The effectiveness of communication interventions in providing older people with information on access to in-home health and social care services: A systematic review protocol

The objective of this review is to locate, critically appraise and synthesize evidence on the effectiveness of communication strategies for providing older people access to information regarding in-home health and social care services. The review question is: What is the effectiveness of communication interventions in providing older people with information about in-home health and social care services?

Translating Management Storylines: developing a visual strategy to communicate science to stakeholder community, a case for Mackay, QLD

This project developed a visual strategy and graphic outcomes to communicate the results of a scientific collaborative project to the Mackay community. During 2013 and 2014 a team from CSIRO engaged with the community in Mackay to collaboratively develop a set of strategies to improve the management of the Great Barrier Reef. The result of this work was a 300+ page scientific report that needed to be translated and summarised to the general community. The aim of this project was to strategically synthesise information contained in the report and to design and produce an outcome to be distributed to the participant community. By working with the CISRO researchers, an action toolkit was developed, with twelve cards and a booklet. Each card represented the story behind a certain local management issue and the actions that the participants suggested should be taken in order to improve management of The Reef. During the design synthesis it was identified that for all management issues there was a reference to the need to develop some sort of "educational campaign" to the area. That was then translated as an underlying action to support all other actions proposed in the toolkit.

Exploring internal communication's impact on psychological contract currencies

Internal communication is a central process by which employees exchange information, build relationships and share organisational values. Fundamental to this process is the psychological contract. However, there is limited understanding of how internal communication influences psychological contract. The study contributes to theory by demonstrating that the dimensions of internal communication independently influence internal stakeholders' psychological contract beliefs. For managers, the findings can be used as a framework to improve internal communication processes and strategies.

Second language social networks and communication-related acculturative stress: The role of interconnectedness

Although a substantial amount of cross-cultural psychology research has investigated acculturative stress in general, little attention has been devoted specifically to communication-related acculturative stress (CRAS). In line with the view that cross-cultural adaptation and second language (L2) learning are social and interpersonal phenomena, the present study examines the hypothesis that migrants’ L2 social network size and interconnectedness predict CRAS. The main idea underlying this hypothesis is that L2 social networks play an important role in fostering social and cultural aspects of communicative competence. Specifically, higher interconnectedness may reflect greater access to unmodified natural cultural representations and L2 communication practices, thus fostering communicative competence through observational learning. As such, structural aspects of migrants’ L2 social networks may be protective against acculturative stress arising from chronic communication difficulties. Results from a study of first generation migrant students (N = 100) support this idea by showing that both inclusiveness and density of the participants’ L2 network account for unique variance in CRAS but not in general acculturative stress. These results support the idea that research on cross-cultural adaptation would benefit from disentangling the various facets of acculturative stress and that the structure of migrants’ L2 network matters for language related outcomes. Finally, this study contributes to an emerging body of work that attempts to integrate cultural/cross-cultural research on acculturation and research on intercultural communication and second language learning.

Parent-child communication: The impact of globalisation and rapid social transformation in Khulais – Saudi Arabia

This qualitative study of parent-child communication examined the views of parents and children in a province of Saudi Arabia concerning how family interactions, parental authority and children’s behaviours are affected by the globalising influences of media and technology. Impacts reported include how tension in family communication arises as children develop a hybrid culture through accessing Western ideas and ideologies that are profoundly challenging to traditional Islamic culture.

Overcoming language barriers in healthcare: A protocol for investigating safe and effective communication when patients or clinicians use a second language

Background Miscommunication in the healthcare sector can be life-threatening. The rising number of migrant patients and foreign-trained staff means that communication errors between a healthcare practitioner and patient when one or both are speaking a second language are increasingly likely. However, there is limited research that addresses this issue systematically. This protocol outlines a hospital-based study examining interactions between healthcare practitioners and their patients who either share or do not share a first language. Of particular interest are the nature and efficacy of communication in language-discordant conversations, and the degree to which risk is communicated. Our aim is to understand language barriers and miscommunication that may occur in healthcare settings between patients and healthcare practitioners, especially where at least one of the speakers is using a second (weaker) language. Methods/Design Eighty individual interactions between patients and practitioners who speak either English or Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) as their first language will be video recorded in a range of in- and out-patient departments at three hospitals in the Metro South area of Brisbane, Australia. All participants will complete a language background questionnaire. Patients will also complete a short survey rating the effectiveness of the interaction. Recordings will be transcribed and submitted to both quantitative and qualitative analyses to determine elements of the language used that might be particularly problematic and the extent to which language concordance and discordance impacts on the quality of the patient-practitioner consultation. Discussion Understanding the role that language plays in creating barriers to healthcare is critical for healthcare systems that are experiencing an increasing range of culturally and linguistically diverse populations both amongst patients and practitioners. The data resulting from this study will inform policy and practical solutions for communication training, provide an agenda for future research, and extend theory in health communication.

Building resilient communities: Creating effective multi-channel communication during disaster response and recovery

Our aim is to examine evidence-based strategies to motivate appropriate action and increase informed decision-making during the response and recovery phases of disasters. We combine expertise in communication, consumer psychology and marketing, disaster and emergency management, and law. This poster presents findings from a social media work package, and preliminary findings from the focus group work package on emergency warning message comprehension.

Communication adaption in challenging simulations for student nurse midwives

Background Nurses and midwives must be able to adapt their behaviour and language to meet the health care needs of patients and their families in diverse and at times difficult circumstances. Methods This study of fourth year dual degree nurse midwives use Communication Accommodation Theory strategies to examine their use of language and discourse when managing a sequential simulation of neonatal resuscitation and bereavement support. Results The results showed that many of the students were slow to respond to the changing needs of the patient and family and at times used ineffectual and disengaging language. Conclusion Clinical simulation is a safe and effective method for nurses and midwives to experience and practice the use of language and discourse in challenging circumstances.

Envisaging change: Supporting grassroots efforts in Colombia with agonistic design processes

Design has become increasingly engaged with bringing about social change. Shifting domains and perspectives to conflict stricken contexts yield opportunities to explore emerging forms of design that enable the expression and articulation of difference in productive ways, which can contribute positively to efforts related to civic issues and struggles in urban settings from developing countries. We explore the recently developed notion of Adversarial Design to support the integration of diverging perspectives and grassroots voices in the design process. This paper presents the findings and design insights from our study with two grassroots organisations in Bogota, Colombia. We present three themes that expose ways in which conflict motivates bringing about change, the importance of the social and physical features of the urban landscape, and the way in which social change acts as catalyst for acquiring new knowledge. To finalise, we discuss two design areas and how design could be used to integrate dissimilar worldviews.

Half-truths and dirty secrets: Omissions in CSR communication

This paper introduces the notion of half-truths, a term used to describe the communication of technically truthful information that has been, or has the potential to be, undermined by the omission of key information. By using an illustrative, exemplar case this study shows how an organization’s transparency and credibility in relation to its corporate social responsibility communication can be undermined, despite presenting technically truthful information

A CCG virtual system for big data application communication costs analysis

Network topology and routing are two important factors in determining the communication costs of big data applications at large scale. As for a given Cluster, Cloud, or Grid system, the network topology is fixed and static or dynamic routing protocols are preinstalled to direct the network traffic. Users cannot change them once the system is deployed. Hence, it is hard for application developers to identify the optimal network topology and routing algorithm for their applications with distinct communication patterns. In this study, we design a CCG virtual system (CCGVS), which first uses container-based virtualization to allow users to create a farm of lightweight virtual machines on a single host. Then, it uses software-defined networking (SDN) technique to control the network traffic among these virtual machines. Users can change the network topology and control the network traffic programmingly, thereby enabling application developers to evaluate their applications on the same system with different network topologies and routing algorithms. The preliminary experimental results through both synthetic big data programs and NPB benchmarks have shown that CCGVS can represent application performance variations caused by network topology and routing algorithm.

Increasing autonomy transparency through capability communication in multiple heterogeneous UAV management

Interest in the area of collaborative Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in a Multi-Agent System is growing to compliment the strengths and weaknesses of the human-machine relationship. To achieve effective management of multiple heterogeneous UAVs, the status model of the agents must be communicated to each other. This paper presents the effects on operator Cognitive Workload (CW), Situation Awareness (SA), trust and performance by increasing the autonomy capability transparency through text-based communication of the UAVs to the human agents. The results revealed a reduction in CW, increase in SA, increase in the Competence, Predictability and Reliability dimensions of trust, and the operator performance.

Editorial of "Communication Research and Practice, 1(3)"

For the third issue of Communication Research and Practice, we bring together a mix of submitted content and papers presented at events that were hosted under the auspices of the International Communication Association. Dal Yong Jin captures the dynamic and contradictory elements of both convergence and transmedia storytelling, and the ‘Korean Wave’, in his paper on webtoons. Exploring this distinctive online form of transmedia storytelling, Jin considers its evolution from the perspectives of digital content, political economy, convergent media and digital labour, and the tensions that surround its potential expansion into global cultural markets.

Maintaining student engagement in a multidisciplinary allied health communication skills course

Effective communication is an important graduate capability for allied health students but there are few opportunities for students to engage with these skills in a dedicated manner at an undergraduate level. This paper reported on the use of active learning and relevance-building strategies to maintain student engagement in a multidisciplinary allied health communication skills course at an Australian university. Students (N = 736) completed an engagement survey during the first and final lecture. While most degree programs reported no difference in engagement across semester, nursing/paramedic students reported a significant decrease in student engagement. A perceived lack of disciplinary relevance may account for student disengagement in this group, illustrating the challenge of delivering an authentic learning experience whilst engaging students from diverse degree programs.

Improving health and safety communication of migrant construction workers

Although statistical data in some developed countries indicate that migrant workers are nearly 30% more likely to have work-related injuries than local workers, no equivalent official injury/ incident statistics on the health and safety (H&S) of migrant workers are currently tracked in Australia. With increasing numbers of migrant workers having joined Australia’s extractive industries infrastructure and commercial construction industry, this suggests the need for some investigation. A particular issue is that lack of H&S communication is one of the key factors leading to construction industry accidents/ incidents as it prevents workers from effectively receiving H&S safety training and acquiring H&S information. Migrant workers whose first languages are not English are particularly affected by this problem and ways are needed to improve their situation. The research aims to do this by evaluating the H&S communication problems of migrant workers and identify an effective H&S communication structure. An overview of the challenge being addressed by the research is firstly provided, followed by a description of the research framework, and a report of the initial findings, from which recommendations are provided for improving H&S performance in the construction industry.