The communication of control in an international company: Methods of investigation

This article describes the methodology developed for the objective analysis of communication, in terms of its control content, in one international company. The research project examined detailed aspects of control and communication practices in the firm with some comparative material from other companies. This article is intended as a contribution both to the understanding of a complex communication system, and to the measurement of control in an international group of companies. For reasons of space an account of the mechanics of the analysis has been omitted.     

Prenatal child abuse risk assessment: a preliminary validation study

Workers need an efficient prenatal screener that can identify mothers at greatest risk of child abuse. Existing risk assessment methods are often invasive and difficult to administer. This study assessed child abuse risk in a sample of 49 expectant mothers using the Brigid Collins Risk Screener (BCRS). At three months postpartum, high-risk mothers scored significantly lower on the quality of infants' physical, social, and emotional environments than moderate or low-risk mothers. BCRS appears to offer a noninvasive, efficient approach to assessing risk of child abuse.     

Distinguishing how elite newspapers and A-list blogs cover crises: Insights for managing crises online

Through a content analysis of 887 blog posts and online newspaper articles about five political crises, this study helps crisis managers negotiate the blogosphere by answering a fundamental question: How, if at all, do blogs and newspapers cover crises differently? Significantly, the study extends existing knowledge by examining both structural and content attributes that distinguish how blogs and newspapers cover crises.     

与地质灾害有关的政策——发达国家的经验教训

发达国家具有在政策和立法框架内对付灾害的长期经验,然而,评价发达国家经验教训的重要一点是,这些经验教训应在受灾地区或国家的文化、法律和政治框架内加以借鉴.     

Exploratory Factor Analysis and Psychometric Properties of the Sexual Coercion Inventory

The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Sexual Coercion Inventory (SCI; Waldner, Vaden-Goad, & Sikka, 1999), revised by the authors (SCI-R). Overall, 514 high school and college students from a Midwestern state completed the SCI-R. To complete the SCI-R, high school participants completed paper-pencil surveys with those younger than 18 obtaining parental consent; college students older than 18 completed computer-based and paper-pencil surveys. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analyses were conducted to examine the validity of score interpretation and reliability of scores for the measure. Results suggested that a 13-item multidimensional measure consisting of two factors, Manipulation and Substance Use and Aggression, provided the best parsimony and theoretical fit. Examination of convergent and discriminant validity of scores provided additional psychometric support for the revised SCI-R, specifically pertaining to other measures of sexual victimization. The SCI-R may be a useful tool for researchers to explore manipulation tactics in more depth while also assessing and differentiating between victimization that meets legal definitions of rape and non-criminal sexual victimization.     

Measuring Sexual Orientation: A Review and Critique of U.S. Data Collection Efforts and Implications for Health Policy

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Healthy People 2020 goals sought to improve health outcomes among sexual minorities; HHS acknowledged that a dearth of sexual orientation items in federal and state health surveys obscured a broad understanding of sexual minority–related health disparities. The HHS 2011 data progression plan aimed to advance sexual orientation data collection efforts at the national level. Sexual orientation is a complex, multidimensional construct often composed of sexual identity, sexual attraction, and sexual behavior, thus posing challenges to its quantitative and practical measurement and analysis. In this review, we (a) present existing sexual orientation constructs; (b) evaluate current HHS sexual orientation data collection efforts; (c) review post-2011 data progression plan research on sexual minority health disparities, drawing on HHS survey data; (d) highlight the importance of and (e) identify obstacles to multidimensional sexual orientation measurement and analysis; and (f) discuss methods for multidimensional sexual orientation analysis and propose a matrix for addressing discordance/branchedness within these analyses. Multidimensional sexual orientation data collection and analysis would elucidate sexual minority–related health disparities, guide related health policies, and enhance population-based estimates of sexual minority individuals to steer health care practices.     

Disentangling social media influence in crises: Testing a four-factor model of social media influence with large data

Social media empower publics by providing a platform for their voices during crises. Digital-enabled platforms allow individuals to become influentials by sharing their insights and expertise with others. Confronted with the fast-paced and complex dynamics of crises, we lack a systematic conceptualization and a valid measure of social media influence in the crisis context. By integrating diverse perspectives on influence, we propose a new framework that theorizes different dimensions of social media influence based on publics’ communicative behaviors during crises. This integrated framework offers a refined conceptualization and measurement of social media influence in crises by incorporating the network perspective. We tested the framework with large-scale Twitter data from four crises. Results from multigroup CFA on Twitter influencers suggest that social media influence is composed of four factors: output, reactive outtake, proactive outtake, and network positioning. Each factor is associated with a distinct set of users’ behavioral indicators (e.g., retweet). Implications for crisis communication and public relations are discussed.