Press Credentials and Hybrid Boundary Zones: The Case of WorldNetDaily and the Standing Committee of Correspondents

ABSTRACT

Press credentialing practices are a vital, yet understudied site of scholarly research on journalistic norms and practices. Press credentialing not only structures internal professional hierarchies, but they also signify the boundaries of the journalistic field itself. This paper explores the legal and theoretical implications of press credentialing to cover the United States Congress, drawing on the concepts of boundary work and journalistic authority to demonstrate the material impact of the space between fields on professional legitimation in journalism. Using WorldNetDaily (WND) as a case study, I argue that the Standing Committee of Correspondents (SCC) occupies a hybrid boundary zone between the journalistic and political fields, generating a unique tension in First Amendment jurisprudence that places journalists in a paradoxical role as both the professional embodiments of free speech and its constitutional steward. The resulting jurisdictional conflict between the SCC and WND extends the relational model of journalistic authority by articulating how journalist-state relations can fundamentally augment the process of legitimation at its fuzzy boundaries. The relevance and implications for press credentialing practices in the digital age are discussed.     

Religious Pluralistic Language in a Computer-Mediated Context: Effects of Intergroup Salience and Religious Orientation

This study investigated the degree to which religious pluralistic language varies as a function of the intergroup salience of a context and religious orientation. Based on a 2 (Religious Salience of Context) × 3 (Religious Salience of Topic) experimental design, participants (N = 239) were instructed to compose an e-mail to an interactional partner based on the randomly assigned condition. Messages were coded for religious pluralistic language, and participants completed measures of religious orientation and evaluations of the conversational partner. Modest effects were found for both intergroup salience of the context and topic as well as religious orientation.     

The effects of static stretching on speed and agility: One or multiple repetition protocols?

Although static stretching (SS) is utilized during warm-up before training and competition, the results about its effects on performance remain controversial. We examined whether performing a stretch of short-to-moderate duration (<60 sec) in a single repetition produces a similar or different effect on speed and agility performance from the effect which is produced while performing the same stretch in multiple repetitions of the same total duration. According to a repeated measurement design, 40 trained males were randomly assigned to either (1) a single repetition group or (2) a multiple repetition group. The participants in each group performed five trials: a control trial (no stretches were performed) and four experimental trials of SS protocols consisting of five exercises performed at either 20 sec (2 × 10 in the second group), 30 sec (3 × 10 in the second group), 40 sec (4 × 10 in the second group) or 60 sec (6 × 10 in the second group) of total duration. A two-way repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the participants in both group improved their speed performance in response to the 20-sec trial, whereas agility remained unaffected. Data analysis also revealed that the repetition number did not affect speed and agility performance. These data suggest that SS of short duration (<30 sec) may actually improve acute speed performance, whereas SS of moderate duration may not hamper speed and agility performance. Moreover, the effects of SS protocols are related to the total duration of each exercise and not to the number of repetitions in which each exercise is performed.     

Comment on Dissociation between running economy and running performance in elite Kenyan distance runners

Mooses and colleagues suggest that running economy alone does not explain superior distance running performance in elite Kenyan runners. Whilst we agree with the multi-factorial hypothesis for Kenyan running success, we do not believe that running economy can be overlooked to the extent that it was based on this particular study. Based on the methods used and the range of athletes tested, in this response letter we question whether this study provides any basis for downplaying the influence of running economy or suggesting that other factors compensate for it to enable superior performance.     

Mediating effects of resistance training skill competency on health-related fitness and physical activity: the ATLAS cluster randomised controlled trial

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of resistance training skill competency on percentage of body fat, muscular fitness and physical activity among a sample of adolescent boys participating in a school-based obesity prevention intervention. Participants were 361 adolescent boys taking part in the Active Teen Leaders Avoiding Screen-time (ATLAS) cluster randomised controlled trial: a school-based program targeting the health behaviours of economically disadvantaged adolescent males considered “at-risk” of obesity. Body fat percentage (bioelectrical impedance), muscular fitness (hand grip dynamometry and push-ups), physical activity (accelerometry) and resistance training skill competency were assessed at baseline and post-intervention (i.e., 8 months). Three separate multi-level mediation models were analysed to investigate the potential mediating effects of resistance training skill competency on each of the study outcomes using a product-of-coefficients test. Analyses followed the intention-to-treat principle. The intervention had a significant impact on the resistance training skill competency of the boys, and improvements in skill competency significantly mediated the effect of the intervention on percentage of body fat and the combined muscular fitness score. No significant mediated effects were found for physical activity. Improving resistance training skill competency may be an effective strategy for achieving improvements in body composition and muscular fitness in adolescent boys.     

‘What on Earth are They Doing in a Racing Car?’: Towards an Understanding of Women in Motorsport

Abstract

Motorsport is an under-researched area of socio-historical study. There is particularly limited academic understanding of female involvement in the social world of motorsports. Therefore, this paper focuses on the role of the media in presenting and establishing motorsport for women. In particular, a documentary analysis of articles published by a UK national newspaper group from 1890, and a case study of an all-female UK-based motor-racing championship are used to account for gendered processes that have influenced attitudes and behaviours towards women motor racers. The motor car emerged through technological progress in an overtly masculine-dominated industrial period. Traditional assumptions and biologically deterministic attitudes towards women were used by men to position motoring and motor-racing as a male preserve. Newspaper reporting throughout the 1930s suggests an era of heightened success for women motor racers as a result of gaining access to a key resource in the form of Brooklands motor-racing circuit. Following the Second World War, there was increasing commercialization and professionalization of male-dominated motorsport, as well as renewed marginalization and trivialization of female participants within the newspapers. These processes continue to influence perceptions of women in contemporary motorsport.     

One hundred and fifty years of sprint and distance running – Past trends and future prospects

Sprint and distance running have experienced remarkable performance improvements over the past century. Attempts to forecast running performances share an almost similarly long history but have relied so far on relatively short data series. Here, we compile a comprehensive set of season-best performances for eight Olympically contested running events. With this data set, we conduct (1) an exponential time series analysis and (2) a power-law experience curve analysis to quantify the rate of past performance improvements and to forecast future performances until the year 2100. We find that the sprint and distance running performances of women and men improve exponentially with time and converge at yearly rates of 4% ± 3% and 2% ± 2%, respectively, towards their asymptotic limits. Running performances can also be modelled with the experience curve approach, yielding learning rates of 3% ± 1% and 6% ± 2% for the women's and men's events, respectively. Long-term trends suggest that: (1) women will continue to run 10–20% slower than men, (2) 9.50 s over 100 m dash may only be broken at the end of this century and (3) several middle- and long-distance records may be broken within the next two to three decades. The prospects of witnessing a sub-2 hour marathon before 2100 remain inconclusive. Our results should be interpreted cautiously as forecasting human behaviour is intrinsically uncertain. The future season-best sprint and distance running performances will continue to scatter around the trends identified here and may yield unexpected improvements of standing world records.     

Socioeconomic Status– and Gender‐Based Differences in Students’ Perceptions of E‐Learning Systems

Many universities are pursuing increases in on‐line course offerings as a means of offsetting the rising costs of providing high‐quality educational opportunities and of better serving their student populations. However, enrollments in online courses are not always sufficient to cover their costs. One possible way of improving enrollments is through marketing campaigns targeted to specific demographic groups. In this study, we take a first look into how students’ perceptions of e‐learning systems, prior to their enrollment in an online course, vary across socioeconomic status and gender. Findings suggest that prior to taking an online course, working‐class students perceive e‐learning systems more positively than their middle‐class peers but that little difference exists between genders. Armed with this knowledge, universities may improve online course enrollments by marketing online courses specifically to working‐class students or through campaigns aimed at improving middle‐class students’ perceptions of e‐learning systems.     

Theory of mind in dogs?: examining method and concept

In line with other research, Udell, Dorey, and Wynne’s (in press) finding that dogs and wolves pass on some trials of a putative theory-of-mind test and fail on others is as informative about the methods and concepts of the research as about the subjects. This commentary expands on these points. The intertrial differences in the target article demonstrate how critical the choice of cues is in experimental design; the intersubject-group differences demonstrate how life histories can interact with experimental design. Even the best-designed theory-of-mind tests have intractable logical problems. Finally, these and previous research results call for the introduction of an intermediate stage of ability, a rudimentary theory of mind, to describe subjects’ performance.