Imagination and Narrative: Young People’s Experiences

Imagery generation in dramatized audio drama is still poorly understood with the majority of work having been done from a radio advertising perspective. This study sought to understand audio drama imagery generation by using teenage listeners. The study demonstrated that teenagers can follow purely auditory narrative with ease and can generate unique and vivid imagery through aural dramatic stimulation. The study also showed that listening in the dark and as a group are appealing for audiences.     

“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.     

《华尔街日报》网络版Survivors’stories

随着网络媒体的发展，传统的纸质媒体不得不衍生出自己的电子报纸来扩大受众面。媒体网站在创办之初与其母体在新闻报道的风格与规范上并无多大的差异，甚至仍然很大程度上局限于传统媒体的编辑方针、读对象等方面而束缚了自身的拓展。2000年前后，商业化资本的渗透促使了媒体网站的转向，电子报纸开始勃兴。勃兴之后其网络特性开始展示。如新闻的时效性、新闻的海量性、交流的互动性、传递的全球性、表达的多元性等。特别是其即时的特性在突发性事件的报道中发挥了重大作用。并且由于网络媒体的多媒体交互性使得传统的突发性事件报道更加及时、直观和具有参与性。为了适应网络媒体的这一传播特性，即使像《华尔街日报》这样老牌的报纸的体风格也在发生一系列变化。     

Young adults’ social skills are independent of their parents’ social skills

It has been suggested that young people's social skills are influenced by the parenting styles, and modeling of social skills by their parents. To test these hypotheses, 141 university students completed measures of social skills and engaged in a brief interpersonal interaction from which several behaviors indicative as social skills were assessed. In addition, 127 mothers and 111 fathers of these subjects completed measures of their own social skills and parenting styles. The results indicated that both parental parenting styles and parental social skills were poor predictors of the young adults’ social skills. In most cases parental predictors explained less than 10% of the variance of any of 15 social skills variables assessed in their children.     

The Impact of e-Books on Young Children’s Reading Habits

This article reports on a pilot study which aimed to consider the e-book reading experiences of young children and their families, with currently available portable e-reader devices: Amazon Kindle, Nintendo DS-lite and Apple iPod Touch. Three families, each with two children in the 7–12 year age range, experienced an e-reader for a two-week period. They recorded their experiences in a diary and were interviewed at the beginning and end of the study. Key findings include the fact that, of the six children involved, four rate themselves as ‘enthusiastic’ readers, one ‘average’ and one ‘reluctant’; whilst all six of the parents enjoy reading. At the end of the study, all of the participants chose the Kindle as their preferred device and found it the easiest to use. In addition, there were indications that the one reluctant young reader (a boy aged eight years) was inspired to read by the Kindle. His parents were pleased with this enthusiasm, noting that he was reading rather than watching television, excited by downloading and choosing books and it was the only time they had known him to ask to read voluntarily. When asked whether they prefer printed or electronic books, all of the adults chose printed books, whilst the children were more ambivalent, with half preferring electronic books.     

Exploring the Influence of Parasocial Relationships and Experiences on Radio Listeners’ Consumer Behaviors

The purpose of the present study was to explore the influence of radio listener experiences on radio listening behaviors, consumer perceptions and behaviors, and social media involvement. A national sample of listeners (N = 2,700) from a variety of small, medium, and large designated market areas (N = 9) throughout the United States revealed the presence of parasocial relationships (PSRs) and experiences of parasocial interaction (EPSI) with local and nationally syndicated radio personalities. Both PSRs and EPSI predicted radio listening, positive perceptions about, recall of, and purchasing of the brands, products, and services recommended by listeners’ favorite radio personalities. Results also show that PSRs and EPSI predicted listeners’ involvement with social media platforms.     

Uncertainty and previvors’ cancer risk management: understanding the decision-making process

Women who test positive for a BRCA genetic mutation, but who have not been diagnosed, or 'previvors,' experience intense, chronological risk-related uncertainty. Women’s risk management medical decisions can be a way to manage their uncertainty, but little is known about how uncertainty informs their decision or how uncertainty is impacted by these medical decisions. Using an uncertainty management theoretical lens, we interviewed 46 previvors about their decision-making process. A thematic analysis revealed two uncertainty management (i.e., risk-reducing) decision-making pathways (preventive surgery and increased surveillance) with each pathway encompassing a three-part process of 1) uncertainty appraisal, 2) medical decision (i.e., uncertainty management strategy), and 3) outcomes. The findings advance theoretical thinking about uncertainty and risk management as an ongoing, distressful chronic experience, and highlight the importance of life-span phenomena in women’s decision-making process. Based on the findings, we constructed a translational tool to aid genetic counselors and previvors facing these medical decisions.     

Modeling the Effects of Political Information Source Use and Online Expression on Young Adults’ Political Efficacy

This online survey conducted at a public university in the Northwest (N = 434) examines the influence of political involvement, information source attention, and online political discussion on young adults’ political efficacy. A factor analysis indicated that political information sources loaded into three factors including conventional and online hard news media such as newspapers, opinion and social media such as blogs or social networking websites, and public affairs websites including government and candidate websites. A path analysis revealed significant differences in their association with online political expression and external efficacy. As an entry point in the theoretical model, involvement in public affairs positively associated with attention to political information sources, online political expression, and external political efficacy. Attention to hard news and to public affairs websites positively predicted political efficacy. Attention to online opinion and social media and to public affairs websites positively predicted online political expression.     

Extrovert and Lonely Individuals’ Social TV Viewing Experiences: A Mediating and Moderating Role of Social Presence

Social TV viewing is generally understood as a simultaneous act of watching TV and engaging in communication about the TV program with other TV viewers connected online. In response to the increasing popularity of this new TV viewing practice, the current study examined how individuals’ extrovert personality and loneliness influence social TV viewing experiences through the theoretical notion of social presence. An online survey was completed by 330 individuals. Results demonstrated that extrovert personality positively influenced social TV viewing experiences; it is important to note that this relationship was mediated by social presence. Loneliness itself was negatively related to social TV viewing experiences; however, this relationship was moderated by social presence. Specifically, when lonely people felt strong social presence, they enjoyed social TV viewing experiences. The findings provide theoretical implications for social TV research, the dynamic role of social presence, social enhancement model, and social compensation model.     

Leveraging Springshare’s Appointments Scheduler for Research Consultations: Experiences and Recommendations

Providing research consultations is an essential job responsibility for all academic librarians. One software option that can help to facilitate the process of scheduling research consultations is Springshare’s Appointments Scheduler (SAS), a feature within their LibCal software product. SAS has a number of features that make it easy for patrons and librarians to create, manage, and optimize the appointment. This article describes the SAS product and provides tips and recommendations that will help librarians to leverage all of its features.     

Young Children’s Positive and Negative Parasocial Relationships with Media Characters

There is a scarcity of research on how young children form short- and long-term emotional connections with popular media characters. Preexisting research on young children’s parasocial relationships (PSR) with media personae has traditionally operationally defined PSR exclusively in terms of friendship and focused on television characters. However, a growing body of research suggests the need for a wider survey of children’s media platforms. Scholarship also actually points to two distinct constructs of PSR: positive PSR (friendly feelings or amicability) and negative PSR (unfriendly feelings or antipathy). This study engaged 88 children ages 5–7 in open- and closed-ended questions designed to measure both positive and negative PSR. Our research reveals a more nuanced understanding of young children’s PSR.     

A Qualitative Inquiry into the Contextualized Parental Mediation Practices of Young Children’s Digital Media Use at Home

Technologies are increasingly adopted and used by young children at home. Parents play an important role in shaping their media use, keeping certain possibilities open for children to play, learn, and socialize while limiting others. Nevertheless, the literature on parental mediation of young children’s media use is scant. In this article, we describe a qualitative, mixed-method study involving 24 parents and 36 children aged 3 to 9, and focus on the contextual factors that shape (transitions between) parental mediation practices. The results point to the emergence of new manifestations of parental mediation and provide evidence of their dynamic, often paradoxical nature. In particular, the insights on distant mediation, various buddy styles, and participatory learning, as well as the value of a wholeness approach for understanding children’s conditions for media engagement, suggest new prospects for parental mediation literature.     

The Theory of Motivated Information Management and Posttraumatic Growth: Emerging Adults’ Uncertainty Management in Response to an Adverse Life Experience

This study tested the degree to which the uncertainty management process that emerging adults go through following an adverse event predicts their perceptions of posttraumatic growth. Participants included 215 emerging adults who had experienced an adverse life event within the past year. Overall, the results largely supported the theory of motivated information management, as uncertainty discrepancies positively predicted negative emotions about the adverse event, which in turn predicted outcome expectancies, but not efficacy assessments. Outcome expectancies were predictive of efficacy assessments, which in turn were predictive of a willingness to seek information about the event from a parent. Collectively, uncertainty management behaviors predicted posttraumatic growth and included significant indirect effects for uncertainty discrepancies through communication and target efficacy, respectively.     

Communication Processes that Predict Young Adults’ Feelings of Being Caught and their Associations with Mental Health and Family Satisfaction

In this study, the degree to which young adults felt caught between their parents was tested as a mediator between marital conflict behaviors and young adults’ mental health and family satisfaction. Participants included 1170 young adult children from first marriage and postdivorce families in four different states. Using structural equation modeling, the results revealed that parents’ symbolic aggression, demand/withdraw patterns, and negative disclosures were positively associated with young adult children's feelings of being caught. Such feelings, in turn, were inversely associated with children's reports of family satisfaction and mental health. Although young adult children from divorced families witnessed, on average, more marital aggression, negative disclosures, and demand/withdraw patterns than those from nondivorced families, the associations in the model were relatively comparable across both family types. Further, tests of mediation revealed that feeling caught served primarily as a partial mediator for family satisfaction and as a full mediator for mental health, though such feelings suppressed the positive effect of parental disclosures on family satisfaction for children in nondivorced families. Finally, children's closeness with both parents moderated the associations in the model.     

Exploring Tough Love Communication in Parents’ Relationships with Their Young Adult Children

Communication between parents and their young adult children serves as an important foundation for healthy development and successful socialization. When communicating support, parents may struggle to find a balance between comforting their child while also encouraging their personal growth and development. In certain situations, parents may communicate tough love in order to accomplish their different goals. This study examines 67 interviews involving parents and their young adult children to explore how they discuss and understand tough love in their relationships. Results illuminate five themes regarding the distinguishing features of tough love and three themes around the outcomes of tough love in parent-child relationships.     

Now You See Me – Now You Don't: Journalists’ Experiences With Surveillance

If democracy is a platform for many voices, and the voices of the many, journalists serve democracy by bringing these voices to the forefront of governance by asking difficult questions to those in power. It can be argued that journalists engage in the broader form of surveillance of power from below, or sousveillance [Mann, Steve, and Joseph Ferenbok. 2013. “New media and the power politics of sousveillance in a surveillance-dominated world.” Surveillance and Society 11 (1-2): 18–34.], which aims towards a form of relative equilibrium. In democracies, the institutional system of checks and balances forms the basis on which journalism pursues its watchdog function. This paper explores the experiences of journalists with surveillance and their impact on journalists’ sense of freedom to fulfil their watchdog role. The paper contributes to increasing research interest in “journalism after Snowden” by addressing the intangible conditions under which journalists may or should work, and ultimately also how widely accepted standards of democratic liberties are challenged.     

Students’ Research Experiences During Consulting Projects: Three Themes Emerging from Case Studies

Student consulting projects, an advanced form of problem-based learning, allow students to apply the skills developed in their classes on behalf of client organizations. A review of selected case studies in business education and other management education literature shows that research is an integral part of this consulting process. More than that, the process of conducting research on behalf of a client exposes students to concepts of self-management, relationship management, and data management. With expert skills in conducting research and in developing information literacy instruction plans, librarians can lend structure to the unstructured research process in order to support the students as they evolve into self-managed, lifelong learners.     

Improving Distance Education for Students with Special Needs: A Qualitative Study of Students’ Experiences with an Online Library Research Course

This article describes a study in which seven students with diverse disabilities participated in a one-credit online library research course which had been adapted to be accessible using the best practices literature on distance education for students with special needs. Students provided feedback on the design of the course and participated in in-depth interviews. Results of this study suggest any given class may have students with different types of disabilities, with different paths toward learning. Using the principles of universal design for learning can improve distance education not only for students with special needs, but for all types of learners.     

Packing of Michelangelo’s ‘Pieta’

Abstract

The sources and chemistry of waxes likely to be encountered in art objects are briefly reviewed and their gas-chromatograms are illustrated. Examples of the identification of waxes and wax-mixtures in a variety of objects are described, and the advantages for this purpose of gas-chromatography over infrared spectroscopy are indicated.     

Chinese Children’s Book Market and the German Experiences in Cooperation with Chinese Publishers

A summary overview of the children’s and young adult publishing industry in China with a focus on the size of the market, ten major publishing houses, copyright and trends. Special emphasis has been placed on specific transaction for the sale of translation rights from German language publishers to China and minimal activities of German rights sold to Chinese publishers.