Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

The concept of bridge blogs and their function to foster awareness and public discourse across the world was examined by content analysis and network analysis of 426 blog posts and 1026 links in 11 bridge blogs about China from 2009 to 2010. This study proposes a theoretical framework to examine how bridge blogs’ network characteristics are related to their communicative practices. Three variables were examined with respect to the network characteristics of bridge blogs. First, this study identifies different types of bridge blogs according to the distinctive sites with which they choose to link. Second, bridge blogs’ role as bridges is directly tested by the extent to which they connect between online information sources that are otherwise separated from one another. Third, this study examines bridge blogs’ level of centrality, which is based on the number links they receive from others in the network. For communicative practices, this study measures the type of links bridge blogs use as sources in their posts and the communicative frames used to structure the blog posts. Bridge blogs exhibit internal diversity in terms of what distinctive sites they linked to, level of betweenness and centrality. The finding supports the theoretical framework proposed in the study that bridge blogs’ three network characteristics are associated with their practices of communication as reflected in their use of links and content structure. Bridge blogs that play a crucial interconnecting role and are central points of reference in the network are more likely to bring Chinese content (as oppose to Western media coverage) and citizen voice (as oppose to professional media content) to English speaking readers. In addition, the translation of Chinese content, which contributes more to the flow of information and views from China to the outside world, is valued more by bridge blogs (than others?) that are important interconnecting actors in the network and positioned as central points of attention in the network. Further, a textual analysis further enriches the understanding of how the communicative frames are practiced by the bridge blogs, as illustrated in their references to four high profile news stories about China. / text

In trying to provide access to videogame materials for scholars, collecting organizations must build standards for building and structuring collections, and in turn information professionals must assess the information needs of users. In order to begin the assessment, this paper presents a content analysis of scholarly videogame articles. The results of the analysis will provide the basis for structuring videogame archives, libraries, or databases. Metadata schemas are important to access, and to collecting. That metadata will aid patrons is widely accepted, but too often schemas and vocabularies are based on only experts’ opinions without taking into account patrons’ ideas of what is important. To address this dearth, the content analysis presented in this paper combines historical ideas of metadata standards from expert archivists with an analysis of what themes are important, common, and sought for in the literature of videogame scholars, who are the likely users of videogame collections. / text

The radio is a medium we often listen to whilst doing something else. We wake up, do the dishes, cook or drive to work. Radio as a medium reaches many people, regardless of whether it is through conscious or unconscious listening. We thereby thought it was an important medium to scrutinize in our study. The focus of our study is on the gender representation in P3 Nyheters broadcasts. We scrutinize the representation of gender as well as looking at potential differences in the way men and women are heard. The theoretical frame of reference of the study is primarily based on the agenda-setting theory, which is built on the notion that the media is involved in deciding what subjects we have opinions about, since these subjects are often the ones highlighted by the media. The gender perspective with its theses concerning homosexuality, the masculine norm and the gender stereotypic contract is another theoretic source that the study is based upon. We are also utilizing the theses of hard and soft news to emphasize who gets to talk about what in regards to what is traditionally perceived as feminine and masculine. The results show in a comprehensive way that the stereotypic genders that were created during the ancient time, still remain. Women usually have their say regarding unenlightened public opinion, consumer, neighbor, mother or wife of the man the story is really concerning. The men on the other hand have their say in topics where they get to shine in matters seen as of political relevance and importance to society. The women are under-represented and are portrayed as victims while the men are over-represented and are perceived as experts, which contribute to enhancing stereotypic genders with the masculine norm within the power center of society. The studied material clearly shows signs that P3 Nyheter is far from equal in regards to gender representation, hence, we believe that representation of gender in media is a field that demands more research in order to change or break the masculine norms of the mediasphere.

In the years since the 9/11 attacks the incidence of terrorism has been on the rise. At the same time, news media coverage of major terrorist attacks has reached epic proportions, greatly expanding the number of individuals psychologically affected by terrorism. The goal of this dissertation is to better understand how individuals cope with terrorism experienced at a distance. Specifically, this investigation focuses on the impact of stress on integrative complexity (IC; a measure of cognitive processing; Suedfeld, Tetlock, & Streufert, 1992) during and shortly after a major terrorist event. Taken together, the findings from the three studies reported in this dissertation provide several insights into this process. Study 1 replicates and extends results from an earlier study of television newscasters reporting live on 9/11 (Jhangiani & Suedfeld, 2005), in the context of the 2005 London bombings and the medium of radio. In doing so, it provides the first empirical evidence outside of the research laboratory for the curvilinear relationship between stress and IC. Specifically, during the early stages of reports concerning the London bombings, a positive relationship is found between negative emotion and IC. However, once the nature and extent of the event become clearer, increases in negative emotion are related to decreases in IC (the disruptive stress hypothesis). Study 2 replicates this curvilinear relationship in the short-term reactions of two prominent political leaders to 9/11 and the 2005 London bombings. For one of these political leaders, the magnitude of his psychological reaction is moderated by the psychological distance between him and the victims of the attacks. Finally, Study 3 finds that two key personality variables, neuroticism and empathy, play important roles in determining the magnitude of the short-term psychological reactions to 9/11 of more than 250 students from Canada and the United States. This finding is particularly true for those students who were psychologically closer to the victims of the attacks. Implications, strengths and limitations of this research, and possible future directions are discussed.

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This study explores and describes the processes of formative evaluation as carried out by content experts and instructional designers. It assumes that formative evaluation is an ill-defined, complex, problem solving task. Six experts (three Content Experts and three Instructional Designers), participated in this descriptive study. Subjects reviewed and revised a unit from a draft version of a self-instructional module on microbiology, while thinking aloud. Two coding schemes were developed and applied to the think-aloud protocols. Overall inter-coder reliability exceeded 89%. Qualitative data were used to describe the processes of formative evaluation, convergence patterns, and the degree of specificity of comments across subjects. Results suggest that there were between group differences in task representation, in the employed strategies, and in features of the text which were commented upon more frequently. Within group similarities in the outcome of formative evaluation were salient on a superficial level. Within group differences were more apparent when comments were compared qualitatively.

Outdoor education is a promising educational field that can support indoor education and provide benefits beyond the evidentknowledge. Outdoor and indoor education together can formulate the ground for an integrated learning. In Greece, like manycountries, outdoor education and its potential contribution to the learning process have not been clearly and intentionally testedyet, even though the country tends to follow a progressive educational philosophy. This research focuses on the subject ofmathematics and explores the connections between the existing philosophy and practices of mathematics education in Greece andoutdoor education theory and practice. Following the method of content analysis, the connections were identified through theexistence of basic outdoor education concepts in the mathematics textbooks of the last three grades of primary school. Althoughthe expectations, because of the lack of personal experiences, could not be high, the application of outdoor education seems to befar from impossible in Greece. It could rather flourish even without any changes in the books, when its potentialities are realizedby the teachers.

Burns are common in low- and middle income countrie ssuch asTarzania and firerelated deaths are numerous in Africa compared to high income countries in Europe. The nurse's primary professional responsibility is to require nursing care to people. Nursing care for burned patients is important and demands knowledge. Nurses in Tanzania experience difficulties in their daily work in terms of heavy workload and lack of material. Transcultural nursing aims to see care, health and illness from a cultural perspective and the goal is to provide competent care to people in different cultures. The purpose of the study was to illuminate how nurses in Tanzania take care of patients with burns.The study was implemented at the hospital Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi,Tanzania. A qualitative method was used;participating observations of nine nurses were carried out. The field notes were analyzed by content analysis and gradually two themes appeared; preventing infections and meeting the patient.The conclusion was that nursing care meant collaboration with the relatives, a calm and low stress atmosphere and concems about the patients' integrity. Difficulties experienced in the nurse's daily work were lack of time and material, but despite this the nurses wanted to improve the care of the burned patients in order to reduce the risk of infection. An interesting finding was that normally no contact was created between the nurse and the patient. Overall the lasting impression was that nursing care must be seen and understood in the cultural context. / <p>Röda Korsets sjuksköterskeförening stipendium 2010</p>

The paper sheds light upon a specific issue: carbon leakage. Leakage can be understood as an unanticipated net carbon loss or gain, attributable to a climate policy, or reduction activities. Benign leakage effects are harmless. Unsettling are the ones that pose a threat to project’s environmental integrity. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is no exception to such risk. In order to investigate leakage and the corresponding leakage calculation methods addressed in the CDM projects, a qualitative content analysis is conducted on 203 methodologies. Methodology documents serve as ideal textual data for examining CDM related leakage because the development of any new project must be based on methodologies. In relation to the research question, the content analysis synthesizes 11 types of leakage sources. Excluding the case where no leakage is considered, 10 type of leakage sources are then broadly classified as Activity Shift, Market Effects and Life Cycle Leakage. Their corresponding leakage calculation methods are described and reviewed in terms of their geographic reach, and leakage characteristics. A percentage pattern is presented in relation to each sector. The findings are that the vast majority of the CDM leakage calculation methods address primary leakage specific to each individual project at a localized scale, among which, methods addressing Life Cycle Leakage are in the predominant majority. Market Effects as secondary sources are acknowledged as a potential threat to the overall benefit, but the CDM methodologies offer no quantitative method.