The Self-Administered Interview: a means of improving children's eyewitness performance?

Abstract

In order to obtain the most informative and correct statements, witnesses should be heard as soon as possible after the incident. However, this is not always possible. This experimental study investigated whether completing a Self-Administered Interview form (SAI) immediately after a critical event could enhance children's witness performance at a later stage. Children (N = 194, age 11–12) reported their memory of an event in a structured SAI, an open SAI, or did not report their memory (control). Two weeks later, the children were interviewed about the event. Before the interview, half of the children were subjected to social influence from a co-witness. Children's free recall of the event was enhanced by the SAI. More precisely, children in the SAI-Structured condition reported more details about the event than children in the SAI-Open condition and the control condition, without a loss of accuracy. The SAI manipulation did not, however, reduce children's vulnerability to social influence. The results suggest that the use of a SAI might prove a simple and yet effective way of increasing the quality of statements from child witnesses in some situations.     

Management Discretion and Political Interference in Municipal Enterprises. Evidence from Italian Utilities

The attention of scholars and policy-makers is shifting from full privatisation to alternative measures as a means to improve the efficiency of public services. This article focuses on three restructuring measures adopted by local governments: partial privatisation (without transfer of control rights), inter-municipal joint ventures, and the presence of outside directors on the Board. Divergent hypotheses on these measures have emerged from two economic theories, namely public choice and the agency perspective. An empirical analysis investigates the effects of restructuring processes on a sample of Italian municipal utilities. Partial privatisation has been shown to play a significant and positive role, while Board independence from management has a less significant influence. Multi-government utilities have been found to suffer from severe coordination costs, which are not outweighed by scale benefits. Our findings reveal that management discretion is a significant source of inefficiency in municipal enterprises.     

Strategies used by Health Scrutiny Committees to Influence Decision-makers

The scrutiny function, designed to enhance and provide a counterbalance to executive decision-making, is a key element in the modernisation of public service delivery in England. Early research expressed concerns about the effectiveness of scrutiny however, with lack of responsiveness by local decision-makers being suggested as one of the main difficulties. This paper applies a model of political influence strategies drawn from the business sector to analyse the strategies which health scrutiny committees in eight local authorities adopted in order to influence decision-makers. The relevance of the model to health scrutiny is assessed, and possible implications for enhancing health scrutiny in the future are discussed.     

Exploring the perceived influence of South African adolescents on product purchases by family communication type

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of family communication types on the perceived purchase influence of South African adolescents (13–18 years) across 34 product groups. The research builds on previous research in developed countries such as America and Israel, but represents only one of a few in a developing country such as South Africa that integrates family communication and consumer purchase behaviour theory. The article shows statistically significant differences in the perceived purchase influence of adolescents by family communication type for 13 of the 34 product groups investigated. From the inferential statistical analyses presented in the article, it is evident that the influence of adolescents in pluralistic families is far greater than in consensual, protective or laissez-faire families. This implies that adolescents’ influence in product purchases is likely to be greater as family communication becomes more open, and as unconstrained discussions on a wide range of topics with all family members are encouraged. This finding is particularly evident in the purchase of children's products (toys, clothing and footwear), family activities (take-away meals, snacks and outside entertainment), children's educational products/services (courses and schools), watches and personal jewellery, cosmetics, cell phones, reading matter, and gymnasiums, health, sport and social clubs. The outcome of the research indicates that the influence of South African adolescents has broadened and is no longer only relevant to children's products. This strengthening influence of children on product choices of South African families has clear implications for marketers who need to target this market segment. Knowledge of family communication patterns and how these impact on children's influence in actual product purchases presents a valuable opportunity for marketers to develop effective future marketing segmentation and communication strategies.     

Patterns of Internet and Traditional News Media Use in a Networked Community

Abstract

International communication has come increasingly under the impact of at least three major technological, socio‐economic, and political forces: expanded channels of communication provided by technological developments, democratizing pressures that have brought new voices to be heard in international media and forums, and new but as yet weak mechanisms for the conduct of meaningful dialogue and negotiations. Power politics has been thus increasingly supplemented or supplanted by image politics, questioning traditional boundaries between domestic and international politics, and creating image fixations that have proved occasionally inimical to accommodation of real interests. The symbolic uses of images, on the other hand, have served at least three kinds of cognitive interests: national solidarity, and domestic instrumental and global community. The Iranian hostage crisis, among a number of other contemporary examples, illustrates how these interests were served, symbolically and actually, in domestic as well as international politics. Through a case study of the hostage crisis, me paper concludes with some warnings on the potentials as well as menaces of image politics.     

Issue-Related Learning in a Gubernatorial Campaign: A Panel Study

This study is based on data from a three-wave telephone panel survey conducted during the 1998 governor's race in Florida. The evidence suggests that a considerable amount of issue-related learning (having to do with candidate policy stands and group endorsements) took place over the course of the general election campaign, though substantial differences were observed from one issue area to the next. Further analysis indicates that learning was especially likely to occur among voters (a) who were more knowledgeable about political affairs to start with (confirming that the so-called “knowledge gap” may be exacerbated during campaigns), (b) who scored high on a measure of advertising negativity (for one candidate but not the other), and (c) who early in the campaign, read their local newspaper less frequently. Consistent with prior research, TV news appears to have done little or nothing to boost issue-based learning among the electorate.     

Television,Power, and the Public in Russia,by Ellen Mickiewicz

In the fall of 1994 a nonpartisan and nonprofit voter information organization Project Vote Smart-designed and implemented an education project for "atrisk" voters in northern California. The Project Vote Smart (PVS) effort was a systematic attempt to provide typically nonvoting groups both information and incentive to participate in the November general election. The results presented here suggest that the receipt of PVS materials did not directly increase the likelihood of voting or election interest. However, the receipt of PVS materials did make voters feel better about the resources they had to bring to bear on electoral choices.     

Attack and Response in Political Campaigns: An Experimental Study in Two Parts

Although there is evidence that negative advertising “works” at least some of the time, little is known about how candidates should respond when they are attacked. In this study, we proceed from the assumption that hard-hitting attacks on relevant topics (those that speak to how someone will perform in office), if well-crafted and credible, are most likely to have the desired outcome and, hence, are the ones that targeted candidates can least afford to ignore. We use data from two experiments, first, to confirm this assumption and, second, to assess the relative effectiveness of five response types: counterattacks, denials, counterimaging, justifications, and charges of mudslinging. Our results suggest that while some responses work better than others, there are a variety of ways, both positive and negative, to “reframe” a campaign attack so as to diminish its potential impact on voters.     

What really matters is which camp goes dirty: Differential effects of negative campaigning on turnout during Swiss federal ballots

Using individual data on Swiss federal ballots (VOX data) and an original dataset on the evolution and content of political campaigns, this article elucidates how negative campaigning influences individual turnout during Swiss federal ballots. It hypothesises that the effect of negativism on turnout depends on ‘which camp goes dirty’ and, specifically, on the direction of the political campaign (‘status quo’ versus ‘policy change’ campaigns). A series of multilevel models provide strong support for the hypotheses, by showing that high negativism in ‘status quo campaigns’ decreases individual turnout, whereas high negativism for ‘policy change campaigns’ increases it. It is argued here that this could depend on the emotional responses triggered by negativism in political campaigns.     

削弱高校反腐倡廉制度绩效的因素及对策

在制度反腐的时代背景下,高校反腐倡廉建设在取得成绩的同时,仍然存在反腐倡廉制度绩效偏低的情况,直接体现为高校腐败形势的严峻性和反腐败任务的艰巨性,因此提高反腐倡廉制度绩效具有十分重要的现实意义。从制度绩效的视角来看,反腐倡廉制度绩效偏低的影响因素主要是反腐倡廉制度对高校权力制约的不足与外部环境的不良诱惑共同作用降低了制度执行力,进而导致制度功能丧失或低效。因此,要提升反腐倡廉制度绩效需要以体系建设为重点建立健全反腐倡廉的各项制度,以权力制约为核心增强反腐倡廉制度的执行力,以廉洁文化为主题营造反腐倡廉制度运行的良好环境。