Communication Law Research Articles

Rethinking the scope of international law regulating information operations: lessons learned from a crime of online genocide in Myanmar*

The use of electronic means to gain access to, modify or destroy a target’s data or information system is known as an information operation (IO). This may or may not be a physically damaging operation. An IO can sometimes be set up in a manner that safeguards the target’s data and attempts to influence, disrupt, deceive or modify the decision-making of an adversary or potential adversary. IO-like activities have evolved to include operations on social media, affecting users of various online platforms. This article identifies three main challenges for criminalising and punishing IO activities under international law: the first relates to the nature and characteristics of the subjects and actors involved in an IO. Currently, an act of a State representative might be considered an act of the State, thereby exposing the State to international responsibility. However, certain entities, particularly platform service providers such as Facebook and Twitter, are still having difficulty defining their legal personalities under international law, which might result in the companies being exempt from international accountability. Second, there are concerns about the contents, techniques and aims of IOs. There are an increasing number of variations of IOs, including certain activities that may not have a large influence or do significant damage. Consequently, it is unclear whether the operations should be classified as IOs and criminalised. Third, there are issues with attributing responsibility for carrying out IOs. Currently, it appears that there is no international law that directly relates to IOs; instead, existing international law must be interpreted. Furthermore, certain entities may not be considered internationally responsible. Consequently, law enforcement is ineffective. This article examines the situation in Myanmar and argues that the operations to devalue and incite hatred towards the Rohingya ethnic community in Myanmar are included within the meaning of an IO because they are carried out by government authorities. Their features are psychological warfare and military deception that, in reality, have led to genocide. The article demonstrates that international law, although potentially applicable to IOs, may not be particularly effective in the Myanmar situation. Due to a number of factors, such as the lack of international character of the act despite the international impact, the fundamental principles of international law including State sovereignty, the prohibition on the use of force, the law of war, non-intervention and international communication law, are hardly applicable to this IO. International human rights law, meanwhile, applies to individual rights. This leads to the difficulty in enforcing international law in the case of IOs such as this.

The illusion of abundant communications and the ghost of Red Lion.

Twentieth-century communications law was built on the assumption of scarcity-radio spectrum as a scarce natural resource and telephone networks as a natural monopoly. Scarcity justified both rate regulation and content regulation of the services offered over these communications resources. Telephone networks were subject to the nondiscrimination rules of common carriage, and the Supreme Court in Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC famously upheld the "fairness doctrine," which required that both sides of public issues be discussed fairly over broadcast media, expressly on the rationale that the scarcity of the airwaves justified content-based regulation under the First Amendment. As the century drew to a close, however, technological developments cast doubt on the assumption of scarcity and, therefore, much of the legal framework of communications law. In this chapter, I explain how both incumbent and startup providers reacted to this seeming technological abundance with acts aimed at creating or re-creating economic scarcity97strongly resisting encroachments on exclusive franchises or collusively slowing or halting the rollout of alternative networks97and how communications law has failed to keep up. It is widely acknowledged that our current statutory law is maladapted to modern technology, but in this work I recast the ongoing fights over net neutrality, affordable broadband, and platform speech regulation in terms of scarcity and abundance and argue that Red Lion is still with us in spirit97communications law should address the sources and effects of economic. I sketch out what such regulation might start to look like and conclude with some thoughts about what this story means for the central thesis of this volume.

La publicidad gubernamental en el régimen de la Cuarta Transformación nacional

Despite the fact that in 2021 the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation demanded that the Legislative Power prepare a new "General Law of SocialCommunication" before the end of the ordinary period of the LXV Legislature, which would sufficiently remedy the obligations related to the distribution of the government advertising established in the Constitutional Reform of Telecommunications and Broadcasting of 2014, the Congress of the Union did not comply with such institutional obligation. Said relevant contempt allowed the toxic "Chayote Law" to continue in force, becoming an intentional act of political-institutional rebellion against the core nature of the republican State, the historical foundation of the Mexican nation. Therefore, it is essential that civil society demand that the Congress of the Union repeal the current General Law of Social Communication and prepare a new legal framework that does not repeat the vices of the "Chayote Law” but complies with the basic constitutional precepts. defense of freedom of expression, the right to information, the rights of audiences, especially, in a context as fragmented and polarized as the one experienced in the country.

Legal Ethics and Privilege Communication

The lawyer-client privilege is a significant characteristic of their fiduciary relationship. The duty of confidentiality obliges the communication that occurred between the client and lawyer should not be disclosed anywhere. This article inspects the significance and importance of the privileged professional communication held between the lawyer and his client. This research piece qualitatively surveys and critically analyses the laws of various jurisdictions including Pakistan, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States to highlight why the communication between lawyer and client is privileged and should not be disclosed. With that aim, this paper pinpoints the broad and loose application of privileged professional communication laws by the various courts. This article finds how the privileged professional communication laws have increased the confidence of clients and strengthened the fiduciary relationship between lawyer and client.

Formation and Diffusion Analysis of Agricultural Product Brand Communication Influence Based on Big Data Fuzzy K-Means Clustering in Convergent Media Era

In today’s society, with the support of information technology, the media is constantly developing in the direction of integration, which has a profound impact on all aspects of people’s social life. The brand of agricultural products is derived from the definition of brand, based on the differences of production areas, varieties and quality of characteristic agricultural products, and conveyed the information of characteristic agricultural products in the form of trademarks, certification marks, and product packaging. In order to solve the problems existing in the running process of brand promotion system of characteristic agricultural products, the concept of Internet of Things was introduced. The Internet of Things is a network that shows that objects and objects are connected with each other. Customers who use the Internet of Things can communicate and exchange information between any kind of goods. This paper focuses on the content of the improved K-means clustering model based on multibrand communication of agricultural products, expounds the analysis model and scope of agricultural product brand communication, applies the Internet of Things and related technologies to the brand promotion system of characteristic agricultural products, and simulates agricultural product brand communication by using big data fuzzy K-means clustering algorithm. Finally, the calculation of coincidence rate proves that the maximum distance between agricultural product brand communication influence and K-means clustering algorithm is consistent with the JC value of nodes, and the correct rate is as high as 90%. A communication mode that is more in line with the law of brand influence communication of agricultural products.

PEMBINAAN KEMAHIRAN BERBAHASA INGGRIS PROFESI DAN LITERASI HUKUM KOMUNIKASI BAGI GURU DAN SISWA DI MTS MANBAA’UL NURUL HIDAYAH BATAM

The ability to speak English is one of the skills that must be possessed by students as their expertise that can be used in the field of work and is also important for teachers to teach and practice in the learning process. In the world of work, children who have graduated are required to have skills in communicating in English, and communication students are also expected to understand communication literacy. Many are good at speaking English but sometimes lack direction and lack of knowledge about communication literacy. On this occasion, the lecturers of Putera Batam University held a Coaching for Students and Teachers on Profession English Proficiency and Communication Law Literacy for Teachers and Students at MTs Manbaa'ul Nurul Hidayah Batam. The method used is by collecting data from observations, questionnaires and group discussions. The result of this service is that participants already understand English and communication legal literacy. There are 60% of the participants who have practiced English and communication law literacy.

Political power’s media capture strategies in Spain (2016–2021)

This article analyses political power's media capture strategies in Spain by addressing the central government's and several regional governments' actions between 2016 and 2021. The policies implemented by parties from across the political spectrum are studied, with similar behaviours that continue to pursue or even reinforce strategies from previous eras being observed. This confirms the trait of strong government interventionism that is typical of Polarised Pluralist media systems. This article specifically takes an in-depth look at control over public media's governing bodies, the fragility of independent regulators, and opaqueness and indicators of instrumentalisation in the management of institutional advertising. The conclusions are of a propositional nature. Potential solutions to the forms of capture highlighted throughout the article are proposed. The legal reform of the General Audiovisual Communication Law—in progress at the time of writing—does not contemplate such solutions.

Simulation Model on Network Public Opinion Communication Model of Major Public Health Emergency and Management System Design

In order to identify the communication law of network public opinion in major public health emergency, a multifactor communication model based on multiagent modeling is proposed. Based on the SEIR model and NetLogo simulation analysis, the model integrates a variety of network public opinion communication characteristics and extends the existing single network public opinion communication model. Based on these studies, a network public opinion communication management system is designed and developed with Python tools. Case analysis and simulation results show that this model can better simulate the evolution trend of network public opinion communication in major public health emergency; the key communication channels of public opinion play an important role in the evolution of network public opinion, which can control and guide the network public opinion of major public health emergency from the three communication influencing factors of total number, initial number, and communication cycle. Communication cycle refers to the number of days in the process of network public opinion dissemination of major public health emergencies.

Chinese Ecological Discourse Construction in CBD COP15

In this century, under the guidance of the basic state policy of conserving resources and the environment, China has made the rich practical experience and great historic achievements in the construction of ecological civilization, but the deployment of China's ecological communication system is relatively late, and the international ecological discourse system is also imperfect. This paper combs the discipline context and development status of ecological communication. Taking the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity held in Kunming, China, in 2021 as an example, four mainstream Chinese media are selected for analysis, aiming at exploring the inherent law of the ecological communication and excavating the international discourse system of ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics.

Editor’s Note: Staying at the Forefront of Communication Law and Policy Research

Editor’s Note: Staying at the Forefront of Communication Law and Policy Research

Communication Laws in Left-Turning Governments: Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador

Why were new communication and telecommunications laws enacted in South America in the left-turning governments of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina in the first two decades of the 21st century? The answer falls within a contextualization of the political, economic, and social moment these countries went through, where the majority of the population simultaneously expressed themselves at the polls in favor of an ideological orientation, turning this circumstance into a new phenomenon in the region. For the purpose at hand, a comparison is drawn between the essential milestones of the process for the approval of such laws in the four cases and the political intentions underlying those regulations, in an interdisciplinary exercise involving communication and political science. Here we pose the conjecture that these laws distorted the purpose of democratizing communication, as they were conceived at the beginning, due to a confrontation with the independent media.

Platform imperialism, communications law and relational sovereignty

While many have asked whether the law can keep up with new technologies, we may need to ask bigger questions, lest in ‘updating’ we redraw the circuits of inequitable power relations. The fundamental ideas of autonomy and sovereignty that sit at the heart of the circuitry of platform and technological regulation must be reconsidered. How can we rewire this system? Examining the ways that relational thinking has been employed normatively, particularly in areas of communications law, this article suggests that we can draw on relational thinking, understood through critical theories that deal with historical structural relations, for guidance on how to rewire our legal operating system. Critical theories can infuse a relational approach to understanding communication law, which can be drawn on to rewire our legal operating system.

Policy Liberalism and Public Records Laws in the American States

State law is often the principal determinant of case outcomes in areas of communication law such as access to information, defamation, invasion of privacy, and protection of news sources. Little is known, however, about the sources of state-to-state variation in communication law. The research presented in this article tests the hypothesis that a state’s level of policy liberalism—the extent to which state policies promote equality and protect collective goods—is positively associated with the extent to which the state’s public records law requires state and local governments to provide information upon request. The results supported the hypothesis. The topic is important because rights of access to information are a critical part of the knowledge infrastructure of democracy. The study illustrates the value of a social science approach in understanding why laws relating to communication may vary from place to place.

Risk and Protecting Factors of Cyberbullying in Malaysia: A Comparative Analysis

Technology communication allowed the increased number of users over the internet. Each user is able to communicate with each other’s via mobile phone, notebook and any platform as long as connected with the internet. Therefore, they do not have to use a physical interaction while communicating. However, the development of applications such as Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp etc. resulted in positive and negative effects for victims, Perpetrators, Parents and Stakeholders. This leaves a gap that needs to be addressed since there is a limited model that explains how to prevent cyberbullying. This study aims to identify the risk factor and protecting factor used in cyberbullying. Methodology: This study was conducted using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Thus, this study provides a gap of study for existing work of cyberbullying for risk factors that contribute to cyberbullying and analyse the protection factor of cyberbullying. Based on this study, we found that communication skills, parental involvement and law enforcement are a necessity to reduce the number of cyberbullying in Malaysia.

“Yakety yak: Don’t talk back”: An autopsy of anonymity gone awry

This article compares the socio-legal factors and challenges contributing to the failure of the deceased anonymous, hyperlocal platform, Yik Yak, with a living anonymous, hyperlocal platform, Jodel. By analysing each platform’s Terms of Service (ToS) statements alongside their guidelines and values, the article traces how anonymous, hyperlocal applications both diverge from and mirror communication law in fashioning their approaches to content moderation and responses to the dark side of communication. The article concludes that in contrast with Yik Yak, which attempted to rely on its ToS and limited community monitoring system to curb cyberbullying and harassment, the case of Jodel—and by extension, the German approach to regulating hate speech and bullying—suggests that surviving hyperlocal, anonymous platforms of U.S. origin should not solely hide behind Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Instead, they should aim to combine (1) robust ToS statements with (2) specific community values or guidelines that are fortified by (3) a comprehensive monitoring system in order to curb abusive behaviour on their platforms.

Social Intelligence of a Teacher as a Factor of the Stimulation of Cognitive Interests of Students

The purpose of the article is: to provide the experimental research of social intelligence of a teacher as a factor of the stimulation of cognitive interests of pupils. Methods of the research. The following theoretical methods of the research were used to solve the tasks formulated in the article: a categorical method, structural and functional methods, the methods of the analysis, systematization, modeling, generalization. Also in our research we used empirical methods, such as statement study and molding experiment. With the aim to diagnose the level of the development of social intelligence of teachers we used the test of J. Gilford and M. O’Sullivan «Research of Social Intelligence», adapted by O.S. Mykhailova. The results of the research. The data obtained was indicated that women (teachers of the natural sciences) were more sensitive to the nature and various manifestations of human relationships and they were able to show considerable role of flexibility in the situations that were arisen. This may be explained by the fact that education in the paradigm of «love» (passion) for the natural sciences contributes to the development of women’s style aimed at emotional sensitivity, communicative compatibility. Men, on the contrary, are encouraged to develop the ability to hide and suppress their feelings, that is, emotional restraint, competition, activity, the ability to control the situation are encouraged. So, speaking about social intelligence and its role in teaching activities, the latter should be analyzed in terms of the impact on its productivity, efficiency and conditions of optimization. It should be noted that in the pedagogical activity the concept of «productivity» is considered from the point of view of two positions: functional and psychological productivity. The functional productivity of the teacher’s activity is as a clearly constructed system of didactic methods and techniques, the basic updating of which are communicative skills. In such a way psychological productivity is the newness of the personality of a student, the level of his/her social adaptation that will contribute to the process of the development of social intelligence. Conclusions. Taking into account the specifics of each particular object, pedagogical activity is built upon the laws of communication. In any classifications the structure of communication in the foreground appears its cognitive aspect, which largely determines the productivity of teaching activities. Thus, we revealed the regularities of the influence of the level of productivity on the understanding of the behavior of the partner in communication, which indicates the actualization of social intelligence. We found that teachers with a low level of pedagogical activity can only perceive external manifestations of the communication of partners, also their behavior without analyzing its goals and motives. However, teachers with a high level of productivity of pedagogical activities can understand the deep essence of the personality-integrational properties of the person, identifying the goals and motives of his/her behavior. Consequently, the productivity of teaching activity directly depends on the effectiveness of the knowledge of a teacher on the personality of students, that is, it depends on socio-perceptual peculiarities of both – a teacher and pupils. To our mind, social intelligence of a teacher is updated due to the mechanisms of knowledge of a teacher the pupils’ personal qualities and characteristics. One of such mechanisms is pedagogical social-perceptual stereotyping. For the first time this mechanism was investigated in the experiments, in which positive and negative stereotyping of the pupils’ personal qualities and characteristics were determined. Also, we identified the influence of evaluative standard stereotypes on social-perceptual stereotyping. It was proved that the negative influence on interpersonal interaction in the pedagogical process had stereotypes that were taking into account an absolute, unchanging character, but for each teacher there were subjective evaluative stereotypes and the teacher focused on their content for the purpose of the actual subjective assessment of the pupil’s personality. Then subsequently, this mechanism of pedagogical activity will facilitate the study of personal qualities and characteristics from a professional point of view. In turn, all this indicates a significant level of the development of social intelligence of a teacher.

The Concept of Creating Visual Content for Promotion in the Media Space (on the example of cultural and event tourism)

A competitive, attractive and even unique project or product, without its wide representation in the information space, will not receive proper implementation and response. Without effective promotion in the mass media, and this applies to almost any sphere from the economy to culture, the creation process will be incomplete and incomplete. Creating a visual production requires a deep understanding of various communication processes: the laws of communication, the basics of audience perception, cognitive principles, as well as the basics of drama and Public Relations. The article is based on the understanding of theoretical knowledge and scientific sources on this topic, as well as the practical long-term experience of the author of the study in creating visual works of different genres, styles and directions. The material of this study is given on the example of the sphere of cultural and event tourism, however, the scope of application is much wider. This concept, due to its universality, can be used for the preparation of visual works and their further promotion in the media space in various fields of application, e.g. economy, society, culture, ecology, besides it provides a methodological component for teaching students of specialized areas.

Recent Developments of Cyber-Offences in Slovenia

Digitalisation of the economy has exceeded its original boundaries and expanded to all areas of social life. In addition to all the benefits of digitalisation, it also creates risks of malicious use of the electronic information potential. Cyber security should play its part to prevent electronic information network and system intrusions, misuse of information, and to ensure smooth and secure information flow. Research design of this paper is the set of three research methods used in collecting legal information about cyber security regulation and analysing findings. First approach is descriptive analysis of legal regulation. Second method is desktop analysis of recently adopted legal acts. Third research method is observational study. Synthesis is presented in the conclusions. Legal regulation of cyber security refers to protecting the data and information systems against unauthorised access, use, disclosure, disruption, alteration, or destruction. Cyber security is concerned with the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data regardless of the form the data may take electronic, print or any other. The Law of Minor Offences will apply to minor offences in the field of cyber security about “general” issues: liability of the perpetrator, imposition of sanctions, minor offence proceedings, etc., whereas the provisions of special legislation, more specifically, the provisions of the Cyber Security Law and the Electronic Communications Law, will apply to the identification of an act as a minor offence. However, in accordance with the lex specialis derogat legi generali principle, the general provisions of the Law of Minor Offences will apply only if such issues are not regulated otherwise by the Cyber Security Law and the Electronic Communications Law.

Social media communication of the scientific and technological literature in emergency under COVID-19

PurposeThis paper takes the current COVID-19 pandemic raging around the world as a realistic background and uses the informal scientific communication mode in social media as the theoretical basis. It aims to explore the characteristics and rules of scientific communication in social media under emergency events, grasp the potential and risks of scientific communication in social media in special times and provide a perspective of academic communication for the scientific response.Design/methodology/approachThe authors select the enumeration data of the early COVID-19 theme papers spread on social media networks as the research object, apply descriptive statistical analysis to the basic statistical distribution of variables and use factor analysis and visualization methods to explore the law and characteristics of the spread of scientific papers on social media platforms.FindingsIt was found that users of the COVID-19 paper are mainly in North America, Europe and South America, followed by those in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. The users are mainly public figures, doctors and other practitioners, science communicators and scientists. The process of social media communication reflects three ways of knowledge construction, social interaction and academic communication, and there are three ways of communication law and changing trend of cross transition and integration.Originality/valueThis study observes the function and role of science communication in social media in a special period from a unique perspective of academic communication, so as to promote academic means to fight against the epidemic.

We-Narratives: Collective Storytelling in Contemporary Fiction by Natalya Bekhta (review)

Reviewed by: We-Narratives: Collective Storytelling in Contemporary Fiction by Natalya Bekhta Marshall Lewis Johnson Natalya Bekhta. We-Narratives: Collective Storytelling in Contemporary Fiction. Ohio State UP, 2020. 203p. In We-Narratives, Natalya Bekhta develops the category of “wenarrators” as “genuinely plural voices that have no individual speaker behind them and that emanate from groups, communities, collectives, [End Page 99] or nations” (1). A we-narrative importantly does not involve “individual characters acting in the we-mode” but “groups themselves, which thus function as characters and as narrators” (17). As a well-known example, Bekhta analyzes William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” as a “setup” that “invites the reader to adopt the villagers’ opinions . . . as well as their shock” when they find Homer Barron’s corpse (4). Bekhta delineates how a we-narrator is not the same as a narrator who utilizes the “we” pronoun to hide his/her own intentions, as with the narrator in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Parricide,” where the function of the “we” makes the singular narrator’s “opinions and feelings ‘objective’ where they are intimate and subjective” (28). After three chapters that demonstrate how we-narration is unique in relation to rhetorical narratology, Bekhta then examines we-narrators as voyeurs, gossips, and communities, all fascinatingly involving questions of collective knowledge and what the author calls an “us versus them” dynamic. The work is at its strongest in the last three chapters. In discussing Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides, Bekhta describes the we-narrator’s voyeurism as a “group of neighborhood boys” captivated by the Lisbon girls (115). This assesses narratology questions of focalization and perspective because “[m]etaphorical personhood is one of a group’s ‘collective artifacts’ . . . such as group beliefs or social institutions” (112). Regarding collective knowledge, we-narrative “offers insight into the performative act of knowledge creation . . . exemplifying the social nature of knowledge” (134). This is an observation, I might add, with profound impacts for epistemology in a post-truth era, as truths are often debated socially. Finally, in an analysis of “Watch the Animals” by Alice Eliott Dark, Bekhta examines the “us versus them” dynamic to reveal that “[c]ommunities exist by containing differences” that are otherwise disruptive of community identity (168). Thus, the character of Diana is treated as an “outsider” due to her animal rights activism until the end of the story, when “we” insist on caring for Diana’s animals during her terminal illness and after her death (169, 174-75). This insistence only comes about after “we” refuse to take the money Diana offers, but instead start arriving at her house uninvited to care for her and the animals, ultimately driving her to suicide in a way that “we” conveniently overlook. Much of this final chapter fascinates in an age of “alt-right” politics as an assessment of the behaviors of a “conservative community toward outsiders” (172). [End Page 100] On the whole, the last three chapters fascinate while the first three could have been condensed. Much of the discussion of rhetorical narratology takes on the shape of literature review or unnecessary distraction instead of assessment of the already unique and fascinating we-narratives Bekhta scrutinizes. In arguing in favor of the “usefulness of the author category” to eliminate the question of an “impossible enunciator,” Bekhta claims that this “removes the largely irrelevant questions of how a group can physically speak as one” (75). It seems, however, that much of what enchants about we-narration is precisely these “irrelevant” questions. Of course, it is not realistically possible that a we-narrator in “Watch the Animals” is dictating this story as a collective, and that is the point. We-narrative is a fictional representation of communal forms of knowledge and conservatism, and this fictional exploration is not meant to be considered as anything but. In this sense, while fiction expands what one can imagine regarding how to understand and analyze the human condition, this does not mean that we must imagine works of fiction as applying to the laws of interpersonal communication. After all, what could be more fascinating than imagining “how a group can physically speak as one”? Marshall Lewis Johnson University of Nevada, Reno Copyright...