Mapping futures for news: Trends, opportunities and challenges for Scotland

The Mapping Futures of News research and seminar programme, sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Studies in 2009-10, addressed those questions, as well as the many more immediate issues facing the Scottish news industry, such as how to survive the current period of often traumatic transition. This document summarises that work, and identifies: Mapping Futures for News: Programme Report iii • Where the main Scottish print and broadcast news media are in 2010, in terms of circulation and ratings figures; • the key trends currently impacting on Scottish news media; • the responses up to now of government and regulators to assist the Scottish media through the present problems; • the responses of the news media themselves.

ACE research vignette 037 : Bill Gates’ mug shot : Is there a secret link between rule-breaking, crime, and entrepreneurship?

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from international entrepreneurship researchers. In this vignette, Dr. Martin Obschonka, considers the relationship between entrepreneurship and rule-breaking.

Bad Eggs

Synopsis and review of the Australian feature film Bad Eggs, directed by Tony Martin.

Breaking the DNA-vaccine bottleneck

Monash University in Australia has developed a new approach towards DNA vaccine development that has the potential to cut the time it takes to produce a vaccine from up to nine months to four weeks or less. The university has designed and filed a patent on a commercially viable, single-stage technology for manufacturing DNA molecules. The technology was used to produce malaria and measles DNA vaccines, which were tested to be homogeneous supercoiled DNA, free from RNA and protein contaminations and meeting FDA regulatory standards for DNA vaccines. The technique is based on customized, smart, polymeric, monolithic adsorbents that can purify DNA very rapidly. The design criteria of solid-phase adsorbent include rapid adsorption and desorption kinetics, physical composition, and adequate selectivity , capacity and recovery. The new show technology significantly improved binding capacities, higher recovery, drastically reduced use of buffers and processing time, less clogging, and higher yields of DNA.

Mistakes or deliberate violations? A study into the origins of rule breaking at pedestrian train crossings

Train pedestrian collisions are the most likely to result in severe injuries and fatalities when compared to other types of rail crossing accidents. However, there is currently scant research that has examined the origins of pedestrians’ rule breaking at level crossings. As a result, this study examined the origins of pedestrians’ rule breaking behaviour at crossings, with particular emphasis directed towards examining the factors associated with making errors versus deliberation violations. A total of 636 individuals volunteered to participate in the study and completed either an online or paper version of the questionnaire. Quantitative analysis of the data revealed that knowledge regarding crossing rules was high, although up to 18% of level crossing users were either unsure or did not know (in some circumstances) when it was legal to cross at a level crossing. Furthermore, 156 participants (24.52%) reported having intentionally violated the rules at level crossings and 3.46% (n = 22) of the sample had previously made a mistake at a crossing. In regards to rule violators, males (particularly minors) were more likely to report breaking rules, and the most frequent occurrence was after the train had passed rather than before it arrives. Regression analysis revealed that males who frequently use pedestrian crossings and report higher sensation seeking traits are most likely to break the rules. This research provides evidence that pedestrians are more likely to deliberately violate rules (rather than make errors) at crossings and it illuminates high risk groups. This paper will further outline the study findings in regards to the development of countermeasures as well as provide direction for future research efforts in this area.

Coverage of international and Pacific news in the Fiji Times and The Australian

The debate over the nature and flow of international news has dominated intellectual debate about journalism practice for some time. Developing countries argued there was an imbalance in the nature and amount of international news concerning them. They argued that the Western media rarely reported on developing countries and when they did, reported predominantly negative news about developing countries. The debate led to calls for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). A number of studies examined its arguments, many finding developing countries were indeed disadvantaged by the Western media. This study compared foreign news coverage in The Australian and The Fiji Times, with special attention on news from the Pacific Islands region. It found the coverage of the Pacific Islands was still grossly inadequate in both newspapers. The coverage consisted of only a small number of stories, which were predominantly negative, surprising especially in the case of The Fiji Times.

Foreign news coverage in five African newspapers

One of the principal arguments that dominated intellectual debate in the 19805 concerned the imbalance in the quantity and quality of world news, in particular news from developing countries. African delegates at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), supported by other developing countries, argued that most of the news disseminated by the major Western news agencies was unfavourable to developing countries in qualitative and quantitative terms. Not only did Western news media pay little attention to news of developing countries, it was also argued that the few items that made the news tended to focus on negative events such as crises, wars, coups, riots, street demonstrations, diseases, poverty, pestilence, etc. More than 20 years after the intellectual debate received attention in academic journals, this study set out to examine systematically how African newspapers report the world. The researchers investigate the relative degree of balance and imbalance in the coverage of world news by Nigerian and Ghanaian newspapers. The study also examines Nigerian and Ghanaian journalists’ perceptions of world news coverage by local and foreign newspapers.

Videogames: Dispelling myths and tabloid headlines that videogames are bad

Videogamers are often portrayed as adolescent overweight males eating fast food in their bedroom, and videogames often blamed in the media for violent crime, obesity, social isolation and depression. However videogaming is a mainstream activity. In Australia 65% of the population play videogames (Digital Australia 2014), and humanity as a species play about 3 billion hours of videogames a week. This paper dispels the myths and sensationalised negative tabloid headlines that videogames are bad by presenting the latest research showing that videogames can help fight depression, improve brain function and stimulate creativity; that gamers have higher levels of family closeness and better attachment to school; and that videogames help boys and young men to relax, cope and socialise. Children and adolescents deliberately choose to play videogames in the knowledge that they will feel better as a result, and videogame play allow players to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because of their appearance, gender, sexuality, and/or age. The potential benefits of videogames to the individual and to society are yet to be fully realised. However already videogames are helping many gamers to flourish in life.

Restraint in the age of speed: Protecting vulnerable news sources in the 24/7 global news cycle

As news communication speeds up, investigative journalists have an increasing responsibility to minimise the risk of harm to vulnerable news sources. In addition, the increased longevity and instant global search-ability of news coverage and investigative journalism outputs such as documentaries, places upon journalists an increased responsibility for accuracy since online coverage cannot be easily corrected or retracted. This paper will examine how the risks to a news source and her family were considered and mitigated during the production of a radio documentary and newspaper story about an intended victim of child sacrifice. Pre-publication considerations included the possible risks to the mental health of the news source, the potential physical risk to her children and the risk to future family relationships. To hear the ABC Radio National documentary, A living sacrifice, on 360 Documentaries prior to the conference, see http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/360/a-living-sacrifice/5359744. To read the Sunday Mail newspaper coverage of the story see http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/susannah-birch-talks-about-her-throat-being-slit-by-her-mother-when-she-was-a-baby/story-fnihsrf2-1226881911465.

The good, the bad, and the efficient: Productivity, efficiency, and technical change in the airline industry, 2004–11

This study models the joint production of desirable and undesirable output production (that is, CO2 emissions) of airlines. The Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index is employed to measure productivity growth when undesirable output production is incorporated into the production model. The results show that pollution abatement activities of airlines lowers productivity growth, which suggests that the traditional approach of measuring productivity growth, which ignores CO2 emissions, overstates ‘true’ productivity growth. The reliability of the results is also tested and verified using confidence intervals based on bootstrapping.

From News Blogs to News on Twitter: Gatewatching and Collaborative News Curation

This chapter, explores the role of the second tier of independent news blogs as it developed in the years following the Seattle WTO protests in 1999, and outlines the practice of gatewatching as a key element of news bloggers’ activities. We critique perceptions of the news blogosphere as an echo chamber or filter bubble whose discussions about current events are detached from journalistic coverage, and demonstrate instead the close interconnections between independent news bloggers and professional journalists in the wider media ecology. Finally, we sketch the gradual transition and broadening of gatewatching practices in the news blogosphere towards the collaborative curation of news sharing in contemporary social media spaces, and outline the further research questions which emerge from such transformations of the flows of news and discussion.