The use of Facebook for information seeking,decision support,and self-organization following a significant disaster

The wide-spread proliferation of the Internet has revolutionized the ways that individuals obtain, interpret, and respond to information in the aftermath of disaster. An F3 tornado that impacted the community of Goderich, Ontario, on 21 August 2011 provided the opportunity to examine how people utilized Facebook and Facebook groups to seek out information, self-organize, and provide support. This mixed-methods project was conducted in two phases. First, semi-structured interviews (n?=?35) were conducted with Goderich area residents on their experiences using social media after the tornado. Next, all of the publicly available posts and replies on the Goderich Ontario Tornado Victims and Support (GOTVS) Facebook group were gathered and analysed using computer-assisted content analysis. The results demonstrate that Facebook was a highly influential source of information and support, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Although misinformation and gossip occurred, the tendency was for the group to self-moderate inaccurate information. Public engagement by local officials may further reduce misinformation and encourage public confidence. The results also show that GOTVS activity significantly declined after two weeks. This abrupt decrease in public attention suggests that the window for engagement by public officials is narrow. As such, officials should have a social media plan in place so that they may engage with the public during the critical response phase when their participation may yield the greatest benefit. Finally, this research underscores the potential for analysing Facebook content using computer-assisted content analysis, a method that may be of interest across the social sciences.     

Abandoned negatives,Themeless Parks: images of contemporary China in two photographic projects

Abstract

This article juxtaposes two photographic projects to illustrate ways of perceiving everyday space in contemporary China: on the one hand, ‘Silvermine Project’ (2009–2013), by French collector and editor Thomas Sauvin, recycles a vast collection of abandoned film negatives from the 1980s to the early 2000s, and subsequently ‘curates’ these amateur images into the frame of a quasi-ethnographic approach. On the other hand, Hong Kong photographer Dustin Shum’s ‘Themeless Parks’ (2008) presents a series images of public parks in Chinese cities and towns. The two projects propose different readings of the ‘postsocialist’ condition in contemporary China. While the domestic shots curated by Sauvin actively mobilise individual and national identities in private and public spaces, Shum’s compositions of shape, colour and architectural density reveal a highly orchestrated ‘China’ that pre-empts the emergence of an individual identity. This paper analyses the textual articulations of individuality, space, and temporality in the two projects.     

Eliciting Street-Based Sex Worker Perspectives to Inform Prostitution Policy Development

Using a visual method developed with input from program participants, this study reports on data collected from people attending a Baltimore drop-in center for women in street-based sex work (N = 17). Respondents created collages expressing future hopes and aspirations, which they discussed in focus groups and interviews. Respondents focused on health, reunification with family, employment and housing. Although respondents’ easily visualized goals, they often seemed out of reach. Hurdles that they noted were largely due to poverty and lack of opportunities. Our findings highlight the negative impact of prostitution policy on women’s choices and their ability to achieve self-identified goals.     

Computerized Immediate Feedback Increases Product Recall Efficiency Due to Interlocking Contingencies in Food Manufacturing

Food manufacturing companies are challenged with tracking their products so that the company will be able to remove that product from circulation quickly and effectively in the event of a product recall. The accuracy of a recall is dependent upon the accuracy of a product selected for order fulfillment, with the correct product going to the correct store. An integrated solution using wireless handheld computers was programmed to provide immediate visual and audio feedback to the order selectors, in order to prevent errors in order selection. For each case selected, vital information was archived to databases in real-time, which in turn, allowed the company’s safety manager to perform quick and accurate product recall tracking in mock recall drills and state inspections. Results were discussed in terms of the expanding the role of the Organizational Behavior Management professional who addresses operational and ethical issues associated with technologies for better consumer safety.     

边疆文化的影视书写〗——论纪录片《茶马古道》的人类学意涵

《茶马古道》通过长期深入的田野多点追踪拍摄,以叙事的影像语言建构出茶马古道这一历史文化背景下的平民社会风貌。同时,借助于主流大众媒介的影响力与传播效应,也使得镜头记录下的茶马古道上的诸多文化元素,得以在一个更加广阔的时空维度上进行传播。将该片视作一个影视民族志文本,从人类学“文化批评”的视角出发,借由分析影像所呈现的宗教仪式、社会生活以及经济交往等日常活动,从中解读现代影视传媒是如何对茶马古道进行文化的阐释。并且值得注意的是,当大众传媒介入边疆文化时,媒介对文化现象的诠释通常已并非只是追求单纯的客观还原,而更像是在基于对文化背景的某种程度理解之上,对拍摄对象内涵所做出的一种独特表述。     

Remembrance: the Essop brothers,formative realism and contemporary African photography

Remembrance is the title of group of photographic artworks by Hasan and Husain Essop. Made in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the artworks picture people and places, buildings and landscapes. At first look, the action within the frames is straightforward. The photographs present ancient and modern religious sites in digitally produced, staged scenarios. However, there is an unseen complexity to these composite images that are made of hundreds of individual still shots, shot one section at a time and then meticulously stitched together. One impact of these contemporary artworks is their ability to show the powerful impact of global Islamic culture. Dynamics of place and belonging, the picturesque and landscape, slavery, religion and race are offered to view by means of these images. I offer formative realism as a conceptual framework to think with and against these pictures made by photographic means. I will say something about the concept and context of formative realism, discuss principal features and propose a way of seeing. The central questions are these: what do the Essops’ pictures show us about Islam in South Africa and beyond? How does this seeing matter to the ongoing activity of race, racism and “Othering” now? How does any of this matter to the dynamics of contemporary visual art in South Africa?     

从节日影像志看中华民族共同体文化与认同

从政治、文化和经济等维度来看,中华民族始终是连续的超稳定体系,多民族相互融合、相互促进、携手共进,这是中华民族自然空间、历史起源、文化发展和媒介叙述共同作用建构的。这些“各美其美”与“美美与共”的民族文化景象,值得影像媒介去系统化深描。各民族节日影像志以一种深描的方式,从根深蒂固的民族节日文化中,洞察鲜活的中华各民族文化新常态：各民族传统节日文化“各具特色”,少数民族节日中地方文化与官方话语“和而不同”,社会关系和社会变迁嵌入影像叙事彰显中华民族共同体的“时代之音”,由此增强中华民族共同体的文化认同、自信与自觉,建构起丰富的民族形象和文化肌理,铸牢中华民族共同体。     

张爱玲小说的视觉意象

张爱玲凭着灵敏的头脑和对于感觉快感的爱好,为中国现代文坛提供了别具一格的感官印象小说.从视觉意象角度,透过小说的构图、色调、色彩等审美表象,论析了张爱玲小说在人性挖掘,生存困境,悲剧意识等方面的内在意蕴,从而将西方现代主义质素化作中国的神韵,华丽的文笔浸染着苍凉的美学基调.     

Sliders,visual analogue scales,or buttons: Influence of formats and scales in mobile and desktop surveys

ABSTRACT

In an experiment dealing with the use of personal computer, tablet, or mobile, scale points (up to 5, 7, or 11) and response formats (bars or buttons) are varied to examine differences in mean scores and nonresponse. The total number of “not applicable” answers does not vary significantly. Personal computer has the lowest item nonresponse, followed by mobile and tablet, and a lower mean score than for mobile. Slider bars showed lower mean scores and more nonresponses than buttons, indicating that they are more prone to bias and difficult in use. Sider bars, which work with a drag-and-drop principle, perform worse than visual analogue scales working with a point-and-click principle and buttons. Five-point scales have more nonresponses than eleven-point scales. Respondents evaluate 11-point scales more positively than shorter scales.     

小说在电影世界中的浮沉--关于中篇小说电影改编的个案考察

当代中篇小说和电影改编之间的历史关系几历浮沉。20世纪80年代的“中篇小说热”引发的电影改编曾经创造了“第四代导演”、“第五代导演”的艺术辉煌。随着90年代以来小说世俗影响力的滑坡和中国电影商业性因素的增强,在散文热和长篇小说热的时代文化氛围中,执著于反思和先锋探索的中篇小说逐渐从文学的浪峰滑落。第五代导演的中篇小说情结逐渐淡化,而第六代导演反求诸己的自传情绪的表达又使得他们与当代小说保持了某种自觉的疏离;另一方面,小说家和电影之间的世俗妥协与精神对立共生共长,文学性、商业性、电影性三者的关系在中篇小说创作的困境与希望中呈现出较为复杂的文化状态。