Aligning communication, cultural and media studies research and scholarship with industry and policy : Australian instances

This article reflects on aspects of what is claimed to be the distinctiveness of Australian communication, cultural and media studies, focusing on two cases – the cultural policy debate in the 1990s, and the concept of creative industries in the 2000s – and the relations between them, which highlight the alignment of research and scholarship with industry and policy and with which the author has been directly involved. Both ‘moments’ have been controversial; the three main lines of critique of such alignment of research and scholarship with industry and policy (its untoward proximity to tenets of the dominant neo-liberal ideology; the evacuation of cultural value by the economic; and the possible loss of critical vocation of the humanities scholar) are debated.

Factors associated with recall of media reports about vitamin D and sun protection

Objective: To assess the recall of media reports about vitamin D and associated factors. Methods: Analysis of cross-sectional telephone interview data (2,001 Queensland adults, 18-70 years) on vitamin D and personal sun protection, recall of media reports and participant characteristics. Results: 83.7% of participants had heard of vitamin D, 47.5% through the media. Only 513 (25.6%) participants recalled the media content within four main themes: vitamin D is beneficial/comes from the sun (47.0%); some people aren’t getting enough vitamin D, need more sun (27.9%); need to balance sun exposure and skin protection (11.5%); or other (13.6%). Only 65 of the 950 participants (6.8%) reported a change to their behaviour(s) due to the media report. Conclusion: Although the media were the main source of information about vitamin D for almost 50% of participants, recall of the content and direct effect on behaviour was low. Only a small minority recalled a balanced media report of beneficial and harmful aspects of sun exposure. Implications Health professionals often supply media with background information. To achieve best public health practice for sun protection and vitamin D, information to foster balanced media reports should be provided.

Socioeconomic position and mass media campaigns to prevent chronic disease

This cross-sectional study of a 45 to 60 year old Brisbane population examined socioeconomic differences in campaign reach, understanding of health language, and effectiveness, of a recent mass media health promotion campaign. Lower socioeconomic groups were reached significantly less and understood significantly less of the health language than higher socioeconomic groups thus contributing to the widening of the health inequality gap.

The importance of science fiction and other STEM-related mass media in young people’s decisions to enrol in university STEM courses

This paper presents Australian results from the Interests and Recruitment in Science (IRIS) study with respect to the influence of STEM-related mass media, including science fiction, on students’ decisions to enrol in university STEM courses. The study found that across the full cohort (N=2999), students tended to attribute far greater influence to science-related documentaries/channels such as Life on Earth and the Discovery Channel, etc. than to science-fiction movies or STEM-related TV dramas. Males were more inclined than females to consider science fiction/fantasy books and films and popular science books/magazines as having been important in their decisions. Students taking physics/astronomy tended to rate the importance of science fiction/fantasy books and films higher than students in other courses. The implications of these results for our understanding of influences on STEM enrolments are discussed.

Interaction between a strategic mass media firm and a government

Resumen: Este artículo intenta teorizar acerca de la dinámica entre los medios masivos de comunicación y los gobiernos de los países latinoamericanos. Si bien en la última década los gobiernos atacaron públicamente a los medios de comunicación, se afirma que no se dio por las razones que dicen, sino más bien por asuntos económicos. Por lo tanto, se ha diseñado un modelo utilizando el método de “principal” vs “incumbente”, donde se alcanzará un equilibrio de Nash perfecto en subjuegos. Además de esto, se realiza un repaso por la literatura conocida, y concluye señalando las fortalezas y debilidades del modelo propuesto.

Mass media and polarisation processes in the bounded confidence model of opinion dynamics

This paper presents a social simulation in which we add an additional layer of mass media communication to the social network 'bounded confidence' model of Deffuant et al (2000). A population of agents on a lattice with continuous opinions and bounded confidence adjust their opinions on the basis of binary social network interactions between neighbours or communication with a fixed opinion. There are two mechanisms for interaction. 'Social interaction' occurs between neighbours on a lattice and 'mass communication' adjusts opinions based on an agent interacting with a fixed opinion. Two new variables are added, polarisation: the degree to which two mass media opinions differ, and broadcast ratio: the number of social interactions for each mass media communication. Four dynamical regimes are observed, fragmented, double extreme convergence, a state of persistent opinion exchange leading to single extreme convergence and a disordered state. Double extreme convergence is found where agents are less willing to change opinion and mass media communications are common or where there is moderate willingness to change opinion and a high frequency of mass media communications. Single extreme convergence is found where there is moderate willingness to change opinion and a lower frequency of mass media communication. A period of persistent opinion exchange precedes single extreme convergence, it is characterized by the formation of two opposing groups of opinion separated by a gradient of opinion exchange. With even very low frequencies of mass media communications this results in a move to central opinions followed by a global drift to one extreme as one of the opposing groups of opinion dominates. A similar pattern of findings is observed for Neumann and Moore neighbourhoods.

Los mass media y las nuevas tecnologías en el aula : un proyecto de revista escolar.

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Seminarios de medios de comunicación social en la EGB : un proyecto de educación para los 'mass media'.

Se hacen unas reflexiones sobre la importancia de los medios de comunicación social como vehiculo del lenguaje del mundo contemporáneo, cómo estos medios hacen al niño y al joven sujetos de la cultura audiovisual y la urgencia de una educación adecuada de los escolares en este campo, ya que una de las funciones de la escuela es integrar a los escolares en la cultura de su tiempo y ambiente para, al mismo tiempo, participar en esta realidad. Se expone un proyecto de experiencia para alumnos de octavo de EGB del Colegio San Juan Bosco, de Granada. El número de alumnos es aproximadamente ciento cuarenta. La metodología seleccionada ha sido la técnica del seminario y los títulos programados: técnica cinematográfica; las principales tendencias del cine actual; televisión; música moderna; radio; la prensa española y sus principales tendencias ideológicas. Cada seminario tiene sus objetivos y contenidos. Las clases de los seminarios están impartidas por los maestros del centro o por padres de alumnos. El tiempo dedicado a cada seminario será de una hora semanal durante un trimestre.

The mass media destabilizes the cultural homogenous regime in Axelrod`s model

An important feature of Axelrod`s model for culture dissemination or social influence is the emergence of many multicultural absorbing states, despite the fact that the local rules that specify the agents interactions are explicitly designed to decrease the cultural differences between agents. Here we re-examine the problem of introducing an external, global interaction-the mass media-in the rules of Axelrod`s model: in addition to their nearest neighbors, each agent has a certain probability p to interact with a virtual neighbor whose cultural features are fixed from the outset. Most surprisingly, this apparently homogenizing effect actually increases the cultural diversity of the population. We show that, contrary to previous claims in the literature, even a vanishingly small value of p is sufficient to destabilize the homogeneous regime for very large lattice sizes.

Decisionmaking in a glass house : mass media, public opinion, and American and European foreign policy in the 21st century

"Decisionmaking in a Glass House: Mass Media, Public Opinion, and American and European Foreign Policy in the 21st Century" edited by Brigitte L. Nacos, Robert Y. Shapiro and Pierangelo Isernia is reviewed.

Psychological study of consumer novelty seeking and mass media consumption

The thesis integrates theory from psychology and marketing, finding that those with an innate desire to seek out information on new products / brands are motivated to do so by aspects of regulatory focus, needs for uniqueness, and their susceptibility to interpersonal influence. In turn, these people consume more media and have higher information exposure.

Entrepreneurship and mass media : audiences' perceptions of entrepreneurship stories in mass media

Using a set ofvariables measured in the Danish population survey related to the international Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project (GEM), this study explored what influences how people perceive stories about entrepreneurship in mass media. It was found that demographics influence how people perceived entrepreneurship stores, whereas social stratifications had no influence. Further on, the findings revealed a reinforcing effect from entrepreneurship stories in mass media. People already engaged in entrepreneurship perceived media stories differently from people not engaged, and people’s existing values were also reinforced. Together, these findings provide some crucial implications for policy initiatives trying to promote entrepreneurship. First, such initiatives need to consider who the actual targets are as different people decode and perceive the same messages differently. Second, such initiatives have to be longitudinal and long termed in order to function through more influential agencies like family, peer group, school, occupational group and so forth, and not only through the mass media as secondary socialisation.