Internationalization and extension of national public spheresOpponents of today's globalization approaches argue that notions of the world as a 'common place' have been elements of philosophical concepts since ancient times.Indeed, philosophical concepts of 'the world' have existed since Aristotle defined the 'world state', and since Francis Bacon distinguished between different world concepts -the globus intellectualis, identifying the world of science, and the globus terrestris, referring to new material worlds -and the view of an ever-changing world horizon. Kant considered 'cosmopolitanism' as a new category of reasoning and Hegel defined, in a more abstract phenomenological sense, an overall Weltgeist or world spirit.Not only philosophical concepts but also the transborder information flow is not a phenomenon of the 21st century. A review of the history of international political communication reveals that a continuous 'transborder' communication and distribution of political news had already been established in mediaeval development.ABSTRACT Ingrid Volkmer outlines the new 'flow' of political information that enables us to become informed about issues of global, regional as well as local relevance. The new media infrastructure allows an eyewitness view of events taking place in worldwide locations. These global processes, in which information and knowledge, political values, ethics, aesthetics and lifestyles are exchanged, are becoming increasingly autonomous from nationstate contexts and are beginning to shape a politically relevant 'global' public sphere. The author discusses parameters of this new political space.

The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing that global big tech platforms and social media are core sites for continuous engagement with crisis content for young citizens. This study included twenty-four countries from all continents at the time of the heightened COVID-19 crisis, and our survey targeted 18-40 year olds, Millennials and Gen Zs – overall n = 23,483 respondents. Outcomes show that for young citizens across continents, crisis communication is not just about press briefings. Instead, crisis communication is continuous interaction and engagement across their multiple source environments. Young citizens navigate social media, national media, search sites and messaging apps, they engage with peer communities, science and health experts and – across all countries – substantially with the social media content of the World Health Organization (WHO). Overall, they create their own individual crisis narrative based on the sources they use and the insights they select. This report outlines these new crisis communication dimensions within a transnational social media space and offers numerous suggestions for incorporating social media in crisis response strategies.

On 26 January 2007, President George W. Bush signed a mandate (Executive Order 13423 -Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management) requiring government agencies to employ green technologies, and government suppliers to employ 'sustainable environmental practices'. This kind of government regulation, with potentially significant effects on all government suppliers, is becoming widespread in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. One bright hope for achieving these goals comes from the potential of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to effect major reductions in energy use. Among the various solutions, one which is beginning to capture substantial industry interest is cloud computing: the use of remote servers not only to store files but also the software needed to access and change them. Its best-known forms in consumer markets are Amazon S3 and Google Docs, but a large number of companies provide such services for bulk storage and handling of corporate, public service and government data (see the list of companies provided in the appendix to Carr, 2009: 235-44). The theory is that end-users no longer need a complex and expensive computer with ecologically damaging hard drives and CD-DVD players, or memory-and power-hungry local software. In place of fullblown computers, for all but highly professional or necessarily secure uses, a 'thin client' will be sufficient. This is the fundamental design of the netbook generation of computers heavily marketed in the 2009 consumer electronics fairs: a machine with limited capabilities of its own, but which can be linked instantaneously and constantly to remote data centres, also known as server farms, where all their software, documentation and files can be securely stored and accessed.According to the US Department of Energy: Data centers used 61 billion kWh of electricity in 2006, representing 1.5% of all U.S. electricity consumption and double the amount consumed in 2000. Based on current trends, energy

Ingrid Volkmer outlines the new ‘flow’ of political information that enables us to become informed about issues of global, regional as well as local relevance. The new media infrastructure allows an eyewitness view of events taking place in worldwide locations. These global processes, in which information and knowledge, political values, ethics, aesthetics and lifestyles are exchanged, are becoming increasingly autonomous from nation-state contexts and are beginning to shape a politically relevant ‘global’ public sphere. The author discusses parameters of this new political space. Development (2003) 46, 9–16. doi:10.1177/1011637003046001566

The term 'media event' has been coined as a narrative form of mass media communication. The article critically reflects this concept in the context of global public communication. The author argues that a variety of event-spheres can be identified which represent discursive spheres in a global public space.