Douglas A Van BelleDouglas A. Van Belle is a senior lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His most recent research focuses on the role of the media in the adoption of disaster risk reduction policies, but his publications range from dynmic models of rational choice in revolutionary collective actions to the critical comparison of the concept of science as applied in political science and paleontology. Other areas of research include media freedom, foreign aid, popular culture and politics, and the social dynamics of science as applied to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.