Newspaper coverage of women's sports during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games: Belgium, Denmark, France, and Italy

In general, women are well represented among sport participants and sport audiences but not in the media. Data show that women's sport is greatly underreported and trivialized in newspapers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure press coverage during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in the largest circulating Belgian, Danish, French, and Italian daily newspapers by: (a) number of articles, (b) size, (c) page placement, (d) accompanyingphotographs, and (e) photograph size. For each sport covered, the athletes' nationality and the gender were recorded. Compared to the 1996 Atlanta Games, there was an increase of 326 female athletes (+4 %), and women competed in 25 sports and 132 events (44 %) of the total 300 events. Although only 29.3 % of the articles and 38 % of photos were on women 's sports, the newspaper coverage was similar to the distribution of participating athletes and events. No significant gender differences were found with respect to article size, page placement, accompanying photographs, or photograph size. The most covered sport was track and field, independent of national achievement. Other sports received different coverage in relation to national expectations, achievement, and participation. In conclusion, there was a trend to overcome gender inequities in media coverage during the Olympic Games, which may be due to the International Olympic Committee's actions to promote increased participation of women in sport activities and to publicize their achievements. Moreover, during the Olympic Games, a nationalistic fervor might affect the equality of gender coverage.     

Communicative Antecedents of Political Persuasion: Political Discussion,Citizen News Creation,and the Moderating Role of Strength of Partisanship

Although much attention has been paid to how media use and interpersonal discussion motivate people to engage in political persuasion, and despite recent efforts to study the role of digital media technologies, less is known about the creation of news and public affairs content online. This study sheds light on how online content creation works alongside other communicative behaviors, such as news use and political discussion, to affect attempted political persuasion. Using two-wave panel survey data, we find that political discussion and citizen news creation mediate the relationships between online and traditional news use, on one hand, and attempted persuasion, on the other. Furthermore, strength of partisanship moderates the relationship between content creation and attempted persuasion. Findings are discussed in light of their implications for the political communication and public sphere processes.     

Knowledge Management Perceptions in Academic Libraries

Despite the increasing interest taken in knowledge management (KM) by a wide range of practitioners as well as the library and information science (LIS) community, knowledge management is not systematically applied in libraries. Due to the complexity of knowledge, as well as the multifaceted nature of knowledge management, there is no consensus among LIS professionals regarding its relation to information management. In this context, the current study aims at exploring how library employees perceive knowledge management, as well as which KM tools and techniques are adopted by academic libraries. The results indicate that although practitioners are aware of knowledge management and appreciative of its benefits not only for library performance but also for LIS professionals' future career options, there is a lack of clarity on fundamental KM issues. Finally, academic libraries take steps towards capturing the knowledge of their users and internal explicit knowledge; however, social practices such as communities of practice, which facilitate tacit knowledge and expertise sharing, are not adopted.     

The Quadruple Helix Model of Libraries: The Role of Public Libraries in Newcastle upon Tyne

This article is based on semistructured interviews with library staff members in order to explore both how they perceive the role of libraries in most deprived areas in Newcastle upon Tyne and how they relate with their patrons. We show that public libraries play a primary role in activating a virtuous cycle, in which infrastructures, skills, and increased ability of users to achieve their goals simultaneously result from and feed social inclusion strategies. However, some limits might be related to the availability of public economic resources that tends to affect the smaller libraries by reducing opening times and services provided.     

Sharing the Stage

Despite the proliferation of research on social media and journalism, only a few studies have analyzed how journalists in Latin America embrace the affordances of social platforms for journalism practice. Based on a survey of 877 Latin American reporters, this article examines the platforms journalists use and how they use them. The broad finding is that, despite the great popularity of Facebook in the region, Twitter is the most important platform for daily newsgathering and journalistic work. Journalists turn to Twitter to find sources and stories, showing an important openness to participatory journalism. Yet, they mistrust information provided from political sources. Our findings show that different regions in Latin America work with social media in different ways, and local journalistic cultures have an impact on these adoptions, especially in the case of Brazil. Further research and implications for the field are discussed.     

Second Screening and Political Persuasion on Social Media

This article seeks to explain political persuasion in relation to second screening—people’s use of a second screen (i.e., smartphone/laptop) while watching television to access further information or discuss TV programs. Employing a two-wave-panel survey in the United States, results show this emergent practice makes people more open to changing their political opinions, particularly among those who habitually use social media for news or frequently interact with others in social media contexts.     

Information resources for competitive intelligence: An approach to the information available on the European Union's websites

Companies need to use information from multiple sources to improve their competitiveness. Since its beginnings in the 1950s, the European Union has developed a number of instruments for this purpose. This article gives an overview of the information resources that are most important for businesses and that originate from institutions and other bodies of the European Union. It is divided into five parts: European agencies; resources of the Directorate-General (DG) for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs; resources provided by other European Commission DGs & services; Points of Single Contact (PSCs) of the EUGO Network; and other support networks.     

Academic Writing and Publishing: A NASIG Preconference Workshop

ABSTRACT

The goal of this preconference was to guide aspiring academic librarians in understanding how to navigate scholarly publication requirements and be successful academic writers. The presenters provided tips for beginners as well as for those already engaged in a research agenda. One of the presenters is a published book and journal author and the other is the editor-in-chief of a major peer-reviewed library journal.