scholarly journals Evidentiary Thresholds for Unilateral Aggression: Douma, Skripal and Media Analysis of Chemical Weapon Attacks as a Casus Belli

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-165
Author(s):  
Gavan Patrick Gray
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Chemical Weapon ◽  
Russian Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Alternative Scenarios

The initiation of military or economic punishment generally on states requires significant justification, lest it be judged an act of aggression. In 2018 two separate incidents invoked similar rationales for such acts of reprisal, specifically that they were responding to attacks using chemical weapons. The incidents were an alleged sarin gas attack by the Syrian government on political opponents, which led to military strikes from the United States, and an alleged poisoning via novichok nerve agents by the Russian government on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter, which led to economic sanctions from the United Kingdom. In both cases, however, evidence of culpability fell short of what legal standards typically require. Despite this, media coverage has failed to examine alternative scenarios or to offer effective critical assessment of the weak rationalizations offered by US and UK governments. The result, precipitate and incautious policy, driven by hasty conclusions rather than careful analysis, represents a failure on the part of both media and government institutions to present the public with an even-handed and neutral assessment of matters vital to their national interest.

The Public Agenda

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-242
Author(s):  
Shaun Bevan ◽  
Will Jennings
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Survey Question ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Agenda

This chapter considers the question of what shapes the public agenda and how, in turn, the public agenda influences public policy. It introduces the survey question about the most important problem as a measure of the public agenda—comparing evidence on the policy issues attended to by publics in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain, and also the degree to which public opinion itself is subject to “punctuations.” The analysis shows how the public agenda reflects both the problem status and level of media coverage of certain issues (specifically crime and the economy). Lastly, it presents evidence on the correspondence between the priorities of citizens and those of policymakers.

Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky ◽  
Asheley Landrum ◽  
Natalie Jomini Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Science Media

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.

Religious motifs within reporting of the 7/7 London bombings in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland: A transnational agenda-setting network study

Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1323-1342
Author(s):  
Damian Guzek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Religion And Ethnicity ◽  
Media Globalization ◽  
London Bombings

Existing studies have examined the significance of UK media coverage of the 7/7 London bombings. This article seeks to widen this analysis by exploring the coverage of 7/7 in the leading newspapers of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland comparatively using a new agenda-setting perspective that is grounded within network analysis. The study is devised to respond specifically to the contrasting arguments about the influence of media globalization versus religion and ethnicity on this reporting. It finds that the diverse approaches to religion within the countries of the analyzed newspapers appear to mitigate the reproduction of shared religious narratives in this reporting. Nevertheless, the analyzed coverage does carry common attributes and these, it argues, can be explained broadly by the influence of a US-dominated ‘lens on terror’.

scholarly journals Communicating the “Race” for the COVID-19 Vaccine: An Exploratory Study in Newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Massarani ◽  
Luiz Felipe Fernandes Neves
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Understanding Of Science

The search for an effective solution to control the COVID-19 pandemic has mobilized an unprecedented effort by science to develop a vaccine against the disease, in which pharmaceutical companies and scientific institutions from several countries participate. The world closely monitors research in this area, especially through media coverage, which plays a key role in the dissemination of trustful information and in the public’s understanding of science and health. On the other hand, anti-vaccine movements dispute space in this communication environment, which raises concerns of the authorities regarding the willingness of the population to get vaccinated. In this exploratory study, we used computer-assisted content analysis techniques, with WordStat software, to identify the most addressed terms, semantic clusters, actors, institutions, and countries in the texts and titles of 716 articles on the COVID-19 vaccine, published by The New York Times (US), The Guardian (United Kingdom), and Folha de São Paulo (Brazil), from January to October 2020. We sought to analyze similarities and differences of countries that stood out by the science denialism stance of their government leaders, reflecting on the severity of the pandemic in these places. Our results indicate that each newspaper emphasized the potential vaccines developed by laboratories in their countries or that have established partnerships with national institutions, but with a more politicized approach in Brazil and a little more technical-scientific approach in the United States and the United Kingdom. In external issues, the newspapers characterized the search for the discovery of a vaccine as a race in which nations and blocs historically marked by economic, political, and ideological disputes are competing, such as the United States, Europe, China, and Russia. The results lead us to reflect on the responsibility of the media to not only inform correctly but also not to create stigmas related to the origin of the vaccine and combat misinformation.

Poor Kids versus Bad Teachers: Vergara v. California and the Social Construction of Teachers

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Jeanne M. Powers ◽  
Kathryn P. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Spectacle ◽  
The Public ◽  
Print News ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Social

Background In the past decade, the laws governing teachers’ employment have been at the center of legal and political conflicts across the United States. Vergara v. California challenged five California state statutes that provide employment protections for teachers. In June 2014, a California lower court declared the statutes unconstitutional because they exposed students to “grossly ineffective teachers.” Purpose The purpose of the article is to document and analyze how Vergara was presented in the print news media. It is important to understand how the print news media presents education policy debates to the public, because the print news media shapes the general public's understanding of education and other public policy debates by providing frames and themes for interpreting the issues in question and people associated with them. Research Design Using the social construction of target populations and political spectacle as conceptual lenses, we conducted a content analysis of print news media articles on the Vergara case published between June 2012 and November 2014. We provide a descriptive overview of the full corpus of articles published during this period and a thematic analysis of the 65 unique news articles published in the aftermath of the decision. The latter focuses on news articles because they are intended to provide more objective coverage of the case than opinions or editorials. Findings In the print news media coverage, the word “teacher” was often paired with a negative qualifier, which suggests that Vergara was an effort to change the relatively advantaged social construction of teachers. Similarly, metaphors and the illusion of rationality associated with political spectacle were used in ways that bolstered the plaintiffs’ claims. While Vergara consumed a substantial amount of philanthropic and public dollars, ultimately it did not change the policies that govern teachers’ employment in California. Vergara may have been more successful in shaping the general public's perceptions of teachers and the conditions of teachers’ employment in the period following the trial.

Palm Fronds in the Public Square

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Méadhbh McIvor
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberty ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Square ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
National Life ◽  
Political Dispute ◽  
Palm Fronds

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Christian legal activism. In a rapidly changing religious landscape, Protestant Christianity — although it remains both legally and culturally established — has become relativised. This relativisation is, in many ways, the product of centuries' worth of political dispute and interreligious negotiation, as the legal privileges associated with established religion have been diluted. Yet it has taken on a particular salience in recent years, one which can be dated to a seismic shift in England's regulation of religion: English law's transition from viewing 'religious freedom' as a negative civil liberty to ensuring it as a positive human right. While many English Christians have responded to these changes with resignation, some have embraced modes of legal and political engagement born of very different church–state paradigms, including a litigiousness more often associated with the United States. Armed with law degrees, evangelical conviction, and 'a passion to see the United Kingdom return to the Christian faith', these activists lobby and litigate to contest what they see as Christianity's ousting from the public square. This book argues that a willingness to take on legal challenges to protect Christian values risks those same values' marginalisation, as moralities previously woven into the fabric of national life are filtered out from their quotidian context and rebranded as 'religion' or 'religiously motivated'.

The Relevance of Criminal Law in Intellectual Property Law Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 198-220
Author(s):  
Ajay K Sharma ◽  
Dipa Dube
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Private Rights ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Ip Law ◽  
Economic Crimes

Intellectual property (IP) law protects the private rights of owners, while criminal law secures the public interests, for harm to the society. In the present technology-driven society, magnitude of IP violations, particularly, in the form of counterfeiting, etc. affect the interests of the general public, calling for the application of criminal law to ensure stringent IP protection. The intersection of IP and criminal law remains controversial, yet significant, as it is in the interest of those in the field to examine the provisions beyond the scope of private right regime, as a public policy that can have a direct impact on public interests. This chapter analyses the intersection of criminal law and IP through a blend of exploratory and analytical methods. First, the authors situate the criminal law discussion in the domain of IP rights and examine how far the elements of crime may be identified in IP violations. Second, the concept of economic crimes as distinct from conventional crimes is discussed. In this regard, the laws of India, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) are examined, along with the most recent international developments, to show the trend towards criminal enforcement as the best possible protection for legitimate businesses and consumers. The chapter leaves much scope for future work whereby a balanced response to counter IP violations may be designed to benefit innovation and development.

“Visible” and “Invisible” Victims in the Criminal Justice System

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Armando Saponaro
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Prosecutor ◽  
Law System ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Victim Impact Statement

This chapter outlines the “conflict” and “peace-keeping” victim-oriented justice paradigms. The latter empowers the victims of crime, putting them at the center of an encounter and using interindividual mediation or collective circles to address conflict resolution. Two models are critically discussed in the conflict victim-oriented justice paradigm. The European continental “visible victim” model structures the role of the victim as a full-fledged processual party together with the public prosecutor and offender. In this model, the victim has the same rights and powers of the defendant. The “invisible victim” common law model views the victim as a trial witness, participating, for example, through a victim impact statement (in the United States) or victim personal statement (in the United Kingdom) at the sentencing stage. The visible victim conflict paradigm model enhances a victim's role and involvement in the criminal justice system, offering a solution to existing controversial and critical common law system issues.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Crime Coverage
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Media Practices ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Public Right

This chapter sets up the thesis of the book: Crime coverage practices serve as a lens to consider underlying cultural attitudes to concepts like privacy, public, public right to know, and justice. Differing decisions, for example, about whether to name suspects, suggest varying beliefs about the value of privacy and the public right to know. The chapter outlines the methodology and situates the work in relation to Daniel Hallin and Paulo Mancini, whose book Comparing Media Practices influenced the selection of countries, as well as the initial premises. We name the ten countries that comprise the basis of our comparison, and briefly introduce our three media models: the Protectors (Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden), the Watchdogs (the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States), and the Ambivalents (Spain, Italy, and Portugal). The chapter concludes with a brief overview of individual book chapters.

scholarly journals 2018: A watershed year for psychedelic science

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 205032451987228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob S Aday ◽  
Christopher C Davoli ◽  
Emily K Bloesch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ballot Initiatives ◽  
The Public ◽  
Psychedelic Drugs ◽  
The Status ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Public Sphere

While interest in the study of psychedelic drugs has increased over much of the last decade, in this article, we argue that 2018 marked the true turning point for the field. Substantive advances in the scientific, public, and regulatory communities in 2018 significantly elevated the status and long-term outlook of psychedelic science, particularly in the United States. Advances in the scientific community can be attributed to impactful research applications of psychedelics as well as acknowledgement in preeminent journals. In the public sphere, Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind was a commercial hit and spurred thought-provoking, positive media coverage on psychedelics. Unprecedented psychedelic ballot initiatives in the United States were representative of changes in public interest. Finally, regulatory bodies began to acknowledge psychedelic science in earnest in 2018, as evidenced by the designation of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to “breakthrough therapy” status for treatment-resistant depression by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In short, 2018 was a seminal year for psychedelic science.

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