Examining multiple behavioral effects of third-person perception: Evidence from the news about Fukushima nuclear crisis in Taiwan

This study focuses on examining the behavioral component of the third-person effect. It explores the self-other perceptual gap concerning the influence of nuclear pollution news on the prediction of different actions: corrective, protective, and promotional. The study analyzes data from a probability sample collected in Taiwan after the news about nuclear pollution from Fukushima was widely reported. The results showed that the discrepancy in self-other perceptions was a significant predictor of multiple behavioral intentions, which included seeking self-protection (e.g., taking iodide pills), supporting corrective actions (e.g., opposing the building of new nuclear power plants), and supporting government-led promotional measures (e.g., launching public educational campaigns on nuclear safety). These results indicate that the behavioral component of the third-person effect extends beyond the realm of willingness to censor.     

Testing news trustworthiness in an online public sphere: a case study of The Economist's news report covering the riots in Xinjiang,China

This paper explores the news trustworthiness and media credibility of The Economist's news report on 9 July 2009, and the communicative roles of 846 readers' responses. Theoretically guided by news translation and cultural resistance and the online public sphere, we applied online field observation and discourse analysis and achieved two main findings: First, although the news report covered the Xinjiang riots with comprehensive and attractive details, it violated the core journalism value of media credibility and journalistic objectivity by providing misleading pictures and significant unreliable and biased coverage. Second, the major communicative roles of the online readers' responses generally match Dahlberg's six conditions of an ideal online public sphere, which is still challenging but promising to realize.     

Foreign reporters' aggressiveness and Chinese officials' openness at news conferences: influences on foreign media coverage of the Chinese government

This study used content analysis to examine the relationships among Chinese officials' openness strategies at news conferences, foreign reporters' aggressiveness, and the valence of foreign media coverage of the Chinese government. Controlling for the time period and political sensitivity of the topics of news conferences, this study found that the foreign reporters' personal evaluations of Chinese officials were negatively associated with the media coverage valence and that Chinese officials' openness strategies were positively correlated with the media coverage valence and moderated the negative association between reporters' evaluations of officials and media coverage valence. Methodological implications are also discussed.     

Revisiting the digital divide in Canada: the impact of demographic factors on access to the internet,level of online activity,and social networking site usage

The present study relies on the 2010 Canadian Internet Use Survey to investigate differences in people's access to the internet and level of online activity. The study not only revisits the digital divide in the Canadian context, but also expands current investigations by including an analysis of how demographic factors affect social networking site (SNS) adoption. The findings demonstrate that access to the internet reflects existing inequalities in society with income, education, rural/urban, immigration status, and age all affecting adoption patterns. Furthermore, the results show that inequality in access to the internet is now being mimicked in the level of online activity of internet users. More recent immigrants to Canada have lower rates of internet access; however, recent immigrants who are online have significantly higher levels of online activity than Canadian born residents and earlier immigrants. Additionally, women perform fewer activities online than men. People's use of SNSs differs in terms of education, gender, and age. Women were significantly more likely to use SNSs than men. Interestingly, high school graduates had the lowest percentage of adoption compared to all other education categories. Current students were by far the group that utilized SNSs the most. Canadian born, recent, and early immigrants all showed similar adoption rates of SNSs. Age is a strong predictor of SNS usage, with young people relying heavily on SNSs in comparison to those aged 55+. The findings demonstrate that the digital divide not only persists, but has expanded to include inequality in the level of online activity and SNS usage.     

Pension policy in China, Singapore, and South Korea: An assessment of the potential value of the notional defined contribution model

The rate of population aging is increasing in the developing world and the trend is particularly dramatic in East Asia. One consequence is sharp increases in old-age dependency ratios which have major implications for the sustainability of current public pension schemes. These trends are pushing pension policy experts in many of these countries to search for new pension models that are more suited to the increased demographic pressures they will be facing in the decades ahead. In this article we discuss five alternative public pension models with a focus on the newest of these models, the notional defined contribution (NDC) approach. We consider three countries with very different pension systems in place, two from East Asia (China and South Korea) and one from South East Asia (Singapore). The central question we address is which (if any) of the limitations in these existing models might more adequately be addressed using a variant of the NDC model. We conclude that the NDC model has the most to offer China and the least to offer Singapore.