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This study reviews how Thai and Chinese journalists talk about power and truth in relationship to their Fourth Estate role through examining twenty qualitative interviews. Adding to a previous study similarly looking at US and UK journalists it finds that, like their western counterparts, truth is heavily fetishized, being an ideal that journalists admittedly can never reach. However power relations are discussed quite differently, showing how the divergent power structures of the four countries create very different discourses of the power of journalists which are not fetishized to the same extent. This article thus finds that there are limitations to the universality of Žižek’s concept of ideology as fetishistic disavowal (that is, being able to actively admit the limitations of one’s profession as long as one still performs it) in the realm of comparative journalism.

The present study is an analysis of a sample of reports on China’s handling of COVID-19 by several major US media with a focus on a controversial op-ed by the Wall Street Journal. It is found that instead of covering it objectively as a public health crisis, these media reports tend to adopt the strategy of naming, shaming, blaming, and taming against China. In other words, they seize the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan as an opportunity to serve Trump’s “America First” doctrine by a coordinated attempt to destroy the Chinese dream and arresting China’s ascendency. First, the naming/shaming technique is used to tarnish China’s image as a virus. The op-ed on the Wall Street Journal describes China as “the real sick man of Asia.” In addition, a cluster of ferociously negative names are slung onto China to describe the coronavirus as “the Wuhan virus,” “the Belt & Road Initiative pandemic,” “the China virus,” and so on. Second, the blaming technique is applied. On top of such negative name-calling, these media tend to blame the Chinese leadership, the political system, and finally Chinese food culture for eating pangolins. Finally, the taming technique is used to constrain, isolate, or quarantine China. One goal behind such a China threat strategy is to fan American or foreign businesses to move (back) to the United States out of China. Another goal is to create the public opinion environment that would be conducive to some American groups’ litigations against China. It is concluded that American mainstream media while quarreling with the Trump administration for domestic affairs seem to be colluding with the conservative intellectual base in the United States in supporting Trump’s strategy to knock down and divide China.

Amid increasing climate change and environmental degradation, illegal mining (galamsey) has received widespread public concern in Ghana, with greater attention in recent times due to increased medi...

The electoral process in Nigeria is now more dynamic than in earlier years because of the nature of competitions among politicians. In a bid to sell candidates and woo voters, political parties engage in election campaigns during which statements are made. Campaigns ought to address issues of public importance, but in some instances the comments are mere expressions of personal sentiments. The press is not just the fourth estate of the realm but also the voice of the people to report issues for voters’ enlightenment. This paper examined newspaper coverage of issue-based political statements and campaigns in Nigeria’s 2019 electoral process. Two theoretical frameworks for the study were Agenda Setting Theory and Development Media Theory. The study was both quantitative and qualitative, covering newspaper reports from two national dailies, Vanguard and The Punch. A total of 76 editions were studied using the content analysis research design, with quoted statements buttressing the argument. The data were presented with frequency tables and analysed through simple percentages. There were 116 reports on the subject in the dailies. The paper found out that while there were coverage over some national issues like restructuring, security, corruption, economy, and electricity, the greater volume of political statements were not issue-based. There is the need for the press to pay less attention on matters that would not serve to educate voters adequately. The study recommends that the press use the editorials to canvass for issue-based comments. The study also contributed to knowledge as the seminal analysis of political statements in 2019 general elections.

The process of mass communication is a reality experienced by society so that it will follow the ideology and political system adopted in the country where it lives. Every country has an ideology that is adhered to as values and principles that serve as guidelines in achieving national ideals. The ideology of a country ultimately determines the political system that is practiced in the life of the nation and state. People who live in a country must be guided by the ideology set. The state ideology becomes the values that are practiced and shared together in daily life, including in the process of mass communication. In the current political mass communication system it should have the potential to become the fourth power and pillar of democracy in a country's political system. Namely the mass media that play an important role as the fourth estate. The process of mass communication takes place in the flow of the country's political system, seen from the perspective of the Four Theories of the Pres and Three Models of Media and Politics, democracy can develop according to the theory of libertarian theory and social responsibility in the four theories of the press, as well as liberal and corporate democracy in the three models of media and politics. Which is the important role of the mass media as the fourth estate can be realized. Whereas in a country that adheres to a media and political system according to authoritarian theory, the soviet communist theory and the pluralist pluralist model are not possible. Although the process of mass communication can play its role as the fourth estate in the realm of democracy, but there are serious challenges that must be faced, namely media conglomeration. Keywords: Mass communication, political system, democracy, press.

Analysis of political-propaganda actions of Western media during the Yugoslav crisis with the role in breaking the second Yugoslav state is performed in the paper, on basis of the previously theoretically determined idea of propaganda and political propaganda. By character, it was ?propaganda of war? and in certain intervals it was ?war propaganda?, while the subject of stigmatization were the Serbs, therefore it was decidedly anti-Serbian by the character. Direct occasion for this analysis were scientific researches of Dr. Slobodan Vukovic regarding the Yugoslav crisis, the role of foreign (Austrian, German, British and American) print media in the development of anti-Serbian propaganda as the basis for the breakage of Yugoslavia and the war against the Serbian people and Serbia. In his works (in the period 2000-2018), especially in the last two-volume compound Serbs in the Narrative of the West: ?Humanitarian? NATO Intervention, Vukovic successfully arguments the thesis about the centennial continuous anti-Serbian propaganda and the policy of the West based on it regarding the Serbs, which is the consequence in the greatest extent of the German revanchism for the lost two world wars, but also the result of other interests of the Western forces.

With the upswing of populist, right-wing, and EU-skeptical parties and politicians in Europe, as well as the success of Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential elections, the media and its role in democracies are, once again, under scrutiny. To investigate whether the media fulfill its role as the fourth estate, i.e. providing another level of control for government, or whether there is evidence of media capture, first, we introduce the Political Coverage Index (PCI), a new measure of the relative positioning of media within the political spectrum. In contrast to existing measures of political positioning (e.g., language similarities, explicit endorsements, mentions of ideological references), we utilize the tonality of articles and newscasts on political parties and politicians. Then, we apply the PCI to 35 opinion-leading media in Germany, on the basis of more than 10 million news items on political parties and politicians between 1998 and 2012. Lastly, we use the PCI to investigate whether the media fulfil its fourth estate role. Our findings show that the media outlets in our sample report more negatively on governing parties, which we interpret as suggestive evidence that media is fulfilling its role as fourth estate in democracies.

Government perpetrated attacks against independent media, ranging from journalists’ imprisonment to verbal attacks against outlets, carry an adverse effect for freedoms in democracies. Verbal attac...

Over the last several years, numerous journalists and news organizations have reported incidents in which their communications have been hacked, intercepted, or retrieved. In 2014, Google security ...

Investigative journalism across national borders is well known for the large projects, initiated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), with hundreds of reporters in many countries who collaborate to produce coverage such as the Panama Papers. However, there are also many examples in the field of global investigative journalism that are microcosms of their larger counterparts. These smaller or ‘microcosm’ cross-border collaborations are instigated and carried out by a small group of reporters, possibly including freelance reporters. Like their larger counterparts, ‘microcosm investigations’ can also lead to sociopolitical change and thus are deservedly classified as investigative journalism. Microcosm investigations can therefore be viewed as part of a suggested global fourth estate that is calling power to account. The purpose of the article is to examine the characteristics of ‘microcosm’-oriented global investigative journalism and to demonstrate the similarities and differences compared with its larger and more visible counterpart. The empirical material consists of interviews with Australian journalists who were shortlisted as finalists and who won national journalism awards, sponsored by the Walkley Foundation. The findings indicate that new technologies that enable cross-border collaboration are enabling the emergence of a global fourth estate. In the concluding discussion it is argued that for the expansion and mainstreaming of global investigative journalism, the multiple small-scale projects undertaken should collectively be viewed as equally important, if not more important, than the fewer but larger and better-known collaborations. Microcosm collaborations offer opportunities for the proliferation of cross-border media coverage that can be accomplished even by relatively small media outlets.

As critical issues such as climate change, exploited fisheries, declining human rights, and reconfiguration of political systems inherited at independence increasingly challenge the microstates of ...

In all civilized societies, the media stand as an independent institution that checks the activities of the people and the government. In Nigeria, apart from the executive, the judiciary and the legislature, the media are regarded as the Fourth Estate of the Realm. From the Universal Declaration of Human Right, Article 19 provides freedom of expression as part of fundamental human rights. At the level of AU in Africa, the right to freedom of information and freedom of expression was also given due consideration especially in Article nine. The Nigerian Constitution of 1999 also guarantees the freedom of expression, specifically Section 39 of the Constitution which assigns a constitutional right, power, role, obligation and duty to the press. Nigerian Constitutions since then have upheld this role. Section 22 of the same Constitution recognises the media as the “Fourth Estate of the Realm”. It therefore means the media are seen as an oversight of the government and its agencies. The Freedom of Information Act establishes that information should be made available and that the citizens should feel free to express their personal views. Thus, in order to achieve the objectives of this paper, the following serve as the basic tools of inquiry: do Nigerian media have the teeth to bite as far as freedom of expression is concerned? Or the proceeding provisions are just give-and-take documents? These questions are the main focus of this paper. The paper employs a multidisciplinary research methodology using a combination of socio-legal methods to obtain the contextual data. In addition, selected pertinent judicial decisions in law reports and journals were reviewed to examine the freedom of expression. The paper also critically examined non-legal sources for investigative or supporting information. Among the technical documents reviewed are: The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999; Freedom of Information Act among others., Em todas as sociedades civilizadas, a mídia é uma instituição independente que controla as atividades do povo e do governo. Na Nigéria, além do Executivo, Judiciário e Legislativo, a mídia é considerada o Quarto Poder da Nação. Da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, o Artigo 19 prevê a liberdade de expressão como parte dos direitos humanos fundamentais.Ao nível da UA em África, o direito à liberdade de informação e de expressão também foi devidamente considerado, especialmente no Artigo nove. A Constituição da Nigéria de 1999 também garante a liberdade de expressão, especificamente na Seção 39 da Constituição que atribui um direito constitucional, poder, função, obrigação e dever à imprensa. As constituições nigerianas desde então têm mantido esse papel. A seção 22 da mesma Constituição reconhece a mídia como o “Quarto Poder da Nação”. Portanto, significa que a mídia é vista como um órgão fiscalizador do governo e de suas agências. A Lei de Liberdade de Informação estabelece que a informação deve ser disponibilizada e que os cidadãos devem se sentir livres para expressar suas opiniões pessoais. Assim, para atingir os objetivos deste artigo, as seguintes perguntas servem como ferramentas básicas de investigação: a mídia nigeriana tem dentes para morder no que diz respeito à liberdade de expressão? Ou as disposições do processo são apenas documentos de troca? Essas questões são o foco principal deste artigo. O artigo emprega uma metodologia de pesquisa multidisciplinar usando uma combinação de métodos sócio-jurídicos para obter os dados contextuais. Além disso, decisões judiciais pertinentes selecionadas em relatórios jurídicos e periódicos foram revisadas para examinar a liberdade de expressão. O artigo também examinou criticamente fontes não legais de informações investigativas ou de apoio. Entre os documentos técnicos revisados estão: A Constituição da República Federal da Nigéria, 1999; Lei de Liberdade de Informação, entre outros.

This paper recommends how Defense Agencies and Field Activities (DAFA) should consolidate efforts and reconfigure itself to better align its own missions with those of its customers and save the DOD money to spend on other projects. The DOD should also look to cut the DAFA budgets from a bottom-up approach and not a percentage slice across the top of all agencies. DAFA could implement eight measures to improve efficiencies, with or without budget cuts: •Agency—Facilities Mergers & Formations •Agency and Facilities Closures •Agency Mission Expansions •Service Expansions •Service Privatization •Service Enhancements •IT Enhancements •Contingency Response Force The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have also caused exploration of how the federal government must rethink the work environment. The DOD must invest more resources in information technology and allow commands the flexibility to accomplish their missions, as disruptive events will continue to occur in the future. Integrated DOD systems and in-house resourcing will be key to creating a new environment that provides for pandemic precautions and yet is nimble enough to continue the mission. Our research supports the idea that the mission can now sometimes be accomplished by means other than travel. The data shows that the DOD could reduce its physical footprint by moving toward needs-based congregation, personnel, and facility sharing. Civilian, Office of the Secretary of Defense Civilian, Defense Contract Management Agency Civilian, Department of the Navy Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

We know of the key cases of media corruption and generally of corruption referred to in this book, because they were first exposed and reported through the media, and specifically investigative journalists working in conjunction with whistleblowers and citizen journalists. Using the metaphorical analogy of Socrates as the first investigative journalist, the chapter will demonstrate the crucial importance that investigative journalism still plays in exposing and reporting worldwide corruption as illustrated by the Panama Papers case and the Cambridge Analytica controversy, analyzed in this chapter. The chapter will also examine how the symbiotic relationship between the fourth and fifth Estates working together in conjunction, help expose and report on global corruption. This is a welcome and major development and paradigm shift on how this symbiotic relationship between the corporate investigative journalists of the fourth Estate and the citizen journalists of the fifth Estate, as well as whistleblowers, such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, and before them many others such as Daniel Ellsberg, Frank Serpico and Katharine Dunn, and the collective voices of social media in their role of bearing witness, valiantly expose major and worldwide instances of corruption, including media corruption.

La evolución tecnológica ha marcado nuestras vidas. Hoy en día, la gran parte de ciudadanos en el mundo tiene móvil, y acceso a internet. Este proceso ha aumentado la influencia de unos medios de comunicación que, ya entonces, tenían una capacidad de influir al gran público considerable. El trabajo aborda cómo los medios han conseguido alcanzar cada vez más influencia, algo que también ha marcado la forma de percibir la información en la población en general. En este contexto en el que la influencia ha gozado de niveles insuperables, los mensajes lorito han aumentado su influencia en los ciudadanos y, por lo tanto, llegamos a un punto en el que la sociedad puede verse manipulada por la prensa. Una gran parte del trabajo consistirá en el análisis de programas televisivos como Sexta Noche, Todo es mentira, Espejo Público o Al Rojo Vivo. Se detectarán mensajes especialmente sencillos, constantemente repetidos y que puedan tener una intención comunicativa cercana a la manipulación o, al menos, a la convicción. No obstante, también nos centramos en la realización de encuestas para conocer, en mayor profundidad, si los ciudadanos se sienten o no influenciados. En caso negativo, intentaremos profundizar y averiguar si estas personas tienen interés o no, en conocer la verdad, o si solo interesa la desinformación. Technological evolution has marked our lives. Today, most of the world’s have a mobile phone and access to the internet. This process has increased the influence of social media that, even when they already had a considerable capacity to influence the general public. The following research addresses how the media have managed to achieve ever greater influence, something that has also marked the way in which information is perceived by the general population. In this context where influence has reached unbeatable leveles, the ‘mensajes lorito’ have increased their influence on citizens and therefore we have come to th econclusion where society can be manipulated by the press. A large part of the research will consist of analyzing television programs such as Sexta Noche, Todo es mentira, Espejo Público or Al Rojo Vivo. We will identify messages that are particularly simple, constantly repeated and that may have a communicative intention that is related to manipulation or, at least, to conviction. However, we will also focus on carrying out surveys to find out whether citizens feel influenced or not by media. If it is not, we will try to go deeper and find out whether or not these people are interested in knowing the truth, or whether they are only interested in being misinformed. Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Periodismo

This article examines the origins and current operation of the EU’s lobbying transparency register and offers a critical review of the drivers and politics associated with lobbying reform in Brussels. The analysis considers the dynamics of political communication in EU institutions and draws on concepts of the fourth estate, the public sphere and monitory democracy to illustrate the particular challenges around lobbying transparency and opening up governance processes to wider scrutiny, and wider participation, at the EU level. This article draws upon interviews, official data and participant observation of some of the deliberations on lobbying transparency dating back to the 2005 ETI. The analysis is brought up to date by examining the data within the Transparency Register itself, both substantively in terms of the kinds of information disclosed and in relation to trends around disclosures and registration, since the register was launched over a decade ago. The article concludes with a critical appraisal of the evolving issue culture relating to lobbying transparency in Brussels as well as recommendations for the development of the Transparency Register itself.

This study investigates the relationship between user demand and news selection on Facebook. I compile an original data set of over 40,000 Facebook posts and 300,000 website articles between January 2009 to June 2017 from Germany’s leading news magazine Spiegel Online. The results suggest that editorial news selection on Facebook is driven by prior user engagement (i.e., likes, shares, and comments) with similar posts: a one standard deviation increase in likes per post in a topic category in the last week raises the number of posts in this topic category in the current week by 9.33%. The estimates are even larger for shares (9.69%) and comments (30.79%). This finding can be best explained by editors catering to consumer preferences. While a strong impact of the demand side implies that the chances of supply-driven media are small, consumer sovereignty in news markets might also undermine the media’s role as the Fourth Estate.

Dataset of relevant newspaper articles that are the primary data underlying the doctoral research project of Marie Garnier. This dataset includes the following files: (1) Metadata file (text file, information to understand the dataset) (2) Bilbiographic information file (markup language text file, bibliographic information of newspaper articles retrieved and included) (3) Coding handbook (text file) (4) Raw dataset (qualitative data analysis file, newspaper articles included in content analysis) (5) Processed dataset (qualitative data analysis file, coded newspaper articles included in content analysis)

The Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021 has renewed discussions about ways our institutions can curb the spread of disinformation. One of these institutions being re-examined is the Fourth Estate, the press. Freedom of the Press was written into the Constitution because our framers understood that a well-informed electorate was imperative to the functioning of a democratic society, where the government is accountable to the people. But what happens to a democracy when the electorate doesn’t trust the press? When the electorate can no longer differentiate between fact and opinion? When news is labeled as “fake”? This Note sets out to analyze ways in which the FCC has in the past assisted the public in sifting through the deluge of information that flows from television screens. While the print media is largely free from regulation, the history of telecommunications media tells a different story. From its inception, the broadcast industry has always been tightly regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is likely because of broadcasters’ ability to reach the most people and because the barriers to entry into the broadcast industry are high. One way the FCC has historically regulated broadcast media is through licensing. Licensing allows broadcasters to operate a radio or television station should there be availability on the broadcast spectrum, and should they show that their programming was in the public interest, convenience, or necessity. This note does not suggest that a government commission such as the FCC should implement news reporting content standards for television news, but it does explore the government’s capabilities and the shortcomings when it comes to the regulation of television news. This note suggests that moving forward, the answer to the proliferation of opinion-based T.V. news both relies on principles from the Fairness Doctrine, yet also might lie outside the bounds of FCC regulation.

Basic food must be guaranteed by States as a fundamental right of all people. In this article we defend the hypothesis that the path of justiciability is insufficient to achieve full recognition of the right to food as a fundamental social right. A strong and active public sphere is needed to address the obstacles to this recognition today. Some of them are actually related to the inherited legal culture. And, on the other hand, that promotes the creation of new institutions to guarantee social rights. The constitutional State needs a "fourth estate" that guarantees fundamental rights and protects the common good from private powers.

This is a chapter that examines the arena of internet regulation in Malaysia between the years 2008 and 2018, two decades following the promise not to censor the internet. It positions the issue of internet governance in a regional context where the internet’s ubiquity in Southeast Asia and its users’ greater sophistication have also led to its abuse as a medium of communication. In Malaysia, unchecked by a complicit fourth estate, internet regulation in the name of cybersecurity was used to broaden the scope of extant Acts to include digital media, enact new laws and curtail political satire and informal sharing of news. Malaysia is, for example, the first country within ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to enact an anti-fake news law, which has opened the door for other countries in the region to further tighten regulation of the internet. The influence of Malaysian reform of internet regulation on global internet governance is yet to be determined. However, when viewed from the major impact that digital media liberation has brought to the nation, it suggests there to be many lessons on internet governance that can be derived from the Malaysian experience.

The deliberate publication of fake news by any media organisation or online network is an aberration in journalism practice. And such sophist intentions and dissemination of falsehood to the people through the virtual media, social media and old media is a depravity against humanity to spread mischief, acrimony, crises, disease, corruption, and squalor. It is total negation of journalism values and news values. Thus, this chapter seeks to examine the concept of newsworthiness in the wake of resurrection of the ghost of fake news in this digital age, which was the practice in the age of ignorance when unlettered men abound as journalists. It investigates the ideological constructs of news because it is a violation of journalism practice for any organisation to base its ideology on the publication of fake news. This study highlights news production process in tandem with the socio-cultural interests, political philosophy, and economic interests of the sponsors, financiers, and owners of the media. The chapter critically examines factors of news or factors of newsworthiness in relation to the concept of fake news. If the twelve factors of news are frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite nations, reference to elite people, reference to elite persons, and reference to something negative, should there be anything fake called News? In narrative and argumentative form, the study concludes that anything fake or any information that is based on falsehood cannot be regarded as News. If it is news, it must be based on Truth and Facts. If it is news, it must be new. If it is news, it must be based on actualities. If it is news, it must be based on evidences. If it is news, it must be fair. If it is news, it must be based on realities. If it is news, it must not be based on vendetta. If it is news, it must not be hoax. If it is news, it must not be fallacy. If it is news, it must not be innuendoes.

Paper presents research conducted in order to understand why neural networks from Evolution point of view are developing in such a strange way. When observing development of species, development of consistent neural network is always stopped on certain level and is continued as development of distributed, cooperating neural networks. Such networks are organized into social structures. Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand (ASIH) phenomena emerges here as key factor to understand this. ASIH is perceived here as meta-computational process on platform of local neural networks, hosted by agents. ASIH theoretically is able to provide self-regulation for social structures, better than any centralized structure (dictator, government, authority) can do. Contrary to deterministic computational processes in today’s digital computers, the computational processes that are behind Invisible Hand are: unconscious, nondeterministic, multithread, chaotic and non-continuous. This research methodology has provided astonishing results:•Understanding of Elementary Invisible Hand, which is ruling so efficiently anthill. On this basis Artificial Invisible Hand can be derived to provide self-control of teams of AI mobile robots for situations when human-supervisor cannot assist them or management is too complicated;•Invisible Hand applied to problem of understanding the Fourth (4th) Estate allowed, for the first time, to point to very clear, well visible real (not abstract) case of Invisible Hand;•The 4th Estate on the platform of modern electronic media (MEM) emerges as a new worldwide governing superpower.

Dave Egger’s fictional book The Circle tells the story of an all-powerful new media company of the same name that seeks to totally monopolise its market and remake the world in its image. To achieve this The Circle advocates the unregulated sharing of all information, at all times, regardless of its source and irrespective of the consequences for individuals, society and the state. Although the dystopian view of reality presented by the book is perhaps slightly extreme, it does not take any great leap of faith to see how we could all end up as ‘Circlers’, particularly because the underlying normative rationale that drives The Circle is what currently underpins online speech in reality. Libertarianism and the inherently libertarian arguments from truth and the marketplace of ideas have historically underpinned the notion of the Fourth Estate and have a ‘hold’ on First Amendment jurisprudence. In recent years, libertarianism has emerged as the de facto normative paradigm for internet and social media speech worldwide. Although the theory’s dominant position fits with the perceived ethos of social media platforms such as Facebook, its philosophical foundations are based on nineteenth and early twentieth-century means of communication. Consequently, as illustrated by issues such as filter bubbles and Facebook’s reaction to fake news (bringing in a third-party fact-checking company) which conflicts with the platform’s libertarian ideology, as well as the European Court of Human Rights consistently placing the argument from democracy at the heart of its Article 10 ECHR jurisprudence, rather than the argument from truth and marketplace of ideas, this normative framework is idealistic as opposed to being realistic. Therefore, it is not suitable for twenty-first-century free speech and the modern media, of which social media is no longer an outlier, but a central component. Thus, this paper advances the argument that a normative and philosophical framework for media speech, based on social responsibility theory and the argument from democratic self-governance, is more suitable for the modern media than libertarianism. Further, it justifies a coercive regulatory regime that also preserves media freedom.