Information & Media
Information Dissemination Archive
AA09319
Gedmin, Jeffrey BOOM BOX USA:
SURROGATE BROADCASTING AS A TOOL OF U.S. SOFT POWER (Foreign Affairs,
vol. 88, no. 5, September-October 2009)
Full Text [HTML format]
According to Gedmin, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, U.S. government-sponsored surrogate broadcasting of accurate and reliable news remains the most effective and cost-efficient way to promote democracy and advance U.S. security interests in countries lacking independent media. The objective of surrogate broadcasting programs, such as Radio Farda in Iran, is not to overthrow a foreign government -- “when informed citizens are free to choose,” Gedmin writes, “they invariably choose freedom over tyranny and prefer decent, accountable government to the arbitrary whims of authoritarian leaders.” Surrogate broadcasting plays a role in Afghanistan, countering the Taliban’s own information war, and in Russia, where public opinion toward the U.S. and toward democracy is ambivalent.
AA09275
Thompson, Nicholas AND DATA FOR ALL (Wired, vol. 17, no. 7, July 2009, pp. 68-71)
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Barack Obama is the first president to appoint a chief information officer for the federal government. Vivek Kundra, who comes to the office having served in a similar position for the District of Columbia, is planning Data.gov, a Web site where all government-produced information will be easy to find, sort and download. When that is done, according to Kundra, the private sector will find ways to use the data which will create new services for the public and new sources of profit for entrepreneurs. He points to the example of the Global Positioning System, which was once the exclusive property of the Department of Defense; now, the system is publicly available and is used for a variety of commercial and public service purposes. “The key is recognizing that we don’t have a monopoly on good ideas,” Kundra told Thompson in an interview. “And that the federal government doesn’t have infinite resources.”
ENSURING THE INTEGRITY, ACCESSIBILITY, AND STEWARDSHIP OF RESEARCH DATA IN THE DIGITAL AGE.
National Academy of Sciences. July 22, 2009.
Full Text [HTML format with links]
Though digital technologies and high-speed communications have significantly expanded the capabilities of scientists, allowing them to analyze and share vast amounts of data, these technologies are also raising difficult questions for researchers, institutions, and journals. Because digital data can be manipulated more easily than other forms, they are particularly susceptible to distortion. Questions about how to maintain the data generated, who should have access, and who pays to store them can be controversial, according to the study.
[Note: contains copyright material.]
MAPPING THE ARABIC BLOGOSPHERE: POLITICS, CULTURE, AND DISSENT.
Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Bruce Etling et al. June 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 62 pages]
The report uses a unique methodology that blends link analysis, term frequency analysis, and human coding of individual blogs to investigate the online discussions taking place across the Middle East and North Africa. Moreover, personal life and local issues are the most important topics of discussion: most bloggers write mainly personal, diary-style observations, but when writing about politics, bloggers tend to focus on issues within their own country, says the authors.
[Note: contains copyright material.]
AA09202
Forest, James J. F. INFLUENCE
WARFARE AND MODERN TERRORISM (Georgetown Journal of International
Affairs, vol. 10, no. 1, Winter/Spring 2009, pp. 81-89)
Full Text available from your nearest American Library
The author, Director of Terrorism Studies and associate professor in the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, examines the sophisticated use of different forms of communication by al-Qaeda on the Internet. Using Web sites, blogs, videos, and other Internet tools, al-Qaeda attempts to convince their audiences that the righteousness of their cause justifies their violent attacks. A challenge for the U.S. is to develop a new information strategy that will undermine and discredit al-Qaeda’s rationales for violence. The U.S. must use all available media, including the Internet, to craft and deliver messages that discredit al-Qaida’s violent ideology. American efforts in strategic communication are currently scattered across many overlapping government entities and should be more centrally coordinated.
10 WORST COUNTRIES TO BE A BLOGGER.
Committee to Protect Journalists. April 30, 2009.
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With a military government that severely restricts Internet access and imprisons people for years for posting critical material, Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger, according to the report. It also identifies a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia where Internet penetration has blossomed and government repression has grown in response. “Bloggers are at the vanguard of the information revolution and their numbers are expanding rapidly,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “But governments are quickly learning how to turn technology against bloggers by censoring and filtering the Internet, restricting online access and mining personal data.”
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ATTACKS ON THE PRESS IN 2008.
Committee to Protect Journalists. February 24, 2009.
Full Text [HTML format with links]
According to Carl Berstein for the Committee to Protect Journalist, today, the greatest threats to freedom of the press are more insidious than a generation ago because they are intended to induce a climate of fear and self-censorship through systematic violence and emblematic arrest aimed at those who would practice real, independent journalism. Kidnappings, (not just of reporters and editors, but of members of their families, murder, and torture intended to suppress the truth: These are increasingly basic strategies of criminal regimes, drug gangs, local despots, authoritarian cultures, and movements such as radical Islam that transcend national boundaries.
[Note: contains copyright material.]
DANGEROUS TRUTH: SAFEGUARDING JOURNALISM AND MEDIA WORKERS.
Center for International Media Assistance, National Endowment for Democracy. April 8, 2009.
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In honor of World Press Freedom Day 2009, on April 29th, the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy will host a panel discussion on journalism. Speakers from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International News Safety Institute will address how attacks and threats against journalists are a brutal and highly effective weapon against press freedom and democracy and represent the most dangerous form of censorship.
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JOURNALISTS IN THE FIRING LINE.
World Press Freedom Day, World Association of Newspapers. April 2009.
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Facing harassment, threats of violence and physical retaliation, journalists across the world continue to dig out troubling facts, challenge the status quo and expose those who commit crimes. Day after day, journalists investigate and file reports on issues they know they could be sued or killed for. Many pay the price. On World Press Freedom Day, the World Association of Newspapers will present the story of many journalists whose work upsets and can sometimes undo the powerful. What do they report on, how and at what price?
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PRESS FREEDOM DAY BY DAY.
Reporters Without Borders. April 2009.
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In some countries a journalist can be thrown in prison for years for a single offending word or photo. Jailing or killing a journalist removes a vital witness to events and threatens the right of us all to be informed.
[Note: contains copyright material.]
SOFT CENSORSHIP: HOW GOVERNMENTS AROUND THE GLOBE USE MONEY TO MANIPULATE THE MEDIA.
Center for International Media Assistance. Don Podesta. January 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 32 pages]
The report examines the use of money by governments to influence news coverage. The author, Don Podesta, a veteran journalist with more than 30 years’ experience, explains that as formerly authoritarian regimes have moved toward more democratic societies, this insidious form of censorship has emerged on a global scale.
[Note: contains copyright material.]
AA09130
Palser, Barb HITTING THE TWEET SPOT (American Journalism Review, April-May 2009)
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Palser, director of digital media for McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, recommends that news outlets use Twitter to reach elusive and sought-after audiences, such as 18- to 34-year-olds who are more likely to read a newspaper on a mobile phone or Web site. While Twitter is successful in reaching these audiences, the question remains on how to use Twitter to generate revenue for the news organizations. The most likely benefit, she says, is that the Web offerings will benefit from increased traffic from Twitter links. “Tweets” – 140 character mini-blogs – can be used as a valuable news tool. During the October 2007 Southern California wildfires, for example, news organizations such as the Los Angeles Times and San Diego public radio station KPBS used Twitter to efficiently dispatch urgent bits of information, such as evacuation orders, shelter locations, and firefighting progress. A number of news organizations have incorporated Twitter into their daily operations by using Tweets to automatically feed Web headlines and breaking news and to invite suggestions and questions from subscribers.
FREEDOM ON THE NET: A GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF INTERNET AND DIGITAL MEDIA.
Freedom House. April 1, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 126 pages]
As internet and mobile phone use explodes worldwide, governments are adopting new and multiple means for controlling these technologies that go far beyond technical filtering. The report looks at these emerging tactics, raising concern over trends such as the "outsourcing of censorship" to private companies, the use of surveillance and the manipulation of online conversations by undercover agents. The study covers both repressive countries such as China and Iran and democratic ones such as India and the United Kingdom, finding some degree of internet censorship and control in all 15 nations studied.
[Note: contains copyright material.]
AA09095
Hendler, Clint WHAT WE DIDN’T KNOW HAS HURT US (Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2009)
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The author contends that some of the measures to maintain the extreme secrecy of the executive branch enacted by the Bush presidency may be easy to unpick by an executive order of the Obama administration. Others, resulting from court rulings or entrenched bureaucratic traditions, will be more difficult to reverse. President Obama promised in his campaign and since his election he would restore transparency and improve information sharing. The author details some of the battles fought over freedom of information during the Bush administration, including the Sunshine in Government Initiative formed by the Associated Press.
TWITTER AND STATUS UPDATE.
Pew Internet and American Life Project. Amanda Lenhart. February 12, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 6 pages]
The author notes that in the past three years, developments in social networking and internet applications have begun providing internet users with more opportunities for sharing short updates about themselves, their lives, and their whereabouts online. Users may post messages about anything in their lives on social networks and blogging sites, or on send short messages to networks of friends like Twitter, Yammer and others.
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SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND THE SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE USAGE OF STUDIVZ, FACEBOOK, AND MYSPACE BY STUDENTS IN SALZBURG IN THE CONTEXT OF ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE.
University of Salzburg. Christian Fuchs. Web posted February 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 145 pages]
Among the 674 students who participated in the study, 88.3% of the respondents use studiVZ, 39.5% Facebook, 15.9% MySpace, 9.0% Xing, 7.4% Lokalisten. Each of 61 other social networking sites (SNS) is used by less than 1%. Fuchs says, “There are indications for a strong economic concentration in the area of social networking sites.” Further, she adds, “Students are very aware of the massive collection of personal data on these platforms. They use them nonetheless because of the expected communicative advantages. This does not mean that they are incautious, but that there is a structural lack of alternative platforms. Non-commercial, non-profit SNS do not have to evaluate data for personalized advertisements, therefore the probability of surveillance and data abuse decreases. But such platforms are currently hardly existent or completely unknown.”
[Note: contains copyrighted material]
“IT’S AN EVERYDAY BATTLE”: CENSORSHIP AND HARASSMENT OF JOURNALISTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN SUDAN.
Human Rights Watch. February 18, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 26 pages]
The report documents the Sudan government's efforts to repress those who seek to report on issues it considers sensitive, including human rights, the conflict in Darfur, and the International Criminal Court’s (ICC's) investigation. "Today in Khartoum it is unsafe to criticize the Khartoum government or to call for justice for the victims of horrific crimes in Darfur," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
[Note: contains copyrighted material]
BROADCASTING TO CUBA: ACTIONS ARE NEEDED TO IMPROVE STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS. U.S. Government Accountability Office. January 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 59 pages]
For more than two decades, the U.S. government has been broadcasting to Cuba to break the Cuban government’s information blockade and promote democracy in Cuba. Over this period, questions have been raised regarding the quality and effectiveness of these broadcasts. The U.S. Government Accountability Office analyzes documentation related to strategic planning, audience research, oversight, and operations and interviewed officials from BBG, BBG’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), OCB, State, and other agencies.
AA09062
WORDS OF WAR (Asia Pacific Defense Forum, vol. 33, no. 3, Third Quarter 2008, pp. 8-13)
Full Text [PDF format; 68 pages]
The latest development in the efforts by terrorist groups to gain publicity and influence has been to turn to publishing companies; a prime example is the Indonesian radical group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has infiltrated the Islamic publishing industry in Indonesia. The article notes that it may be tempting to crack down on the publishing industry, however it may be wiser to leave it alone. The publishers may be disseminating a radical message, but they could also play a positive role by channeling the group’s energies through the printed word rather than acts of violence. Other publishers run a booming business by producing lighter material more appealing to the general population. Material from the books is freely photocopied, as the publishers care more about getting the message out than about their intellectual property rights.
AA09042
Herbert, David AGENCIES STRUGGLING TO MAKE CONNECTIONS ONLINE (National Journal, February 2, 2009)
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President Obama wants government agencies to be more transparent and communicate more with their audiences online. Many agencies have been using social-networking media long before Obama's directives, but with little success, the author says. Bureaucratic inefficiency and outdated and inflexible laws are partially to blame, Herbert writes, but "the biggest problem facing most agencies isn't the trap of outdated regulations but the failure to attract an audience." The article examines how web managers need to think about how to use Web 2.0 tools, not just to use them for the sake of using them. It also examines how the successful government social networking sites are the ones that allow an open discussion.
THE “NEW” TUBE: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF YOUTUBE – THE MOST POPULAR ONLINE VIDEO DESINATION.
Parents Television Council. Web posted on January 8, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 23 pages]
Children are consuming more and more of their video entertainment outside the traditional confines of a television set. While most parents might not be surprised to learn that search terms employing words like “sex” and “porn” are likely to yield YouTube video content containing graphic sexual themes and portrayals, most would be stunned to know that seemingly “innocent” search terms are also likely to generate profane material.
[Note: contains copyrighted material]
AA09026
Nelson, Anne ARAB MEDIA: THE WEB 2.0 REVOLUTION (Carnegie Reporter, vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 2008, pp. 12-23)
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The author, a noted media scholar who consults for a number of major foundations on international media issues, notes that the Internet, cell phones, and other new media are revolutionizing communications in Arab societies. Digital technology is bringing rapid change to Arab nations, and the effects will be felt far beyond regional borders. Nelson notes that the new media revolution is unfolding in a region in which other forms of expression have long been suppressed. In Egypt, for instance, most of the national news outlets are state-dominated, with political coverage that is almost identical to government press releases. Now, some 6 million Egyptians have Internet access and 70 percent of the country’s 78 million people have access to satellite television. Cell phones are ubiquitous, and now come equipped with Facebook as a menu option. A large percentage of Egypt’s online community are young people, who are active on social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and its Google parallel, Orkut. So far, much of the U.S. government response to the phenomenon of the Internet in the Arab world has focused on its implications for terrorism and counter-insurgency. In the U.S. and Western Europe, “legacy infrastructure” has slowed the pace of innovations such as cell phones and high-speed Internet. Arab countries, however, are starting from scratch, which makes them high-tech playgrounds for innovation. Flat-screen TVs abound, and Al-Jazeera International was launched as the world’s first broadcaster with all-HDTV infrastructure.
AA09007
Sullivan, Andrew WHY I BLOG (Atlantic, November, 2008)
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Sullivan describes the evolution of his blogging, which he began in 2000. He describes not knowing what to write about at first, but eventually discovering that writing a blog was similar to writing an e-mail. "You end up writing about yourself, since you are a relatively fixed point in this constant interaction with the ideas and facts of the exterior world. And in this sense, the historic form closest to blogs is the diary. But with this difference: a diary is almost always a private matter," Sullivan writes. He describes blogs as a publication with a deadline at all times. "There is a vividness to this immediacy that cannot be rivaled by print," he says. Sullivan says he was quickly hooked on blogging because its unfiltered process was "liberating," but it also came with more direct criticism from readers. But the readers also become news sources, changing the way reporting works. Sullivan's article outlines the many challenges he has faced and lessons he has learned from this new medium.
AA08445
Rosen, Jeffrey GOOGLE’S GATEKEEPERS (New York Times Magazine, November 30, 2008)
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The author, a law professor at George Washington University, notes that even though the Web might seem like a free-speech panacea, there is less focus on how the Internet is actually regulated, and by whom. As more and more speech migrates online, the ultimate power to decide who has an opportunity to be heard, and what people may say, lies increasingly with Internet service providers, search engines, and other Internet companies like Google. With control of two-thirds of the world's Internet searches, as well as ownership of YouTube, Google has enormous influence over who can find an audience on the Web; it has adopted a decision-making process about what controversial user-generated content stays up or comes down on YouTube and other applications owned by Google. Google’s increasing role in policing content on its applications is also working at cross-purposes with many national governments, which are also blocking access to YouTube, such as recent incidents in Thailand and Turkey.
AA08446
Sanchez, Yoani LOST IN CYBERSPACE: IS THERE A WAY OUT? (Global Journalist, vol. 14, no. 2, Summer 2008, pp. 3-4)
Full Text [PDF format; complete issue is 69 pages; click on link to article, “Journalist’s Journal”]
Sanchez, a ‘Generation Y’ Cuban journalist who blogs from Havana, says despite that the limited availability of Internet access in the country, the Web is helping to spur an end to years of public silence about Cuba’s problems and unfulfilled promises. She relates how her posts are “marked by some emotional outbursts that serious newspapers would never publish,” and how change, rather than coming from the top, is being “loosened” from the inside. She concludes that the homogeneity and sloganeering of the official press and the Cuban state’s monopoly on information is currently being lost “once and for all.”
AA08294
Foust, Joshua CITIZEN PROPAGANDISTS: CUTTING THROUGH THE NOISE ON RUSSIA-GEORGIA IS HARDER THAN YOU THINK (Columbia Journalism Review, posted September 2, 2008)
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The ability of journalists as well as ordinary people to use blogs to write about what they are passionate about is creating a new class of propagandist -- “citizen propagandists,” says Foust. He notes that this is especially evident with the current situation in Georgia. Foust quotes Ethan Zukerman, co-founder of the citizens’ media project Global Voices, as saying “Georgian, Russian and Ossetian bloggers all want the suffering of their group acknowledged on a global stage and are all presenting the conflict from their personal perspectives.” While some of these voices give sober evaluations of the conflict, too often their accounts are drowned out in a flood of citizen propaganda coming from “partisans of all stripes,” says Foust. “The usual suspects pushing pre-spun views of what happened lends them zero value over traditional media sources -- surely not what the original architects of the blogosphere ideals intended,” Foust says.
KEY NEWS AUDIENCES NOW BLEND ONLINE AND TRADITIONAL SOURCES.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. August 17, 2008.
Full Text [pdf format, 129 pages]
For more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between traditional sources and the internet for the core elements of today’s news audiences. A sizable minority of Americans, who are integrators, those who get the news from both traditional sources and the internet, are a more engaged, sophisticated and demographically sought-after audience segment than those who mostly rely on traditional news sources. They are older, on average, than those who consider the internet their main source of news. Overall, Integrators spend more time with the news on a typical day than do those who rely more on either traditional or internet sources.
[Note: contains copyrighted material]
AA08276
Ortolani, Alex HOW CHINA CENSORS ITS BURGEONING MEDIA (Michigan Quarterly Review, vol. 47, no. 2, Spring 2008, pp. 271-282)
Full text available from your nearest American Library
From a handful of state-run media outlets in the 1970s, the Chinese press has grown into many thousands ofnews sources including newspapers, magazines, TV and radio channels. Somehow, the government manages to watch and censor them all through intimidation, bribery, information control and close coordination with editorial boards. In a rapidly changing China, many wonder how longit will be until a truly free press develops; one observer, however, says censorship continues to be stronger than those who push against it.
AA08262
Emmett, Arielle HANDHELD HEADLINES (American Journalism Review, vol. 30, no. 4, August/September 2008)
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News organizations are pinning their hopes of survival on producing content aimed at consumers using cell phones and other mobile devices, but so far the results of their efforts are inconclusive. Mobile news is currently only a tiny share of the market, and users tend to be young, sophisticated and interested only in information of immediate use to themselves and which is easily attainable with just a few clicks. As of now, the most successful publishers of mobile content are the most focused -- “channelized”, in industry jargon -- to the needs of select audiences.
“SPAM”: AN OVERVIEW OF ISSUES CONCERNING COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.
Congressional Research Service, RL31953, Library of Congress. Patricia Moloney Figliola. Web posted July 4, 2008.
Full Text [pdf format, 21 pages]
“Spam,” also called unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or “junk email,” aggravates many computer users. Not only can spam be a nuisance, but its cost may be passed on to consumers through higher charges from Internet service providers who must upgrade their systems to handle the traffic. Also, some spam involves fraud, or includes adult-oriented material that offends recipients or that parents want to protect their children from seeing.
AA08227
Nagesh, Gautham VIRTUAL CONNECTIONS (Government Executive, vol. 40, no. 8, July 2008, pp. 24-28)
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The author features U.S. government agencies’ efforts in the online world at public outreach efforts and improving internal communication. At the Center for Disease Control, it is possible to connect directly with the audience and reach them in ways that they access public health information more easily and that makes such data more readily available [http://secondlife.com]. The Environmental Protection Agency’s official blog grew out of Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock’s blog; it offers an in-depth look at its work in defense of the environment. The Defense Department’s site posts briefings about the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, along with speeches from top military officials and footage from across the globe. For users able to wrangle access, Intellipedia, the online encyclopedia for intelligence agencies, and its sister Diplopedia, for the State Department, provide the latest information via their agencies intranets but access is based on level of security clearance.
AA08205
Ebbinghouse, Carol THE NEW SURGE OF OPEN LEGAL INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET (Searcher, vol. 16, no. 6, June 2008, pp. 8, 10, 12-16)
Full Text (EbscoHost; password required)
Many law librarians who started their careers in the 1970s remember that the two main legal commercial databases, Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw, now essential to their profession, first started as rather unwieldy hard-to-use information sources, but were gradually updated and improved for better user retrieval. These databases supplemented, rather than replaced, materials required in law libraries, which contained hundreds of feet of shelves with expensive bound volumes of federal and state legal decisions and law books; periodical shelves groaned under the number of paper copies of journals that were required to satisfy the client. For years, these two expensive databases were the only sources of online legal information. Now this has changed, as hundreds of thousands of full-text cases, codes, constitutions, regulations, and court rules are now available on sites such as Public Library of Law. The author, a law librarian with California’s Second District Court of Appeal, Los Angeles, analyzes both the positive and negative points of the various websites of legal information now available on the Internet.
AA08144
Murphy, Dennis M.; White, James F. PROPAGANDA: CAN A WORD DECIDE A WAR? (Parameters, vol. 37, no. 3, Autumn 2007, pp. 15-27)
Full Text [pdf format, 13 pages]
Murphy and White, of the U.S. Army War College, review the history of American propaganda efforts. It is difficult for the U.S. to balance the principles of a free, democratic society with the need to counter disinformation in an effort to establish credibility. Our adversaries have the advantage in an information environment uninhibited by the internal criticism of propaganda facing American leaders. Information power was previously limited to nation-states, but the Internet allows inexpensive, easily accessible propaganda, where messages can have an immediate impact. To counter these information attacks, America must react quickly, accurately, and with messages tailored to local populations.
GLOBAL VIEWS OF USA IMPROVE.
BBC; BBC World Service Poll. April 2, 2008.
Full Text [pdf file, 24 pages]
After years of becoming progressively more negative, public views of the United States have begun to improve, according to a BBC World Service Poll across 34 countries. While views of US influence in the world are still predominantly negative, they have improved in 11 of the 23 countries the BBC polled a year ago, while worsening in just three countries. The average percentage saying that the US is having a positive influence has increased from 31 per cent a year ago to 35 per cent today while the view that it is having a negative influence has declined from 52 per cent to 47 per cent.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
THE STRUGGLE FOR PALESTINIAN HEARTS AND MINDS: VIOLENCE AND PUBLIC OPINION IN THE SECOND INTIFADA.
Institute for the Study of Labor; IZA DP No. 3439. David A. Jaeger, et. al. Web posted April 14, 2008.
Full Text [pdf format, 50 pages]
This paper examines how violence in the Second Intifada influenced Palestinian public opinion. Using a series of opinion polls, the study found that Israeli violence against Palestinians led them to support more radical factions and more radical attitudes towards the conflict. This effect was temporary, however, and vanished completely within 90 days. There also is evidence that Palestinian fatalities led to the polarization of the population and to increased disaffection and a lack of support for any faction. Although overall Israeli fatalities do not seem to affect Palestinian public opinion, when those fatalities are divided by the different factions claiming responsibility for them, there is an apparent correlation between increased Israeli fatalities and increased support for the faction that claimed them.
[Note: contains copyrighted material].
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: AGENCIES ARE MAKING PROGRESS IN REDUCING BACKLOG.
Government Accountability Office; GAO-08-344. Web posted April 15, 2008.
Full Text [pdf format, 82 pages]
Based on data reported by major agencies in annual FOIA reports from fiscal years 2002 to 2006, the numbers of FOIA requests received and processed continue to rise, but the rate of increase has flattened in recent years. The number of pending requests carried over from year to year has also increased, although the rate of increase has declined. The increase in pending requests is primarily due to increases in requests directed to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
MIXED SIGNALS, MIXED RESULTS: HOW PRESIDENT BUSH'S EXECUTIVE ORDER ON FOIA FAILED TO DELIVER.
George Washington University, The National Security Archive. Thomas Blanton, et. al. Web posted March 16, 2008.
Full Text [pdf format, 24 pages]
President Bush’s executive order for a “citizen-centered” and “results-oriented” Freedom of Information system did improve customer service at federal agencies, but has failed to make consistent progress on backlogs and has not significantly improved compliance with electronic FOIA requirements, according to the Knight Open Government Survey released by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The President’s 2005 EO installed Chief FOIA Officers at each of 90 federal agencies and asked for FOIA improvement plans from each agency. As the title of the report indicates, results have been mixed.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material].
PUBLIC OPINION ON THE WAR WITH IRAQ.
American Enterprise Institute, Short Publications. Karlyn Bowman. March 14, 2008.
Full Text [direct link with pdf format embedded]
This study is a compilation of recent public opinion polls on, among other things, the build-up to and beginning of the war in Iraq, the proper use of force, achieving stability in the region and the prospect of peace, and what should be done from here on out. Among the highlights:
- 59 % in Gallup's latest survey say that the war in Iraq was a mistake but 40% believe the “surge” is working.
- According to Pew, 48% say the war is going well, 48% say it is not going well.
- 31% approved of Pres. Bush’s handling of the war according to CBS/NY Times poll.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material].
SHOUTING TO BE HEARD: PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING IN A CHANGING TELEVISION WORLD.
Kaiser Family Foundation. Web posted January 24, 2008.
Full Text [pdf format, 27 pages]
Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) often are a central component of the public education campaigns for many government and non-profit agencies. This report examines some of the new techniques being used on television, the Worldwide Web, and even within video games.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
AA08053
Fallows, James “THE CONNECTION HAS BEEN RESET” (Atlantic Monthly, March 2008)
Full Text
Foreign visitors attending the Olympics in Beijing may be pleasantly surprised by what will seem to be easy access to the Internet. They shouldn’t be deceived, says Fallows, Atlantic national correspondent reporting from Beijing. “What the Olympic-era visitors will be discovering is not the absence of China’s electronic control but its new refinement – and a special Potemkin-style unfettered access that will be set up just for them, and just for the length of their stay,” Fallows writes. China’s “great firewall” may seem crude to outsiders, but it is surprisingly effective. Moreover, it is just one part of a larger, complex structure of monitoring and censorship. While the Chinese government’s censorship of the Internet is extensive, any of China’s 210 million online users can circumvent it using a virtual private network (VPN), but at a cost of about 10 cents per day – a couple days’ work for a young Chinese academic and a week’s take-home pay for a Chinese factory worker. Fallows writes, “What the government cares about is making the quest of information just enough of a nuisance that people generally won’t bother.” With a rich information environment inside China, the average Chinese person will find searching for external information not worth the trouble and expense. Fallows asks the question: “How long can the regime control what people are allowed to know, without the people caring enough to object?” And he answers: “On current evidence, for quite a while.”
IMPROVING DECLASSIFICATION: A REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT.
Public Interest Declassification Board (The Board). Web posted January 9, 2008.
Full Text [pdf format, 48 pages]
The Board is an advisory group created in 2000 to promote public access to “a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant . . . national security decisions and . . . activities.” This report provides the Board’s conclusions on the strengths and weaknesses of the existing declassification system. The Board also offers recommendations to enhance the integrity of the classification system to departments and agencies involved in classification and declassification activities.
PERSPECTIVES ON EMBEDDED MEDIA: SELECTED PAPERS.
Michael Pasquarett, John Wheatley, and Ritchie Dion, editors. U.S. Army War College. Web posted December 1, 2007.
Full Text [pdf format, 112 pages]
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Department of Defense (DoD) developed the Embedded Media Program that allows near-real-time television reporting throughout military units. One conclusion of embedding is that it handicaps “media analysts and stateside reporters in their ability to put the raw reporting from the field into a larger context. Conversely, those TV journalists supplying these spectacular reports and engrossing pictures from the front line were also handicapped in that they were reporting in a vacuum. . .”
A workshop that included embedded reporters and commanders was conducted on June 6, 2003. This report includes five papers that were generated from this workshop.
WORLDWIDE PRESS FREEDOM INDEX 2007.
Reporters Without Borders. Web posted October 16, 2007.
Full Text [html format, various pagings]
This report measures press freedom in 169 countries. The report shows that journalists have faced censorship or violence in every region of the world. Of the 20 countries at the bottom of the list, 7 are Asian; 5 are African; 4 are Middle Eastern; 3 are in the former Soviet republics; and one is in the Americas.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
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Rieff, David, et al. ORWELL IN '08 (Columbia Journalism Review, vol. 46, no. 4, November-December 2007, pp. 26-39)
Table of Contents, linking to Full Text of articles [html format]
George Orwell's classic 1946 essay, "Politics and the English Language," attacked murky writing, such as dying metaphors, pretentious diction, meaningless words, and proposed that clear writing can lead to clear thinking and a better world. Principally, he went after fuzzy academics, though he included a sample of communist propaganda among his targets. After that, Orwell began work on his great book, 1984, which introduced the reader to the concept of Newspeak, the fictional but terrifying system of language designed to hobble and crush independent thought. In four essays excerpted from a new book WHAT ORWELL DIDN'T KNOW: PROPAGANDA AND THE NEW FACE OF AMERICAN POLITICS, David Rieff (“Orwell Abuse”) considers Orwell as a model; Aryeh Neier (“Rights and Wrongs”) discusses the misuse of three familiar words "freedom," "liberty," and "rights"; Nicholas Lemann (“The Limits of Language”) worries less about bad language than about bad information; and Geoffrey Cowan (“’Surge,’ Meet Escalation”) provides a case study in which reporters take a stand on language that affects the discourse on the war in Iraq. Finally, Brent Cunningham, CJR's managing editor, proposes (“The Rhetoric Beat”) that journalists, who are in major position to define language, help clarify public thinking in a world that seems to need it.
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Alsultany, Evelyn SELLING AMERICAN DIVERSITY AND MUSLIM AMERICAN IDENTITY THROUGH NONPROFIT ADVERTISING POST-9/11 (American Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 3, September 2007, pp. 593-622)
Full text available from your nearest American Library
The author, an assistant professor in the Program in American Culture, University of Michigan, explores how nonprofit advertising participated in refiguring an imagined American community in relation to Islam after 9/11 when patriotic advertising campaigns flooded highway billboards, radios, magazines, newspapers, and television. Examining how Muslim identities were packaged, marketed, and sold through nonprofit advertising, the author compares three campaigns: the Ad Council’s “I am an American,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) “I am an American Muslim,” and the U.S. Department of State’s “Shared Values Initiative.” It demonstrates how a nonprofit organization, a civil rights group, and the U.S. government sought to deconstruct the binary opposition between American citizen and Arab Muslim terrorist that emerged after 9/11 and produced a diverse imagined American community. The least effective one, according to the author, was that of the U.S. government as part of its expensive public diplomacy campaign. The Ad Council’s PSA was presumably successful effective while the CAIR ad was hard to evaluate as it was not widely circulated.
GLOBAL E-GOVERNMENT, 2007.
Darrell M. West. Center for Public Policy, Brown University. Web posted July 28, 2007.
Full Text [pdf format, 25 pages]
This annual publication provides information on government websites. The report covers 1,687 websites in 198 countries. The principle findings are:
- 28 percent of the websites offer fully-executable online services;
- 96 percent provide access to publications and 80 percent link to databases;
- 29 percent show privacy policies and 21 percent list security policies;
- 23 percent have disability accommodations.
The most highly ranked government websites are South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Portugal, Australia, Turkey, and Germany.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
MUZZLING THE MEDIA: THE RETURN OF CENSORSHIP IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES.
Christopher Walker. Freedom House. Web posted June 21, 2007.
Full Text [pdf format, 13 pages]
The media in many of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) suffers from modern methods of media control. This contemporary form of censorship is a mix of state-enabled control, broadcast monopolies, judicial persecution, and intimidation.
The internet, however, is an alternative and a challenger to media hegemony. Bloggers and other media reporters continue to push the boundaries of journalism. The internet “is fast becoming a target of greater interest for new regulatory intervention by the authorities,” and reporters still willing to investigate political and corporate corruption are confronted by “vested interests striving to muzzle news professionals.”
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
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Ludtke, Melissa, et al. ISLAM: REPORTING IN CONTEXT AND WITH COMPLEXITY (Nieman Reports, Vol. 61, No. 2, Summer 2007, pp. 4-62)
Full Texts
Nieman Reports devotes this issue to the complexities and challenges faced by Western reporters in covering Islam, the Islamic world and the Middle East. In 22 articles, top journalists and academics such as Richard Engel, Tariq Ramadan and Robert Azzi review the work of their peers and note the ignorance, predjudice and misperceptions about Islam that are frequently repeated in the media. Other writers suggest current stories and trends, such as political developments, social change, bloggers and the economy, in the Middle East and elsewhere that are ignored in coverage. All urge their colleagues to do a better job in understanding the subtle complexities of culture and its interface with Islam as a religion. In her article, DePaul University professor Marda Dunsky sums up a consistent editorial theme of this journal: she writes that in the U.S. press, conflict in the Middle East repeatedly imparts details from a U.S. policy viewpoint, omitting key issues and leaving important contextual questions unasked and unanswered. She and other authors would like to see reporting that is more nuanced and less superficial.
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Ricchiardi, Sherry DISTORTED PICTURE (American Journalism Review, vol. 29, no. 4, August/September 2007, pp. 36-43)
Full Text
Affordable and user-friendly, the photo-editing computer program Adobe Photoshop makes it easy to manipulate photographs, and the increasing misuse of the technology poses a serious threat to photojournalism’s credibility, says the author. A number of trends are leading to a greater likelihood of using altered photo images, including: staff cutbacks that require news organizations to rely on long-distance freelancers, who are largely free of newsroom accountability; competition for newspaper space that increases pressure for dramatic images; and the fact that digital photography leaves no original negatives with which to compare an image. Doctoring photos – either to deceive the viewer or enhance the image’s esthetics -- has been around since the advent of photography, but the thorny issue remains of defining the limits of what is and is not acceptable. There have been incidents in which photos of public figures have been removed from web sites, after the images were found to have been manipulated, to change their physical appearance. So far, there is no fast and effective software to detect altered images –- a major problem for AP, which receives between 2,000 and 3,000 photographs each day. So, in the meantime, viewers will have to accept that “seeing is not believing.”
LEFT BEHIND: THE SKEWED REPRESENTATION OF RELIGION IN MAJOR NEWS MEDIA.
Special Report, Media Matters for America. May 2007.
Full Text [pdf format, 27 pages]
“The coverage of the intersection of religion and politics tends to oversimplify both.” This study documents that the coverage of religion is consistently advantageous to conservatives. This study concludes that conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned or interviewed: 2.8 times more often in newspapers and television; 3.8 times more often in television news; and 2.7 times more often in major newspapers than progressive religious leaders.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
BACKSLIDERS: THE 10 COUNTRIES WHERE PRESS FREEDOM HAS MOST DETERIORATED.
Special Report 2007, Committee to Protect Journalists. Web posted May 3, 2007.
Full Text [html format, various pagings]
The Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) issued this report to call attention to long-term erosion of press conditions and to identify “backsliders,” which are countries that have had an open relationship with the press, but who have become increasingly repressive. The list also includes nations where press conditions have traditionally been restrictive.
Patterns that emerged from this analysis are:
- Authorities in some countries have silenced critical coverage;
- Violent attacks are not punished;
- Judicial harassments have increased; and
- Censorship and restrictive legislation have been used.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
PRESS FREEDOM IN 2006: GROWING THREATS TO MEDIA INDEPENDENCE.
Freedom House. May 1, 2007
Overview Essay [pdf format, 12 pages]
Draft Country Reports and Ratings [pdf format, 216 pages]
Charts and Graphs [pdf format, 22 pages]
According to this report, global press freedom declined in 2006; assaults on independent news media were relentless in Russia, Venezuela, Iran, and China; and independent news showed declines in Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Governments have also restricted internet freedom by censoring, harassing, or shutting down sites that provided alternative news or commentary.
This report consists of an overview essay of media independence, country reports and ratings, and graphs and charts.
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
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Tucker, Patrick, et al. THE NEW MEDIA AGE: END OF THE WRITTEN WORD? (Futurist, vol. 41, no. 2, March-April 2007, pp. 23-30)
Available from your nearest American Library
Experts compare the evidence that the mid-21st century will bring a post-literate society where digital technologies will have rendered the written word obsolete. This collection of articles by authors with opposing views notes various trends, such as the decline of newspaper circulation, the rise of the Internet as a news source, and the explosive growth of sites such as YouTube. This series of developments will lead to an era when reading is virtually obsolete, some predict. The authors have opposing opinions of what this portends for our abilities to communicate complex ideas. Proponents see a democratization emerging, in which literacy is unnecessary to engage in the exchange of ideas, and education can be devoted to the development of creativity and problem-solving rather than the 3Rs, whereas opponents are vehement that a post-literate age will bring a demise of civilization.
DOES IT MATTER HOW PEOPLE SPEAK?
Alberto Chong. Research Department Working Paper 586, Inter-American Development Bank. December 2006.
Full Text [pdf format, 39 pages]
Language enables communication and it reassures trust, social capital, and cultural identification. Research, however, shows no evidence on the role of language as a sign of cultural affinity. The author’s research shows that “subtle language affinity is positively linked with change in earnings when using English-speaking data for cities in the Golden Horseshoe area in Southern Ontario during the period 1991 to 2001.”
[Note: Contains copyrighted material.]
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AMENDMENTS: 109TH CONGRESS.
Harold C. Relyea. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service. Updated September 22, 2006.
Download the document [pdf format, 11 pages]
Often referred to as the embodiment of "the people's right to know" about the activities and operations of government, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) statutorily established a premise of presumptive public access to information held by the federal departments and agencies. Enacted in 1966 to replace the ineffective public information section of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the FOIA allows any person - individual or corporate, regardless of citizenship - to request, without explanation or justification, existing, identifiable, unpublished agency records on any topic.
The response to a request may involve a few sheets of paper, several linear feet of records, or perhaps information in an electronic format. Such responses require staff time, search and duplication efforts, and other resource commitments. Agency information management professionals must efficiently and economically service FOIA requests, doing so, of late, in the sensitized homeland security environment. Requesters must be satisfied through timely supply, brokerage, or explanation. Simultaneously, agency FOIA costs must be kept reasonable. The perception that these conditions are not operative can result in proposed new corrective amendments to the statute. Legislation proposed in the 109th Congress includes S. 394, the OPEN Government Act, introduced by Senator John Cornyn with Senator Patrick Leahy, and H.R. 867, the House companion, introduced by Representative Lamar Smith. Also of interest is S. 589, sponsored by Senator Cornyn with Senator Leahy, which would create a temporary commission to examine and to make recommendations concerning FOIA request processing delays. The companion bill, H.R.1620, was offered by Representative Brad Sherman. This report examines these and other efforts to amend the FOIA Act.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF PROCESSING TRENDS SHOWS IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVEMENT PLANS.
Statement of Linda D. Koontz, Director, Information Management Issues. [GAO-06-1022T] United States Government Accountability Office (GAO). July 26, 2006.
Download the document [pdf format, 66 pages]
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies must provide the public with access to government information, thus enabling them to learn about government operations and decisions. To help ensure appropriate implementation, the act requires that agencies report annually to the Attorney General, providing specific information about their FOIA operations. In addition, Executive Order 13392
, signed December 2005, directs agencies to develop plans to improve their FOIA operations, including goals to reduce backlogs in FOIA requests.
The public continues to request and receive increasing amounts of information from the federal government through FOIA. GAO found that despite processing more requests, agencies have not kept up with the increase in requests being made: The number of pending requests carried over from year to year has been steadily increasing, rising to about 200,000 in fiscal year 2005 - 43 percent more than in 2002. The rate of increase in requests pending is also growing: The increase from fiscal year 2004 to 2005 is 24 percent, compared to 11 percent from 2003 to 2004.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS: EXCEPTIONS TO THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
Henry Cohen. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service. Updated June 2, 2006.
Download the document [pdf format, 42 pages]
This report provides an overview of the major exceptions to the First Amendment - of the ways that the Supreme Court has interpreted the guarantee of freedom of speech and press to provide no protection or only limited protection for some types of speech. For example, the Court has decided that the First Amendment provides no protection to obscenity, child pornography, or speech that constitutes "advocacy of the use of force or of law violation ... where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."
The Court has also decided that the First Amendment provides less than full protection to commercial speech, defamation (libel and slander), speech that may be harmful to children, speech broadcast on radio and television, and public employees' speech. Even speech that enjoys the most extensive First Amendment protection may be subject to "regulations of the time, place, and manner of expression which are content-neutral, are narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample alternative channels of communication." And even speech that enjoys the most extensive First Amendment protection may be restricted on the basis of its content if the restriction passes "strict scrutiny," i.e., if the government shows that the restriction serves "to promote a compelling interest" and is "the least restrictive means to further the articulated interest."
Wiggins, Richard IS GOOGLE NEWS REALLY NEWS? (Searcher, Vol 14, No. 5, May 2006, pp. 39-44)
View article on ProQuest (password required)
Only a few years old, Google News
has quickly established itself as one of the most widely used internet sources for current news. Google boasts that it “gathers stories from more than 4,500 English language news sources worldwide”, and generally speaking, it offers an impressive and varied selection of big and small-town news. However, this strength is also its weakness. In an entertaining article, Richard Wiggins reveals just how easy it is to get your own “news” into Google. Using one of several online do-it-yourself press release services, you can announce to the world whatever your heart so desires, and rely on Google News to spread the word. To be fair, Google News has now excluded some of these open press release services in response to Wiggins’ investigations. But, you will never view a press release on Google News the same way again.
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Rosin, Hannah LIFE LESSONS: HOW SOAP OPERAS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD (New Yorker, Vol. 82, No. 16, June 5, 2006, pp. 40-45)
View article on ProQuest (password required)
Drama serials, originating in the 1950s in the United States as long-running daytime "soap operas," have proven to be the most enduring and popular form of television programming. Now known worldwide as telenovelas, these TV and radio programs are being transformed in many countries as vehicles to teach literacy, combat AIDS, fight domestic abuse, and encourage civic participation. The article describes how New York-based Population Communications International works with the United Nations and USAID, as well as grassroots community groups and social workers, to develop scripts that reflect the cultures and traditions of their audiences in poor countries while transmitting messages of empowerment.
Thompson, Clive GOOGLE'S CHINA PROBLEM (AND CHINA'S GOOGLE PROBLEM) (New York Times Magazine, Apr 23, 2006. p. 64-71, 86, 154-156)
View article on ProQuest (password required)
Google's decision to launch a version of its search engine for the Chinese market that blocks search results of any web sites disapproved by the Chinese government caused a furore in the US, with Google executives being called into Congressional hearings in February and compared to Nazi collaborators. Thompson visited China in order to investigate the background to Google's decision and his report provides a fascinating insight into a country that has a capitalist economy and a Communist government.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS WORLDWIDE IN 2006.
Reporters Without Borders. May 2006.
Download the document [pdf format, 153 pages]
This annual report reviews the status of press freedom in more than 150 countries. Imprisonment is the favorite weapon of authoritarian rulers to silence journalists and more than 100 currently languish in jails around the world. The picture is much the same from year to year and China, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran and Burma are still the countries holding most journalists. In these places, a sharp commentary, an over-strong adjective or an irritating news item are immediately dubbed "threats to public order," "sedition" or "undermining state security." Punishment can be five, 10 or even 20-year prison sentences, as well as cancellation of civil rights, all aimed at breaking the journalist involved and frightening others who might utter some critical or disobedient commentary. The report has a section on the Internet and the growing roster of nations censoring online communications.
THE USE OF THE INTERNET BY ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS: TESTIMONY PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, ON MAY 4, 2006.
Bruce Hoffman. RAND Corporation. Web-posted May 10, 2006.
Download the document [pdf format, 23 pages]
Citing Professor Gabriel Weimann, Hoffman notes that "in 1998, fewer than half of the 30 groups that the U.S. State Department designates as 'Foreign Terrorist Organizations' (FTOs) had websites. But that by the end of 1999, nearly all of them did. Hoffman further comments: "Despite the multiplicity and diversity of terrorist websites, they share a number of key characteristics in common. These sites are often notable for their colorful, well-designed and visually arresting graphic content. In this respect, they seem designed particularly to appeal to a computer savvy, media-saturated, video game addicted generation."
Al-Qa'ida, says Hoffman, has made especially full use of the Internet. He delineates the Internet's three most critical functions for al-Qa'ida:
- Propaganda for recruitment and fund-raising and to shape public opinion in the Muslim world.
- Terrorist training and instruction.
- Operational planning for attacks through both e-mail communication and the access it provides to an array of useful open source information.
Hoffman urges the U.S. and its allies to develop ways in which to counter terrorist exploitation of the Internet.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS: EXCEPTIONS TO THE FIRST AMENDMENT [95-815 A]
Cohen, Henry, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Updated May 15, 2006.
Download the document [pdf format, 42 pages]
Provides an overview of the ways in which the US Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and press to provide limited or no protection for some types of speech. For instance, child pornography is not protected by the First Amendment and speech broadcast on radio and television is less than fully protected.
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Atwood, Roger MEDIA CRACKDOWN: CHAVEZ AND CENSORSHIP (Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2006, pp. 25-32)
View article on ProQuest (password required)
The author, a Knight International Press Fellow in Venezuela in 2005 and visiting researcher at Georgetown University's Center for Latin American Studies, discusses the Chavez government's recent restrictions on the media, describing their latest effects and predicting their impact on the December 2006 presidential election. The most important legislation -- the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, known as the "Ley Resorte" from the acronym in Spanish -- is intended to improve public access to broadcast media, appeal to a wider cross-section of the Venezuelan public, and curtail TV shows that depict sex and violence. Atwood describes its provisions, however, as amounting to a "sweeping and unprecedented intervention by the state in the content of broadcast news coverage." He sees the new regulations as "cooling the rhetoric" among the opposition media, while the government media "remain abject propaganda services for the Chavez government". He concludes, "This may be a formula for Chavez to win reelection, but it is certainly not a formula for Venezuela to overcome the divisions of the past." This is one of the Forum series of articles entitled MOBILIZING MEDIA.
CPJ SPECIAL REPORT 2006: NORTH KOREA TOPS CPJ LIST OF '10 MOST CENSORED COUNTRIES'
Committee to Protect Journalists. May 2006
Download the document
According to this report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981, "CPJ regional staff used their extensive knowledge of local press conditions and applied a rigorous set of criteria to determine the rankings of the most censored list. The criteria included state control of all media, the existence of formal censorship regulations, the use by the state of violence, imprisonment and harassment against journalists, jamming of foreign news broadcasts, and restrictions on private Internet access."
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 2006: A GLOBAL SURVEY OF MEDIA INDEPENDENCE
Freedom House, April 2006
Press release [html format]
Draft country reports [pdf format, 190 pages]
"Out of the 194 countries and territories examined, 73 (38 percent) were rated Free, while 54 (28 percent) were rated Partly Free and 67 (34 percent) were rated Not Free. In terms of population, 17 percent of the world's inhabitants live in countries that enjoy a Free press, while 40 percent have a Partly Free press and 43 percent have a Not Free press. The numbers show a decline in the number of people living in Free media environments, but also a decline in those living in Not Free conditions, indicating that more countries are in the "grey zone" of partial media freedom. According to the 2006 survey, two countries improved in category while two declined. On the positive side, two African countries, Kenya and Mauritania, improved from Not Free to Partly Free. Showing declines from Free to Partly Free status were Botswana and East Timor." — from the press release
ONLINE NEWS: FOR MANY HOME BROADBAND USERS, THE INTERNET IS A PRIMARY NEWS SOURCE
Horrigan, John B., Pew Internet & American Life Project, 22 March, 2006
Summary
Full report [pdf format, 27 pages]
Fifty million Americans turn to the internet for news on a typical day, and in the past four years home broadband penetration grew from 10% to 37% of adult Americans. Another interesting finding is that home broadband users log onto the internet more frequently and do a "wider scope" of online activities on average than dial-up users. About a quarter of the growth in daily online news consumption since 2002 "is attributable to the increase in home broadband adoption".
Blair, Joanna; Cranston, Cathy PREPARING FOR THE BIRTH OF OUR LIBRARY BLOG (Computers in Libraries, vol. 26, no. 2, February 2006, pp. 10-13; 54)
Full text available from your nearest IRC
Blogs are easy to set up, but careful planning will enhance effectiveness. The authors discuss the steps the Colorado State University Library took after they realized that a blog would be a better tool for communicating with their patrons than their regular website.
DECLASSIFICATION IN REVERSE: THE PENTAGON AND THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY'S SECRET HISTORICAL DOCUMENT RECLASSIFICATION PROGRAM
Matthew M. Aid, editor. The National Security Archive, February 21, 2006
View the document [html format]
The introduction to the report notes that "officials at CIA and military agencies have argued that during the implementation of Executive Order 12958, President Clinton's program for bulk declassification of historical federal records, many sensitive intelligence-related documents that remained classified were inadvertently released at NARA [the National Archives and Records Administration], especially in State Department files." This has raised concern, with Aid claiming that over 55,000 pages of records taken from NARA have been secretly reclassified by the CIA and other federal agencies.
REGULATION OF BROADCAST INDECENCY: BACKGROUND AND LEGAL ANALYSIS [RL32222]
Angie A. Welborn and Henry Cohen. Congressional Research Service. December 2, 2005
Download the document [PDF format, 33 pages]
This report, which focuses on two recent events that put the spotlight on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and its indecency regulations — the airing of the 2003 Golden Globe awards and the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show — keeps readers abreast of current legislative developments, and considers the constitutional implications.
JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO'S OPINIONS IN FREEDOM OF SPEECH CASES [RL33182]
Henry Cohen. Congressional Research Service. December 9, 2005.
Download the document [PDF format, 18 pages]
This CRS report, issued before Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, examines his major judicial opinions, both for the majority and in dissent, in freedom of speech cases.
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Scott, James K. ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT WEB SITES (State and Local Government Review, vol. 37, no. 2, 2005, pp. 151-165)
Full text available from your nearest IRC
The author, associate professor at the University of Missouri / Columbia, notes that municipal governments have a reputation for quickly adopting new technologies to serve their constituents, and have been at the forefront of developing Web sites to provide public services. This study analyzes twenty U.S. municipal government sites by five quality measures: transparency, ease of citizen-to-government transactions, connectivity, personalization, and usability. Scott notes that his study illustrates the challenges local governments face in maintaining a high-quality web site in a competitive and fast-changing online environment. His research suggests possible changes in the role in improving the quality of municipal governments' web sites that could be played by state governments and the federal government, which currently provides little support in local e-government initiatives.
GLOBAL E-GOVERNMENT, 2005
Darrell M. West, Center for Public Policy, Brown University. September 2005
Download the document [pdf format, 26 pages]
In his 5th annual update, Prof. West examined 1,797 government websites in 198 different nations, noting that e-government is unfolding at a steady rather than rapid pace.
Not surprisingly, North America offers the highest percentage of online services, which in Africa only 7% of government websites have fully executable online services. The survey also examines issues such as privacy and disability access.
South Africa comes quite low on the ranking list, above countries such as Mozambique and Croatia, but below Uganda, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, for example.
A FLAWED TOOL: ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTERS' EXPERIENCES WITH THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
Report of the First Amendment Task Force of the Society of Environmental Journalists. September 2005
Download the document [pdf format, 31 pages]
Examines the difficulties environmental journalists are experiencing in trying to obtain information from the federal government on issues such as Superfund sites, chemical factories and mining accidents. The Freedom of Information Act is meant to facilitate access to official information, but journalists are reporting delays and lack of cooperation. Not all the news is bad however; the Environmental Protection Agency has provided information relatively quickly, say journalists.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) AMENDMENTS: 109TH CONGRESS [RL32780]
Harold C. Relyea. Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Updated June 28, 2005
Full text available from your nearest IRC
Enacted in 1966, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was designed to enable any person - individual or corporate, regardless of citizenship - to request, without explanation or justification, presumptive access to existing, identifiable, unpublished, executive branch agency records on any topic.
Requesters must be satisfied in a timely manner, while at the same time, agency FOIA costs must be kept reasonable. As a result, corrective amendments to the Act have been proposed.
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. TESTIMONY OF LINDA D. KOONTZ BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, FINANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. [GAO-05-648T]
United States Government Accountability Office (GAO). May 11, 2005
Download the document [pdf format, 29 pages]
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies must provide the public with access to government information, thus enabling them to learn about government operations and decisions. To help ensure appropriate implementation, the act requires that agencies report annually to the Attorney General, providing specific information about their FOIA operations. GAO was asked to describe the FOIA process and discuss the reported implementation of FOIA.
Although the specific details of processes for handling FOIA requests vary among agencies, the major steps in handling a request are similar across the government. Agencies receive requests, usually in writing (although they may accept requests by telephone or electronically), which can be submitted by any organization or member of the public. Once requests are received, the agency responds through a process that includes several phases: initial processing, searching for and retrieving responsive records, preparing responsive records for release, approving the release of the records, and releasing the records to the requester. According to data reported by agencies in their annual FOIA reports, citizens have been requesting and receiving an ever-increasing amount of information from the federal government through FOIA. The number of requests that agencies received increased by 71 percent from 2002 to 2004. Further, agencies reported they have been processing more requests--68 percent more from 2002 to 2004. For 92 percent of requests processed in 2004, agencies reported that responsive records were provided in full to requesters. However, the number of pending requests carried over from year to year--known as the backlog--has also been increasing, rising 14 percent since 2002.
INTERNET FILTERING IN CHINA IN 2004-2005.
OpenNet Initiative. April 15, 2005.
Download the document [pdf format, 58 pages]
Note: The OpenNet Initiative is a collaborative partnership among three academic institutions: the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School; the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto; and the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme (Centre for International Studies) at the University of Cambridge.
China operates the most extensive, technologically sophisticated, and broad-reaching system of Internet filtering in the world. China's intricate technical filtering regime is buttressed by an equally complex series of laws and regulations that control the access to and publication of material online.
The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) reached these conclusions after testing China's Internet filtering of web content, blog postings, and e-mail correspondences. Their testing found efforts to prevent access to a wide range of sensitive materials, from pornography to religious material to political dissent. Unlike the filtering systems in many other countries, China's filtering regime appears to be carried out at various control points and also to be changing over time. Much of the filtering occurs at the backbone, but individual Internet service providers sometimes deploy additional blocking. Cybercafes and operators of discussion boards also control content proactively under threat of penalties.
The OpenNet Initiative found that most major U.S. media sites, such as CNN, MSNBC, and ABC, are generally available in China, although articles related to China were frequently blocked. [The entire BBC web site remains blocked]. Moreover, most sites ONI tested in its global list's human rights and anonymizer categories were accessible as well. Filtering tends to be triggered by the appearance of certain keywords, rather than a visit to a specific domain name or numeric Internet address. The keyword-based filters also allow blogs to keep people from completing posts containing banned topics.
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PROPAGANDA: RESTRICTIONS ON EXECUTIVE AGENCY ACTIVITIES. [RL32750]
Kevin R. Kosar. Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Updated March 21, 2005.
Download the document [pdf format, 15 pages]
This report updates the February 2, 2005 version
of RL32750. "The Challenges of Reform" section now includes sub-sections on "Tracking Expenditures" and "Enforcement and the Separation of Powers", as well as the original one on "Defining Propaganda".
There is new material in the "Tracking Expenditures" related to expenditures on public communications. The report notes that "Any effort to curb agency expenditures on allegedly inappropriate communications with the public will face two challenges: (1) tracking government expenditures on communications, and (2) drafting language that distinguishes legitimate agency communications with the public from puffery and propaganda." The author uses an example that will resonate with many U.S. Government public affairs offices:
"An agency employee (GS-12) spends one hour drafting a one-page press release; two other agency employees (one GS-14, one appointee) spend 45 minutes each editing and proofreading the piece. Another employee, a GS-8, is asked to make 200 copies of the press release. These copies are to be handed out to members of the press at a 30-minute press conference, where another agency employee (an appointee) is to issue the release and take questions. The room used for the press conference is prepared by three agency employees (GS-9), who must bring in chairs, set up the podium and sound system, and so forth. The agency's webmaster (GS-12) spends 15 minutes uploading a copy of the press release to the agency's website. After the press conference, two agency employees (GS-11), over the course of a few days, field occasional calls from reporters seeking further information. . . All of these diverse activities were part of this single, modest public relations effort. Which ones should be counted? Who is to do the counting? And how are these activities to be tracked?"