Identity and culture in theorising African perspectives of communication: The case of an African cinematic model

Abstract

Since communication refers to the sharing of information by any effective means, there is no doubt it entails the ability to make meaning of realities. In this sense, communication is cultural as much as it is human. Since that is the case, its theories cannot be fabricated in the abstract, but must be anchored in people's everyday lifestyles and cultures. Hence, like every other discipline, Africanising communication science is as much a possibility as theorising its perspectives from African contexts and experiences. Focusing on the negative challenges confronting the continent might make scholars see only the difficulties that problematise the application of theories to Africa's reality, which only betrays the Anglo-American stereotypical views of the continent. The argument is made here that the starting point of any theory of communication has to lie with the identity and culture of those involved in the communication process. Specifically by using selected films from Africa, this author considers the exploration of African identity and culture (from a bottom-up paradigm) as the primary starting point to tease out relevant theories of communication for and from an African cultural context.     

互联网国际规则建构:话语策略的公共安全视角

对当今世界各主要经济体而言,互联网安全已成为一个利益攸关的重要议题,但该领域国际共识和国际规则严重缺失,这与持续加剧的互联网安全威胁之间产生了尖锐的矛盾。在中国,互联网治理日益成为关乎国家安全的政策焦点,同时也是参与全球治理不可或缺的组成部分;建构互联网国际规则的话语能力直接影响着中国对外传播话语体系的建立和制度性话语权的提升,但目前中国对该领域话语策略的学术与政策研究仍严重缺失。当前,对互联网国际规则之制度理念的应然性研究仍显不足,关于中国在该领域对外传播话语策略的探讨更是近乎空白。互联网国际规则的缺失本质上源于互联网信息自由带来的收益与政府信息管控对此种收益的限制之间存在难以调和的矛盾。由于日益严峻的互联网安全形势正逐渐打破互联网信息自由与政府信息管控之间原有的平衡,加之全球化趋势将世界各国的命运更加紧密地联系在一起,该领域国际规则的建构开始具备现实的可能性。鉴于传播话语在规则建构的过程中占据着举足轻重的地位,以公共安全为切入点赢得国际共识、提升中国在互联网全球治理中的话语能力和制度性话语权就成为中国政策制定机构和宣传机构在通过对外传播推进互联网国际规则建构时应采取的话语策略。     

脆弱性视角下气候变化与暴力冲突的传导机制探究

气候变化通过直接或间接的方式影响暴力冲突发生的可能性,但气候变化与暴力冲突之间的因果传导机制仍需要进行深入探究。作者从脆弱性的视角出发,探索从气候变化到暴力冲突的传导机制,基于复杂交织的自然因素和社会因素,通过联系的独立性和多重性,分析了气候冲突的三级传导机制,并在此基础上强调了脆弱性在气候变化与暴力冲突复合传导机制中的结构性地位。文章从生态、经济、社会和政治四个方面对脆弱性进行阐述,并分析了其在气候冲突传导机制中的作用。气候变化是暴力冲突的一种外源性触发器,脆弱性作为社会内生性因素在气候冲突风险中发挥一种屏障作用。脆弱性升高将会造成国家对暴力冲突风险的屏障作用减弱,导致气候冲突风险显著上升。     

美国气候战略及中美气候合作北大核心

当前全球气候危机加速演进,气候变化与国际战略深度融合,全球气候治理进入大变局和秩序重塑的关键时期。美国拜登政府重启气候新议程,将气候变化议题提升至美国国家安全与外交政策的中心地位,其战略目标是在全球气候权力重组、气候安全体系重构、气候治理秩序重塑中争夺主导权,拜登政府的气候战略框架已基本成型。统筹应对美国气候战略竞争风险和深入推进COP26后中美气候外交,关系到国际安全体系与全球气候治理新秩序的构建。中美唯有良性互动、拓展合作空间才能维护国际安全及人类在21世纪的可持续发展。     

从气候变化到气候安全：国家的安全化行为研究

安全化是非传统安全问题形成的必经过程。在非安全领域的问题能够造成(潜在)威胁并已成为国际社会重要议程的前提下,国家所处的安全环境、本国独立维护安全能力所受威胁的认知以及国家与该问题起源地之间的地理距离,是决定该国是否将该问题安全化的主要因素。其中,国家有关自身独立维护安全能力所受威胁的认知是核心因素。英美两国在气候变化安全化上的行为表明:若某非安全领域问题具有全球性,那么国家与该问题起源地之间的距离可以等同于零。在这种情况下,如果国家安全环境受到较大威胁,那么国家认为其独立维护安全的能力也受到较大威胁,本国将该问题安全化的可能性增大。如果国家安全环境受到威胁较小,这将出现两种情况:第一,若国家认为其独立维护安全的能力未受较大威胁,那么本国将该问题安全化的可能性小。第二,若国家认为其独立维护安全的能力受到较大威胁,那么本国将该问题安全化的可能性大。为了限制国家在安全化行为上的反复变化给全球气候治理造成的障碍,联合国可以通过发挥集体安全机制的作用促使气候变化\"集体安全化\"。     

气候安全与霸权护持：美国气候安全战略的全球推进

随着气候地缘对世界格局变迁影响的不断增强,气候安全逐步成为霸权护持的新型塑造变量,即霸权国以气候威胁识别与安全保障为抓手,全面提升自身在全球低碳转型中的军事、经济、制度和话语霸权。经过二十余年的气候议题安全化进程,美国已形成较为完备的气候安全战略。拜登政府将应对气候危机全面嵌入内政外交之中,通过多种路径推进其气候安全战略,包括凝聚盟友气候危机共识并启动北约气候安全框架;增强军队气候韧性以推进全球气候地缘敏感地区的军事部署;强化美国在绿色技术联盟与清洁能源供应链中的主导地位;提升自身在全球气候安全治理中的议题设置权与话语权;在“印太”框架下主导符合气候安全与人权规则的可持续基建标准等。但美国这种“国家安全至上”的全球气候安全拓展路径难以在国家安全目标和人类安全目标之间达成平衡,气候危机应对需要兼顾广大发展中国家的权益,在“发展—安全”理念基础上推进平衡、协调、包容的全球气候安全治理新秩序。     

Climate Change and Environmental Security: For Whom the Discourse Shifts

This article explores the implications of the April 2007 United Nations Security debate on the security dimensions of a changing climate for international climate change politics. Specifically, our analysis focuses on whether and how security concerns have been addressed in past international political debates on climate change and considers whether the Security Council debate, which emphasized the threat of climate-related conflict, reflects a discursive shift. We elaborate on two general discourses on the relationship between environment and security, which we call environmental conflict and environmental security . Using content and discourse analysis, we demonstrate that both the historical climate change debate and the more recent Security Council debate have been informed by the environmental security discourse, meaning that a discursive shift has not taken place. We conclude by considering the possibility of a future discursive shift to the environmental conflict perspective and argue that such a shift would be counterproductive to the search for an effective global response to climate change.     

A Review of: “The U.S. Catholic Press on Central America: From Cold War Anticommunism to Social Justice,by Edward T. Brett”

In a few short years, the World Wide Web has become a standard part of candidates' campaign tool kits. Virtually all candidates have their own sites, and voters, journalists, and activists visit the sites with increasing frequency. In this article, we study what candidates do on these sites—in terms of the information they present—by exploring one of the most enduring and widely debated campaign strategies: “going negative.” Comparing data from over 700 congressional candidate Web sites, over three election cycles (2002, 2004, and 2006), with television advertising data, we show that candidates go negative with similar likelihoods across these media. We also find that while similar dynamics drive negativity on the Web and in television advertising, there are some notable differences. These differences likely stem, in part, from the truncated sample available with television data (i.e., many candidates do not produce ads). Our results have implications for understanding negative campaigning and for the ways in which scholars can study campaign dynamics.