KOMMUNIKASIE EN DIE DEMOKRATISERING VAN TELEVISIE

SEKER die standhoudendste definisie van kommunikasie is al daardie opvattings wat verband hou met die ideale van die demokrasie. Ons begrip van kommunikasie is sedert die negentiende eeu vol van die voornemens van die goeie demokraat: daardie romantiese siening van die individu se betrokke oorgawe aan die samelewing. Kommunikasie het'n baie handige begrip geword om die individu se deelname en inspraak, sy medeseggenskap en medeleelsaamheid, kortom, sy maatskaplike betrokkenheid, ideologies te regverdig. Vandaar al die goeie bedoelings met kommunikasie van almal wat maar iets te sê het oor hedendaagse maatskaplike toestande en die begrip populariseer met selfversekerde uitsprake dat kommunikasie en demokrasie dieselfde is.     

China's Politics and Bilateral Trade Linkages

Abstract

China's position in the world economy during the past half-century provides vital information for investigating the relation between politics and trade. Although there is a substantial number of studies in this area, the current study extends the literature in at least three ways: (1) it is one of the first studies that investigates the problem of a potential sample selection bias—as a result of the fact that countries taken up in the analysis are not randomly sampled from all countries in the world; (2) it considers third-country effects that follow from the fact that China's relation with any two countries is affected by the relation between these countries themselves; and (3) it tests the impact of five political arrangements simultaneously, which is more comprehensive than any former study. By using data as to 78 of China's trade partners over the 1950–2002 period, this study provides empirical evidence for the hypotheses that the establishment of diplomatic relations, cooperation, visits of heads of states and political system similarity are associated with greater trade flows. The hypothesis that member countries of a Preferential Trading Agreement have had smaller trade flows with China, which is no member of any of these Preferential Trading Agreements, is not supported by the results.     

The influence of institutions and culture on health policies: different approaches to integrated care in England and The Netherlands

The concept of integrated care has assumed growing importance on the policy agendas both in England and The Netherlands and elsewhere. It is characterized as health and health care-related social care needed by patients with multi-faceted needs. This article compares policy approaches to integrated care in England and The Netherlands. Differing political strategies and conditions for integrated care correspond to the dissimilarities in the institutional structure and culture of their health care systems. Health care systems are understood as specific national and historical configurations. We review the last decade's relevant policy processes, using the concepts of hierarchy, market and network. The state health care system in England relies mainly on hierarchical steering, thus creating tight network structures for integrated care on the local level. The Netherlands, with its health care system in a public-private mix, has set incentives for voluntary, loosely coupled and partly market-driven cooperation on the local level. Implications for success or failure are mixed in both configurations. Policy recommendations have to be tailored to each systems' characteristics.     

The Effect of Associative Issue Ownership on Parties’ Presence in the News Media

Some studies suggest that challenger parties push new issues onto the agenda, especially when they ‘own’ these issues. Others claim that established parties largely determine how prominent issues appear on the agenda. This article contributes to this debate by focusing on an issue on which challenger parties have most ‘ownership’: immigration. Political claims on this issue made by political parties in newspapers in seven West European countries after three events that could potentially trigger attention to immigration were studied. Large and government parties appear most prominent in the news. However, findings show a significant, positive effect of associative issue ownership on claims-making in the news, while controlling for party size and government status. So, when challengers have issue ownership they appear as claim-makers on the issue. These results paint a balanced picture of the role that challenger and established parties have in setting the agenda.     

Consent in escrow

Disasters such as flash flooding, mass shootings, and train and airplane accidents involving large numbers of victims produce significant opportunity for research in the biosciences. This opportunity exists in the extreme tails of life events, however, during which decisions about life and death, valuing and foregoing, speed and patience, trust and distrust, are tested simultaneously and abundantly. The press and urgency of these scenarios may also challenge the ability of researchers to comprehensively deliver information about the purposes of a study, risks, benefits, and alternatives. Under these circumstances, we argue that acquiring consent for the immediate use of data that are not time sensitive represents a gap in the protection of human study participants. In response, we offer a two-tiered model of consent that allows for data collected in real-time to be held in escrow until the acute post-disaster window has closed. Such a model not only respects the fundamental tenet of consent in research, but also enables such research to take place in an ethically defensible manner.     

Community rehabilitation workers as catalysts for disability: inclusive youth development through service learning

This paper explores access to health and education for disabled youth in sites with and without community rehabilitation workers (CRWs). A cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire was undertaken in nine sites in South Africa, and a snowball sample of 523 disabled youths of both sexes, aged between 18 and 35 years, was selected. The survey found that a significantly larger proportion of disabled youth living in sites with CRWs were seen by health care workers at home, and that there was a large difference in educational access between sites with and without CRWs. CRWs are well positioned to promote equal citizenship for disabled youth through service learning with occupational therapy final year students to improve access to health and education, so that barriers to their participation in economic development are removed.