Competition of newspapers and the location of political parties

In this paper we suggest a model for an analysis of how newspapers and political parties determine their ideological orientation and how both decisions depend on each other. Quite naturally dissemination of information plays an important role. The model is set up as a two-stage game. Because elements of horizontal as well as vertical product differentiation are present in this model location patterns in ideology space exhibit in general neither maximal nor minimal differentiation, although we keep quite close to the Downs model, with information as the most important distinguishing feature. Furthermore, the model shows by way of example that economic theory can be a useful tool to investigate issues which are central to communication science.     

Efficient Rent-Seeking in Experiment

In a series of experiments we show that people learn to playthe efficient outcome in an open-ended rent-seeking game. Thisresult persists despite quite different experimentenvironments and designs, like different propensities ofcompetition, group sizes etc., and is interpretable as aresolution of the so-called Tullock paradox which states thatreal-world rent-seeking expenditures are much lower than whatthe standard rent-seeking model predicts.     

The E-Marketing Strategy of Hamas

Operations to counterterrorism in the southern Philippines have resulted in the arrest and incarceration of a significant number of key militants. As a result, the Philippine government has expressed concern that these inmates may radicalize others and continue to operate while incarcerated. As a preventive measure, the government has considered a number of “soft” counterstrategies, including the development of a de-radicalization program. To study the feasibility of running such a program in the Philippine corrective system, this article examines two interrelated areas of enquiry concerning how terrorist inmates are housed and whether prison gangs foster or discourage radicalization in the Philippine prison system. Initial findings suggest that the integration of terrorist inmates with prison gangs may temporarily encourage disengagement and set the foundations for de-radicalization. However, without a specifically designed intervention strategy, the terrorist inmates may revert to militancy once they have returned to their original social settings.     

Cyber-Fatwas and Terrorism

In 1989, the term fatwa became globally known, following Ayatollah Khomeini’s death-fatwa issued on Salman Rushdie for his novel, Satanic Verses. Today, the Internet has become a useful platform for posting of fatwas and interpretations of fatwas. The present article highlights the use of jihadist fatwas, and especially online fatwas, as a major instrument in bridging the current wave of terrorism and religion. The analysis, based on a database collected in a 12-year-long project of monitoring thousands of terrorist websites, illustrates how cyber-fatwas are related to key issues in promoting terrorism: justifying the use of suicide terrorism, the killing of innocents, the killing of children and women, the killing of Muslims or the use of various weapons (including weapons of mass destruction and cyberterrorism). There are two implications of the trends documented in this study: First, the analysis of the online fatwas and the fatwa wars may provide insight about the terrorists, their motivations, their doubts and fears and, secondly, it may guide countercampaigns.     

Going Dark: Terrorism on the Dark Web

The terms Deep Web, Deep Net, Invisible Web, or Dark Web refer to the content on the World Wide Web that is not indexed by standard search engines. One can describe the Internet as composed of layers: the “upper” layer, or the Surface Web, can easily be accessed by regular searches. However, “deeper” layers, the content of the Deep Web, have not been indexed by traditional search engines such as Google. Michael K. Bergman who wrote the seminal paper on the Deep Web, compared searching the Internet to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean: a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deeper and therefore missed. In fact, most of the Web's information is buried far down on sites, and standard search engines are unable to access it.     

Competition and Innovation in a Hostile Environment: How Jabhat Al-Nusra and Islamic State Moved to Twitter in 2013–2014

Abstract

Social media offer unprecedented opportunities to terrorist groups to spread their message and target specific audiences for indoctrination and recruitment. In 2013 and 2014, social media, in particular Twitter, overtook Internet forums as preferred space for jihadist propaganda. This article looks into Arabic statements by Jabhat al-Nusra, Islamic State and jihadist forum administrators and online activists to argue that, beside the easier use of social media and disruption and infiltration of the forums, the conflict between the jihadist groups accelerated the migration to social media and the building of a presence on Twitter that provided relative resilience to suspensions.     

www.terrorism.com: Terror on the Internet

The nature of the Internet--the ease of access, the chaotic structure, the anonymity, and the international character--all furnish terrorist organizations with an easy and effective arena for action. The present research focuses on the use of the Internet by modern terrorist organizations and attempts to describe the uses terrorist organizations make of this new communication technology. Is the use of the Internet by terrorists different from that of other, "conventional" means of communication? How can governments respond to this new challenge? The population examined in this study is defined as the Internet sites of terrorist movements as found by a systematic search of the Internet, using various search engines. The sites were subjected to a qualitative content analysis, focusing on their rhetorical structures, symbols, persuasive appeals, and communication tactics. The study reveals differences and similarities between terrorist rhetoric online and in the conventional media.