Press Credentials and Hybrid Boundary Zones: The Case of WorldNetDaily and the Standing Committee of Correspondents

ABSTRACT

Press credentialing practices are a vital, yet understudied site of scholarly research on journalistic norms and practices. Press credentialing not only structures internal professional hierarchies, but they also signify the boundaries of the journalistic field itself. This paper explores the legal and theoretical implications of press credentialing to cover the United States Congress, drawing on the concepts of boundary work and journalistic authority to demonstrate the material impact of the space between fields on professional legitimation in journalism. Using WorldNetDaily (WND) as a case study, I argue that the Standing Committee of Correspondents (SCC) occupies a hybrid boundary zone between the journalistic and political fields, generating a unique tension in First Amendment jurisprudence that places journalists in a paradoxical role as both the professional embodiments of free speech and its constitutional steward. The resulting jurisdictional conflict between the SCC and WND extends the relational model of journalistic authority by articulating how journalist-state relations can fundamentally augment the process of legitimation at its fuzzy boundaries. The relevance and implications for press credentialing practices in the digital age are discussed.     

Becoming Fathers: Initial Exploration of a Support Program for New Fathers

Emerging fathers experience a variety of stressors, including identity and role transitions, changes in their relationships, and challenges in developing caregiving skills. Increasing expectations for father involvement in childcare are emphasizing the importance of the father role, but social supports for new fathers remain scarce. Nineteen expectant and new fathers participated in a pilot 5-week group intervention aimed at improving stress coping and involvement attitudes using a combination of mindfulness practices and skill-building for parenting and partner communication. We administered surveys pre- and postintervention to assess efficacy in the areas of stress, depressive symptoms, father involvement attitudes, and mindfulness. Within-participant differences were compared across participants as well as examining individual reliable change. Results indicated initial reductions in stress and depressive symptoms and increases in the mindfulness constructs of nonjudgment and nonreactivity. No significant changes were found in father involvement attitudes. Perinatal intervention specific to fathers holds promise as an underexplored avenue for supporting families across the transition to parenthood.     

Assessing library topics using sentiment analysis in R: a discussion and code sample

Abstract

This article discusses the use of R programing language for executing a sentiment analysis of tweets pertaining to library topics. This discussion is situated within the literature of marketing and management sciences, which is employing methods of machine learning and business intelligence to make informed decision-making, and library administration, which has expressed great interest in social media engagement within its literature but has yet to adopt these types of analysis. Presented in this article is a sample code with instructions on how users may execute it within R to retrieve and analyze tweets relevant to library services. Two examples created using the code (analysis of top librarians’ tweets and analysis of posts about major book publishers) are used to demonstrate the functionality of the code. The code presented in this article may be used by libraries to analyze tweets about their library and library-related topics, which, in turn, may inform management and marketing design.     

Improving cognitive and physical function through 12-weeks of resistance training in older adults: Randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT

We performed a randomized, controlled trial to analyse the effects of resistance training (RT) on cognitive and physical function among older adults. Fifty participants (mean age 67 years, ~60% woman) were randomly assigned to an RT program or a control group. Participants allocated to RT performed three sets of 10-15RM in nine exercises, three times per week, for 12-weeks. Control group did not perform any exercise. Variables included cognitive (global and executive function) and physical function (gait, mobility and strength) outcomes. At completion of the intervention, RT was shown to have significantly mitigated the drop in selective attention and conflict resolution performance (Stroop test: -494.6; 95%CI: -883.1; ?106.1) and promoted a significant improvement in working memory (digit span forward: -0.6; 95%CI: ?1.0; ?0.1 and forward minus backward: -0.9; 95% CI: ?1.6; ?0.2) and verbal fluency (animal naming: +1.4, 95%CI 0.3, 2.5). No significant between-group differences were observed for other cognitive outcomes. Regarding physical function, at completion of the intervention, the RT group demonstrated improved fast-pace gait performance (?0.3; 95% CI: ?0.6; ?0.0) and 1-RM (+21.4 kg; 95%CI: 16.6; 26.2). No significant between-group differences were observed for other mobility-related outcomes. In conclusion, RT improves cognitive and physical function of older adults.     

Comparing the magnitude and direction of asymmetry during the squat,countermovement and drop jump tests in elite youth female soccer players

ABSTRACT

The aims of the present study were to provide an in-depth comparison of inter-limb asymmetry and determine how consistently asymmetry favours the same limb during different vertical jump tests. Eighteen elite female under-17 soccer players conducted unilateral squat jumps (SJ), countermovement jumps (CMJ) and drop jumps (DJ) on a portable force platform, with jump height, peak force, concentric impulse and peak power as common metrics across tests. For the magnitude of asymmetry, concentric impulse was significantly greater during the SJ test compared to CMJ (p = 0.019) and DJ (p = 0.003). No other significant differences in magnitude were present. For the direction of asymmetry, Kappa coefficients revealed fair to substantial levels of agreement between the SJ and CMJ (Kappa = 0.35 to 0.61) tests, but only slight to fair levels of agreement between the SJ and DJ (Kappa = ?0.26 to 0.18) and CMJ and DJ (Kappa = ?0.13 to 0.26) tests. These results highlight that the mean asymmetry value may be a poor indicator of true variability of between-limb differences in healthy athletes. The direction of asymmetry may provide a useful monitoring tool for practitioners in healthy athletes, when no obvious between-limb deficit exists.