In Service of News Subscribers: Exploring Belgian Journalists’ Perceptions of Stakeholder Relations in the Digital News Ecosystem

This qualitative paper contends that as news media are faced with growing commercial pressures and changing news consumption habits, they need to rethink their relationship with two of their main stakeholders: readers and advertisers. Multi-stakeholder marketing provides a useful conceptual framework for such an exercise, since it invites media practitioners to reconcile the conflicting interests of different stakeholders. This study aims to understand journalists’ levels of multi-stakeholder thinking regarding advertisers and readers. To explore how contemporary journalists see their role with regard to distinct stakeholders in the news ecosystem, we interviewed 14 Belgian journalists working for legacy and digital native news media. The goal of this exploratory study is to examine (1) how journalists perceive and rethink their dependence on readers and advertisers in the digital news ecosystem and (2) how their perception of the digital news ecosystem influences their attitudes towards these stakeholders. Findings indicate that journalists tend to see the value of readers in monetary terms and believe increasing reader revenue will help journalism survive. Other types of reader value (feedback, expertise, and content) are peripheral. This focus on subscribers also seems to coincide with a devaluation of other stakeholders like advertisers and non-paying readers.

Should I stay or should I go? How activity synchronization affects fission decisions

Group-living animals need to deal with conflicting interests to maintain cohesion. When the costs of doing so outweigh the benefits, the group may (temporarily) split into two or more subgroups. Conflicting interests can concern what activity to pursue or the direction of travel. Temporary group separation is a common feature in species with a high degree of fission–fusion dynamics. We investigated the role activity synchronization played in fission decisions in a spider monkey group living in the Otoch Ma'ax Yetel Kooh Nature Reserve, Yucatan, Mexico. For 21 months, we recorded every fission event occurring in the followed subgroup, as well as the subgroup activity. We classified the activity as ‘synchronized’ when at least 75% of subgroup members performed the same activity (resting, foraging, socializing or travelling); otherwise, we classified it as ‘non-synchronized’. We found that fission events occurred more often when the activity was non-synchronized. In addition, when the activity was synchronized, fission events occurred more often when spider monkeys were travelling than when they were engaged in other subgroup activities. Our findings highlight the role of conflicting interests over the activity to pursue and travel direction in fission decisions.

National Security Concerns as an Exception to EU Standards on Data Protection

Discussions on the appropriate fundamental rights standards in the EU and the need to take into account conflicting interests are increasingly being reframed as debates on the conflict between the primacy of EU law and the constitutional standards of the Member States. One example of this reframing is the French administrative supreme court’s decision following the ECJ judgment in La Quadrature du Net. The Conseil ruled that the EU standards set in that judgment must be reviewed, at the national level, with regard to a national understanding of security concerns and the requirements of the fight against terrorism. Thus, constitutional requirements related to public security may be relied upon to argue for a lower standard of protection of personal data than those which the ECJ requires. As this decision shows, the ability of corporations and Governments to rely on litigation before national courts to challenge the standard of protection set at the EU level creates a significant risk, not only for the uniformity of EU law, but also for the protection of the rights of individuals.

Surowce energetyczne poradzieckich państw Azji Centralnej w polityce gospodarczej Chin

China s interest in the energy resources of Central Asian has been growing since the end of the 20th century. During the twenty years of the 21st century, China became the most important trading partner Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Eksport from Central Asia to China are raw materials, mainly gas and crude oil, and imports are finished products of the mining sector, transmission and communication infrastructure. The opening in 2009 of the gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was a turning point for the strengthening of Beijing s influence in the region. The gas pipeline broke Russia s monopoly on intermediation in trade in energy resources from Central Asian states and created a completely new system of economic relations. Despite the conflicting interests with the Russian Federation, both countries are demonstrating their will to cooperate politically in the region.

Communication of the origin of food products: legal aspects

The interests that revolve around the mandatory indication of the place of origin of a food product are multiple and often conflicting with each other. Alongside the interests of some producers wishing to highlight the geographical origin of their products, there are conflicting interests of other producers who, for different reasons, prefer not to disclose the origin of their product. Then there are also interests of consumers interested at receiving an ever greater and transparency of the extensive information on the product offered. The indication of the origin of a food product can also constitute an element that has an impact on the proper functioning of the internal market to the extent that it can ultimately induce consumers to purchase national products or, at least, it may affect their purchasing choices: it is therefore necessary to assess the compatibility of the mandatory indication of the origin of the food with the principle of the free movement of goods. This competition of interests explains why the European Union’s legislation on this point is somewhat ambiguous: this paper, apart from the presentation of collective marks and certification marks which, although in a limited way, may contain references to the geographical origin of the products, points out to the provisions contained in Regulation EU 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, as well as the provisions regulating the products with PDO and PGI certificates.

Ethical Conduct of Public Servants

The objective of the investigation was to examine the content and specific characteristics of the ethical conduct of public officials in Ukraine and the world. To achieve the objective, the authors used the following methods: epistemological, comparative-legal, structural-functional, analytical, informative-analytical. Among the results of the article, it was possible to consider the ethical conduct of public servants in a broad and narrow sense. In the same way, the main requirements of the legislation that regulate the conduct of public servants have been analyzed and the conditions that standardize in detail the legal relationships in the field of professional activity of public servants, their relationships with each other and with citizens. Finally, everything allows us to conclude that a Code of Ethics for public servants establishes common rules of conduct for them and determines responsibility for their violation. To be effective, this regulatory legal act must also include the following obligations for public servants: requirements for the performance of official functions; requirements for advanced training; requirements for relationships with colleagues, managers, and subordinates; norms of communication with citizens and norms to resolve conflicting interests.

Self-protective and self-sacrificing preferences of pedestrians and passengers in moral dilemmas involving autonomous vehicles

Upon the introduction of autonomous vehicles into daily traffic, it becomes increasingly likely that autonomous vehicles become involved in accident scenarios in which decisions have to be made about how to distribute harm among involved parties. In four experiments, participants made moral decisions from the perspective of a passenger, a pedestrian, or an observer. The results show that the preferred action of an autonomous vehicle strongly depends on perspective. Participants’ judgments reflect self-protective tendencies even when utilitarian motives clearly favor one of the available options. However, with an increasing number of lives at stake, utilitarian preferences increased. In a fifth experiment, we tested whether these results were tainted by social desirability but this was not the case. Overall, the results confirm that strong differences exist among passengers, pedestrians, and observers about the preferred course of action in critical incidents. It is therefore important that the actions of autonomous vehicles are not only oriented towards the needs of their passengers, but also take the interests of other road users into account. Even though utilitarian motives cannot fully reconcile the conflicting interests of passengers and pedestrians, there seem to be some moral preferences that a majority of the participants agree upon regardless of their perspective, including the utilitarian preference to save several other lives over one’s own.

On the Abolition of War

In this essay Wight advanced four main criticisms of the proposal by Walter Millis for the abolition of what Millis called ‘the war system’. First, the proposal disregards ‘the positive or constructive functions of war in international society’, such as bringing about ‘desirable change’, gaining independence, preserving independence, and maintaining the balance of power. Second, the proposal to abolish war understates ‘the intractability of international conflicts’ and exaggerates the role of armaments and military formations in causing war. The true causes of war reside in ‘human passions and conflicting interests’, not weapons. Third, the proposal to eradicate war fails to recognize the price that must be paid to defeat aggression and establish order. Fourth, no effective alternative institution has been found to replace ‘the war system’ as a means to perform certain functions, including the prevention of detrimental change. The vision of an ‘international government’ ruling the world without war ultimately implies ‘a monopoly of power’, including nuclear arms, perhaps under ‘an American–Russian dyarchy’, despite ‘the intrinsic instability of dyarchy’ and its ‘disagreeableness’ for the rival powers, such as China and France.