Old Media vs. New Media: Characterizations of Free Speech during Times of War

Old Media vs. New Media: Characterizations of Free Speech During Times of War Jamie Mercurio Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Ian Reyes, Communication Studies If citizens want their voices to be heard, they must know how to make them be heard. This project will outline and discuss several situations throughout recent history in which citizens with significant statements to make managed to catch the eye of the mass media and practically become household names. Each of the cases plays upon American First Amendment rights against a backdrop of two noteworthy time periods in American history: the Vietnam War era (specifically the late 1960s) and the more current, post 9/11 age of American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The purpose of this work is to better understand effective grassroots political communication in a changing media environment. Beginning with a summary of the First Amendment to the Constitution in its original historical context, the project details the changes in mass communication and media technology from the spread of television culture in the 1960s to modern America’s internet culture, discussing censorship in each respective context. The project begins with two First Amendment cases from the Vietnam War period, Tinker vs. Des Moines and United States vs. O’Brien, arguing that these cases demonstrate effective public protest during the older media age of the Vietnam War era. Then, the post 9/11 period is analyzed through Snyder vs. Phelps (of the Westboro Baptist Church), and the scandal surrounding Julian Assange and Wikileaks, representing effective protest speech in the new media age

Management of Bacteriuria in Veterans Affairs Hospitals.

BackgroundBacteriuria contributes to antibiotic overuse through treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) and long durations of therapy for symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTIs), yet large-scale evaluations of bacteriuria management among inpatients are lacking.MethodsInpatients with bacteriuria were classified as asymptomatic or symptomatic based on established criteria applied to data collected by manual chart review. We examined frequency of treatment of ASB, factors associated with treatment of ASB, durations of therapy, and frequency of complications including Clostridium difficile infection, readmission, and all-cause mortality within 28 days of discharge.ResultsAmong 2225 episodes of bacteriuria, 64% were classified as ASB. After excluding patients with non-UTI indications for antibiotics, 72% of patients with ASB received antibiotics. When evaluating only patients not meeting SIRS criteria, 68% of patients with ASB received antibiotics. The mean (±SD) days of antibiotic therapy for ASB, cystitis, CA-UTI and pyelonephritis were 10.0 (4.5), 11.4 (4.7), 12.0 (6.1), and 13.6 (5.3), respectively. In sum, 14% of patients with ASB were treated for greater than 14 days, and fluoroquinolones were the most commonly used empiric antibiotic for ASB [245/691 (35%)]. Complications were rare but more common among patients with ASB treated with antibiotics.ConclusionsThe majority of bacteriuria among inpatient veterans is due to ASB with high rates of treatment of ASB and prolonged durations of therapy for ASB and symptomatic UTIs