Expressing gay sexuality in the digital age: a Philippine cinema example

In 2005, a ground-breaking independent film titled "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros" (The Blossoming of Mximo Oliveros) was released in Philippine theatres. It was directed by Auraeus Solito with the script written by Michiko Yamamoto. The film has been regarded as neo-realist and depicts the coming of age of young Maxi who is torn between love for his family who is involved in drugs and crime, and his love for a young policeman. The film marks the growth of a new cro of young filmmakers who are not afraid to tackle controversial topics such as sexuality, poverty, and social injustice. They are in direct contrast to old, established filmmakers who resort to formulaic, Hollywood-style films

Health-Promoting Behaviors, Hope, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Persons Impacted by Parkinson’s Disease

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between hope, health-promoting behaviors, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in persons with Parkinson’s disease.Background: The incidence of Parkinson’s disease is high in Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. Parkinson’s disease affects motor and non-motor symptoms and has a variety of complications. Parkinson’s disease is related to genetic and environmental factors. HRQOL decreases in Parkinson’s disease; thus, the effect of hope and health-promoting behaviors on health is crucial as the disease advances.Methods: A descriptive correlational design was used to guide the study. A convenience sample of persons with Parkinson’s disease who completed three questionnaires was used to measure health-promoting behaviors and HRQOL while modifying for disease severity.Results: Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine dimensions of hope, healthpromoting behaviors (HPLP), and HRQOL. Confirmatory factor analysis determined goodness of fit for the structure of the study data. The construct reliability of the confirmed factor structure model showed an adequate inter-item consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.70, QOL = .792, HPLP = .857, and hope = .844). After meeting the assessment of the reliability test, convergent validity, discriminant validity and confirmation of model fit of the factor model, a summated scale or a composite variable was created. The summated scale variables met five assumptions of the multivariate regression method to assess for appropriateness of method used. Finally, a path analysis was constructed where together hope and HPLP explained about 62% of the variation of scores within the dependent measure in HRQOL. Hope became non-significant statistically, with the inclusion of HPLP. Effects of varying stages of disease severity and its relation to the direct effects of hope and HPLP to the dependent measure in HRQOL was contemplated.Conclusions: This study advances knowledge regarding the relationship between hope, HPLP, and HRQOL in persons with Parkinson’s disease. The increased knowledge raises awareness of the importance of hope and health-promoting behaviors despite various stages of disease severity

Public Relations Campaigns: old and new media challenges

This e-book contains concepts in public relations as well as chapters on media tools, how to deal with media, and planning and developing a PR campaign. It is used by students enrolled in CU3021- PR Campaigns

Fang-tan in research among Chinese communities in New Zealand and Australia: a cultural approach to engagement

This article proposes Fang-tan as a cultural approach to engagement in psychology research among Chinese communities in New Zealand and Australia. Fang-tan reflects the degree of "being-in-relation" throughout the research process. The article suggests that being-in-relation as a concept is a form of cultural engagement that enables the researcher easier and more culturally appropriate access to research participants. Fang-tan comprises two Chinese words, Fang and Tan. Fang refers to interviewing and asking questions, and Tan is concerned with dialogues and conversation. There are four features of Fang-tan: participant participation, the equality of status between the researcher and the participant, the insider relationship between the researcher and the participant, and the use of the Chinese language. This article illustrates how Fang-tan was conducted in three studies with the Chinese communities and offers the authors' insights into and reflections on conducting Fang-tan

Challenging common sense about nonsense : an integrational approach to schizophrenic language behaviour

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-168).Due to certain fundamental flaws, orthodox linguistics has not succeeded in producing a coherent account of 'schizophrenic language' - the host of symptoms that are alternatively characterised as evidence of formal thought disorder or labelled as disorganised speech, a disorder in itself. The most important of these flaws are its treatment of languages as fixed codes, which doubles as an explanation of how linguistic communication works, and its postulation of the mental structures that would be necessary if languages were indeed fixed codes, and communication a matter of encoding and decoding messages. In particular, orthodox linguistics has bolstered the now-dominant neo-Kraepelinian, biomedical account of schizophrenia, which treats utterances as symptoms that give clues to brain (dis)organisation and (dys) function. Integrational linguistics, which criticises the culturally based assumptions - collectively referred to as 'the language myth' - that are at the heart of the orthodox account of languages and language, provides an alternative. It sympathises with the growing trend in cognitive science and philosophy towards 'embodiment' and 'distributed cognition', which recognises that encultured entities like languages, minds, brains, bodies, and world are intrinsically defined by their co-evolution in the species, and co-emergence during an individual's development. Integrationists argue that by focusing in the first instance on second-order cultural constructs called 'languages', orthodox linguistics fails to give an account of the first-order experience of language users. This thesis approaches the topic of 'schizophrenic language' from a broadly integrationist perspective in order to demonstrate that because orthodox linguistics is so widely taken for granted in psychiatry, its biases inform current mainstream accounts of schizophrenic language, motivate the outright dismissal of interpersonal accounts, past and present, and provide a skewed picture of the phenomenon it purports to be describing, by ultimately constructing an individual-focused, deficit-based account of what is not, as opposed to what is. That is, by holding up orthodox linguistics' idealised version of communication and speakers (which has little applicability even to 'normal' language users), it uses deviation from the ideal as description and explanation, rather than recognising the strategies actually employed by schizophrenics in their attempts to make sense, even if these attempts fail. The alternative argued for here is to apply the tenets of integrationist linguistics to schizophrenic language behaviour, to give a fuller account of communication situations involving schizophrenics and normal interlocutors. As a result, this thesis calls for a reformulation of the idea that incomprehensibility stems from deviant speech, itself the product of an irrational brain. 'Sense', 'deviance' and 'irrationality' are a moment-to-moment metalinguistic appraisals made by language users, second-order cultural constructions that shape the speech community's response to certain individuals. Describing the speech of schizophrenics as 'deviant', 'irrational', or 'nonsensical' constrains their jointly-constructed capability of making sense using the resources (which may include other individual's minds) at their disposal. Integration linguistics thus brings into focus a moral and political dimension to such descriptions which is obscured by an orthodox linguistics-biased biomedical approach

Big dreams, small towns: tracking journalism students' changing attitudes and perceptions about journalism at two Queensland universities - year 1

This collaborative research project began in 2012 between two academics from two regional Queensland universities. In the first year, both researchers conducted a survey among incoming first year Journalism students to find out these students' background, as well as set a benchmark of their attitudes and perceptions about the university experience, their views and perceptions of the journalism profession and their aspirations. The initial research yielded a unique profile of these students who have decided on a journalism education. In 2013, the same cohort of students were resurveyed to track changes, if any, in their responses to the same questions in 2012. A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted to provide qualitative data to explain the data. In year three of the research, the cohort was once again surveyed and interviewed as they leave university. This study offers a unique longitudinal view of the development of a student into a journalist as well as track any changes in the student's attitudes and perceptions about journalism as a chosen profession

Big dreams, small towns: tracking journalism students' changing attitudes and perceptions about journalism at two Queensland universities - year 2

This collaborative research project began in 2012 between two academics from two regional Queensland universities. This is year 2 data. In the first year, both researchers conducted a survey among incoming first year Journalism students to find out these students' background, as well as set a benchmark of their attitudes and perceptions about the university experience, their views and perceptions of the journalism profession and their aspirations. The initial research yielded a unique profile of these students who have decided on a journalism education. In 2013, the same cohort of students were resurveyed to track changes, if any, in their responses to the same questions in 2012. A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted to provide qualitative data to explain the data. In year three of the research, the cohort was once again surveyed and interviewed as they leave university. This study offers a unique longitudinal view of the development of a student into a journalist as well as track any changes in the student's attitudes and perceptions about journalism as a chosen profession

A Look at Summer Reading Programs Across Iowa

The purpose of this document is to report on the state of summer reading programs in Iowa. This report was commissioned by the Iowa Reading Research Center to better understand the types of current summer reading programming and how summer programs are conducted and supported

Your stories, our history: 150 years of mixed marriage and war brides in Townsville

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Road traffic offences: socially acceptable crimes?

Statistics on road fatalities, injury, and costs associated with road traffic accidents make grim reading and yet generally law-abiding people confess to breaking driving laws at one time or another. This paper examines the role media play in ‘normalising’ poor driving behaviours. Using media analysis, we examined the mixed messages in institutional (news reports, editorials), non-institutional (letters and texts to the editor) articles, and the Road Traffic Act (Queensland, Australia). We found there is ambivalence to this type of criminal behaviour and public safety messages. Police and road organisation warnings have little to no effect, and general community attitude to law breaking is attenuated by majority opinion