Apathy and Antipathy: Media Coverage of Restrictive Immigration Legislation and the Maintenance of Symbolic Boundaries

Although the government no longer explicitly establishes boundaries of whiteness, it continues to play a central role in shaping symbolic boundaries between immigrants and nonimmigrants through immigration lawmaking. However, the salience of these boundaries may depend on how the media disseminate them to the public. In this study, we investigate media framing of immigration lawmaking using an original data set of news coverage of six of the most widely recognized exclusionary immigration bills and laws at different levels of government. Two patterns emerged from an iterative frame analysis. First, in their coverage of frames critical of these bills and laws, outlets devoted more attention to the effects of exclusionary legislation for nonimmigrants. Second, in their coverage of frames supportive of the restrictive legislation, outlets provided more space to those who openly associated immigrants with criminality and terrorism. Regardless of outlets’ seemingly neutral stance toward restrictive legislation, their disparate coverage of exclusionary lawmaking demonstrates apathy and antipathy toward immigrants, which has repercussions for the maintenance of inequality.     

合理性与合法性:现代化的两块基石

在实现经济现代化方面,起至关重要作用的两大决定性因素就是市场和企业组织。但是,市场和企业的正常运作却离不开公共行政的相对独立及其作用。实际上,现代市场、现代企业组织、相对独立于政治的公共行政这三者之间,不仅存在着产生和发展上的共时性,而且在相互关系上也存在着内在的和必然的逻辑联系,从而推动了现代经济的迅速发展。这种内在联系来自三者的共同基础,这就是合理性和合法性。因此,合理性和合法性是现代化的逻辑基础,也可以把合理性和合法性看成是衡量现代化程度的两项主要尺度。     

Loneliness and the use of social media to follow celebrities: A moderating role of social presence

Because social media provide users with the possibility of an easy way to communicate with celebrities in society, it has become a more common practice to follow celebrities through social media. However, there exists few studies that examine how people’s individual characteristics are related to their celebrity-following behavior. In this regard, the current study examines whether celebrity followers’ loneliness is associated with the following behavior of their favorite celebrity. Data were collected through an online survey (N = 210). Primary findings suggest that celebrity followers’ loneliness is positively related to frequent visits of their favorite celebrity’s social media, greater social-interpersonal motive for following the celebrity, and greater enjoyment of learning about personal life stories of the celebrity. Social presence is found to be a significant moderator that can intensify more favorable parasocial relationship perceptions with the celebrity.     

Community-Based Services and Depression from Person-Environment Fit Perspective: Focusing on Functional Impairments and Living Alone

ABSTRACT

Guided by the Person-Environment Fit perspective, we investigated the extent to which personal and environmental factors influence depression among community-dwelling adults. The data came from the special section about community-based service utilization in the 2012 Health and Retirement Study (N=1,710). Although community-based service was not significantly associated with depression after controlling for covariates, respondents with functional limitations and living alone were less likely to be depressed when using community-based services. This study demonstrates the different associations between community-based services and depression depending on personal needs. It discusses the importance of community-based services for aging-in-place policy, particularly among vulnerable populations.     

What about Rural Blight? Housing and Neighborhood Conditions in Southeastern Small Towns

Though the concept of blight clarifies housing and neighborhood changes in rural and small towns experiencing disinvestment and decline, the term is rarely examined outside of urban discourse. This study explores the extent of rural blight and its relationship to community characteristics using survey results from elected officials and staff members of small towns in one southeastern state. We examine the historical background of blight, including its connections to urban renewal, racial bias and stereotyping, and the broken windows theory. Among the small towns in the study, economic blight, particularly dilapidated housing, was prevalent. Social blight, which includes behaviors that are thought to be threatening or criminal in nature, was less common but correlated moderately with economic forms of blight. While social disorganization and collective efficacy theories link a range of demographic characteristics to physical and social disorder, our findings pointed only to a significant relationship between communities with a higher portion of the population who are black and multiple forms of extensive blight. More research is needed to understand the relationship, both observed and perceived, between economic and social blight in rural small towns and how these issues may be remediated through local collective action.     

DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES: GOVERNMENT SPENDING MULTIPLIERS IN HARD TIMES

We investigate state-dependent effects of fiscal multipliers and allow for endogenous sample splitting to determine whether the U.S. economy is in a slack state. When the endogenized slack state is estimated as the period of the unemployment rate higher than about 12%, the estimated cumulative multipliers are significantly larger during slack periods than nonslack periods and are above unity. We also examine the possibility of time-varying regimes of slackness and find that our empirical results are robust under a more flexible framework. Our estimation results point out the importance of the heterogenous effects of fiscal policy and shed light on the prospect of fiscal policy in response to economic shocks from the current COVID-19 pandemic. (JEL C32, E62, H20, H62)     

Socioeconomic inequality and adjustments in children’s perceptions of their agency as they age in South Korea

This paper explores how children's perceptions of their agency, as something that is closely associated with its exercise, appear in relation to social structural factors, especially their socioeconomic positions, as they age. Using data from 862 10–18 years old in South Korea, we examine how children's expressed optimism about their ability to achieve their occupational choices can conceal the impact of structural factors on their ‘choices’ and dispositions for (non‐)action over time. Based on the findings, we argue for a more careful interpretation of children's sense of agency that recognises its propensity to continuously adjust in contexts of structural inequality.