Framing REDD+ in the Brazilian national media: how discourses evolved amid global negotiation uncertainties

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) in tropical countries is an important and contested element of the post-Kyoto climate regime. For policy options which generate controversy between diverse actor groups, such as REDD+, mass media plays an important role in defining and supporting policy possibilities. Analysis of the way in which national media frames issues of climate change and deforestation can offer insights into the nature of the contested domains of the REDD+ policy process. Here, we examine the Brazilian national media discourses surrounding REDD+ because it contributes to setting the tone of policy debates at the federal level. Specifically, we ask the following: (i) How was REDD+ portrayed in the Brazilian national print media and whose opinions and perceptions were represented? and (ii) How have media frames on REDD+ in the national print media changed over time? Our results contribute with new knowledge for understanding the observed progress of REDD+ in Brazil. We identify two main themes that dominate the focus in the national media coverage of REDD+, specifically “politics and policymaking” (representing half the coverage) and “economics and market” (with over a third). Results show that discussions around carbon markets were amongst the most contested and that optimism in relation to REDD+ effectiveness declined over time. The analysis suggests that positions adopted on the national REDD+ strategy were shaped by state and federal collision of interests. We demonstrate an evolution of national concerns from an initial focus on efficiency (e.g. finance and carbon markets) to a recentred focus on equity issues (e.g. implementation of safeguards). We conclude with some thoughts on the implications of these features for REDD+ interventions and implementation in Brazil

Towards illiberal conditioning? New politics of media regulations in Poland (2015–2018)

In this article, we examine how media policy changes aid de-democratisation in Poland. Unfolding the logic underpinning the new politics of media regulations, this article argues that media policy paints a nuanced picture of democratic backsliding. Our Foucault-inspired discourse analysis of media policy archive focuses on the rise of illiberal trends at the cross-roads of the Polish hybrid media system, democracy and society. We find these trends display the features of centralisation of power, cultural politics, political partisanship and social polarisations. We explain these notions, using the concepts of “executive aggrandisement” and “politicisation” of public service media sector

Serving the same interests: The Wood Green ricin plot, media–state–terror relations and the ‘terrorism’ dispositif

This article analyses the representations of terrorism that arise out of the BBC’s coverage of the Wood Green ricin plot (2003), the first instance of al-Qaeda-related activity in the United Kingdom during the “war on terror”. Inspired by the work Michel Foucault, the article suggests that the BBC’s representations form part of an emergent “terrorism” dispositif, or apparatus, which draws together seemingly disparate and antagonistic groups into a strategic, mutually-sustaining alliance. The analysis focuses on two weeks’ worth of BBC “News at Ten” bulletins, alongside speeches and press releases issued by the Prime Minister and statements released by al-Qaeda’s leadership. In particular, the article suggests that the BBC’s representations inadvertently work to the advantage of elements within al-Qaeda and the British executive due to the fact that they portray the Wood Green events in ways that are tactically useful to both groups. As such, the article not only provides substantive new empirical insights into the way representations of terrorism were mobilised in the build up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but also shows how Foucauldian concepts can provide creative and innovative analytical tools for understanding the dynamics of the contemporary media-state-terrorism relationship

A New Metric for Assessing Group Level Participation in Fluid Teams

Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2009This presentation was part of the session : Methods, Measures, and DataThis material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. ©2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.Equality of participation is an important factor in the success of multidisciplinary science teams. The typical measure, standard deviation, fails to provide unbiased estimates across groups of different sizes or within groups that change size over time. We propose a new metric of participation equality that takes into account real-world teams that have members come and go naturally over the course of a meeting. This new metric ranges from zero (entirely equal participation) to one (entirely dominated by a single person). This metric is at the group level and for whatever period of time the researcher specifies. Using 11 hours of transcribed utterances from informal, fluid, co-located meetings during the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, we computed this metric for 549 blocks of time. We found that this metric had good convergent validity via having strong positive correlations with both a standard deviation metric of words spoken and participation equality as assessed by two independent coders. It also had good discriminant validity by being uncorrelated with positive and negative affect words, including anxiety and sadness words. Furthermore, when only fluid groups were examined, it maintained a strong correlation with coder-assessed participation. Future research can take advantage of this metric in other settings where team membership is fluid and equality of participation is of interest.National Science Foundatio

Intragroup Conflict Under the Microscope: Micro-Conflicts in Naturalistic Team Discussions

We argue for the value of examining micro-conflicts, brief moment-by-moment disagreements in conversations, and present a test of a coding scheme for this construct. Conceptualized and measured as such, micro-conflicts are brief rather than long-lasting behaviors, observational rather than self-report, and do not rely on participant retrospection. Using video data from naturalistic multidisciplinary teams, we examined type of micro-conflicts, micro-conflict resolution, affect, and the effect of team characteristics. Logistic regression revealed that negative affect was uncommon for micro-conflicts but still negatively related to micro-conflict resolution. Process micro-conflicts were more prevalent early in teams’ life cycles and in groups that experienced more obstacles and frustrations. Future research using this micro-behavioral construct can link immediate cognitive and affective consequences and antecedents to these micro-disagreements. It is possible that micro-conflicts, as minute behaviors, may be less emotionally intense and more easily resolved and thus have different implications, predictors, and correlates than macro-, self-reported conflicts