Digital Commons Network^™

Cui Jian: Extolling Idealism Yet Advocating For Freedom Through Rock Music In China, Zhaoxi Liu

Zhaoxi Liu

Examining Cui Jian's songs as text, this study attempted to provide a reading of its political meaning that is different from many previous studies. Through a textual analysis of the revolutionary symbols in four of Cui's hits, this study found that the political meaning of Cui's songs is much more nuanced than a simple oppositional message, as he simultaneously endorses the Communist rule for its idealism and disavows it for its political suppression. Being China's first rocker, Cui Jian is politicized by the social discourse surrounding him as well as his own expressions, as he pursues his idealism and identity …

Fighting Over The Founders: How We Remember The American Revolution, Andrew Schocket

Andrew M Schocket

The American Revolution is all around us. It is pictured as big as billboards and as small as postage stamps, evoked in political campaigns and car advertising campaigns, relived in museums and revised in computer games. As the nation’s founding moment, the American Revolution serves as a source of powerful founding myths, and remains the most accessible and most contested event in U.S. history: more than any other, it stands as a proxy for how Americans perceive the nation’s aspirations. Americans’ increased fascination with the Revolution over the past two decades represents more than interest in the past. It’s also …

Back To Class Warfare: The Rhetoric Of Mitt Romney, David J. Depew

David J Depew

The essay suggests that Mitt Romney sees America from a 19th century perspective.

Change.Gov, La Loria Konata

La Loria Konata

The Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics explores how the rise of social media is altering politics both in the United States and in key moments, movements, and places around the world. The essay, Change.gov, gives an overview of the website, detailing how it was used to transition the presidency to President-Elect Barack Obama.

Structuring Big Data To Facilitate Participation In International Law, Roslyn Fuller

Roslyn Fuller

This is an interdisciplinary article focusing on the interplay between information and communication technology (ICT) and international law (IL). Its purpose is to open up a dialogue between ICT and IL practitioners that focuses on the ways in which ICT can enhance equitable participation in international legal structures, particularly through capturing the possibilities associated with big data. This depends on the ability of individuals to access big data, for it to be structured in a manner that makes it accessible and for the individual to be able to take action based on it.

Military Control Over War News: The Implications Of The Persian Gulf, Stephen D. Cooper

Stephen D. Cooper

News coverage of warfare poses a difficult problem for political systems with a free press, such as ours in the United States. In an era of high-tech weaponry and nearly instantaneous global communications, conflicts are inevitable between the obligation of the press to inform the general public, and the obligation of the military to successfully conduct war. The military’s controls over news-gathering during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War set off a controversy still smoldering during the Haiti occupation of 1994. This paper examines the legal, historical, and technological aspects of this issue.

News Media Objectivity: How Do We Ask The Questions?, Stephen D. Cooper

Stephen D. Cooper

There is a lively and often public debate in progress concerning the objectivity of the news media, or the lack of it Scholars have approached this topic from three distinct angles: content analysis, values, and the economics of the news industry. Their conclusions have varied markedly, apparently guided by their particular frames of reference. This article suggests that while we seem to have lost our fix on objectivity as a measurable attribute of news products, the news work routine of objectivity encourages fairness in our public discourse, and deserves attention in scholarly research.

Social Issues In America, Stephen Cooper

Stephen D. Cooper

One of the more contentious issues in social science at this time is the question of media bias. Both the scholarly and popular literature are thick with writings on this topic, yet for all the interest in it and work devoted to it we are far from a consensus on how media bias can be defined, conceptualized, or researched. Ironically enough, many writings on the subject of media bias do take the position that the news content distributed to the public fails, in one respect or another, to accurately and fairly represent real events, issues, personalities, and situations. Studies differ …

Bringing Some Clarity To The Media Bias Debate, Stephen Cooper

Stephen D. Cooper

Jim A. Kuypers’ recent book, Press Bias and Politics, has made a significant advance in the methodology of inquiring into this issue—although it’s a safe bet that many in the scholarly community will be tempted to dismiss it out of hand. That’s a shame, if so, because even if one is disinclined to accept Kuypers’ conclusion that the press tends to favor ideas associated with the political left, his method can at least put the debate on a firmer footing.

Ceo Compensation At Tarp Institutions, Karl T. Muth

Karl T Muth

This is a PowerPoint presentation given at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business on March 10, 2010. It requires the newest version of Microsoft PowerPoint.

Government Media Relations: A 'Spin' Through The Literature, Mark Pearson, Roger Patching

Roger Patching

Extract: Government media relations is deserving of serious study because it sits at the interface between the executive and journalism, two of the fundamental institutions in a modern democratic society. That line of communication is central crucial if citizens are to be kept informed of the workings of government and the machinations of the political system. The Australian High Court underscored its importance in the 1990s when it introduced an ‘implied constitutional freedom of communication on matters of politics and government’ through a series of decisions (2007, pp. 35-38). It is a communication channel where truth and transparency should be …

A Primary Human Challenge, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

We may ask why, at both the individual and collective levels, it has seemed so difficult for us to choose to evolve our human games with Joy. There is no one answer for such a question, for each of us has the gift of free will. I will suggest, however, that built into our human games is what I call a primary human challenge. That primary human challenge is a dynamic tension, flowing from our creative urge for the freedom “to be” who we really are in our current physical form, and simultaneously to embrace our responsibility for our Being-ness.

The Opacity Of Transparency, Mark Fenster

Mark Fenster