La creatividad enjaulada en la traducción: una perspectiva neoinstitucional sobre la comunicación de crisis

Crisis communication research has primarily focused on universal models guiding managers of various organisations in times of crisis. Even though this is about to change, a tendency remains for research in the field to overlook the impact of structural conditions on organisation’s crisis communication. In order to add to the emergent discussion on new theoretical and empirical venues within the field of crisis communication, this paper proposes a framework based on new institutional theory for analysing crisis communication practices as a societal phenomenon. New institutionalism is advocated due to its ability to shift the focus from agency to structure and in doing so emphasise the social preconditions for organisational activities. In line with this, this conceptual paper discusses crisis communication as an institution, i.e., as a set of more or less conscious ideas about formats (the organisational structures developed for crisis communication work), contents (the content of organisations’ communication in times of crisis) and contexts (the situations during which organisations are expected to perform crisis communication). Moreover, we discuss how these ideas become translated (i.e., modified) as they travel (i.e., become legitimate, popular and get widely spread) across organisational and institutional contexts. In order to illustrate the framework described above, the Swedish authorities’ communication in connection to the A/H1N1 outbreak is used as a case study

Digital innovation during terror and crises

Terror attacks are moments of chaos and destabilization. From a journalistic perspective, terror attacks disrupt everyday news work where journalists find themselves struggling to restore order and report the event at hand as accurate and speedy as possible. From the perspective of the affected audience, journalism fills vital functions in making sense of the attack, by responding to a complex and rapidly changing mix of social needs. In this article, we explore how such disrupting events as terror can contribute to newsroom innovation in terms of journalistic processes, journalistic products, and even journalistic genres. We use the terror attack and massacre in Norway on 22 July 2011 as a case study, as it to a large extent forced journalists to think outside the box in order to meet the audience’s informational and rhetorical needs. The study shows that innovation is tightly connected to the development of the rhetorical situation through three phases: shock, start-up, and transformation. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with journalists who covered the attack, as well as a rhetorical exploration of the evolving situational context and the texts that were created in response

When routines are not enough: Journalists’ crisis management during the 22/7 domestic terror attack in Norway

Interest in crisis management among journalism scholars grew in the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Yet, few studies explore journalists and their organizations from a newsroom and organizational crisis management perspective. In this study, we study journalists’ ability to conduct news work when faced with a frame-breaking news event—in this case, the July 22, 2011 attacks in Norway. Dividing the journalistic response to these events into three stages, each with its own particular challenges, we have been able to unpack how these Norwegian journalists were capable of reporting on the events despite the chaos and uncertainty that followed in their wake, including the fact that the newsroom itself suffered severe damage from the bomb blast. This study shows that coping mechanisms in times of organizational stress will range from the expected (routine, habit) to the unexpected (improvisation, bricolage). The individual must pick up where the organization leaves off, relying upon experience and professionalism as well as face-to-face interaction and the assistance of whatever technology survives

Social media’s challenge to journalistic norms and values during a Terror Attack

Over the past decade, the frequency of terror attacks around the world has increased. In the context of the 22 July 2011 terror attacks in Norway, social media use by citizens, and even victims, became an essential feature of reporting. Social media confronted the legacy media’s way of covering crisis events. It raised questions about traditional journalism’s ability to handle audience’s as, not only news consumers, but also producers. In the present article, we look at the ways in which the professional norms and values of traditional journalism are specifically challenged by social media use in times of terror, using the 22 July 2011 attacks as a case study. We find that Norwegian journalists initially held to their professional roles, and to the classic self-representational principles of journalism, including objectivity, autonomy and immediacy. When they integrated social media into their traditional platforms and modes of coverage, they framed it as a “source” of sorts. As the 22 July 2011 event coverage became more focused on the collective grief felt by the nation, in turn, the traditional journalistic principles of objectivity and autonomy became less relevant, enabling yet more audience participation and social media use in relation to the attack

Closed life-cycle aquaculture of sea lettuce (Ulva fenestrata): performance and biochemical profile differ in early developmental stages

Sea lettuce (Ulva) aquaculture has increased the last decade due to high productivity, wide environmental tolerance, and interesting functional and nutritional properties of the crop. Research focus has mainly been on adult biomass production, but knowledge of performance and biochemical content of early developmental stages – which are the basis to any large-scale production - is still limited. The life-history of Ulva alternates between a diploid sporophytic life-stage and a haplontic gametophytic life-stage. Whereas the sporophyte give raise to recombinant gametophytes through zoids, gametophytes can give raise to parthenogenetically developing, clonal gametes in absence of a mating partner. This study shows that recombinant gametophytes have a faster ontogenetic development, higher growth rate, as well as higher protein, fatty acid, and pigment contents compared to clonal gametophytes of the crop Ulva fenestrata. Nutrient addition is required for a normal development, but temperature and swarmer density have relatively small effects on the hatchery success, relative growth rate and biochemical profile of the juvenile biomass. Our study reveals that the selection of the life-history-phase in novel sea lettuce crop strains could largely contribute to the emerging seaweed aquaculture sector

Sustainable large-scale aquaculture of the northern hemisphere sea lettuce, ulva fenestrata, in an off-shore seafarm

The growing world population demands an increase in sustainable resources for biorefining. The opening of new farm grounds and the cultivation of extractive species, such as marine seaweeds, increases worldwide, aiming to provide renewable biomass for food and non-food applications. The potential for European large-scale open ocean farming of the commercial green seaweed crop Ulva is not yet fully realized. Here we conducted manipulative cultivation experiments in order to investigate the effects of hatchery temperature (10 and 15◦C), nutrient addition (PES and 3xPES) and swarmer density (500 and 10,000 swarmers ml−1 ) on the biomass yield and biochemical composition (fatty acid, protein, carbohydrate, pigment and phenolic content) of off-shore cultivated Ulva fenestrata in a Swedish seafarm. High seedling densities were optimal for the growth of this northern hemisphere crop strain and significantly increased the mean biomass yield by ~84% compared to low seedling densities. Variations of nutrients or changes in temperature levels during the hatchery phase were not necessary to increase the subsequent growth in an open-water seafarm, however effects of the factors on the thallus habitus (thallus length/width) were observed. We found no significant effect of the environmental factors applied in the hatchery on the total fatty acid or crude protein content in the off-shore cultivated Ulva. However, low seedling density and low temperature increased the total carbohydrate content and furthermore, high temperature in combination with high nutrient levels decreased the pigment content (chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids). Low temperature in combination with high nutrient levels increased the phenolic content. Our study confirms the successful and sustainable potential for large-scale off-shore cultivation of the Scandinavian crop U. fenestrata. We conclude that high seedling density in the hatchery is most important for increasing the total biomass yield of sea-farmed U. fenestrata, and that changing temperature or addition of nutrients overall does not have a large effect on the biochemical composition. To summarize, our study contributes novel insights into the large-scale off-shore cultivation potential of northern hemisphere U. fenestrata and underpins suitable pre-treatments during the hatchery phase of seedlings to facilitate a successful and cost-efficient large-scale rope cultivation

Area of ischemia assessed by physicians and software packages from myocardial perfusion scintigrams.

The European Society of Cardiology recommends that patients with >10% area of ischemia should receive revascularization. We investigated inter-observer variability for the extent of ischemic defects reported by different physicians and by different software tools, and if inter-observer variability was reduced when the physicians were provided with a computerized suggestion of the defects

Serum perfluoroalkyl substances in residents following long-term drinking water contamination from firefighting foam in Ronneby, Sweden.

BACKGROUND: In December 2013, it was discovered that drinking water supplied to one third of the households in Ronneby, southern Sweden, was highly contaminated by PFAS (sum level >10,000 ng/L) originated from firefighting foams used at a nearby military airport. OBJECTIVES: To report serum PFAS levels of Ronneby residents participating in a biomonitoring program, and to describe the variation by age, sex and calendar period for residential exposure. In addition, a reference group living in a neighboring municipality without PFAS contaminated drinking water was examined. METHODS: Blood samples and demographic data were collected for 3297 Ronneby residents and 226 individuals from the reference group. Yearly residence addresses were available for 3086 Ronneby residents from the national population registry. Serum concentrations of PFHxS, PFOS and PFOA were determined in all participants, with additional PFHpA, PFNA and PFDA in subsets of the participants. RESULTS: The population geometric means for serum PFHxS, PFOS and PFOA were 114, 135 and 6.8 ng/mL for all Ronneby residents, i.e.135, 35 and 4.5 times higher than for the reference group. Ronneby residents who resided in the area with contaminated water supply during 2005-2013 showed much higher PFAS levels in 2014 than those exposed only before 2005. Ronneby residents who never resided in the area with contaminated water supply also had higher serum PFAS levels than the reference group. All three PFAS were highly correlated (rs > 0.9 for each pair). Serum PFAS levels were lowest in teenage years and then increased with age. Adult females had lower PFAS levels on average than males under the age of 60 but higher above 60. DISCUSSION: The results reveal high serum PFAS levels dominated by PFHxS and PFOS in the Ronneby residents highly exposed to PFAS originated from firefighting foams. The PFAS exposure in Ronneby permits studies of associations to a range of health parameters, as well as studies of the toxicokinetics of PFAS exposure

Conditions for transformative learning for sustainable development: a theoretical review and approach

Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a theoretical approach to understand conditions and constraints for societal change towards sustainable development. In order to break with unsustainable norms, habits, practices, and structures, there is a need for learning for transformation, not only adaption. Based on a critical literature review within the field of learning for sustainable development, our approach is a development of the concept of transformative learning, by integrating three additional dimensions—Institutional Structures, Social Practices, and Conflict Perspectives. This approach acknowledges conflicts on macro, meso, and micro levels, as well as structural and cultural constraints. It contends that transformative learning is processual, interactional, long-term, and cumbersome. It takes place within existing institutions and social practices, while also transcending them. The article adopts an interdisciplinary social science perspective that acknowledges the importance of transformative learning in order for communities, organizations, and individuals to be able to deal with global sustainability problems, acknowledging the societal and personal conflicts involved in such transformation