The purpose of this paper is to draw out the consequences of the communal character of learning approach promoted by a sociocultural framework. This approach has both descriptive-analytical and prescriptive-guiding power: it helps to analyze existing practices be they traditional, exclusive, or innovative but, what is, probably, even more important, it also helps to guide practitioners in the design of more inclusive educational practices. In the first part of the paper, we will provide a framework for analyzing the case of (...) a shift from a traditional institutionalized perspective that understands learning as an individual process located in the head of the learner to the institutionalization of learning as a communal process — a regime which helps avoid constructing children in terms of a deficit model, disability, and academic failure. In the second part of the paper, we will discuss how treating learning as a communal process can guide an educational practitioner to develop a new pedagogical regime of a learning community of social activists that leads to inclusive pedagogy and eliminate “zones of teacher-student disability. (shrink)

The main objective of this study is to propose, from a theoretical approach, an alternative model of the communication process that includes intentionality, interest, identification, and exchange as part of the internal process of decoding the message experienced by the receiver. The proposal includes the subdivision of the responses offered by the receiver into two possible categories: one simple, which can mean the programmed response to a specific code; and another complex, which can mean a change and/or (...) significant transformation in different aspects associated with the recipient. Through a qualitative methodology, with emphasis on documentary review, and inferential and deductive reasoning, the proposed theoretical model has been developed and explained, highlighting the added value that it could offer to the understanding of communication. (shrink)

Joseph Morton Ransdell left a record of experimentation with the communicational process of philosophy from 1992 to his passing in 2010. This record includes the Arisbe website and the peirce-l e-forum and its archives, of which the earliest are not on the Internet, but may yet be recovered and made available. Philosophy’s communication process, and the possibility of creating and developing a telecommunity, as Ransdell called it, were among his chief theoretical and practical interests. Such interests were (...) focused in terms of the ideas of Charles S. Peirce, including fallibilism, pragmaticism, and semiotic, in particular the sign’s determination by the represented object, and iconicity in relation especially to.. (shrink)

The article deals with the examination of performance as a social event and a communicative process from the position of the constitutional meta-model of communication. Performance is viewed as a form of communication based on the horizontal relation of its participants because of the informational and symbolical exchange between the performers and audience and its transformative potential. Much attention is paid to the analysis of the transformative power of performance through the lens of notion of liminality. The (...) author draws a conclusion about the communicative nature of performance and fruitfulness of application of the research results to the analysis of performance communicative dimensions. Key words: performance, communication, transmission, ritual, participation, transformation, liminality, communitas. (shrink)

A closer look at the three areas of action in communication permits us to conclude that the discipline faces a serious crisis. First, an epistemological review shows a fragmented body of theories. Secondly, there is a plurality of separate traditions within academia. Third, the professional field is technology-centered and lacks expertise since there is little connection between theory and practice. Our goal is to analyze the three-fold state of the discipline and to propose a conciliatory model. The Interactive (...) class='Hi'>Communication Process is based on an interactive process in which a human subsystem, conditioned by his or her psychological and social and cultural state, interacts with another communicative subsystem to elaborate or process a message conveyed through some space in a certain time. (shrink)

The public communication of science and technology has become increasingly important over the last several decades. However, understanding the audience that receives this information remains the weak link in the science communication process. This essay provides a brief review of some of the issues involved, discusses results from an audience-based study, and suggests some strategies that both scientists and journalists can use to modify media coverage in ways that can help audiences better understand major public issues that (...) involve science and technology. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present some of the results of empirical research on the communication process at a trial conducted in Polish courts. These results will concern the participation of non-professional participants of a trial and the ways in which they deal with the communication process in the courtroom. The article presents the results of the analysis of the research material conducted in accordance with the detailed research questions and analytical categories. The analysis (...) has especially shown that: (1) the non-professional participants used some legal terminology, but the statements without legal terminology were also communicatively effective; (2) the level of activity of non-professional participants related to participation at the trial varied depending on what the activity concerned; the activity in asking questions to the presiding judges regarding legal issues and the course of the court proceedings appeared to be significant; (3) the non-professional participants’ had a real and significant problem with asking questions during the examination (the proper realization of this element of the trial); (4) the statements of the non-professional participants of a trial were very protective; they used many different “linguistic means of protection” (e.g., acts of supposition or acts of doubt) which are connected with the obligation to tell the truth, the prohibition of concealing the truth and giving false testimony during examination; (5) the non-professional participants of a trial reach for adequate argumentative acts, which are suitable for influencing the perception of specific events or persons, and they strengthen their statements by using appropriate linguistic means of persuasion. (shrink)

Recalling autobiographical memories with others can influence the quality of recall, but little is known about how features of the group influence memory outcomes. In two studies, we examined how the products and processes of autobiographical recall depend on individual vs. collaborative remembering and the relationship between group members. In both studies, dyads of strangers, friends, and siblings recalled autobiographical events individually (elicitation), then either collaboratively or individually (recall). Study 1 involved typing memory narratives; Study 2 involved recalling aloud. We (...) examined shifts in vividness, emotionality, and pronoun use within memory narratives produced by different relationship types. In Study 2, we also coded collaborative dyads’ “collaborative processes” or communication processes. In Study 1, all relationships showed decreased positive emotion and I-pronouns and increased negative emotion within collaboratively-produced memory narratives. In Study 2, all relationships showed increased vividness, reduced emotionality and positive and negative emotion, and increased I- and we-pronouns within collaborativelyproduced memory narratives. However, strangers used collaborative processes differently from friends and siblings. Some collaborative processes were associated with memory qualities. Across studies, collaboration influenced memory quality more than did relationship type, but relationship type influenced dyads’ recall dynamics. These findings indicate the complexity of social influences on memory. (shrink)

The article presents social simulation from theoretical and philosophical perspectives as a prognostic tool for researching, analysing and anticipating communication and other processes in social environments. The first part discusses the phenomena of ontological and epistemological simulation, treating social simulation processes as epistemological ones. The second part analyses the attitude of the French sociologist and media philosopher Jean Baudrillard towards social simulation, which he himself treats as ontological one. The counterarguments to introduce Baudrillard’s unidentified distinction between ontological and epistemological (...) simulation processes are presented. The third part deals with the principles of the functioning of social simulations as a prognostic tool and provides analytical possibilities for various social environments, communication and other processes. At the end of the article, it is concluded that Baudrillard’s concept of ontological simulation, which annihilates classical Western metaphysics, erroneously reduces the difference between ontos and epistēmē. (shrink)

New advances in genomics changed the research landscape significantly in the last few years. The power and significance of already existing tissue collections is enhanced by their growing size, and all over the world national projects aim to connect with each other at the international level, calling for integrated and common regulations in the transnational research field. The post genomics era faces problems that are partially different from those within the classical bioethical framework. The challenge is to find new ways (...) to deal with regulations in order to facilitate research without frustrating personal rights. Informed Consent has been the center of this wide debate. We propose a model for rethinking consent in an open-time/open-goal framework suitable to genomics research. Consensus becomes more than a single legal step and goes more in the direction of a participated governance mechanism, a circular open process of communication which the IC sheet signature is just one instance of. This approach provides a governance framework based on different levels of consensus and participation that already contains mechanisms to resolve conflicts between different instances and to protect both the interest of research and the rights of participants. (shrink)

Purpose – Does the same news item on three different online news platforms, namely: newspapers, blogs and video news, impact each of perceived source credibility, likeability, content believability and attitude toward a message, differently? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental approach conducted among university students is adopted. Findings – The psychometric properties of the instruments used are supported. Results showed that source credibility did not differ for the three platforms, indicating that respondents did not find (...) one platform less credible than another. However, differences were observed on each of content believability, likeability and attitude toward the message. Online newspapers scored highest in all of these. Blogs came second in both content believability and likeability, while video news came second in attitude toward a message. Research limitations/implications – A number of limitations are noted. In particular, generalisability of findings to all youths in the country and beyond must be done with extreme caution. Practical implications – The results suggest that the medium does change the message and online newspapers as a platform retain an advantage despite the arrival of alternative new media platforms, represented by blogs and video news. The latter emerges as the least effective indicating that respondents appear to prefer reading their news. Originality/value – The paper uses an experimental approach and robust measures to compare news platforms across a number of elements in the communication process among a strong user segment. (shrink)

A communication process can be described in terms of a sender transmitting information to a receiver. What happens if one of the two subject roles in this process is virtualised, i.e. substituted by a machine? Is it still appropriate to refer to this as an information transfer even if its source or target is missing? Can information originate from an unknown sender or be transmitted to a (completely) unknown receiver? Before examining these questions and answering them, one (...) has to clarify what is understood by information. As it turns out, different interpretations of this term lead to considerably different answers to the initially raised questions. We consider these questions particularly important since the continuing dissemination of so called information and virtualisation technologies changes the human communication processes fundamentally. These changes are part of the ongoing formation of an information society and may eventually lead to the formation of a new image of man. (shrink)

Using a national survey of US consumers, this study demonstrates the positive effects of corporate social responsibility communication factors on consumers’ CSR knowledge, trust, and perceptions of corporate reputation. The study also examines the role of a stakeholder-specific factor of consumer–company identification in the process of CSR communication. The findings suggest that the positive effects of CSR informativeness are enduring and independent of consumers’ identification levels with a company, whereas the positive consequences of the personal relevance, transparency, (...) and factual tone of CSR communication intensify as the identification levels increase. Although CSR communication in which a self-promotional tone is adopted has a negative relationship with consumer trust and corporate reputation, such negative effects are not evident among consumers with very high identification levels with a company. Such CSR communication in fact improves consumers’ CSR knowledge and, in turn, has a positive effect on corporate reputation. (shrink)

This chapter investigates the computational consequences of a broadly Gricean view of language use as intentional activity. In this view, dialogue rests on coordinated reasoning about communicative intentions. The speaker produces each utterance by formulating a suitable communicative intention. The hearer understands it by recognizing the communicative intention behind it. When this coordination is successful, interlocutors succeed in considering the same intentions— that is, the same representations of utterance meaning—as the dialogue proceeds. In this paper, I emphasize that these intentions (...) can be formalized; we can provide abstract but systematic representations that spell out what a speaker is trying to do with an utterance. Such representations describe utterances simultaneously as the product of our knowledge of grammar and as actions chosen for a reason. In particular, they must characterize the speaker’s utterance in grammatical terms, provide the links to the context that the grammar requires, and so arrive at a contribution that the speaker aims to achieve. Because I have implemented this formalism, we can regard it as a possible analysis of conversational processes at the level of computational theory. Nevertheless, this analysis leaves open what the nature of the biological computation involved in inference to intentions is, and what regularities in language use support this computation. (shrink)

Understanding community-level selection using Lewontin’s criteria requires both community-level inheritance and community-level heritability, and in the discipline of community and ecosystem genetics, these are often conflated. While there are existing studies that show the possibility of both, these studies impose community-level inheritance as a product of the experimental design. For this reason, these experiments provide only weak support for the existence of community-level selection in nature. By contrast, treating communities as interactors (in line with Hull’s replicator-interactor framework or Dawkins’s idea (...) of the “extended phenotype”) provides a more plausible and empirically supportable model for the role of ecological communities in the evolutionary process. (shrink)

Douglas Sturm, a major ethical thinker, here presents ten intriguing essays that lay the groundwork for a communitarian political theory. Drawing on the work of Alfred North Whitehead and Bernard E. Meland, Sturm brings the implications of process thought, especially its principle of internal relations, to bear on the interpretation and evaluation of our social and political life. He argues that American individualism, including its curious transmutations into the forms of corporativism, racism, and nationalism is a constraint that deprives (...) us of a deeper, more complex understanding of ourselves and a richer sense of the goodness of our lives. The essays contrast a communitarian political theory with alternative traditions of social thought, particularly those forms of individualism generated by Hobbes, Locke, and Bentham. Political realities of power, rights, and interests are not to be dismissed, according to Sturm, but they need to be cast within a concept of politics that sustains a community as a whole; thus public good and justice are defined as the central principles of public life. He isolates alternative theoretical perspectives and demonstrates how they deal with several current social and political dilemmas. Sturm applies the principles of the communitarian political theory to a broad range of contemporary concerns: the character and legitimacy of the modern business corporation; the idea of democratic capitalism; legal realism as the prevailing jurisprudence of the practicing lawyer; the scope and focus of bioethics as a discipline. In doing so, he affirms both the inescapability of public life in our existence and the radical character of the evil that it often creates. (shrink)

In the article is founded that sociolinguistic communication is an interaction of subjects in which basis are language and textual activity. Person`s existence and work are directly and absolutely connected with a main function of language – communicative. Sociolinguistic reality is directly connected with a process ofcommunication. Communication is today an essential part of our life and is very important. In the article sociolinguistic communication rates as a social phenomenon, as a basis of interaction of subjects (...) of educational area, as a complicated process of information transfer with help of certain signs and symbols connecting single parts of frames of society, also it`s a mechanism of power realization. (shrink)

This is the result of research financed by PROCIENCIA-CONCYTEC, whose objective is to analyze the rural communication forms in the processes of productive innovation and the positioning of the aguaymanto as a native product of the Peruvian Andes, to propose communication strategies in rural sectors of Arequipa, physalis peruviana is a fruit of Andean origin, whose properties and characteristics surpass other similar fruits; the method of analysis is qualitative-quantitative, of the correlational, transectional type, the exploration is carried out (...) in five rural districts of Arequipa, applying 125 surveys and 10 interviews. (shrink)

Millum and Bromwich’s excellent article provides both conceptual and practical rationale for reexamining the fundamentals of the informed consent process for research and clinical interventi...

FOSTER J, CHIANG F, HILLARD RC, HALL P and HEATH A. Nursing Inquiry 2010; 17: 309–316 Team process in community‐based participatory research on maternity care in the Dominican RepublicA cross‐cultural team consisting of US trained academic midwife researchers, Dominican nurses, and Dominican community leaders have partnered in this international nursing and midwifery community‐based participatory research (CBPR) project in the Dominican Republic to understand the community experience with publicly funded maternity services. The purpose of the study was to understand community (...) perceptions of maternity services. This article highlights the activities that the research team carried out during each phase of the research process, and how they established team identity, team trust, and team efficacy. This research has created a platform for new avenues for health providers and community to partner to improve maternal‐newborn care. Community‐based participatory research is one way forward to address the past and present inequities constitutive of global health disparities. (shrink)

When we ask modern questions about democracy and democratization, we have to clarify the meaning of these words. It has been 21 years since the Velvet Revolution and we still think that it had to do with democracy and the democratization of our Czechoslovak society in that time, as if the common use of the word "democratization" makes possible the expression or the vindicate one´s own opinion. There is a question whether the majority of our society was thinking this way. (...) In this context it would be very interesting to see the practical purposes of our Church society during the revolution, as hierarchic or as non-hierarchic. Also there are still the voices of some people that echo the unpreparedness of the Church for this modern world, especially when communicating with the faithful and the society. . (shrink)

This article explores the patient consent process in modern community pharmacy practice and discusses the related ethical dilemmas in this environment. The myth of appropriately informed consent, and irrefutable evidence as to a pharmacist’s intentions when advising a patient, are core issues for discussion. The objective is to clarify where such dilemmas may exist in the consent process and to ultimately form a framework against which ethical guidelines might facilitate resolution of the dilemma faced by the pharmacist who (...) is expected to simultaneously maintain legal and duty of care responsibilities in the patient consent process. (shrink)

Systematic sampling of communities gives rise to large contingency tables summing up possible changes in the assemblages' structure. Such tables are generally analysed by multivariate statistical methods, which are ill-suited for simultaneously analysing rare and common species (Field et al., 1982). In order to separately process species belonging to either of these categories, we propose a statistical method to select common species in a sequence of ecological surveys. It is based on a precise definition of rarity, and depends on (...) a rarity parameter. In this work, this parameter will be optimised so that the sub-table of common species captures the essential features of the complete table as well as possible. In this way we analysed the spatio-temporal evolution of macrobenthic communities from the Algiers harbour to study the pollution influence during a year. The examination of the communities' structuring was done through Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of the species proportions table. Environmental variables were simultaneously sampled. We show that the data structure can be explained by about 25% of the total number of present species. Two environmental gradients were brought to the fore inside the harbour, the first one representing pollution, and the second one representing hydrological instabilities. (shrink)

The human history relates to the history of communication, which has also been a co-driver of human development. Communication integrates the knowledge, organization and power of a society.Today, there is an increasing debate over the importance of politicians' mutual communication, communication with voters and the media, the role of public relations in politics, and communication with the civil society. Thus, political communication and the creative use of the media remain the essential component of any (...) individual involved in politics or even of a political group.In this study, political communication in North Macedonia is presented in the context of political efforts into the integration process in European Union (EU), by observing all the stages within the process so far. From the content and the issues addressed, it is clear that policymakers face the challenges of communication (as is the case in many countries aspiring the European integration).In this paper, the premises of genuinely political communication strategy are analyzed separately, assessing them in the context of the political communication theory. It will be shown that successful communication is an important tool for convincing citizens that EU provides a better quality of life and work. (shrink)

В статье определяется, что социолингвистическая коммуникация представляет собой взаимодействие субъектов, в основе которого лежат язык и текстовая деятельность. Существование и деятельность человека напрямую и непосредственно связаны с главной функцией языка –коммуникативной. Социолингвистическая реальность непосредственно связана с процессом коммуникации. Коммуникация занимает сегодня неотъемлемую часть нашей жизни и играет в ней немаловажную роль. В статье рассматривается социолингвистическая коммуникация каксоциальное явление, как основа взаимодействия субъектов образовательного пространства, как сложный процесс передачи информации при помощи определенных знаков и символов, соединяющий отдельные части социальных систем, а (...) также это механизм реализации власти. (shrink)

Pope Francis calls for a “synodal church”. Synodality is not just a way of participating in decisions, but a way of being in community. Today we face different difficulties for the synodal practice, arising from the Christian tradition itself and from the way we live under a radically individualistic economic system and little used to social and community ties. However, such articulation leads to a catastrophic social and climate crisis and favors fascist alternatives. Faced with this, an educational process (...) is needed for a new way of living together, in social friendship. Such learning, in the conception that derives from Pope Francis' documents, is based on the process of discernment that takes place in the community. It will only be possible to prepare a new world, with justice and peace, if at the same time we form different men and women. It is not a matter of a purely intellectual formation, in the transmission of truths, but in the modification of images of humanity and models of desire, today colonized by mercantile logic. Discernment as an educational process is constant, like a journey, and stems from the decision to incarnate oneself to reality, demanding a social place for all today's outcasts. (shrink)

Concepts of interaction theory play a central role in media research that deals with the relationship between media offerings and media reception. They cover the diverse activities of media users as well as the adaptation strategies utilized of mass communication. The first part of this article briefly describes where these broad and poorly defined concepts of interaction can be found in different areas of media research. One of the problems is deciding in which cases media communication can be (...) analyzed using interaction models. Another problem is the lack of differentiation between how people deal with media offerings and how media offerings refer to their users. The second part of the article develops a new perspective in media research, which allows the aspects mentioned above to be assigned to processes of media socialization on the one hand, or to the inclusion by mass communication on the other hand. On this basis new research projects can be designed that represent a necessary addition to the established analysis of media reception and media socialization. This research focuses on processes of inclusion as they can be observed in mass communications, mainly in television. This new component of a sociological media theory demonstrates how mass communication itself is able to create an image of its addressees and, in this way, adapt to an anonymous public. (shrink)

Source: Author: Olena Znanetska In the current article the problem of foreign communicative competence of higher school students has been considered. The notion, the main point and the components of higher school students` foreign competence have been analyzed. The scientific works under the problem have been investigated. ]]>.

With an aim to develop a public theology for an age of information media (or media theology), this article proposes a new God-concept: God is a communicative system sui generis that autopoietically processes meaning/information in the supratemporal realm via perfect divine media ad intra (Word/Spirit). For this task, Niklas Luhmann's systems theory is critically appropriated in dialogue with theology. First, my working postmetaphysical/epistemological stance is articulated as realistic operational constructivism and functionalism. Second, a series of arguments are advanced to substantiate (...) the thesis: (1) God is an observing system sui generis ; (2) self-referential communication is divine operation; (3) unsurpassable complexity is divine mystery; (4) supratemporal autopoiesis of meaning is divine processing; (5) agape is the symbolic medium of divine communication. Third, this communicative model of God is developed into a trinitarian theology, with a claim that this model offers a viable alternative beyond the standard (psychic, social, process) models. Finally, some implications of this model are explored for constructive theology (conceiving creation as divine mediatization) and for science-and-religion in terms of derivative models: (1) God as a living system sui generis and (2) God as a meaning system sui generis. (shrink)

In this article, we develop a concept of stakeholder dialogue in responsible innovation (RI) processes. The problem with most concepts of communication is that they rely on ideals of openness, alignment and harmony, even while these ideals are rarely realized in practice. Based on the work of Burke, Habermas, Deetz and Levinas, we develop a concept of stakeholder dialogue that is able to deal with fundamentally different interests and value frames of actors involved in RI processes. We distinguish four (...) main characteristics of stakeholder dialogue. Dialogical responsiveness (1) enhances self-criticism, (2) is characterized by the constitution and the destruction of the self or identity of the actors involved, (3) consists only in the actual enactment of the dialogue and (4) is primarily responsive to the grand challenges of our time. Based on our findings, we provide a novel conceptualization of the central notion of responsiveness in the RI literature. (shrink)

Despite the great expansion and many benefits of information and communication technologies in healthcare, the attitudes of Polish general practitioners to e-health have not been explored. The aim of this study was to determine the GPs’ perception of ICT use in healthcare and to identify barriers to the adoption of EMR in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Online and telephone surveys were conducted between April and May 2013. Responses from 103 GP practices, 43% of all practices in the region, were analysed. (...) The results showed that 67% of the respondents agreed that IT systems improve quality of healthcare services. In the GP group who declared at least partial EMR implementation, 71.4% see the positive impact of IT on practice staff processes and 66.1% on personal working processes. In this group, more than three-quarters of GPs did not see any positive impact of ICT on the average number of patients treated per day, number of patients within the practice or scope of services. The four most common barriers to EMR implementation were: lack of funds, risk of a malfunction in the system, resistance to change, and lack of training and proper information. Although the use of ICT by Polish GPs is limited, their attitude to e-health is generally positive or neutral and resembles the overall pattern in Europe. Barriers identified by GPs need to be taken into account to ensure the effective implementation of e-health across the country. (shrink)

The primary goal of this chapter is to present a new method—called Logical Argument Mapping —for the analysis of framing processes as they occur in any communication, but especially in conflicts. I start with a distinction between boundary setting, meaning construction, and sensemaking as three forms or aspects of framing, and argue that crucial for the resolution of frame-based controversies is our ability to deal with those “webs” of mutually supporting beliefs that determine sensemaking processes. Since any analysis of (...) framing in conflicts and communication is itself influenced by sensemaking—there is no “frame-neutrality”—the main problem for an analyst is to cope with his or her own cognitive limitations. LAM offers a solution to this problem. The method will be exemplified with an analysis of two conflicting interpretations of how the international community should deal with Hamas after its election victory in 2006. (shrink)

Empirical evidence suggests a broad impact of communication mode on cognition at large, beyond language processing. Using a sign language since infancy might shape the representation of words and other linguistic stimuli – for example, incorporating in it the movements and signs used to express them. Once integrated into linguistic representations, this visuo-motor content can affect deaf signers’ linguistic and cognitive processing.