Televised public drama: the creation of 9/11

Almost seventy years ago German philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno predicted the immense influence of capitalism and commercialization on media systems and media content. Today commodification and the hunger for fun, spectacle, shock and emotions have become an intrinsic part of media offer and consumption. The central place belongs to television and the transformation of the news industry into packages of high-emotional stories, very often in sequels. Spectacle, strong emotional bond and empathetic members of audience are important elements of what media expert Brian A. Monahan calls public drama – a new hybrid form of television news. The American mainstream media transformed the terrorist attack on the USA on the 11th of September 2001 into “9/11” – a series of dramatic and emotional stories which imposed certain frames of understanding of what happened – and which were built into the cultural memory. In the first few hours after the attack the core of the 9/11 narrative was born: moral shock, a strong emotional bond with the victims of the attacks, transformation of rescuers into heroes, a feeling of love and togetherness among Americans, along with worldwide compassion. Emphasis was put on emotions, fear and a sort of spectacle of crisis, with little discussion about responsibility and critical evaluation of the reasons behind the attacks. Focus on human tragedies, fear and panic are immersed in a wider story about terrorist attacks which is a big threat to America. The power of television and its pictures to form and impose frames of understanding events is huge, along with the long-term consequences this can have on the audience, but politics as well

Models of TV newsroom organization and news routines in Croatia: Case studies of HRT, Nova TV & N1

The efforts of today’s journalism to win back the audiences’ trust and meet the expectations of audiences, while remaining committed to high-quality journalism, has been reflected in organizational and cultural changes in newsrooms. The digitalization of news production processes meant developing new newsroom organization models and news routines. As television is still the most trusted media in Croatia, this study focuses on three Croatian television newsrooms – the public broadcaster HRT, the commercial broadcaster Nova TV, and the most-watched non-terrestrial news channel N1 – and explores their different models of organization and how they have adapted to a transformed media environment and audience expectations. For this, a series of exploratory semi-structured interviews are conducted with a total of 28 journalists and editors. This study examines newsroom practices, the efficiency of newsroom integration or convergence implementation (if any), and the attempts to produce and distribute original innovative content across platforms. The study also tackles the main opportunities and obstacles that discourage or encourage them to produce what they perceive as quality stories and build engagement and trust in journalism. Findings point to three distinct newsroom integration and organization formats shaped by several important factors – past newsroom traditions, technology, ownership (Nova TV), foreign investors, international consultants, politics (HRT) and ultimately the format of the channel (N1). This is predominantly reflected in the news production process, or more precisely, in the ways editors and journalists create and shape the daily news program. Differences are identified in workflow between journalists employed by the public service broadcaster and its counterparts

The potential of constructive journalism ideas in a Croatian context

This study examines the potential of constructive journalism ideas and their implementation in Croatia, a country with a different social, cultural and historical background than that of Denmark or other Western European countries where constructive journalism is practised. Three Croatian linguists explain the potential hidden meanings of the word constructive for Croatians. Fifteen broadcast journalists and editors in Croatia have been interviewed in order to examine the potential opportunities and obstacles for the implementation of constructive journalism ideas in their newsrooms. Croatian journalists have a more active approach towards journalism and their overall impression of constructive journalism ideas is positive. Both linguists and journalists noticed potential ideological connotations of the word constructive, while journalists were careful about reporting on possible solutions and things that would work so as not to cross the line and be pulled into ideology. When it comes to implementation, most journalists point out differences in mindset, political influences and newsroom routines as main obstacles. A development of a specific strategy for Croatian newsrooms that moves away from adhering to ideas only is recommended, while the word constructive may be used only if it is clearly defined

From Vineyard Soil to Wine Fermentation: Microbiome Approximations to Explain the “terroir” Concept

Wine originally emerged as a serendipitous mix of chemistry and biology, where microorganisms played a decisive role. From these ancient fermentations to the current monitored industrial processes, winegrowers and winemakers have been continuously changing their practices according to scientific knowledge and advances. A new enology direction is emerging and aiming to blend the complexity of spontaneous fermentations with industrial safety of monitored fermentations. In this context, wines with distinctive autochthonous peculiarities have a great acceptance among consumers, causing important economic returns. The concept of terroir, far from being a rural term, conceals a wide range of analytical parameters that are the basis of the knowledge-based enology trend. In this sense, the biological aspect of soils has been underestimated for years, when actually it contains a great microbial diversity. This soil-associated microbiota has been described as determinant, not only for the chemistry and nutritional properties of soils, but also for health, yield, and quality of the grapevine. Additionally, recent works describe the soil microbiome as the reservoir of the grapevine associated microbiota, and as a contributor to the final sensory properties of wines. To understand the crucial roles of microorganisms on the entire wine making process, we must understand their ecological niches, population dynamics, and relationships between ‘microbiome- vine health’ and ‘microbiome-wine metabolome.’ These are critical steps for designing precision enology practices. For that purpose, current metagenomic techniques are expanding from laboratories, to the food industry. This review focuses on the current knowledge about vine and wine microbiomes, with emphasis on their biological roles and the technical basis of next-generation sequencing pipelines. An overview of molecular and informatics tools is included and new directions are proposed, highlighting the importance of –omics technologies in wine research and industry

Corrigendum: From Vineyard Soil to Wine Fermentation: Microbiome Approximations to Explain the “terroir” Concept

In the original article, there was an error in the Conflict of Interest statement. The correct version appears below. The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way

From Vineyard Soil to Wine Fermentation: Microbiome Approximations to Explain the “terroir” Concept

Wine originally emerged as a serendipitous mix of chemistry and biology, where microorganisms played a decisive role. From these ancient fermentations to the current monitored industrial processes, winegrowers and winemakers have been continuously changing their practices according to scientific knowledge and advances. A new enology direction is emerging and aiming to blend the complexity of spontaneous fermentations with industrial safety of monitored fermentations. In this context, wines with distinctive autochthonous peculiarities have a great acceptance among consumers, causing important economic returns. The concept of terroir, far from being a rural term, conceals a wide range of analytical parameters that are the basis of the knowledge-based enology trend. In this sense, the biological aspect of soils has been underestimated for years, when actually it contains a great microbial diversity. This soil-associated microbiota has been described as determinant, not only for the chemistry and nutritional properties of soils, but also for health, yield, and quality of the grapevine. Additionally, recent works describe the soil microbiome as the reservoir of the grapevine associated microbiota, and as a contributor to the final sensory properties of wines. To understand the crucial roles of microorganisms on the entire wine making process, we must understand their ecological niches, population dynamics, and relationships between ‘microbiome- vine health’ and ‘microbiome-wine metabolome.’ These are critical steps for designing precision enology practices. For that purpose, current metagenomic techniques are expanding from laboratories, to the food industry. This review focuses on the current knowledge about vine and wine microbiomes, with emphasis on their biological roles and the technical basis of next-generation sequencing pipelines. An overview of molecular and informatics tools is included and new directions are proposed, highlighting the importance of –omics technologies in wine research and industry

The perspective of using MOOCs in journalism education: Case study of mobile journalism MOOC users' experiences

Through analysing massive open online courses (MOOC) participants' experiences and perceptions of a 20-week course in mobile journalism, this paper examines the potential obstacles, challenges and opportunities in providing education in this specific field. Results confirm the problematic low retention rate for MOOCs and show that this type of course demands more effort from participants by asking them to complete practical assignments away from the comfort of their homes. The content of the course, as well as quality communication with tutors is key for motivation and progress of participants in this MOOC. Consideration of technical resources for this type of remote training (smartphones and other equipment) is recommended, along with more interactive sessions that enhance the learning experience by connecting closer not only participants with tutors but participants with each other

Meeting Report of the Third Annual Tri-Service Microbiome Consortium Symposium

The Tri-Service Microbiome Consortium (TSMC) was founded to enhance collaboration, coordination, and communication of microbiome research among U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) organizations and to facilitate resource, material and information sharing among consortium members. The 2019 annual symposium was held 22–24 October 2019 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. Presentations and discussions centered on microbiome-related topics within five broad thematic areas: 1) human microbiomes; 2) transitioning products into Warfighter solutions; 3) environmental microbiomes; 4) engineering microbiomes; and 5) microbiome simulation and characterization. Collectively, the symposium provided an update on the scope of current DoD microbiome research efforts, highlighted innovative research being done in academia and industry that can be leveraged by the DoD, and fostered collaborative opportunities. This report summarizes the presentations and outcomes of the 3rd annual TSMC symposium

riboSeed:leveraging prokaryotic genomic architecture to assemble across ribosomal regions

The vast majority of bacterial genome sequencing has been performed using Illumina short reads. Because of the inherent difficulty of resolving repeated regions with short reads alone, only similar to 10% of sequencing projects have resulted in a closed genome. The most common repeated regions are those coding for ribosomal operons (rDNAs), which occur in a bacterial genome between 1 and 15 times, and are typically used as sequence markers to classify and identify bacteria. Here, we exploit the genomic context in which rDNAs occur across taxa to improve assembly of these regions relative to de novo sequencing by using the conserved nature of rDNAs across taxa and the uniqueness of their flanking regions within a genome. We describe a method to construct targeted pseudocontigs generated by iteratively assembling reads that map to a reference genome's rDNAs. These pseudocontigs are then used to more accurately assemble the newly sequenced chromosome. We show that this method, implemented as riboSeed, correctly bridges across adjacent contigs in bacterial genome assembly and, when used in conjunction with other genome polishing tools, can assist in closure of a genome