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Company disclosures on the web are a useful tool to promote the efficiency of financial markets. Moreover, they can be a source of strategic financial communication. The objective of the study reported in this paper is to make an inventory of the information published on the web sites of companies listed in the Moroccan and Tunisian stock exchanges, and to compare the practices of those companies with those of their European counterparts. The study also seeks to identify the determinants of these disclosures.

The study develops a composite scale to measure the quality of web site disclosures. This scale is used to score the web sites of the top 91 companies listed on the Casablanca and Tunis stock exchanges in 2007. The quality of those web sites is compared with the quality of some web sites of European companies. A number of hypotheses relating to the determinants of web site quality are then tested using linear modeling techniques.

Two thirds of the firms listed in the Casablanca and Tunis stock exchanges have a web site (www.casablanca‐bourse.com). An average of 39.7 percent of Moroccan web sites and 19.4 percent of those from Tunisia meet the benchmark quality criteria used by this study, compared with between 48 percent and 61 percent for European firms. The average extended score is 32.80 percent; Moroccan firms score 38.34 percent on average, while Tunisian firms score 28.12 percent. The determinants of this information level are found to be accounting performance and the proportion of shares held by foreigners. Web site quality is also linked to firm size. Apart from those characteristics, no effect of the economic sector, the country or market performance could be detected.

The study presents an international comparison (north/south) and builds a novel scale in order to explain web disclosures. This is an area that has not previously been explored, and includes some financial markets that are under‐researched.

The inherent nature of the Internet affects financial reporting in the sense that information on a website is available to anyone, anywhere and at any time. Financial reporting on the Internet reduces the cost of financial reporting, makes instantaneous reporting a reality, adds breadth and depth to business reporting, allows analytical tools to be used on underlying business data and makes it easier to disseminate reports to any place in the world where there is a computer. A cursory exploration of financial reporting on the websites of South African companies reveals great variations in terms of the amount of content (e.g. summary financial statements vs detailed financial statements), the style of presentation (e.g. similar to paper‐based reports vs inclusion of multi‐media) and the manner in which companies incorporate navigation aids (e.g. hyperlinks, search boxes and others). The advantages of the Internet as a new mode of information dissemination are clear, but Internet financial reporting creates a number of challenges for companies and their auditors as well as for regulatory and standard‐setting organisations. This paper assesses Internet reporting in South Africa. It explores the manner in which financial and certain non‐financial information is presented on companies’ websites and determine whether reporting practices on the websites of South African companies differ fromthose of their international counterparts. The study revealed that although Internet usage in South Africa has expanded as a medium for presentation of financial information via companies’ websites, top South African companies use their websites as a bulletin board with limited real‐time financial information and note disclaimers.

This paper presents the current status in the development of the ongoing project now known as Project i‐DLR. The content of this “pointer site” includes resources pertaining to digital libraries organised using an educational framework for access. The paper describes the five‐stage evaluation of that educational digital library resource (www.coe.missouri.edu/ rafee/idigital libraryR/index.php). The focus of this particular effort is on the continued development and refinement based on the recent evaluations of this resource by end users seeking to access digital library resources. The five evaluation methods are presented and described, beginning with focus group reviews, Web log analysis, database transaction logs, a Web survey, and most recently, a remote usability evaluation. As the resource continues to grow in both breadth and depth, such analyses are critical to continued refinement of the interface, the sources themselves, and the manner in which they are organised and presented.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the web-based features of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure that play a role in making CSR information prominent to investors and give the information better recognition for investment decisions.

The authors posit a positive association between the company’s capital market performance and the web-based features used for CSR disclosure by the company. The authors argue that the more effective the feature is in enhancing the prominence of CSR information, the higher is the share turnover and market value of shares of a company, and the lower is its share prices’ bid-ask spread. Five specific web-based features, namely, the location, accessibility, medium, variety and extent of disclosure are identified as features used for web-based CSR disclosure. The research framework is drawn from Brennan and Merkl–Davies’ (2013) impression management strategies and Merton’s (1987) “investor recognition hypothesis”.

The findings show that visual and structural emphases of CSR information via specific web-based features enhance information prominence and could favourably influence investors’ impression towards the company. Investors are likely to make investment decisions in favour of the company, resulting in a higher share turnover along with increased market value of the shares of the company and lower bid-ask spread of its share prices.

The paper highlights the significance of utilisation of web-based features in enhancing CSR information prominence for impression management purposes.

The findings have the potential to benefit preparers, users and policymakers by enhancing their knowledge and understanding of the utilisation of web-based CSR disclosure features. Specifically, preparers will be more aware of web-based feature(s) that could be useful in projecting CSR-related information to their stakeholders.

The study will help enhance the dissemination of web-based CSR information.

The study adds to the literature on web-based CSR disclosure, by developing a structured approach to examine the effectiveness of web-based features for investors’ impression management.

This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities to obtain a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of how they are preparing for natural disasters in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities in Japan to survey the actual status of information dissemination on “evacuation and sheltering” in the context of COVID-19.

This study found that the central government issued many notices, notifications and administrative communications to prefectures, cities with public health centers and special wards, which were mainly related to opening, securing and operating evacuation centers and improving the environment. It was found that most prefectures disseminated information on both survival and living evacuation and did so from June onward, when the flood season was approaching. Among the municipalities, there were differences in information dissemination tendencies by prefecture, and it became clear that smaller municipalities were especially incapable of fully disseminating information via the Web.

The data from the prefectures and municipalities surveyed in this study were collected from websites and do not necessarily represent the actual response to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19 in those areas. To clarify this evacuation, more detailed surveys are needed.

This study is unique because no research has been conducted on the response of Japanese administrative agencies to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19; the actual situation was analyzed in this study by examining central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities as administrative agencies and comparing their responses.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-country determinants of the extent of firm information disseminated via company register (CR) websites.

The authors develop an index model (CR score) designed to capture the extent of regulated firm information disseminated via CR websites. The proposed index is applied to a unique sample of 137 countries. Following prior literature, the proposed index covers three dimensions: data availability, data accessibility and data serviceability. The index composition and the URLs of the CR websites are provided as an exhibit to this paper.

Across a variety of tests and sample compositions, the authors find consistent evidence that countries with a relatively high level of internet penetration, those that facilitate cross-border trading and those with higher governance quality show higher CR scores. The results are generally in line with theories of regulation.

The results of this paper speak directly to the current regulatory initiatives which aim to foster information acquisition and processing via company registers.

The authors provide early empirical evidence on the cross-country variation of dissemination of firm information via CR websites for a unique sample of 137 countries. Investors, analysts and other users of financial statements should be aware of the underlying factors that influence the extent and accessibility of firm information.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model to assess web-based corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure prominence and use this model to explore the prominence of CSR disclosures of listed New Zealand (NZ) companies.

A CSR Disclosure Prominence Indicator Model was constructed using five key elements that include the dissemination medium, accessibility, location, content variety and extent of CSR disclosures. The websites of 65 of the largest listed NZ companies from 11 industry groupings were explored through this model.

A significant proportion (81.5 per cent) of listed NZ companies in the sample were utilising their websites for communicating CSR information to stakeholders. The CSR Disclosure Prominence Indicator Model revealed that companies that have CSR-related disclosures on their websites used multiple dissemination media and locations to enhance prominence of such disclosures. CSR commentary on the webpage was the most prominent dissemination medium due to its ease of accessibility, with a separate CSR webpage being the most prominent location. Environmental performance and society-related issues received the most prominent emphasis. Although companies from “sensitive” industry sectors appeared to disclose their CSR information more prominently, those from “less sensitive” industries also attempted to make their CSR disclosure more prominent and noticeable through strategic placement and through the extent of disclosure.

The paper highlights the importance of managing web-based CSR disclosure prominence, thereby highlighting its significance in communication of CSR information.

Prominently placed CSR disclosures could be a significant platform for companies to strategically manage their image and identity. The CSR Disclosure Prominence Indicator Model could be utilised by companies to effectively assess and manage the prominence of CSR disclosures on their websites for more effective communication with stakeholders.

The paper complements earlier studies on CSR disclosures by constructing and applying a model to assess the prominence of web-based CSR disclosures.

Virtually all UK and US newspapers and the vast majority of regional and even local titles are now represented on the web. Indeed, the Yahoo news and media directory lists no less than 114 UK newspapers online (as of November 1998). Broadcasters from the BBC and Sky downwards, and all the famous news agencies (Press Association, Reuters etc.) also boast comprehensive Internet services. With such an array of sources available, the future of mass access to the Internet, possibly via TV terminals, suggests that more and more people may soon opt for this medium to receive the bulk of their news information. This paper gives an overview of the characteristics of the medium illustrated with examples of how these are being used to both facilitate and enhance the content and dissemination of the news product. These characteristics include hyperlinking to external information sources, providing archive access to past reports, reader interactivity and other features not possible to incorporate into more passive media such as the hardcopy newspaper. From a survey of UK and US news providers it is clear that American newspapers are exploiting the advantages of web information dissemination to a far greater extent than their British counterparts, with the notable exception of The Electronic Telegraph. UK broadcasters, however, generally appear to have adapted better to the new medium, with the BBC rivaling CNN in its depth and extent of news coverage, use of links and other elements.

On the heels of the rapid growth of the World Wide Web have come advances in multimedia document formats and the hardware and software to support them. As a result of this combination of factors, the electronic journal is, at last, economically and aesthetically viable.

This study aims to investigate the current practices being implemented against the dissemination of fake online news, identify the relationship of new media literacy (NML) with fake news epidemic control and find out the challenges in identifying valid sources of information.

To accomplish constructed objectives of this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. The authors carried out the “Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” guidelines as a research methodology. The data were retrieved from ten world’s leading digital databases and online tools. A total of 25 key studies published in impact factor (IF) journals were included for systematic review vis-à-vis standard approaches.

This study revealed trending practices to control fake news consisted of critical information literacy, civic education, new thinking patterns, fact-checkers, automatic fake news detection tools, employment of ethical norms and deep learning via neural networks. Results of the synthesized studies revealed that media literacy, web literacy, digital literation, social media literacy skills and NML assisted acted as frontline soldiers in combating the fake news war. The findings of this research also exhibited different challenges to control fake news perils.

This study provides pertinent theoretical contributions in the body of existing knowledge through the addition of valuable literature by conducting in-depth systematic review of 25 IF articles on a need-based topic.

This scholarly contribution is fruitful and practically productive for the policymakers belonging to different spectrums to effectively control web-based fake news epidemic.

This intellectual piece is a benchmark to address fake news calamities to save the social system and to educate citizens from harms of false online stories on social networking websites.

This study vivifies new vistas via a reinvigorated outlook to address fake news perils embedded in dynamic, rigorous and heuristic strategies for redefining a predetermined set of social values.