Exploring audience perceptions of, and preferences for, online news videos

Journalism professionals and media experts have traditionally used normatively formed criteria to evaluate news quality. Although the digital news media environment has enabled journalists to respond at unprecedented speed to audience consumption patterns, little academic research has systematically addressed how audiences themselves perceive and evaluate news, and even less has focused on audio-visual news. To help fill this research gap, we conducted in-depth group interviews with 22 online news video consumers in the UK to explore their perceptions of online news videos—an increasingly popular news format. Thematic analyses suggest audiences evaluate online news videos using a complex and interwoven set of criteria, which we group under four headings: antecedents of perceptions, emotional impacts, news and editorial values and production characteristics. Some of these criteria can be positioned clearly in relation to the literature on news quality in general, while our documentation of the others contributes new, format-specific knowledge. Our findings offer journalists practical insights into how audiences perceive and evaluate a host of characteristics of online news videos, while our conceptual framework provides a foundation for further academic research on audience evaluations of online news videos, and even audio-visual news more generally

Latent trait and latent class models in survey analysis: Case studies in public perceptions of biotechnology.

In latent variable models the existence of one or more unobserved (latent) variables is posited to explain the associations between a set of observed (manifest) variables. These models are useful for analysing attitudinal survey data, where multiple items are used to capture complex constructs such as attitudes, which cannot be directly observed. In such research they are most commonly applied in the form of factor analyses based on linear regression models. However, these are inappropriate when observed items are categorical, which is often the case with attitudinal surveys. Latent trait and latent class models, based on logistic models, are then more suitable. In this thesis I demonstrate how they can be employed to address common challenges in attitudinal survey research. The case study data illustrating these challenges are from the Eurobarometer survey on public perceptions of biotechnology, fielded in 2002 in fifteen European countries. Using these data I investigate the viability of cross-nationally comparable measures of three central constructs in studies of public perceptions of biotechnology: attitudes towards applications of biotechnology, knowledge of biology and genetics, and engagement with science and with biotechnology. The analyses aim to capture these complex constructs, taking account of 'don't know' responses by including them as categories of nominal observed items, and exploring the comparability of measures of these constructs cross-nationally by assessing the similarity of measurement models between countries. The results of these analyses are informative in three ways: substantively, adding to our knowledge of people's representations of biotechnology; methodologically, increasing our understanding of how the survey items function; and practically, informing future questionnaire design. I also formulate a taxonomy of issues and choices in attitudinal survey research as a conceptual framework through which to discuss more broadly the potential value of latent trait and latent class models in survey research in social psychology

Public anticipations of self-driving vehicles in the UK and US

Developers of self-driving vehicles (SDVs) work with a particular idea of a possible and desirable future. Members of the public may not share the assumptions on which this is based. In this paper we analyse free-text responses from surveys of UK (n = 4,860) and US (n = 1,890) publics, which ask respondents what springs to mind when they think of SDVs, and why they should or should not be developed. Responses (averaging a total 27 words per participant) tend to foreground safety hopes and, more regularly, concerns. Many respondents present alternative representations of relationships between the technology, other road users and the future. Rather than accepting a dominant approach to public engagement, which seeks to educate members of the public away from these views, we instead propose that these views should be seen as a source of social intelligence, with potential constructive contributions to building better transport systems. Anticipatory governance, if it is to be inclusive, should seek to understand and integrate public views rather than reject them as irrational or mutable

Characterisation and outcomes of patients referred to a regional cancer of unknown primary team: a 10-year analysis

BACKGROUND: In the United Kingdom, national guidance published in 2010 recommended the establishment of specialist teams to improve clinical pathways for patients presenting with malignancies of undefined primary origin (MUO) and cancer of unknown primary (CUP). This study sought to define outcomes of patients referred to a regional MUO/CUP service. METHODS: Data were collected prospectively on all patients (n = 1225) referred to a regional CUP team over a 10-year period. Patient demographics, clinical, pathological and outcome data were recorded and analysed. RESULTS: Confirmed CUP (cCUP) was diagnosed in 25% of patients. A primary metastatic cancer was identified in 36%, 5% were diagnosed with provisional CUP (pCUP), 27% retained the diagnosis of MUO and in 8% a non-cancer diagnosis was made. Median survival was low in all patients with a final malignant diagnosis: primary identified 9.0 months, cCUP 4.0 months, pCUP 1.5 months and MUO 1.5 months. CONCLUSIONS: Patients presenting with MUO have poor outcomes irrespective of the final diagnosis. These patients need a patient-centred, streamlined, rapid diagnostic pathway. There are clear benefits to primary and secondary care teams having access to a dedicated, multidisciplinary MUO/CUP service, with clinical nurse specialists supporting the patients, to help facilitate this pathway and ensure early oncology review

Religion and the public ethics of stem-cell research: Attitudes in Europe, Canada and the United States

We examine international public opinion towards stem-cell research during the period when the issue was at its most contentious. We draw upon representative sample surveys in Europe and North America, fielded in 2005 and find that the majority of people in Europe, Canada and the United States supported stem-cell research, providing it was tightly regulated, but that there were key differences between the geographical regions in the relative importance of different types of ethical position. In the U.S., moral acceptability was more influential as a driver of support for stem-cell research; in Europe the perceived benefit to society carried more weight; and in Canada the two were almost equally important. We also find that public opinion on stem-cell research was more strongly associated with religious convictions in the U.S. than in Canada and Europe, although many strongly religious citizens in all regions approved of stem-cell research. We conclude that if anything public opinion or 'public ethics' are likely to play an increasingly important role in framing policy and regulatory regimes for sensitive technologies in the future