Placing Facebook

Facebook is challenging professional journalism. These challenges were evident in three incidents from 2016: the allegation that Facebook privileged progressive-leaning news on its trending feature; Facebook’s removal of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Napalm Girl” photo from the pages of prominent users; and the proliferation of “fake news” during the US presidential election. Using theoretical concepts from the field of boundary work, this paper examines how The Guardian, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter editorialized Facebook’s role in these three incidents to discursively construct the boundary between the value of professional journalism to democracy and Facebook’s ascendant role in facilitating essential democratic functions. Findings reveal that these publications attempted to define Facebook as a news organization (i.e., include it within the boundaries of journalism) so that they could then criticize the company for not following duties traditionally incumbent upon news organizations (i.e., place it outside the boundaries of journalism). This paper advances scholarship that focuses on both inward and outward conceptions of boundary work, further explores the complex challenge of defining who a journalist is in the face of rapidly changing technological norms, and advances scholarship in the field of media ethics that positions ethical analysis at the institutional level.     

The relationship between peak height velocity and physical performance in youth soccer players

Longitudinal changes in height, weight and physical performance were studied in 33 Flemish male youth soccer players from the Ghent Youth Soccer Project. The players' ages at the start of the study ranged from 10.4 to 13.7 years, with a mean age of 12.2 +/- 0.7 years. Longitudinal changes were studied over a 5 year period. Peak height velocity and peak weight velocity were determined using non-smoothed polynomials. The estimations of peak height velocity, peak weight velocity and age at peak height velocity were 9.7 +/- 1.5 cm x year-1, 8.4 +/- 3.0 kg x year-1 and 13.8 +/- 0.8 years, respectively. Peak weight velocity occurred, on average, at the same age as peak height velocity. Balance, speed of limb movement, trunk strength, upper-body muscular endurance, explosive strength, running speed and agility, cardiorespiratory endurance and anaerobic capacity showed peak development at peak height velocity. A plateau in the velocity curves was observed after peak height velocity for upper-body muscular endurance, explosive strength and running speed. Flexibility exhibited peak development during the tear after peak height velocity. Trainers and coaches should be aware of the individual characteristics of the adolescent growth spurt and the training load should also be individualized at this time.     

Identification with sport teams as a function of the search for certainty

Based on ideas from subjective uncertainty reduction theory, we examined the extent to which individuals hold similar sport team preferences to their family and friends. We also assessed the extent to which perceived sport importance and personal need for structure are influential in the development of team identification. Australian high school students aged 15.5+/-1.0 years (mean+/-s) completed questionnaires containing the Personal Need for Structure Scale, the Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal scale, a Team Identification Scale, and items assessing perceptions of sport importance and team preferences. As expected, correlations indicated that preferences for sport teams were significantly related to the preferences of family and friends. Separate analyses of variance confirmed the remaining hypotheses. More specifically, individuals who perceived that sport was important identified with the team more than individuals who perceived sport to be less important. Also, individuals high in personal need for structure scored higher in cognitive/affective team identification than those low in this need. Individuals with differing needs for structure did not differ in their scores on other dimensions of team identification. The results support the notion that cognitive/emotional attachments to sport teams are influenced by perceptions of the importance of sport and by needs for subjective structure. It is possible that other psychological motives, such as the desire for self-esteem, facilitate the development of evaluative dimensions of team identification.     

Definition in science teaching

Summary Definitions, I have suggested, have both a function and a form. The function pursued and the form used should depend on the situation and on the term being defined. In the situation described at the outset, Mr. Beta should probably have seen to it that a stipulation of some sort was given-just in order to get on with the task at hand. The stipulation might have been based upon a true reported definition-or it might not-depending on political considerations and the linguistic flexibility of the people concerned. Since no one involved could plausibly have been trying to embody a program in a definition of dough, a programmatic definition was not appropriate in that situation.Several different forms for a definition of dough might reasonably have been used, but in this case the old reliable classification form was probably best, because of its completeness, neatness, and brevity. Two reasonable alternatives are the equivalent-expression form and the range form. The synonym, example-nonexample, and operational forms were probably not appropriate.My main point is that there is not just one way to define. I hope that my delineation of some major possibilities and variations will help those who read this article to be flexible in handling problems of definition when they arise; and they arise more often than most people realize.An ealier draft of this article was presented at a colloquium at the University of Illinois in honor of Professor B. Othanel Smith at his retirement.