New business models: AgBiotechNet™, a case study

The article examines the launch by CABI Publishing of a new internet product called AgBiotechNet™. The product was launched in January 1999 and features a range of content from news stories through to review articles and a bibliographic database taken from CAB ABSTRACTS™. The article describes the pre- and post-launch phases of AgBiotechNet™, and does, so the author hopes, provide some pointers on what it means to develop a new business model for the internet.     

Innovative product and customer retention: Strategies in the music business ‐ An analysis of Santana's enhanced album “Shaman”;

Abstract

The music business is facing hard times with declining CD sales and increasing piracy. Whereas the economic downturn is one reason for lower sales, the industry has decided to target the second factor, the fast diffusion of technologies such as CD burners and peer‐to‐peer networks like KaZaA allowing massive illegal distribution of music. Some labels focused on an offensive strategy to promote their artists. New services are being added to so called Enhanced CDs that create a new user experience. These CDs offer bonus content (i.e. videos, additional songs, pictures, or lyrics) stored directly on the CD that can be accessed on the PC. Other CDs offer (additionally) online access to actual bonus content or services (i.e. tour dates or news) if the CD is entered in the FC. The impact of these services on consumer experience has not yet been researched in depth and it remains unclear if consumers actually use the offered services on Enhanced CDs. The music label Arista has introduced several new albums on Enhanced CDs to the market providing more value to the user instead of reducing the utility by focusing only on copy protection. This article analyzes the usage of such services provided by Arista and focuses on Santana's new album “Shaman”;. Using a unique data set provided byfavakitty Media (Bandlirik) and Arista, we show for the first time what services are actually used by Santana fans and compare the results to albums of other artists such as TIC or Toni Braxton. Our results indicate that Enhanced CDs are used frequently by a relatively small group of fans, providing more value to the customer and creating a stronger relation between fans and artists.     

Negro use of television and newspapers for political information, 1952–1964

An almost unheralded, but very important, communications phenomenon of the past couple of decades is the massive shift of Negroes from a “low media use”; pattern to a “high television use”; pattern for information gaining activity. The development is particularly clear with respect to the obtaining of political information by Negroes, as is shown in this secondary analysis of four Survey Research Center national probability samples, from 1952 through 1964. Maxwell McCombs, formerly on the faculty of UCLA, is presently assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina.     

“A Free and Responsible Press”该怎样翻译

在社会责任理论的形成过程中,A Free and Responsible Press是一部至关重要的学术文献。本文从报告名称的翻译、报告内容的评价、组织者的译名和委员会性质的认定等四个方面,列出了存在的诸多问题并作简要分析,以期引起国内新闻传播学者对学术话语问题的关注。     

The “Free Press” of Unionized Journalists and Students

This paper outlines a history of the union organizing of the American Newspaper Guild at Thomson Newspapers’ Peterborough Examiner in Canada from 1968 to 1969. It examines the communication tools that union members used to facilitate this labor organizing and “bite back” at the profitable Thomson chain. Peterborough newsworkers went on strike from November 1968 to April 1969 over union recognition. During the strike, the union members built an unprecedented alliance with Ontario university students, collaboratively launching a strike newspaper called the Peterborough Free Press. Expanding on the concept of temporary labor convergence, this paper considers how strike newspapers can be seen as a form of alternative journalism that newsworkers use as a campaigning tool to communicate their struggles to the public and put pressure on news corporations to bargain with them. This case study is situated in the local institutional contexts of labor relations at the Peterborough Examiner and the news industry in Peterborough, where Thomson Newspapers had a media monopoly. It is based on labor standpoint and signal juncture analyses of union archival documents and newspaper content. The research ultimately suggests that newsworkers should not only focus on communication tools but also build bridges with community members.     

Transnational advocacy network opposing DRM ‐ A technical and legal challenge to media companies

Abstract

Organized transnational political and technological activism ‐ here referred to as transnational advocacy networks ‐ has an increasingly strong role in giving images of how one should behave and what to consume. This article analyses transnational advocacy networks that oppose digital rights management (DRM) systems and related regulations. We suggest the potential impact of this activity to the consumption of content products. We start with defining and describing the most relevant advocacy networks. We provide the characterization of existing organizations and their work both the United States and Europe. Then, we discuss four case studies where media companies have experimented with different strategies against DRM circumvention initiated and endorsed by transnational advocacy networks Our argument is that because of the economics of copying on the Internet it is not a sound strategy to use legal actions to remove any circumventing information from the internet. Any circumvention information published on the Internet will be mirrored out of the reach of legal enforcement mechanisms. So far, the only working strategy seems to be to implement a DRM‐system, which can be updated without user intervention after the security is breached. This might be also the most efficient way to control the impact of transnational advocacy networks opposing DRM systems.     

Perceptions of conflict strategies and communication competence in task‐oriented Dyads

Individuals in temporary task‐oriented dyads or groups must manage conflict competently if they hope to be successful in reaching their goals. Thus far, however, research on the associations between conflict styles and communication competence has focused on acquainted dyads, such as relational partners and coworkers, rather than unacquainted dyads assigned to work on tasks. The present study tests the applicability of the competence model of interpersonal conflict to temporary task‐oriented dyads. Dyads (N = 100) who had little or no relational history completed a simulated decision‐making task that involved choosing two out of four employees to lay off in response to a company's need to downsize. Results indicate people generally perceived the solution‐oriented strategy as appropriate and effective. Although people perceived their partners' use of the controlling strategy to be inappropriate, people rated themselves as more effective when they used the controlling strategy. People evaluated nonconfrontational strategies as particularly incompetent.     

Reasons and strategies for reviewers＇ rejection or delay of manuscript review

专家审稿时间是期刊出版周期的一个重要部分;然而由于特定原因,个别专家拒绝或延迟审稿的现象时有发生,这常常会延长期刊的出版周期。该文对其原因进行调查和分析,并且有针对性地提出了解决问题的对策,主要包括选择合适的审稿专家、加强与审稿专家的联系以及加大期刊的宣传。     

Compliance‐gaining strategies and communicator role: An analysis of strategy choices and persuasive efficacy

This study investigated not only those compliance‐gaining strategies senders are likely to use but also those strategies to which receivers are likely to respond. Results indicated that persuasive efficacy is maximized when explanation, direct request, and ingratiation are employed, while more punishing strategies such as threat and guilt are mutually perceived as ineffective. The interaction effect of size of request with communicator role proved to be minimal.     

Free‐association responses and the investigation of meaning: A technique for instrument development

What is described in this paper is the development of a technique for the measurement of meaning. This technique avoids some of the undesirable features of traditional measures. It is easy to employ and does not require large samples. It is highly relevant to the concept being measured and appropriate to the population under examination.     

Mapping contentious discourse in China: activists’ discursive strategies and their coordination with media

Discursive strategy in social movements in China has received limited scholarly attention. This paper systemically examines the way in which contentious discourse in China is informed by its cultural repertoire and illustrates how activists strategically frame their culturally informed discourse in coordination with the usage of media platforms. We analyzed 143 slogans and banners from 22 environmental and land requisition protests, and found that activists in China draw heavily on Chinese cultural repertoire. They embed family values in a rank system that is mapped onto two axes – space vs. time and us vs. them – with family/self at the center, to frame diagnostic, motivational, and prognostic collective action frames. In order to unpack the dynamic process of strategic framing, we paid special attention to activists’ coordination mechanisms with media in our analyses drawn from extensive participatory observation and interviews in two protest cases. We found strategic framing (such as frame bridging, amplification, extension, transformation and borrowing) was used in coordination with both traditional and new media in an effort to adjust their contentious discourse to achieve consensus mobilization, action mobilization, and social mobilization at various stages of protest. This study brings cultural repertoire back into the study of contentious discourse in China and highlights the dynamic nature of strategic framing that is often practiced in coordination with media.