Up and Out: Journalism, Social Media, and Historical Sensibility

Much of the modern theorizing about journalism and communication attained its robustness due to a powerful convergence of distinct middle-range scholarly findings that emerged primarily in the 1970s and 1980s. In the present day, when we turn our analytical gaze to the relationship between journalism and social media, we thus need to strike a delicate balance between conducting new qualitative research, re-conceptualizing and re-interrogating the classic conclusions of political communication scholarship, and linking these two aspects of research together. However, we might also wish to extend our analytical gaze “out,” interrogating the movement of journalistic technology across history, as well as “up,” looking at how journalism fits within larger structural explanations regarding the shape of political life

Defining and measuring displacement: is relocation from restructured neighbourhoods always unwelcome and disruptive?

Current regeneration policy has been described as ‘state-led gentrification’, with comparisons made with the ‘social disruption’ caused by slum clearance of the 1950s and 1960s. This article takes issue with this approach in relation to the study of the restructuring of social housing areas. The terms ‘forced relocation’ and ‘displacement’ are often too crude to describe what actually happens within processes of restructuring and the effects upon residents. Displacement in particular has important dimensions other than the physical one of moving. Evidence from a recent study of people who have moved out of restructured areas shows that although there is some evidence of physical displacement, there is little evidence of social or psychosocial displacement after relocation. Prior attitudes to moving and aspects of the process of relocation—the degree of choice and distance involved—are important moderators of the outcomes. Issues of time and context are insufficiently taken into consideration in studies and accounts of restructuring, relocation and displacement

Health-Related Quality of Life, Treatment Satisfaction, and Costs Associated With Intraperitoneal Versus Subcutaneous Insulin Administration in Type 1 Diabetes: A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE - To investigate the effects of continuous intraperitoneal insulin infusion (CIPII) compared with subcutaneous insulin on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and treatment satisfaction, and to perform a cost analysis in type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - We used an open-label, prospective, crossover, randomized, 16-month study (N = 24). HRQOL and patient satisfaction were assessed with questionnaires (the 36-item short-form health survey [SF-36], the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index [WHO-5], and the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire [DTSQ]). Direct costs of CIPII and continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) were compared. RESULTS - Questionnaire scores were higher with CIPII than with subcutaneous therapy. Yearly direct pump- and procedure-associated costs for CIPII were estimated at 10,910 compared with 4,810 for CSII. C CONCLUSIONS - Apart from improving glycemic control, CIPII improved HRQOL and treatment satisfaction compared with subcutaneous insulin. Direct pump- and procedure-associated costs are considerably higher for CIPII, however

Tailored weight loss intervention in obese adults within primary care practice: rationale, design, and methods of Choose to Lose.

Although there are efficacious weight loss interventions that can improve health and delay onset of diabetes and hypertension, these interventions have not been translated into clinical practice. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a tailored lifestyle intervention in primary care patients. Patients were recruited by their primary care physicians and eligible participants were randomized to an enhanced intervention or standard intervention. All participants met with a lifestyle counselor to set calorie and physical activity goals and to discuss behavioral strategies at baseline, 6 and 12 months. During the first year, enhanced intervention participants receive monthly counseling phone calls to assist in attaining and maintaining their goals. Enhanced intervention participants also receive weekly mailings consisting of tailored and non-tailored print materials and videos focusing on weight loss, physical activity promotion and healthy eating. The second year focuses on maintenance with enhanced intervention participants receiving tailored and non-tailored print materials and videos regularly throughout the year. Standard intervention participants receive five informational handouts on weight loss across the two years. This enhanced intervention that consists of multiple modalities of print, telephone, and video with limited face-to-face counseling holds promise for being effective for encouraging weight loss, increasing physical activity and healthy eating, and also for being cost effective and generalizable for wide clinical use. This study will fill an important gap in our knowledge regarding the translation and dissemination of research from efficacy studies to best practices in clinical settings

Pasos Hacia La Salud: a randomized controlled trial of an internet-delivered physical activity intervention for Latinas.

BackgroundInternet access has grown markedly in Latinos during the past decade. However, there have been no Internet-based physical activity interventions designed for Latinos, despite large disparities in lifestyle-related conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, particularly in Latina women. The current study tested the efficacy of a 6-month culturally adapted, individually tailored, Spanish-language Internet-based physical activity intervention.MethodsInactive Latinas (N = 205) were randomly assigned to the Tailored Physical Activity Internet Intervention or the Wellness Contact Control Internet Group. Participants in both groups received emails on a tapered schedule over 6 months to alert them to new content on the website. The primary outcome was minutes/week of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) at 6 months as measured by the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall; activity was also measured by accelerometers. Data were collected between 2011 and 2014 and analyzed in 2015 at the University of California, San Diego.ResultsIncreases in minutes/week of MVPA were significantly greater in the Intervention Group compared to the Control Group (mean difference = 50.00, SE = 9.5, p < 0.01). Increases in objectively measured MVPA were also significantly larger in the Intervention Group (mean differences = 31.0, SE = 10.7, p < .01). The Intervention Group was also significantly more likely to meet national physical activity guidelines at 6 months (OR = 3.12, 95% CI 1.46-6.66, p < .05).ConclusionFindings from the current study suggest that this Internet-delivered individually tailored intervention successfully increased MVPA in Latinas compared to a Wellness Contact Control Internet Group.Trial registrationNCT01834287

Place attachment in deprived neighbourhoods: The impacts of population turnover and social mix

This paper examines the determinants of individual place attachment, focussing in particular on differences between deprived and others neighbourhoods, and on the impacts of population turnover and social mix. It uses a multi-level modelling approach to take account of both individual- and neighbourhood-level determinants. Data are drawn from a large sample government survey, the Citizenship Survey 2005, to which a variety of neighbourhood-level data have been attached. The paper argues that attachment is significantly lower in more deprived neighbourhoods primarily because these areas have weaker social cohesion but that, in other respects, the drivers of attachment are the same. Turnover has modest direct impacts on attachment through its effect on social cohesion. Social mix has very limited impacts on attachment and the effects vary between social groups. In general, higher status or more dominant groups appear less tolerant of social mix

News discourses on distant suffering: A critical discourse analysis of the 2003 SARS outbreak

News carries a unique signifying power, a power to represent events in particular ways (Fairclough, 1995). Applying Critical Discourse Analysis and Chouliaraki's theory on the mediation of suffering (2006), this article explores the news representation of the 2003 global SARS outbreak. Following a case-based methodology, we investigate how two Belgian television stations have covered the international outbreak of SARS. By looking into the mediation of four selected discursive moments, underlying discourses of power, hierarchy and compassion were unraveled. The analysis further identified the key role of proximity in international news reporting and supports the claim that Western news media mainly reproduce a Euro-American centered world order. This article argues that news coverage of international crises such as SARS constructs and maintains the socio-cultural difference between 'us' and 'them' as well as articulating global power hierarchies and a division of the world in zones of poverty and prosperity, danger and safety

Skin advanced glycation end product accumulation is poorly refected by glycemic control in type 2 diabetic patients (ZODIAC-9)

Background: Glycemic memory can be reflected by tissue accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). In type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels over various time periods poorly predicted the accumulation of different AGEs in skin biopsies. Our aim was to investigate whether HbA1c assessments can predict the change in skin AGEs during time in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: We included 452 T2DM patients participating in a shared-care setting, who are screened annually for HbA1c and diabetic complications. Baseline and follow-up levels of skin AGEs were assessed with a validated noninvasive autofluorescence (AF) method, which is based on the fluorescence characteristics of certain AGEs. Results: Our study population had a mean age of 65 years and 54% were female. After a mean follow-up duration of 3.3 years, linear regression analyses showed weak relationships among different assessments of HbA1c (baseline, maximum, mean, and variance of HbA1c) and skin AF at follow-up. Baseline skin AF and age were predictors of skin AF at follow-up, but diabetes duration, smoking, and creatinine were of less or no predictive value for skin AF at follow-up. Conclusions: In our T2DM population, integrated HbA1c assessments over years poorly predict the change in skin AGE level measured by skin AF. These findings agree with results in patients with T1DM. This suggests either the need for longer exposure to glucose disturbances to change tissue AGEs or other mechanisms, such as oxidative stress, leading to AGE accumulation.</p

Substantiating a political public sphere in the Scottish press : a comparative analysis

This article uses content analysis to characterize the performance of the media in a national public sphere, by setting apart those qualities that typify internal press coverage of a political event. The article looks at the coverage of the 1999 devolved Scottish election from the day before the election until the day after. It uses a word count to measure the election material in Scottish newspapers the Herald, the Press and Journal and the Scotsman, and United Kingdom newspapers the Guardian, the Independent and The Times, and categorizes that material according to discourse type, day and page selection. The article finds a number of qualities that typify the Scottish sample in particular, and might be broadly indicative of a political public sphere in action. Firstly, and not unexpectedly, it finds that the Scottish newspapers carry significantly more election coverage. Just as tellingly, though, the article finds that the Scottish papers offer a greater proportion of advice and background information, in the form of opinion columns and feature articles. It also finds that the Scottish papers place a greater concentration of both informative and evaluative material in the period before the vote, consistent with their making a contribution to informed political action. Lastly, the article finds that the Scottish sample situates coverage nearer the front of the paper and places a greater proportion on recto pages. The article therefore argues that the Scottish papers display features that distinguish them from the UK papers, and are broadly consistent with their forming part of a deliberative public sphere, and suggests that these qualities might be explored as a means of judging future media performance

“Cross-editing”: Comparing News Output Through Journalists’ Re-working of Their Rivals’ Scripts

Newsdesk journalists make thousands of editorial decisions every day without recourse to style guides. They can do this because they have internalised the aims and values of their news organisations: they know what counts as a “good story” for their output. This paper describes a pioneering micro-level comparative method of studying journalistic values in which, unlike in other comparative studies, the journalists themselves perform the initial analysis. In essence, newsdesk editors from two news organisations swap scripts. They evaluate, edit and mark up their rivals’ texts as if they were being asked to use them in their own output. What would they alter, insert or leave out? Would they reject a story completely? This “cross-edit” and the editors’ additional observations represent unmediated analysis from inside the news editing process, allowing researchers to draw comparative conclusions grounded principally in discourse analysis. To pilot the method, a number of journalists from the BBC and China’s official English-language news provider, CCTV-News (now CGTN), cross-edited selected news scripts published by their rivals. The technique shed new light on news routines, lexical choices, omissions and unexpected consonances in news values. It was then refined to provide a framework for future, wider use