Both Sides of the Story: Communication Ethics in Mediatized Worlds

Current transformations in the media landscape are challenging contemporary communication and media ethics in at least 2 ways. First, digitization of the media creates new ethical problems that stimulate calls for a redefinition of the norms and values of public communication. Second, new instruments of web-based media observation introduce new possibilities for media (self-)regulation and accountability, thus complementing the initiatives of traditional institutions like press councils. The article retraces those conflicting developments by reference to 2 comparative studies, representing the diverging traditions of conventional communication ethics and media accountability research. In bridging over the conceptual gap between the 2 forms of research, the article develops new perspectives for ethical reflection in the mediatized worlds of the digital ag

Training or Improvisation? Citizen journalists and their educational backgrounds-a comparative view

While citizen journalists hope to bring new impulses to mass media performance, it is often asked whether they are adequately trained for the production of “newsworthy” stories. This paper focuses on educational aspects of citizen journalism, which, to date, have largely been disregarded by empirical research. A comparative analytical design illustrates the different ways in which citizen journalists acquire and develop the skills that are necessary to undertake journalistic activities in the different journalism cultures throughout Europe. The authors carried out a multi-national analysis in six European countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland). In each country, an extensive desk study helped to map the field of citizen journalism and highlight the most relevant examples. Semi-structured interviews with 54 practitioners in the field (representing different types of citizen journalism) made it possible to identify the alternative strategies that citizen journalists employ to prepare themselves for news production initiatives. The research demonstrates that the educational backgrounds of citizen journalists display differences as well as similarities—both within and across journalism cultures. While some of the actors in the field have a clear idea of what constitutes good journalism (and sometimes even aspire to work in a mainstream media organization), others seem to care little about journalistic standards and have only a vague idea about the identity of the profession. On the basis of these insights, the paper develops a typology of citizen journalists that takes into account both their education and their journalistic scope

On the Evidence of Non-Linear Structure in Canadian Unemployment.

In this paper, we focus on and examine the empirical evidence of non- linearity in aggregate Canadian unemployment. Contrary to the conclusion reached in Murray et al. (1993), and using a corrected for bias simple non-parametric test (SNT), we reject the null hypothesis of a linear structure for Canadian unemployment.Canada, Unemployment, Brock Dechert and Scheinkman (BDS) test, Simple Non-Paramteric Test (SNT), U-Statistics, Correlation Integral, Non-Linear Specification.

Testing and Estimating Persistence in Canadian Unemployment.

A vital implication of unemployment persistence applies to the Bank of Canada's disinflation policies since it adversely influences unemployment and considerably lengthens recessions. This paper tests for persistence in Canadian sectoral unemployment, using the modified rescaled-range test. Our results show evidence of persistence in sectoral unemployment that translates to persistence in aggregate unemployment. To quantify this aggregate-level persistence, we estimate it within the framework of Bayesian ARFIMA class of models. The results conclude that Canadian unemployment exhibits persistence in the short and intermediate run.ARFIMA, Fractional Integrated, Bayesian, Unemployment Persistence, Canada, Rescaled-Range Statistic

Can Sectoral Shifts Generate Persistent Unemployment in Real Business Cycle Models?

This paper extends the standard Real Business Cycle model to incorporate sectoral shifts in unemployment. Using relative sectoral technology and sectoral tastes shocks, combined with labor adjustment costs across sectors, we assess the possibility of generating persistent aggregate unemployment. Calibrated to Canadian data, the models suggest that the introduction of sectoral labor mobility with adjustment costs improves the ability of the standard real business cycle model to match the observed persistence in unemployment. Empirically, we estimated a Vector Auto-Regressive model and successfully matched the models' overshooting of labor. The results suggest that government policies aimed to alleviate the unemployment burden should pay closer attention to sectoral phenomena, specifically to sectoral labor mobility.Real Business Cycle (RBC), Sectoral Shocks, Unemployment Persistence, Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR), Blanchard-Quah (B-Q) Identification

Food for Thought: An Analysis of the Robenhausen Botanicals at the Milwaukee Public Museum

Museum collections excavated from archaeological sites represent an intersection of disciplines and provoke innovative approaches to the study of these material aspects of culture. Botanical collections of food remains in particular, provide an opportunity to interrogate the way in which culinary practices in the past are understood. The circum-Alpine lake dwelling complex of central Europe includes hundreds of archaeological sites dating to the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age; many of these sites are known for exceptional preservation of organic material due to a waterlogged, anaerobic environment. Robenhausen, located in eastern Switzerland was one of many lake dwellings discovered in the 19th century when these sites first became known to the archaeological community and the general public. Because of this early discovery date combined with a variety of other circumstances, material culture from this site and many others was part of an artifact diaspora which scattered objects from Robenhausen throughout museums in the U.S. and Europe. Artifacts from this site were rediscovered in the Milwaukee Public Museum’s permanent collection in the early 2000s and include over 8000 plant and food remains, most of which are carbonized and have remained intact for over a century since their removal from the site in Switzerland. This thesis uses a combination of approaches including scientific reporting, macrobotanical identification, experimental archaeology, and theoretical interpretation based in foodways research to interpret this collection of botanical remains. In addition, this project digitally reunites the food and botanicals from Robenhausen with those scattered throughout other museum collections and contributes to our understanding of the complex nature of foodways at the Robenhausen site during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age

Immortality and the Shape of a Poet’s Career

Someone confronted me once with an all-purpose generalization he had learned somewhere about poetry: all poems are about death. I, for my part, had supposed that many of them focused on life-in all its dizzying variety. To some extent, however, I had to admit that he had some of the greatest poets on his side. Many have claimed that poems exist as their creators\u27 assault on their own mortality. Poems may be about any number of topics, but all serve a similar purpose. They defy death. Not marble, nor the gilded monuments/ Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme, Shakespeare boasted in Sonnet 55. Robert Frost echoed his assertion-more guardedly, of course, when he wrote in his introduction to E. A. Robinson\u27s King Jasper that poems are all that matter. The utmost of ambition is to lodge a few poems where they will be hard to get rid of, to lodge a few irreducible bits. Other poets may express themselves even more modestly, but who can doubt that most hope to create one or more works of art that will survive them and partially sustain their memories? To this end they shape their verses to lodge them in other peoples\u27 minds, to make them memorable and sustainedly meaningful