North Korea's Internet strategy and its political implications

Abstract

During recent years, the role of information technology in shaping politics and social movements in the digital age is drawing increasing scholarly attention. There is, however, little such literature on North Korea as the country remains almost completely cut off from the Internet. Since the mid-1990s, the DPRK government has strategically developed its information and communication technology and has subsequently built a domestic intranet. Although North Korea keeps a minimal presence on the web, there are signs that the country is taking small and cautious steps to allow some social elites to take advantage of the Internet in order to leapfrog its economic development. Indeed, a high-profile defector indicated that North Korea will most likely start allowing wider but limited internet access in the near future. This paper examines North Korea's intranet and Internet policies and explores their political implications by drawing upon first-hand data from Korean sources and existing literature as well as by juxtaposing the North Korean case with other communist regimes such as China and Cuba in terms of their attempts to control and manipulate the Internet. It shows that the DPRK government is likely to learn from the Chinese and Cuban experiences and adopt a ‘Mosquito-Net’ model in controlling the Internet in an effort to attract foreign investment while keeping out information deemed threatening by the regime.     

Political Marketing Research in the 2000 U.S. Election

Abstract

It is not news that polls and other forms of marketing research are regularly employed to craft political strategy. What is new is that the 2000 U.S. election represented a turning point where political marketing research seems to take center stage. The print and broadcast media employed polls and other forms of research at levels far beyond anything ever seen before. At times, it appeared as if almost as much attention was being given to polls as was being given to the political candidates and the issues. This was clearly a new and important posturing of the role of political marketing research. With this as a backdrop, the current article compares polls and other forms of political research-focusing on what went wrong and what was right in terms of the use of polls, focus groups and Internet research during the 2000 U.S. election. The article ends with the presentation of some exploratory research that examines insights about respondents' opinions regarding the impact of political polls.     

It's a Man's World?

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of gender in Internet campaigning. Empirically, the research is expanded beyond the United States by exploring candidate Web campaigning in the 2003 Finnish parliamentary elections. The results of the empirical analysis show that female candidates put up Web sites in a higher degree than their male counterparts. However, gender itself is not a significant factor for being online. Moreover, utilizing a matched-pairs design, the analysis suggests that male and female candidates take advantage of the new communication technology in a similar way and that female candidates do not build a distinct feminine candidate profile online.     

The 2001 British Election Study Internet Poll

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on the findings of the Internet component of the 2001 BES and compares them with those of the other BES pre-election surveys. Part 1 outlines the rationale that underpins the introduction of Internet polling as a supplement to more traditional methods of assessing mass public opinion. Part 2 describes the marginal distributions on the key dependent variable-the projected vote shares of the main political parties-of the three pre-election polls that were conducted using BES questionnaires. Intriguingly, the (unweighted) Internet-based poll provided a better guess of the actual vote shares in the subsequent election than either of the two conventional polls. Part 3 provides a more detailed comparison of the profiles of the face-to-face and Internet-based polls. It shows how the Internet poll, compared with the face-to-face poll, was skewed demographically towards the professional classes and politically towards the Conservative Party. Part 4 explores the extent to which the use of the Internet poll might result in spurious causal inferences being drawn about the sources of voting preferences in the 2001 UK election. A simple, direct-effects causal model is estimated using both the face-to-face probability sample data and the Internet survey data. The results suggest that, although the raw probability and Internet samples differ significantly, the relationships among the key variables do not differ significantly across the two samples. We conclude that Internet polling has an important part to play in gauging and analysing public opinion in future UK elections.     

Steven Chaffee and the Future of Political Communication Research

This article discusses four basic characteristics of Steven Chaffee's research: going beyond the "common research wisdom," careful explication of concepts, avoiding unsubstantiated charges against the media, and investigation of the social aspects of communication. The evolution of political socialization research is used as an example of how these characteristics have strengthened Chaffee's contribution to that area and to the larger field of political communication. It is argued that the future of this field would benefit from emulation of these characteristics. Continuing problems of political communication research are noted, and various emerging problems are discussed.     

Digital Network Repertoires and Organizational Hybridity

This article summarizes a study of 37 televised debates on political issues in Denmark, conducted live before representative audiences, with polls on the issues before and after each debate. These debates are of interest to research because they were authentic, and they supply data indicating persuasive effects. Various rhetorical features were observed and related to debaters success in attracting votes. In a qualitative interpretation of the observations, we suggest that debates such as these are likely to be won by debaters whose argumentation is fair and thoughtful. Audiences may respond differently depending on whether they are voters or merely viewers. The debate format may enhance such a response, for the benefit of the democratic process.     

Determinants of Online Reporting of Accounting Information by Spanish Local Government Authorities

This paper examines the features of Spanish local governments that influence the degree of their voluntary reporting of financial information on the Internet. Following an agency theory approach, we propose five hypotheses regarding the relationship between voluntary financial disclosure and the size, leverage, capital investment, political competition and press visibility of a local authority. The empirical application of these hypotheses shows that size, capital investment and political competition are positively associated with the degree of online reporting. We also found a negative and significant relationship between press visibility and voluntary financial disclosure.     

Fleetingness and media-ted existence. From Kierkegaard on the newspaper to Broderick on the Internet

Abstract

Increasingly, the modern world is ‘on speed’. Technology has, since the invention of the Gutenberg press, facilitated the ever more rapid, more widespread dispersal of information. The latest in the line of the mass information media, which runs from the book and newspaper through radio and television, is the Internet, a medium for which speed is measured in milliseconds, and for which the phrase ‘virtual reality’, or, more compact, ‘virtuality’, has thus been coined. Speed, however, relates not only to the dissemination of information, but also to its endurance: the quicker the medium, the more fleeting the presence of, and the more transitory one's encounter with a message. This brevity of encounter seems to some extent to run, phenomenologically, along with the range of the particular mass medium: the wider its reach, the quicker too the departure of its contents. In this sense, bigger is faster – though not necessarily with greater meaning, truth or integrity. Invasiveness and validity are not necessary corollaries. The power of the mass media lies in scope, rather than in depth. The existential impact this has on humans living in a world increasingly dominated by such mass media, has not passed by unnoticed. Some of the analyses are highlighted in this contribution, with some continued implications for living authentically in a media-ted world indicated.     

Strategic integrated communication: An alternative perspective of integrated marketing communication?

Abstract

In spite of the increased emphasis being placed on integrated marketing communication (IMC), limited attempts have been made to critically analyse existing viewpoints, the evolution of the concept and its application. The research problem of this article is based on this limited mindset, which has arguably created a problem in understanding IMC as a process and in the integration of actions, which appear to be superficial in most cases. The main objective here is to contribute to these viewpoints by addressing the problem through an analysis of existing literature, to stimulate much-needed necessary debate on this phenomenon and advance IMC thinking, which is increasingly being challenged from the perspective of the emerging paradigm of strategic communication. This is done through a combined categorical, theoretical and integrated communicative perspective. The author highlights the need to approach IMC thinking from a strategic and corporate brand perspective, which could help engender dramatically changing expectations and demands across organisations, for a clear understanding of IMC practice and theory. Subsequently, taking an alternative re-orientated strategic perspective, based on all current approaches, is proposed into what is termed ‘strategic integrated communication’ (SIC). The focus in SIC is on the strategic intent of the organisation to enhance strategic, integrated communication and knowledge management of information through creative media strategies and environmental scanning. All of this should be based on trust, loyalty, integrity and credibility, to maintain valuable long-term stakeholder relationships.     

互联网金融对传统金融模式影响研究

随着互联网信息技术和移动通讯业务的飞快进步,互联网金融模式在中国兴起并迅速发展。互联网金融是由电子商务企业提供的网络支付结算、网络融资、网络保险、网络理财等金融服务。与传统金融服务相比,互联网金融在产品设计、服务模式和参与主体三方面实现了创新。互联网金融将改变传统金融机构经营方式、竞争理念,进而重塑传统金融生态模式。本文探讨了互联网金融模式给传统金融模式带来的种种机遇及挑战,并提出互联网金融的发展趋势及其建议。