"This situation report herein analyses media and information literacy (MIL), disinformation, and trust in news across the Caribbean. It contains country reports from eight researchers, covering eight Caribbean nations: the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Su
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riname, and Trinidad & Tobago. In each country, research was undertaken over a period of five months. The methods varied across the countries, and included surveys, desk research, and expert interviews. Separately, research was undertaken to determine the feasibility of a regional trusted news network." (Executive summary)
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"The Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) Regional Digital Ecosystem Country Assessment (DECA) report presents the findings and recommendations of the DECA, covering 11 ESC countries: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenad
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ines, Suriname, The Bahamas, and Trinidad & Tobago. The report outlines the key aspects of the region’s digital ecosystem and provides 10 recommendations for the international development community to create a more inclusive, safe, and enabling environment to achieve development outcomes in these small island nations. Guided by two USAID/ESC priorities, i) improving government accountability and transparency; and ii) strengthening community resilience, the DECA process consisted of desk research, consultations with USAID/ESC technical offices, and 63 key informant interviews with stakeholders across the region from civil society, academia, and the private and public sectors." (https://www.usaid.gov/digital-development)
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"Barbadians are not sufficiently prepared for natural disasters. In addition to being heavily reliant on electricity and the internet for communicating during times of crises and disasters, Barbados is in need of a mandatory building code, more resilient housing and building infrastructures, and gre
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ater uptake of insurance among property owners. Moreover, some Barbadians continue to be delayed in their response to emergency warnings. Their tendency to procrastinate on preparing for emergencies and disasters is largely attributed to the fact that, unlike other Caribbean territories, Barbados has not been significantly impacted by a disaster event for over sixty (60) years. As the telecommunication penetration continues to rise in the island, and the Barbados Government continues to be increasingly communicative, the past few years have seen the emergence of a healthier information ecosystem in Barbados, which in turn has made it easier for Barbadians to access the information that they need to effectively participate in society. This progress is however being undermined by the presence of the following undesirable properties: citizens’ and media professionals’ lack of access to information from local authorities caused by inaccessibility of authorities, unavailability of information, and bureaucratic structures and processes of; some citizens’ lack of access to the key information channels; the disabled community’s inability to access information from credible news and information sources; government’s increasing control over information flow; delays in dissemination of crisis and disaster communication to the media by the government; the use of jargons in crisis and disaster communications by local authorities; the proliferation of fake news and propaganda shared on social media and other online platforms; the inability of some Barbadians to identify malicious/inaccurate information; the deterioration of trust among Barbadians in their main information sources." (Overview of key findings, page 7)
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"This report provides an overview of the comparative innovation capacity of the Americas region through ICT-centric innovation policy monitors and insights on how good practice can strengthen capacity to integrate ICT innovation into national development agendas.
Overall, the Americas region has sho
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wn divergent scenarios in reaching the full potential of the innovation ecosystem. Few countries have a traditionally strong innovation system, and most performances in one or all three engines of growth must improve for the region to become a real actor on the global stage. Canada and the United States of America perform well, while emerging economies such as Argentina, Brazil or Mexico are struggling on the technological, entrepreneurial or innovation ecosystems, and others such as Haiti need further support to turn the country into a thriving digital innovation ecosystem.
To understand these discrepancies, the report introduces two ICT centric innovation monitors: the three engines of growth monitor and the digital transformation enablers monitor.
The report notes that there are many good practices in the region fuelling the entrepreneurial journey. Each practice presented in the report was analysed based on its impact in a third ICT-centric innovation policy monitor, the ecosystem maturity map monitor. Each stakeholder group, at each of the five stages of the entrepreneurial journey, is assessed by its level of engagement to assess the maturity of the ecosystem. For example, the first stage of the journey for entrepreneurs is entrepreneurial interest, while for the public sector, it is having a vision and strategy. The monitor enables stakeholders to visualize the maturity of the ICT-centric innovation ecosystem and identify which practices to keep, which must be improved and which to replace." (Introduction)
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"Third World Mass Media attempts "to examine historical, cultural, economic, and political aspects of all Commonwealth Caribbean mass media, from the time of the first newspaper in 1717 until 1976." Has a comprehensive bibliography." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed
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. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 249)
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