Were Women Really Underrepresented in Media Coverage of Summer Olympic Games (1984–2008)? An Invitation to Open a Methodological Discussion Regarding Sex Equity in Sports Media

In previous literature, there is an important heterogeneity in how to proceed to determine whether media coverage of the Summer Olympics in relation to athletes' sex is equitable. Therefore, the aims of this study are to determine the most appropriate standards for this comparison and to use them to assess whether there are biases in the journalistic coverage of the Summer Games, using data from previous studies (n = 18). Results show that media coverage is far from being detrimental to women: They are either equitably represented (28.79%) or significantly overrepresented (46.97%). Indeed, all modalities combined, women are only underrepresented in 22.24% of cases. In most cases, these results significantly differ from those of previous research and stress the importance of and the need to take methodological precautions in this type of study.     

Teacher Recruitment in Context: Differences between Danish and Finnish Beginning Teacher Education Students

Against the background of differing admission selectivity, structure, and status of teacher education in Denmark and Finland, we analyze the extent to which beginning teacher education students differ with respect to previous educational pathways, socio-demographic characteristics, academic self-concepts, and occupational motivations. In both Denmark and Finland, representative groups of first-year teacher education students and final-year upper-secondary students were surveyed. The collected data enabled us to characterize teacher education students in contrast to a baseline reference group of school students and to compare these differences across countries (difference-in-differences estimation). The results of our study indicate that Danish student teachers lag behind their Finnish peers in the valuation of their math skills. In addition, the average motivational profiles of Danish and Finnish teacher education students differ markedly. Implications of our findings are discussed.     

Differential growth patterns in emerging reading skills of Turkish-German bilingual and German monolingual primary school students

Students from Turkish-speaking families are the largest minority language group in Germany. Yet, little is known about this group’s literacy development. Using data from a 3-year longitudinal study, we examined whether the same base reading skills are involved in early reading comprehension of 100 Turkish-German bilingual and 69 German monolingual children. We applied a basic theoretical model of reading development to examine how emerging literacy develops for monolingual compared to bilingual children. Both the bilingual and monolingual children in this sample developed the investigated base reading skills at the same rate. However, the relations among phonological awareness, German vocabulary, and word decoding showed differential patterns in the development of German reading comprehension skills for the two groups: monolingual children appeared to make use of their phonological awareness skills more, whereas reading comprehension depended more on vocabulary skills for bilingual readers. Our findings indicate that bilingual emerging readers require specialized models of reading development to account for their unique routes into reading comprehension. The results of the study point to a need for increased attention to vocabulary building in the early phases of literacy acquisition for bilingual children.     

Investigation of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of fouled ballast

In this study, a fouled ballast taken from the site of Sénissiat, France, was investigated. For the hydraulic behaviour, a large-scale cell was developed allowing drainage and evaporation tests to be carried out with monitoring of both suction and volumetric water content at various positions of the sample. It was observed that the hydraulic conductivity of fouled ballast is decreasing with suction increase, as for common unsaturated soils. The effect of fines content was found to be negligible. For the mechanical behaviour, both monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests were carried out using a large-scale triaxial cell. Various water contents were considered. The results were interpreted in terms of shear strength and permanent axial strain. It appeared that the water content is an important factor to be accounted for since any increase of water content or degree of saturation significantly decreases the shear strength and increases the permanent strain. Constitutive modelling has been attempted based on the experimental results. The model in its current state is capable of describing the effects of stress level, cycle number and water content.     

European Mass Media

John Sandford's The Mass Media of the German-Speaking Countries (London: Oswald Wolff; and Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1976---price not given, paper)

Publizistik. Vierteljahreshefte fur Kommunikationsforschung (= subtitle, meaning Quarterly for Communication Research)

Rundfunk und Fernsehen (Broadcasting and Television)

Femselsen und Bildung (Television and Education)

Communicatio Socialis

Broadcast Receiving Fees in France, by Eugene Pons (EBU Monograph No. 7, 194 pp., 1969, 20 Swiss francs or about $5.00, paper)

German Radio and Television: Organization and Economic Basis, by Hans Brack (EBU Monograph No. 6, 68 pp., 1968, 8 Sw. Fr. or about $2.00, paper)

Broadcasting in the Space Age, by Olaf Rydbeck and Edward W. Ploman (EBU Monograph No. 5, 53 pp., 8 Sw. Fr. or about $2.00, paper)

Advertising on Radio and Television (EBU Monograph No. 4, 37 pp., 1966, 5 Sw. Fr. or about $1.00)

Financial Aspects of Broadcasting, by Bruno Vasari (EBU Monograph No. 3, 45 pp., 1965, 4 Sw. Fr. or a bit less than $1.00, paper)

Television for Children and Young People, by J.D. Halloran and P.R.C. Elliott (134 pp., 1970, 10 Sw. Fr. or about $2.50, paper)

Annual Seminar for Producers and Directors of Adult Education by Television (12th Seminar, 1974, 79 pp., 5 Sw. Fr. or about $1.00)

Annual Seminar for Producers and Directors of School Television (11th Seminar, 1973, 79 pp., 5 Sw. Fr. or about $1.00, paper)

Workshops for Producers and Directors of Television Programs for Children (4th Workshop, 1974, 48 pp., 8 Sw. Fr. or about $2.00, paper)

International Forum of Light Music in Radio (1971, 1973, and 1975 editions available, 5 Sw. Fr. each or about $1.00 each, paper)

The Evolution of the EBU through its Statutes from 1950 to 1976 (EBU Monograph No. 11, 1977, 25 Sw. Fr. or something over $5.00, paper)

International Conference of States on the Protection of Phonograms (Paris: Unesco; and New York: Unipub, 1975---$34.75, paper)     

Book Publishing

The Oxford University Press and the Spread of Learning: An Illustrated History, by Nicolas Barker (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1978 —$25.00)

The Oxford University Press: An Informal History, by Peter Sutcliffe (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1978—$15.00)

Mary Hill and Wendell Cochran's Into Print: A Practical Guide to Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing (Los Altos, Calif.: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1977—$12.00/6.951)

Stanley Rice's Book Design: Systematic Aspects (274 pp., $17.50)

Stanley Rice's Book Design: Text Format Models (215 pp., $17.50)

John Y. Cole, ed. The Library of Congress in Perspective: A Volume Based on the Reports of the 1976 Librarian's Task Force and A visory Groups (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1978—$21.95)

Literary Market Place: 1978 Edition (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1978— $22.50, paper)     

Book review

Stay tuned. A history of American broadcasting, Third Edition written by Christopher H. Sterling and John Michael Kittross. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey, London, 2002, 975 pages, ISBN 0–8058–2624–6, www.erlbaum.com

Media Ownership, written by Gillian Doyle. Sage, London, 2002, ISBN 007619–6680–3/007619–6681–1 (pbk)

Internet management issues: A global perspective, edited by John D. Haynes. Idea Publishing Group, 2002, 340 pages, ISBN 1–930708–21–1, www.idea-group.com     

Today's news — tomorrow's context: A dynamic model of news processing

We are proposing a feedback model of news processing, assuming that news reception is guided by media input as well as by existing cognitive structures. However, these structures are in turn shaped by former media coverage. In our study we examine viewers’ processing of TV news, comparing objective news content (content analysis) to subjective meaning of news stories (viewer interviews). Results show that viewers interpret information about new events in the context of past events, themselves mainly a reflection of former media coverage.     

‘Héloïse’: towards a co‐ordinated ecosystem approach for the archiving of scientific publications?

With the continued development of open access policies, it is important to promote consensus‐building projects with the various stakeholders. This article gives an account of how such collaboration has facilitated the construction of the project Héloïse. This project is a French information service dedicated to describing the policies of French publishers on the self‐archiving of scientific publications. Héloïse represents a real tool of mediation whose development involved much debate between publishers and research stakeholders. This article seeks to demonstrate that the development of trust between the actors involved in the project was a major component of its success.