Good Muslims,Bad Muslims,and the Nation: The “Ground Zero Mosque” and the Problem With Tolerance

The local controversy over Cordoba House or the “Ground Zero Mosque” peaked at a May 2010 Lower Manhattan Community Board meeting that was open to the public. Examining the tolerance rhetorics evoked both for and against Cordoba, this paper argues that both tolerance rhetorics function differently to re-center the white non-Muslim subject and to structure inclusion and belonging within the nation. Extending the literature of tolerance, which tends to focus on the discourse of normative subjects, I analyze the tolerance rhetorics of two Muslim-American rhetors whose testimonies reveal the tensions, contradictions, and complicities involved in claims of national belonging.     

Islamophobia in China: news coverage,stereotypes, and Chinese Muslims’ perceptions of themselves and Islam

An analysis spanning 10 years of news reports about Muslims and Islam in Chinese state news media (N?=?15,427) demonstrates that Chinese news reports project an overall negative view of Muslims. An implicit association test performed in the non-Muslim Chinese population (N?=?1479) reveals negative stereotypes of Muslims. In addition, a survey of Chinese Muslims (N?=?384) shows that they perceive negative coverage of Muslims and Islam in Chinese media, and that real-life discrimination might be a consequence of such negative stereotyping. This study reveals that (1) there is an overall negative framing of news coverage of Muslims and Islam; (2) non-Muslim Chinese hold a negative stereotype of Muslims and Islam; (3) Chinese Muslims are cognizant of a negative media portrayal of Islam and of themselves; and (4) some Muslim Chinese experience discrimination in their daily lives. The present study contributes to the literature on global Islamophobia, a phenomenon that is understudied in China.     

‘No hugging please,we are Muslims’: Akademi Fantasia,Malay television audiences and the negotiation of global popular cultural forms

This paper analyses the audience reception of the Malaysian reality television programme Akademi Fantasia (AF), which first aired in 2003 and completed its ninth season in 2011. AF has been an influential pioneer in the national television industry, inaugurating the trend of local reality shows and weathering intense competition from similar shows to remain at the top of the ratings chart over the last decade. Based on the Mexican talent search show, La Academia, Malaysia's AF is a unique hybrid blend of an Idol-style talent contest and Big Brother observational spectacle. The article draws on primary audience research to investigate the ways in which Malay audiences interpret the potentially incommensurable cultural meanings generated within the context of a localised version of a global television format. Chua's concept of ‘identification and distancing’ is employed as a framework to analyse the complex ways in which perceived Malay ‘cultural norms’ assume primacy as interpretative lenses for audience evaluations of the show and measures of its local difference from similar global cultural products. The research also reveals how these cultural norms are themselves being negotiated by the audience as part of the everyday experience of inhabiting coexisting local and global popular cultural spaces. The analysis focuses on audience understandings and pleasure in the programme in relation to fashion and taste; the behaviour of the official judges; voyeurism and conflict in ‘backstage’ coverage; and emotional intimacy onstage in the public performance component of the programme.     

News and Islamist Radicalization Processes: Investigating Muslims’ Perceptions of Negative News Coverage of Islam

This study investigated how Muslims perceive negative news coverage of Islam and how these perceptions possibly contribute to radicalization processes. Utilizing qualitative interviews with former Islamists, Study 1 indicated that radicalized Muslims perceive a governmental infiltration of the media resulting in negative content. Analyses indicate that perceptual phenomena (hostile media, third person), negation, and anger play an important role in radicalization processes. We built on these findings in Study 2, utilizing a laboratory experiment in which Muslims were exposed to negative news content. Indeed, Muslims engaged in negation, perceived news as hostile, and perceived strong effects on non-Muslim Germans. These effects were stronger among Muslims with religious fundamentalist beliefs. Interestingly, negative news elicited anger, independent of such fundamentalist beliefs.     

Relations among the h-, g-, ψ-, and p-index and offset-ability

We show that the h-index, g-index, ψ-index, and p-index, are related through the inequalities: h ≤ p ≤ g ≤ ψ. Moreover, this relation is proved theoretically in the mathematical framework of Lotkaian informetrics and is verified empirically by using two datasets from the Web of Science in the fields of electrochemistry and gerontology. For quantifying their relations, we estimate the g-index, ψ-index, and their cores and ratios of cores via a second-order Taylor series when the e-index, h-index, and C₁ (the maximum number of citations received by a paper) are known. Then we find for the two empirical cases, that ratios of cores and average citations are approximately stable. Compared with the g-index, the offset-ability of the h-index decreases by 20% but the average citations increase by 20%. A similar observation holds for the comparison of the g-index and ψ-index. To explore the possible applications of cores of different indices, we apply them to extract the core structure of a network. The h-core is the most efficient, while the ψ-core includes more nodes with high betweenness.     

Journalism and Critical Engagement: Naiveté, Embarrassment,and Intelligibility

This article explores the possibility of journalists acting as custodians of critical engagement, drawing on Rancière's conception of dissensus as organized disagreement over the conditions of understanding. It begins by assessing the status that worthiness and naiveté have as negative symbolic capital in the journalistic field, before asking whether journalists' ambivalent detachment from the objects of their inquiry hinders their ability to engage critically with experts in other fields. It argues that journalism's role in marshaling dissensus amounts to making clear the limits and absences of intelligibility in journalism and other fields, in distinction to disseminating knowledge as such.     

Abbreviations,Full Spellings,and Searchers’ Preferences

This study examined ten, selected word pairs, each containing a word's full spelling and its abbreviation, to determine which form search engine users preferred in searching. Using seven search logs gathered from several Internet search engines with approximately 608 MB of data, the study measured the occurrences of the twenty terms. The selected words are important in library cataloging, for some are prescribed abbreviations in metadata content standards. The study found that in eight of the ten word pairs users preferred to search words’ full spellings over the abbreviations, often by a high margin.     

Uses and Gratifications,Journalists’ Twitter Use,and Relational Satisfaction with the Public

This study employed the uses and gratification approach to investigate how journalists perceive relational satisfaction with the public on Twitter, specifically the associations between journalists’ motivations to use Twitter, their Twitter use, and their relational satisfaction with the public. Through a survey of South Korean journalists, this study revealed that journalists’ motivations for Twitter use are positively related to their job-related activities on Twitter (e.g., posting/sharing their news and interacting with audience), which consequently influences perceived relational satisfaction with the public. The findings provide new insight into an increasingly important part of the public’s engagement and news/information flows in the digital media environment. This study expands upon the literature by analyzing how journalists’ motivations for using Twitter and their job-related activities on Twitter are associated with relational satisfaction with the public.     

Robert S. Fortner,Radio Morality and Culture: Britain,Canada, and the United States, 1919�1945

Three pioneer radio rating services contributed to the development of basic audience measurement concepts, which have become part of a standardized ratings vocabulary. Archibald Crossley gave to radio and, later TV measurement, its most basic term, rating. Claude E. Hooper made Hooperatings a part of the nation's vocabulary and contributed the available audience base and the average minute rating. Arthur Nielsen Sr., designed the first probability sample. In the long term, Nielsen's most important innovation was his projectable ratings. As a result, Nielsen championed CPM theory, which tied advertising prices to audience size. Nielsen also was the first to provide a wealth of analytical detail, such as reach, frequency, and audience flow.     

Willingness to communicate,communication apprehension,introversion, and self‐reported communication competence: Finnish and American comparisons

The purpose of this research was to make comparisons between Finnish persons and persons from other populations, particularly those from the United States, on a variety of common measures of communication orientations. The results of the study indicated that differences between Finnish and United States samples do exist, but the differences are primarily restricted to willingness to communicate and introversion. Data relating to communication apprehension and self‐perceived communication competence for the two cultures are remarkably similar. However, these two variables appear to be much less predictive of willingness to communicate for Finns than they are for Americans.     

“Kind,Sensitive, and Above All,Honest”: Long-Term Cancer Survivors’ Quality of Life and Self-Advocacy

ABSTRACT

Long-term survivors of cancer (LTS) are a growing population whose needs differ significantly from patients undergoing cancer treatment. Many LTS suffer from late effects of cancer treatments or symptoms that persist after treatment concludes or appear following remission. This study explored the relationship between LTS perceptions of quality of life with late effects and perceptions of patient self-advocacy through quantitative and qualitative analyses. A negative statistical relationship emerged between the variables. LTS median self-advocacy scores were quite high, reflecting their preference for health-care providers who listen actively, understand patient needs, are knowledgeable and compassionate, and utilize joint decision making.     

“Library anxiety” and “computer anxiety:” Measures,validity, and research implications

The phenomena of “library anxiety” and “computer anxiety” have been sometimes hypothesized as emotional responses to new technology. This research investigated the construct validity of two instruments, a Computer Anxiety Index and a Library Anxiety Scale. The criterion measure of anxiety was the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing (IPAT) Anxiety Scale. Undergraduate students enrolled in English, psychology, and philosophy courses participated in the research. For the men, there were no significant correlations between the IPAT and the Computer Anxiety Index or the Library Anxiety Scale. For women, there were significant medium-effect size correlations between the IPAT Anxiety Scale total score and Computer Anxiety Index as well as Library Anxiety Scale scores. Additional analyses are reported, and their implications are discussed.     

Trades,techniques—and a fable

A generation of broadcasters has grown up without a firsthand knowledge of the now‐out‐of‐print FCC “Blue Book.” Mr. Meyer's personal overview of the content and effects of this document will be followed by a future article on “Reaction to the ’Blue Book’.” It is accepted that any one individual's summary of a controversial document will itself be controversial. Richard J. Meyer is Assistant Professor and Director of Educational TV at the University of Wichita, and wrote the MA thesis on which this article is based under the direction of Professor Stanley Donner at Stanford University. He also has worked in broadcasting at stations KZSU, KSAN‐TV and KQED (TV).     

AIDS,Perspective by incongruity,and gay identity in Larry Kramer's “1,112 and counting”

AIDS activist Larry Kramer's 1983 essay, “1,112 and Counting,” was a key rhetorical event in the development of AIDS activism by gays. This analysis relies on perspective by incongruity to explain Kramer's attempts to stimulate AIDS activism by altering gays’ perceptions of the disease and its implications for their lives and identities. The author argues that the power of perspective by incongruity in this case is linked to its facilitation of genuine argument, a personalized form of persuasion that forces both arguer and audience to confront an argument's implications for their own identities and behavior as moral human beings. The conclusion suggests that “1,112 and Counting” functions as a variant of constitutive rhetoric that de‐constructs and re‐constructs audience identity.     

Age and sex differences in willingness to communicate,communication apprehension,and self‐perceived competence

Age and sex differences in willingness to communicate (WTC), communication apprehension, and self‐perceived communication competence were examined using three age cohorts of participants drawn from junior high, high school, and university student populations. Results indicate that junior high females are higher in WTC than their male counterparts and females at the university level are higher in communication apprehension and lower in self‐perceived competence than are male university students. Communication apprehension and self‐perceived competence show a consistent negative relationship that does not vary with age or sex in the present sample. The degree to which communication apprehension arid self‐perceived competence predict WTC varies with age and sex. In all three age cohorts, communication apprehension is a significant predictor of WTC among women. Among men, self‐perceived competence emerges as a significant predictor of WTC in all three age groups.