9,045 research outputs found

    Why don’t pesticide applicators protect themselves? Exploring the use of personal protective equipment among Colombian smallholders

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    The misuse of personal protective equipment (PPE) during pesticide application was investigated among smallholders in Colombia. The integrative agent-centered (IAC) framework and a logistic regression approach were adopted. The results suggest that the descriptive social norm was significantly influencing PPE use. The following were also important: (1) having experienced pesticide-related health problems; (2) age; (3) the share of pesticide application carried out; and (4) the perception of PPE hindering work. Interestingly, the influence of these factors differed for different pieces of PPE. Since conformity to the social norm is a source of rigidity in the system, behavioral change may take the form of a discontinuous transition. In conclusion, five suggestions for triggering a transition towards more sustainable PPE use are formulated: (1) diversifying targets/tools; (2) addressing structural aspects; (3) sustaining interventions in the long-term; (4) targeting farmers’ learning-by-experience; and (5) targeting PPE use on a collective level

    Polarization and the Modern Media Landscape

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    Overview: This paper serves as an in-depth look into the partisan bias that exists in today’s mainstream and social media outlets and platforms, and concludes that this lack of objectivity further divides, polarizes and radicalizes the American populace. The evidence gathered supports the general claim that the mainstream media is indeed politically and ideologically biased to a certain extent, as are numerous influential social media blogs and news sites. Both loyal Democrats and Republicans enclose themselves within these ideological echo-chambers of their own making, based upon the news outlets they choose to use, as well as the way they choose to receive such news (for example, TV vs. mobile phone). This phenomenon is something that has been shown to further radicalize already sympathetic partisans to more extreme views, leading one to be more involved in political activism and debate, thus further spreading their extreme views to larger sections of the public. All of these findings and conclusions amount to a troubling prognosis for the future of stable democratic institutions, such as free speech, and for the future of an open, objective, and free press. Author\u27s Reflection: I am a sophomore with a dual major in history and political science. Professor Rosenberry\u27s Reflection: What I liked best about this paper is the writer\u27s strong, confident voice in staking out a claim and then showing extensive support for it. This support includes evidence drawn from both academic sources and news/trade sources. For a paper such as this on such a current topic, the combination of those two types of information is important to making an effective argument , and Mark manages the combination exceptionally well

    A Dynamic Embedding Model of the Media Landscape

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    Information about world events is disseminated through a wide variety of news channels, each with specific considerations in the choice of their reporting. Although the multiplicity of these outlets should ensure a variety of viewpoints, recent reports suggest that the rising concentration of media ownership may void this assumption. This observation motivates the study of the impact of ownership on the global media landscape and its influence on the coverage the actual viewer receives. To this end, the selection of reported events has been shown to be informative about the high-level structure of the news ecosystem. However, existing methods only provide a static view into an inherently dynamic system, providing underperforming statistical models and hindering our understanding of the media landscape as a whole. In this work, we present a dynamic embedding method that learns to capture the decision process of individual news sources in their selection of reported events while also enabling the systematic detection of large-scale transformations in the media landscape over prolonged periods of time. In an experiment covering over 580M real-world event mentions, we show our approach to outperform static embedding methods in predictive terms. We demonstrate the potential of the method for news monitoring applications and investigative journalism by shedding light on important changes in programming induced by mergers and acquisitions, policy changes, or network-wide content diffusion. These findings offer evidence of strong content convergence trends inside large broadcasting groups, influencing the news ecosystem in a time of increasing media ownership concentration

    From the Blogosphere into the Parliament: investigating the dynamics of the Five Star Movement case

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    Our teaching case introduces the story of how the Italian Five Star Movement (M5S) used digital technologies in the growth from a personal blog discussing politics back in 2005, to the most voted party in the Italian election in 2018, becoming part of the government. The M5S is amongst the largest eParticipation initiatives globally. It is (almost) totally organized through the use of digital platforms. Members form online communities and are continuously invited to discuss and make decisions that end up into Italian politics. Adopting a chronological perspective, we describe the development of the M5S, focusing on their use of digital technologies at various stages and for various purposes. The case illustrates the growth of an online communities and the advent of a social movement organization within the political sphere, and how to organize for members to discuss and make political decisions online. Furthermore, it demonstrates the growth of online communities and opportunities and challenges faced with such a quick progress
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