Age spots: Gender sensitivity and the Hutchins Commission

The language of the Hutchins Commission report, A Free and Responsible Press, written in 1947, is sexist. The language flaws the report, but certainly does not destroy its value. Language must be separated from content, such as in Plato's and Kant's writings. Although the Hutchins Commission uses unfortunate language, its message goes beyond mere toleration to a supererogatory duty: The ideal of the marketplace of ideas shall be made concrete. Just as Plato's vision of women ruling in equal numbers has yet to become reality and just as Kant's ethical vision of every human's liberation from mistreatment has yet to be realized, the Hutchins Commission's call for a chorus of voices remains unfilled. The call has been echoed and in some case intensified, such as in Carol Gilligan's work on the voices of women. But the goals remain undiminished beacons that remind us—educators as well as the media—that we still have much work ahead in order to achieve inclusiveness.     

‘Ulster’s policing goes global’: The police reform process in Northern Ireland and the creation of a global brand

This paper engages with contemporary discussions in relation to the commodification of policing and security. It suggests that the existing literature regarding these trends has been geared primarily towards commercial security providers and has failed to address the processes by which public policing models are commodified and marketed both within, and through, the transnational policing community. Drawing upon evidence from the police change process in Northern Ireland, we argue that a Northern Irish Policing Model (NIPM) has emerged in the aftermath of the Independent Commission on Policing (ICP) reforms. This is increasingly branded and promoted on the global stage. Furthermore, we suggest that the NIPM is not monolithic, but segmented, and targeted towards a number of different ‘consumers’ both domestically and transnationally. Reflecting these diverse markets, the NIPM draws upon two seemingly incongruous constituent elements: the ‘best practice’ lessons of policing transition, as embodied in the ICP reforms; and, the legacy of counter-terrorism expertise drawn from the preceding decades of conflict. The discussion concludes by querying as to which of these components of the NIPM is in the ascendancy.     

First amendment values and government participation in the marketplace,fifty years after the Hutchins report

The Hutchins Commission took a favorable view of government speech; Its report recommended that government act as a supplementary news source for the public. This article asserts that the commission was “fighting the last war” by focusing on government restraints on the press, while failing to propose limitations on the government's ability to circumvent the press. With the advent of new forms of telecommunications technology, the government might one day replace the private sector press as the public's primary source for news. This article asserts that the Supreme Court should recognize that the Press Clause of the First Amendment guarantees the existence of the private sector press as an independent, nongovernmental branch of our governance system. Based on a “separation of powers” view of Press Clause values, the article argues that the Court should create a First Amendment “right of reply” to any government dissemination of information to the American public in a manner that circumvents the traditional role of the private sector press.     

Cadre recruitment and corruption: what goes wrong?

Why do so many corrupt officials rise up in the Chinese official hierarchy in the first place? This paper addresses this question by looking at corruption in the cadre recruitment system as a source of the problem. It attempts to show that despite meaningful reforms to improve cadre recruitment, especially through greater input and supervision from below, these reforms have not succeeded in fundamentally reshaping cadre incentives in the direction of accountability towards the below. Rather, the reforms have in many ways exacerbated incentives for opportunism and maneuvering on the part of individual officials. In explaining the new problems and failures in personnel matters, the paper places blame on incentive and structural distortions in the recruitment while also taking into consideration the realities of China’s vast local variance that combine to affect enforcement and incentives for compliance.     

District Court goes to Bat for fantasy baseball league

Finding that players' names and statistics are historical factsused by fantasy baseball league CBC in a manner that advancesfree speech rights, the United States District Court for theEastern District of Missouri held that CBC's use did not violatethe players' publicity rights and excused CBC from an earliercontractual agreement.     

Saving journalism from itself (and from US): The Hutchins Commission was right then,so what about now?

Even though the Hutchins Commission report has not explicitly informed journalistic practices, it has achieved a profound effect in its critique of media access equity and its concerns about media ownership. This article revisits the commission report to interpret its relevance to current media problems. Despite its practical shortcomings of influence, the report continues to provoke a critical inquiry: How is it possible to reconcile a standard of “professional ethic” with the demands of a workaday journalism concerned with the marketplace bottom‐line?     

A trojan horse goes to court: Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp

In Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp., the Supreme Court held that a statute prohibiting the mailing of unsolicited advertisements for contraceptives was unconstitutional as applied to Young's advertisements for condoms. The decision rested on a balancing of the first amendment's grant of free speech with the Government's interest in safeguarding an individual's privacy. The Court noted that the advertisements promoted the flow of information on contraception, and pertained to constitutionally protected private activity. This Case Comment argues that the Court's decision is sound and criticizes the view of the concurring opinion that shielding individuals from potentially offensive speech is a substantial governmental interest. The Comment concludes that the Court's decision expands upon precedent which established an individual's right of privacy regarding the use of contraceptives.     

Attracting federal research funds: Why so much from so many goes to so few

This paper addresses the question of the distribution of federal research funds. It is noted that the top five institutions in terms of federal funding occupy very stable and extremely high rankings in terms of the quality of their academic programs in a variety of fields. It is suggested that this is part of their overall strategy for achieving organizational effectiveness. The implications for technology generation and transfer are discussed. In view of the various theories of organizational effectiveness, it is noted that research oriented universities that consistently win in the quest for federal research funds have developed both the structure and atmosphere necessary for responding to external groups.     

When crime reporting goes high-tech: An experimental test of computerized citizen response to crime

This study investigates the importance of the reporting mode as a factor contributing to citizen crime reporting decisions in the United States. A randomized experimental design involving 140 subjects was used to compare the treatment effects of two crime reporting modes: one which was telephonic and the other computer interactive. The findings of this exploratory study of citizen crime reporting within a controlled laboratory setting revealed significant increases in reporting rates for subjects assigned to the computer reporting mode condition relative to those assigned to the telephonic reporting mode condition. This relationship persisted for reporting behavior examined at both low and moderate levels of crime seriousness. The implications of these findings for predicting future changes in the incidence and distribution of reported criminal behavior or illegal incidents are presented and discussed.     

Graffiti goes to the movies: American fictional films featuring graffiti artists/writers and themes

Since the early 1980s, in addition to the increase in graffiti and street art in many urban contexts, a number of movies have been made that have either examined this phenomenon and the people who engage in this activity, or used graffiti and street art as a backdrop to tell a story. This article briefly reviews the scholarly literature that examines movies that portray criminals and criminal actions, and then analyzes seven American-produced fictional (drama) films using graffiti writers/artists as major characters and then draws generalizations about them. Although this is not a semiotic analysis of the films, to the extent possible, it delves into the settings, plots, characters, dialog, and how realistic the movies appear to be. In general, most of the films include unrealistic aspects and/or are of poor quality, and this contributes to misrepresentations of and stereotypes about graffiti writers/writing.