Communicating for change: media and agency in the networked public sphere

This paper is aimed at anyone who is interested in the role of media as an influence on power and policy. It especially about the role of news journalism, NGOs and other activists who use communication for change. It looks at the context for those actors and their actions. It asks how much the Internet and social networks are changing advocacy. It takes an ethical and political rather than technological or theoretical approach. It ask whether the ‘public sphere’ needs to be redefined. If that is the case, I argue, then we need to think again about journalism, advocacy communications and the relationship between mediation and social, political or economic change. I would identify three overlapping, interrelated media dynamics that might add up to the need for a new notion of the public sphere: the disruption of communication power; the rise of networked journalism; the dual forces for online socialisation and corporatisation. This is not only a theoretical concern. From these dynamics flow all the other arguments about what kind of media we want or need, and what effect it will have on our ability to communicate particular kinds of issues or information. Unless we understand the strategic context of these changes we will continue to make the kind of tactical blunders that Kony2012, for example, represents. This is not just an academic question, it is an ethical, political and practical set of problems

When Public Relations and Particle Physics Collide: An Ethnographically Informed Account of Life in the CERN Communications Group

This thesis explores how ‘big science’ becomes public within an era of digital scholarship and evolving professional practices. Focusing on research conducted at CERN, I explore the strategic approaches and operational principles and practices of communication professionals and researchers working in High-Energy Physics. A review of current research into the dissemination of scientific information in the digital age shows a dearth of empirical studies that explore the role of communication professionals within scientific organisations. I argue that communication professionals within scientific organisations play an important intermediary role between scientists, external media professionals and publics, often being the first to mediate information for audiences beyond academia. Such groups, therefore, should be explored in order to understand the role they play in mediating science for the contemporary public sphere. This requires that some account be taken of the context within which the communication is produced. At CERN this includes issues of openness and transparency, organisational structures, whilst also taking account of the role of technology in mediating information. A mixed methods approach was used, combining document analysis with ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews to create eight detailed case studies. In my analysis I argue that scientific public relations is integral to the process of mediation, yet has so far been unrepresented within it. This thesis contributes to a wider understanding of the role organisation plays in the production of High-Energy Physics communication, noting the importance of timing in relation to openness and proposing a methodological approach for the continued research of communications groups in other scientific organisations. Furthermore, this thesis has demonstrated that digital scholarly practices are yet to be fully realised. Instead, a muddled culture of practices exists across CERN, with multiple analogue and digital tools used by individuals and groups working in distinctly separate ways. Overall, the thesis adds to the growing discussion in a number of fields, including the role of scientific public relations in the process of mediation of scientific information and how digital scholarly practices are enacted within a ‘big science’ project

Investigating collaboration in art and technology

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Information Technology.With the rapid development in computer technology in recent years, the arrival of digital media and computational tools has opened up new possibilities for creative practice in art, where collaboration between digital art practitioners and computer technologists often happens. The study of interdisciplinary collaboration in art and technology offers great opportunities for investigation of creativity and the role of new technology. This thesis presents an investigation into interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and technologists based on a series of case studies selected from actual art- technology projects. Two analysis techniques were used in this research: context analysis, which provides the breadth of the analysis, and protocol analysis, which provides the depth of the analysis. During the analysis process, two coding schemes, which are the context analysis coding scheme and the protocol analysis coding scheme, were developed, evaluated and refined over a series of case studies. Using the coding schemes, the results of the analysis drawn from different cases are compared and the implications are discussed. The findings provide insights into art- technology collaboration in the creative process, in particular, the features of communication and the role of mediation tools. The outcomes of this thesis are: • The analysis framework, consisting of the context analysis coding scheme and the protocol analysis coding scheme, which has been developed and applied to a series of case studies and has been tested for effectiveness and reliability. • The findings, with the assistance of the analysis framework, provide a better understanding of the nature of the interaction between artists and technologists during a creative process. This includes: o How communication behaviour is distributed between artists and technologists; o What the role of computer tools is during the creative process and how these tools can affect artists’ and technologists’ communication behaviour; o How the collaborative creative process is facilitated by external mediation tools, such as computers, interactive artefacts and physical objects. There are two main contributions of the thesis: first, the analysis framework can serve as a powerful and robust analysis tool for future research in the filed of art- technology collaboration or other related domains. Second, the findings provide a better understanding of the collaborative process, in particular, how mediation tools support creative practice between artists and technologist

The ‘person-in-between’ role of young graduates at INGOs in Vietnam

In Vietnam today one of the consequences of globalisation has been a proliferation of international non-government organisations (INGOs). These are intercultural work environments where individuals must seek to understand the culture of others and try to share and find common ground as they strive to fulfil the goals of the organisations. These individuals need high levels of intercultural competence, particularly cultural mediation, important for the role of cultural intermediaries. Drawing on theories of cultural mediation and cultural intermediaries, this research explores the intersection of different cultural worlds in the context of development projects at INGOs in Vietnam. The new graduates in the study reflected on their resources and skills to adapt development models to the local context, thus demonstrating important employability skills. This was particularly challenging given that in organisations such as universities, where the culture was described as rigidly hierarchical, skill training was restricted to following procedures to execute a particular task. However, in organisations like INGOs with high degrees of employee autonomy, decision making is left to the discretion of staff who are required to demonstrate their own means of developing the skills. Based on the findings of the qualitative research into young Vietnamese graduates’ experiences of working at INGOs, this paper argues that young graduates play a significant role in disseminating information, and at the same time promoting mutual understanding, forming culturally relativistic attitudes, and demonstrating cross-cultural empathy. They were not just gaining employment, but adding value to an enterprise. Given increasing globalisation, this research makes an interesting argument for the inclusion of cultural literacy as a necessary employability skill for successful engagement in today’s world of work

Mapping Perspectives on the EU as Mediator

Research on the European Union’s role as a meditator is nascent. It predominantly focuses on case studies or is cursorily embedded within wider research on the European Union (EU) as a crisis manager. Moreover, there is a significant disconnect between the established studies on mediation based in Conflict Analysis Studies and the EU’s foreign and security policy situated in Security Studies. Thus, there is a dearth of systematic engagement on the issue of EU mediation, although the EU often uses the language of mediation as a key component of its external commitments to conflict prevention, transformation and resolution. While advancements in mediation research suggest that there are certain determinants of mediation, and highlight key features that support and impede actors during conflict, this has not been systematically applied to the EU. Consequently, a key task of this workshop was to establish conceptual clarity and practical information about on the EU’s mediation roles. As a starting point, this workshop took stock of EU mediation knowledge from the perspective of different actors including academics, civil society and policy practitioners. In particular, it explored the limited academic engagement with this particular aspect of EU foreign and security policy. Additionally, the workshop critically interrogated how the EU understood its role in international mediation practice by exploring its capabilities and infrastructure and thereby locating opportunities and constraints to it performance. By bringing together various perspectives these discussions generated critical insights into where the remaining gaps in knowledge lay and the possibilities of academic partnerships with practitioners and policymakers to create new knowledge for Security and Conflict Analysis Studies

DEVELOPING CEFR ILLUSTRATIVE DESCRIPTORS OF ASPECTS OF MEDIATION

Mediation is not concerned with the linguistic expression of a speaker. Instead, the focus is on the role of language in processes like creating the space and conditions for communication and/or learning, constructing new meaning, encouraging others to construct or understand new meaning, passing on information in an appropriate form, and simplifying, elaborating, illustrating or otherwise adapting input in order to facilitate these processes (mediation strategies). Mediation always involves bridging across spaces, facilitating understanding. The context can be social (e.g. Wall & Dunne 2012), pedagogic (e.g. Mercer & Hodgkinson 2008), cultural (e.g. Zarate et al 2004), linguistic (e.g. Statholopoulou 2015) or in the workplace (e.g. Lüdi 2014). The concept of mediation has a very long history, originating in acting as an intermediary in diplomacy and conflict resolution, developing into wider forms of conflict avoidance and counselling services. Its relevance to the educational domain derives from Vgotsky’s (1978) theories, in which, it is seen as a core feature when adults, siblings and peers interact with a child. In the resulting socio-constructivist / social cultural view of learning (Lantolf 2000) it has recently been developed into the concept of ‘languaging’ in order to mediate meaning, a process that takes two forms: collaborative dialogue and private speech (Swain, Kinnear & Steinman, 2015: 32). The latter concerns the individual mediating meaning for themselves and is often internal and invisible. It is the former with which we are primarily concerned in this article. Collaborative dialogue in fact already appears in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR: Council of Europe 2001) in the scale under interaction strategies for Cooperating. In addition, the emphasis in the CEFR on the mediator as an intermediary between different interlocutors underlines its social, collaborative vision of language (Piccardo 2012)

Evidence synthesis on the occurrence, causes, consequences, prevention and management of bullying and harassment behaviours to inform decision making in the NHS

Background Workplace bullying is a persistent problem in the NHS with negative implications for individuals, teams, and organisations. Bullying is a complex phenomenon and there is a lack of evidence on the best approaches to manage the problem. Aims Research questions What is known about the occurrence, causes, consequences and management of bullying and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace? Objectives Summarise the reported prevalence of workplace bullying and inappropriate behaviour. Summarise the empirical evidence on the causes and consequences of workplace bullying and inappropriate behaviour. Describe any theoretical explanations of the causes and consequences of workplace bullying and inappropriate behaviour. Synthesise evidence on the preventative and management interventions that address workplace bullying interventions and inappropriate behaviour. Methods To fulfil a realist synthesis approach the study was designed across four interrelated component parts: Part 1: A narrative review of the prevalence, causes and consequences of workplace bullying Part 2: A systematic literature search and realist review of workplace bullying interventions Part 3: Consultation with international bullying experts and practitioners Part 4: Identification of case studies and examples of good practic

Thinking About Fairness & Achieving Balance in Mediation

This Article identifies five sources of bias present in mediation practice: (1) categorization, (2) attribution, (3) metaphorical expression, (4) norming, and (5) framing. For each of these cognitive efficiencies, which contribute to bias in mediation, the author provides practice recommendations. Finally, the author suggests that the Article be read as a proposal for further thought and inquiry to improve the fairness of mediators

University ombuds: issues for fair and equitable complaints resolution

Increasingly, universities around Australia are appointing university ombuds to assist in the resolution of student complaints against academics. This paper explores a number of key issues relevant to the dispute resolution practice of university ombuds, particularly in relation to ensuring fair and equitable process and outcomes