Making the movies real: The death penalty & local TV news

Media organizations, particularly the broadcast media, have become extremely important actors on the public stage over the last three decades. As a result, what the media chose to cover and how they chose to cover it is an important question. That is magnified when the media turn their attention to a public policy issue like the death penalty that already possesses profound social significance. In no other area of public policy can the state impose its will so completely and finally on an individual citizen. Therefore, the public should understand the issues that surround capital punishment. That understanding is virtually always communicated through media organizations because very few of us have first-hand knowledge of the death penalty. In this paper, I explore how television broadcast organizations cover the imposition of the death penalty. How did they carry it out? What themes did they convey? What did the public learn?     

Techniques to Enhance the Transmission of Quality Programs by Private Television Channels in Europe

Over the last years there has been a change in the structure of the European television market. The dominant private television stations as well as new forms of electronic communication, like cable television and Internet, have established a new role in communications. The question is whether private television channels can draw up a quality program in this role.The two standard approaches in Europe, namely, regulating intervention and free competition, do not suffice to provide an answer. For this reason, the present study aims to analyze two alternate tools for the exertion of policy, that is, the creation of incentives and the self-regulation of media organizations, in the hope that answers will be provided as to what ways the European private television can employ in order, on the one hand, to be financially effective and, on the other, to have a quality program.     

植入广告商业伦理与法律的关系探析

近年一些影视作品中混入一些与故事情节没有关联的广告画语,突兀的广告打断了故事和观赏愉悦感,引起了消费者反感。植入广告的原则应当是艺术性第一,广告性第二,制片方不可在影视作品中肆意植入广告,这应当是影视作品制造业商业伦理的一个基本内容,以不惹受众反感为基本标准。商业道德在任何产业都是存在的,它没有明确具体的量化标准,没有文字规范,只是以争议是否得到多数人的褒贬来判断其是否有瑕疵,监管部门可以适当干预。     

Private Power, Public Interest: An Examination of Search Engine Accountability

As information becomes a critical commodity in modern society,the issue is raised whether the entities that manage accessto information, that are tools for public discourse and democracy,should be accountable to the public. The Internet has transformedhow we communicate, and search engines have emerged as managersof information, organizing and categorizing content in a coherent,accessible manner thereby shaping the Internet user's experience.This article examines whether search engines should have publicinterest obligations. In order to answer this question, thisarticle first examines comparative public interest regulatorystructures, and the growing importance of the Internet to publicdiscourse. Then examined is how the algorithmic designs andmanual manipulation of rankings by search engines affects thepublic interest without a sufficient accountability structure.Finally, the values necessary to a public interest frameworkare suggested.     

Pleading the Fifth: Media Economics,Free Air Time and the Fifth Amendment

Some public interest groups use the concept of "free air time"-regulation compelling television stations to provide free advertising time for federal candidates-to advance the cause of campaign finance reform. The purpose of this article is not to rehash arguments over whether the First Amendment prohibits such legislation but rather to examine a newer direction of inquiry through the Fifth Amendment "takings" clause. Although takings arguments have been dismissed by many due to the "public interest" standard to which broadcasters are held and public ownership of the spectrum, this article uses tenets of media economic theory to show that free air time could indeed constitute a "taking." What is at issue is not the use of the spectrum, but rather access to an audience: economic property created and sold by broadcasters.     

Racial Composition of Television Offenders and Viewers' Fear of Crime

Scholars, politicians,criminal justice professionals and members ofthe general public frequently link the media tothe United States' crime problem. Although manyscholars have noted the televised constructionof young black males as the stereotypicalcriminal, no study has ever measured how therace-specific content of media messages may berelated to viewers' perceptions and fearsrelating to crime. This article breaks withpast research that analyzes fear of crime byprogram genre, and instead explores the impactof the racial composition of televisionoffenders on viewers' fear of crime. The datainclude a content analysis of twenty-sixcrime-related programs and a telephone surveyof 1492 adults to explore the relationshipbetween television viewing and fear of crime. For African Americans there is a correlationbetween time spent viewing television and fearof crime. For Whites, the relative frequencyof African-American offenders in the televisionprograms is more important for predicting fearof crime than the amount of television theywatch.     

Adjudicating Executive Privilege: Federal Administrative Agencies and Deliberative Process Privilege Claims in U.S. District Courts

Government transparency is a key component of democratic accountability. The U.S. Congress and the president have created multiple legislative avenues to facilitate executive branch transparency with the public. However, when the executive branch withholds requested information from the public, the federal judiciary has the power to determine whether agencies must release documents and information to requestors. When enforcing standards of executive branch transparency, judges must balance concerns of executive autonomy and judicial intrusion into administrative decisionmaking. While much judicial scholarship focuses on the decisionmaking on high courts, in the U.S. context, federal district courts play a key role in adjudicating transparency disputes. In this article, I examine case outcomes in disputes involving agency claims of deliberative process privilege over internal agency documents litigated between 1994 and 2004. I find that U.S. federal district courts largely defer to administrative agencies in transparency disputes. However, factors such as agency structure and the congruence between judicial and administrative agency policy preferences influence whether federal judges require executive branch officials to release requested information.     

Incrementalism and Policymaking On Television Violence

Since the early days of television, Congress has shown concern over violent programming, but has employed a limited range of strategies and taken few legislative actions to deal with television violence. The incremental model of policymaking, which predicts that most policy changes are likely to be small, offers some explanations for why this might be so. This article applies the incremental model to congressional activities related to television violence and offers some potential explanations for why Congress shifted from relying primarily on a " regulation by the raised eyebrow" approach for several decades to a more proactive, regulatory approach in the 1990s. Finally, the article argues that given the various competing interests at stake, the actions Congress has taken have been reasonable and appropriate, if not entirely effective.     

Issue ads and the health reform debate

The public debate over health care reform in 2009 was carried out partly through issue advertisements aired online and on television. Did these advertisements alter the course of the debate over health care reform? While millions of dollars are spent each year on issue ads, little is known about their effects. Results from a naturalistic online experiment on the effects of issue ads suggest that they can influence the perceived importance of an issue and perceptions of politicians associated with the featured policy while influencing policy support only among those low in political awareness.     

Video surveillance in public space in China

Video surveillance device has been widely installed in public places at present. How should the right of privacy under video surveillance in public space be considered and protected effectively? There is no enough attention in the existing legislation of China, which results in a relatively conservative attitude in the judicial system of China. In fact, it is supposed to have privacy interests in public space. Privacy is not simply an absence of information about people in the minds of others. Moreover, it is the control over information about ourselves. Unlike casual glimpse by passers-by, the continuous, intentional and intensive focus of video cameras make individuals lose control of their information, which consequently leads to lose their privacy interests in public space. Thus, in order to protect personal privacy interests and defend personal justice in public space, it is necessary to regulate video surveillance in public space in legislation and judicature.     

THE COMPETITIVE EFFECTS OF A CABLE TELEVISION OPERATOR'S REFUSAL TO CARRY DSL ADVERTISING

Many cable television operators routinely refuse to run localDSL advertising on their cable systems. Given that such conductreduces the advertising profits of cable companies, a plausiblepurpose for such discriminatory refusals to deal is to limittheir cable customers' information about competitive alternativesto their cable modem services. By banning local DSL advertisementsplaced on cable television, a cable television operator foreclosesequally efficient rivals (DSL providers) in the broadband Internetaccess market from the most efficient form of advertising abroadband product (television advertising), as I prove here,and thereby impairs rivals' efficiency. To the extent that DSLproviders cannot compete as effectively as they would in theabsence of the ban, the ban allows cable television operatorsto raise the price of cable modem service and thereby reduceconsumer welfare. Using a traditional antitrust analysis, Ipresent evidence that local television advertising can be aseparate product market (when it comes to marketing DSL), andthat cable television providers have market power in that advertisingmarket. I also present evidence that local television advertisingon cable networks is the most efficient form of advertisingfor DSL providers. The potential anticompetitive effect of cable'sban on DSL advertising is to relegate DSL advertising to lessefficient marketing channels, thereby allowing cable operatorsto charge higher prices for cable modem service. Such conductthus raises obvious antitrust issues.     

论公共摄像监视——以隐私权为中心

目前，在公共空间实施摄像监视已日益普遍。如何看待公共空间中摄像头“注视”之下的个人隐私权并予以相应保护，我国现有的立法尚未予以足够关注，司法上亦采取较为保守的态度。事实上，个人身处公共空间，亦有其隐私利益存在。因为隐私并不仅仅是他人头脑中关于人们自身信息的某种缺失，而更多的是，人们对于自身信息的控制。摄像头长时间地有计划地有目的地注视，不同于路人偶然无意识的一瞥，它将使人们因此而丧失对自身信息的选择暴露权和控制权，从而导致个人在公共空间的某些隐私利益的丧失。鉴于此，我们认为有必要从立法上和司法上规范公共摄像监视行为，捍卫人们在公共空间中的必要的隐私利益，维护人们在公共空间中的个性正义。     

Incurable Sex Offenders, Lousy Judges & The Media: Moral Panic Sustenance in the Age of New Media

There is consensus that since the 1990s, we have experienced a spike in public concern over sexual offenders. Analyzing this concern as a moral panic, this paper argues that national television coverage, as it picks up local news, adds heat to the fire by re-naming the villain as an inadequate judicial system. This process helps to sustain a moral panic, while narrowing the available discourse about the nature of appropriate punishment. Drawing upon a well-publicized example of a media event in Vermont, this paper extends the theory of moral panics to add another stage to the process—a stage presented by the advent of cable news programming, the relationship between local and national media, and the explosion of blogs. In order for a panic to sustain over an extended time period, the rhetoric about it must transform. In particular, the claimsmaking about the nature of the problem must evolve. In particular, the panic has evolved from sex offenders as folk devils to an attack on judicial discretion. The development of the outcry over judicial discretion was due, in part, to media distortion of the case. I will thus trace the trajectory of this one case to demonstrate the role of the media in shaping and sustaining the panic.     

Crown Copyright Regulation in the UK - Is the Debate Still Alive?

Having been an observer of public policy towards Crown copyrightfor a number of years now it is interesting to see just howfar government has moved over the past decade in its stanceon the issue. What began as a fairly entrenched viewpoint thatCrown copyright was a necessary instrument of control over theprocess of official publication, seems now to have moved forwardto a position that permits more radical thinking about the policy.Originally the enforcement of Crown copyright was seen as ameans of maintaining control over the publication of the material,with a licensing policy for re-use and added-value exploitationby the private sector publishing industry. The private sectoritself had long argued that the policy diminished prospectsfor the proper exploitation of official information. This itargued had had a detrimental effect, both for the industry itselfand the degree to which the information might be used for thebenefit of the national economy. Government began to listento these arguments but HM Treasury consistently maintained theneed for departments and agencies to recover costs and in somecases obtain profits from the distribution of official information.It was seen very much as a resource belonging to cost centresthat should be exploited. Since the fall of the former ConservativeGovernment it has become clear that those engaged in this debateare no longer as committed to these trenchant positions as theyonce were. Instead it would seem that a more open debate isunderway within a broader reassessment of the nature, organizationand functioning of the public services. This article exploresthe progress in that debate and assesses where the policy nowstands.     

Back to the Future

They thought this out very well, having in mind the television broadcast of the Constitutional Court session on TV Channel One. Ukraine has not seen anything like this before. The general public, as a rule, has been able to see only the final portion: a judge in his robes pronouncing a verdict—a decision that is not subject to appeal. Today everyone who wants to can become familiar with the work in the constitutional kitchen. Total access, as they say. Well, almost total, since the confidentiality of the meeting room is still preserved.     

政务信息公开满意度影响因素分析——以政府网站为例

以政府网络为视角,研究政务信息公开满意度影响因素,有助于政府部门改进信息化服务工作,提高公众满意度.本文通过对美国顾客满意度指数模型(A CSI)进行改进并参考欧洲顾客满意度指数模型(ECSI),构建了我国政府网站政务信息公开满意度模型,运用问卷调查和结构方程模型(SEM)对所构建模型进行实证检验,从公众视角揭示我国政...     

Pains of imprisonment in a “lock em’ up” video game: implications for a peacemaking discourse through new media experiences

A limited body of literature has explored popular media portrayals of the prison experience. Much of this literature has focussed on film and television. Scant literature has considered new forms of media such as video games’ portrayals of the prison experience. In the current inquiry we examine the computer simulation game, Prison Architect, with respect to how its interactive experience has the potential simultaneously portray and problematize pains of imprisonment, and how these portrayals and problematizations may prompt a public discourse surrounding prison, particularly from a peacemaking perspective, even if the game itself does not incorporate concepts such as restorative justice. To conduct this analysis, we examine game-developer video blogs that relayed information about the game as it was developed (e.g., game content, rationale for creation, and embedded political, social and philosophical orientations toward prisons, prisoners, and the prison-industrial complex). Ultimately we link pains of imprisonment in Prison Architect to the broader societal discourse surrounding rationales for incarceration (i.e., retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation) and consider implications for prison themed games, particularly those such as simulation games that afford players a broad degree of freedom, as vehicles through which to engage the public in discourse about prison that can adopt a more human-centered, peace-oriented approach.     

The Reuse of Public Sector Information in Europe and Its Impact on Transparency

The dissemination of public sector information is not carried out exclusively by public administration. A significant proportion of public sector information constitutes the raw material used by the content industry to offer goods and services and by citizens to provide richer information. In the European Union, Directive 2003/98/EC on the reuse of public sector information establishes a set of rules governing the reuse of public sector information. Although this rule is not intended to provide greater transparency, the re‐use of public sector information could have this effect. This article sets out the European policy on public sector information reuse and it looks in depth at the content of Spanish Act 37/2007, of 16 November, about the reuse of public sector information, as a case study, outlining some of the instruments that have been used in Spain as well as in other Member States to promote the reuse of public sector information.     

Public procurement as a means to achieving social gains – progress and challenges in European legislation and standards for accessible information and communication technology

This article explores the European Commission goal of improving the quality and level of accessibility in mainstream information and communication technology (ICT) goods and services available in Member States through the use of public procurement legislation and performance standards. Over the past two decades, the Commission has encouraged Member States to adopt common requirements for accessibility and to strengthen efforts to use these requirements in public procurement. In the absence of significant improvements in the level of accessibility over this time, the Commission has more recently committed to bringing forward legislative proposals to harmonize the accessibility requirements used by Member States. A new procurement directive package contains stronger obligations on public bodies to include accessibility as mandatory requirements in Technical Specifications. In parallel to this, a standardization mandate by the Commission to the European Standards Organizations (ESOs) concluded in March 2014 with the publication of the first European standard on ICT accessibility. In light of these developments, this article analyses the trajectory of European policy in the field of accessibility over the last two decades, and the interplay between European public procurement, standardization and law. It examines how far these developments have succeeded in bringing into being a public procurement eco-system that will nudge the market in Europe to producing affordable and accessible ICT products and services for persons with disabilities.     

Broadcasters' response to the children's television act

The Children's Television Act of 1990 (CTA) represents the culmination of more than 25 years of controversy and debate about the public policies needed to insure that broadcasters provide adequate service to the child audience, consistent with their public interest obligations. In approving the Act, the Congress expected to accomplish significant increases in the educational and informational programming available to children on broadcast television. How well has this law worked to achieve that goal? This study seeks to answer that question by examining the children's programming reports contained in recent license renewal files submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).