Proceedings of the British hackademy

As journalism has become a ‘profession’, universities around the country have begun offering courses which prepare students to enter the field. The author, a journalist, discusses his experiences of teaching on one such course.     

Viewing a phonological deficit within a multifactorial model of dyslexia

Participants were administered multiple measures of phonological awareness, oral language, and rapid automatized naming at the beginning of kindergarten and multiple measures of word reading at the end of second grade. A structural equation model was fit to the data and latent scores were used to identify children with a deficit in phonological awareness alone or in combination with other kindergarten deficits. Children with a deficit in phonological awareness in kindergarten were found to be five times more likely to have dyslexia in second grade than children without such a deficit. This risk ratio substantially increased with the addition of deficits in both oral language and rapid naming. Whereas children with one or more kindergarten deficits were at heighten risk for dyslexia, some of these children were found to be adequate or better readers. These results are discussed within a multifactorial model of dyslexia that includes both risk and protective factors.     

公民教育的进展研究：发达国家的探索

21世纪初，无论是在国家层面还是在国际范围，人们都开始对公民教育产生新的兴趣。越来越多具有多元文化的民主国家对作为民主公民教育基础的人权教育的国际共识、全球化进程所带来的统一性与多样性之间关系的冲突特征、许多民主的民族一国家对公民（特别是年轻人）的政治参与水平以及对种族主义倾向的反民主运动的忧虑等，都被看作是引进和加强公民教育的原因。一个由国际学者组成的研究小组，通过考察、研究为我们确认了多元文化的民主体系中公民教育在教学方面的一些重要原则、概念以及公民教育对学校课程的促进。发达国家在实践方面的经验显示，成功的公民教育要求一个清晰的政策框架和专业的教师培训等。     

General Communication

James Hartley, ed. The Psychology of Written Communication (New York: Nichols Publishing/ London: Kogan Page, 1980— E12.00/$30.00)

Michael Emery and Ted Curtis Smythe, eds. Readings in Mass Communication (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1980—price not given, paper)

Benjamin M. Compaine's A New Framework for the Media Arena: Content, Process and Format (address above—$23.40)

Rick D. Pullen's Mass Media Law in California (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1979 —$9.50, paper)

Marshall McLuhan, Kathryn Hutchon and Eric McLuhan's Media, Messages and Language: The World as Your Classroom (Skokie, Ill.: National Textbook Co., l980—price not given, paper)

Mieke Ceulemans and Guido Fauconnier's Mass Media: The Image, Role and Social Conditions of Women–A Collection and Analysis of Research Materials (Paris: Unesco/New York: Unipub, 1979—price not given, paper)

Managers' Entertainers' and Agents' Book by Walter E. Hurst (revised ed. of No. 6 in the series, 92 pp.)

How to Be a Music Publisher by Walter E. Hurst (revised ed. of No. 11 in the series, 74 pp.)

Copyright Registration Forms PA and SR by Walter E. Hurst (this is a new title, No. 16 in the series, 73 pp.)

How to Sell Your Song by Walter E. Hurst and Don Rico (this is another revision , No. 18 in the series, 95 pp.)     

Enacted Support and Well-Being: A Test of the Mediating Role of Perceived Control

This study examined the unique effects of three forms of enacted (i.e., received) support (emotional, unpaid assistance, financial) on well-being and tested the potential mediating role of perceived control. The analysis was based on a national sample collected through the second wave of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey conducted in 2004–2006. Findings revealed emotional support exhibited a positive effect direction on well-being, while unpaid assistance and financial support both showed negative effect directions. Perceived control was found to fully mediate the relationships between all three forms of enacted support and well-being: Emotional support boosted well-being through higher perceived control, while unpaid assistance and financial support reduced well-being through lower perceived control. Findings provide evidence that effects of social resources on well-being are mediated through psychological resources.     

News and notes from the state associations

An account of some active audiences and unusual situations confronting public speakers in Missouri's early years.     

Movie Performance and Recent Trends in Music and Video File-Sharing

This article introduces a theoretical framework that can serve as a conceptual basis for media economics research of the development of media industries. The framework incorporates dynamic expansion and contraction processes and the constant interaction between strategy, structure, and government policy. The focus in this article is on strategic behavior of firms in the communications industry. I posit that these organizations are part of a system of organizations. As a part of this system the communications firm changes and affects the structure of the system, but at the same time the organization is affected by this same environment. The capability of media organizations to develop, augment, structure, and adapt a bundle of internal and external competencies is the central organizing concept.     

Fault tolerance of cooperative interception using multiple flight vehicles

Cooperative interception of a moving target by multiple vehicles is studied. The main contributions of research work presented in this paper include: (1) cooperative interception is achieved for multiple vehicles to reach the target simultaneously at a finite time, by proposing and solving for a novel finite-time consensus problem and (2) in addition, the cooperative interception is investigated with tolerance of actuator or network failures, where novel fault tolerant consensus protocols are proposed to address actuator failures (or loss of effectiveness) and network failures, respectively. The maximum fault tolerance against network failures can be estimated. Simulations of a three-against-one interception case are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design approaches.     

Fair Pairs and Three Part Praise – developing the sustained use of differential reinforcement of alternative behaviour

A training course of two after-school sessions was run for teaching assistants (TAs) in a UK inner city primary school. The subject of the training was classroom use of a version of differential reinforcement of alternative behaviours (DRAs) known as Fair Pairs. The training introduced the concept of “Three Part Praise” within Fair Pairs. The method of introduction involved training sessions, with the TAs explaining the process to their class teacher colleagues following each session. The TAs and class teachers were then asked to try the methodology in their classrooms. A follow-up session was held after six months for the TAs to feedback on their experiences. Results showed that most of the TA/class teacher “teams” were still using the approach after six months. Of those who responded most reported improvement in behaviour in the class. The implications of the methodology for training and the effectiveness of the approach being taught are discussed with suggestions for future research.