Critical political economy in practice: the case of an advertising/editorial conflict at Brainstorm

Critical political economists argue that media in a democratic society are not inherently free, as they rely on advertisers for revenue, and their editorial content can be influenced by commercial considerations. However, liberal pluralist theorists argue that journalists’ and editors’ normative attachment to independence and professionalism provide a counterbalance to advertisers’ wants. In South Africa, where commercial pressures have been exacerbated in increased competition for adspend, local publications have sought to create alternative revenue streams, such as supplements specifically targeted at advertisers. This research report examines the issues raised by such products by examining a conflict at the ICT publication Brainstorm over one of its supplements. The study looks at an incident of an advertiser demanding changes to editorial content and reactions to the demands within the media organisation, considering individual journalists’ reactions and how the issue played out in several different departments in the publishing house. The research found that companies within the ICT sector, who are often also advertisers, routinely try to have editorial copy changed to their advantage, and that these companies do not have a clear understanding of the media industry and its processes. Journalists resist these changes, but the research found that supplements are not viewed as seriously by journalists as other types of editorial content, because the supplements are financed by advertisers. The research demonstrates that such supplements operate in a grey area because they blur the boundaries between advertising and editorial. As such, journalists and editors find it harder to defend their professional independence in producing the content. The fuzziness about whether the supplements are advertorial or editorial casts doubt on the credibility of such products

Pancreatic cancer genomes reveal aberrations in axon guidance pathway genes

Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative members: Nam Q. Nguyen, Andrew R. Ruszkiewicz and Chris Worthley of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy with few effective therapies. We performed exome sequencing and copy number analysis to define genomic aberrations in a prospectively accrued clinical cohort (n = 142) of early (stage I and II) sporadic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Detailed analysis of 99 informative tumours identified substantial heterogeneity with 2,016 non-silent mutations and 1,628 copy-number variations. We define 16 significantly mutated genes, reaffirming known mutations (KRAS, TP53, CDKN2A, SMAD4, MLL3, TGFBR2, ARID1A and SF3B1), and uncover novel mutated genes including additional genes involved in chromatin modification (EPC1 and ARID2), DNA damage repair (ATM) and other mechanisms (ZIM2, MAP2K4, NALCN, SLC16A4 and MAGEA6). Integrative analysis with in vitro functional data and animal models provided supportive evidence for potential roles for these genetic aberrations in carcinogenesis. Pathway-based analysis of recurrently mutated genes recapitulated clustering in core signalling pathways in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and identified new mutated genes in each pathway. We also identified frequent and diverse somatic aberrations in genes described traditionally as embryonic regulators of axon guidance, particularly SLIT/ROBO signalling, which was also evident in murine Sleeping Beauty transposon-mediated somatic mutagenesis models of pancreatic cancer, providing further supportive evidence for the potential involvement of axon guidance genes in pancreatic carcinogenesis.International Cancer Genome Consortiu