"Quality media are indispensable. People must be able to form opinions competently. They must also be free to express their views. At the same time, there must be limits to slander, fake-news propaganda and the spreading of conspiracy theories. The internet is proving to be ambivalent. On the one ha
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nd, some kinds of online exchange are excellent – not least, as some news websites are standing up to governments with authoritarian tendencies. On the other hand, the under-regulated cyber sphere gives too much scope for spreading lies and disinformation." (Page 3)
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"In recent years, China’s playbook for expanding influence under the banner of “common destiny” is well known, with tactics ranging from ‘soft power’ incentive structures to ‘wolf warrior’ diplomatic brawls played out on the front pages of local newspapers. But how consistent is China
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s approach, especially against the backdrop of two years of pandemic disruption and a recalibrating global political environment? The purpose of this IFJ research project is to understand how the Chinese government ad media apparatus attempt to influence the global narrative about China’s role and place in the world. Since 2019, IFJ research has been gathered and compiled in collaboration with journalists’ unions in countries including Myanmar, Tunisia, Serbia, Italy, Kenya, Peru, and the Philippines. Through a series of surveys, round table discussions, interviews and other types of research, data and information has been gathered to help inform understanding about China’s approach to the media and its efforts to shape a global narrative on China before and after Covid-19 [...] This report, which surveys working journalists directly in China’s high-priority investment and infrastructure locations (Kenya, Peru, and the Philippines), finds evidence that overt ambassadorial gestures and direct pressure on local journalists is not common. On the flip side, attempts to influence international perceptions via ‘vaccine diplomacy’ and investment in expanding Chinese media networks in international markets appears to be thriving." (Summary, page 2)
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"This ground-breaking three-year global study on gender-based online violence against women journalists represents collaborative research covering 15 countries. It is the most geographically, linguistically, and ethnically diverse scoping of the crisis conducted up until late 2022. The research draw
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s on: the inputs of nearly 1,100 survey participants and interviewees; 2 big data case studies examining 2.5 million social media posts directed at Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa (The Philippines) and multi award-winning investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr (UK); 15 detailed individual country case studies. The Chilling illuminates the evolving challenges faced by women journalists dealing with prolific and/or sustained online violence around the world. It calls out the victim-blaming and slut-shaming that perpetuates sexist and misogynistic responses to offline violence against women in the online environment, where patriarchal norms are being aggressively reinforced. It also clearly demonstrates that the incidence and impacts of gender-based online violence are worse at the intersection of misogyny and other forms of discrimination, such as racism, religious bigotry, antisemitism, homophobia and transphobia. Further, it identifies political actors who leverage misogyny and anti-news media narratives in their attacks as top perpetrators of online violence against women journalists, while the main vectors are social media platforms - most notably Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube." (Exexutive summary)
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"Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Filipino reporters and editors from three influential media outlets that then President Rodrigo Duterte targeted as enemies – the broadcaster ABS-CBN, the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the website Rappler – this paper offers novel i
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nsights on journalists’ counterstrategies with appeals to their strengthened roles as watchdogs, interpreters and disseminators of populist communication. Findings indicate that journalists discard practices like false equivalence and shift roles including from being detached observers to media freedom advocates and truth activists to respond to institutional attacks, rising disinformation, and perceived democratic erosion as they seek to speak truth to a populist in power. The study provides theoretical and empirical contributions by combining paradigm repair and role perceptions as tools in analyzing journalists’ responses to legitimacy threats, and by presenting an understudied case of anti-media populism in the Global South." (Abstract)
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"Guided by the relational prayer theory (Baesler, 2002), this paper analyzed how Catholics flipped their homes as church to be saved from COVID-19 uncertainties by attending online masses at the Manila Cathedral (MC). Through Facebook Analytics, the study determined the number of attendees to online
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masses from March 2020 to March 2021. Implications of mass attendance to spirituality were validated by a survey of 104 MC online mass subscribers through snowball sampling. As triangulate measure, two key informants were interviewed. More than 200,000 tuned in to online masses monthly with an average of 69,863 with the highest frequencies on Sundays. Survey results revealed that one out of three respondents attended the 8:00 AM Sunday mass without fail and who prayed together as a family using smart television. They prayed not to get sick and were thankful for answered prayers and blessings received despite the crisis. As a form of mission and indulgence, they help others and donate to the church or pray fervently to ask for forgiveness. Given the choice, an overwhelming majority wants to physically attend the mass to confess and receive the Holy Communion. It can be surmised that flipping church services from offline to online became a regular Sunday ritual which implies that spirituality can occur anytime, anywhere, especially during a pandemic." (Abstract)
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"This study aims to explore the perspectives of policymakers involved in ongoing efforts to boost vaccine confidence in the Philippines following a 2017 Dengvaxia scare and the current COVID-19 pandemic. Between August and November 2020, we conducted 19 semi-structured narrative interviews with purp
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osively selected policymakers from governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations in the Philippines. Interviews were conducted online, transcribed, and analyzed following the tenets of reflexive thematic analysis. We present results as an emerging model that draws on a chronology conveyed by policymakers in their own words. The Dengvaxia scare proved ‘a decisive wedge’ that splintered Filipino society and pitted governmental agencies against one another. The scare stoked distorted vaccination narratives, which were ‘accelerated rapidly’ via social media, and ignited feelings of uncertainty among policymakers of how to convey clear, accurate health messaging and how to prevent drops in care-seeking more broadly." (Abstract)
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"This report aims to introduce techniques and procedures of NLP (Natural Language Processing), the computational preparation and analysis of text data, to map the public voice and aid development. First, the report introduces essential concepts of communication and elaborates on the theoretical foun
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dations of natural language analyses. Second, the report reviews research on NLP of social media text data by showcasing studies that have applied the techniques to the Sustainable Development Goals. Third, the report reviews specific NLP techniques, including data preprocessing, and dicusses libraries and programming procedures. It also reviews concepts such as keyword extraction to identify relevant terms, topic modeling to detect common themes, and text classification to recognize language features. These NLP techniques are showcased in two case studies. The first shows how topic modeling can be applied to derive insights on the public debate over climate change in Australia. The second demonstrates how text classification can be leveraged to analyze public sentiment on COVID-19 in the Philippines. Finally, the report discusses the challenges and limitations, as well as the potentials, of NLP." (Foreword)
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"A momentous occasion during the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines (2021-2022) was the opening of the doors of churches around the country for the Jubilee. It featured the country’s pilgrimage sites as dynamic sources of Catholicism. However, the pilgrims faced two challenges: t
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he restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the appreciation of the Jubilee despite these limitations. This researcher gathered testimonies from people from selected shrines in the Philippines in connection with challenges and perspectives on how shrine programs are developed. This was channeled through interviews in a weekly podcast on Marian devotions by Faith Watch of Areopagus Communications with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Media Office. Here, the researcher created focus group discussions concerning the pastoral situation of the shrines to identify a number of pastoral challenges met by shrines during the pandemic while celebrating the Jubilee." (Abstract)
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"With the prohibition of religious gatherings by the Philippine government to help curb the spread of the COVID-19, the Catholic Church had to close its doors to the public and instead hold masses and other activities online, primarily utilizing the livestreaming features of Facebook. The study prob
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ed how select parishes in the province of Bulacan engaged their parishioners online in light of the quarantine restrictions imposed in the area. Specifically, the study explores the concept of social communication as embedded in a new culture that is shaped by digital communication, in the context of the engagement of the Catholic Church and its faithful through Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guided by ideas regarding social communication by Eilers, participatory culture by Jenkins, and COBRA typology by Muntinga, Moorman, and Smit, as its theoretical lenses, this study utilizes a multi-method approach to achieve its objectives. Qualitative focus interviews were conducted with social media managers of Facebook pages of three parishes, as well as for parishioners who follow the selected parish Facebook pages. Data obtained from the content analysis and Facebook insights of the top performing posts of the parishes selected were also analyzed. Findings show that social media has changed how the Church communicates, and thus has forced the evolution of the concept of social communication. Given the size and scope of the various social media pages, they offered the Church viable fora for its visibility and evangelization. Moreover, although social media cannot totally substitute face-to-face gatherings, especially in-person worship, social media can support the Church’s community in a myriad of ways such as providing information about the parishes’ events, activities and advocacies, and allowing a space for the parishioners to engage in dialogue. Viewing communication as one that leads to communion or unity of its community, the current digital culture reshapes social communication as one that fosters a greater sense of participation in the creation and sharing of information among its members." (Abstract)
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"Muslims in the Movies provides a series of essays that explore the portrayal and reception of Muslims in Euro-American film, transnational productions, and global national cinemas. The volume brings together a group of internationally recognized experts to introduce Muslims in the films of Europe,
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North America, Australia, Iran, Egypt, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The interdisciplinary collection explores issues of identity, cultural production, and representation through the depiction of Muslims on screen and how audiences respond to these images. Together, the essays operate as an introduction to the subject of Muslims and film for new readers while also serving as new works of critical analysis for scholars of cinema." (Publisher description)
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"First, disinformation is enabled by the Philippines' history of colonialism and martial law, high social media usage and low digital literacy, compounding crises, strongman governance, and sexist and misogynist rhetoric from elected leaders. While the first three factors create conditions that gene
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rally enable disinformation, the final two factors directly contribute to the prevalence of gendered disinformation. Second, disinformation is used as a tool to confuse, distract, revise, and discredit, with the aim of suppressing dissent. More critically, analysis of Twitter data indicates that disinformation used to discredit relies on the policing of gender to undermine political opposition. Third, thsi policing of gender results in the weaponization of gendered relationships, which encourages narratives that reinforce gender inequalities. Finally, illiberal actors benefit from an environment marked by gender inequality, as such conditions support hegemonic masculine norms, which in turn consolidate authoritarian power. As a result, President Duterte and his supporters benefit from disinformation that encourages gender inequality and pursue disinformation as a tactic for weakening democratic governance in the Philippines." (Executive summary)
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"Internews’ work on disinformation in the Philippines aims at uniting the strengths of stakeholders in the media community, civil society, academia, private sector, and social media companies, along six axes: factchecking and myth busting, media and information literacy, public policy advocacy, di
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sinformation investigation, investment in trustworthy news and media, and algorithm accountability. The latter requires to understand the role each social media platform plays in the information ecosystem, to tailor specific strategies of engagement on and with these platforms. In that context, the Understudied Digital Platforms in the Philippines (UDPP) research project sought to understand the role of lesser-known digital platforms, such as TikTok and WeChat, in the Philippine information environment and draw out strategies to mitigate disinformation among their users. Internews worked with three researchers Jose Mari Hall Lanuza (University of the Philippines, Manila) and Rossine Fallorina and Samuel Cabbuag (University of the Philippines, Diliman) to conduct an Information Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) to look deeper into the role that these platforms play in the media and digital landscape, what their current and future impact may be, and where information actors need to focus their attention. The research provides an in-depth dive into these platforms, examining their affordances, information flows, user demographics, and disinformative potential. The research also offers preliminary recommendations for platforms, policymakers, and public stakeholders to establish regulated but democratic online public spheres within these platforms." (Publisher description)
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"This year's report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 92,000 online news consumers in 46 markets including India, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, Colombia and Peru for the first time. The report looks at the impact of coronavirus on news consumption a
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nd on the economic prospects for publishers. It looks at progress on new paid online business models, trust and misinformation, local news, impartiality and fairness in news coverage." (Overview)
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"Beyond Access was the first major global attempt to connect the international development and public library worlds. Taking the form of a series of projects in a dozen countries meant to help catalyze library development around national goals, the program operated from 2011 to 2018. Starting from a
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point at which libraries in most low – and middle-income countries were neglected, disused and staffed by librarians with outdated skills, it effectively launched public libraries into national dialogue in some countries and failed to do so in others. This article explores the conditions and actions that led to effective projects and what lessons for future library development efforts might be gleaned from the program’s work. In Myanmar and Georgia, the program attracted new investment into public libraries aligned with central government digital strategies. In Bangladesh and the Philippines, the program integrated public libraries into education efforts where they had been previously ignored. With more than a quarter million public libraries in low – and middle-income countries, there remains vast potential for library systems to reinforce their relevancy in the 21st century, attract new resources, and provide vital services. Library leaders around the world can build on the experience of Beyond Access to help inform initiatives to revivew libraries around modern needs." (https://www.ictworks.org, 2021/6/31)
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"The book brings together scholars from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia, reporting findings based on data collected from democratic, transitional, and non-democratic contexts to produce thematic chapters that address how journalistic cultures vary around the globe,
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specifically in relation to challenges that journalists face in performing their journalistic roles. The study measures, compares, and analyzes the materialization of the interventionist, the watchdog, the loyal-facilitator, the service, the infotainment, and the civic roles in more than 30,000 print news stories from 18 countries. It also draws from hundreds of surveys with journalists to explain the link between ideals and practices, and the conditions that shape this divide." (Publisher description)
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"This report provides an overview of the innovation capacity of the Asia-Pacific region through ICT-centric innovation activity and offers an insight to how good practice can strengthen Member State capacity to integrate ICT innovation into development agendas.
Although the Asia-Pacific region has a
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strong tradition of innovation, there is room for improvement, for example, some countries have healthy innovative ecosystems that perform well in some elements of the ecosystem but need further support in others to develop a thriving digital innovation ecosystem.
This report uses international indices to monitor the current state of innovation ecosystem performance, aspects of growth, gaps, and discrepancies. The information from these major indices has been analysed to create an ICT-centric innovation performance monitor that provides a comparative assessment of the innovation ecosystems both within and among countries in the region and a threshold for action by decision-makers.
There are many good practices in the region. Each practice presented in this report has been assessed according to three engines of growth (innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology) and the current state of the seven enablers of digital transformation. In addition, the ecosystem maturity map helps to assess stakeholder levels of engagement, for example where the first stage of the journey for entrepreneurs is entrepreneurial interest, and for the public sector it is having a vision and developing a strategy. These monitoring tools enable stakeholders to visualize the maturity of the ICT-centric innovation ecosystem and identify practices to keep, those that must be improved, and those to be replaced." (Introduction)
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"The Philippines is one of the first countries where the potential for online disinformation threats to undermine democratic processes, especially during elections, was noticed [...] This report takes a deep look at an online survey that Internews conducted, explores the cultural and emotional dimen
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sions of disinformation and how they form part of the broader political transformations taking place in the Philippines, examines how the Philippine disinformation ecosystem fits into the regional landscape, looks into financial incentives and legislation, and formulates a set of strategic and programmatic recommendations to better tackle the issue of disinformation in the Philippines." (https://internews.org)
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"Due to continuing threats and attacks on the media, journalist safety has been the subject of increasing scholarly research in the Philippines. A gap in the literature, however, is research on safety issues affecting Filipino women journalists in particular, despite reports on specific challenges t
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hey face. In a country where not only women in media but females in general are subjected to catcalling, sexually offensive remarks, and harassment, there is a need for more focused research in order to bring such issues to public attention and propose relevant protection policies and mechanisms. This case study research reveals the types of threats and attacks Filipino women journalists experience, as well as their responses and policy recommendations for media owners and editorial managers." (Abstract)
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