“Truth Is the Keenest Weapon Ever Drawn”

2021 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-73
Author(s):  
Maxwell Johnson

In the 1920s and early 1930s, Robert P. Shuler, head of Trinity Methodist Church, rose to fame in Los Angeles as a tireless evangelical muckraker. Shuler, via Bob Shuler’s Magazine and his popular radio station KGEF, charged that many powerful Angelenos were involved in various vice pursuits—drinking, drug use, even prostitution—and that the city’s image as a moral, middle-class metropolis was just a facade. Using Shuler’s writings, Los Angeles City Council files, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce minutes, and local newspapers, I argue that Shuler headed an alternative grassroots power structure in Los Angeles, founded during Prohibition. In those years, Shuler’s efforts found a receptive audience among the many midwestern migrants who had arrived in Los Angeles during previous decades. The city had once rigorously enforced alcohol restrictions, but in the 1920s, police officers and political leaders often protected illegal leisure activities. City leaders eventually retaliated against the preacher, and his power precipitously declined after the end of Prohibition, but for a time Shuler held a unique power to shape local public discourse. This essay reveals one of the battles over Los Angeles’s public image that shaped the city’s prewar rise.

Author(s):  
Salvador Simó Algado ◽  
Xavier Ginesta Portet ◽  
Jordi de San Eugenio Vela

The objective of this chapter is to present the EcosSPORTech project, a cross-faculty project based in Vic (Spain) where the University of Vic has a central role in developing an enterprise with young people in order to develop sports and leisure activities in the natural environment, integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This project, which has the participation of students from different faculties (Business and Communication, Health and Wellness, and Education) using a Problem-Based Leaning (PBL) method, reinforces the idea of an entrepreneurial university that can create innovative solutions in order to promote social benefits; this is a university with a clear commitment to educating both professionals and citizens. The chapter also presents the project's communication policy, based on the UVic's corporate media: blog, magazine, and radio station. This project has the financial support of La Caixa Foundation (Obra Social La Caixa) and Vic's City Council.


Author(s):  
Jeff Chang ◽  
Daniel Martinez HoSang ◽  
Soya Jung ◽  
Chandan Reddy ◽  
Alex Tom

We chose to frame this conversation in terms of crisis: not only the state of permanent crisis created by racial capitalism and settler colonialism but also specific flashpoints like Sa-I-Gu [the Korean term for the April 1992 uprising in Los Angeles after the acquittal of the police officers involved in the Rodney King beating]. We want to look at the conditions surrounding these flashpoints and the responses to them that then shaped race consciousness and politics subsequently. Today we have no shortage of crisis, no shortage of flashpoints. And yet there is hope. Perhaps more than at any other time in my lifetime, there are opportunities to shift mass culture, at the very least to popularize and normalize a slightly more critical consciousness. So now I want to turn to my friends here to talk about crisis and multiracial politics. We’ll start with Sa-I-Gu and work forward to this moment and also to future possibilities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuks Okpaluba

‘Accountability’ is one of the democratic values entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa, 1996. It is a value recognised throughout the Constitution and imposed upon the law-making organs of state, the Executive, the Judiciary and all public functionaries. This constitutional imperative is given pride of place among the other founding values: equality before the law, the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution. This study therefore sets out to investigate how the courts have grappled with the interpretation and application of the principle of accountability, the starting point being the relationship between accountability and judicial review. Therefore, in the exercise of its judicial review power, a court may enquire whether the failure of a public functionary to comply with a constitutional duty of accountability renders the decision made illegal, irrational or unreasonable. One of the many facets of the principle of accountability upon which this article dwells is to ascertain how the courts have deployed that expression in making the state and its agencies liable for the delictual wrongs committed against an individual in vindication of a breach of the individual’s constitutional right in the course of performing a public duty. Here, accountability and breach of public duty; the liability of the state for detaining illegal immigrants contrary to the prescripts of the law; the vicarious liability of the state for the criminal acts of the police and other law-enforcement officers (as in police rape cases and misuse of official firearms by police officers), and the liability of the state for delictual conduct in the context of public procurement are discussed. Having carefully analysed the available case law, this article concludes that no public functionary can brush aside the duty of accountability wherever it is imposed without being in breach of a vital constitutional mandate. Further, it is the constitutional duty of the courts, when called upon, to declare such act or conduct an infringement of the Constitution.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Cheonghwan Park ◽  
Kyungrae Kim

While the Covid-19 pandemic has altered many aspects of life in South Korea over 2020, its impact on South Korea’s religious landscape has been enormous as the country’s three major religions (Catholicism, Buddhism, and Protestant Christianity) have suffered considerable loses in both their income and membership. Despite these challenges, however, Buddhism’s public image has actually improved since the start of the epidemic due to the rapid and proactive responses of the nation’s largest Buddhist organization, the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism (K. Daehan bulgyo jogyejong). This article critically examines the Jogye Order’s response to the epidemic and its impact on the order thus far, along with discussions regarding the order’s future. In particular it will examine the results of three conferences held by the order in response to the epidemic and the resulting recommendations on how Korean Buddhism should adapt to effectively address the many challenges brought by the pandemic. These recommendations include establishing an online Buddhist education system, further engaging the order’s lay supporters through various social media platforms, upgrading the current lay education program with virtual learning options that directly address problems faced by the general public during the pandemic, and distributing virtual meditation classes world-wide for those who remain in quarantine or social isolation. By adopting these changes, the Jogye Order will be able to play a crucial role in promoting mental stability and the cultivation of positive emotions among the many suffering from anxiety, social isolation and financial difficulties during the pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-128
Author(s):  
Ondina Pires

One of the figures that stood out the most in the British punk counterculture scene, from 1976 to 1978, was the charismatic vocalist of Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten, who shouted "Anarchy in the United Kingdom" or "There is no Future". As soon as the musical project devised by the late Malcom McLaren ended in 1978, Johnny Rotten returns to his baptismal name, John Lydon, and starts the experimental musical project Public Image Ltd, better known as PIL.Meanwhile, after about forty-one years of PIL's existence, John Lydon, residing in Los Angeles, USA, in 2020, made public his opinions about former American President Donald Trump, which were a reason for scandal and shock, especially among punk aficionados, most of whom are anti-racists and of left-wing political tendencies.Through this text and the caricatures we can observe a decadent trajectory of a musician who, apparently, is located in the antipodes of 1977. However, this turning point is legitimized by the political and cultural “gaps” of Democracy, a system that is always in danger precisely for its openness to different political views and to the continuous dialogue between ideological forces, often opposed. By using an “anarchy-fascism” dialectic, the author's points of view, based on films, songs and thinkers, evolve throughout her analysis. The aim is to open doors for broader analyzes in relation to democracy that do not contemplate the “black and white” view of the majorities in relation to current politics.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Franklin Fowler ◽  
Sarah E. Gollust ◽  
Amanda F. Dempsey ◽  
Paula M. Lantz ◽  
Peter A. Ubel

Although scholarship on competitive framing acknowledges that framing is a dynamic process in which the early stages may matter most, very little research has focused on the dynamics of issue emergence. In this article, we draw on several literatures to develop theories for how controversy related to new issues will emerge and expand in news coverage. Through a comprehensive content analysis of 101 local newspapers across the fifty U.S. states, we explore the dynamic and evolving process wherein a new issue—the HPV vaccine—emerged into public discourse and a legislative debate over school requirements for vaccination began. We find that coverage of controversy is a function of proximity, driven primarily by events within a state, although external events also influence local coverage. We also find that the legislative discussion in the media did not necessarily start out as controversial, but as the issue evolved, we observe a large increase in the proliferation of both actors taking positions and the types of arguments made to influence debate. The findings yield important insight into issue emergence with implications for how future research might test competing frames to better understand how the presentation of controversy in the mass media affects public opinion.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
G. Michael Bowen ◽  
Richard Zurawski ◽  
Anthony Bartley

News media presentations of STEM (and particularly science) in various formats have been critiqued for the many ways by which they misrepresent both the facts of the discipline and the practices of the discipline and the researchers in them. Another issue is that the material is presented in a format – basically a one-way transmission – with usually little opportunity for questions by the recipients (i.e., readers, listeners, viewers, etc.) to be addressed when they don’t understand something. One news media format which might allow this dialogic activity is the radio call-in show format which is structured so that the public can ask questions of a “scientist” with the opportunity for follow-up questions to address what are discontinuities in the listener’s understanding. In this paper we document the processes by which listener interests ultimately end up discussed in the radio broadcast and what influences the “science” that is presented on-air. Our analysis reports the ways in which the STEM topics and content are mediated by radio station personnel, often times distorting the factual content available to the public and misrepresenting the practices of the research fields, as they engage in information management practices which are typical of opinion-driven shows (such as those on the topics of politics or sports) which are designed to create controversy and drama to increase ratings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luna Filipović

Abstract In this paper I discuss the many complexities that police officers have to deal with in their communication with suspects. Investigative interviewing is a very complex communicative situation in itself, with a number of different psychological and sociological variables at play during each interview. In addition, suspect interviews bring about an additional dimension of complexity, which is driven by the fact that a basic principle of conversation, cooperation (Grice 1975) is often not respected and is sometimes severely and purposefully violated, for example when suspects are guilty and want to obscure that very fact or when they believe that their situation would worsen if they cooperated with the police. A further layer of complexity is added when the interviews are carried out via an interpreter, where the fact that the officer and the suspect speak different languages during the interview creates additional barriers to straightforward communication. In the present paper, I identify a number of points at which communication difficulties are encountered in this highly sensitive legal context. For this purpose, I analyse authentic interview datasets provided by two UK police constabularies, and also make comparisons with examples from transcripts of authentic US police interrogations. In addition, I highlight the issues that arise when professional interpretation is not available and when bilingual police officers assume the dual role of investigator-interpreter. Finally, I suggest possible solutions that can help remove the hurdles standing in the way of efficient and accurate gathering of communication evidence.


Author(s):  
Alonzo L. Plough

This chapter describes the multiple roles of modern media in determining not only what consumers know, but also how and what they think. The exponential growth of ideologically driven cable channels and social media, dovetailing with cutbacks in newspaper staffing and coverage, point to the many ways that the power and reach of media are shifting even as they continue to reshape American society and norms. In this environment, multiple media compete for viewers, readers, and listeners who will click on their websites, buy their products, sign their petitions, and often accept their spin, especially if it reinforces personal perspectives. Thoughtful information about complex public health issues is easily lost in that context, leading too many people to base their decision-making on incomplete, biased, and even inaccurate information. For the news media to help build a Culture of Health, people need to understand how it works, what it does, and how it can be used for widespread benefit.


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