The politics of protest in newspaper campaigns: dissent, populism and the rhetoric of authenticity

Newspaper campaigns embody newspaper’ most emphatic claims to speak for ‘the people’, and as such are generally regarded as populist. However, they can be oppositional, engaging in dissent of one sort or another, and often assume a certain amount of political engagement with that dissent on the part of the audience. This article examines the potential of newspaper camapigns to facilitate the political engagement of citizens through the politics of protest. It draws on qualitative analysis of seven campaigns that ran in the Scottish press between 2000 and 2005, and semi-structured interviews with relevant journalists. The distinction between legitimate protest and manipulative populism is made in terms of: (a) the rhetoric and strategies of political representation, participation and influence and (b) the construction of political legitimacy in terms of the public interest and the moral authority of the ‘victim’. It is argued that populist impulses dominate, driving a tendency to use discourses of emotional authenticity and offence to legitimise demands for a plebiscitary response to popular of ‘victim’ preference and to close down controversy and debate, with the principal objective marketing the newspaper as an influential community champion

These Englands: or where does devolution leave the English?

Devolution to Scotland and Wales has not yet led to popular demand for a new constitutional settlement for England, but it has led to renewed debate about who the English are. One reason why the English find this a difficult question is that there is more than one construction of England with which to engage. This paper distinguishes four constructions, each with its distinctive orientation to time and place: Anglo-British England, Little England, English England and Cosmopolitan England. Each has its light and dark sides. Each also enjoys considerable currency, but none has an exclusive appeal. Cosmopolitan England may be thought to constitute the future, but the uneven cosmopolitanisation of the regions will continue to complicate the collective representation of England

The nations of Britain

Is Britain one nation, or many? Is it a nation with more than a thousand years of history, or "an invented nation", only as old as the 1707 union of England and Scotland? Is devolution to Scotland and Wales a step towards the eventual break-up of Britain? And today, what does it mean to be British? The Nations of Britain offers an up-to-date analysis of these questions, drawing on sociology, politics, history and cultural studies to give a thorough account of the national relationships that constitute modern Britain. The book is divided into sections focusing on Scotland, Wales and England, and also on the legacy of Empire, the British relationship with Ireland, Europe and the Commonwealth, and the future of the British union. In each of these sections recurrent themes such as cultural identity, multiculturalism, economy, policy and civil society are explored. The book examines different conceptions of England, Wales, Scotland and Britain, and suggests that the UK is constitutionally headed towards an asymmetrical federalism. This book will be a valuable resource for students and teachers of British politics and sociology, and for other readers interested in the future of Britain

George Soros's theory of reflexivity: a comparison with the theories of Giddens and Beck and a consideration of its practical value

George Soros has won recognition as one of the most successful financial speculators of all time and one of the most munificent philanthropists in the world today. He claims that his success is connected with his fallibilist philosophy and his heterodox economics. Economists have dismissed his ideas as variously bizarre or banal but for sociologists they should strike a chord as at their heart is a theory of reflexivity. The one sociologist to have recognized this is Anthony Giddens, but he has not attempted to assess whether Soros's theory of reflexivity deserves the academic credit he craves. This paper examines the origins and development of Soros's theory,and compares its elements with the main components of the theories of reflexivity of Giddens and of Ulrich Beck. There turns out to be little that is new to sociology in Soros's theory but some of it is strikingly formulated and it is far from banal – indeed it anticipates some recent research agendas in economics which challenge the rational expectations-efficient markets model. Soros has also treated it as a working hypothesis and subjected it to extraordinary tests in the interventions he has made in the money and stock markets. Perhaps Soros's best claims to academic credit pertain to his rejection of the self-separation of economics from the rest of the social sciences and his characterization of his epistemology as a reflexive theory of truth. In the end, however, it is the practical use Soros has made of his ideas that is most remarkable

Linux Keylogger

This bachelor's thesis collaborates on methods of logging key strokes in linux kernel in order to reveal secret passwords. Two methods are presented, both of which are useful for specific purpose. While the first one is effective in catching passwords typed in linux terminal environment, the other one intercepts every key stroke, even in a graphical user interface, and is designed to be working on the lowest level