User participation in a converged media world: a model of media convergence

In 1947 Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver proposed a general model of communication. The popular Shannon-Weaver model shows an information source, a message being transmitted, a channel, a receiver, and a destination. This one-way model of communication is principally concerned with technology. Media communication is no longer one-way and it is also no longer just about technology, but also the human experience. This multi-way communication will only be enhanced as newspapers, television, radio, and the internet continue to merge into what has been dubbed by the popular press “converged media.” What might user participation look like in a converged media world? The researcher interviewed eight people at six different colleges and universities across the country. Those interviewed have been instrumental in implementing media convergence at their schools. Through conversations with these convergence leaders the researcher proposes a model of media convergence

Markers of credibility on citizen journalism web sites

Credibility in mainstream media continues to wane, giving rise to new forms of journalism supported by the Internet. One of these new forms of journalism is citizen journalism. This is a form of journalism in which content is produced by ordinary citizens, usually on web sites. One of the most popular citizen journalism web sites in the world at this time is OhMyNews.com. Like mainstream media, this site, as well as ones like it, have credibility obstacles to overcome. In this study the researcher tests whether or not the presence of information about a writer and sources used to write a story on a citizen journalism web site affects the perceived credibility of the story. One hundred and twenty subjects were asked to read three stories from OhMyNews.com and then rate those stories in terms of their perceived credibility. Some of the subjects were presented with information about the writer’s background and a picture of the writer, some were able to follow hyperlinks imbedded in the story to verify information contained in it, and others were presented with both. The results from the groups were compared to see if the additional information given to subjects had an impact on their perceived credibility of the story. This research will help online journalists understand how to increase the credibility of the stories they write, and will add to the understanding of the factors that influence perceptions of information credibility

The impact of hyperlinks and writer information on the perceived credibility of stories on a participatory journalism web site

Credibility in mainstream media continues to wane, giving rise to new forms of journalism supported by the Internet. One of these new forms of journalism is participatory journalism. This is a form of journalism in which content is produced by ordinary citizens, usually on web sites. One of the most popular participatory journalism web sites at this time is OhmyNews.com. Like mainstream media, this site, as well as ones like it, have credibility obstacles to overcome. This study examined whether the presence of information about a writer and hyperlinks on a participatory journalism web site affected the perceived credibility of stories.One hundred and twenty participants read three stories from OhmyNews.com and then rated those stories in terms of their perceived credibility. Some of the participants were given information about the writer’s background and a picture of the writer, some were able to follow hyperlinks embedded in the story to verify information contained in it, others were given information about the writer’s background, a picture of the writer, and hyperlinks, and some were given just the story to serve as a control group. The results from the groups were compared to see if the additional information given to participants had an impact on the perceived credibility of the story. Results show that including this information does enhance the perceived credibility of the stories.Perceived credibility is enhanced most greatly when both hyperlink and writer information is included, and to a lesser extent when just hyperlink or writer information is included. Also, these markers of credibility have the most positive impact on perceived credibility when included in hard news, as opposed to feature type stories.This research will help online journalists understand how to increase the credibility of the stories they write, and will add to the small, but growing body of literature on participatory journalism. It will also add to the understanding of credibility formation and the factors that influence perceptions of information credibility.Ph.D., Information Science and Technology -- Drexel University, 200

Fermionic Casimir effect for parallel plates in the presence of compact dimensions with applications to nanotubes

We evaluate the Casimir energy and force for a massive fermionic field in the geometry of two parallel plates on background of Minkowski spacetime with an arbitrary number of toroidally compactified spatial dimensions. The bag boundary conditions are imposed on the plates and periodicity conditions with arbitrary phases are considered along the compact dimensions. The Casimir energy is decomposed into purely topological, single plate and interaction parts. With independence of the lengths of the compact dimensions and the phases in the periodicity conditions, the interaction part of the Casimir energy is always negative. In order to obtain the resulting force, the contributions from both sides of the plates must be taken into account. Then, the forces coming from the topological parts of the vacuum energy cancel out and only the interaction term contributes to the Casimir force. Applications of the general formulae to Kaluza-Klein type models and carbon nanotubes are given. In particular, we show that for finite length metallic nanotubes the Casimir forces acting on the tube edges are always attractive, whereas for semiconducting-type ones they are attractive for small lengths of the nanotube and repulsive for large lengths.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure

News Stories on the Facebook Platform: Millennials’ Perceived Credibility of Online News Sponsored by News and Non-News Companies

This experimental study examined whether stories presented on Facebook that appeared to be from a news organization were rated as higher in perceived credibility than stories that appeared to be from a non-news organization.&nbsp; One-hundred-and-seven participants took part in the online study.&nbsp; One group saw stories that appeared to be from a news organization and another group saw the same stories that appeared to be from a non-news organization.&nbsp; Both groups rated the stories the same in terms of perceived credibility.&nbsp; The study also found that the higher the participants rated the stories in terms of perceived credibility, the higher they rated the organization&rsquo;s perceived credibility. These findings point to potential implications for traditional journalistic outlets regarding their ability to be seen as credible, reliable online news sources &ndash; particularly through a social media platform like Facebook.</p

Neutrino Dark Energy and Moduli Stabilization in a BPS Braneworld Scenario

A braneworld model for neutrino Dark Energy (DE) is presented. We consider a five dimensional two-branes set up with a bulk scalar field motivated by supergravity. Its low-energy effective theory is derived with a moduli space approximation (MSA). The position of the two branes are parametrized by two scalar degrees of freedom (moduli). After detuning the brane tensions a classical potential for the moduli is generated. This potential is unstable for dS branes and we suggest to consider as a stabilizing contribution the Casimir energy of bulk fields. In particular we add a massive spinor (neutrino) field in the bulk and then evaluate the Casimir contribution of the bulk neutrino with the help of zeta function regularization techniques. We construct an explicit form of the 4D neutrino mass as function of the two moduli. To recover the correct DE scale for the moduli potential the usual cosmological constant fine-tuning is necessary, but, once accepted, this model suggests a stronger connection between DE and neutrino physics.Comment: 26 pages, 1 EPS figur

Casimir interaction: pistons and cavity

The energy of a perfectly conducting rectangular cavity is studied by making use of pistons' interactions. The exact solution for a 3D perfectly conducting piston with an arbitrary cross section is being discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, latex2

Biography of Leann L Birch, PhD, 25 June 1946 – 26 May 2019

On 26 May, 2019, the nutrition community lost a visionary ambassador, trusted advisor, and cherished mentor. Leann Birch was a pioneer in bringing a developmental psychology perspective to the study of children\u27s nutrition as a means to respond to real-world questions raised by parents. Leann Elsie Traub was born in Owosso, Michigan 25 June, 1946. She grew up primarily in Southern California and received a bachelor\u27s degree in psychology from California State University, Long Beach, in 1971. She completed her graduate studies at the University of Michigan where she received a master\u27s degree in 1973 and a doctorate in 1975, both in psychology. She subsequently held faculty appointments reflecting affiliations with nutrition as well as human development at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1976–1992), the Pennsylvania State University (1992–2014), and the University of Georgia (2014–2019). Over this time, Leann was a prolific scientist, publishing \u3e250 publications (with \u3e51,000 citations) and receiving \u3e$30 million in federal research funding. The public health impact and reach of Leann\u27s work is profound. References to her work can be found everywhere: federal dietary guidance, position statements from leading professional organizations, early-childhood education policies, anticipatory guidance given in the pediatrician\u27s office, and popular books on feeding children

Confined Harmonically Interacting Spin-Polarized Fermions in a Magnetic Field: Thermodynamics

We investigate the combined influence of a magnetic field and a harmonic interparticle interaction on the thermodynamic properties of a finite number of spin polarized fermions in a confiment potential. This study is an extension using our path integral approach of symmetrized density matrices for identical particles. The thermodynamical properties are calculated for a three dimensional model of N harmonically interacting spin polarized fermions in a parabolic potential well in the presence of a magnetic field. The free energy and the internal energy are obtained for a limited number of particles. Deviations from the thermodynamical limit become negligible for about 100 or more particles, but even for a smaller number of fermions present in the well, scaling relations similar to those of the continuum approximation to the density of states are already satisfied.Comment: 7 pages REVTEX and 8 postscript figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.