A number of information technology schemes have been developed in order to provide people with mental health problems the opportunity to acquire skills in micro-computer technology. Even though positive results have been reported a high incidence of dropouts during the beginning of the training have been found. The research is based on the assumption that in order for a computer training method to be effective in fostering computer skills and confidence to adult novice users with mental health problems has to: (a) bridge the gap between the user's capacities, needs, and preferences and the demands of the computer interfaces and their real task applications; (b) consider the ways adult novice users prefer to learn and the skill acquisition theories; (c) facilitate a goal directed interaction with the computer system; (d) maintain an optimal complexity level across training; and (e) allow flexibility of use. Based on the relevant literature, a methodology model and a set of design propositions and construction guidelines have been derived and have been implemented for the development of Goaldirected, optimal complexity, Flexible & Task oriented (GOFT) training materials for adult, novice users with mental health problems. The GOFT training materials were based on three different models, the one for the creation of a goal directed instruction format and the other two for the organisation of the training, and the estimation of the difficulty level of each new computer operation or real task application. Evaluation of use of the GOFT Training Materials by 34 adult, novice users (aged 18-51) with mental health problems revealed positive results. More specifically, the use of the GOFT training materials as compared to traditional methods resulted in a significant increase in the number of participants at the different training stages (85.3% versus 47.2%; and 44.5% versus 22.2% at three and twelve months respectively), in perfect & regular attendance rate ( 44,12% versus 11.11% & 32.35% versus 16.67%) and in the performance level (means of 3.75 versus 2.67) of the users. The subjective evaluation by the users also revealed significant differences between the GOFT and traditional training materials. In their evaluation the GOFT materials were rated significantly higher in terms of systematic arrangement, personal affect, understandability, task relevance, fitness, sense of control, confidence in using the mastered functions and in supporting goal directed learning approach.

The British and the Danes are equally sceptical in their approach to the European Union. Around half the population of each country is opposed to the closer integration of EU member states. Given that, one would expect British and Danish newspaper coverage of EU events also to be broadly similar. This is, however, not the case. While the UK newspapers take a line that is overwhelmingly Euro-sceptic, the Danish newspapers are almost all pro-European. At the same time, there are differences in reporting approaches and styles in that, although the Danish papers clearly express their Euro-friendly stances in, for example, leader column-c, they nevertheless cover all sides of the debate, and tend to be even-handed in their news reports. This is frequently not the case in their British counterparts. Furthermore, while the UK newspapers tend to report EU news primarily from a domestic standpoint, their Danish counterparts take a more 'international' approach and are more inclined to relate reports to a wider European context. This thesis demonstrates that these dissimilarities are the result of differences in the UK and Denmark in the areas of influence that affect the way journalists choose and handle news stories. These areas of influence, as defined by Paul Voakes, are: individual; small group; orgamsation; competition; occupation; the law; and extra media. Overall, this thesis argues that the effects of these differences are to produce EU coverage in the UK newspaper press that is significantly more unbalanced, distorted and nationalistic than it is in its Danish counterpart and that such skewed reporting is often the result of a conscious abandonment the British press of standard practices for the achievement of a 'fair' and 'accurate' representation of news events.

This thesis examines the UK and US press coverage of the 1991 Gulf conflict. It outlines the propaganda model of the press identified by Herman and Chomsky and, through a qualitative study of press content, examines the extent to which the predictions of the model are fulfilled in the coverage. The state systems involved are defined as new militarist and the special role played by the press in these systems is identified. In radically problematising the event, the study identifies the way in which broad historical factors (rather than any elite conspiracy) lay behind the press manufacture of the Gulf war spectacle. Interviews with journalists involved and references to many non-mainstream texts and perspectives (silenced or marginalised within the dominant ideological system) are incorporated. The thesis concludes that most of the expectations of the propaganda model were realised in the press coverage of the Gulf "war".

This study describes and assesses the problems associated with the development of the new broadcasting media in the United Kingdom, France and Luxembourg in 1981-1986. It also examines the implications associated with the new broadcasting media in both the audiovisual landscape and the public policies concerning broadcasting. It describes and analyses the audiovisual policy initiated by the Commission of the European Community. This study believes that the impact of the the new broadcasting media on the audiovisual environment has been mostly indirect because of their very slow development. In all three countries, the development of the new broadcasting media has taken on an industrial dimension in terms of assisting the restructuring of their mature economies. The strongest impression to emerge from this project is a profound confusion and uncertainty about the media developments. A situation including an increased number of actors, involved both in conventional and new broadcasting media adversely influenced the latter's development. Even though the United Kingdom and France followed a different policy path, the outcome was the same: small growth. While France followed a state-led policy, the United Kingdom favoured private initiative and the market forces. This project also stresses that although economic pressures and challenges have been a driving force for policy adjustment, technology and markets do not themselves dictate specific and institutional arrangements. Additionally, it describes the state policy on broadcasting in Luxembourg and the anxiety of its politicians to maintain the Grand Duchy's traditional role as the location for international broadcasting. Finally, the European Community's broadcasting policy is discussed in terms of another attempt to harmonise diversified national legislations for the satellite age of television and 1992's Single Market.

This thesis examines social relationships and patterns of social interaction in contemporary rural China with a network perspective. Based on first hand data collected in southeastern China by the method of anthropological fieldwork, it tries to understand peasants' social behavior in the context of their concrete, multidimensional inter-family relations. This context of relations is called "family network". Family network is defined in this thesis as a quasi group formed by families that is directly linked by kinship and friendship and have frequent social exchange and interaction with the focusing family. It cuts across the boundaries of villages and of kin and non-kin. Throughout the thesis the emphasis is placed on patterns of social interaction in relation to different kinds of social relationship, and on the utilization of these relationships in social and economic life. In explaining people's behavior of supporting others, it is not the notion of group solidarity, but the idea of reciprocity (and mutual exploitation) between both sides of a relationship in the process of social exchange, that is considered as significant. The empirical materials described in this thesis also suggest important changes in patterns of social interaction and the notion of social relationship brought by a rapid economic development in the past ten years.

My work on the sports pages of the Sunday Times led to invitations to write two books on the emergence of elite female champions and two unauthorized biographies of female champions, all of which included original data and analysis of gender issues in sport. One of the first academic, self-reflective analyses by a sports journalist, this dissertation written for the PhD by prior publication, places my work in the context of the profession and considers my contribution to understanding how elite champions have used their agency in sport. Contributions in the works submitted include re-theorizing the ―feminine apologetic‖ with regard to elite champions, documentation and interpretation of agency and constraint in the career of Martina Navratilova, identifying and modelling the backlash role of gymnastics, and interrogating the gender frontier; all are critically analysed here. In this dissertation, issues of journalistic practice including the advantage of bias are considered, and the ―doping apologetic‖ is identified, named and preliminarily modelled. My work both benefits from and contributes to the cross-disciplinary, inter-linked analysis of women‘s sport in the social sciences and in sport and women's studies, and has been cited in the literature. Contravening conventionalist journalistic stereotyping of female champions, it documents and evaluates how champions have attempted to gain opportunity for themselves, and how their strategies may have affected the paradigm of femininity.

The American war on Iraq in 2003 has unleashed tremendous changes to the Iraqi media. It has been changed from a draconian, state-run institution into a free-for-all one. However, the relative freedom the media enjoyed was marred by the US management of the press, as part of the military operation and the campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis who were suspicious of America’s plans for ‘liberation and democracy’. The stages of this US policy of press management and its impact on the shaping of the Iraqi media are the core elements of this thesis. This study examines the relations between the media in Iraq and the American occupation military forces, including the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). It focuses on how American practices formed the media in Iraq after the invasion, how these practices and policies have affected the freedom of press and whether they conform to the international standards of journalism. It argues that the American policies undermined their promises to create free, independent and professional journalism in Iraq, and call into question the sincerity of their intentions. It presents evidence that the Iraqi media has been a tool used for the benefit of the American forces and the established Iraqi government. To show the US dominance of the Iraqi media, the thesis studies the American policies and practices of building some of the Iraqi media institutions, and how they were used as part of US psychological warfare. The thesis also details how these media organisations developed through the years of the occupation; first serving the American agenda and tactical requirements, and then being handed to the Iraqi government to start a new era of state–run media in the name of democracy, or given as a gift to loyal individuals who served the Americans during the occupation. The various factors that have influenced the Iraqi media after the 2003 invasion have been discussed at length. A qualitative methodology acted as a basis for an in-depth examination of the establishment and performance of the Iraqi media organisations, which were created by the American army. Unprofessional practices, unethical policies and negative influences on news coverage riddled the Iraqi press throughout the period of military occupation. Figures in the American and Iraqi administrations and militaries, as well as influential members of the media organisations themselves, all had a hand in manipulating the press to propagate material that furthered their ideological and tactical goals. A severe lack of laws to protect journalists and their organisations and of a professional media greatly restricted the freedom of reporting, and stifled the growth of a free and independent media. In analysing the history of Iraqi media, it is clear that the development of journalism in Iraq was directly affected by frequent changes in the Iraqi political administration and military leadership. In the Middle East politicians and militaries often held dominating positions in their relationships with the national media. The unethical policies imposed upon media organisations by the powers that be had a detrimental effect on their human resources and on practices within the institutions, which has in turn led to the current distortion and inefficiencies in the performance and professionalism of Iraqi media. By close examination of American policies regarding the Iraqi media sector, similarities can be found between American practices in Germany and Japan after World War II. Here they made the fatal error of applying policies that were far more successful in Germany and Japan, directly to the situation in Iraq, without sufficient regard for the context of the situation in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. A close study of US-established Iraqi media brings to the surface the particular tools used to control the press. This offers a valuable insight into the major influences on Iraqi news, aimed at improving the image of American forces and the Iraqi government, which was under American supervision. The study begins with the premise that media is recognised as one of the most powerful tools in highlighting problems within deeply divided societies, and that it can help shape and influence public attitudes towards overcoming such tensions in national communities. This thesis has been constructed empirically by approaching media organisations, journalists and newsrooms, as well as politicians and military figures from both the Iraqi and American administrations, in order to define the degree to which the quality of professionalism within media organisations was influenced by the power of both the American and Iraqi governments and militaries. Finally, the study reveals how, in order to serve tactical aims, the American administration built up state media organisations disguised as professional and independent broadcasters.

No description available.

Following a number of recent far-reaching reforms to the UK NHS, St Thomas' Hospital (where this work was based) introduced a management structure based on the 'Clinical Directorate'. In order to lessen the increased workload commensurate with this measure, it was decided at St Thomas' that a new type of information system - the Directorate Information System or DIS - would introduced. This system was to 'support the business of the clinical directorate'. As part of the DIS project, a small study was set up toinvestigate the problems associated with the introduction of such an information system, and to suggest a design. This thesis reports on the study. The design of information systems in general, and clinical information systems in particular, seems to be an extremely difficult endeavour: many systems development projects end in failure. It is widely considered that the problems lie in inadequate requirements analysis and specification: consequently it was here that the project concentrated most of its efforts. It was recognised that when in use, the terms, quantities, and entities stored and displayed by an information system are interpreted by its users as terms, quantities, and entities in the organisation that is being supported (also called the domain in the thesis). This is perhaps the fundamental requirement of an information system: that it represents the organisation and processes it is to support. To assess the degree to which a design satisfies this requirement entails the development and use of three descriptions, or theories. The first is the theory of the domain; the second is a theory, or specification, of the proposed information system; the third is a theory of the way in which the information system is interpreted into the domain - this is called the interaction theory and is a composition of the first two theories. By inspecting the interaction theory inadequacies in the representation of the domain by the information system can be identified and, if necessary, rectified. There are four ways in which we are encouraged to modify information system designs so that they more accurately reflect the behaviour of the domain. These are called the four developmental motives. Through the use of a well constructed interaction theory, and guided by the desire for system simplicity on one hand and the four developmental motives on the other, an improved information system design can be engineered. For an interaction theory to be constructed and provide useful insight, both the domain theory and the information system specification must be semantically rich. Conventional analysis notations are inadequate for the task: mathematics (in this case set theory) is needed to represent and explore the domain, the information system, and the interpretation of the latter into the former. The construction of a good domain theory is the hardest part of the process. Representing the organisation as it is perceived by workers (in this case clinicians) as a set theoretic construction is fraught with difficulties. However, the judicious use of an adaptation of the scientific method means that we can have increased confidence that the resulting description of the organisation is a reasonable one and is not merely a statement of the analyst's preconceptions and prejudices. The thesis describes in more detail the background to the project, the use of the scientific method to derive a domain theory, the construction of interaction theories, and the engineering of information systems through the use of the four developmental motives. This is done through the use of a large case study which presents, documents, and discusses the theories used in the Directorate Information System project, and describes their evolution.

This thesis addressesth e question of the significance or addedv alue derived from directly integrating client (defined as patients, doctors, and staff) satisfaction level predictors and attributes into senior level healthcare decision-making and policy development processes. It poses the questions: 1. Is satisfaction level measurement for patients, doctors and staff an important requirement for improved managerial efficiency and effectiveness? If so, then why? 2. Are the satisfaction attributes for each of these groups associated? What are the implications of such an association on senior managerial decision outcomes? 3. How to best integrate satisfaction predictors and attributes to improve decisionmaking and policy development? To address the above, the thesis proposes a unified model to allow for the utilisation of satisfaction study findings to inform both policy and decision-making processes. Through client satisfaction impact assessment (CSIA) methods, the model may permit healthcare managers to achieve higher levels of client loyalty, by better understanding, predicting and possibly influencing client needs, expectations and satisfaction. Modelling is a means that enables senior managers to simulate realistic scenarios while avoiding costly and/or unethical trial and error strategies. Therefore, modelling acts as a decision-aiding methodology. The model links health management decision-making process and frameworks with key attributes and predictors of user/patient, doctor and staff satisfaction, to show implications on the development of sound policy and decision outcomes, while avoiding pitfalls. It goes beyond simple measurements of satisfaction, by examining its multi-dimensional nature, decomposing it into constituent attributes, and investigating its predictors. Satisfaction attributes are viewed as an extension of people's needs and expectations. The data corroborates the work of other researchers as to the complexity of the concept of satisfaction and its expression. Data were collected through focus groups, household surveys, and exit questionnaires in the West Bank (Palestine) as a case study; the thesis outlines the need and practical methods to harmonise healthcare organisation policy setting and evolution with patient, staff and doctor expectations and beliefs, to the extent possible. The resulting synergy from this harmonisation would work to reduce some of the inherit uncertainty associated with decision outcomes by lowering the risk of dissonance between management and its main client groups (patients, staff, medical doctors). Dissonance, or position discrepancy, is viewed as a key contributing factor to reduced client satisfaction and increased decision uncertainty. From the organisational policy development perspective, the model reveals the significance satisfaction attributes and predictors of all three client groups (patients, staff, medical doctors) and subsequent decisions they make (observed behaviour) through the institutionalisation of systematic methods to incorporate vital information at policy levels. The determinants of these decisions are further analysed including beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, and intentions to enhance the understanding of how these factors fit into decision-making and policy development processes. It further points to the consequences healthcare managers may encounter when the opposing needs and expectations (multi-attributes of satisfaction) on these groups are not closely examined.