The dimensions of travel journalism : exploring new fields for journalism research beyond the news

Much of the existing empirical research on journalism focuses largely on hard-news journalism, at the expense of its less traditional forms, particularly the soft-news areas of lifestyle and entertainment journalism. In focussing on one particular area of lifestyle journalism – the reporting of travel stories – this paper argues for renewed scholarly efforts in this increasingly important field. Travel journalism’s location at the intersection between information and entertainment, journalism and advertising, as well as its increasingly significant role in the representation of foreign cultures makes it a significant site for scholarly research. By reviewing existing research about travel journalism and examining in detail the special exigencies that constrain it, the article proposes a number of dimensions for future research into the production practices of travel journalism. These dimensions include travel journalism’s role in mediating foreign cultures, its market orientation, motivational aspects and its ethical standards.

Dimensions of Indigenous journalism culture : exploring Maori news-making in Aotearoa New Zealand

Indigenous news media have experienced significant growth across the globe in recent years, but they have received only limited attention in mainstream society or the journalism and communication research community. Yet, Indigenous journalism is playing an arguably increasingly important role in contributing to Indigenous politics and identities, and is worthy of closer analysis. Using in-depth interviews, this article provides an overview of the main dimensions of Indigenous journalism as they can be found in the journalism culture of Māori journalists in Aotearoa New Zealand. It argues that Māori journalists see their role as providing a counter-narrative to mainstream media reporting and as contributing to Indigenous empowerment and revitalization of their language. At the same time, they view themselves as watchdogs, albeit within a culturally specific framework that has its own constraints. The article argues that the identified dimensions are reflective of evidence on Indigenous journalism from across the globe.

Viewpoint : social and economic dimensions of involving savanna communities in carbon management systems

In this paper we discuss the social, economic and institutional aspects of the development of carbon management systems within Australia's tropical savannas. Land-use values in savanna landscapes are changing as a result of changing economic markets, greater recognition of native title, and growing social demands and expectations for tourism, recreation and conservation. In addition, there is increasing interest in developing markets and policy arrangements for greenhouse gas abatement, carbon sequestration and carbon trade in savannas. We argue that for carbon management to lead to national greenhouse outcomes, attention must be paid to social, economic and institutional issues in environmental planning and policy arrangements. From an economic perspective, the financial impact of carbon management on savanna enterprises will depend on appropriate and available policy mechanisms, unit price for carbon, landscape condition, existing management strategies and abatement measurements used. Local social and cultural features of communities and regions may enhance or constrain the implementation of carbon abatement strategies, depending on how they are perceived. In terms of institutional arrangements, policies and plans must support and enable carbon management. We identify three areas that require priority investigation and adjustment: regional planning arrangements, property rights, and rules for accounting at enterprise and regional scales. We conclude that the best potential for managing for carbon will be achieved while managing for range of other natural resource management outcomes, especially where managing for carbon delivers collateral benefits to enterprises.

Dimensions of business processes quality (QoBP)

Conceptual modeling is an important tool for understanding and revealing weaknesses of business processes. Yet, the current practice in reengineering projects often considers simply the as-is process model as a brain-storming tool. This approach heavily relies on the intuition of the participants and misses a clear description of the quality requirements. Against this background, we identify four generic quality categories of business process quality, and populate them with quality requirements from related research. We refer to the resulting framework as the Quality of Business Process (QoBP) framework. Furthermore, we present the findings from applying the QoBP framework in a case study with a major Australian bank, showing that it helps to systematically fill the white space between as-is and to-be process modeling.

The impact of organisational citizenship behaviour and non-material rewards on dimensions of employee burnout : evidence from the teaching profession

In this chapter, we examine the psychological impact that organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) have on individuals performing them. OCB is discretionary employee behaviour that is not systematically rewarded by employers, but that contributes to overall organisational effectiveness (Organ, 1988). In a sample of schoolteachers, we predicted that performing OCBs would differentially impact two dimensions of psychological burnout -personal accomplishment (PA} and emotional exhaustion (EE). Due to the volitional nature of OCB, there are theoretical reasons to suppose that OCB enhances PA. However, it is also possible that certain OCBs constitute increased workload, thereby contributing to a heightened sense of EE. In addition, given prior research showing that non-material rewards such as praise and recognition, lead to positive employee outcomes, we proposed that praise and recognition would strengthen the relationship between OCB and PA, and weaken the relationship between OCB and EE.

Gender dimensions of resource extraction : the place of women

This chapter examines two core dimensions of women’s gendered experiences of mining in Australia and more specifically in Western Australia (WA). First, the chapter explores what has been and continues to be women’s principal relationship to mining encapsulated in the social and cultural identity of the ‘mining wife’ and, more recently, ‘fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) wife’. Second, the chapter addresses the fraught emergence of women as mineworkers. As the research presented in this chapter makes clear, the human cost of developmentalism was and continues to be deeply gendered.

Exploring the internal dimensions of work stress : evidence from construction cost estimators in China

A recurring feature of modern practice is the stress placed on project professionals, with both debilitating effects on the people concerned and indirectly affecting project success. Cost estimation, for example, is an essential task for successful project management involving a high level of uncertainty. It is not surprising, therefore, that young cost estimators especially can become stressful at work due to a lack of experience and the heavy responsibilities involved. However, the concept of work stress and the associated underlying dimensions has not been clearly defined in extant studies in the construction management field. To redress this situation, an updated psychology perceived stress questionnaire (PSQ) , first developed by Levenstein et al (1993) and revised by Fliege et al (2005), is used to explore the dimensions of work stress with empirical evidence from the construction industry in China. With 145 reliable responses from young (less than 5 years’ experience) Chinese cost estimators, this study explores the internal dimensions of work stress, identifying four dimensions of tension, demands, lack of joy and worries. It is suggested that this four-dimensional structure may also be applicable in a more general context.

Dimensions of effectiveness and efficiency: A case study on industry–school partnerships

Internationally, the delivery of vocational education and training is being challenged by increasing skills shortages in certain industries and/or rapidly changing skill requirements. To respond to this challenge, rigid and centralised state bureaucracies are increasingly adopting partnerships between schools and industry as a strategy to encourage school-to-work transition programmes to address the local labour market demand. Drawing on experiences in Australia, this paper reports on a case study of government led partnerships between schools and industry. The Queensland Gateway to industry schools initiative currently involves over 120 schools. The study investigated how two commonly used partnership principles were understood by the Gateway to industry partners. Twelve school–industry partnerships from four industry sectors were analysed in terms of the principles of ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ derived from the public–private partnership literature. The study found that some evidence of partnership activities associated with efficiency and effectiveness may be assigned to Gateway schools projects. However, little evidence was found that the above underlying principles were addressed systematically. Some of these partnerships were tenuously facilitated by individuals who had limited infrastructure or strategic support. Implications are that industry–school partnership stakeholders would benefit from applying partnership principles regarding implementation and management to ensure the sustainability of partnerships.

Interactive relationships among multiple dimensions of professional commitment: Implications for stress outcomes in lawyers

The purpose of this study was to examine the main and interactive effects of four dimensions of professional commitment on strain (i.e., depression, anxiety, perceived health status, and job dissatisfaction) for a sample of 176 law professionals. The study utilized a two-wave design in which professional commitment and strain were measured at Time 1 and strain was measured again at Time 2 (T2), 2 months later. A significant two-way interaction indicated that high affective commitment was related to less T2 job dissatisfaction only for lawyers with low accumulated costs. A significant four-way interaction indicated that high affective professional commitment was only related to fewer symptoms of T2 anxiety for lawyers with high normative professional commitment and both low limited alternatives and accumulated costs. A similar pattern of results emerged in regard to T2 perceived health status. The theoretical and practical implications of these results for career counselors are discussed.

Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions

Mike Budd and Max H. Kirsch, eds. Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. ix + 341pp. $27.95

A cellular automata model to investigate immune cell–tumor cell interactions in growing tumors in two spatial dimensions

We develop a hybrid cellular automata model to describe the effect of the immune system and chemokines on a growing tumor. The hybrid cellular automata model consists of partial differential equations to model chemokine concentrations, and discrete cellular automata to model cell–cell interactions and changes. The computational implementation overlays these two components on the same spatial region. We present representative simulations of the model and show that increasing the number of immature dendritic cells (DCs) in the domain causes a decrease in the number of tumor cells. This result strongly supports the hypothesis that DCs can be used as a cancer treatment. Furthermore, we also use the hybrid cellular automata model to investigate the growth of a tumor in a number of computational “cancer patients.” Using these virtual patients, the model can explain that increasing the number of DCs in the domain causes longer “survival.” Not surprisingly, the model also reflects the fact that the parameter related to tumor division rate plays an important role in tumor metastasis.