Comparing Vocal Health and Attitudes to Voice care in Primary Teachers and Voiceover Artists – A Survey Study Using the Health Belief Model

Felix Schaeffler - ORCID: 0000-0002-2764-7635 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2764-7635Meagan Rees - ORCID: 0000-0003-2114-4874 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2114-4874Objectives A range of professions experience high demands on their voices and are potentially at risk of developing voice disorders. Teachers have been studied extensively in this respect, while voiceover artists are a growing professional group with unknown levels of voice training, voice problems and voice care attitudes. To better understand profession-specific voice care requirements, we compared voice training, voice care habits and self-reported voice problems of these two professional groups and measured attitudes to voice care, informed by the Health Belief Model (HBM). Study design The study was a cross-sectional survey study with two cohorts. Methods We surveyed 264 Scottish primary school teachers and 96 UK voiceover artists . Responses were obtained with multiple-choice and free-text questions. Attitudes to voice care were assessed with Likert-type questions that addressed five dimensions of the HBM. Results Most voiceover artists had some level of voice training, compared to a minority of teachers. Low numbers of teachers reported regular voice care, compared to over half of voiceover artists. Higher numbers of teachers reported work-related voice problems. Voiceover artists reported greater awareness for vocal health and perceived potential effects of voice problems on their work as more severe. Voiceover artists also saw voice care as more beneficial. Teachers perceived barriers to voice care as substantially higher and felt less confident about voice care. Teachers with existing voice problems showed increased perceptions of voice problem susceptibility and severity and saw more benefit in voice care. Cronbach's alpha was below 0.7 for about half of the HBM-informed survey subsets, suggesting that reliability could be improved. Conclusions Both groups reported substantial levels of voice problems, and different attitudes to voice care suggest that the two groups require different approaches to preventative intervention. Future studies will benefit from the inclusion of further attitude dimensions beyond the HBM.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.02.005aheadofprintaheadofprin

Standards of conduct and reporting in evidence syntheses that could inform environmental policy and management decisions

Accurate, unbiased and concise synthesis of available evidence following clear methodology and transparent report‑ ing is necessary to support effective environmental policy and management decisions. Without this, less reliable and/ or less objective reviews of evidence could inform decision making, leading to ineffective, resource wasteful inter‑ ventions with potential for unintended consequences. We evaluated the reliability of over 1000 evidence syntheses (reviews and overviews) published between 2018 and 2020 that provide evidence on the impacts of human activities or effectiveness of interventions relevant to environmental management. The syntheses are drawn from the Col‑ laboration for Environmental Evidence Database of Evidence Reviews (CEEDER), an online, freely available evidence service for evidence users that assesses the reliability of evidence syntheses using a series of published criteria. We found that the majority of syntheses have problems with transparency, replicability and potential for bias. Overall, our results suggest that most recently published evidence syntheses are of low reliability to inform decision making. Reviews that followed guidance and reporting standards for evidence synthesis had improved assessment ratings, but there remains substantial variation in the standard of reviews amongst even these. Furthermore, the term ‘system‑ atic review’, which implies conformity with a methodological standard, was frequently misused. A major objective of the CEEDER project is to improve the reliability of the global body of environmental evidence reviews. To this end we outline freely available online resources to help improve review conduct and reporting. We call on authors, editors and peer reviewers to use these resources to ensure more reliable syntheses in the future

Stellenbosch Media Forum 2004

Stellenbosch Media Forum is an annual publication written and produced by the BPhil (Journalism) class of that specific year in the Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University.The great poet Robert E. Frost in his The Road Not Taken wrote of the "road less travelled by". He stood at the crossroads and surveyed his two choices, regretting not being able to travel both. One had clearly been well trodden -the popular choice - while the other seemed untouched and "wanted wear". He then took the "road less travelled by" and says "that has made all the difference." He could have been a journalist. Journalists often take the road less travelled. At times it can become precarious, lonely and filled with anguish. But it can also be overflowing with excitement, intrigue and the satisfaction of bringing news to the world - being the ears, eyes and voices of the people. Imagine if no-one ever took the less popular route. How many stories would have gone untold, lost in the mire of obscurity? There are still so many things for journalists to see, to write, to do and to say. This year, the future journalists of South Africa bring to you SMF: Moving the Media. To coincide with the 10th year of democracy, the articles explore the ways in which the media has changed, what's been happening and where it's going. Filled with insights from expert observers and participators, the stories told and photographs displayed are an amalgamation of the work learned by the BPhil journalism students at the University of Stellenbosch. The writers and photographers hope to access and understand a small cog in our great media machine. We have chosen to take the road less travelled by. And we will make all the difference. Die verskil wat ons wil maak sal hopelik gesien en gehoor word en weerklink deur die bedryf. Die woorde, klanke en beelde wat joernaliste die wereld instuur, word deur miljoene mense gebruik. Ons kan ons nie 'n wereld voorstel waaraan daar geen mediablootstelling is nie. Dis 2004 - tien jaar na die begin van demokrasie in Suid Afrika. Die media se rol het beslis verander en met SMF probeer ons van hierdie veranderinge ontleed en bespreek. Die artikels en foto's vertel wat die afgelope tien jaar in die Suid-Afrikaanse media gebeur het. Ons kyk na die media soos net die media na homself kan kyk, in die tradisie van die Columbia Journalism Review en The Media, en as joernalistiekstudente uit die oogpunt van aspirant-mediapraktisyns. Ons deel saam in die opwinding, die pyn, die verrassings en teleurstellings. Ons erken die foute en vier die suksesse. Wie weet waar ons oor tien jaar sal wees? Een ding is seker: ons gaan 'n verskil maak