Around the Bloc: Russian Orthodox Church Goes High-Tech to Reach Believers
In addition to usual messaging features, a new app will fulfill needs for “interaction and continuous contact between parishioners and the Church."
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In addition to usual messaging features, a new app will fulfill needs for “interaction and continuous contact between parishioners and the Church."
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In the latest move in a series of regulations on language and customs, Tajik authorities order journalists to use simpler language.
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Parents’ objections to photo of a mentally handicapped first-grader allegedly results in photo album recall.
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The author approaches the institution of local government as a factor that supports the development of culture, and pays particular attention to the need to support regional periodicals. The issue under analysis is discussed within the framework of the cultural role of local government. Significant reasons for the advantageous involvement of local government in the development of a region’s culture, both individual and social, are discussed. The significant role of regional periodicals in shaping regional identity and advancing local governance is also discussed. Consequently, regional periodicals are defined as a special kind of public good which should enjoy the protection and support of local government.
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The author raises an interesting subject, hitherto unexplored comprehensively in American and Polish media studies, namely, the problem of topics of investigative journalism and journalistic intervention at the level of local newspaper publishers. In local media, just as in national media, disclosure of corruption and misconduct of local government happens quite rarely. Additionally, the checking activity – as the watchdog function of the press – is present in the Polish reality only in some local commercial media which are independent from local government. The author discusses the impact of the media’s checking function for the selection of topics by local investigative journalists and the nature of the activities of local political and business decision-makers limiting the subjects addressed by investigative reporters. A comparative analysis relates the problems of the functioning of local government and local communities which are aired in articles published by investigative journalists and journalistic intervention. For the comparison, articles recognised by the jury of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism 1926–2015 and texts submitted and recognised in the “Local Press” competition 2012–2013 organised by the Association of Local Newspapers were used.
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It is an axiom to say that the language of the print media is a highly effective instrument of power, politics and propaganda. This paper illustrates the fact that language can be ‘powerful’ in terms of style and lexicon, and of the attitude to reality it expresses, which is primarily related to ideology. The authors stress the role of the Russian language in the totalitarian propaganda of the period concerned. The 1917 Revolution and civil war in Russia marked the period of the greatest conflicts and a turmoil that was accompanied by an intense ‘linguistic experience’ and changes to the ‘status’ of the language. In the years immediately following the Revolution the role of the official language, conveying the single official ideology was enormous and newspapers turned out to be an efficient instrument of propaganda. They provided the main channel of totalitarian ideology, efficiently influencing social consciousness. This paper is based on an analysis of texts published in three Kazakhstani newspapers: “Glos Semirechye” (1919), “Dzhetysuyskaya Pravda” (1923), “Turkiestan komunistytchna”, “True Semirechensk Region” (1920). It is demonstrated in the conclusions that the demagogic texts published there conveyed the ideology of a totalitarian system. One of the main messages conveyed in these texts concerned the image of a new world shaped by such factors as the Revolution, contradictions between different social classes, external and internal threats, as well as threatening the victory of reactionary forces. This paper attempts to identify and characterise the manifestations of ideology propagated at the time of the proletarian revolution.
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In recent years, the phenomenon of framing has repeatedly drawn the attention of numerous scholars who work covers the fields of both media and political sciences. The media presentation of different problems can influence their social reception. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the image of Belarus created by the journalists of the most popular opinion-forming weeklies in Poland. The author’s goal is to examine whether Belarus is portrayed on the basis of clichés, such as President Alexander Lukashenka’s non-democratic rule, violations of human rights and the apathy of Belarusian society. Emphasising negative information and a unidimensional description may potentially influence Polish public opinion. Therefore, it is worth identifying the recurrent interpretational framework which might contribute to better understanding the phenomenon of framing events in the mass media.
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Media, as one of the most important tool of creation public opinion, sustain the social divisions andstereotypes. Media coverage of women’s sports on television may be an example of this practices.This article is an attempt to show this sexual division and his scale. Analysis concerning athletesand sports journalists is based on sports news and other research reports.
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The aim of an article is a characteristic of a concept “the media image of the world” and analysis of its components. The first part of this text explains an idea of “the media image of the world”. Furthermore, the ways of making it are shortly characterized chronologically. The first of them is the usage of topos. The terms of the media discourse and the way they are showed are shared. The next part of that article presents the usage of 3 levels of persuasion: etos, patos and logos. Another issue presented is a problem of manipulation in media image of the world. What is more, the article introduces relations between media and linguistic image of the world. In that context some components which create the linguistic image of the world are presented, which are the metaphors, phrasemes and tags.
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Reporters Without Borders warns of increasing oligarch control over the media and the effect that is having on journalism in Eastern Europe and beyond.
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In order to have better understanding of the phenomenon of giftedness, better understanding of the process of identifying gifted students, in this article we attempted to explain and define these terms and relate them to motivation and academic optimism. The article is based upon the process of identifying intellectually gifted students, the ways in which they improve the teaching process, and the impact of this improvement on motivation and academic optimism of other students in the class, focusing upon the gifted students, with the aim to achieve better results in teaching process. The procedure of identification was carried out in accordance with contemporary theories about gifted students with the aim to select a group of students that can be considered intellectually gifted, so that the group can be observed through the process of education during one semester, in order to evaluate how the group responds to increased activities in the class and whether it enhances their motivation and academic optimism. The same way the group of not gifted students was observed in order to compare and analyze the impact of this change upon both the groups.
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UK government denies any role in NatWest’s unexplained move to close the Kremlin’s English-language mouthpiece.
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The article analyses the 19th-century illustrations of prayer-books intended for the Way of the Cross of 14 Stations. It deals with their origin and authors, discusses the layout principles of such books, the iconography of the images and their artistic form. Some archive data have been found,which indicate that in the 2nd half of the 18th century the Bernardines began spreading the devotion to the Way of the Cross in Lithuania and circulating the prayer-books for the Stations of the Cross. From the end of the 18th to the 1st quarter of the 19th century, special prayer-booksfor the Calvaries of Papilys (did not survive), Tytuvėnai, Skapiškis were printed. A Lithuanian prayer-book (published in 1797) has survived; it was intended for the Way of the Cross consisting of 14 Stations and was republished numerous times. In the middle of the 19th century, when the devotion to the Way of the Cross anchored in parish churches, publications of this nature became more abundant. At that time, the first illustrations appeared in these books; in the beginning they presented various images of the Way of the Sorrows of Christ, and later special sets of illustrations of the 14 Stations were brought from France. The illustrations of the Way of the Cross from Laurent de Berny, Deberny printing house complement the relations between French printing houses and Jósef Zawadski, which are very important to the history of graphic arts.The article investigates the impact of the illustrations on the iconography of the painted cycles of the Way of the Cross. In Lithuania, the engravings of the Way of the Cross by the famous Italian graphic artist P. L. Bombelli were known; they were used to illustrate the prayer-book by St Leonard of Port Maurice, published in Rome in 1904. After this prototype, the cycles of the Passion of Christ of Jonava (by Sidzinewski) and Žemaičių Kalvarija (by J. Szyrma) churches and other surviving paintings were created. The works of this iconography (in particular, the cycle of 14 Stations in the Jonava church) are important not only for the history of iconography and arts, but also for the history of piety as they reveal the links with the European Catholic culture.Unsophisticated engravings by Laurent de Berny, which spread via prayer-books, were popular examples for painters, especially in the 8th decade of the 19th century. Most of the Way of the Cross paintings created after those engravings survived in the Samogitia region (Kuliai, Nemakščiai,Kartena and other churches), some remained in the Užnemunė region (Kaimelis church) and inthe territory of present-day Belarus (Daniushevo church).
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Companies, political parties and media use statistics to refine their communications strategy. But, are the statistical analyses not a pharmakon for the communication, that his at the same time a tool to communicate better and an obstacle to the communication? Indeed, the statistics are based on anthropological and epistemological’s assumptions which are incompatible with the understanding of the communication: fixism, positivism, quantification, simplification, determinism, predictability. In spite of these presuppositions, isn’t it possible to find an approach of the statistics applied to the communication?
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The paper deals with the monograph of T. Kačerauskas “Creative Society” characterized by an opposition of the terms and phenomena. The monograph initiates a scientific discussion, stimulates the analysis on different themes. According to the author, the benefits of the monograph are as follows: a possibility to use it in studies of creative industries that are more and more popular, a perspective to stimulate scientific discussion. An exceptional feature of the monograph is postmodern talking that harmonizes a scientific argumentation and a scientific essay. The author criticizes an insufficient focus on the influence of cinematograph, radio, television and music industry, as well as treating radio and TV as stagnant media. The author discusses a sceptical approach of T. Kačerauskas towards audio and visual media. The author develops the theme of playing at totalitarianism in TV.
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The paper seeks to trace the Catholic Church’s relationship to the Czechoslovak State in the period after the end of the Second World War, from 1945 to February 1948, when the Communist Party offcially seized all political power in the state. The Catholic religious and cultural periodicals Nová práca and Verbum as well as the archival resources that have been preserved serve as historical documentation in this respect. Analysis of the documents shows that already in 1945–1948 the Constitution and democratic laws were not being observed in Czechoslovakia. This period can be considered a pre-totalitarian phase during which the Communist Party prepared systematically for the seizure of power.After World War II, Czechoslovakia was included in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. As a result, the Czechoslovak Communist Party seized power ‘over the branch’. As early as in the ‘people’s democratic’ period, the Communist Party tried to weaken the influence of the Church (as well as that of other institutions based on the democratic spirit) by state measures which were by their nature undemocratic, totalitarian. They can be explained only as the frst steps in the enforcement of ideological measures hostile to religion (laicization of church schools, banning the activities of Catholic associations, surveillance of the activities of religious persons), because it was not a matter of political, but of religious, educational, charitable institutions which are by their pastoral character proper to the nature of the Catholic Church. The Church’s protest against such control was interpreted as a manifestation of political, reactionary Catholicism. Despite the declaration of institutional rights, already in 1945–1948 social reality gave proof of undemocratic practice, in which some institutional rights could not be asserted and were not enforceable. This is also indicated by the fact that despite the still-functioning democratic mechanisms (general elections), political power gradually became concentrated, also by undemocratic means, in the hands of a single political authority, the Communist Party, which is one of the frst signs of totalitarian rule. In the three years, 1945 to 1948, Catholic writers and editors were allowed to write, publish and express their views. Already in this period, however, the freedom of speech was constantly hampered and restricted by directives from the Ministry of Information. Thus, this political organ created in the editors of printed media an atmosphere of fear and exerted pressure on them not to fulfl their social-critical function. This became forceful towards the editorship of Nová práca in the last period of its publication (1947–1948). The editors opted for a guarded position, though not at the price of disrespect for the offcial standpoint of the Catholic Church. They saw it as a strategy the objective of which was to preserve this printed platform for Catholic intellectuals. This eventually proved to be illusory in March 1948.A literary-historical or a wider cultural investigation aimed at Nová práca, Verbum and the publishing houses of the St. Adalbert’s Society and Verbum sheds light on the Catholic Church in its dashing post-war strength. Despite the Communist Party’s intention, within the three years, 1945 to 1948, it was not able to gain ideological control over either St. Adalbert’s Society or the magazine Nová práca, and certainly not over the publishing-house and magazine Verbum. The editorial board of Nová práca certainly took a much more guarded attitude in its relationship to state power than the editors of Verbum. The two parallel Catholic cultural magazines are an important example of the multi-voice pluralism within the postwar Catholic Church. The cultural contribution of the Catholic magazines Nová práca and Verbum is shown in the sphere of social as well as of cultural journalism. The ability of the editors to reflect on the burning issues of the time and to react to them is also shown in the area of practical Christian spirituality. The aims of the editorial boards of both periodicals differed to some extent: Nová práca was primarily a religious magazine with strong social objectives. Against the left-wing press organs it offered an alternative view of contemporary social and communal reality: it reflected the contemporary observations of social sciences (e.g. sociology) and at the same time referred to papal encyclicals that were critical towards communism and liberalism. As the St. Adalbert’s Society’s review, in its view of literature Nová práca accepted religious utilitarianism, as reflected in its literary reviews and contributions. Despite this, its young contributors included a number of talented writers who had potential (and ambition) to write literature of artistic value. On the other hand, Verbum was primarily a cultural magazine. The intention of its editors was to adapt the magazine to the world cultural and literary scene as a review based on Christian values. In principle, they refused religious utilitarianism in literature: their aim was to bring spiritual values into literature characterized by artistic creativity; the editors of Verbum were realizing that if they wanted to attract readers they had to convince them of their quality. The historical signifcance of Verbum also consisted in its explicitly socio-critical function, which, in view of the authoritative instructions from the Commission for Information, was a proof of civic courage.The signifcance of the publishing houses (St. Adalbert’s Society, Verbum) is equally indicative in the sphere of book culture. The Verbum Press enriched the literary scene with new authors and selections in translation, but also with a range of books with spiritual purpose that reacted to the theological trends in contemporary Europe (e.g. the liturgical movement). Despite its more conservative orientation, St. Adalbert’s Society also succeeded in publishing a range of worthwhile novels, especially translated ones. These publishing houses and the two magazines strove to promote the orientation within the Catholic Church in Slovakia which fnally would open out into the Second Vatican Council.
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This paper is an attempt to describe the functioning of the term ‘state’ (Polish: ‘państwo’) in the European context in Polish media discourse. The analysis is based on the linguistic data excerpted from Polish weekly news magazines „Polityka” and „Wprost”. The results of the analysis reveal that Poland is described either as a European state or as a country aiming to be European.
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This paper analyzes some results of a survey for university professors and university management, held by the international research team within the European IRNet Project: International Research Network for study and development of new tools and methods for advanced pedagogical science in the field of ICT instruments, e-learning, and intercultural competences. The survey researched motivation and aims of professors from the Dniprodzerzhinsk State Technical University – official partner of the project. The article reveals professors’ beliefs and preferences about ICT-aided learning as well as it analyzes advantages, problems, and motives of the introduction of ICT in higher education teaching.
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The article dwells on the image of Russia as a bear in contemporary German media. The studies changes in portraying Russia and its representatives in 2000 – 2013 in comparison with 1990s.
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The focus of the article is on the image of the region reflected in the Novgorodian regional media field through conflict discourse. The article presents the results of media texts analysis: their linguistic peculiarities and the image of the author based on institutional and genre factors.
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