Citizen Journalism

Significant global challenges related to persistent economic crises, local conflicts and continuous waves of refugees being displaced from their countries of origin are affecting secure access to and completion of people’s voting rights. The relevant technological solutions appear to have matured and have successfully responded to rigorous testing, however, there are still doubts as to the success of these e-democracy solutions in complex political environments. Since the late 1940s, Palestinians have been scattered across the world thus creating particular challenges relating to the democratic process for this diaspora community. In an effort to address this issue, the Palestinian Authority has started its e-government project since 2001 but at the current time, the project has failed to deliver its objectives. This study is using a mixed method research methodology for the purpose of obtaining rich interpretive insights to understand the above-mentioned particular phenomenon, by c...

Open scholarship is a major reform movement within research. This paper seeks to understand how open scholarship might address the challenges faced by research in Africa, through a study based on a participatory collaborative workshop to create a partnership with librarians in Rwanda. The literature review identifies three broad perspectives on the apparent under-performance of Rwandan research: one locating the issue in the unequal scholarly communications system, a second pointing to a country deficit and a third blaming cognitive injustices. The Rwandan librarians see researchers as challenged through the pressures on them to publish, the costs of research, poor infrastructure, lack of skills and limited access to literature. Collectively these challenges constitute a critical barrier to research. These limits fit largely the country deficit perspective. Open scholarship as conceived in the Global North is only a small part of the answer to the challenges faced by Rwandan scholar...

A critical and constructive debate is proposed on and inside cooperation, specifically on the real and the apparent goals, on the unaware effects, and on the winners and losers of international aid, framed in a global socio-economic perspective. The first outcomes of a recent participatory workshop on such themes are hereby illustrated, divided in four working tables: self-determination and reciprocity, emergency and development, training, and co-design / participatory design.

Tujuan penulisan penelitain adalah menganalisa fenomena kekerasan terhadap perempuan di Indonesia dan solusinya. Fenomena kekerasan dianalisas dari empat faktor: (1) budaya; (2) ekonomi' (3) sosial; (4) politik. Dimana Tahun 2022 terdapat sekitar 431.236 kekerasan terhadap perempuan, dengan kasus kekerasan fisik: 24.273; kasus kekerasan seksual 146.583 kekerasan psikis dan 150.000 kasus perempuan. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan desain penelitian deskriptif. Lokus penelitian di Kota Jakarta; Makasar dan Bandung. Hasil penelitian menyebutkan kekerasan yang disebabkan faktor empat factor, yaitu (1) budaya: antara lain patriarki, kekerasan dalam rumah tangga, dan pandangan bahwa perempuan adalah objek; (2)ekonomi penyebabnya: antara lain kemiskinan, ketimpangan gender, dan kurangnya pendidikan; (3) sosial penyebabnya: antara lain diskriminasi terhadap perempuan, stigma, dan kurangnya kesadaran masyarakat tentang kekerasan terhadap perempuan; (4)politik penyebabnya: antara lain kurang efektifnya penegakan hukum, kurangnya dukungan dari pemerintah, dan kurangnya partisipasi perempuan dalam politik. Solusinya mengatasi empat faktor diatas adalah dengan melakukan berbagai upaya, antara lain: (1) melakukan peningkatan kesadaran masyarakat tentang kekerasan terhadap perempuan; (2) melakukan penegakan hukum yang tegas terhadap pelaku kekerasan terhadap perempuan; (3) melakukan pemberian dukungan kepada korban kekerasan terhadap perempuan; (4) melakukan pemberdayaan perempuan. Keempat upaya diatas harus dilakukan secara komprehensif dan berkelanjutan agar mencapai tujuan untuk mewujudkan Indonesia bebas dari tindakan kekerasan pada perempuan.

This paper contributes to the literature by discussing the paradigm shift in photojournalism production between the 1990s and 2010s, focusing on the transition from analog to digital. It also examines how images are consumed by the media, highlighting the impacts of technological advancements on photojournalistic practices and the dissemination of visual information.

Este artigo contribui para a literatura ao discutir a mudança de paradigma na produção do fotojornalismo entre os anos de 1990 e 2010, focando na transição do analógico para o digital. Também examina como as imagens são consumidas pelos meios de comunicação, destacando os impactos dos avanços tecnológicos nas práticas fotojornalísticas e na disseminação da informação visual.

This discourse aims to describe the strategy of Guru Zuhri and Ustaz Fathur Rozi in providing Islamic guidance to the people of Kayu Besi Village, Puding Besar District, Bangka Regency, Bangka Belitung Islands, examining the contestation that the two have done to gain community legitimacy, and analyzing the extent of the contestation of the two figures. religion in Bangka Belitung. This research uses qualitative research with a field research approach. As for data collection techniques, the authors used in-depth interviews, participatory observation and documentation. The results showed that in providing Islamic guidance to the community, Guru Zuhri did not just provide religious advice. However, he also provides assistance to various problems faced by members of the guidance and village community, both personal, family, social, and especially religious issues. Meanwhile, the provision of Islamic guidance carried out by Ustaz Fathur Rozi was only limited to giving religious advice o...

Research that features participation and action orientation, such as participatory action research (PAR), is especially valuable in contexts where there is rapid change, high social inequality, and great uncertainty about the future, which drives stakeholder demands for information to support their goals. The Amazon offers such a context, for it is a region where diverse stakeholders engage in contestation over environmental governance to address issues such as climate change to achieve conservation and sustainable development. Stakeholder mobilization has changed the terms by which research is conducted, from the definition of priority topics to the application of findings. Due to stakeholder mobilization, more and more research in the Amazon is now necessarily participatory, for stakeholders routinely issue demands about how the research will be conducted and for what purpose. In this paper, we provide an overview of several experiences of implementing methods such as PAR by diffe...

In worldwide most of the rural population is invariably interrelated to the performance of the agrarian sector and to the sector's ability to cope with the tasks that result from growing population pressures, changing demand for food and agricultural products, resource scarcity, climate change and greater production uncertainty. The World Bank report 2007 emphasizes agricultural extension as an important development intervention for increasing the prospective of the agrarian sector. In these view Indian farm production systems, the reforms are shown to raise the role of agricultural extension services are aimed at many different strategic interventions. First, providing the significant awareness to meet the information needs of the farming community and to ensuring such information reaches to the farmers in a timely manner lies at the crux of the reforms in Indian extension reform efforts. Further, maintaining the effectiveness of the agricultural extension system as a whole and the enhancing the efficiency. The orientation of the extension structure in India is still majorly oriented on the production-led extension. But there is great need for an inclusive approach to sustainably development in the farming systems that goes beyond production led extension and considering the farmer's problems, offered resources, the combination of farming system approach, involvement of extension agents/worker and farmers in the extension system and research etc. Therefore, these new reform measures are required yet to fully recognize in the vast array of knowledge and information sources.

The purposes of research were 1) to survey resources and to create a location map of crafts and folk art communities in Chiang Mai Province; 2) to assess tourism potential and readiness of community capital as creative tourist attractions in Chiang Mai Province; 3) to propose the guidelines for the model craft community development in Chiang Mai towards UNESCO creative cities network membership for supporting creative tourism; and 4) to propose the guidelines for the development of community and network management towards UNESCO creative cities network membership for supporting creative tourism. This research was a mixed method study by using the qualitative study method for collecting the data from interview, focused group, and participatory and non-participatory observation; and the quantitative method for collecting the data from a questionnaire according to the study objectives. The study results are presented in a descriptive form and are summarized as follows. 1) Survey on res...

The purpose of this article is to describe the formation of Miang resource management of the highland communities in the Upper Northern Thailand through design-based learning which is the mechanism to learning the management of the communities’ resource for self-reliance derived from the solid and strong foundation of the communities. The method utilized in the quality research, collecting the information from the documentary study, participatory and non-participatory observation, and the deep interview with the community philosopher, and the data is analyzed by using the content analysis method. The research found that most of the highland communities in the Upper Northern Thailand located at the west of Phi Pan Nam Mountains have a lifestyle that connects with the participatory Miang resource management, have wisdom which is the innovation of design-based learning for self-reliance of the communities through the accumulating and the transfer of the knowledge from generation to a g...

There is an increasing interest in the use of information technology as a participatory planning tool, particularly the use of geographical information technologies to support collaborative activities such as community mapping. However, despite their promise, the introduction of such technologies does not necessarily promote better participation nor improve collaboration. In part this can be attributed to a tendency for planners to focus on the technical considerations associated with these technologies at the expense of broader participation considerations.In this paper we draw on the experiences of a community mapping project with disadvantaged communities in suburban Australia to highlight the importance of selecting tools and techniques which support and enhance participatory planning. This community mapping project, designed to identify and document community‐generated transport issues and solutions, had originally intended to use cadastral maps extracted from the government&#3...

Smart infrastructure and systems are being rolled out without commensurate technology impact assessments and stakeholder consultations. Consequentially, the benefits of innovation are potentially being concentrated to only a privileged parcel of the population and, whether unintended or not, this may create systems of oppression against minorities. The value of inclusive approaches to systems development is not new, and the benefits of user-centered, participatory, and co-design processes have been widely documented. However, the dominant model of systems design remains in support of processes that engineers and technologists largely lead. We have also witnessed a reverse engineering process taking place, a hacking of the populace as a living lab to fit the technology we conceive of in our social imaginaries informed by diverse experiences. At times it feels like one giant experiment in the hope of a better future by pursuing technologies and technological progression because the ca...

This article presents an overview of studies on women’s participation in festive rituals and cultural customs in Spain. Demands by women to participate in manifestations of what is today termed intangible cultural heritage began to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, feminist anthropology has followed these processes of protest and demands for change. Events on the ground have prompted a revision of theoretical frameworks for understanding these phenomena, placing greater emphasis on the interrelationship between the social and symbolic order within the sex/gender system. In this sense, in Spain, and especially in the Basque Country, there has been an intersection between academic research, the actions of self-organised women and the public administration, bringing into dialogue the theoretical, political-activist, and institutional spheres. In this article, we focus on the strategies and practical ways in which equality is sought, materialised, and performed in festive ritua...

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is in danger of acute shortage qualified personnel to administer qualitative healthcare services in hospitals across the country.  A survey report revealed that 9 in 10 (88%) Nigerian physicians constantly seek work opportunities abroad. Similarly, it has been reported that about 57.4% of resident doctors in a tertiary hospital within South-West region of Nigeria had intentions to relocate the overseas countries while 34.8% had made various attempts at emigrating. Consequently, how to safeguard Nigeria health sector from quacks begin to generate reoccurring debates on a daily basis in the national media and scientific bulletins. Thus, this project uses Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), JavaScript, My Structured Query Language (MySQL) to design online prescription database to assist NMA consortium to lessen the above challenges. Evaluation with 10 models of diseases suggests that suitable expert system can minimize the negative impacts of the exodus of physicians out of Nigeria without attracting overheads for Nigerian heath sector.

Driven by the maturing of Internet and the development of the Internet of Things, people are becoming connected not only via the smart personal devices, but also via the increasingly responsive and connected environments, which brings up new opportunities to involve potential user group like elderly people into this network through tangible interaction and embedded systems. This paper presents the design and implementation of a participatory view-sharing system which consists of a group of specially designed camera kits and a gallery-like interactive installation, aiming to increase the social connection between elderly people living in a care home and the local communities around. The camera kits are designed to provide openness for local people to share sceneries via public participation, while the interactive installation presents the continuous real-time changes of the shared outside views, and triggers further communication between sharers and receivers through a “postcard-send...

The Possibilities of Different Geographies is the title of a dance work Jane Carr and Bruce Sharp first created in 1997 that investigated the significance of human embodiment. Twenty years later they revisited the themes informing their earlier work in order to create a participatory performance-installation focused on the significance of the embodied dimensions of inter-subjective experience. The authors present the philosophical and political ideas underpinning their aims to challenge the boundaries that act as limits upon how humans experience their embodied identities and reflect on how, in developing the project, artistic and activist principles became interwoven. They describe the creation of movement scores for participants to perform and consider how elements of movement, sound, lighting and opportunities for reflection contribute to an environment that affords creative participation focused on the inter-corporeal dimension of human geographies.

Internet, las redes sociales y la evolución tecnológica han provocado un cambio en el paradigma informativo, afectando en una mayor proporción al fotoperiodismo de prensa. El aumento en la resolución de las cámaras de los móviles, ha permitido que un aficionado pueda hacer una foto publicable, que además a través de Internet y las redes sociales, se propague rápidamente entre millones de usuarios. Y por ende, que las agencias y los medios de comunicación las utilicen cuando se produce un suceso importante. Estos han descubierto una nueva fuente de información que les proporciona material gratuito. Además, algunos medios ya han despedido a sus fotógrafos y los han reemplazado por smartphones. Pero por el contrario, hay otros fotógrafos e investigadores que ven con mayor optimismo los nuevos medios que se le presentan, afirmando que se abre ante ellos una nueva época dorada. En este artículo investigaremos cuál es el estado del fotoperiodismo, ¿es el fin o la reinvención de los fotógr...

The nature of forestry is changing rapidly, with the social component becoming as or even more important than the traditional biophysical components. The role of participatory approaches to forestry has increased dramatically, and meeting the needs of people is now seen as a primary function of forestry. Increasingly, those needs are being defined through bottom-up approaches, rather than by governments or corporations. Foresters and forest scientists are poorly equipped to deal with this change, which is necessitating a much broader knowledge than has previously been required. At the undergraduate level, forestry programs are failing to teach the skills necessary for successful participation in this new form of forestry. At the graduate and post-graduate levels, young scientists are particularly disadvantaged, as the conservative nature of the academic system can actually work against attempts to be more interdisciplinary and more relevant. Scientists who are genuinely interdiscipl...

A major challenge for international agricultural research is to find ways to improve the nutrition and incomes of people left behind by the Green Revolution. To better address the needs of the most marginal and vulnerable people, the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) developed the research-in-development (RinD) approach. In 2012, WorldFish started to implement RinD in Solomon Islands. By building people’s capacity to analyze and address development problems, actively engaging relevant stakeholders, and linking research to these processes, RinD aims to develop an alternative approach to addressing hunger and poverty. This report describes the key principles and implementation process, and assesses the emergent outcomes of this participatory, systems-oriented and transformative research approach in Solomon Islands.

What roles do communication systems, information technologies and the internet play in fostering citizen participation and influencing the electoral and administrative decisions of government? The internet is simultaneously a world-wide broadcasting network, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic boundaries or time zones. This article describes the origins of participatory democracy, discusses how modern concepts of democracy link to citizen participation, and describes the ways that newly-created spaces on the internet referred to as “polispheres” are being used by political activists and candidates to facilitate wider collaboration and citizen participation. The following questions are addressed: What role does the internet play in fostering and aiding citizen participation in government? Does increased involvement lead to greater trust and confidence in governm...

Israeli Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu finally made his much publicized trip to America, amidst the bitter and bloody war he is waging against the Palestinian people. American lawmakers gave him a standing ovation but did not really call him to order, although Americans were victims of the Hamas attack, killings and hostage taking of 7 October 2023. So, has America sold its sovereignty to Israel?

This paper focuses on the issues of governance and participation of World Heritage sites. It inquiries how decision-making structures to locally managed World Heritage sites may encompass public participation. Through an in-depth qualitative approach, the paper analyses the World Heritage Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale serial site (Italy). By examining the participatory dynamics that occurred during the creation and development of the selected World Heritage serial site, this paper reveals three coexisting forms of participation in WHsite decisions: inter-institutional agreement, social aggregation, and multi-actor collaboration. The main findings suggest that although formal decision-making arenas may be participative weakly, the unpacking of participatory practices in urban spaces uncovers a vibrant scene, as it emerges from the Cassaro Alto and Danisinni districts in the city of Palermo.

Decentralisation has been implemented in Indonesia for almost two decades. However, recent studies suggest that service delivery has remained stagnant and unsatisfactory. Studies on the effects of democratic decentralisation, particularly elections, on service delivery have shown mixed results. Literature suggests that elections alone often fail to improve government responsiveness and accountability. Participatory institutions are needed to channel citizens’ demands to local governments and to monitor government activities in between periodic elections. Citizen participation is mandatory in setting development priorities for local government budgets in Indonesia. This participatory process is called Musyawarah Perencanaan Pembangunan (Musrenbang) or development planning consultation. Musrenbang is a set of participatory processes implemented from the village to the district level. Local governments in Indonesia can decide on the institutional design of participatory planning proces...