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This article presents an attempt to understand the relationship between digital populism and post-truth politics. At first, we will try to understand the fuzzy semantic category of populism. Next, we examine the growth of right-wing populism in Europe and its main characteristics. Finally, we analyze how the current model of networked communication, particularly direct communication, and the anatomy of digital social networks, become a fertile field for the dissemination of populist rhetoric, articulating the concept with the modern mechanisms of disinformation and falsification of reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author critically examines the evolution of open access libraries from the TULIP project (1991) to more recent developments. At the same time, he emphasises the role of libraries as key agents of national book policies through Public Lending Rights. After having shown the difference between the scholarly communication and the book chains, both in printed and digital form, the author points to the position that libraries hold on the distribution segment of the chains and how they are unable to turn power relations among actors to their own advantage. If content is king, organisations distributing content are normally king-makers, as the example of STM publishers clearly shows. Nevertheless, fragmentation and the assumption that what is good for libraries is also good for users do not allow libraries to understand the needs of the different stakeholders present in the value chain and provide appropriate services to them. This aspect is emphasised further in the book trade, where libraries have been hesitant in realising the economic foundation of copyright regulations which consists of trading off "the costs of limiting access to a work against the benefits of providing incentives to create the work in the first place" (Landes & Posner). After having examined library copyright strategies both in the book trade and in scholarly communication with a thorough discussion on (e-)lending and controlled digital lending, the author claims that copyright regulations are not written in the sky but on a solid foundation of economic forces which shape the book and information chains. Libraries' strategies should aim to reinforce their relevance in the distribution segment and demonstrate their ability to provide services to all actors in the value chain. This role should also impact on the normalisation of library-publisher relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on several aspects of social media campaigning by political parties using platforms like Facebook in Europe. It mentions that the traditional media forms of television and newspapers remain the main priorities during election campaigns, digital communications and social media. It also mentions that through social networking sites it now becomes possible for political parties to engage in new forms of community building.

Scientists and health communication professionals expressed frustration over the relationship between misinformation circulating on the Internet and global public perceptions of and responses to the Ebola epidemic originating in West Africa. Using the big data platform Media Cloud, we analyzed all English-language stories about keyword “Ebola” published from 1 July 2014 to 17 November 2014 from the media sets U.S. Mainstream Media, U.S. Regional Media, U.S. Political Blogs, U.S. Popular Blogs, Europe Media Monitor, and Global Voices to understand how social network theory and models of the networked global public may have contributed to health communication efforts. 109,400 stories met our inclusion criteria. The CDC and WHO were the two media sources with the most inlinks (hyperlinks directed to their sites). Twitter was fourth Significantly more public engagement on social media globally was directed toward stories about risks of U.S. domestic Ebola infections than toward stories focused on Ebola infections in West Africa or on science-based information. Corresponding public sentiments about Ebola were reflected in the policy responses of the international community, including violations of the International Health Regulations and the treatment of potentially exposed individuals. The digitally networked global public may have influenced the discourse, sentiment, and response to the Ebola epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Ethical problems and resources addressed in a survey among 2324 PR managers. • PR practitioners face more moral challenges in their daily work than 8 years ago. • Concerns regarding bots, big data, social media influencers and sponsored content. • Personal values and beliefs most important resource for dealing with moral issues. Digital communication tools and practices improve the spread and impact of organisational messages. Quite often, however, they also pose moral problems. This article examines how often public relations practitioners encounter moral issues in their day-to-day work, how they assess digital communication tools and practices in terms of ethics, and the resources on which they rely to tackle moral challenges. Four research questions were addressed in an online survey among 2,324 practitioners who work in PR departments of organisations or in PR agencies across Europe. Results show that PR practitioners face more moral challenges in their daily work than they have faced in the past. Regarding digital communication tools and practices, they report moral concerns especially related to using bots, exploiting personal data for big-data analyses, paying social media influencers, and using sponsored content. Personal values and beliefs are the most important resource for dealing with moral issues—whether because only a minority of practitioners has participated in any formal ethics training within the past three years, or because existing ethical guidelines are outdated. Results call for the development of ethical guidelines that can provide explicit advice in the area of digital communication. Furthermore, structured training programs and ethics courses in graduate programs are needed to enhance practitioners' ethical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There were no doubts about the success of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in the 90's. DAB seemed to be the obvious choice to replace the analogue broadcast in Europe. However, and despite some successful cases, DAB has failed as a global radio standard. A multi-platform environment that includes analogue broadcasting is the most consensual scenario for the near future. This article focuses on one of the most noticeable examples of the DAB failure: Portugal. The article analyses the strategy shift in the Portuguese public radio and explains why the internet has become the obvious choice for expansion. Moreover, the Portuguese example illustrates the most relevant trends that are shaping the future of radio in Europe: COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere), multi-platform delivery, and the resilience of analogic. This study also analyses some specific challenges that disturb the public radio in Europe, stressing the need to promote adequate national regulation that legitimize its online expansion, namely introducing public value tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet has revolutionized the media and journalism since 1995. In in the last years, thanks to the popularization of new technologies, there has been a substantial change in the relationship of readers / users with the media. They have changed their traditional passive role to a protagonist attitude peer to peer. These transformations have been considered by the planners the education of journalists, that she lives important changes in the Iberian field, due to the new framework that regulates the adaptation of Spanish higher education to the European [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called TV white spaces (TVWS) are locally underutilized portions of the terrestrial TV bands and occur as a by-product of the digital switchover taking place in most countries across the globe. Thanks to the very good characteristics of the TV bands in terrestrial radio communications, the exploitation of TVWS for local- or regional-area wireless license-exempt networking, under a carefully established regulatory framework, is a very attractive prospect. This article presents a generic methodology for determining the actual capacity of white spaces using a geolocation-based approach, that is, dynamic assignment of radio resources to TVWS networks according to their geographical location. This methodology is applied in a case study investigating a sample area in southeastern Europe and unveils a significant amount of access capacity that can be unleashed via TVWS exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Digital information and communication technologies feature prominently in programmes to promote social inclusion and to implement extensive reform in public service provision across Europe. The transition to an all-digital communications environment and the digital ‘switchover’ of public services bring to the fore a need to rethink access as a goal of public policy. This article probes patterns of internet diffusion among disabled people using capabilities framework and resource-based models of access. The analysis highlights the multi-dimensional character of media access capability as the space to evaluate policies for social inclusion; the relational character of disability as a phenomenon of the interface between personal circumstances and structural disadvantage; a capability failure resulting from a gap in policy commitment to promote universal access for disabled people and other excluded groups; and a requirement for policies sensitive to the need for additional resources to equalize the media access capabilities of these individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Digital-video-broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) systems affected by in-channel interference are dealt with here. Attention is mainly paid to the experimental assessment of the video quality perceived by the end user when only in-channel interference degrades the transmission path. To this aim, a number of experiments are conducted through a proper testbed, which enlists a flexible DVB-T broadcasting platform. To confer reliability and generality to the research activity, different configurations of the transmission platform parameters are arranged; moreover, common types of interference are taken into account. Due to a proper cross-layer measurement approach, valuable relations involving values that physical and modulation quantities and application-level metrics assume at the same time are deduced. The ultimate goal is to derive helpful information and hints for designers and technicians that are to be applied to efficiently optimize the performance of a DVB-T system whenever in-channel interference is of major concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs in Europe. The French culture is faced by new technologies, digital television and piracy. A conference regarding women at work will be held at Aston University in Birmingham, England on May 9, 2009. The National Modern Language Association will also held a conference at Boston University in Massachusetts from February 26 to March 1, 2009.

In common with most media and consumer technologies, radio is migrating from analogue to digital operation. Europe was the first region of the world to develop a digital replacement for traditional analogue broadcast radio. The Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) project began in 1987 and the first domestic DAB broadcasts began in 1995. However, DAB has made less progress than originally anticipated: some countries are at a relatively advanced level of development while others have not begun significant DAB services. This article examines the development of the DAB service in four European countries, illustrating the variability in modes of development. The different digital policies adopted by each country are key factors in these developments and we show how the existing state of analogue radio and the limitations of the technical system have shaped these policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress towards realizing the full potential of 'e-government' - using digital technologies to improve public services and government-citizen engagements - has been slower and less effective than the technologies' take-up in spheres such as e-commerce. Evidence from across Europe reported here, including an online survey and case studies, indicates a significant reason has been an overly narrow focus on substituting electronic for traditional services. Theoretical and empirical perspectives on barriers to e-government identified (e.g. poor coordination; workplace and organizational inflexibility) suggest greater attention should be given to supporting organization innovations to achieve maximum benefits from networking in the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of digital television in Greece is in its infancy. In effect, there is no digital cable TV, while the public broadcaster, ERT, has only recently started digital transmissions on the terrestrial frequencies. On the contrary, digital satellite television has presented some development, but this is due to the only pay-TV operator in Greece, Nova - after a wounded digital war with an early competitor, Alpha Digital. However, total pay-TV penetration, both analogue and digital, is less than nine per cent of TV households, one of the lowest pay-TV penetration rates in Europe. This paper will try to discuss the development of digital television in Greece. It will trace the players, the economics and the politics associated with this new television medium, and it will argue that the domestic market, due to its size and peculiarities, is difficult to create the needed economies of scale of the development of digital television. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of the relationship between trust in institutions and attitudes to gene technology in general, and GM food and stem cell research in particular. The role of so-called active trust is emphasised, meaning that trust is neither conceived as a trait nor a one-dimensional concept. The study uses data from a Eurobarometer survey of gene technology in Europe, conducted in 2002. People's attitudes in five European counties, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and United Kingdom are compared, and the significance of trust in institutions in these countries is investigated. The results show that trust in institutions has an impact on attitudes to gene technology. Trust in experts, stakeholders and official bodies are associated with positive attitudes to GM food and stem cell research, whereas trust in Non-Governmental Organisations is associated with negative perceptions of these technologies. This confirms the significant role of active trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the political, economic, technological and human aspects of the digital switchover in Europe and explores various policies for managing the process. The article first examines the advantages and drawbacks of digital switchover, and identifies a number of challenges and policy dilemmas of making switchover an achievable objective. It goes on to look at digital television adoption across Europe and assesses the effectiveness of free-to-air digital television to accelerate take-up. Finally, the article examines EU initiatives as well as national plans in digital switchover and proposes various measures for encouraging the take-up of digital services and therefore bringing forward the likely idea of analogue switch-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes a power line communications system for the last mile application in European power line networks. Network architecture and system components; Security and privacy; Range and coverage; Intercell interference; Coupling and installation concepts; Example of field deployment.

It is becoming clear that as digital television is rolled out across Europe, it is now in a "shake-out" phase where some institutional actors fail and others consolidate their activities. Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), hailed a few years ago as the platform most likely to succeed because of its universal reach and its low cost to both signal distributors and viewers, is now suffering severe reversals in many parts of Europe. This paper explores the reasons for this in one part of Europe, where DTT didn't even get to the point of being launched, despite the fact that intense planning took place over several years, involving both the public service broadcaster RTE and the Government. Political inertia, long delays and the collapse of global investor confidence in new media combined to freeze out the development of DTT and open the way for global operators to launch both cable and satellite platforms and seize new opportunities in a wide-open Irish market. The lesson for other parts of Europe is how easily democratic control of a major new communication technology can slip away, despite the best intentions of planners at the highest level, and how global forces, responding only to market imperatives, slip in to fill the void when national planning collapses. A case study approach demonstrates the detail of how the efficacy of national sovereignty in communication policy is eroded in an environment that is increasingly globalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of digital television (DTV) has encountered many problems in Europe. The recent collapse of terrestrial digital channels in Spain and the U.K., financial problems of even major satellite players, and slow or stagnated user interest in most European countries demonstrate only one part of the difficulties. The combination of technological determinism, market optimism and inconsistent "light touch" regulation in the EU has accelerated the early development of digital television in Europe, but it has not been able to guarantee sound development in the long run. One of the major problems has been the standardisation. Industry led standardisation successfully developed the common digital transmission standards but the implementation of common "middleware" standards needed for interactive services and pay-TV access has not succeeded. Different standards are further segmenting European digital television markets. The development of European digital television is dominated by a few satellite broadcasters whose proprietary standards are preventing viewers from accessing a full range of digital channels with one device, thus causing unnecessary costs and delays both in the use and production of interactive DTV services. At the same time there is a constant threat of media concentration and competition problems. This article deals with past failures and future challenges and dilemmas in the European regulation of digital television development. Along with problems in standardisation, it discusses other policy dilemmas connected to DTV, such as interactive advertising, the "Listed Events" policy and the remit of public regulation in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the importance of the shift in use from analog to digital transmissions systems for radio and television signals in Europe. Historical background on wireless radio technology; Advantage of Direct To Home in terms of its operational environment; Relationship between Conditional Access Modules and specific geographical markets.

Abstract: The European Communication Monitor (ECM) 2010 showed that digital communication and social media have grown in importance in the media mix of European organizations. Both new media types are positively correlated to the perceived impact of public relations (PR) in the organization. Specifically social networks and online videos are considered the most important social media tools. Also European practitioners expect that the content of communication will become more important as and when the use of social media further increases. The consequence that everyone within the organization is able to spread information is perceived as the most problematic aspect of social media. A potential problem is that only about one third of the European organizations have implemented social media policies with communication consultancies leading the way. Communication consultants consider social media significantly more important than practitioners working in organizations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The fabric of modern computer-driven science is composed of digital infrastructures and communication tools connecting individual scientists with their respective networks and communities. This enables networks of digital commons, which are intermeshed yet exist on varying levels of enabling technology. The services and infrastructure generated by underlying commons rooted in technologies (e.g. IT-network-infrastructure and data-repositories) are consumed by higher level commons which focus on specific scientific fields and applications, like scientific domains or software environments. The latter are often unaware and oblivious of the former, and also falsely assume that their working conditions are universally available globally. This is not the case, as the deeper commons have not achieved globally uniform coverage yet. For example; GÉANT is a community of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) providing a telecommunications commons across Europe, with international connectivity around the world. Its mission is to boost science globally. To do that GÉANT helps other world regions to establish National and Regional research and education networks, by providing advice, guidance, and expertise. This global telecommunications commons, solely for the use of and designed specifically for the unique demands of research and education, is largely transparent to the average researcher. Based on these fundamental telecommunication commons, higher level commons like eduroam and eduGAIN are provided to foster the scientific discussion process. However, without these infrastructure commons the latest research in geoinformatics and remote sensing would be limited to those with the largest budgets, who can afford to transport huge datasets. That being said, the global NREN commons does not interconnect every country, there are still nations which do not yet have an NREN. This submission provides an integrated overview of the current state of dependencies among multi-level scientific commons, their current global distribution/availability and the remaining challenges towards an evenly distributed global digital research environment. For this the commons-related terminologies and patterns (Ostrom-principles) which were developed by economic research about digital and non-digital commons are applied to a reference case connecting the European research network commons, infrastructure commons like digital libraries and repositories, and scientific societies and software communities as a fabric of Open Science in geospatial. It is hypothesised; As NREN commons continue to grow and don't yet cover all nations, those "missing" NRENs stand for environmental/geospatial measurements and data which are still unknown, as well as the missing human potential to address new scientific questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on global broadband communications networks. It discusses that various fiber to the premises/fiber to the home passive optical network installations in the Pyrenees region of Europe, Denmark, and the U.S. is presented by Wave7 Optics. Passive optical networks hold great promise for providing high speed voice, video services, and data with virtually unlimited bandwidth. It also discusses that the WDM metropolitan area network, optical packet switching efficiently supports a wide range of Internet-based applications.

Discusses the deployment of digital terrestrial television (DTT) in Europe. Advantages of DTT; Differences between digital and analog television transmission; DTT deployment and testing activities of European countries.

The article offers reason for corporations to invest in Macedonia in Europe. Topcis discussed include low sale price of state-owned construction land for industrial and production facilities and less construction costs, Macedonia becoming a European service and distribution hub, infrastructure such as road and railway with small area of the country, and modern digital communications networks.

The article discusses Uruguay's decision to adopt the European DVB-T standard for television service. The country decided upon using the standard after consulting with various social and business sectors that formed a National Commission for Digital Television which monitored the digitalization process. According the the Uruguayan sub-secretary for industry, the move will allow the country to proceed with other opportunities for technological advancement, including the production of software and other applications.

Focuses on the penetration of high-definition television (HDTV) in the market in Europe. Disagreement on basis of interlaced and progressive scanning; Importance of balance between increased resolution and the data rate nedded to deliver images; Common image format for the majority of HD production.

Cites a data released by broadband monitoring firm Point Topic Ltd. which has confirmed the growth of digital subscriber line (DSL) connections sale in the European Union region. Figure on the total number of subscribers for the region; Edge of DSL over its main competing technology, cable modem; Number of fixed-access lines for the broadband technology.

Focuses on the increasing acceptance of digital terrestrial television (DTT) projects in Europe. British Broadcasting Corp. and Crown Castle Corp.'s launch of Freeview DTT platform; Channels available at the Top Up TV service in Great Britain; Launch of content-rich services in Germany.

The article highlights that the number of people using mobile phones based on the Global system for mobile communication (GSM) standard has hit a new record: one billion, or nearly one in six of the world's population. Initially created to provide cellular roaming functionality throughout Europe, the specification has now been adopted by more than 200 countries and territories. This accounts for 73% of the world's total digital wireless market, which in 2003 grew by over 17% to reach 1.35 billion subscribers, according to marker researcher IDATE. Today, there are more GSM mobile phones in use than the combined number of PCs and TV sets.