The geography of travel journalism : mapping the flow of travel stories about foreign countries

While the study of foreign news flows has received considerable attention from communication scholars for quite some time, it has typically focused on political or ‘hard’ news, at the expense of other types of journalistic content. This article argues that, as the foreign news hole is shrinking, travel journalism is becoming an increasingly important source of information about foreign countries in the news media. It reports the results of a comparative study of newspaper travel sections in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK, and argues that travel journalism often replicates the imbalances found in foreign news flows. Well-known factors – such as regionalism, powerful nations, cultural proximity, the role played by big neighbours and the diversity of coverage – are also powerful determinants in travel journalism. At the same time, a country’s tourist behaviour also plays a role but is often overshadowed by other factors.

Representations of foreign places outside the news : an analysis of Australian newspaper travel sections

Despite continued growth over recent decades, travel journalism has so far gained little attention in journalism research, with scholars often ridiculing it and other forms of lifestyle journalism as not being real journalism. This paper aims to the shift the focus by arguing that non-news journalism is increasingly important as a site for research. It reports the results from a content analysis of Australian newspaper travel sections and examines the role they play in mediating foreign places. The results demonstrate that travel stories can be mostly classed as service stories in that they focus on destinations which are already popular with Australians. At the same time they report very little about local cultures at the destinations, demonstrating a focus on the tourist experience and a missed opportunity for improving inter-cultural understanding. A visual analysis of photographs shows stereotypical portrayals of destinations broadly in line with tourism promotion materials.

Understanding the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students

This thesis investigated the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students in a higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Phenomenography was used to investigate how EFL students' 'used information to learn' (ie. information literacy). The study revealed that EFL students' experienced information literacy across four categories and had varying experiences of information and learning. The research also showed that EFL students' faced a number of challenges and barriers due to language that impacted on their experiences of reading, understanding, accessing and translating information.

Understanding the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students

Purpose – This paper outlines research that explores the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. The question explored in this research was: how do EFL students experience information literacy. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study used phenomenography, a relational approach to explore the information literacy experiences of EFL students. Phenomenography studies the qualitatively different ways a phenomenon is experienced in the world around us. Findings – This research revealed that EFL students experienced information literacy in four qualitatively different ways. The four categories revealed through the data were: process, quality, language and knowledge. This research found that language impacted on EFL students’ experiences of information literacy and revealed that EFL students applied various techniques and strategies when they read, understood, organised and translated information. Research limitations/implications – This research was conducted in a specific cultural and educational context, therefore the results might not reflect the experiences of EFL students in other cultural or educational contexts. Practical implications – The findings from this research offer an important contribution to information literacy practice by providing important insights about EFL students’ experiences and perceptions of information and learning that can be used to inform curriculum development in second language learning contexts. Originality/Value - There is currently a lack of research using a relational approach to investigate EFL students’ experiences of information literacy. There is also limited research that explores the impact language has on information literary and learning in English as a foreign or second language contexts.

Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers in sub-Saharan Africa

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an effective conduit for technology transfer through technology spillovers to domestically owned firms in the host country. This study analyses the significance of productivity externalities of FDI to local firms, in terms of both intra-industry and inter-industry spillovers, using firm-level data from Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The results show evidences in support of intra- and inter-industry productivity spillovers from FDI for Kenya and Zimbabwe. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Publishing the perished : the visibility of foreign death in Australian quality newspapers

The issue of media coverage of death has been under discussion by only a few scholars, and there have existed some disagreements as to just how present death is in public discourse in the Western world. This study adds to the literature on death by investigating the Australian media context. Specifically, it examines how journalists at two Australian quality newspapers, The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald, cover death in their foreign news reporting. It finds that journalists express preferences for certain types of death, as well as for certain nationalities. Further, it sheds some light on just how visible death is in the news by arguing that, while present in the written word, the visual representation of death is still highly marginalised.

Foreign news coverage in five African newspapers

One of the principal arguments that dominated intellectual debate in the 19805 concerned the imbalance in the quantity and quality of world news, in particular news from developing countries. African delegates at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), supported by other developing countries, argued that most of the news disseminated by the major Western news agencies was unfavourable to developing countries in qualitative and quantitative terms. Not only did Western news media pay little attention to news of developing countries, it was also argued that the few items that made the news tended to focus on negative events such as crises, wars, coups, riots, street demonstrations, diseases, poverty, pestilence, etc. More than 20 years after the intellectual debate received attention in academic journals, this study set out to examine systematically how African newspapers report the world. The researchers investigate the relative degree of balance and imbalance in the coverage of world news by Nigerian and Ghanaian newspapers. The study also examines Nigerian and Ghanaian journalists’ perceptions of world news coverage by local and foreign newspapers.

UQ in Vietnam: Teaching journalism students foreign correspondence

The University of Queensland has developed Work Integrated Learning (WIL) courses for groups of 10 students at a time to travel to Vietnam to engage in intercultural learning and working as foreign correspondents for a dedicated UQ multimedia website. Their radio, television, print and photojournalism reports have also been made available to media around the world under Creative Commons arrangements. This article reports on the students' experience in both WIL courses where they were exposed to intensive, immerse and experiential teaching and coaching by a lecturer (the researcher who is a former foreign correspondent for the ABC) and two tutors with expertise in editorial and technical production.

An exploratory study of the current assessment practices for improving the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) in two Vietnamese universities

This case study investigated EFL assessment practices at one public and one private university to explore the support of assessment for English language learning (ELL) within the Vietnamese sociocultural context. Findings demonstrated the potential of assessment to engage students in learning; enhance their understanding of the learning objectives; and facilitate their learning reflection. Findings also identified strong influences of contextual factors such as teachers' language assessment literacy, high-stakes testing and institutional administrative policies on the practices of assessment for ELL. This study contributes to research on Assessment for Learning and EFL education at tertiary level in Vietnam and other similar sociocultural contexts.

Do pollutions deter foreign direct investment in China?

The scale of environmental problems in China is clearly evident. This paper analyses foreign direct investment (FDI) in China with a finite mixture model, also known as latent class model to understand the relationship between FDI and several pollutions. This is used to regresses FDI as function covariates including pollutants. The results reveal that FDI is affected by pollutants. There are cases reducing pollution deters foreign investment in China.

International regulation of large-scale land acquisition involving foreign entities

Outlines some of the potential risks or actual harms that result from large-scale land leases or acquisitions and the relevant human rights and environmental law principles.

A study on the evolution of regional structure of foreign engineering consultation industry in China [我国对外工程咨询业区域结构演变研究]

Based on the construction industry of 27 province over the period of 1995-2008,this paper analyzes the evolution of regional structure of foreign engineering consultation industry.It is found that this industry translates weak overall strength,unbalanced regional structure to a more developed and balanced status,keeps pushing this change can improve the strength of our country’s engineering consultation industry,improve the international competition of construction.

Heterologous promoter recognition leading to high-level expression of cloned foreign genes in Bombyx mori cell lines and larvae

The baculovirus expression system using the Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcNPV) has been extensively utilized for high-level expression of cloned foreign genes, driven by the strong viral promoters of polyhedrin (polh) and p10 encoding genes. A parallel system using Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV) is much less exploited because the choice and variety of BmNPV-based transfer vectors are limited. Using a transient expression assay, we have demonstrated here that the heterologous promoters of the very late genes polh and p10 from AcNPV function as efficiently in BmN cells as the BmNPV promoters. The location of the cloned foreign gene with respect to the promoter sequences was critical for achieving the highest levels of expression, following the order +35 > +1 > -3 > -8 nucleotides (nt) with respect to the polh or p10 start codons. We have successfully generated recombinant BmNPV harboring AcNPV promoters by homeologous recombination between AcNPV-based transfer vectors and BmNPV genomic DNA. Infection of BmN cell lines with recombinant BmNPV showed a temporal expression pattern, reaching very high levels in 60-72 h post infection. The recombinant BmNPV harboring the firefly luciferase-encoding gene under the control of AcNPV polh or p10 promoters, on infection of the silkworm larvae led to the synthesis of large quantities of luciferase. Such larvae emanated significant luminiscence instantaneously on administration of the substrate luciferin resulting in 'glowing silkworms'. The virus-infected larvae continued to glow for several hours and revealed the most abundant distribution of virus in the fat bodies. In larval expression also, the highest levels were achieved when the reporter gene was located at +35 nt of the polh.