"The current study explores the influence of communication variables on human rights protection. The effects of international and domestic mass communication and digital media were assessed among global social, economic, and political factors. The statistical analyses on a sample of 101 nation state ... s over the most recent decade reveal several important findings: (a) top-down, internationally initiated human rights discourse and monitoring were not as effective as bottom-up, domestically initiated human rights dialogues; (b) access to the Internet and access to a mobile phone have different effects on human rights performance, and Internet availability played an especially important role; (c) economic development, political system, and population size are powerful predictors of nations' human rights performance, but a large population size diminishes the effect of economic development; and (d) economic development can moderate the effect of political context on human rights performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed." (Abstract) more

"Bribery for news coverage has a negative impact on the credibility of media; it also restricts the free flow of information and violates the public's right to know. Further, research showed that there exists considerable inequality among countries in terms of the extent to which bribery for news co ... verage exists in media system. This study provides the first quantitative cross-national assessment of a set of predictors of the likelihood that bribery for news coverage exists in a country's media system and tested competing arguments derived from the literature. Data of this study are drawn from 66 nation states. The analysis shows that 5 groups of political, economic, cultural, educational, and technological variables have direct or indirect impacts on a country's media bribery level. The interactions between these variables are also analyzed. The study concludes by discussing how analyses of the nature of the international media bribery problem contribute to finding multiple approaches to solutions to this problem." (Abstract) more