Journalism Education: Missing the Democratic Connections

Numerous studies examine public journalism efforts through the practitioner's lens, but scholars, for the most part, have ignored an important aspect of the journalism reform movement -- how journalism educators teach public journalism. David Kurpius, an associate professor of journalism at Louisiana State University, helps bridge this gap in his study of journalism education. In this Kettering Foundation report, Kurpius interviews journalism professors deemed most likely to include public journalism instruction in their syllabi and classroom teaching. He argues that public journalism poses a serious challenge to journalism educators, with many professors missing the democratic connections that are necessary building blocks for students to understand and practice public journalism

Measurements of ozone deposition to a potato canopy

Potatoes are an important staple crop, grown in many parts of the world. Although ozone deposition to many vegetation types has been measured in the field, no data have been reported for potatoes. Such measurements, including the latent-heat flux, were made over a fully grown potato field in central Scotland during the summer of 2006, covering a 4-week period just after rainfall and then dry, sunny weather. The magnitude of the flux was typical of many canopies showing the expected diurnal cycles. Although the bulk-canopy stomatal conductance declined as the field dried out (~300 mmol-O3 m-2 s-1 to ~70 mmol-O3 m-2 s-1), the total ozone flux did not follow the same trend, indicating that non-stomatal deposition was significant. Over a dry surface non-stomatal resistance (Rns) was 270-450 s m-1, while over a wet surface Rns was ~50% smaller and both decreased with increasing surface temperature and friction velocity. From the variation with relative humidity (RH) it is suggested that three processes occur on leaf surfaces: on a very dry surface ozone is removed by thermal decomposition, possibly enhanced by photolytic reactions in the daytime and so Rns decreases as temperature increases; at 50-70% RH a thin film of liquid blocks the "dry" process and resistance increases; above 60-70% RH sufficient surface water is present for aqueous reactions to remove ozone and resistance decreases