Field Report: "Why Democracy?"

Evaluates the public broadcasting collaboration "Why Democracy?" and its efforts to coordinate international broadcast events and to use the digital social networking space to host discussions of public issues. Outlines challenges and lessons learned

An Introduction to Korean Culture for Rehabilitation Service Providers

[Excerpt] The purpose of this monograph is to provide recommendations to busy rehabilitation service providers in the U.S. for effectively working with persons who hold traditional Korean values. The topics of Korean history, immigration, culture, language, religion, food, views on disabilities and rehabilitation services typically available in Korea are covered briefly to provide the reader with a quick overview and background. For those who seek more detailed information, the references cited in each section can be used as a starting point. For those with prior background knowledge of Korea, I suggest reading Part II first, in which I introduce Korean culture with case stories in the context of rehabilitation process

Caught in the Seamless Web: Does the Internet's Global Reach Justify Less Freedom of Speech?

A federal appellate court will decide this year whether French anti-discrimination law can restrict freedom of speech on U.S.-based websites that are accessible in France. A Paris court ruled in 2000 that the Yahoo! website violated French law because its users offered for sale certain Nazi artifacts. However, to force compliance with the order, French plaintiffs must seek enforcement from a U.S. court. In response, Yahoo! sought a declaratory ruling and a federal district court held that enforcing the French order would violate the First Amendment. The matter is now on appeal. The Yahoo! case presents the question of whether the Internet should be governed by myriad local censorship laws from around the world. U.S. courts have held uniformly that the Internet should receive the highest degree of First Amendment protection. They have been influenced profoundly by the medium's global reach and have invalidated most restrictions so as not to interrupt the "never-ending worldwide conversation" that the Internet makes possible. A contrary result in the Yahoo! case would embrace a very different philosophy -- that Internet speakers must "show their papers" at each nation's borders to ensure that their speech is acceptable to local authorities. Other nations may treat their citizens as fragile children if they wish, or worse, as enemies of the state. But U.S. courts should not permit the seeds of foreign censorship to be planted on U.S. soil by finding that such restrictions are enforceable here

Urban Dynamics an Impression of Surabaya's Sociolinguistic Setting

This paper examines the sociolinguistic situation in the city of Surabaya, bypresenting an impression of various phenomena unique to Indonesia's secondlargest city. A surprisingly little amount of linguistic research has heretofore beencarried out on this subject, whereas it transpires from this study that enoughintriguing and unique things can be found in this Southeast Asian metropolis,both among its Javanese majority as well as its Madurese and Chinese inhabitants.Due to the lack of earlier relevant publications, this research is largely based onthe results of several fieldwork trips, which included the pleasant activities ofwatching television, interviewing people and making excursions in and aroundSurabaya to experience how languages are used in daily life. Additionally,concepts such as “language mixing”, “slang” and “attitudes towards language”are involved and considered very significant in disentangling the role andfunction of language in an urban setting

Digital BRICS: Building a NWICO 2.0?

This chapter evaluates how current and potential developments in digital, internet-based media in the BRICS countries might impact on global communication. It maps these developments and analyses them in the context of questions about internet governance and suggests that, given the scope and scale of change in BRICS countries, a New World Information and Communication Order may be evolving - a NWICO 2.0

In the Battle for Reality: Social Documentaries in the U.S.

Provides an overview of documentaries that address social justice and democracy issues, and includes case studies of successful strategic uses of social documentaries

What's Going on in Community Media

What's Going On in Community Media shines a spotlight on media practices that increase citizen participation in media production, governance, and policy. The report summarizes the findings of a nationwide scan of effective and emerging community media practices conducted by the Benton Foundation in collaboration with the Community Media and Technology Program of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The scan includes an analysis of trends and emerging practices; comparative research; an online survey of community media practitioners; one-on-one interviews with practitioners, funders and policy makers; and the information gleaned from a series of roundtable discussions with community media practitioners in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Portland, Oregon

Cultural impacts on web: An empirical comparison of interactivity in websites of South Korea and the United Kingdom

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityThis thesis explores cultural differences on interactive design features used in websites of South Korea and the United Kingdom from the perspective of both: professional website designers and end-users. It also investigates how the use of interactive design features from different cultures change over time. Four interaction types on websites; User to Interface (U2I), User to Content (U2C), User to Provider (U2P), and User to User (U2U) interactivity, and three interaction types on blogs; Blogger to Interface (B2I), Blogger to Content (B2C) and Blogger to Blogger (B2B) interactivity have been identified. Four cultural dimensions were used for the theoretical base of this study based on which four hypotheses were proposed in relation to the interaction types identified above; (a) High versus Low Context cultures for U2I, (b) High versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance for U2C, (c) High versus Low Power Distance for U2P and (d) Individualism versus Collectivism for U2U interactivity, in order to discover the effects of national cultures on interactivity in websites. We derived our own interactivity dimensions and mapped them to the four interaction types for websites and three for blogs. Interactive design features were derived from interactivity dimensions and examined in our studies. The findings revealed that there have been some changes towards homogeneity in the use of interactive design features on charity websites between South Korea and United Kingdom although there is still evidence of some cultural differences. With regard to end-users’ perspective, the result show that the use of interactive design features of blogs may be influenced by culture but this is only within a certain context. The findings also provide a valuable indication that users interacting within the same blog service can be considered as being shared concerns rather than shared national location, thus create a particular type of community in which bloggers are affected by social influence so they adopt a shared set of value, preferences and style that would indicate almost a common social culture. As a result, the cultural differences derived from their country of origin do not have that much impact