Propaganda Poster Digital Collection at Washington State U

Washington State University Libraries has recently launched a new digital collection of propaganda posters distributed  between 1914 and 1945. 520 posters from private donations comprise The Propaganda Poster Digital Collection illustrating how various governments tried to influence public and private behavior around the two World Wars.  Besides the United States, posters from Europe, South America and Canada are represented. 

This digital images can be browsed by key words in the description such as are easy to browse by keywords from the description of the images--such as food, women, bonds, god (only one entry).

"Prior to the advent of broadcast radio and television, governments looked to other media to communicate information to their citizens. One of the most eye-catching formats is the propaganda poster, the use of which peaked during World War I and remained pervasive through World War II. The U.S. government alone produced an estimated 20,000,000 copies of more than 2,500 distinct posters during the first World War. Through these “weapons on the wall,” governments persuaded their citizens to participate in a variety of patriotic functions, from pur­chasing war bonds to conserving scarce resources. These posters also strengthened public support for the wars by providing “message control” about the government’s allies and enemies." --description of The Collection

January CommQuote

Let's ring (hint hint) in the new year with a poem called Cell Phone by Ernesto Cardenal (transl. by John Lyons). It's from his 2011 collection titled The Origin of the Species and Other Poems (Texas Tech University Press).

Cell Phone

You talk on your cell phone

and talk and talk

and laugh into your cell phone

never knowing how it was made

and much less how it works

but what does that matter

trouble is you don’t know

just as I didn’t

that many people die in the Congo

thousands upon thousands

for that cellphone

they die in the Congo

in its mountains there is coltan

(besides gold and diamonds)

used for cell phone

condensers

for the control of the minerals

multinational corporations

wage this unending war

5 million dead in 15 years

and they don’t want it to be known

country of immense wealth

with poverty-stricken population

80% of the world’s coltan

reserves are in the Congo

the coltan has lain there for

three thousand million years

Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony

buy the coltan

the Pentagon too, the New York

Times corporation too

and they don’t want it to be known

nor do they want the war to stop

so as to carry on grabbing the coltan

children of 7 to 10 years extract the coltan

because their tiny bodies

fit into the tiny holes

for 25 cents a day

and loads of children die

due to the coltan powder

or hammering the rock

that collapses on top of them

The New York Times too

that doesn’t want it to be known

and that’s how it remains unknown

this organized crime

of the multinationals

the Bible identifies

truth and justice

and love and the truth

the importance of the truth then

that will set us free

also the truth about coltan

coltan inside your cell phone

on which you talk and talk

and laugh into your cell phone

 

Global Media Worlds and China

The 20th anniversary edition of Javnost - The Public The Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture is devoted to China. 

Global Media Worlds and China

Articles: 

Hu Zhengrong, Ji Deqiang

Retrospection, Prospection and the Pursuit of an Integrated Approach for China’s Communication and Journalism Studies 

Yuezhi Zhao

China’s Quest for “Soft Power”: Imperatives, Impediments and Irreconcilable Tensions? 

Daya Kishan Thussu

De-Americanising Media Studies and the Rise of “Chindia” 

Lena Rydholm

China and the World’s First Freedom of Information Act: The Swedish Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 

Susan Brownell

“Brand China” in the Olympic Context: Communications Challenges of China’s Soft Power Initiative 

Göran Svensson

“China Going Out” or the “World Going In”? The Shanghai World Expo 2010 in the Swedish Media

NOTE: While Javnost is freely available electronically beginning in 1994, the most recent years (last two) are not available online; 2012 and 2013 issues of the Journal in paper are available in the Annenberg Library. 

INFLA Report on Internet Censorship Around the World

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutes (INFLA) has just released a 103-page report that looks at internet censorship in selected countries from around the world. You can access the freely available pdf here.

Trends in transition from classical censorship to Internet censorship: selected country overviews

ABSTRACT
Censorship is no longer limited to printed media and videos. Its impact is felt much more strongly with regard to Internet related resources of information and communication such as access to websites, email and social networking tools which is further enhanced by ubiquitous access through mobile phones and tablets. Some countries are marked by severe restrictions and enforcement, a variety of initiatives in enforcing censorship (pervasive as well as implied), as well as initiatives to counter censorship. The article reflects on trends in Internet censorship in selected countries, namely Australia, Chile, China, Finland, Lybia, Myanmar, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (UK). These trends are discussed under two broad categories of negative and positive trends. Negative trends include: trends in issues of Internet related privacy; ubiquitous society and control; trends in Internet related media being censored; trends in filtering and blocking Internet content and blocking software; trends in technologies to monitor and identify citizens using the Internet to express their opinion and applying “freedom of speech”; criminalization of legitimate expression on the Internet; trends in acts, regulations and legislation regarding the use of the Internet and trends in government models regarding Internet censorship; trends in new forms of Internet censorship; trends in support of Internet censorship; trends in enforcing regulations and Internet censorship; trends in Internet related communication surveillance. Positive trends include: trends in reactions to Internet censorship; attempts and means to side-step Internet censorship; trends in cyber actions against Internet censorship; trends in innovative ways of showing opposition to Internet censorship. Detailed reports for each country are included as appendixes. A summary of how the trends manifest in the countries in which data were mined, as well as the trends per se is included in the article.

Article Feature: Content Analysis of Africa-affiliated Authors in Comm Journals

Work by African-affiliated authors continues to be underrepresented in Communication journals, so find the authors Ann Neville Miller, Christine Deeter, Anne Trelstad, Matthew Hawk, Grece Ingram   and Annie Ramirez in Still the Dark Continent: A Content Analysis of Research About Africa and by African Scholars in 18 Major Communication-Related Journals in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication  (Volume 6, Number 4, November 2013).

ABSTRACT
Research about African communication and studies by African-affiliated authors remain scarce in the field of communication. To establish a comprehensive picture of the state of scholarship, 5,228 articles published in 18 top communication journals between 2004 and 2010 were reviewed. Articles were coded for topic nation, author affiliation, article type, category of communication studied, and research method. Thirty-nine Africa-focused articles including 25 authored by researchers from African institutions were found. Over half addressed health communication; most focused on Kenya and South Africa. Means are suggested by which the international scholarly community can partner to encourage African scholarship.

Pew's Social Media Update 2013

The Pew Internet and American Life Project closed out the year with an 18 page report updating past social media trackings, Social Media Update 2013.

Abstract

Some 73% of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, but a striking number of users are now diversifying onto other platforms. Some 42% of online adults now use multiple social networking sites. In addition, Instagram users are nearly as likely as Facebook users to check in to the site on a daily basis. These are among the key findings on social networking site usage and adoption from a new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project.

We'll be hearing more from this project later in the month from of an upcoming conference in Washington DC on social media and health communication.