"This book offers a systematic study of media education in Latin America. As spending on technological infrastructure in the region increases exponentially for educational purposes, and with national curriculums beginning to implement media related skills, this book makes a timely contribution to ne
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w debates surrounding the significance of media literacy as a citizen’s right. Taking both a topical and country-based approach, authors from across Latin America present a comprehensive perspective of the region and address issues such as the political and social contexts in which media education is based, the current state of educational policies with respect to media, organizations and experiences that promote media education." (Publisher description)
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"[Este libro] presenta ocho capítulos que se muestran críticos frente a las posibilidades y promesas de la cultura digital, denunciando que la red ha reproducido las formas de desigualdad del mundo analógico. Los autores proponen una reflexión crítica frente a ciertos discursos que se presentan
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como democráticos y subversivos en la sociedad del e-conocimiento, pero que esconden en su funcionamiento retazos de la tiranía monopolizadora neocapitalista que ha encontrado en el ciberespacio un nuevo lugar de colonización y explotación. Muestran una visión crítica, política e ideológica desde el ámbito latinoamericano, una visión un tanto tecnopesimista en ocasiones, pero muy necesaria en el siglo xxi." (Prólogo, página 10)
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"The innovative research in Video Games and the Global South focuses on a range of topics including art games and serious games from the global south, postcolonialism and cultural representation, player communities, software modification (modding), intercultural communication online, racism and sexi
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sm in game culture, the global growth of eSports, social media use in relation to gaming and the use of games to connect users and communities across the globe. Some fifteen years ago, Uruguayan theorist and game developer Gonzalo Frasca spoke of the possibility of creating “video games of the oppressed,” using the medium as a tool for education, socio-political awareness and consciousness-raising. In short, Frasca advocated for the appropriation of the means of game production by actors in the global south, and the repurposing of these technologies in ways that would benefit the region’s inhabitants. A decade and a half later, we can see that many gamers and game developers from across the global south have taken up this challenge, contributing to game cultures and creating games that respond to the obstacles and affordances of their particular geographical, socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts. Video Games and the Global South brings together perspectives from a range of disciplines, critical methodologies and theoretical approaches. Together, the 20 contributing essays advance the critical methodology for analyzing the relationship between games and culture, as well as historically contextualized insight into the cultural impact of video games and the development of games and game cultures across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America, the Indian subcontinent, Oceania and Asia." (Publisher description)
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"Despite the efforts of the news industry, we find only a small increase in the numbers paying for any online news – whether by subscription, membership, or donation. Growth is limited to a handful of countries mainly in the Nordic region (Norway 34%, Sweden 27%) while the number paying in the US
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(16%) remains stable after a big jump in 2017. • Even in countries with higher levels of payment, the vast majority only have ONE online subscription – suggesting that ‘winner takes all’ dynamics are likely to be important. One encouraging development though is that most payments are now ‘ongoing’, rather than one-offs. In some countries, subscription fatigue may also be setting in, with the majority preferring to spend their limited budget on entertainment (Netflix/Spotify) rather than news. With many seeing news as a ‘chore’, publishers may struggle to substantially increase the market for high-priced ‘single title’ subscriptions. As more publishers launch pay models, over two-thirds (70%) of our sample in Norway and half (50%) in the United States now come across one or more barriers each week when trying to read online news. In many countries, people are spending less time with Facebook and more time with WhatsApp and Instagram than this time last year. Few users are abandoning Facebook entirely, though, and it remains by far the most important social network for news. Social communication around news is becoming more private as messaging apps continue to grow everywhere. WhatsApp has become a primary network for discussing and sharing news in non-Western countries like Brazil (53%) Malaysia (50%), and South Africa (49%). People in these countries are also far more likely than in the West to be part of large WhatsApp groups with people they don’t know – a trend that reflects how messaging applications can be used to easily share information at scale, potentially encouraging the spread of misinformation. Public and private Facebook Groups discussing news and politics have become popular in Turkey (29%) and Brazil (22%) but are much less used in Western countries such as Canada (7%) or Australia (7%). Concern about misinformation and disinformation remains high despite efforts by platforms and publishers to build public confidence. In Brazil 85% agree with a statement that they are worried about what is real and fake on the internet." (Summary, page 9)
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"Drawing from 93 semi-structured, in-person interviews with journalists from 23 states, this article analyzes the relation between trust and risk perception in Mexican journalism. It focuses on how Mexican journalists perceive and experience public trust placed in them as social actors, and how it i
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nfluences their willingness or reluctance to assume the risks associated with reporting on corruption and drug-trafficking in a country marked by anti-press violence. The findings challenge previous studies as they show that journalists from all regions of the country –even in the so-called safe states– are fearful, even when they have not been victims of threats, beatings or kidnappings. Also, it explains that the connection between institutions and journalism makes news workers feel unprotected and unaccompanied. As a result, they accept self-censorship and even express a willingness to resign. Thus, this article surpasses the social, spatial and temporal delimitations of risk, by arguing that distrust in journalists increases the dangers they face." (Abstract)
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"Focusing in particular on Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, Tamara Falicov examines commonalities among Latin American film industries, such as the challenges of procuring funding, competition from Hollywood, state funding battles, and the fickle nature of audiences, as well as censorship issues, compe
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tition from television, and the transnational nature of Latin American film. She addresses production, exhibition, and distribution contexts and financing and co-production with Europe and the United States, as well as the role of film festivals in funding and circulating films both within and outside of Latin America. Newer trends such as the revival of protectionist measures like the screen quota are framed in contrast to the U.S.'s push for trade policy liberalization and issues of universal concern such as film piracy, and new technologies and the role of television in helping and hindering Latin American cinema." (Publisher description)
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"[...] Uno de los principales fines del Proyecto PoLaMe consistía en la construcción de una taxonomía del léxico de la pobreza que funcionara como un insumo útil para la consulta de periodistas, especialistas en discurso y estudiosos del fenómeno de la pobreza en español y portugués. Ese es
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el principal objetivo que anima la producción de este libro. La presente publicación contiene dos capítulos que de algún modo enmarcan el trabajo de todos los equipos: esta introducción y un capítulo referido a la construcción del corpus. El resto se estructura en tres secciones: Sección I. Léxico de la pobreza en la prensa de Argentina, Colombia y México; Sección II. Léxico da pobreza na imprensa brasileira; Sección III. Taxonomía del estudio lingüístico de la pobreza en la prensa de Argentina, Colombia y México." (Página 17)
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"This booklet contains a series of stories and essays on the impact and rationale behind the various PubLeaks platforms that Free Press Unlimited has helped set up over the years." (Publisher description)
"WhatsApp und Facebook werden auch in Lateinamerika massiv genutzt, vor allem aufgrund ihres vermeintlich kostenlosen Charakters. Auch dort wird das Problem der rechten Meinungsmache und der Fake News diskutiert, denn die Tatsache, dass sich die Leute heute vor allem über Werbeplattformen informier
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en, die unzutreffend „soziale Medien“ genannt werden, hat handfeste politische Auswirkungen. In Brasilien und El Salvador wurden die jüngsten Wahlen nicht über Präsenz und Debatten in den traditionellen Medien gewonnen, sondern über gut vorbereitete und teure WhatsApp-Kampagnen. In Brasilien siegt so der Rechtsextremist Jair Bolsonaro, in El Salvador der politische Wende-hals und PR-Profi Nayib Bukele. Die brasilianischen WhatsApp-Nutzer*innen wurden während des Wahlkampfs mit gefälschtem, häufig explizit sexuellem Inhalt geflutet, wie etwa der Meldung, dass die Arbeiterpartei plane, Babyfläschchen mit Nuckel in Penisform zu verteilen, um die Homosexualisierung der Kleinkinder voranzutreiben.
Haarsträubendes postfaktisches Zeitalter – warum fallen Fake News auf fruchtbaren Boden? Klar ist: Klassische Medien haben ihre Funktion als „Gatekeeper“, als Instanzen, die sortieren und filtern, längst eingebüßt. Die Gesellschaften werden vielfältiger und unübersichtlicher: mehr Pluralität auf der einen Seite, andererseits immer tiefere Gräben, die sich durch die Gesellschaften ziehen. Die mediale Öffentlichkeit und die Zugangsbedingungen zu ihr wandeln sich. Die Menschen misstrauen „denen da oben“ durchaus zu Recht. Aber die kommerziellen Global Tech Player beherrschen die Räume für Kommunikation, Information und Meinungsbildung mit Algorithmen. Das hat Folgen. Das Geschäftsmodell basiert auf Datenschürfen, kombiniert mit persönlich zugeschnittener Werbung. Du bekommst das, was du sehen und hören willst, nicht was wahr ist und den Tatsachen entspricht. Und davon profitieren vor allem rechtspopulistische Akteure.
Gibt es dazu einen funktionierenden linken Gegenentwurf? Wir, die Macher*innen der ila und ähnlich Gesinnte, wollten eigentlich schon immer zur Bildung einer Gegenöffentlichkeit beitragen, positionierten uns gegen den „bürgerlichen Journalismus als Stellvertreterjournalismus“, wollten „Betroffenenberichterstattung“. Heute haben Rechte und Rechtsextreme den Begriff „Gegenöffentlichkeit“ für sich gekapert. Und jetzt haben wir den Salat.
Aktuell existiert eine Öffentlichkeit jenseits der Dichotomie „staatlich geregelt oder privat“. Wir haben kein Problem mehr damit, unsere eigenen Inhalte zu verbreiten und eigene Medien zu schaffen. Das stellt allerdings noch längst nicht sicher, dass wir auch gehört werden. Der springende Punkt ist nicht mehr der Zugang, sondern die Reichweite. Wir konkurrieren mit allen anderen Anbietern von welcher Information auch immer um Aufmerksamkeit. Und dabei verfügen wir, kaum anders als früher, immer noch über die schwächeren Möglichkeiten.
Wie sieht also das Überleben im „Plattformkapitalismus“ aus, wie sich darin bewegen, schützen, informieren, seine Meinung bilden und als politisch Aktive oder alternative Medienschaffende die eigenen Inhalte verbreiten? Dazu ein paar Ideen, die sich aus der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema und lateinamerikanischen Gesprächspartner*innen herauskristallisieren: Versteht, die Technik zu verstehen (in Lateinamerika ist die Rede von hackear la tecnología, also die Technologie für die eigenen Zwecke zu nutzen wissen), wahrt eine kritische Distanz, haltet eure Informationsquellen vielfältig (was vor allem auch Kindern und Jugendlichen vermittelt werden sollte), schafft und nutzt alternative Plattformen. Manchmal kann auch digitales Fasten das Gebot der Stunde sein. Handy aus und raus auf die Straße – oder in den Wald." (Editorial)
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"La Guía para el diseño de estrategias de comunicación para la defensa del territorio busca contribuir a una pacificación integral de los territorios utilizando como herramienta la comunicación comunitaria. Algunos podrían pensar que somos idealistas, pensarán que sólo siendo bruscos e impon
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iéndonos con violencia y miedo se terminan las guerras. Queda claro, con las enseñanzas de Sun Tzu y los Pueblos Indígenas, que con sutileza, paciencia, astucia y creatividad se pueden construir mundos más vivibles, más humanos. La primera nos lleva invariablemente hacia la muerte y la destrucción, la segunda nos permite imaginar otros mundos. Por último, esta “Guía” busca ser eso, una guía, en consecuencia, no tiene respuestas estáticas o lo que yo llamo “de receta”. Por el contrario, se alimenta de preguntas, paisajes, sueños y esperanzas. Esta guía necesita del movimiento porque sólo así podremos defender el territorio, es decir, la vida." (Página 1)
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"Three years after writing the report Publishing for Peanuts, in which we surveyed 35 media startups mostly from the Global South, we decided to go back and see how the outlets had fared. Our area of interest in 2015 was small-to-medium size independent media outlets with a track record of consisten
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tly producing credible content independently of state and mainstream media in the countries in which they were operating. ‘Startup’ describes their work practices but, in fact, some of those we interviewed had been in operation for many years but may have undergone a relaunch or adapted to new circumstances following a political event. Those “Global Muckraker” outlets remained our focus in 2018. As questions about media viability remain unanswered we wanted to understand the experiences of journalists in the Global South. Returning to the 35 outlets, we found three had failed, and six had been seriously reconfigured or renamed [...] Our key findings: Financial survival is the biggest worry for the media outlets we profiled, followed by political risk and physical safety. The outlets remain dependent on donors. Advertising is hard to come by and raising funding from audiences has proven difficult. Donors need to accept this reality and be willing to commit to long-term support for outlets creating a public good. The grim political climate, rise of right-wing demagogues and attacks on the media have made the outlets feel appreciated in many countries. They recounted tales of support and encouragement from their audiences. But this sentiment does not translate into sustainable forms of funding. The outlets have professionalized in the sense that many now have accounting software, bookkeepers and full-time staff working on grant writing. But many still rely on unpaid contributors and some use office space that was provided for free or rented at a discount. There is a strong correlation between employing a full-time marketing staffer and generating revenue ..." (Executive summary)
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"Surveys conducted in 11 emerging and developing countries across four global regions [Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia; South Africa and Kenya; India, Vietnam and the Philippines; and Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon] find that the vast majority of adults in these countries own – or have access to – a
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mobile phone of some kind. And these mobile phones are not simply basic devices with little more than voice and texting capacity: A median of 53% across these nations now have access to a smartphone capable of accessing the internet and running apps. In concert with this development, social media platforms and messaging apps – most notably, Facebook and WhatsApp – are widely used. Across the surveyed countries, a median of 64% use at least one of seven different social media sites or messaging apps. Indeed, smartphones and social media have melded so thoroughly that for many they go hand-in-hand. A median of 91% of smartphone users in these countries also use social media, while a median of 81% of social media users say they own or share a smartphone." (Page 4)
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"El texto se inicia con un trabajo estelar del maestro Ismar de Oliveira-Soares (Brasil), un referente latinoamericano e internacional sobre la Educomunicación durante más de cuatro décadas. Su trabajo “Educomunicación universal: Derechos y deberes ante las pantallas” hace una profunda refle
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xión basada en su sabiduría sobre la necesidad de fomentar una ciudadanía inteligente ante el macrocosmos de imágenes y pantallas que nos rodean. El bloque central de este trabajo se centra en “Investigaciones” realizadas en Europa y América de investigadores de Alfamed, en el que se analizan múltiples enfoques y ángulos de un tema complejo que requiere infinitas respuestas. Posiblemente no hay una realidad social tan acuciante que requieran tantas y necesarias alternativas desde la investigación y la academia. Este bloque de “Investigaciones” se distribuye en cuatro secciones: la primera sobre “Enseñanza-aprendizaje”, la más numerosa por la trascendencia de la educación formal en el proceso de alfabetización mediática; en segundo lugar, “Comunicación digital: Creación de contenidos”, por la creciente importancia del “prosumidor” (prosumer) en los procesos de educación en medios; en tercer lugar, “Empoderamiento”, en línea con el gran objetivo de reflexión de este texto que, a su vez, supone un reto social e irremplazable; y finalmente “Acceso y uso” con un análisis sobre las interacciones actuales con los medios. La primera sección “Enseñanza-aprendizaje” se compone de 11 interesantes trabajos provenientes de Europa (España, Italia y Portugal) y América (Bolivia, Brasil, Canadá, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador y Venezuela) [...] El segundo bloque dentro de “Investigación”, titulado “Comunicación digital: Creación de contenidos”, se centra en la nueva comunicación interactiva, bidireccional y multidireccional que permite a cualquier consumidor convertirse en un “prosumidor” (prosumer). La sección se compone de cuatro trabajos firmados por investigadores americanos de Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador y México [...] La segunda parte de este amplio y variado bloque se titula “Buenas prácticas” y se ha diseñado como un complemento de la primera, ya que investigación y acción se retroalimentan y no pueden existir una sin la otra, so pena de perder el necesario contexto teórico-práctico que ha de tener la investigación en competencia mediática y digital." (Prólogo, página 12-14)
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