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Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century

Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Peter Ronald DeSouza (eds.)

London et al.: Bloomsbury Academic (2020), xv, 468 pp.

"This book highlights key words for modern India in everyday usage as well as in scholarly contexts. Encompassing over 250 key words across a wide range of topics, including aesthetics and ceremony, gender, technology and economics, past memories and future imaginaries, these entries introduce some ... more

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Gazing Past the Glass Ceiling: Indian and South African Female Journalists’ Perceptions of Their Role and Power in the Newsroom

Shakuntala Rao, Ylva Rodny-Gumede

Global Media and Communication, volume 16, issue 1 (2020), pp. 57-74

"This article analyses female journalists’ perceptions of their own role, their power in the newsroom, their influence over the news agenda and the challenges they face on a daily basis in two large media-saturated countries and emerging democracies, India and South Africa. India and South Africa ... more

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Online environmental news stories in India during the COVID-19 pandemic: Reporting the ‘crisis’ and ‘concerns’ of the natural ecosystem

Ram Awtar Yadav

Journal of Environmental Media, volume 1, issue Supplement (2020), pp. 2.1-2.7

"This article is a review of the online news reports about the ‘humanitarian crisis’ that surfaced in India as thousands of migrant workers struggled to return home during the nationwide lockdown triggered by COVID-19. With several newspaper editions unable to print and circulate amid lockdown, ... more

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Farmers' Protest: Digital Activism on Facebook

Beulah Rachel Rajarathnamani

Jeevadhara: A Journal for Socio-religious Research, volume 50, issue 295 (2020), pp. 47-54

"This study analyses the content of the messages on the Facebook Page 'Support for Farmers' from the premise of Habermas's 'Public Sphere'. The results show that the discussions in support of the farmers' protest on Facebook galvanized the public interest on the problematic issues faced by farmers a ... more

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In Full View: Creatively Tackling Sanitation in India

London: BBC Media Action (2020), 14 pp.

"Navrangi Re! (Nine To A Shade), a 26–episode television drama series was created to take the discussion on e Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) to mainstream audiences, beyond the domain of infrastructure and technology. It was the result of a unique partnership between a donor (the Bill & Melinda Ga ... tes Foundation), a commercial media network (Viacom18), an academic institution (Centre for Social & Behavior Change, Ashoka University), an evaluation partner (Oxford Policy Management), and a global media brand with proven social and behaviour change communication expertise (BBC Media Action). Navrangi Re! is the story of an urban neighbourhood – a mohalla – where lots of different people live cheek by jowl, and through the trials and tribulations of life in an urban jungle, find ways to overcome this constant crisis mode that has become normalised. The mohalla is a creative device to accommodate an entire socio–economic microcosm, with different families occupying different points on the sanitation value chain [...] The evaluation results of Navrangi Re! demonstrate the power of narratives in making the invisible, visible – in bringing attention to critical, silent and complex social problems. They also validate the science, art and craft used in BBC Media Action’s narrative ‘engagement’ model – a) rooting the storytelling in research and theory, b) a commitment to an immersive creative approach and c) an unwavering focus on ‘entertainment first’. The results also show that it is possible for narratives to walk the tightrope between outcomes and audience ratings to achieve change. There is strong evidence that an insight–based Theory of Change combined with all the ingredients that make compelling drama helped Navrangi Re! deliver on the twin challenges of achieving Television Rating Points (TRPs) week after week and demonstrating impact. The results shine the light on the need for innovative partnerships. Crafting partnerships that bring together donors, private sector platforms, academia, research and storytellers is the need of the hour. In a post–Covid world, different stakeholders need to convene more of these partnerships to leverage the power of narrative for stronger societies." (Pages 2-14) more

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Documenting Trauma in Comics: Traumatic Pasts, Embodied Histories, and Graphic Reportage

Dominic Davies, Candida Rifkind (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xxi, 345 pp.

"Why are so many contemporary comics and graphic narratives written as memoirs or documentaries of traumatic events? Is there a specific relationship between the comics form and the documentation and reportage of trauma? How do the interpretive demands made on comics readers shape their relationship ... more

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Communication Practices with Mobile Phones: A Collection of Essays in Mobile Media Studies in India

Krishna Sankar Kusuma (ed.)

[author] (2020), 161 pp.

"The book has covered a wide range of topics within a specific area of mobile journalism. It presents the case studies and first-hand experiences from different parts of the country. As the chapters are written by the academicians, proessionals and practitioners, it has an appropriate blend of theor ... more

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Schwerpunkt: Meinungsfreiheit

welt-sichten, issue 2 (2020), pp. 12-31

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DEF’s Covid-19 Relief Initiatives as a Digitally-Enabled Humanitarian Organisation

Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) (2020), 42 pp.

"Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) launched the Digital Emergency Relief Programme through its Community Information Resource Centers (CIRC) across 600+ locations in India who have been rigorously responding to the crisis by reaching out to the most vulnerable communities. The CIRC centres with t ... more

MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South: Challenges, Successes, and Opportunities
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Ke Zhang, Curtis J. Bonk, Thomas C. Reeves, Thomas H. Reynolds (eds.)

New York: Routledge (2020), xxx, 358 pp.

"With e-learning technologies evolving and expanding at high rates, organizations and institutions around the world are integrating massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other open educational resources (OERs). MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South explores the initiatives that are leveragi ... more

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De-Westernizing Visual Communication and Cultures: Perspectives from the Global South

Thomas Herdin, Maria Faust, Guo-Ming Chen (eds.)

Baden-Baden: Nomos (2020), 225 pp.

"This edited volume gives voice to pluralised avenues from visual communication and cultural studies regarding the Global South and beyond, including examples from China, India, Cambodia, Brazil, Mexico and numerous other countries. Defining visual communication and culture as an umbrella term that ... more

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Conflict and Social Media: Activism of Civil Society for Peace Between India-Pakistan

Qamar Jafri

Tokyo: Toda Peace Institute (2020), 15 pp.

"This policy brief examines the work of civil society activists struggling for peace by using social media around the world. Drawing from extensive field research, as well as the social media actions of activists and civil society members of India, Pakistan and beyond, this brief explains how the so ... more

Off and Online Journalism and Corruption: International Comparative Analysis

Basyouni Hamada, Saodah Wok (eds.)

London: Intech Open (2020), various pag.

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Indian Sound Cultures, Indian Sound Citizenship

Laura Brueck, Jacob Smith, Neil Verma (eds.)

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (2020), vi, 330 pp.

"Indian Sound Cultures, Indian Sound Citizenship addresses the multifaceted roles sound plays in Indian cultures and media, and enacts a sonic turn in South Asian Studies by understanding sound in its own social and cultural contexts. "Scapes, Sites, and Circulations" considers the spatial and circu ... more

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Understanding Misinformation on Mobile Instant Messengers (MIMs) in Developing Countries
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Irene V. Pasquetto, Eaman Jahani, Alla Baranovsky, Matthew A. Baum

Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy (2020), 27 pp.

"We conducted a mixed-methods research project in Nigeria, India, and Pakistan consisting of surveys, survey experiments, and semi-structured interviews, to better understand the spread and impact of misinformation, and in particular of misinformation on mobile messaging apps (MIMs). One of our goal ... more

Media and Conflict in the Social Media Era in China

Shixin Ivy Zhang

Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xiv, 160 pp.

"This book explores the media and conflict relationship in the age of social media through the lens of China. Inspired by the concepts of medialization of conflict and actor-network theory, this book centers on four main actors in wars and conflicts: social media platform, mainstream news organizati ... more

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