Rainbow over the Internet: How Internet use curtails homophobia in China

China, despite its rapid economic modernization and the lack of powerful conservative institutions, is not known for embracing diverse sexual orientation. The present study investigates whether and how Internet use, a increasingly important part of contemporary people's daily life, leads to changes in people's attitudes toward homosexuality in China, and relevant policy implications. Analyzing the Chinese General Social Survey data from 2010 to 2015, this paper develops an ordered probit model to quantify the influence of Internet use on homosexuality tolerance, adopts a substitution variable method to conduct the robustness check, and utilizes instrument variables to address the potential endogeneity in the regressions. The results show that Internet use has a significant positive impact on Chinese people's homosexuality tolerance. Further studies have found that the influence of Internet use on homosexuality tolerance is also heterogeneous to different populations. Besides, compared with traditional media, the Internet has a more significant impact on homosexuality tolerance. This paper provides some explanations for the rise in China's homosexuality tolerance from 2010 to 2015, and additional impetus for the international community to push for a liberal Internet policy in China.     

Development and validation of a crisis self‐efficacy index

This study develops a crisis self‐efficacy index to provide a tool for crisis communication researchers and practitioners to understand behavioural aspects of crisis response better. Evaluations of public's crisis self‐efficacy using this index inform strategic message development to protect the public and minimize crisis damages by identifying the public/s most in need of self‐efficacy enhancing interventions. The index also provides practitioners a useful longitudinal index to evaluate progress in crisis preparedness programs and track changes in efficacy. A four‐stage survey index development process using structural equation modelling identifies four underlying constructs of crisis self‐efficacy: action, preventive, achievement and uncertainty management.     

Salience of public leaders’ “meaning making” in news coverage of a health crisis

Meaning making by leadership in a crisis is required to reduce uncertainty. We used analytic criteria for meaning making suggested by crisis management literature to investigate public leaders’ quotations in news coverage of a health crisis. The quotations were examined in terms of the five frame functions, which include offering a credible explanation of what happened, offering guidance, instilling hope, showing empathy, and suggesting that leaders are in control. The Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea was examined. As a result, the most salient frame function identified was displaying they are in control of the emergency, followed by offering guidance and explaining what happened. The salience of leaders’ meaning making disappeared in coverage by a liberal newspaper.     

Water crisis through the analytic of urban transformation: an analysis of Bangalore’s hydrosocial regimes

ABSTRACT

This paper explores intensified water crisis in Bangalore (or Bengaluru) in India by using the analytic of three hydrosocial regimes: the catchment-based regime, the hydraulic regime and the speculative urban regime. It uses a wide range of qualitative interviews, scientific reports and secondary sources to analyze shifting urban trajectories, agrarian relations and their interlinkages with water. Historical ruptures (in the realm of governance, urban growth and changing urban–rural dynamics) allow one to highlight the complex role of speculative logics that shape urban expansion and water scarcity.     

‘Breaking’ news: uncovering sense-breaking patterns in social media crisis communication during the 2017 Manchester bombing

ABSTRACT

Individuals, (media-) organisations, and crisis responders who are involved in ad hoc crisis communication steadily deploy social media to contribute to collective sense-making as an endeavour to create meaning in highly uncertain situations. Exerting sense-giving in order to shape others’ conceptions is causally preceded by an initial breakup of existing understanding. This study aims to explore patterns of sense-breaking in social media crisis communication and its impact on collective sense-making and sense-giving. To this end, we conducted a case study of the Manchester bombing in 2017, including a social network analysis of 708,147 Twitter postings and a content analysis of 2006 original tweets. We found individual role types to be initiators of sense-breaking in early crisis stages when uncertainty is at its height. Exerting successive sense-giving becomes more challenging if the collective sense-making has progressed along with the sequence of events. This understanding aims to encourage emergency management organisations to move their sense-giving actions closer to the point in time when sense-breaking occurs.     

大数据时代计算机软件技术的应用

随着时代的发展,信息技术在各个领域均得到广泛运用,计算机软件技术也越发凸显出其重要性。大数据时代为人们的生活带来了便利,使日常工作变得更加高效。文章从大数据时代下计算机软件技术的内涵着手,提出了计算机软件处理数据的技术手段及应用方向,对计算机软件的相关应用展开论述。     

新时代公共档案馆核心理念塑造

本文在"中国特色社会主义新时代"作为当前我国社会最主流和社会主导性公共话语体系的背景下,从档案馆使命、档案馆愿景、核心价值观三个方面对公共档案馆核心理念体系进行了塑造。     

Innovations and productivity: the shift during the 2008 crisis

This paper investigates how the recent crisis of 2008 changed relations between innovation and firm performance in Western Europe. We apply a structural framework of CDM modelling, which incorporates different stages of the knowledge creation process and takes into account the complex nature of innovations. The study is based on a balanced panel data of 420 listed manufacturing firms from the U.K., Germany and France. All the information is gathered from common sources, thereby reducing subjectivity, a typical problem in the field. We found, the crisis resulted in appreciable changes in the model. The most important evidence is enhancement of the role of firm resources in the post-recession period. We also reveal larger barriers for innovations, increased uncertainty and lower state dependence in R&D engagement, product creation and economic performance. These results could indicate the ‘cleaning effect’ of the crisis, which has worsened the business environment and enhanced competition.     

融媒体时代——乙女游戏中的女性主义和沉浸式传播研究

市场中针对女性用户玩家的游戏都有其特殊性,在视觉和听觉等直接感官方面、游戏中NPC的设置方面、游戏的情节方面以及主题游戏里面所嵌套的小游戏方面,都与一般性的手机游戏有所不同。自2017年《恋与制作人》为代表的乙女游戏风靡中国成为现象级事件之后,女性向手游不断发展——数量大幅度提升,种类多样化,游戏产品的设计流程也逐渐完善,但总体来说在理论研究方面,无论是针对此现象级事件背后所蕴含的社会因素的研究还是针对女性玩家情感心理活动的研究都相对较少,多数研究还是从游戏产业发展的角度出发,因此旨在从女性主义发展的角度出发,去研究针对女性用户玩家的游戏中所蕴含的文化修辞。除此之外,以人为核心的“沉浸式传播”贯穿生活中的方方面面,在女性手游中也将其充分体现。传播实践中,“沉浸”与“场景”常常相辅相成,在乙女游戏中,通过不同游戏场景、游戏人物的设置,玩家在玩游戏的过程中也在有意识或者无意识地接受着游戏中传递出来的价值观念和文化内容。