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Recently, several authors have presented interesting contributions on how to meet deep or severe uncertainties in a risk analysis setting. In this article, we provide some reflections on some of the foundational pillars that this work is based on, including the meaning of concepts such as deep uncertainty, known probabilities, and correct models, the aim being to contribute to a strengthening of the scientific platform of the work, as well as providing new insights on how to best implement management policies meeting these uncertainties. We also provide perspectives on the boundaries and limitations of analytical approaches for supporting decision making in cases of deep uncertainties. A main conclusion of the article is that deep uncertainties call for managerial review and judgment that sees beyond the analytical frameworks studied in risk assessment and risk management contexts, including those now often suggested to be used, such as robust optimization techniques. This managerial review and judgment should be seen as a basic element of the risk management.

Abstract
As Europe is facing a continuous financial and, for many, political and social crisis, long-standing issues of European identity, solidarity and democracy reappear more pronounced than before. In these times, often, the historical developments that have given rise to questioning the European project, its legitimacy and potential future, as well as the treatment of these questions by its political and executive helm are not adequately understood. The role of a European 'common space' in terms of debate but also in political action and direction is inextricably connected to the question of legitimacy of the EU and, often, conflicting visions about its raison d' etre. Historically, the creation of an EU public sphere has been confused with distinct goals of political mobilization for electoral purposes. The strategies developed to advance a broader – and ultimately deeper – sense of belonging have been idealistic, insufficient and muddled owing to lack of political vision and resources. Contextualizing this historical 'baggage' with reference to the legacy of invisibility and transparency, the article reviews the politics behind strategic communication of the EU towards its citizens in the shape of Plan D, the Lisbon Treaty's citizen initiative and the development of EU media policy constrained by ambiguous and volatile relations between the EU and the media.

Abstract

During the Spanish transition to democracy, media liberalization mostly affected newspapers and magazines. As for news agencies, the official Efe, founded in 1939, was favored by both dictatorial and democratic governments, which considered it as a strategic instrument to support dictatorship or foster democracy depending on the historical context. Europa Press, a private news agency founded in 1957, became its main competitor and earned high reputation by taking advantage of the news stories that Efe did not dare to cover because of its political ties. The Minister of Information attempted to close down the agency but he finally was dismissed due to internal political struggles. The situation, however, did not change either during the transition to democracy (1975–82) or the first Socialist government (1982–86). In both periods, the ruling parties boosted Efe through different means and sought the economic suffocation of Europa Press. Based on documents from the archive of Antonio Herrero, director of Europa Press between 1964 and 1989, this article analyzes the most significant episodes of government pressures on this agency and the arguments used to justify them. Conclusions on the relationship between news agencies and the State in processes of transition to democracy are also reached.

Using prior seminal work that places emphasis on news framing and its relevance to sociocultural context, this study describes, maps, and explains evolving patterns of communication on Twitter through the events of the 2011 Egyptian uprisings, which led to the resignation of President Mubarak. Using a multimethodological approach, we conducted a network, content, and discourse analysis of randomly sampled tweets from approximately one million tweets over a month-long time period to study broadcasting and listening practices on Twitter. The findings suggested networked framing and gatekeeping practices that became activated as prominent actors and frames were crowdsourced to prominence. Quantitative findings underscored the significant role of ordinary users who both rose to prominence and elevated others to elite status through networked gatekeeping actions. In depth, discourse analysis of prominent actors and frames highlighted the fluid, iterative processes inherent in networked framing as frames were persistently revised, rearticulated, and redispersed by both crowd and elite. The ambience and affect afforded by the platform further supported conversational practices that enabled combined processes of networked framing and gatekeeping. The findings point to new directions for hybrid and fluid journalisms that rely on subjective pluralism, cocreation, and collaborative curation.

Early marriage and virginity at marriage for girls is not a unique legacy of some Roma groups. In fact, only 50 years ago it was more or less common to expect a bride to be a virgin and to marry relatively young in many European societies, perhaps more so in rural and more conservative areas. However, in comparison to their host societies, the practice of early marriage remains relatively prevalent in many Romani communities. It is argued that simplistic explanations which blame Romani groups for not assimilating to a more 'modern' culture are incorrect and morally wrong. It is rather a system of very complex historical, social and economic circumstances that has led to a more conservative standpoint regarding early marriage. Furthermore, these standpoints differ among heterogeneous Romani groups. This article explores the connection between early marriage customs in one specific Romani group -- the Chergashe -- and children's rights, as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC). Interviews were conducted with 35 Romani adolescents and women from Serbia and Bosnia, of which 18 participants lived as migrants in Germany for a longer period of time. With the addition of information from relevant documents and reports to the original data, this article discusses the specific position of a number of Romani girls and women with respect to early marriage customs and UN CRC rights. Adapted from the source document.

Abstract
Women in political leadership are imprisoned in a double-bind communication: when they perform and dress along feminine patterns, they might be looked as deficient actors in the hard field of politics. When they refuse typical female looks and submit to male dress code, their performance is commented as conspicuous. The global visual political communication in media sends clear signals: nothing changes. Women are still the exception, 'the other'. The visualized lose-lose situation for female politicians is conceived as symbolical violence. In this article the central piece of clothing - the dark suit – is discussed under cultural perspective, along macro-structural principles of the gender order, as instrument in the repetitive practice of exclusion in politics and within the distribution of media pictures. A visual discourse analysis - a 'vis-course analysis' - of international group photos from political events like summits traces fashion practices marking the fields of masculinity and power.

The last decade has seen tremendous change in the commercial news media that play a central role in political processes in democracies around the world, as well as considerable progress in cross-national comparative media research. But despite the impact of Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini's book Comparing Media Systems, empirical research into the institutional and systemic preconditions of journalism and news production has not kept pace with the rapid changes in the media, nor with the advances made in other areas of comparative media research (such as studies of news media use, journalists' role-conceptions, and of news content). In this piece, we call for further institutionally and system-oriented mixed-methods comparative research to advance our understanding of how current changes are impacting journalism, the news media, and ultimately politics in different settings. We suggest that existing conceptions of media systems as ideal types need to be supplemented with more empirically grounded and systematically comparative understanding of media systems as dynamic, evolving real types to capture how journalism is changing today.

The press had great potential to influence perceptions of Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, given her relative obscurity when picked to be the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Prior literature on press treatment of women running for national office suggests that Palin was likely to receive coverage that disadvantaged her due to her gender. We scrutinize press coverage of Palin's campaign for evidence that she was treated differently and that these differences affected public opinion. Our sample of over 2,500 individual newspaper articles published during the campaign is paired with the 2008 National Annenberg Election Survey. We demonstrate that Palin's coverage differed in significant ways from that of her male counterpart. Her gender, appearance, and family status were disproportionately mentioned in her coverage, and such mentions tended to dampen public opinion about her. In addition, the tone of Palin's coverage was markedly negative, increasingly so over time, and was significantly related to reader opinion about her. While Palin was a unique candidate for national-level office, these findings should give pause to those concerned with equitable press treatment of women on the campaign trail.

Our study examines the phenomenon of personalization in news coverage of candidates for the leadership of Canadian national political parties. Because the politicization of the personal through newspaper coverage of bodies and intimate lives has different meanings for women and men politicians, we argue that it is important to account for gender differences in levels of personalization. Our analysis of the Globe and Mail newspaper reporting of thirteen party leadership races held between 1975 and 2012 includes eleven competitive women candidates, four of whom won the leadership contest. Conducting a content analysis of 2,463 newspaper articles published over the course of this thirty-seven-year period facilitates comparison of the levels of personalized coverage over time, by leadership contest, and by candidate gender and success. Findings reveal that the amount of personal coverage did not increase over time, as the personalization literature hypothesizes. However, reporting was significantly more likely to "make it personal" for women candidates, as suggested by the literature on media coverage of women politicians. We argue that gendered mediation is largely driving the personalization of political reporting in the Canadian national context