Wallowing in Media Past: Media-Induced Nostalgia’s Connection to Parasocial Relationships

This article elaborates on media-induced nostalgia as a mixed emotion elicited by remembering past media content and characters. It argues that social components of media consumption such as parasocial relationships (PSRs) play an important part in the elicitation of nostalgia. In an online study, participants (N = 96) remembered their individual media use and preferred media characters as children. Results show that media-induced nostalgia is significantly associated with PSRs to characters in the past. These findings are evaluated concerning their implications for future research on nostalgia and PSRs.     

Influence of physiological characteristics on selection in a semi-professional first grade rugby league team: a case study

The aim of this study was to determine whether the physiological characteristics of players influence selection in a semi-professional first grade rugby league team. Sixty-six semi-professional rugby league players aged 24 - 4 years (mean - s ) were monitored over two competitive seasons. The players underwent measurements of body mass, muscular power (vertical jump), speed (10, 20, 30 and 40 m sprint), agility (Illinois agility run) and estimated maximal aerobic power (multi-stage fitness test) 1 week before their first competition match. After selection for either the first or second grade team, the results of all physiological tests were collated and analysed to determine if there were any physiological differences between players selected for the two teams. Players selected to play in the first grade team were significantly ( P ? 0.05) older (25 - 4 vs 22 - 4 years) and heavier (93 - 10 vs 86 - 10 kg) and had more playing experience (18 - 6 vs 15 - 6 years) than second grade players. Muscular power, speed, agility and estimated maximal aerobic power were not significantly different ( P > 0.05) between first grade and second grade players. These results suggest that the physiological capacities of players do not influence selection in a semi-professional first grade rugby league team. Rather, player selection appears to be based on body mass, playing experience and skill. These results support the need for a standardized skills performance test for semi-professional rugby league players.     

Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists: to pool or not to pool?

Albert Namatjira (1902–1959), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910–1996) and Rover (Julama) Thomas (c1926–1998) are three of Australia’s best-known Indigenous artists. Each is known for one style of painting—Namatjira for watercolor on paper, Kngwarreye for acrylic (synthetic polymer) on canvas and Thomas for natural earth pigments on canvas. We estimate a sample selectivity model using data from the Australian Art Sales Digest to study the determinants of sales and the hammer price of artworks offered at auction from these artists. The results show that pre-sale information on the artwork and auction effects are significant and that the three artists studied are very different from each other. Thus, data should not be pooled when estimating these models.