Engaging Students in Active Learning: Use of a Blog and Audience Response System

Librarians provide instruction to medical students as part of a core course in the medical school curriculum. Instruction was provided, in part, through didactic sessions covering professional-level medical information resources, PubMed search skills, psychosocial information, and evidence-based medicine. Librarians redesigned instructional sessions with the goals of increasing student engagement and minimizing the lecture format, maximizing the number of students receiving feedback on their search and evaluation skills, and permitting students to see a variety of possible responses as well as engage in peer- and self-evaluation. Librarians integrated the use of a blog and an audience response system (ARS) into the instruction to help accomplish these goals.     

Understanding Variation in Audience Engagement and Response: An Application of the Composite Model to Receptions of Avatar (2009)

Although much research documents variations in viewers' responses to screen media, the basis for divergent receptions remains relatively poorly understood and inadequately conceptualized. One possible theoretical schema is offered in the composite multidimensional model, which charts 4 distinct modes of reception that shape the specific form and content of audience responses in different contexts. In this study, the core distinctions charted in the composite model were tested in a Q methodology study of cross-cultural receptions of Avatar (2009). 120 respondents from 27 countries modeled their subjective responses to this polysemic text by rank-ordering 32 items and then commenting on their selections. Through factor analysis, 4 discrete responses toward Avatar were identified among participants, accounting for 74% of all respondents. Each factor clearly reflects key elements of the transparent, referential, mediated, and discursive modes identified in the composite model, indicating that the model is reasonably accurate in identifying broad distinctions in the underlying approaches to meaning-making that can be adopted by different viewers. Suggestive associations between viewers' subjective orientations and demographic characteristics, social group memberships, and discursive affiliations were also documented.     

维新时期的信息传播与受众反应

维新时期借助大众传媒的信息传播,向广大受众传递了救亡图存的变革思想,对少数精英分子产生了积极影响,一定程度上推动了变法运动的发展.不可否认,对大多数受众而言,维新时期的信息传播并未使其受到触动.相反,不少人对维新变法和新式媒介诋毁拒斥,攻击责难,使得在近代中国初次登台的大众传媒,并没有达到引领社会舆论,推动变法改革的目的.     

Virtuality and the Television Audience: The Case of Futurama

This essay examines the impact of Internet-based discourse on television audiences by examining the specific case of the recent program Futurama. Futurama has inspired the development of a vast and diverse virtual community dedicated to discussions of the program and the production of a variety of secondary discourses. .     

Promoting Sustainability: Audience and Curatorial Perspectives on The Human Factor

Abstract Humanity faces a growing list of socio‐economic and environmental problems, which impel us all to foster more sustainable forms of development. This paper examines how museums might encourage the kind of awareness that can lead to sustainability, by assessing responses to The Human Factor, a permanent exhibition at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which raises questions about values, beliefs, and actions associated with the industrialized worldview. Responses to the exhibition were assessed through quantitative exit surveys and a novel technique involving heart rate monitors. Additional qualitative insights were gained from responses of participants in a high school Youth Forum on Sustainability that used the exhibition to catalyze discussion. Together, these studies suggest that provocative exhibitions can foster understanding and awareness among teenagers and adults through a combination of cognitive and emotional responses, and that a focus on sustainability can be challenging both for visitors and for museums as cultural institutions.     

The Case for Audience Isolation: Language and Culture as Predictors of Advertiser Investment

Abstract

In what has become an increasingly multilingual United States, growing numbers of television advertisers have begun targeting foreign language speakers. Because of the increased cost and effort in crafting unique ad campaigns, however, the factors behind this investment decision are explored. Using an online survey, advertisers (N?=?1,150) were asked how they valued various demographic audience traits as they considered potential target markets. T tests revealed significant differences between foreign language and non-foreign language advertisers' audience preferences. Logistic regression showed that, contrary to previous audience valuation findings, household income was not a primary factor in foreign language audience investment decisions. Rather, advertisers who valued household income more were less likely to invest in foreign language audiences in the United States, with language dependency and cultural traits predicting a greater likelihood of investment. The Audience Investment by Isolation Model is offered, which can help explain the investment decision-making process by advertisers as they weigh demographic audience traits, audience isolation strategies, and costs.     

媒介使用频率、风险经验对阅听人风险资讯获取及空污感知态度与行为响应的影响

空气污染能否得到有效控制与缓解,很大程度上取决于民众的行为响应程度。本研究透过结构方程式模型(Structural equation modeling, SEM),检验民众日常媒介使用频率、风险经验、风险感知、风险下资讯获取与行为响应之间的具体关联度,进而讨论如何有效地向民众传播空污风险资讯。研究发现,民众在日常生活中较常使用网络媒体与人际传播获取空污资讯,且这两种媒体能够显著影响到民众的空污风险感知与风险下的资讯获取渠道,而风险经验对民众风险感知与风险下的资讯获取之影响不显著;另一方面,在风险感知中,严重性与关心程度更容易促使积极的行为响应,而易感性与自我效能感对行为响应的影响不显著;最后,本研究也为政府和媒体如何有效提升民众的空污风险感知与行为响应水平提出了具有针对性的策略建议。     

The Next Generation Platform: Comparing Audience Registration and Participation in Digital Sound Media

Some radio stations emulate mainstream formats in an effort to attract “niche” audiences, characterized by cultural determinants such as language or religion. This study analyzed stations that follow religious music subgenre formats. The most prominent religious music format. Southern Gospel, along with Country Religious and Black Gospel, was found almost exclusively in the Southern region of the U.S. The majority of stations that featured these formats were AM. In contrast, Worship, Soft Rock, and Rock format emulations were broadcast primarily on FM, with Soft Rock formats most evenly distributed around the country. Religious Rock formatted stations gave significantly greater emphasis to promotion and lowest emphasis to ministry. Findings suggest that niche formats' success in appealing to identifiable cultural groups may rest on the effectiveness of station promotion to the intended audiences.     

George Gallup and Ralph Nafziger: Pioneers of Audience Research

In keeping with end-of-century biographies of great leaders, this essay traces the careers of opinion pollster George Gallup and journalism educator Ralph Nafziger. They inadvertently overlapped in 1930, by publishing the first Journalism Quarterly articles on newspaper readers. Gallup became internationally recognized as creator of the Gallup Poll and other media audience enterprises. He invented some standard questions that are used in academic as well as commercial research today, and "a new form of journalism" built around public opinion on current events. Nafziger, as a professor and administrator, built research centers and graduate programs in 2 leading journalism schools. He was central to the establishment of research as an integral component within education for journalism and mass communication.     

从“受众”到“使用者”:网络环境下视听信息接收者的变迁

新媒体的发展带动了社会文化的变迁和信息传播方式的变革,传统的视听信息传播方式——电视,正受到越来越强烈的冲击。本文考察了网络时代政治经济、社会文化以及传播技术等方面的变革,并以此为基础探讨视听信息的接收者在此过程中发生的转变。本文认为,视听信息的接收者正在从被动接收、单次接收信息的"受众"(receiver)变为表现出主动选择和多向传播的信息"使用者"(uSer),而这种转变将带动视听信息传播路径的多级化和传播效果的多元化。     

The Seeds of Audience Fragmentation: Specialization in the Use of Online News Sites

Contemporary normative concerns that the Internet might fragment national audiences and polities are based on suggestions that the medium is particularly conducive to specialized use. However, relatively little quantitative research has explicitly examined this contention. This study evaluates outlet specialization within the context of online news reading. Analyses of news viewing by a nationally representative panel of Internet users reveal that the user demographic profiles of news sites are individually distinct. More important, the topics that readers view vary by the sites they access. In sum, the provision of news over the Internet exhibits ample signs of outlet specialization.     

Cultural Proximity and Audience Behavior: The Role of Language in Patterns of Polarization and Multicultural Fluency

Cultural proximity is a multidimensional concept, most often used to explain media preferences across national boundaries. The present study extends the construct, revealing its power to explain audience formation within a multicultural society. Portable People Meter data from Arbitron, Inc., was used to compare patterns of television and radio use across Spanish-speaking Hispanics, English-speaking Hispanics, and non-Hispanics in Houston, Texas. The results indicate that language preferences play a powerful role in determining audience behavior. Furthermore, while English-speaking Hispanics exhibit multicultural fluency, the other two populations show evidence of cultural polarization.     

一切为了观众——内蒙古博物院免费开放工作中的探索与创新

内蒙古博物院作为自治区六十周年大庆重点献礼工程,于2007年7月31日对外开放,2008年5月被评为内蒙古自治区唯一的“国家一级博物馆”。内蒙古博物院的建成开放,是内蒙古民族文化大区建设成果的重要展示。她生动展示当代内蒙古政治、经济、文化、社会发展成果,是浓缩了中国北方亿万年生态变迁、几千年草原文明史话和当代内蒙古发展的一部“百科全书”。     

上海科技馆开馆初期观众调查

上海科技馆于2001年12月18日正式开馆，是目前国内最大的科技馆。至2002年底观众达到了近270万人次。本研究对2002年2月至9日回收的693份有效问卷进行了统计分析，以了解开馆初期一般观众的基本资料、参观行为；对上海科技馆各项设施、服务的满意程度状况。本研究结果发现观众对上海科技馆印象最深(好)的依次是建筑、环境，而服务排名最后。对上海科技馆最满意的展厅是“生物万物”、“智慧之光”，最不满意的是“设计师摇篮”展厅。2002年上海科技馆的观众来自五湖四海，但还是以本地、江浙的青少年观众为主，观众的家庭背景以国家与社会管理、专业技术人员、普通办事人员为主，月收入在1500至4000元的家庭是上海科技馆主要观众群体。本进一步运用数学手段，分析了观众的部分行为相关性、观众的类型，并对观众调查分析的方法、科技馆的未来发展进行了分析。     

The Influence of Message and Audience Characteristics on TV News Grazing Behavior

This study examined television news channel changing (AKA grazing, zapping) behavior by focusing on the viewing duration and attention paid to stories that varied in sensational content and packaging. These two message-related factors had independent and interactive effects on how long grazers stayed tuned to a channel. Moreover, high sensation seekers, who were more avid news consumers in everyday life, exhibited different viewing and attentional patterns compared to low sensation seekers. While arousing television news was the most watched by all, high sensation seekers unexpectedly showed less preference for sensational tabloid packaging of arousing content than low sensation seekers.     

Objectivity and the Other Orwell: The tabloidism of the Daily Mirror and journalistic authenticity

Rebellion in Elizabethan Ireland triggered the publication of a series of early news pamphlets in England that have been labeled as tedious military narratives celebrating English victories over native insurgents. Careful scrutiny of these pamphlets, specifically those titles that relayed news of the Second Desmond rebellion (1579–1583), suggests otherwise. Therein, it was not news of events in Ireland that was stressed, nor indeed was it the Catholicism of the Old English who had entered into rebellion. Instead, these works prioritized political obedience to queen and commonwealth above all else and employed this revolt to remind readers of the essential obligations of fidelity and virtue. As agents of persuasion rather than purveyors of news, the authors echoed official thinking by the state in cultivating the importance attached to obedience amid strains in both kingdoms that attended the Counter-Reformation.     

Surveillance/Discipline/Resistance: Carly Fiorina under the Gaze of The Wall Street Journal

This essay examines how news discourses of former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina shaped her professional persona throughout her tenure with the company. At a time when only eight out of the Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs, she was often identified as the most powerful female CEO in the United States. This high-profile position brought with it much media attention and focus on her gender, her performance, and her “visibility.” Through a Foucauldian analysis of The Wall Street Journal, I illustrate how Fiorina's public identity was shaped and disciplined through the popular press and explore the opportunities for resisting certain subject positions. This analysis reveals the complex relationships between organizations and broader social discourses that involve gendered workplaces, glass ceilings, and even the role of the visual in organizational life.