Positioning independent community media: Findings from a case study of six small South African newspapers

Abstract

This article brings defining aspects of ‘community media’ – as proposed by a group of media stakeholders – into dialogue with research findings from a study on small ‘independent media’. One significant difference between the two media sectors is that the former is usually understood as being driven by commune-style ownership and community control, and the latter by private ownership and profit-driven control. We argue that perceptions constructed by this difference potentially marginalise small independent media organisations. It may compromise their access to funding as well as obscure how, and how much, they contribute to their communities. We find that the six South African small independent newspapers in this research meet defining criteria for ‘community media’. Research findings on issues such as social responsibility, participatory democracy, media diversity and the generation of skills and wealth demonstrate how the principles and practices of the two media sectors overlap. So we propose ‘independent community media’ as a more inclusive and appropriate concept and term for small community-oriented publications, irrespective of their ownership profiles or relationship to profit. Independence is also examined – particularly how the newspapers balance editorial independence with outside control: this reveals inequitable practices currently threatening some newspapers’ survival and success.     

Faith in the Court: Religious Out‐Groups and the Perceived Legitimacy of Judicial Decisions

The question of whether judges’ personal characteristics and values bias their decision making has long been debated, yet far less attention has been given to how personal characteristics affect public perceptions of bias in their decision making. Even genuinely objective judges may be perceived as procedurally biased by the public. We hypothesize that membership in a religious out‐group will elicit stronger public perceptions of biased decision making. Using a survey experiment that varies a judge's religious orientation and ruling in a hypothetical Establishment Clause case, we find strong evidence that judges’ religious characteristics affect the perceived legitimacy of their decisions. Identifying a judge as an atheist (a religious out‐group) decreases trust in the court, while identifying the judge as a committed Christian has no bearing on legitimacy. These results are even stronger among respondents who report attending church more often. Thus, we argue that perceptions of bias are conditioned on judges’ in‐group/out‐group status.     

The Question of Ottoman Ignorance before the Morea Rebellion of 1770: A Challenge to Widely Accepted Belief in the Light of New Ottoman Documents

Most early Ottoman and European sources take it for granted that the Ottoman Empire was either indifferent to or unaware of the Russian intrigues going on in the Morea and therefore did not take any measures against Russia prior to the insurrection of 1770. Recent writings on this uprising do not really add anything to the discussion, simply accepting the Ottoman ignorance suggested by early Ottoman and European scholars. In the light of newly discovered archival sources this article submits that blaming the entire bureaucracy for a total ignorance of Russian intrigues or denying any possibility that the Russians might appear in the Mediterranean Sea is simply without foundation. Our archival documents contradict any allegation claiming that all Ottoman statesmen who were in charge of the empire at the time were ignorant. Instead, these sources indicate that some of the Ottoman statesmen took necessary precautionary measures (both in the Morea and many other regions under Ottoman domination) long before the coming of the Russians, which can be seen as proof of their awareness.     

Ambiguities of Witnessing: Law and Literature in the Time of a Truth Commission, Mark Sanders

As a contribution to the burgeoning literature on transitionaljustice and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC), Ambiguities of Witnessing is an idiosyncratic production.The uninitiated reader should not be put off by the deconstructionisttheoretical indulgences of the opening chapters, as perseveranceis rewarded with perceptive interpretations of such key issuesas the TRC's discourse of forgiveness and its unresolved problematicof reparations. Mark     

“依视路杯”全国法语文学翻译竞赛启事

为发现、培养和奖掖更多的法语翻译新人,推动中国法语教学和文学翻译事业的健康发展和繁荣,促进中法文化交流,全国法语教学研究会、南京大学法语系和上海依视路光学有限公司决定联合举办依视路杯全国法语文学翻译竞赛,具体参赛规则如下:     

Handbook of International Law

Netherlands International Law Review -     

A pluralist and pragmatist critique of food regime’s genealogy: varieties of social orders in Brazilian agriculture

ABSTRACT

The food regime approach occupies a privileged place in the sociology of agriculture and food. However, it is criticized for its structural, universalist and homogenizing bias. From a dialogue between institutionalism and pragmatism, this contribution discusses an alternative framework constructed from the ‘social order’ concept, which defines the existence of different arrangements of practices related to socio-technical and institutional apparatuses. Both the critique of the ‘regime’ narrative and the new proposition are associated to a reinterpretation of Brazil’s agricultural trajectory. Contrasting with the overemphasized export-oriented plantation/agribusiness image that prevails in the majority of analysis about Brazilian insertion in globalized agri-food regime, this paper explores the heterogeneity of production and consumption practices, arguing for the coexistence of multiple and contradictory ordering processes.     

Teaching Party Systems: A Culinary Demonstration

Abstract

Duverger’s Law—the principle that first-past-the-post systems tend to promote two major political parties while proportional representation systems tend to promote multipartism—is a commonly taught topic in introductory and some upper-level political science courses across subfields. However, it also contains concepts that are difficult for undergraduate students to grasp, particularly those who are unfamiliar with other electoral systems. In partial response to these concerns, this article introduces a memorable in-class demonstration that utilizes food items to illustrate the logic behind Duverger’s Law. The demonstration serves as a flexible blend between lecture-oriented and active learning techniques, and can be adapted to teach other topics—such as directional and proximity models of voting, the Median Voter Theorem, and other topics in rational choice theory. Preliminary evidence presented suggests that students enjoy the demonstration, remember the concepts, and perform better on assessments related to the topic. The article concludes by challenging political science educators to develop and share more demonstration-type activities, which are commonly used in STEM and other fields.