Innovative thinking or distortion of journalistic values? How the lack of trust creates non-transparency in the Russian media

This study focuses on Russian journalism as an example of an institution in which the changing business media model and financial pressures provide a unique opportunity for innovation in how business is conducted. The Russian innovation ecosystem faces severe challenges that have led to a rethinking of the traditional journalistic principles of objectivity, fair coverage, and newsworthiness. The results of this study indicate that non-transparent media practices exist in Russian journalism as a result of unresolved issues, specifically the lack of generalised trust among members of Russian society. This research also demonstrates that Russian journalism is in some ways similar to advertising as journalists are paid not to be objective but to follow the orders of publishers. This papers discusses the implications of such distortion of fairness and objectivity as they relate to the existence of an innovative ecosystem and non-transparent media practices and provides recommendations for future studies.Institute of Communication Ethicsyhttp://www.communicationethics.net/espace

Forest genetic resources conservation and management: Proceedings of the Asia Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme (APFORGEN) Inception Workshop, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia, 15-18 July 2003

Conservation, improvement, and effective management of forest genetic resources (FGR) is basic to sustainable forest management but will require a holistic approach at various hierarchical levels (ecosystem, landscape, national and regional). While the concern of governments in managing their FGR has been increasing with the increasing introduction of relevant national policies and guidelines, there is a need for better collaboration at regional level despite the efforts already expanded by international and regional organizations. The FAO Panel of Experts on FGR has played a major role in providing recommendations at the global level and has stressed the need to strengthen national programmes and regionalcollaboration on FGR in different parts of the world. Several countries in the Asia Pacific region have taken steps to implement sustainable forest management in practice and there is a need to promote management of FGR within this process. Better management of forest genetic diversity will also help countries to fulfil their commitments as agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity and to maintain diversity for future use. The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI) have taken the initiative to develop a regional network programme to strengthen the work on conservation and sustainable use of FGR in the region. This regional programme, called the Asia Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme (APFORGEN) has the support of fourteen countries in the region. The Inception workshop, organized with the technical cooperation of FAO has laid the foundation for initiating FGR networking in the region via APFORGEN. The participation of twelve country representatives in the inception workshop is an indication of support of national governments, which desire closer collaboration in FGR conservation and management

The Core Value Compass: visually evaluating the goodness of brands that do good

yesBrands that do good for the society as well as for themselves are motivated by the core values they espouse, which necessitates a better understanding of what qualities a true core value must possess. The inherent tension within brands that do good, between commercial interests to increase competitiveness, and societal interests that are closely linked to the brand’s authenticity, has largely been overlooked. Hence, we develop and demonstrate a relatively easy-to-apply visual tool for evaluating core values based on a set of ‘goodness’ criteria derived from extant theory. The Core Value Compass adopts a paradox-based, evolutionary perspective by incorporating the inherent tensions within true core values, and classifying them according to their temporal orientation. Thus, we contribute towards a better understanding of underlying tensions of core values and provide a practical tool that paves the way for improved, and indeed ethical, corporate branding strategies. Furthermore, we demonstrate the Compass’ application using the case of a public sector brand, which is a quintessential brand that does good. Therefore, we also contribute to the nascent theoretical discourse on public sector branding. This paper therefore adds to the notable attempts to bridge the gap between theory and practice in core values-based corporate branding

Introduction to the Handbook on Digital Corporate Communication

As masses of digitally savvy stakeholders master the means of 24/7 communication technology, so must communication professionals. This chapter introduces digital corporate communication (DCC) as an important and emerging field of research and practice. Despite the growing yet disparate body of research examining how digital technologies are shaping ways in which organizations and stakeholders communicate with each other, this chapter identifies the need for a more unified body of scholarly knowledge about DCC. It also systematically builds on existing DCC research to offer conceptual clarity of terms such as digital, digitalisation and digital infrastructure, as well as corporate communicationitself, to propose a definition of DCC. It subsequently introduces this handbook’s four over-arching sections that cover: (1) digitally-influenced changes to legacy corporate communication functions, (2) digitally-influenced issues that corporate communication must address, (3) corporate communication’s adoption of digital technologies, and (4) corporate communication’s role in managing digitalization’s effects in society

The role of social capital in shaping consumer engagement within online brand communities

Jana Lay-Hwa Bowden, Jodie Conduit, Linda D. Hollebeek, Vilma Luoma-aho, and Birgit Andrine Apenes Sole

Public sector reputation and netpromoter score

Reputation of public sector organizations is increasingly formed through Word of Mouth (WOM) as citizens and stakeholders share their experiences with others both online and offline. Understanding and measuring WOM is a challenge for many public sector organizations, who often resort to measurement tools designed for the private sector. This paper looks at a popular WOM measurement tool, namely the Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the context of public sector organizations. In this paper, we ask how well does the NPS describe public sector reputation, and look at what the different stakeholder groups categorized by NPS are like in the public sector. As an illustrative case, we report findings of a stakeholder reputation survey (n: 1198) conducted for a large Finnish ministry utilizing both established reputation measures and the NPS. Based on our findings, we conclude that the traditional NPS requires tailoring to match the public sector context, and propose “The Public Sector Net Promoter Score (PSNPS)” as a new measure for WOM in the public sector context.peerReviewe