Democratizing Decision-Making on Food Safety in the EU: Closing Gaps between Principles of Governance and Practice

Food safety is a preoccupation of the European Commission, but there are major shortcomings in its governance. Reviewing legislation and practice, this paper explores the background of EU food safety institutions, and develops recommendations to make the EU decision process more transparent, accountable, and democratic.     

Determinants of expected vs. actual match outcome: an examination of the German Bundesliga

Within society, there are many publications regarding expectations of firm performance. These include analysis, industry insiders and ranking service. Within sports, bookmakers provide betting odds that reflect the expected outcome of matches and are determined by several factors. The purpose of this study is to analyse the determinants of expected match outcome (i.e. betting odds) and compare them to those of actual match outcome. Data from the 2010/2011 season of the German Bundesliga (soccer) are made available that are combined with betting odds for each match. Regression results show that several factors, such as difference in standing between team and opponent, difference in competitions played, difference in points earned over the last five matches, differences in standing last season and home advantage significantly influence expected match outcome. On the contrary, actual match outcome is only determined by the latter two factors.     

The Online Market for Illegal Copies of Magazines: A German Case Study

A few years ago, publishing companies started to sell digital copies of their magazines. This study investigates a consequence of this change: the increasing online trade with illegal copies. We collected data on almost 10,000 issues of German magazines that are illegally offered online. The files are distributed in a three-sided market, in which a small number of platforms bring suppliers of illegal copies, consumers, and advertisers together. The market has been growing rapidly—between 2009 and 2012 by a factor of 10. In contrast to the legal magazine market, the illegal trade mostly concerns IT and consumer electronics magazines.     

体育赞助效果评估

摘要：据普华永道2012年度报告显示,全球体育赞助投入预计在2013年将达到352亿美元,较之2012年上涨5.1%。较于体育赞助市场的蓬勃发展,体育赞助效果的评估方法仍然处于探索阶段。目前广泛应用的评估方法仅是分析赞助信息曝光度对消费者记忆度的影响。然而,消费者接收和认知赞助信息的过程却被完全忽略。为弥补这一研究领域空白,研究采用实验法,利用视线追踪技术分析消费者对赞助刺激的注意力,通过回归模型分析消费者对赞助刺激的认知处理过程。实验结果表明消费者对赞助刺激的注意力是由赞助刺激的摆放位置和影响曝光度的三种因素所决定的;另外,消费者对赞助商的回忆度取决于消费者注意力和品牌熟悉度等因素。因此,赞助商应当首要考虑赞助刺激对消费者注意力的影响。基于本实验结果建立的体育赞助效果评估模型,可以帮助赞助商评估赞助效果和赞助合约价值。     

‘Real Pictures of Current Events’

Objectivity has been regarded as a central ideal of American journalism in the early twentieth century. The concurrent emergence of photography in the press is rarely associated with this development. The article explores the photographic legacy of journalistic objectivity by discussing a crucial phase in the development of reproduction media for images, the transition from wood engravings to halftones. The former was the dominant mode of ‘illustrated journalism’, the latter became the dominant mode of reproducing photojournalism in print in the twentieth century. The halftone process introduced an equivalence between photographs and their reproductions, obliterating the mediation that had taken place in a code of reproduction that was almost imperceptible. In the contested adoption of the halftone process, it is argued, a shifting valuation of photographs can be observed that prefigures the formulation of objectivity as a transparent code of mediation in journalism.