Worldwide, mobile internet access has surpassed desktop access, and it is estimated that by 2022 there will be an excess of 6 billion mobile phone users in the world. This widespread proliferation raises all sorts of questions around who creates knowledge, how is that knowledge shared and proliferated, and what are the structural political, economic, and legal conditions in which knowledge is accessed. The practices and power dynamics around mobile technologies are location specific. They look different depending on whether one chooses to highlight the legal, social, political, or economic context. Bringing together scholars, journalists, activists and practitioners from around the world, this book embraces this complexity, providing a multifaceted picture that acknowledges the tensions and contradictions surrounding accessing knowledge through mobile technologies. With case studies from Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Syria, Egypt, Botswana, Brazil, and the US, this book provides an important account of the changing nature of our access to knowledge, and is key reading for students, researchers, activists and policy makers with an interest in technology and access to knowledge, communication, social transformation, and global development." (Publisher description)
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"This Situation Report on the “Impact of COVID-19 on Media Freedom, Media Business Viability, and the Safety of Journalists in Southeast Asia” offers an insight into the key impacts of the pandemic on the media across nine countries. The report proposes recommendations for enabling sustainable a
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nd effective media standards to improve media freedom and the safety of journalists. It also explores potential solutions, and innovations for media business viability in the region. The publication comes at a time when news organisations have been forced to accelerate their move to providing more extensive digital services due to various lockdown restrictions, with some not having the resources to make this transition successfully. These additional financial pressures caused by COVID-19 are happening against a backdrop of broader threats to media freedom and the safety of journalists. Another challenge facing media freedom in the region is the introduction of laws purporting to combat the spread of disinformation and misinformation. While such laws have been introduced under the guise of protecting the public, they are more often used as tools to limit the ability of journalists to hold power to account. As countries geared up to fight COVID-19, a crackdown on independent journalism and critical reporting ensued. Many news outlets and media workers, notably journalists, have faced unprecedented risks to their physical and mental well-being, amid unrelenting, and intensified crackdowns on media freedom. Creating a safe and enabling environment for media and journalists to be able to work independently is a prerequisite for democracies to flourish. The issues pertaining to the safety of journalists and media sustainability during a time of crisis such as COVID-19, require attention from all stakeholders, including both state and non-state actors." (Summary, page 115)
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"The Data Journalism Handbook provides a rich and panoramic introduction to data journalism, combining both critical reflection and practical insight. It offers a diverse collection of perspectives on how data journalism is done around the world and the broader consequences of datafication in the ne
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ws, serving as both a textbook and a sourcebook for this emerging field. With more than 50 chapters from leading researchers and practitioners of data journalism, it explores the work needed to render technologies and data productive for journalistic purposes. It also gives a "behind the scenes" look at the social lives of data sets, data infrastructures, and data stories in newsrooms, media organizations, start-ups, civil society organizations and beyond." (Publisher description)
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"Featuring contributions from a diverse range of internationally-recognized experts and practitioners, this timely volume discusses recent developments in the field in the context of related scholarship, public policy, formal and non-formal teaching and learning, and DIY and community practice. Offe
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ring a truly global perspective, the Handbook focuses on empirical work from Media and Information Literacy (MIL) practitioners from around the world. The book’s five parts explore global youth cultures and the media, trans-media learning, media literacy and scientific controversies, varying national approaches to media research, media education policies, and much more." (Publisher description)
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"This book examines the role of 24/7 television news channels in Bangladesh. By using a multisited ethnography of television news media, it showcases the sociopolitical undercurrents of media practices and the everydayness of TV news in Bangladesh. It discusses a wide gamut of issues such as news ma
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king, the localized public sphere, audience reaction and viewing culture, the impact of rumours and fake news, sociopolitical conditions, protest mobilization, newsroom politics and perspectives from the ground." (Publisher description)
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"This volume provides a critical examination of the evolution of platform economies in India. Contributions from leading media and communications scholars present case studies that illustrate the social and economic ambitions at the heart of Digital India. Across interdisciplinary domains of busines
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s, labour, politics, and culture, this book examines how digital platforms are embedding automated systems into the social fabrics of everyday life." (Publisher description)
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"This book serves as a convenient entry point for researchers, practitioners, and students to understand the problems and challenges, learn state-of-the-art solutions for their specific needs, and quickly identify new research problems in their domains. The contributors to this volume describe the r
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ecent advancements in three related parts: (1) user engagements in the dissemination of information disorder; (2) techniques on detecting and mitigating disinformation; and (3) trending issues such as ethics, blockchain, clickbaits, etc. This edited volume will appeal to students, researchers, and professionals working on disinformation, misinformation and fake news in social media from a unique lens. (Publisher description)
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"All human and social activity depends on communication. No matter the issue — poverty, conflict resolution, self-determination, migration, health, land, housing, the climate crisis — little can be done without effective communication. A framework is needed that enables, empowers, and transforms
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; that challenges power structures and sociocultural traditions to guarantee the public voices and genuine participation of everyone — especially poor, marginalized, excluded and dispossessed people and communities. Such a framework is offered by the concept and practice of communication rights. Since communication clearly underpins genuinely sustainable development and requires equitable access to information and knowledge, to information and communication technologies, as well as plurality and diversity in the media, this book identifies the missing UN Sustainable Development Goal 18: Communication for All, whose purpose is to expand and strengthen public civic spaces through equitable and affordable access to communication technologies and platforms, media pluralism, and media diversity." (Back cover)
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"How do videos, movies and documentaries dedicated to indigenous communities transform the media landscape of South Asia? Based on extensive original research, this book examines how in South Asia popular music videos, activist political clips, movies and documentaries about, by and for indigenous c
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ommunities take on radically new significances. Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia shows how in the portrayal of indigenous groups by both 'insiders' and 'outsiders' imaginations of indigeneity and nation become increasingly interlinked. Indigenous groups, typically marginal to the nation, are at the same time part of mainstream polities and cultures. Drawing on perspectives from media studies and visual anthropology, this book compares and contrasts the situation in South Asia with indigeneity globally." (Publisher description)
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"Indian Film Stars offers original insights and important reappraisals of film stardom in India from the early talkie era of the 1930s to the contemporary period of global blockbusters. The collection represents a substantial intervention to our understanding of the development of film star cultures
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in India during the 20th and 21st centuries. The contributors seek to inspire and inform further inquiries into the histories of film stardom-the industrial construction and promotion of star personalities, the actual labouring and imagined lifestyles of professional stars, the stars' relationship to specific aesthetic cinematic conventions (such as frontality and song-dance) and production technologies (such as the play-back system and post-synchronization), and audiences' investment in and devotion to specific star bodies-across the country's multiple centres of film production and across the overlapping (and increasingly international) zones of the films' distribution and reception. The star images, star bodies and star careers discussed are examined in relation to a wide range of issues, including the negotiation and contestation of tradition and modernity, the embodiment and articulation of both Indian and non-Indian values and vogues; the representation of gender and sexuality, of race and ethnicity, and of cosmopolitan mobility and transnational migration; innovations and conventions in performance style; the construction and transformation of public persona; the star's association with film studios and the mainstream media; the star's relationship with historical, political and cultural change and memory; and the star's meaning and value for specific (including marginalised) sectors of the audience." (Publisher description)
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"The book contains 85 chapters written by persons who have been on those frontlines of communication and development [...] A variety of case studies appear in the book. For example, Kriss Barker and Fatou Jah – in a chapter titled “Entertainment-Education in Radio: Three Case Studies from Africa
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” – explore in detail projects in Nigeria, Burundi and Burkina Faso that used a communication intervention approach advanced by the Population Media Center. Other chapters in the Handbook take the reader to Spain, Kenya, South Africa, Kazakhstan, and beyond. Song Shi examines “ICTs and Modernization in China,” revealing that assumptions and theories of the modernization paradigm have significantly influenced the policies and projects on ICT4D in contemporary China. And, Song Shi writes, discussion on the potential of other approaches in ICT4D in China has also emerged among scholars. Hina Ayaz discusses the “Multiplicity Approach in Participatory Communication” in Pakistan – wherein the country adopted the Global Polio Eradication Initiative – only to run into negative perceptions and banning of polio vaccinations. However, a shift to a more successful approach, grounded in UNICEF’s social mobilization and communityinvolvement communication strategy, brought significant success. While many of the Handbook case studies incorporate participation as a significant development factor, they also address a wide range of social and political issues including, for example, civic engagement, sexual harassment, empowerment, and community voices. In addition to an abundance of case studies from around the world, the Handbook delves into various research methods that are being used to understand and design communication for development and social change interventions [...] Handbook editor Jan Servaes' own chapter (with Rico Lie), “Key Concepts, Disciplines, and Fields in Communication for Development and Social Change ” identifies five clusters of concepts and practices that are evident in the field today and which determine the activities and approaches in communication for sustainable development and social change interventions: The clusters are (1) a normative cluster of concepts; (2) a cluster of concepts that sets an important context for communication activities for development; (3) a cluster of strategic and methodological concepts; (4) a cluster of concepts that relate to methods, techniques, and tools; and (5) a cluster of concepts that addresses the practices of advocacy, (participatory) monitoring and evaluation, and impact assessment. The authors extend their discussion into three subdivisions: (1) health communication, (2) agricultural extension and rural communication, and (3) environmental communication (including climate change communication). This leads the reader into issues related to (1) right to communicate; (2) education and learning; (3) innovation, science, and technology; (4) natural resource management; (5) food security; (6) poverty reduction; (7) peace and conflict; (8) children and youth, women, and senior citizens; and (9) tourism. Some of the forerunners of development communication have not been forgotten. In “Daniel Lerner and the Origins of Development Communication”, Hemant Shah links Lerner’s 1958 book Passing of Traditional Society to today’s modernization and faith in technology to solve social problems. Also contributing to the foundation of this field is Paulo Freire who contributed much to idea that participation should be a vital part of the development dialogue. Ana Fernández-Aballí Altamirano’s chapter on "The Importance of Paulo Freire to Communication for Development and Social Change" highlights his main work Pedagogy of the Oppressed as a "before-and-after" in the fields of education, research, and communication, initially in Latin America and later in both North and South. Particularly in the case of development communication and communication for social change, the author stresses, Freire’s work had a definitive impact ..." (Review by Royal Donald Colle, Journal of Development Communication, vol. 30 (2), page 92-94)
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"Identification of specific contributions made by community radio for translating the rhetoric of participation and empowerment into practice requires more attention. There is also a need to conduct more theoretical and empirical studies on “women and community radio.” The study attempts to fulf
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ill these needs to an extent, and offers a fresh perspective to look at the ways community radio can be evaluated. Women’s narratives about the influence on health aspects by Henvalvani Community Radio situated in Chamba, a region of India, provided the necessary data and helped in finding the role of such participatory technologies in affecting the agency of the women. Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action and Kleine’s Choice Framework guided the analysis. Empowerment through Communication (ETC) framework is proposed to provide a new perspective for comprehending the impact made by a community radio in influencing health seeking behavior of women. The study establishes Henvalvani Community Radio as a feminist public sphere helpful in altering the socio-cultural praxis of health communication." (Abstract)
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"Children with disabilities often experience exclusion within their communities, and this exclusion can extend into research processes. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, however, emphasizes that children of all abilities need to be involved as decision makers in matters affec
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ting them. This article provides an in-depth description of the process of a participatory action research project carried out with children with disabilities from a rural village in India. It argues for the utility of participatory filmmaking as a research methodology that supports inclusion of children with disabilities as co-researchers in research and action processes. The different phases of the research project, namely the preparatory, participatory research, and the action phase, are made transparent along with the details of activities carried out within each phase. The technical and pragmatic challenges faced within this participatory filmmaking process are pointed out, and strategies used to negotiate challenges and adapt this methodology to fit context-specific needs are shared. This account of the complex, yet flexible and adaptable, participatory filmmaking process is presented as means to support critical and informed uptakes of participatory filmmaking for inclusive research practices with children with disabilities." (Abstract)
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"Digital media histories are part of a global network, and South Asia is a key nexus in shaping the trajectory of digital media in the twenty-first century. Digital platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and others are deeply embedded in the daily lives of millions of people around the world, shaping ho
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w people engage with others as kin, as citizens, and as consumers. Moving away from Anglo-American and strictly national frameworks, the essays in this book explore the intersections of local, national, regional, and global forces that shape contemporary digital culture(s) in regions like South Asia: the rise of digital and mobile media technologies, the ongoing transformation of established media industries, and emergent forms of digital media practice and use that are reconfiguring sociocultural, political, and economic terrains across the Indian subcontinent. From massive state-driven digital identity projects and YouTube censorship to Tinder and dating culture, from Twitter and primetime television to Facebook and political rumors, Global Digital Cultures focuses on enduring concerns of representation, identity, and power while grappling with algorithmic curation and data-driven processes of production, circulation, and consumption." (Publisher description)
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"The media's coverage of religion is an important question, given the central role which news media play in ensuring that people are up-to-date with religion news developments. The book examines it in different countries. After an introductory section looking at trends in religion news in print, on-
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line journalism, and as a subject of foreign news, the book surveys religion reporting in five key countries: USA, Russia, India, China, & Nigeria. The book then looks at media events through the cases of the election of Pope Francis, and the death of rabbis. The book addresses the question of the influence of religion reporting in politics; the impact of religion reporting upon religious identity; and the role of social media - through looking at case studies in France, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel." (Publisher description)
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"A decade long civil war ended with a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2006. To address the political developments, the Interim Constitution was promulgated in 2007. Though the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 guarantees press freedom, every year various incidents of press freedom violation
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are recorded by various national and international organizations. This article evaluates the situation of press freedom in Nepal since the signing of CPA 2006 by analyzing all the incidents of press freedom violation from 2007 to 2014 as recorded by International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). The analysis of those events shows lack of sufficient evidence and information to justify them as the press freedom violation. No matter where and how the journalist or media owner is killed, threatened or harmed physically, it is termed as press freedom violation. The situation of Press freedom after peace agreement in 2006 is not that critical as projected in various reports and there is no government censorship in media. However, if the mechanism by which press freedom violation cases are recorded could be reviewed and more details are included, those reports will be much reliable. This tendency of reflecting critical situation of press freedom by projecting every incident without an adequate investigation might deviate from other issues related to journalist’s profession and further it might not motivate journalist and media to adhere to the code of ethics and become responsible to their profession. Though, the issue of professional safety of journalists could not be ignored, not all the incidents related to journalist are the cases of press freedom violation." (Abstract)
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