Media variants,situation awareness,and protective public-health behaviors

This study investigates the effect of exposure to traditional and social media on protective behaviors during a public health emergency, mediated by situation awareness composed of perceived knowledge and perceived threat. Under the context of the worldwide spread of Ebola in 2014, a survey conducted in Hong Kong showed that, compared to exposure to social media regarding the emergency, exposure to traditional media produced a higher level of situation awareness, which further affected protective behaviors in a public health emergency. In addition, the effect of traditional media exposure on protective behaviors was significantly mediated by both perceived knowledge and perceived threat. However, the effect of social media exposure on protective behavior was only significantly mediated by perceived knowledge, but not by perceived threat.     

Parenting with a Disability and Child Mental Health: A Propensity Score Analysis

Little research has examined the impact of having a parent with a disability on child mental health. This study used data from 7,116 families of children who participated in the 2006 National Health Interview Survey and propensity score matching (PSM) to investigate this question. Prior to PSM, differences in Child Mental Health Brief scores were significant with a moderate effect size. After PSM, differences in Child Mental Health Brief scores were still significant, but the effect size was small. Results indicate that much of the mental health risk for children of parents with disabilities is connected to related issues.     

Effects of exercise training with weighted vests on bone turnover and isokinetic strength in postmenopausal women

The effects of 12 wk of exercise training using weighted vests on bone turnover and isokinetic strength were evaluated in postmenopausal women randomly assigned as exercisers (EX; n = 9) or controls (CON; n = 7). Training included 3 multimodal exercise sessions per wk wearing weighted vests. The vest load was progressively increased each wk to a maximum of 15% of body weight. Bone turnover was determined from resting levels of serum osteocalcin and NTx. Knee and ankle strength were measured at 60 degrees/s and 180 degrees/s using an isokinetic dynamometer. After 12 wk, NTx decreased by 14.5% (P 相似文献   

Parental substance misuse and compliance as factors determining child removal: A sample from the Victorian Children's Court in Australia

Purpose

The current study explores the role of parental substance misuse in child protection cases and examines its impact as a factor in decisions on child removal in court orders.

Methods

A cohort of 273 child protection cases from the Victorian Children's Court was reviewed. This sample consisted of cases where children have been removed (Custody to Secretary Order, n = 142 cases) or remained with parents (Supervision Order, n = 131 cases). Data was extracted on parental substance misuse in single and two parent households as well as compliance with court-based and child protection directives.

Principle results

Parental substance misuse (PSM) was present in 51% of child protection cases sampled and among those, poly-substance abuse was common (67%). PSM was associated with Indigenous status; younger age of child at court appearance; having a court-proven case of emotional abuse, less compliance with child protection services and a longer time between notification to authorities and final court decision. In one parent households, only parental compliance is the primary factor underlying decisions of child removal. In two parent households, the decision to remove a child from the family home was ultimately driven by parental compliance, and to a lesser extent by PSM of illicit drugs and the number of parents misusing drugs.

Conclusion

PSM and non-compliance appear to be significant factors in delaying stability for the child through the granting of court orders which may involve child removal. There is a need, by child protection professionals, for prompt recognition of PSM and associated compliance/engagement issues in order to refer appropriate cases for further assessment and treatment in specialist drug treatment services. Early involvement with specialist drug treatment services provides the Court with an indication of compliance which is an important factor for making decisions that assist with achieving stability for the child.     

Effect of the Imagination Library on caregiver–child literacy interactions and school readiness: findings from two quasi-experimental propensity score studies

The paper reports findings of two quasi-experimental, propensity score matched (PSM) studies on the effects of Imagination Library (IL). IL is a community book-distribution program targeting improved caregiver–child literacy interactions, which are hypothesized to lead to increased school readiness – consisting of improved emergent literacy skills and social-emotional school readiness. In Study One, interviews were used to examine proximal increases in the quality of child–caregiver literacy interactions with 112 PSM families (IL?=?56; non-IL?=?56). Small effects were observed in Study One favoring IL families on reading interactions (d?=?.043). In Study Two, 378 PSM kindergarten students (IL?=?189; non-IL?=?189) were compared with regard to standardized tests of emergent literacy skills and social-emotional school readiness – distal outcomes of IL. No effects were observed in Study Two. Taken together, these two studies run counter to prior reports on the effects of IL and suggest that more must be done to improve emergent literacy and school readiness beyond simply providing free books.     

Part‐Time Employment and Problem Behaviors: Evidence From Adolescents in South Korea

This study explores the impact of adolescent part‐time work experience on problem behaviors in the South Korean context. To achieve this, propensity score matching (PSM) analyses were employed based on data from the Korean Education Employment Panel (KEEP). Results indicate that adolescents' part‐time employment during their secondary school years had significantly undesirable effects on drinking and smoking, even after preexisting differences between the two groups (i.e., those adolescents who participated in part‐time work and those who did not) were controlled by PSM. However, an insignificant difference was detected in the likelihood of running away from home. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of changes in the meanings of adolescence and of participating in part‐time work in South Korea.     

THE THRESHOLD OF PUBLIC ATTENTION

The analysis reviews time series data for the period 1945 to1980 on media coverage and corresponding public attention toa set of ten political issues including poverty, racial problems,Watergate, and Vietnam. The study focuses on the early stagesof public awareness and the need for a "critical mass" or thresholdto move a matter from the status of private concern to a public,political issue. The pattern of evolving public awareness variesdramatically for different types of issues. In some cases, thepublic appears to have a much steeper "response function" inreacting to real-world cues than the media; in other cases,the media seem to be more responsive. Modeling the growth ofattention to public issues with the logistic curve met withmodest success. The article concludes with a call for much closercoordination between agenda-setting research and the study ofpolitical cognition.     

Knowing that you mimic me: the link between mimicry,awareness and liking

Mimicry pays off for a mimicker, and that mimickees are not aware of being influenced by mimicry. In this study, we investigated the link between mimicry, awareness and liking using a 2 (mimicry: yes/no) × 4 (awareness manipulation) experimental design. We found a main effect of mimicry (the confederate was liked more in the mimicry condition) and an interaction between mimicry and awareness. Awareness manipulation had a limited effect on the association between mimicry and liking. Providing participants with little or no information about mimicry (information not including any remarks about its consequences) had an effect on the association between mimicry and liking. However, when participants were informed about the interpersonal consequences of mimicry, mimicry did not influence liking.     

Breaking Out of Academic Isolation: The Media Odyssey of a Sociologist

The professional development of sociologists involves specialized training through which we acquire and apply numerous skills. However, it is unlikely that our professional socialization includes training in how to inform the public about sociological knowledge and research through media involvement. As a sociologist who did not receive such training and was not prepared for the enormous unanticipated media and public interest given to my research topic, I provide a personal account of my unexpected metamorphosis into a media self and my experiences working with the media. I describe the nature of my professional and media obscurity, provide an overview of my initiation into media culture, and explore a self-transformation process that became necessary to manage the responsibilities associated with the media-assigned role of expert. I identify and examine the lessons I learned through extensive media involvement and the emergent realities of this involvement. Based on my experiences and resulting awareness of media culture, I offer to the discipline some suggestions and guidelines for media involvement and advocate for media training.     

Visual studies of rural life

In the last 20 years the notion that images overpower words, and the belief that a decreasing lexical literacy among the young has been offset by an increasing visual literacy, has been repeated often enough to become accepted wisdom. Yet the precise nature of visual literacy among the young and the relationship between visual competencies and the notion of media literacy have not been fully explored or adequately specified. Concepts of visual literacy and media literacy are unproductively conflated, and visual competencies are too often assumed on the part of those that exhibit familiarity with media culture. This essay compares and analyses notions of visual competence and media literacy and argues that: (1) a cultivated awareness of the production of visual forms and characteristics, and their implications, is necessary for what has been described in the literature as ‘media literacy’; and (2) the acquisition of visual analysis skills pre‐requires a broader operational context of media literacy. Through an examination of images from religious painting to news coverage the article argues that visual competencies and media literacy skills may, indeed, be mutually dependent.     

Multi-media campaign exposure effects on knowledge and use of condoms for STI and HIV/AIDS prevention in Uganda

This study examined the influences of behavior change communication (BCC) campaigns on knowledge and use of condoms for prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in target areas of Uganda. Data were drawn from the 1997 and 1999 Delivery of Improved Services for Health (DISH) evaluation surveys, which collected information from representative samples of women and men of reproductive age in the districts served by the DISH project. Logistic regressions were used to assess the associations between BCC exposure and condom knowledge and use, controlling for individuals' background characteristics. Results indicated that BCC exposure was strongly associated with higher condom knowledge: women and men who reported being exposed to messages in the mass media were at least twice as likely as those with no exposure to know of condoms as a mean to avoid HIV/AIDS. A dose–response effect was observed, suggesting that campaigns using multiple media channels may be most effective in improving sexual health knowledge. At the same time, certain gender differences of the influences on condom use were found, with the channel and content of messages seemingly more important in terms of instilling safer sex practices. While there was some evidence of bias of self-report, exploratory analysis of the indirect effects of communications campaigns suggested that impacts may be compounded as overall awareness is increased at the community level eventually leading to behavior change among individuals.     

From Fellowship to Stewardship? Explaining Extra-Role Behavior of Volunteer Firefighters

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - We present a research model of extra-role behavior, integrating the literature on public service motivation (PSM) with...     

Community mental health and mass media preventive education: the alternatives project.

An innovative mental health preventive education and public information program employing mass media was conducted in the Louisville, Kentucky, metropolitan area. Social work and mental health concepts of prevention were applied as a framework for developing project goals. Systematic evaluation, based on data from client-initiated telephone contacts and surveys of the community, demonstrated project success in increasing awareness and utilization of community mental health resources. The overall impact on assessment attitudes was positive; changes in resolution attitudes were not statistically significant. Implications for mass media utilization in mental health prevention are discussed.     

Media reputation in initial public offerings: A study of financial news coverage in Hong Kong

This study investigated media reputation in initial public offerings (IPOs) by proposing eight attributes of substantive media reputation from environmental and product-resource perspectives. A content analysis on financial news coverage (2281 newspaper articles from 2004 to 2010) in Hong Kong was conducted to examine how print media reported financial and nonfinancial information on 38 IPO firms in the sectors of financial, properties and construction, and consumer goods. Results from partial least squares analysis showed that, although substantive media reputation and recency of news coverage together only explained a small proportion of changes in IPO share price, substantive media reputation has a significant positive effect on changes in IPO share price. Apart from the significant positive effect from the presentation tone of environmental attributes, the tone of social attributes had a significant negative effect on substantive media reputation. With the increasing concern on measuring media reputation attributes in financial news coverage across different contexts, this study contributes to the applicability of environmental and product-resource attributes in the specific context of IPOs.     

Examining the structure of awareness and perceptions of groundnut aflatoxin among Ghanaian health and agricultural professionals and its influence on their actions

This study uses a modified health belief model (HBM) within a socio-economic framework to evaluate the influence of awareness and knowledge on actions to reduce aflatoxin (AF) contamination in groundnuts (peanuts). Data were collected in 2002 through a self-administered questionnaire from a sample of 367 individuals. Socio-economic factors affecting perceptions, awareness, knowledge, and action were examined using structural equation modeling. The perceived benefits of good quality groundnuts and/or groundnut products were the most important determinants of awareness and knowledge of AF among agricultural and health professionals in Ghana. Awareness, in turn, had a significant causal effect on the professionals’ decisions to take actions to increase the level of awareness of AF in the society. Demographic factors, such as gender and level of education significantly influenced knowledge of AF and the perception of the benefits of good quality groundnut. Type of profession had a significant influence on awareness and perceived seriousness of the AF problem. Education was a significant determinant of awareness of AF in groundnuts. The study generates important information for policy decision making when considering resource allocation to reduce food contamination in developing economies.     

中阿合作论坛成立以来的中国对阿媒体交流

2004年中阿合作论坛成立至今,中国对阿媒体交流稳步发展,在中阿合作论坛框架下建立了新闻合作机制。但中国对阿媒体交流也面临一定的困境,包括已有新闻合作机制缺乏有力落实,涉阿媒体缺少大局意识和公共外交的意识,对阿媒体交流遭遇西方媒介帝国主义的压制,传播格局中民间媒体缺位和新媒体利用不够,对阿传播效果还有待提高。为了应对这些困境,中阿双方应将《中国与阿盟成员国新闻友好合作交流备忘录》的相关条款落到实处,此外,中国涉阿媒体应成为公共外交的重要主体或载体,中国要与阿拉伯媒体开展密切合作以破解西方话语霸权、注重利用新媒体进行传播、从而不断提升传播力。     

“We Became Sceptics”: Fear and Media Hype in General Public Narrative on the Advent of Pandemic Influenza

In this article, we examine the apparent resistance of publics to messages regarding pandemic influenza. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was addressed through media: governments used print, broadcast, and digital media to advise publics to enact hygiene practices and comply with social isolation; news media took up the pandemic as a lead story. Publics, however, rated the pandemic as not serious, even before it was widely known that it was mild for most. This problem is presently constructed as complacency: where individuals are seen to lack appropriate motivation to avoid risk. We combine perspectives on media reflexivity on the part of audiences with general public interviews and focus groups in Australia and the UK, to offer an alternative explanation for complacency. Publics endorse public health advice, but are skeptical of pandemic risk communication. They exhibit critical awareness of outbreak narrative and concomitant emotions, such as fear, which are coded into media stories. We, therefore, challenge the view that publics are complacent. Instead, governments must navigate an emerging terrain of ramified and critical media consumption to shape effective risk communication in time of global health emergency.     

Trending Trousers: Debating Kastom,Clothing and Gender in the Vanuatu Mediascape

This paper presents an ethnography of contemporary media practices in Vanuatu, with a particular focus on media narratives and debates around gender equality and women's clothing, exploring how the discourses of kastom, Christianity and ‘modernity’ are being employed and communicated across various media platforms. The use of community media to promote awareness of gender equality through participatory and entertaining content, and the use of mainstream media to communicate a narrative that reinforces existing gendered power structures are each explored. In addition, social media platforms are identified as an emerging communication tool through which users can straddle the line between producers and consumers of media content and narratives, and engage in frank debate around the issue of gender equality.     

NGOs in the News: The Road to Taken-for-Grantedness

The proliferation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) since the 1970s has generated a wealth of research as to the causes and implications of the rise of this sector. Public awareness of NGOs and their activities has grown as well, at least in part due to increased media coverage of the organizations and the situations to which they respond. Although NGOs are not new to global polity, media attention to them as a sector only really began to take off in the 1990s. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis of two international newspapers from 1985-2010, this study explores the legitimation process of NGOs and examines the role of categorization and labeling in this process. The results show that the establishment of a distinct label in the media served to propel cognitive recognition of NGOs, and that media coverage reflects changes in cognitive legitimacy over time.     

Does the medium matter? A meta-analysis on using social media vs. traditional media in crisis communication

There has been a growing body of crisis communication research that treats social media as a critical variable, which might alter how people perceive and react to crisis communication messages. The meta-analysis of 8 studies (k = 22, n = 3209, combined n = 9703) compared the impact of social media vs. traditional media in crisis communication. Five studies (n = 1896) contained 8 relevant effect sizes on crisis responsibility, representing 3294 individuals. Seven studies (n = 3185) contained 14 relevant effect sizes on persuasiveness, representing 6409 individuals. Compared to traditional media, using social media significantly lessened consumers’ perceived crisis responsibility (r = -.134, 95 % CI -.212– -.054, p = .001). There was no significant difference between using traditional media and social media in crisis communication on persuasiveness (r = -.039, 95 % CI -.114– .035, p = .30). The moderator analysis indicated that for both crisis responsibility and persuasiveness, the effect size was more noticeable when an organization communicates with college students vs. non-student publics. The ability of social media in dampening crisis responsibility was more pronounced for fictitious organizations compared to real organizations. Compared to traditional media, social media was significantly more negative for preventable crisis, the influence was weak for accidental crisis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as directions for future research.