The new media situation gives fuel to increased competition between narratives. In the sphere of security this poses challenges to government strategic narratives. Scholars, drawing on findings from the Anglo-Saxon sphere, suggest that the new media activism gives rise to counter-hegemonic narratives that thrive on and through social media sites. We argue that the emergence of counter-narrative...

Performance and Counter-Power (1): The Civil Rights Movement and the Civil Sphere1 Sociologists have written much about the social forces that create conflict and polarize society, about the fragmenting structures and compelling powers of political, economic, racial, ethnic, religious, and gender groups. But they have said very little about the construction, destruction, and reconstruction of c...

OBJECTIVES How a randomized controlled trial (RCT) is explained to patients is a key determinant of recruitment to that trial. This study developed and implemented a simple six-step model to fully inform patients and to support them in deciding whether to take part or not. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING Ninety-two consultations with 60 new patients were recorded and analyzed during a pilot RCT comp...

OBJECTIVE To develop ROBIS, a new tool for assessing the risk of bias in systematic reviews (rather than in primary studies). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING We used four-stage approach to develop ROBIS: define the scope, review the evidence base, hold a face-to-face meeting, and refine the tool through piloting. RESULTS ROBIS is currently aimed at four broad categories of reviews mainly within he...

OBJECTIVES One recommended use of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach is supporting quality assessment of evidence of comparisons included within a Cochrane overview of reviews. Within our overview, reviewers found that current GRADE guidance was insufficient to make reliable and consistent judgments. To support our ratings, we developed an alg...