Busy saying nothing new: Live silence in TV reporting of 9/11

News of the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th 2001 spread fast, mainly through dramatic images of the events broadcast via a global television media, particularly 24-hour news channels such as BBC News 24 and CNN. Following the initial report many news channels moved to dedicated live coverage of the story. This move, to what Liebes (1998) describes as a 'disaster marathon', entails shifting from the routine, regular news agenda to one where the event and its aftermath become the main story and reference for all other news. In this paper, we draw upon recordings from the BBC News 24 channel on September 11th 2001 during the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon to argue that the coverage of this event, and other similar types of events, may be characterised as news permeated with strategic and emergent silences. Identifying silence as both concrete and metaphorical, we suggest that there are a number of types of silence found in the coverage and that these not only act to cover for lack of new news, or give emphasis or gravitas, but also that the vacuum created by a lack of news creates an emotional space in which collective shock, grieving or wonder are managed through news presented as phatic communion

Innovative approaches to teaching mathematics in higher education: a review and critique

This paper provides a snapshot of emerging trends in mathematics teaching in higher education for STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Overwhelmingly, papers identify a focus on conceptual understandings of mathematics in comparison to understanding that is instrumental or procedural. Calls for reform of mathematics teaching have been the basis for a range of studies; responses to these calls have embraced innovative methods for implementing changes in learning and teaching of mathematics, sometimes rooted in constructivist ideology. Observed trends have been categorised in six groups. In many studies, technology is being used as an enabler of reforms. Constraints to implementing new approaches in mathematics teaching are indicated. Discussion of contemporary research questions that could be asked as a result of the shift towards teaching mathematics in innovative ways is provided and is followed by a critique of the underlying theoretical positions, essentially that of constructivism

¹⁴N, ¹³C, and ¹¹⁹Sn solid-state NMR characterization of tin(II) carbodiimide Sn(NCN)

We report the first magic-angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study on Sn(NCN). In this compound the spatially elongated (NCN)$^{2-}$ ion is assumed to develop two distinct forms: either cyanamide (N≡C–N$^{2-}$) or carbodiimide ($^{-}$N=C=N$^{-}$). Our $^{14}$N MAS NMR results reveal that in Sn(NCN) the (NCN) $^{2-}$ groups exist exclusively in the form of symmetric carbodiimide ions with two equivalent nitrogen sites, which is in agreement with the X-ray diffraction data. The $^{14}$N quadrupolar coupling constant ∣∣C$_{Q}$∣∣ ≈ 1.1 MHz for the $^{-}$N=C=N$^{-}$ ion in Sn(NCN) is low when compared to those observed in molecular compounds that comprise cyano-type N≡C– moieties ( ∣∣C$_{Q}$∣∣ > 3.5 MHz). This together with the information from $^{14}$N and $^{13}$C chemical shifts indicates that solid-state NMR is a powerful tool for providing atomic-level insights into anion species present in these compounds. The experimental NMR results are corroborated by high-level calculations with quantum chemistry methods

'Half-hearted tokens of transparent love?' Ethnic postcards and the visual mediation of host-tourist communication

One negotiation site of heavily mediated, indirect, and usually inadvertent communication between hosts and tourists is the picture postcard rack. As “hegemonically scripted discourses,” postcards make important assumptions about the tourist’s touristic experience, as well as the image of that experience she/he will want to communicate to others “back home.” Of more importance, however, are the assumptions being made in postcards about the people actually represented in them. Certainly, postcard images of local people (locals rather than necessarily hosts) are often designed specifically to communicate their ambassadorial hospitality—their host-like qualities—and to promote the kind of ethnotourism discussed widely in the tourism literature. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the postcard images of local ethnic minority people such as the Zulus in South Africa and the Sámi in Finland. In these two instances of intense exoticization and commodified cultural representation, and in stark contrast to postcard images of the Welsh in Britain, this study was interested in exploring the ways in which both the “represented host” and “consumer tourist” understand and view these visual representations. In this programmatic article, we therefore report our initial analyses of three distinctive sets of postcards as a means for discussing how research might seek to situate and, thereby, complicate assumptions inherent in these “ethnic” postcards about both the traversed, mediatized Other, and the constantly directed tourist gaze

Emerging market financial services development: the case of leasing in Poland and China

The aim of this paper is to present Polish and Chinese developments in this area in the period of 1999–2009 for the former and 2005–2008 the latter and then to compare both markets for 2007 and 2008 using different metrics. The time horizon is limited due to the lack of Chinese data. The results show that both economies used leasing to finance ongoing business and both markets have many common features. The results show also that although the Chinese leasing market is less developed, it catches up with the more developed Polish counterpart