The myth of my widow: A dramatistic analysis of news portrayals of a terrorist victim

Mythic aspects of news portrayals of a terrorist victim are the focus of this study. Using the dramatistic approach of Kenneth Burke, the study reviews New York Times coverage of Leon Klinghoffer, who was killed by terrorists aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship in October 1985.

Myth is defined not as a false or incredible tale, but as a symbolic narrative that attempts to explain and give meaning to practice and belief. The study shows that news reports used dramatic details of the suffering and grief of the widow to develop around her husband a compelling myth—the sacrifice of the innocent, heroic victim.

In dramatic and psychological terms, the victim is a symbol of the self. Through this myth, then, the news reports appear to invite intense identification of the reader with the terrorist victim.

Although the study is exploratory, implications can be considered. Mythic portrayals suggest that the power of terrorism may stem from its ability to forge symbolic links between victims and individual members of an audience. Mythic images in the news may help terrorists communicate with their audience. Too, public policy makers may attempt to arouse support for measures of prevention and reprisal by drawing from the mythic power of the victim.     

Barnard and morality in organizations

Since Chester I. Barnard wrote The Functions of the Executive in 1938 numerous authors have cited his many ideas about organizational and individual behavior. Barnard believed that an individual's willingness to cooperate and function within an organization related to his or her “zone of indifference,” and the amount of authority the individual was willing to grant to a superior. Barnard's ideas concerning the zone of indifference are related in this article to “Stages of Moral Development” as measured by protocols developed by Lawrence Kohlberg.     

The Origins of Conflict in Polycentric Governance Systems

Natural resources are governed by polycentric systems, which can be conceptualized as an “ecology of games” in which policy actors participate in multiple policy forums governing interdependent issues. This article analyzes why actors perceive different payoffs across the forums in which they participate, ranging from mutually beneficial games of cooperation to conflictual zero-sum games in which one actor's gain means another actor's loss. The authors develop hypotheses at the level of the individual, the forum, and the overall polycentric system and test them using survey data collected in three research sites: Tampa Bay, Florida; the Paraná River delta, Argentina; and the Sacramento–San Joaquin River delta, California. The empirical findings suggest that levels of conflict in policy forums are higher when the actors who participate in them are concerned with hot-button issues, when the forums have large and diverse memberships, and in systems with a long history of conflict. The results shed new light on the drivers of conflict and cooperation in complex governance systems and suggest ways to manage conflict.     

INSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE SYSTEM OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: Service Organizations as an Alternative for Administrative Enhancement

The economic reform in the PRC inaugurated by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 has changed the landscape of the regime's environmental governance by putting it in a more market‐oriented context. As a strategy to strengthen administrative capacity in a situation heavily circumscribed by the limited resource support from local governments, the environmental protection authorities at all levels have established a sizable number of service organizations to provide them administrative support. These service organizations have to sponsor their own operation by engaging in revenue‐generating or fund raising activities. This has led to the emergence and proliferation of service organizations in the environmental governance system in the last decade. This article will examine, from a state capacity perspective, institutional reform in the environmental governance system of the PRC¹.