Understanding the motivational values for the usage of specific online news media and users’ perception of information credibility

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the utilitarian value (UV), hedonic value (HV) and social value (SV) that make people use a certain type of online media website and how the usage of specific online media website impact the way people perceive online information credibility (OIC). A research model was also proposed to explain the essence of this study. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted the survey research methodology to empirically test the research model with 873 research participants from the University of Science and Technology of China and Anhui Medical University. Findings Results from structural equation modeling showed that UV and HV have a significant positive impact on the usage of print news media website (PNMW), usage of broadcast news media website (BNMW) and usage of social networking website (SNW). The SV was also found to have a significant positive impact on the usage of SNWs. The result also indicated that the usage of the PNMW and the usage of the BNMW by online users have a significantly positive impact on high rating of OIC. However, the result showed that the usage of SNW does not have a significant positive impact on the high rating of OIC. Originality/value Findings in this study provided substantial contributions toward the advancement of the uses and gratification theoretical framework by unraveling how certain motivational values can influence online media users’ preferences for specific online media websites, as well as showing how specific online media websites affect online users’ perception of OIC.

TRANSFORMING THE VALUES OF ACHIEVING THE LIFE SUCCESS OF MILITARY INSTITUTE CADETS

The transformation of the values of achieving the life success of cadets was investigated, their differences in views and preferences in 2014, as well as 2020 were revealed. As a result of the analysis of these empirical studies, it is justified that the combination of basic values "self-confidence," "hard work and perseverance," "patriotism" in modern conditions, on the one hand, is filled with specific content, on the other hand, it seems as the most necessary and positive factor in the implementation by cadets of achieving life success. It has been proved that as a result of military reforms, several trends are being formed to transform the values of achieving the life success of students of a military institute: a group of cadets is stably preserved, for whom "self-confidence" is the main value of achieving life success; the composition of cadets - "workaholics" linking priority values with "hard work, as well as perseverance in the process of achieving the goals" is reduced; a group of cadets is growing - "patriots" completely devoted to the country, ready for self-sacrifice in the name of the good of the Motherland. The interest of young people in gaining a military profession is increasing, the quality of the potential of those entering military institutions is steadily increasing, and the motivational values of achieving their life success are steadily developing.

NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION

For a peaceful world and society, it is essential for cultures to be developed and transformed through common values, and value education is one of the main ways to do that since core values are formed from an early age. But when society is going through a radical transformation process as it is in the case of Latvia, it is difficult to avoid anomie when different and conflicting ideas, memories and norms exist in society.The aim of the research is to explore and analyse the tendencies of the main values in the society of Latvia across different age groups, to see how the situation has developed and what are the main values that need to be stressed through value education in the ongoing educational reform process. To reach the aim of the research, a literature review as well as the analysis of the European Social Survey (2008 and 2018) data was conducted.The research results show some shift in values of the society in Latvia mainly due to priorities of younger generation in the period from 2008 to 2018: universal values have replaced self-direction values as the third most common value in the society of Latvia. In the case of younger generations value perception is indefinite. Partly this is due to the lack of focus on values in our education system since the restoration of independence. There is a need to strengthen the motivational values connected with conformity, self-direction, stimulation and universalism (tolerance) through value education. It is desirable to highlight the values of achievement such as creativity and desire to succeed, as they are essential for the knowledge society and stimulate motivation for entrepreneurship.

Evropský národ vs. globalizovaný nacionalismus

The author recommends that any consideration of the issue of nation and nationalism should be preceded by a careful analysis of the terminology used. He points out that the key term ‚nation‘ itself should be used in the knowledge that it refers, on the one hand, to a specific large group of citizens – members of a nation, but also to an abstract value community of culture. He critically rejects the thoughtless use of the term ‚nationalism‘, which forgets that it is derived from the term ‚nation‘. This is a dangerous distortion, especially when applied to non-European realities. A nation is originally a specifically European phenomenon, that is to say, a community that grows out of the old cultural and ideological resources of European countries. If the globalised term nationalism is used retrospectively to analyse the history or present of European nations, there is a danger of distortion and misunderstanding. Just as distorting, however, can be the analysis of non-European ‚nations‘ in the coordinates of the European nation. In conclusion, the author points out that the humanistic and motivational values of the European nation from the time of its formation are largely an empty phrase for contemporary nations. The reason for this, however, lies not only in terminological confusion, but also in the great transformation of value norms as a result of the neoliberal questioning of national values and identities that is being promoted in the context of advancing globalisation.

A Value-Based Framework Connecting Environmental Citizenship and Change Agents for Sustainability—Implications for Education for Environmental Citizenship

Civic agency is acknowledged as a key driver/catalyst for social transformation toward sustainability. Recent environmental citizenship education (EEC) models advocate a transformative approach for addressing environmental unsustainability (addressing underlying structural causes) and the identification of the development of change agents, as both the means for deep social transformation toward sustainability and the outcome of EEC. Given the paucity of studies looking into the psychological attributes of sustainability change agents, this work aims to deepen the theoretical understanding of the motivations that drive individuals to act as change agents and the type and extent of the change that they aspire to effect, with a view to developing competent environmental citizens. To this end, this conceptual work applies Schwartz’s theory of universal values to construct a three-level framework of environmental citizenship (EC) (individual-level, community-level, and socially-transformative-level). Each level reflects an increasing level of change agency that is driven by distinct motivational values and competences. The framework shares affinities with qualitative change agency typologies in the literature but claims that these different qualitative types reflect expanding ‘levels-of-concern’ and an increasing extent of change, as expressed in the EC framework. The paper then discusses curricular implications for the design of meaningful EEC deriving from the framework: Effective EEC entails developing change agency by adapting learning to the EC-level of the learners and the educational organization. The proposed EC/change agency framework provides a scaffold for such curricular adaptation.

The Emotion of Fulfillment and Its Phenomenology

In this chapter, I identify and analyze the emotion of fulfillment and explain its evaluative phenomenology and the value thereof. I build on Susan Wolf’s account of meaning in life and argue that meaningfulness consists in correct fulfillment (Section 1). I analyze fulfillment into attraction and satisfaction, and argue that its evaluations are non-conceptual (Section 2). I argue that fulfillment has a distinctive evaluative phenomenology that is irreducible to sensory, cognitive, or agentive phenomenology (Section 3). Finally, I argue that the evaluative phenomenology of fulfillment has hedonic, epistemic, and motivational values (Section 4).