Suchergebnisse

On 25-28 November 2008 the second European Communication Conference took place in Barcelona, bringing together media and communication researchers from across the continent. Hosted by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the event is co-organised by the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). Among the thematic sections of the Association, Radio Research, and Communication and Democracy's panels discussed a wide range of recent research in the area of community media. The findings emerging from the presentations did highlight the contributions of community radio stations operating in Europe and Africa to the plurality of voices available at the local level and their empowering potential for social groups often underserved by mainstream media. Moreover, the discussed case studies in the areas of alternative and radical media did help to map out emerging practices of both progressive and conservative social movements, including television and internet-based platforms across Europe. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Community Media. A Global Introduction, Ellie Rennie (2006) Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 224 pp., ISBN 0742539245 (hbk), $83.00, ISBN 0742539253 (pbk), $27.95

Recent developments in the study and practice of Community Radio have given to both academics and practitioners a wide range of issues to be discussed and networks such as OurMedia, where both sides and policymakers come periodically together, have given a platform to the increasing convergence of interests while focusing the attention also on geographical areas traditionally overlooked by the literature published in English1. At a European level, fora like the Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE)2 and recent events organised by Budapest's Central European University (CEU)3 and London Metropolitan University4 in 2007 have contributed to the discussion on the status of community media in the continent, focusing particularly on policy, regulation, funding and the issues emerging from the eventual transition to digital of these services. A comprehensive report recently published by the European Parliament, is also a signal of a growing recognition among EU institutions (European Parliament, 2007)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The efficient use of new information and communication technologies can be of crucial importance in emergency response and crisis communications. New media applications are able to perform a range of functions such as facilitating two-way communication, enabling citizens and first respondents to request/offer assistance, enhance campaigning activities for fund raising purposes, and enable individuals/groups to efficiently organize for action. Likewise, social networking, crowdsourcing, and data mining technologies offer new means through which different stakeholders, such as officials, responders, citizens, can gather and disseminate information so as to optimize emergency response. Yet, new media technologies, and particularly social media, may often be misused, either intentionally or unintentionally in ways that can impede efficient communication during emergencies and crises. The present "Report on the adverse use and reliability of new media" (D2.3) aims to provide an overview the adverse use of new media by scammers, hackers, terrorist groups, ordinary citizens, as well as, at times, government authorities and companies. The report also aims to provide an in-depth discussion of an issue that users of new media technologies face in the utilization of such technologies during crises and emergencies: reliability of information. Following a brief introduction (Chapter 1), the report will comprise three chapters. In Chapter 2, the report will focus on types of misuse of new media and their management. The first two sections of Chapter 2 will consider misuse of new media technologies along two axes: types of misuse and players in misuse. In the first section of the chapter, the report will focus on are misrepresentation, rumor spreading, propaganda, surveillance and censorship, and lateral surveillance. After discussing these misuse types, the section to follow will proceed with an analysis of key "players" in misuse of new media technologies. Using examples from case studies of emergencies and ...

This article reviews the role that citizens may play as first responders by comparing how various communication media are utilized by response organizations and government agencies to train and network with citizens. In addition, it aims to investigate the nature of the communication strategies and approaches that are utilized by organizations reaching out to volunteers. In order to accomplish this goal, we engaged in an analysis of citizen awareness programmes and volunteer training processes in three different countries: Turkey, Italy and Germany. Across the analysed countries, we observed inconsistencies in the extent and types of utilization of social media, including the fact that the dominant approach is still communicat- ing to citizens rather than communicating with citizens. Finally, the comparative analysis points out the inconsistent accessibility or availability of training materials online, and particularly in social media platforms. This may reduce the likelihood that a large portion of the population, mostly of younger age, will have the opportunity to stay informed on important emergency preparedness topics.

In the last three decades the emergence and development of community media across Europe has been mainly characterised by the political and social contexts at the national levels and, consequently, the sector is shaped by a range of opportunities and challenges that depend on the status of current policy, legislation and funding regimes in each country. Where at the pan-European level, since the 1970s, the Council of Europe has been supporting community media as a means for pluralism and diversity in the media, as well as a tool to promote social cohesion, in the European Union audiovisual and media policies, community media have been largely overlooked. In 2008 the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament promoted a report to support community media in the Union, signalling a new development pursuing to influence media policy discussion in the member states. This article aims to trace the contours of community media's route across European media policies to assess how its practice has been shaped so far and discuss the emerging issues that are likely to influence its near future. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In Task 4.1, entitled "Citizens' Involvement in Emergency Communications", COSMIC seeks to examine the various roles that citizens may have in communications during emergencies. Also, through this task, the partners aimed to map the relationship between the use of different types of media and communication technologies—including mass media, as well as new media technologies—and citizens' involvement in emergency communications as 1) potential or actual volunteers (first responders) who may aid emergency response and rescue; 2) as social activists who may utilize online networks to organize, coordinate, collaborate or mobilize during political crises; and 3) as citizens who report on emergencies and political crises. To our knowledge, the content analysis procedures developed for this task constitutes one of the first attempts to systematically quantify the content of citizen journalism coverage of emergencies. Overall, this section of the Task 4.1 provides some important findings: We find evidence supporting the notion that in addition to the ease with which citizens now can create and share content online, one of the key factors that drive the increase in citizen journalistic coverage of emergencies is the dissatisfaction that citizens have about the ways in which mainstream media perform their agenda setting, watchdog, and sense-making duties. Our analysis of the content of citizen journalists' coverage of recent emergencies/crisis suggest that citizen journalists may have been, partly, successful in terms of challenging the monopoly that established media organizations have over whose voice gets to be heard by the public. That is, at least to some extent, the information sources that citizen journalists utilize underline an approach whereby citizen journalists report for citizens from citizens. While, in our interviews, citizen journalists frequently claimed that the editorial freedom they have enables them to do away with reporting conventions associated with mainstream journalism, our ...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In Task 4.1, entitled "Citizens' Involvement in Emergency Communications", COSMIC seeks to examine the various roles that citizens may have in communications during emergencies. Also, through this task, the partners aimed to map the relationship between the use of different types of media and communication technologies—including mass media, as well as new media technologies—and citizens' involvement in emergency communications as 1) potential or actual volunteers (first responders) who may aid emergency response and rescue; 2) as social activists who may utilize online networks to organize, coordinate, collaborate or mobilize during political crises; and 3) as citizens who report on emergencies and political crises. To our knowledge, the content analysis procedures developed for this task constitutes one of the first attempts to systematically quantify the content of citizen journalism coverage of emergencies. Overall, this section of the Task 4.1 provides some important findings: We find evidence supporting the notion that in addition to the ease with which citizens now can create and share content online, one of the key factors that drive the increase in citizen journalistic coverage of emergencies is the dissatisfaction that citizens have about the ways in which mainstream media perform their agenda setting, watchdog, and sense-making duties. Our analysis of the content of citizen journalists' coverage of recent emergencies/crisis suggest that citizen journalists may have been, partly, successful in terms of challenging the monopoly that established media organizations have over whose voice gets to be heard by the public. That is, at least to some extent, the information sources that citizen journalists utilize underline an approach whereby citizen journalists report for citizens from citizens. While, in our interviews, citizen journalists frequently claimed that the editorial freedom they have enables them to do away with reporting conventions associated with mainstream journalism, our ...

No longer in its infancy, understanding the contributions of social media in crisis management is a fundamental requirement in the digital era. Starting in April 2013, the COSMIC project, funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme1, has focused on achieving four aims: ▪ To explore new and emerging communication technologies and applications, and provide insight into the most effective ways to use this media to promote the safety and security of citizens in crisis situations. ▪ To assist better communication and better information gathering for authorities and first responders. ▪ To examine the potential roles and ethics for citizen participation in emergency response. ▪ To produce guidelines that will assist authorities and first responders in deploying new and emerging communication technologies and applications to better protect citizens in crisis situations. As time has passed, partners have focused their efforts on desk-based research, as well as opportunities to engage with stakeholders through the use of interactive workshops with those involved in using and researching these tools. The project will culminate in a set of two guidelines: 1) Guidelines for citizens for the use of new media in crisis management and 2) Guidelines for governments and corporate actors for the use of new media in crisis management. Stemming from our research and activities during the project is a need to continue investigative efforts within this domain to ensure that as technologies and individual interactions with those technologies develop, so too does our understanding and skills to use them to enhance crisis management. Accordingly, this chapter contains recommendations for future research that will specifically focus on: 1. Considering how to further develop the COSMIC guidelines, particularly within future policy research 2. Understanding the public 3. Understanding public and private sector organisations 4. Understanding how crisis managers can further their use of social media to gain situational ...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The current document provides the final guidelines for the Contribution of Social Media in Crisis Management (COSMIC) project. The guidelines aim to enhance the safety and security of citizens by supporting both citizens, and public authorities, in their use of social media to complement their crisis management efforts. The increased use of social media, in both day-to-day situations and during crisis situations has led to new opportunities with regard to crisis management. Within the current guidelines we refer to social media applications including: social networking sites, crowdsourcing applications, web-based tools and mobile applications where social media related techniques are incorporated. Advances in the use of these tools have led to barriers and challenges for the 'better use' of these tools by citizens and public organisations alike. Consequently, the COSMIC project has sought to support the 'best use' of social media during crises in a responsible and effective manner. To do so, COSMIC has developed a set of key principles, what we refer to as 'AID', to be followed: Acknowledging the fact that civil society can be trusted; Increasing the ability of civil society to take responsibility for further guarding its own well-being; Developing the capacities of public authorities for adapting to social media use by civil society. In accordance with the AID principles the COSMIC guidelines are split into two sets of tips and tricks for public authorities and for members of the public. By public authorities we mean those governmental organizations that carry a prime responsibility for crisis management as well as those organisations that do not focus on crisis management, but that have a responsibility for crisis management in their own domain (e.g., Civil Society Organisations). Although not within the focus of this first set of tips and tricks, other organizations that find themselves involved in crisis management activities will be able to use these tips and tricks as well. The second set ...