The communication rights in the information society (CRIS) campaign: Applying social movement theories to an analysis of global media reform

Social movement theories offer useful conceptual and analytical tools to the study and research of global media reform movements. This article is a critical analysis of the Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) campaign. It explores its successes and blind-spots in the light of social movement theory, in particular resource mobilization theory (RMT), and offers practical directions for the movement to move on from where it is to where it ought to be.

Assessing communication in people with severe-profound disabilities: co-constructing competence

The recent focus on a human rights agenda in Australia has highlighted the vulnerability of people who have little or no speech in gaining access to their communication rights. This paper discusses the complexities of supporting communication for people with severe–profound disabilities within a framework of human rights. People with severe–profound intellectual disabilities are often considered not only unable to speak, but also unable to communicate. This preconception has been refuted and legislation enacted to protect the communication rights of people with severe–profound disabilities. In this paper we present an overview of good communication practices for people with severe–profound intellectual disabilities. Such practice consists of collaborative and transactional assessment and intervention supports, as exemplified in emerging models of supported and person-centred decision-making.

Entanglements – activism and technology: Editors' introduction

Past issues of Fibreculture have examined activist philosophies from angles such as social justice and networked organisational forms, communication rights and net neutrality debates, and the push back against precarious new media labour. Our issue extends this work by capturing the complexities associated with the use of technology in activist contexts, and offering insights into how practitioners, scholars, and the makers of digital and networked technologies do and might need to work more collaboratively and pragmatically to address social justice issues.

O direito à comunicação no plenário da Assembléia Nacional Constituinte

This text is part of ongoing research that aims to verify the constitutional regulation of the communication rights, elaborated by constituent process on 87/88. For hypothesis, the research considers that was the intention of the constituent regulate the rights related to the communication. To fulfill to these objectives the research analyzes the legislative proposals and debates during the constituent process, related to the regulation of communication rights. In this text specifically will be presented the results of the research the parliamentary debates that had occurred in the plenary of the National Constituent Assembly. The partial results of the research point that the constituent intended to impose a social control to the communication rights, corroborating in this way this hypothesis of the research.

COMUNICAÇÃO E COMPARTILHAMENTO DE CONTEÚDO: O USO DE RECURSOS EDUCACIONAIS ABERTOS POR DOCENTES DA UMESP

No âmbito do Direito à Comunicação, dos Direitos Humanos e da discussão a respeito dos Direitos Autorais sobre obras principalmente literárias e científicas, este trabalho tem como principal objetivo o desenvolvimento e aplicação de uma pesquisa de campo de caráter exploratório. Ele busca estabelecer um mapeamento do uso das práticas de produção e compartilhamento de conteúdo aberto por parte do corpo docente da UMESP, por meio do uso de licenciamento livre do tipo Commons e seguindo os preceitos apregoados pelo movimento dos Recursos Educacionais Abertos (REA). Portanto, o método estatístico utilizado foi o de amostragem probabilística aleatória simples utilizando-se de questionário com perguntas fechadas, possibilitando a elaboração de uma base de dados consistente que foi explorada no intuito de confirmar a hipótese inicialmente formulada, além de contemplar outras inferências não menos interessantes. A principal conclusão apresentada é que, mesmo que não seja de conhecimento da maioria do corpo docente da UMESP sobre o compartilhamento de conteúdo sob licenciamento livre e nem tampouco sobre o movimento REA, não existem restrições significativas quanto à adesão a tais práticas.

Sistema público de comunicación en Brasil: el camino hacia la garantía del

 Uno de los derechos humanos fundamentales, el derecho a la comunicación, no está garantizado para todas las personas en Brasil y no forma parte del debate en los medios de comunicación ni se encuentra entre las preocupaciones de la sociedad. Aunque la legislación nacional prohíba el monopolio y el oligopolio, los medios están en manos de pocos y la mayoría de la población se encuentra marginada en el proceso de la producción y la divulgación de la información asumiendo el papel de simple consumidora de noticias. Apartada del acceso a la participación de la comunicación pública a través de los medios, tiene igualmente restringida su libertad de expresión y de elección. Hechos que comprometen no solo derechos individuales y colectivos, sino también la propia consolidación de la democracia brasileña. Un largo camino han recorrido las organizaciones sociales que defienden y exigen el derecho humano a la comunicación. Como uno de los resultados de esta labor, se realizó recientemente la primera Conferencia Nacional de Comunicación, donde estas cuestiones fueron discutidas, mientras una serie de propuestas fueron aprobadas con la participación de representantes del gobierno, de las empresas de comunicación y de la sociedad civil. Entre las proposiciones está la organización y el fortalecimiento de un sistema público de comunicación percibido como una de las más importantes estrategias de democratización de la comunicación. El desarrollo de un sistema público, por sus características diferenciadas de gestión, gobernanza y financiación, se presenta, por lo tanto, como un gran paso para garantizar el derecho humano a la comunicación en el país. Communication is a fundamental right, but it’s not guaranteed to all people in Brazil. Even worse: it’s not even part of the debate in most media nor it is a priority issue amongst society. Even though national laws forbid monopoly and oligopoly in media, most communication companies are owned by few people and most of the population is excluded in the process of producing and broadcasting information – becoming mere news consumers. People have no access to participation in public communication and has also their freedom of speech restricted by media. This problem not only jeopardizes individual and collective rights, but also impedes the consolidation of Brazilian democracy. Social organizations have been struggling to defend and demand communication rights. As a result of this work, Brazil has recently promoted the first National Communications Conference, where these issues were discussed and many propositions were approved with the participation of government, communication corporations and organized civil society representatives. The organization and the strengthening of a communications public system – one of the most important strategies for communication’s democracy - was one of the approved propositions. The development of a public system, with its different forms of management, governance and funding, presents itself as a great step towards the enforcement of communication rights in the country.  

Teaching persons with intellectual disabilities and limited receptive and expressive communication how to recognize and assert their human rights

Persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are far more likely to be abused than the general population, but there is little research on teaching people with ID about their rights. The goal of this study was to teach four participants with ID and limited communication abilities about their human rights by training them on specific rights topics. The training program included icebreaker activities, instruction on rights concepts, watching and answering questions about videotaped scenarios of rights restrictions, watching and answering questions about role pl ay scenarios of rights restrictions, and responding to brief, low risk in situ rights restrictions imposed by the researchers. Participant performance did not improve significantly or consistently from baseline to training on the questions asked about the videotaped or the role play scenarios, but two of three participants demonstrated defmite improvements in responding to in situ rights restrictions.