Accountability and Transparency of Entrepreneurial Journalism: Unresolved ethical issues in crowdfunded journalism projects

Crowdfunding is a new business model in which journalists rely—and depend—on (micro-) payments by a large number of supporters to finance their reporting. In this form of entrepreneurial journalism the roles of publisher, fundraiser and journalist often overlap. This raises questions about conflicts of interest, accountability and transparency. The article presents the results of selected case studies in four different European countries—Germany (Krautreporter), Italy (Occhidellaguerra), the United Kingdom (Contributoria) and the Netherlands (De Correspondent)—as well as one US example (Kickstarter). The study used a two-step methodological approach: first a content analysis of the websites and the Twitter accounts with regard to practices of media accountability, transparency and user participation was undertaken. The aim was to investigate how far ethical challenges in crowdfunded entrepreneurial journalism are accounted for. Second, we present findings from semi-structured interviews with journalists from each crowdfunding. The study provides evidence about the ethical issues in this area, particularly in relation to production transparency and responsiveness. The study also shows that in some cases of crowdfunding (platforms), accountability is outsourced and implemented only through the audience participation

Embodied Discourses of Literacy in the Lives of Two Preservice Teachers

This study examines the emerging teacher literacy identities of Ian and A.J., two preservice teachers in a graduate teacher education program in the United States. Using a poststructural feminisms theoretical framework, the study illustrates the embodiment of literacy pedagogy discourses in relation to the literacy courses’ discourse of comprehensive literacy and the literacy biographical discourses of Ian and A.J. The results of this study indicate the need to deconstruct how the discourse of comprehensive literacy limits how we, as literacy teacher educators, position, hear and respond to our preservice teachers and suggests the need for differentiation in our teacher education literacy courses

Vanbrugh, Blenheim Palace, and the meanings of baroque architecture

Blenheim Palace, designed for the 1st Duke of Marlborough by Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, is not only an outstanding exemplar of English baroque architecture, and also one of the best documented; yet it has not been the subject of focussed monographic study since the 1950s. In this thesis I reconsider the design and construction of Blenheim between 1705 and 1712, in an attempt to shed light on its historical meanings that it was originally intended to embody. In my first chapter, I introduce Marlborough and Vanbrugh, arguing that both built careers by exploiting the implicit exchange between service and reward at the heart of early modern court life. In my second chapter, I explore how Vanbrugh, with Hawksmoor’s increasingly important assistance, set about designing Marlborough a ‘martial’ and ‘magnificent’ residence suited to his roles as Queen Anne’s leading courtier and most successful general. In my third chapter I argue that the standard accounts misrepresent the chronology of important aspects of Blenheim’s design and construction, obscuring the existence of a highly cohesive phase of enlargement and aggrandisement in 1707. In my fourth chapter, I suggest that this transformation can be linked, circumstantially and chronologically, to the effects of Marlborough’s military victories of 1706 and, especially, to his elevation to the rank of sovereign prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Offering an alternative to some recent iconographic approaches to the palace, I show how the palace’s sculptural programme was designed to reflect and consolidate this exceptional status. Taken together, these findings significantly refine, and in some respects revise, our basic knowledge of the design and construction of Blenheim, and also reveal with new clarity the extent to which English ‘baroque’ architecture must be understood in the context of early modern English—indeed, European—court culture

Restoring the ‘Georgian House’: Architecture, Politics, and Identity in 1970s Edinburgh

The National Trust for Scotland’s restoration of 7 Charlotte Square as a museum of the Georgian New Town was both more and less than an exemplary restoration of a townhouse at the centre of Robert Adam's great neoclassical urban set piece. It was conceived and executed in 1972-5, a moment pregnant with significance for Scotland’s – and the United Kingdom’s – political and cultural identity. Lord Kilbrandon’s Commission on the Constitution was about to report and was widely expected to usher in dramatic changes to the relationship between Scotland and the wider Union. At the same time negotiations for the UK’s entry into the then European Community were on the point of bearing fruit. Completion of the restoration was, moreover, timed to coincide with European Architectural Heritage Year and with the UK’s first European referendum. This paper will set the creation of the ‘Georgian House’ in this exceptional context, exploring how it became the vehicle for a distinctive vision of Scotland’s past and future, and then setting out the consequences – and the many compromises to good practice – that resulted from this unavowed but omnipresent agenda. In particular, it will show how the National Trust for Scotland’s leaders – almost all drawn from the country’s well-connected social elite – sought to make use of the prestige of eighteenth-century taste and cultural achievement to carve out a new place for Scotland’s cultural and spiritual heritage, and, perhaps no less importantly, for themselves, in a rapidly changing world

Army Re-Organisation: With Special Reference to the Infantry of the Line and Militia

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Understanding Museum Heritage Estate Management

A mixed method of an online survey and depth telephone interviews was used to collect information from a sample of ACE Accredited museums in England with a listed estate. The research was steered by a partnership of HE, ACE, NLHF and DCMS. The information concerned the challenges and competing pressures faced by museums in maintaining their listed estate, the value and nature of recent and planned maintenance, and the scale of the backlog. In total, 101 museums participated with cases studies developed based on nine of those museums

Conductivity and Microstructure of Combinatorially Sputter-Deposited Ta–Ti–Al Nitride Thin Films

Materials with long-term durability and electrical conductivity at low pH (<2) and high potentials (∼1.4 V vs RHE) are of great interest as catalyst supports in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. We have evaluated Ta–Ti–Al nitrides for this purpose. Combinatorial sputter-deposition of Ta–Ti–Al nitride thin films allowed the composition of these films to be varied spatially over a substrate at ∼1 atomic %/mm, enabling the investigation of the conductivity and microstructure of these materials over a wide range of compositions. Conductive probe atomic force microscopy (cp-AFM) is shown to facilitate high-throughput screening of electrical conductivity as a function of composition. Local, tip-induced oxidation of the film indicated that films annealed in the presence of oxygen were most resistant to oxidation-induced losses of conductivity. Ti-rich compositions exhibited conductivities similar to carbon black and best retained their conductivity after tip-induced oxidation. Small amounts of Ti (∼20 atomic %) were sufficient to impart desired conductivities to compositions rich in Ta and Al, which without Ti exhibited insulating behavior. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) imaging revealed the formation of a <2 nm oxide layer at the surface of the nitride films, which is expected to make these materials more durable. Remarkably, high conductivities were observed in the presence of this oxide layer. Segregation of elements was observed at sub-10-nm length scales, yet mapping the lattice constant of the film with X-ray diffraction showed that the majority phase is a well-mixed alloy with a lattice constant that varies smoothly over the entire range of compositions. The rock-salt structure was observed at all compositions except those with high levels of Al