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 elites’ mediated personas—exposure and challenge from entrepreneurs—renders their armour of authenticity dangerously fragile, which nourishes a public sense of being inefficaciously represented. It is this climate in which populism currently flourishes around the globe. Three primary criteria of mediated self-representation by politicians—visibility, authenticity and efficacy—form 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 significant analytical concept to explain the populist behaviour and strategies that underlie populist parties’ responses to the demands for visibility, authenticity and efficacy 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

Trends in modeling Biomedical Complex Systems

In this paper we provide an introduction to the techniques for multi-scale complex biological systems, from the single bio-molecule to the cell, combining theoretical modeling, experiments, informatics tools and technologies suitable for biological and biomedical research, which are becoming increasingly multidisciplinary, multidimensional and information-driven. The most important concepts on mathematical modeling methodologies and statistical inference, bioinformatics and standards tools to investigate complex biomedical systems are discussed and the prominent literature useful to both the practitioner and the theoretician are presented

Soldier positioning in GNSS-denied operations

Foot-mounted inertial sensors, combined with GPS-receivers, magnetometers and barometric pressure sensors have shown great potential in providing a high-accuracy positioning system for safety-critical applications, such as first responders and military personnel. Although several research groups have demonstrated high accuracies with experimental systems in controlled environment tests, showcasing the potential of the technology, there is still an apparent lack of performance evaluations conducted during more realistic conditions. Several field tests have been performed and the results from the first scenario-based measurements are presented here. An accuracy of 2-4 m was obtained with an experimental soldier positioning demonstration system, using foot-mounted inertial sensors, during a realistic building-clearing exercise that lasted over three and a half minutes. Also, different sensor fusion alternatives are examined, using double foot-mounted inertial navigation systems (INS) and combining a foot-mounted INS with camera-based localization.QC 20121221</p

Scenario-based evaluations of high-accuracy personal positioning systems

Foot-mounted inertial sensors combined with GPS-receivers, magnetometers, and barometric pressure sensors have shown great potential in providing high-accuracy positioning systems for first responder and military applications. Several factors, including the type of movement, surface, and the shape of the trajectory, can strongly influence the performance of foot-mounted inertial navigation systems. There is a need for realistic scenario-based evaluations as a complement to the controlled environment tests that have been published in the literature. In this work we evaluate the performance of a foot-mounted inertial navigation system using three-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers during realistic scenario-based measurements. The position accuracy is evaluated by using a camera-based reference system which positions itself towards visual markers placed at pre-surveyed positions, using a slightly modified version of the ARToolKitPlus software. Maximum position errors of 2.5 to 5.5 meters were obtained during four separate high-tempo building clearing operations that lasted approximately three and a half minutes each. Further improvements in accuracy, as well as improved robustness towards different movement patterns, can be achieved by implementing an adaptive stand-still detection algorithm.QC 20121221</p

Political Communication in a High-Choice Media Environment: A Challenge for Democracy?

During the last decennia media environments and political communication systems have changed fundamentally. These changes have major ramifications for the political information environments and the extent to which they aid people in becoming informed citizens. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to review research on key changes and trends in political information environments and assess their democratic implications. We will focus on advanced postindustrial democracies and six concerns that are all closely linked to the dissemination and acquisition of political knowledge: (1) declining supply of political information, (2) declining quality of news, (3) increasing media concentration and declining diversity of news, (4) increasing fragmentation and polarization, (5) increasing relativism and (6) increasing inequality in political knowledge

Patterns of Intra-Election Volatility : The Impact of Political Knowledge

One key trend changing political environments across advanced industrial democracies is increasing electoral volatility. Despite extensive research, at the individual level we still know relatively little about the mechanisms behind electoral volatility during election campaigns, including the impact of political knowledge. Against this background and based on a four-wave panel study in the context of the 2014 Swedish national election, the purpose of this paper is to investigate (a) patterns of intra-election volatility and the impact of (b) political knowledge on patterns of electoral volatility. Distinguishing between party alienation, crystallization, wavering, reinforcement, and conversion, among other things, findings show some effects from political knowledge on patterns of electoral volatility but only for acquired political knowledge