A cross-cultural comparison of cognitive and affective mediators in the relationship between media use and body image disturbance: focusing on US and Korean women

This study examined whether the relationship between cumulative thin-ideal media and body image disturbance is mediated by (1) cognitive variables, including beliefs about normative thinness and thinness prevalence and (2) affective variables, including dejection and agitation. Also, this study tested whether mediating effects would be different across cultures. Results revealed that perception about normative thinness mediated the relationship between thin–ideal media use and body image disturbance among both US and Korean participants and the effect was stronger for Korean participants. Thinness prevalence estimation did not mediate thin-ideal media use and body image disturbance in either Korean or US participants. Dejection was a statistically significant mediator for the relationship between thin-ideal media use and body image disturbance for both Korean and US participants, but no cultural differences were found. Agitation was also a statistically significant mediator for thin-ideal media use and body image disturbance, but only for Korean participants. Cultural differences in mediating effects were explained based on individualism and collectivism.     

Effectiveness of health messages to change women's thin-ideal and unhealthy weight control intentions: Connecting social norms and social networks approaches

The thin-ideal is becoming increasingly dominant among women in Eastern Asian countries such as China and South Korea. The internalization of the thin-ideal leads to body image disturbance and unhealthy weight-control behaviors. Based on the social networks and social norms approaches, this study tests the effectiveness of normative messages in reducing women's internationalization of the thin-ideal and weight-control intentions through an experiment among female college students in China. It investigates how the following three factors: content of normative message (psychoeducational or feminist), source of the message (strong ties or weak ties), and characteristics of the recipients (self-weight evaluations) influence women's body image and weight-control intentions. Results of this study suggest that normative messages with a psychoeducational approach delivered through strong ties are more effective in decreasing women's internalization of the thin-ideal than the same message delivered through weak ties. In contrast, normative messages with a feminist approach delivered through weak ties are more effective in reducing women's internalization of the thin-ideal and unhealthy weight-control intentions than the same messages delivered through strong ties. There is an interaction effect between message content and recipients' self-weight evaluation. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.     

Reality Bites: An Investigation of the Genre of Reality Television and Its Relationship to Viewers’ Body Image

Utilizing a unique methodological approach, this study investigated subtypes of reality television (RTV) to study the influence of exposure to RTV on body image (body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness) as compared a more traditional weekly report of RTV viewing. Young adults (N = 472) completed online surveys measuring their exposure to RTV and perceptions of their own body image. Four types of RTV were uncovered. Regression analyses using these 4 factors demonstrated that exposure to competition-based RTV shows (e.g., Dancing with the Stars) predicted increased body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. On the other hand, the weekly self-report of RTV viewing did not reveal any relationships between weekly exposure to RTV and body image. These findings underline the need for cultivation-based media studies that include program-based measures of genre-specific media exposure, especially when seeking to capture media effects related to RTV.     

Feeling Bad About Feel-Good Ads: The Emotional and Body-Image Ramifications of Body-Positive Media

In recent years beauty companies have produced advertising campaigns purporting to make women feel better about their bodies and reverse the damage of thin-ideal media (e.g., The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty). Despite being celebrated in the popular press for the effort, little is known about how effective these advertisements are at healing issues of poor body image. In addition, little work has been done to explore the relationship between discrete emotions and body image. The present study was an experiment aimed at capturing the different discrete emotions experienced in a body-positive advertisement compared to traditional beauty ad. Findings assert that participants reported experiencing positive (e.g., elevation and hope) and negative (e.g., guilt and pride) discrete emotions significantly more than their counterparts in the traditional beauty ad condition. Results also show no significant difference in postexposure thin-ideal internalization between the two conditions.     

Where Arab social science and humanities scholars choose to publish: Falling in the predatory journals trap

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of publishing behaviour among a group of Arab scholars in social science and humanities disciplines. The paper also investigated the number of Arab scholars who are publishing in predatory journals and the reasons that drive them to select these journals to share their scholarly findings. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. Eighteen journals that were categorized as predatory journals were scanned to find the number of Arab scholars who published in them. Then, a questionnaire was sent to Egyptian and Saudi scholars as they were found to be the top Arab contributors in these journals. The questionnaire was followed by semi‐structured interviews to gain an in‐depth understanding of the publishing behaviour. The data showed that many Arab scholars prefer publishing in predatory journals as these journals are easier and faster. The results also indicate that there is a need to raise the awareness of the harm that predatory journals can cause to the scholars and how they can avoid these journals. This study was conducted with social science and humanities scholars in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The publishing behaviour may differ in other scholarly disciplines and other Arabic countries.     

Library Anxiety among Undergraduate Students: A Comparative Study on Egypt and Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of library anxiety among a group of Arab students in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The paper also investigated the factors that affect the students' level of anxiety while using academic libraries. The study tried to compare the difference in the level of anxiety in the two countries using a scale (LLPB) developed by the researchers which fit the culture in the Arab region. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with several students in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to determine the main factors that lead to having a level of anxiety in the libraries. In the second stage, a questionnaire was sent to students to measure what factors have a greater impact on the level of anxiety. The data showed that Egyptian students are more anxious about using the libraries than the Saudi students. The results also indicated that there is a need to train students on how to use the libraries and also change students' perception regarding the library to reduce the level of anxiety. This study was conducted in Egypt and Saudi Arabia the level of library anxiety and the factors that may affect the students may vary in other countries.     

e-Government adoption model based on theory of planned behavior: Empirical validation

The e-Government phenomenon has become more important with the ever increasing number of implementations worldwide. A model explaining the e-Government adoption and the related measurement instrument – a survey – had been developed and validated in this study. In a post Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) approach, theory of planned behavior (TPB) was extended to fit the requirements of e-Government context. The adoption of student loans service of the higher education student loans and accommodation association of Turkey (KYK) was investigated to obtain data for empirical validation. The instrument was administered to over four-hundred students and partial least squares path modeling was employed to analyze the data. The results indicate that the model was an improvement over TAM in terms of predictive power. The constructs trust, perceived behavioral control and attitudes successfully explained the intention to use an e-Government service. The findings presented in this study provide useful insights for researchers and policy makers when dealing with e-Government services.     

The Benefits and Trajectory of Digital Editing-Based Media Literacy Among Girls

The societal thin-ideal for women is damaging to the body image of both adults and children. Women representing this thin-ideal in the media are now digitally edited (airbrushed/Photoshopped), creating unachievable goals. A growing body of literature has proposed media literacy training and investigation to help combat the damage of these images on body image. This study assessed the knowledge and impact of digital editing in four female age groups (i.e., 3rd grade, 7th grade, 11th grade, and college students) collected in the U.S. state of Ohio. A within-subjects experimental design both extended previous work on media literacy by examining body image pre- and postexposure to edited images and investigated digital editing knowledge reflection as an intervention on body image harm. The current study also assessed the digital editing knowledge of all participants, creating an age trajectory. College-age emerging adults’ body image decreased after exposure to digitally edited images. However, this decline in body image was smaller when engaging in digital editing reflection. On average, younger participants did not show a decrease in body image after exposure. Results also indicated that girls begin to learn about digital editing around 12 to 13 years of age.     

The direct and indirect effects of advertising on materialism of college students in China

In this study, we propose a theoretical framework through which we examine the direct and the indirect effects of advertising on college students’ materialistic attitudes in China. The framework is built on the influence-of-presumed-influence model, which allows us to examine how advertising and peer influence interact with each other and exert joint effects. We conducted a survey of 210 undergraduate students aged from 17 to 24 in Beijing, China. Results of the survey suggest that, in addition to its direct effect, advertising produces an indirect effect on college students’ materialism via their presumed advertising influence on peers. The findings of this study have practical implications for both educators and marketers.     

Career Paths of Distance Education Librarians

ABSTRACT

A growing number of institutions are offering courses and degrees via distance education; however, distance education librarianship is a relatively new and often less defined field of librarianship. This paper will present the results of a survey to discover career paths leading to distance education librarianship. Based on a survey of subscribers to the OFFCAMP listserv, it asked questions such as: Is there a “typical” career path? Does previous or continuing work in other library units benefit a distance education librarian? What are the most important qualifications for a distance education librarian? Profiles of the education and experience of distance education librarians were analyzed for commonalities. The study concluded that distance education librarians come to their positions from a variety of experience, not always in libraries, but predominantly from library public service departments. A typical career path for distance education librarians is not evident at this time.     

What comprises social intelligence and can it predict knowledge sharing among diverse information professionals?

Limited studies have examined the factor structure of a social intelligence measure in multigroup settings and its relationships with information professionals' knowledge sharing experiences and rationales. Responses from a total of 240 information professionals employed at memory institutions in the US and Korea were analyzed. The findings showed that a parsimonious, re-specified model fit the three-factor structure of the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale, with weak invariance across the demographic backgrounds of information professionals. The social awareness factor was notably different across culture and gender groups. The study also found that, while social intelligence is not associated with knowledge sharing experience or reasons for sharing knowledge, the reasons were associated with demographic background, particularly with culture and gender. The current study is unique in that it evaluated social intelligence via multigroup confirmatory factor analysis with data from information professionals, which has been called for but is yet rare in the literature.     

How to calculate the practical significance of citation impact differences? An empirical example from evaluative institutional bibliometrics using adjusted predictions and marginal effects

Evaluative bibliometrics is concerned with comparing research units by using statistical procedures. According to Williams (2012) an empirical study should be concerned with the substantive and practical significance of the findings as well as the sign and statistical significance of effects. In this study we will explain what adjusted predictions and marginal effects are and how useful they are for institutional evaluative bibliometrics. As an illustration, we will calculate a regression model using publications (and citation data) produced by four universities in German-speaking countries from 1980 to 2010. We will show how these predictions and effects can be estimated and plotted, and how this makes it far easier to get a practical feel for the substantive meaning of results in evaluative bibliometric studies. An added benefit of this approach is that it makes it far easier to explain results obtained via sophisticated statistical techniques to a broader and sometimes non-technical audience. We will focus particularly on Average Adjusted Predictions (AAPs), Average Marginal Effects (AMEs), Adjusted Predictions at Representative Values (APRVs) and Marginal Effects at Representative Values (MERVs).     

Meta-synthesis in Library & Information Science Research

The meta-synthesis method has received increased interest in social science research, but relatively few meta-synthesis studies have been conducted in the library and information science (LIS) field. The purpose of this study was to analyze 44 LIS-related meta-synthesis studies in terms of contribution, meta-synthesis methodology, and research topics. The results revealed that there are four types of contributions of meta-synthesis research: isolated findings, non-dynamic relationships, dynamic relationships, and models. Moreover, a variety of methods have been used to search, select, analyze, and synthesize the individual studies. Finally, although meta-synthesis studies have been conducted on some LIS topics (e.g., health informatics, library user services, and information management), it has been an undervalued method for other research topics. Recommendations are offered to encourage the use of this method and to guide researchers to conduct more rigorous meta-synthesis studies on LIS topics.     

User-Centered Design in Practice: The Brown University Experience

ABSTRACT

This article presents a case study in user-centered design that explores the needs and preferences of undergraduate users. An analysis of LibQual+ and other user surveys, interviews with public service staff, and a formal American with Disabilities Act accessibility review served as the basis for planning a redesign of the Brown University Library's Web site. Three testing phases were conducted: individual usability testing of the existing site and baseline data collection on Web use preferences; focus groups to respond to a functional prototype and search prototypes; and individual usability testing and interviews on revised functional prototypes. The delicate task of obtaining staff buy-in without letting their opinion drive the redesign was accomplished by keeping the project team small and nonrepresentational, submitting all conflicts to user testing, and promising an intranet that would meet the specialized needs of staff. A commitment to experimentation and a willingness to jettison design and functional elements which did not meet user approval kept the design process agile and flexible. Prototype testing of a variety of search options clearly demonstrated that the lack of integration in a library's information system makes it difficult to rationalize and optimize the user's search experience. Difficulties enlisting staff to edit existing Web content were solved by outsourcing content review and editing for Web-appropriate length and format. Except for this content review, the Web site redesign and usability testing were all conducted in-house with limited resources and a nine-month time-frame. The study's focus on user expectations and nomenclature largely confirmed the results of previous studies.     

Low cost broadband network model using WiMAX technology

This paper proposes a design for a low cost network model designed for rural and remote areas of the globe. It presents a six component framework, comprised of technical and non-technical issues that will guide a successful design and deployment of a community size wireless network. The authors conducted a number of studies in England and Tanzania to study available technologies, their potentials and shortcomings. They also studied challenges facing remote areas of developing countries as well as the challenges that face network operators in developing countries. Using the outcomes from these studies, they designed a model that takes a holistic approach to address these challenges. The designed model uses WiMAX technology as a key factor in creating a low cost community owned network. Practical and simulation tests show that a single base station WiMAX network is capable of covering up to 10 km radius community, linking wirelessly with acceptable quality services. Designed model is suitable for small communities in rural and remote areas in developing countries. Network designs are useful for anyone looking to build campus size wireless networks.     

Measuring Online Communication Attitude: Instrument Development and Validation

This paper reports a series of studies that develop an empirically-derived instrument for assessing online communication attitude, a multidimensional set of individual cognitive-affective constructs that influence media choice. The first study inductively develops an initial item pool and tests dimensional structure via exploratory factor analysis. The second study further refines this structure and also tests the association between online communication attitude and media use in same-sex friendships. Finally, the third study deductively tests global model fit via confirmatory factor analysis, and establishes concurrent validity with theoretically related communication constructs. Beyond identifying motives underlying media choice, the instrument developed here possesses heuristic potential for clarifying media choice theory and elaborating the association between communication competence and media choice.     

Electronic Information Services and Bibliographic Retrieval Education Programs at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Library in Saudi Arabia

The article reviews various definitions of information literacy and discusses a study conducted at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) Library to reassess the need for information literacy, to identify factors which influenced non-attendance, to evaluate the impact of the program, and comments and suggestions used. The major findings include: there is a dire need for information literacy; participants found the programs useful; and one-on-one method coupled with seminars were more effective and more preferred by the participants. The article also advances a set of recommendations for improving bibliographic retrieval education programs at the KFUPM Library and other libraries in Saudi Arabia and other countries.     

Kames and elocution

Two studies were conducted to examine the relationships among different dimensions of empathy, communication, and prosocial behavior. Study one provides a test of three models hypothesized to explain this process. Results of this study indicated support for altruism as a motivator of prosocial behavior and suggest that the egoism and dual‐process models are unlikely explanations. Study two was conducted in hopes of identifying additional support for the model that emerged from study one. The second study fully replicated the findings of the first study. Results from both studies suggest that prosocial behavior is motivated primarily by concern for others. Moreover, emotional reactions to the perceived distress of others are preceded by a concern for others. Together, these findings strongly support an altruistic interpretation of prosocial behavior and suggest that the egoistic model be reformulated.     

JOURNALISM EDUCATION IN BRITAIN

The number of undergraduate journalism students in Britain has risen fivefold since 1994/95 as journalism education undergoes the rapid expansion previously seen in other countries. This study analyses this expansion in Britain, demonstrating that it has led to a growing proportion of journalism graduates in newsrooms, despite residual, industry concern that journalism is not the best first degree subject for would-be journalists. The study examines findings from a survey of British journalism undergraduates concerning what motivated them to become journalists. Its first phase was conducted when, or soon after, 661 students arrived at 10 British universities. Students were also asked about ambitions regarding specialisms in journalism. A similar questionnaire was administered to a “completion” sample of 234 students shortly before these university programmes ended. This asked why some had by then rejected journalism as a career. Findings are contextualised with international studies of journalism students.     

Managing indigenous knowledge for sustainable agricultural development in developing countries: Knowledge management approaches in the social context

This paper is based on a PhD study (Lwoga, 2009) that sought to assess the application of knowledge management (KM) approaches in managing indigenous knowledge (IK) for sustainable agricultural practices in developing countries, with a specific focus on Tanzania. This study used a mixed-research method which was conducted in six districts of Tanzania. Non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups were used to collect primary data from small-scale farmers in the selected districts. A total of 181 farmers participated in the semi-structured interviews, where the respondents ranged between 27 and 37 per district. Twelve focus group discussions were conducted in the selected districts. The study revealed that IK was acquired and shared within a small, weak and spontaneous network, and thus knowledge loss was prevalent in the surveyed communities. There were distinct variations in the acquisition of agricultural IK both in different locations and between genders. Information and communication technologies (ICT), culture, trust, and status influenced the sharing and distribution of IK in the surveyed communities. The research findings showed that KM models can be used to manage and integrate IK with other knowledge systems, taking the differences into account (for example, gender, location, culture, infrastructure). The paper concludes with recommendations for the application of KM approaches for the management of IK and its integration with other knowledge systems for agricultural development in developing countries, including Tanzania.