More dominant in their inactivity: consumer response and the adoption of digital TV in Australia

After much hesitation, discussion, and power brokering, Australia adopted digital TV for its Free-to air broadcasting on January 1, 2001. However, by December 2002, only a few thousand homes had adopted the technology. This paper examines the implementation and regulation of digital TV in Australia from the point of view of the ‘established base’ the new technology will replace, theories on diffusion and innovation of new technologies, and the Justification Model, which sees technology choice as social gambling. It then evaluates the various protectionist regulations and limitations imposed on the technology to safeguard the various stakeholders, the implementation strategies used, lack of digital content, marketing efforts, negative media coverage, and the economic realities of the technology, and argues that if consumers reject the technology altogether, it would lead to Australia missing the future applications of digital technology and the opportunity to address the issue of the ‘digital divide’ in the 21st century.

Digital TV in Australia and the USA: a cross-impact analysis of the adoption and diffusion of digital TV in Australia and the United States

The paper examines the adoption and diffusion of Digital Television (DTV) in Australia and the United States, identifying historical, technical, regulatory, marketing, and other commonalities and differences that appear to be most significant to its adoption, as both countries have experienced a 'sluggish' diffusion and adoption of DTV so far. Using library research and borrowing the cross-impact matrix method from futures research, the authors develop J J events related to the various influences and groups of stakeholders that had shaped the policy making and adoption of DTV. We then carry out a comparative analysis between the two countries to make evident their impacts, strengths, and directions of influence. The authors suggest that the implementation of DTV in these two developed countries appears to be nearly identical. Even though Australian and US broadcasting models are fundamentally different, the diffusion process for DTV is primarily affected by the nature of digital technology and globalisation, two trends that may be diminishing the import of the nation-state in the technology adoption process. The paper concludes that these broader economic and technical events may have greater import to DTV's successful diffusion than do traditional, cultural, and nationalistic factors suggested in earlier comparative broadcast studies.

Sexual conflict and polyspermy under sperm-limited conditions : in situ evidence from field simulations with the free-spawning marine echinoid Evechinus chloroticus

For free‐spawning organisms that release gametes into the sea, sperm limitation (too few sperm to fertilize all eggs) is a major factor limiting reproductive success. Given such circumstances, the presence of several mechanisms to prevent polyspermy (too many sperm) may seem paradoxical; however, a growing body of data suggests that natural fertilization levels, though variable, can routinely be high. Under such conditions, polyspermy is much more likely. The tension between sperm limitation and polyspermy represents sexual conflict because males, in competing to fertilize as many eggs as possible, can impose lethal costs on eggs if multiple sperm gain entry. Here we present data for a marine invertebrate indicating high levels of polyspermy under sperm‐limited conditions. When the sea urchin Evechinus chloroticus was induced to spawn in situ, mean rates of polyspermy were 17.3% ±3.4%, and polyspermy was recorded at rates as high as 62.7%. Polyspermy was nearly always present, even when fertilization rates were <50%, confirming predictions that it should be present under sperm‐limited conditions. Both sperm limitation and polyspermy imposed substantial reproductive costs, and we conclude that both sexual conflict related to polyspermy and sperm limitation have been simultaneous strong selective forces shaping the evolution of reproductive traits in the sea.

Geographic routing with cooperative relaying and leapfrogging in wireless sensor networks

A novel geographic routing protocol for multi-hop wireless sensor networks is presented. It exploits the broadcast nature of the wireless channel to enable on-demand cooperative relaying and leapfrogging for circumventing weak radio links. In order to achieve energy efficiency, a metric is introduced for next-hop selection that takes into account information on the residual battery energy, the geographical position of the sensor nodes, and the channel quality of the involved radio links when available. Performance results show that the completely decentralized protocol offers significant benefits by reducing the number of (re)transmissions required to reach the destination. This translates into network-wide energy savings that extend the network lifetime.

Reporting in a multimedia world

The breathless pace of change in the news media renders many traditional "how to" journalism guides out of date. Here's an up-to-date essential starter kit for aspiring journalists. All the basics about the power of words and the potency of numbers. Useful tips about internet use, technology, video journalism and photography. The career path, a neglected topic, will be invaluable for those who want to know where and how to start. Reporting in a Multimedia World is highly recommended.Professor Judy McGregor, Head of Department of Communication and Journalism, Massey University, New Zealand.Every journalist must be able to conduct an interview and write snappy copy. But now journalists need broader skills as well. No matter what field they are working in many now need to be able to wield a digital recorder or take photographs, talk to camera convincingly, and create content for online delivery. Reporting in a Multimedia World offers a thorough overview of the core skills journalists need for the 21st century. The authors show how to generate story ideas, handle interviews, write for different audiences, and edit your own copy. They explain the basics of news photography and broadcast media, as well as the requirements of Internet journalism. They also look at professional issues and career strategies. Written in a lively style and with case studies and tips from experienced journalists Reporting in a Multimedia World is an ideal introduction to an exciting and demanding profession.

Conversations on convergence : insiders' views on news production in the twenty-first century

Convergence is a major topic of discussion at professional and academic journalism conferences and seminars around the world. This book presents the insights of major players and academics in the field of convergence. Here is your chance to read what the experts think about one of the most significant changes that journalism faces. It should be on the desk of all managers keen to know where the future will take us, and on the reading list of every student of journalism and media.

Convergent journalism : an introduction

Convergent Journalism: An Introduction explains what makes a news story effective today and how to recognize the best medium for a particular story. That medium may be the web, television, radio, newspaper, magazine - or, more likely, several of the above. This text will explain how a single story can fulfill its potential through any media channel. Convergent Journalism: An Introduction shows you, the news writer, editor, reporter, and producer, how to tailor a story to meet the needs of various media so your local news story can be written in a form appropriate for the web, print, PDA screen, and broadcast. In addition, this book explains the characteristics and best applications for print, broadcast, and web graphics.

NewsLink Indiana : a learning laboratory for the news industry

The broadcast news industry has many questions about convergence and how best to operate in a world of rapidly changing digital technology. Some of the key issues the industry ponders are how to innovate in a climate of increased competition, how best to structure a converged media operation and how to produce quality journalism yet keep costs under control. This paper tracks the introduction of a "learning laboratory" at Ball State University in Indiana designed to answer these and other questions. The paper outlines the theories and concepts behind the development of a converged newsroom staffed by professionals and students in an immersion education program. It uses qualitative methods initially because these are most appropriate for the project at this stage of its development.

Barriers to cross-fertilization between populations of a widely dispersed Polychaete species are unlikely to have arisen through gametic compatibility arms-races

Although there are theoretical reasons to suspect that gametic incompatibility may develop readily among populations of broadcast spawning marine invertebrates, there have been very few studies documenting geographic patterns of interpopulation incompatibility for any species. To address this we determined how successfully individuals of the intertidal serpulid polychaete, Galeolaria caespitosa, can cross-fertilize within and among populations from across temperate Australia. Fertilization assays revealed asymmetrical differences between very distantly located populations from different coasts, with near-complete incompatibility between eggs from Sydney with sperm from Adelaide, but the reverse cross (Adelaide eggs, Sydney sperm) was reasonably compatible. Although that pattern was congruent with a clear difference in Cytochrome B sequences between worms on the south and east coasts of Australia, we also detected some indication of interpopulation incompatibility within the genetic grouping on east coast, between two populations separated by only 220 km. We then assessed whether commonly proposed gametic compatibility arms-races could account for these patterns. Our results suggest reduced gametic compatibility may reduce a female's maximum fertilization potential, resulting in a cost to this potential mechanism for reducing polyspermy. Consequently, the apparently rapid development of reproductive barriers here seems unlikely to have been driven by arms-races involving sexual conflict over fertilization rate.

Communications for underwater robotics research platforms

This paper presents a distributed protocol for communication among autonomous underwater vehicles. It is a complementary approach for coordination between the autonomous underwater vehicles. This paper mainly describes different methods for underwater communication. One of the methods is brute force approach in which messages are broadcasted to all the communication nodes, which in turn will broadcast the acknowledgement. Issues relating to this brute force approach are time delay, number of hops, power consumption, message collision and other practical issues. These issues are discussed and solved by proposing a new method to improve efficiency of this proposed approach and its effectiveness in communication among autonomous underwater vehicles.

Potential endocrine disruption of ovary synthesis in the Christmas Island red crab Gecarcoidea natalis by the insecticide pyriproxyfen

The effect of the insecticide, pyriproxyfen on early ovary synthesis was examined in the Gecarcinid land crab, Gecarcoidea natalis. Crabs were fed a mixture of either leaf litter and bait containing 0.5% (wt/wt) pyriproxyfen (experimental groups), or a mixture of leaf litter and a control bait containing no pyriproxyfen (control groups), at simulated baiting doses of 2 kg ha− 1 and 4 kg ha− 1, during the period in which G. natalis synthesises its ovaries. A third group of crabs were fed ad libitum either the bait containing 0.5% Pypriproxyfen or the control bait. Pyriproxyfen affected early ovary development in G. natalis. The ovaries from crabs in the experimental groups at all baiting levels had a higher total nitrogen content and dry mass than the ovaries from crabs in the control groups. Pyriproxyfen affected the histology of the ovaries. Ovaries from animals in the experimental groups were more mature, containing more previtellogenic and early vitellogenic oocytes, of a larger diameter, than the ovaries from crabs in the control groups. Significant amounts of pyriproxyfen accumulated within the midgut gland and ovary, the hypothesised target tissues, while minor amounts of pyriproxyfen was accumulated in the muscle, a hypothesised non target tissue. Pyriproxyfen may have stimulated early ovary development and induced synthesis of yolk protein by mimicking methyl farnesoate and thus causing endocrine disruption. Given this, pyriproxyfen should not be used to control invasive insects in environments where gecarcinid and other land crab species are present.

Internationalisation of Singapore television : Singaporean regional and global perspectives and contexts

In this study l investigate the Singaporean characteristics of broadcast media internationalisation. I ask the question "e; Does Internationalisation lead to homogenisation and commercialisation of the television culture in Singapore or does it give way to more diversity, thus stimulating cultural differentiation?"e; . I articulate the constraints and/or tensions of supranational regulation, foreign policy, regional and intraregional alliances upon communication and the cultural and social effects as they impact on and respond to production, programming, scheduling and output in Singapore. I explain how Singaporean Television media culture takes part in the processes of globalisation, and how it challenges existing cultures and creates new and alternative symbolic and cultural communities, within the context of regional communication. In this thesis 1 conclude that whilst Singapore definitely does not have equity in information, wealth or resource flows it is attempting to liberalise. To do so, the government recognises that serious inadequacies and imbalances must be addressed and that the path to greater political and economic growth is through an actively informed public. Despite regulatory restrictions on data flow and technical and service ownership, Singapore is encouraging regional alliances, depoliticising cultural differences and concentrating on economic imperatives to build mutual knowledge and understanding, multilateral agreements, collective ownership, mutual exchange and cooperative dissemination.

In the tracks of Blinky Bill : How Sam the koala led news journalists into an Australian literary tradition

The world was captivated when footage of a badly burnt koala taking water from a Victorian Country Fire Authority volunteer was taken with a mobile phone and broadcast to the world on YouTube in February 2009. When the story of ‘Sam the Koala’ was subsequently adopted by traditional broadcast and print media, recombinant themes were used to construct her story – from heroism, patriotism, villain v victim - even romance was incorporated to entertain and create audience appeal. This paper explores how ‘Sam the Koala’ became a defining news story in the coverage of Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires and examines the power of narrative when cross pollination occurs between new and traditional media in the production of news. It is argued that Sam’s story is evidence of journalists adopting new approaches to storytelling in a bid to retain their legitimacy as the authoritative voice of news and information in an increasingly technologically driven society.

A preliminary taxonomy of crowdsourcing

Many firms are now asking how they can benefit from the new form of outsourcing labelled “crowdsourcing”. Like many other forms of outsourcing, crowdsourcing is now being “talked up” by a somewhat credulous trade press. However, the term crowdsourcing has been used to describe several related, but different phenomena, and what might be successful with one form of crowdsourcing may not be with another. In this paper the notion of crowdsourcing is decomposed to create a taxonomy that expands our understanding of what is meant by the term. This taxonomy focuses on the different capability levels of crowdsourcing suppliers; different motivations; and different allocation of benefits. The management implications of these distinctions are then considered in light of what we know about other forms of outsourcing.

GOM : new genetic optimizing model for broadcasting tree in MANET

Data broadcasting in a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is the main method of information dissemination in many applications, in particular for sending critical information to all hosts. Finding an optimal broadcast tree in such networks is a challenging task due to the broadcast storm problem. The aim of this work is to propose a new genetic model using a fitness function with the primary goal of finding an optimal broadcast tree. Our new method, called Genetic Optimisation Model (GOM) alleviates the broadcast storm problem to a great extent as the experimental simulations result in efficient broadcast tree with minimal flood and minimal hops. The result of this model also shows that it has the ability to give different optimal solutions according to the nature of the network.