Reciprocal (and Reductionist?) Newswork

This paper builds upon previous research that examines participatory forms of “reciprocal journalism” and “public communication” led by high school and college students in Miami, Florida, USA, in the fall of 2014. In this study, the students’ assessment of local and national media coverage is used to reveal greater details inherent in examining participatory methods of newswork. Collectively, students said that media coverage emphasis on local and national public officials instead of residents and community members who experience sea-level rise first-hand, combined with a lack of scientific explanation of and solutions for sea-level rise reduced the event's potential to build reciprocal relationships with younger audiences.     

Have We Passed Peak Book? The Uncoupling of Book Sales from Economic Growth

This paper uses time series data on UK book sales to establish what correlation exists between the national income of a country and its sales of books. This is tested by comparing series data in real terms for GDP per capita and for various data series for the UK market, including sales invoiced by publishers and point of sale data on consumer purchasing. The first period, from 1985 to 1999, shows a strong relationship between total sales and GDP per capita. In the second period, from 2001 to 2015, the link appears to disappear when we examine invoiced sales from publishers, even before the impact of the 2008 crisis. This is also including the growth of digital sales towards the end of the period. The direct consumer data shows sales tracking GDP until the onset of the financial crisis; thereafter the only trade sector to have kept pace with GDP is children’s, and this contrasts with the areas of adult fiction and non-fiction. Have we therefore seen a structural shift in the book market? If we have passed peak book, what has brought about this uncoupling of book sales from economic growth? Factors are considered including changes in retail, competition from other media, and a prioritization of experience over the accumulation of stuff.     

End of the English (British?) Empire? Or Something Else?

The paper analyzes best-seller lists in seven major European book markets between April 2008 and March 2009. The paper’s authors introduce the concept of an impact factor for best-selling authors that shows how influential an author is in a given market and across the analyzed markets overall. The paper’s authors discovered that a new generation of European best-selling authors appeared in major book markets of Europe such that those not writing in English have an impact of almost twice that of the English writers. Furthermore, the authors have discovered that only veteran English or American best-selling authors tend to be published by big media conglomerates; the majority of the European best-selling authors were published by a surprising mix of big and small, independent and international publishing houses. It is striking that English as the most popular second language in the world did not play a stronger role as an intermediary language in the transmission of books from one European culture to another, as European publishers in major markets still employ editors who read a variety of languages and thus play the role of intermediaries in how books travel from one culture to another.     

The SANU Memorandum: Intellectual Authority and the Constitution of an Exclusive Serbian “People”

Through this essay, I assert that the intellectual authority of prominent cultural intellectuals can affect a form of “cultural pedagogy” that can essentially re-educate an audience through constitutive discourses that can re-articulate that audience's identity, cultural framework, and historical references, and in so doing can normalize mass violence. Serbian intellectuals and cultural elites played a prominent role in initializing the extreme nationalist mindset that increasingly polarized Yugoslavia throughout the 1980s. In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) drafted a Memorandum, the publication of which in the Serbian newspaper Vjecernje Novosti is retrospectively the precipitating event that awakened Serbian national consciousness. This essay critiques the 1986 Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences with regard to its role in constructing an exclusive and politically charged Serbian identity. Beginning with an examination of the Memorandum's central claims, this essay asserts that the dominant mythic themes that emerge in the document were part of a deliberate teleological reordering of historical events that provided the foundation for the constitutive rhetoric of Serbian intellectuals-turned-politicians. This essay allows for a deeper understanding of the effects of constitutive discourses, rooted in a mythos of victimization, on the emergent nationalism and mass violence in the former Yugoslavia.     

Why Do People (Sometimes) Become Selective About News? The Role of Emotions and Partisan Differences in Selective Approach and Avoidance

Recent advances in partisan selective exposure research have provided compelling evidence for the distinction between selective approach and selective avoidance. Yet the questions of whether, how, and to what extent discrete emotions systematically shape either of these patterns has not been sufficiently addressed. This study explores the differential roles of fear, anger, and enthusiasm in selective approach to and selective avoidance of partisan news programs, focusing on partisan differences in regard to a person’s general approach versus avoidance tendencies to external stimuli as a possible moderating mechanism. A secondary analysis of the 2012 American National Election Studies data suggested that fear and anger both significantly increased proattitudinal news exposure, whereas only anger decreased counterattitudinal news exposure. In addition, Republicans exhibit these patterns to a greater extent than Democrats. Furthermore, enthusiasm significantly predicted exposure to proattitudinal news for both Republicans and Democrats, whereas Democrats were significantly more likely than Republicans to increase their counterattitudinal news exposure as a function of enthusiasm. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.     

“I’m Demi and I Have Bipolar Disorder”: Effect of Parasocial Contact on Reducing Stigma Toward People With Bipolar Disorder

Examining celebrity influence, participants (N = 594) completed an experiment to see if negative stereotypes toward bipolar disorder could be reduced as a function of mode of disease disclosure from a celebrity (Demi Lovato) diagnosed with the condition. Respondents were randomly assigned to view one of three conditions where the celebrity discusses her battle with bipolar disorder (or a comparison message). Measures assessing parasocial relationship (PSR), level of parasocial interaction (PSI), transportation, social distance towards, and negative stereotypes about people with bipolar disorder were used. Social distance and negative stereotypes toward people with bipolar disorder reduced significantly following exposure to Demi Lovato’s disclosure about the disease via either TV/magazine interview. Implications of results for how celebrity disease disclosures may help reduce stigma toward bipolar condition are discussed.     

Have(n't) We Been Here Before? Lessons from Telephone Reference

SUMMARY

Telephone reference services have been present in libraries for over seventy-five years. Chat reference services are a very recent addition to library services. Telephone and chat reference share some characteristics and the future of chat reference may be seen through an examination of the history of telephone reference. This article will examine issues of policy, staffing, and technology for telephone and chat reference.     

“People in Hell Want Slurpees”: The Redefinition of the Zombie Genre through the Salvific Portrayal of Family on AMC's The Walking Dead

AMC's popular, post-apocalyptic show The Walking Dead follows a clan of survivors as they endure the zombie apocalypse while struggling to maintain their humanity. The characters pursue temporal salvation through four social institutions: family, government, religion, and science/medicine, identified by a preliminary soak. Through content analysis of dialogueic, visual, and nonverbal references to these institutions across seasons 1–3 (N = 35), we find that each respective season proposed, and then rejected to some extent, the redemptive roles of science, religion, and the state—mirroring actual contemporary distrust. Simultaneously, through persistent, underlying storylines, the show reveals a traditional understanding of the centrality of familial relationships to maintaining a liberal society's survival—which we argue redefines the zombie genre away from its leftist roots.     

Do Provenance-Based Classification Schemes Have a Role in Libraries and Information Centres? The Case of Classifying Government Publications

Libraries and information centres use often multiple classification schemes for organizing their collections. In Canadian full depository libraries government publications can be organized in collections using a government publishing office's own notation, knowledge organization notation, or other notational scheme designed especially for government publications. Provenance-based schemes such as CODOC are attractive for their universality and for work-related purposes that may be influenced by financial challenges. However, libraries that use multiple notations for government publications may open the potential for intellectual disruption to information retrieval practices in either physical or virtual browsing.     

We Went Mobile! (Or Did We?) Reviewing and Promoting Third-Party Device Neutral Library Resources

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries have been working diligently to provide device neutral mobile access to key elements of their library websites, like hours, contact information, and catalogs. But once a mobile user makes it through these access points on his mobile device, what happens beyond that point? Can he or she use the library’s links to third-party content, like interlibrary loan forms, the institutional repository, and databases, on a mobile device? Laura Turner, Head of Technical Services at the University of San Diego’s Copley Library, recently performed basic mobile testing of third-party content links on her library’s website. She relied on resource reports generated by Alejandra Nann, Copley’s Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian, as well as Nann’s troubleshooting of access issues during the testing. Their presentation reviewed the efforts and outcomes of testing links to the resources on mobile devices as well as workflow suggestions and promotional ideas for incorporating mobile access as a library service.     

Where Have All the Milestones Gone? The Decline of Significant Research on the Process and Effects of Mass Communication

Between about 1930 and the early 1980s, a number of seminal research studies yielded most of today's theories of the process and effects of mass communication. Since that time, few studies have made significant theoretical contributions. This apparent slowdown is inconsistent with certain trends in the media industries and in the academy that logically should result in greater production of seminal studies. The question is why so few milestones have been produced in recent years? A possible answer is that certain trends are taking place in U.S. society that tend to reduce the number of ground-breaking studies that will be produced by contemporary academics. Specifically, social scientists have turned from media studies to their more traditional research agenda; increasing attention is being paid to qualitative analysis by today's media scholars, and many are now preoccupied with critical perspectives rather than research. Additionally, higher pay in applied research may be drawing bright doctors of philosophy away from basic studies; heavy use of part-time instructors increases the workload of full-time faculty; and, finally, funding for basic research in mass communication is increasingly difficult to find.     

The Anolysis of the Causes of Chinese People＇s Incorrect Use of PP in the English longuage and the Solutions

Through discussing how the Polite Principle rescues the Cooperative Principle in English and Chinese .this thesis proves that PP is suitable both in English and Chinese .What＇s more, Chinese people has the thoughts and tradition of polite- ness. However when Chinese people confront with English they are easy to fall into embarrassments. This thesis points out two reasons of pragmatic failure. One is the cultural difference and the different use of PP in Chinese and English. The other is the unsuitable education system and belief. Finally, this thesis proposes three kinds of methods： 1. The supplement of au- thentic material which can reduce inauthennc input, improve cultural awareness and stimulate learning motivation.2.Changing the classroom from the teachers＂ arenas to students＇ forums 3. Learning English on the mteruet.     

Where's The Guinness Book of Records Miss? . . . Some Thoughts on Reference Services to Children and Young People

No abstract available for this article.     

The Internet Scout Project(ISP)研究

着重对The Internet Scout Project(以下简称ISP)提供的11项信息服务中的侦察报告、侦察报告路标和侦察工具箱等进行分析研究。认为侦察报告具有内容专深、更新及时等特点;侦察报告路标是对因特网资源进行标引和编目,重新组织成为有序的、可有效检索的成功例证;侦察工具箱能够满足用户畅游因特网的不同需求。     

‘The State is Me.’ My Role as a Conservator: Do Conservators Have Power Within the Cultural Structure?

ABSTRACT

Preventive conservation plans must include the collaboration of all the different departments within an institution to be able to diagnose the situation, provide proper maintenance, and allocate a budget. Preventive conservation entails understanding the collection’s needs, organizational culture, institutional priorities, and risk factors. Beyond the intervention of objects, the conservator is the creator of guidelines and the implementer of solutions. In this paper, need-based approaches are provided showcasing how tailor-built preventive conservation plans became merged into the backbone of everyday activities. In the Louis C. Morton Auction House in Mexico City, diagnosis tools were adapted, redefining conservation terms within a business-oriented model to guarantee success. In the National Museum of Art in Mexico, the sustainable preservation plan categorized actions within their realization capability. Tasks were allocated to different departments and suppliers; outsourcing, not the responsibility, but the commitment of continuity with service providers via contracts. At the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the complex conservation projects have focused on high standard continuity. Motivating people to participate in the steady innovation, an encyclopaedic museum must have not only to conserve its collections, but also to serve as an international example.     

Writing for Publication and the Role of the Library: “Do Have a Cow,Man!” (“Don't Have a Cow,Man”-Bart Simpson)

The aim of this small-scale research project was to identify the main concerns of editors, academics, researchers, and librarians involved in the writing for publication (WfP) process. This would provide library and information services (LIS) staff with a clearer understanding of the process to enable them to articulate and develop their own role in supporting this activity. A novel “one thing” approach was used to determine the perspectives of editors, researchers, librarians, and research students on key issues surrounding WfP. The results indicate that there are many opportunities for LIS staff to contribute to the WfP process. One major concern which emerged was just how isolated researchers could feel. Suggestion: Having a CoW (Community of Writers) in the library could provide a potential LIS role. Another best practice to support WfP is also identified.