This dissertation examines ethics In contemporary Canadian journalism. The research is designed to Identify the nature of ethical dilemmas in Canadian journalism, to ascertain how decisions are commonly arrived at, and to suggest ways of refining that decisionmaking process. The opening five chapters (Part 1) comprise a survey of literature on the subject and an overview of Canadian news media, followed by a summary of value systems applied in Canadian journalism, including the nature of news and the role of the media. The 12 central chapters (Parts 2& 3) outline the range of ethical problems encountered and ways they may be resolved. The final three chapters (a) examine media accessibility and accountability, suggesting ways these can be Improved; (b) evaluate codes of ethics; and (c) summarize the ethical implications of debates on journalism as a profession and freedom of the press.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Communities have come to rely on technology to enhance public safety and communication during disasters. With nearly one-third of online adults receiving information from government organizations using digital tools other than websites, it is no surprise that increasingly government organizations are leveraging social media to push out information to their communities. My interest in the topic of government use of social media during disasters began when I began managing social media platforms for a city emergency medical services system. My hope for the research is to reveal how government organizations are using social media for emergency management and to discover what they have learned. This paper reviews literature about community use of social media during various stages of disasters, and includes findings from interviews with five government organizations regarding their social media use during emergency events. The goal of the research is to develop a deeper conversation among government and emergency management professionals to establish a direction for further research. Eventually, this ongoing research will better quantify the value of social media use by government organizations during disasters so they can make informed decisions on how government can best utilize social media platforms. / text

The aim of this case study is to investigate the relation between mass media consumption habits of Chinese immigrants in Houston and their acculturation in different generations. The author found new technologies was eroding the role of Chinese immigrant newspapers in Houston. With the development of the Internet, those young Chinese immigrants had more chances to enjoy their bicultural pleasure and became more globalized. Though, like the old generation of Chinese immigrants, they still relied on the enclave community to get the economy protection, they consumed more English media and were easier to acculturate into American society. / text

This is a conference report of a two-day working conference held in April of 2000 with leading media education and public health researchers charged with the task of charting future directions for research in media education. The goal of the conference was to identify approaches that should be undertaken to measure the impact of media literacy interventions aimed at health threats to youth, to stimulate descriptive evidence about the growth and nature of media literacy education in the United States and around the world, and to begin to more fully appreciate the complex, interdisciplinary connections between the fields of media studies, education and public health that research about the practice of media literacy demands and inspires. Conference sponsors: Johnson & Johnson; Center for Substance Abuse Prevention; (HHS Secretary's Initiative on Youth Substance Abuse Prevention); National Cancer Institute; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; American Academy of Pediatrics; Alliance for a Media Literate America; Journalism Resources Institute. The full text of this document can be downloaded or sent to others, and photos of the conference can be viewed on the conference site ( http://www.mediastudies.rutgers.edu/mh_conference/index.html).

The connection of genre to social processes is considered through the lens of printed almanacs issued in North America in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the diaspora Croatians. The role of genre in sustaining cultural interactions in that community through communication of memories and meanings of identity is interpreted through multidimensional nature of almanac literacy. The almanacs were analyzed as verbal forms, objects that circulate texts, and texts that produce meaning. This analysis has shown how culture is mediated through the almanac genre's structural elements and the symbolic associations derived from its historical roles. Because genres are not only texts but sets of social, political, and economic interactions among the individuals and groups with which they are associated, the ways in which the almanac trade was organized reflects patterns of socialization of communities and individuals, and their ability to mobilize economic, social, and cultural resources in their production. The corpus of 425 almanacs is analyzed using the methods of textual criticism, book history, and cultural analysis, showing how texts can become an informal writing space in which communities outside the dominant culture could interact, and a written arena for oral production. Diaspora almanacs convey a sense of the marginal spaces in which they were produced, distributed, and used. This is noted in particular in the ambiguous position that the printed almanac held in relation to genres of oral communication. Reliance on visual interfaces in structuring information (pictograms, layout, typography, and the use of image) made these materials accessible to individuals at different levels of reading competence. The analysis has shown that such rhetorical simulation of orality is not functional, but serves to forge identity according to the rules of oral memory adapted for the visual interfaces of print medium. Listing and ordering to lay out information schematically, exemplifies how descriptive styles in presenting information are converted into evaluative narratives which convey ideological arguments. Apart from identifying the characteristics of ordering and transmission of social memory in print medium, this study also points to the connection of literacy and power in shaping the culture of the diaspora Croatians.

This thesis will attempt to expose and understand the relationship between media and architecture (‘Archimedia’). This relationship has been around for centuries. The only constant in this relationship is change and this is what people have come to rely on. ‘Archimedia’ embraces this instability and sees it as an opportunity for a rejuvenation of the architectural language.

The effects of Otitis Media (OM) on the development of preschoolers are not fully known. This record review compared the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers (MAP) results of preschoolers with a history of OM treated with Ventilating Tubes (VTs) to preschoolers with no history of OM or VTs to investigate differences. No statistically significant differences were found, but the OM group were clinically more at risk for verbal delays. Children with a history of OM who are suspected of having developmental delays should be referred for an Occupational Therapy (OT) assessment. Occupational Therapists (OTs) consider the effects of OM and other risk factors for developmental delay holistically by looking at client factors, environments, performance skills and occupations. They can then intervene at all these different levels to maximise health and participation in life.

The surgical management of chronic otitis media is ever evolving. This is also the case at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital where in recent times, certain new techniques were adopted and other older ones revisited. This changed surgical approach was deemed to be necessary not only in view of the limited resources available to deal with a large patient load, but also to improve surgical outcomes in the local environment. The focus was mainly on the implementation of internationally accepted surgical techniques that have been shown to not only be effective and safe, but also simple and time-saving. Changes were mostly seen in the management of patients presenting with simple perforations and cholesteatoma. It is the objective of this study to formally assess the outcome and feasibility of this changed surgical approach, as well as to assess the outcomes of surgery as a whole. A retrospective clinical chart review was undertaken over an eighteen-month period from July 2009 to December 2010. All patients undergoing single stage surgery for chronic otitis media in this period were included, and grouped in terms of procedure performed, viz. Tympanoplasty, Tympanomastoidectomy and Canal wall down CWD mastoidectomy. All data were collected from an otological database, each case independently evaluated in terms of surgical and audiological outcomes after at least a 2 month follow up period. Only data acquired at the latest follow-up date were used. The follow up period ranged from 2 to 18 months. The Butterfly Cartilage Inlay Graft (BCIG) tympanoplasty technique was the predominant technique used for simple perforations of any size and location, and showed superior surgical outcomes to the more traditional Fascia underlay graft (FUG) technique. Surgical success (i.e. healed / intact tympanic membrane) in the FUG tympanoplasty group was 75%, compared to 93% in the BCIG group. One hundred percent of cases subjected to BCIG tympanoplasty achieved sociable hearing (ACT< 30dB) in the early post-operative period. We found the hearing improvement post-surgery to be directly related to the size of perforation (p= 0, 0195), and pre-operative hearing loss (p= 0, 0001 r= 0.93). None of the other variables studied influenced the audiological outcome achieved. In the study period, surgical techniques used for more severe Noncholesteatomatous chronic otitis media (NCCOM) were little changed from before. An evaluation of these cases focused on those with actively discharging ears to assess the outcome of Tympanomastoidectomy to achieve not only a dry ear, but also an intact tympanic membrane (TM) and hearing improvement (HI). Eighty-six percent of patients with discharging ears had dry ears post-operatively, 50% of which achieved an intact tympanic membrane and sociable hearing (ACT< 30dB). Graft failures in the tympanomastoidectomy group as a whole were mostly related to size of perforation (p= 0,047) and to the presence of discharge pre-operatively (p= 0,012). In the CWD mastoidectomy group, although evaluating both the large (completely exenterated mastoid)- and small cavity techniques, the focus was on the latter. With this technique, disease is surgically approached from its site of origin, and followed into the attic and mastoid. The resultant defect in the medial canal wall and mastoid is kept as small as possible, to avoid obliteration and the morbidity of an unnecessarily large cavity. Dry ears were achieved in 93% of patients. In cases where the TM was grafted, an intact tympanic membrane was achieved in 85% of patients. Significant hearing improvement (>10dB in two consecutive frequencies) was achieved in 33% of patients who had the tympanic membrane grafted to an intact stapes suprastructure (Type 3 tympanoplasty with or without a cartilage columella). These results compared favourably to the large cavity CWD technique in this series where obliteration and middle ear grafting were not performed on a regular basis. In this group, only 16% of patients had an intact tympanic membrane post-operatively, and 63% of ears were dry at latest follow up. Although statistical analysis did not show one technique to be superior to the other in achieving a dry ear post-operatively (p= 0,39), the results with the small cavity technique were very encouraging. Hearing improvement in both groups were variable and hearing preservation rather than augmentation was achieved in most. The lack of hearing improvement may not only have been related to the extensive disease encountered (80% extending beyond attic, 50 % stapes suprastructure erosion), but also to inadequate and infrequent reconstruction of the middle ear.

There has been growing discussion that distinguishes meaningful media entertainment, eudaimonic media experiences, and self-transcendent positive emotions from pleasurable media entertainment, hedonic media experiences, and non-transcendent positively-valenced emotions. The mood management theory and selective exposure perspective explain how individuals tend to select media to consume when they are in a particular mood state in order to achieve a better mood or maintain their existing desirable mood state. These perspectives do not specifically capture the self-transcendent emotional states or meaningful media entertainment. However, they provided imperative theoretical foundation to examine these phenomena. This dissertation project examines and compares the entertainment media selection between meaningful and funny video content when a positive affective state, hedonic joyful mood or elevation is experienced. It also examines these two positive affects experienced after consuming chosen media content, and how they may affect prosociality. Specifically, it explores if individuals in the affective state of elevation will be more likely to choose elevation-inducing videos to view comparing to individuals in the affective state of hedonic joy, in order to maintain their existing self-transcendent good mood. Further, it investigates whether elevation-inducing meaningful video exposure, comparing to joy-inducing funny video exposure, would lead to greater likelihood of helping a stranger despite a controllable cause of the help-seeker’s plight. The results showed that the affective experience of elevation led to continued exposure to the meaningful media after initial exposure to elevation-inducing content and more meaningful media exposure in general (than the mood state of hedonic joy). This congruency in mood state and selective exposure behavior mirrors the good mood maintenance proposition of the mood management theory. Moreover, more meaningful video exposure led to higher levels of elevation, which in turn led to higher likelihood of agreeing to help a stranger in need. As speculated, elevation had a stronger and more stable relationship with prosociality than hedonic joy did. The findings also supported the positive relationship between need for affect and elevation elicited by meaningful media content. The role of content types, entertainment preferences, individual differences in predispositional altruistic personality, and need for affect in the production of selective exposure behavior and helping are also discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / July 10, 2018. / elevation, meaningful media entertainment, mood management, prosociality, selective exposure, self-transcendence / Includes bibliographical references. / Arthur A. Raney, Professor Directing Dissertation; Wen Li, University Representative; Laura M. Arpan, Committee Member; Juliann Cortese, Committee Member.