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People differ in their general tendency to endorse conspiracy theories (that is, conspiracy mentality). Previous research yielded inconsistent findings on the relationship between conspiracy mentality and political orientation, showing a greater conspiracy mentality either among the political right (a linear relation) or amongst both the left and right extremes (a curvilinear relation). We revisited this relationship across two studies spanning 26 countries (combined N = 104,253) and found overall evidence for both linear and quadratic relations, albeit small and heterogeneous across countries. We also observed stronger support for conspiracy mentality among voters of opposition parties (that is, those deprived of political control). Nonetheless, the quadratic effect of political orientation remained significant when adjusting for political control deprivation. We conclude that conspiracy mentality is associated with extreme left- and especially extreme right-wing beliefs, and that this non-linear relation may be strengthened by, but is not reducible to, deprivation of political control.

The research results of a pan-European project (the author was part of), that included also two Arab countries, indicate that the approach journalists manifest toward issues of ethics, responsibility and accountability depend on their national backgrounds. The article proposes the introduction of another factor in the discussion about responsibility, following Max Weber’s line: the religious tradition. The discussion of research results will be based on the sociology of work and religion and on previous results of other cross-national analyses of religion and work attitudes. The need to be accountable and responsible, the approach to guilt, the acceptance of regulatory and normative institutional pressures and the possibility of negotiation with different pressure factors may be better explain by general religious context, traditional understanding of work and leisure and traditional understanding of guilt and absolution. These all are rooted in a national religious context, even if the country is a laic one.

Starting from the findings a Romanian research group gathered during the project “Models of mass-media consumption in the Romanian rural world: traditional identities, European identities” of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, this article identifies some risk factors in the conceptual design of an audiovisual programme for the rural world. These factors are: (1) differences in the definitions of the public - in our case, the Romanian peasant - as they are held by the journalist, the programme editor, the sources and by the public itself; (2) a quasi-general lack of vision about the future of the rural world, based on a lack of information; and (3) deficiency in applying journalistic information gathering techniques and text writing rules. The conclusions are based on media product analysis of business journalism programmes broadcast by the Romanian public broadcasting services for rural audiences and on questionnaire-based and in-depth interviewing with potential members of the public.

This article presents key results of a comparative journalists’ survey on media accountability, for which 1762 journalists in 14 countries had been interrogated online. The article explores how European journalists perceive the impact of old versus new media accountability instruments on professional journalistic standards – established instruments like press councils, ethics codes, ombudsmen and media criticism, but also more recent online instruments like newsroom blogs and criticism via social media. Thus, the study also adds empirical data to the current debate about the future of media self-regulation in Europe, ignited by the Leveson Inquiry in the United Kingdom as well as the European Commission’s High-Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism.