887 research outputs found
Media coverage of climate change: an international comparison
We present an international comparison of broadsheet newspaper coverage of climate change. We employ two complementary theoretical lenses, multiple streams theory and institutional theory, to explore why climate change has become headline news in some countries but has received comparatively little coverage in others. The study utilises a worldwide sample across 41 different countries for the year 2008, covering 113 leading national broadsheet newspapers. A cross-sectional regression model is used to identify whether and how a range of contextual factors impact coverage of climate change. To a certain extent, a countryâs direct exposure to climate change and the measures that have been taken to combat global warming influence the position of climate change on the media agenda. Crucially, however, we identify a number of contextual factors that impact climate change-related media coverage in different national contexts. In particular, we find a significantly positive relationship between regulatory quality and levels of media coverage. At the same time, unemployment trends are significantly negatively related to media attention to climate change. Gross domestic product per capita does not help to explain levels of climate change-related media coverage. In other words, climate change appears to have moved beyond simply being a ârich country issueâ
A kapwa-infused paradigm in teaching Catholic theology/catechesis in a multireligious classroom in the Philippines
The increasing religious diversity in educational space has raised a legitimate question on how Catholic theology/ catechesis must be taught in Philippine Catholic universities given the institutional mandate to educate students âinto the faith of the Church through teaching of Christian doctrine in an organic and systematic wayâ (Wuerl, 2013, 1). On this note, the paper makes reference to âcentered plural- ismâ (CP), a positional posture espoused by Georgetown University in dealing with this predicament. In an attempt to (re) appropriate CP into local context, there is a need to explore the Filipino conception of self/others as enveloped within the indigenous concept of kapwa. Hereon, the paper finds that CP is not just feasibly suitable in local context but with kapwa's more inclusive description of the relationship of self and others, a CPâbased teaching paradigm in theology/ catechesis is a promising project in the educational scene of the Philippines
Underground railroads: citizen entitlements and unauthorized mobility in the antebellum period and today
In recent years, some scholars and prominent political figures have advocated the deepening of North American integration on roughly the European Union model, including the creation of new political institutions and the free movement of workers across borders. The construction of such a North American Union, if it included even a very thin trans-state citizenship regime, could represent the most significant expansion of individual entitlements in the region since citizenship was extended to former slaves in the United States. With such a possibility as its starting point, this article explores some striking parallels between the mass, legally prohibited movement across boundaries by fugitive slaves in the pre-Civil War period, and that by current unauthorized migrants to the United States. Both were, or are, met on their journeys by historically parallel groups of would-be helpers and hinderers. Their unauthorized movements in both periods serve as important signals of incomplete entitlements or institutional protections. Most crucially, moral arguments for extending fuller entitlements to both groups are shown here to be less distinct than may be prima facie evident, reinforcing the case for expanding and deepening the regional membership regime
Getting the agenda right: measuring media agenda using topic models
Agenda setting is the theory of how issue salience is transferred from the media to media audience. An agenda-setting study requires one to define a set of issues and to measure their salience. We propose a semisupervised approach based on topic modeling for exploring a news corpus and measuring the media agenda by tagging news articles with issues. The approach relies on an off-the-shelf Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic model, manual labeling of topics, and topic model customization. In preliminary evaluation, the tagger achieves a micro F1-score of 0.85 and outperforms the supervised baselines, suggesting that it could be successfully used for agenda-setting studies
Prevalence of intestinal microsporidiosis in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-infected patients with diarrhea in major United States cities
To determine the prevalence of intestinal microsporidiosis in HIV-infected patients, we performed a prospective study of HIV-infected patients with diarrheal illnesses in three US hospitals and examined an observational database of HIV-infected patients in 10 US cities. Among 737 specimens from the three hospitals, results were positive for 11 (prevalence 1.5%); seven (64%) acquired HIV through male-to-male sexual contact, two (18%) through male-to-male sexual contact and injection drug use, and one (9%) through heterosexual contact; one (9%) had an undetermined mode of transmission. Median CD4 count within six months of diagnosis of microsporidiosis was 33 cells/”L (range 3 to 319 cells/”L). For the national observational database (n = 24,098), the overall prevalence of microsporidiosis was 0.16%. Prevalence of microsporidiosis among HIV-infected patients with diarrheal disease is low, and microsporidiosis is most often diagnosed in patients with very low CD4+ cell counts. Testing for microsporidia appears to be indicated, especially for patients with very low CD4+ cell counts.Para determinar a prevalĂȘncia de microsporidiose intestinal em pacientes infectados pelo HIV foi realizado um estudo prospectivo em trĂȘs hospitais dos Estados Unidos da AmĂ©rica do Norte (EUA) e analizada uma base de dados nacional composta de dados coletados de pacientes infectados pelo HIV em 10 cidades dos EUA. De um total de 737 amostras de fezes de pacientes infectados pelo HIV que apresentavam diarrĂ©ia, amostras de 11 pacientes (prevalĂȘncia de 1,5%) foram positivas para microsporĂdios. Todos os positivos eram do sexo masculino e, entre eles, sete (64%) pacientes adquiriram a infecção pelo HIV atravĂ©s de relação homossexual, dois (18%) atravĂ©s de relação sexual e drogas injetĂĄveis e um (9%) atravĂ©s de contato heterosexual, enquanto que em um paciente o modo de transmissĂŁo do HIV nĂŁo foi determinado. A contagem mĂ©dia de linfĂłcitos CD4 realizada atĂ© seis meses do diagnĂłstico de microsporidiose foi de 33 cĂ©lulas/microlitro (3 a 319 cĂ©lulas/microlitro). A anĂĄlise da base de dados nacional (n = 24.098) mostrou uma prevalĂȘncia de microsporidiose de 0,16%. A prevalĂȘncia de microsporidiose em pacientes HIV-positivos com diarrĂ©ia Ă© baixa. Entretando, como a microsporidiose Ă© mais frequentemente diagnosticada em pacientes com contagens de CD4 muito baixas, a indicação de pesquisa de microsporĂdios Ă© justificada, especialmente para estes pacientes
Book Review of Serendipity: An Ecologistâs Quest to Understand Nature
A common thought among graduate students is: âhow do established scientists get where they are today?â In Serendipity: An Ecologistâs Quest to Understand Nature, James Estes offers a personal reflection on research experiences spanning his 50-year career, beginning as a Ph.D. student in 1970 and concluding with recognition as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014. Estes chronologically outlines the foundational trophic cascade ecology research that he and colleagues conducted in the Aleutian Islands, examining key relationships among kelp forests, sea otters, sea urchins, and killer whales through anecdotal stories of achievement and challenge. Estesâ 3 main goals in writing this book are to: (1) recount what he had learned from 50 years of research; (2) provide a larger story of how predators and prey interact with one another; and (3) explain how science âreally happens.
Terrorism abroad and migration policies at home
Do security concerns lead to more restrictive immigration policies? In this article, we contend that transnational influences can shape legislative output on immigration at home. Terrorist attacks in a neighboring country affect the salience of security concerns in the focal state, the policy solutions for addressing them, and the political will to implement these changes. In proximity of countries targeted by terrorism, politicians have specific incentives to manipulate immigration regulations following pressure from public opinion, for political opportunism or in anticipation of their neighborsâ policy choices. Using data on 33 OECD countries, we find that proximity to targeted countries leads to the implementation of a more restrictive migration policy regime. The publicâs common perception of a linkage between migration and terrorism thus has important policy consequences
Exploring the relationship between media coverage and participation in entrepreneurship : initial global evidence and research implications
Using a set of variables measured in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, our empirical investigation explored the influence of mass media through national culture on national entrepreneurial participation rates in 37 countries over 4 years (2000 to 2003). We found that stories about successful entrepreneurs, conveyed in mass media, were not significantly associated with the rate of nascent (opportunity searching) or the rate of actual (business activities commenced up to 3 months old) start-up activity, but that there was a significant positive association between the volume of entrepreneurship media stories and a nation’s volume of people running a young business (that is in GEM terminology, a business aged greater than 3 but less than 42 months old). More particularly, such stories had strong positive association with opportunity oriented operators of young businesses. Together, these findings are compatible with what in the mass communications theory literature may be called the ‘reinforcement model’. This argues that mass media are only capable of reinforcing their audience’s existing values and choice propensities but are not capable of shaping or changing those values and choices. In the area covered by this paper, policy-makers are committing public resources to media campaigns of doubtful utility in the absence of an evidence base. A main implication drawn from this study is the need for further and more sophisticated investigation into the relationship between media coverage of entrepreneurship, national culture and the rates and nature of people’s participation in the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.<br /
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