Why context, relevance and repetition matter in news reporting: Interpreting the United Kingdom’s political information environment

This study develops a multi-method approach to analysing political information environments, exploring how media and political systems help shape people’s understanding of news. In doing so, we ask a question fundamental to democratic citizenship: how well do news media communicate political responsibility and policy differences across political systems? Our study examines the United Kingdom’s political information environment, where significant power is devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with different political parties in control. Drawing on a content analysis of 17,765 news items, a representative survey of 3272 respondents and 15 semi-structured interviews, we examine the dominant information sources about UK politics by longitudinally tracing coverage of devolved issues from 2007 to 2016, and gauging how well it was understood by television news viewers. Our results suggest that while BBC news is more sensitive to communicating the devolved relevance of news than more commercial outlets, there remains a democratic deficit in the supply of political information and audience understanding of where power and responsibility lies. If news coverage more regularly communicated the relevance and context of devolved issues, we argue it could open up democratic opportunities for citizens to consider a wider range of policy options debated in all four political institutions

Introduction to special issue about election reporting: Why journalism (still) matters

© The Author(s) 2019. This introduction unpacks the eight articles that make up this Journalism special issue about election reporting. Taken together, the articles ask: How has election reporting evolved over the last century across different media? Has the relationship between journalists and candidates changed in the digital age of campaigning? How do contemporary news values influence campaign coverage? Which voices – politicians, say or journalists – are most prominent? How far do citizens inform election coverage? How is public opinion articulated in the age of social media? Are sites such as Twitter developing new and distinctive election agendas? In what ways does social media interact with legacy media? How well have scholars researched and theorised election reporting cross-nationally? How can research agendas be enhanced? Overall, we argue this Special Issue demonstrates the continued strength of news media during election campaigns. This is in spite of social media platforms increasingly disrupting and recasting the agenda setting power of legacy media, not least by political parties and candidates who are relying more heavily on sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to campaign. But while debates in recent years have centred on the technological advances in political communication and the associated role of social media platforms during election campaigns (e.g. microtargeting voters, spreading disinformation/misinformation and allowing candidates to bypass media to campaign), our collection of studies signal the enduring influence professional journalists play in selecting and framing of news. Put more simply, how elections are reported still profoundly matters in spite of political parties’ and candidates’ more sophisticated use of digital campaigning

PSM Contribution to democracy: News, editorial standards and informed citizenship

This chapter examines the questions that PSM face about their continued role and relevance against the backdrop of a fast-changing and increasingly commercialised media landscape. It examines the evidence about news produced by PSM and considers the implications for democracy in two ways. First, it draws on the latest academic scholarship to examine the evidence about whether PSM produce news that is distinctive from their market-driven rivals. Second, it considers how informative PSM coverage is compared to their commercial competitors. The chapter assesses the latest research to establish whether public or commercial media systems offer the most effective way of raising public knowledge about politics and public affairs

Making mentoring work: The need for rewiring epistemology

To help produce expert coaches at both participation and performance levels, a number of governing bodies have established coach mentoring systems. In light of the limited literature on coach mentoring, as well as the risks of superficial treatment by coach education systems, this paper therefore critically discusses the role of the mentor in coach development, the nature of the mentor-mentee relationship and, most specifically, how expertise in the mentee may best be developed. If mentors are to be effective in developing expert coaches then we consequently argue that a focus on personal epistemology is required. On this basis, we present a framework that conceptualizes mentee development on this level through a step by step progression, rather than unrealistic and unachievable leap toward expertise. Finally, we consider the resulting implications for practice and research with respect to one-on-one mentoring, communities of practice, and formal coach education

PROXIMAL AND DISTAL CONSTRAINTS REDUCE DIMENSIONALITY OF VERTICAL JUMPING TASKS

The purpose of this study was to examine motor control strategies employed to control the degrees of freedom when performing a lower limb task with constraints applied at the hip, knee and ankle. Thirty-five individuals performed vertical jumping tasks: hip flexed, no knee bend and plantar flexed. Joint moment data from hip, knee and ankle was analysed using principal component analysis (PCA). In all, PCA performed, a minimum of two and maximum of six principal components (PCs) were required to describe the movement. A proximal to distal reduction in variability was only observed for the hip flexed and no knee bend conditions. Collectively, the results suggest a reduction in the dimensionality of the movement occurs, despite the constraints imposed within each condition and would suggest dimensionality reduction and motor control strategies are a function of the task demands

Jump test asymmetry profiles of elite trials cyclists.

Bike trials is a cycling discipline in which riders navigate a series of obstacle courses on their bikes. As many of the techniques used in trials riding are acyclic, riders will display a natural preference as to which foot is on the front pedal. The primary aim of this study was to try to identify if this unique riding style creates a sport-specific inter-limb asymmetry profile during a range of common jump tests. Eight elite trials riders (mean age 20.0 ± 0.9 years, height 178.5 ± 6.8 cm, weight 76.1 ± 10.4 kg) completed three repetitions each of countermovement jump, single leg countermovement jump and single leg hop tests. There were no significant asymmetries between the overall group means for the jump tests (absolute asymmetry: countermovement jump 5.4 ± 3.6%; single leg countermovement jump 10.0 ± 5.4%; and single leg hop 5.9 ± 4.0%). There were however significant (p<0.05) individual asymmetries found in all of the jump tests and meaningful asymmetries (percentage asymmetry greater than coefficient of variation) in both of the single leg tests. The direction of asymmetry was shown to be variable across the different tests (Fleiss’ Kappa = -0.34). Some participants also showed meaningful and significant differences in the movement strategies used within a test, though again there were no significant differences in the group means. The findings suggest inter-limb asymmetries are highly task specific and there was no evidence to suggest that trials riders develop specific asymmetries due to the asymmetrical physical demands of their sport

Chloroquine Analogues as Leads against Pneumocystis Lung Pathogens

The impact of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) on morbidity and mortality remains substantial for immunocompromised individuals, including those afflicted by HIV infection, organ transplantation, cancer, autoimmune diseases, or subject to chemotherapy or corticosteroid-based therapies. Previous work from our group has shown that repurposing antimalarial compounds for PcP holds promise for treatment of this opportunistic infection. Following our previous discovery of chloroquine analogues with dual-stage antimalarial action both in vitro and in vivo, we now report the potent action of these compounds on Pneumocystis carinii in vitro Identification of chloroquine analogues as anti-PcP leads is an unprecedented finding.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Differences in Motor Control Strategies of Jumping Tasks, as Revealed by Group and Individual Analysis.

The aim of this study was to investigate the motor control strategies adopted when performing two jumping tasks with different task demands when analysed at an individual and group level. Twenty-two healthy individuals performed two jumping tasks: jumping without the use of an arm swing (CMJnas) and jumping starting in a plantar flexed position with the use of an arm swing (PF). Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using hip, knee and ankle joint moment data on individual (PCAi) and group data (PCAc). The results demonstrate that a greater number of PCs are required to explain the majority of variance within the dataset in the PF condition at both an individual and group level, compared to CMJnas condition. Although common control strategies were observed between the two jumping conditions, differences in the organisation of the movement (PC loading coefficients) were observed. Results from the group analysis did not completely reflect the individual strategies used to perform each jumping task and highlight the value in performing individual analysis to determine emergent control strategies

PRIMACENES: novel non-cytotoxic primaquine-ferrocene conjugates with anti-Pneumocystis carinii activity

Primacenes, novel ferrocene-primaquine conjugates, were synthesized and screened for their antimalarial and anti-pneumocystis activity. Primacenes obtained by coupling primaquine amino acid derivatives to ferrocenoic acid were significantly active against Pneumocystis carinii and devoid of cytotoxicity, thus being more selective than the parent drug

Anti-pneumoscystis carinni activitiy of primaquine imidazolidin-4-ones

Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is one of the most frequent causes of mortality among HIV-infected patients. Primaquine (PQ) is an antimalarial 8-aminoquinoline effective against PCP when given in combination with clindamycin. This has drawn the attention of Medicinal Chemists towards the anti-PCP activity of 8-aminoquinolines, not only confined to those exhibiting antimalarial activity [1]. It is thought that anti-PCP 8-aminoquinolines exert their anti-PCP activity by acting on the electronic transport and redox system of the P. carinii pathogen [1]. Recently, our research group has been developing imidazolidin-4-one derivatives of PQ (Scheme 1), targeting novel compounds with improved therapeutic action, namely, higher resistance to metabolic inactivation, lower toxicity and equal or higher antimalarial activity than that of the parent drug [2,3]. These imidazolidin-4-ones were seen to block the transmission of rodent malaria, caused by Plasmodium berghei on BalbC mice, to the mosquito vector Anopheles stephensi [3]. The anti-PCP activity of our PQ derivatives is now under study and preliminary in vitro assays [4] show that some of the compounds exhibit slight to moderate activity after a 72 h incubation period against P. carinii. In one case, the IC50 was comparable to that of parent PQ. Both these studies and forthcoming results from ongoing biological assays will be presented and discussed