Indecent images and defamatory meaning in late modern societies: taking ordinary, reasonable readers outside their ivory tower

The article scrutinises a libel case brought by a claimant against the public prosecuting authority in England and Wales, asking the court to determine as a preliminary issue the meaning of a Charging Announcement. This case is worth consideration because it illustrates how the arguably problematic interpretation of the offence of ‘making’ indecent images of children may extend beyond the dynamics of the criminal trial to colour the adjudication of civil disputes. The article also challenges the qualities of hypothetical referees in defamation cases, suggesting that they need to be determined based on a realistic rather than an idealistic view of late modern, multi-mediated societies. The Savile scandal and other high-profile child sexual abuse cases have cultivated a climate of mistrust in which the ordinary reader is reasonably (not unduly) suspicious and should not be expected in this context to favour a less defamatory meaning over a more defamatory one

Managers’ perception on public organizations’ performance and new public management during economic crises

Purpose: The main aim of this article is to evaluate the views of civil servants employed in a managerial position in the Greek Parliament, on whether the principles of the new public management would be more effective for the recent economic and financial crisis in Greece. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology includes the following: a literature review on the public sector specificities and the principles of the new public management; a primary research conducted as a case study with a structured questionnaire addressed to civil servants working at the Greek Parliament (sample of 20 managers). Findings: The main conclusion of the survey is that public managers believe that the principles of the new public management should be applied, and what is interesting is the fact that these views remain the same irrespective of the state of the economic crisis. Practical implications: The results can contribute to improve the effectiveness of public management, employee’s satisfaction and motivation so as to improve their work performance. Additionally, the study offers the possibility for a new legal framework in the Greek public sector concerning employee’s performance evaluation and rewarding. Originality/value: The study is unique in its origin as although it examines a well-known tool of public administration which is the new public management theory it is tested under the conditions of an economic crisis in the Greek Parliament from the point of view of a useful tool to get out of the crisis.peer-reviewe

Hulk Hogan and the demise of Gawker Media: wrestling with problems of celebrity voyeurism, newsworthiness and tabloidisation

The article uses the private-facts lawsuit of the retired wrestler Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media as a case study to look at the challenges of balancing the media’s freedom of expression and individuals' privacy in the contemporary celebrity-centred culture. It suggests that the verdict in the privacy suit reflects the jurors' profound disenchantment with the way in which freedom of expression was subverted in this case by the media organisation. It further adopts a comparative perspective that draws parallels and highlights differences between American and English privacy law. It explores Hogan's claim through the lens of the emerging English privacy jurisprudence and identifies important lessons to be learnt for the future of the newly developed tort of misuse of private information

Investigating the impact of individual user differences and environmental factors on spatial knowledge acquisition from virtual environments

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Trying to ‘learn’ the spatial layout of an environment is a common problem in certain application domains, such as military and emergency personnel training. Until recently this training was accomplished solely by providing maps and briefings of an environment. These methods, however, only provide topological (survey) knowledge of the environment, which pays little attention to the details of routes and landmarks that can only be acquired through the acquisition of procedural knowledge via navigation. Unlike previous experiments concerning spatial knowledge acquisition this work does not attempt to determine whether spatial knowledge acquisition is feasible. Such investigations have yielded a variety of results, yet all agree that spatial knowledge acquisition from a virtual environment is feasible if given enough exposure time. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis is to contribute towards a better understanding of how various individual differences and environmental factors impact the exposure time requirements needed for a person to acquire spatial knowledge from a virtual environment. Although the results of our investigation should be used with caution, we show that a one-size-fits-all situation is not possible when estimating the required exposure time that a user needs to acquire spatial knowledge. Moreover we provide a guide that allows a trainer to predict the required exposure time a person will require, by using the person's personal profile, and the environment's particular factors. In addition, we found that one of the tests we used during our investigation caused unnecessary frustration and confusion to our participants. This test is a standard way of finding a participant's orientation skill, and is commonly used in the area of spatial knowledge acquisition. Therefore, by recreating a new electronic version of the test and comparing the scores from both the new test and the old one our investigation showed that the scores on the new test were significantly higher for all participants. The training time was also lowered significantly. Our updated electronic version will be useful in future research. This test is available online at: www.newgztest.com

Bis(4,6-diaminopyrimidin-2-yl) disulfide dimethyl sufoxide disolvate

The title compound, C8H10N8S2·2C2H6SO, was obtained unintentionally during an attempt to prepare a thiol-ate derivative of trimethyl-tin. The complete disulfide mol-ecule is generated by twofold rotation symmetry and the C - S - S - C torsion angle around the S - S bond is -85.70 (10)°. The mol-ecules are connected via N - H⋯N hydrogen bonds into strongly corrugated layers parallel to (001), generating an R 2 2(8) motif. The solvent mol-ecule, which exhibits minor disorder of its S atom [site occupancies = 0.9591 (18) and 0.0409 (18)], is linked to this layer via a pair of N - H⋯O inter-actions

Intervention initiative programme - pilot evaluation

The report presented here refers to the preliminary findings of the evaluation of the pilot project with a group of Level 4 Applied Criminology students. Whilst it is acknowledged that these findings have limited statistical significance due to the small number of participants in the pilot project, some important trends can still be identified in the answers provided

Framing youth suicide in a multi-mediated world: the construction of the Bridgend problem in the British national press

This thesis is a case study of suicide reporting which investigates the contribution of the British national press to the construction of the Bridgend problem. It aims to provide an insight into journalists’ role in the ‘social problems game’ by assessing the level to which their post-2008 extensive Bridgend coverage rose concern over the issue and compelled an official response to it. To this end, the content of 451 relevant news reports was qualitatively analysed and in-depth interviews with 13 key claims-makers were conducted. The thesis documents the evolution of the Bridgend problem over time. The elements that added to the newsworthiness of the story and resulted in its transition from the local to the national press are identified and closely examined. The analysis of the national news coverage reveals the central role of ‘causality’ and ‘morality’ in the Bridgend narrative as well as four main frames through which the local suicide problem has been made sense of: ‘Internet Suicide’ raises questions about online memorials glamorising suicide, pro-suicide websites and the ‘dark side’ of the Internet in general. ‘Suicide Contagion’ considers the risk of imitative suicides posed by new or traditional media. ‘Breakdown Britain’ attributes the Bridgend phenomenon to local deprivation and a deeper social malaise. Finally, ‘Mental Health’ underlines the emotional vulnerability of young people, the stigmatisation of mental illness and the deficiencies in mental health care. Underlining the status of the Bridgend case as a point of reference, the final part of this project assesses its aftermath in terms of the immediate policy responses to it and its long-term implications. It is argued that, despite its commercial and ideological exploitation, the Bridgend situation has, even if belatedly, brought attention to the alarmingly high occurrence of youth suicides in the area, while highlighting the importance of responsible suicide coverage. The thesis concludes by suggesting that the links between suicide reporting, awareness and prevention need to be strengthened and considers the means through which this goal could be attained in the post-Leveson era

Crime, Deviance and Popular Culture: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives

This book explores the links between crime, deviance and popular culture in our highly-mediatised era, offering an insight into the cultural processes through which particular practices acquire a criminal or deviant status, and come to be seen as social problems. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the edited collection brings together international scholars across various areas of specialisation to provide an up-to-date analysis of some important and topical issues in 21st-century popular culture. The chapters look at different aspects of popular culture, including fictional detective narratives and the true crime genre, popular media constructions of sexual deviance and Islamophobia, sports, graffiti and outlaw biker subcultures. The authors examine a wide range of relevant case studies through a number of crime and deviance-related theories. Crime, Deviance and Popular Culture will be of importance to scholars and students across several disciplines, including criminology, sociology of deviance, social anthropology, media studies, cultural studies, television studies and linguistics