Community standards in New Zealand public libraries : an exploratory study

<p>Community standards have been discussed by many authors but none have attempted to investigate their application in public libraries. Public libraries aim to provide information that covers all viewpoints; such information is likely to contain views and opinions that are offensive to many members of the community. The problem of how public librarians define the standards of their communities was central to this research project. In order to investigate this problem a series of interviews were conducted and supported with library policy documents supplied by interviewees. A number of sub topics were also investigated, including how librarians deal with challenging items and whether librarians use any tools or resources to help define community standards. Analysis of interviews and policy documents found that librarians were not able to comprehensively define the standards of their communities. Librarians were divided over whether the demographic differences within their communities had any impact on the standards of their communities</p>

Community standards in New Zealand public libraries : an exploratory study

<p>Community standards have been discussed by many authors but none have attempted to investigate their application in public libraries. Public libraries aim to provide information that covers all viewpoints; such information is likely to contain views and opinions that are offensive to many members of the community. The problem of how public librarians define the standards of their communities was central to this research project. In order to investigate this problem a series of interviews were conducted and supported with library policy documents supplied by interviewees. A number of sub topics were also investigated, including how librarians deal with challenging items and whether librarians use any tools or resources to help define community standards. Analysis of interviews and policy documents found that librarians were not able to comprehensively define the standards of their communities. Librarians were divided over whether the demographic differences within their communities had any impact on the standards of their communities</p>

Federal Responses, 1984–2014

The chapter analyzes significant federal attempts to challenge pornography production and distribution in 1984–2014. The empirical, harm-based legal argument of the 1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography and its endorsement of the MacKinnon-Dworkin civil rights ordinance are assessed. The million-dollar P.R. campaign to discredit the Commission’s work is discussed. Congressional civil rights bills introduced in 1984–1992 are examined, including amendments by Senators Heflin, Specter, and Biden that watered down the bills’ potential. Renewed Department of Justice efforts in 2002–2014 to indict high-profile producers/distributors of violent and degrading pornography under obscenity statutes are studied. Their legal concepts of obscenity and contemporary community standards, and the documented desensitization to women’s subordination fueled by pornography, are shown to exclude from legal action all but the most extreme materials. The strategy’s underlying frailty is exposed through an analysis of its constitutional litigation. The chapter concludes by comparing the obscenity approach with the civil rights approach and presenting alternative combinations.

Facebook’s policies against extremism: Ten years of struggle for more transparency

For years, social media, including Facebook, have been criticized for lacking transparency in their community standards, especially in terms of extremist content. Yet, moderation is not an easy task, especially when extreme-right actors use content strategies that shift the Overton window (i.e., the range of ideas acceptable in public discourse) rightward. In a self-proclaimed search of more transparency, Facebook created its Transparency Center in May 2021. It also has regularly updated its community standards, and Facebook Oversight Board has reviewed these standards based on concrete cases, published since January 2021. In this paper, we highlight how some longstanding issues regarding Facebook’s lack of transparency still remain unaddressed in Facebook’s 2021 community standards, mainly in terms of the visual ‘representation’ of and endorsement from dangerous organizations and individuals. Furthermore, we also reveal how the Board’s no-access to Facebook’s in-house rules exemplifies how the longstanding discrepancy between the public and the confidential levels of Facebook policies remains a current issue that might turn the Board’s work into a mere PR effort. In seeming to take as many steps toward shielding some information as it has toward exposing others to the sunshine, Facebook’s efforts might turn out to be transparency theater.

‘Humanhood’ in the Gospel of John

This article is an attempt to explore the theme of ‘humanhood’ in the Fourth Gospel. The most important questions to be posed at the outset are the following: who is the model human presented in the gospel as per the Johannine community standards? How can a person acquire humanhood status according to the Johannine community? The divine and human interaction in the life and ministry of Jesus dynamically introduces the life ethics and mission aspects of the Johannine community. According to the Johannine community standards, people can achieve ‘humanhood’ status exclusively in relation to Jesus. As the community of John emphasises humanhood in relation to Jesus, a person can overcome all sorts of human-made boundaries, including the sexual, racial and class-oriented boundaries through the mediation of Jesus. This further means that the all-inclusive mission of Jesus foregrounds a new criterion for ‘humanhood’ in the Johannine community context. The article concludes by stating that the Johannine understanding of humanhood can be considered as a paradigm in the contemporary global scenario.Contribution: This article contributes to the reader a wider hermeneutical framework and a new way forward in interpreting the gospel according to John by taking into consideration the humanhood aspects. As a theological and contextual interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, the article fits well within the scope of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies.