Russian data retention requirements: Obligation to store the content of communications

This paper presents an analysis of Russian data retention regulations. The most controversial point of the Russian data retention requirements is an obligation to keep the content of communications that is untypical for legislation of European and other countries. These regulations that oblige telecom operators and Internet communication services to store the content of communications should come into force on July 1, 2018.The article describes in detail the main components of the data retention mechanism: the triggers for its application, its scope, exemptions and barriers to its enforcement. Attention is paid to specific principles for implementation of content retention requirements based on the concepts of proportionality, reasonableness and effectiveness.Particular consideration is given to the comparative aspects of the Russian data retention legislation and those applying in different countries (mainly EU member states). The article focuses on the differences between the Russian and EU approaches to the question of how to strike a balance between public security interests and privacy. While the EU model of data retention is developing in the context of profound disputes on human rights protection, the Russian model is mostly concentrated on security interests and addresses mainly economic, technological aspects of its implementation.The paper stresses that a range of factors (legal, economic and technological) needs to be taken into account for developing an optimal data retention system. Human rights guarantees play the key role in legitimization of such intrusive measures as data retention. Great attention should be paid to the procedures, precise definitions, specification of entitled authorities and the grounds for access to data, providing legal immunities and privileges, etc. Only this extensive range of legal guarantees can balance intervention effect of state surveillance and justify data retention practices.     

Selection and Incentives in the Electoral Security‐Constituency Communication Relationship

The relative importance of selection and incentives is essential for understanding how elections structure politicians’ behavior. I investigate the relative magnitudes of these two effects in the context of US House members’ constituency communication. Consistent with previous research, I find that there is a negative cross‐sectional relationship between electoral security and the intensity of constituency communication. The negative relationship holds in a panel‐data setting where only within‐legislator variation in electoral security is used to identify the effect of electoral security on legislator behavior. Due to the likely presence of myopic voters, the impact of electoral security increases as the election approaches. Point estimates suggest that the total effect is almost entirely driven by incentives, and I am able to reject the hypothesis that the incentive effect is zero at conventional levels of statistical significance.     

非法吸收公众存款罪公开性特征的具体认定

非法吸收公众存款罪的公开性是该罪认定上的难点,也是理论研究的薄弱环节,其中的相关问题应得到进一步明确。首先,公开性的本质是宣传对象的不特定性,即针对不特定多数的人进行宣传。其次,公开性与社会性存在交集和重叠,同时也各具独立价值。第三,在口头传播的性质认定上,应区分是否为集资人授意及集资人对集资信息的扩散持何种心态。第四,公开性不以虚假宣传为必要。     

简析民进党“大选”中的政治传播策略

2004年“大选”,民进党阵营针对当时的选民状况和媒介资源,精心构筑了“多层＋突发事件”的政治传播策略,以“多层”的传播一点点地收割选票,最后以“突发事件”完成致命一击,这当中民进党对人际传播的运用尤为出色。2008年“大选”,民进党仍沿用了该策略中的一些内容,然而国民党已经习得经验,有所防范,马英九也发展出“Long Stay”这种直销式人际传播来破解民进党的攻击,而民众对民进党过度使用负面选举术的反感加大,马萧最终赢得了“大选”。     

Mandela and excellent African leadership: Theory and lessons for practice from an appreciative thematic analysis

Nelson Mandela is highly regarded as an example of excellent leadership. Yet little has been done in communication studies to describe his leadership communication. Significantly, little has been done to locate and to theorise about his leadership style in relation to the African moral philosophy of ubuntu. the article presents an appreciative thematic analysis of how Mandela’s leadership communication practices were eulogised in tributes written in his memory in selected South African newspapers. An innovative method of appreciative thematic enquiry is used to arrive at three key themes of praise for the leadership of Mandela. Lessons for leadership are drawn out and highlighted.     

Theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour: web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches

Various theories, theoretical viewpoints and models on consumer behaviour stipulate consumers’ offline and online behaviour when purchasing a product or using a service. This article deviates from the purchasing perspective and instead proposes an information and web-based communication message ‘seeking and consumption¹ perspective. This new perspective is theoretically grounded in two new approaches to online consumer behaviour: the web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches; as well as the integration of various theoretical perspectives, approaches, theories and models that address fragments of offline and online consumer behaviour. The research problem is to address the existing limited and fragmented approaches, because existing purchasing perspectives arguably do not provide adequate theoretical criteria to explain online consumer behaviour during interactive information-seeking and consumption activities. Hence, the main aim of this article is to propose new theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour to address these shortcomings.     

Media–state relations in Burundi: Overview of a post-traumatic media ecology

Through an analysis of the relations between the state and the media in Burundi, this article aims to problematise these actors’ interactions within a context characterised by an asymmetry of power in favour of political authorities and some leeway enjoyed by the media. Through a review of a corpus constituted of scientific literature, reports documenting the situation of press freedom in the country, and newspaper articles, the present article shows that the legal framework governing media activity is rather protective of press freedom, despite some recent setbacks. Under this protective media context, the state uses a variety of devious means to strengthen its grip on the media sector and on journalists. The media, for their part, are obliged to manoeuvre in a post-traumatic context where issues of security have a strong public legitimacy. The article shows that in order to understand relations between the Burundian state and the media, it is necessary to place them in an asymmetrical power context where both face constraints and enjoy spaces of tactical intervention.     

Brazil: communicational and political dimensions in the world of crime

This article discusses the political positioning of the crime group Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) during the attacks on São Paulo in 2006 and on the continuous recruitment of new generations in crime. A situational map of programmatic violence in Brazil was built from 30 apology for crime videos, submitted to Situational Analysis. The attacks stand in the map as a phenomenon of political communication of the world of crime in the public sphere, showing continuities between the 2006 terrorist format and a situation suggestive of the radicalisation of new generations based on hate, adherence to the political/armed wing of the commands, and cognitive-affective shielding of young crime soldiers.     

让评论飞——浅析弹幕视频的传播新特点

"为了满足受众对信息交流的需求,网络视频传播的功能也越来越丰富,近年来一种新型的视频交流方式——弹幕也开始迈上主流社交平台。弹幕视频具有信息反馈的即时性与瞬时性、信息表达的多样性和内容的碎片化的特征,其对传统的传播模式带来的创新,主要体现在反馈渠道和受众对内容的二次创作中,并且弹幕视频的传播也为受众构建了一个新的公共话语空间。弹幕作为新型的视频传播形式,一路高歌猛进,但在其发展过程中也频频爆出版权纠纷事件,如何提高受众的观感体验,是未来小众视频网站亟需解决的难题。     

A discourse–design approach to multimodality: the visual communication of neoliberal management discourse

This paper takes a discourse–design approach to communication, providing a framework as to how this should be done. Design here is how individuals and institutions realize their interests in the world. We show how it is fruitful to link design more closely to the way discourse has been used in critical studies which draws attention to the motivated use of design, for thinking about design in terms of socio-political context. Due to their affordances, semiotic modes such as photography, graphics, layout, colour, numbers and writing will be deployed and co-articulated. The aim, using a discourse–design approach, is to show how we can best identify the very different affordances of such modes and how they rely on the principled design of a discourse. We illustrate this using examples from management documents at a university which draw on these different affordances in different ways to communicate the same discourse. Through this analysis we see how a neoliberal discourse based on a general design principle of coordination enters everyday practices and become very difficult to challenge.