La couverture du crime par la presse : un portait fidèle ou déformé ?

The authors examined, through content analysis, some criticisms that have been levelled at the press in its coverage of crime. The propositions examined included the accusations that newspapers are preoccupied with violence and “street” crime, that they focus on the bizarre, are superficial in their reporting of crime, misinform the public about the characteristics of offenders and victims, and exhibit a conservative bias in their analysis. This study of a major Canadian daily newspaper revealed substantiation for some of these claims but failed to support others. Violent and street crimes received disproportionate coverage and very few articles contained an in-depth analysis of the roots of crime or the workings of the criminal justice system. The evidence was less clear or non-existent in relation to the claims that the press focus on nonroutine events, that they provide distorted images of offenders and victims and that they have a conservative bent. Commentant l'impact des masse-médias, Marshall McLuhan (1978) soulignait: To invade the private person, or to invade a group with teaching, with doctrines, with entertainment, all these are alike forms of violence. To assume the right to program the sensibilities or thoughts and fantasies of individuals or groups, has long been taken for granted as a viable form of personal or social action... Today, however, there is a new dimension in all of these activities. Electric media move information and people at the speed of light. It is this instant and total quality that constitutes the condition of mass man and the mass society (p. 212)

Family Day Care in Germany – the gap between vision and reality

In Germany, family day care has dominated for a long time as a more or less informal provision of childcare. With massive legal changes in the system of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) since 2006, family day care became a part of the formal ECEC system and has now the same comprehensive legal tasks of education and care. This leads both to profound changes and to challenges for the system of family day care. This report provides an overview of current developments in family day care in Germany and the perspectives of its enhancement. In addition to considering the quantitative development, it mainly deals with the paradigms of a qualitative upgrading, which in particular emphasizes the current structures of the public support for family day care such as an adequate advisory system or qualification. We have based this overview mainly on qualitative and quantitative data from research at the German Youth Institute within the last five years. There is still a gap between the development of day care and its legal equality in the ECEC system on the one hand and the conditions condition and everyday structures on the other hand. The quantitative development of family day care does not yet involve a necessary qualitative upgrading of this day care system yet

Digital Dog Whistles: The New Online Language of Extremism

Terrorists and extremists groups are communicating sometimes openly but very often in concealed formats. Recently Far-right extremists including white supremacist, anti-Semite groups, racists and neo-Nazis started using a coded New Language . Alarmed by police and security forces attempts to find them online and by the social platforms attempts to remove their contents, they try to apply the new language of codes and doublespeak. This study explores the emergence of a new language, the system of code words developed by Far-right extremists. What are the characteristics of this new language? How is it transmitted? How is it used? Our survey of online Far-right contents reveals the use of visual and textual codes for extremists. These hidden languages enable extremists to hide in plain sight and for others to easily identify like-minded individuals. There is no doubt that the new language used online by Far-right groups comprises all the known attributes of a language: It is very creative, productive and instinctive, uses exchanges of verbal or symbolic utterances shared by certain individuals and groups. These findings should serve both Law Enforcement and private sector bodies interested in preventing hate speech online

Lone wolves in cyberspace

Lone-wolf terrorism has been regarded as a serious threat to public safety in recent years. Moreover, the phenomenon appears to be increasing at an alarming rate. However, the gap between the perceived threat of lone-wolf terrorism, on the one hand, and the almost exclusive scholarly focus on group-based terrorism, on the other hand, indicates the need for more conceptual and empirical examinations of the lone-wolf terrorism. One perspective highlighted in this article is the use of online communication platforms. Lone-wolf terrorism has been regarded as a serious threat to public safety in recent years. After reviewing the role of these platforms for lone-wolf terrorists in general and for the “new” al-Qaeda, in particular, the paper concludes with proposed potential counter-terrorism measures applicable to this new arena.Publisher PD