Suchergebnisse

We investigate how dominant media networks can manipulate voters in young democracies. During the first presidential election after the democratic transition in Brazil, TV Globo, the largest and most-watched network in the country, unexpectedly manipulated the news coverage of the last debate 2 days before the decisive second round. In a video segment, Globo unfavorably depicted the left-wing candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Using the geographical distribution of broadcaster-specific TV signals and the timing of election events, we identify the effect of the manipulation net of the effect of the debate itself, showing that Globo's misleading reporting caused Lula to lose millions of votes. Our results showcase how the media can reshape an election in a single stroke, especially where the media is concentrated and politically inexperienced voters have few other sources of information.

This research examines the implications of manager reprimands of frontline employees following a service failure incident. Drawing upon social exchange theory and looking at both customer and employee reactions, three studies find that customers are more satisfied with failed service encounters when they are aware the employee was reprimanded. This effect is on par with other types of service recoveries, mediated by deontic justice perceptions and moderated by the customer's just-world beliefs, such that high believers are more satisfied than low believers when they are told about an employee's reprimand. Direct observation of the reprimand acts as a key boundary condition whereby customers become dissatisfied when they are present during the reprimand. Furthermore, we find that customer perceptions of frontline reprimands are tied to reprimand privacy, whereas employee perceptions are tied to reprimand civility. This research is the first to simultaneously examine the effects of workplace reprimands on customer and frontline employee satisfaction. For managers, our findings illuminate the usefulness of communicating employee reprimands to customers, thus representing a low-cost alternative to other types of recovery efforts.

Issues surrounding accountability form a central part of the ongoing discussion regarding the role, place, and value of civil society organizations. Decision-makers must be aware of this challenge, seeking out proactive and innovative ways to meet the calls for legitimacy, lest increasing competition for finite resources overcome them. The disclosure of financial information using the internet demonstrates a commitment to transparency and provides an opportunity for users to make better decisions, fitting into theories on relationship marketing. This study serves the dual purpose of joining theoretical bases concerning accountability, legitimacy and marketing in the NGO realm and the execution of survey research on the online financial disclosure of the organizations listed in The Global Journal's "100 Top NGOs 2013" Ranking, with particular attention to the origins of their resources. Content analysis was applied to categorize the line items contained in the NGOs´ Income Statement (or equivalent) reports, and quantitative techniques were employed to generate conclusions regarding the income mix, the share of the resource total represented by each category, and each NGO´s degree of dependence on each. The results indicate that donations are the most prevalent category among the sample (41.25%), followed by revenues (24.10%) and grants (17.93%). Donations were also shown to represent, on average, approximately 39% of the income mix of the NGOs in question. Finally, the vast majority of the sample (62 of the 69 reports-providing NGOs) was found to be dependent on one category alone, more than half of which received 80% or more of their resources from a single category in the year in question. These results contribute to developing research in the field of NGO web-based accountability as well as highlighting the need for a greater integration of transparency into stakeholder management practices.

Satire has been used throughout history to raise awareness of critical issues. Although its use was once limited to professional satirists and to the media, it has evolved over time and has now become a genre of the masses. The combination of social media and satire has not only changed the nature of critical inquiry and discourse but also redefines the concept of satirists as opinion leaders. This paper overviews the linkages among satire, social media, and message deconstruction and offers four types of satirical opinion leaders: traditionalist, creator, rookie, and technologist. The examination results in several major research questions deserving of future exploration. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Context
The study of the spatial variation in abundance of wild populations and the identification of factors explaining the observed patterns are key both to understand aspects of basic ecology and the effects of human activities. This is usually difficult to evaluate for low-density and widely distributed species, such as the lesser rhea (Rhea pennata pennata), an endemic bird from South America. Recent advances in spatial modelling such as the density surface models (DSM) combine distance-sampling procedures with modelling techniques to produce maps of spatial variation in abundance, and its relationship with predictive variables.

Aims
We aimed to analyse the spatial distribution and abundance of lesser rhea, and the variables that affect its abundance in Península Valdés (PV) Argentine Patagonia.

Methods
We conducted 338.4 km of ground surveys of lesser rheas in PV during the end of the Austral summer of 2015. Spatial models were constructed using DSM. Ecological and human-related variables were included in the models to account for variation in the abundance of animals at 4-km2 spatial resolution.

Key results
We estimated an overall density of 0.44 birds km–2 (CV = 32%) for the prediction area of 3320 km2. High values of normalised difference vegetation index, a correlate of plant productivity, were associated with increased numbers of lesser rheas. The location of ranch buildings, indicators of human presence, had a strong negative effect on lesser rheas, although their abundance increased at high sheep stocking rates.

Conclusions
As reported by previous studies in different sites, the abundance of lesser rheas in our study area was low. The use of DSM allowed a detailed examination of the spatial variation, as well as the variables involved and the uncertainty of the prediction.

Implications
The use of DSM techniques can be a useful tool for conservation planning and monitoring. Spatial, high-resolution data combined with knowledge on the factors affecting the number of animals are crucial to target specific conservation actions and monitor their results, and should allow government agencies to make better decisions concerning conservation-oriented management.

Abstract. Social neuroscience and psychology have made substantial advances in the last few decades. Nonetheless, the field has relied mostly on behavioral, imaging, and other correlational research methods. Here we argue that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an effective and relevant technique to be used in this field of research, allowing for the establishment of more causal brain-behavior relationships than can be achieved with most of the techniques used in this field. We review relevant brain stimulation-aided research in the fields of social pain, social interaction, prejudice, and social decision-making, with a special focus on tDCS. Despite the fact that the use of tDCS in Social Neuroscience and Psychology studies is still in its early days, results are promising. As better understanding of the processes behind social cognition becomes increasingly necessary due to political, clinical, and even philosophical demands, the fact that tDCS is arguably rare in Social Neuroscience research is very noteworthy. This review aims at inspiring researchers to employ tDCS in the investigation of issues within Social Neuroscience. We present substantial evidence that tDCS is indeed an appropriate tool for this purpose.