Online Censorship and Journalists' Tactics

This paper explores the dynamics between journalistic practices and the mechanisms of internet control in the Chinese context. Principally drawing on interviews and focus group discussions with journalists, this paper investigates in detail the key tactics employed by journalists to counter online censorship, which include: journalists working undercover; the use of “transformed words” or alternatives to “sensitive” words to evade blocking filters; and de-verification on microblogs (Weibo in Chinese) where critical alternative accounts on social media oblige officials to recant earlier versions of events reported on traditional media. Informed by Scott's research, this paper argues that journalists employ these strategies as weapons against the party-state's censorship. Such strategies avoid direct confrontation with the authorities, and are conducted on a “quiet” but substantial scale. Consequently, it is not easy to apply sanctions against particular individuals. The strategies have a profound impact on the dynamics of the relationships between journalists and the powerful party-state. On the one hand, the strategies can empower journalists with psychological gains. On the other, these strategies weaken the party-state's authority. But such strategies are not new and can also be found in traditional journalistic practices. However, one phenomenon worthy of note is the association between journalists and scholars facilitated by microblogs, since increased associations among various professional groups may spark resistance to the party-state's information monopoly.     

ACADEMIC FREEDOM: ITS NATURE, EXTENT AND VALUE

ABSTRACT:  Academic freedom does not refer to freedom to engage in any speech act, but to freedom to hold any belief and espouse it in an appropriately academic manner. This freedom belongs to certain institutions, rather than to individuals, because of their academic nature. Academic freedom should be absolute, regardless of any offence it may on occasion cause .     

Political trust in the internet context: A comparative study in 36 countries

The decline of political trust is often linked to the rise of the Internet. This paper took the perspective of media ecology to explore the Internet's impacts on political trust. The data of the World Values Survey were used for multilevel analyses with 51, 960 respondents in 36 countries. It reported several paradoxical and counter-intuitive results. Instead of being weakened, political trust is strengthened in the new informational context that is created by the Internet infrastructure. For the Internet censorship, political trust is strengthened by the Internet blockage but weakened by the violation of user rights. For the Internet participation, political trust is strengthened by e-information and e-consultation but weakened by e-decision-making.     

The Artist‐Teacher in the Classroom and Changes in the Teacher–Student Relationship,with Reference to the Issue of Censorship

This article examines a case study of an A‐Level student's work and how the inclusion and integration of my own practice as artist‐teacher into the classroom has changed the teacher‐student relationship, resulting in a more collaborative environment. It investigates how the mutual sharing of practice supports opportunities for pupils to discuss and investigate socially provocative issues and raises the issues of censorship. Through the case study the following questions will be addressed: how a collaborative classroom environment impacts on process and outcomes; the effect of discussing social/ political/ cultural issues within the art and design classroom; and the issues of censorship and ownership within the environment of a comprehensive secondary school context.     

Cultured Technology: The Internet and Religious Fundamentalism

In this article we identify four principal dimensions of religious fundamentalism as they interact with the Internet: hierarchy, patriarchy, discipline, and seclusion. We also develop the concept of cultured technology, and analyze the ways communities reshape a technology and make it a part of their culture, while at the same time changing their customary ways of life and unwritten laws to adapt to it. Later, we give examples for our theoretical framework through an empirical examination of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel. Our empirical study is based on a data set of 686,192 users and 60,346 virtual communities. The results show the complexity of interactions between religious fundamentalism and the Internet, and invite further discussions of cultured technology as a means to understand how the Internet has been culturally constructed, modified, and adapted to the needs of fundamentalist communities and how they in turn have been affected by it.     

“China loves Italy”: transnational co-productions between China and Italy behind the mask of market†

Since the term “transnational cinema” first appeared in 1997, most studies have focused on films epitomizing the logic of either profit maximization or ethnic affinity to explain phenomena such as the mainstreaming of Kung Fu movies. Yet, these two logics do not account for the entirety of the transnational projects that have been produced to date, hence the call for more studies on “trans-border patterns” that operate beyond both of them (Berry 2010, 123). In this article, we take up this call and approach the co-productions between China and Italy as exhibiting a “trans-border pattern” which satisfies interests beyond both the market and ethnic affinity. We trace the history of such a “pattern” back to the arrival of the Italian pioneer of Chinese cinema, Amerigo Lauro, in Shanghai in the early 1900s. We contextualize the productions of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Chung Kuo/China (1973), Giuliano Montaldo’s Marco Polo (1982) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) to provide exemplary cases of a non-market oriented affinity between two culturally distinct nations: China and Italy. We conclude by suggesting that China has pursued transnational co-productions with European countries such as Italy to exercise a more productive control than censorship over the ways China is to be represented internationally.     

Cinematic citizenship and the illegal city

Abstract

This paper examines some of the questions that could emerge from the relationship between Law and Cinema. While there has been some scholarship on law and cinema, most of it has largely focused on the formal properties of film, and not moved beyond the question of representation. This paper argues that for a fruitful enquiry to emerge, we would need to have an understanding of the complex relationship between the spatial implication of cinema, practices of groups like fan clubs, the question of changing technologies of cinema and how they relate to issues of citizenship and modernity. Finally, it argues for a more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of non‐legal media circulation or piracy in the contemporary and links this to the question of citizenship and globalization.     

Censorship and Scarcity

This article presents a case study on how goods scarcity, both natural and artificially created, was used along with censorship to control the Portuguese public's access to information during the 1930s and 1940s. Even though the dictatorship that ruled Portugal from 1933 relied on a censorship apparatus that prevented the publication and broadcast of many pieces of national and international news, the research presented in this article demonstrates how the regime took advantage of the Spanish Civil War and World War II to increase restrictions on the circulation of information, justifying this through the artificially created scarcity of paper and radio frequencies. Furthermore, this article also describes how a third type of scarcity—that of electricity—also restricted listeners' access to radio broadcasts, which led many Portuguese to make sacrifices in order to listen to updated news.     

Commerce and the Church

First published in January 1905, the Irish Independent is widely acknowledged as having been influenced by developments in journalism first associated, almost a decade earlier, with the Daily Mail in Britain. However, this article argues that while the Irish Independent adopted many elements of New Journalism its proprietor, William Martin Murphy was strategically selective in how elements were incorporated within his new venture. The success of the Irish Independent can be viewed as the outcome of two processes: the selection and adaption of some aspects of New Journalism to create a successful commercial newspaper and also the exclusion of what were considered the less desirable elements of New Journalism that may have damaged the title’s circulation in a country where the power of the Roman Catholic Church was strong. Murphy, in effect, ‘shopped’ for aspects of New Journalism as practiced elsewhere that he felt were most suitable to the local Irish market. In the latter respect, this article highlights the importance of considering the local context when discussing the universality of journalism practice.     

“MOSQUITOES DANCING ON THE SURFACE OF THE POND”

This article examines the impact of technology on Australian conflict reporting using the experiences and insights of the practitioners themselves. There is a prevailing belief that war and foreign correspondents are more liberated and the audience better informed as technology permits immediate communication from the frontline. The article considers the challenges faced by previous generations of war correspondents and the contrasting experiences of reporting in Iraq, analysing how technology has impacted on newsgathering, military management and reporting. I argue that the magnitude of the technological changes has been considerable, and in some cases immensely positive, but in other ways technology has not mitigated past challenges in the realm of censorship, syndication, resources and competition. At the same time the journalists articulate new difficulties with instant deadlines, 24-hour news, increased syndication, and editorial expectations caused by the imperatives of infotainment and compounded by technological advancement.