4,334 research outputs found
Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the central concepts in a textbook that examines the role of media in the political sphere in comparative perspective. The book has a particular focus on media models, theories of news production, the journalistic profession as well as the performance of the media in elections, war, terrorism and on line. The book focuses on the media and journalists in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation
Pathos and patter in real estate parlance
This paper presents the first systematic analysis of estate agent language and employs Aristotleâs ponderings on the art of persuasion as a means of classifying the peculiar parlance of property peddlers. âDes. Res.â, ârarely availableâ, âviewing essentialâ â these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements. The question is whether the selling agentâs penchant for rhetoric is uniform across a single urban system or whether there are variations, even within a relatively limited geographical area. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the West of Scotland over the period 1999 to 2006. Our analysis has implications for our understanding of the agency behaviour of housing market professionals and endeavours to open up a new avenue of research into the market-impact of rhetoric in the language of selling
Politics and the media in postcommunist Russia
The evidence of a nationally representative survey conducted in April 2001 suggests that television is the medium of choice for most Russians. At least 92 per cent watch at least several times a week, with state channels more popular than those in commercial ownership. The media enjoy a high level of trust, and there is widespread agreement that they should adopt a stabilising role in society rather than simply report developments. Television is the main source of information when Russians make their electoral choices; there are accordingly considerable implications in the extent to which pro-Kremlin candidates and parties enjoy the support of the state media, which in turn are the favourite viewing of the voters that support them
Media effects and Russian elections, 1999-2000
The Russian parliamentary and presidential elections of December 1999 and March 2000 appeared to have been won in large part through the partisan use of (particularly state) television. According to the evidence of a spring 2001 national survey, television was the main source of political information for the supporters of all parties and candidates. However, state television (which had been most supportive of the Kremlin) was much more likely to be favoured by the supporters of the pro-regime Unity party; while commercial television (which had provided a more even-handed coverage of the elections) was more popular and respected among the supporters of anti-Kremlin parties and candidates and less popular among supporters of Vladimir Putin. Regression analysis that takes account of reciprocal causation between media source and vote choice indicates that these were not spurious associations. The findings suggest that the state itself may exercise a disproportionate influence upon the electoral process in newly established systems in which social structures and political allegiances remain fluid
Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the central concepts in a textbook that examines the role of media in the political sphere in comparative perspective. The book has a particular focus on media models, theories of news production, the journalistic profession as well as the performance of the media in elections, war, terrorism and on line. The book focuses on the media and journalists in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation
Rhetoric in the language of real estate marketing
âDes. Res.â, ârarely availableâ, âviewing essentialâ â these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements which contain a heady mix of euphemism, hyperbole and superlative. Of interest is whether the selling agentâs penchant for rhetoric is spatially uniform or whether there are variations across the urban system. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle and over the selling season. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat, and does it matter whether a house is marketed in the summer or winter? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the Strathclyde conurbation over the period 1999 to 2006. The analysis opens up a new avenue of research into the use of real estate rhetoric and its interaction with agency behaviour and market dynamics
A Correlation Between the Intrinsic Brightness and Average Decay Rate of Gamma-ray Burst X-ray Afterglow Light Curves
We present a correlation between the average temporal decay
({\alpha}X,avg,>200s) and early-time luminosity (LX,200s) of X-ray afterglows
of gamma-ray bursts as observed by Swift-XRT. Both quantities are measured
relative to a rest frame time of 200 s after the {\gamma}-ray trigger. The
luminosity average decay correlation does not depend on specific temporal
behavior and contains one scale independent quantity minimizing the role of
selection effects. This is a complementary correlation to that discovered by
Oates et al. (2012) in the optical light curves observed by Swift-UVOT. The
correlation indicates that on average, more luminous X-ray afterglows decay
faster than less luminous ones, indicating some relative mechanism for energy
dissipation. The X-ray and optical correlations are entirely consistent once
corrections are applied and contamination is removed. We explore the possible
biases introduced by different light curve morphologies and observational
selection effects, and how either geometrical effects or intrinsic properties
of the central engine and jet could explain the observed correlation.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ; 16 pages, 15 figures, 2 table
GRB Flares: UV/Optical Flaring (Paper I)
We present a new algorithm for the detection of flares in gamma-ray burst
(GRB) light curves and use this algorithm to detect flares in the UV/optical.
The algorithm makes use of the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) to analyze
the residuals of the fitted light curve, removing all major features, and to
determine the statistically best fit to the data by iteratively adding
additional `breaks' to the light curve. These additional breaks represent the
individual components of the detected flares: T_start, T_stop, and T_peak. We
present the detection of 119 unique flaring periods detected by applying this
algorithm to light curves taken from the Second Swift Ultraviolet/Optical
Telescope (UVOT) GRB Afterglow Catalog. We analyzed 201 UVOT GRB light curves
and found episodes of flaring in 68 of the light curves. For those light curves
with flares, we find an average number of ~2 flares per GRB. Flaring is
generally restricted to the first 1000 seconds of the afterglow, but can be
observed and detected beyond 10^5 seconds. More than 80% of the flares detected
are short in duration with Delta t/t of < 0.5. Flares were observed with flux
ratios relative to the underlying light curve of between 0.04 to 55.42. Many of
the strongest flares were also seen at greater than 1000 seconds after the
burst.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 20 pages (including 8 figures and 1 table
Observation of Large Atomic-Recoil Induced Asymmetries in Cold Atom Spectroscopy
The atomic recoil effect leads to large (25 %) asymmetries in simple
spectroscopic investigations of Ca atoms that have been laser-cooled to 10
microkelvin. Starting with spectra from the more familiar Doppler-broadened
domain, we show how the fundamental asymmetry between absorption and stimulated
emission of light manifests itself when shorter spectroscopic pulses lead to
the Fourier transform regime. These effects occur on frequency scales much
larger than the size of the recoil shift itself, and have not been observed
before in saturation spectroscopy. These results are relevant to
state-of-the-art optical atomic clocks based on freely expanding neutral atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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