The influence of cyberspace regulations on the practice of online journalism in Uganda

The study assessed how cyberspace regulations have influenced the practice of online journalism in Uganda. The study\u27s specific objectives were: to find out journalists’ and regulators’ understanding of cyberspace regulations in Uganda, to explore ways used to regulate online journalism in Uganda, and to examine how the implementation of cyberspace regulation in Uganda has affected online journalism practice. The study used a qualitative research method and an explorative research design that involved an in-depth and extensive investigation of a specific instance. The research was conducted using a qualitative approach, with interviews and document reviews. Findings reveal that most online journalists negatively perceived cyberspace regulations because they believe that major cyberspace regulations were signed into law to gag communication by limiting freedom of speech and expression. The study findings further reveal that cyberspace institutions regulated online journalism through monitoring, inspecting, supervising and controlling online content posted on digital spaces used for communication services. Findings further revealed that online journalists had learnt to practice self-censorship and adherence to cyber regulations to avoid arrests. The study recommended that cyberspace regulations be developed through a transparent process allowing public participation, including input from journalists and media organizations. The study also recommends that cyberspace regulations be clearly defined and consistently enforced without arbitrary or discriminatory application

Impact of social media on political participation of Egyptian youth

This study aims at examining the role played by social media in empowering and encouraging the Egyptian youth for political participation. Previous studies found that traditional media have not been influential enough to drive youth\u27s political participation. On the other hand, recent studies found that social media have a significant role in this respect. The current study investigates the possible roles of the social media in the transition to democracy in Egypt; questioning the ability of social media to act as a platform where citizens are represented and empowered enough to transform virtual online discussions to real life actions. The study was carried out on a purposive sample of 400 young Egyptians aged 18-30 based on the statistics of social media users in Egypt. A sample of opinion leaders and elites in the field was also studied. The research follows a triangulation by combining two research methodologies; survey as a quantitative method and in-depth interviews as a qualitative one. The theoretical framework is Uses and Gratifications Theory. According to the findings of the study, social media became most prominent among youth in Egypt after January 25th Revolution. The study also found that most Egyptian youth use social media on a daily basis. Egyptian youth consider social media as a platform through which they manage to share their common concerns and possibly turn it into collective real-life actions; which reflects their interest in becoming more politically involved

Imaging of a fluid injection process using geophysical data - A didactic example

In many subsurface industrial applications, fluids are injected into or withdrawn from a geologic formation. It is of practical interest to quantify precisely where, when, and by how much the injected fluid alters the state of the subsurface. Routine geophysical monitoring of such processes attempts to image the way that geophysical properties, such as seismic velocities or electrical conductivity, change through time and space and to then make qualitative inferences as to where the injected fluid has migrated. The more rigorous formulation of the time-lapse geophysical inverse problem forecasts how the subsurface evolves during the course of a fluid-injection application. Using time-lapse geophysical signals as the data to be matched, the model unknowns to be estimated are the multiphysics forward-modeling parameters controlling the fluid-injection process. Properly reproducing the geophysical signature of the flow process, subsequent simulations can predict the fluid migration and alteration in the subsurface. The dynamic nature of fluid-injection processes renders imaging problems more complex than conventional geophysical imaging for static targets. This work intents to clarify the related hydrogeophysical parameter estimation concepts

The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information

The United States government leaks like a sieve. Presidents denounce the constant flow of classified information to the media from unauthorized, anonymous sources. National security professionals decry the consequences. And yet the laws against leaking are almost never enforced. Throughout U.S. history, roughly a dozen criminal cases have been brought against suspected leakers. There is a dramatic disconnect between the way our laws and our leaders condemn leaking in the abstract and the way they condone it in practice. This Article challenges the standard account of that disconnect, which emphasizes the difficulties of apprehending and prosecuting offenders, and advances an alternative theory of leaking. The executive branch\u27s leakiness is often taken to be a sign of organizational failure. The Article argues it is better understood as an adaptive response to external liabilities (such as the mistrust generated by presidential secret keeping and media manipulation) and internal pathologies (such as overclassification and bureaucratic fragmentation) of the modern administrative state. The leak laws are so rarely enforced not only because it is hard to punish violators, but also because key institutional actors share overlapping interests in maintaining a permissive culture of classified information disclosures. Permissiveness does not entail anarchy, however, as a nuanced system of informal social controls has come to supplement, and all but supplant, the formal disciplinary scheme. In detailing these claims, the Article maps the rich sociology of governmental leak regulation and explores a range of implications for executive power, national security, democracy, and the rule of law

The Social Media Machines: An Investigation of the Effect of Trust Moderated by Disinformation on Users’ Decision-Making Process

Social media networking sites (SMNS) have become a popular communications medium where users share information, knowledge, and persuasion. In less than two decades, social media\u27s (SM) dominance as a communication medium can\u27t be disputed, for good or evil. Combined with the newly found immediacy and pervasiveness, these SM applications\u27 persuasive power are useful weapons for organizations, angry customers, employees, actors, and activists bent on attacking or hacking other individuals, institutions, or systems. Consequently, SM has become the preferred default mechanism of news sources; however, users are unsure if the information gathered is true or false. According to the literature, SMNS generates large amounts of fake news or disinformation. The rapid proliferation of disinformation, information disseminated with the intent to harm, through SMNS has dramatically influenced and reduced people\u27s trust in the story and hints at hand. Disinformation has caused data breaches and many injured individuals and organizations, resulting in a lack of confidence in SMNS. While irrefutable that SMNS has become the new news outlet, trust remains the foundation of all communication. Since SM has changed the communication process, it is perceived as the most dangerous information dissemination vehicle known to society. Unfortunately, no one is safe from its lethality. Users must approach their usage with extreme care by understanding the technical capabilities and increasing their competence in detecting disinformation campaigns\u27 powerful influence. The continuous spread of disinformation has caused the credibility and trust of behemoths like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to be significantly affected. Since trust is an essential factor in SMNS, mistrust hinders users\u27 abilities to make informed decisions. Research suggests that people make decisions based on the available information; therefore, it can be deduced that the decision-making process of SMNS users has been forever altered. Consequently, monitoring the spread of disinformation has become a front-burner priority for the government and society. By examining the effect of trust moderated by disinformation, this study aimed to investigate the factors that affect SMNS users\u27 decision-making behaviors. Factors influencing trust were also examined using the Conformity Group Norm Theory (CGNT) and Self Concept Theory (SCT). A theoretical model was created, and there were seven constructs; decision-making (DM), trust (TR), and the trust influencing factors: identification (ID), compliance (CP), internalization (IN), agency (AG), and community (CM). The theoretical model tested was based on the linear directional relationship of trust and decision making moderated by disinformation. This research tested three social media networking sites, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with disinformation empirically. This quantitative study employed a role-play scenario web survey methodology and adopted a two-step Pearson r correlation coefficient procedure for data analysis. Before collecting data, an expert panel reviewed, and pilot tested the survey. The expert review recommended changes to the wording, length, and formatting of the instrument, allowing the pilot test to be easily tested by participants. The web-based scenario survey was designed with a 5- point Likert scale and distributed to SMNS users through Qualtrics XM to gather data on their decision-making process. The data analysis results revealed the moderating effect of disinformation between trust and the decision-making process of SMNS users. The data supported the conformity group norm theory (CGNT) and self-concept theory (SCT) factors. The results indicated that identification (ID), compliance (CP), internalization (IN), agency (AG), and community (CM) influence trust. Since the spread of disinformation through SMNS has much broader implications for democracy and society as a whole, this research\u27s results contribute to the knowledge of SM users\u27 behavior and decision-making processes. This study also contributes to the IS body of knowledge on social cybersecurity and has implications for practitioners and academics. This study offers a model by integrating behavioral and cognitive theories better to understand the directional relationship of trust and decision-making when exposed to disinformation. The model also identifies essential elements that influence SMNS users\u27 trust and engage them in risky cybersecurity behaviors. Furthermore, this study provides evidence of the need for future US social media governance

Sex Crimes Litigation as Hazardous Duty: Practical Tools for Trauma-Exposed Prosecutors, Defense Counsel, and Paralegals

Military prosecutors and defense attorneys must both interact with traumatic case material stemming from victims, offenders, or evidence tied to a sexual offense. The context of the attorney\u27s specific duties makes them susceptible to different types of indirect or Secondary Traumatic Stress [STS] stemming from the litigation. At base, STS generically describes the manner in which a person can be traumatized simply from hearing or being exposed to someone else\u27s trauma or implementations that caused it

Purveying affect: Canadian newspaper coverage of the Diana Spencer and Karla Homolka chronologies

This thesis examines two major news chronologies in Canadian newspapers to see if through selective emphasis and language use they have been constructed to prompt affective response in readers. Key categories of longstanding press mechanisms to purvey affect are scrutinized within the material: creating a sense of intimacy with the news protagonist; sexualizing story content; and depicting the content as comprising scandal. Following respected Canadian broadsheets on the ostensibly contrasting stories of Diana Spencer and Karla Homolka, this work employs a discourse analysis to seek patterns of text-embedded affect prompts which correspond to press practices of some two centuries. It strives to contextualize the presence of these through the academic literature of sociology, communications theory and psychology. The effort brings into a contemporary and mainstream Canadian news media context practices more fully described in American and British press histories and associated more closely with the sensationalism of tabloid reporting

Visual Representations of Gender in Engineering Trade Journals of Professional Societies During 1998-2012: A Content Analysis of Hierarchy and Stereotypes

Recruiting and retaining women in engineering have stagnated since the mid-1990\u27s partially due to the marginalization of women in education and the workforce. This research analyzed the quality and quantity of representation of women and men in visual images of professional science and engineering trade journals to illuminate the marginalizing climate of engineering. A mixed methods approach using visual content analysis was performed for a 15-year period during 1998-2012 of three different trade journals of professional societies representing various disciplines of engineering: the first has a low percentage of women, the second has a higher percentage of women, and the third, a science journal, was at gender parity. Data was coded for men and women in one issue per year of each trade journal, and was analyzed using chi-squared and logged-odds analyses. Results show that women were 25% of the population in the trade journals and increased over time at an average rate of 1% per year. Women were shown in depictions that were qualitatively costly to their professional positions, whereas men were shown in professionally beneficial ways. Women were shown over-represented in feminine stereotypes and subordinate portrayals and under-represented in masculine stereotypes. Men were shown over-represented in masculine stereotypes and superior portrayals and under-represented in feminine stereotypes. The engineering trade journal of the society with a relatively high percentage of women portrayed women least negatively and men least positively. The trade journal of the society with the lowest percentage of women showed women most negatively and men most positively and used advertisements the most. Thus, the quality of female portrayals in the engineering trade journals were reflective of the quantity of female participation in the engineering disciplines they represented. Advertisements more than editorial content showed women more negatively and men more positively through depictions of stereotypical and traditional roles. Thus, trade journals with more control over their content (less ads) showed women less negatively. Changes over time reinforced these findings, where during the Great Recession the number of advertisements declined and the quality of women\u27s representation improved