How do Eastern Partnership countries rate on media freedom?

One of the aims of the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) programme is to promote media freedom in the six EaP states. Based on the 2015 Freedom of the Press report produced by Freedom House, Jennifer Dunham and Elen Aghekyan assess each country’s progress. They note that while states like Georgia have made substantial improvements in recent years, others such as Belarus and Azerbaijan have some of the worst ratings for media freedom in the world. They argue that the EU will require a proactive and highly customised approach if it is to be successful in improving the media environment within each state

Winning the Web: How Beijing Exploits Search Results to Shape Views of Xinjiang and COVID-19

As the war in Ukraine unfolds, Russian propaganda about the conflict has gotten a boost from a friendly source: government officials and state media out of Beijing. In multiple languages and regions around the world, China's "wolf warrior" diplomats and state media routinely amplify Kremlin conspiracy theories rationalizing President Vladimir Putin's invasion, and undermining the credibility and appeal of the United States, NATO, and independent media — even as China declines to endorse the Kremlin's adventurism wholesale. This spring, for example, China's messengers promoted the baseless Russian claim that the United States has been supporting a biological weapons program in Ukraine -- at times, more aggressively than Russia itself.Because Russian state media have been deamplified or banned by multiple Western social media platforms, Beijing's messaging could play an outsized role in channeling Kremlin talking points to audiences around the world. These narratives do not just spread on social media. Beijing's state-funded publishers have considerable success in a domain that has received comparatively little attention: search results.For months, our team has been tracking how China has exploited search engine results on Xinjiang and COVID-19, two subjects that are geopolitically salient to Beijing — Xinjiang, because the Chinese government seeks to push back on condemnation of its rights record; COVID-19, because it seeks to deflect criticism for its early mishandling of the pandemic. In both cases, Beijing is quite focused on positioning itself as a responsible global leader and softening perceptions to the contrary. To evaluate these concerns, we compiled daily data over a 120-day period on 12 terms related to Xinjiang and COVID-19 from five different sources: (1) Google Search; (2) Google News; (3) Bing Search; (4) Bing News; and (5) YouTube

PROMISING THE DREAM: changing destination image of London through the effect of website place

Drawing on theories of place identity and social identity, this study aims to fill a gap in place identity studies regarding the effect of a place website on the destination image of customers/visitors/tourists. The research addresses three questions: (1) what are the main impacts of tourists’ attitude on place identity and the place website, (2) what are the factors that influence destination image, and (3) what are the main impacts of a favorable destination image? The favorability of a destination image is reflected by the extent to which visitors positively regard that place website. Results reveal the importance of the destination image in enhancing the intention to revisit and recommend. Also, visitors’ satisfaction impacts on their intention to revisit and recommend the place. Significant implications for place managers and researchers are highlighted

Questioning Patterns during Discussions in Collaborative Groups in Socioeconomically Diverse High Schools

The use of higher level questioning is known to promote problem solving. However, the research on questioning patterns is mostly restricted to elementary and middle schools. Not enough is known about questioning patterns employed by students during group discussions in socioeconomically diverse high schools. This study’s goals were to record the questioning patterns used during group discussions and find out how often students utilize higher level thinking questions. The research showed significant increase in the percentage of higher level questions utilized by the experimental group pre-test and post-test: 85% in Day 4 compared to 65% in Day 1

Dynamic Geometry of Cubic Polynomial

Abstract In the paper we consider the dynamic behavior of the critical points of some cubic polynomials, with the motion of one of the roots of the polynomial along a given trajectory. Some dynamic property of polynomials is investigated. The statements about traces of critical points of some polynomials are proved. The equations of curves, on which critical points move, are obtained

Can a brief training intervention on schizophrenia and depression improve knowledge, attitudes and practices of primary healthcare workers? The experience in Armenia

International audienceBackgroundAlthough the World Health Organization has called for mental health services to be integrated into primary care, mental health remains in most countries, and especially in low- and middle-income countries, one of the most neglected topics in the training curriculum of frontline health workers. As a result, primary healthcare professionals leave medical and nursing schools with insufficient knowledge, and often with negative attitudes towards mental disorders.AimWe investigated the effect of a brief training intervention on schizophrenia and depression conducted among general practitioners and nurses in Armenia.MethodsTraining interventions were one-day, face-to-face, interactive workshops, including didactic presentations and discussions of case studies. We used a quasi-experimental design of the before/after type, to compare data on knowledge, attitudes and practices collected before and after the training sessions.ResultsMean scores for knowledge, attitudes and practices increased significantly (p < 0.001) among both nurses and GPs for both schizophrenia (111 GPs and 167 nurses) and depression (459 GPs and 197 nurses).ConclusionsOur experience suggests that a brief training intervention can result in significant improvements in knowledge, attitudes and practices among primary healthcare workers and could help improve mental health services