Corporate social advocacy events as a window into the contemporary promotional industries

Amid calls for more impactful corporate social responsibility and the growing significance of corporations and brands as sites to contest societal values, this article asks how a changed communication environment affects the practices of organisational communication, and with what effects? Through a thematic analysis of interviews, observation at industry events, and collected documents, it examines the motivations for corporate social advocacy, their mediation, and how the risks and rewards of participating in these kinds of communication are understood within the contemporary promotional industries. Using frameworks of contestation and justification, it identifies how constant media scrutiny, a low-trust environment, and investments in stakeholder relationships exacerbated the risks and rewards of social advocacy, pushing corporate advocacy towards tangible actions with governance implications.</p

Payment Services, the Deplatforming of Sex, and the Governance of Platform Intimacy

Much of the considerable regulatory attention directed at sexual content online focuses on platform content moderation policies, but payment and advertising services play a gatekeeping role on platform content as well. In 2021, OnlyFans cited the difficulties of meeting the policies of payment processors and banks in its announcement that the site would stop hosting sexual content. This decision was subsequently retracted under public criticism of the platform for profiting off sex workers and then removing them from the platform. The case of OnlyFans provided a rare reversal of the moral panics that often surround the governance of sexual content online. This article discusses the deplatforming of sex as a case of contested platform governance identifies how public conflicts over platform governance of sexual content fit within broader “no platform” politics, and draws on research from affected communities to make the case for alternative policy approaches.</p

Two Trusts and a Court: Adapting Legal Mechanisms for Building Trust in Technology Governance

This article analyzes governance interventions designed by Facebook and Sidewalk Labs to  address  concerns  about  content  governance  and  privacy,  respectively.  Using  a comparative  approach,  we  analyze  how  Sidewalk  Lab’s  proposed  data  trust  for  the Quayside Project—a smart city project in Toronto—and Facebook’s Oversight Board—an independent  panel  that  makes  content  moderation  decisions—are  adapted  from  legal mechanisms that reflect what Luhmann describes as system trust. We also interrogate the use  of  intermediaries  to  shore  up  the  trustworthiness  of  the  companies with  the  publicexpert  and  lay  publics.  This  article  echoes  existing  research  on  the  use  of  democratic models in attempts at technology governance strategies undertaken by companies and goes further to show how legal mechanisms of trusts and courts are being added to the repertoire of corporate tools for building trust.</p

An Integrated Framework to Assess Greenwashing

In this paper we examine definitions of ‘greenwashing’ and its different forms, developing a tool for assessing diverse ‘green’ claims made by various actors. Research shows that significant deception and misleading claims exist both in the regulated commercial sphere, as well as in the unregulated non-commercial sphere (e.g., governments, NGO partnerships, international pledges, etc.). Recently, serious concerns have been raised over rampant greenwashing, in particular with regard to rapidly emerging net zero commitments. The proposed framework we developed is the first actionable tool for analysing the quality and truthfulness of such claims. The framework has widespread and unique potential for highlighting efforts that seek to delay or distract real solutions that are urgently needed today to tackle multiple climate and environmental crises. In addition, we note how the framework may also assist in the development of practices and communication strategies that ultimately avoid greenwashing

Additional file 2: of SPIRE – combining SGI-110 with cisplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy for solid malignancies including bladder cancer: study protocol for a phase Ib/randomised IIa open label clinical trial

Copy of the consent form given to participants for phase I dose escalation. (PDF 161 kb

Additional file 3: of SPIRE – combining SGI-110 with cisplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy for solid malignancies including bladder cancer: study protocol for a phase Ib/randomised IIa open label clinical trial

Copy of the consent form given to participants for phase II dose escalation. (PDF 161 kb

Additional file 1: of CONFIRM: a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial investigating the effect of nivolumab in patients with relapsed mesothelioma: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

SPIRIT Checklist. (DOC 121 kb