Getting to know the knowledge economy: ICTs,networks and governance

Do we live in a new information-based networked economy? This is the underlying issue raised in this article. Confronting the claims made that such an economy is in the making provides the opportunity to discuss some ideas about the reconfiguration of knowledge that the interaction of ICTs with networks is providing. The extent and importance of ICTs is analysed and their potential impact on the evolution of economic activity investigated. The question of how to ‘govern’ these interactions is also broached. Perhaps somewhat paradoxically, a key argument made is that the advent of ICTs is pressing networks into a deeper engagement with tacit knowledge and the reappraisal of the virtues of craft production.     

Forming Political Culture and Marketing Strategies in a Central-European Setting

ABSTRACT

Having analyzed the different strategies used in the 1998 and 2002 parliamentary election campaigns with reference to the 1990 and 1994 campaigns, we can conclude that the Hungarian election conventions and culture are still in a state of experimentation and exploration. In contrast with American election traditions, in Hungary, not the individual (with the exception of the Alliance of Young Democrats), but the party image is what counts, though, in this respect, considerable changes could be observed during the last few years. The Hungarian political palette is much too fragmented, and this sets a barrier to the necessary desire for creating a suitable forum for the debate of the party leaders and for the declaration of party politics. At present, the party programme reaches the citizens just in implicit, hidden, often symbolic forms of messages.

While the symbols of the left-wing parties were sketchy, unskillful, too rational, and not giving much space for emotional influence, the right-wing parties gave too large of a dose of different symbols, which were emotional rather than rational. This lack of balance made the campaigns superficial, irrational, sometimes misleading, and abnormal. This feeling of abnormality was strengthened by the fact that the overdose on the part of the right wing was not limited to the campaign period, but the emotional shocking started much earlier. The state of excitement, which was spread in time, actually started in the spring of 1998, and even if there were fluctuations, the general mood of the last four years was characterised by the dug-out hatchet. The political opinion of the Orbán party was clearly expressed by their metaphors. The message of the sentences like 'it is more than change of government, less than change of regime,' 'attacking on the whole field,' 'we change the telephone directories,' etc., was unambiguous: combative four years are coming. During their campaign, 'setting up a record' was realized between the two rounds after the failure in the first round and was still going on showing the election failure, which came about in democratic circumstances (Galló Béla, 2002, 93).

One could hardly judge the effectiveness of agenda building, though some of the crucial social questions appeared as cue words and sentences in the mediated messages of parties (for example, family, health care, education, joining the European Union). Hungarian campaigning, compared to the American presidential election campaign, is colorless and rife with technical and rhetorical errors, and it is a competition without any coherence where the citizen is very often just a means of, but not the goal in, the struggle of the parties.     

Source Strategies and Media Audiences

ABSTRACT

This article argues for a particular approach to the relationship between the production and reception of mass media, using as a key the theory of targeting and its application in elements of the political marketing mix: media relations and news management. In particular, two case studies show that in this context very fine-tuned targeting is normal and that the details of conjuncture are crucial. The implications of this form of targeting for the understanding of media audiences are spelt out through a critique of certain approaches to the audience: audience measurement, agenda-setting and framing theory, ‘active audience’ theories, and targeting as practised in media buying and programming. On the basis of these case studies and critiques, it suggests that this category of targeted audiences has characteristics whose relevance to analysis of the production/reception relationship has gone unrecognised, and that to this extent the theory of this relationship needs to be re-cast.     

战后台湾地方新闻报道的实践历程

战后60年来,台湾地方新闻报道的整体发展历程,乃是台湾特有的历史与政治背景、西方新闻与大众传播论述的引进,以及新传播科技的变革等因素相互激荡的结果。通过“酝酿期”、“发展期”、“衰退期”、“转型期”等四个阶段的划分,本文展现出台湾新闻报导发展历程中,地方新闻报导概念的变迁形貌。进一步,本文以台湾地方新闻报道的实践经验为基础,融合当代社交媒体时代的媒体生态,提出“贴近本土话题,呈现多元意见,创造公共意识”三项功能,作为中国大陆落实地方新闻报道理念的创新路径。     

人同人如何相异化--遵循马克思的思想脉络

因为人对自身的任何关系都通过人对他人的关系得到实现和表现,所以劳动异化能够过渡到人同人相异化、交往异化和社会联系异化。《手稿》异化劳动的前三个规定与第四个规定——“人同人相异化”,与《穆勒评注》中的交往异化和社会联系异化,都遵从同一个异化逻辑。异化的主体既可以是“孤立人”,也可以是两人或多人关系及其承载物。异化劳动和私有财产是阐释交往异化、社会联系异化的根源性概念。“社会联系异化”比“交往异化”能更准确地概括《穆勒评注》的主题。     

Newspaper Coverage of Three Presidential Campaigns in Chile: Personalisation and Political Strategies

We investigate the evolution of political campaign coverage through a content analysis of the topics highlighted in newspapers' agendas during three presidential elections in Chile. Results show an expected increase in the space allocated to the politicians' private lives (privatisation) by 2009, but no change in the attention given to individual politicians' political traits (political competence). Coverage of candidates' campaign strategies had increased markedly in media agendas by 1999, and by 2009 in politicians' agendas. These changes are consistent with some of the recent transformations of political communication in Western democracies, within the framework of the so‐called ‘mediatisation’ of politics.     

Digital Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities in China Under COVID-19: How Far Has China Come?

This article reviews social regulatory and redistributive policies in China that aim at fostering digital inclusion of persons with disabilities. We examine the emerging Chinese policies and how China has responded to the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on digital inclusion in terms of redistribution, market regulation, involvement of persons with disabilities and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs), and awareness-raising campaigns. The policy review demonstrates that the Chinese policy framework contains a few redistributive initiatives, for example, cash transfer programs, and free distribution of information and communications technology (ICT). These have the potential to increase the uptake of ICT among persons with disabilities. The Chinese policy framework also includes provisions to ensure consultation with individual persons with disabilities and DPOs in the deliberation and implementation of ICT accessibility policies. While China has initiated awareness-raising campaigns among market actors about the importance of digital inclusion, so far, the Chinese government has adopted little legal regulation of the market to foster accessibility to ICT. The article thus argues that some of the limitations may be due to the way state–market relations have developed since the economy opened up in 1978. Apart from the growing benefits of several cash transfer programs, we have not seen major changes or adjustments to the current policy framework during the efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on digital inclusion.     

Gender and vote revelation strategy in the United States Congress

Legislators approach each election as if they might lose. Electoral insecurity coupled with gender stereotypes held by voters and lawmakers alike may lead female legislators to communicate more voting decisions to voters as a signal of their policy-driven efforts. Using an original data-set of over 40,000 official e-newsletters and Real Simple Syndication feeds sent by members of Congress, I show that women reveal more roll call votes to constituents than their male counterparts. Significant differences exist between male and female incumbents in the frequency of vote revelation despite the fact that male and female legislators use these communication techniques to reach constituents at the same rates and call attention to similar bills. These differences persist after accounting for the effects of party, seniority, district fit, and other potential confounds. Women highlight their ability to fulfill the roles expected of lawmakers by explicitly signaling involvement in lawmaking activities more frequently than men. In a second test, I analyze the types of bills legislators reveal votes on and find no differences between men and women.     

Chapter I: Children and Youth Grow and Develop in Group Care

No abstract available for this article.     

基于沟通视角对高校工会建设的思考

工会作为高校不可或缺的重要组织机构,是校党委联系广大教职工的桥梁和纽带。工会通过会议沟通完善教代会制度,网络沟通搭建工会交流平台,面对面沟通提升工会干部工作能力,以工会沟通推动高校的组织管理沟通,促进高校事业健康、快速、有序地发展。