Intermedia Agenda Setting in Television,Advertising, and Blogs During the 2004 Election

This study examined whether the candidate-controlled public relations tools of political ads and candidate blogs were successful in influencing the issue and news agenda of the major television news networks during the 2004 presidential election. Data showed strong correlations between blogs and the media agenda. Advertisements did not correlate with the media agenda. Cross-lag analyses showed that the media set the candidates' agenda. The authors suggest intermedia agenda setting occurred as the media transferred their agenda to campaign blogs.     

The Construction of Social Class in Social Work Education: A Study of Introductory Textbooks

Social work introductory textbooks reflect myriad practical interests, pedagogical concerns, and theoretical considerations. However, they also present students with accepted views, dominant perspectives, and main discourses of knowledge. In light of this centrality, the present article examines the representation of the concept of “social class” in introductory textbooks as a way to look at the construction of the concept in social work education. Based on the content analysis study of 50 introductory textbooks, the article suggests that social work education has overlooked or even denied the relevance of social class. Class differences, as part of other categories of power such as race, ethnicity, and gender are crucial factors in explaining diversity and inequality. As social justice is one of the main premises of social work, the question of how to prepare students to deal with class issues as future practitioners seems to be very important, especially in light of increasing social class gaps.     

A cognitive approach to threshold concepts

This paper asks a fundamental question: what is happening inside the mind of the undergraduate during teaching and learning experiences, and how should curricula be designed to support it? A number of concepts lend themselves to providing an answer, principle among which is the relatively recent idea of Threshold Concepts. In this paper we attempt to critically evaluate both the ‘product’ and ‘process’ of Threshold Concepts and subject the idea to a stress test by comparing it to the longer established Schema Theory of Learning. This mapping enabled a novel empirical study involving undergraduate civil engineering students to be performed. The methods derived from Schema Theories of learning provide a set of findings that compliment and strengthen certain key areas of Threshold Concepts, as well as leading to the development of some interesting principles of curriculum design.     

Steps counts among middle school students vary with aerobic fitness level

The purpose of this study was to examine if steps/day taken by middle school students varied based on aerobic fitness classification. Middle school students (N = 223; 112 girls, 111 boys) were assigned to three aerobic fitness categories (HIGH, MOD, LOW) based on results of the FlTNESSGRAM PACER test. Four weekdays of pedometer monitoring determined activity levels (steps/day). Boys accumulated significantly more steps/day than girls, 11,589 +/- 3,270 and 10,232 +/- 2,517 steps/day, respectively; F(1,219) = 16.0, p < .001, eta2 = .055. There were no differences in steps/day between grades. HIGH fit participants accumulated significantly more steps/day, F(2, 217) = 12.2, p < .101, eta2 = .101, than moderately fit and low fit participants (approximately 1,491 and ; 2,867 steps/day, respectively). Middle school students who participated in sports in addition to physical education (PE) accumulated significantly more steps/day (approximately 980 steps/day) than those participating in PE only, F(1, 219) = 10.0, p < .01, eta2 = .044. Although the relationship between physical activity and aerobic fitness was moderate (0.35; p < .01), these data demonstrated significant differences in accumulated steps/day among youth of varying aerobic fitness levels. Whether improved fitness levels were the result of additional activity or the cause of it remains to be determined. Regardless, the fittest middle school students were also the most active and accumulated a significant amount of steps/day through organized extracurricular physical activities.     

The War: The Story of One Rural College's Battle for Survival

This paper intends to describe the recent experience of a small, rural, two-year technical college. After four decades of success, the college had found itself in a difficult situation with a substantial loss in enrollment and diminished state and local support, coupled with low campus employee morale. In response, the college team closed ranks and rallied in what has become quite a proactive and successful effort to reinvent itself. After nearly six years of working to correct a number of issues that had led to decline, the college gained a general sense of stabilization, made advances in existing and new academic programs and technical innovation, dramatically increased diversity, and enhanced student life opportunities with the addition of an array of successful athletic programs. The college has seen significant increases in enrollment, state and national recognition for technical initiatives, and a collectively positive sense of the future.     

Running in the Sun: The Pyongyang Marathon and its Evolution into a Sport Tourism Event

Abstract

In April 2014, for the first time since the event was established, over 200 foreign recreational runners participated in the Pyongyang Marathon, which is part of Day of the Sun commemorating the birthday of Kim Il-sung. The decision of the North Korean regime to open the event to foreign amateurs was unusual, thus the paper examines this new approach to the marathon, and to tourism in general, by contextualizing them within an historical perspective. It is argued that tourism policy under Kim Jong-un, the third leader of the ‘Kim dynasty’, was unprecedented in terms of its systematic approach to the development of a meaningful tourism industry while also particularly emphasizing Western tourism and sport tourism. With the inclusion of the marathon into its tourism industry, North Korea strengthened its place in the worldwide trend of sport event tourism, yet the Pyongyang Marathon has stood out by being more about branding a country than a city. In this regard, this sport tourism event has offered the visitors a look into a ‘different normality’, which was indicative to the rationale of the regime that benefited from the attention it drew through its image as ‘unexpected’ and ‘mysterious’.