Digital Commons Network^™

Survey Data On Dysfunctional Attitudes, Personality Traits, And Agreement With Persuasive Techniques, Annye Braca, Pierpaolo Dondio

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Persuasion techniques play a vital role in human commu- nication, influencing various aspects of our lives. With the increasing prevalence of digital platforms, these techniques have permeated online spaces such as websites, mobile apps, games, and social media. This article presents a dataset col- lected via a survey, designed to gather information about in- dividuals’ demographics, personality traits, dysfunctional at- titudes, and their responses to statements embedded with persuasion techniques. Core messages promoting paid news subscriptions, blood donations, and exercise serve as the fo- cus, while definitions and examples of persuasive techniques are provided. By analyzing this comprehensive dataset, re- …

The Quest For Influence: Examining Russia's Public Diplomacy Mechanisms In Africa, Isaac Antwi-Boasiako

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This article examines Russian public diplomacy mechanisms in Africa. These include the intentional use of historical ties, various aid programmes in education and health, the targeted use of international broadcasting and digital media, and the exploitation of anti-Western sentiments on the continent. Russia employs these to win the hearts and minds of African publics for its national interest. The article first explores Moscow’s public diplomacy in general and analyses the challenges Russia faces in Africa, which has become a ‘dumping ground’ for public diplomacy campaigns by the US, the EU and its members, the UK, and China. The article argues …

African Governments’ Foreign Publics Engagement: Public Diplomacy In African Perspective, Isaac Antwi-Boasiako

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Scholars over the years have delved into the discourse of states’ foreign publics engagement in achieving their foreign policy objectives. This analysis is done generally with the western perspective of public diplomacy with recent Asian scholarship evolving. As a result, this study aims to reflect on public diplomacy from an African perspective. Therefore, it analyses how African governments have engaged their foreign publics (foreign governments and their citizens) to attract foreign aid, tourism, and investments in their nation-building and development trajectory. The article explores African public diplomacy mechanisms such as diasporas, nation branding, cultural diplomacy, and many others. It also …

Application Of Climate-Smart Forestry – Forest Manager Response To The Relevance Of European Definition And Indicators, Euan Bowditch, Giovanni Santopuoli, Boyżdar Neroj, Jan Svetlik Jan Svetlik, Mark Tominlson, Vivien Pohl, Admir Avdagić, Miren Del Rio, Tzetvan Zlatanov Tzetvan Zlatanov, Höhn Maria, Gabriela Jamnická, Yusuf Serengil, Murat Sarginci, Sigríður Júlía Brynleifsdóttir, Jerzy Lesinki, João C. Azevedo

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Climate change impacts are an increasing threat to forests and current approaches to management. In 2020, Climate-smart Forestry (CSF) definition and set of indicators was published. This study further developed this work by testing the definition and indicators through a forest manager survey across fifteen member European countries. The survey covered topic areas of demographics, climate change impacts, definition and indicators assessment, as well as knowledge and communication. Overall, forest managers considered the threat of climate change to their forests as high or critical and 62% found the CSF definition clear and concise; however, the minority suggested greater simplification or …

Adaptive Heuristics That (Could) Fit: Information Search And Communication Patterns In An Online Forum Of Investors Under Market Uncertainty, Niccolo Casnici, Marco Castellani, Flaminio Squazzoni, Manuela Testa, Pierpaolo Dondio

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This article examines information-search heuristics and communication patterns in an online forum of investors during a period of market uncertainty. Global connections, real-time communication, and technological sophistication have created an unpredictable market environment. As such, investors try to deal with semantic, strategic, and operational uncertainty by following heuristics that reduce information redundancy. In this study, we have tried to find traces of cognitive communication heuristics in a large-scale data set including 8 years of online posts (2004–2012) for a forum of Italian investors. We identified various market volatility conditions on a daily basis to understand the influence of market uncertainty …

Muddy Waters: Refining The Way Forward For The “Sustainability Science” Of Socio-Hydrogeology, Paul Hynds, Shane Regan, Luisa Andrade, Simon Mooney, Kevin O'Malley, Stephanie Dipelino, Jean O'Dwyer

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The trouble with groundwater is that despite its critical importance to global water supplies, it frequently attracts insufficient management attention relative to more visible surface water sources, irrespective of regional climate, socioeconomic profile, and regulatory environment. To this end, the recently defined sub-discipline of "socio-hydrogeology", an extension of socio-hydrology, seeks to translate and exchange knowledge with and between non-expert end-users, in addition to involving non-expert opinion and experience in hydrogeological investigations, thus emphasising a "bottom-up" methodology. It is widely acknowledged that issues pertaining to groundwater quality, groundwater quantity, climate change, and a poor general awareness and understanding of groundwater occurrence …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Oral Communciations Apprehension, Marann Byrne, Barbara Flood, Dan Shanahan

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Prior research has identified communication apprehension, or fear of communicating, as a major factor which inhibits an individual’s willingness to communicate and his/her capability to develop effective communication skills. While many prior studies have measured oral communication apprehension of students, there has been little qualitative exploration of the phenomenon. This study was conducted by interviewing first-year business and accounting students at a higher education institution in Ireland who were identified as encountering varying levels of oral communication apprehension. The experiences of the students in communicating in different contexts are analysed and the impact of factors such as fear of peer …

Media Discourses On Autonomy In Dying And Death, Christina Quinlan

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THIS PAPER IS A SYNOPSIS of a research project designed to examine the representations of particular experiences of dying and death as represented in media consumed in Ireland. This media research is a small part of a large study commissioned by the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme, through the Irish Hospice Foundation. The large study, undertaken by a team of researchers from University College Cork and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, was tasked with the development of an ethical framework for health-care practitioners on patient autonomy in end-oflife care. Patient autonomy at end-of-life is the degree of autonomy or control …

Hollywood Representations Of Irish Journalism: A Case Study Of Veronica Guerin, Pat Brereton

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This paper emanates from an interest in how the journalist profession is represented on film. This discussion is framed, broadly, by an effort to gauge the performative nature of journalists, from ‘hard-boiled’ press hacks to egomaniacal TV reporters, while situating the vocation within conventional media studies, which privileges political and ethical indicators like ‘the Fourth Estate’ or as ‘Public Watchdog’.

Infringement Nation: Morality, Technology And Intellectual Property, Eadaoin O’Sullivan

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No abstract provided.

Run Out Of The Gallery: The Changing Nature Of Irish Political Journalism, Kevin Rafter

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THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE evolution of parliamentary and political reporting in Ireland and builds on earlier work by Foley (1993) and Horgan (2001). It considers the changing nature of Irish political journalism and the loss of influence of the Parliamentary Press Gallery and its constituent part, the Political Correspondents Group. This analysis takes place against a backdrop of continuing very high interest in politics in Ireland. During the 2007 general election, the television debate between Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny, the leaders of the two main political parties, had an average audience of 941000 – a national audience share of …

The Irish Punditocracy As Contrarian Voice: Opinion Coverage Of The Workplace Smoking Ban, Declan Fahy

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THE JOURNALISM OF COMMENTATORS and columnists has remained a lacuna in media studies. Their work has received so little sustained critical attention that it has become something of a ‘black box’, even as as the space devoted to opinion coverage in newspapers has expanded significantly over the past three decades. The section of the newspaper devoted to opinion journalism has traditionally been the op-ed page, so-called because of its usual placement opposite the section containing editorials. Viewed as a forum for the articulation of diverse viewpoints about current social issues, the page aims to provide a space in the ‘marketplace …

Suing The Pope And Scandalising The People: Irish Attitudes To Sexual Abuse By Clergy Pre- And Post-Screening Of A Critical Documentary, Michael J. Breen, Hannah Mcgee, Ciaran O’Boyle, Helen Goode, Eoin Devereux

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THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF children became a significant public issue in Ireland in the 1990s, with frequent media reports about the issue. In the main these focused on the issue of abuse of children by members of the clergy and religious orders. Headline cases included the abuse perpetrated by Fr Brendan Smyth, a priest of a religious order who was convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse of children and subsequently died in prison, and Fr Seán Fortune, a diocesan priest, who committed suicide before his court trial for abuse. While child sexual abuse by clergy was widely exposed in …

Representations Of The Knowledge Economy: Irish Newspapers’ Discourses On A Key Policy Idea, Brian Trench

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FROM TIME TO TIME, notions take hold in society in such a way that they become reference ideas across diverse social sectors, and terms associated with these reference ideas proliferate in public discourses and media of various kinds. This is notably true for the ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘knowledge society’; these terms have largely displaced other terms to describe the particular character of advanced economies and societies in the early 21st century. Other terms have struggled to co-exist: ‘information society’ seems passé; ‘services society’, ‘audit society’ and ‘risk society’ are marginal or niche terms; ‘innovation society’ has had intermittent periods of …

Significant Television: Journalism, Sex Abuse And The Catholic Church, Colum Kenny

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MOST CITIZENS OF THE Republic of Ireland describe themselves in their census returns as Roman Catholic, although attendances at church have been declining. Irish Catholics long endured religious discrimination and persecution under British Protestant rule. Partly for that reason, the Irish media tended to treat the Catholic Church very respectfully or deferentially after the foundation of the independent Irish Free State in 1921. However, by the closing decade of the twentieth century, Ireland had passed through a period of rapid and remarkable change. Economic, social and cultural factors made it more likely than before that Irish broadcasters would produce programmes …

Whose Development: Framing Of Ireland’S Aid Communities By Institutional Sources And The Media During And After The Celtic Tiger, Cliona Barnes, Anthony Cawley

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In September 2009, the government's newly published White Paper on Irish Aid was presented to the media and the public as a statement of Ireland’s new position in, and increased responsibilities to, the international community. The economic success of the Celtic Tiger era had endowed the State not only with the means but also with the obligation to strengthen its aid commitments to developing nations. The White Paper outlined an ambitious strategy: Irish Aid would administer the overseas aid budget (OAB) to direct development assistance to nine ‘programme’ countries, seven in Africa and two in Asia. Smaller amounts of aid …

Advertising Connoisseurs: Children's Active Engagement With And Enjoyment Of Television Advertising, Margaret-Anne Lawlor

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The literature pertaining to advertising and children has tended to focus on how advertising affects children at cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural levels. A key element of the debate has been the extent to which children understand advertising as a mode of commercial communication, and the potential associated outcomes such as advertising scepticism and pester power. This paper adopts a different approach by exploring the extent to which television advertising can constitute a resource for a child's own use and enjoyment. As part of an interpretive study of a group of Irish children aged seven to nine years which explores their …

Opportunity Deferred: A 1952 Case Study Of A Woman Working In Network Television News, David Ozmun

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In the early years of television news, women found few reporting opportunities. Whether it was criticism of the female voice or the belief that women should cover “women’s news,” jobs were scarce. One woman discovered another way and found herself working for NBC. Accompanying her husband and his brother, Natalie Jones interviewed newsmakers, shot film, and recorded sound for stories that aired on Camel News Caravan, Battle Report—Europe and other programs. Because of a policy prohibiting nepotism, there is no official employment record for her. This article chronicles the short career of a female journalist on network television.

Notions Of Progress, C. Waite

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The question of progress and a concern with relatedness are elements of the same puzzle. The very idea of progress, or lack of it, indicates something about the role machines can play in one’s life. Notions about how technology can be used – to improve, subvert, destroy, extend, or interrogate – reveal the interplay of human and machine. What notion of progress might adequately capture the complex interdependence of human and machine in a way that illuminates our current predicament? To ask whether specific events make things better or worse does not reveal what guides our notion of better and …

Implementation Of Image Processing Approach To Translation Of Asl Finger-Spelling To Digital Text, Divya Mandloi, Kanthi Sarella, Chance Glenn

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The present analysis is the phase one of a broader project, the Sign2 Project, which is focused on a complete technological approach to the translation of American Sign Language (ASL) finger-spelling to digital audio and/or text. The methodology adopted in this analysis employs a grayscale image processing technique. We will describe the latest results as well as future enhancements to the system. This paper will also discuss the application of the approach to the telecommunication Industry.

The Human Eye Position Control System In A Rehabilitation Setting, Yvonne Nolan, Ted Burke, C. Boylan, Annraoi De Paor

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Our work at Ireland’s National Rehabilitation Hospital involves designing communication systems for people suffering from profound physical disabilities. One such system uses the electro-oculogram, which is an (x,y) system of voltages picked up by pairs of electrodes placed, respectively, above and below and on either side of the eyes. The eyeball has a dc polarisation between cornea and back, arising from the photoreceptor rods and cones in the retina. As the eye rotates, the varying voltages projected onto the electrodes drive a cursor over a mimic keyboard on a computer screen. Symbols are selected with a switching action derived, for …

The Role Of Foreign Languages In Educating Lawyers For Transnational Challenges, Vivian Grosswald Curran

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In a world in which every other country seems intent on teaching English to their youth, and in which the United States educational system does not place a high priority on teaching foreign languages, the American law student, dean and professor may doubt if foreign language knowledge is anything more than marginally helpful to law graduates. Similarly, educators at the primary school level may not be likely to assess foreign language education as warranting a greater allocation of scarce public resources.

The usefulness of foreign languages to the United States lawyer gradually has been gaining increased recognition in the profession, …

How Underlying Patient Beliefs Can Affect Physician-Patient Communicaion About Prostate-Specific Antigen Testing, Michael H. Farrell, Margaret Ann Murphy, Carl E. Schneider

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Routine cancer screening with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is controversial, and practice guidelines recommend that men be counseled about its risks and benefits. OBJECTIVE. To evaluate the process of decision making as men react to and use information after PSA counseling. DESIGN. Written surveys and semistructured qualitative interviews before and after a neutral PSA counseling intervention. PARTICIPANTS. Men 40 to 65 years of age in southeastern Michigan were recruited until thematic saturation—that is, the point at which no new themes emerged in interviews (n = 40). RESULTS. In a paper survey, 37 of 40 participants (93%) said that they interpreted the …

Development And Implementation Of The C-Print Speech-To-Text Support Service, Michael Stinson, Barbara Mckee, Lisa Elliot

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In this chapter we provide an overview of the growth of this system from an idea to a system that hundreds of deaf and hard of hearing students depend on everyday for communication access and learning. This chapter addresses the following questions regarding the development and implementation of C-Print. Why is there a need for the system? How does C-Print work? What have been the phases in creating the current system? What is the research evidence regarding its effectiveness and limitations? How might the system change in the future as new technologies emerge?

Deaf People In Today's Workplace: Use Of The Ada And Mediation Processes In Resolving Barriers To Participation, R. Greg Emerton, Susan Foster, Jennifer Gravitz

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No abstract provided.

Controlling Inadvertent Ambiguity In The Logical Structure Of Legal Drafting By Means Of The Prescribed Definitions Of The A-Hohfeld Structural Language, Layman E. Allen, Charles S. Saxon

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Two principal sources of imprecision in legal drafting (vagueness and ambiguity) are identified and illustrated. Virtually all of the ambiguity imprecision encountered in legal discourse is ambiguity in the language used to express logical structure, and virtually all of· the imprecision resulting is inadvertent. On the other hand, the imprecision encountered in legal writing that results from vagueness is frequently, if not most often, included there deliberately; the drafter has considered it and decided that the vague language· best accomplishes the purpose at hand. This paper focuses on the use of some defined terminology for minimizing inadvertent ambiguity in the …

Our Meanings Can Never Be The Same: Reflections On Language And Law, James Boyd White

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For me it is a starting point in all thought about language that, whatever I say or do with words, my expression will never mean exactly the same thing to you that it does to me; and of course yours will never mean exactly the same thing to me that it does to you. It cannot: each act of expression is a gesture against a context; it derives its meaning largely. perhaps entirely, from its relation to that context; and for each of us the context of every gesture is different, if only because one of us is doing it, …

Formalizing Hohfeldian Analysis To Clarify The Multiple Senses Of 'Legal Right': A Powerful Lens For The Electronic Age, Layman E. Allen

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Careful communication is frequently of central importance in law. The language used to communicate even with oneself in private thought profoundly influences the quality of that effort; but when one attempts to transmit an idea to another, language assumes even greater significance because of the possibilities for enormously distorting the idea. Word skill is to be prized.

Better Organization Of Legal Knowledge, Layman E. Allen, Tomoyuki Ohta

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The increasing need of legislatures to draft complicated statutes, e.g., the Internal Revenue Code, requires the development of new techniques for defining and communicating complicated policies both accurately and understandably. At present, these complicated statutes are expressed in long, convoluted sentences with frequent uses of exceptions and limitations. Current drafting technique, with its inadequacies, often hinders a comprehensive understanding of the policy being communicated and often fails to communicate the policy accurately. Moreover, with the voluminous increase of legal literature in recent times, legal researchers experience increasing difficulty in attempting to retrieve relevant judicial and administrative interpretations. The authors propose …