Suchergebnisse

Science is one of the most stratified social institutions and its stratification is connected to productivity and influence of scientists. The paper deals with Lotka's Law, Ortega Hypothesis and Planck's Principle, very important ideas in sociology of science, some of which are proved incorrect. These ideas and their consequences may have very important implications on development of science and interactions between science and society.

This comparative study explores cultural differences between two Asian societies, Singapore and South Korea, and argues that they have had an impact on the political uses of new communication technologies as well as on the patterns of their regulation and control. It is suggested that among other factors, the rise of Christianity and Protestantism in particular in Korea has contributed to a cultural shift towards more participatory and authority-challenging political culture. Evidence from the World Values Survey suggests that Singaporeans and South Koreans are indeed different when it comes to the traditional orientation towards authority and self-expression values. The study suggests that these cultural differences have led to two distinct trajectories of communication-technology-promoted political development. (Asian J Commun/NIAS)

"As social media scholarship matures, early optimism has been replaced by a more complex and arguably gloomier picture of the role of digital media platforms in our lives. This incisive Research Handbook showcases the academic community's responses to key societal challenges posed by evolving social media ecologies. Multidisciplinary and international in outlook, leading contributors present wide-ranging and balanced coverage of social media research, including non-Western settings and the Global South. Chapters explore emerging interdisciplinary research methods which support the increasingly sophisticated, theoretical understanding in the field. They also debate the complex ethical issues confronting social media scholars today. Students and early career researchers in communications, digital media and sociology will find this a highly valuable book. Due to its inclusion of diverse contexts and locales, this book will also be of interest to experienced researchers and academics."--Back cover

This study examines whether disconnective practices on social media such as unfriending could constitute a form of selective avoidance and investigates its boundary conditions. To do so, we study whether, to what extent, and under which conditions exposure to disagreement on social media predicts politically motivated unfriending. Specifically, we examine how the relationship varies in different relational contexts and whether it is conditioned by opinion minority status. Using survey data collected shortly before the 2017 Chief Executive Election in Hong Kong, we find cross-cutting exposure to be a significant predictor of politically motivated unfriending. This suggests that the disconnective practices represent a form of selective avoidance, but only among a relatively small number of social media users. We also show that only disagreements arising from political discussion with distant others predict unfriending. Furthermore, opinion minorities are more inclined to cut ties in the face of political disagreement than the majorities. Based on these findings, we discuss the weakness of weak ties on social media and characterize selective avoidance as a means to build digital "safe spaces".

This paper explores the phenomenon of revisionism in historiography, while
focusing in particular on illegitimate revisionism and negationism. It is
indisputably true that historiography must be subject to constant revisions.
Like all scientific theories, it needs to be characterized by a sort of
?conservative? openness towards new ideas; however, revisions and negations
are often put forward without scientific grounding. They reject the
well-established historiographical methods, while opening themselves to
various kinds of ideologies, biases and manipulations. The paper further
offers a synthesized overview of the revisionist practice in dominant parts
of the society and historiography in post-communist Serbia. The change in the
ideological paradigm that occurred in the 1980s was accompanied by a
politically motivated reinterpretation of the past, which primarily focused
on World War II in Yugoslavia. In Serbia in the 1990s, Tito?s Partisans were
no longer celebrated as national heroes and fighters against fascism; they
were replaced by the royalist and nationalist Chetniks led by Draza
Mihailovic, whose collaboration with the occupying forces was purposefully
glossed over. The nationalist interpretation of history and the new
revisionist politics in Serbia were supported by the state and the activities
of its three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. In spite of the
political changes that took place in Serbia in 2000, the dominant nationalist
matrix in historical interpretations and revisionist politics remained
unchanged.