Understanding our library's laptop users: Defining “need” in a needs-based service

In Fall 2019, librarians at the Marydean Martin Library at Nevada State College (NSC) significantly expanded the library's laptop lending program in response to demand, and conducted a review to answer two key questions regarding the service: Whom did the program serve, and Were there unintentional barriers to service use due to lost or damaged laptop fees? Over 50 % of NSC students are Pell grant recipients, which led library staff to wonder if technology fees presented a barrier to students who otherwise might not have access to computers to complete coursework. To answer these questions and address any equity issues, librarians used usage and survey data to understand the demographics and behaviors around laptop service use, including students' perceptions of fees and their reasons for using or not using the service. The findings revealed that the typical laptop user differed significantly from the average NSC student across several demographics, including Pell status, and that replacement fees were not a deterrent from using the service.     

The BBC,Group Listening,and ‘The Changing World’

This article examines the content and impact of a series of BBC lecture courses broadcast in the early 1930s. The Group Listening Scheme was established in 1928: experts working in a variety of fields were invited to broadcasts a series of evening lectures. Adults across the country were encouraged to gather for the lectures and stay on afterwards to discuss them. ‘The Changing World’ consisted of half-hour talks over six evenings a week during a six-month period. The broadcasts amounted to a two-term syllabus, with 24 talks devoted to each of the six themes (the modern dilemma, industry and trade, literature and art, science, the modern state, and education and leisure). This article will sample some of these broadcasts and explore the listener response to the series in order to reach an understanding of the BBC’s achievements in adult education during the interwar period.     

Constructing the “new ethnicities”: media,sexuality, and diaspora identity in the lives of South Asian immigrant girls

This paper posits that adolescence, as experienced by girls of immigrant diaspora groups, is complicated by issues of race, culture and nation that intersect with discourses of sex and gender. In terms of globalization theory, sexuality is conceptualized as a locus of cultural hybridization; media representations of sexuality often mark the global/local nexus for diaspora peoples. In this study, a series of in‐depth interviews were conducted with South Asian American girls in order to analyze the role of media in their sexual identity constructions. The focus group data revealed radical rearticulations of sexual identity from an “interstitial” audience position that involved oppositional readings of various media texts. These rearticulations can be seen as part of the project of forging new ethnicities in the diaspora context.     

A new normal? Competing national cultural discourses and workers’ constructions of identity and meaningful work in Norway

We examine how conceptions of identity and meaningful work are influenced by a nation's changing economic and political environment. We collected research in Norway – a country with a rich economy that has heavily relied upon oil production since the 1980s. Yet depleting oil resources are prompting an economic transformation. Twenty-seven interviews and a thematic analysis revealed how Norwegian workers safeguarded their traditional, collective workplace values, yet were simultaneously confronted with modern – more masculinized – workplace performances ushered in with the oil era. We contribute to theory by suggesting that work's meaningfulness is constructed by competing national cultural discourses that evolve over time. These discourses become narratives that citizens draw upon to evaluate work and to negotiate their personal and professional identities.     

The response to “roots”: A national survey

This study examines radio‐television columns in the newspapers to determine how columnists have responded to accelerating developments and issues in the electronic media. The indications are: show business as usual.     

“Listening is an act of love”: Learning listening through StoryCorps

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Basic Survey Course, Group Communication, Organizational Communication, Intercultural Communication, Listening, Family Communication, Interviewing, Business and Professional Communication.

Objectives: After completing this single class activity, students will be able to: (a) define listening; (b) identify listening as a top skill employers desire; (c) explain how listening may be perceived as an act of love; and (d) critically assess ways in which their listening behaviors may be improved.     

Global queens,national celebrities: tales of feminine triumph in post‐liberalization India

This paper's analysis of print media texts about India's six Miss World and Miss Universe title‐holders maps the cultural production of the global beauty queen as an emerging hero whose tale of ascent circulates in a nation that is renegotiating its marginal position in the global economy. News and magazine texts celebrate global beauty queens' bodily discipline and devotion to fitness and grooming programs as evidence of the meritorious hard work of committed professionals. Popular biographies construct beauty queens as humble and ordinary women, who have struggled to overcome adversities in their pursuit of global fame. Media accounts navigate the boundaries between modernity and tradition when they represent beauty queens as hybrid—wholesome, patriotic, and cosmopolitan—young women, who preserve their authentic national identities despite their success in the global arena. Unpacking the mythical tales of class, gender, and national ascent that are smuggled into the public profiling of the global beauty queen, I argue that such representations of feminine agency in popular print culture authorize the ideological interests of India's consuming classes.     

Speech and the “new” philosophies

Speech philosophy, in the face of the current anti‐intellectualism, deals with the place of rational‐logical elements in discourse. The author argues for the supremacy of reason in communication, and calls for neo‐classical communicative logic fused with the social direction of thought. Such a goal inevitably incorporates value judgments. Thus the intellectual, logical, and ethical components are an unbroken continuum in their expression and effect.     

Privatization and national priorities in the Asia‐pacific region 1

Since the introduction of AT&T's divestiture in the USA, the trend for privatization has reached Asia's telecommunications industry with varying results. National priorities, both political and social, have dictated the approach to telecommunications in the Asia‐Pacific region. This paper analyses and examines the recent policy changes in the NIEs, near NIEs and China and how these changes are introducing structural adjustments within the telecommunications sector. The importance of these policy adjustments to the pressures created by technological dynamism are explored concluding with an overview of the political economy of privatization of telecommunications supplies of basic and value‐added services.     

Is the new citation-rank approach P100′ in bibliometrics really new?

The percentile-based rating scale P100 describes the citation impact in terms of the distribution of unique citation values. This approach has recently been refined by considering also the frequency of papers with the same citation counts. Here I compare the resulting P100′ with P100 for an empirical dataset and a simple fictitious model dataset. It is shown that P100′ is not much different from standard percentile-based ratings in terms of citation frequencies. A new indicator P100″ is introduced.     

Freedom of speech and the “new left”

This article examines the role and responsibilities of the “New Left”; in current social contexts. It explores, specifically, the legal rights and obligations of any dissenting group and the part that these dissenting factions play in our society.     

“势”,“时”,“术”与广告创意

广告作为一种传递信息的形式,在商品和商品交换刚一产生就出现了,只是由于受到社会、经济发展水平和人类传播工具的制约,早期的广告其功能形态都十分简单,仅仅止于“告知”而已。 １９世纪上半叶,西方一些发达国家率先将古老的广告术和大众传媒结合在一起,广泛地运用于商业活动,从而大大扩展了广告的功能和价值。一个个杰出的广告人才随之脱颖而出。大卫·奥格威、克劳德·霍普金斯、雷蒙·罗必凯等广告大师在长期的广告活动中巧妙地将广告与营销、广告与传播紧密结合在一起,从而将广告战略和广告技巧置于科学化的基础上,建立了广…     

“A bit hard for us to explain”: Barriers to creating new information in scientific collaboration

Scientific collaboration is a distinct iteration of information creation as a process. It aims to form willful relationships between scientists to achieve the shared objective of new information creation with the end goal of knowledge production. Findings of an exploratory study investigating barriers that hinder effective scientific collaboration and strategies to cope with these obstacles are reported. A qualitative and interpretive methodology is leveraged to analyze data collected from 14 in-depth interviews with researchers who work in a cross-disciplinary scientific research center. The results indicate that domain disparity and motivation and engagement are the strongest hindrances to effective collaboration. Researchers adopt active and constant learning as an approach to mitigate barriers, lower affective distress, and improve collaboration processes. Malleable boundary objects can facilitate collaboration by adjusting to research aims but may also contort projects, manifesting as a barrier to new information creation.     

“近”起来,“深”下去,“高”上来

让报纸"近"起来,让记者"深"下去,让品位"高"上来,是地方报纸提升自身传播力、公信力、影响力的有效途径。如何才能提升地方报纸的传播力、公信力、影响力呢?我们的体会是:让报纸"近"起来,让报道"深"下去,让品位"高"上来,不断通过版面创新、栏目创新、报道创新、活动创新、体制创新和经营创新,大力实施报纸的品牌营销战略,同样可以开创自己的一片天地。     

少“贪杯”,莫“碰杯”,不比“杯”

报纸上,有奖征文杯多起来了。小报有杯,大报也有杯。有新闻杯、通讯杯、散文杯、调查杯、言论杯、图片杯。有时,一张报纸几个杯。报纸上开展有奖征文竞赛,可以刺激读者多写稿、写好稿。編辑部可以增加来稿,有选稿的余地,对提高征文稿件质量、集中宣传报道某一个方面有好处。但在某些征文杯竞赛中,有三个方面的奖杯值得考虑。     

Mythology,narrative, and discourse in Javanese wayang towards cross‐level theories for the new development paradigm

This study is aimed mainly at portraying the profiles of the visitors to presidential candidate's websites in Taiwan's 2000 election. An online survey was conducted, initiated by visitors' clicking button ads on different candidates' websites, which linked them to a questionnaire. The results reveal that mainly the site visitors were male, young, and highly educated. Most visitors agreed that their motive to visit candidates' websites were to acquire candidate‐related information, and to better understand the candidates' standing on policies. Those who visited a particular candidate's site tended to be supporters of that candidate.     

“Communication,” “Critical”

Despite the proliferation of critical studies of communication, the meanings of the words “communication” and “critical” remain deeply contested. Attending to the history of the use of these terms inside and outside of the academy offers a broader perspective on some of the most pressing issues confronting scholars of communication today.