Network Affiliates Research Articles

Implementation and Efficacy of a Large-Scale Radiation Oncology Case-Based Peer-Review Quality Program across a Multinational Cancer Network

PurposeWith expansion of academic cancer center networks across geographically-dispersed sites, ensuring high-quality delivery of care across all network affiliates is essential. We report on the characteristics and efficacy of a radiation oncology peer-review quality assurance (QA) system implemented across a large-scale multinational cancer network. Methods and MaterialsSince 2014, weekly case-based peer-review QA meetings have been standard for network radiation oncologists with radiation oncology faculty at a major academic center. This radiotherapy (RT) QA program involves pre-treatment peer-review of cases by disease site, with disease-site subspecialized main campus faculty members. This virtual QA platform involves direct review of the proposed RT plan as well as supporting data including relevant pathology and imaging studies for each patient. Network RT plans were scored as being concordant or nonconcordant based on national guidelines, institutional recommendations, and/or expert judgment when considering individual patient-specific factors for a given case. Data from January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2019 were aggregated for analysis. ResultsBetween 2014 and 2019, across 8 network centers, a total of 16,601 RT plans underwent peer-review. The network-based peer-review case volume increased over the study period, from 958 cases in 2014 to 4,487 in 2019. A combined global nonconcordance rate of 4.5% was noted, with the highest nonconcordance rates among head-and-neck cases (11.0%). For centers that joined the network during the study period, we observed a significant decrease in the nonconcordance rate over time (3.1% average annual decrease in nonconcordance, p=0.01); among centers that joined the network prior to the study period, nonconcordance rates remained stable over time. ConclusionsThrough a standardized QA platform, network-based multinational peer-review of RT plans can be achieved. Improved concordance rates among newly-added network affiliates over time are noted, suggesting a positive impact of network membership on the quality of delivered cancer care.

Athn Transcends Natural History Cohort Study of Bleeding Symptoms and Treatment Outcomes in Patients with Glanzmann Thrombasthenia

Background Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT) is a rare, inherited, qualitative platelet disorder caused by a deficiency of one or both platelet surface proteins alpha IIb beta 3. This protein on the platelet functions as the fibrinogen receptor and is essential for hemostasis. Individuals with GT have lifelong bleeding episodes that can be frequent and severe often involving the muco-cutaneous membranes. GT is an autosomal recessive disorder with variations of the ITGA2B or ITGB3 genes. The prevalence of GT is estimated to be 1:1,000,000 in the general population. In populations with high consanguinity, the prevalence is higher. Reports of the impact of living with GT are lacking. Platelets have previously been the mainstay of treatment for severe bleeding and to manage surgical bleeding in people with GT. However, platelet transfusions carry a number of risks including allergic reactions (anaphylaxis, acute lung injury), pathogen transmission, and the formation of allo-antibodies. Primary bleeding prophylaxis is currently not available and all treatment for bleeding is reactive and on-demand. As potential new therapies emerge, clinicians require unbiased, long-term data on the safety and effectiveness of both current and new therapies. Therefore, we designed a registry of people with GT with the aims of assessing the bleeding rate and phenotype for people with this condition, as well as describing their lived experience. Rationale Due to the rare nature of GT, data within individual center registries are naturally limited. There is variation in the data held and method of collection. The aim of the study is to collect biospecimens, phenotypic characteristics, bleeding patterns, and treatment utilization, from people who have been diagnosed with GT. To achieve this, a comprehensive, multi-institutional, observational cohort study will be conducted to: Allow collection of longitudinal safety and clinical practice data for treatments in patients with GT, allowing monitoring of recently approved and well-established therapies; Aid new discovery, through the collection of biospecimens and phenotype data; Provide sufficient, unified data capture in participants with this rare disorder across the United States. Objectives To describe the bleeding phenotype in GT, including the frequency of bleeds, the Site of bleeds, and to describe real-world effectiveness of therapies used in GT, by evaluating; the frequency of bleeds, Patient reported outcomes, Healthcare and treatment utilization, To create a database for future research. Methods ATHN Transcends (NCT04398628) assesses the safety and effectiveness of contemporary therapies for people with inherited bleeding and clotting disorders. The primary aim of ATHN Transcends is to collect specific adverse events harmonized with the European Haemophilia Safety Surveillance (EUHASS). The study is constructed to allow the addition of specific modules. We have designed the GT module in ATHN Transcends to assess the safety and effectiveness of current therapy for GT. In addition, we will be collecting data around the actual bleeding rate in those who live with GT as well as more fully describing the lived experience of being impacted by GT. The study will be conducted through ATHN-affiliated centers who care for those impacted by GT. Study Design This study is a longitudinal, natural history, observational cohort study of approximately 50 participants with GT at 16 ATHN-affiliated treatment centers across the United States and a sub-cohort from one international ATHN Affiliate. The minimum planned duration of study participation for participants is approximately 18 months. Up to 10 pediatric subjects aged 2 years to <10 years, up to 10 aged 10 to <18 years, and a minimum of 30 adults >18 years with GT are expected to be enrolled. Each subject will complete a daily record for three months of bleeding event details, and any treatments. Summary ATHN Transcends has received central IRB approval and is currently being rolled out across participating American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network (ATHN) Affiliates in the United States. Enrollment in the GT Module can begin as soon as a site opens ATHN Transcends to enrollment. Conclusion ATHN Transcends provides a real-world mechanism in which to collect safety and effectiveness data of contemporary therapies for people with GT. The GT Module of ATHN Transcends will allow collection of Good Clinical Practice-grade data.

Supporting Public Health Research Capacity, Quality, and Productivity in a Diverse Region.

Public health research plays a critical role in strengthening health systems and improving their performance and impact. However, scholarly production in public health coming from the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) remains well below the world average and lacks a tangible growth trend over time. During the seventh Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network Regional Conference, a roundtable session brought together a panel of public health experts representing Global Health Development/Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network affiliates, universities or academia, and research institutions from the region, where they shared insights on the current situation of public health research; challenges and barriers to research facing the different countries in the EMR and the region in general; and how research agendas, productivity, and quality can be supported through strengthening research capacity in the region. Although the region is diverse in terms of health system capacity and socioeconomic development, several common challenges were identified, including a lack of strategic prioritization to guide health research, insufficient funding, ineffective transfer of knowledge to policy and practice, limited availability of research facilities, and limited national and international research collaboration. Occupied countries and countries in a state of conflict, such as Palestine, face additional barriers, such as personal and social security, lack of control of borders and natural resources, travel and movement restrictions, and confidentiality challenges because of the continuing war conditions and occupation. However, there have been success stories in the EMR regarding research publications and their positive and effective impact on policy and decision-makers. To improve research resilience and public health care in the region, a collaborative approach involving institutions, policymakers, and relevant stakeholders is critical.

What's Local about Local Television News?

Because capturing and analyzing local television news broadcasts is difficult, most research on campaign ocverage by local television stations centers on a single candidate race and a limited number of news broadcasts. This article expands existing research by examining all prime time election coverage by Philadelphia's four network affiliates in the final 30 days of the 2004 campagin. These stations virtually abandoned coverage of local and statewied races in favor of the presidential contest. Most coverage focused on campaign stategy rather than issues, but there is little evidence of direct bias favoring either Democrats or Republicans. Although stations generally ignored nonpresidential elections, they gave a fair amount of coverage to the mechanics of voting, which may provide voters with valuable locally based election information.

Local TV News Archives and the Pursuit of Social Justice

Local TV News Archives and the Pursuit of Social Justice Rich Newberg (bio) A TV news consultant once shared an observation on the experiential nature of the moving image versus the printed word. A well-told story on television hits the viewer's heart first, before registering in the brain, he said. Newspaper reporting, he added, goes from the reader's brain to the heart. Watching the life being squeezed out of George Floyd by a uniformed police officer was beyond heart-wrenching. No words could describe that moment in time when centuries of injustice to people of color came to a head. TV news headlines disappear as quickly as the flash-bang of a stun grenade tossed at Black Lives Matter demonstrators, but buried deep in the archives of local television stations, a long-burning fuse of social injustice cannot be extinguished. When those stories are brought to light, they become teachable moments in time and powerful primary source material in the classroom. Video is powerful and familiar to today's students raised with smartphones and tablets. But even before the digital age, local television news often served as a pressure valve, giving a voice to the disenfranchised and context to the issues that divide us. Some TV stations with a conscience and an eye toward history had their archives preserved and are now in a position to bring an added perspective to a country searching for its soul. At WIVB-TV in Buffalo, where I spent thirty-seven of my forty-six years as a TV news anchor and senior correspondent, my cubicle was so cluttered with archived material that station management cordoned it off with yellow crime tape on several occasions. An avalanche of tapes once shattered a prized candy jar belonging to my co-anchor next door! It turns out this was a small price to pay for the benefits that were to follow years later. I now have licensing rights to repurpose Buffalo's African American history pieces and other documentaries for use in the classroom. Our Black history specials, produced by a diverse newsroom team of reporters and videographers, trace local issues of race relations dating back to the days of the Underground Railroad. Buffalo was the last stop for escaping slaves on the road to freedom. These pieces enable educators to meet the new inquiry-based standards for teaching social studies. Students are engaged because they can relate to the history that unfolded in their very neighborhoods. Journalists present stories based on evidence and facts. On television, they relate to the human experience in a way easily grasped by students with very short attention spans. Local TV stations must look beyond the fleeting images of today's newscasts if they want to play an active role in promoting social justice. Over the decades, their reporters and photojournalists provided the first rough draft of history to the communities they served. Providing a means to review this history will do more than merely hold up a giant mirror. It will provide a means for inner reflection and self-discovery. We should all take a lesson from the great Edward R. Murrow, who said of television's potential, "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are [End Page 226] determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box." Rich Newberg Rich Newberg is a member of AMIA's News, Documentary, and Television Committee. He is a founding board member of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association and spearheaded initial efforts to digitize historically relevant material from two of the region's TV network affiliates. He is currently repurposing portions of his own documentaries and reports for classroom use. The National Television Academy's New York Chapter inducted Mr. Newberg into its Silver Circle in 2019, recognizing his contributions to the state's television industry. He was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2006. Copyright © 2021 Association of Moving Image Archivists

Exploring PCAOB inspection results for audit firms headquartered outside of the US

This study examines the audit quality, measured using Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) reports, for audit firms headquartered outside of the United States (US). We hypothesize and test if differences in firm audit quality as measured by PCAOB inspection deficiencies exist depending upon the size and nature of arrangements with other audit firms. More specifically, we examine five different categories of auditing firm arrangement: Big Four network affiliates; BDO and Grant Thornton network affiliates; firms with other network affiliations; firms with associations and alliances; and other (unknown or no stated affiliation). In this underexplored area of research, we find that non-US firms without formal connections to other firms have lower audit quality in comparison to the other four arrangement types. Our analysis also suggests that those with more formal connections (i.e., networks and larger associations/alliances arrangements) have similar levels of audit quality. Moreover, our results suggest that network firms that primarily do work referred to them by US audit firms have better results on PCAOB inspections; however, we do not find this relationship for associations and alliances. As the PCAOB explores group audit work standards, it is imperative that a more nuanced understanding of global audit quality progresses.

Variation in Surgical Outcomes Across Networks of the Highest-Rated US Hospitals

Hospitals are rapidly consolidating into regional delivery networks. To our knowledge, whether these multihospital networks leverage their combined assets to improve quality and provide a uniform standard of care has not been explored. To evaluate the extent to which surgical outcomes varied across hospitals within the networks of the highest-rated US hospitals. This longitudinal analysis of 87 hospitals that participated in 1 of 16 networks that are affiliated with US News & World Report Honor Roll hospitals used data from Medicare beneficiaries who were undergoing colectomy, coronary artery bypass graft, or hip replacement between 2005 and 2014 to evaluate the variation in risk-adjusted surgical outcomes at Honor Roll and affiliated hospitals within and across networks. The data were analyzed between April 20, 2018, and June 25, 2018. Thirty-day postoperative complications, mortality, failure to rescue, and readmissions. Of 143 174 patients, 68 718 (48.0%) were men, 124 427 (86.9%) were white, and the mean (SD) age was 71.8 (9.9) years and 73.5 (9.1) years in Honor Roll and affiliated hospitals, respectively. Outcomes were not consistently better at Honor Roll hospitals compared with network affiliates. For example, Honor Roll hospitals had lower failure to rescue rates (13.3% vs 15.1%; odds ratio, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.86-0.98) but higher complication rates (22.1% vs 18.0%; odds ratio, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.03-1.19). Within networks, risk-adjusted outcomes varied widely across affiliated hospitals. The differences in failure to rescue varied by as little as 1.1-fold (range, 12.7%-14.3%) in some networks to as much as 4.9-fold (range, 7.6%-37.3%) in others. Similarly, complication rates varied by 1.1-fold (range, 21%-23%) to 4.3-fold (range, 6%-26%) across all networks. Surgical outcomes vary widely across hospitals affiliated with the US News & World Report Honor Roll hospitals. Public reporting mechanisms should provide patients with information on the quality of all network-affiliated hospitals. Networks should monitor variations in outcomes to characterize and improve the extent to which a uniform standard of care is being delivered.

Telejornalismo “participativo”: pressão das audiências ou fragilidade das instituições

A televisão no Brasil ganha mais força a partir da
 década de 70. A televisão evoluiu com os anos até
 chegar nos dias de hoje, quando a audiência tem
 um papel de destaque. O trabalho propõe discutir a
 participação da audiência ativa nos telejornais a partir
 de duas linhas de investigação: a agenda da pressão
 social e a fragilidade das instituições. Tem-se como
 exemplo de experiências participativas, no telejornal,
 o quadro “Calendário”, que surge no NETV da Globo
 Nordeste e se espalha para outras afiliadas da Rede
 Globo de Televisão pelo país. Busca-se apontar pistas
 para compreender melhor a relação da audiência ativa
 com o telejornalismo, que é eleito por ela como um
 mediador social frente aos problemas da comunidade.

Indonesian Muslim Adolescents' Use of Tobacco and Alcohol: Associations With Use by Friends and Network Affiliates

The objectives of this longitudinal study were to predict the tobacco and alcohol use of Indonesian Muslim adolescents from their religiosity and the substance use of friends and network affiliates. At Year 1, there were 996 participants from eighth grade ( n = 507, age = 13.4 years) and 10th grade ( n = 489, age = 15.4); 875 were followed into the next grade. Friends and network affiliates were respectively identified by mutual selection and social cognitive mapping. Logistic regression analyses revealed that tobacco use was predicted at both Years 1 and 2 by friends’ use, whereas network affiliates’ use predicted individual use with the exception of girls at Year 2. Boys’ alcohol use was uniquely predicted by network affiliates’ but not friends’ use at both years, whereas girls’ use was not predicted by either friends’ or network affiliates’ use. Involvement with boys was associated with girls’ use of alcohol. Although these two types of peer associations may both be important, they may be associated in different ways with tobacco and alcohol use.

Legitimacy‐as‐Feeling: How Affect Leads to Vertical Legitimacy Spillovers in Transnational Governance

AbstractTransnational governance schemes (TGSs) are interorganizational networks of public and/or private actors that jointly regulate global public policy issues, such as the prevention of human rights violations and the protection of ecosystems. Considering that TGSs mainly address issues of public concern, the general public represents a major source of legitimacy in transnational governance. We theorize how members of the general public, whom we conceptualize as intuiters, apply heuristics to bestow legitimacy on TGSs. Given the difficulty of assessing TGSs, we argue that intuiters draw on affect‐based responses towards a TGS's better‐known network affiliates, such as participating business firms, to judge the legitimacy of the TGS as a whole. This substitution produces a ‘vertical’ legitimacy spillover. More specifically, we examine the heuristic process of judgment underlying vertical spillovers in TGSs and derive implications for the legitimacy construct and the analysis of spillover phenomena.

Gender, Productivity, and Collaborative Networks in Science

It has long been noted that women in STEM fields have poor quality networks compared to men. In this article, we question whether the network deficits women face are insurmountable. Using data on more than 3,500 scientists over a twenty year period, we study the influence of scientific productivity on the status of scientists’ network affiliates. We find that scientists have greater access to high status affiliates as their productivity improves, and that women receive greater gains to their networks from productivity than men. Our findings suggest differential returns to productivity by gender, and highlight the benefits women’s networks receive when organizations use objective criteria like productivity, versus ascribed characteristics such as gender, in network allocation decisions.

Utilization of Breast Conserving Therapy in Stages 0, I, and II Breast Cancer Patients in New Jersey

The purpose of the study was to determine the use of breast conservation surgery (BCS) followed by whole breast irradiation [BCS+radiation therapy (RT)] in stages 0, I, and II breast cancer patients treated in New Jersey using the National Cancer Database. A retrospective analysis was conducted using the data from 13 hospitals in New Jersey certified by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and members of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey's Network affiliates. Subjects with a first primary malignancy of the breast (stages 0, I, and II) treated from 2000 to 2006 were included in the analysis. A total of 11,146 patients with stage 0 (n=2843), stage I (n=4757), and stage II (n=3546) were treated for their breast cancer. Of stage 0, I, and II patients, 72% (n=2053), 73% (n=3482), and 53% (n=1865) received BCS, respectively. Of these patients, 40% (n=826), 67.6% (n=2353), and 63% (n=1177) received adjuvant RT after BCS for their stages 0, I, and II, respectively. Use of BCS+RT was equivalent across racial groups and all ages, except patients above 70 years of age (61% <40 y, 57% 40 to 49 y, 60% 50 to 59 y, 65% 60 to 69 y, and 51% >70 y). These data report an underutilization of RT after BCS in patients with stage 0 breast cancer treated across 13 hospitals in New Jersey. The Commission on Cancer's Rapid Quality Reporting System may be one method of identifying groups of patients not receiving care according to evidence-based guidelines.

Review: It's the Pictures that Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television by Christine Becker

The 1950s were an unsettling time to be a film actor. The 1948 Paramount decision in which the courts instructed the Hollywood film studios to divest themselves of their theater chains, along with other factors which would see the bottom fall out of weekly movie attendance, had put an end to the dependable contract work that many had been able to rely upon. At the same time, a brand new medium, television, offered acting opportunities. From a mere surface interrogation, it all looked pretty simple. Those stars the studios still valued or those who could make lucrative deals as independents stayed in the movies. The struggling, fading, and cast-off had a devalued fallback that could at least preserve an income while permitting the continuation of an acting career. Christine Becker’s lucid, richly detailed, and perceptive study proves just how superficial such an assessment would be. She sketches out myriad factors that influenced the ways in which Hollywood stars chose to go to television and television tried to woo Hollywood stars. Did the star play him or herself or a fictional character? Was the program live or filmed, network or syndicated, shot in New York or Los Angeles, an anthology or a continuing-character format? How did the performer’s previous star image tie into the ways that television showcased him or her? How did gender and genre factor in? What made some stars click with television audiences while others of equal or greater reputation as film stars failed? Becker also subsumes these considerations into a larger historical arc. It begins when the television industry needs star luster to win network affiliates and persuade consumers to buy television sets, a business model that saw ad agencies and sponsors making most production decisions; and it ends a scant decade later with the home television market saturated, network–affiliate relations stable, and programs mostly developed by film studios who saw television as a place in which to audition and promote future stars rather than needing the more expensive participation of established ones. The new business model, Becker notes, “strove to regularize viewership, control costs, and reap syndication profits” (215). Becker devotes each chapter to one particular aspect of the move by film stars onto television. Each follows the same format: a wide-ranging and detailed survey comes first, sketching out the main issues; this is followed by discussion of trade reviews, star interviews, network publicity, and descriptions of some of the programs in question; to finish, there is a focused case study. The first chapter, on the production of new careers in television for film stars, is an account so historically grounded and convincing in its arguments that it would make an excellent assignment in any course taking an industrial approach to Hollywood film of the 1950s. It concludes with the example of Four Star Productions and how Dick Powell, along with David Niven and Charles Boyer, took stewardship of their television careers. The next chapter, on stars playing themselves in various presentational genres, focuses on Faye Emerson. The third, on the now extinct performance category of anthology-drama hosts, uses Adolphe Menjou as its exemplar. Chapter 4 deals with what Becker calls “continuingchar acter” roles, concentrating on the sitcom. She emphasizes the opportunities these presented especially to second-tier female movie stars and then provides an extended analysis of the Ida Lupino–Howard Duff Mr. Adams and Eve, in which the then-married stars played fictionalized versions of themselves. Finally she considers the prestige anthology drama, zeroing in on Playhouse 90, the most acclaimed of all but a show that debuted at nearly the moment when the genre was dying. In detailing the ascent of James Garner from 1950s television-bred favorite to bona fide movie star, the first part of Becker’s conclusion sums up the transition away from television’s love affair with the film actor. The book finishes with the most famous example of a less-than-A-list film performer who became a television icon, Lucille Ball, focusing on those episodes when Lucy Ricardo went to Hollywood and met many of the big-time stars the networks could only dream of hooking as continuing characters. From its pitch-perfect title to its many insights as to how discourses of television stardom, which emphasized authenticity and true acting ability through live performance and “off-casting,” “laid bare . . . the skeletons of the constructed star image” (9), Becker’s book draws much-needed attention MartIN FraDLey is currently editing a book about British filmmaker shane Meadows.

Utilization of Breast Conserving Therapy in Stage 0, I, II Breast Cancer Patients in New Jersey: An American College of Surgeons National Cancer Database (NCDB) Analysis

Utilization of Breast Conserving Therapy in Stage 0, I, II Breast Cancer Patients in New Jersey: An American College of Surgeons National Cancer Database (NCDB) Analysis

General Mental Health Practitioners as EAP Network Affiliates: Does EAP Short-Term Counseling Overlap with General Practice Psychotherapy?

General Mental Health Practitioners as EAP Network Affiliates: Does EAP Short-Term Counseling Overlap with General Practice Psychotherapy?

Tell it Not in Harrisburg, Publish it Not in the Streets of Tampa: Framing, Media Ownership, and the Public Interest

Throughout 2006-2007 the FCC conducted six public hearings across the United States as part of its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking procedure, brought about by the court's annulment of the media ownership rules enacted by the FCC in 2003. These hearings - the first of their kind in scope and quantity - drew the attention of the media, public interest groups and the public. In this study, the news reports of the hearings broadcast by the big four network affiliates (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Tampa, Florida, between February and April 2007 are critiqued using a critical framing analysis. The researchers attended the hearings and studied 40.5 hours of televised coverage (72 newscasts), and transcripts of 18 additional newscasts, broadcast right before, during and immediately after the hearings, revealing 22 segments in which the hearings were discussed. Two frames emerged from the analysis: a first-level agenda setting frame that claimed that the hearings were unimportant and a second-level agenda setting frame that suggested that media consolidation is not a problem. Taking into account that all eight affiliates assessed by this study are owned by consolidated media conglomerates, the findings of this study imply that maintaining broadcasters independent of consolidated media serves the diversity of viewpoints in a market, especially regarding issues in which media conglomerates have an invested interest.

Guys Gone Wild?: Soft-Core Video Professionalism and New Realities in Television Production

This essay presents an ethnographic perspective on the performance of cameramen in the reality industry. Much like the self-narratives among television producers, videographers frame their actions through masculinist discourses, which are then destabilized through the production process and labor conditions in the television economy. Soft-core reality refers to a specific set of sexual representations set in reality format. These videos began playing frequently on late-night cable infomercials beginning in the mid-1990s, and now can be found on network affiliates, pay-per- view, and global satellite programming. They also rake in millions through direct- buy DVD and Internet sales. 1 The emergence of on television owed itself to a number of political and economic factors related to the definition, regulation, and distribution of commercial speech and pornographic production. 2 Started by individual entrepreneurs, reality companies, the largest of which is known for its signature series Girls Gone Wild, multiplied and expanded through synergies with television industries, Web retailers, pornography distribu- tors, and product licensees. Each year, these companies contract hundreds of work- ers, mostly men, to capture women in the act of public sexual display. These laborers are the focus of this article, specifically, the men behind the cameras. Over the course of two and a half years, I met over fifty of these men, observed them working, and, eventually, knew them well enough to assist them in their jobs. Given the political economy for production, I argue that the siren song of the new professionalism in much of the television industry offers little more than the fantasies of masculine consumption, while trying to obscure its material realities. I use the generic designation soft-core reality video to reference the hybrid content of these particular videos and the specificity of their producers. The videos feature series of erotic spectacles associated with pornography, such as striptease numbers, tub or shower sequences, modeling scenes, voyeur numbers, girl-girl

The Extreme Connection Between Bodies and Houses

The Extreme Connection Between Bodies and Houses

Television station ownership characteristics and local news and public affairs programming: an expanded analysis of FCC data

This paper examines the relationship between television station ownership characteristics and local news and public affairs programming through an expanded analysis of data from the Federal Communication's Commission (FCC's) recent study of Big Four broadcast network affiliates. The results indicate that the FCC's conclusion that network‐owned and operated stations provide more local news and public affairs programming than other affiliates, and that stations with newspaper holdings provide more local news and public affairs programming than stations without newspaper holdings holds up only when these two program types are analyzed in combination. When these two program types are analyzed independently, and when additional explanatory factors are taken into consideration, these ownership characteristics are positively related to news programming, but not to public affairs programming.

Silence, Sports Bras, And Wrestling Porn

This study of televised sports news on three network affiliates and ESPN’s SportsCenter extends and expands on earlier studies in 1990 and 1994 to examine the quality and quantity of televised coverage of women’s sports.The dominant finding over the decade spanned by the three studies is the lack of change. Women’s sports are still “missing in action” on the nightly news, and are even less visible on SportsCenter. Textual analysis revealed some change over the decade, but mostly showed continued gender asymmetries in televised sports news and highlight shows: (a) the choice to devote a considerable proportion of the already-thin coverage of women’s sports to humorous feature stories on nonserious women’s sports, and (b) the (often humorous) sexual objectification of athlete women and nonathlete women. The authors conclude with a discussion of how and why television has continued to cautiously follow, rather than lead or promote, the growth in girls’ and women’s sports.