Editorial

The article presents information on the various papers published in the December 2005 issue of the periodical "Australian Journal of Communication." In one of the papers, author Jane Johnston updates her earlier work on communication in the Australian court system by examining the courts' communication with the media. Chika Anyanwu makes a contribution to the literature on diasporic discourses by explaining the ways in which the new media technologies have redefined diaspora by enabling diasporic citizens to connect with their homelands. In their paper, Mark Balnaves and Kim Tomlinson-Baillie outline strategies that the international games industry brings to play when developing games, allowing children to participate in and change the narrative as it progresses through to a new world.

Website physical activity interventions: preferences of potential users

Information and communication technologies (particularly websites and e-mail) have the potential to deliver health behavior change programs to large numbers of adults at low cost. Controlled trials using these new media to promote physical activity have produced mixed results. User-centered development methods can assist in understanding the preferences of potential participants for website functions and content, and may lead to more effective programs. Eight focus group discussions were conducted with 40 adults after they had accessed a previously trialed physical activity website. The discussions were audio taped, transcribed and interpreted using a themed analysis method. Four key themes emerged: structure, interactivity, environmental context and content. Preferences were expressed for websites that include simple interactive features, together with information on local community activity opportunities. Particular suggestions included online community notice boards, personalized progress charts, e-mail access to expert advice and access to information on specific local physical activity facilities and services. Website physical activity interventions could usefully include personally relevant interactive and environmentally focused features and services identified through a user-centered development process.

Influencing the perceived emotions of music with intent

Music is an immensely powerful affective medium that pervades our everyday life. With ever advancing technology, the reproduction and application of music for emotive and information transfer purposes has never been more prevalent. In this paper we introduce a rule-based engine for influencing the perceived emotions of music. Based on empirical music psychology, we attempt to formalise the relationship between musical elements and their perceived emotion. We examine the modification to structural aspects of music to allow for a graduated transition between perceived emotive states. This engine is intended to provide music reproduction systems with a finer grained control over this affective medium; where perceived musical emotion can be influenced with intent. This intent comes from both an external application and the audience. Using a series of affective computing technologies, an audience’s response metrics and attitudes can be incorporated to model this intent. A generative feedback loop is set up between the external application, the influencing process and the audience’s response to this, which together shape the modification of musical structure. The effectiveness of our rule system for influencing perceived musical emotion was examined in earlier work, with a small test study providing generally encouraging results.