The aim of this thesis is to present the development and current state of information policy and public libraries in Cuba. The first part of thesis outlines historical and political development in Cuba since the beginning of the revolution in 1959 to the present and introduces the development of selected areas of information policy on the island. The second part analyzes the expansion of information and communication technologies, including Internet and its censorship. The last part of thesis summarizes historical development and current state of public libraries and partially librarianship.

The rise of social media platforms has had a significant impact on the conventional model of gatekeeping. With increased access to information--as well as the ability to contribute to the public discourse--individuals no longer need to rely on the mass media for news. These realities have led to increased conversations surrounding credibility in the digital age. Although not a new concept, fake news has become increasingly common in recent years. The web--particularly social media outlets, like Twitter--have enhanced the spread of misinformation. To combat this, social media platforms have introduced gatekeeping features like verification marks and warning labels. However, questions remain regarding the credibility and effectiveness of these features. Furthermore, little information exists regarding the perceptions of these features. For this study, the researcher examined the perceptions of fake news, verification, and Notices (i.e., warning labels) as they relate to Twitter. These perceptions were captured through a survey that was distributed to Twitter users through MTurk. Results were examined generally as well as in the light of political orientation, ranging from very liberal to very conservative on a 4-point scale. Within the scope and limitations of this study, results indicate that the majority of Twitter users believe that fake news on the platform is a major problem. Additionally, results show that there is no significant difference between the effectiveness of verification and the effectiveness of Notices in slowing the spread of fake news, and neither feature is perceived as strongly credible or effective.

This comparative study investigates the media representation of YouTube-based news about the #MeToo campaign, feminism, and sexual harassment accounts in three BRICS nations: China, Russia and Brazil. The situation of women in the Global South was at the centre of discussions during the 2018 BRICS summit. While their security remains a persistent issue, officials declared that women should not feel unsafe while participating in economic activity. Although the bloc flagged gender disparities as a significant concern, media outlets perceive Russia, Brazil and China's responses to sexism and gender-based violence as inadequate. Various mechanisms also compromise activism for women's rights. This research focuses on the YouTube representation of conditions which gave rise to the campaign and the process of #MeToo in BRICS. This study considers the level of inclusion of women in economic activity, the procedures established for their safety as well as the extent of media freedom, including tools available for feminist advocacy. In addition to revealing gaps in depiction and proposing solutions for improved media framing, this research is significant because the role and repercussions of this viral campaign must be comprehended better in BRICS economies. Academics focused mainly on the impact of the movement in the West. However, the innovative feminist trend rapidly spread to non-western nations that are dominant emerging economies, showing the gravity of sexual harassment and gender disparities globally. Furthermore, the extent to which #MeToo had influenced localised iterations of anti-assault movements in these emerging countries suggests that the BRICS became sites where sexual abuse and gender inequalities unfold singularly in comparison to other nations. The study presents findings from primary research done on the BRICS, this online social movement #MeToo and related gender dynamics issues. After a presentation of the selected study design, the research provides results from a content analysis of thirty YouTube news reports (October 2017-March 2019).

Le droit pour tous les fidèles d’accéder directement aux textes fondateurs du christianisme dans leur idiome maternel fut au nombre des principales réclamations des réformateurs. La Réforme française ne fait exception à ce chapitre. Henri Estienne, dans son Apologie pour Hérodote, signale l’existence de toute une littérature de complainte publiée au début des années 1540. Ces écrits, précise-t-il, parurent «sans le nom des auteurs». C’est en dressant une liste aussi complète que possible de ces opuscules que notre attention fut attirée par deux petits écrits très rares et pratiquement ignorés des bibliographes. Il s’agit des titres suivants : 1) TRAICTE AUQUEL / est deduict s’il est loisible de / lire la saincte Escriture en / langue Vulgaire, & / du fruict qui en peult sortir. (s.l.n.d. , 8⁰, italique, 94 p., signé a-f8, marginales, titres courants, 2 initiales ornées (a 2r⁰; 3v⁰). 2) TRAITE, / QU’IL EST NECESSAIRE / QUE TOUTES GENS DE QUEL- / que qualité, sexe, ou aage, qu’ils / soient, lisent les Saintes Escri- / tures : Et du moyen qu’on / y peut tenir. (s.l., s.n., 1561, avec une marque aux palmes du martyr couronnées), 8o, italique, 36 ff., signé A-D8, E4, marginales, titres courants, 1 initiale (Aii ro). Ces deux livrets sont de sensibilité nettement réformée. Les nombreuses citations bibliques, littéraires et patristiques, surtout dans le traité de 1561, montrent que ces textes émanent de la plume de maîtres et non de disciples. Plusieurs candidatures à la paternité ont été considérées. De tous les réformateurs, les écrits de Pierre Viret sont ceux qui offrent le plus de ressemblances avec ces deux opuscules. Les observations accumulées jusqu’ici nous ont convaincu que le premier traité, publié en 1544 et signalé pour la première fois dans l’Index prohibitif de l’Université de Paris en 1549 avec la date 1543, constitue l’édition princeps d’un écrit inédit de Pierre Viret, qui sera réédité fort vraisemblablement à Paris sous une forme profondément remaniée avec nouveau titre en 1561. Cette attribution sera prouvée à l’aide de citations, de rapprochement textuels et d’autres arguments fondés sur la critique interne et externe des sources. Nous résumons ici les grandes lignes de notre démonstration. L’analyse du premier traité (le T1) révèle une étroite parenté de style et d’idées avec les œuvres de Pierre Viret publiées entre 1542 et 1545. Les parallèles et les correspondances se constatent jusque dans le détail. Parmi les textes évoqués, il faut signaler plusieurs emprunts à De la difference qui est entre les superstitions et idolatries des anciens gentilz et payens … (Genève, 1542), un ouvrage important que Viret a souvent réutilisé dans ses écrits postérieurs. Nous avons également retrouvé un bref extrait du T1 dans les Dialogues du desordre qui est a present au monde (Genève, 1545) et dans la Métamorphose chrestienne (1561), ce qui prouve un usage ultérieur de cette source par Viret. Une lecture attentive du T1 révèle aussi un emprunt important à Marie Dentière (Epistre tresutile, 1539) et à Calvin (Epistre monstrant comment Christ est la fin de la loi, 1543). Nos observations nous ont également permis d’avancer des hypothèses plausibles et instructives qu’il restera à valider sur les circonstances de composition du premier traité. On notera un point important : le T1 paraît au moment où la Bible, le Psautier et le Nouveau Testament commencent à être imprimés régulièrement et largement à Genève et à Lyon, deux centres d’édition biblique où s’affirment des discours éristiques très similaires à travers lesquels se discernent, toutefois, une polarisation des enjeux théologiques en matière d’ecclésiologie. Nos recherches sur le T1 connurent un prolongement avec la découverte du traité de 1561 (le T2). La collation des deux opuscules suggère que le T2 est une réédition profondément remaniée du T1. Ce rapprochement est signalé ici pour la première fois. Les habitudes de travail de Viret, surtout depuis le milieu des années 1550, s’accordent avec cette hypothèse. Il nous fallait toutefois entreprendre un travail minutieux de comparaison entre le T2 et les publications contemporaines de Pierre Viret avant de pouvoir tirer des conclusions sur la paternité du deuxième livret. Les résultats se sont avérés éloquents : le T2 se recoupe avec la plupart de ses écrits publiés entre 1559 et 1565 (parenté très étroite d’idées et de style, reprises textuelles, paraphrases). Le T2 reprend notamment un passage de De la difference qui est entre les supersitions (1542), un ouvrage dont nous avons souligné, à la suite d’autres historiens, l’importance dans le répertoire bibliographique virétien. Nos observations peuvent donc se résumer de la manière suivante : le T1 emprunte à Viret, Viret emprunte au T1 et au T2, et le T2 emprunte au T1 et à Viret. Viret a sans doute composé le T2 après son départ de Genève (fin septembre 1561) pour la France. Nîmes est le lieu le plus probable de rédaction. Des indications internes, auxquelles s’ajoutent des témoignages externes donnent à penser que Viret a rédigé ce court traité dans le but de rallier le roi de Navarre et sa cour à la cause réformée à un moment où les Huguenots devenaient toujours plus nombreux dans le royaume, en particulier dans le Midi où les familles de haute naissance et les milieux intellectuels adhéraient avec enthousiasme aux thèses réformées. C’est ainsi qu’au début des années 1560, les réformés constituaient une véritable force politique capable d’infléchir la destinée du royaume dans son centre le plus névralgique : la monarchie. Le T2 est plus précisément contemporain du colloque de Poissy, un événement de grande importance qui se tint à Paris entre le 9 septembre et le 14 octobre 1561. Il y a tout lieu de croire que ce deuxième traité de Viret fut diffusé largement dans la capitale au cours de cette période, puisque le matériel typographique du T2 correspond à celui employé par Nicolas Edoard et Charles Pesnot, deux éditeurs protestants actifs au moment du colloque. À la différence du T1, le T2 paraît donc à un moment où la confessionnalisation des discours religieux a mis en évidence, depuis des années, deux ecclésiologies conflictuelles et irréconciliables. Le T2 paraît également à un moment où s’amorce très nettement la politisation des controverses religieuses dans le contexte gravissime du déclin des Valois et de la montée des Bourbons. Par son immense production littéraire, à laquelle notre thèse ajoute deux nouvelles sources (qu’on pourra lire ici intégralement avec une annotation scientifique), et par son intense activité sur le terrain - tant dans le milieu genevois-romand qu’en France, depuis le début des années 1560 et jusqu’à sa mort en 1571, juste avant le massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy - Pierre Viret aura non seulement été le témoin, mais également un acteur essentiel du débat entourant la démocratisation de la Bible en langue vulgaire et de l’évolution théologique qui a accompagné cette controverse de premier plan au siècle des Réformes. / A direct access to the foundational texts of the Christian faith in vernacular languages was part of the basic demands of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. The French linguistic domaine was no exception in this regard. Henri Estienne, in his Apologie pour Hérodote, alludes to a specific anonymous literature dedicated to this question in response to biblical censorship in the 1540’s. Our investigations in these primary sources lead our attention on two pamphlets which have remained almost unknown to most bibliographers: 1) TRAICTE AUQUEL / est deduict s’il est loisible de / lire la saincte Escriture en / langue Vulgaire, & / du fruict qui en peult sortir. (s.l.n.d. , 80, italique, 94 p., signé a-f8, marginales, titres courants, 2 initiales ornées (a 2r0; 3v0). 2) TRAITE, / QU’IL EST NECESSAIRE / QUE TOUTES GENS DE QUEL- / que qualité, sexe, ou aage, qu’ils / soient, lisent les Saintes Escri- / tures : Et du moyen qu’on / y peut tenir. (s.l., s.n., 1561, avec une marque aux palmes du martyr couronnées), 80, italique, 36 ff., signé A-D8, E4, marginales, titres courants, 1 initiale (Aii ro). These two treatises clearly disclose a protestant and reformed content. Moreover, the numerous biblical, literary and patristic quotations they contain, more specificaly the 1561 edition, show that they where penned by master’s and not by disciples. Many candidates to their authorship have been considered and among these it is the religious work of Pierre Viret that offers the most ressemblances with the two pamphlets. The observations summed up to this day have convinced us that the first booklet, published in 1544 and mentioned for the first time in 1549 in the Parisian catalogue of prohibited books (Index de Paris, with the notice 1543) forms the editio princeps of an unprecedented work of the Swiss Reformer. It is part of our thesis that this booklet was later completely rewritten by Pierre Viret and published in Paris in 1561 under a new title. The Viretian paternity of these two tracts will be proven in the present research with the help of quotations, textual connections and other arguments based on the internal and external criticism of primary sources. Here follows a brief summary of our demonstration. The analysis of the first booklet (henceforth: T1) reveals a tight relationship with the style and ideas of Pierre Viret as can be seen in his works printed between 1542 and 1555. Among the reminiscent passages, one must point out many borrowings from De la difference qui est entre les superstitions et idolatries des anciens gentilz et payens… (Geneva, 1542), an important work which Viret has often reused in his subsequent writings. We also found a brief extract of T1 in the Dialogues du desordre qui est a present au monde (Geneva, 1545) and in the Métamorphose chrestienne (1561), which prove a later reuse of this source by Viret. A carefull reading of T1 also reveals an import from Marie Dentière’s Epistre tresutile (1539) and Calvin’s Epistre monstrant comment Christ est la fin de la loi (1543). Our findings have also allowed us to put forward plausible and instructive suggestions, which still need to be validated, regarding the immediate editorial context of T1. On this matter, one will note that T1 was released when editions of the Bible, the Psalter and the New Testament were regularly and largely printed both in Geneva and Lyon. These geographical area were two biblical publishing centers following very similar patterns of eristic and religious discourses. Several issues were parts of confessional polarization on both sides. Our research on T1 was extended with the discovery of the 1561 treatise mentioned earlier (henceforth: T2). A carefull comparison of the two treatises suggests that latter is a profoundly reviewed reedition of the former. We are the first to have made this connexion. Viret’s well known literary habits, specially since the mid 1550’s, confirm this hypothesis. However a meticulous comparative study between T2 and Viret’s contemporary writings had to be undertaken before drawing any conclusion. The results of the inquiry are eloquent: T2 overlaps with most of his books published between 1559 and 1565 (strict textual kinship of ideas and style, verbatim recoveries, paraphrases). T2 even picks up a short extract from an important work De la difference qui est entre les supersitions (1542), a book we have underscored, with other historians, the value in Viret's bibliographical and literary repertoire. In short, our findings can be summarized as follows: T1 borrows from Viret, Viret borrows from T1 and T2, and the latter draws from T1 and Viret. Viret probably composed T2 shortly after he left Geneva for France (at the end of September 1561). Nîmes is the most likely location where he wrote this tract. Internal indications, to which external testimonies can be added, lead us to think that Viret wrote this short pamphlet with the intention of rallying the King of Navarre, his court and the nobility to the Reformed faith that is at a key moment when the Huguenots where largely increasing in numbers accross the kingdom, especially in the Southern cities where highly ranked families and many intellectuals enthousiastically clinged to the protestant theses. Hence, in the beginning of the 1560’s, Hugenots where forming a genuine political strength capable to inflect the Kingdom’s destiny in its most sensitive center: the monarchy. T2's context falls in line with the colloque de Poissy, an important event that took place in Paris between September 9 and October 14, 1561. There are reasons to believe that Viret's second treatise was largely disseminated in the French capital city since the printed typographical characters match those used by Nicolas Edoard and Charles Pesnot, namely two protestant printers active at the time of the Poissy colloquium. Differing on this particular point from T1, T2 was thus produced at a time when the process of "confession-building" of religious discourses was making it all the more evident that two conflictual and irreconcilable ecclesiologies were at stake within the same kingdom. In short, the religious debates where now deploying under a political spin. Hence, T2 appeared at a very critical moment when religious debates revolved around the political implications of the decline of the Catholic Valois and the rise of the Protestant Bourbons. Less than a year after the publishing of T2, on 2 April 1562, Condé and his Protestant followers seized the city of Orléans. Their example was soon followed by Protestant groups across the realm. The same year saw the outbreak of the first of the eight religious wars that would plague the kingdom during the rest of the century. By his immense literary input, to which our thesis now adds two new primary sources (which the reader will find herein with scientific annotations), and by his intensive fieldwork as a reformer – both in the Genevan-Swiss milieu and in France since the early 1560’s up until his death in 1571 (one year before the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre) – Pierre Viret will have not only been an important witness but a leading protagonist of the debate over the democratization of the Bible in the vernacular and the theological evolution surrounding this major controversy of the Reformation and post-Reformation era.

El tema de investigación es la autocensura dentro de la libertad de expresión en las plataformas de Twitter. La elección del tema fue dada porque supone un panorama constantemente ignorado por los usuarios dentro de las plataformas digitales. Las redes sociales se convirtieron en el megáfono de las personas que desean expresarse libremente. Lamentablemente, con el pasar de los años ese discurso fue desvaneciéndose para convertirse en un dialogo en el que se busca aceptación antes que la expresión. Los resultados de la investigación conducirán a la mejora de la compresión del comportamiento humano ante tal problemática, pues se adentrará en el pensamiento psicológico del usuario como también en una comprensión global del contexto en la cual se encuentra. Se cree que el público interesado será tanto los usuarios de plataformas digitales como también profesionales en comunicación, ya que abre una puerta a la compresión de sucesos que se desarrollan en la mencionada red social tercera persona. / The research topic is self-censorship within the freedom of expression on Twitter platforms. The choice of the topic was given because it supposes a panorama constantly ignored by users within digital platforms. Social networks became the megaphone for people who want to express themselves freely. Unfortunately, with the passing of the years, that discourse faded to become a dialogue in which acceptance is sought rather than expression. The results of the research will lead to the improvement of the understanding of human behavior, since it will delve into the psychological thinking of the user as well as a global understanding of the context in which it is found. It’s believed that the interested public will be both users of digital platforms as well as communication professionals, since it opens a door to the understanding of events that take place in the aforementioned third-person social network. / Trabajo de investigación

The purpose of this essay is to analyze award-winning author Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 through the lens of postmodernism. The focus will be on identifying symbols and signs of the hyperreal when it comes to freedom of speech, censorship, and technology through Jean Baudrillard’s orders of simulacra from his book Simulacra and Simulation. The images of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451 are analyzed, as well as the main characters and their relationship to technology, books, censorship, and freedom of speech. This essay also argues that the hyperreal is relevant today and has been throughout history if knowledge is suppressed or controlled by society as presented in Fahrenheit 451.

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