How mobile do you go: a study of 5 news media start-up cases in Portugal

Journalistic start-ups are thriving around the world, bringing new approaches to the news media environment in terms of concepts, contents, dissemination, internal organization, business models and, of course, consumption patterns. But the concept of start-up, commonly used in the IT area (traditionally more agile in terms of innovation), is not easy to be adapted and redefined for the more traditional news media environment. All over the world, innovation is growing in the news media business, and start-ups are a big source for it, even if the inherent fragility of many projects don’t allow these new companies to fully accomplish all their objectives, even when they can assure its survival after the first years of activity. This research aims to create a prospective view on the evolution of the mobile performance and consumption of news. As a case study, we try to do a panorama on the mobile consumption and performance of news in the Portuguese journalistic start-up scene, looking at a diversity of projects, with different goals, business models and audiences - and the relations established between them.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Determinants of job quality — Evidence for European country groups

Based on a micro-level approach and using data from the European Working Conditions Survey, covering 27 countries, we analyse the determinants of job quality. With cluster analysis applied to 11 dimensional indices, we form three homogeneous country groups and identify, by estimating twice-censored Tobit models, the main determinant factors affecting the individual level of job quality in each group. We verify the relevance of variables related to worker characteristics, firm characteristics, and the country in which the individual works. Among worker characteristics, education and employment status are the factors with the highest impact on job quality, while the economic sector is the most important firm characteristic. The results suggest the existence of important differences among groups regarding the magnitude of the impact of some factors. The highest dissimilarities are found between the group with better jobs (Nordic countries plus Belgium) and the group with lower quality jobs (Central and Eastern European countries plus Portugal and Greece). Variables related to age, education, dimension of the firm, and economic sector are those in which more heterogeneity is found among the groups

Innovative business models

One of the biggest challenges media businesses are facing is the redefinition of distribution and consumption patterns, shifting from traditional channels such as print, real time radio and TV to online, including digital formats like on-demand videos and podcasts. This digital revolution demands media workers and managers to consider a change from the former one-size-fits-all business model to a panoply of tailor-made models.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Determinant factors of job quality in Europe

We analyze the determinants of job quality in Europe based on an individual level approach. Using data from the Fourth European Working Conditions Survey, covering 31 countries, we develop a multidimensional indicator of job quality including eleven dimensional indices, and confirm the influence of worker and company characteristics on the quality of jobs. Among worker characteristics, the factors that most strongly influence job quality are education and whether the worker is self-employed or a wage earner. The economic sector is the most important firm-related characteristic.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

AI and journalism, robot journalism and algorithms

Automated journalism is also known as algorithmic journalism or robot journalism and consists of news articles generated by computer programmes. Through artificial intelligence (AI) software, stories are produced automatically by computers rather than human reporters. These programmes interpret, organise, and present data in human-readable ways. The process involves an algorithm that scans large amounts of data, selects from an assortment of preprogrammed article structures, orders key points, and inserts details such as names, places, amounts, rankings, statistics, and other figures. The output can also be customized to fit a certain voice, tone, or style. Until now, despite it being a growing trend, not that many media outlets worldwide have used automated journalism on a large scale. Pioneer adopters include The Associated Press, Forbes, ProPublica, and The Los Angeles Times. Early implementations were mainly used for stories based on statistics and numerical figures. Common topics include sports recaps32, weather, financial reports, real estate analysis, and earnings reviews.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

China and Latin America: Mutual benefits or asymmetric relationship?

With China’s rapid growth, it is worth considering whether or not the country has challenged the United States, which for decades was the hegemonic power in much of Latin America. Posed in international studies, these questions are viewed from a Western perspective, arguably ethnocentric and universalist, which understands the international context as one of allies and enemies, center and periphery. Thus, it is difficult to understand a global rearrangement involving a non-Western actor. There seems to be no other way of understanding peaceful coexistence without involving the dominant and dominated relationship. Therefore, this paper seeks to explain whether a strategic relationship, fostered based on equal relationships for mutual benefit, is possible, without thinking about the soft or strong power notion that characterized the international order of the 20th Century. For the approach, a qualitative analytical-descriptive methodology is used

Journalism for voice-activated assistants and devices

Speech was human’s first great tool for communication. By developing sounds capable of creating meaning for a group, human beings were able to exchange important information, such as threats to the group. Writing has emerged only very recently in human history: about 5,500 years ago . The opposite was true in the history of the Internet: writing came first, then sound. The big leap only arrived in the 21st century, with Apple’s launch of Siri in 2011. From then on, these voice tools gained the definition of voice assistants, as they were able to listen to, respond and perform tasks through voice command. Since then, voice assistants have become popular and easily accessible to the global population. Currently five major voice assistants are available in Western markets. The issue of platform power is likely to become increasingly important for news publishers as Google and Amazon look to provide more aggregated news services via their voice assistants.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The role of the corticomotorneurons in pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, degenerative disease of the motor system clinically defined by the presence of upper and lower motor neuron (LMN) signs. The site of onset of pathophysiology within the motor system in ALS remains unresolved and this thesis examines the role of the corticomotor neuron in the pathogenesis of ALS. The diagnostic utility of the split-hand sign in ALS involving preferential wasting of the ‘thenar’ group of intrinsic hand muscles namely the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) and first dorsal interosseous (FDI) was established by recording the split-hand index (SI) which was noted to reliably differentiate ALS from mimic neuromuscular disorders. The cortical and axonal excitability characteristics of the ‘thenar’ muscles namely the APB and FDI was compared with the hypothenar abductor digiti minimi (ADM) with threshold tracking transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies revealing cortical hyperexcitability to be a feature of ALS pronounced over the ‘thenar’ muscles while axonal hyperexcitability while a feature of ALS, did not selectively affect the prominently wasted ‘thenar’ muscles. Cortical hyperexcitability was also noted to precede the development of lower motor neuron dysfunction in a clinically and neurophysiologically normal APB muscle. The selective vulnerability of muscles in ALS was further defined by the split hand plus sign with a greater degree of cortical hyperexcitability over the preferentially wasted APB muscle in ALS patients when compared with a similarly innervated and relatively preserved flexor pollicis longus (FPL) muscle. In summary, corticomotorneuronal hyperexcitability as a marker of corticomotorneuronal dysfunction predominates over the muscles which are preferentially wasted in ALS and precedes evidence of lower motor neuron loss. The findings presented in this thesis support the primacy of the corticomotor neuron in the pathogenesis of the split hand phenomenon and suggest a mechanism for the pathogenesis of ALS