The ‘Measuring the Information Society Report’ 2016
This major report published by the International Telecommunications Union captures the level of ICT developments in 175 economies worldwide and compares progress since the year 2014. It includes ICT Development Index (IDI). The IDI is a standard tool that governments, operators, development agencies, researchers and others can use to measure the digital divide and compare […]
Online fact-checking – a growing trend
A recent report from the Reuters Institute has traced the rise of political fact-checking sites in Europe. It recorded 113 such groups are active today. More than 90% were established since 2010; about 50 launched in the past two years alone. The recent US election campaigns have raised issues of truth in the media. This […]
Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year
…according to the latest annual Freedom on the Internet report from Freedom House. In particular it highlights the restrictions being placed by many countries on instant messaging apps. Download the full text of the report for national rankings to find out which nations are considered the most free and most censored in terms of internet […]
Online Gender Gap Audit published
The World Wide web Foundation has recently launched its first audit of the difficulties women face at getting online. It used 14 indicators and, focusing on 10 nations, shockingly found women were 50% less likely than men to be online, and 30-50% less likely to use the Internet for economic and political empowerment. The website […]
Digital Wildfire
This interesting ESRC-funded project is examining (Mis)information flows, propagation and responsible governance in the digital world. It is being funded November 2014-November 2016 so some full-text papers are now being added to the website. Topics covered include case studies of digital wildfires when things go viral, ethical and regulatory questions and security and policing. The latter […]
UK European Union Referendum web archive
A web archive created by UCLA and hosted by Archive.it has harvested snapshots of 46 key websites taken during the period of the UK European Union membership referendum from 11 May-20th June. They include official UK government sources, Remain and Leave campaigns. It is possible to browse or conduct a keyword search. Each entry has […]
Telefónica Index on Digital Life
This new global survey examines progress towards digital life in 34 nations worldwide. The 3 key areas covered are: Digital Confidence (how readily and confidently individuals and organisations engage with the country’s digital infrastructure); Digital Openness (digital infrastructure facilitates open access to information) ; Digital Entrepreneurship (how readily citizens and organisations are able to innovate […]
EU referendum – some predictions
Who will win – leave or remain? Get some predictions and look at the social monitoring from the SENSE-EU which has been developed by the SENSEI European Project. It is monitoring websites and social media using experimental analytic technologies for the automatic classification of agreement and disagreement and mood in social media. Partners include: University […]
Are children in the UK exposed to online pornography?
And if so, what impact does it have on their lives and relationships? The NSPCC and the Children’s Commissioner asked Middlesex University to conduct a study. The research consisted of an online survey of 1001 children and young people aged 11-16 across the UK, an online discussion forum and online focus groups. It includes qualitative […]

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