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Theme 11: Issues and the Role of Media
in an Information Age |
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Number
of abstracts currently posted to this Theme: 1 | 2 |
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
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to List of Themes |
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(Last updated:
August 29th, 2005) |
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Role and Place of Media
in Development: Analysis Applied to Morocco |
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Karima
Ragala, |
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Groupe d'Etude et de Recherche
en Sciences de L'Information et de la Communication-GERSIC,
University Paul Cézanne, Aix-en-Provence,
Morocco |
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The main function of media was limited to provide
information to the public about what happens around
the world. But the changes operated give more importance
to them and to their place in society. In fact,
all kinds of media now have a fundamental role
in the good functioning of institutions, governments
and states. Therefore, it is a felt need to examine
the impact of media in society (already done by
sociologists of media, principally), but more specifically
the influence that they can have on the development
process of any country or region. |
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Before analysing this global approach, we can
consider some criteria. On the one hand, the first
and most important is the degree of press freedom
around the world. Without free access for journalists
to accurate sources of information, citizens will
ignore a lot about what is undertaken in their
country and about politics applied by governors.
So, the more free, independent and various press
a country has, the more it can influence individuals’ opinions.
In fact, media give people the chance to participate
actively in decision making by providing them with
some elements, that allow them to take part in
the information process as consumers and producers.
On the other hand, the second element is the effect
of mass media on conducting a democratisation process.
But first, we should establish a link between democracy
and development. |
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Finally, all elements mentioned previously will
help us respond to the major ideas expressed above
but essentially apply them to our case study: Morocco. |
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Scientific News and Popular
Science: Their Images and Founctions in Russian
Based Electronic Mass-Media |
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Dimitri
A. Bayuk, Senior Researcher |
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Russian Academy of Science,
Moscow, Russia |
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The last year was marked with the growing cooperation
and collective activity in the milieu of Russian
journalists specialized in scientific journalism.
One of initial impacts to the process has been
given with the Vitaly Ginzburg nomination for Nobel
Prize in physics. It produced a new wave of public
interest to scientific problems and, then, the
interest of editors. In order to orient themselves
under the new circumstances, journalists willing
to write on scientific subjects launched several
discussions both off- and on-line, which became
the subject of this research. |
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First, all of discussions revealed common identification
of scientific news and popular science as journalist
genres, although they are very different both in
functions they have to fulfill and audiences they
are addressing to. Second, participants showed
the tendency to make inadequately strong stress
upon the problem of demarcation line between science
and pseudo-science, or non-science, which indicates,
on one hand, the oppressive influence of bureaucratic
management of the Academy of Science upon research
climate and its negative consequences for public
opinion, and, on the other hand, high social positions
taken by magicians and cabbalists. Third, economical
difficulties of Russian scientific institutions
and hi-tech branches of industry are also too often
considered as possible subjects for scientific
news. |
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All these peculiarities, analyzed on the basis
of journalist discussions, could be with different
degree of explicitness found in publications of
several internet editions, such as NewsBattery,
SciTechLibrary, or Grani.ru. It is not difficult
to show that only too often authors of scientific
news/popular science publications are not competent
enough to interpret adequately the chosen subjects
and to trace necessary difference of these genres. |
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Prospects for Public Service Broadcasting in
the Information Society |
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Johannes
Bardoel, Senior
Associate Professor |
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Department of Communication,
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
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Leen d'Haenens, Senior
Associate Professor |
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Department of Communication,
Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium |
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The EU’s recent call for a dynamic and
evolving remit for public service broadcasting
in light of the Lisbon strategy to redesign a decisive
role for the audiovisual sector in making Europe
the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based
economy in the world by 2010 represents yet another
challenge for European public service broadcasters.
Around 1990 the last public service broadcasting
monopolies came to an end and ‘dual’ broadcasting
structures comprising public and commercial actors
were put in place, following the liberal(izing)
EU Directive ‘Television without Frontiers’.
At the same time in Eastern Europe state-controlled
media complexes were dismantled, and often a shift
was made towards highly commercial media landscapes.
New information technologies, liberalizing EU and
national policies, together with rapidly changing
societies – from mono- to multicultural – entail
undoubtedly serious consequences for the prospects
of public service broadcasters. Consequently, they
will need to solve their current identity crisis,
reformulate their remit, and reorganize their institutions
within the emerging information society. The role
of the public service concept within this new context
will be centrally dealt with in this article, as
well as the specificity and distinctiveness of
the European fullfledged, ‘all-in-one’ PSB
model versus the US ‘niche’ model with
more modest pretensions in relation to popular
reach and social impact. Other aspects, such as
the digital strategies adopted by PSB’s,
their shaping of e-communities and deployment of
cross-media applications in an effort to keep in
touch with the new demographics and ‘taste
cultures’ of Western societies, will be highlighted. |
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Message Bazaar and Cultural
Interference |
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Mehdi
Mohsenian Rad, Lecturer |
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College of Culture and
Communication, Imam Sadegh University, Tehran,
Iran |
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"Cultural Imperialism" was a term to
be used to explain the relationship between the
culture and the media in the Third World, before
the “global village” and “globalization” terms
became popular in the world. Later on, Americanization,
denationalization, center-periphery, glocalization,
and finally cultural invasion were added into the
dictionary of communication. But perhaps none of
the above terminologies represent the phenomenon
which will happen in the world of communication
in the future. |
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There are certain evidences which indicate that
in the future the concept of mass audience would
be replaced by a new one, which can be called numerous
communicators (numerous senders and numerous receivers).
The popularity of Internet chat rooms and web sites
throughout the world along with the usage of DV
cameras in the movie industries especially in the
African countries are the best example for the
argument that I am presenting in this paper. |
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This article explains how the "mass media" system
would change its structure to include numerous "communicators," similar
to the traditional market space that can be called
Global Message Bazaar. This space is similar to
the Old Persian market or oriental Bazaars which
were used to sell, buy, and trade goods. The traditional
market, in terms of communication, represents the
largest pluralistic and diversified media space
in the human history. The system is such that it
allows audiences to participate in the communication
processes as individuals rather than a faceless “mass.” These
individuals share some characteristics with some
minorities and majorities in the society, but remain
independent and choose to receive only specified
messages. Therefore, there will be numerous representations
and message that would serve the needs of individuals.
Just similar to the oriental bazaar, which this
paper presents in the “Message Bazaar Model,” the
mass media must fulfil their increasingly diverse
audience needs. |
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Information is Power: Building an Interface to
the New Information World |
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Michael
Gasser, Associate
Professor, Computer
Science Department |
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Ahmet
Hamed, Masters
Student, Computer Science Department |
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Stephen
Hockema, Postdoctoral
Fellow in Psychology and Cognitive Science |
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Amr Sabry, Associate
Professor, Computer Science Department |
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Matthew
Kane, PhD Student
and Associate Instructor in Computer and Cognitive
Science, |
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Computer Science Department |
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Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
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Despite the vast array of alternative sources
of information brought by the advent of the Internet,
it seems harder than ever to get access to reliable
information. Indeed, it appears that much of the
information is provided by unqualified agents using
poorly-defined terms, circular arguments, or unverifiable
and vacuous claims. Even worse, and more ominously,
media corporations and their government partners
are openly waging an “information war,” where
information is intentionally filtered and distorted
to influence and mislead the perceived enemies
of North-centered capitalism, among others. An
additional problem is that much of the information
is generated by English-speaking sources and is
not readily available in many important languages
in the global South. |
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As experts in various aspects of information
science, we have embarked on an ambitious project,
an Interface to the Information World, that we
hope people everywhere can both contribute to and
rely on to provide them with the information they
need. The specific immediate subprojects we have
initiated include the following:
• a system that analyzes a given report in light of other reports and facts,
the chain of sources and supporting arguments, to calculate a believability ranking.
• a system for translation between Amharic and English which could serve
as a prototype for future systems that aid in translation between English and
other languages. |
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Indigenous Digital Media
and Cyber-Sovereignty in the Pacific Northwest
or Native North America |
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Adam
Fish, Executive
Director for the Center for Landscape & Artefact |
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Nespelem, Washington, USA |
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Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest have
begun tou se the World Wide Web (WWW) to articulate
their identities and histories. The phrase “indigenous
digital media” (IDM) describes all forms
of visual and aural media used by Native Americans
to accurately create, claim, and display their
local intellectual property in a global digital
environment. Emergent technologies are shaping
the direction of tribal public history and tribal
participation in worldwide digital democracies. |
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Under the auspices of a Life-Long Learning Online
program (http://l3.ed.uidaho.edu), the Schitsu’umsh
(Coeur d’Alene), the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Reservation (CTUIR), and the Nimíipuu
(Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho) created sophisticated
WWW multimedia modules dedicated to progressively
maintaining cultural diversity, history, environmental
justice, language preservation, hypertext cartographies,
and expressive arts. |
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There will be two stages to this presentation:
an analysis of the strengths of digital medias
for indigenous sovereignty projects and an online
exhibition of empirical cases (e.g (http://l3.ed.uidaho.edu/ShowOneObject.asp?SiteID=50&ObjectID=713&ExpeditionID=). |
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Within current tribal WWW modules, indigenous
performance, indigenous digital media, and hypermedia
historiography are in trialogue. Each narration
employs multimedia, phenomenologies of landscapes,
and interactivity to embrace the tribal and non-tribal
reader as a co-storyteller, networker, and author.
Participation in digital medias empowers tribal
members to engage in the production and consumption
of traditional information. The communication tactic
and content of these hypermedias undermine visual
imperalism, textual histories, and scientific epistemologies
while claiming cyber-sovereignty for Columbia Plateau
tribes in the “dot-commons” --thereby
surmounting the digital divide. |
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Lost in Translation?: United
States Television Media Coverage of Climate Change,
1988-2005 |
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Max
Boykoff, Doctoral
Candidate |
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Environmental Studies Department,
University of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz,
California, USA |
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In this information age, previous research has
found that public understanding of science and
policy in the United States (U.S.) comes primarily
from the mass media, nearly half of it from television
news. Concurrently, climate change is widely considered
to be one of the most crucial environmental, social
and political problems facing the planet. In March
of 2003, UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix said, "To
me the question of the environment is more ominous
that that of peace and war...I'm more worried about
global warming than I am of any major military
conflict”. In January of 2005, Rajendra Pachauri – chairman
of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change – called for deep cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions for humanity to survive.
Therefore, this paper investigates the role of
the media in communicating climate science and
policy; specifically, major U.S. television media
coverage – NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN – from
1988 to 2005. Through quantitative content and
iconic analysis, this paper argues that television
coverage of the causes and consequences of climate
change has been deficient, and that key conflicts
regarding climate change have, in fact, arisen
through and been perpetuated by institutional features
of the mass media via political economic, cultural
and journalistic norms, pressures and values. While
this case-study focuses on the U.S., it has manifold
international implications. Ultimately, this work
seeks to facilitate tangible possibilities for
significant improvements in international climate
policy and global development. This can benefit
stakeholders most vulnerable to impacts from threats
connected to human-induced climate change. |
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NWICO and Other Media-Related
Events at UNESCO and the ITU, and Implications
for the WSIS: Reflections of the Legacy and
Present Summit Agenda and Activity |
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Richard
C. Vincent, Professor,
Department of Communication |
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Indiana State University,
Terre Haute, IN, USA |
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Many have anticipated that the benefits
of a “communications revolution” will
be equally shared. We have seen how ICTs
have already made a difference in various social
and political conflicts around the globe. Yet
future success depends on further developments
and the ability to reach agreement on a multi-themed
platform supported by the various stakeholders. Based
on events during and following the first phase
of the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), successful incorporation of a Civil
Society agenda will; not be easy to achieve. During
the first phase, many participants complained
that sessions had been either closed, or limited
to government delegate presentations. It
is argued by some that the summit's declaration
include little that is daring or original so
far. Civil society opinions often appeared
to be at odds with official summit views, and
differences were also seen at times between
countries. Many Civil Society participants,
in particular, feel disenfranchised by the
official declarations and activities and may
continue to feel unwelcome as the second phase
of the Summit unfolds. However, the process
is still quite unique to the U.N., for this
marks the first time ever a formal structure
has been established for the participation
of Civil Society. With this in mind,
this paper will examine how key previous movements
such as the United Nation’s and UNESCO’s New
World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)
and the Declaration on a New Economic Order (NOEI,
1974), and the Maitland Report: the Missing
Link (1985) at the ITU all faltered due
to a lack of interest or outright opposition
from dominant world governments and industry
leadership, marginalization of concerns by
the developing world, and the failure to include
Civil Society participation. This analysis
will then be compared to the WSIS process in
an effort to provide clarification of present
events and speculate on the likelihood for
success as the WSIS draws to and end and we
look to the implementation of its goals and
recommendations. |
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