Public Service Media as Enablers of Epistemic Rights

Growing concerns in recent years over threats to the foundations of democratic societies posed by misinformation, hate speech and other problems associated with digital communications have led to renewed calls for greater protection of epistemic rights within policy, advocacy and academic fora. Institutionally mandated to promote citizenship, public service media (PSM) organisations have an important role to play in supporting epistemic rights. We suggest four main conditions are required for PSM to fulfil this role. First, PSM are premised upon strong political commitment. At a time when this political commitment is dwindling, it is imperative that civil society, academia and international organisations continue to make the case for PSM strong. Second, we argue that PSM need to evolve with the times, and be allowed to use new transmission means, build new platforms and innovate. Third, we argue that PSM need to move beyond supporting epistemic rights, as they have traditionally been bestowed, and work to promote epistemic justice, by questioning the existing power structures of knowledge. Finally, PSM need to work together with other educational and cultural institutions towards the creation of an epistemic commons, countering the privatisation of communitive spaces and striving to make knowledge accessible to all

Whither Public Service Media Governance: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

What are the current challenges of governing Public Service Media (PSM)? How do they point to current crossroads of media and communication governance? And how do they inform the future prospects of global communications governance? These are the main questions that this contribution addresses. Starting from the historical justification of PSB/PSM back in the 1920s, the chapter examines how PSM and its governance have transformed in response to technological advances, societal pressures, political ideology and market liberalisation. In doing so, it builds on the recent work on media governance of the Council of Europe and the European Broadcasting Union. It then assesses PSM in different contexts, what it might mean for countries with established liberal democracies, post-communist countries with short or weak democratic traditions, and countries with no history of or political hostility towards public service media. The chapter maintains that despite the growing challenges, PSM is not an outdated concept. It notes that political and economic power is increasingly concentrated and acts to close information and communications spaces through the deliberate instrumentalisation of governance arrangements for narrow vested interests. It argues that the case for PSM and the associated values of independence, universality, quality, diversity, and free access at the point of consumption as preconditions for active citizenship, the realisation of human rights and the functioning of democracy, remains valid and powerful. It concludes that PSM governance needs to be modernised and addressed alongside the governance of other media and online platforms

Oil, materiality and International Relations

Oil is a major topic in International Relations (IR). However, the discipline has tended to focus primarily on the effects and impacts of oil, particularly in relation to conflict, war and empire, and on the international political economy of oil, such as the role of the large oil companies and the oil-rich producer states. This article offers a more holistic approach by adopting a new materialisms framework. This framework has the physical materiality of oil, and its agentic capacity to produce social and political relations over time and space, at its centre. This offers new perspectives along the material journey of oil from exploration, production to transportation, processing and consumption. This, in turn, provides a more differentiated history of oil as a material force that shapes human and political interaction. The benefit of this approach is that it requires IR to be in a more substantive dialogue with other disciplines, most notably with human geography which has a strong tradition of research on energy and spatiality, but also with other disciplines in the social sciences and with the growing body of work in energy humanities. In addition, adopting a new materialisms approach to the study of oil acts as a potential template for the study of other energy resources and products, such as gas and coal as well as renewables such as wind and solar energy

Do returns and volatility spillovers exist across tech stocks, cryptocurrencies and NFTs?

This study examines the connectedness between technology stocks, cryptocurrencies, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) using daily returns and risk data. We found that while there is strong connectedness within asset classes, connectedness between different types of assets is weak. Structural breaks in the VAR system did not change the degree of connectedness. Our findings suggest that interconnectivity between these assets is not significant enough to indicate a high level of correlation. This research provides valuable insights into the interplay between these markets and suggests diversifying portfolios to mitigate risks associated with these assets

Determinants of Intention to Revisit in Hospitality Industry: A Cross-Cultural Study Based on Globe Project

This study examines the impact of service quality on intention-to-revisit through variables such as emotion, satisfaction, eWOM and loyalty in the hotel industry from a cross-cultural perspective that goes beyond national boundaries. Four countries were chosen from two clusters, based on the GLOBE Project, the UK and the US from the Anglo cluster and Iran and India from the Southern Asia cluster. A total of 1418 questionnaires were received from guests of 122 independent hotels, and the data were analyzed using the partial square technique in SEM-PLS. The findings reveal that antecedents of intention to revisit follow both similar and different patterns of relationships because of the cultural dimensions of the countries. While positive emotions experienced by Iranians and Indians can make them satisfied customers, the satisfaction of US consumers and the British is derived from their evaluation of service quality. In addition, the intention of US consumers and the British to revisit the hotel is created through their loyalty, but satisfaction and eWOM can lead to Iranian and Indian customers’ revisit intention. This study contributes to the literature on the hospitality industry and the antecedents of intention-to-revisit by defining the distinction between countries within different clusters in the GLOBE Project and adds new knowledge to our understanding of culture

An introduction to neo-Riemannian operations and their application in music production

This chapter aims to develop neo-Riemannian transformations (NRTs) within popular music practice as a means of enhancing music production pedagogy and expanding the frames of reference. To achieve this, the chapter locates NRTs within the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and outlines how various production tools and processes can be utilized to produce novel harmonic outputs. This variety of applications reveals that the DAW is a flexible environment in which advanced, or less familiar harmonic concepts, can sit side by side with production approaches such as automation, sampling, and songwriting. Much songwriting literature tends not to consider other cultural mechanisms, such as film, TV and game soundtrack music, as having a profound effect on the musical imaginations of popular and electronic music creators. Most music production literature focuses on the operation of tools rather than creativity. Thus, I attempt to show how creativity and tools can be combined with a specific pedagogic focus

Congestion and pollutant emission analysis of urban road networks based on floating vehicle data

Global warming caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) is receiving increasingly attention from all over the world, and urban transportation is a significant source of greenhouse gas and pollutant emission. However, the research on traffic state of urban road networks (URNs) based on sparse floating vehicle data (FVD) is insufficient. Therefore, we mainly utilize big data techniques to explore the congestion and pollutant emission of URN with FVD. Firstly, the location of vehicles is identified and matched with the URN. We then grid the FVD and city maps to more accurately identify areas of congestion and emission in later section. Following this, we use the congestion index and K-means clustering algorithm to evaluate the traffic state over time, pollutant emission is calculated based on emission calculation standards and carbon emission is estimated by using the fuel consumption-speed model. The results indicate that congestion and emission are very severe during peak hours (e.g., 8:00 a.m.), particularly in some transportation hub areas, such as high-speed rail stations. During off-peak hours (e.g., 11:00 p.m.), congestion and emission are relatively lower. The negative correlation between congestion index and emission is also revealed. This study provides some practical approaches to more accurately estimate the overall urban traffic state by using sparse traffic data, and may offer support to urban traffic managers in managing traffic congestion and pollutant emissions

International Law and the Principle of Non-Intervention - History, Theory, and Interactions with Other Principles

The principle of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of states is one of the most venerable principles of international law but the determination of its exact content has remained an enigma which has haunted generations of international lawyers. The present book solves this enigma and identifies what the principle of non-intervention specifically prohibits, and what it does not. The principle in question is strictly linked to some fundamental notions of international law, such as sovereignty, use of force, and self-determination: its study, therefore, is of great significance as it offers a fascinating opportunity to explore the macrostructures of international law. Through a comprehensive survey of primary documents, as well as through an extensive evaluation of state practice and literature search, the book provides a systematic and coherent analysis of the principle of non-intervention. The first two chapters tell the story of the principle of non-intervention throughout the centuries up to the present day. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on theory and identify what coercion of state means, what forms of coercion (armed, economic, political) can constitute an unlawful intervention, and the role played by consent in this context. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 explore the interactions of the principle of non-intervention with other fundamental principles of contemporary international law, namely the principle of internal and external self-determination and the respect for international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Finally, Chapter 8 investigates whether and when cyber operations can constitute an unlawful intervention in the domestic affairs of other states

Sorting Insiders from Co-workers: Remote synchronous computer-mediated triage for investigating insider attacks

Objective: Develop and investigate the potential of a remote, computer mediated and synchronous text-based triage, which we refer to as InSort, for quickly highlighting persons of interest after an insider attack. Background: Insiders maliciously exploit legitimate access to impair the confidentiality and integrity of organizations. The globalisation of organisations and advancement of information technology means employees are often dispersed across national and international sites, working around the clock, often remotely. Hence, investigating insider attacks is challenging. However, the cognitive demands associated with masking insider activity offer opportunities. Drawing on cognitive approaches to deception and understanding of deception-conveying features in textual responses we developed InSort, a remote computer mediated triage. Method: During a 6-hour immersive simulation, participants worked in teams, examining password protected, security sensitive databases and exchanging information during an organized crime investigation. Twenty-five percent were covertly incentivized to act as an ‘insider’ by providing information to a provocateur. Results: Responses to InSort questioning revealed insiders took longer to answer investigation relevant questions, provided impoverished responses, and their answers were less consistent with known evidence about their behaviors than co-workers. Conclusion: Findings demonstrate InSort has potential to expedite information gathering and investigative processes following an insider attack

Positional Health Assessment of Collaborative Robots Based on Long Short-Term Memory Auto-Encoder (LSTMAE) Network

Calibration is a vital part of ensuring the safety and smooth operation of any industrial robot and this is particularly essential for collaborative robots as any issue pertaining to safety can adversely impact the human operator. Towards this aim, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) has been widely implemented in the context of collaborative robots to ensure safe and efficient working environments. In this research, as a subset of PHM research, a novel positional health assessment approach based on a Long Short-Term Memory auto-encoder network (LSTMAE) is proposed. An experimental test setup is utilised, wherein the collaborative robot is subject to variations of coordinate system positional error. The operational 3-axis position time-series data of the collaborative robot is collected with the aid of an industrial data acquisition platform utilising influxDB. The experiments show that, with the aid of this approach, manufacturers can assess the positional health of their collaborative robot systems