The Senior Communicator of the Future – Competencies and Training Needs

Sanchez (2005) proposed the future leading communicator as: “the true professional [who] will be an adroit strategist, a creative technician and a skilled facilitator – a friend of technology and an exponent of life-long learning. The future is a global voyage into the art and science of communication, where the successful communicator will be like the men and women of the Renaissance, pulling it all together, but in the high tech environment of the 21st century.” (pp.10-11) Since the 1980s, starting from Broom and Dozier’s seminal studies on the nature of public relations employment and professionalism, there has been discussion of the career paths, competencies and training needs of public relations and corporate communication professionals. More recently, the Arthur W. Page Society (2007) has scoped the role of the Chief Communication Officer’s role in the Authentic Enterprise which placed the communicator at C-Level (Executive Board) or close to it (the marzipan layer) of the corporation. The research to be reported in this paper analyses the responses of leading European and international senior-level communicators as to the knowledge, skills, relationships, 360-degree vision, and managerial abilities that senior communications professionals will need in five years’ time, and what it takes to prepare the next generation of leaders in globally integrated organizations. The paper will also reflect on recent academic and practice literature about the nature of these competencies and discusses the potential methods and routes of their delivery. It will also consider the current operating situation, the challenges facing senior corporate communicators and their future needs. The outcomes will include recommendations for consideration by educators and employers, especially those operating in cross-cultural environments

Reporting Kashmir: an analysis of the conflict coverage in Indian and Pakistani newspapers.

The news media are considered a significant force in conflict situations, capable of influencing antagonists and their actions. Whether this influence is constructive or destructive is determined by the nature of journalism presented to the warring sides. News content that holds the other side responsible for the strife and focuses on violence is likely to exacerbate the situation. Sustained reportage on the possibilities and need for peace, on the other hand, could contribute to a political climate suited for peace negotiations. This India-centric study examines the Kashmir conflict in this context. While the coverage of more recent conflicts such as the Gulf Wars and the 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan has evoked sustained scrutiny from media scholars, there is little empirical work on the news on Kashmir. The objective here is to profile the nature of coverage the Indian and Pakistani press accorded the conflict, which could provide an empirical foundation for future discussions and research on Kashmir. Selected news reportage of 10 major events that appeared in two national Indian newspapers and one Pakistani daily is examined for this purpose. By utilising an original coding scheme that draws on conflict journalism, media effects and agenda-setting theories, this study arrives at an indicative overview of the journalism on Kashmir presented to the two publics over the years. The analysis is more reliant on what appeared in the Indian press, and has been contextualised by data drawn from personal interviews with Indian policymakers. Hence it is largely from an Indian perspective. However, the inquiry provides insights into the Pakistani coverage as well. The conclusion, based on patterns that emerged from the news presented to the two warring societies, is that the coverage was vigorously government-led and intensely 'negative'

Development of electro-trawl system in marine environment

High voltage pulsed current produced on board a trawler is fed to electrodes distributed along the foot rope of a trawl net through two core TRS cable which builds up a homogeneous electrical field around the net mouth. By comparative fishing tests with the electrified and non-electrified 32 m long wing trawl net, the increase in total catch of shrimps and fishes was found to be 19.8 and 36%, respectively

Determinants of safety helmet use among motorcyclists in Kerala, India

Background: Motorcycles account for a large proportion of road traffic accidents in India and the riders of these vehicles run a high risk of injuries or death. This study aims to explore the determinants of helmet use among motorcyclists in Kerala, India. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in Kerala, India, over a period of six months. 309 motorcyclists in Kerala were interviewed for this study using a pretested structured questionnaire. Results: Among 309 motorcyclists, 80% were less than 40 years of age, and only 24% were females. Among the total, only 31.4% used a helmet. There was a statistically significant association between the use of helmet and gender, marital status, drunken driving, use of alcohol and attitude towards implementing legislative measures. Odds Ratios observed were 5.3 for female gender compared to male, 4.5 for those with a positive attitude towards the implementation of legislative measures on helmet use, 3.7 for those who were not drunk while driving and 2.3 for unmarried compared to married persons. Conclusions: The study concludes that the determinants associated with the practice of helmet use were gender, drunken driving, marital status and positive attitude towards legal measures

#EndMaleGuardianship: women’s rights, social media and the Arab public sphere

This study examines the online communicative dynamics between women and men during the Saudi women’s rights campaign to end male guardianship, which unfolded on Twitter. We analysed 2.7 million tweets with the #EndMaleGuardianship hashtag over a 7-month period quantitatively and 150,245 of these qualitatively to examine the extent to which Twitter shapes and facilitates cross-gender communication, and how this helped engender new spaces for expression of dissent. Our study shows that Twitter provided shared online communicative spaces that had several characteristics commonly associated with public sphere(s). There is also evidence that using these alternatives spaces, women transcended to an extent the gender segregation that exists in traditional public discourses and spaces of Saudi society. The anonymity of Twitter offered women a safe place to deliberate their concerns about male guardianship. We suggest that these deliberations created a counterpublic sphere of sorts, which helped Saudi women legitimise the #EndMaleGuardianship campaign

Highly transparent and luminescent nanostructured Eu203 doped ZnO films.

Zinc oxide is a wide, direct band gap II-VI oxide semiconductor. Pure and Eu-doped ZnO films are prepared by RF Magnetron sputtering at different doping concentrations (0.5, 1, 3 and 5 wt %). The films are annealed at 500 0C in air for two hours. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the films are characterized using XRD, micro-Raman, AFM, UV-Visible and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The thickness of the films is measured using stylus profilometer. XRD analysis shows that all the films are highly c-axis oriented exhibiting a single peak corresponding to (002) lattice reflection plane of hexagonal wurtzite crystal phase of ZnO. The micro-Raman spectra analysis reveals the presence of E2 high mode in all the samples which is the intrinsic characteristic of hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO. The appearance of LO modes indicates the formation of defects such as oxygen vacancies in the films. AFM micrographs show uniform distribution of densely packed grains of size with well defined grain boundaries. All the films exhibit very high transmittance (above 80%) in the visible region with a sharp fundamental absorption edge around 380 nm corresponding to the intrinsic band edge of ZnO. All the films show PL emission in the UV and visible region. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Structural Nano Composites (NANOSTRUC 2014) held 20-21 May 2014 in Madrid, Spain

Broad features of surface ozone variations over Indian region

Surface ozone concentration at three Indian stations - New Delhi (28.6 deg N), Pune (18.5 deg N) and Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum (8.3 deg N) - has been measured since 1973 with the help of an electrochemical continuous ozone recorder. These stations show diurnal, seasonal and annual cycles in surface ozone. Daily changes show that the minimum value occurs at sunrise and maximum in the afternoon. As regards seasonal variations, Thiruvananthapuram and Pune have a minimum value during monsoon season (June to August) while at New Delhi the minimum value occurs in January. However, New Delhi also records low ozone amount during monsoon season identical to the amounts show at Thiruvananthapuram and Pune. The annual cycles at these stations have been compared with similar measurements in the northern and southern hemispheres. The Indian measurements agree well with the annual cycles at these stations. Further, the analysis of the Indian data indicates that the major contribution in surface ozone comes from the natural sources like stratospheric-tropospheric exchange, turbulence, and mixing in the boundary layer; however, a small contribution from anthropogenic sources cannot be ruled out at Pune and probably at New Delhi, especially in winter and summer seasons

Disaster Journalism: Building Media Resilience in Nepal

Bilingual book in English and Nepal