"There is a growing recognition that journalists are exposed to dangerous or hazardous working conditions in many places worldwide. These conditions are suggested to be linked to greater macro-related structural risks, including changes to the political economy of news that increase labor precarity,
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cultural and identity-based risks from oppressive normative systems, aggressive partisans and extremists, and risks originating from weak or changing enforcement of the rule of law that increases journalists' vulnerability to corrupt officials, security forces and criminal groups. While previous research has linked these structural risks to acts of workplace victimization of journalists, it has not considered how structural risks are connected to the subjective experience of victimization, which includes emotional upheaval and varying coping strategies. Anchoring this study in the sociology of risk literature with general strain theory, this study considers how greater, macro-level structures are tied to journalist’s victimization, emotions and coping using open and closed survey response data from 21 Mexican and 33 Brazilian journalists. Survey data was collected through matched subnational context designs and snowball sampling strategies. Findings show that journalists recalled victimization experiences that were linked to labor market and workplace risks, risks associated with the rule of law, culturally based risks, and identity-based risks. As a result, journalists engaged in short and long-term coping strategies. Coping strategies were also either individualistic or collectivist in nature, with coping strategies ultimately being influenced by country and regional contexts." (Abstract)
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"This article explores the uses of sources in coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in social media posts of mainstream news organizations in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. Based on computational content analysis, our study analyzes the sources and actors present in more t
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han 940,000 posts on COVID-19 published in the 227 Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts of 78 sampled news outlets between January 1 and December 31 of 2020, comparing their relative importance across countries, across media platforms, and across time as the pandemic evolved in each country. The analysis shows the dominance of political sources across countries and platforms, particularly in Latin America, demonstrating a strong role of the state in constructing pandemic news and suggesting that mainstream news organizations' social media posts maintain a strong elite orientation. Health sources were also prominent — consistent with the defining role of biomedical authority in health coverage—, while significant diversity of sources, including citizen sources, emerged as the pandemic went on. Our results also revealed that the use of specific sources significantly varied over time. These variations tend to go hand in hand with specific global milestones of the pandemic." (Abstract)
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"Digital journalism in Brazil is dominated by a few big players and has recently been threatened by the country’s challenging political and economic environment. Still, organizational structures promoting independent digital journalism (IDJ) persist. Originally understood as “the blogosphere,”
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independent digital journalism in Brazil (IDJB) quickly evolved into several professionalized initiatives and now consists of dozens of news organizations. This article contributes to the field by (a) adding to scholarly conceptualizations of independent journalism in North America, Europe, and Latin America through the idea of “positive dependence” and (b) refining the understanding of IDJ in times of acute crisis. Based on an analysis of six emblematic cases, we show that IDJB is relational and distinct and that it functions without clearly defined boundaries. We further find that this relationality is necessary for IDJB to survive the attacks it faces. Different support networks shape “models of resilience” that, while not perfect, facilitate the institutionalization of IDJB by allowing for the slow but ongoing creation of new structures within the news ecosystem. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that the continuing institutionalization of IDJB and its particular characteristics contributes to the creation of a more diverse news ecosystem." (Abstract)
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"Pensar la relevancia de la televisión hoy significa abordar los desafíos democráticos que ella enfrenta respecto a las coyunturas políticas, el contexto de convergencia mediática, el papel de los medios públicos y los procesos de innovación y ruptura en la ficción y en los géneros informat
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ivos. Todo esto en contextos complejos de polarización política, agudas crisis sociales y presiones a favor del replanteamiento del modelo neoliberal y de sus exclusiones e inequidades. En Los desafíos a las televisiones en América Latina dieciséis especialistas de distintos países del continente estudian el panorama actual y algunos procesos y experiencias en Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia y México. Este libro busca estimular el debate y el desarrollo de estudios críticos sobre la televisión y el ecosistema mediático en su relación con las culturas políticas, las políticas públicas y la in-novación en temas, narrativas y formatos, asumiendo los retos como oportunidades de cambios de rumbo y creación de nuevos derroteros para la producción, circulación y recepción crítica del medio televisivo." (Cubierta del libro)
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"In the first pandemic of the datafied society, the disempowered were denied a voice in the heavily quantified mainstream narrative. Featuring stories of invisibility, injustice, hope and resistance, this book gives voice to communities at the margins in the Global South and beyond. The multilingual
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, polycentric and pluriversal narration invites the reader to enact and experience “Big Data from the South(s)” as a decolonial lens to read the pandemic." (Back cover)
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"O presente relatório propôs, através de uma análise de transparência passiva e ativa, um diagnóstico quanto à transparência e a garantia do direito de acesso à informação pública de saúde, em período sensível de calamidade no Brasil - a pandemia do novo coronavírus. O contexto de in
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fodemia somou-se aos crescentes entraves institucionais impostos pelo governo de Jair Bolsonaro, tornando quase impossível obter informações oficiais seguras, participar e monitorar as políticas públicas governamentais. Na pandemia de COVID-19, isso se ampliou e continua em curso, mais de um ano após, ainda que às custas de mais de 420 mil vidas perdidas. Muitos indícios denotam a intencionalidade das ações, como a afirmação recente de chefe da ANVISA17 sobre ter participado de reunião no Palácio do Planalto, em que se sugeriu modificar a bula da cloroquina para incluir possibilidade de seu uso contra a COVID-19, mesmo sendo este ato contrário a evidências científicas. Ainda que houvesse evidência contrária ao uso, houve ampla propaganda, pelo presidente da república, da cloroquina e de hidroxicloroquina como tratamentos para a infecção por coronavírus, levando a novas comorbidades. Se, por um lado, a importância do compartilhamento proativo de informações confiáveis e úteis para o eficiente enfrentamento à Covid-19 já tem sido reiterado por organizações nacionais e internacionais, a análise aqui presente mostra que as diversas formas de desinformação, incluindo o apagão de dados são, hoje, a regra no Brasil. O largo desrespeito aos prazos de resposta, a prorrogação indefinida para manifestações concernentes à pandemia e a banalização do sigilo18 são apenas uma parte pequena desses entraves - e não refletem a pressa que o contexto pandêmico exige sobre segurança acerca dos modos de prevenção, tratamento e contenção da doença. Para além disso, a propaganda massiva da desinformação vem sendo meio de afetação de milhares de pessoas no país que, possuindo menos acesso ao conhecimento científico produzido, confiam nas figuras de liderança que deveriam estar fazendo o papel de assegurar medidas de saúde. Foi possível constatar neste estudo um grave sintoma, face aos pedidos realizados. Da análise de amplitude de acesso, 75% dos pedidos tiveram retorno insuficiente." (Conclusões, página 41)
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"Depois de dois dias de reflexões, espiritualidade, encontro e arte, dias 23 e 24 de julho, num encontro que reuniu mais de 5.000 comunicadores católicos de todo o Brasil, a 12ª segunda edição do Mutirão de Comunicação divulgou a Carta de Belo Horizonte, um documento que sintetiza os princip
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ais temas, questões e compromissos em torno de uma perspectiva de comunicação católica e cristã no país. A carta foi firmada pelas organizações que promoveram o Mutirão: Comunicação Episcopal Pastoral para a Comunicação da Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB), a Pascom Brasil, a Signis Brasil e a Rede Católica de Rádio. O documento reforça que os processos comunicacionais ganham cada vez mais relevância na vida social, “alçados velozmente às telas dos diversos tipos de dispositivos e plataformas”. O texto fala também dos atos de violência física e simbólica como tentativa de opressão e apagamento das diversidades e minorias. Para superar os problemas enfrentados pelo Brasil, sobretudo os do âmbito da comunicação, a Carta de Belo Horizonte propõe um conceito de comunicação mais amplo, que passa pela “verdadeira disposição em abrir-se ao outro como condição essencial para um mundo mais fraterno." (https://www.cnbb.org.br, 26.7.2021)
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"In almost all countries, news organisations are the single most widely used source of information about coronavirus. Furthermore, news organisations have become even more central to how people stay informed about coronavirus in the last year because, while overall reach has declined compared to ear
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lier in the pandemic, the reach of other sources has declined more. While important and widely used, news organisations in most countries reach significantly fewer of the younger 18–24-year-olds, and in most countries reach significantly fewer people with low or medium levels of education than those with a university degree, underlining challenges around information inequality. Some of the ‘rally around the flag’ effect seen earlier in the crisis is dissipating, but not equally so for all institutions. Trust in news organisations has declined by an average of eight percentage points (pp), but trust in national government has declined by an average of 13pp. In most countries covered, national health authorities, global health authorities, and scientists, doctors, or other health experts, remain highly and broadly trusted, though this trust has declined somewhat too, especially in Argentina and the United States. The trust gap between coronavirus information from news organisations and information on different kinds of platforms remains pronounced. On average, the gap between news organisations and social media is 21pp, between news and video sites 22pp, and between news and messaging applications 28pp. The gap is six points on average between news and search engines, but in Japan the gap is not statistically significant, and in Argentina and Brazil search engines are trusted more for news and information about COVID-19." (Executive summary, page 7)
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"This report examines how people in Brazil, India, the UK, and the US view news media in their countries, the factors they use when determining whether sources are trustworthy, and what ‘trust in news’ ultimately means to them [...] While we note throughout the report areas of difference between
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the four countries, such as the role played by particular forms of news or individual media figures, mainly we focus on the similarities we found, which were often striking. In most cases, study participants tended to fall back on impressions of brand quality that many said were rooted in how familiar they were with a given source and its reputation established over time based on past use, perceived partisanship, or word-of-mouth. Although many spoke about the importance of accuracy and impartiality in their assessments of trust – with individual journalists typically playing a lesser or even negative role – such terms often meant different things to different people. While a minority raised concerns about representation and whether news aligned with their lived experiences, others focused on perceived political or commercial biases or their sense that all news sources were irretrievably beholden to elite agendas." (Conclusion, page 40)
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"Experts say having a law for access to public information is important to enhance public transparency, but it’s only the starting point in the battle against state secrecy. How can journalists benefit from such laws and why should the news media care about it? This paper is divided into four part
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s: the first chapter gives a brief summary of what FOI is and some practical examples of stories that have been published with it. The second chapter explores the data from a national survey about how journalists are using the law. The survey was conducted with the help of Maria Esperidião at the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), an association where I am also a director. The third chapter is a series of interviews with experienced Brazilian journalists from different fields to see their views on FOI and what journalists can do to improve its use. The questions that I asked them were based on the Abraji survey results. The final chapter is a small guide on how to start a FOI section in your newsroom – a combination of guidance obtained during the interviews and my own previous experiences." (Introduction, page 5)
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"This report contains a range of findings about news audiences in each of the four countries [Brazil, India, United Kingdom, United States], focusing on audiences overall as well as different segments of the public categorised according to their degree of trust towards news brands in their country.
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We summarise several of the key results of our analysis here: People are more trusting of news they themselves use, including on social media, but less trusting of news they don’t use, especially news found on digital platforms [...] Many hold highly negative views about basic journalistic practices [...] The least trusting towards news tend to be older, less educated, less interested in politics, and less connected to urban centres [...] The least trusting pay less attention to and are more indifferent towards specific characteristics about how journalism is practised [...] Experience interacting with journalists is rare and familiarity with basic concepts concerning how news works is often low [...] Gaps in trust in news align with deficits in social and interpersonal trust as well as dissatisfaction with democracy." (Summary of key findings, page 8)
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"La comparación con los años previos pone en evidencia el brutal desplome de la producción durante 2020 a raíz de los confinamientos y otras restricciones debidos a la pandemia de COVID-19. Tomada como un todo, la exhibición nacional de estreno cayó respecto de 2019 en un 41%, pero en algunos
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casos se llegó al 80% y 90% de caída. En términos absolutos, la mayor caída se reportó en Brasil, cuyo 68% de caída se tradujo en 891 horas menos de ficción. La única excepción fue Uruguay, que tuvo un aumento explosivo, pero desde una base de comparación muy baja. Lo anómalo del año 2020 no debe ocultar algo probablemente más estructural. Nuevamente, tomado el ámbito Obitel como un todo, la caída de un 41% este último año se agrega a la caída acumulada de un 22% que ya arrastraban los dos años anteriores a la pandemia. Este retroceso en la producción de ficción para televisión abierta no debe ser leído únicamente como una caída en la capacidad productiva. El volumen de material de estreno en VoD, mostrado más adelante, sugiere que al menos una parte del fenómeno es un desplazamiento desde una ventana de exhibición hacia otra." (Página 41)
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"Social media technology is having a dramatic impact on social and political dynamics around the world. The contributors to this book document and illustrate this "techtonic" shift on violent conflict and democratic processes. They present vivid examples and case studies from countries in Africa, So
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uth and Southeast Asia, Latin America as well as Northern Ireland. Each author maps an array of peacebuilding solutions to social media threats, including coordinated action by civil society, governments and tech companies to protect human minds, relationships and institutions. Solutions presented include inoculating society with a new digital literacy agenda, designing technology for positive social impacts, and regulating technology to prohibit the worst behaviours." (Publisher description)
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