"The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long sought to influence media coverage about China in other countries. Over the past decade, this campaign has accelerated, reaching new world regions and topics. This article examines how CCP-linked actors seek to manipulate foreign information environments i
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n four key ways: disseminating propaganda, spreading disinformation, censoring critical coverage, and controlling the infrastructure used to convey news. This article considers which efforts have yielded gains for the regime, obstacles that Beijing has encountered, and the response of nongovernmental actors. It concludes by considering how to enhance democratic resilience to the covert and coercive dimensions of the CCP’s global media influence." (Abstract)
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"Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the leading exponents of digital authoritarianism in the Middle East. The two states have intensified their collaboration with China and Israel to gain greater access to advanced technologies. The EU has responded to concerns about the risks of new technologies with a r
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aft of regulations on digital markets and services, artificial intelligence, and technology exports. The fact that European governments have been targeted, and implicated, in NSO Group’s Pegasus scandal should sound the alarm about the global threat of digital authoritarianism. The EU should treat the threat as an urgent security and political concern." (Summary)
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"This article starts by taking a closer look at the general characteristics of China’s digital economy. Some of its strengths and weaknesses are further illustrated by two relevant case studies. First, we show that China is a front runner in the digitalisation of financial services (digital paymen
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t systems, new forms of credit) and the development of its central bank digital currency. Conversely, in a second case study, we find that China has been much less successful at mastering the cutting-edge technologies needed to produce the most advanced semiconductors, leaving China dependent on foreign suppliers of such critical technologies. In the second part of the article, we look at China’s unique policy approach towards fostering innovation-driven economic growth and president Xi Jinping’s vision for the digital economy. The third and final part gives an overview of the most important policy actions undertaken by the US and the EU in response to China’s rise as a digital power." (Introduction)
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"The book is divided into five sections that examine philosophical principles for reporting on poverty, the history and nature of poverty coverage, problematic representations of people experiencing poverty, poverty coverage as part of reporting on public policy, and positive possibilities for pover
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ty coverage. Each section provides an introduction to the topic, as well as a broad selection of essays illuminating key issues and a Q&A with a relevant journalist. Topics covered include news coverage of corporate philanthropy, structural bias in reporting, representations of the working poor, the moral demands of vulnerability and agency, community empowerment, and citizen media. The book's broad focus considers media and poverty at both the local and global levels with contributors from sixteen countries." (Publisher description)
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"In many parts of the Global South, coordinated political disinformation campaigns, rumor, and propaganda have long been a part of the social fabric, even before disinformation has become an area of scholarship in the Global North. The way disinformation manifests in this region, and responses to it
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, can therefore be highly instructive for readers around the world. Through case studies and comparative analyses, the book explores the impact of disinformation in Africa, Latin America, the Arab World and Asia. The chapters in this book discuss the similarities and differences of disinformation in different regions and provide a broad thematic overview of the phenomenon as it manifests across the Global South. After analyzing core concepts, theories and histories from Southern perspectives, contributors explore the experiences of media users and the responses to disinformation by various social actors drawing on examples from a dozen countries." (Publisher description)
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"Trust in the news has fallen in almost half the countries in our survey, and risen in just seven, partly reversing the gains made at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. On average, around four in ten of our total sample (42%) say they trust most news most of the time. Finland remains the countr
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y with the highest levels of overall trust (69%), while news trust in the USA has fallen by a further three percentage points and remains the lowest (26%) in our survey.
• Consumption of traditional media, such as TV and print, declined further in the last year in almost all markets (pre-Ukraine invasion), with online and social consumption not making up the gap. While the majority remain very engaged, others are turning away from the news media and in some cases disconnecting from news altogether. Interest in news has fallen sharply across markets, from 63% in 2017 to 51% in 2022.
• Meanwhile, the proportion of news consumers who say they avoid news, often or sometimes, has increased sharply across countries. This type of selective avoidance has doubled in both Brazil (54%) and the UK (46%) over the last five years, with many respondents saying news has a negative effect on their mood. A significant proportion of younger and less educated people say they avoid news because it can be hard to follow or understand – suggesting that the news media could do much more to simplify language and better explain or contextualise complex stories.
• In the five countries we surveyed after the war in Ukraine had begun, we find that television news is relied on most heavily – with countries closest to the fighting, such as Germany and Poland, seeing the biggest increases in consumption. Selective news avoidance has, if anything, increased further – likely due to the difficult and depressing nature of the coverage.
• Global concerns about false and misleading information remain stable this year, ranging from 72% in Kenya and Nigeria to just 32% in Germany and 31% in Austria. People say they have seen more false information about Coronavirus than about politics in most countries, but the situation is reversed in Turkey, Kenya, and the Philippines, amongst others." (Summary, page 10)
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"This article examines how documentary film can be employed as visual evidence to create a thick description of environmental injustice among low-social-economic status communities in China. In particular, this article exemplifies the approach with a case study of a 2022 research project on transiti
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onal injustice during China’s phase out coal strategy in the case study of Liupanshui, the largest coal mine in southern China since the 1950s. Drawing upon the author’s environmental documentaries that explored the local struggles and sufferings of environmental injustice in China, the article explores how we can examine environmental injustice via a multidisciplinary approach that combines public policy, environmental studies and documentary filmmaking." (Abstract)
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"This report explores how the Chinese party-state's globally focused propaganda and disinformation capabilities are evolving and increasing in sophistication. Concerningly, this emerging approach by the Chinese party-state to influence international discourse on China, including obfuscating its reco
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rd of human rights violations, is largely flying under the radar of US social media platforms and western policymakers." (Executive summary, page 3)
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"This volume highlights some of the alternative models that have originated in two major Asian democracies, India and South Korea. It compares these two countries’ distinctive approaches through case studies that demonstrate just how much more complex the world will be than the common-place predic
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tion of a battle between U.S.- and Chinese-centric approaches." (Introduction, page 2)
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"The Global Handbook of Media Accountability brings together leading scholars to 'de-Westernize' the academic debate on media accountability and discuss different models of media self-regulation and newsroom transparency around the globe. With examination of the status quo of media accountability in
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forty-four countries worldwide, it offers a theoretically informed, comparative analysis of accountability regimes of different varieties. As such, it constitutes the first interdisciplinary academic framework comparing structures of media accountability across all continents and represents an invaluable basis for further research and policy-making. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of media studies and journalism, mass communication, sociology and political science, as well as policy-makers and practitioners." (Publisher description)
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"Media representations of ageing play a role in stereotype formation and even reinforce them. Encountering these stereotypes can negatively impact the self-esteem, health status, physical wellbeing and cognitive performance of older people. This international collection examines different dimensions
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of ageing and ageism in a range of media. Chapters include explorations of the UK media during the COVID-19 pandemic; age, gender and mental health in Ghana; advertising in Brazil; magazines in Canada; Taiwanese newspapers; comics, graphic novels and more." (Publisher description)
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"Chinas Streben nach weltweiter medialer Dominanz und Diskursmacht ist eine konkrete Gefahr für demokratische Länder. Wenn sich Demokratien dem nicht widersetzen, werden chinesische Bürgerinnen und Bürger jegliche Hoffnung auf Pressefreiheit im eigenen Land verlieren und der Journalismus, wie wi
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r ihn kennen, wird künftig mit chinesischer Propaganda konkurrieren. Auch in Deutschland gibt es Beispiele dafür, wie China versucht, die Medienberichterstattung im eigenen Sinne zu beeinflussen, etwa durch Medienkooperationen, gemeinsame Sendungen oder China-freundliche Beilagen in Zeitungen. Auch die chinesische Botschaft in Deutschland kommentiert und kritisiert auf ihrer Webseite immer wieder deutsche Medienberichte. Im zweiten Kapitel werden vor diesen Erfahrungen verschiedene Kooperationsformen typologisiert sowie Empfehlungen an Journalistinnen, Journalisten und Medienh.user ausgesprochen, inwieweit und unter welchen Voraussetzungen Kooperationen möglich sein könnten. Eine Gefahr - bei allen Kooperationstypen und auch allgemein in der Berichterstattung - ist die unkritische Übernahme von chinesischen Narrativen. Daher soll das dritte Kapitel für Argumente und Deutungsrahmen (sog. Frames), die für chinesische Propaganda kennzeichnend sind, sensibilisieren und alternative Darstellungen und Argumentationen anbieten. Denn ausländische Medien spielen eine wichtige Rolle dabei, Propagandainhalte zu verbreiten - eine Methode, die in Peking einen eigenen Namen hat: "ein Boot leihen, um auf den Ozean hinauszufahren". Chinas Vorhaben könnte dazu führen, dass sich teils auch subtile Narrative und ein bestimmtes, dem chinesischen Regime wohlwollendes Vokabular verbreiten und durchsetzen kann." (Seite 3-4)
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"This volume explores the implications of digital media technologies for journalists’ professional practice, news users’ consumption and engagement with news, as well as the shifting institutional, organizational and financial structures of news media. Drawing on case studies and quantitative an
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d qualitative approaches, contributors address questions concerning: whether China is witnessing ‘disruptive’ or ‘sustainable’ journalism; if, and in what ways, digital technologies may disrupt journalism; and whether Chinese digital journalism converges with or diverges from Western experiences of digital journalism." (Publisher description)
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"This report offers the most comprehensive assessment to date of Beijing’s global media influence and the ways in which democracies are responding. Drawing on media investigations, interviews, scholarly publications, Chinese government sources, and on-the-ground research by local analysts, it cove
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rs developments in 30 countries during the period from January 2019 to December 2021. It updates and expands upon two previous Freedom House studies published in 2013 and 2020, and it focuses largely on democracies to provide a more in-depth understanding of the deployment and reception of influence tactics in countries that possess relatively strong institutional protections for media freedom. Finally, the report offers recommendations to governments, the media sector, technology firms, and civil society groups on how they can bolster democratic defenses against CCP interference." (Page 3)
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"Drawing on cultural trauma theory, this book investigates how collective memory of the Nanjing Massacre [by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945] is fashioned in China and how the mass media, political power and public praxis jointl
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y shape the politics and culture of memory in contemporary China. Allowing for the dimensions of history and different mediating spaces, the authors first conduct textual analysis of news reports from traditional media since the event took place, revealing that the significance of the massacre was initially portrayed as a local incident before its construction as a national trauma and finally a collective memory. In a study of physical and online memorial spaces, including the Memorial Hall, commemorative activities on the Internet and new media platforms, the book unveils the production and reproduction of trauma narratives as well as how these narratives have been challenged. The final part further studies the interactions between media and other institutional settings while exploring issues of global memory and reconciliation in East Asia." (Publisher description)
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"This report is based on a survey of journalists who belong to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China in Beijing and the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Conducted in December 2021, 127 of 192 correspondent members representing news organizations from 30 countries and regions responded
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to the survey." (Survey methods)
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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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"The transformation of Hong Kong is “unstoppable,” as one official has said. And journalists should not expect any special privileges. Journalists, including foreign journalists, are welcome. But they must stick to reporting basic facts, not align with what Beijing called the “anti-China force
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s” seeking to undermine the Communist Party, and not appear to challenge the local government and police. Chris Tang, the Secretary for Security who formerly headed the police, said: “Journalists must act in good faith to provide accurate and reliable information in accordance with the principles of responsible journalism, in order to be protected by the right to freedom of expression and the press.” But the “red lines” to be avoided remain vague. Journalists are unsure what is permissible and what might be considered a violation of national security. The consequences are grave, including possible imprisonment without bail, a presumption of guilt, and if convicted — as is likely in any national security offence — a lengthy prison sentence." (Conclusion)
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