The Civic Education Project in Belarus,Ukraine, and Moldova: the impact of dependency

The reliance of development NGOs on donor funding exposes them to the danger of formulating programmes geared to meeting the needs of the donors, rather than those of local beneficiaries. In the worst-case scenario, NGOs may exacerbate existing problems through interventions that reinforce their own dominance and undermine local empowerment. This article examines some of the practices of one international NGO which worked in the field of higher education in three former Soviet countries.     

The Mix of Media Use Matters: Investigating the Effects of Individual News Repertoires on Offline and Online Political Participation

In contemporary high-choice media environments, people increasingly mix and combine their use of various news media into personal news repertoires. Despite this, there is still limited research on how people compose their individual news repertoires and the effects of these news repertoires. To address this and further our understanding of how media use influences political participation, this study investigates (a) how people combine the use of offline and online media into personal news repertoires and (b) the effects of different news repertoires on both offline and online political participation. Based on a two-wave panel study covering the 2014 Swedish national election, this study identifies five news repertoires, labeled minimalists, public news consumers, local news consumers, social media news consumers, and popular online news consumers. Among other things, the results show that social media news consumers are more likely to participate in politics both offline and online.     

Introduction: Communication and Civic Engagement in Comparative Perspective

The present era is defined by sweeping changes in economies, social institutions, political party systems, and communication processes in many nations. These changes go by various names from globalization to poststructuralism. The impact of these tectonic shifts in the political foundations of nations is greatly debated. In particular, considerable uncertainty surrounds the effects of various changes on the importance of politics for individual citizens and for the kinds of civic activities that people engage in and even regard as political. This is an important time for communication scholars to develop comparative frameworks that bring conceptions of social change together with how people located in various cultural, demographic, and audience groups define their relations to government and, more broadly, to civil society. At stake is our understanding of the role of communication in shaping these political relations, and in shaping the attitudes of citizens about politics, government, and society itself.     

新加坡青少年公民道德教育研究及启示

重视青少年公民道德教育是新加坡社会秩序和治安环境良好的重要因素之一。新加坡通过培养青少年核心价值观、培养青少年的领导力、减少社区青少年犯罪、为社区青少年提供技能培训与注重社会实践等方式开展实务教育。这对改善我国青少年公民道德教育、创新教育途径与方法、丰富教育形式和载体、强化教育社会功能具有重要启示。     

On the Media Effects of Immigration and Refugee Board Hearings via Videoconference

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board conducts some of itsrefugee hearings via videoconferencing. As part of a reviewof the fairness of this practice, a theoretical approach andreview of the empirical literature was commissioned. Particularlyunder ‘high stakes’ conditions, it was found thatvideoconferencing reduces mutual trust and understanding, exacerbatescultural differences in non-verbal communication, and increasesthe propensity to lie while decreasing the ability to detectfalsehoods. Further, the inherent power imbalance between thetribunal and the claimant is widened as the tribunal membersbecome acclimatized to the technology. In general, the differencein sensory perception of a mediating technology creates cognitivedifferences between mediated and non-mediated environments.Further, sensory perception that feeds narrative constructionvaries by culture. The process of conveying and understandingmeaning across cultures is sufficiently difficult; adding thecomplexity of videoconference mediation introduces the possibilityof inconsistency, inaccuracy, and altered judgement.     

浅析族裔民族主义与公民民族主义

本文梳理与分析了族裔民族主义与公民民族主义的内涵和它们之间的关系以及全球化对它们的影响。作者认为 ,两种民族主义都是现代社会中文化与政治合流的产物。但总体上看 ,前者的核心是文化认同 ,后者的实质是政治认同。两者密切联系 ,但之间有难以调和的矛盾。全球化时代 ,两种民族主义既显示了各自的力量 ,也暴露出各自的局限性 ,它们在被削弱的同时 ,也得到了强化。如何处理好族裔认同与公民认同之间的关系 ,塑造一个祥和的世界 ,仍是国际关系学者需要探讨的重要课题。     

The Culture of Interest: A Proposed Addition and Revision of the Three‐Culture Model

Negotiation and conflict resolution theorists have classified world cultures according to three types for the purpose of describing and predicting some of the ways in which individuals and groups within broad, geographically based cultural groups behave in conflict and negotiation‐related situations. These three broad categories, called “cultural syndromes,” have described these cultures according to the relative value they place on these three concerns: honor, face, and dignity. Based on our examination of the literature on the cultural dimensions of negotiation and conflict management, our own practice, and an analysis of literature and practice pertaining to the place and utility of the honor, face, interest, and dignity attributes within and between cultural groups , we propose a reformulation of this typology. Our reformulation would replace the broad “dignity” category with a new category that we call “interest,” which we believe better characterizes Northern European and North American cultures. We also argue that a cultural orientation toward dignity is universal and not geographically unique and is thus shared by all three cultures. This new formulation, we believe, more accurately characterizes the global range of orientations toward negotiation and conflict resolution and would, if adopted, help scholars and practitioners better understand culturally divergent conflict orientations and behaviors as well as the ramifications of such differences for negotiation and conflict resolution practice.     

Jump-Starting Democracy: Adult Civic Education and Democratic Participation in Three Countries

In countries emerging from authoritarianism into democracy, citizens have little preparation for participating in the new political dispensations they face. Adult civic education promises a way to jump-start the lifelong socialization experience that their counterparts in the long-established democracies enjoy. But do these brief crash-courses in democracy really have any impact? Recent surveys of civic education efforts sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development in the Dominican Republic, Poland and South Africa find that those taking part in the programmes do participate significantly more in local level politics and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in politics more generally as well. There is also evidence that non-elites can benefit more from such programmes and begin to close the participation gap that separates them from traditional elites. The overall gains in participation are, however, modest. But given that political participation in absolute terms has been quite low in both old and new democracies, it can be argued that even modest gains are important and make investment in civic education worthwhile.     

浅析拉美的另类传媒——以南方电视台为例

南方电视台建于2005年,是世界上第一家跨国公共电视台,致力于向全球报道"我们的美洲".它希望创造出一种能抗衡国际传媒集团的信息传播模式,推动拉美实现传媒独立,以传媒手段促进拉美一体化.它的建立不仅有助于拉美各国人民以自己的眼睛观察自我,使拉美各国人民加强相互了解和借鉴,发掘和认同自身的文化和身份,还有助于打破发达国家对全球传媒市场的垄断,为构建"国际信息新秩序"作出尝试.同时,它在保持独立性、保障高质量节目以及资金运转等方面都面临着挑战.     

从中日法文化的历时性比较看日本文化的基本结构

日本古代法文化的基本精神源于中国儒学的思想体系。但随着日本社会形态的变化,以庄园制为中心的武家政治逐渐取代了传统律令政治,其法律内涵也发生了嬗变。故日本在明治维新之前是一种双重结构的氏族律令国家,这一政治形态与文化形态是一致的。而且,时至今日,仍然可以见到这一基本结构对日本社会的影响。     

The Evolution of Western Media Depictions of China:Getting Beyond the Hype

正In early 2011, a video clip featuring images of China launchedby the Information Office of the State Council of China madeits first voyage into the Time Square, a place that has beendubbed the crossroads of the world. The video was thenbroadcast on many televisions in the Euro-Asian landmass,     

Regulation and Self-Regulation: The Role of Media Commissions and Professional Bodies in the Muslim World

This article examines the state of media regulation in Arab and other Muslim countries. Whereas most countries in Europe, including the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, and some of the African societies in transition have developed media commissions of different types, most Muslim countries are so far reluctant to ease the dominating state control of the media, especially in the audiovisual sector. A majority of journalists associations in the Middle East and North Africa still need to distance themselves from governments and ruling parties. Their major task is to ensure observance of ethical standards, a task in which they have to struggle with the desires of governments and parliaments to make excessive use of the judiciary to sanction journalists. So far, Muslim countries have yet to develop their own models for restructuring the changing media sector and for creating a viable system of checks and balances that would control the media in a democratic way. Governments should aim to develop a common understanding among regulatory bodies and media practitioners and thus to provide for common concepts of ethical standards. In these efforts, much can be learned from the wide range of experiences gained by the transitional societies of Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa during the last decade.     

媒体融合背景下海外华文媒体的开拓与创新——以马来西亚星洲媒体集团为例

本文以马来西亚星洲媒体集团为例,论述了在媒体融合的背景下,海外华文媒体所面对的冲击以及所作出的应对措施。文章指出,海外华文媒体可借鉴星洲媒体集团成功实现媒体融合的经验,紧紧抓住新媒体迅速发展的契机,加快朝媒体融合的方向发展,以开拓新的生存空间,继续承传中华文化。