Network news and racial beliefs: Exploring the connection between national television news exposure and stereotypical perceptions of African Americans

A random survey of nonstudent adult residents was undertaken to determine whether exposure to network news has a demonstrable effect on racial attitudes and perceptions of African Americans. After controlling for a number of factors, results revealed that exposure to network news depressed estimates of African American income. In addition, network news exposure increased the endorsement of African American stereotypes, particularly the view that African Americans were poor and intimidating, and was positively associated with higher racism scores. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. doi:10.1111/j. 1460-2466.2008.00387.x A growing body of research has begun to examine the content and effects of racial stereotypes on U.S. television news programming. Many of these studies have been dedicated to investigations of race and crime imagery featured on local television news programs. The vast majority of that work has reached two major conclusions. First, people of color are often associated with criminality on local news programs Although important, much less attention has been focused on television network news programming with regard to African American stereotypes Work that was conducted by Gilens (1996a) replicated the finding that African Americans were overwhelmingly associated with poverty. His content analysis revealed that network news overrepresents the number of African American poor, particularly those who are of working able-bodied ages. Other work by However, the most notable recent studies of television network programming have been undertaken by Network news, stereotypes, and modern racism Taken together, the scholarship reviewed above suggests that African Americans typically occupy roles as poor people, loud politicians, and criminals on network news. Some scholars have observed that such portrayals could lead to two outcomes: (a) the endorsement of African American stereotypes (regarding poverty and laziness) and (b) an increase in modern racism. Modern racism has three components including: (a) anti-African American affect or a general emotional hostility toward African Americans, (b) resistance to the political demands of African Americans, and (c) the belief that racism is dead and that racial discrimination no longer inhibits African American achievement In summary, scholars have concluded that television news programming may be related to the perception that African Americans are poor and unintelligent, and exposure to this programming may also predict racism against African Americans. However, there are a number of limitations of the prior studies. First, almost all the empirical studies have relied on student samples to investigate this topic. It is possible that a nonstudent adult sample might behave differently from a student sample due to demand characteristics and the attributes of the samples Hypotheses and research questions The current study seeks to extend the prior work conducted in this area by doing three things. First, this study employs a nonstudent sample. Second, this study attempts to directly test the impact of exposure to network versus local television news. Third, this study attempts to empirically test whether exposure to network news predicts modern racism. Three hypotheses are tested. H1: Exposure to television network news will be negatively associated with estimations of Black income. Prior research has found that African Americans are associated with poverty and blue-collar jobs on network television news. In addition, prior research has found that general exposure to television news is associated with lower estimates of African Americans' socioeconomic status. An increase in exposure to network television images should lead to a decrease in the estimates of Black income. Prior research has found that nonfictional portrayals of African Americans are associated with negative perceptions and stereotypes of Blacks. These include the perception of Blacks as hostile and demanding T. L. Dixon Network News and Racial Beliefs H3: Exposure to television network news will be positively associated with modern racism. Based on the research noted above, at least two of the components of modern racism appear to be connected to network news programming. First, network news provides content that might fuel anti-African American sentiment by portraying African Americans as lazy and dependent on governmental programs. Second, resistance to African American political issues might be related to exposure to news programming featuring loud African American politicians who appear to be making unreasonable demands. Each of these factors suggests that exposure to network news portrayals might predict modern racism Method Telephone surveys were conducted in the county of Los Angeles, CA. Los Angeles was chosen as the location for the survey because prior work has demonstrated that it is a diverse area and an area that features news programming with biased depictions of race Respondents A total of 506 respondents took part in the survey. The cooperation rate was 60%. 1 The final sample was 58% female and 42% male. In addition, the sample was 43% White, 16% African American, 26% Latino, and 15% Other. A complete breakdown , 2003b). Moreover, the large diversity of this sample is a benefit given the lack of sample diversity in a number of prior studies of news and race Control variables All the measures used in the current study have been used, validated, or derived from a number of prior media effects studies Gender Interviewers identified the gender of respondents. Males were coded as 0 and females were coded as 1. Age Respondents were asked how old they were in years (M = 41.36, SD = 17.96). Education Educational attainment was assessed on a 1-11 scale (eighth grade or less, some high school, high school graduate, trade or vocational school, 1-2 years of college, AA or AS degree, 3-4 years of college, college graduate BA, 5-6 years of college, master's degree, and graduate work past master's degree; M = 5.94, SD = 2.69). Political ideology/conservatism Respondents were asked about their political ideology or conservatism on a 1 (strongly liberal) to 7 (strongly conservative) scale (M = 4.23, SD = 1.78). Income Respondents were asked their total household income on a 1-7 scale (less than 3

Farm Operator Satisfaction with Retail Pesticide Suppliers in the Arkansas Delta

Two hundred ninety farm operators in the three easternmost crop reporting districts in Arkansas responded to a mail survey in November 1996 about their preferences and satisfaction with retail pesticide suppliers.Results show most farmers are quite satisfied with their main retail pesticide supplier, although 55.5% of the farm operators used more than one retail pesticide supplier in 1996. Users of multiple suppliers were less satisfied with their suppliers than those using only one supplier. Availability of certain pesticides was the most frequently mentioned reason for using multiple suppliers. Several attributes were important in selecting the main supplier with reputation being the most important, followed by delivery services, long-term relationship with salesperson, and price. Although not rated highly by the farm operators, location was also an important consideration in choosing a main supplier

Intercomparison of Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) Measurements for Atmospheric Science During the LAPSE-RATE Campaign

Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) are rapidly transforming atmospheric research. With the advancement of the development and application of these systems, improving knowledge of best practices for accurate measurement is critical for achieving scientific goals. We present results from an intercomparison of atmospheric measurement data from the Lower Atmospheric Process Studies at Elevation—a Remotely piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE) field campaign. We evaluate a total of 38 individual sUAS with 23 unique sensor and platform configurations using a meteorological tower for reference measurements. We assess precision, bias, and time response of sUAS measurements of temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. Most sUAS measurements show broad agreement with the reference, particularly temperature and wind speed, with mean value differences of 1.6 ± 2.6 °C and 0.22 ± 0.59 m/s for all sUAS, respectively. sUAS platform and sensor configurations were found to contribute significantly to measurement accuracy. Sensor configurations, which included proper aspiration and radiation shielding of sensors, were found to provide the most accurate thermodynamic measurements (temperature and relative humidity), whereas sonic anemometers on multirotor platforms provided the most accurate wind measurements (horizontal speed and direction). We contribute both a characterization and assessment of sUAS for measuring atmospheric parameters, and identify important challenges and opportunities for improving scientific measurements with sUAS

Logistics of community smallpox control through contact tracing and ring vaccination: a stochastic network model

BACKGROUND: Previous smallpox ring vaccination models based on contact tracing over a network suggest that ring vaccination would be effective, but have not explicitly included response logistics and limited numbers of vaccinators. METHODS: We developed a continuous-time stochastic simulation of smallpox transmission, including network structure, post-exposure vaccination, vaccination of contacts of contacts, limited response capacity, heterogeneity in symptoms and infectiousness, vaccination prior to the discontinuation of routine vaccination, more rapid diagnosis due to public awareness, surveillance of asymptomatic contacts, and isolation of cases. RESULTS: We found that even in cases of very rapidly spreading smallpox, ring vaccination (when coupled with surveillance) is sufficient in most cases to eliminate smallpox quickly, assuming that 95% of household contacts are traced, 80% of workplace or social contacts are traced, and no casual contacts are traced, and that in most cases the ability to trace 1–5 individuals per day per index case is sufficient. If smallpox is assumed to be transmitted very quickly to contacts, it may at times escape containment by ring vaccination, but could be controlled in these circumstances by mass vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Small introductions of smallpox are likely to be easily contained by ring vaccination, provided contact tracing is feasible. Uncertainties in the nature of bioterrorist smallpox (infectiousness, vaccine efficacy) support continued planning for ring vaccination as well as mass vaccination. If initiated, ring vaccination should be conducted without delays in vaccination, should include contacts of contacts (whenever there is sufficient capacity) and should be accompanied by increased public awareness and surveillance

Exploring the evidence base for how people with dementia and their informal carers manage their medication in the community:a mixed studies review

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the general medicines management issues for people with dementia living in the community. This review has three aims: firstly to explore and evaluate the international literature on how people with dementia manage medication; assess understanding of medicines management from an informal carers perspective; and lastly to understand the role that healthcare professionals play in assisting this population with medicines management. METHODS: A mixed studies review was conducted. Web of Knowledge, PubMed and Cochrane Library were searched post-1999 for studies that explored medicines management in people with dementia dwelling in the community, and the role healthcare professionals play in supporting medicines management in people with dementia. Following screening, nine articles were included. Data from included studies were synthesised using a convergent synthesis approach and analysed thematically to combine findings from studies using a range of methods (qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods). RESULTS: Four themes were generated from the synthesis: The nature of the disease and the effects this had on medicines management; the additional responsibilities informal carers have; informal caregivers' knowledge of the importance of managing medication and healthcare professionals' understanding of medicines management in people with dementia. Consequently, these were found to affect management of medication, in particular adherence to medication. CONCLUSIONS: This review has identified that managing medication for people with dementia dwelling in the community is a complex task with a frequently associated burden on their informal caregivers. Healthcare professionals can be unaware of this burden. The findings warrant the need for healthcare professionals to undergo further training in supporting medicines management for people with dementia in their own homes

Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury Causes Acute Dendritic and Synaptic Degeneration in the Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus

Hippocampal injury-associated learning and memory deficits are frequent hallmarks of brain trauma and are the most enduring and devastating consequences following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Several reports, including our recent paper, showed that TBI brought on by a moderate level of controlled cortical impact (CCI) induces immature newborn neuron death in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. In contrast, the majority of mature neurons are spared. Less research has been focused on these spared neurons, which may also be injured or compromised by TBI. Here we examined the dendrite morphologies, dendritic spines, and synaptic structures using a genetic approach in combination with immunohistochemistry and Golgi staining. We found that although most of the mature granular neurons were spared following TBI at a moderate level of impact, they exhibited dramatic dendritic beading and fragmentation, decreased number of dendritic branches, and a lower density of dendritic spines, particularly the mushroom-shaped mature spines. Further studies showed that the density of synapses in the molecular layer of the hippocampal dentate gyrus was significantly reduced. The electrophysiological activity of neurons was impaired as well. These results indicate that TBI not only induces cell death in immature granular neurons, it also causes significant dendritic and synaptic degeneration in pathohistology. TBI also impairs the function of the spared mature granular neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. These observations point to a potential anatomic substrate to explain, in part, the development of posttraumatic memory deficits. They also indicate that dendritic damage in the hippocampal dentate gyrus may serve as a therapeutic target following TBI

Lung epithelium as a sentinel and effector system in pneumonia – molecular mechanisms of pathogen recognition and signal transduction

Pneumonia, a common disease caused by a great diversity of infectious agents is responsible for enormous morbidity and mortality worldwide. The bronchial and lung epithelium comprises a large surface between host and environment and is attacked as a primary target during lung infection. Besides acting as a mechanical barrier, recent evidence suggests that the lung epithelium functions as an important sentinel system against pathogens. Equipped with transmembranous and cytosolic pathogen-sensing pattern recognition receptors the epithelium detects invading pathogens. A complex signalling results in epithelial cell activation, which essentially participates in initiation and orchestration of the subsequent innate and adaptive immune response. In this review we summarize recent progress in research focussing on molecular mechanisms of pathogen detection, host cell signal transduction, and subsequent activation of lung epithelial cells by pathogens and their virulence factors and point to open questions. The analysis of lung epithelial function in the host response in pneumonia may pave the way to the development of innovative highly needed therapeutics in pneumonia in addition to antibiotics

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead