The potential of digital interactive television for the provision of healthcare and wellness services

The potential of digital interactive television (iDTV) to promote original services, formats and contents that can be relevant to support personal health care and wellness of individuals, namely elderly people, has not been yet fully explored in the past. Therefore, in a context of rapid change of the technological resources, in which the distribution and presentation of content comes associated with new platforms (such as digital terrestrial TV and IPTV), it is important to perceive the configurations that are being developed for interactive digital TV (iDTV) that may result in relevant outcomes within the field of healthcare and wellness, with the aim of offering complementarity to the existing services and contents made available today via the traditional means and media. This article describes and discusses the preliminary results of the first part of the research project iDTV-HEALTH: Inclusive services to promote health and wellness via digital interactive television. These first results suggest that iDTV solutions may represent a real contribution to delivery healthcare and wellness to the target population, namely as a supplement to health services provision.

The Representation of the Feminine in the Portuguese Press : A Content Analysis of the Diário de Notícias Newspaper

This is a brief report of a research project, coordinated by me and funded by the Portuguese Government. It studies ‘The Representation of the Feminine in the Portuguese Press’ (POCI/COM 55780/2004), and works on the content analysis of discourse on the feminine in various Portuguese newspapers, covering the time span of February 1st till April 30th 2006. The paper is divided into two parts: in the first part, I will briefly discuss the typology used to code the text units of selected articles; in the second part, I will explore the most expressive percentages of the first two weeks of February for the content analysis of the Diário de Notícias newspaper. These percentages were obtained with the NVivo 6 qualitative data treatment software programme.

Drivers and barriers to digital television adoption in Portugal: the perspectives of the TV viewers and other main stakeholders

To understand what are the most significant factors for digital TV adoption by the Portuguese population in the switchover context is the main goal of the research project here presented. In April 26, 2012, the analogue terrestrial television switchoff is planned to occur in Portugal, according to the schedule published by the national telecommunication regulator Anacom. Digital terrestrial TV was launched in the country in April 2009, making Portugal one of the countries with a more ambitious schedule – or risky, depending on the perspective - for the full transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television. In this paper we will start by presenting the research project’s objectives, theoretical framework and research design. Next, we will present first results of the project focused on the barriers and drivers to digital TV adoption from two of the empirical studies which integrate it, namely, the quantitative inquiry administered to a representative sample of the Portuguese population and interviews with main stakeholders in the area of digital TV in Portugal. The perspectives of the television viewers are compared with other main stakeholders in this process. The paper will be concluded with a brief discussion of these results and a brief enumeration of next steps for the project.

Incentives and Barriers to the Adoption of Digital Terrestrial Television in Portugal: Perspectives of the stakeholders involved in the transition process

The success of the transition from analogical terrestrial television to digital terrestrial television – process also known as switch-over – requires the identification of barriers and drivers among the impacted population. Therefore, the study in which this article is based had as main purpose to understand exactly what are those barriers, in order to produce a valid contribution to the several decision makers, and to be able to contribute to a more inclusive television, accessible and transversal to the whole of the population. In that sense, one of the phases of the project consisted in several interviews to key stakeholders in the transition process, the results of which and subsequent recommendations are presented in this article.

A mídia televisiva e a escola : um olhar sobre a influência de mensagens da TV na vida escolar de adolescentes de Santa Luzia-PB

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo problematizar e refletir a influência da mídia televisiva no comportamento e na aprendizagem de adolescentes de duas escolas da Zona Urbana de Santa Luzia-PB. A amostra foi selecionada em um universo de oito turmas do 9º ano do ensino fundamental, em 2011. Através de inquéritos por questionários, o estudo apresenta as percepções de 59 estudantes na faixa etária entre 12 e 16 anos de idade e de suas professoras sobre como as informações veiculadas pela mídia televisiva são interpretadas pelos estudantes, quais os efeitos midiáticos no comportamento desses jovens e qual o nível de conscientização da escola frente à aprendizagem paralela proporcionada pela TV. Na análise da pesquisa recorremos a uma abordagem quanti-qualitativa, à análise de conteúdo, que utiliza a unidade de sentido como base de análise. Sob a ótica da interlocução comunicação/educação, o estudo reflete sobre a importância da utilização dos meios de comunicação na escola. Dados teóricos e empíricos comprovaram, assim, que, diante de seu papel significativo na sociedade, a educação atual deve provocar a emancipação do indivíduo tornando-o capaz de atuar como interlocutor crítico dos acontecimentos sociais, de modo a superar todo e qualquer tipo de alienação midiática.