CCLP Washington, DC policy forum: Media Ownership and the Public Interest

The University of Southern California Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy and the New America Foundation's Media Policy Initiative present a discussion with industry leaders and top policymakers on media ownership and the public interest. The event will take place on Thursday, Jan. 24 from 2:00-4:30 p.m ET at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Webcast:……

Millions of Africans use cell phones for health news and information

WASHINGTON – Millions of Africans now receive critical health information on their cell phones, according to speakers at a CCLP forum here yesterday, with the Voice of America alone reaching tens of millions of Africans a week. "VOA's African Health Network is a multimedia initiative in thirteen languages that reaches 50 million people a week," said Nancy Coviello, the AHN's Project Manager. "Literally no one else is doing this – not the BBC, Deutsche Welle, not anyone that we can find."……

Public-private partnerships drive mobile phone innovation in Taiwan

TAIPEI–Innovations in mobile phone applications here are driven and enabled by public-private partnerships at the national and local levels. At the national level, the government embarked on an eTaiwan initiative ten years ago, which evolved in 2007 into Mobile Taiwan, according to Steve Lin of the country's Ministry of Economic Affairs, during an interview here. Now, Mobile Taiwan is being implemented in Mobile Education and in access to all government services via handheld devices. And these government efforts, says Lin, are to create catalysts to drive innovation in "value-added" industries, patterned after US national laboratories and incubation centers…….

Korea’s free KakaoTalk mobile app reshapes business communication models and language

SEOUL – Kakao Talk, the free mobile phone text service that has exploded in popularity here, has reshaped the way Koreans communicate worldwide. It has even had an impact on the language and expression, with KFL, or Kakao as a Foreign Language. Available since summer for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry cell phones, Kakao, or KaTalk for short, has been downloaded by tens of millions of users. Based in Korea, it is growing worldwide, and it is now available in Japanese and English…….

African mobile technology services developed for news and empowerment: Universal access

"No Internet needed." Those three words are seen more and more often promoting new mobile phone applications in Africa, where the newest apps are more likely than not to be free, to run on cheap low-end phones, and to function even without Internet access. In Africa, you can also use your cell phone to listen to "radio" programs from sources ranging from broadcasters to public service providers – and again without Internet access…….

Public Media Futures forum acknowledges the challenge of online content management

On September 20, 2012 the USC Annenberg's Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, in partnership with the American University School of Communication and Current.org presented the fourth installment of Public Media Futures forum at Bloomberg's offices in San Francisco, CA. The fourth installment of Public Media Future's highlighted news content innovation and social media collaborate facilitation within the public broadcasting sector. Watch the forum below:……

Report: Internet freedom in peril, ‘glass three-quarters empty’

WASHINGTON – An annual assessment of global Internet freedom has at best mixed news. The 2012 survey, "Freedom on the Net 2012: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media," by Freedom House, finds repressive governments are becoming increasingly clever in their efforts to block messages and content. Full Report: FOTN 2012 FINAL.pdf "Tactics used are becoming more sophisticated and more diverse," Sanja Kelly, Project Director for the Freedom House survey, said at this morning's briefing, and she pointed to a newly popular method that has spread widely among repressive regimes: defamation…….

Webcast: Public Media Futures Forum (San Francisco, CA)

The USC Center for Communication Leadership & Policy proudly presents the fourth in a series of forums on the future of public broadcasting – and the first one in San Francisco – on Thursday morning, September 20, from 8 a.m. to 12 noon PST…….