The Rise and Fall of Comics Journalism Magazines and Their Legacy: Experiences of Graphic Storytelling in the USA, Italy, and France

Today's use of comics as a new language in journalism was preceded by some "notable failures" of magazines which lasted just a few issues, but still left their mark on the foundation of a new type of storytelling. Magazines like Joe Sacco's Yahoo, which ran 6 issues from 1988 to 1992, paved the way for other international episodes in comics journalism, as did the magazine Mamma! which was printed in Italy, as well as other digitally published "tablet magazines" in the USA and Europe. The American tablet magazine Symbolia, published online from 2013 to 2015, and previous examples of web comics seem to have reached the diffusion limits of media trying to found their way into popular culture. At the same time, comics journalism pioneers succeeded in creating a new readership that led renowned international magazines like Le Monde Diplomatique (in October 2010) and The New York Times Magazine (in June 2017) into running issues entirely based on comics and "bandes dessinées". The French magazine La Revue dessinée, and the US magazines The Nib and World War 3 Illustrated, which are still in print and reach only a select audience of readers, are the most recent attempts to support the struggling industries of newspaper and book publishers with a new form of visual storytelling based on the language of comics. This paper examines multiple case studies, background materials and interviews with people directly involved in comics journalism magazines in Italy, France, and the USA, to construct a broad overview of this form of publishing. In 2002 Joe Sacco declared that "the fifth issue of Yahoo remained his favorite comic book of all time since it was the one where his writing was the least restricted" (Marshall 2004). Is there still space for this kind of creative freedom at the crossroads between comics and journalism? This exploratory inquiry will contribute to a better understanding of the extent to which the legacy of comics journalism pioneers outlived the life of their magazines, and still persists in the use of comics as a language in journalism.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Pasta: a proposal for an "open taxonomy" of science communication practices to overcome the limits of scicomm models

To overcome the complexity introduced by the multifaceted nature of the science communication ecosystem, we proposed a taxonomy based on literature review, to categorize different types of interactions between science and society. While some practices can fall into existing and well-known science communication models (like deficit, dialogue or participation) the emerging of new scicomm practices, new publics and new technologies can be better described with an open taxonomy, where practices used to communicate scientific content can be classified from a set of properties, and not necessarily by a correspondence to a known model. Under this reference framework, different practices of science communication, laying on the overlap of multiple models, can be described, designed and defined using five parameters or "axes": Paradigms, Actors, Strategies, Target and Agenda, that can be summarized in the mnemonic PASTA acronym.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Critical topics and good practices for trust in science communication before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

For a qualitative analysis of factors affecting trust in science communication (scicomm) we used the Delphi method to reach a pool of experts based in Italy and Belgium (researchers/academics, journalists and scicomm practitioners) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed a ‘strong’ consensus (confirmed before and during the pandemic) about good practices promoting trust in scicomm (mainly based on direct interactions with targeted audiences), and about critical topics where trust plays a key role. Such topics include vaccines and the role of pharmaceutical companies, climate change and environmental issues, medical sciences, communication of health risks and public health issues. According to our results, issues related to health and environment were perceived as critical and controversial subjects for trust in scicomm even before the pandemic. The same pool of experts also expressed very diverse views regarding risks and threats to trust in scicomm, and the social, cultural, political and environmental factors that can increase and promote trust in scientific communication among lay audiences. Such diversity reveals the need for further research to explore differences due to the context, based on the individual views of experts or generated from a conceptualisation of trust in scicomm which may be still fuzzy and unclear.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The problem of trust in scicomm: Transforming global science communication with adaptive management of local uncertainties

To explore the bond of trust between science communication and lay publics, we gathered a pool of experts including researchers/academics, journalists and scicomm practitioners based in Italy and Belgium. Using the Delphi method we answered before and after Covid-19 pandemic spread the following research questions: according to the experts consulted, what are the critical topics, the key factors, the possible risks and the good practices that can affect the bond of trust between general public and science communication? Is there consensus among the experts on the above mentioned issues?info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Assessing the Conformity of Plasticizer-Free Polymers for Foodstuff Packaging Using Solid Phase Microextraction Coupled to Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Phthalates are the synthetic chemical plasticizers with the most varied uses and are a source of concern due to their toxicity and ubiquity, so much so that even plasticizer-free polymers can contain them as non-intentionally added substances (NIAS). Food packaging is among the materials with the greatest impact. In this study, a simple protocol is proposed for the location and identification of dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, dipropyl phthalate, and dibutyl phthalate which is applicable to compliance studies of food packaging materials and for the associated risk assessment. Solid phase microextraction gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to evaluate the migration of four NIAS from food packaging to release media simulating food substrates. Three plasticizer-free polymers were used: two that were lab-made and based on sodium alginate and a commercial polyethylene film. Linearity ranged from the LOQ to 10 mu g/mL; within-day and between-day precision values were between 12.3-25.7% and 21.9-35.8%, respectively; the LOD and LOQ were in the range 0.029-0.073 mu g/mL and 0.122-0.970 mu g/mL. Migration tests were conducted for different periods of time at room temperature and at 8 degrees C. Exposure to microwaves (MW) was also evaluated. All packaging materials tested had global migration limits lower than 10 mg/dm2 of material surface

Ecologia Digitale : Per una tecnologia a servizio di persone, società e ambiente

Il digitale è fisico. Questo libro spiega in che modo la rivoluzione digitale impatta su clima, ambiente, lavoratori e società. Un manifesto per il digitale sostenibile