Around the Bloc: Kazakhstan Bans Child Jihadi Video, Russia Cracks Down on Capital Flight
Plus, Yerevan and Baku trade more barbs over helicopter shootdown and Uzbekistan lays claim to a sliver of Afghan territory.
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Plus, Yerevan and Baku trade more barbs over helicopter shootdown and Uzbekistan lays claim to a sliver of Afghan territory.
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Audiodescription involves recounting (without interpretation and commentary) what is happening, for example, in a film or a theater play, in dialogues between characters,but it also attempts to describe the space, e.g.: monuments or works of art. Translation of visual content into words, or otherwise, verbal description of visible layers of plays, audiovisual productions, art and entertainment events makes them available to the blind and visually impaired as well as to those with poor eyesight.
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The aim of this study is to challenge the problem of the formation of national identity through a prism of language and language policy. Cultural basic models have been established for the language policy: common public language model, which views language policy as a primarily tool for nation building and views that common language to be shared by all citizens; and language maintenance model (public institutes recognize the right of separate groups to be able to use their own minority languages as a tool for the state dialogue). In the present paper, the policy dilemmas facing the European Union and the more important documents of the EU on problems of the rights of national minorities and its language policy are analyzed. The study includes a concise dictionary of multicultural policy.
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Mass media and their tools have become a permanent part of everyday life. The news services have the most visible impact also on the political market. Mass media views, depending on the context in which the issues related to migration are described, will shape the positive or negative image of the migrant, influence the image of the migrant ethnic group, and determine their position in the new society. The aim of the article is to give examples of media reports showing the phenomenon of migration in European Union countries, presented through the main information services using the Internet in Poland. The methodology of media content analysis was applied. The thorough analysis covered the period of six months. The research process revealed the variety of contexts presenting the phenomenon of migration at the main Polish news services: Onet.pl, Wp.pland Interia.pl. Analysis also showed that huge migratory flows caused by military conflict generate serious threats to the stability of the European Union.
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The paper discusses the issue of reputation, more specifically the ways and methods of its measurements in selected entities operating in the health care sector. A thorough multifactor analysis of reputation in the virtual world of the Internet was conducted on a specific sample of entities/ subjects – Slovak Teaching Hospitals. Using a careful statistical testing relationships between factors were examined in order to identify and describe facts affecting online reputation of those entities in the hyper competitive market environment of the Internet. The findings identified by the analysis of online environment were compared to traditional ratings from “brick world”. The results of analysis thus providing a comprehensive view on the issue of the reputation in the widest possible range of perspectives.
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The study focuses on organisation and perception of government communication by government agents and stakeholder representatives in the Czech Republic. At the same time, it presents an original methodological approach to researching government communication. The research evidence suggests that government communication process in the Czech Republic conceals tensions on internal, interdepartmental and external levels of governance. Performing in-depth semi-structured interviews with former Czech government officials and top executives from the corporate and non-commercial sector, it was observed that phenomena such as democratic disenchantment and low confidence in executive bodies can be associated with the state-of-things and modus operandi of the government communication process. Finally, the aim of the study is to encourage government communication research in emerging or recently institutionalised democracies including post-communist countries in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, since it is necessary to understand the complexity of political and communication systems long associated with asymmetric power relations and democratic deficit.
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Like in many other Central and Eastern European countries, in 2016, Romanian populist parties were voted by the ‘silent’ citizens, by those feeling deprived and not represented properly. Shortly before that, in 2015, the tragic Colectiv nightclub fire had given birth to a new party: Save Romania Union (USR) that promotes a populist discourse on the ‘corrupt elite’ versus the ‘pure people’. At the beginning, however, the new party did not disseminate messages specific to the nationalist or radical right-wing populists. Another party, endorsed by a news television channel Romania TV, almost succeeded at overpassing the electoral threshold in the 2016 parliamentary election: United Romania Party (PRU) used xenophobic and anti-EU messages during the 2016 general election campaign. My hypothesis is that the extremist electoral messages, the expressions of hatred towards foreigners and Western businessmen or the EU institutions were spread through social networks. Using a content analysis, I shall verify the extent to which the official Facebook pages of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, the direct successor of the Romanian Communist Party), the United Romania Party (PRU) and the Save Romania Union (USR) reflected the antagonism of the ‘pure’ people versus the ‘corrupt’ elite and I shall reveal who these parties identified as the so-called ‘people’s enemies’.
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Contrary to the narrative in much of politics and academia, Russia’s alienation from the West did not start in 2014—it is a lasting and inherent phenomenon. Since the mid-1990s, Moscow’s attempts to ‘capture’ the narrative of Europe or even portray itself later on as a ‘better Europe’, transcended in 2014 into a more overt and antithetical approach of strategically juxtaposing Russia versus Europe, or placing ‘Russia being not (declinist and decadent) Europe’, a part of the likewise allegedly declining ‘West’. Russia’s appeal for European ‘self-denial’ does not only find its supporters in Europe, predominantly populist and radical parties, but also contributes to a more general frustration among Europeans regarding their own self-perception, as well provokes Western ambiguity and uncertainty about its responsibility for regional security affairs, particularly in the European neighbourhood. This article argues that, by destabilising the immediate vicinity and regional security order, the Russian leadership does not pursue a policy of balancing the Western hegemonic formation, thus strategising a positive competing (counter-hegemonic) framework. Rather, it engages in an anti-hegemonic strategy through a deeply negative spoiler offensive. The article conceptualises Russia’s anti-hegemonic drive as a three-pronged strategic narrative offensive that operationally seeks to 1) ‘desynchronise’ political developments in the European Neighbourhood to ‘distort’ European perceptions of reality; 2) ‘de-articulate’ the West, i.e., splitting the Atlantic democracies from the European mainland; and 3) ‘saturate’ the vacuum with false and fictitious narratives, to sow confusion and maintain manageable disorder.
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The West is again facing multiple threats spearheaded by hostile information activity. ISIL’s exploitation of social media has lured new recruits reaching straight into the bedrooms of our teenagers. Seemingly inexplicably, young intelligent minds have been radicalised through a perversion of their faith. A resurgent Russia has reinvented its ‘hybrid war’ doctrine of the Soviet Cold War-era, believing that it can only be secure when we are weak. Putin’s incursions into Ukraine and now Syria have required a vanguard of blatant untruths filtered through its expansive international news agencies RT and Sputnik. All the while our own performance in Iraq and Afghanistan has been questionable with our strategic communications (stratcom) never becoming as pre-eminent as they were in the World Wars. As will be shown in the following review of British military information operations, a recurrent pattern of under-resourcing, ad-hoc responses, and Whitehall battles of control have been a constant hindrance to effective stratcom, particularly through the Cold War period and despite the best efforts of those involved.
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Analiza predstavlja pregled praćenja izvještavanja o LGBTI temama u medijima u Bosni i Hercegovini, koju šestu godinu zaredom objavljuje Sarajevski otvoreni centar. Analizom se prati nivo doprinosa medija u borbi protiv diskriminacije i povećanja vidljivosti LGBTI osoba u bosanskohercegovačkom medijskom prostoru. U 2016. godini praćeno je izvještavanje 93 medija: elektronskih (radio – 10 i televizija – 24), štampanih (dnevne novine, sedmični i dvosedmični magazini – 35) te online medija (news portali i portali štampanih medija – 24). Ukupno, u svim medijima objavljeno je 1299 tekstova/priloga, i to u štampi – 546 tekstova, na televiziji – 87 priloga i u online medijima – 666. Dnevne novine koje su najviše izvještavale o LGBTI temama bile su Oslobođenje – 86, od televizijskih stanica Federalna televizija – 27, a od online portala Klix.ba – 118. Kada govorimo o izvještavanju iz regije, najveći broj objava je bio za vrijeme održavanja parada ponosa u Hrvatskoj (Zagreb, Split), Crnoj Gori (Podgorica) i Srbiji (Beograd), zatim su se prenosile vijesti vezane za praćenje korištenja Zakona o životnom partnerstvu u Hrvatskoj, o lezbejskom paru koji je tužio Hrvatsku za diskriminaciju, te o trenutnoj političkoj klimi koja sve više ide udesno te utiče i na prava LGBTI osoba u Hrvatskoj. Izvještavalo se o Međunarodnom danu borbe protiv homofobije i transfobije, o performansu održanom povodom Međunarodnog coming out dana, o širenju govora mržnje prema manjinskim grupama, o usvojenim izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o zabrani diskriminacije, napadu koji se desio u Art kinu Kriterion u martu, Izvještaju o stanju prava LGBTI osoba u BiH koji je izdala Institucija ombudsmena u BiH, o predsjedniku Studentskog parlamenta Univerziteta u Sarajevu, Harisu Zahiragiću i njegovim različitim homofobnim izjavama, o napadu u LGBT klubu u SAD-u, u Orlandu, te različitim filmovima, predstavama i pjevačima_cama i pjesmama koje tematiziraju LGBTI osobe. Nastavljen je trend da vijesti nerijetko ne odgovaraju opremi članka (fotografije, naslovi/nadnaslovi), i tendencija nekih medija koji imaju urednički negativan stav da korektne agencijske vijesti opremaju negativnim (senzacionalističkim) naslovima. U online medijima još uvijek je primjetan najveći broj agencijskih vijesti, po principu copy-paste, te zbog toga i dalje postoji nesrazmjer između pozitivnih i negativnih objava. Važno je naglasiti da je ipak mali broj negativnih tekstova, u usporedbi sa ukupnim brojem objava u online medijima. Nakon drastičnog pada koji se desio 2014. godine u izvještavanju u informativnim emisijama televizijskih stanica, analiza je pokazala da se počeo povećavati broj objava, ali da je taj broj još uvijek mali. Informativne emisije na televiziji bi trebale više samoinicijativno da se bave temama vezanim za prava LGBTI osoba te da podižu svijest o problemima sa kojim se one susreću. Imajući u vidu da najčešće izvještavaju za vrijeme parada ponosa ili pak kada se desi fizičko nasilje nad LGBTI osobama, smatramo da još uvijek ne shvataju važnost kontinuiranog izvještavanja i svoj doprinos u suzbijanju nasilja i podizanju svijesti o problemima LGBTI osoba u svakodnevnom životu. Iako iz godine u godinu raste broj objava u medijima, još uvijek postoji jako mali broj novinara i novinarki koji imaju istraživački pristup koji bi rezultirao kvalitetnijim prilozima/člancima. Budući da smo u 2016. godini počele pratiti i medijske objave vezane za interspolne osobe, važno nam je naglasiti da su mediji polako počeli izvještavati i o interspolnim osobama, nevidljivosti i problemima na koje one nailaze. Za sada su uglavnom u pitanju prenošenja saopštenja za javnost ili izvještavanja sa događaja koje je organizovao Sarajevski otvoreni centar, ali se nadamo da će se novinari_ke u 2017. godini baviti više i pitanjem prava interspolnih osoba. Pozdravljamo činjenicu da mediji prate i izvještavaju o aktivnostima organizacija civilnog društva koje se bave pravima LGBTI osoba. I ovom analizom je potvrđena hipoteza da je veća vidljivost aktivističkih organizacija, aktivista_kinja i LGBTI osoba preduslov veće vidljivosti LGBTI tema u medijima, čime se dodatno potcrtava važnost novinarske odgovornosti, etike i profesionalnosti, jer bi izvještavanje trebalo da afirmiše građansku hrabrost ovih javnih istupanja.
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This paper is devoted to two selected teacher figures appearing in American film. John Keating (Dead Poets Society) and Terence Fletcher (Whiplash) are going to be analyzed with regard to their beliefs, their methods, and their impact on students. The introduction refers to the prevailing cinematic image of teachers as heroes who inspire and support their students. Another feature common for many onscreen teachers, including Keating and Fletcher, is their being based on real-life figures. The first section describes Keating’s and Fletcher’s beliefs influencing their work. Keating believes his role is to build students’ confidence, make them feel they can change the world, and convince them they should seize the opportunities life provides them with. Fletcher is in favor of the view that students should not be praised, but pushed to their limits for the sake of results. The next part deals with the differences in Keating’s and Fletcher’s methodologies. Keating aims at replacing a traditional approach to education with demonstration and involving students in practical activities. For Fletcher, maintaining a sense of threat in his students is the key to motivating them. Finally, the analysis turns to Keating’s and Fletcher’s impact on their students. Keating’s teaching makes his students pursue new interests or manage their personal matters effectively. Fletcher’s influence is best reflected by his students’ anxiety, exhaustion, and – in some cases – the increased drive to practice.
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The animated debate surrounding an apparent migrant problem of the Western world, manifesting itself in either the immigration crisis in Europe or the progressing tendencies to isolationism both in Europe and in the United States of America, provides a good case to investigate the media representation of immigrants in the American context. The sometimes biased portrayal of immigrant communities in the contemporary American media, especially those with right-wing inclination, has been given a higher profile in the U.S. public discourse and bears a striking resemblance to the anti-Irish sentiment and press coverage that dominated in the U.S. in the 19th century. It is in the purview of the following paper to examine the media rhetoric and representation strategies that were used at that time and that are harnessed currently. The idea warrants discussion since the United States also prides itself for its multicultural and multiethnic heritage, which proves to highlight the polarized public opinion. In the author’s estimation, the anti-immigrant attitudes are a recurring theme in the American culture and have always divided the public.
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Originally a conservative genre, in the second half of the twentieth century, science fiction (sf) became a discourse whose progressive presentation of virtually all controversial political issues and critical questioning of the political status quo have remained unmatched in the so-called popular culture, among others. There is no other literary convention that so boldly challenges such issues as racism, sexism, social justice, and ecological devastation. However, the progressive stance of many science fiction writers, editors, and readers has been, in recent years, challenged by loose coalitions of groups calling themselves Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies, who have acted against what they perceive as the repression of more traditional voices in science fiction communities. The paper will seek to explore recent political shifts within the science fiction fandom, with regard to oppression involving gender, class, race, and ethnicity. I will provide an account of the fandom’s political tensions, disentangle some of the convoluted discussions that have taken place across blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages of those involved in these debates, and specifically address the controversies related to the 2014 and 2015 Hugo Awards. I will also attempt to illuminate the violent conservative backlash that the aforementioned groups launched against the perceived political correctness and repression of certain viewpoints within sf communities.
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The paper, which also serves as an introduction to the book, examines the historically developed opposition of love, freedom, and the family. The authors argue that though the industrial society triggered the emergence of the nuclear family, at the same time it separated the ideals of the era – i.e. freedom and equality – from it. As these ideals gradually emerged in the family, however, they also spread to love relationships through self-realization and the heightened expectations towards love. One of the main reasons for the change was individualization. Values connected to one’s carrier became internalized, which, in turn, created tension between the differing demands of the labor market and relationships. This resulted in the opposition of family and freedom. Although individualization existed in previous eras too, it has never ever had such a widespread impact.
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The text reports on the research focused on the analysis of the functioning model of the Associacion for the Support of Development of Szczawa – a bottom-up initiative which influences local growth through cultural actions. The article present a case study of the relations between initiatives of social culture, bottom-up nature and socio-economic growth. It is based on the results of qualitative research. Description of the title Association, its actions and the context of its functioning is also an important part of the article.
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Cel badań. Celem artykułu jest omówienie głównych przyczyn braku postępów w zakresie mówienia po angielsku uczniów japońskich szkół, co jest uwarunkowane kulturowo i systemowo, a także skonfrontowanie ich z reformą edukacji języka angielskiego, wprowadzaną w ramach przygotowań do Igrzysk Olimpijskich w Tokio w 2020 roku.Metodologia. Przedmiotem badania były artykuły naukowe dotyczące popularnej w Japonii gramatyczno-tłumaczeniowej metody nauczania języków obcych, związanego z nią systemu egzaminów wstępnych na uczelnie wyższe, który wpływa na treść zajęć w jednostkach edukacyjnych, jak również związek kultury kraju z pasywnością uczniów. Następnie przedstawiono główne założenia reformy oraz przeanalizowano je w kontekście przywołanych przeszkód, które ograniczają rozwój umiejętności komunikacyjnych uczniów.Wyniki i wnioski. Wykazano, że reforma będzie miała pozytywny wpływ na poziom komunikacji werbalnej w języku angielskim uczniów, m.in. dzięki wprowadzeniu lekcji ukierunkowanych na porozumiewanie się oraz doszkalaniu nauczycieli w dziedzinie metodyki nauczanego przedmiotu. Należy zaznaczyć, że reforma w niewystarczający sposób podejmuje problem pasywności uczniów, która wynika z powszechnie preferowanego zachowania na zajęciach szkolnych, a zmiany egzaminów wstępnych mogą okazać się zbyt powierzchowne, aby zmienić sposób nauczania języka w japońskich liceach. Z powodu małej ilości danych związanych z nadal zachodzącym procesem wprowadzania reformy, artykuł stanowi przyczynek do dalszych badań nad edukacją języka angielskiego w Japonii po jej pełnej implementacji.
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This article is a review of Anna Kałuża’s book Pod grą. Jak dziś znaczą wiersze, poetki i poeci. Kałuża observes that the processes of transformation of art associated with global cultural, social and economic changes have stripped poetry of its autonomy and made the traditional aesthetic criteria no longer useful for the evaluation and description of poetic works. The book tries to go beyond the alternative of either sheer continuation or annihilation of the aesthetic concept of modern poetry and discusses new possibilities for poems to participate in the globalised world of social communication. In a set of brilliant interpretations Kałuża shows how the poems of some contemporary Polish poets manage to break the social isolation and effectively take part in the processes of social distribution and circulation of signs.
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The paper addresses the theme of coldness in Sylvia Plath’s poetry and other writings as a significant element of the construction of imaginary domestic spaces and their linkage to the reminiscences of her American home and the experience of life in England. English homes, which she finds to be “cool enough to keep butter and milk in,” are transformed in her poems into a natural living space of what she calls hibernaculum. What she expresses in her letters and in her Journal, however, is a wish to have an American size refrigerator, a domestic device whose ambivalent role complicates and defamiliarizes the senses with which she endows places and objects of everyday life.
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