Media Concern Research Articles

Integrated remediation and detoxification of triclocarban-contaminated water using waste-derived biochar-immobilized cells by long-term column experiments

Triclocarban (TCC), an antibacterial agent commonly used in personal care products, is one of the top ten contaminants of emerging concern in various environmental media, including soil and contaminated water in vadose zone. This study aimed to investigate TCC-contaminated water remediation using biochar-immobilized bacterial cells. Pseudomonas fluorescens strain MC46 (MC46), an efficient TCC-degrading isolate, was chosen, whereas agro-industrial carbonized waste as biochar was directly used as a sustainable cell immobilization carrier. According to the long-term TCC removal performance results (160 d), the biochar-immobilized cells consistently exhibited high TCC removal efficiencies (84–97%), whereas the free MC46 removed TCC for 76–94%. At 100 days, the detachment of the MC46 cells from the immobilized cell column was observed. The micro-Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results indicated that extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) was produced, but polysaccharide and protein fractions were washed out of the column. The lipid fraction of EPS adhered to the biochar, promoting TCC sorption for long-term treatment. The shortening of MC46 cells improved the tolerance of TCC toxicity. The TCC-contaminated water was successfully detoxified by the biochar-immobilized MC46 cells. Overall, the waste-derived biochar-immobilized cell system proposed in this study for the removal of emerging contaminants, including TCC, is efficient, economical, and aligned with the sustainable development concept of value-added utilization of waste.

The Pattern of Communication in Community Groups Supported by Bandung City Government

The argument that the media influences our behavior both directly and indirectly is indeed a significant concern for mass media "connoisseurs." The Internet, in particular, is a powerful medium that provides a vast array of information. The use of the internet, whether through websites, social media, or other platforms, follows a basic concept of openness, allowing various types of information to be shared by and with many people. The position of the Kelompok Informasi Masyarakat (hereinafter referred to as KIM) was confirmed based on the Minister of Communication and Information Regulation Number 8 of 2010 concerning the Development and Empowerment of Social Communication Institutions. It is a Community Information Group formed by the community, from the community and for the community, independently and creatively managing information and community empowerment to enhance added value. As a form of community empowerment, the existence of KIM is an alternative solution for raising awareness about the importance of group dynamics, especially in information exchange and fostering partnerships with various government agencies at the district and city levels. This case was analyzed using the theories of group communication, communication ethics, and communication media, which are integral to understanding the communication patterns within KIM.

Identification of cross reactive T cell responses in adenovirus based COVID 19 vaccines

Vaccination has proven to be a valuable tool to combat SARS-CoV-2. However, reports of rare adverse reactions such as thrombosis/thrombocytopenia syndrome after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination have caused scientific, public and media concern. ChAdOx1 was vectorised from the Y25 chimpanzee adenovirus, which was selected due to low human seroprevalence to circumvent pre-existing immunity. In this study, we aimed to explore patterns of T-cell activation after SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccine exposure in vitro using PBMCs collected from pre-pandemic ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 naïve healthy donors (HDs), and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and Pfizer vaccinated controls. PBMCs were assessed for T-cell proliferation using the lymphocyte transformation test (LTT) following exposure to SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccines. Cytokine analysis was performed via intracellular cytokine staining, ELISpot assay and LEGENDplex immunoassays. T-cell assays performed in pre-pandemic vaccine naïve HDs, revealed widespread lymphocyte stimulation after exposure to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (95%), ChAdOx-spike (90%) and the Ad26.COV2. S vaccine, but not on exposure to the BNT162b2 vaccine. ICS analysis demonstrated that CD4+ CD45RO+ memory T-cells are activated by ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 in vaccine naïve HDs. Cytometric immunoassays showed ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 exposure was associated with the release of proinflammatory and cytotoxic molecules, such as IFN-γ, IL-6, perforin, granzyme B and FasL. These studies demonstrate a ubiquitous T-cell response to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and Ad26.COV2. S in HDs recruited prior to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, with T-cell stimulation also identified in vaccinated controls. This may be due to underlying T-cell cross-reactivity with prevalent human adenoviruses and further study will be needed to identify T-cell epitopes involved.

Representations of Africa in Muriel Spark’s writings

Muriel Spark (1918–2006) travelled from Scotland to Africa and stayed there from 1937 to 1944. Africa is a recurrent presence in her work. Critics focus mainly on her African-themed poems and stories. They pay less attention to depictions of that continent in her other work and tend to gloss over her problematic use of language. This article addresses Spark's representation of the African landscape and her different portrayals of Africans, white settlers, and missionaries. It also explores her deployment of the familiar colonial tropes of cannibalism and ‘witch doctors’. It argues that Spark's representations of Africa in her works are at once ironic, comedic, satirical, and wittily arch, yet remain open to charges of being stereotypical and problematic, particularly at a time of public scrutiny and media concern with discriminatory language. These representations reveal that Spark mainly speaks for white missionaries rather than the downtrodden Africans in her writings. This article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of Scottish involvement in colonialism in the modern period by untangling the connections between race, religion, and literary culture in Spark's writings.

More than entertaining: a typology of family portrayals and inherent persuasive potential

ABSTRACT Family portrayals in entertainment media represent a significant concern for both media and family communication scholars. These fictional families can model both effective and ineffective family behaviors. Research within this realm often focuses on either the content or the effects of portrayals rather than providing a comprehensive picture. The family portrayal typology offers a tool to bridge this content-effects gap by providing explanatory and predictive power regarding family portrayals’ persuasive potentials. Stemming from social cognitive and entertainment theories, this paper identifies six family portrayal types and proposes their varying levels of persuasion based on the latent constructs of a family’s wishful identification arousal, eudaimonic quality, and general family outcomes. Suggestions for future research utilizing the typology are proposed.

(071) Just Another Vaccine – VAERS Analysis Compares Genitourinary Symptoms of the COVID-19 Vaccine and Other Commonly Administered Vaccines

Abstract Introduction There has been a concern in mainstream media about adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccine including those on the genitourinary system. Objective Our objective was to evaluate the rate of patient-reported genitourinary symptoms after the COVID-19 vaccine. We hypothesized rates of genitourinary side effects was not different compared to other commonly used vaccines. Methods We queried the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database for all genitourinary symptoms reported after receiving the COVID-19, influenza, shingles, and pneumonia vaccines. Symptoms were placed into one of five categories – lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), sexual side effects, infectious, hematuria, or other disorders of the penis/scrotum/testis. Rates of genitourinary symptoms were compared between the vaccines. Data collection occurred 7-8/2022. Results Out of 13,568,650 symptoms reported after the COVID-19 vaccine, 9,022 were genitourinary (0.066%). Genitourinary symptoms included LUTS (39.71%), infectious (32.38%), hematuria (17.42%), disorders of the penis/scrotum/testis (5.99%), and sexual side effects (4.50%). Rates of genitourinary symptoms after the COVID-19 vaccine was significantly lower than the influenza (0.128%) (Table 1) but higher than the shingles (0.030%) and pneumonia (0.037%) vaccines (Table 2). There was no significant differences in the penis/scrotum/testis symptoms category. Rates of sexual side effects were overall low after the COVID vaccine (0.0030%) and not significantly different to rates of sexual side effects after the influenza vaccine (0.0036%) but were higher than after the pneumonia and shingles vaccines. Conclusions Genitourinary symptoms from the COVID-19 vaccine are rare. The rate of side effects is lower than the influenza vaccine, and while sexual and overall side effects are higher than the pneumonia and shingles vaccines, these rates are overall very low and unlikely to be clinically significant. Disclosure No.

Nomophobia in India: A Psychological Disorder that Causes the Brain to Release Dopamine in Response to Tweets, Emoticons, and other Acts, Rewarding the Behaviour and Sustaining the Habit of Using Social Media Addiction

The term nomophobia was first used in the 2000s, according to records. The first instance of nomophobia that OED found was in the Daily Mail (London) in 2008. College students frequently use the internet's social media platforms in ways that could have a detrimental effect on several aspects of their lives. This study, one of the largest to be carried out in India and other nations, attempts to understand how tradition has been shifting to digital cultures and to assess the incidence of problematic addiction to social networking websites among college students through internet use. People who suffer from a phobia of losing their connection to their mobile phones are said to suffer from NOMOPHOBIA, or NO MObile PHone PhoBIA. An insatiable need to use or log on to social media, excessive concern for social media, and spending so much time and energy on social media that it interferes with other crucial aspects of life are the characteristics of social media addiction. According to numerous polls, every student at various universities owns a smartphone and uses it frequently both at home and on campus. Since addiction can result from excessive regular usage of anything, including digital devices, researchers have decided to categorize and identify smartphone addiction as "nomophobia." This research assesses if and to what degree nomophobia is an issue at various university students using a mobile phone-based study of a self-assessment survey. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the degree of nomophobia among Indians between the ages of 15 to 35. According to this study, there is a serious concern for our "physical, mental, and social health" and a moderate to severe case of nomophobia

Nomophobia in India: A Psychological Disorder that Causes the Brain to Release Dopamine in Response to Tweets, Emoticons, and other Acts, Rewarding the Behaviour and Sustaining the Habit of using Social Media Addiction

The term nomophobia was first used in the 2000s, according to records. The first instance of nomophobia that OED found was in the Daily Mail (London) in 2008. College students frequently use the internet’s social media platforms in ways that could have a detrimental effect on several aspects of their lives. This study, one of the largest to be carried out in India and other nations, attempts to understand how tradition has been shifting to digital cultures and to assess the incidence of problematic addiction to social networking websites among college students through internet use. People who suffer from a phobia of losing their connection to their mobile phones are said to suffer from NOMOPHOBIA, or NO MObile PHone PhoBIA. An insatiable need to use or log on to social media, excessive concern for social media, and spending so much time and energy on social media that it interferes with other crucial aspects of life are the characteristics of social media addiction. According to numerous polls, every student at various universities owns a smartphone and uses it frequently both at home and on campus. Since addiction can result from excessive regular usage of anything, including digital devices, researchers have decided to categorize and identify smartphone addiction as “nomophobia.” This research assesses if and to what degree nomophobia is an issue at various university students using a mobile phone-based study of a self-assessment survey. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the degree of nomophobia among Indians between the ages of 15 to 35. According to this study, there is a serious concern for our “physical, mental, and social health” and a moderate to severe case of nomophobia

The role of geolocation data in U.S. political campaigning: How digital political strategists perceive it

The use of geolocation data by political campaigns is often the subject of media concern. Research has investigated the role of data in and use by political campaigns, but less attention has been paid to digital political strategists largely responsible for decisions behind the assemblage and mining of voter databases to deliver micro-targeted messages on behalf of political campaigns. In this study, we conducted interviews with 14 leading industry professionals in the United States to examine the common scenarios and associated concerns of using geolocation data to target voters. Our findings reveal that geolocation data are an important asset in political campaigns, but their value is contingent on additional factors. Concerns regarding geolocation data, as interviewees suggested, may at times be influenced more by the popular media narratives than the true reality of data, their scope, and associated capabilities. Our results point to geolocation data’s greatest usefulness to campaigns not in their own right, but when data are paired with other insights about voters’ behaviors. Ultimately, the lack of industry regulation reveals discrepancies in best practices and raises concerns over the potential misuse of geolocation data in the political space.

Watermarking and Encryption Technique to Avoid Data Leakage in Cloud Storage with Block Chain Technology

Multimedia data sharing is increasingly becoming an essential part of the daily life for end users to access different systems, services, and applications. Data disclosure frequently occurs in real-world cloud storage services. Authentication and copyright protection of multimedia contents has always been a concern in secure data transfer media. The problem has become more critical with the increasing use of the Internet and digital technologies. However, making the protection of copyright is more complex and difficult. In proposed approach both Watermarking and Proxy Re-encryption (PRE) approach utilized for efficient multimedia content sharing. Watermarking is used to hiding the information such as hide secret information in digital media like images. Encryption techniques used to provide security to data. In proposed work, secret key can be encrypted using encryption algorithm with the help of key. Then user’s private key combined with encrypted key information and can be embedded within the image or audio using LSB (Least Significant Bit). After embedding of secret information, image or audio can be encrypting using ECC Encryption algorithm. Finally, authorized user can extract decryption key with the help of embedded data verification process. Unauthorized or illegal access can identify, when user information does not match with embedded information. And also secure these transaction details using Block chain technology.

Qualitative Assessment of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Environmental Media across Delhi.

Qualitative Assessment of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Environmental Media across Delhi.

Public health measures on COVID-19 in North Korea: a quantitative analysis of media programmes in 2020–2022

ObjectivesDetails regarding the management of COVID-19 in North Korea are unknown. The aim of this paper was to analyse media programmes in North Korea in order to understand public health...

Social Control or Public Image, When Mass Media and University-Owned Media Construct Narratives of Sexual Violence

Sexual violence in higher education is a sensitive topic as well as a topic that attracts the most media attention. For example, in early 2022, the Dean of one of the faculties at Riau University (UNRI) was suspected of harassing his students during the implementation of final project guidance. Since it was reported, this case has grabbed attention, appeared in the corners of social media discussions, and become a discourse in the mass media. Many media outlets, especially online media, have attempted to revisit the public's memory of sexual violence cases in Indonesia's higher education environment, and how these campuses have handled the issue of sexual violence. On the other hand, several universities in Indonesia have tried to show their 'concern' for cases of sexual violence that have occurred in Indonesian universities through campus "news" portals. The question that arises then is whether the media concern narrated in media portal news and campus concern in campus portal news are similar forms of concern. This research tries to answer this question by managing the news of media portals and campus portals in relation to the news of sexual violence in the campus environment using a qualitative approach with a narrative analysis method by utilizing a narrative model developed from the thoughts of Todorov (1977) to define the structure and plot of news narratives, and Propp (1968) to dissect the construction of meaning through characterization. By looking at the structure and characterization in news narratives, it is hoped that it can answer how the phenomenon of sexual violence is narrated by media portals and campus portals and what interests are behind the news narratives of sexual violence published by media portals and campus portals.

Discovering fans and anti-fans among social media users based on their emotional reactions and comments

While audience profiling has been a critical concern in social media marketing, little research has used a systematic methodology to identify fans and anti-fans in social media communities. This study aimed to develop a fan and anti-fan detection model by analysing social media users’ mood responses and comments on fan page posts. The sentiment analysis of comments was conducted using a bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) model. A total of 83 posts, 849,820 emoticons and 216,688 comments were collected from two different fan pages over 14 days. Results showed that the proposed model, combining emotional reaction analysis and sentiment analysis of their comments, exhibited better fan and anti-fan identification capability than the single-dimensional behaviour model. It exhibited 96% accuracy, 100% precision and 93% recall in terms of community management. This study provides a novel, accurate and efficient way to identify fans and anti-fans that can help form more targeted marketing strategies for social media managers in a cost-effective manner.

Влияние СМИ на импичмент Дилмы Русеф

Importance. Nowadays, the mass media are an important tool of the political process, influencing the formation of political preferences of citizens, as well as playing the role of coordinator of information flows. The purpose of the research is to determine the influence of the mass media on the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. In Russian historiography, quite little attention is paid to the place of the media in the impeachment process, hence the importance of its study. Materials and methods. The analysis of publications affiliated with the largest Brazilian media concern “Grupo Globo” mass media, as well as influential newspapers “Folha de São Paulo” and “Estado de São Paulo”, a comparative analysis of political events in Brazil and their assessments in the media. Result and Discussion. It is established that the leading Brazilian mass media regularly published materials about the inefficiency of the authorities’ activities without attempting to objectively assess it: the complex nature of political events and problems in the country was ignored, readers’ opinion was formed about the allegedly universal nature of discontent with the president and the inevitability of impeachment, despite the preservation of Dilma Rousseff’s significant number of supporters. Conclusion. According to the results of the research, it can be noted that the owners of the largest Brazilian media consistently defended their own interests and did not fail to use the opportunity to push the objectionable center-left Workers’ Party from power in order to avoid the risks of economic policy unfavorable to the oligarchy within the country.

Do US Government and Commercial Media Concern Similar Topics? A Text-mining (NLP) Approach

Text mining and nature language processing (NLP) have become important tools in many research areas. Text mining is the discovery by computer of new, previously unknown information, by automatically extracting information from different written resources. This task conducted a series of text mining jobs mainly based on the New York Times news titles corpus from January 2020 to April 2021. This task also did some analyses based on the US congressional speeches during the same period. The result shows that compared with the focuses of US congressional speeches, the focuses of New York Times news titles better reflected the changing hotspot issues over time.

Understanding the Scientific Topics in the Chinese Government’s Communication about COVID-19: An LDA Approach

The communication of scientific topics can play a key role in the fight against misinformation and has become an important component of governments’ communication regarding COVID-19. This study reviewed the Chinese government’s COVID-19 information sources and identified the patterns of science communication models within them. A corpus of science-related content was collected and coded from 1521 news briefings announced by the Chinese government. An LDA (latent Dirichlet allocation) topic model, correlation analysis, and ANOVA were used to analyze the framing of the scientific topics and their social environmental characteristics. The major findings showed the following: (1) The frames in the Chinese government’s communication of scientific topics about COVID-19 had three purposes—to disseminate knowledge about prevention and control, epidemiological investigations, and the public’s personal health; to make the public understand scientific R&D in Chinese medicine, enterprises, vaccines, treatment options, and medical resources; and to involve citizens, communities, and enterprises in scientific decision making. (2) The frames were correlated with the public and media concerns. (3) The frames varied with the different levels of officials, different types of government agencies, different income regional governments, and different severity levels of the epidemic. (4) The topics concerning sustainability science were more correlated with public and media concern. In addition, we propose several suggestions for building sustainable communication approaches during the pandemic.

Mapping of Pakistani Media, Society and Culture in the Mainstream Print Media of the United Kingdom and the United States

This paper interrogated the Western media perception regarding Pakistani society, culture, image and media. It was the developing concern of Western electronic and print media to discuss the various issues related to Pakistan and mainly politics, international relations, society and culture were stressed upon. The present study explored the coverage of American and British press (the Telegraph, the Guardian, the New York Times & the Washington Post) regarding Pakistan. For this reason, the data got from the following newspapers the Telegraph, the Guardian, the New York Times & the Washington Post for the three specific months. The findings revealed that overall negative impression was found in American and British newspapers regarding Pakistani society, culture and media. Pakistani culture was attributed with patriarchal, male chauvinistic with blend of conservative’s tribal norms; extremism, rigidity, violent behavior and religious fanaticism. Women were shown as living in shabby conditions and they were deprived of their fundamental rights. The issues of crime against women, especially in the countryside about domestic violence, acid burning, and abused rape were highlighted. However, softer tone was depicted for pro-Western, liberals’ individuals, NGOs and other elements as compared to the right-wing groups which received more negative frames. Overall the negative issues related to natural disasters, over population, corruption, mismanagement, poor human rights, pervasiveness of conservative’s rightwing groups, and insecurity for journalists dominated the coverage.

The electoral success of social media losers: a study on the usage and influence of Twitter in times of elections in Paraguay

In recent years, social media has become increasingly relevant in democratic decision-making processes, such as referendums or elections. Recent investigations have raised the concern of social media misuse in attempts to manipulate the public opinion and influence results, undermining the foundations of democracy. By analyzing the use of Twitter during the 2017/2018 presidential elections in Paraguay, this study provides empirical evidence and analysis about the role of social media on political campaigns. In a departure from other countries in the region, dominance in this network did not correlate with elections results. The results we highlight in this article, therefore, challenge the impact of social media on elections, offering an interesting view of their role in Latin America countries, like Paraguay.

Review: Branding Brazil: Transforming Citizenship on Screen, by Leslie L. Marsh

Review: <i>Branding Brazil: Transforming Citizenship on Screen</i>, by Leslie L. Marsh