Societal Event Research Articles

The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Small Business Support for Youth Physical Activity Opportunities in Urban, Low-Income, Predominantly Black Neighborhoods.

A relatively low percentage of Black youth meet physical activity (PA) guidelines. An important resource for helping Black youth be physically active is the availability of quality youth physical activity opportunities (YPAO) which manifest, in part, due to support from small businesses. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was a devastating negative societal event that disproportionately burdened the Black community. How the pandemic influenced the relationship between small businesses and YPAOs in this community is vital for understanding the promotion of PA in this high-risk population going forward. To describe small business support for YPAO before and after 2years of exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person interviews were conducted June through August 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2021 (post-COVID) with owners and managers at small businesses in 20 urban, low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods. The number of YPAOs supported was significantly greater pre-COVID (n = 104) versus post-COVID (n = 52) (t = 4.6; p < .001). From pre-COVID to post-COVID, the types of YPAOs supported by businesses shifted from a diverse mix to mostly (96%) outdoor, community sports teams. Businesses were more likely to provide goods and services (p = .02) for YPAOs pre-COVID than post-COVID. The major reason for not supporting YPAOs pre-COVID was "not being asked for support" then "not being able to locate YPAOs to support" post-COVID. Exposure to COVID-19 is associated with significant changes in how small businesses support YPAOs. The results are useful for informing strategies and public policies aimed at promoting YPAO support through prominent negative societal events.

Results of a Survey of UK Farmers on Food System Vulnerability over the Short and Long Term

We report the results of a survey of farmers and landowners to identify the most likely potential food system disruption scenarios for the UK and compare these with a previous expert elicitation with a much wider set of food system stakeholders. We found that 60% of farmers think a Societal Event in which 1 in 2000 people are injured in the UK is at least 20% likely to occur over the coming decade. Over a timeframe of 50 years, this increased to almost 90% of farmers. These results show that farmers and landowners are considerably more concerned about the vulnerability of the food system in the UK than the wider group of food system experts are. Farmers agreed with experts on the majority of potential causes of such vulnerability, which are climate change, trade policies (import and export), competition for land and ecological collapse (over 50 years). However, they also highlighted the importance of the power structure within the food system, with large corporations supplying to, or buying from, farmers creating lower revenue, making farming an unsustainable business. We conclude that an urgent systematic review of potential interventions that would improve resilience be conducted by the UK Government, in partnership with farmers.

The Effect of Psychological Flexibility on Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Multiple Mediation Role of Mindfulness and Coping.

The COVID-19 pandemic involved a complex set of stressors affecting the health and well-being of the population. The understanding of the psychological processes that influence well-being in response to the pandemic and their interrelation is vital. A promising process in understanding the emotional impacts of these stressors is psychological flexibility. This study investigated the effect of psychological flexibility on well-being, both directly and indirectly, via mindfulness and coping strategies. A total of 334 Portuguese adults participated in this cross-sectional study. Participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire, including measures of psychological flexibility, well-being, mindfulness, and coping strategies. A multiple mediation model studied whether there are conditional indirect effects of mindfulness and coping strategies on well-being. The results showed statistically significant correlations between psychological flexibility, well-being, mindfulness, and coping strategies. Furthermore, we found that mindfulness and coping strategies partly mediate the relationship between psychological flexibility and well-being. Understanding the processes through which psychological flexibility influences well-being in a stressful context is important in comprehending the processes involved in an emotional reaction to a pandemic-like societal event. Mindfulness and coping are shown to be important processes to consider in understanding this phenomenon and designing future responses.

Environmental catastrophes and organizational ambidexterity: lessons from the Covid-19 experience

PurposeTaking an organizational perspective, this paper aims to understand how organizations respond to such strong and concurrent societal effects, and to answer the question, “How should researchers conceptualize the symbiotic relationship between society and business during a catastrophic societal event?”Design/methodology/approachThe authors highlight through numerous examples, the impact of COVID-19 on society is well-evidenced in the research. They also draw on such evidence of the effects of catastrophic societal events like COVID-19 to support the appropriateness of this conceptualization.FindingsThe authors found that organizations that use both short- and long-term activities concurrently are better able to tackle the concurrent short- and long-term effects of catastrophic events like COVID-19.Originality/valueThe authors use ambidexterity theory, supported by evidence derived from organizational responses to COVID-19, to offer a new and more comprehensive conceptualization that frames the concurrent and interrelated short-term and long-term organizational response to a catastrophic societal event. Further, they highlight the importance of studying such organizational responses in the context of the organization’s referent groups.

Scoping Potential Routes to UK Civil Unrest via the Food System: Results of a Structured Expert Elicitation

We report the results of a structured expert elicitation to identify the most likely types of potential food system disruption scenarios for the UK, focusing on routes to civil unrest. We take a backcasting approach by defining as an end-point a societal event in which 1 in 2000 people have been injured in the UK, which 40% of experts rated as “Possible (20–50%)”, “More likely than not (50–80%)” or “Very likely (&gt;80%)” over the coming decade. Over a timeframe of 50 years, this increased to 80% of experts. The experts considered two food system scenarios and ranked their plausibility of contributing to the given societal scenario. For a timescale of 10 years, the majority identified a food distribution problem as the most likely. Over a timescale of 50 years, the experts were more evenly split between the two scenarios, but over half thought the most likely route to civil unrest would be a lack of total food in the UK. However, the experts stressed that the various causes of food system disruption are interconnected and can create cascading risks, highlighting the importance of a systems approach. We encourage food system stakeholders to use these results in their risk planning and recommend future work to support prevention, preparedness, response and recovery planning.

Event Predictability: A Uniform Form for IoT-Based Nondeterministic Social Systems

Integrating massive social data with traditional social sciences, the Computational Social Science (CSS) is crucial for understanding the Internet of Things (IoT)-based nondeterministic social systems. Event predictability is the fundamental premise of widespread societal event predictions with CSS. Due to data quality, model suitability and the nondeterministic nature of IoT-based social systems, the event predictability is difficult to be characterized. Based on Turing computability and prediction error tolerability, this paper posits a uniform event predictability theory. With discrepancy and Rademacher complexity, the generalization error bound is utilized to represent data quality and model suitability. Together with thresholds for the generalization error bound and confidence, the event predictability is modeled in a probabilistic manner to capture the nondeterminism within IoT-based social systems. The event predictability theory is theoretically proved and validated, and utilizing the proposed Approximation Algorithm for Discriminating Event Predictability (AADEP), its applicability is further verified by experiments on a real-world dataset for IoT-based nondeterministic social systems.

Child Labor and Father-Gods

This paper works from a Jungian perspective to explore the unconscious dynamics of an authoritarian cultural complex at work in public schools in the United States. The paper exposes two areas of what Jung called the shadow archetype: the historical narrative of child labor during the industrial revolution as a traumatic societal event; and mythic images of the Greek Father-gods who buried, ate, or imprisoned their children. The working hypothesis of the paper is that the trauma of child labor operates as a social force, an unconscious archetypal pattern of authority and exploitation that is imaged and illuminated by the mythic narratives of the Greek Father-gods. Using depth psychological concepts and methods, the paper reveals how these repressed traumas create unconscious cultural attitudes that view children as commodities whose innate value and potential are sacrificed to feed the nation’s economic power and growth rather than leading out the potential within each student. Kristeva’s theories of abjection and subject in process provide psychoanalytic insights into how authoritarian cultural attitudes toward the education of children enslave students in a mandated instructive process that inflicts a kind of violence upon them. In conclusion, the paper suggests that the current system of education calibrated to standardized testing needs to broaden significantly to include transformative educative processes encompassing learning through the body, senses, feeling, intuition, and imagination.

Social experiences and youth psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study.

The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay-at-home orders resulted in a stark reduction in daily social interactions for children and adolescents. Given that peer relationships are especially important during this developmental stage, it is crucial to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social behavior and risk for psychopathology in children and adolescents. In a longitudinal sample (N=224) of children (7-10y) and adolescents (13-15y) assessed at three strategic time points (before the pandemic, during the initial stay-at-home order period, and six months later after the initial stay-at-home order period was lifted), we examine whether certain social factors protect against increases in stress-related psychopathology during the pandemic, controlling for pre-pandemic symptoms. Youth who reported less in-person and digital socialization, greater social isolation, and less social support had worsened psychopathology during the pandemic. Greater social isolation and decreased digital socialization during the pandemic were associated with greater risk for psychopathology after experiencing pandemic-related stressors. In addition, children, but not adolescents, who maintained some in-person socialization were less likely to develop internalizing symptoms following exposure to pandemic-related stressors. We identify social factors that promote well-being and resilience in youth during this societal event.

Madness of the crowd: Understanding mass behaviors through a multidisciplinary lens.

Mass or crowd behaviors refer to those that occur at a group level and suggest that crowds behave differently to individuals. Mass behaviors are typically triggered by a significant societal event. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has provided many tangible examples of crowd behaviors that have been observed globally, suggesting possible common underlying drivers. It is important to provide a deeper understanding of such behaviors to develop mitigation strategies for future population-level challenges. To gain deeper insight into a variety of crowd behaviors, we perform a conceptual analysis of crowd behaviors using three detailed case studies covering observable behavior (panic buying and health protective actions) and mass beliefs (conspiracy theories) that have resulted or shifted throughout the pandemic. The aim of this review was to explored key triggers, psychological drivers, and possible mitigation strategies through a mixture of theory and published literature. Finally, we create experimental mathematical models to support each case study and to illustrate the effects of manipulating key behavioral factors. Overall, our analyses identified several commonalties across the case studies and revealed the importance of Social Identity Theory and concepts of trust, social connection, and stress.

Self-determination theory approach to understanding the impact of videogames on wellbeing during COVID-19 restrictions

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous economic and social disruption devastating people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended people engage in enjoyable activities such as videogames, helping them relax during difficult life situations. Using Self-Determination Theory as a lens, this interview study (N = 11) examined how people’s videogame behaviours were influenced by life context, and their impact on wellbeing during COVID-19. Findings established that videogames were a compensatory response to the stressors of the pandemic. Playing videogames satisfied participants’ needs for social connection, serving as a coping mechanism to distract them for a short time; following an initial prioritisation of gaming and spike in gaming hours, many returned to their regular gaming behaviours. This study contributes to the games for health literature, identifying the effects of videogames on wellbeing, and provides much needed knowledge for health practitioners and families on how videogames are used and their impact on players’ wellbeing during the pandemic as a societal stressful life event. The findings have clinical and policy implications both to identify a positive tool, and to dispel negative stigmas surrounding videogames.

Social axiom and group identity explain participation in a societal event in Hong Kong

The present research aims to identify cognitive and affective factors that explain participation in societal events from a social psychological perspective. This study examined the role of generalized beliefs about the world in the prediction of collective action, and adopted a diary method by collecting daily measures for two consecutive weeks during the 2014 Hong Kong protests. Social identity was significantly associated with group-related emotions and social axiom was significantly associated with group efficacy, in turn affecting social movement participation. Multilevel analyses showed that group-related emotions and group efficacy explained the effect of time on participation in the movement. Students exhibited variability in the extent of their participation: protesters who “went out to the streets” were more driven by group-related emotions than were the non-protesters who “stayed in.” The findings attested to the added value of worldviews in explaining the psychological mechanisms of collective action.

Traditional Music and an Organological Study of Some Musical Instruments of Plateau State, Nigeria

Music is one of the oldest and most practiced arts in Nigerian traditional societies. The revered place of music in the lives of Nigerians is indisputable, as a consequence of its towering roles in nearly all communal events and activities. In Nigeria, music is utilized in diverse facets especially in religious, economic, martial, and political life of the people. In other words, it is unusual to preclude music from any societal event. Though these attributes pervade all Nigerian traditional societies, it is even more fascinating that every ethnic group or culture has their peculiar music with which they are recognized. Thus, there is bound to be dissimilarities in the manner in which various societies regard music as a concept, phenomenon, or how it functions in traditional life. The thrust of this paper therefore, is to examine music as a phenomenon, its roles in society, and how it is conceived by the people of Plateau. Data were gathered using ethnographic method, while interviews formed a significant part of the research tools. Some existing videos and those collected from the field were analysed by the authors. Findings from data gleaned reveal that there is a plethora of music types among the Plateau people. It is also gathered that music forms a fundamental aspect of life on the Plateau, and is widely used in virtually all communal events. However, research efforts into the different traditional music types of the people of Plateau need to be intensified and sustained over time, in order to document findings that will further lead to addressing the protracted challenge of dearth of literature in the traditional music of the area under study.

Marilynne RobinsonJack

ceremony, as a frame for this story, and perhaps object as well to his revealing details of a sweat lodge ceremony in a way that borders on a “how-to” guide, the lessons he shares from these experiences as well as his other life experiences are sorely needed in today’s world. Wagamese’s life was more challenging than most. Born into a traditional family, his first home, a canvas tent on a trapline in the bush outside of Minaki, Ontario, Wagamese was taken from his parents at a young age and soon separated from his siblings, going from foster home to foster home before finally being adopted. Throughout these years, he was surrounded by non-Native people both at home and at school, teased and bullied, never given access to cultural knowledge or community; he only briefly had one Native friend, from whom he was separated when leaving his last foster home. Eventually running away, Wagamese ends up on the streets at a young age, developing a nearly lifelong problem with alcohol and having a number of run-ins with the law that resulted in periodic incarceration as a young man. For those who will never spend four days on the land fasting under the tutelage of a Native ceremonial leader, Wagamese teaches some of the rich lessons that come from such a pedagogy—first, to love ourselves , “that you can never be less than who you were created to be. You never have to qualify . . . You just need to be.” He teaches us that “learning involves sacrifice” but that the “Creator placed the gift of Truth and Life” inside of each of us. These lessons lead us to live in the original way taught to us by our animal relatives—given a sacred responsibility by the Creator to never give up on us, as “good teachers never stop being teachers.” They also lead us to balance and being of “One Mind” with all of Creation, away from such destructive forces as greed, jealousy, judgment, anger, insecurity, and resentment. Wagamese urges North American Indigenous readers to embrace the role of teacher and nurturer to our settler-colonial neighbors as “this land’s guardians” who “know how to honour this land” and thereby show others how to live on and with it. In this spirit, Wagamese conveys important life lessons to his son and, vicariously, to us, lessons worth learning if we hope to rebalance ourselves and the world in this Anthropocene era. Kimberly Wieser University of Oklahoma Marilynne Robinson Jack New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2020. 309 pages. THE GILEAD CYCLE is a series of theological novels (Gilead, Home, Lila, and now Jack) that explore the nature of grace through the lives of two families in the eponymous, fictional town in 1950s Iowa. Its literary context is shaped by Shakespeare, on one hand, and the theologians John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards on the other; these influences perhaps bring the immeasurable depth of psychological description and character. Robinson also foregrounds a theatrical emphasis on scenery—a graveyard figures as one very pointed setting—as well as the randomness of redemption. Between these two poles, Robinson’s novels enact the work of naming, of giving a name and bearing a name. To have a name is to be exposed to the fleeting conference of our inward experiences of guilt and forgiveness with the outer societal, religious, and cosmological event—like a comet—of grace: it attaches itself to a name, and Robinson brings this out, like no one else can, in the way in which the Congregationalist minister John Ames blesses his namesake, John Ames “Jack” Boughton, in the closing pages of Gilead. That the work of naming is a central concern of Robinson’s work is evinced by the many occasions therein where naming is performed on behalf of another, and in the case of the present volume this is clearer than ever. Jack is the desperately sad love story of Jack Boughton and Della Miles, a white man and a black woman in the context of segregation—an impossible love. Like Lila in the novel devoted to her, Jack is a human being fated to name himself. For...

PCV57 STUDY ON THE ATTRIBUTABLE COSTS OF VENOUS THROMBOEMBOLISM AND BLEEDINGS IN DENMARK. COMPARISON OF THE DIFFERENCE-IN-DIFFERENCE AND THE DIFFERENCE-IN-ACTUAL-COSTS METHODS

To estimate the event costs of venous thromboembolism (VTE) episodes in Denmark, and the event costs of VTE-patients having major bleedings (intracranial, gastrointestinal and other). Two approaches to estimate the attributable costs were compared: the difference-in-difference (DiD) method and the difference-in-actual-costs (DiAC) method. The study was designed as a retrospective study utilizing the Danish national registries. All Danish incident patients (2004-2016) with VTE (deep vein thrombosis; ICD-10: DI801-DI803 or pulmonary embolisms; ICD-10: DI26) were compared with four controls without VTE. Furthermore, VTE patients with a major bleeding event within three years after diagnosis were compared with four non-bleeding VTE controls (all controls were propensity matched). Event costs included primary care, outpatient, admission, prescription medicine, home care, and lost production. The DiD-method calculates attributable costs by adjusting patients’ level of costs before the incidence and the general level and development in costs by deducting the average total costs of the controls. The DiAC method only adjusts for the level and development in costs by deducting the average total costs of control. 74,137 VTE patients (average 63 years), of which 4,887 had major bleeding, were included. The societal event costs of VTE the first incident year were €12,915 using the DiD-method and €22,128 using the DiAC method. For major bleedings the first year event costs were €9,376 (DiD) and €24,423 (DiAC). Similar picture is seen in year 2 and 3, although at a lower level. Given the age of the VTE-patients lost production explained a major part of the annual event costs. Except for medicines, all costs were significantly higher for VTE-patients than for controls. Using both methods (DiD/DiAC) the attributable societal event costs of VTE and major bleedings were substantial, especially the first year. The DiD method will result in more conservative results than the DiAC method.

Societal costs of venous thromboembolism and subsequent major bleeding events: a national register-based study.

Detailed evidence on the societal costs of venous thromboembolism (VTE), i.e. deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), and of subsequent major bleeding events, e.g. intracranial and gastrointestinal bleedings, is limited. The objective was to estimate the average 3-year societal event costs attributable to VTE and subsequent major bleedings in Denmark. Based on nationwide Danish registers, each incident patient diagnosed with VTE in the period from 2004 to 2016 was identified and matched with four non-VTE patients by nearest-neighbour propensity score matching. For bleeding patients, the reference cohort was VTE patients without bleedings. Event costs in terms of VTE, DVT, PE, and major bleedings in VTE patients were measured by the 'difference-in-actual-cost' method within 3 years after the incidence. Societal costs included healthcare costs (primary care, hospital, and prescription medicine), municipality home care services, and production loss. The study population included 74137 VTE incident patients (DVT: 43099; PE: 31038), and 4887 VTE patients with a major bleeding within 3 years from VTE diagnosis. The 3-year attributable societal VTE event costs were 40024 EUR (DVT: 34509 EUR; PE: 50083 EUR) with 53% of these costs appearing in the first incident year. Similar results for major bleedings were 51168 EUR with 46% of these costs appearing in the first incident year. The societal costs of VTE and subsequent major bleedings are substantial and ought to be considered. Estimated costs of events may be informative in evaluating the impact of preventive interventions targeting VTE and subsequent major bleedings.

Responding to natural disasters: Examining identity and prosociality in the context of a major earthquake.

How does a major natural disaster relate to individuals' orientation towards society? We collected repeated cross-sectional surveys before (n=644) and after the 2010 Chile earthquake (n=1,389) to examine levels of national identity, prosocial values, helping motivations, and prosocial behaviours in the context of such a calamitous societal event. Our research questions, derived from the literature on helping in times of crisis, considered how natural disasters may implicate identity and prosociality, as well as how identity, prosocial values, and motivations are linked to prosocial action after a disaster. Higher levels of national identity, helping motivations, and disaster-related helping were found after the earthquake, suggesting that in the aftermath of a disaster, people unite under a common national identity and are motivated to take action related to disaster relief. National identity and prosocial values were closely linked to helping after the earthquake, but specific helping motivations rarely predicted prosocial behaviours. Additionally, proximity to the epicentre was related to higher levels of national identity and participation in reconstruction efforts. These findings contribute to our understanding of people's responses to natural disasters and suggest ways of encouraging prosocial behaviour in the aftermath of unexpected tragic events.

Budesonide with multi-matrix technology as second-line treatment for ulcerative colitis: evaluation of long-term cost-effectiveness in the Netherlands

Aims: Budesonide with multi-matrix technology (MMX) is an oral corticosteroid, shown to have high topical activity against ulcerative colitis (UC) while maintaining low systemic bioavailability with few adverse events. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of budesonide MMX versus commonly used corticosteroids, in the second-line treatment of active mild-to-moderate UC in the Netherlands.Materials and methods: An eight-state Markov model with an 8 week cycle length captured remission, four distinct therapy stages, hospitalization, possible colectomy and mortality. Remission probability for budesonide MMX was based on the CORE-II study. Population characteristics were derived from the Dutch Inflammatory Bowel Disease South Limburg cohort (n = 598) and included patients with proctitis (39%), left-sided (42%) and extensive disease (19%). Comparators (topical budesonide foam and enema, oral budesonide and prednisolone) were selected based on current Dutch clinical practice. Treatment effects were evaluated by network meta-analysis using a Bayesian framework. Cost-effectiveness analysis was performed over a 5 year time horizon from a societal perspective, with costs, health-state and adverse event utilities derived from published sources. Outcomes were weighted by disease extent distribution and corresponding comparators.Results: Budesonide MMX was associated with comparable quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gain versus foam and oral formulations (+0.01 QALYs) in the total UC population, whilst being cost-saving (EUR 366 per patient). Probabilistic sensitivity analysis evaluated an 86.6% probability of budesonide MMX being dominant (cost-saving with QALY gain) versus these comparators. Exploratory analysis showed similar findings versus prednisolone.Limitations: Differing definitions of trial end-points and remission across trials meant indirect comparison was not ideal. However, in the absence of head-to-head clinical data, these comparisons are reasonable alternatives and currently offer the only comparison of second-line UC treatments.Conclusions: In the present analysis, budesonide MMX was shown to be cost-effective versus comparators in the total UC population, for the second-line treatment of active mild-to-moderate UC in the Netherlands.

The economic crisis and future imaginaries: How the economic crisis has affected people’s future imaginaries

This study looks at how people construct future imaginaries and how this has been influenced by the economic crisis of 2008/2009. Future imaginaries are conceived as a realm of plans and wishes for the future, which depend not only on an individual’s personal life history, but also on the given social/historical context (Cantó-Milà and Seebach, 2015). The economic crisis, which affected all European countries, has been portrayed as a far-reaching societal event; therefore, it may have an impact on people’s future imaginaries. For this study, life story interviews were conducted in Germany and Spain, two countries with different experiences of the economic crisis. The interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory-inspired approach guided by the concepts of images of the future, figures, and imaginaries of the future developed by Cantó-Milà and Seebach (2015). The economic crisis affected participants’ future imagination in Spain and Germany in different ways. While German participants’ outlook on the future remained unchanged by the crisis, Spanish interviewees’ accounts indicated three changes in mentality: the labor market is now perceived as less stable than before; young people have to be more prepared – meaning they need higher-level qualifications; younger Spaniards aim to live and work in foreign countries. The reasons and dynamics behind this mentality change are discussed.

Spatial Event Forecasting in Social Media With Geographically Hierarchical Regularization

Social media has been utilized as a significant surrogate for spatial societal event forecasting. The accuracy and discernibility of a spatial event forecasting model are two key concerns, as they determine how accurate and how detailed the model's predictions will be. Existing research focuses almost exclusively on the accuracy alone, seldom considering the accuracy and discernibility simultaneously because this would require a considerably more sophisticated model while suffering from several challenges, namely: 1) the precise formulation of the tradeoff between accuracy and discernibility; 2) the scarcity of social media data with a high spatial resolution; and 3) the characterization of spatial correlation and heterogeneity. This paper proposes a novel feature learning framework that concurrently addresses all the above challenges by formulating prediction tasks for different locations with different spatial resolutions, allowing the heterogeneous relationships among the tasks to be characterized. This characterization is then integrated into our new models based on multitask learning, with parameters optimized by our proposed algorithm based on the alternative direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and dynamic programming. Extensive experimental evaluations performed on several data sets from different domains demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed approach.

Gender and Predictors of Multiplatform Media Uses: A Case Study of the Super Bowl

The 2012 Super Bowl was the most-watched television program in U.S. history and represented a wide-scale expansion to online and digital environments. This case study examined the role of gender in explanations for viewing the Super Bowl and for simultaneous media uses during the game. Results indicate that both men and women still relied on the traditional television for Super Bowl viewing. Newer media were used as a second-screen experience to complement the telecast or to gain additional information and social interaction. Gender differences underlie explanations for watching the Super Bowl on television and for simultaneous media uses. Findings suggest that women engaged with nonfootball elements that propel the Super Bowl from a sporting event to a societal event, whereas men indicated stronger interests in the game itself.