Audiências, consumidores e cidadãos: implicações das mudanças nas relações dos operadores de serviço público

Os media encontram-se perante um cenário muito diferente daquele que existia aquando da fundação da RTP, há 50 anos, o qual se caracterizava pela complexidade e pela turbulência do mercado. O primeiro aspecto resulta das dificuldades com as quais se debatem as empresas de comunicação, enquanto o segundo decorre da instabilidade e da falta de orientação clara nos mercados, factores que originam incerteza e riscos estratégicos. As pressões sobre os media são provocadas por cinco factores decisivos subjacentes ao desenvolvimento contemporâneo do sector: abundância de meios de comunicação; fragmentação e polarização das audiências; desenvolvimento de carteiras de produtos; erosão da força das empresas de media; e alterações de poder no processo comunicacional. O primeiro factor torna-se visível através do acréscimo dramático de tipos e unidades de media, bem como do crescimento da oferta, que excede largamente o aumento de procura em termos monetários e temporais. Dispararam a quantidade de páginas dos jornais e o número de horas diárias de emissão (tanto de rádio como de televisão) e de revistas e livros publicados. Nesta altura, as condições técnicas e económicas e as políticas públicas fomentam o aparecimento de novos fornecedores de conteúdos, aumentando, dramaticamente, a oferta de empresas

How Europe talks about itself: Lessons from the Euro Crisis

Although the continuing Euro Crisis is currently being overshadowed by the refugee crisis in Europe, its economic and political effects continue to shake the foundation of Europe and dampen national economies

Picard: We must keep the focus on why plurality is important

Robert G. Picard is Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, a research fellow at Green Templeton College (Oxford), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Here he argues that digital intermediaries should not be ignored in the debates over media pluralism, particularly when they perform editorial functions. This post is part of our series on the role of digital intermediaries in media plurality

Book review: What Society needs from Media in the Age of digital communication, by Robert G. Picard

Media and communications are changing rapidly and their transformation is having a momentous impact on the abilities of individuals to communicate and how society communicates within itself. Such changes are important because media convey ideas, opinions, information, social values, experiences, and entertainment and those are influenced by social, economic, and political forces in society. The changing nature of communication is especially important because media and communication platforms are increasingly the primary location in which contemporary identity, culture, and values and norms are manifested and contested

Economics of joint production and implications for the media and cultural industries: The necessity of application and research

This article addresses an issue of joint production arising from the media and cultural industries. Joint production is a production process that yields two or more products simultaneously. In the media and cultural industries, the application of digital technology has made it possible for producers to generate products both online and offline, therefore, a common production process can yield outcome for multiple platforms. This changing feature has brought with it many implications – from the managerial perspective, it has altered economic rationales guiding managers’ decision making on whether or not to cease production on the traditional platforms. The current study explores why different types of analysis are required in the joint production. This study introduces the concepts of shut-down, split-off and tipping points that need to be considered. The authors also propose an approach of timeline analysis that may move the investigation of joint production forward for the next steps

Crowd-powered positive psychological interventions

Recent advances in crowdsourcing have led to new forms of assistive technologies, commonly referred to as crowd-powered devices. To best serve the user, these technologies crowdsource human intelligence as needed, when automated methods alone are insufficient. In this paper, we provide an overview of how these systems work and how they can be used to enhance technological interventions for positive psychology. As a specific example, we describe previous work that crowdsources positive reappraisals, providing users timely and personalized suggestions for ways to reconstrue stressful thoughts and situations. We then describe how this approach could be extended for use with other positive psychological interventions. Finally, we outline future directions for crowd-powered positive psychological interventions

Utilisation and evaluation of cooperative case-based teaching for integration of microbiology and pharmacology in veterinary education

Purpose: Integrating basic sciences with clinical disciplines while fostering clinical reasoning capabilities is difficult. We investigated the utilisation of diagnostic specimens and, a cooperative, case-based learning and teaching model to integrate principles of antimicrobial drug pharmacology and microbiology in the fifth year of a veterinary course. Methods: In small groups, students were assigned diagnostic specimens from which they isolated and identified clinically relevant microorganisms and then performed antimicrobial susceptibility tests based on a review of pharmacology, microbiology and pathophysiology. Results were recorded and analysed followed by a student-led integrative tutorial. Learning outcomes were assessed via individually written reports discussing the disease process, interpretation of diagnostic results and, recommendations and rationales for therapeutic interventions. Results: This approach yielded high quality student reports that conformed to antimicrobial prescription guidelines with consistently high summative assessment scores. Mean scores for the final report in this learning activity were: 82 ± 12%, 80 ± 12% and 80 ± 11% for 2015, 2016 and 2017 cohorts respectively; over the same time period, 98 ± 1% of students indicated that these learning activities facilitated the development of confidence, professional knowledge and skills. Discussion: This was a consistent approach for integrating principles of veterinary pharmacology and microbiology in clinical disciplines. These data illustrate the benefit of a systematic application of a cooperative, case-based learning and teaching model in integrating pre-clinical and clinical disciplines in a bachelor of veterinary science course

Les impacts humains des changements organisationnels autour des TIC

La taille des systèmes mis en place dans les grandes organisations, leur caractère exogène par rapport aux pratiques de l’entreprise (progiciels de gestion intégrés), posent des défis relativement nouveaux, difficiles à relever pour les acteurs. En effet, les métiers des informaticiens comme ceux des utilisateurs en sont le plus souvent profondément affectés.Les informaticiens doivent réviser leur mode d’action, révision qui s’accompagne d’une moindre autonomie, d’exigences de coopération plus élevées, et d’une multidisciplinarité à laquelle ils n’ont pas nécessairement été préparés.Les professionnels utilisateurs peuvent perdre des repères professionnels historiques, changement accompagné d’une révision des pratiques, de la modification des structures et de l’environnement de travail. Ils doivent parfois acquérir de nouvelles qualifications, de façon coûteuse, et certains peuvent perdre leur travail.Ces problématiques seront illustrées par deux situations concrètes très récentes, observées dans un grand groupe de service, pour chacune des populations.Many organizational changes are related to (or initiated by) the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) tools.The size of the systems implemented in large organizations, their external nature vis-à-vis the company’s practices (Enterprise Resource Planning) are rather new challenges, which are difficult for the actors to tackle. In fact, the jobs of data processing people as well as of professional users are often the most affected.Data processing people must revise their way of doing things, a change that is accompanied by a loss of autonomy and greater demands for cooperation and multidisciplinarity that they are not necessarily prepared for.Professional users may lose some historical guidelines, a change that is accompanied by a review of their practices, organizational changes, and changes in the work environment. They must sometimes develop new capacities, which may be costly for them, and some may even lose their jobs.These questions will be illustrated in two actual recent situations observed in a major service provider, for each of the populations.Numerosos cambios organizacionales están asociados a (o provocados por) la introducción de herramientas tecnológicas de información o de comunicación (TIC).El tamaño de los sistemas implantados en las grandes organizaciones y su carácter exógeno con relación a las prácticas de la empresa (programas de gestión integrada), plantean desafíos relativamente nuevos, difíciles de asumir para los actores. Efectivamente, tanto el oficio de los especialistas en informática, como el de los profesionales usuarios, se ven muy frecuentemente afectados.Los especialistas en informática deben revisar su manera de hacer, revisión que se acompaña de una menor autonomía, exigencias de cooperación más elevadas y de un trabajo multidisciplinario para el cual no fueron necesariamente preparados. Los profesionales usuarios pueden perder puntos históricos de referencia profesional, cambio acompañado de una revisión de las prácticas, de la modificación de las estructuras y del medio ambiente del trabajo. A veces, deben adquirir nuevas calificaciones, a un costo alto y algunos pueden perder su trabajo.Estas problemáticas serán ilustradas a través de dos situaciones concretas muy recientes, observadas en un gran grupo proveedor de servicios, para ambos grupos de empleados