Sexualization of the Journalism Profession: TV Representation of Female Journalists’ Intellect, Labor, and Bodies

The representations of journalists in popular culture contribute to the public perception of journalism, journalistic routines and conventions, the processes of newsgathering, and overall reality of news media. In a historically male-dominated profession in which the routinization of journalistic conventions seems to perpetuate the male perspective of journalism, the increasing presence of women journalists both reinforce and challenge the masculine culture of the newsroom. By employing a feminist perspective, combined with the discussion about journalistic norms and routines, this paper analyses representations of female journalists in two American television shows – House of Cards and The Following. The critical analysis of the representation of two women journalists’ characters contributes to the understanding of the mediated construction of newsroom reality in which women’s labor is gendered and sexualized for public consumption. Three thematic categories emerged in the content analysis – challenging the existing journalistic norms, negotiating femininity and sexuality, and victimization. All three categories are the most common discourses that negotiate two characters’ femininity, sexuality, and their bodies intertwined with their intellectual labor in the newsroom. The themes are not exhaustive of or limited to femininity and sexuality, but include discourses of access to information, new technologies, and business model changes in the media industry. The study considers how the representation of women journalists for public consumption portrays the use of their bodies to gather the news and how viewers might downplay the abilities of not only women in journalism but mistrust the process of news production and the journalistic profession overall

Subband Independent Component Analysis for Coherence Enhancement

Objective: Cortico-muscular coherence (CMC) is becoming a common technique for detection and characterization of functional coupling between the motor cortex and muscle activity. It is typically evaluated between surface electromyogram (sEMG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals collected synchronously during controlled movement tasks. However, the presence of noise and activities unrelated to observed motor tasks in sEMG and EEG results in low CMC levels, which often makes functional coupling difficult to detect. Methods: In this paper, we introduce Coherent Subband Independent Component Analysis (CoSICA) to enhance synchronous cortico-muscular components in mixtures captured by sEMG and EEG. The methodology relies on filter bank processing to decompose sEMG and EEG signals into frequency bands. Then, it applies independent component analysis along with a component selection algorithm for re-synthesis of sEMG and EEG designed to maximize CMC levels. Results: We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in increasing CMC levels across different signal-to-noise ratios first using simulated data. Using neurophysiological data, we then illustrate that CoSICA processing achieves a pronounced enhancement of original CMC. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the proposed technique provides an effective framework for improving coherence detection. Significance: The proposed methodologies will eventually contribute to understanding of movement control and has high potential for translation into clinical practice

Subband Independent Component Analysis for Coherence Enhancement

Objective: Cortico-muscular coherence (CMC) is becoming a common technique for detection and characterization of functional coupling between the motor cortex and muscle activity. It is typically evaluated between surface electromyo- gram (sEMG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals collected synchronously during controlled movement tasks. However, the presence of noise and activities unrelated to observed motor tasks in sEMG and EEG results in low CMC levels, which often makes functional coupling difficult to detect. Methods: In this paper, we introduce Coherent Subband Independent Component Analysis (CoSICA) to enhance synchronous cortico-muscular components in mixtures captured by sEMG and EEG. The methodology relies on filter bank processing to decompose sEMG and EEG signals into frequency bands. Then, it applies independent component analysis along with a component selection algorithm for re- synthesis of sEMG and EEG designed to maximize CMC levels. Results: We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in increasing CMC levels across different signal-to-noise ratios first using simulated data. Using neurophysiological data, we then illustrate that CoSICA processing achieves a pronounced enhancement of original CMC. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the proposed technique provides an effective framework for improving coherence detection. Significance: The proposed methodologies will eventually contribute to understanding of movement control and has high potential for translation into clinical practice

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FRUITFULNESS OF SOME INTERSPECIES GRAPEVINE CULTIVARS

The results of important agro-biological and technological characteristics of three grapevine interspecies cultivars (Medina, Gecej Zamatos, and Kristala) are presented in this study. The following parameters were monitored: the total number of developed shoots, the number of fertile shoots, the number of bunch per vine, grape yield, fertility coefficient, the average bunch weight, yield per hectare, bunch and berry structural indicators and grape quality expressed through the content of sugar in must. Statistically significant differences were determined between the examined varieties regarding following characteristics: the number and yield of bunches per vine, structural indicators of berries and sugar content in must. The analysis of the obtained results related with the analyzed grape varieties in the agro-ecological conditions of Northern Bosnia showed that those varieties can successfully be cultivated in similar or identical agro-ecological conditions

COVID-19 AND THE ENVIRONMENT – THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTE

The Croatian National Health Care Act defines the areas of activities of the public health institute, including the activities of the epidemiology of infectious diseases and chronic non-communicable diseases, public health, health promotion, environmental health, microbiology, school and adolescent medicine, mental health and addiction prevention at Zagreb City level. This paper reviews the highly variable activities in the Andrija Štampar Teaching Institute of Public Health with the aim of promoting a comprehensive approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. Human and analytical resources in the Institute, activities and rapid implementation of innovations testify to the high capacities for adaptation to emerging risks. In the Institute, it is possible to carry out a whole range of tests and to monitor the environmental factors with predominant impact on human health and safety of the Zagreb environment. The supply of safe water for human consumption in the Republic of Croatia during the current COVID-19 crisis has been uninterrupted and in accordance with applicable legislation. Also, our laboratories have been developing and introducing a method for wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 presence. The sludge from wastewater treatment plants is used in agriculture, and potential risks associated with the COVID-19 outbreak should be assessed prior to each application on the soil. Increased use of disinfectants during the epidemic may present a higher risk to the aquatic environment. Air quality monitoring indicates a positive impact on air quality as result of isolation measures

Framing of European Union borders in online news: Multimodal discourses of inclusion and exclusion

In times of crisis, online news media, on whose reports people heavily rely for information and interpretation of complex European affairs, play an important role in production of knowledge and negotiation of the meanings of the European Union’s response to the “migrant crisis” in 2015 when more than million migrants reached Europe after fleeing their home countries. This research project examines how European online news outlets constructed notions of borders, space, mobility and migration, and thus promoted particular institutionalized discourses on inclusion and exclusion with profound ideological implications. A secondary goal of this research is to explore the particular ways in which new media technologies enable journalists and audiences to co-construct such discourses. The study is grounded in framing theory with the particular emphasis on a multimodal discourse approach to framing, with the aim to address the interrelationship of different semiotic modes in the meaning-making process. By applying multimodal approach to framing analysis, the analysis of coverage of the migration “crisis” of 2015, in the periods in June and September of 2015 when Hungary first announced the fence erection on its southern external EU border with Serbia, and then sealed the border-crossings, in five European news outlets (Britain’s The Guardian, Germany’s Deutsche Welle, Hungary’s Magyar Hirlap, Croatia’s Jutarnji list, and Serbia’s Večernje novosti) revealed three dominant frames in news discourse across media outlets: “borders as spaces for managing national and EU security,” “borders as lived spaces,” and “borders as politically negotiated spaces.” While co-participating in the news framing of borders, readers supported the news frames of journalists and also offered complementary and even challenging narratives. Lastly, this research elucidates how the news framing, through structural features of news reporting and the interplay of communication modalities, enables particular relations of power and relates to broader discourses about the European Union, as a politicized space of both inclusion and exclusion, that favor particular perspectives and thus, reproduce larger ideologies of Orientalism, xenophobia, racism, and balkanism

National aeronautics and space administration on IGTV: multimodal discourses of space

This study employed critical analysis of multimodal texts to examine how NASA utilizes multiple modes like text, visuals, font, and sound to communicate space on a modern multimodal platform—Instagram. Four main themes emerged in the analysis of 34 NASA IGTV videos: space as a scientific aim, space as a scientific means, space as a U.S. territorialization effort, and space within the general public’s reach. Multimodal discursive practices enabled NASA to produce institutional discourses and disseminate meanings of space that enacted and reinforced gendered and racial exceptionalism, technological and economic space elitism, and hegemonic territorialization operationalized through space appropriation and commodification. While visuals, text, and auditory mode in many cases worked together to create meanings, the use of visuals communicated that space-related accomplishments are still achieved in white and male environments. Thus, the unpacking of multimodal discursive practices calls for more holistic approaches that address multimodal arrangements and an inclusive approach to the roles of individual modes in meaning-making

Instagram, Social Media, Science Communication, Engagement

Social media have risen in popularity as a useful tool for science communication. Increasingly social media have been considered a useful tool for public engagement under the notion of dialogic communication. Although, research evidence that scientific institutions and universities mostly use social media to communicate achievements, research projects, and publications. However, this commonly used strategy tends to develop unilateral dissemination, which, in return, causes the audience’s lack of interest and even negative engagement with the scientific content on social media. For this reason, this study explored through qualitative content analysis the audience´s engagement with NASA content on Instagram’s IGTV (now known as Instagram Video). To find common ground in science communication for social media´s meaningful interactions in science-society, we interpreted data through the theoretical lens of science communication for public engagement dialogic models. Moreover, to suggest practice-based guidelines for audience interactions, we used online strategic communication to propose key practices for managing audience interaction through social listening strategies. Results evidence that NASA´s science communication strategy focused on developing highquality content around its work by using IGTV. Data evidence numerous video views, positive and negative audience comments, and user interactions. However, NASA missed the opportunity to take advantage of audiences' interest since it failed to respond to user comments. Therefore, deficit-model practices were reproduced by not dialoguing with its followers. Based on these findings, this study aims to contribute with guidelines for communication researchers and practitioners that will improve public engagement strategies in social media that focus on attending to audiences' needs and interactions.Rotterda