What is 'political communication'? The rationale and scope of the implied freedom of political communication

The aim of this article is to identify what counts as ‘political communication’ for the purposes of the implied constitutional freedom of political communication. This is done for two reasons. The first is to delimit the scope of the implied freedom. The second is to clarify whether racial vilification is ‘political communication’, which is the initial step that must be taken in order to assess the constitutionality or otherwise of current Australian racial vilification laws. It is, however, necessary and desirable to establish a sound theoretical basis for the implied freedom before these questions can be properly considered. To this end, it is argued that a minimalist model of judicially-protected popular sovereignty underpins the implied freedom and is the rationale that must guide its interpretation and application. The analysis undertaken demonstrates that a generous zone of ‘political communication’ must attract constitutional protection and that racial vilification will in certain circumstances amount to ‘political communication’.

Finding voices: authentic learning online in the field of public communication and citizenship

A creative re-acculturation of teachers and students is occurring in virtual classrooms as traditional learning resources, pedagogy, and technology intersect in unexpected ways. This paper reports on a case of authentic, experiential, and constructivist learning developed for tertiary public relations  students. A subject titled ‘Public Communication and Citizenship’ (PCC) at  Deakin University in Australia asked students to examine the problematic and contentious areas of self interest, persuasion, power, and ethics in  contemporary contexts of mass media and globalisation. Feedback from  those students suggests that, in this case, online teaching strategies  successfully integrated with the total learning environment to achieve  higher-order learning. PCC is one example of PR pedagogy combining  theory and technology to move beyond ‘skilling for jobs’.

The protection of political communication under the Australian constitution

Compatibility of a law with implied freedom of political communication - application of test of constitutionality outlined in Lange case - argues that two-tier approach be abandoned - if a law regulates the content of a political communication, not its mode, more rigorous judicial scrutiny will follow - should be a single test for constitutionality where application is through the proportionality framework and informed by the rationale of the implied freedom - application to Australian racial vilification laws.

Piloting the feasibility and effectiveness of print- and telephone-mediated interventions for promoting the adoption of physical activity in Australian adults

This study examined the feasibility and effectiveness for increasing physical activity of a print-based intervention, and a print- plus telephone-mediated intervention among mid-life and older Australian adults. A randomised controlled trial study design was used. In mid-2002, 66 adults (18 men, 48 women) aged 45–78 years, who identified themselves as underactive, were recruited through advertisements and word-of-mouth at two sites (Melbourne and Brisbane), and randomised to either the print or print-plus-telephone mediated intervention group. Participants in both groups attended an initial briefing session, and over the 12-week intervention period received an instructional newsletter and use of a pedometer (both groups), and individualised telephone calls (print-plus-telephone group only). Self-reported physical activity data were collected at baseline, 12 and 16 weeks. Measures of self-reported global physical activity, moderate-vigorous intensity activity and walking all showed increases between baseline and 12 weeks for both intervention groups. These increases were generally maintained by 16 weeks, although participants in the print-plus-telephone group maintained slightly higher levels of global reported activity and walking (by approximately 30 mins/wk) than those in the print group. These interventions show potential for promoting initial increases in physical activity among mid-life and older Australian adults, and should be evaluated across more extended time periods.

Postgraduate international students from Asia: factors influencing satisfaction

The growth in the international education market within the next two decades will be dominated by Asia, accounting for almost 70% of the global demand for international higher education (Bohm et al., 2002). The market attractiveness with significant pecuniary and non-pecuniary gains from full-fee paying students will result in a more competitive environment for higher educational institutions around the world seeking to improve their market position. Student satisfaction is a key strategic variable in maintaining such a competitive position with long-term benefits arising from student loyalty, positive word of mouth (WOM) communication and image of the higher educational institutions to meet the challenges of increasing global competition, rising student expectations of quality, service, and value for money. This process requires educational institutions to carefully analyse these key factors contributing to student satisfaction and therefore develop strategies accordingly.

Using logistic regression analysis with factor scores and aggregated satisfaction scores, this study examines the relative importance of factors and their impact on the satisfaction levels of international postgraduate students from four Asian countries studying in Australian universities. The study concludes that the dominant factors that impact on student satisfaction are quality of education, student facilities, reputation of the institutions, the marketability of their degrees for better career prospects, and the overall customer value provided by the universities.

Antecedents of recommending infrequently purchased services: a conceptualisation and an empirical analysis

This project aimed to conceptualise and analyse empirically the antecedents of word-of-mouth in the context of an infrequently purchased service (tourism special events). The relationships examined included those between involvement, past experience, overall satisfaction, interest in attending next time, likelihood of attending next time, and the likelihood of recommending to others that they attend the event. There was some support for the overall model, in that the regressing of likelihood of recommending on the other variables produced an equation containing measures of most of the key variables, viz., revisit intention, satisfaction, revisit interest, and involvement. However, involvement appeared to operate in the opposite direction to that hypothesised.

The major drawbacks to the use of wireless communication products in education

This paper considers the use of wireless devices as an educational facilitator both in the classroom and in a business environment.  There are many characteristics of such devices which are favourable to their use in such settings.  But there are also problems.  We identify the main problematic areas as being security, low speed and reliability, and the lack of interoperability.  In our opinion, the use of wireless devices for educational purposes will grow quickly, and the problems of reliability, speed and standards will be overcome.  However, the issue of security will remain a major problem into the distant future.

The robustness of the behavioural-intentions battery in services scenarios

The consensus among researchers is that loyalty is a very complex construct (Javalgi & Moberg 1997). Various typologies have been developed to measure the loyalty construct (e.g., Curassi and Kennedy 2002; Hoare 2000; Knox 1998; Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry 1996). Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman (1996) developed a service loyalty framework comprising 13 items across five dimensions: “loyalty”, “switch”, “pay more”, “external responses”, and “internal responses”. This framework was criticised by Bloemer, de Ruyter & Wetzels (1999) for having conceptual and empirical limitations. Upon re-examination of the same 13 items, they concluded that the loyalty construct comprised only four factors: “word-of-mouth”, “purchase intentions”, “price sensitivity”, and “complaining behaviour”. Questions remain as to the precise dimensionality of the service loyalty construct as proposed by Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry (1996), and its stability or robustness generically, i.e., to what extent is there an invariant factor structure across the range of marketing contexts to which the battery may be applied? This paper reports on the testing of the goodness-of-fit of the five and fourfactor models to data collected in a study of consumer reaction to the service supplied by an Australian Internet Service Provider (ISP), through a series of hypothetical scenarios. In addition, comparisons were conducted with the results of exploratory factor analyses of the eight scenarios. The results suggested that factor structures are unstable across the data subsets, thereby limiting the generalisability and utility of the proposed models.

Influence of stakeholder communication on consensus making in requirements negotiation

Consensus building is essential in aligning multiple stakeholder viewpoints which are commonly emerging during the process of requirements elicitation, analysis and validation [15]. In fact, agreement among diverse groups of stakeholders is deemed prerequisite to establishing project cooperation and collaboration. While individuals frequently rank the importance of their personal goals over the goals of an organisation, having an appropriate strategy for finding common ground among individuals is crucial to any project's success. This paper therefore explores factors that influence the consensus making process and develops a model that helps with understanding the role of consensus specifically during the elicitation phase of the Requirements Engineering process.

International education services: challenges for Australia

Australian universities face a challenging task of servicing an increasingly diverse international student community in the globally competitive education market. The pressure on universities to successfully negotiate the cultural diversity and improvement in service quality will continue to increase with the global expansion of the international student market. Market forecasts indicate an increase in the number of students seeking higher education overseas by 2025 to 7.2 million. The attractiveness of the international education market in the form of both pecuniary and non pecuniary benefits will continue to create a highly competitive environment for Australia requiring Australian higher education institutions to pursue well planned strategies to maintain a globally competitive position.

Student satisfaction is a key strategic variable in maintaining such a competitive position with long term benefits arising from student loyalty, positive word of mouth (WOM) communication and image of the study destinations and to meet the challenges of increasing global competition, rising student expectations of quality, service and value for money.

This paper, based on the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, and using logistic regression, ANOVA and chi square testing, investigates factors that influence international postgraduate students from four Asian countries studying in Australia and concludes with strategic implications for universities

Designing educational tasks for success in industry: a reflection on the evolution of business communication studies in tertiary education

This paper is the result of a "Rip Van Winkle" experience I had concerning the teaching of Business Communication. The paper focuses on the remarkable expansion in the curriculum of the traditional "Business Communication" or "Business Writing" course offered by many tertiary institutions around the world. Based on 25 years of personal observation and experience in a number of educational settings, the paper will trace the increasing sophistication and complexity of the study of business communication from one that covered little more than lessons in the design of hardcopy memos, letters, and reports to one that now covers a broad spectrum of topics such as "emotional intelligence," "intercultural communication," "effective public speaking," as well as the effects of purpose and audience on the design of a wide variety of business communications.

An example of an effective task that involves a number of on the job activities is provided in the form of a ready to use assignment that is applicable in a number of contexts.

Customer citizenship behaviours : towards the development of a typology

Eight types of customer citizenship behaviours were extracted from the existing marketing literature, and the more developed organisational citizenship behaviour literature. These included: positive word of mouth behaviour; suggestions for service improvements; participation in organisation events/activities; benevolent acts of service facilitation; policing of other customers; flexibility; voice and displays of relationship affiliation. Although citizenship behaviours such as positive word-ofmouth and voice have established empirical measures, the other types of customer citizenship behaviours do not. The objective of this study, therefore, was to source, adapt and derive measures for each of the eight identified citizenship behaviours. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, these measures were validated across three service contexts.