No Longer One-to-Many: How Web 2.0 Interactivity is Changing Public Service Radio’s Relationship with its Audience

The relationship between public radio and its audience has undergone significant change since the adoption of Web 2.0 technology. Web 2.0 allows an audience to interact easily and speedily with a public service broadcaster, forming an inclusive, two-way listening environment. This contrasts with the traditional one-way model of public broadcasting. This research project used New Zealand public radio broadcaster RNZ National as a case study. The phenomenon was studied from the perspective of those who listen to content, and those who create it. Findings include the ready adoption of Web 2.0 technology by the audience and the validation of that participation by RNZ National hosts and producers.     

Re-visiting Paul Wasserman’s The New Librarianship: A Challenge for Change

The article offers a retrospective reading of profiled American library educator Paul Wasserman’s seminal work The New Librarianship: A Challenge for Change (1972). The idea was to reevaluate the book’s major message about the urgency of transforming librarianship – the discipline, the profession and the institutional forms – into a field that is “proactive”, client-centered, innovation-conscious, aggressive and well aware of societal needs. Today, a similar change and innovation agenda recurs in R. David Lankes’ redefinition of the role and mission of libraries and librarians in The New Librarianship: A Field Guide (2016). Another contemporary parallel is John Palfrey’s discussion of re-conceptualizing libraries as networked platforms pursued in Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google (2015). The paper concludes with a brief comparison of how the three authors frame the issue of change in libraries and librarianship with a focus on basic stylistic and communicative features.     

The Library: Big Data’s Boomtown

Since 2012, nearly every sector has developed a fascination with the seemingly new discovery of Big Data and its unprecedented capabilities to fuel analytic breakthroughs. It is clear that the use of Big Data as an information resource will continue to become more prevalent as it is employed in academic research and data-driven decision making, and even emerges as a vehicle for government transparency. This article reviews the emergence and potentials of Big Data, describes the policies fueling the current data surge, and discusses the impact on libraries. As libraries evolve to provide more data services, there is an opportunity for librarians to become experts and authorities in the data age.     

The Alternative Platform: Kenya’s Television Stations Navigation During the Switch Off of Raila Odinga’s “Swearing-In”

ABSTRACT

The role of communication technologies in Kenyan newsrooms particularly from print media perspective has been investigated. However, how these technologies aid television journalism practice in Kenyan context is understudied. Using the government ban of selected television stations in Kenya during and after the symbolic “swearing-in” of opposition presidential candidate in the 2017 general election, this study investigated the influence of communication technologies by the affected television stations to circumvent government crackdown. Interview was used as the primary method for data collection. The findings of the study revealed that throughout the switch off period the newsrooms remained operational but forced to develop alternative strategies fundamentally buoyed by new media technologies to disseminate contents. Though the strategies produced unintended and unexpected effects as the findings indicated. The main challenge with technology, was news verification, since the stations were using guerrilla tactics to source news which was not easily forthcoming. In addition, there was economic implication, some advertisers demanded for a refund and potential advertisers refused to patronise the stations which according to one of the editors was hinged on fear of being targeted by government.     

Rewiring the DMCA’s history: 20th-century new media and the expanding imaginary for infringement

This article analyzes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a refinement of governmental techniques developed for technologies such as piano rolls, reprography, DAT, and VCRs. The technological history recontextualizes legal transitions in copyrights during the 20th century and builds on poststructuralist work on law, technology, and government. Building on Kittler’s understanding of symbolic/technical media and storage/processing, I develop a framework for disentangling the relationship among copyright, DRM, and media technologies. The case studies indicate ICTs are vectors for extending copyright into previously unimagined territories. I argue cultural practices become problematized as they are remediated in new technologies. The evidence suggests the shift from governing storage to processing corresponds to broader rearrangements in power, binding our rituals and means of perception ever more tightly to articulations of industry and state.     

The year’s work in international librarianship: 1969

The paper sets out to determine the social origins and professional status of librarians in Ghana with a view to understanding them as a professional group of working individuals. It examines the personal characteristics such as age, sex and marital status of the librarians. Parental influences on the choice of profession, as well as the status of individual librarians in their organizations and institutions are investigated. The results of this study indicate that most librarians in Ghana come from working class homes and that librarians in Ghana are satisfied with their status in their organizations and institutions.     

The University of Fort Hare’s (UFH) corporate memory in the spotlight: retracing the institution’s centenary history through visual documentation

University records constitute an integral element of an academic institution’s corporate memory. This business information needs to be well managed throughout its life cycle for the purpose of accountability, transparency, good governance and for reference purposes. This paper reports on a qualitative study that was undertaken at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa by examining an exhibition developed to mark the institution’s centenary. The purpose of the study was to evaluate and trace the provenance of the collections on display to gain an overall assessment of the extent of archival development at the UFH. It cannot be over-emphasized that organizations often struggle to write their centenary history due to lack of supporting documentation as the information is either incomplete, missing or misfiled, rendering it unusable. One of the key findings emanating from this study was that much of the material used for the displays is copyrighted to sister heritage institutions and private individuals, demonstrating the consequences of lack of development and preservation by the UFH of its own archives. Consequently, the need to revamp the institution’s records and archives management systems is mandatory. An encouraging development is that in 2018 there are plans to appoint a records manager, an institutional archivist and a manager of student records. The centenary exhibition has therefore been an opportunity to demonstrate the value of archives to the University of Fort Hare.     

Engagement: rhetoric’s tale from the field

‘Engagement’ has since the mid-1990s led to a series of initiatives and campus centers wherein many universities attempt strategies that are primarily administrative and programmatic. By contrast, our tale from the field points to an inherent and original connection between rhetoric and engagement; we propose that the fundamental principles of rhetoric and communication equip scholars to work effectively toward the goal of engaged research and teaching. Our stories from the University of Texas Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium and from the University of Pittsburgh’s Honors College indicate that there is significant value and power in taking to heart the lessons of the discipline for our own actions and lives as educators. Acting on what we know directs us toward such concepts as invention, discovery, argument, deliberation, advocacy, and intervention – the rhetorical instruments needed to change the academic culture and create environments for engaged learning.     

Making the Case for Budget Reductions: Pierce County Library’s FY2013 Budget

This article features a discussion about how Pierce County (Washington) Library’s 2013 budgeting process and budget document explain budget cuts and service changes to users and taxpayers within the context of the library’s continuing effort to improve operational efficiency and maintain valued core, customer, and community services. Pierce County Library is an independent municipal corporation established by state law and is funded from a separate property tax levy as a junior taxing district.     

Amazon’s Day One in China: The Role of Amazon’s Kindle in China

After the long-standing effort and negotiations, Amazon finally released its two Kindle products in China since it entered China 9 years ago. Some say Kindle as it plays as a Catfish would stir up China’s e-book reading market, while the others say Kindle has missed the best timing to enter the market. The article describes the Kindle’s current status in China digital publishing arena, exploring the consistent Amazon strategies in China e-commerce market, and analyzing its threats and opportunities coming from four aspects in the long run, policy, content, willingness-to-pay and competition.     

The studio model: Should publishing follow Hollywood’s approach to the creative process?

Publishers have long outsourced many parts of their operations. Should they go the whole way and outsource the whole of the process, becoming more like a Hollywood studio: “a bank with a sales force?” A number of senior publishers surveyed responded to this proposition. Positive and negative aspects of outsourcing can be tested, suggesting considerable benefits possible from increased outsourcing of creative talent.     

From the media of the periphery to peripheral media: The changing priorities of Brazil’s alternative ecology

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a new appraisal of Brazil’s alternative media. By investing in the concept of the periphery, this study draws on past literature, semistructured interviews, and data collected from across the country (n = 50) to propose a repertoire analysis of media producers’ views of the country’s popular notion of the periphery. Evidence shows that they have shown nuanced views of the periphery as a site of purpose, pluralism, and authorship. Despite crisis and turmoil, this study presents some paths that could help reorientate the priorities of alternative media research toward a closer consideration of the periphery as entity that appears much more in line with local realities and expectations than previous international debates.