Search

The article reports on the development and challenges related to global media studies. It examines the consequences of the change in global power away from advanced countries such as the U.S. The author also explores the effect of technical change in the media in the advanced countries in the Northern region of the world.

This article describes and analyses a database on the dynamics of sociopolitical instability in the United States between 1780 and 2010. The database was constructed by digitizing data collected by previous researchers, supplemented by systematic searches of electronic media archives. It includes 1,590 political violence events such as riots, lynchings, and terrorism. Incidence of political violence fluctuated dramatically over the 230 years covered by the database, following a complex dynamical pattern. Spectral analysis detected two main oscillatory modes. The first is a very long-term – secular – cycle, taking the form of an instability wave during the second half of the 19th century, bracketed by two peaceful periods (the first quarter of the 19th century and the middle decades of the 20th century, respectively). The second is a 50-year oscillation superimposed on the secular cycle, with peaks around 1870, 1920, and 1970. The pattern of two periodicities superimposed on each other is characteristic of the dynamics of political instability in many historical societies, such as ancient Rome and medieval and early-modern England, France, and Russia. A possible explanation of this pattern, discussed in the article, is offered by the structural-demographic theory, which postulates that labor oversupply leads to falling living standards and elite overproduction, and those, in turn, cause a wave of prolonged and intense sociopolitical instability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the dignity and a respectful life in which self respect and societal respect are fundamental. Self-respect is related to common human values, the right and ability to control one's life and to develop one's potentials. Societal respect is associated with caring and accepting social relationships. It is a person's duty to respect another person, helping one to develop his humanity. To summarize, human dignity is about living respectfully, characterized by equal human value, the use of autonomy, self-respect as well as societal respect. However, many developed economies like the U.S., Great Britain, Canada and Hong Kong have changed their social security policies. The issue of concern here is whether such polices and their related ideologies are harmful to human dignity. It is difficult to make a comprehensive assessment because the concept of dignity is vague. More importantly, there are different views on the meaning of a dignified life such as financial security in old age. Many developed countries in recent years, with more stringent welfare measures such as reducing benefits and requiring welfare recipients to report regularly to the social security offices and do voluntary work as a condition of receiving welfare.

The article focuses on the foreign telecommunication policy goals of the U.S. and the competition among industrialized countries over innovations in telecommunications technology and services. It states that telecommunication services has been an increasingly significant foreign policy priority in promoting the political, economic and national security interests of the country in 1985-1989. It suggests that policy decisions and initiatives of the U.S. in international communications and information goals had better served the interest of the U.S. The author adds that supporting the contention that U.S. policies can best serve the interests of developing economies can be premature, due to the reluctance of U.S. to participate in financing Third World telecommunications.