Exploring Russian Cyberspace: Digitally-Mediated Collective Action and the Networked Public Sphere

This paper summarizes the major findings of a three-year research project to investigate the Internet's impact on Russian politics, media and society. We employed multiple methods to study online activity: the mapping and study of the structure, communities and content of the blogosphere; an analogous mapping and study of Twitter; content analysis of different media sources using automated and human-based evaluation approaches; and a survey of bloggers; augmented by infrastructure mapping, interviews and background research. We find the emergence of a vibrant and diverse networked public sphere that constitutes an independent alternative to the more tightly controlled offline media and political space, as well as the growing use of digital platforms in social mobilization and civic action. Despite various indirect efforts to shape cyberspace into an environment that is friendlier towards the government, we find that the Russian Internet remains generally open and free, although the current degree of Internet freedom is in no way a prediction of the future of this contested space

Video résumés portrayed: findings and challenges

Recent technological developments and the increased use of internet-based applications have resulted in the emergence of so-called video résumés. This chapter first presents the characteristics of video résumés as a selection instrument by comparing the instrument with other, related selection tools, like the job interview. The chapter proceeds with a review of existing research on video résumés and ends with an agenda for future research

Reinforcing attitudes in a gatewatching news era: individual-level antecedents to sharing fact-checks on social media

Despite the prevalence of fact-checking, little is known about who posts fact-checks online. Based upon a content analysis of Facebook and Twitter digital trace data and a linked online survey (N = 783), this study reveals that sharing fact-checks in political conversations on social media is linked to age, ideology, and political behaviors. Moreover, an individual’s need for orientation (NFO) is an even stronger predictor of sharing a fact-check than ideological intensity or relevance, alone, and also influences the type of fact-check format (with or without a rating scale) that is shared. Finally, participants generally shared fact-checks to reinforce their existing attitudes. Consequently, concerns over the effects of fact-checking should move beyond a limited-effects approach (e.g., changing attitudes) to also include reinforcing accurate beliefs.Accepted manuscrip

A Report on the Media and the Immigration Debate

Analyzes media coverage of immigration since 1980 and how industry practices and new media have conditioned the public to associate immigration with illegality, crisis, controversy, and government failure, causing a stalemate in the policy debate

Coping with creeping catastrophes: national political systems and the challenge of slow-moving policy problems

No abstract available

The European Union Budget: The European Cup of Economic Affairs- UK vs France. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series. Vol. 1, No. 3, December 2005

[From the Introduction] The first EU budget was drafted in 1988 under the so-called “Delors Package I.” Its budgetary headings and monetary distribution have remained unchanged until 14th July 2004, when the Commission adjusted its traditional model to a new system of headings to adapt the budget to an evolutionary economical environment. The budget of the European Union distinguishes itself from other international bodies by its exclusive system of the so-called “own resources.” This system is composed of the revenues obtained by (1) the Common Customs duties collected under the external tariff; (2) the levies in imported agricultural products; (3) the Value Added Tax revenue; and (4) the Gross National Income based resources. The EU budget sets out and authorizes the total amount of revenues and expenditures annually deemed necessary by the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. However, the EU budget is a seven-year multi-annual spending plan articulated around a ¨financial framework¨ that ensures the control of the evolution of the budget expenditure. The budget is drafted and implemented under the ¨Financial Programming and Budget¨ Directorate General and is supervised by the European Parliament and the Court of Auditors. The EU budget not only rests on the three basic accounting principles: unity, annuality and balance, which guarantee its economic efficiency, but also on the composition of its revenues, the so-called “own resources.