How News Type Matters:Indirect Effects of Media Use on Political Participation Through Knowledge and Efficacy

Today, citizens have the possibility to use many different types of news media and participate politically in various ways. This study examines how use of different news types (hard and soft TV news as well as printed and online versions of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers) indirectly affects changes in offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy during nonelection and election time. We use a four-wave national panel survey from Denmark (N = 2,649) and show that use of hard TV news and broadsheets as well as online tabloids positively affects changes in both offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy. Use of soft TV news and printed tabloids has a negative indirect effect. These results are more pronounced for online political participation and during election time. However, use of soft TV news also has a positive direct effect on changes in political participation, which suggests a positive impact via other processes

The Engaging Effect of Exemplars: How an Emotional Reaction to (Dis)Similar People in the News Media Affects Political Participation

Journalists use ordinary people as exemplars in their news stories to make their reports more interesting and understandable for the audience. This journalistic practice has often been discussed as a potential democratic problem because of its effects on perceptions of and attitudes toward political issues. Taking exemplification theory as our starting point and drawing on research from decision-making and social psychology literature, we add to this discussion by examining how exemplars in news reports affect intentions to participate in political activities. Using an experimental design, we randomly exposed respondents to a news report with or without exemplars or no news report at all. We found that for respondents who were similar to the exemplars, exposure to a news report with exemplars triggered an empathic concern and increased political participation intentions. For dissimilar respondents, exposure to a news report with exemplars decreased empathic concern, which in turn decreased political participation intentions. By highlighting these differential effects of exemplars in the news media on political participation, the study shows how a common journalistic practice potentially engages some citizens in democracy and disengages others

Data recording in performance management : trouble with the logics

In recent years, performance management (PM) has become a buzzword in public sector organizations.Well-functioning PM systems rely on valid performance data, but critics point out thatconflicting rationale or logic among professional staff in recording information can undermine thequality of the data. Based on a case study of social service staff members, the authors explore threerecording logics. The findings reveal a complexity of recording behavior and show how frontline staffshift between recording logics according to the situation. The actual data recordings depend notonly on the overall logic but also on factors such as attitudes, assumptions, and motives. The authorssuggest that shifting recording logics weaken the validity of performance data. These shifts underminethe idea of PM as a trustworthy strategy to bridge the gap between professional and managerialstaff, as well as the possibility of a well-informed management

Measuring Price Effects of Concentration in Mixed Oligopoly: An Application to the Swedish Beef-slaughter Industry

mixed oligopoly, cooperatives and investor-owned firms, concentration, market power, cost efficiency, Swedish beef market, NEIO, L11, L13, Q13,

Introduction – LGBT Questions and the Family

The past decades have seen significant changes in the way non heterosexual sexualities are regulated in European countries. In a moment of ongoing transitions, the interdisciplinary research presented focuses on aspects related to homosexuals rights and the way LGBT individuals deal and perceive the impact that the presence (or absence) of laws has on their intimate lives.The evolutions in family rights in European laws and the balance towards equal rights, whether you are homosexual or heterosexual, are first detailed with an analysis of typical sequences found in a legal survey.Demographic analyses enrich these aspects in dealing with registration and parenting. Statistical analyses of same-sex partnerships and same-sex marriages show frequencies of registration together with a focus on parenting linked to the partnership status.In the next chapters, same-sex families are specifically studied in their daily life in France, Iceland and Italy through qualitative data. It investigates from a legal point of view and from a social perspective, what is at stake in the changing life of homosexuals in the field of parenting, what brings to everyday life the support of the law and what its absence implies.The Postface opens towards the future of LGBT research