"Best practices for agencies to counter misinformation, rumors and false information are detailed and categorized in this white paper, and challenges and additional considerations are presented for review. This report illustrates methods of countering false information on social media with case stud
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ies: The 2014 South Napa earthquake: Tweets were filtered by geolocation to eliminate posts from trolls; The 2016 Louisiana floods: The Red Cross published and shared a blog to counter rumors and misinformation about food distribution and shelter policies; The 2017 Oroville Dam evacuation: An accidentally misleading tweet suggested the evacuation area included all of Sacramento County. Local agencies used traditional and social media to provide correct information. Examples of best practices include: Establishing partnerships with local traditional media outlets before disasters, so means exist to disseminate accurate information; Using the Joint Information System to coordinate public information efforts of multiple jurisdictions and agencies; and Setting up a central website to debunk bad information." (Executive summary)
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"The 43 country reports included in this year’s Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) capture the different experiences and approaches in setting up community networks across the globe. They show that key ideas, such as participatory governance systems, community ownership and skills transfe
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r, as well as the “do-it-yourself” spirit that drives community networks in many different contexts, are characteristics that lend them a shared purpose and approach. The country reports are framed by eight thematic reports that deal with critical issues such as the regulatory framework necessary to support community networks, sustainability, local content, feminist infrastructure and community networks, and the importance of being aware of “community stories” and the power structures embedded in those stories." (Back cover)
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"This book is an analysis of the specificities of public film funding on an international scale. It shows how public funding schemes add value to film-making and other audio-visual productions and provides a comprehensive analysis of today’s global challenges in the film industry such as industry
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change, digital transformation, and shifting audience tastes. Based on insights from fields such as cultural economics, media economics, media management and media governance studies, the authors illustrate how public spending shapes the financial fitness of national and international film industries." (Introduction)
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"Analysing millions of news stories together with Twitter and Facebook shares, broadcast television and YouTube, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the architecture of contemporary American political communications. Through data analysis and detailed qualitative case studies of coverage o
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f immigration, Clinton scandals, and the Trump Russia investigation, the book finds that the right-wing media ecosystem operates fundamentally differently than the rest of the media environment. The authors argue that longstanding institutional, political, and cultural patterns in American politics interacted with technological change since the 1970s to create a propaganda feedback loop in American conservative media. This dynamic has marginalized centre-right media and politicians, radicalized the right wing ecosystem, and rendered it susceptible to propaganda efforts, foreign and domestic. For readers outside the United States, the book offers a new perspective and methods for diagnosing the sources of, and potential solutions for, the perceived global crisis of democratic politics." (Publisher description)
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"As many as 1,967 anti-Western comments were detected in the 17 monitored media outlets in 2017. In contrast to 2016 and 2015, when negative messages targeted human identity and rights, in 2017, a dominant topic was the foreign policy with the messages aimed at increasing the polarization on the for
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eign policy orientation of the country. This change in the strategic communication of pro-Kremlin actors shows that “loss of identity” was a rather tactical message that prepared the ground, while the messaging aimed at demonizing Georgia’s strategic partners (USA, NATO, EU) is of strategic nature. The United States of America accounted for the highest share of negative comments (25.9%), up by almost three times as compared to the previous year, followed by NATO (18,4%) and the West (14,1%). Compared to 2016, messages against the European Union have almost doubled (13.4%) whereas the comments about the loss of identity and human rights in anti-Western context have almost halved (12.9%). Comments against nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and the US philanthropist George Soros have trebled, as compared to 2016, and comprised 7.3%; this increase can be explained by a stepped up activity of far-right groups and their campaign to smear Open Society Georgia Foundation. Yet another change as compared to the previous years were clearer messages showcasing Russia as an alternative to the West and idealizing the Soviet system (7.2%). Comments against Great Britain (0,8%) have been mainly detected in two pro-Kremlin online media outlets – Georgia and the World, and Sakinformi. Alike previous years, the main source of anti-Western messages was media (827), followed by politicians (463), society (411), civil organizations (230) and the clergy (37). The structure of the Kremlin narrative in the Georgian discourse consists of three stages and aims at: 1. Creating threats; 2. Sowing distrust towards partners and Western institutions; 3. Ingraining a belief that Russia is the only option in fighting against the threats and that authoritative/Soviet-style governance is necessary. Four major threats were emphasized by pro-Kremlin actors: threat of war; threat of loss of territories; threat of bio subversion; threat of loss of identity." (Key findings, page 7)
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"This study has two aims. The first is to establish the presence of climate change in children’s educational television in the U.S. The second is to propose a set of criteria that can be used to analyse the communicative features of children’s television programs with climate change content. To
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illustrate how the criteria can be used, I conducted a qualitative content analysis on a sample of television episodes. The findings reveal some positive trends in how the issue of climate change is communicated in children’s television. Overall, the episodes incorporate several critical recommended practices in constructing content that is age-appropriate and supports comprehension, including the use of trusted messengers and featuring examples of youth taking positive actions against climate change. Areas for improvement were also found, in particular, the types of images and frames used to communicate the issue." (Abstract)
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"Broadcast media has a particular fascination with stories that involve risk and health crisis events-disease outbreaks, terrorist acts, and natural disasters-contexts where risk and health communication play a critical role. An evolving media landscape introduces both challenges and opportunities f
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or using communication to manage extreme events and hazardous contexts. Risk and Health Communication in an Evolving Media Environment addresses issues of risk and health communication with a collection of chapters that reflect state-of-the-art discussion by top scholars in the field. The authors in this volume develop unique and insightful perspectives by employing the best available research on topics such as brand awareness in healthcare communication, occupational safety, climate change communication, local broadcasts of weather emergencies, terrorism, and the Ebola outbreak, among many other areas. It features analysis of new and traditional media that connects disasters, crises, risks, and public policy issues into a coherent fabric." (Publisher description)
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"A comunicação, tomada como seara do conhecimento que tangencia a humanidade em todos os seus afazeres, da gestão pública à gestão empresarial, do consumo ao diálogo familiar, das cores às manifestações estabelecidas pelas opções humanas. Neste sentido, este livro intitulado “Media Eff
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ects: ensaios sobre teorias da Comunicação e do Jornalismo”, em seu volume 1, traz trabalhos acadêmicos sobre as teorias do agendamento, do priming e do framing, sobre diferentes olhares e perspectivas." (Resumo)
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"Die kommunikationswissenschaftliche Öffentlichkeitsforschung hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren verstärkt mit transnationalisierten Formen von Öffentlichkeit beschäftigt. Allerdings gehen nur wenige empirische Arbeiten über die (mögliche) Entstehung einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit hinaus.
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Daher analysieren wir anhand der medienöffentlichen Debatten in 15 Ländern über die Klimapolitik – ein Thema, das oft als möglicher Kristallisationspunkt für die Entstehung transnationaler oder gar „globaler“ Öffentlichkeiten dargestellt wird – inwieweit die Akteursensembles in der Berichterstattung von Qualitätstageszeitungen, Regional- und Boulevardzeitungen transnationalisiert sind und welche Reichweite eine etwaige Transnationalisierung aufweist. Die Analyse zeigt eine beträchtliche Transnationalisierung, die teils über eine Europäisierung hinausgeht. Allerdings ist die Berichterstattung je nach Untersuchungsdimension unterschiedlich transnationalisiert: Transnationalisierte Bezüge zeigen sich eher in „schwacher“ als in „starker“ Form: Ausländische oder supranationale Akteure werden häufiger in der Berichterstattung erwähnt, als dass sie selbst zu Wort kommen. Zudem ist die horizontale Transnationalisierung stärker ausgeprägt als die vertikale: Bezüge auf Akteure aus anderen Ländern finden sich häufiger als Bezüge auf supranationale politische Organisationen. Die Analyse zeigt zudem Länder- und Medienunterschiede, die grosso modo die Befunde der Forschung zu Klimawandel-Kommunikation und europäischer Öffentlichkeit bestätigen: In wirtschaftlich von Klimaschutzmaßnahmen betroffenen Ländern ist die Berichterstattung stärker national geprägt. In Qualitätstageszeitungen ist die Berichterstattung stärker transnationalisiert als in Boulevard- und Regionalmedien." (Zusammenfassung)
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"This Yearbook is divided into three parts. The first is an introduction chapter, containing a comparative synthesis of fiction in the Obitel countries. This comparison is made from a quantitative and qualitative point of view, which makes possible to observe the development of fiction in each count
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ry, highlighting their main productions, as well as the theme of the year. The second part consists in 11 chapters, one for each country, with an internal structure of fixed topics, but with new additions every year. The sections that compound each chapter are the following: 1) Country’s audiovisual context: this section presents general information about the audiovisual sector regarding the production of television fiction, such as history, trends and relevant events. 2) Analysis of premiere fictions: it is made through quantitative tables that show specific data about national and Ibero-American TV fictions released in each country. In this section the ten most watched titles of the year are highlighted. Since 2017, the Yearbook also brings the five most watched national productions of the year in an effort to enhance and deepen the issue of national identities in each country. 3) Transmedia reception: this section presents and exemplifies what channels offer to the audience fiction on the internet, as well the description of the audience’s behavior when watching, consuming and interacting with their fictions through websites, social networks and other platforms. 4) Highlights of the year: the most important productions not only in terms of audience (rating), but also for their sociocultural impact and for generating innovation in television fiction production or reception. 5) Theme of the year, which this year is Ibero-American TV fiction on video on demand platforms. This theme converges with the interests of Obitel, which for years has been following the trajectory of Ibero-American television fiction by rapidly changing scenarios. Multiple screens, transmissions, new formats, pay TV, UGC, among other topics, have been monitored and analyzed theoretically by each Obitel country research group. In this Yearbook, the proposal is to discuss production on video on demand platforms (VoD), addressing new forms of distribution and consumption. The objective was to verify the panorama of VoD production and consumption in the Obitel countries and the presence of national fiction on these platforms. In order to do so, we attempted to identify the reconfigurations that are occurring in the television scenario of each country in the face of new platforms of production, distribution and audiovisual consumption. Such reconfigurations take place from production to reception, from narrative forms to business models, to debates on legislation and regulation." (Pages 21-22)
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"Historically, cinema in the Americas has been signed by a state of precariousness. Notwithstanding the growing accessibility to video and digital technologies, access to the material means of film production is still limited, affecting the spheres of production, distribution, and reception. Equally
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, questions about the precarious can be traced in cultural and archival policies, film legislations, as well as in thematic and aesthetic choices. While conventional definitions of the precarious have been associated with notions of scarcity and insecurity, this volume looks at precariousness from a non-monolithic angle, exploring its productivity and potential for original, critical approaches, with the aim of providing new readings to the variedly rich and complex cinemas of the Americas." (Publisher description)
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"Richard Moon examines the application of hate speech laws when religion is either the source or target of such speech. Moon describes the various legal restrictions on hate speech, religious insult, and blasphemy in Canada, Europe and elsewhere, and uses cases from different jurisdictions to illust
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rate the particular challenges raised by religious hate speech. The issues addressed are highly topical: speech that attacks religious communities, specifically anti-Muslim rhetoric, and hateful speech that is based on religious doctrine or scripture, such as anti-gay speech. The book draws on a rich understanding of freedom of expression, the harms of hate speech, and the role of religion in public life." (Publisher description)
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