ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION AND ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS: THE MONITORING ROLE OF MEDIA

This paper analyzes an electoral game where candidates have private information on their own types. Candidates propose non-binding platforms and run for office. Voters make inferences on the politicians' types and cast their votes. We show that in this set-up, the existence of a media industry is desirable, as it improves the quality of the political game by increasing the accuracy of the candidates' signals. In particular, it induces politicians to discard the use of pooling strategies. We show that this monitoring role of the media is more likely to appear in societies with large numbers of swing voters, or with great competition among the media. We do this analysis in a context of a neutral media. We also analyze the case of an ideological media and show that ideology is not harmful per se, but the possibility of asymmetries in the support of different candidates may well be.Uncertainty, electoral campaigns, media.

BOOK REVIEW OF THE NOTEBOOK WRITTEN BY NICHOLAS SPARKS

Final Project ini berjudul “Book Review of The Notebook written by Nicholas Sparks”. Final project ini bertujuan untuk mereview dan membahas kelemahan serta kelebihan dari novel The Notebook. Permasalahan yang dibahas dalam novel ini adalah tentang pejuangan cinta dari kedua tokoh utama untuk dapat bersatu kembali walaupun mereka sudah terpisah jarak dan waktu. Dalam mengerjakan final project ini, penulis memperoleh data data dengan melakukan studi kepustakaan di perpustakaan serta melalui berbagai referensi melalui website, termasuk website resmi dari sang penulis. Dari hasil penganalisaan, dapat dismpulkan bahwa perjuangan kedua tokoh utama untuk mendapatkan cinta mereka kembali memanglah tidak mudah, karena harus melalui berbagai macam rintangan dan halangan, bahkan di penghujung cerita, tokoh utama pria juga sempat akan kehilangan pujaan hatinya, walau akhirnya mereka bisa kembali bersatu. Final project ini dibagi menjadi 4 bagian dimana pada Bab I dibahas pendahuluan yang terdiri dari latar belakang penulisan, tujuan dari penulisan final project ini serta tercantum biografi dari penulis novel. Pada Bab II dituliskan ringkasan dari novel yang akan dibahas. Sedangkan pada Bab III, terdapat review keseluruhan yang membahas kelebihan dan kekurangan dari novel The Notebook serta terdapat pula pembahasan mengenai motif yang dipakai dalam novel tersebut. Akhir dari analisis final project ini terangkum pada kesimpulan yang terdapat pada Bab IV di akhir bagian final project ini

WHAT DO MEDIA OUTLETS COMPETE FOR?

This paper studies broadcasting competition, considering not only television stations that maximize profits but stations that want to influence voters. Following two strands of the psychological literature, we argue that media exert influence on two different ways: (i) they can reinforce viewers in their prior opinions, (ii) they can modify viewers' attitudes. We consider agents who flip through the outlets according to pleasantness. In this context, we show that the aim of maximizing profits and the objective of political influence result in different equilibrium ideological locations. This is so since the economic aspect pushes television stations to locate closer and political considerations lead them to polarize their locations. We also show that both results do not depend on the way media exert influence, but they do on the fact that viewers do channel hopping. In particular, we observe that, due to channel hopping, the equilibrium outcome may not be represented by the median viewer location when stations maximize profits and a extreme polarization arises when outlets aim is to maximize political influence.Television, channel hopping, audience

Media bias and electoral competition

This paper examines the incentives of ideological media outlets to acquire costly information in a context of asymmetric information between political parties and voters. We consider two market structures: a monopoly media market and a duopoly one. We show that if each party has the support of a media, either party has the same probability of winning the election. However, if just one of the parties has the support of the media, the results might well change, as this party will get into office with a higher probability than the other party. We also analyze voters' welfare in this context and show that the important aspect is whether a media industry exists, and not the number of media outlets.Election, Accountability, Media, Bias

Media Competition and Information Disclosure

This paper analyzes an election game where self-interested politicians can exploit the lack of information that voters have about candidates' preferred policies in order to pursue their own agendas. In such a setup, we study the incentives of newspapers to acquire costly information, and how competition among the media affect such incentives. We show that the higher the number of potential readers and/or the lower the cost or investigating, the more the newspapers investigate. We also show that the readers' purchasing habits play a crucial role in the model. More specifically, we show that if the readers always buy a newspaper, media competition favors information disclosure; whereas if they just buy a newspaper in the case news are uncovered, competition is not so desirable.Media competition, Political accountability, Information

PERLINDUNGAN HUKUM BAGI KONSUMEN TERHADAP PENGGUNAAN PERJANJIAN BAKU DALAM PERJANJIAN PENGIRIMAN BARANG (STUDI PADA PT. JALUR NUGRAHA EKAKURIR)

Perjanjian pengiriman barang melibatkan pengirim atau pemilik barang dan perusahaan pengiriman barang sebagai pengangkut. Perjanjian pengiriman barang yang dibuat akan menimbulkan hak, kewajiban serta tanggung jawab yang berbeda dari masing-masing pihak. Hak, kewajiban dan tanggung jawab ini harus dipenuhi oleh masing-masing pihak. Manakala terjadi suatu kelalaian atau wanprestasi yang mengakibatkan suatu kerugian maka pihak yang dirugikan berhak menunutut ganti rugi. Jika timbul suatu masalah dimana masalah tersebut tidak bisa terselesaikan sendiri oleh masing-masing pihak maka masalah tersebut akan diselesaikan melalui pengadilan setempat. Hal inilah yang menjadi dasar pemikiran untuk melakukan penelitian dengan menjawab permasalahan, mengapa dalam pelaksanaan perjanjian pengiriman barang antara konsumen dengan PT. Jalur Nugraha Ekakurir menggunakan perjanjian baku? Bagaimana tanggung jawab pengangkut dalam pelaksanaan perjanjian pengangkutan? dan bagaimana perlindungan hukum terhadap konsumen akibat hilang atau rusaknya barang dalam perjanjian pengiriman barang antara PT. Jalur Nugraha Ekakurir dengan Konsumen? Metode penelitian dalam penelitian ini bersifat deskriptif dengan menggunakan pendekatan yuridis empiris. Sumber data diperoleh dengan mengumpulan data primer dan data sekunder. Data primer diperoleh dengan melakukan wawancara dengan informan. Sedangkan data sekunder diperoleh melalui bahan hukum primer, bahan hukum sekunder dan bahan hukum tertier. Alat pengumpulan data yang digunakan di dalam penelitian ini adalah studi dokumen dan wawancara, yang selanjutnya data dianalisis secara kualitatif. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian diketahui bahwa perjanjian baku dalam perjanjian pengangkutan di perusahaan PT. Jalur Nugraha Ekakurir tidak sesuai dengan asas kebebasan berkontrak karena kedudukan pihak pengirim tidak seimbang, sehingga tidak ada kebebasan pengirim untuk menentukan isi perjanjian. Dalam perjanjian baku yang dibuat, pihak perusahaan PT. Jalur Nugraha Ekakurir telah menentukan secara sepihak tanggung jawabnya mengenai ganti rugi. Selain itu, dalam perjanjian baku pengiriman barang tidak memberi perlindungan hukum kepada pihak pengirim (konsumen), sehingga dalam hal ini pihak pengirim (konsumen) merasa dirugikan

Mapping a Pup-responsive Pathway from the Medial Preoptic Area to the Ventral Tegmental Area.

Maternal behavior is the complex array of caregiving behaviors females display towards offspring. In rats, the transition to motherhood depends on the action of various hormones, especially estradiol near parturition, which primes the maternal circuitry to respond to pups upon first encounter at parturition with appropriate maternal behavior. Although virgin rats avoid pups, new mothers are highly motivated to interact with pups, and their maternal behavior depends on the functional interaction between the medial preoptic area (mPOA) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). However, a precise mapping of the VTA-projecting mPOA neurons remains to be elucidated. To determine whether pup-responsive neurons in the mPOA project to the VTA, we injected the retrograde tracer Fluorogold (FG) into the VTA of new mother and virgin female rats. Six days later, females were exposed to 3 pups for 5 minutes, and their brains processed to visualize FG and c-Fos immunostaining. In addition, we further characterized the molecular phenotype of these neurons by performing immunohistochemistry against estrogen receptor alpha (Esr1). As expected, the behavior of postpartum and virgin females toward pups was different. Mothers readily approached pups and displayed maternal behavior, whereas virgins avoided interaction with pups. Despite these disparate responses to pups, no differences were found in the number and distribution of mPOAc-Fos→VTA neurons. In addition, in both postpartum and virgin females, a significant proportion of these pup-responsive mPOA→VTA projecting neurons also express Esr1. Further functional interrogation of these c-Fos+/Esr1+ mPOA→VTA neurons in virgins and mothers might elucidate distinct circuit dynamics potentially underlying their behavioral differences towards pups

Voting in small networks with cross-pressure

We present a model of participation in elections in small networks, in which citizens su¤er from cross-pressures if voting against the alternative preferred by some of their social contacts. We analyze how the existence of cross-pressures may shape voting decisions, and so, political outcomes; and how candidates may exploit this e¤ect to their interest.Network; Voting; Cross-Cutting.