News Media Reports Research Articles

Halo and spillover effect illustrations for selected beneficial medical devices and drugs.

BackgroundNegative news media reports regarding potential health hazards of implanted medical devices and pharmaceuticals can lead to a ‘negative halo effect,’ a phenomenon whereby judgments about a product or product type can be unconsciously altered even though the scientific support is tenuous. To determine how a ‘negative halo effect’ may impact the rates of use and/or explantation of medical products, we analyzed the occurrence of such an effect on three implanted medical devices and one drug: 1) intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs); 2) silicone gel-filled breast implants (SGBI); 3) metal-on-metal hip implants (MoM); and 4) the drug Tysabri.MethodsData on IUD use from 1965 to 2008 were gathered from the Department of Health and Human Services Vital and Health Statistics and peer-reviewed publications. Data regarding SGBI implant and explantation rates from 1989 to 2012 were obtained from the Institute of Medicine and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. MoM implant and explantation data were extracted from the England and Wales National Joint Registry and peer-reviewed publications. Tysabri patient data were reported by Elan Corporation or Biogen Idec Inc. Data trends for all products were compared with historical recall or withdrawal events and discussed in the context of public perceptions following such events.ResultsWe found that common factors altered public risk perceptions and patterns of continued use. First, a negative halo effect may be driven by continuing patient anxiety despite positive clinical outcomes. Second, negative reports about one product can spill over to affect the use of dissimilar products in the same category. Third, a negative halo effect on an entire category of medical devices can be sustained regardless of the scientific findings pertaining to safety. Fourth, recovery of a product’s safety reputation and prevalent use may take decades in the U.S., even while these products may exhibit widespread use and good safety records in other countries.ConclusionsWe conclude that the ‘negative halo effect’ associated with a stigma, rather than an objective risk-benefit assessment of medical products can increase negative health outcomes for patients due to reduced or inappropriate product usage.

Is China Building an Empire in Rural Africa?

Deborah Brautigam. (2015). Will Africa Feed China? Oxford University Press, Oxford, 248 pp., $27.95 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0199396856). The questions of ‘what China wants’ and ‘how it will meet its needs as it continues rising’ motivate a great deal of research in International Relations. As China became the second largest economy in the world and as its economic and strategic influence continue to advance, many scholars have investigated China’s motivations from different approaches. Some scholars perceive China as a revisionist power that seeks to changes the rules of the game (Mearsheimer 2001; Martin Jacques 2009). Other scholars argue that China is ultimately a status quo power that will continue to uphold the existing international order (Johnston 2013; Qin 2014). Yet, as China’s engagement with African countries continues to deepen, the question of China’s motivation narrows down to what China wants in Africa. Deborah Brautigam’s most recent book Will Africa feed China? takes on the task of answering the question about China’s motivations in Africa. The book’s findings are grounded in a tremendous research effort conducted by the author leading a research team to investigate China’s agricultural investments across several African countries. Brautigam’s goal in this book, much like in her previous one The Dragon’s Gift , is to lay bare misperceptions about China’s intentions and strategies in Africa. This book specifically tackles China’s economic policies in Africa and looks into allegations of land grab, food security, and neocolonial settlements by Chinese companies and individuals in Africa. An increase in global food prices in the first decade of the twenty-first century led to the rise of rumors and fears that “China had embarked on a state-sponsored quest to lock up vast tracts of African land to grow food to send home to feed its people” (151). The author’s overarching argument is that such rumors and fears became heuristics and common beliefs in news media reports about Chinese … linaben{at}ufl.edu

Journalists’ and Educators’ Perspectives on News Media Reporting of Islam and Muslim Communities in Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACTWe know much about how the news media report on the topic of Muslims and Islam, but we know very little about the journalistic practices and processes that contribute to the way these issues are framed and reported. Whereas research has until now largely focused on the ways in which Islam and Muslims are represented in various news media, there is relatively little research that explores the issue from the perspective of key people working in the news media. In order to address what we perceive as a significant gap in the research, we draw on data from interviews with 29 journalists, editors, media trainers, and journalism educators located in Australia and New Zealand to explore their understandings of the ways stories about Islam and Muslims are reported and why. The article also investigates the interviewees’ perceptions of the effects of news media coverage of Muslims and Islam. Our findings present a starting point to improving practice for those reporting on Islam and Muslim and inform the development of training modules in the reporting of Islam for journalists and journalism students.

Sympathy, shame, and few solutions: News media portrayals of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Objectivethere is a lack of public understanding about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and many countries lack policies to deal with FASD concerns. Given the role of news media in disseminating a range of health information, the aim of the current study was to explore the media coverage on alcohol use during pregnancy and FASD, and to identify ways to improve associated health messages. Designthe current study uses a framing analysis of news media reports about FASD over a 1-year period. Framing analysis seeks to better understand how media messages serve to shape the thoughts, feelings, and decisions of readers. Findingstwo frames dominated the media coverage of FASD: a frame of sympathy, and a frame of shame. Some news media encouraged feelings of sympathy for children with FASD, while others encouraged sympathy towards mothers of these children. At the same time, mothers were also portrayed as deserving of shame. Key conclusionsthe interrelated frames of sympathy and shame may confuse readers, as they inconsistently hold different parties responsible for the impact of FASD. Media portrayals that encourage women to refrain from alcohol consumption during pregnancy might be more useful than stigmatising and isolating those who do. Implications for practicepractitioners should be aware that conflicting messages about alcohol consumption during pregnancy might lead to shame and confusion, and should encourage openness with mothers to challenge stigma. Guidelines for media reporting should discourage stigmatising frames, and media articles should also consider the role that government, non-government organisations, and the alcohol industry could play for improving FASD shame.

Tentative probes into some aspects of the pipeline rupture behind the 2014 Kaohsiung underground gas explosions

By collecting information from the indictment and news media reports, this paper tries to probe into some aspects of the course of the rupture failure in the pipeline that is believed to have led to the 2014 Kaohsiung gas explosion incident. Through approximate finite element analysis and engineering assessment of a similar pipe segment, insight can be gained on the sequence of longitudinal and circumferential fracture, as well as the relationship between the degree of wall thinning and rupture pressure. Some of the deductions are found to corroborate the visual appearance of the rupture. Other deductions need further information from a detailed mapping of the wall thickness of the ruptured segment to substantiate. A mass transfer analysis for the leakage rate is recommended to help identify the approximate time of rupture. A detailed charting of the positions of corrosion damage and possible asphalt coating damage on the three pipe segments inside the culvert may provide further clues for identifying the root cause of the rupture.

Does media coverage of research misconduct impact on public trust in science? A study of news reporting and confidence in research in Sweden 2002–2013

Over the past decade, there has been a gradual decline in public trust in science in Sweden. Questions have been raised as to whether or not this decline is the result of news media reports on research misconduct. Taking off in a theoretical discussion about the news media agenda-setting function, this study examined the extent to which, if any, there really is a connection between public trust and news content. It did so by drawing empirical support from a content analysis of the largest Swedish news media reporting on research misconduct in the years 2002–2013 and also from annual surveys of Swedes´ media consumption and trust in science, conducted over the same time period. Using news consumption, i.e. media exposure, as a proxy variable in the analysis, this study came to the conclusion that exposure to this type of news reporting had a positive rather than negative effect on public trust in science. The article discusses why this is so and also identifies some important questions that require to be further researched in order to understand public trust in science.

The ‘common knowledge’ of Quebecers: quantifying the evidence of historians testifying for defendant tobacco companies

The ‘common knowledge’ defence is a legal strategy which has been successfully used by defendant tobacco companies to avoid legal responsibility for the harms caused by smoking. Tobacco companies have...

Mobile lives: totems, cell phones, and symbolism in India

Much has been said and written about the role of the mobile phone in modulating social behaviours and cultural dynamics in India. Far less attention has been paid, however, to emerging cultural narratives about the phone which showcase the active, often troublesome and intrusive role the device plays in increasingly technologically inflected lives and landscapes. How are we to understand these new readings of the phone as itself a protagonist in our cultural lives? This essay uses a series of cultural reference points (movies, plays, news-media reports, popular music) to survey new metaphoric and symbolic terrains that the mobile phone guides us through. The mobile device's character, I argue, is totemic: it acquires the capacity to express desires, aspirations, and ambivalences; invoke social differences, and assert cultural norms. What Indian cultural narratives reveal is the desire for communion with the technologies which now both contain our natures and hold them up to view. The mobile phone plays a critical role in this process of reflection and self-making.

Capturing Public Opinion on Public Health Topics: A Comparison of Experiences from a Systematic Review, Focus Group Study, and Analysis of Online, User-Generated Content.

Capturing public opinion toward public health topics is important to ensure that services, policy, and research are aligned with the beliefs and priorities of the general public. A number of approaches can be used to capture public opinion. We are conducting a program of work on the effectiveness and acceptability of health promoting financial incentive interventions. We have captured public opinion on financial incentive interventions using three methods: a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online user-generated comments to news media reports. In this short editorial-style piece, we compare and contrast our experiences with these three methods. Each of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include tailoring of the research question for systematic reviews, probing of answers during focus groups, and the ability to aggregate a large data set using online user-generated content. However, disadvantages include needing to update systematic reviews, participants conforming to a dominant perspective in focus groups, and being unable to collect respondent characteristics during analysis of user-generated online content. That said, analysis of user-generated online content offers additional time and resource advantages, and we found it elicited similar findings to those obtained via more traditional methods, such as systematic reviews and focus groups. A number of methods for capturing public opinions on public health topics are available. Public health researchers, policy makers, and practitioners should choose methods appropriate to their aims. Analysis of user-generated online content, especially in the context of news media reports, may be a quicker and cheaper alternative to more traditional methods, without compromising on the breadth of opinions captured.

Book Review: Media Framing of the Muslim World: Conflicts, Crises and Contexts, by Halim Rane, Jacqui Ewart, and John Martinkus

Media Framing of the Muslim World: Conflicts, Crises and Contexts. Halim Rane, Jacqui Ewart, and John Martinkus. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 216 pp. $28 pbk.The recent Islamist assassination of Charlie Hebdo staffmembers in Paris to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, whom the weekly satirizes frequently in cartoons, incited reprisals against mosques and other Islamic sites across France and stoked Islamophobia in social media, including a Facebook post from Australia that said, free world needs to wake up to the fact that we are at war with the Muslim religion. They are using our hospitality and free immigration to conduct this war under our noses. These predictable responses exhibit not only anger and frustration over relentless Islamist violence, but, according to Australian researchers Halim Rane (Griffith University), Jacqui Ewart (Griffith University), and John Martinkus (University of Tasmania), they also reflect Western news media reports that portray the Muslim world as a violent, fanatical, and misogynist enemy of Western freedom and civilization.The reports of Islamist atrocities from 9/11 on are, of course, true. Islamists have beheaded journalists, gunned down children in school, and massacred entire villages. But according to Rane, Ewart, and Martinkus, what gets lost in these stories is the fact thatan overwhelming majority of Muslims reject suicide bombing and other attacks against civilians; they regard such actions as unjustifiable even in the defense of Islam. The majority of Muslims also regard other acts of violence, such as honor killings, as never justified in Islam.The authors cite Gallup and Pew polls that show that most Muslims also uphold the religious freedom of non-Muslims, believe that Islamic law applies only to Muslims, and favor democracy over authoritarian rule. The episodic reporting of Islamist terrorism, however factual, creates the misimpression that extremists are the norm in Islam.One effect of this misimpression has been the obstruction of Muslims seeking asylum in the West from the danger and persecution in their home countries. The authors report that such hindrance takes place in Australia, which has discouraged Muslim asylum seekers by preventing boats carrying asylum seekers from landing on Australian shores, managing asylum requests in detention centers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea to restrict access to Australian legal processes, and detaining asylum seekers in substandard, remote facilities. As a result, Australia receives less than 3% of the world's applications for asylum. According to the authors, news reports seldom challenge politicians who pander to public anxiety by characterizing Muslim asylum seekers as illegals, boat people, and queue jumpers whose presence undermines traditional culture, drains the economy, and threatens national security. …

Innovation in China’s information and communications technology industry

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the sources of innovation in the current business environment of China. With the set target of transforming China into an innovative society by 2020, the Chinese government has taken dramatic measures to foster the nation’s innovation capability. Whether this Chinese model of promoting innovation has been successful and can be sustainable are controversial issues which need to be analyzed from an academic perspective. In recent years, there have been successful cases of innovation driven by grassroots entrepreneurs, especially in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Therefore, it is time to analyze their success factors from the perspectives of both corporate strategy and government policy. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used in this research is a comparative case analysis, and several high-profile cases in China’s ICT industry have been selected for this comparative study. Information used in the analysis comes from publicly available sources such as business school case studies and industry and news media reports. The authors have been following the evolution of China’s ICT industry for more than a decade; insights from their prior research and knowledge gained through industry contacts are also used in the analysis. Findings – Generally speaking, the types of innovation in China’s ICT industry can be categorized into a top-down or a bottom-up approach. For the top-down approach of innovation driven by the government, the authors analyzed the case of the Chinese government’s effort to build an industry value chain through fostering the Chinese indigenous third-generation mobile communications standard time division–synchronous code division multiple access. In comparison, the authors use several success cases, including the ecosystem built around the highly successful XiaoMi mobile phone and Tencent’s mobile portal WeChat, as it showcases of the bottom-up approach of innovation driven by grassroots entrepreneurship. The comparison of these two approaches suggests that massive government-sponsored projects are unlikely to generate genuine innovation in the highly competitive and dynamic ICT sector. The government’s role should be to foster entrepreneurship and to create a fair business environment. Originality/value – This research uses the method of comparative case studies to identify the source of innovation in a highly dynamic and uncertain business environment. Findings of this study shed light on the government policy toward innovation in the ICT industry and on the business firms’ strategy on innovation.

Word Power: The Impact of Negative Media Coverage on Disciplining Corporate Pollution

Sequences of individual words make up media reports. And sequences of media reports constitute the power of the news media to influence corporate practices. In this paper, we focus on the micro-foundations of news reports to elaborate how an atmosphere of negative news reports following an initial exposure of corporate pollution activity can help stop such activity through their impact on corporate managers. We extend our understanding of the corporate governance effect of news media by considering two new aspects of reports—one, the proportion of words in negative reports relative to the total number of words in all reports; and two, the geographical origin of news media. We suggest that the more negative the media coverage, and the more local this coverage, the greater the impact on corporations. Our study of news media reports from more than 600 newspaper sources on disciplining pollution activities of listed Chinese firms from 2004 to 2012 provides strong support for our hypotheses. These findings have valuable implications for the handling of pollution issues in transitional economies via the power of news words.

供应商能力营销的方式—基于客户推荐的视角

客户推荐是B2B市场中供应商能力营销的主要工具和方式。本文在分析客户推荐对供应商能力营销作用的基础上，指出供应商利用客户推荐开展能力营销的四种具体方式：展示推荐客户名单和推荐信、宣传成功故事与典型客户案例、散发新闻报道材料和媒体资讯、组织潜在客户参观推荐客户的工厂或车间。这些结论在理论上为研究客户推荐这种新型营销资产提供一些新的观点和知识，在实践上为产业供应商利用客户推荐和开展能力营销提供新的思路。 Customer reference is a key tool and way for suppliers to marketing their competencies to cus-tomers in B2B markets. This paper put forward four methods of competence marketing based on the role of customer reference in marketing competence: showing referrer customer lists and their reference letters, communicating successful stories and customer cases, distributing news material and media reports about their technology successes, and arranging potential customers to visit referrer customer’s firm. These conclusions provide some new opinions and insights for other scholars to research this topic, and offer some different approaches for industrial suppliers to do marketing of competence to customers.

Stem Cells between Ethics and Entrepreneurship: How a Contested Bio-Object Became ‘Normal’

Human Embryonic Stem Cell (hESC) research has been described by many scholars as a controversial issue. However, in Swedish media reporting, hESC research is no longer described as contested. The aim of this paper is to explore how this research field has been normalized through discursive shifts which have had effects in terms of the lack of debate around novel biotechnologies. The article compares the reporting of Swedish newspapers on hESC research during year 2001 and onwards. The reason for this selection is that during 2001 there was a heated debate around hESC. After that point, media reporting is characterized by a lack of debate. Therefore, Swedish media reporting makes an interesting case for understanding how an ethical controversy can end. To conceptualize the contemporary lack of media reporting and debate, this paper analyzes discourses operating in news media reports during and after 2001 through studying how different researcher/subject positions and hESC bio-identities are articulated during different times, and how these open up for different issues to be, or not to be, reported and discussed. Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, as well as a theoretical framework of bio-objectification inspire the analysis. The result shows how ethical and political discourses about hESC in the Swedish news media have been replaced with engineering and economical discourses. The main point is that this new discursive formation has closed opportunities for oppositional ways of talking about hESC research, for example, as an ethical issue or an area for political debate and legislation. Instead, scientific-technological-therapeutic progress has been bound to a belief in economic progress. The final part of this article discusses how this discursive change can be understood in the perspective of changing relations between the public and academia, but also how dissolving positions can open up hegemonic discourses and challenge fixed meanings.

Comments: Community Engagement

Editor's column The growth in unconventionals production and the spotlight on hydraulic fracturing have heightened public concern about oil and gas industry operations and raised the stakes for those working in the industry. News media reports, movies, Internet blogs, and political debate have combined to add scrutiny to upstream operations and their potential impact on health, the environment, and local communities. It has become not only an industry and company issue, but an individual one as well. Many engineers and other staff in the industry are getting questions about their companies’ operations from neighbors and others in their communities. Hydraulic fracturing is usually the focal point. Even though fracturing has been used by the industry since the late 1940s, many believe it is a new technology that potentially threatens water supplies and spawns other negative effects. Anti-fracturing initiatives are currently being proposed in numerous cities and states around the United States. A number of resources are available to help members of the industry answer these questions. SPE’s www.energy4me site offers information on hydraulic fracturing and other industry technologies, classroom resources for teachers, and industry careers. Other industry-affiliated associations, including the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America, provide materials as well. The API recently issued what it calls the “gold standard” for how companies and management should engage with communities affected by exploration and development of unconventional oil and gas resources. ANSI-API Bulletin 100-3 was released after 3 years of discussions with producers, community leaders, US state regulators, property owners, and other stakeholders.

Using Open-Source Data to Study Bias Homicide Against Homeless Persons

Despite their high-profile nature, there has been a lack of scholarly research on bias-motivated homicide in the United States. One explanation for this dearth of prior research is the lack of official data available on this type of crime. In response, the current study proposes an alternative method for studying one form of bias crime, homicides targeting homeless persons, using open-source data (e.g., court documents, news media reports, advocacy group chronologies, etc.). To demonstrate their utility, open-source data are employed to empirically examine anti-homeless homicide incident, suspect, and victim characteristics. Findings reveal that anti-homeless homicide tends to be committed in public parks with blunt objects by groups of young males against older, solitary male victims. Implications for policy are briefly discussed.

A qualitative study of the coverage of influenza vaccination on Dutch news sites and social media websites

BackgroundInformation about influenza and the effectiveness of vaccination against influenza is largely available on the Internet, and may influence individual decision making about participation in future influenza vaccination rounds. E-health information has often been found to be inaccurate, or even to contradict Health Authority recommendations, especially when it concerns controversial topics.MethodsBy means of an online media monitoring programme, Dutch news sites and social media websites were scanned for the Dutch counterparts of the terms influenza, vaccination, vaccine and epidemic during February, March and April 2012. Data were processed with QSR NVivo 8.0 and analysed using a general inductive approach.ResultsThree overarching themes were found in both media sources: (1) the (upcoming) influenza epidemic, (2) general information regarding the virus, its prevention and treatment, and (3) uncertainty and mistrust regarding influenza vaccination. Social media tended to report earlier on developments such as the occurrence of an influenza epidemic. The greatest difference was that in social media, influenza was not considered to be a serious disease, and more opposition to the flu shot was expressed in social media, as compared to news media.ConclusionsNews media and social media discussed the same topics regarding influenza, but differed in message tone. Whereas news media reports tended to be more objective and non-judgmental, social media more critically evaluated the harmfulness of influenza and the necessity of the flu shot. Media may influence decision making and behaviours of Internet users and may thereby influence the success of vaccination campaigns and recommendations made by health authorities. Social media may be more of a problem in this sense, since it is neither controlled nor censored. Future research should investigate the actual impact of Internet media on the influenza decision making process of its users.

H&M – a role model for organic cotton use in textile processing?

Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz (operating as H&M) is one of the biggest multinational retail-clothing companies in the world. As a result of massive criticism from campaigning non-profit organizations and news media reports that blamed H&M for unfair and substandard working conditions in their ancillary industries, in 1997 the company began to develop a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program and a code of conduct. Today H&M has a wide-ranging, broadly integrated CSR program. As a part of its commitment, the company implemented a strategy to “Use Natural Resources Responsibly”. The use of organic cotton, which is understood as cotton grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, is one part of the strategy. In 2010, the company was hit by a scandal. News media reported that large volumes of genetically modified cotton from India had been falsely put on the German market as organic cotton and affected various companies, among them H&M. The search for better monitoring, controls and safeguards was on so H&M could keep its promises. This article discusses the challenge and possible improvements and solutions to recognized problems, and evaluates the company’s actions so far. It concludes that H&M can be considered a role model for organic cotton use in textile processing. However, further steps can and should be taken for improved control and information, and better customer and stakeholder relations in the CSR framework. Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), cotton, genetically modified organisms (GMO), labeling, monitoring, organic, textiles DIESER TEXT IST NUR AUF ENGLISCH VERFUGBAR. Bitte wechseln Sie die Sprachanzeige (rechts oben), um das PDF anzuzeigen.

Twitter as a Sentinel in Emergency Situations: Lessons from the Boston Marathon Explosions

Immediately following the Boston Marathon attacks, individuals near the scene posted a deluge of data to social media sites. Previous work has shown that these data can be leveraged to provide rapid insight during natural disasters, disease outbreaks and ongoing conflicts that can assist in the public health and medical response. Here, we examine and discuss the social media messages posted immediately after and around the Boston Marathon bombings, and find that specific keywords appear frequently prior to official public safety and news media reports. Individuals immediately adjacent to the explosions posted messages within minutes via Twitter which identify the location and specifics of events, demonstrating a role for social media in the early recognition and characterization of emergency events. *Christopher Cassa and Rumi Chunara contributed equally to this work.

Childhood victimization: Modeling the relation between classroom victimization, cyber victimization, and psychosocial functioning.

Children are increasingly using computer technologies, and many are experiencing online aggressive acts from their peers. The news media reports have documented instances of cyber victimization and social scientists have started to examine its characteristics and consequences. The present research e