bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Depressive Symptoms, Sex and Perceptions of Intimate Relationships
Authors: Thompson Janice M. , Whiffen Valerie E. , Blain Michelle D.
Published: March 2007

Empirical evidence indicates that depression in one partner is negatively associated with marital variables, and suggests that the marital relationship may be critical to the course and outcome of the depressive episode. Two exploratory studies of intimate relationships addressed: (a) gender differences in dysphoric individuals' perceptions of themselves and their intimate partners, and (b) whether depressive symptomatology had differential effects on non-dysphoric partners depending on the gender of the dysphoric partner. Study 1 examined 145 female and 99 male university students. No evidence was found for sex differences in the perceptions of dysphoric students. Dysphoric students perceived both themselves and their partners as behaving more coldly, and perceived their relationships to be less complementary, than did non-dysphoric students. Study 2 examined 136 cohabiting heterosexual couples. No striking sex differences were found in the perceptions of dysphoric partners, although husband-dysphoric and wife-dysphoric couples showed subtle differences. The gender of the dysphoric person was also associated differentially with depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction in the partner. Implications for therapy with depressed couples and for future research are discussed.
Women Terminating Abusive Dating Relationships: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Rosen Karen H. , Stith Sandra M.
Published: March 2007

Dating violence, a serious social problem, has commanded much attention during the last decade. This study was conducted to enhance our understanding of complex relationship and individual processes that occur in dating relationships where abuse becomes a pattern. The experiences of 11 young women who left their abusive dating relationships were analyzed using the tenets of grounded theory in a multiple-case qualitative research design. Processes of leaving included: seeds of doubt, turning points, reappraisals, objective reflections, self-reclaiming actions, last straw events and paradigmatic shifts.
`I do' Again: The Relational Dialectics of Renewing Marriage Vows
Authors: Braithwaite Dawn O. , Baxter Leslie A.
Published: March 2007

This study provides descriptive insight into the dialectical themes of one public relationship ritual in modern US society, the renewal of marital vows between spouses. Interpretive analyses of in-depth interview data revealed that this ritual allows spouses to manage three underlying dialectical contra- dictions: private-public, stability-change and conventionality-uniqueness.
Time Spent Together and Relationship Quality: Long-Distance Relationships as a Test Case
Authors: Guldner Gregory T. , Swensen Clifford H.
Published: March 2007

Although many studies have shown associations between the amount of time spent together and relationship satisfaction, none has established the causal direction of the association. While time spent together may cause increased satisfaction, it is equally likely that greater satisfaction causes couples to spend more time together. Recent research that experimentally increased the amount of time couples spent together found no increase in relationship satisfaction. The present study looks at relationships that spend less time together—long-distance relationships (LDRs)—and examines their relationship quality compared to geographically proximal relationships (PRs). A multivariate analysis of variance compared self-reported levels of relationship satisfaction, intimacy, dyadic trust and the degree of relationship progress, between 194 individuals in premarital LDRs and 190 premarital PRs. The analysis found no significant differences. This suggests that the amount of time a couple spends together does not itself play a central role in relationship maintenance.
Attachment Theory and Partner Choice: Preference and Actuality
Authors: Latty-Mann Holly , Davis Keith E.
Published: March 2007

This work uses samples of 285 college students and their mothers to offer validity to a fourth attachment style and to test a new hypothesis: that partners would be preferred as a function of their potential for providing a secure attachment bond. Profiles exemplifying four attachment styles of potential partners were rated by the participants for degree of preference and degree of similarity to current partners. Consistent with the attachment-security hypothesis, Secure partners were preferred across all attachment styles in both samples, followed by Preoccupied, Avoidant, and finally Ambivalent partners. Current partners were rated as more secure than insecure, but the more secure the rater, the more secure they rated their partners. We propose an alternative organizing principle for the study of partner preference, using attachment theory rather than either of the traditional explanatory mechanisms, similarity or complementarity.
Infant Attachment and Mother-Child Problem-Solving: A Replication
Authors: Fagot Beverly I. , Gauvain Mary , Kavanagh Kate
Published: March 2007

Associations between children's attachment classification at 18 months and behavior in a mother-child problem-solving task at 30 months were examined. The study partially replicated previous findings of Matas et al. and Frankel & Bates in terms of differences in maternal behaviors with children whose attachment classifications had differed 12 months earlier. Just as child behaviors did not show high levels of replication across the Matas et al. and Frankel & Bates studies, so child behaviors in this study did not replicate either study exactly.
Correlates of Self-Reported Adult Attachment Styles in a Dutch Sample of Married Men and Women
Authors: Gerlsma Coby , Buunk Bram P. , Mutsaers Wim C.M.
Published: March 2007

The relationships between attachment style, recollections of the family of origin, working model of self and others and current relational satisfaction were examined in a Dutch sample of married subjects from the general community. Measures were adapted from those developed by Hazan & Shaver (1987). Results generally corroborated the Hazan & Shaver (1987) analyses: subjects endorsing the avoidant and anxious ambivalent styles reported more adverse childhood experiences, i.e. less affectionate and more rejecting parents and more experiences related with separations, as well as a more fearful model of self and others. For men and women the same-sex parent appeared to be more important than the other-sex parent. Moreover, only among men and not among women was attachment style related to current relational satisfaction. All effects were obtained while controlling for age and social desirability, thus enhancing the validity and generalizability of the findings.
Nonverbal Involvement Across Interactions with Same-Sex Friends, Opposite-Sex Friends and Romantic Partners: Consistency or Change?
Authors: Guerrero Laura K.
Published: March 2007

The degree of consistency and change in communication across different dyadic partners is an important issue in theory on interpersonal interaction. Factors such as communicator sex and predispositions toward approach/avoidance are likely to contribute to consistency, whereas factors such as target sex, relationship type, intimacy and impression management are likely to contribute to change. Using a partial round-robin design, this study investigates how individuals' involvement behavior changes across interactions with same-sex friends, opposite-sex friends, and romantic partners. Results showed that close proximity, touch, gaze, general interest, less fluency, longer response latencies, and more silence distinguished romantic relationships from friendships. Frequent nodding and vocal interest were more prevalent in friendships than romantic relationships. Postural congruence occurred more in same-rather than opposite-sex dyads. Sex differences also emerged: females displayed more direct body orientation and gaze, whereas males engaged in more for-ward lean and postural congruence. Overall, results indicate that while there is considerable consistency across an individual's interactions with various relational partners, there are important differences due to relationship type.
Structural Relations among Attachment Working Models of Parents, General and Specific Support Expectations, and Personal Adjustment in Late Adolescence
Authors: Larose Simon , Boivin Michel
Published: March 2007

The present study evaluated a theoretical model proposing that generalized perceptions of social support and specific support expectations mediate the relations between attachment working models of parents and personal adjustment. Participants were 459 students who completed measures of attachment, social support, loneliness, and anxiety at the end of high school. Evaluation of the model by the EQS method indicated an acceptable level of fit, with the model explaining 51 percent of the variance of personal adjustment problems. General and specific expectations of social support were shown to be different constructs each mediating the relation between attachment and adjustment. These perceptions provided a unique contribution to explaining personal adjustment at the end of high school. The results are discussed in light of the relations between attachment, perceptions of social support, and social cognitive theories.
Coping Strategies as Moderators of the Relationship between Attachment and Marital Adjustment
Authors: Lussier Yvan , Sabourin Stephane , Turgeon Chantal
Published: March 2007

The present study examined the relationship between spouses' attachment styles, coping strategies, and marital satisfaction. The study included 263 couples who responded to an attachment questionnaire, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Secure attachment was positively related to task-focused coping whereas anxious/ambivalent attachment was related to emotion-focused coping. Avoidant attachment was related to avoidance coping strategies. Wives' anxious/ambivalent and secure attachments and task-oriented coping accounted for a significant portion of the variance associated with husbands' marital adjustment. Husbands' anxious/ambivalent attachment and emotion focused coping were significant predictors of their wives' marital adjustment. Finally, task-oriented coping weakened the negative relation between anxious/ambivalent or avoidant attachment and marital satisfaction whereas avoidance strategies strengthened the negative association between anxious/ambivalent attachment and marital adjustment.
Secondary Bystander Effects on Intimate Violence: When Norms of Restraint Reduce Deterrence
Authors: Fold Scott L. , Robinson Dawn T.
Published: March 2007

Research on bystander effects indicates that bystanders encourage individuals to behave in conformity with norms. In modern Western society, there are norms against stronger actors using violence against weaker actors. To the extent that the presence of a bystander reduces the likelihood that stronger actors use violence toward weaker actors, we suggest that weaker actors may become more likely to use violence toward stronger actors because of their reduced risks from retaliation. In the present study, subjects indicated their own likelihoods of using violence in hypothetical situations of boyfriend/girlfriend conflicts with and without bystanders. As theoretically predicted, the results showed that the presence of a bystander decreased the use of violence by males toward females, and increased the use of violence by females toward males. We suggest that a greater understanding of indirect effects on interpersonal relationships is essential for both social theory and policy.
Friends and Lovers
Authors: Berger Helen A. , Shaffer Leigh S. , Freeman-Witthoft Bonita , Freund Hugo A.
Published: March 2007

This article reports the results of two studies looking for evidence of social norms governing the behavior of college-age heterosexual men and women toward their friend's romantic partners. Respondents read scenarios describing a protagonist trying to start a relationship with a friend's romantic partner and were asked to rate their approval or disapproval of that behavior. The studies varied information about the sex of the protagonist, friend and romantic partner, and the relationship of the romantic partners. Controlling for respondents' race and social class, we found that for both men and women a social norm exists only when a third party was viewed as interfering with a couple's relationship, which was described as clearly known and shared by all parties. The lack of a norm when there was ambiguity about the level of commitment between romantic partners is interpreted as the result of conflict among three alternative ideologies of loving relationships.
The Use and Interpretation of Tie Signs in a Public Setting: Relationship and Sex Differences
Authors: Afifi Walid A. , Johnson Michelle L.
Published: March 2007

This investigation increases our understanding of the uses of nonverbal tie signs in cross-sex friendships and dating relationships, and addresses the role that these displays play in the experience of these two relationships. Specifically, we (i) observed the behavior of cross-sex friends and daters in college bars (study 1), (ii) asked individuals to assess the reasons why they used affection displays in college bars with either a friend of the opposite sex or a dating partner (study 2), and (iii) asked participants for their perceptions of why their dating partner or cross-sex friend uses affection displays with them when at a college bar (study 3). We examined the influence of sex and relationship type in each of these domains. The results significantly extend past research on tie signs and cross-sex friendships by incorporating observational data of tie signs with sender and receiver perceptions of the functions underlying these observed behaviors.
Lying to Get a Date: The Effect of Facial Physical Attractiveness on the Willingness to Deceive Prospective Dating Partners
Authors: Rowatt Wade C. , Cunningham Michael R. , Druen Perri B.
Published: March 2007

This research explored the extent to which people use deception to initiate a date with opposite-sex prospects who varied in facial physical attractiveness. Participants reviewed profiles of prospective dates varying in facial attractiveness, described their own personal characteristics to the prospective dates (study 1), and rated their willingness to lie to make themselves appear to be more desirable to each prospect (study 2). Both men and women deceptively altered their self-presented expressivity and love attitudes to more attractive prospects (study 1), and reported being more willing to lie about their personal appearance, personality traits, income, past relationship outcomes, career skills and intelligence to prospective dates who were higher in facial physical attractiveness, compared with prospective dates who were lower in facial physical attractiveness (study 2). No sex-differences in the willingness to use deceptive self-presentational tactics were found. A strong positive correlation was found between people’s willingness to lie about a specific personal dimension and the extent to which physically attractive individuals differed from other people on that dimension. Thus, it appears that people endeavor to lie to physically attractive people in ways that maximize their similarity with the attractive target.
Attachment Style Dimensions, Network Orientation and the Process of Seeking Help from College Teachers
Authors: Larose Simon , Bernier Annie , Soucy Nathalie , Duchesne Stéphane
Published: March 2007

In this study, a model was tested positing that attachment style dimensions affect the individual’s social support network orientation, which, in turn, influences the process of seeking help from teachers. Data from two independent samples of college students using global and dyadic interaction reports of the quality of their help-seeking behaviours were used to assess the model. Evaluation by the EQS method indicated acceptable levels of fit, with the models explaining 49 percent and 23 percent of the variance in help-seeking behaviours. The results are discussed in light of the relations between attachment and social support theories.
Turning Points in the Development of Blended Families
Authors: Baxter Leslie A. , Braithwaite Dawn O. , Nicholson John H.
Published: March 2007

A modified retrospective interview technique (RIT) was employed with members of 53 blended families to determine the types of turning points they reported experiencing and the developmental trajectories of their respective blended family’s first 4 years. Findings revealed 15 primary types of turning points, of which ‘Changes in Household Configuration’, ‘Conflict’, ‘Holidays/Special Events’, ‘Quality Time’ and ‘Family Crisis’ were the most frequent. A cluster analysis revealed five basic trajectories of development for the first 48 months of family development: Accelerated, Prolonged, Stagnating, Declining and High-amplitude Turbulent. The trajectories differed in the overall positive-to-negative valence ratio, the frequency of conflict related events, the average amplitude of change in feeling like a family, and the current reported level of feeling like a family.
Thinking/Feeling about Social and Personal Relationships
Authors: Planalp Sally , Fitness Julie
Published: March 2007

Traditionally it has been assumed that cognition and emotion are separate and competing forces, with cognition representing rationality and emotion representing irrationality. However, recent theoretical and empirical work has demonstrated the symbiotic nature of the relationship between these complementary ways of apprehending and understanding the world. In this review, we discuss the functionality and logic of emotions and their impact on perception, cognition, and memory in social and personal relationships. Theory and research on the nature and development of emotion knowledge structures and emotional intelligence in relationships is also discussed, along with a consideration of cross-cultural differences in people's understandings about the nature of, and relationship between, thinking and feeling. The article closes with a call for a more integrated understanding of and feeling for the dynamics of social and personal relationships.
Large Scale Innovation Reengineering Methodology in SMEs
Authors: McAdam Rodney
Published: March 2007

The aim of this article is to conduct an exploratory study into how SMEs apply Reengineering. In particular, the approach of SMEs to Reengineering definition and methodology are examined. Reengineering has developed from a background in large enterprises. Existing methodologies mainly assume a large organization setting with large-scale resources dedicated to bringing about the large-scale reengineering changes. The paucity of studies in SMEs is surprising given the current and anticipated future market challenges in the SME environment that increase pressure for organizational realignment and responsiveness and market agility. The research involved a literature review and an exploratory multiple case study analysis. In total eight case studies on SMEs, where reengineering had been applied, were analysed using an inductive research methodology, which analysed positivistic reengineering approaches and less structured, more phenomenologically based approaches, which emerged within the case analysis. The analysis indicates that the taxonomy and nomenclature of reengineering, as defined by large organization-based studies, has not translated into SMEs, who use much more general terminology.
Successional Issues within Asian Family Firms
Authors: Janjuha-Jivraj Shaheena , Woods Adrian
Published: March 2007

This article explores succession within Asian family firms by considering whether experiences of succession are influenced by ethnicity. To understand these factors and develop strategies to assist succession this article explores experiences of Kenyan Asian family businesses. While British Asian firms are facing succession for the first time, a large proportion of the Kenyan Asian business community has already experienced first generation succession and the survivors are now preparing for round two. By drawing on the experiences of the Kenyan cases this article argues the findings may be applied to their British counterparts. The key findings from this article identify mothers of the heirs as crucial buffers between the generations. Previous experiences of succession have caused devastating splits both for the business and the family resulting in considerable motivation to invest resources into long-term planning as illustrated by the unexpected emphasis on separation of ownership and management. Finally, while ethnicity is argued to have a significant impact on succession, the situation is compounded by vast attitudinal differences between the generations, potentially leading to a time bomb within family firms.
Companies Registration Office - the long road to public access
Authors: Fleming Edwin
Published: March 2007

Access to company information is essential in an industrial society. This article documents the long and ultimately successful campaign waged by Edwin Fleming and Dale Campbell-Savours MP to force the Companies Registration Office to fulfil its obligations by supplying company records by post at reasonable cost.
A Narrative Analysis of US Press Coverage of Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbs in Kosovo
Authors: Vincent Richard C.
Published: March 2007

This article is an exploratory analysis of the linguistic treatment of the Kosovo bombing and related events as reported in the major US media. It studies the national news reported by nine different news media during a one-week period, 22-28 April 1999. This was a period about midway through the NATO bombing activity in Kosovo.
The Future of Public Service Broadcasting: A Case Study for a `New' Communications Policy
Authors: Burgelman Jean-Claude
Published: March 2007

Confronted with the privatization of communications in particular and the deregulation of state-linked structures in general, many critical researchers have come to defend public service broadcasting (PSB), despite their previous criticism of both PSB and commercial broadcasting. This article examines the arguments in the debate over the future of PSB in Europe and argues that important developments in new media mean this debate is no longer simply two-sided. Taking account of these new media and drawing on the Belgian example, the author evaluates three possible scenarios for the future of PSB — immobility, free competition, or PSB organized as an audiovisual `holding' — and proposes an alternative Le Monde-like restructuring of PSB.
Patterns of Media Use in Europe: Identifying Country Clusters
Authors: McCain Thomas
Published: March 2007

The study sought understanding of the range of media environments within which current European television systems operate. The data included 20 media indicators and characteristics from 16 television systems in Western Europe originally gathered by the Group of European Audience Researchers (GEAR) in 1985. Indicators included TV reach, newspaper penetration, VCR penetration, daily radio listening, population size and the like. Three country clusters were identified utilizing Q factor analysis. Factor I was composed of Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Portugal — the least populated countries of Europe. Factor II clustered the large and dominant countries, including United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. Factor III clustered Dutch-speaking Belgium, French-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands. The differences between the country factors were analysed by examining the media indicators and population characteristics for each group.
Attribution of Responsibility: Sex-Based Bias in Press Reports on Crime
Authors: Weimann Gabriel , Fishman Gideon
Published: March 2007

The growing body of research on the subject of women and the media has only recently begun to consider the treatment of female criminality. The present study examines the `chivalry hypothesis' as related to media portrayals of female criminality. The data were obtained from a systematic content analysis of 724 press reports of crimes which appeared in Israel's leading dailies. The attribution-of-responsibility statements in these reports were classified by type of offence, offender's sex and other variables. A multivariate analysis, applying the log-linear procedure, reveals the effect of the interaction between the offender's sex and the type of crime on the tendency of the press to present the offender as a `pawn' or as an `origin' type criminal. In spite of the overall tendency to treat female criminality as a consequence of social or psychological factors (i.e. a `pawn'), the attribution of responsibility varies significantly across categories of crime, suggesting that sex-based bias in press reports of crime is highly dependent in the offence involved.
Polish Broadcasting Studies in Search of a Raison d'Etre
Authors: Jakubowicz Karol
Published: March 2007

Polish broadcasting studies languish in limbo. The power structure, having defined the goals of the broadcast media as serving the perpetuation of the social order and arranged their institutional and organizational structures accordingly, has no real need of research, especially as this might challenge the system. The same goes for broadcasters. The audience, living in a state of anomie, stress and fatigue, is guided in its viewing and listening patterns by a syndrome of `protective-escapist' and privatization motivations. The opposition uses its own print media to speak out on public issues. The general approach of Polish communication scholars is usually based on the Marxist schema, yet when empirical research is conducted, it follows a straight positivist methodology. Broadcasting research is scattered, sketchy and highly selective, avoiding politically sensitive areas. Now that glasnost is here, it is beginning to take up issues that were previously avoided, to challenge the present model of broadcasting and to propose alternatives to it. A lot of work is still needed, however, to remove the many blank spots in the knowledge and understanding of all aspects of Polish broadcasting.
From Audiences to Consumers: The Household and the Consumption of Communication and Information Technologies
Authors: Silverstone Roger
Published: March 2007

This article presents an account of the development of a research project into the household and the consumption of communication and information technologies. Previous research into the television audience has failed adequately to take into account the new communication environment of which television is but a part — an environment which is both technological and social. This paper offers a model for the analysis of the television audience which does take this new environment into account. Drawing on qualitative empirical work among family households, it offers a model of the media consumption process which takes the social, economic and technological aspects of the domestic sphere as central. In defining this domestic sphere as a moral economy, it suggests that the television audience has to be understood in terms of a set of practices, both routine and ritualized, which are firmly embedded in the various multiple dimensions of their domesticity.
The Unknown Audience: Typologies of Radio Listeners in Germany
Authors: Eichhorn Wolfgang , Keller Michael
Published: March 2007

The dramatic increase in the number of radio stations in Germany over the past few years and the coincidental growth of competition have confronted German radio researchers with new challenges concerning contents and methodology. Increased competition has demanded a more precise measurement of the audience's needs and wishes. At the same time the growing complexity must be matched by a corresponding multivariate approach to data analysis. This study compares two methods of identification and delimitation of target audiences. The traditional approach utilizes sociodemographic characteristics—age, sex and education—to attain such a typology. This study proposes an alternative: an explorative segmentation of the audience using cluster analysis. The cluster analysis produces four types of listeners who are compared with regard to their listening behaviour, their loyalty to two popular Bavarian radio stations and sociodemographic attributes. The typology produced by this explorative approach appears to be superior for a sharp delimitation of specific target audiences. A series of path analyses is conducted to determine how perception of the quality of various aspects of radio programme content influences the evaluation of radio stations, and how these patterns vary among different listener types. The analyses show that quite diverse motivational structures seem to determine how different listener groups arrive at their evaluation of radio stations.
From Media Policy Towards a National Communications Policy: Broadening the Scope
Authors: van Cuilenburg Jan , Slaa Paul
Published: March 2007

Due to all kinds of technological and economic developments the traditional media sector and the telecommunications sector are becoming increasingly related. On a technical level the broadcasting infrastructure is gradually being integrated with the telecommunications infrastructure, which makes it possible for public telecommunications operators to enter the broadcasting domain. The introduction of CATV has in itself led to broadcasting orientating towards narrowcasting for highly segmented audiences (pay-TV). Furthermore, new technologies enable broadcasting organizations to provide commercial services to business users (data casting, business television). These developments have important implications for media policy. It is no longer possible to sustain the regulatory and policy separation between media and telecommunications. Government media policies can no longer be exclusively guided by cultural values, and telecommunications policy should also pursue objectives outside the technological and economic field. In this article an integration of media and telecommunications policy is called for (policy convergence), leading to one `national communications policy'.
News- Values and Fiction- Values: News as Serial Device and Criteria of `Fictionworthiness' in Italian Television Fiction
Authors: Buonanno Milly
Published: March 2007

There has been a growing tendency over recent years for Italian television fiction to draw its stories from topical issues and news events. This tendency has been influenced, if not determined, by a wide range of interrelated factors: the `reality syndrome'; an increasing interest in news; growing intertextuality and intermediality in media discourses; the need for the `return of the already known'. Based on a long-term research project, this article provides considerable evidence of this phenomenon, and also examines some peculiar features and traditions in Italian cinematic and television production. The article also explores and suggests a working hypothesis relating to the possibility of identifying the equivalent of journalistic news-values: that is to say, a corpus of criteria of selection and relevance, which preside over the construction of fiction stories (they could be called `fiction-values'). The provisional collection of fiction-values, apparently now at work in Italian television fiction, seems to demonstrate further that, in the present climate of `news-vogue', the fiction-worthy tend to coincide and interweave with the newsworthy.
Television, Geography and `Mobile Privatization'
Authors: Moores Shaun
Published: March 2007

This article calls for the spatial and temporal dimensions of communication to be put firmly at the centre of television theory and research in future years. It sets an agenda for the development of a distinctive human geography of TV cultures — taking Raymond Williams's concept of `mobile privatization' as its main point of departure, but also drawing on more recent work in media studies and contemporary social analysis.
Estimating the Success of Political Communication Strategies: The Case of Political Poster Impact in a Belgian Election
Authors: Van den Bulck Jan
Published: March 2007

This article discusses some of the problems of measuring political advertising effectiveness. It is argued that research about effects of political communication seems to lead to conclusions which are less easily contested if measurements are limited to cognitive effects, for which the term `impact' is used. Political campaign posters are used as a research tool to measure the impact of campaigning strategies. Aided and unaided recall techniques are used to test different aspects of poster impact. It is argued that unaided recall provides a measure for the recollection of posters, while aided recall offers a test of the success of parties' positioning efforts. The article concludes with a discussion of some of the potential effects the impact of posters may have.
Mass Media Between State Monopoly and Individual Freedom: Media Restructuring and Restriction in Former Yugoslavia
Authors: Radojković Miroljub
Published: March 2007

Following the break-up of the former federal state of Yugoslavia, the already decentralized media system was readily converted into several self-contained units in the new republics. Partly, but not only, because of the political and economic crises, these new media systems fell almost totally into the hands of new governments and political elites and have been used for propaganda and control. In practice, there is no more freedom than in the days of one-party dominance and some benefits of the wider communication space and journalistic rights and autonomy have been lost. The prospect for diverse and open media in the new post-Communist orders is poor and uncertain.
Whither Greek Telecommunications Policy?: Politics, The State and Telecommunications Policy in Greece
Authors: Michalis Maria C.
Published: March 2007

To date, Greece has faced considerable difficulties in coming up to the demands of the new telecommunications era of liberalization and less governmental interference. This article examines the historical evolution of the policy and argues that it is the political, economic and social characteristics of Greece that affect decisively all attempts to adapt in the radically transformed telecommunications environment. As a result, both the EU's telecommunications policy and the integration process itself are redefined and undermined. However, the formulation of a clear and long-term telecommunications policy is vital not only for the telecommunications sector as such but also for the overall economic and social development of the country.
Let Me Tell Us Who I Am
Authors: Dickerson Paul
Published: March 2007

Previous reception analytic research has tended to either neglect identity construction or portray it as some form of distortion which obscures the real opinions and behaviours of the participants. The current study draws upon the work of both Bakhtin and Billig to suggest that identity construction is a crucial aspect of interview discourse and that participants define self in the midst of meeting interactional requirements. Thirteen interviews were conducted with a total of 19 participants, each of whom watched a video segment of the Nine O' Clock News. Analysis of the interviews demonstrates that claims about the consumption of politics on television, awareness of bias and impressionability were found to vary within individual participants according to the immediate dialogic context. Rather than being understood as obfuscating `real' activity, identity construction within the current research has been thought of as demonstrating an important social practice in which participants accomplish identity in the act of fulfilling the immediate, linguistically created, interactive requirements.
Journalism as an Anglo-American Invention
Authors: Chalaby Jean K.
Published: March 2007

This article argues that journalism is an Anglo-American invention. The argument is developed comparing the evolution of French and Anglo-American journalism between the 1830s and the 1920s. It is claimed that American and British journalists invented the modern conception of news, that Anglo-American newspapers contained more news and information than any contemporary French paper and that they had much better organized news-gathering services. Proper journalistic discursive practices, such as reporting and interviewing, were also invented and developed by American journalists. French journalists, like journalists in many other countries, progressively imported and adapted the methods of Anglo-American journalism. This article also attempts to spell out the cultural, political, economic, linguistic and international factors which favoured the emergence of journalism in England and the United States. Journalism could develop more rapidly in these two countries because of the independence of the press from the literary field, parliamentary bipartism, the ability of newspapers to derive substantial revenues from sales and advertising, the dynamics of the English language and because of the Anglo-Saxon central and dominant position in the world.
Common Sense versus Political Discourse
Authors: Leurdijk Andra
Published: March 2007

In the past few years a considerable amount of literature has appeared concerning talk shows, in particular those with active participation of studio audiences. The evaluation of these shows in the light of their contribution to mediated public debates, varies from praise for presumed postmodern qualities to utter condemnation for their trivialization of everything deemed serious. This article confronts these views with an analysis of Dutch audience discussion shows dealing with racism and a multicultural society. The main question is in what ways do audience discussion shows offer a forum for public debate on racism and a multicultural society in the Netherlands? This question is answered by looking at the numbers of white and ethnic minority participants and the perspectives included in the debates. The article also tries to establish the impact of characteristics of the genre on the debates. The results indicate that talk shows have some potential for offering unexpected, controversial and oppositional perspectives from ethnic minority groups.
Public Service Broadcasting as Cultural Industry
Authors: Lowe Gregory Ferrell , Alm Ari
Published: March 2007

Value transformation in Finland's public service broadcasting company, Yleisradio Oy (YLE), is analysed as a professional market connected with political, popular and open markets. Innovative change in creative tension with traditional continuity informs a transformation dynamic. Prior to the 1990s continuity was a dominant force, but rapid change is characteristic today. The 1994 administrative restructuring was an organizational response to the 1993 Act on YLE, which was formulated in response to increasing media competition viewed as a potential threat to Finnish national culture. The interplay of political policy, organization structure and broadcasting practice indicates a tightly bundled set of concerns that highlight the dialectical, reflexive character of value transformation — a process that arbitrates the need for change with the need for continuity across a multiplicity of antagonistically cooperative markets. The authors conclude that the results explicitly reframe Finnish public service broadcasting as a culture industry.
From `Dangerous Classes' to `Quiet Rebels'
Authors: Bayat Asef
Published: March 2007

A major consequence of the new global restructuring in the developing countries has been the double process of integration, on the one hand, and social exclusion and informalization, on the other. These processes, meanwhile, have meant further growth of a marginalized and deinstitutionalized subaltern in Third World cities. How do the urban grassroots respond to their marginalization and exclusion? What form of politics, if any at all, do they espouse? Critically navigating through the prevailing perspectives including the culture of poverty, survival strategy, urban social movements and everyday resistance, the article suggests that the new global restructuring is reproducing subjectivities (marginalized and deinstitutionalized groups such as the unemployed, casual labor, street subsistence workers, street children and the like), social space and thus a terrain of political struggles that current theoretical perspectives cannot on their own account for. The article proposes an alternative outlook, a `quiet encroachment of the ordinary', that might be useful to examine the activism of the urban subaltern in the Third World cities.
POSITIVE ALIENATION AND ITS REFLECTION IN TAOIST THOUGHT
Authors: Liao Futing
Published: March 2007

Positive alienation is a forgotten category, though it was never `alien' to early philosophers. This paper examines the dimensions of alienation in its usual negative disguise in two ways - a sense of meaninglessness and Peter Berger's conceptualisation. It identifies positive alienation in Taoism by examining Taoist classics by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu with the help of these two theoretical schemes, and explores the favourable ramifications of the Taoist positive alienation. Positive alienation, as the Taoist interprets and practises it: (1) provides a way of accomplishing everything; (2) brings individual happiness; (3) makes it possible for a person to have a longer life; and (4) gives rise to an ideal policy for a government.
ETHNICITY, CLASS AND FRIENDSHIP: THE CASE OF ISRAEL
Authors: Ayalon Hanna , Ben-Rafael Eliezer , Sharot Stephen
Published: March 2007

Debates over the forms and levels of ethnic pluralism and the relationship between class and ethnicity in the Israeli Jewish population provide the background of an analysis of friendship networks of four groups of origin, two from the Middle East and two from Europe. It is shown that, whereas only small minorities have homogeneous networks based on country of origin, the broad ethnic division between `Middle Easterners' and `Europeans', and the class division between white-collar and blue-collar workers are important bases of friendship. Differences among the eth-class categories in the ethnic heterogeneity/homogeneity of their networks are largely a consequence of the class distribution of Jews of Middle Eastern and European origin in Israeli society.
Paradigms in the Study of Race Relations in Brazil
Authors: Motta Roberto
Published: March 2007

Three paradigms are distinguished in the study of racial relations in Brazil during the 20th century. The first one, the paradigm of morenidade, is associated with Gilberto Freyre, but in spite of outward disagreements, it is shared by Marvin Harris and Carl Degler, whose respective formulations, `referential ambiguity in the calculus of racial identity' and `neither black nor white', have the same basic meaning as Freyre's moreno. A second paradigm is associated with Florestan Fernandes, who stresses the merely residual character of race prejudice and racial inequality in Brazil. The third paradigm, due to Carlos Hasenbalg, posits persistent racial discrimination as the cause of the inequality between whites and non-whites in levels of economic, educational and other attainment. The differences between these paradigms, and even between authors whose conclusions belong in the same paradigm, are largely due to their underlying models of historical development.
Environmental Movements in the Global South
Authors: Dwivedi Ranjit
Published: March 2007

This article looks at the struggles and actions over environmental issues in the context of the developing world. Drawing on some well-known cases across three continents, Asia, Africa and Latin America, the article looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the `livelihood approach' that seems to dominate the analysis of environmental movements. It is argued that while the livelihood approach may be appropriate to explain resource conflicts, the study of movements requires attention on political variables: actors, stakes and practices, and so forth. The article therefore calls for a forceful integration of collective action and social movement theories with livelihood approaches to better understand environmental movements.
Civil Society in Iran
Authors: Gheytanchi Elham
Published: March 2007

Civil society and the public sphere are based on historically specific moral discourse. Social movements such as the women's movement emerge out of the internal contradictions of the dominant moral discourse at any historical juncture. This article explores how the women's movement emerged in post-revolutionary Iranian society, as represented in one major women's publication, Zanān. In post-revolutionary Iranian society, Muslim women activists broaden the boundaries of civil society by translating their highly praised status as mothers to active and morally recognized citizens.
Race and Sociological Reason in the Republic
Authors: Saada Emmanuelle
Published: March 2007

This article compares two collective surveys on the métis conducted in 1908 and 1937 in the French colonies. Métis was a category used mostly to describe children born out of wedlock to indigenous mothers and European fathers. The first inquiry was sponsored by anthropologists of the Société d'anthropologie de Paris; the second was an administrative survey that brought together social scientists, administrators and a variety of other experts. The comparison sheds light on the specific trajectory of the ` métis problem' in the French Empire, and on the process of construction of a social category. More broadly, it invites a reappraisal of the signification and role of race in both the construction of French citizenship and the history of French social thought in the first half of the 20th century.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: A TYPOLOGY AND EXAMPLES
Authors: Baert Patrick
Published: March 2007

This paper addresses the question: what is an unintended consequence? It presents a classification which enables us to understand different types of unintended consequences. The classification refers to several questions: whether or not the effects are social, whether they are desirable, whether they fulfil the initial intention, whether they are unanticipated, and whether they occur later than the initial action. The classification is used to deal with the phenomenon of unintended-but-anticipated consequences and is exemplified by the cases of sub-optimality, counter-finality and structuration.
MODERNITY, ANTI-MODERNITY AND POST-MODERNITY IN MALAYSIA
Authors: Lee Raymond L.M.
Published: March 2007

The problem of modernity and post-modernity centres on the fate of the bourgeois carriers of the Protestant Ethic in an inordinately differentiated and rationalised world. Post-modernity is a reaction to the advanced alienation of late capitalism, an attempt to restore some meaning to the existential despair over the growing irrationality of modernity. The emphases on sensualism, pluralism and realism comprise desperate efforts to cling on to the human sources of a runaway creation called modernity.

If post-modernity comprises efforts in criticising the foundations of modern Western civilisation, how do they influence the development agenda of the Third World nations? Through a study of the modernisation programme in Malaysia, it is argued that modernity in Malaysia is a recent phenomenon and must be considered in the context of its colonial history. Industrialisation in Malaysia does not follow the same historical trajectory as industrialisation in the Western democracies. Thus, modernity in the recent history of Malaysia must be studied as a complex interplay between ethnic nationalism, international markets, class formation, and inter-ethnic competition.

Post-modernity in Malaysia can at best be described as a superficial imposition of Western consumer patterns on the local population without an attendant cultural critique. Post-modernity as a form of demodernisation cannot but pose a serious threat to the modernisation programme of Malaysia which not only comprises the raison d'être of the dominant Malay political party but also involves the commercial interests of many transnational companies.