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Bias is inevitable and inherent in any form of communication. News often appear biased to citizens with different political orientations, and understood differently by news media scholars and the broader public. In this paper we advocate the need for accurate methods for bias identification in video news item, to enable rich analytics capabilities in order to assist humanities media scholars and social political scientists. We propose to analyze biases that are typical in video news (including framing, gender and racial biases) by means of a human-in-the-loop approach that combines text and image analysis with human computation techniques.

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020 ; The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a profound change in the daily practices and symbolic representations of individuals, with strong social, economic and political implications, which no one is immune to. This article seeks to understand how a pandemic, specifically COVID-19, can generate or potentiate different forms of mental illness and living uneasiness. Thus, the aim is to know the varied manifestations of psychological suffering, from mild psychiatric disorders to the most intrusive ones, not forgetting the forms of widespread suffering which the pandemic causes and which are not reduced to the categories defined by the process of psychiatry. The relationships between mental illness, living uneasiness and COVID-19 are complex and multidimensional. ; publishersversion ; published

Due to increased privatization of development assistance, humanitarian communication is usually considered to be the domain of non-governmental organizations. However, (inter)governmental and (supra)national institutions still play an important role in development assistance. Notably, the European Union has become a leading development actor globally – and also actively brands itself as such. In this process of branding, the European Union not only celebrates its empathic recognition of vulnerable non-European Others, but also aims to promote a sense of European citizenship. In this article, we examine this process in the context of The Family Meal, a 2014 awareness campaign on food assistance led by the Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department of the European Commission. We argue that the campaign reflects both the logic of neoliberal humanitarianism and the quest for European citizenship. To develop our argument, we will assess The Family Meal in three steps. First, we discuss how the campaign mimicked post-humanitarian tendencies in non-governmental campaigns aimed at raising funds. Second, we demonstrate how The Family Meal not only reported on (helping) non-European Others, but also, and importantly, promoted a sense of European belonging. Finally, we introduce the concept of successional campaigns – that is, campaigns that follow up on the action taken rather than preceding it – to show that The Family Meal largely appeared as the result of the neoliberal trend toward administering accountability and branding organizations. Altogether, we consider the campaign, with the neoliberal branding of the European Union and its citizens at its center, as emblematic for humanitarian communication within the rise of New Public Management in the 21st century.

Since the February 2020 publication of the article 'Flattening the curve' in The Economist, political leaders worldwide have used this expression to legitimize the introduction of social distancing measures in fighting Covid-19. In fact, this expression represents a complex combination of three components: the shape of the epidemic curve, the social distancing measures and the reproduction number R. Each component has its own history, each with a different history of control. Presenting the control of the epidemic as flattening the curve is in fact flattening the underlying natural-social complexity. The curve that needs to be flattened is presented as a bell-shaped curve, implicitly suggesting that the pathogen's spread is subject only to natural laws. The R value, however, is, fundamentally, a metric of how a pathogen behaves within a social context, namely its numerical value is affected by sociopolitical influences. The jagged and erratic empirical curve of Covid-19 illustrates this. Although the virus has most likely infected only a small portion of the total susceptible population, it is clear its shape has changed drastically. This changing shape is largely due to sociopolitical factors. These include shifting formal laws and policies, shifting individual behaviors as well as shifting various other social norms and practices. This makes the course of Covid-19 curve both erratic and unpredictable.

Sacred groves or sacred natural sites (SNS) are defined areas of land and bodies of water with considerable socio-cultural and ecological value. This study attempts to analyse SNS using the framework of commons or common-pool resources and understand the implications regarding the access to and ecological sustainability of these sacred spaces. A set of ten groves from an inventory of sacred groves reported by the Institute of Foresters Kerala were chosen using purposive sampling to cover various types of custodianship and communities in the district of Thrissur. This district houses the most famous sacred grove in Kerala and is known for consecrating sacred groves and expunging spirits. A field survey employing an observation schedule and semi-structured interviews were undertaken focusing on the biophysical, socio-cultural, and institutional aspects of the SNS. Understanding the relationship between grove ecosystems and stakeholder communities was the objective of the study. The management of SNS in the study sites does not show much evidence of collective action. There is a tendency of SNS to become 'club goods' over a period of time. Regardless of types of custodianship, SNS exhibit properties of common-pool resources from an ecological point of view. Even when customarily managed along caste lines, access was not physically restricted. Recent constructions of concrete boundaries around SNS, conversion of groves to temples, and increasing intensity and frequency of rituals have changed the socio-cultural and ecological character of these spaces. The study shows that the perspective of the commons is inadequate to capture the underlying power dynamics of institutions of SNS. Understanding the transformation of SNS from being 'open' and inclusive to closed and elitist temple spaces need a different language of political ecology.

In the theoretical literature on tolerance a distinction is proposed between coexistence and respect tolerance. In three studies with four national samples of Dutch majority members, we demonstrate that these two forms of tolerance can be distinguished empirically in relation to different immigrant target groups. The findings of all studies further show that the more principled respect tolerance was negatively associated with prejudice towards immigrants, and positively associated with the acceptance of concrete minority practices, above and beyond prejudice. However, the positive association between respect tolerance and acceptance of practices was weaker for people who were more strongly concerned about the continuity of their national cultural identity. Overall, the more pragmatic coexistence tolerance was found to have no independent association with prejudicial feelings and with the acceptance of minority practices. The findings indicate that stimulating respect tolerance might be particularly helpful for improving intergroup relations in culturally diverse societies.

Open Access via the Wiley Jisc Agreement ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF

Commemorations of shared national history are important to the process of nation-building. Support for such national commemorations is not, however, evenly distributed in societies. Because this could endanger the possible integrative function of commemorative ceremonies, it is important to understand the sources of structural differences in support. In this article, age differences in support for national commemorations in the Netherlands are examined. It is argued that because age cohorts grow up with different ideas on what should be commemorated they also differ in value attached to such commemorations. Data from the National Freedom Enquiry 2012 show that older persons more often associate national commemorations with the Second World War than younger persons do, and that this is the reason why they are more supportive of the annual celebration of Liberation Day. In the concluding section, it is argued that more (quantitative) studies should be conducted in order to truly understand the mechanisms behind support of national commemorations as this may help us to better comprehend the processes construing feelings of national belonging.

Después de haber conmemorado el cuarenta aniversario de nuestra actual Constitución democrática y, por ello, de recordar lo que fue y lo que supuso el proceso de transición democrática, llama la atención el amplio desconocimiento sobre el papel fundamental que la Iglesia Católica jugó en el paso de un régimen político autoritario a otro plenamente democrático. Es más, en no pocas ocasiones se llega a identificar a la institución con uno de los elementos principales dentro del inmovilismo político. En ese sentido, el fin fundamental de la investigación que aquí se presenta es no solo dar a conocer cómo que la Iglesia Católica fue uno de los motores fundamentales del cambio político en España, sino explicar la manera en que lo hizo y cuáles fueron los momentos clave de su actuación con el fin de la creación del actual del Estado democrático y social de Derecho que tenemos en nuestro país. ; Sin financiación ; No data JCR 2019 ; 0.202 SJR (2019) Q3, 229/468 Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), 318/588 Social Sciences (miscellaneous) ; No data IDR 2019 ; UEM

Given the abundance of literature on collective memory practices, there is relatively little empirical research on the socialization processes explaining the transmission of such practices. This article examines to what extent war-specific communication and parental exemplar behaviour function as a link between the collected memories of individuals and society's collective memory. Utilizing data from an online survey conducted in 2014, we focus on participation in the activities organized on Remembrance Day and Liberation Day in the Netherlands in remembrance of the Second World War. We distinguish between public and private practices. Our findings highlight that different forms of socialization substitute for one another. Whereas communication with non-relatives is particularly relevant for those communicating less frequently with parents about past war experiences, parental exemplar behaviour, such as participating in the two-minute silence on Remembrance Day, plays a bigger role amongst those with lower levels of communication with either relatives or non-relatives.

Dr. Sherman P. Vinograd fulfilled the roles of Chief of Medical Science and Technology and Director of Biomedical Research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from the fall of 1961 until the spring of 1979. In this role he shaped, organized, and directed NASA's program of medical research as a funded program of studies, which was carried out in not only NASA Center laboratories, but also in university, industry, and other government laboratories and hospitals all over the country. It produced a large substrate of information through its bed rest studies, vestibular, bone, neuromuscular, hematology, and cardiovascular researches. It also produced valuable fall-out, such as an accurate bone density measurement technique which is now in common clinical use. ; His major activities during this career were conceptualizing, establishing, and chairing the Space Medicine Advisory Group (SPAMAG) charged with defining the earth-based and space-based research and life-support requirements for a manned orbiting research laboratory. This group designed a carefully planned study utilizing highly qualified, specialized members of the scientific community. They postulated a non-existent orbiting laboratory to be designed according to the needs of future human flight crews and requirements for human spaceflight information. This would result in the creation of Skylab. ; He was also responsible for establishing the In-flight Medical Experiments Program in preparation for the Apollo series of manned space flights. This program was a series of carefully designed flight crew studies derived from proposals by qualified scientists both from within and outside NASA to evaluate human responses to spaceflight. ; In addition, Dr. Vinograd developed a supportive Research and Development Program necessary to provide pertinent ground-based data and to advance state-of-the-art medical measurement technology, a major development of which was the Integrated Medical and Behavioral Laboratory Measurement System (IMBLMS). This consisted of medical experiments and accompanying equipment necessary to perform them that was used from the Gemini through the Skylab manned space flight programs. Carried aboard virtually any post-Apollo space vehicle by virtue of its rack and module design, these designs were used well into the future. He also fostered the continuing ground-based medical research program sponsored and/or conducted by NASA. ; The Dr. Sherman P. Vinograd Aerospace Exploration collection consists of artifacts, books, correspondence, financial materials, newspapers, photographs, plaques, printed materials, and reports relating to Dr. Vinograd's early life, his career as an M. D. prior to joining NASA, his years as a physician and researcher at NASA, and the other professional organizations and projects in which he was involved both during and after these periods. ; Box 5, Folder 8

All ethnic groups have norms and values according to which one is expected to behave. Immigrants in particular have personal networks that simultaneously consist of co-ethnics and friends of a different ethnic background. As a consequence, they may be accustomed to the behavior, norms, and values of their own ethnic group, and also be expected to behave according to those of another ethnic group. This may either lead to ego-gratification and the strengthening and enrichment of their personality, or to feelings of stress and non-acceptance if they cannot behave fully in accordance with the expectations of their friends. This study addresses the association between interethnic open triads in networks (i.e., brokerage) and individual psychological well-being. That is, we examine whether having intra-ethnic and interethnic relationships with friends who are not also friends with each other, is either positively or negatively associated with psychological well-being. Using (network) data from a large sample (N = 2,942; age = 19) of native Swedes and first- and second-generation immigrants from former Yugoslavia and Iran (all born in 1990 and currently living in Sweden), we show that interethnic brokerage is negatively associated with psychological well-being, which implies that the different norms, values and corresponding behaviors that prevail in different ethnic groups to which the ethnic broker is connected may result in internal and external conflicts, to feelings that one is not fully accepted by any of these groups, and ultimately to a lower level of psychological well-being.

Zolotov, M. N., Oliveira, T., & Casteleyn, S. (2018). E-participation adoption models research in the last 17 years: A weight and meta-analytical review. Computers in Human Behavior, 81, 350-365. DOI:10.1016/j.chb.2017.12.031 ; This article explores the main factors that drive the adoption of e-participation. A weight and meta-analysis was carried out from previous quantitative research studies related to individual e-participation adoption published in journals and conferences over the last 17 years. A total of 60 studies were used for the weight and meta-analysis. We identify the 'best' and 'promising' predictors used in research models to study e-participation. The best predictors are: trust, effort expectancy, perceived usefulness, attitude, trust in government and social influence on intention to use, perceived ease of use on perceived usefulness, perceived usefulness on attitude, and intention to use on use. General public in urban areas account for the 69.78% of the respondents across all articles. Two thirds of all respondents belong to Asia and the Middle East. The countries with highest number of articles found are United States and Jordan. The article provides a wide view of the performance of the 483 relationships used in research models to study e-participation, which may allow researchers to identify trends, and highlights issues in the future use of some constructs. Implications for theory and practice, limitations and directions for future research are discussed. ; publishersversion ; published

Topographical and geographical accounts, together with antiquarian and archaeological documentation changed perceptions of the coastal regions of Northern Scotland, particularly during the eighteenth century, mapping territories previously perceived as peripheral and part of Nordic, rather than Scottish or British mental maps. New political and social contexts required a redefinition of these Northern areas, from under-explored and politically insignificant, to regions of both commercial and cultural interest. Northern map production thus formed part of a complex re-negotiation of coastal space and place, communicated through both national and regional Scottish, British and Dano-Norwegian cartography. This article examines the shared eighteenth century chorographical approaches (representations of regional space and place) in Northern Scotland and Western Norway in both topographical descriptions and historical maps. Using examples from the Scottish Northern Isles and Western Norway, it argues that the practices of mapping and charting provided both a unifying visual vocabulary, but also an opportunity for the continuation and visual representation of diverse regional coastal identities during the eighteenth century. The close link between chorography and historiography will be investigates, and related to other motivations and narratives (such as commerce or travel literature), which impacted on the practice of mapping and cartographic work. The paper uncovers both transnational and regional aspects of the cultural-historical processes of re-negotiating space and place in Northern Scotland, and demonstrates how perceptions of coastal regions were constructed and represented through cartographical narratives on both sides of the North Sea.

International audience ; Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will: Gramsci's political thought in the last miscellaneous notebooks Abstract: In the Prison Notebooks, Gramsci combines a "pessimistic" analysis of the growing authoritarian trends of the 1930s with an "optimistic" commitment to the potential for socialist transformation and the elaboration of an effective strategy for the workers' movement. By discussing key texts from the miscellaneous notebooks 14, 15, and 17, I investigate the way in which, in the last phase of his work in prison, Gramsci interprets the changing political and social dynamics that characterise "western" countries (and that are central, mutatis mutandis, also in present-day politics). In particular, I focus on the complex conceptual cluster elaborated by Gramsci (with the categories of "bureaucracy", "police", "discipline" and "political party") in order to illustrate the way in which he explains the transformations of the mechanisms of political participation, and the new, "totalitarian" forms of political engagement of his own times, as well as their possible solutions.