Popular Media Reports Research Articles

‘I’m on board with the borg’ : encouraging risky alcohol use on TikTok

A ‘Blackout Rage Gallon’ (borg) is a dangerous new alcohol consumption trend popular with young people. It involves creating a customised, individual alcoholic beverage by replacing half the water in a four litre (gallon) jug with alcohol (usually spirits), flavourings, electrolytes and caffeinated energy drinks or caffeine supplements. The most prevalent ‘recipe’ calls for the addition of 750ml of alcohol. The ‘blackout’ part of the name refers to the intent of one person to consume the borg in one session, thereby encouraging risky alcohol use. Indeed, there have been reports in popular media of multiple hospitalisations attributed to consumption of borgs at college events in the United States. Part of the attraction of the trend is to label the borg with a clever name, usually incorporating the term ‘borg’. The trend has gained traction recently on TikTok, which has become an important, yet unregulated, source of information for the public including young people(1). We investigated TikTok videos associated with the hashtag #borg to better understand this dangerous new phenomenon. We identified and analysed highly viewed TikTok videos (n = 105) for engagement, techniques, characteristics of featured individuals, and the portrayal of alcohol and risky drinking behaviours. Alcohol was visible in three quarters of the videos analysed (n = 78), and consumed in one third (n = 34). The average amount of alcohol present was well in excess of safe drinking guidelines (865ml) One quarter of videos (n = 25) promoted alleged benefits such as control of volume of consumption, protection from drink spiking, and mitigation of side effects due to addition of electrolytes and water. Alarmingly, only 9 videos included a warning about potential harms of the borg or alcohol in general. Indeed, videos discussing potential harms and benefits tended to encourage the use of borg, for example ‘I’m on board with the borg’. Our study found the borg TikTok trend encourages risky drinking in a fun and entertaining way, supporting previous studies where the majority of content was positively portraying a product or behaviour(2). As there is an association between viewing alcohol-related content on social media and alcohol use(3), there is an urgent need for social media content restrictions to limit the visibility of risky alcohol consumption, particularly to underage users.

Plantation Disaster Capitalism in Maui: Reckoning with Tourism after the Fire

Maui residents are reckoning with tourism in the aftermath of the 2023 fires. Drawing from historical sources and popular media reports, we argue that beyond the island’s strained relationship with the tourism industry, residents are contending with the slow emergency of plantation disaster capitalism. We draw from Naomi Klein and Kapua’ala Sproat’s (2023) concept of plantation disaster capitalism which identifies the plantation industry’s domination of resources as the basis of tourism’s untethered control of land and water on the island. These crisis-driven industries perpetuate dependence through ongoing cycles of accumulation by dispossession. The concept of ‘slow emergencies’ further accounts for how, while the Maui fires rapidly destroyed lives, over a century and a half of settler colonial, racial, and capitalist relationships had already restructured landscapes and livelihoods and set the stage for the 2023 disaster. In critically addressing calls for tourism’s resurgence, this conceptual paper contributes to emerging scholarship on plantation disaster capitalism in tourism destinations.

Literature Review on High-functioning Autistic Employees

This literature review aims to contribute to the field of autism and employment. It will analyse bibliographic data on peer-reviewed research on the benefits and challenges of a neurodiverse workforce. Similarly, it will examine the experiences of high-functioning autistic people in the workplace. Despite reports in popular media on the benefits of a neurodiverse workplace, including better innovation and company performance – there is very little academic research to support these claims. Of the limited existing literature, there are very few articles in business and management journals. This review gathers empirical evidence to test such claims. The research is based on high-functioning autistic people (verbal, with average or above IQ). Autism will be referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from here on, which includes Asperger syndrome under the criteria of the DSM-5. Data from peer-reviewed research articles on high-functioning autism, employment and adults in the Social Sciences Citation Index were analysed to gauge the current trends in publication and citation. This database was chosen to limit the medical literature, which is extensive and an entirely different field. The data indicates that research on the experiences autistic employees, and their employers, up to recent years has been an understudied field. Based on the analysis used for this study, research and interest in this field began to emerge in publications in 2005. This review identified high-functioning autism as an increasingly important factor to consider in designing hiring and recruitment processes. It is also a significant consideration in conflict-resolution, communication and the training and support areas of management. Considering the steep increase in autism diagnoses over the past 30 years, coupled with the supports made available to autistic people up to third-level education; a more neurodivergent, educated talent pool is emerging which will change the way managers approach and manage diversity in the workplace.

Factors Influencing the Motivation to Pursue a Career in Financial Planning*

ABSTRACT This study presents a conceptual model to examine the factors influencing career choice in financial planning. Informed by career choice theory, the study uses questionnaires and interviews of financial advisers and financial planning students in Australia to find that social learning through life experiences, along with the enjoyment of working with numbers and aspiration to help others are important factors influencing the choice to pursue a career in financial planning. In addition, respondents scored highest on the agreeableness scale of the ‘Big Five’ personality test. Contrary to popular media reports, results show that people choose financial planning as a career primarily because they want to help people. Findings also highlight the uniqueness of financial planning as a career that fulfils both agentic and communal goals which allows advisers to use their interest in numbers to help people. The study makes a valuable practical contribution to the development of financial planning by providing insights that may prove useful in recruiting the next generation of financial advisers. Our findings also have important implications for educators, regulators, and the profession more broadly. Further, it makes a theoretical contribution by providing a conceptual framework to aid in understanding the factors relevant to career choice, particularly in an emerging discipline such as financial planning where information on career choice is limited.

(Non)adhering to measures to control COVID 19: Insights from Behavioral Economics

It is now apparent that as a measure to contain Covid-19 pandemic the scope for strict lockdown is rather limited because of its serious negative impact on the lives and livelihood of people. Therefore measures such as wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding crowded places turn out to be the most important ways of preventing spread of the virus. However, adoption of and adherence to these practices depends largely on voluntary compliance as it is difficult to strictly monitor people’s behavior. In this paper the authors argue that for better results we need to first understand the reasons for non-adherence, and in an attempt to understand, the emerging field of behavioral economics can be of help. Different elements of behavioral economics, such as, the prospect theory with its cognitive biases like heuristics, anchoring, salience, and above all, social norms are capable of explaining many of the behaviors that have relevance to management of the pandemic. The moral philosophic position that underlies behavioral economics can be located somewhere between libertarianism and paternalism. While libertarianism tends to prioritize an individual’s freedom to choose, paternalism takes the view that the individual may not always know what is good for her/him. ‘Libertarian paternalism’, on the other hand, would allow public institutions to influence one’s behavior while respecting freedom of choice. In the absence of hard data, popular media reports and anecdotal evidence have been used in this essentially interpretative exercise.

Will preprint servers disrupt scientific publishing, reference work and information science?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss whether preprint servers are a disruptive technology for science, librarians or information seeking among the general population.Design/methodology/approachThis column explores what preprint servers are, how they are used in the world of science, how their usage changed in response to the deluge of COVID-19 related research papers and how they might impact the work of librarians and society in general.FindingsPreprint servers are not a highly disruptive technology, but they do challenge both scientists and librarians to understand them better, use the information they find on them with care and educate society in general on topics such as peer review and the importance of using well-vetted, good quality science in making important decisions.Originality/valueUp until the past year and a half, only a small segment of the librarian profession needed to be concerned with preprint servers. With the increasing presence of references to non-peer-reviewed articles from preprint servers in popular media reports, most librarians now need to know something about this technology. It is also useful to consider how the technology might benefit and create challenges for their work.

A scoping review of internal hospital crises and disasters in the Netherlands, 2000-2020.

BackgroundInternal hospital crises and disasters (IHCDs) are events that disrupt the routine functioning of a hospital while threatening the well-being of patients and staff. IHCDs may cause hospital closure, evacuations of patients and loss of healthcare capacity. The consequences may be ruinous for local communities. Although IHCDs occur with regularity, information on the frequency and types of these events is scarcely published in the medical literature. However, gray literature and popular media reports are widely available. We therefore conducted a scoping review of these literature sources to identify and characterize the IHCDs that occurred in Dutch hospitals from 2000 to 2020. The aim is to develop a systematic understanding of the frequency of the various types of IHCDs occurring in a prosperous nation such as the Netherlands.MethodsA systematic scoping review of news articles retrieved from the LexisNexis database, Google, Google News, PubMed and EMBASE between 2000 and 2020. All articles mentioning the closure of a hospital department in the Netherlands were analyzed.ResultsA total of 134 IHCDs were identified in a 20-year time period. Of these IHCDs, there were 96 (71.6%) emergency department closures, 76 (56.7%) operation room closures, 56 (41.8%) evacuations, 26 (17.9%) reports of injured persons, and 2 (1.5%) reported casualties. Cascading events of multiple failures transpired in 39 (29.1%) IHCDs. The primary causes of IHCDs (as reported) were information and communication technology (ICT) failures, technical failures, fires, power failures, and hazardous material warnings. An average of 6.7 IHCDs occurred per year. From 2000–2009 there were 32 IHCDs, of which one concerned a primary ICT failure. Of the 102 IHCDs between 2010–2019, 32 were primary ICT failures.ConclusionsIHCDs occur with some regularity in the Netherlands and have marked effects on hospital critical care departments, particularly emergency departments. Cascading events of multiple failures transpire nearly a third of the time, limiting the ability of a hospital to stave off closure due to failure. Emergency managers should therefore prioritize the risk of ICT failures and cascading events and train hospital staff accordingly.

Masks, Gloves, and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Rapid Assessment of Public Behaviors in the United States.

The COVID-19 outbreak was declared a national emergency in the U.S. in March 2020, and in April 2020, the U.S. government authorities issued recommendations on the use of masks and gloves as protective measures. Despite such recommendations, popular media reports highlighted a lack of compliance. However, no systematic study has examined the use of protective strategies (e.g., wearing a mask) by the American public to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during early stages of the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to conduct a rapid national assessment of public behaviors to prevent COVID-19 spread during the early stages of the pandemic and to assess how these behaviors may have differed based on selected sociodemographic characteristics. A total of 835 adult Americans nationwide took a multi-item survey and were asked about wearing masks, gloves, and their demographic background. The majority of the study participants reported wearing a mask more often during the pandemic (76%), but the majority did not wear gloves more often during the pandemic (30%). Significant differences (p < 0.05) for wearing masks were found based on sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, living arrangements, and employment status. For gloves, significant differences were found based on sex, age, marital status, and employment. While the pandemic continues to unfold and with recent reports of a surge in cases in the U.S., public health practitioners and policymakers must emphasize COVID-19 prevention strategies for the general public and explore pragmatic options to increase compliance of protective behaviors among the general public.

Applying the AcciMap methodology to investigate the tragic Mirsharai road accident in Bangladesh

A serious road accident happened on Monday, 11 July, 2011 afternoon in Mirsharai sub-district of Bangladesh's Chittagong district, that killed at least 44 schoolboys injured many more when the truck in which they were traveling skidded off a highway and plunged into a canal. In this study, the AcciMap methodology is applied, an extension to Rasmussen’s Risk Management Framework. This sociotechnical framework provides an insight into the interactions between different levels of a system, and supports the development of recommendations that could mitigate or prevent the outcomes of such an incident in the future. In the case of Mirsharai accident, the police and social media put the blame on the truck driver alone; however, this study, based on popular media reports, accident investigation reports and local interviews revealed mismanagement and an apparent disregard for safety across different levels of the socio-technical system. By integrating the different levels of the system, from international committees to end users, the road accident scenario of Bangladesh can be improved through developing a systematic approach to accident analysis.

Can they do it? A comparison of teacher candidates' beliefs and preschoolers' actual skills with digital technology and media

As digital technologies and media (DTM) are integrated into every facet of our lives, the knowledge and skills children bring to school is changing. It is unclear whether teacher candidates' beliefs about children's skills have kept pace with this change. To explore this issue, 43 children, ages 3–5, and 180 teacher candidates at a medium-sized Midwest research university were recruited. Teacher candidates' beliefs about preschoolers' DTM skills were compared with preschoolers' observed skills following an assessment protocol using an iPad. Findings indicated most preschoolers could complete 9 of the 12 iPad tasks without assistance, whereas teacher candidates frequently assumed that children would need assistance. Teacher candidates mis-estimated preschoolers' skills on 50% of iPad tasks. Findings confirmed that preschoolers can complete multiple tasks using DTM, which could be harnessed by teachers when creating developmentally appropriate learning experiences. The mismatch between teacher candidates' beliefs and children's skills suggests an area for improvement in teacher preparation programs and could be an indication that negative reports in popular media are more influential in shaping teacher candidates' beliefs than knowledge of children's actual DTM skills.

A content analysis of popular media reporting regarding increases in minimum ages of legal access for tobacco

BackgroundIn the late 20th century, US localities began increasing the minimum age of legal access (MLA) for tobacco from 18 to 21 years by enacting “Tobacco 21” ordinances. Although these policies have a strong evidence base and broad popular support, popular media coverage of tobacco control laws has not always been accurate. This study sought to determine if contemporaneous popular media reporting accurately reflected the scientific findings regarding increased tobacco MLAs.MethodsWe searched LexisNexis for popular media reports that (1) addressed proposed or enacted Tobacco 21 ordinances and were (2) published in English, (3) drawn from a US news source, and (4) written after January 2004. We conducted a content analysis for quality based on a validated measure of accuracy of reporting, the Index of Scientific Quality (ISQ), which allows assessment of articles by assigning scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).ResultsSearches yielded 378 articles; after screening for relevance and duplicates, 98 were included in the review. All studies identified through the keyword searches addressed Tobacco 21 policies. The average global score identifying the scientific quality of the articles was 2.98 of 5. Over three-quarters of the popular media articles addressing Tobacco 21 laws were written after a systematic review of these policies was released by the Institute of Medicine and approximately 4 in 10 cited findings from that review.ConclusionsPopular media reports on Tobacco 21 laws demonstrated average overall quality and relied on both anecdotal and scientific evidence, in contrast to previous studies found that popular media reports on tobacco issues demonstrated low overall quality and relied primarily on anecdotal evidence. The systematic review of increased MLAs for tobacco written by the Institute of Medicine diffused quickly into popular reporting, suggesting that this type of evidence might improve research translation.

A Survey of Techniques for Automatically Sensing the Behavior of a Crowd

Crowd-centric research is receiving increasingly more attention as datasets on crowd behavior are becoming readily available. We have come to a point where many of the models on pedestrian analytics introduced in the last decade, which have mostly not been validated, can now be tested using real-world datasets. In this survey, we concentrate exclusively on automatically gathering such datasets, which we refer to as sensing the behavior of pedestrians. We roughly distinguish two approaches: one that requires users to explicitly use local applications and wearables, and one that scans the presence of handheld devices such as smartphones. We come to the conclusion that despite the numerous reports in popular media, relatively few groups have been looking into practical solutions for sensing pedestrian behavior. Moreover, we find that much work is still needed, in particular when it comes to combining privacy, transparency, scalability, and ease of deployment. We report on over 90 relevant articles and discuss and compare in detail 30 reports on sensing pedestrian behavior.

Octopus engineering, intentional and inadvertent

ABSTRACTWe previously published a description of discovery of a site where octopuses live in an unusually dense collection of individual dens near one another in a bed of scallop shells amid a rock outcrop. We believe the shell bed is an extended midden, accumulated over time by individual octopuses returning to their dens with food. Here we consider what aspects of material collection, den maintenance, and aggregation are intentional for the octopuses, versus inadvertent consequences of individual decisions. Collection of prey items, transport of prey to the den, den excavation, and collection and use of non-prey materials at the den appear to be intentional behaviors. The occurrence of many dens in close aggregation appears to be an inadvertent outcome of the availability of food and the risk of predation in the habitat. Popular media reports have described this site as an ‘city’ designed by octopuses, but that is not an accurate description of the site.

Who cares about relative status? A quantile approach to consumption of relative house size

ABSTRACTI estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) to live in a house near neighbours with relatively smaller (or larger) houses using housing transaction data. I find that consumers in the 50th and 75th percentile are willing to pay the most for an increase in relative housing consumption while consumers in the lower percentiles and the highest percentile yield a smaller, and statistically insignificant, WTP. This gives evidence to popular media reports that the middle class values relative status the most.

Generational Differences in the Workplace: There Is Complexity Beyond the Stereotypes

The topic of generational differences in the workplace has been immensely popular over the past decade, spawning a large number of academic publications and a far greater number of consulting reports, popular press books, magazine articles, media reports, blogs, and infographics. Indeed, a new industry of consultants and public speakers seems to have emerged primarily to capitalize on the popularity of this topic. As Costanza and Finkelstein (2015) note, the research on this “hot topic” has often seemed opportunistic, lacking rigor and depth. The relative ease of cutting existing cross-sectional data by age and calling it a generation study has tempted researchers to hop on the bandwagon, resulting in a large number of empirical studies with nearly identical literature reviews that overrely on popular press and opinion-based literature. There has been a lamentable tendency toward blind empiricism with little or no connection to theory, as has been stated elsewhere (Lyons & Kuron, 2014; Parry & Urwin, 2011).

Accuracy of popular media reporting on tobacco cessation therapy in substance abuse and mental health populations

BackgroundTobacco cessation therapy is not consistently provided for alcohol, drug abuse and mental health (ADM) populations, despite the enormous health consequences of tobacco addiction in these groups and research supporting...

“Is the Quarterback a ‘Crip’?”

Over the past 30 years, gangs have moved from large cities to suburban communities and small cities. Their presence has also been observed in public institutions such as secondary schools and the military. This study examines the presence of gang-involved individuals in another public institution, college athletics. While there are popular media reports of college athletes involved in gang activity, there has been no empirical research on the topic. The present study reports on the results from a national survey of athletic directors and campus police chiefs at universities with high-profile athletics programs, and interviews with student-athletes enrolled in two of these universities. The findings show the large majority of all three groups believe athletes affiliated with gangs are participating in college athletics. However, few athletic directors and campus police chiefs report the presence of gang-involved athletes on their own campus, and only a small number of athletes report that their teammates were also gang members. More research is needed to understand the scope and impact of this presence.

Medical tourism—cure or malaise for the National Health Service: a mixed methods study

BackgroundDespite increasing reference to medical tourism by politicians and reports in popular media, there remains little understanding of actual size, scope, and effect of inbound and outbound UK patients. Although evidence suggests that a growing number of patients travel to access (and pay for) medical treatment, including UK residents and, equally, that patients travel to the UK for treatment, little is known about the scale of these events and potential effects, including costs and income for the NHS. MethodsWe present findings of a 2-year project undertaken by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of York, which focused on understanding the effect of medical tourism on the UK NHS. It includes analysis of the International Passenger Survey (IPS) to estimate volume and direction of flows of inbound and outbound UK medical tourists. Additionally, investigators submitted freedom of information requests to 28 NHS Foundation Trust hospitals to obtain data for numbers and income from non-UK residents accessing treatment as private patients. Focus was not on patients who access the NHS without intention to pay. Trusts were selected with a focus on well known hospitals in London and other cities deemed likely to attract medical tourists. 19 trusts responded. Different information sources together form the basis for economic analysis estimating possible costs, income, and potential savings for the NHS resulting from medical tourism. FindingsIPS data suggest that there are more outbound than inbound UK medical tourists (63 000 compared with 52 000 during 2010). We estimated costs arising from medical complications in returning medical tourists on the basis of published figures. We explored different scenarios on the basis of types of complications reported, and scaled these up using analysis of IPS. The focus was on medical treatments for which patients are known to travel and for which complications have been reported, including bariatric, fertility, and cosmetic surgery. Analysis revealed costs of returning medical tourists who needed subsequent NHS treatment; estimates ranged, dependent on treatment, between £10 and £16 million per year. Findings also suggested possible savings in health and social service expenditure averted as a result of patients travelling abroad. This finding was specifically the case for bariatric surgery; albeit indicative, calculations suggest that combined savings from cost of procedure, future health expenditures, and additional income due to improved ability to work after weight loss surgery are around £28 million annually. Our analysis of income from inbound medical tourists was based on estimates of tourism spending by patients and their companions and figures for non-UK patients obtained from NHS Trusts. Findings show that overall only a small number of private patients treated within the UK NHS are non-UK residents (7%), but that these patients generate almost a quarter of private patient income. Findings also reveal income to be concentrated in a few large hospitals and non-existent or marginal in others. Findings presented are the most robust estimates of income, costs, and savings associated with UK medical tourists to date. However, limitations include small sample size and highlight the need for more reliable monitoring to enable robust calculations. InterpretationFar from present political rhetoric, findings suggest that the UK is a net exporter of medical tourism. There is need for greater monitoring of UK medical tourism, including whether patients access treatment in the public or private sector, to allow more accurate prediction of costs and savings. As the NHS is considering greater private revenue, incoming medical tourists may be a profitable target. FundingFunded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research Programme (project HSR 09/2001/21). This abstract presents independent research funded by NIHR. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health.

Medical tourism: a cost or benefit to the NHS?

‘Medical Tourism’ – the phenomenon of people travelling abroad to access medical treatment - has received increasing attention in academic and popular media. This paper reports findings from a study examining effect of inbound and outbound medical tourism on the UK NHS, by estimating volume of medical tourism and associated costs and benefits. A mixed methods study it includes analysis of the UK International Passenger Survey (IPS); interviews with 77 returning UK medical tourists, 63 policymakers, NHS managers and medical tourism industry actors policymakers, and a review of published literature. These informed costing of three types of treatments for which patients commonly travel abroad: fertility treatment, cosmetic and bariatric surgery. Costing of inbound tourism relied on data obtained through 28 Freedom-of-Information requests to NHS Foundation Trusts. Findings demonstrate that contrary to some popular media reports, far from being a net importer of patients, the UK is now a clear net exporter of medical travellers. In 2010, an estimated 63,000 UK residents travelled for treatment, while around 52,000 patients sought treatment in the UK. Inbound medical tourists treated as private patients within NHS facilities may be especially profitable when compared to UK private patients, yielding close to a quarter of revenue from only 7% of volume in the data examined. Costs arise where patients travel abroad and return with complications. Analysis also indicates possible savings especially in future health care and social costs averted. These are likely to be specific to procedures and conditions treated. UK medical tourism is a growing phenomenon that presents risks and opportunities to the NHS. To fully understand its implications and guide policy on issues such as NHS global activities and patient safety will require investment in further research and monitoring. Results point to likely impact of medical tourism in other universal public health systems.

The “early life” origins of obesity‐related health disorders: New discoveries regarding the intergenerational transmission of developmentally programmed traits in the global cardiometabolic health crisis

Popular media reports concerning the causes of the current global obesity pandemic and its related sequelae-the cardiometabolic syndrome-are often couched in terms of dramatic changes in diet and lifestyle around the world; namely, drastically increasing dietary intakes of high energy foods and plummeting levels of daily physical activity-the hallmarks of the so called "nutrition transition." Far less attention is generally drawn to the important role phenotypic plasticity during early life (i.e., "developmental programming") plays in the cardiometabolic health crisis. Recently, however, researchers working within the field of the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) and epigenetics have extended our understanding of the role played by these developmental processes and capacities in health and disease even further by investigating the transmissible nature of developmentally programmed cardiometabolic traits to subsequent generations. In this review, after briefly revisiting the fundamental discoveries of first-generation DOHaD research, I consider how recent discoveries regarding the transmissibility of developmentally acquired traits are providing new insights into the current global cardiometabolic pandemic, and how a better understanding of developmental programming-including transmissibility-are essential for the conceptualization and implementation of public health initiatives aimed at stemming this global health crisis.