Hardwiring consumer desire: Publishing and promoting the online technocultural experience : a critical textual analysis of Wired magazine and its advertising, 1993-1996

This thesis examines the evolution of magazine publishing in the face of significant technological change in print-based industries. It takes as its focus the techno-lifestyle magazine Wired, and to a lesser degree its online derivative, Hot Wired because both these media magazines exemplify the changes in publishing examined. In the magazine\u27s initial editorial statement Louis Rossetto, the publisher and editor of Wired, claimed to \u27\u27reinvent the magazine .. ,going beyond paper by making our hard copy edition a gateway to our interactive services {Rossetto, 1993, p. 12). This claim demands an explanation as it suggests that changes in media are revolutionary rather than evolutionary. Specifically, it suggests a reinvention (rather than evolution) of magazine publishing, magazine form, the media environment and rending and consumption practices. The thesis takes this claim as a basis for exploring the evolution of the magazine as a cultural and material form in the context of late 20th century, hypermediated capitalism. In order to achieve a detailed yet nuanced analysis of Wired\u27s claim of reinvention, the thesis has been organised into areas which analyse Wired\u27s material and textual characteristics, the construction and promotion of techno-lifestyle in relation to Wired\u27s readership, and an examination of Wired\u27s online derivative - Hot Wired. To achieve this level of analysis the thesis draws upon three theoretical approaches. It analyses the history and characteristics of the magazine form by drawing upon medium theory as articulated by Harold Innis and his successors Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, and Ronald Deibert. This approach is combined, secondly, with a historical comparative analysis of the American specialist lifestyle magazine as refracted through the work of Harold Abrahamson. Finally, to analyse the relationship between magazines, technological convergence and the construction and promotion of techno-lifestyle, the thesis uses contemporary, critical textual analysis as articulated by theorists such as Ellen McCracken and Andrew Wernick. Medium theory suggests that there is, increasingly, convergence at the level of production. Here media, telecommunications and computers/IT intersect to create a new kind of publishing environment. Such changes in textual production reflect an emerging techno-lifestyle that promotes interconnectivity between consumers and producers and an intensification of hybridity and intertextuality in material forms such as Wired. This thesis will demonstrate that some material characteristics of the print magazine have evolved more gradually in the past century than other aspects connected with the magazine form and magazine publishing. These other aspects include, digital and online technologies, which are currently informing change in modes of production, distribution, content, design, authorship, readership and consumption. Relationships between media form and media environment, reading practices, reader and text, however need to be examined further before the claim that magazines have been \u27reinvented\u27 can be critically assessed. This research is part of that project. It contributes to the nascent body of new media research by providing an innovative theoretical framework that challenges and dispels the claim of media reinvention by interrogating the technological and commercial processes of media evolution in relation to the mid-l990s print magazine and emergent new media technologies

Constructivist Instructional Design: Creating a Multimedia Package for Teaching Critical Qualitative Research

Instructors for quantitative research courses often find that there are many different types of support material for those courses. That is not the case with qualitative courses. Very little support material is available for qualitative research courses. In this paper we describe the creation of one multimedia package that focuses on one type of qualitative research - critical ethnographic techniques. The package was created to help graduate students learn to use five critical ethnographic techniques: meaning fields, validity reconstruction, role analysis, power analysis, and horizon analysis. We used a constructivist instructional design model, R2D2, to guide our development work. It is based on an interpretivist epistemology and a constructivist theory of learning. The result was a multimedia instructional package designed and developed for use in courses teaching qualitative research. The hypermedia, multimedia program called The Critical Researchers Guide to Conducting Qualitative Research (CRIT) has three major components: (1) video cases of middle school settings or sites; (2) definitions and descriptions of qualitative strategies; and (3) application of qualitative techniques. The paper describes revisions and reformulations of the instructional package across the instructional design process

For I Know the Plans I Have for You: God Locus of Control, Spiritual Change, and Death Anxiety in Primary Brain Tumor Patients

Background/Purpose. Primary brain tumor (PBT) patients risk experiencing death anxiety given the high mortality rate of their diagnosis. In line with Terror Management Theory (TMT), many diagnosed with cancer utilize religion as a method of coping with the disease. However, previous literature on the relation between death anxiety and religion in cancer patients indicates mixed findings of either a negative relationship or no association. To the authors’ knowledge, no study has analyzed these two constructs together in PBT patients. The current study sought to address this gap by investigating the relationship between religiosity and death anxiety in an understudied population. Methods. Adult PBT patients (N = 56, Mage = 49.38, 51.8% female, 71.4% Caucasian, Mmonths since diagnosis = 55.34) completed measures of religiosity and death anxiety at their routine medical appointment at an academic medical center, including: The God Locus of Health Control Scale (GLHCS), Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), Death and Dying Distress Scale (DADDS), and the Death Distress Scale (DDS). Descriptives and Pearson correlations were utilized. Results. The results revealed that while the GLHCS was not significantly related to either measure of death anxiety, the Spiritual Change subscale of the PTGI was positively correlated to both the DADDS (r = .56, p \u3c .001) and the DDS (r = .41, p = .01). Conclusions and Implications. Results suggest that certain proxies of religiosity may be more closely associated with death anxiety than others. Although there was no evidence in our sample that PBT patient’s God locus of control was related to death anxiety, those who reported higher levels of death anxiety endorsed greater spiritual change (i.e., I have a stronger religious faith). Considering TMT, perhaps feelings of death anxiety prompt one to strengthen their religious beliefs. Future longitudinal analyses addressing the direction and course of these relationships are warranted. Acknowledgement of Funding: The current study was funded on behalf of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Learning Objective. Participants will learn about the relationship between religiosity and death anxiety in oncology patients. Further, participants will consider how these findings may or may not differ for PBT patients and across various measures of religiosity.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1049/thumbnail.jp

Exploring Nature's Benefits through Tourism and Eudaimonic Well-being: A Case Study of the Jurassic Coast, Dorset

This research is an ESRC CASE studentship within the Centre for Sport, Leisure and Tourism Research, held jointly by Geography and Politics departments at the University of Exeter and part funded by Dorset County Council.This research is concerned with advancing understanding of human-nature relationships and the ways in which people benefit from interactions with nature. This is important since economic accounts of the value of natural resources are most often used to determine priorities for action, leaving the more deep-felt and intangible ways that people experience and value nature largely excluded from decision making processes. The imperative to understand the more nuanced ways that people benefit from and value nature has gained traction in recent years most notably through high-profile analysis of natural resources which have made explicit their links to human well-being. This study aims to capture these wider values of the Jurassic Coast, Dorset and the ways in which it comes to resonate as significant and valuable to people. It uses both quantitative and qualitative techniques to gain rich insights into what this World Heritage Site really means to visitors and how experiences here underpin psychological well-being. A methodological innovation is presented in the human needs framework which is used to test the extent to which human needs thought to be important for psychological well-being are satisfied through interactions in the landscape. Moreover, it is hypothesised that this satisfaction leads to eudaimonic well-being which is concerned with positive psychological functioning and ‘flourishing’ (Ryan & Deci, 2001). This research has implications for tourism planning and management to ensure opportunities are created or maintained for human needs to be met in the landscape and for optimal visitor experiences to result. More widely, this research also has implications for understanding environmental value from a broad perspective and for using innovative methodologies to reveal these values, and to incorporate them in decision making processes in diverse policy areas.ESRC CASE Award with partner organisation Dorset County County

Progress in tourism and destination wellbeing research

A proliferation of research in recent years has revealed a myriad of relationships between tourism and the concept of wellbeing. These include health benefits of visiting tourist destinations, a product focus on wellness and maintaining good health. Broader interpretations emphasize the complex ways in which tourism can influence the emotional, psychological, cognitive and spiritual dimensions of wellbeing, both for tourists and for destination communities. This study reflects an emerging paradigm shift that incorporates a deeper appreciation of the benefits derived at the destination level from a focus on health and wellbeing. The study highlights three key perspectives, namely the tourist, the destination community and the destination itself. The study concludes that research in this area is critical to the future development, management and marketing of sustainable and competitive destinations with the wellbeing of tourists, their destination host communities, and the overall destination experience, critical to their ultimate success

Cross–cultural care program for aged care staff : workbook for staff

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license .Cultural and linguistic diversity between residents and staff is significant in residential aged care homes in Australia. Residents are from over 170 countries with 31% born overseas and 20% born in a non-English speaking country (AIHW, 2016). Staff who care for residents are also from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It is estimated that 32% of staff were born overseas and 26% were born in a non-English speaking country (Mavromaras et al., 2017). The majority of overseas-born residents come from Europe while the majority of overseas-born staff come from Asian and African regions (Mavromaras et al., 2017, AIHW, 2016). This diversity generates many opportunities for aged care organisations to address equitable and culturally appropriate care for residents. However, the diversity can also be a challenge to achieving high-quality care for residents and to staff cohesion. The program is developed from a 2-year action research project entitled ‘Developing the multicultural workforce to improve the quality of care for residents’. The project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health under the ‘Service Improvement and Healthy Ageing Grants’ in 2015. During the project life, the project team worked with residents and staff in four participating residential aged care homes to implement and evaluate the program. The details of the research project are presented in the project final report (Xiao et al., 2017). The program has been adapted into an online self-learning program using the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and is free to access. Instruction for accessing the online program is attached as Appendix 1: Instructions for accessing the online Cross-cultural Care Program for Aged Care Staff