Media Cynicism, Media Skepticism and Automatic Media Trust:Explicating Their Connection with News Processing and Exposure

In an era of increasing attention to media trust, some have argued that differentiating between media cynicism and media skepticism (as both attitudinal and behavioral concepts) can advance a more nuanced understanding of media trust and its implications. While previous efforts conceptualized cynicism and skepticism as separate discrete phenomena, this allows the seemingly illogical possibility that some people would score high on both cynicism and skepticism. Additionally, these previous studies failed to demonstrate whether media cynicism and skepticism actually matter for audience reading and processing of news media content. After conceptualizing these terms on a single continuum varying between automatic rejection to automatic trust, Study 1 offers a procedure to test whether cynics process news stories faster, and whether skeptics’ trust in different news stories varies more compared to cynics’. Given that skepticism was hypothesized to reflect more deliberate thinking, we also tested whether media skeptics provide different kinds of justifications when asked to explain their evaluations of specific news stories, compared to cynics and trustors. Studies 2 and 3 test theoretically-driven hypotheses about automatic-trust, skepticism and cynicism and find that cynics’ and automatic trustors’ general evaluations of media are based on partisan reasoning and skeptics’ evaluation of the media is independent from their political ideology. Skeptical audiences were also found to consume more news and from a diversity of sources

Directions to my House: Poems

This is a self-portrait collection. But it begins in response to texts that I read. Before, I write automatically, nonsensically, intentionally unintentionally; and the engagement with literature directs my writing toward the 'determined' strain that defines this collection. Starting, for instance, with Pound's Chinese translations, used in the earliest poem here, I build my own 'translations.' And I follow the work of poets that interest me: Miroslav Holub, from whom I borrow lines; John Ashbery, Cesar Vallejo, Kenneth Koch, James Tate, Samuel Beckett, on all whose themes I vary; and more. Certainly, my fascination with nonsense and the absurd continues, but throughout the collection I respond more and more to what I read, twisting what I can into my own language--and I reflect more and more on my own personal and interpersonal conditions, less and less reveling in pure senselessness, although even nonsense is a self-reflection

The visual boundaries of journalism: Native advertising and the convergence of editorial and commercial content

This study investigates the visual objects that are used to either disclose or disguise the commercial nature of native advertising as news articles. We adopt a “material object” approach to explore the potential implications for journalism regarding transparency, trust, and credibility. Methodologically, this study used content analysis covering 21 publications in five countries: Germany, Israel, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. We analysed 373 individual native ads. The findings show that news outlets do not follow a consistent way to disclose native ads visually, negotiating the balance between transparency and deception. In this balance, news organizations do not boldly push for transparency and instead remain ambiguous. Our analyses show that both national and organizational characteristics matter when shaping the visual boundaries of journalism.publishedVersio

Collaborative learning about e-health for mental health professionals and service users in a structured anonymous online short course: pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Professionals are interested in using e-health but implementation of new methods is slow. Barriers to implementation include the need for training and limited awareness or experience. Research may not always convince mental health professionals (MHPs). Adding the 'voice' of mental health service users (MHSUs) in collaborative learning may help. Involving MHSUs in face-face education can be difficult. We had previously been unable to engage MHPs in online discussion with MHSUs. Here we assessed the feasibility of short online courses involving MHSUs and MHPs. METHODS: We ran three e-health courses, comprising live interactive webcast, week's access to a discussion forum, and final live interactive webcast. We recruited MHPs via posters, newsletters, and telephone from a local NHS trust, and online via mailing lists and personal contacts from NHS trusts and higher education. We recruited MHSUs via a previous project and an independent user involvement service. Participants were presented with research evidence about e-health and asked to discuss topics using professional and lived experience. Feasibility was assessed through recruitment and attrition, participation, and researcher workloads. Outcomes of self-esteem and general self-efficacy (MHSUs), and Internet self-efficacy and confidence (MHPs) were piloted. RESULTS: Online recruiting was effective. We lost 15/41 from registration to follow-up but only 5/31 that participated in the course failed to complete follow-up. Nineteen MHPs and 12 MHSUs took part and engaged with each other in online discussion. Feedback was positive; three-quarters of MHPs indicated future plans to use the Internet for practice, and 80% of MHSUs felt the course should be continued. Running three courses for 31 participants took between 200 to 250 hours. Before and after outcome measures were completed by 26/31 that participated. MHP Internet self-efficacy and general Internet confidence, MHSU self-esteem and general self-efficacy, all seemed reliable and seemed to show some increase. CONCLUSIONS: Collaborative learning between MHSUs and MHPs in a structured online anonymous environment over a one-week course is feasible, may be more practical and less costly than face-face methods, and is worthy of further study

Mission Planning and Scheduling System for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Mission

In the framework of NASA's return to the Moon efforts, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is the first step. It is an unmanned mission to create a comprehensive atlas of the Moon's features and resources necessary to design and build a lunar outpost. LRO is scheduled for launch in April, 2009. LRO carries a payload comprised of six instruments and one technology demonstration. In addition to its scientific mission LRO will use new technologies, systems and flight operations concepts to reduce risk and increase productivity of future missions. As part of the effort to achieve robust and efficient operations, the LRO Mission Operations Team (MOT) will use its Mission Planning System (MPS) to manage the operational activities of the mission during the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) and operational phases of the mission. The MPS, based on GMV's flexplan tool and developed for NASA with Honeywell Technology Solutions (prime contractor), will receive activity and slew maneuver requests from multiple science operations centers (SOC), as well as from the spacecraft engineers. flexplan will apply scheduling rules to all the requests received and will generate conflict free command schedules in the form of daily stored command loads for the orbiter and a set of daily pass scripts that help automate nominal real-time operations