20 research outputs found
Populist communication in the new media environment: a cross-regional comparative perspective
The changing terms of mediation place new demands, opportunities and risks on the performance of the political persona. Visibility has become a double-edged sword, leaving representatives vulnerable to exposure while new tools provide opportunities for emerging entrepreneurial actors. This double risk to elitesâ mediated personasâexposure and challenge from entrepreneursârenders their armour of authenticity dangerously fragile, which nourishes a public sense of being inefïŹcaciously represented. It is this climate in which populism currently ïŹourishes around the globe. Three primary criteria of mediated self-representation by politiciansâvisibility, authenticity and efïŹcacyâform the focus of this paper: how do populists negotiate such demands in different democratic contexts, and wherein lies the symbiosis between populism and the new media environment suggested by the literature? To answer this, the paper compares two populist cases responding to different democratic contexts: UKIP, a right-wing party from an established democracy (UK), and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-wing party from a transitional democracy (South Africa). The objects of study are disruptive performances by these parties, which are considered emblematic manifestations of populist ideology as they establish a Manichaean relationship between the elite and populist actors who embody the people. The paper introduces disruption as a multi-faceted and signiïŹcant analytical concept to explain the populist behaviour and strategies that underlie populist partiesâ responses to the demands for visibility, authenticity and efïŹcacy that the new media environment places upon political representatives. Using mixed methods with an interpretive focus, the paper paints a rich picture of the contexts, meanings and means of construction of populist performances
An ultrahot Neptune in the Neptune desert
About one out of 200 Sun-like stars has a planet with an orbital period
shorter than one day: an ultra-short-period planet (Sanchis-ojeda et al. 2014;
Winn et al. 2018). All of the previously known ultra-short-period planets are
either hot Jupiters, with sizes above 10 Earth radii (Re), or apparently rocky
planets smaller than 2 Re. Such lack of planets of intermediate size (the "hot
Neptune desert") has been interpreted as the inability of low-mass planets to
retain any hydrogen/helium (H/He) envelope in the face of strong stellar
irradiation. Here, we report the discovery of an ultra-short-period planet with
a radius of 4.6 Re and a mass of 29 Me, firmly in the hot Neptune desert. Data
from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Ricker et al. 2015) revealed
transits of the bright Sun-like star \starname\, every 0.79 days. The planet's
mean density is similar to that of Neptune, and according to thermal evolution
models, it has a H/He-rich envelope constituting 9.0^(+2.7)_(-2.9)% of the
total mass. With an equilibrium temperature around 2000 K, it is unclear how
this "ultra-hot Neptune" managed to retain such an envelope. Follow-up
observations of the planet's atmosphere to better understand its origin and
physical nature will be facilitated by the star's brightness (Vmag=9.8)
Resilience building for pre-service teachers: BRiTE, micro-teaching and augmented reality/simulation (BRiTE-AR)
Initial teacher education predominately spends time preparing student teachers to plan, teach and assess the cognitive and social development of children within the classroom. Yet, the role of a teacher expands well beyond classroom experiences and at times includes conflict and stressful situations. How do ITE programs cater for these critical learning incidences? Augmented realities such as âhuman in the loopâ simulation and virtual learning environments provide current ITE programs a solution to this contemporary need and context. This paper is underpinned conceptually by Pedagogies of Practice: representation, decomposition and approximations actualised through new technologies, reflective practice strategies and challenging learning experiences. The interconnectivity between BRiTE modules (representations), Microteaching 2.0 (decomposition) and Simlabâą experiences (approximation) provides a unique approach that supports the development of resilience for our future teacher educators. The findings reveal an increased self-efficacy amongst the cohort and personal confidence in their own resilience capabilities. The reflective practice strategies embedded in the BRiTE-AR pedagogy of practices are offered as a possible solution to ITE educators interested in developing resilience in our future teachers