Wiki-worthy: collective judgment of candidate notability

The use of socio-technical data to predict elections is a growing research area. We argue that election prediction research suffers from under-specified theoretical models that do not properly distinguish between ‘poll-like’ and ‘prediction market-like’ mechanisms understand findings. More specifically, we argue that, in systems with strong norms and reputational feedback mechanisms, individuals have market-like incentives to bias content creation toward candidates they expect will win. We provide evidence for the merits of this approach using the creation of Wikipedia pages for candidates in the 2010 US and UK national legislative elections. We find that Wikipedia editors are more likely to create Wikipedia pages for challengers who have a better chance of defeating their incumbent opponent and that the timing of these page creations coincides with periods when collective expectations for the candidate's success are relatively high.     

科学传播、科学教育与全民科学素质培养

在激励更多社会力量投入公民科学素质建设的行动中,科学传播与科学教育是两条主线,现代化的传媒工具是公民科学素质建设得以成功的重要手段。本文以"共同合力提升公民科学素质、促进人的全面发展"的整体观,剖析了科学教育和科学传播的理论演进,以及科学传播的机制模式会"倒逼"促使正规学校的科学教育加快改革步伐、协同一致发展的必然趋势。     

电信基础设施保护及对策探讨

电信基础设施是通信的网络和命脉，是保证国家或地区社会经济活动正常进行的公共服务系统。但是近些年来，通信基础设施防护一直是个难题，偷盗毁损通信基础设施的现象十分突出，给国家和企业造成重大经济损失，严重威胁通信网络运行安全。通过内涵、外延的叙述对基础设施的概念作了解释，在此基础上对基础设施所具有的助推作用及乘数效应两大特性作了分析，阐述了基础设施在社会经济发展中的地位和作用；列举了公用电信设施被破坏的几种现象，指出电信基础设施安全状况令人堪忧；通过观察分析，提出了在保护基础设施安全方面存在的问题及原因，指出打击不力、监管不严是其主要问题；针对存在的问题，从法律法规、行政管理、宣传教育、社会治理等方面提出了应对措施。     

真实性原则下的英语名祖词分类

为了更好地研究英语名祖词的分类标准,采用文献综述法和例证分析法,以名祖词来源为出发点,在总结国内外名祖词分类标准的基础上,提出对其进行分类研究的新原则——真实性。在此原则指导下对英语名祖词进行分类研究,以期丰富英语名祖词的相关研究,服务于英语词汇教学,进而提高英语学习者的跨文化交际能力。     

加强“多方沟通”,构建“以人为本”学生评教体系

本文指出学生评教应通过加强＂多方沟通＂,构建＂以人为本＂的学生评教体系,从而真正起到促进教师的专业发展和提高教学质量的作用。     

A comparative study of crisis communication strategies between Mainland China and Taiwan: The melamine-tainted milk powder crisis in the Chinese context

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to identify and compare the crisis communication strategies (CCSs) that organizations used to respond to a congenetic melamine-tainted milk crisis in two Chinese societies (i.e., Mainland China and Taiwan), and (2) to explore the underlying political and media system reasons that led to the differences. Content analysis and discourse analysis of media coverage were used. The most significant finding is that Sanlu (a Mainland China-based organization) and KingCar (a Taiwan-based organization) demonstrated inverse pattern of the CCS adoption. Specifically, according to Coombs’ (1998) defense-accommodation continuum, Sanlu's CCSs moved from defensive to accommodative pole as time went by whereas, in contrast, KingCar started with accommodative strategies and moved towards the defensive pole gradually. Besides, the results showed that both organizations adopted denial, corrective action and apology strategies. However, on the Sanlu part, the most frequently used strategy was denial, while KingCar used justification most often. Moreover, this paper suggests that besides cultural dynamics, political and media systems also play a part in corporate selection of CCSs, and they are among the most important factors that should be taken into account to explain the differences in societies even with an identical traditional culture.     

A bibliographic study of public relations in Spanish media and communication journals, 2000–2012

This study analyses the trends and visibility of research on public relations in the most relevant Spanish media and communication journals between the years 2000 and 2012. Bibliometrics and content analysis are used to show the reduced presence of articles on public relations in these publications. A trend towards gender parity in authorship is confirmed in the sample, as well as a plurality of universities and a variety of research themes. The study also proves preference for generic questions rather than for specialised topics. Another finding is that almost one fourth of the specific articles on this discipline do not contain the term “public relations”. This can hint towards the need to have a specific high-impact publication on public relations to bring together and provide visibility to the contributions of researchers in this field.     

城市文化软实力构建的“网都”范式

当前全球数字网络化的发展浪潮和历史背景下,"网都"型文化中心城市建设成为转变城市文化发展方式、提升城市文化软实力的新的战略路径和城市设计愿景。城市发展的"网都"形态具有多元文化范式,要根据不同城市的特点和文化基础,推进网络媒介城市(media city)、网络文化产业高地、网络文化名城、互联网总部基地、文化科技融合的创新引领中心、网络文化宜居之都、互联网枢纽城市等不同类型的"网都"建设。不同的网都范型(paradigm)关切到城市文化软实力的不同层面,存在着从硬文化实力向软文化实力的渐变和过渡谱系;既可以单独构建特色网络文化城市的核心性格与差异化竞争力,也可以综合构建城市文化软实力的体系化架构。     

Communicating Conservation Status: How Different Statistical Assessment Criteria Affect Perceptions of Extinction Risk

Although alternative forms of statistical and verbal information are routinely used to convey species’ extinction risk to policymakers and the public, little is known about their effects on audience information processing and risk perceptions. To address this gap in literature, we report on an experiment that was designed to explore how perceptions of extinction risk differ as a function of five different assessment benchmarks (Criteria A–E) used by scientists to classify species within IUCN Red List risk levels (e.g., Critically Endangered, Vulnerable), as well as the role of key individual differences in these effects (e.g., rational and experiential thinking styles, environmental concern). Despite their normative equivalence within the IUCN classification system, results revealed divergent effects of specific assessment criteria: on average, describing extinction risk in terms of proportional population decline over time (Criterion A) and number of remaining individuals (Criterion D) evoked the highest level of perceived risk, whereas the single‐event probability of a species becoming extinct (Criterion E) engendered the least perceived risk. Furthermore, participants scoring high in rationality (analytic thinking) were less prone to exhibit these biases compared to those low in rationality. Our findings suggest that despite their equivalence in the eyes of scientific experts, IUCN criteria are indeed capable of engendering different levels of risk perception among lay audiences, effects that carry direct and important implications for those tasked with communicating about conservation status to diverse publics.