"Community Radio is still nascent in Bangladesh while in India it has completed a decade and in Nepal it has existed in its myriad forms without a policy for much longer [...] The existence or non-existence of a guiding national CR policy plays an important role in determining the kind of Community
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Radio being sustained in the country. The policy has impacted the kinds of institution that is eligible to establish Community Radio as well as the kind of institutions the Community Radios themselves are evolving into. The practices at the stations in the three countries are quite diverse with CR stations in Nepal having a slight edge over those in India and Bangladesh from the point of having evolved as ‘media’ organizations’ rather than as ‘development’ organizations. Communities in all three countries are conceived of as geographic communities and not as communities of interest. All stations work on principles of not for profit in India and Bangladesh where as the underlying principles in Nepal seems to be community shareholding at least in the CR stations that were part of the study." (Conclusions, page 33)
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"This study is about women‘s engagement in community radio (CR) in Bangladesh which is a relatively new innovation in the country. The thesis seeks to describe the current situation of how CR facilitates women‘s access to and participation in media content, organizational structure, and media fa
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cilities. The analysis focuses on various levels of women‘s participation as listeners, programmers and managers in community media. Methods used in the study include key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, and observation. Community radio creates interest among women listeners in communities by using local content in local languages as well as providing opportunities for women to be involved with local media. The study finds however, that women are not participating at a level where they can manage communication processes or use their own knowledge and resources. The study concludes that in order to sustain community media, women need to be recognized and involved as an important part of the community. This study supports that women want to own their communication processes through developing their capacity in community radio." (Abstract)
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"As only Japanese comics output has received close and by now voluminous scrutiny, Asian Comics tells the story of the major comics creators outside of Japan. Lent covers the nations and regions of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philipp
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ines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Organized by regions of East, Southeast, and South Asia, Asian Comics provides 178 black and white illustrations and detailed information on comics of sixteen countries and regions – their histories, key creators, characters, contemporary status, problems, trends, and issues. One chapter harkens back to predecessors of comics in Asia, describing scrolls, paintings, books, and puppetry with humorous tinges, primarily in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan." (Publisher website)
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"The rapid development of the information society has accentuated the importance of digital divides, which refer to economic and social inequalities among populations due to differences in access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT). This book discusses the cu
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rrent state of digital divides, ranging from global." (Publisher description)
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"Among the many topics discussed here are the difference among specific media formats, including television, newspapers, radio, film and photography; policy issues; and the challenge that new media poses to governance in a developing nation faced with innumerable economic, social and political probl
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ems. Eschewing the currently dominant development communication model, the editors argue that market forces rather than planned state interventions will contribute to a more equitable communication environment." (Publisher description)
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"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fourth consecutive year, with a growing number of countries introducing online censorship and monitoring practices that are simultaneously more aggressive and more sophisticated in their targeting of individual users. In a departure from the pa
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st, when most governments preferred a behind-the-scenes approach to internet control, countries are rapidly adopting new laws that legitimize existing repression and effectively criminalize online dissent." (Page 1)
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"The book contains profiles of 12 women between the ages of 18 and 26 that were selected to follow a 3-month journalism fellowship and work at community radio stations. The program was designed and implemented by Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) in cooperation with 11 comm
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unity radio stations across Bangladesh and supported by Free Press Unlimited. During the fellowship the women received training and mentoring and afterward started reporting and producing programs and articles reflecting the problems and everyday life of women, children, disadvantaged groups and poor from rural and remote areas [...] Though this program the fellows have not only developed their personal and professional skills. 10 out of the 12 fellows are already employed in media, and some have even become station managers." (Preface)
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"The promotion of gender equality among journalists is a key objective of the SAMSN gender project going forward in 2014. The roundtables and the gender networking conference discussed strategies and campaigns that could address the issues faced by women in South Asia. The conference also put forwar
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d a common Gender Charter, from a charter adopted in Sri Lanka in 2006 that can clearly set out minimum standards, principles and actions needed to underpin gender equity in media and outline a practical program of action to support the achievement of equality in media workplaces, journalist organisations and the media itself." (Conclusion)
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"This paper compares and contrasts four centers: The Center for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina (CIN), The Journalism Training and Research Initiative in Bangladesh (JATRI), the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in Jordan (ARIJ), and The Caucasus Media Investigations Center (
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CMIC) in Azerbaijan. No officials or funders ever announce failures or label projects like these failures. But this paper posits that those centers designed and run by journalists to actively report are more effective in fulfilling their role as watch-dogs, as well as more sustainable. They perform better at developing future practitioners and instilling an investigative reporting tradition in new places. This examination suggests that donors hoping to implant successful centers increase their chances when they match ambitions to the political and legal climate of host countries, commit to multi-year involvement, and select passionate leaders with clout in the eyes of other journalists in their host regions. This study suggest that centers designed by outsiders and run by non-journalists tend to evolve into generalized research, resource and training centers." (Introduction)
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"This Global Information Society Watch tracks the state of communications surveillance in 57 countries across the world – countries as diverse as Hungary, India, Argentina, The Gambia, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. Each country report approaches the issue from a different perspective. Some analy
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se legal frameworks that allow surveillance, others the role of businesses in collecting data (including marketing data on children), the potential of biometrics to violate rights, or the privacy challenges when implementing a centralised universal health system. The perspectives from long-time internet activists on surveillance are also recorded. Using the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance as a starting point, eight thematic reports frame the key issues at stake. These include discussions on what we mean by digital surveillance, the implications for a human rights agenda on surveillance, the “Five Eyes” inter-government surveillance network led by the US, cyber security, and the role of intermediaries." (GIS website)
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"This report analyses the findings of a follow-up survey of child-related news contents, in newspapers with an aim to assess the coverage trend and its ethical standards. The survey monitored 10 national-level mainstream dailies over a year (January 2013 to December 2013). A secondary set of data fr
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om the arena of general news was analysed in order to explore the impacts of inappropriate news content on children. An introduction to the ethical concerns of news coverage in the context of children is provided. This follow-up content analysis takes into account the findings of previous two studies on the same subject. One was a baseline study monitoring media over three consecutive months in 2009. And the other, a follow-up study, covered six fortnights spread across a year (June 2010 to May 2011). This exercise began on the premise that journalists can play a strong role in ensuring the wellbeing of children and in minimising any potential harm to them from news consumption. The comprehensive trend finds a lack of planned focus and consequently, insufficient news coverage of children and their interests or affairs to be a key problem. Dominance of surface coverage of events and issues, inadequacies of reportorial enterprise and a dearth of in-depth coverage appear to be major problems. Insensitivity to the issues of portrayal and dignity, lack of thought to the safety and security of children in sensitive situations, and inconsideration of potential negative impacts of gruesome depictions on child consumers of news could also be noted in the general trend of coverage. However, between 2009 and 2013, a few positive changes can be traced even if disjointedly and sporadically." (Abstract)
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"This document details the current situation in seven out of 14 Community Radios in operation in Bangladesh at present. While one of the motives behind this study is to see how these young stations are faring and catering programmes to the target audiences, but definitely the study's scope is not li
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mited to that only. Rather, a major thrust of this whole exercise is to see and explore the sustainability aspects of this community media that Bangladesh is exposed to only in recent years. The National Strategy for the Implementation of Community Radio policy places the government at the centre, having two pivotal roles: as regulator and facilitator, to enable community radios to become full-fledged partners in the development process of Bangladesh. In doing so, government laid out rules of the game for operation of the Community Radio and gave licenses to some Community Radios of which 14 are already on air for last three years while a few more are in the pipeline to join the league. This study appreciates that despite many odds, the Community Radios, if not all - many of them, have succeeded in winning hearts of their target audiences. Some of these stations are quite popular among the communities they serve. And that again against the reality that people, even in the rural Bangladesh today are having well access to national and local newspapers and scores of satellite television channels. It is well captured from this study that amidst the milieu of so many other interesting and colorful audio-video, print and online media platforms, many of these Community Radio stations have succeeded in eking out a niche for them." (Executive summary)
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"The paper synthesises findings from quantitative and qualitative data from across African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries. The second section draws on baseline data from Bangladesh, Burma, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories and Sierra Leone to explore the media and governance contex
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ts in the countries where we work. The third part then summarises what we are learning about who is being reached by BBC Media Action interventions. The fourth section, firstly, reports regression analysis conducted on baseline data from Sierra Leone and midline data from Kenya to build up evidence on the impact of debate and discussion programmes on audiences’ political knowledge and participation. Then findings are presented from a qualitative study assessing how Nigerian drama Story Story is promoting dialogue as a means of reducing conflict. Comparing findings across countries is helping us to learn more about the governance and media contexts in which we work and inform programming. A first glance at key governance outcomes across countries attests to the centrality of country context in shaping how political knowledge, discursive participation, political participation and interest in politics relate to each other. Disaggregating these outcomes by demographic variables underlines the importance of gender in structuring them, with women reporting lower levels of political knowledge and interest in politics, and discussing and participating in politics less than men. However, disaggregating political participation by income reveals less consistent results: in Nigeria and Bangladesh, those with more resources are more likely to participate, whereas in Kenya and Sierra Leone, those with more resources and less likely to participate." (Executive summary)
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"Libraries, telecenters, and cybercafés play a critical role in extending the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to a diverse range of people worldwide. However, their ability to contribute to development agendas has come into question in recent times. The Global Impact S
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tudy was designed to address this debate by generating evidence about the scale, character, and impacts of public access ICTs in eight countries: Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Lithuania, the Philippines, and South Africa. This report summarizes the study’s key findings, situating public access in the context of national development, discussing some disputed issues, and providing recommendations for policymakers, public access practitioners and researchers. The results show that a central impact of public access is the promotion of digital inclusion through technology access, information access, and development of ICT skills. Both users and non-users report positive impacts in various social and economic areas of their lives." (Abstract)
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"Through the methodological framework of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), the report measures the extent to which 144 economies, from both the developed and developing worlds, take advantage of ICTs and other new technologies to increase their growth and well-being. The NRI identifies the most r
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elevant factors driving ICT readiness and impacts, providing policymakers, business leaders, and civil society at large with a useful tool for designing national strategies for increased networked readiness and for benchmarking their country’s performance against other relevant comparators. The Global Information Technology Report 2013 features the latest computation and rankings of the NRI, and in referring to this year’s theme, dives deeper into the connection between ICTs and economic growth and job creation. As in previous years, it also showcases a number of ICT development stories of particular interest. In addition, the report includes detailed profiles for the 144 economies covered this year together with data tables for each of the 54 indicators used in the computation of the NRI." (Back cover)
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