Center for Global Communication Studies

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  • Publication
    Researching Attitudes Towards Peace and Conflict and Darfur: An Analysis of a Research Initiative From February 2007 – October 2008
    (2008-11-01) Taylor, Maureen; Price, Monroe; Gagliardone, Iginio; Foreman, Athony; Abbott, Susan; Morgan, Libby
    The Researching Attitudes towards Peace and Conflict in Darfur project seeks to inform the ongoing peace process in Darfur by providing the various institutions involved in the mediation efforts with a deeper understanding of Darfurians’ perspectives on the causes of the conflict, its impact on their lives, and the role of the international community in its resolution. The project was initiated at the request of Albany Associates (www.albanyassociates.com), which was contracted by the UK’s Department for International Development in 2006 to engage in communication about the Darfur peace process among the population of Darfur and other key stakeholders on behalf of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and later United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). The project is a partnership of the Center for Global Communication Studies (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania) and the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, and is funded by contributions from the Dutch Ministry for Development Cooperation and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The guiding premise of the project is that complex, seemingly intractable conflicts cannot be effectively resolved without taking into account the positions and opinions of those most directly affected.
  • Publication
    Comparative Analysis of International Co- And Self-Regulation in Communications Markets
    (2007-09-01) Latzer, Michael; Price, Monroe; Saurwein, Florian; Verhulst, Stefaan; Hollnbuchner, Katharina; Rance, Laura
    Globalisation, liberalisation and convergence of communication markets have triggered intensive debates about the options for regulatory reform, including the growing role of alternative modes of regulation (self-regulation, co-regulation). These alternatives or supplements to traditional statutory regulation are marked by the involvement of nongovernmental actors in regulatory processes. Both industry and policy makers consider alternative regulation to have great potential for solving problems in communication markets. Regulators are increasingly required to assess the potential and limitations of alternative regulatory institutions to inform or improve regulatory systems. As part of this, they are examining how existing alternative regulatory schemes work and what improvements can be made to them. Regulatory authorities are seeking to identify best practice in other countries in relation to self- and co-regulation and regulatory innovation. Empirical evaluations are intended to contribute to a better understanding of alternative modes of regulation and increase the knowledge base for decisions on whether various types of co- and self-regulatory solutions might be preferable to full statutory regulation. This report is intended to contribute to the regulator’s assessment- and regulatory choice-efforts. It examines whether and how success and failure of selected self- and co-regulatory schemes can be explained by their respective institutional design, by characteristics of the industries involved and by the established regulatory environment. In other words, the performance of selected self- and co-regulatory schemes is examined comparatively and it is investigated as to whether and how performance differences can be explained by differences in the organisational design of the alternative regulatory institutions (institutional/organisational success factors) and by differences regarding their particular industrial and regulatory environments (enabling contextual factors).
  • Publication
    Half the Sky Movement Global Engagement Initiative: Final Monitoring and Evaluation Report
    (2016-01-01) Kogen, Lauren; Esenler, Alexandra
    The Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) monitored and evaluated the Half the Sky Movement (HTSM)/USAID project “Half the Sky Movement Global Engagement Initiative”from January 2014 to January 2016. This report summarizes the findings from this work. The evaluation sought to 1) assess the impact of the HTSM media interventions and 2) improve and inform future efforts to use media in developing and conflict-affected regions. The evaluation also investigated whether HTSM’s media tools can be packaged as a ‘toolkit’ that can be scaled up and / or used by other NGOs working on issues pertaining to women’s empowerment in developing regions. To implement the evaluation, CGCS relied on two in-country M&E Officers, Kamakshi Khazanchi in India and Benard Moseti in Kenya, who coordinated directly with the NGOs on the ground. In Kenya, CGCS employed research firm Research Solutions Africa (RSA) to carry out in-depth-interviews as well as pre, post, and three-month follow-up test surveys for discussion group beneficiaries at YWLI. India M&E Officer Kamakshi Khazanchi coordinated all beneficiary in-depth-interviews and pre, post, and three-month follow-up test surveys for the Tonk NGOs. Dr. Maureen Taylor, Professor and Director in the School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Tennessee, assisted with the development of the project’s Milestone Index for NGO capacity measurement, as well as completed all final evaluation interviews with Kenyan and Indian NGO coordinators and staff members.
  • Publication
    Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: A Documentary Reader
    (2011-11-01) Price, Monroe; Raboy, Marc
    This is a book of documents, comments, and cases that has been prepared, at the request of the European Institute for the Media, for the use of government officials and citizens interested in strengthening public service broadcasting in transition societies. In this book we try to provide a small chest of tools and background information that will be of assistance. We start, in Chapter 1, with an overview of some of the general principles of public service broadcasting, and include pertinent comments on each of them. Here, as throughout the book, we concentrate on issues of governance and financing, with some attention as well to issues surrounding programming. In Chapter 2, we turn to current issues in the European-level debate, partly from the perspective of European expectations and standards that are employed in evaluation and accession processes. In Chapter 3, we look primarily at the UK and Germany, and also at Canada, presenting documents that might illuminate and help in the understanding of the respective models that these long-established systems represent. In Chapter 4, we provide documents on the experience with public service broadcasting in various transformations in transition societies in the last decades.
  • Publication
    Overview Report: Measuring Media Development
    (2011-03-01) Roy, Sanjukta
    An Interactive Timeline of Media Development Sankalpa Dashrath Research is a primary component of the Media Map project, and several papers will be published and distributed publicly as part of the effort through 2011 and 2012. They include: OVERVIEW PAPERS Rethinking Media Development: A Report on The Media Map Project, Mark Nelson with Tara Susman-Peña This final report is intended as the beginning of a process of using Media Map research as a platform for action. Your feedback welcome. On Media Development: An Unorthodox Review (forthcoming) Daniel Kaufmann; Presentation to the Center for International Media Assistance based on this research available here. Healthy Media, Vibrant Societies: How Strengthening the Media Can Boost Development in Sub-Saharan Africa Tara Susman-Peña A synthesis report examining the policy implications of the relationships between media and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Media Development and Political Stability: An Analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa, Sanjukta Roy An econometric study of the relationships between press freedom and access to information, and political stability in Sub-Saharan Africa. COUNTRY CASE STUDIES Edited by Mary Myers, Examining the impact of donor support to the media sector over the last two decades, to be released periodically throughout 2012. – Cambodia, Margarette Roberts – Democratic Republic of the Congo, Marie-Soleil Frère – Indonesia, Manfred Oepen – Kenya, Iginio Gagliardone and Katherine Reed Allen – Mali, Heather Gilberds – Peru, Gabriela Martínez, with Network Analysis, Erich Sommerfeldt; Participatory Photographic Mapping (PPM), and PPM Annex, Luisa Ryan and Gabriela Martínez – Ukraine, Katerina Tsetsura, with Network Analysis Erich Sommerfeldt, Katerina Tsetsura, and Anna Klyueva Design for Quantifying Donor Impact on the Media Sector Sanjukta Roy and Tara Susman-Peña MONITORING & EVALUATION AND MEDIA DEVELOPMENT Mapping Donor Decision Making on Media Development: An Overview of Current Monitoring and Evaluation Practice Jason Alcorn, Amy Chen, Emma Gardner, and Hiro Matsumoto, A Capstone Masters’ thesis report at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Anya Schiffrin, Faculty Advisor LITERATURE REVIEWS & BACKGROUND MATERIALS Review of Literature Amelia Arsenault and Shawn Powers A review of the literature that explores the intellectual history of media development Overview Report: Measuring Media Development Sanjukta Roy Explains the quantitative data available that measures media, and how it is incorporated in the Media Map Project Review of Literature on Quantitative Data (matrix) Sanjukta Roy
  • Publication
    Milton Wolf 2010 Seminar Report
    (2010-05-01) Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication

    The 2010 Milton Wolf Seminar brought together practitioners and academics for three days of exciting debate in Vienna, Austria from March 17 to 19 at the Diplomatic Academy Vienna. Co-sponsored by the American Austrian Foundation, the Center for Global Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvaniaâ s Annenberg School for Communication, and the Diplomatic Academy Vienna, the seminar explored the theme, â New media, new newsmakers, new public diplomacy: The changing role of journalists, NGOs, and diplomats in a multi-modal media world.â

    The Premise
    Discussion began with a recognition that: as new media and communication technologies diffuse worldwide, traditional media institutions face a range of challenges, from shortened news cycles to fragmented and shrinking audiences. Advertising revenues have declined as advertisers try to make sense of the new environment and to redirect their spending in efficient and effective ways, putting media under economic pressure. New technologies create demand for ever-more rapid news provision and non-professional, user-generated content competes directly with the products of traditional news media. In response to these pressures, many news operations have engaged in aggressive downsizing, reducing their staff complements and eliminating foreign bureaus in a bid to contain costs and refocus their operations. These institutions are attempting to adapt to new technologies while retaining their traditional role of supplying accurate and factual news, sorting the important from the irrelevant â the traditional foundations of their businesses.

    Predictably, under these difficult conditions, the quality of news products suffers. Scott Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon detailed the growing problem of inaccuracy in mainstream newspapers. Maier argued that, under the twin pressures of shorter news cycles and smaller newsgathering operations, the quality of news coverage is under threat, an argument echoed by several speakers. Maierâ s and othersâ research suggests that the problem is broad, applying to both the American and European contexts.

    What then, does this changing news landscape mean for journalists, NGOs, and public diplomacy practitioners?

  • Publication
    Followup Report - The Federal Institute for Access to Information in Mexico and a Culture of Transparency
    (2007-12-01) Fernandez Bogado, Benjamin; Martinez-Morales, Emilene; Davis Noll, Bethany; Bell, Kyle
    In the summer of 2007, the Center for Global Communications Studies’s team of researchers – consisting of Benjamin Fernandez Bogado, Emilene Martinez-Morales, Bethany Davis Noll, and Kyle Bell – began a follow-up study to assess the effectiveness and usefulness of the recommendations generated by the Center’s 2006 study1 as well as to report on any institutional changes at the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information in Mexico (“IFAI”) and changes in the political and legal landscape. In June 2007, the team visited IFAI, met with IFAI’s commissioners, and conducted a set of working group discussions with (1) representatives of the obligated agencies and IFAI, (2) representatives from NGOs, and (3) representatives from the media. This summary report was prepared with information gleaned during those sessions as well as from background research conducted by the team. Click here to view the original report.
  • Publication
    Public Opinion Research in a Conflict Zone: Grassroots Diplomacy in Darfur
    (2008-11-01) Gagliardone, Iginio; Stremlau, Nicole
    This paper outlines a research framework to assess attitudes towards peace and conflict and support a form of “grassroots diplomacy” in conflict and post-conflict societies. Based on research in Darfur conducted in 2007-2008, a combination of methods that can be effective tools for addressing this challenge is detailed. The intent is to provide a framework that others interested in research in conflict areas can implement in different scenarios.
  • Publication
    The Federal Institute for Access to Information in Mexico and a Culture of Transparency
    (2006-02-01) TCC Group; Price, Monroe

    In the family of freedom of information laws globally, Mexico is a leader, partly because of its Federal Institute for Access to Public Information in Mexico (IFAI) set up under the countryâ s new Transparency Law. The William

    and Flora Hewlett Foundation asked an international team to study how IFAI has made a difference as the legislation furthers public understanding of government and provides for an informed citizenry. Evaluating performance was the first priority. But for an institution like IFAI to survive and flower and for it to make its greatest
    contribution, it must also be perceived to be performing in accordance with legislative hopes. Two stakeholdersâ the â obligated agenciesâ or agencies covered by the underlying law and the public that uses the transparency law were canvassed as part of the study. We conducted a survey of the staff of IFAI itself as to its understanding of its role and performance. IFAI, as part of the architecture of government openness, has already contributed enormously to a culture of transparency in Mexico. That culture of transparency has contributed to undergirding democratic processes. Much of this progress is attributable to the Commissioners and staff at IFAI. They recognize, however, that there remain substantial opportunities to deepen and broaden this process. Our study seeks to make specific recommendations that will reinforce and advance what IFAI has already
    accomplished.

    Among IFAIâ s important mandates are: resolving appeals of a denied request under the law, training public servants as well in access to information and protection of personal data, monitoring compliance with the law, promoting and disseminating the use of the right of access to information, establishing guidelines for the management of personal data, and disseminating information about how the Transparency Law works. The study focused on these particular mandates as a basis for framing recommendations.

    In particular, there is an emphasis on extending the work of IFAI to as many groups and citizens as possible to make the Transparency Law effective. This outreach must extend to public servants subject to the law and the community at large. Indeed, for a deeply ingrained, robust â culture of transparencyâ to be established in Mexico, IFAI must involve state and municipal governments to promote transparency on the local level. The Transparency Law is largely an accomplishment of the Mexican civil society that lobbied and won its passage. It is a law that stands for unprecedented public openness in Mexicoâ s history. The underlying hopes are that reach citizen throughout Mexicoâ s thirty-one states benefit, directly or indirectly, from the functioning of the transparency laws and the discipline and educative support of IFAI.

  • Publication
    The Enabling Environment for Free and Independent Media: Contribution to Transparent and Accountable Governance
    (2002-01-01) Price, Monroe; Krug, Peter
    Throughout the world, there is a vast remapping of media laws and policies. This important moment for building more democratic media is attributable to rapid-fire geo-political changes. These include a growing zest for information, the general move towards democratization, numerous pressures from the international community, and the inexorable impact of new media technologies. Whatever the mix in any specific state, media law and policy is increasingly a subject of intense debate.