The new issue of WACC ‘s quarterly journal, Media Development, highlights the role of public communication, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, lessons learned from various responses, and the challenges ahead. The pandemic highlighted many issues, including the importance of accurate and timely information in saving lives,...
A pilot project that mobilized Kenyan community media to better understand local political processes has, in turn, helped increase civic participation, awareness and transparency on how budgets are spent in eight counties across the country. The Catholic...
By Silvio Waisbord and María Soledad Segura
Does the COVID-19 pandemic mark the birth of a new form of biopolitics? The Latin American case shows important departures from Europe and the United States, both in the adoption of surveillance technologies and in the types of biopolitical control enacted through them.
By Brittany Forsythe
Media regulation according to Fredman (2015) is defined as the process by which a range of specific, often legally binding, tools are applied to media systems and institutions to achieve established policy goals such as pluralism, diversity, competition, and freedom. Regulation consists of the deployment of formal statutory rules laid down by public authorities as well as more informal codes of conduct developed and implemented by media organizations in conjunction with the state.
Mainstream media have produced extraordinary and sustained coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on health, care-workers, and government policies, as well as the impact on individuals and communities. The same cannot be said for social media, which have been the source of misinformation and fake news, amplifying rumour and stoking fear.