Evolving Crisis and Changing Networks: NGOs’ Stakeholder Engagement on the Global Refugee Crisis

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) increasingly utilize social media for strategic stakeholder engagement. This study proposes a network-oriented theoretical framework to understand how NGOs’ engagement with complex networks of stakeholders on the global refugee issue varies as the issue moves from low to high public attention stages. We draw from research on multistakeholder issue networks and issue niche theory and analyze a large-scale Twitter data set containing tweets from hundreds of organizations from more than 30 countries. This cross-national, longitudinal study tracks issue evolution and NGOs’ tie formation patterns among themselves and with complex stakeholders (i.e., government and media) as public attention to the refugee issue increases. The results of our exponential random graph models (ERGMs) show how cross-sector stakeholders interact dynamically and how different issue identities position NGOs uniquely in issue niches as the issue evolves. We also find that organizations’ country-level homophily influences tie formation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Multiple Dimensions of Networks in Cancer: A Perspective

This perspective article gathers the latest developments in mathematical and computational oncology tools that exploit network approaches for the mathematical modelling, analysis, and simulation of cancer development and therapy design. It instigates the community to explore new paths and synergies under the umbrella of the Special Issue “Networks in Cancer: From Symmetry Breaking to Targeted Therapy”. The focus of the perspective is to demonstrate how networks can model the physics, analyse the interactions, and predict the evolution of the multiple processes behind tumour-host encounters across multiple scales. From agent-based modelling and mechano-biology to machine learning and predictive modelling, the perspective motivates a methodology well suited to mathematical and computational oncology and suggests approaches that mark a viable path towards adoption in the clinic.

Big Data, Big Noise: The Challenge of Finding Issue Networks on the Web

In this paper, we focus on noise in the sense of irrelevant information in a data set as a specific methodological challenge of web research in the era of big data. We empirically evaluate several methods for filtering hyperlink networks in order to reconstruct networks that contain only web pages that deal with a particular issue. The test corpus of web pages was collected from hyperlink networks on the issue of food safety in the United States and Germany. We applied three filtering strategies and evaluated their performance to exclude irrelevant content from the networks: keyword filtering, automated document classification with a machine-learning algorithm, and extraction of core networks with network-analytical measures. Keyword filtering and automated classification of web pages were the most effective methods for reducing noise whereas extracting a core network did not yield satisfying results for this case.

Image of India and Pakistan in Digital Age: A Comparative Study on Tweets of International News Agencies

Pakistan and India are two important South Asian neighboring countries equipped with nuclear capabilities. Unfortunately, the checkered bilateral foreign relations history is hostile and both countries have been fought four conventional wars since 1947. Mass media plays a significant role in shaping international relations and it is considered important to study the image of nations and states to assess international standing of a nation. In present study, we explored and compare the image of Pakistan and India in the representation of tweets of international news agencies. Methodologically, we used content analysis and network analysis techniques to find out the country-issue networks in news tweets. We have designated tweets of four major news agencies;Reuters, Agence France Press, Associated Press and Xinhua related to Pakistan and India for the duration of 7 years (from 2010-2016). We found that India and Pakistan are being covered negatively in news tweets of these news agencies. However, Pakistan’s image seems more negative through lens of international news agencies as compare to India in terms of peace and conflict issues coverage. Both countries should take steps and formulate vibrant policy towards creation and dissemination of their positive image on digital media.

13. Executives, Bureaucracies, Policy Studies, and Governance

This chapter explores the relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, along with their role in formulating government policy. It first describes the general framework of legislature–executive relations before discussing the civil service and its embedded autonomy. It then examines theories of bureaucratic policy-making, with particular emphasis on the problem of facilitating policy innovation, as well as the more recent proliferation of government agencies and the concepts of governance and good governance. It also considers the spread of the domain of policy-making beyond state officials or civil servants to issue networks and policy communities and concludes by analysing the emergence of a ‘network state’ and its implications for civil servants.