Not big brand names but corner shops: marketing politics to a disengaged electorate

Does New Labour’s model of a centrally orchestrated and national-centric political communication strategy effectively engage the electorate? Drawing on interviews with those active in politics “on the ground,” this paper argues that the centralised party model has become unpopular. Furthermore, as these activists tell us, the model is also causing the electorate to reject the democratic process and become apathetic about the political system. Many in Britain, therefore, look to a more locally focussed model, one that has proved successful for the Liberal Democrat party. This model allows communication to be managed at the local level and for the candidate to interact with the local context. An effectively marketed, locally contextualised strategy allows politics to connect with the electorate and, we would suggest, will become more widespread with the realisation that top-down politics does not engage with voters

The Populist Communication Style: Toward a Critical Framework

This article seeks to understand the advance and allure of populism and the populist communication style in the era of mediatization. It proposes a critical framework based on three categories—identity construction, rhetorical style, and relationship with media—to assess the relevant features of the communicative styles of specific populist actors of right and left, in power relations, in their own settings and time. The framework is employed to assess the communicative styles of left-wing late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and former right-wing leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party Nigel Farage—two political actors who would not usually be considered as likely populist bedfellows

Turkey as 'a positive other': a theoretical discussion to comprehend the British media's view on Turkey-EU relations

No country has waited at the front door of the EU as long as Turkey. In addition to Turkey’s different status compared to the EU membership candidacy processes of other countries, there is also an awkward relationship between the EU and the UK, and inevitably the British media. Therefore, this article seeks to present an analytical framework which draws on the notion of ‘a positive Other’ while explaining the representation of Turkey’s EU bid in the British media. The research discusses the inadequacy of Orientalism and the Self/Other nexus to understand the context in the British coverage and highlights the ‘essentialist’ and ‘functionalist’ approaches in its attempt to explain the differences within the EU in exploring the fundamentals of the EU and the view on Turkish membership

Radiofrequency thermal ablation of giant placental chorioangioma complicated with fetal hydrops: a case report and successful outcome

ObjectivesChorioangiomas are the most frequently occurring type of benign tumour of the placenta. However, large chorioangiomas greater than 4 cm are rare and can be more frequently associated with serious complications such as: polyhydramnios, hydrops fetalis, fetal anaemia, intrauterine growth restriction, preterm birth, and an increased risk of perinatal mortality. Importantly timely prenatal diagnosis with close surveillance alongside potential intrauterine intervention can prove impactful on pregnancy outcome and fetal survival.Case presentationWe present a case of a 36-year-old female referred to our tertiary fetal medicine unit at 28 weeks’ gestation with a large chorioangioma measuring 9.4×8.8×5.5 cm and ultrasonographic evidence of severe fetal anaemia and fetal hydrops. The patient underwent an intrauterine transfusion and in utero surgical therapy with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Immediately following the procedure, the fetus sustained a period of bradycardia, followed by asystole. Delivery was expedited via emergency caesarean section. Careful planning and rapid delivery after fetal intervention within the most appropriate surgical setting mitigated risks for the baby and resulted in a positive outcome. The baby was discharged from the neonatal unit on day 84 of life.ConclusionsLarge placental chorioangiomas are a rare occurrence, however, when associated with fetal complications present a high incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes. In utero interventions require careful planning and surgical expertise to ensure improved fetal and neonatal outcomes. To the best of our knowledge this case is the first recorded instance of a successful postnatal outcome following RFA for a large placental chorioangioma, whereby the fetus was complicated by fetal hydrops

Political Communication

The term "strategic communication" traditionally has been understood as referring to external corporate communication, such as public relations, marketing communication, and advertising, with insufficient consideration beyond its role as a tool of persuasive influence. In recent years, however, the field of strategic communication has evolved to be more holistic in its approach and its role within sociocultural contexts. Articles, textbooks, and handbooks have attempted to define the scope, purpose, and nature of the concept, but as the first major comprehensive work of its kind, The International Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication captures the full scope of contemporary theory and practice in strategic communication.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Substantiating a political public sphere in the Scottish press : a comparative analysis

This article uses content analysis to characterize the performance of the media in a national public sphere, by setting apart those qualities that typify internal press coverage of a political event. The article looks at the coverage of the 1999 devolved Scottish election from the day before the election until the day after. It uses a word count to measure the election material in Scottish newspapers the Herald, the Press and Journal and the Scotsman, and United Kingdom newspapers the Guardian, the Independent and The Times, and categorizes that material according to discourse type, day and page selection. The article finds a number of qualities that typify the Scottish sample in particular, and might be broadly indicative of a political public sphere in action. Firstly, and not unexpectedly, it finds that the Scottish newspapers carry significantly more election coverage. Just as tellingly, though, the article finds that the Scottish papers offer a greater proportion of advice and background information, in the form of opinion columns and feature articles. It also finds that the Scottish papers place a greater concentration of both informative and evaluative material in the period before the vote, consistent with their making a contribution to informed political action. Lastly, the article finds that the Scottish sample situates coverage nearer the front of the paper and places a greater proportion on recto pages. The article therefore argues that the Scottish papers display features that distinguish them from the UK papers, and are broadly consistent with their forming part of a deliberative public sphere, and suggests that these qualities might be explored as a means of judging future media performance

Public engagement in local government: the voice and influence of citizens in online communicative spaces

The communications and engagement strategies of local councils play an important role in contributing to the public's understanding of local democracies, and their engagement with local issues. Based on a study of the local authority in the third largest city in the UK, Leeds, this article presents an empirically based analysis of the impact of new opportunities for public engagement afforded by digital media on the Council's communication with citizens. Drawing on over 20 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with elected politicians, Council strategists, Council communications specialists, mainstream journalists, and citizen journalists, the article explores perceptions of the Council's engagement and communication with citizens from the perspective of a range of actors involved in the engagement process. The research asks what the differing motivations behind the Council's communications and engagement strategies mean for the way that digital media are and might be used in the future to enhance the role of citizens in local governance. The research suggests that while there are no grounds for expecting digital media to displace existing channels of public engagement, digital media are beginning to play an important role in defining and reconfiguring the role of citizens within local governance

Paedophiles in the community: inter-agency conflict, news leaks and the local press

This article explores the leaking of confidential information about secret Home Office plans to house convicted paedophiles within a local community (albeit inside a prison). It argues that a politics of paedophilia has emerged in which inter-agency consensus on the issue of ‘what to do’ with high-profile sex offenders has broken down. Accordingly, the article situates newspaper ‘outing’ of paedophiles in the community in relation to vigilante journalism and leaked information from official agencies. The article then presents research findings from a case study of news events set in train following a whistle-blowing reaction by Prison Officers’ Association officials to Home Office plans. Drawing from a corpus of 10 interviews with journalists and key protagonists in the story, the article discusses both the dynamics of whistle blowing about paedophiles and also what happens after the whistle has blown

The professionals speak: Practitioners’ perspectives on professional election campaigning

Faced with some fundamental changes in the socio-cultural, political and media environment, political parties in post-industrialized democracies have started to initiate substantial transformations of both their organizational structures and communicative practices. Those innovations, described as professionalization, become most obvious during election campaigns. In recent times, the number of empirical studies measuring the degree of political parties’ campaign professionalism has grown. They have relied on a broad spectrum of indicators derived from theory which have not been tested for their validity. For the first time, we put these indicators to a ‘reality check’ by asking top-ranked party secretaries and campaign managers in 12 European countries to offer their perceptions of professional election campaigning. Furthermore, we investigate whether any differences in understanding professionalism among party campaign practitioners can be explained by macro (country) and meso (party) factors. By and large, our results confirm the validity of most indicators applied in empirical studies on campaign professionalism so far. There are some party- and country-related differences in assessing campaign professionalism too, but the influence of most factors on practitioners’ evaluations is weak. Therefore, we conclude that largely there is a far-reaching European Union-wide common understanding of professional election campaigning

Science competitions using technology: a study of the behavior of the participating schools in the CNC in Portugal

Neste trabalho investiga-se a dinâmica de escolas do 3º ciclo do Ensino Básico em Portugal, na preparação e participação em uma competição desenvolvida em ambiente computacional sobre conteúdos curriculares de Matemática, Português, Físico-Química e Geologia. Foi realizada uma análise fatorial exploratória de dados empíricos relativos às 143 escolas participantes nas competições realizadas em 2015, analisando-se as suas caraterísticas de atuação. Foram identificados quatro fatores latentes descrevendo o comportamento das escolas: Treino quantitativo, Treino qualitativo, Prestação e Utilizadores, constatando-se que: (i) a participação na competição de Matemática é predominante; (ii) escolas participantes em duas ou três competições apresentam diferentes dinâmicas de preparação; (iii) escolas que participam apenas em Matemática e Físico-Química parecem adotar estratégias pedagógicas mais articuladas e eficientes. Reconhece-se que, embora as escolas participantes desenvolvam trabalhos de preparação, existe uma tendência para as escolas apresentarem estratégias distintas de atuação consoante a combinação de grupos disciplinares presentes nas competições oficiais.In this work we investigate the dynamics of 143 schools of the 3rd cycle of Basic Education in Portugal, regarding the preparation and participation in online science competitions on curricular contents of Mathematics, Portuguese, Physics and Chemistry and Geology. An exploratory factorial analysis of empirical data concerning the competitions in 2015 was carried out, to analyze the characteristics inherent to schools’ performance. Four latent factors describing the schools’ behavior were identified: Quantitative Training, Qualitative Training, Proficiency and Users, which allowed us to verify that: (i) participation in mathematics competition is predominant; (ii) schools participating in two or three competitions present different preparation dynamics; (iii) schools involved only in Mathematics and Physics and Chemistry competitions seem to adopt a more articulated and efficient pedagogical strategy. Although all schools develop a preparatory work before competitions, the strategies used seem to be related to the combination of distinct disciplinary groups participating in the competitions.Trabalho subsidiado por fundos portugueses através do Centro de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Matemática e Aplicações (CIDMA) da Universidade de Aveiro, e da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), dentro do projeto UID/MAT/04106/2013.publishe