A “crisscrossing” historical analysis of four theories of the press

Because 2016 was the 60th anniversary of the publication of Four Theories of the Press, it is time to reexplore how this book, labeled as “the bible of comparative media studies,” was born. This article applies a sociology-of-science approach, combined with histoire croisée (“crisscrossing history”), to analyze archival materials, published and unpublished (auto)biographies and previous academic research. It argues, after an analytical crisscrossing of individuals, research traditions, ideas, institutions, and their relationships that lie behind Four Theories, that the book was a compromise between the diverse interests of its authors, their backgrounds, ideas, and national and international politics, and thus an intersection of contradictory but also overlapping elements that also gave rise to new concepts of a press system and of a press theory in a transnational contex

Towards hybridity? Nationality, ownership and governance of news agencies in Europe

This article explores the nationality, ownership, and governance of news agencies in Europe, and suggests that we need to rethink and problematize the categories previously used when studying these. Drawing on recent data from a pan-European study, the article suggests that the concept of hybridity could be applied to analyzing news agencies’ nationality, ownership, and governance. It reviews the concept through different fields: (a) cultural studies, (b) organizational studies, and (c) political-regime and media-system studies, each of these contributing to a complementary understanding of the concept of hybridity. It concludes that (a) the previously fixed categories of national and international news agencies have become more integrated, (b) the different ownership forms of national news agencies have been partly amalgamated in terms of both owners and clients, and (c) ownership category alone cannot determine whether governance is democratic or nondemocratic, so we also need to look at governance. The article suggests that, by using the concept of hybridity when analyzing news agencies, we are able to see crossing boundaries of earlier ideal types and even developing possible alternative approaches to studying news agencies in future

A change of lens: a call to compare media in China and Russia

This article makes what Western scholars call a “leap in the dark” by suggesting that, instead of comparing the “West” with the “Rest”, we should compare the “East” with the “East”- in this case the media in China with the media in Russia. We have identified three blind spots in previous comparative media research that have resulted in turning attention away from comparative study of China and Russia. These are: (1) ahistoricism; (2) misunderstanding the relationship between the state and the market; and (3) understanding national media and communication as closed and homogenous systems. We propose three remedies: (1) historicizing comparative media studies ; (2) re-conceptualizing the relationship between the state and media markets; and (3) rethinking the dynamics between the global, the national and the media

Abnegation, accommodation and affirmation: three discursive modes for the institutional construction of independence among national news agency executives in Europe

The relationship between the ownership form of news agencies and their independence has long figured centrally in debates about the quality of news agency operations. Drawing on a discursive institutional framework, this article explores how national news agency executives in Europe perform a narrated role in the discursive construction of their organizations’ internal and external independence. We set out the concept of independence discourse, which we define as the variety of ways in which news agency executives use claims about the economic independence and the internal and external autonomy of their organizational operations. Based on a discourse analysis of elite semi-structured interviews with 20 European news agency executives, we identify three discursive modes for the institutional construction of independence: (1) abnegation, (2) accommodation and (3) affirmation. These discursive modes represent a set of public and private approaches to discursively negotiating the power of both state/government and shareholders/owners. We conclude by arguing for an expanded concept of independence, one which offers an account of the complex array of forces shaping news agency operations today

Az üzenet maga a médium - Interjú Manuel Castells-szal

Terhi Rantanen, a Londoni Gazdaságtudományi és Politológiai Intézet (London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE) munkatársa és a Global Media and Communication című új szakfolyóirat alapító szerkesztője 2005 februárjában készített interjút Manuel Castells-szal a Katalóniai Nyílt Egyetemen, Barcelonában. Castells-t olyan tudósként mutatta be lapja olvasóinak, aki „az információ korának széles körben a legkiválóbbként elismert elemzője”, s akinek fő művét, „Az információ kora” című trilógiát Karl Marx és Max Weber műveivel szokták összemérni. Mélyen szántó megjegyzésekkel tűzdelt, érdekfeszítő beszélgetésük az alábbi főbb témákra terjedt ki: a hatalmi viszonyok és a kommunikációs technológia; Eco, Innis és McLuhan hatása; a hálózati modellek hatásai a kommunikációs modellekre; a hálózati társadalmak nem-nyugati modelljei. Castells a következőkkel zárta le az interjút: „A hatalomért folyó harc valójában az értelmünkért folyó küzdelem, az értelmünk pedig kommunikációs környezetben funkcionál. A kommunikáció – társadalmunk jellegéből fakadóan – a társadalomtudományok összességének a központi kutatási területévé vált.

Munaitiöistä syntyy entistä ärhäkämpi perunarutto

Perunaruttoepidemiat ovat 1990-luvun aikana jatkuvasti aikaistuneet. Todennäköisimmin tämä johtuu rutolle suotuisista kasvukausista, maassa talvehtineista ruton munaitiöistä ja näistä kehittyneistä uudentyyppisistä ruttokannoista. Niinpä ruton torjuntaan tarvitaan uudenlaisia keinoja.vo

Perunaruton epidemiologian ja ruttopopulaation muutokset 1990-luvulla

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Mukularutto on salakavala perunasadon pilaaja

Aiemmin perunarutto talvehti saastuneissa mukuloissa ja ne olivat ainoa ruttoepidemian alkulähde. Nykyinen suvullisesti lisääntyvä rutto ei enää tarvitse seuraavaan kevääseen säilyviä mukuloita selvitäkseen talven yli. Mukularutto voi pilata sadon pahasti, ellei lehtiruttoa torjuta kasvustosta nostoon asti. Fluatsinami viimeisissä torjuntaruiskutuksissa suojaa varmimmin mukularutolta.vo