Public relations and journalism: truth, trust, transparency and integrity

Truth, trust, integrity and reputation are key concepts for understanding the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners. This the paper: first, considers the current debate on the inter-relationship between journalism and public relations; second distinguishes varieties of public relations and journalism; third, analyses the Editorial Intelligence controversy; fourth, deconstructs aspects of "truth" and "trust" in the context of that debate; fifth, considers why the virtue of individuals is vitally important for both public relations and journalism. Public Relations & Journalism: stereotypes and identity crisis In terms of public perception of both professions perhaps stereotypes of the practitioner as fundamentally dishonest are widespread. However, those stereotypes of journalism and public relations conflate the variety of activities that come under the headings "journalism" and "public relations". Public relations and journalism: "hard" versus "soft" "Soft public relations" is characterised by a concern with providing publicity for a client. By delivering a good story the public relations practitioner offers the journalist a means of satisfying users of his medium. "Soft" journalism is concerned with entertainment and truth is irrelevant, it is essentially concerned with comics for adults. "Hard" public relations and journalism are difficult to characterise simply but are characterised by a concern for truth and trust in relation to the integrity and reputation of the individual practitioner; Public Relations and journalism: long spoon or spooning? Although a distinction between "entertainment" ("Soft" public relations and journalism) and "what matters" ("hard" public relations and journalism) is not regarded as a significant distinction by all commentators it provide a locus for deconstructing the role of truth, trust and integrity in journalism and public relations An important source of "soft" journalism stories is "soft" public relations. The fact is that Editorial intelligence primarily suited "soft" public relations practitioners and journalists. Public relations and journalism: "truth" & "trust" In the case of both public relations and journalism the related notions of trust and truth are central to their professional activities. Transparency, truth, trust and public interest are dimensions of the relationship between public relations and journalism. A hard and soft truth distinction is not exhaustive and an important other category is artistic or emotional truth. Audiences do not always understand what genre they are witnessing so consequently do not automatically know how to interpret what they see and hear. Public Relations and Journalism: virtuous expediency On the basis of an individual transparently identifiable communicator's track record audiences should decide whether or not to trust that journalists or public relations practitioner. Consequently, there is a need for publics and audiences to be informed so that they are able to make valid judgements about communicators and what they say. Regarding the relationship between public relations and journalism, at the "hard" end, both journalist and public relations practitioner are dealing with matters of public interest and need to cooperate but at arm's length. Conclusion "Truth" and "trust" are both important in the practice of journalism and public relations. It is vital, therefore, that both "hard" journalists and public relations practitioners act with professional integrity. Transparency of the communicator's identity is crucial. Power needs to rest with a citizen public exercising the right to give or withhold belief in the communicator and in determining his or her reputation for veracity and also to exercise real power as consumers and voters

Changes in the quality of life in severely disabled people following provision of powered indoor/outdoor chairs

Purpose:To determine the benefits for patients who received an Electric Powered Indoor/outdoor Chair (EPIOC) and to quantify their perceived changes to their quality of life. Method: Community-based cohort study of all patients provided with an EPIOC over 4 months; and followed up about 3 months later in a community served by a regional wheelchair service in North West London (population about 3.1 million) using the EuroQol EQ-5D with visual analogue scales for each of the 5 dimensions of the EQ-5D. Results: Sixty-four wheelchair users were assessed initially and 51 completed follow up. Chair users showed no significant improvement in health state as measured by the EQ-5D after EPIOC provision. The visual analogue scales (VASs) indicated that, although perceived overall health state, independence and social life did not appear to improve, the dimensions of mobility, quality of life and pain/discomfort improved significantly on provision of an EPIOC. Conclusion: EPIOC users reported significant improvements in several important aspects of their lives; not just in mobility (as expected) but also in reduction of pain and discomfort. The use of VASs provided a more holistic set of outcome measures that demonstrate quality of life benefits beyond that of health state alone

The Ionosphere Over Northern Canada

Contains review of communication problems in northern Canada. Shortwave radio via sky-wave tranmission is the most economical method of communication, but suffers from occasional failures due to ionospheric disturbances. Ionospheric research conducted in Canada to improve short-wave radio is discussed. Eight ionospheric recording observatories were established. Four of these, at St. John's in Newfoundland, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Prince Rupert, skirted the southern part of the auroral zone from east to west. Stations at Churchill and Fort Chimo were near the line of maximum auroral occurrence, and those at Baker Lake and Resolute Bay extended the line of observations from Winnipeg to a point north of the magnetic pole. In 1954 the stations at St. John's, Fort Chimo, and Prince Rupert were discontinued. Research on spectra, luminosity, height, and electron density of the aurora is briefly discussed

Predicting Application Software Usage: A Longitudinal Study

While organizations may purchase computer systems, ultimately it is people who have to use them before companies can achieve the anticipated benefits from technology investments. With a view to improving usage levels, understanding how people react to new systems has been a long-standing concern of practitioners and IS researchers. This research borrowed a behavior prediction model (Triandis 1980) from Social Psychology and applied it to the problem of understanding: the human factors that influence application software usage levels.;A longitudinal study was conducted on individuals voluntarily attempting to switch from one software application to another. A pretest yielding 38 responses was used to refine the survey instrument and implementation procedure. The main study yielded 160 pairs of usable responses from a sample of people purchasing competitive upgrades directly from a software vendor. The software upgrade context was either a presentation management application or a spreadsheet. The Partial Least Squares causal modelling technique was used to analyze the data.;Results indicated that use expectations for use of the new software and habits associated with previously used software were both strong predictors of a new application\u27s use. Fully 50.5% of the variation in system use was captured. Of the factors hypothesized to influence use expectations, affect, computer self-efficacy, social contracts, and perceived consequences were all significant. Only the influence of norms on use expectations were not found to be significant.;This research has established that factors which influence other types of behavior also influence the behavior of voluntarily using a software application. For practitioners, this underscores the importance of the behavioral side of determining system use. The factors identified as influencing behavioral intentions also suggest specific areas for managerial attention during an application\u27s implementation.;For IS researchers, the principal contribution of this work is the testing of a theory rich model in the IS field. Insight has been gained into the factors influencing voluntary system use. Psychometrically sound scales have been developed and refined for use with the theory. On a more general level, the results indicate the suitability of Social Psychology as a referent discipline for investigating system usage

Measuring Multiple Resistances Using Single-Point Excitation

In a proposed method of determining the resistances of individual DC electrical devices connected in a series or parallel string, no attempt would be made to perform direct measurements on individual devices. Instead, (1) the devices would be instrumented by connecting reactive circuit components in parallel and/or in series with the devices, as appropriate; (2) a pulse or AC voltage excitation would be applied at a single point on the string; and (3) the transient or AC steady-state current response of the string would be measured at that point only. Each reactive component(s) associated with each device would be distinct in order to associate a unique time-dependent response with that device

Lieb-Thirring inequalities for Schr\"odinger operators with complex-valued potentials

Inequalities are derived for power sums of the real part and the modulus of the eigenvalues of a Schr\"odinger operator with a complex-valued potential.Comment: 9 pages; typos correcte

270V Battery Using COTS NiCd Cells For Manned Spacecraft

A high power (>35 kW at 215V), low capacity (5.2 Ah), and compact (45L) NiCd battery was developed for the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), which is an experimental version of the lifeboat for the International Space Station (ISS). A simple design and innovative approach using a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) NiCd cell design enabled the design, qualification, and production of 4 flight units of this highly reliable and safe spacecraft battery to be achieved rapidly (2 years) and cheaply ($13M)

Recipients of electric-powered indoor/outdoor wheelchairs provided by a National Health Service: A cross-sectional study

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics, across all ages, of powered wheelchair users and the assistive technology prescribed by a regional specialist wheelchair service DESIGN: Cross-sectional study SETTING: Regional wheelchair service provided to those fulfilling strict eligibility criteria by a National Health Service serving a population of 3 million. PARTICIPANTS: 544 Electric Powered Indoor/outdoor wheelchair (EPIOC) users. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographic, clinical/diagnostic details of EPIOC recipients including pain, (kypho)scoliosis and ventilators. Technical features including specialised (adaptive) seating (SS), tilt in space (TIS), and modified control systems. Factors were related to age groups: 1 (0-15), 2 (16-24), 3 (25-54), 4 (55-74) and 5 (75+). RESULTS: 262 men mean age 41.7 (range 8-82, sd 20.7) and 282 women mean age 47.2 (range 7-92, sd 19.7) years were studied. Neurological/neuromuscular conditions predominated (81%) with cerebral palsy (CP) (18.9%) and multiple sclerosis (16.4%). Conditions presenting at birth or during childhood constituted 39%. 99 had problematic pain, 83 a (kypho)scoliosis and 11 used ventilators. SS was provided to 169 users (31%), the majority had CP or muscular dystrophy. TIS was used by 258 (53%). Younger people were more likely to receive TIS than older ones. Only 92 had SS and TIS, mean age 29 (range 8-72, sd 17.8) years. 52 used modified control systems. CONCLUSIONS: The diversity of EPIOC users across age and diagnostic groups is shown. Their complex interrelationships with these technical features of EPIOC prescription are explored. Younger users were more complex due to age-related changes. This study provides outcomes of the EPIOC prescription for this heterogeneous group of very severely disabled people

The macular mapping test:a reliability study

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is the leading cause of visual disability in people over 60 years of age in the developed world. The success of treatment deteriorates with increased latency of diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of the macular mapping test (MMT), and to investigate its potential as a screening tool. Methods: The study population comprised of 31 healthy eyes of 31 participants. To assess reliability, four macular mapping test (MMT) measurements were taken in two sessions separated by one hour by two practitioners, with reversal of order in the second session. MMT readings were also taken from 17 age-related maculopathy (ARM), and 12 AMD affected eyes. Results: For the normal cohort, average MMT scores ranged from 85.5 to 100.0 MMT points. Scores ranged from 79.0 to 99.0 for the ARM group and from 9.0 to 92.0 for the AMD group. MMT scores were reliable to within ± 7.0 points. The difference between AMD affected eyes and controls (z = 3.761, p = < 0.001) was significant. The difference between ARM affected eyes and controls was not significant (z = -0.216, p = 0.829). Conclusion: The reliability data shows that a change of 14 points or more is required to indicate a clinically significant change. This value is required for use of the MMT as an outcome measure in clinical trials. Although there was no difference between MMT scores from ARM affected eyes and controls, the MMT has the advantage over the Amsler grid in that it uses a letter target, has a peripheral fixation aid, and it provides a numerical score. This score could be beneficial in office and home monitoring of AMD progression, as well as an outcome measure in clinical research. © 2005 Bartlett et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Reliability, normative data, and the effect of age-related macular disease on the Eger Macular Stressometer photostress recovery time

Purpose: To assess repeatability and reproducibility, to determine normative data, and to investigate the effect of age-related macular disease, compared with normals, on photostress recovery time measured using the Eger Macular Stressometer (EMS). Method: The study population comprised 49 healthy eyes of 49 participants. Four EMS measurements were taken in two sessions separated by 1 h by two practitioners, with reversal of order in the second session. EMS readings were also taken from 17 age-related maculopathy (ARM), and 12 age-related macular degeneration (AMD), affected eyes. Results: EMS readings are repeatable to within ± 7 s. There is a statistically significant difference between controls and ARM affected eyes (t = 2.169, p = 0.045), and AMD affected eyes (t = 2.817, p = 0.016). The EMS is highly specific, and demonstrates sensitivity of 29% for ARM, and 50% for AMD. Conclusions: The EMS may be a useful screening test for ARM, however, direct illumination of the macula of greater intensity and longer duration may yield less variable results. © 2004 The College of Optometrists