Traditional scholarship on the media effects of government activity focuses on the transfer of salience. Salience and priorities are conceptually distinct, although they are often incorrectly used interchangeably. Whereas salience refers to issue attention, priority pertains to issue preferences or importance. This paper offers that media effects are better understood as signals comprised of issue salience and importance in an environment characterized by variation in uncertainty and ambiguity. Using newspaper stories and congressional hearings datasets, unique measures are developed that incorporate the uncertainty and ambiguity of the information environment. The relationship between media signals and government problem prioritization is then examined. This research is important in situating media signaling within the context of the larger issue agenda, and helps to illuminate linkages between the public and government agendas. / text

The advancement in computing in the last three decades has introduced many devices in our daily lives including personal computers, laptops, cellular devices and many more. The data we need for our processing needs is scattered among these devices. The availability of all the scattered data in the devices in use associated to an individual user as one is achieved in a Personal Information Environment. Data recharging is a technique used to achieve a Personal Information Environment for an individual user using data replication. In this thesis, we propose a data recharging scheme for an individual user’s Personal Information Environment. We study the data availability to a user by conducting a simulation using the data recharging algorithm. This data recharging approach is achieved by using master-slave data replication technique. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-06 00:18:00.19

In this thesis, I examine how the corporate financial information environment is shaped by the financial media. The thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay, I examine the role of voluntary company-initiated disclosures about firm financial performance as a stimulus for coverage in the financial press. I provide evidence that media coverage is affected by firm level disclosure management. Specifically, a firm's issuance of press releases attracts more media articles about the firm leading to greater abnormal returns and trading volumes. I find that there is a spike of media articles on the same day and one trading day following firms' press releases. I use a unique experiment, which differentiates between the online and print versions of the Wall Street Journal, to establish a causal relation between press releases and media coverage. My findings challenge the common assumption in the literature that media coverage is exogenous to the firm. In the second essay, I find that the financial media plays a significant role in enriching a firm's information environment by moderating the tone of corporate press releases. Using textual analysis, I show that the press moderates both the positive and negative tone of corporate press releases. However, the effect is asymmetric with the media disproportionately downplaying the tone of favourable corporate press releases, in line with the premise that management's highly positive news disclosures are less convincing. In addition, I find that there is an abnormal market response to the linguistic content of financial media articles rather than to the content of corporate press releases, suggesting that the tone of press-issued information is more value relevant to market participants compared to that of management's disclosures. Overall, this study offers robust evidence supporting the view that the financial media plays an important role as an information intermediary. In the third and last essay, I investigate the information dissemination and information creation roles of the financial media by examining whether the rebroadcasting of firm-initiated news (parroting) and the creation of original information by the media influence the stock market reaction to news disclosures differently. Using textual analysis, I calculate the tone expressed in corporate press releases and related articles in the financial media, and further distinguish between parroted (from the press release) and non-parroted (i.e., original) media tonal language. I provide evidence supporting a dual role of the press that affects price formation through both its information dissemination and information creation roles. However, my findings are consistent with press-generated information having the most significant impact on market reaction. My results also indicate that there is an asymmetric market effect, with negative original media tone being more value relevant to market participants compared to managerial and media-parroted (positive and negative) tonal language. As such, my findings have important implications for studies on the role of the financial media as an information intermediary in capital markets, and suggest that market participants perceive a difference between simple dissemination of firm-initiated information and new reporter-generated information.

Yes / This study uses the quality of coverage decisions as a new metric to evaluate the performance of star and non-star analysts. We find that the coverage decisions of star analysts are better predictors of returns than those of non-star analysts. The return predictability of star analysts’ coverage decisions is stronger for informationally opaque stocks. We further exploit the staggered short selling deregulations, Google’s withdrawal, and the anti-corruption campaign as three quasi-natural experiments that create plausibly exogenous variations in the quality of information environment. These experiments show that the predictive power of star analysts’ coverage decisions strengthens (weakens) following a sharp deterioration (improvement) in firms’ information environment, consistent with the notion that star analysts possess superior ability to identify mispriced stocks. Overall, star analysts make better coverage decisions and play a superior role as information intermediaries, especially in poor information environment.

In order to attract the attention of users current online shopping environments often involve the use of dynamic display changes such as animation, flashing or rotating text, and pop-up boxes. While there is some experimental evidence that supports the effectiveness of such changes for the purpose of capturing attention, such changes might also distract the user and hinder task performance. Thus, a key usability challenge for the designers of such environments involves balancing the need to attract attention with the desire to minimize any interruption of the performance of users. To date there is very little systematic investigation of the influence of display changes on consumers¡¦ attention and decisions during the browsing of online shopping web sites. The main goal of the present experiments was to research factors that might be important in determining the influence of such display changes. To accomplish that experimental tasks were created that resembled some aspects of the visual decision process and dynamic changes that occur during online shopping. However, in order to permit greater experimental control, the information environment used in the present tasks was substantially simplified as compared to online environments. Specifically, in 3 experiments, participants¡¦ eye movements were monitored while they chose between 2 alternatives, each represented by a set of visual images, with one set placed on the top of the screen and the other on the bottom. Immediately prior to this decision participants performed one or more binary decisions based on subsets of these images. On some trials, images were spatially swapped in the display presented during the final decision as compared to a prior presentation. Across experiments, we manipulated the relevance of the change to task performance as well as the recency of the information that was modified. By analyzing behavioral and eye movement measures, we documented evidence that participants flexibly and effectively accommodated to a variety of display changes. However, there was cost associated with display changes in the form of longer viewing times. In addition, task relevant changes and changes to recently viewed information were generally more disruptive. We discuss the implications of the present findings for the design of online shopping web sites and for future research that would attempt to generalize the present findings to more complex and more realistic online environments.

This dissertation seeks to identify the elements that inform the model for competing message propagation systems in a restrictive environment. It pays attention to message propagation by sanctioned and clandestine radio stations in pre- and post-independent Zimbabwe. This dissertation uses two models of message propagation in a limiting information environment: Sturges' information model of national liberation struggle and Chatman's small world information model. All the message propagation elements in the Sturges and Chatman's models are present in the broadcast texts analyzed. However, the findings of this dissertation indicate that communication in a restrictive information environment is designed such that its participants make sense of their situation, and come up with ways to solve the challenges of their small world. Also, a restrictive information environment is situational, and message propagators operating in it are subject to tactical changes at different times, accordingly altering their cognitive maps. The two models fail to address these concerns. This dissertation focused on message propagation in Zimbabwe because there is military belligerence involved in the information warfare. It therefore provides an extreme situation, which can help our understanding of more everyday instances of communication and interference of communication. Findings of this dissertation recommend the need to emphasize that information input, output and suppression are components dependent on each other; not discrete and independent categories of information activities.

The thesis explores sustainable development of a company focusing on PLM system in the environment of an industrial company. In the theoretical part the lifecycle of a product (PLM) is described as well as its demands and benefits focusing on the area of mechatronics. The following analysis of current IT environment gives information which is used as the basis for adjustments of the current system in a way to eliminate narrow places of the slim production of the company, avoid wasting and achieve sustainable development of the company while using current technologies.

This thesis is focused on sustainable development of a company using PLM systém in the environment of an industrial company, that manufactures components for the automotive industry. In the theoretical part the life cycle of the product (PLM) is described as well as its demands and benefits. This is followed by an analysis of current IT environment, which contains basis for adjustments of the current system. Thank to them is possible to reduce narrow places of the slim production of the company, avoid wasting time and material, and above all to achieve sustainable development of the company while using current technologies.

The initiation and duration of exclusive chest/breastfeeding are important health determinants and a key focus of existing public health policy and programs. Despite the demonstrated benefits of chest/breastfeeding and focus on interventions, overall rates of initiation and exclusivity in Ontario remain low. The purpose of this study was to describe how midwifery clients in Ontario - a population credited with high rates of exclusive chest/breastfeeding - access information to support infant feeding decisions. A descriptive, cross-sectional online electronic survey was conducted using the Midwifery Infant Feeding Information Survey questionnaire which was locally developed for this study. A total of 235 midwifery clients who were either in or recently discharged from midwifery care at the time of the survey completed the questionnaire. Data analysis was completed using descriptive statistics with total counts and content analysis for open-ended questions. This research contributes new knowledge about infant feeding information access including the reported usefulness and preferences of various information sources across the continuum of care; the importance of the midwife-client relationship and the online information environment; potential communication gaps in the delivery of comprehensive prenatal infant feeding information; and self-reported infant feeding patterns suggesting midwifery exclusive chest/breastfeeding rates may not be as high as previously thought. Further research to improve information access is needed in order to identify barriers midwives face in discussing infant feeding with clients; explore the effect of health literacy in an online information environment to support the potential development of evidence-based, midwifery-specific online/digital tools. The study findings are relevant for both the academic and clinical midwifery community in developing effective strategies to further support midwifery clients in meeting their infant feeding goals. This study will further inform researchers, public health practitioners, policy makers, and other stakeholders representing all childbearing families in Ontario. / Thesis / Master of Public Health (MPH) / The goal of this study was to examine how midwifery clients in Ontario access information about infant feeding throughout the pregnancy and postpartum period. An online survey of 235 current and former midwifery clients identified why some information sources were more useful than others, and how infant feeding information could become more accessible. The midwife-client relationship and use of online/digital media were identified as important information sources. However, a number of information gaps were identified that suggest not all clients benefit from comprehensive discussions with their midwife in preparation for infant feeding. Further research is needed to understand barriers midwives may face in discussing infant feeding with their clients, and the use of online/digital tools to support midwifery clients to meet their infant feeding goals. The results of this study may benefit all childbearing families in Ontario.

This study introduces industry competition factors to fraud models to examine how competition associates with fraud risk. I argue that industry competition eclipses many firm-level determinants in their association with fraud risk, and that the cost of poor information elevates fraud risk as competition increases. I find that fraud risk is higher for firms in industries with 1) more substitutable products and services, 2) greater threats of new entry, and 3) larger incumbent pools of competitors, and that substitution exceeds every firm-level variable except size in its relevance with fraud risk. Cross-sectionally, I provide evidence that industry-wide non-adoption of advanced cost analytics (i.e. using obsolete, distortionary standard costing practices) may exacerbate the fraud-risk effects of competition, especially product substitution: a one standard deviation increase in substitution associates with over double the fraud risk for firms in industries typified by obsolete costing practices. I also find that different strategies vary in their fraud-offsetting associations dependent on the type of competition most prevalent in an industry. Together, these findings shed light on how the effects of industry competition may subsume or surpass most firm-level fraud determinants and provide evidence of previously unidentified drawbacks of obsolete cost accounting systems. / Doctor of Philosophy / Elements of industry competition help explain a firm's fraud risk. I find that bringing competition variables into firm-level fraud models helps explain a large portion of the firm's fraud risk, and that the effects of competition more strongly associate with fraud risk than most firm-level attributes. The results also indicate that the effects of competition on fraud risk may be even worse in industries where obsolete cost accounting practices remain widespread: the effects of price competition in such industries associates with significantly greater fraud risk than in other industries. Additional findings include the implied fraud-risk-reducing effects of different business strategies, depending on which type of competition is most intensive around a firm. Altogether, this study sheds light on the importance of including industry competition effects when assessing fraud risk, especially when a firm's or its peers' cost accounting system quality is poor and price competition is high.