Every Viewer has a Price: On the Differentiation of TV Channels

The authors analyzed the implications of targeted advertising on the equilibrium level of channel profile differentiation (e.g., in terms of political positioning), in free-to-air broadcasting industries. When consumers have no preferences over program content (e.g., entertainment vs. news) standard Hotelling type results apply. Market forces minimize differentiation while the optimal degree is at an intermediate level. As preferences over program content get somewhat stronger, the difference between optimal and market outcomes is initially reduced. However, when preferences over program content get more pronounced, minimal differentiation suddenly becomes optimal while market forces lead to excessive differentiation. Hence, policies aimed at increasing diversity are beneficial only when viewers care little about differences in program content.     

Advertising and Media Market Concentration

In media markets, the value of advertisement exposure depends on circulation, and media consumers' valuation is affected by advertising. This article analyzes media market competition in a duopoly framework. There exist symmetric and asymmetric equilibria in terms of firm size, and sometimes a natural monopoly may emerge. There is less scope for asymmetry when products are more differentiated. Some media exhibit public good features. This increases the scope for asymmetry when consumers value advertising positively. If their valuation is negative, only symmetric equilibria exist. Regulations limiting price competition increase the scope for natural monopoly.     

Older versions of the ROUGEeval summarization evaluation system were easier to fool

We show some limitations of the ROUGE evaluation method for automatic summarization. We present a method for automatic summarization based on a Markov model of the source text. By a simple greedy word selection strategy, summaries with high ROUGE-scores are generated. These summaries would however not be considered good by human readers. The method can be adapted to trick different settings of the ROUGEeval package.     

The UK National Student Survey: An amalgam of discipline and neo-liberal governmentality

The UK National Student Survey (NSS) has high status on the agenda of UK universities. Its rise in status is linked to its influence on national rankings and associated funding streams referenced to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Consequently, many universities have implemented further assessments of student satisfaction, thereby putting additional internal performative pressures on courses and individual lecturers. The research contribution of this article comprises an analysis of the NSS through Foucault's notion of ‘governmentality’, with a particular focus on his work on ‘discipline’ and ‘neo-liberal governmentality’. More specifically, by utilising qualitative data from interviews, research diaries and observations, it will be demonstrated how the NSS functions as a ‘disciplinary’ technology of government which subjects lecturers, departments and universities to intersecting panoptic gazes and perpetual ratings. In addition, the NSS can also be considered ‘neo-liberal’ in that it governs the academic population through narrow conceptions of ‘freedom’ and omnipresent competition. The article proposes that it is through the amalgamated forces of intersecting panoptic gazes, on the one hand, and neo-liberal free-market principles, on the other, that student feedback develops its power to govern.     

The walking rhythm of physical education teaching: an in-path analysis

Background: While studies of teaching frequently preserve an interest in teacher–pupil encounters that take place in certain spots, this article shows how teachers’ can be understood as in-path instructors, which is significant for student-based learning. This complements studies that have mainly focused on teachers instructional work taking place at certain spots.

Purpose: The purpose is to describe how a PE teacher’s rhythmic labouring of the diverse settings in the gym creates a learning environment. By examining emplacement (spatial) and empacement (temporal) as important aspects of how learning environments are constituted, this article contributes a framework for studying and analysing a teacher’s work from a moving vantage point.

Conclusions: Based on a video ethnographic approach and using a wearable camera attached to the teacher’s chest, the analysis of a station-wise lesson show how the teacher frequently covers a large part of the room and creates a web of educational challenges and possibilities. These brief encounters are identified as important tools that support each pupil’s rhythm and engagement in the learning activities and maintain the corporate rhythm of a class. Furthermore, by analysing the teacher’s temporal and spatial walking technique, which helps the pupils to transit between and accomplish practical exercises, the article highlights how the teacher’s ability to support pupils’ progression partly builds on a regional knowledge that is cultivated by the array of encounters.     

Divisions,diversity and educational directives: IRE teachers’ didactic choices in Kisumu,Kenya

The present article focuses on the choices teachers make when teaching Islamic religious education (IRE) in the town of Kisumu, Kenya. The data were collected through interviews with IRE teachers and participant observations in schools that offered IRE during several fieldwork sessions in the period 2003–2006. The fieldwork revealed that the choices teachers made were related to social and religious contexts both inside and outside the school setting and also the more immediate contexts of the teaching–learning situation. Most clearly, the choices were influenced by the fact that IRE is an examinable subject in a larger educational system. This article claims that an alternation between a confessional education into Islam and a more fact‐oriented education about Islam was a strategy used by some teachers balancing between competing demands posed by the educational system, students, parents and the surrounding local society.     

Pupils’ voices about citizenship education: comparative case studies in Finland,Sweden and England

The aim of the article is to present and discuss a study in which Finnish, English and Swedish pupils’ understanding of citizenship education with regard to: (a) political literacy; and (b) attitudes and values was explored. The study was a cross‐national, multiple case study and data were collected through 18 focus group dialogues with 15‐year‐old pupils. Results showed that English pupils were much more well‐informed about rights and responsibilities than their Nordic counterparts and also more skilled rhetorically, but appeared less accustomed to open and confident relationships with adults than the Swedish pupils. Finnish pupils did not seem to be encouraged to talk; instead they kept their thoughts and feelings to themselves. One conclusion, among others, was that the study illuminates conditions for the development of a so‐called key competence – i.e., ‘interpersonal, intercultural, social and civic competence’.     

Practicing induction: a generative dance between newcomers and organizations

Research on induction of newcomers is primarily focused on individual processes, such as acquisition of knowledge and socialization in order to create a smooth and frictionless entry period. The interest of our research, however, is the processes that happen on the organizational level. We claim that induction potentially triggers both individual and organizational learning and by drawing on practice-based theory we discuss how the interplay between individual and the organization, what we call a generative dance, ignites both kinds of learning. We focus on and describe the interplay that takes place in particular induction events and analyze the “dance” through the lens of learning. The article concludes with a brief discussion about the implications for practitioners and the challenges and future research prospects we have encountered. We draw on an empirical enquiry in two organizational settings, a Danish management consulting company and a German retail bank.