Search results

Konsolidacja Internetu będącego nie tylko medium, ale także wielofunkcyjną platformą, podważyła tradycyjne relacje między mediami a partycypacją polityczną. Najnowsze wydarzenia polityczne w Hiszpanii, takie jak ruch 15-M czy sukces partii Podemos pokazują, że nowe technologie zwiększają możliwości nowych i nowatorskich sposobów aktywności politycznej. Niniejszy artykuł stanowi diagnozę roli, jaką odgrywają nowe technologie komunikacyjne, w szczególności Internet, w działalności politycznej w Hiszpanii. Wyniki pokazują godne uwagi upowszechnienie Internetu jako źródła informacji politycznych, a także jako platformy partycypacji politycznej. Analiza sugeruje ponadto, że partycypacja w sieci jest zjawiskiem bardziej popularnym wśród młodych ludzi z wykształceniem wyższym i mających poglądy lewicowe. Profil ten jest zbliżony do charakterystyki obywateli, którzy wspierają nowe siły polityczne, takie jak Podemos i różne ruchy obywatelskie domagające się przebudowy systemu demokratycznego w Hiszpanii. ; The consolidation of the Internet as not only a media outlet, but also a multifunctional platform, has put into question the traditional relationship between media and political participation. The latest political developments in Spain, such as the 15-M movement or the success of Podemos, show that new technologies increase the options for new and fresh ways of political activism. This study provides a diagnosis of the role played by new technologies of communication, particularly the Internet, in political activism in Spain. The results show a noteworthy dissemination of the Internet as a political information source, as well as a platform to participate in politics. In addition, the analysis suggests that online participation is a phenomenon more popular among young people, with high studies and located on the ideological left. This profile is similar to that of citizens who support the new political forces like Podemos and the different citizens' movements which are demanding a reconfiguration of the democratic system in Spain.

"This book sets out the major social scientific approaches to the study of Special Operations Forces. Despite consistent downsizing, over the past two decades the armed forces of the industrial democracies have seen a huge growth in Special Operations Forces (SOF). Through increasing numbers of personnel and more frequent deployments, SOF units have wielded considerable influence in conflicts around the world, with senior SOF officers having led major strategic operations. This increased presence and unprecedented expansion for SOF is largely a result of the 'new' kinds of conflicts that have emerged in the 21st century. At the same time, even with this high profile in the military, policy and media and popular cultural arenas, there is relatively little social scientific research on SOF. This volume aims to fill this gap by providing a series of studies and analyses of SOF across the globe, since the end of World War II. Moreover, the volume deals with new issues raised by the use of such forces that include emerging modes of civilian control, innovative organizational forms and the special psychological characteristics necessitated by SOF operatives. It concludes with a discussion of a question which continues to be debated in today's militaries: what makes SOF 'special'? Filling a clear gap in the literature, this book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, civil-military relations, irregular warfare, security studies, and International Relations."--Provided by publisher

"This book offers a comprehensive overview of the impact of 'strategic culture' on Israeli military operations against Hamas between 1987 and 2014. It has often been argued that Israeli policies and military operations against Hamas have proven tactically effective, but strategically disastrous, allowing the Islamic Resistance Movement to grow from a small spin-off of the Muslim Brotherhood into a powerful military and political actor in the Palestinian arena. This book argues, contrary to this opinion, that Israel was effective in its struggle against the Islamic Resistance Movement between 1987 and 2014, as the Jewish state ultimately managed to deny the majority of Hamas' strategic aims and to preserve a position of relative strength. By relying on a synthesis of primary sources, interviews, memoirs, scholarly and professional military studies and information gathered from the media, the study delivers a careful and comprehensive analysis of the conflict. It provides an historical outline of the development of the Israeli 'strategic culture' and analyzes its impact on the process of military adaptation during the First Intifada, the Oslo Peace Process, the al-Aqsa Intifada and the Gaza wars. Finally, the book illuminates how the Israeli strategic culture moulded a distinctive 'way of war' that, though marked by successes and failures, ultimately proved effective against Hamas.This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, Middle Eastern politics, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism and security studies in general."--Provided by publisher.

The image of a nation is crucial in the conduct of international relations (Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). A favorable image plays a critical role in asserting one's influence (Benoit, W. L., & Brinson, S. L. (1994). AT&T: "Apologies are not enough". Communication Quarterly, 42, 75–88; Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). Often, strategic communication tools like public relations and media diplomacy are used to enhance a nation's image (Giffard, A., & Rivenburgh, N. K. (2000). News agencies, national images, and global media events. Journalism Quarterly, 77, 8–21). In 2007, China's reputation as "the workshop of the world" (Gaulier, G., Lemoine, F., & Unal-Kesenci, D. (2005). China: A workshop of the Cd and a market for Europe. At: http://ideas.repec.org/a/cii/cepill/2005-245.html. Accessed on 14 May 2009) came under severe threat with a series of product recalls. This was arguably the first time that allegations of product deficiencies were targeted at a country. Using the image repair theory, this paper examined the strategies used and the image these strategies generated for China. Findings showed that the initial defensive strategies generated an image of a hurried and harried country. After it was willing to confront the crises through corrective action, a surer and more determined image emerged.

Benchmarking theories argue voters use information about other countries' performances, usually on the economy and obtained through experience or media, to evaluate their own governments. Yet existing observational evidence is relatively fragile and struggles to distinguish how people become more knowledgeable. Using a pre-registered experiment, we showed UK respondents a chart displaying the UK's exceptionally high cumulative COVID-19 deaths either in isolation or alongside European countries with fewer deaths. Mimicking widely-circulated charts, this visual treatment enhances our study's external validity and tests the media-based channel for benchmarking. Aligned with pre-registered expectations, seeing the UK as "worst of the bunch" compared to UK-only data caused more negative government evaluations. Unexpectedly, partisanship did not moderate the information effects, while exploratory tests revealed the visuals generated more negative evaluations among respondents with high political trust. Our study shows international comparisons in visual forms can change domestic opinion, and on matters beyond strictly economic performance.

This article attempts to observe Japanese students' perceptions of political figures during an election time, and to examine the factors that most dominantly contribute to such images. Employing a sample collected from more than 1,100 students at four universities in Japan, the discussion focuses on measuring the extent to which the respondents evaluated each of the political figures who were candidates for the premiership, the way they structured their evaluations, and the effects of variables such as political involvement and media exposure on this process. The findings show that, although there were no significant differences in the leadership style of the political figures, negative evaluations as a whole were expressed toward the candidate with the most potential ability to become the premier. Moreover, the respondents clustered their perceptions according to five clear dimensions, most notably in regard to the leaders' performance and contact with others. In addition, it was found that-more than any other factor-the mass media played a crucial role in determining the way the leaders were evaluated.

The social contract has been about rights and responsibilities in human societies. Facebook and its role in manufacturing and sustaining a global social contract, a new "we" is clearly one of the research areas that needs more attention. A new "we" is coming of age in the new age of connectivity and communication with a new outlook toward responsibility and rights at individual and collective levels. Facebook purports to build a new world based on connection and communication which is based on progress and prosperity. However, a fundamental factor and feature of Facebook that needs attention and more research is that people and users are becoming increasingly lonely, separated and independent from each other in this process while connecting and communicating with one another. This new social contract and "we" thus have the new features of the relationship between the human agency and his/her social structures. Cyberspace is the product of human agency and clearly creates and sustains a specific social structure. This research seeks to study the relationship between human agency, changing technical tools of communication and connection and emerging and evolving social structures and social contracts. Bandura's "social cognitive theory" (2006) rejects a conflict and dichotomy between agency and social structure. As agency helps to build new social structures after destroying the old ones these new structures create and sustain a new social contract and "we" with a new sense of responsibility, obligations, and rights.

"This book examines how and to what extent academic research in politics and international studies has had 'impact' - in doing so, it also considers what might characterise 'world leading' research impact. International Relations was always meant to have impact - it was intended to make a difference in the world, when the subject was formally founded to understand and prevent war in 1919. This volume addresses the concept of 'impact' and offers a typology of the term - instrumental, conceptual, capacity building and procedural. The authors examine 111 impact case studies in the UK Research Excellence Framework (2014) that were classified as having achieved the highest level of evaluation, and they identify eight characteristics that mark 'world leading' impact. The book concludes that process, public and media engagement are previously underestimated aspects of impact in official approaches and that achieving the top levels and generally better performance were possible, but that factors such as the nature of the subject, the approach of researchers and mean-spiritedness in the peer review process inhibited this. This book will be of much interest to students of politics and international studies, as well as educational research and policymakers"--

In this article, we reflect on the methodology of a digital storytelling workshop held in May 2016, gathering activists and academics across four generations to share and record their activist histories. Drawing on observational notes and participant feedback, we investigate whether and how the workshop challenged knowledge-production conventions, ageist assumptions, and intergenerational scripts. We offer the concept of a feminist intergenerational mic, arguing that the norm-challenging possibilities of this methodology lay not in providing access to a mic, but rather in particular, routinized, feminist and intergenerational practices. Through this article, we contribute to conversations about feminist methodologies, power and vulnerability in research, participatory media creation, and aging studies.

Douglas L. Berger, Indian and Intercultural Philosophy: Personhood, Consciousness and Causality. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021, 240 pp.Joseph C. A. Agbakoba, Development and Modernity in Africa: An Intercultural Philosophical Perspective, Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2019, 405 pp.Adekeye Adebajo (ed.), The Pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets and Philosophers, Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media, 2020. 655 pp.

This article presents an analysis of the ongoing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, which, for almost five months, was under the guise of an ecological protest. It examines the role of volunteer organizations linked to the Azerbaijani government in coordinating the volunteer protestors blocking the Lachin Corridor, as well as the demographic makeup of these volunteers, the majority of whom are students from Azerbaijan's public universities. The article delves into the origins and objectives of these organizations, as well as the benefits that Azerbaijani youth gain by joining them. The article also touches on the organizations' next goal, which is to utilize the same student volunteers to influence media coverage of the "West Azerbaijan community," an initiative introduced by the Azerbaijani government to justify its territorial claims on sovereign Armenian territory. The study contributes to the understanding of the political and social dynamics of the so-called ecological protest in Azerbaijan and its potential consequences for the broader conflict in the region.

The internet is changing the way that knowledge is made and shared. Knowledge-making in face-to-face settings is being replaced by information gathering from remote sources, whose origins may be concealed but which can create an illusion of intimacy. Though remote communication is beneficial in many ways – modern societies would fail without it -- and though the tight boundaries of the face-to-face can be used for evil purposes such as criminal conspiracy, if the overall trend to remote communication continues unchecked, it could be disastrous for the future of democracy and the very idea of truth itself. Too much reliance on remote communication threatens the core institutions of democratic societies.
We explain the change in technical detail, from a systematic analysis of the workings of the face-to-face to a high level setting-out of its dangerous political implications. The analysis includes field studies, reflexive examination, drawing on the wide experience of the authors, of the stickiness of the face-to-face in our own work and other institutions, and network analysis which explains the illusion of intimacy that can be generated inadvertently or maliciously. We look at the apparent effectiveness of techniques such as blockchain and the limits of their domain. New information is provided about the malicious use of disinformation by foreign powers. We dramatise the dangers to Western pluralist democracy through a personal accounting of the 2020 American election.
By drawing out the special features of face-to-face interaction and its constitutive role in creating societies, with science as the icon, the book sets out an agenda for civic education that can protect democratic institutions from the erosion of pluralism and the facile abandonment of trustworthy expertise. The authors conclude by returning to the themes set out at the start of the book, namely the crucial role played by trust in modern societies and the importance of face-to-face interactions in reproducing that trust, and the democratic institutions in which it should be invested.

Introduction: The space to work in public life / David J. Coogan and John M. Ackerman -- Rhetoric revealed : should we name the tools? Concealing and revealing the art of rhetoric / Carolyn R. Miller -- Power, Publics, and the Rhetorical Uses of Democracy / Candice Rai -- The Public Work of Critical Political Communication / M. Lane Bruner -- Rhetorical Engagement in the Cultural Economies of Cities / John M. Ackerman -- Democracy and Its Limitations / Ralph Cintron -- Part 2: Rhetorical Interventions: Rhetorical Engagements in the Scientist's Process of Remaking Race as Genetic / Celeste M. Condit -- Going Public in a Disabling Discourse / Linda Flower -- Sophists for Social Change / David J. Coogan -- Knowledge Work with the Cherokee Nation: The Pedagogy of Engaging Publics in a Praxis of New Media / Ellen Cushman and Erik Green -- On Being Useful: Rhetoric and the Work of Engagement / Jeffrey T. Grabill -- Part 3: Remaking Rhetoric in Universities and Publics / Finding a Place for School in Rhetoric's Public Turn / David Fleming -- Mediating Differences / -- Erik Juergensmeyer and Thomas P. Miller -- A place for the dissident press in a rhetorical education: "Sending up a signal flare in the darkness" / Diana George and Paula Mathieu -- The Community Literacy Advocacy Project: Civic Revival through Rhetorical Activity in Rural Arkansas / David A. Jolliffe -- The Prospects for the Public Work of Rhetoric: A Coda / Susan C. Jarratt

AbstractThe article argues that the intertextuality of country of origin information (COI) plays a significant part in constructing asylum decisions and therefore the lives and futures of those affected by forced migration. COI in asylum decisions is based on COI reports, which in turn are based on other COI reports, interviews, or media materials. This makes them intertextual, that is, referring to and transforming other texts. That is, COI reports typically include dozens or even hundreds of pages of information, which are abbreviated in order to be used in a few paragraphs of asylum decisions. This is done through recontextualisation, that is, by selecting certain parts of the text and reformulating them to the new context. The article analyses COI in 67 negative first-instance asylum decisions and in 38 COI reports and similar sources through the concept of intertextuality. It argues that COI has two functions in the asylum decisions, personal and general. Personal COI is used to assess the truthfulness of the asylum applicant's persecution narrative, whereas general COI is used to evaluate the overall security and human rights situation in the country of origin. The article shows that even though the decisions tend to present COI as objective information, it can easily be biased, irrelevant, and illogical, therefore creating an illusion of objectivity.

When, on 26 August 2011, the incumbent Prime Minister Mr. Lars Lokke Rasmussen from the Liberals (Venstre) made use of his constitutional right to dissolve parliament - Folketinget - and call an election for 15 September, it came as no surprise to observers and voters. Not only would the election have had to come no later than 13 November, at which time the four-year electoral term would end, the media had been boiling over with speculations about the election date since January. Both the period leading up to August 26 and the three week-campaign, however, contained developments of some political drama both between and within the two main political blocs that once again squared off: the right-wing government bloc (the Liberals, the Conservatives, Liberal Alliance, and the Danish People's Party) and the left-wing opposition bloc (the Social Democrats, the Socialist People's Party, the Social Liberals and the left-wing Red-Green Alliance). The institutional setting of the election had not changed, however. Thus, Denmark maintains its PR system with a 2 percent threshold for representation. In 2007, a municipal reform had resulted in a restructuring of the constituencies, including a reduction in their number from 17 to 10, but the reform was designed not to result in any significant changes in the functioning of the electoral system. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]