Mass Media

Communications Industry Report and Communications Industry Forecast (Veronis, Suhler & Associates, 350 Park Ave, New York, NY 10022—$500 each, paper, no ISBN numbers given)

The Annual Report Glossary: 1988 Edition by Richard Loth (FIPS Partners, 4579 Airlie Way, Annandale, VA 22003—$26.00, three-ring notebook, ISBN 0-924399-00-7)

Super Media: A Cultural Studies Approach by Michael Real (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989—$35.00/16.95, ISBN 0-8039-3313-4 hard, 0-8039-3314-2 soft)

The Olympic Movement and the Mass Media: Past, Present and Future Issues edited by R. Jackson and T. McPhail (Hurford Enterprises, PO Box 61256, 3630 Morley Trail NW, Calgary, Alberta T2L 1KS, Canada—price not given, paper, ISBN 0-88953-115-3)

Historical Methods in Mass Communication by James Startt and William David Sloan (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1989—$24.50, ISBN 0-8058-0433-1)

Communication Research: Strategies and Sources by Rebecca Rubin, Alan Rubin and Linda Piele (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1990—price not given, paper, ISBN 0-534-12144-6)

“The Communication Series,”

Mass Communication: An Introductory Survey by James Harless (Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1990)     

Ex-Communication: Competition and Collusion in the U.S. Prison Telephone Industry

This paper explores the political economy of the prison telephone industry, with special emphasis on changes in the industry since the mid-1980s. Contrary to the expectations of competition advocates, the principal outcome of deregulation in the prison telephone sector has been a sharp increase in price, as new market entrants compete for monopoly service contracts on the basis of steadily escalating commissions paid to state and private prison authorities—costs which are then passed on to the (literally) captive market through exorbitant end-user rates. The sheer magnitude of such rate increases, together with explosive growth in the national prison population over the same period, has turned the prison telephone sector into a lucrative and largely invisible growth center for the U.S. telecommunication industries as a whole.     

A TV in the Bedroom: Implications for Viewing Habits and Risk Behaviors During Early Adolescence

This study examined associations between bedroom television, media use, and adolescents' health risk behaviors. A sample of 1,017 12- to 14-year-old adolescents completed computer-assisted interviews at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Among White adolescents, having a bedroom television predicted risk-promoting media use practices and significantly greater odds of initiating health risk behaviors—cigarette smoking and sexual intercourse—over 2 years. Although significantly more Black than White adolescents had a bedroom television, bedroom television was unrelated to Black adolescents' media use practices or health risk behaviors. Research is needed to understand ethnic differences in family media use and consequences for adolescent development.     

Teaching and Learning Science Through Song: Exploring the experiences of students and teachers

This qualitative, multi-case study explored the use of science-content music for teaching and learning in six middle school science classrooms. The researcher sought to understand how teachers made use of content-rich songs for teaching science, how they impacted student engagement and learning, and what the experiences of these teachers and students suggested about using songs for middle school classroom science instruction. Data gathered included three teacher interviews, one classroom observation and a student focus-group discussion from each of six cases. The data from each unit of analysis were examined independently and then synthesized in a multi-case analysis, resulting in a number of merged findings, or assertions, about the experience. The results of this study indicated that teachers used content-rich music to enhance student understanding of concepts in science by developing content-based vocabulary, providing students with alternative examples and explanations of concepts, and as a sense-making experience to help build conceptual understanding. The use of science-content songs engaged students by providing both situational and personal interest, and provided a mnemonic device for remembering key concepts in science. The use of songs has relevance from a constructivist approach as they were used to help students build meaning; from a socio-cultural perspective in terms of student engagement; and from a cognitive viewpoint in that in these cases they helped students make connections in learning. The results of this research have implications for science teachers and the science education community in developing new instructional strategies for the middle school science classroom.     

The Evolution and Validity of Health-Related Fitness

This paper traces the evolution fitness testing from an athletic emphasis to one with a public health focus and examines the forces that brought about the change in an environment that was not totally receptive. An atmosphere for change was created during this era with the development of exercise physiology, exercise epidemiology, and measurement. The publication of a position paper of physical fitness by exercise scientists and the publication of state health-related fitness tests in the 1970s increased the pressure for change. Contemporary public health research clearly documents the positive role of physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and body composition on health outcomes. During this era, exercise scientists developed valid laboratory and field tests of cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition that have become the standards of practice. Public health researchers have been able to provide valid fitness standards for health promotion. These validate the health-related approach.     

Challenges to the Global Concept of Student-Centered Learning with Special Reference to the United Arab Emirates: ‘Never fail a Nahayan’

Student-centered learning has been conceived as a Western export to the East and the developing world in the last few decades. Philosophers of education often associate student-centered learning with frameworks related to meeting the needs of individual pupils: from Deweyan experiential learning, to the ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ and other social justice orientations. Yet student-centered learning has also become, in the era of neoliberal education, a jingoistic advertisement for practices and ideologies which can be seen to lead to a global devaluation of the educational profession, and the bolstering of the view of the student as a customer. In this article, I want to disentangle these views and explore some limitations of either model of student-centered learning. To add context, I consider education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today, which provides an extreme example of the risks involved with prioritizing student’s self-identified needs and interests above all else, as in an idealized or exaggerated student-centered concept. I conclude with brief comments on amending the philosophical concept of student-centered learning to be useful in diverse contexts today.     

Completing a PhD by publication: a review of Australian policy and implications for practice

There is increasing impetus for higher-degree-by-research students to publish during candidature. Research performance, including higher degree completions and publication output, commonly determines university funding, and doctorates with publishing experience are better positioned for a career in softening academic labour markets. The PhD by Publication provides a pathway for candidates to foster and demonstrate their publishing capabilities. It also provides existing academics a means of achieving doctoral status while managing the ‘publish or perish’ milieu endemic to their work. This paper clarifies the precise nature and significance of the PhD by Publication pathway in the Australian context and discusses the associated benefits and problems, enriched by personal experience. It summarises factors pertinent to assessing the pathway's suitability. The review of current policy suggests institutional guidelines in universities nationwide are inadequate for producing theses of comparable quality to conventional dissertations and capitalising on the pathway's significant benefits.     

Gender,photography and women’s football in England: the Portsmouth Ladies FC, 1916–1918

ABSTRACT

Founded in 1916, the Portsmouth Ladies FC were one of many women’s football teams active during the First World War. Building upon the work of Jean Williams, Patrick Brennan and Ian Nannestad, this article seeks to broaden our knowledge of the development of women’s wartime football. Its principal sources are images held by National Football Museum, the Pompey History Society, along with newly digitised newspapers. This article explores two aspects of the club’s history. Firstly, it presents an overview detailing the team’s origins, playing record, the types of games they played, including games against male teams, and the role of Councillor Tom Langdon in organising and promoting their activities. Secondly, it will explore the significant photographic coverage afforded to the team, in particular by the Portsmouth Evening News photographer Joseph Stephen Cribb. It will be argued that the club’s history helps develop the chronological development of women’s football in World War On. It will also be argued that visual depictions of the team show both an increasing interest in the women’s game, and also the limits and gendered nature of that interest.     

Children's Experiences of Bullying Victimization and the Influence on Their Subjective Well-Being: A Multinational Comparison

The study used data from the second wave of the Children's Worlds Survey to explore the relation between children's experiences of bullying victimization (physical and psychological) and their subjective well-being (SWB) across three age groups (8, 10, and 12) and 15 global geographical regions. The sample consists of 47,029 children randomly selected from 15 countries. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The results show appropriate fit structure for the overall model, and that the combined influence of physical and psychological bullying made a significant contribution to SWB across age groups and geographical regions. The findings are interpreted using Cummins's (1995) Homeostasis Theory of SWB.