Parasocial Interaction With Liked,Neutral, and Disliked Characters on a Popular TV Series

In this study, 174 respondents completed an online questionnaire measuring their responses to a liked, neutral, or disliked character from the ABC drama Lost. Specifically, they reported their perceived similarity, identification while viewing, and parasocial interaction with the character, as well as the extent to which they had tried to change aspects of themselves to be more like the character (“change/influence”). Across the whole sample, perceived similarity was a significant positive predictor of both identification and parasocial interaction, and identification was associated with higher levels of parasocial interaction. Parasocial interaction, but not identification, was a significant positive predictor of reported change/influence. When the three types of characters were examined separately, all four responses were higher for liked and neutral characters than for disliked characters, and parasocial interaction was higher for liked than for neutral characters. Interpretations of the findings, and implications for understanding viewers' involvement with media characters, are discussed.     

Work values in librarianship

Schneider's (1987a) attraction-selection-attrition framework explains that groups of workers attracted to the same occupational group may be expected to behave alike in their jobs. Specifically, it suggests that certain types of people are attracted to certain occupations, and that people who choose the same occupation tend to behave in a like manner within their occupational group. This study investigated work values in librarianship and identified the work values of library science students (i.e., a group of individuals attracted to the profession of librarianship). It also looked at the work values of business students, to investigate differences in the work values of individuals attracted to these two occupations. These results provide information about work values in librarianship which should be of interest to library managers, to practicing librarians, and to library science students.     

Determinants of Journalists' Professional Autonomy: Individual and National Level Factors Matter More Than Organizational Ones

This article seeks to map systematically predictors of journalists' perceived professional autonomy. On the basis of survey responses of 1,800 journalists from 18 countries, the study tests the extent to which journalists with different backgrounds and jobs, who work for different media and organizations, under different kinds of ownerships and pressures, in democratic and nondemocratic regimes, can perform their roles as society's main providers of information. We demonstrate that predictors of professional autonomy are twofold: comprising journalists' perceived influences on news work, and objective limits of autonomy that exist beyond journalists' perceptions. The latter reside on 3 levels: the individual journalist level, the organizational level, and the societal level. Journalists' subjective perceptions of political, organizational, procedural, professional, and reference group influences proved to be strongest predictors of professional autonomy. Of the hypothesized objective determinants of journalists' autonomy, ownership, editorial rank, and professional experience had the highest predictive value.     

科研人员论文引用动机及相互影响关系研究

[目的/意义]鉴于当前对于引用动机的研究缺乏一致性的总结和归类,对于不同的引用动机之间的相互影响关系也缺乏研究,根据前人的研究成果归纳出5个重要的引用动机,在将引用动机的类型分为内在引用动机和外在引用动机两类的基础上,检验引用动机对引用行为以及不同的引用动机间的影响关系.[方法/过程]利用量表式问卷对科研人员进行调查,通过结构方程建模的方法对所回收调查问卷进行分析.[结果/结论]科研人员的论文引用行为会受到"知识主张"、"价值感知"、"信息源便利性"、"引用输出"和"引用重要性"等引用动机的影响.从引用动机间的相互影响关系看,内在引用动机--"知识主张"会影响科研人员对"信息源便利性"、"引用输出"和"引用重要性"的感知程度;另一个内在引用动机--"价值感知"会影响科研人员对"引用输出"和"引用重要性"的感知程度.     

Craft and Librarianship: A Reconsideration of the Sources of Librarian Job Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

This article surveyed the sources of job satisfaction among 1,833 library and information science (LIS) master's program graduates in North Carolina from 1964–2009. The study examined the effects of traditional work-related variables such as income, flexibility, co-workers, fringe benefits, and setting on job satisfaction. In addition, the analysis introduces variables related to the notion of craft, professional achievement, and family dynamics to determine what impact they have. Craft combines the wish to perform one's work well independent of extrinsic factors or influences and the desire of the worker to create a quality final outcome or product. The major finding of the study is that craft and professional achievement are the largest determinants of job satisfaction among LIS graduates. Meanwhile, variables such as marital status, whether or not one has children, and breadwinner status had no discernible effect. Supportive co-workers, being a woman, and membership in professional organizations likewise correlate with job satisfaction, while being a full-time worker, anxiety over job security, and working in an academic library setting contributed to dissatisfaction. Although LIS graduates generally report being very content in their jobs, this study suggests that they are anxious about changes such as the increasing number of temporary and freelance jobs and the perception that full-time staff are doing more work with fewer resources.     

Framing the Work of Art: Spirituality and Career Discourse in the Nonprofit Arts Sector

Based on qualitative data from participant interviews, this study explores how nonprofit arts managers construct the notion of career, and more specifically, how they frame the nature of their work and career choices. Findings revealed that participants employed a spiritual framework of calling, service, sacrifice, and personal rewards to socially construct, understand, and legitimate their nonprofit careers. These framing devices provided the language for participants to make sense of their career decisions and to define their career successes in terms of their own values instead of traditional measures of extrinsic rewards. As contemporary workers place increasing importance on meaningful work, spiritually centered discourse has implications for career theory and organizational practices in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors.     

The relationships of online journalists' emotional responses to competitors with job satisfaction,workload, and perception of the quality of the news website

An e-mail survey of online journalists reveals that online journalists' emotional responses to their competitors' coverage are significantly correlated with their job satisfaction, workload, and the perceived quality of their news website. The more negatively online journalists feel when they get scooped by their competitors, the more unsatisfied they are with their jobs. The more negatively the journalists feel about getting scooped, the more the workload the journalists feel that they have. The more positively online journalists feel when they scoop their competitors, the more positively they perceive the quality of their news website. In addition, the greater the workload the journalists consider that they have, the more unsatisfied they are with their jobs. The more positively the journalists perceive the quality of their news organization, the more satisfied they are with their jobs.     

HAPPIER WORKING FOR THEMSELVES?

This survey analysis of women freelance journalists is a first step toward filling a gap in the largely uncharted territory of women in the United States who leave traditional employer-based news jobs for self-employment. The findings show that female respondents were satisfied with their work hours, earnings, and ability to combine their atypical newswork jobs with raising children. However, they were no more satisfied with their work than male respondents who also worked as freelance journalists.     

What Motivates Librarians to Share Knowledge?

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of social and individual factors of strength of ties, perceived benefits, extrinsic rewards, recognition, reciprocity, and perceived cost on sharability. A survey was sent to 170 librarians at special, public, and academic libraries across Kuwait; 139 responses were received for a response rate of 80%. It was found that the strength of ties and perceived benefits had a positive effect and perceived costs had a negative effect on sharability. The findings can help libraries identify the opportunities and barriers to motivate librarians to share their knowledge. This study is a useful contribution to knowledge management literature, especially concerning the library context.     

Emotion Work Revealed by Job Loss Discourse: Backgrounding-Foregrounding of Feelings, Construction of Normalcy, and (Re)instituting of Traditional Masculinities

Three emotion work themes were displayed in the discourse of individuals who lost their jobs and of their family members. Foregrounding-backgrounding of emotions indicated not only how some individuals and family members exerted effort to express positive emotions, but also why they would do so (for deep authenticity). In the construction of normalcy, respondents made an effort to portray and enact their lives as similar to the way things were before the job loss. By (re)instituting traditional masculinities, the men who lost their jobs were able to be "real" men in an emasculating situation. Taken together, these findings offer possibilities for further theoretical development and for communication interventions that can be applied by human resource professionals, career and outplacement counselors, family members, friends, and the individuals themselves.     

Analyzing Cataloging Job Descriptions: Are Cataloging Jobs Disappearing,Changing, or Merging?

Abstract

To determine the state of the cataloging job market, this study compares job advertisements from August 2016-August 2018 advertising for jobs with cataloging in the title, metadata in the title, and cataloging and metadata in the title. Given ongoing concerns about the impact of metadata jobs on the cataloging job market, this study asks the questions: Are cataloging jobs in fact “disappearing” and becoming metadata jobs? Are entry-level jobs disappearing, perhaps contributing to the idea that there is a lack of qualified catalogers? Is there a difference in position level between cataloging and metadata job advertisements that can account for a lack or perceived lack of available cataloging jobs? Are there more entry-level or mid/supervisory positions advertised? Are cataloging and metadata jobs really separate, or should they be considered one position called cataloging and metadata?     

Telenovela reception in rural Brazil: gendered readings and sexual mores

In The Cattle King, a Brazilian telenovela, melodramatic elements of class ascension, love and betrayal, adultery, and pre‐marital sex played a central role in the lives of the main characters. This ethnographic study of viewers in Macambira, a small rural community in the backlands of northeast Brazil, discusses how these rural viewers appropriated telenovelas in their daily lives and how the meanings assigned to the texts were interpreted according to their own values and beliefs about gender roles, relationships, and sexuality. I argue that the geographical isolation and the local patriarchal culture mediated the process of reception, interpretation, and appropriation of telenovelas. The isolation in which Macambira is located in relation to the urban representations in the telenovela narratives intensified the perceived gap between the local patriarchal culture and the urban reality constructed in the television text.     

Manifestations of deference behavior in teaching-focused academic librarians

This mixed methods study examined the manifestations of deference behavior in teaching-focused academic librarians in higher education. The study highlights examples of why teaching-focused academic librarians engage in deference behavior particularly when working with disciplinary faculty colleagues in the classroom. Findings indicate that despite being extremely qualified and competent, teaching-focused academic librarians often engage in deference behavior, and yield power to their disciplinary faculty colleagues out of fear of losing their jobs or being regarded as necessary, as well as a strategy to keep their jobs and maintain access to classrooms. Understanding the perspectives of teaching-focused academic librarians is crucial to advancing and sustaining the library profession, in addition to expanding the discourse of how disciplinary faculty can work with their librarian colleagues to dismantle the current structures and systems in place that uphold inequitable practices. Implications for research and practice are provided in order to bring awareness to the underlying reasons for deference behavior in teaching-focused academic librarians, and garner support for teaching-focused academic librarians who continue to navigate rocky terrain with their faculty colleagues.     

Healthcare librarians and the delivery of critical appraisal training: barriers to involvement

Background: Many healthcare librarians are undertaking training in critical appraisal but a significant number are not cascading the training to their end‐users. Objectives: To examine the barriers to healthcare librarian involvement in delivering critical appraisal training. Methods: A questionnaire survey of 57 library services across 48 NHS Trust Library Services in north west England followed up with 21 semi‐structured interviews. Results: Two types of barriers were noted: extrinsic barriers (organisational, environmental, training, role expectations) and intrinsic barriers (knowledge, skills, attitude). Conclusions: These barriers are not mutually exclusive and by overcoming one of them it does not necessarily follow that healthcare librarians will engage in delivering critical appraisal skills training. The challenge lies in developing strategies to deal effectively with these barriers to encourage and support healthcare librarians in the delivery of critical appraisal training at a level at which they feel confident and able.     

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict College Students’ Intent to Use LinkedIn for Job Searches and Professional Networking

College students and recent graduates are the fastest-growing user demographic on LinkedIn, with an estimated 40 million profiles for these groups. Guided by the theory of planned behavior, 107 college students completed an online survey to determine their LinkedIn use, attitudes, perceived control, and social influences for networking and job/internship searching. The results of this study suggest that students are infrequent and passive users of LinkedIn. Past behaviors, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and actual behavioral control were related to the effectiveness of LinkedIn to help them find internships and jobs. Parents and friends, attitudes, and past use of LinkedIn were related to their intention to use LinkedIn. Past use of LinkedIn and parents were the significant predictors of future intention to use LinkedIn.     

Portrayals of Women in Transnational Arab Television Drama Series

This content analysis of 15 Arabic and 3 Turkish drama serials on transnational Arab television examined the gender portrayals of characters. The analysis of 743 characters found that women were underrepresented, less likely to have recognizable jobs, and more likely than men to be portrayed in sex-typed occupations, activities, and settings. The analysis also revealed that programs with female writers were significantly less gender stereotypical. Moreover, differences were found among the producing Arab countries in terms of the portrayals of women; conservative countries had more sex-typed portrayals than the more liberal Arab countries, whereas Turkish programs had similar portrayals to Arabic programs produced in the liberal Arab states. The general findings are discussed in comparison to U.S. programming, and in relation to selective exposure, identification with characters, and potential effects on Arab viewers' gender role beliefs.     

A sensitivity analysis of factors influential to the popularity of shared data in data repositories

With their rapid development, data repositories usually provide abundant metadata—including data types, keywords, downloads, stars, forks, and citations—along with the data content. These rich metadata can be used as valuable resources to study the factors that facilitate data sharing. However, few previous studies have attempted to study which metadata are correlated with the popularity of data. This study overcomes these issues by extracting the major factors for each dataset from a well-known data repository, the UCI Machine Learning Repository, and a popular open-source software repository, GitHub. We trained a neural network model and measured the influence of these features on quantified popularity metrics using the weight product of connecting neurons. We grouped the UCI factors into two categories (intrinsic and extrinsic) and the GitHub factors into three categories (intrinsic, extrinsic, and web-related) to analyze their influence on popularity at each level. The quantified influence was used to predict the popularity of the data or software. We conducted a statistical analysis to explore the relationship between these factors and popularity with five different domains (life sciences, physical sciences, computer science/engineering, social sciences, and others) for the UCI repository. This study’s findings contribute to understanding the factors that affect the popularity of open datasets or software for providing guidance on data sharing, reuse, and organization.     

Effects of Priming Social Goals on Personal Interest in Television News

Research indicates that personal interests drive news consumption, such that individuals neglect news items that are not of obvious personal relevance. This study tested whether an extrinsic social goal might increase personal interest in news through increased acquisition of, and perceived attention to news information, irrespective of pre-existing interest in the given topic. Results showed the prime increased information acquisition, as well as perceived attention to news. The prime also worked directly and indirectly through perceived attention to influence news interest in the predicted direction. Applications of findings for news teases and other promotional messages are considered.     

Character sketches: The curious propaganda careers of Mary,Jane, and Willie

This article draws on the concepts of narrative interactivity and closure to investigate three World War II-era print media characters. The analysis details how Al Parker’s Mary & Jane and Norman Rockwell’s Willie Gillis developed a perceived authenticity that invited fans to envision the propaganda drawings as having lives beyond their artistic origins. The essay concludes that the narrative arcs of these characters prefigured the imagined relationships that subsequent generations developed with televised characters.     

Radio Sports Talk and the Fantasies of Sport

Rhetorical analysis of radio talk shows in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, home of the Louisiana State University “Fighting Tigers” college football team, revealed that the talk shows gave Tiger fans opportunities to share creative interpretations of events. This helped them cope with moments of perceived crisis when the team lost, and solidified their identity as tied to regional pride and the values of work, race, and masculinity. The talk shows also promoted fantasies about college athletics, essentially designating the university's athletic tradition as the most important activity on campus. In this sense, radio sports talk helps blur the line between amateur and professional sports and oversimplifies the complex mission of higher education.