Digital journalism studies have done little in terms of studying longitudinally the interrelationships between emerging technology and convergent news practices. This study addresses that void by ...using a sensemaking approach to examine how emerging technology was appropriated and enacted in the convergent news activities of newsworkers, and how they made sense of the emerging technologies over two and a half years. Our study analyzes two newsrooms in Singapore: 1) a digital-first legacy newspaper, and 2) an independent digital-only news startup. This article employs the Infotendencias Group’s (2012) analytical framework and its four dimensions of news convergence: i) business, ii) professional, iii) technological, and iv) contents. Additionally, it proposes and employs a fifth dimension: v) audience-centric engagement. The fifth dimension is based on the concept of “measurable journalism” (Carlson, 2018), analyzing how its actors influence the relationship between newsrooms and their audiences. This study builds on two rounds of in-depth interviews conducted from end-2015 to mid-2016, and again in 2018. Our findings show that audience-centric-engagement practices are observed in all four dimensions of convergent news activities of each news organization, and leads to three main conclusions: 1) the growing significance of audience-centric engagement, 2) an emergence of a collaboration culture, and 3) the salience of platform counterbalancing.
This study synthesises two analytical frameworks—journalistic strangers and agents of media innovation—to examine how perceptions among newsworkers towards new entrants to their field shape the ...normalisation of innovations in a digital-first legacy news organisation over three years. Based on two rounds of interviews, it finds that peripheral players are gradually recognised for their contributions to journalism by traditional actors. Nonetheless, as barriers between the two groups lower, tensions involving dissonant professional perspectives, practices, and jurisdictions surface and are negotiated. The findings indicate a growing salience of hybrid roles in newsrooms that serve as linchpins to connect divergent professional fields, and more importantly, as bridges between tradition and innovation. Based on the increasing importance of collaboration and hybrid roles, this study makes a theoretical and practical contribution to research and media management by proposing that four forms of proximity—physical, temporal, professional, and control—are crucial in operationalising the impact that peripheral players have on innovation in news organisations.
Technology companies and their platforms are important digital intermediaries for news publishers. Platforms as technological infrastructures have digital materiality and how publishers organise ...their innovations have become entangled with the digital materiality of platforms. This six-year longitudinal study (2015–2021) examines this entanglement by analysing how and why a news publisher innovated its practices vis-à-vis the changing digital materiality of Facebook and Instagram. Employing practice theory and the platform configuration framework, this study assesses the publisher’s configuration of its editorial activities in relation to shifts in the digital materiality of Meta’s platforms and the reflexivity of newsroom staff. Using a mix of qualitative methods, this study finds that the publisher both embraced and resisted the platforms’ algorithmic changes. While it enhanced video production and distribution to align with the platforms’ preference for audio-visual content, the publisher also developed new practices to counterbalance its reliance on Facebook for news distribution and digital advertising revenue, especially after Meta’s downranking of publishers’ content on News Feeds and the introduction of restrictions for Instant Articles. This study concludes that while publishers are circumscribed by the changes in the platforms' digital materiality, they strategically innovate specific practices to both leverage platforms and reclaim or maintain independence from them.
Abstract
Purpose
Publishers are innovating their practices in the face of global platform companies’ growing dominance on journalism. This study examines how publishers innovate their editorially ...oriented activities vis-à-vis third-party platforms with respect to six stages of news production. In doing so, this article introduces and advances
platform configuration
as a conceptual framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This five-year longitudinal case study of a Singaporean legacy news publisher uses a mix-method qualitative approach. It includes in-depth interviews with 35 staff, newsroom observations and close monitoring of the publisher’s website and apps.
Findings
This study offers three key findings about the publisher’s platform configuration. First,
multidirectionality
: the publisher simultaneously leveraged on platforms’ capacities (building platform presence), while also reducing dependence on them (platform counterbalancing). Second,
specificity
: the publisher added, removed and/or modified editorially oriented activities with respect to the six stages of news production. Third,
commitment:
the publisher calibrated its commitment to specific activities oriented towards either building platform presence and/or platform counterbalancing.
Practical implications
This article introduces a 2 × 2 platform configuration matrix that classifies and explains how and why publishers engage in platform configuration.
Theoretical and social implications
Scholars can draw on platform configuration to study and advance theorizing on the evolving publisher-platform interrelationship. Platform configuration is useful for understanding how publishers reconcile their innovation practices and strategize their commitment to news activities in relation to platforms with broader journalistic and financial objectives.
Originality/value
This is the first study that introduces and advances the concept of platform configuration with regard to publishers’ innovation practices
.
Both the platform configuration concept and matrix allow researchers to classify and operationalize future longitudinal and short-term studies into the publisher-platform dynamic.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- Digital journalism studies have done little in terms of studying longitudinally the interrelationships between emerging technology ...and convergent news practices. This study addresses that void by using a sensemaking approach to examine how emerging technology was appropriated and enacted in the convergent news activities of newsworkers, and how they made sense of the emerging technologies over two and a half years. Our study analyzes two newsrooms in Singapore: 1) a digital-first legacy newspaper, and 2) an independent digital-only news startup. This article employs the Infotendencias Group’s (2012) analytical framework and its four dimensions of news convergence: i) business, ii) professional, iii) technological, and iv) contents. Additionally, it proposes and employs a fifth dimension: v) audience-centric engagement. The fifth dimension is based on the concept of "measurable journalism" (Carlson, 2018), analyzing how its actors influence the relationship between newsrooms and their audiences. This study builds on two rounds of in-depth interviews conducted from end-2015 to mid-2016, and again in 2018. Our findings show that audience-centric-engagement practices are observed in all four dimensions of convergent news activities of each news organization, and leads to three main conclusions: 1) the growing significance of audience-centric engagement, 2) an emergence of a collaboration culture, and 3) the salience of platform counterbalancing.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Providing a lucid and concise historical account of how the computerization of newsrooms from the mid-1960s to the 1990s changed the work routines of US newsworkers, Mari makes a convincing case in ...his book for focusing on pre-Internet technologies during this era by arguing that no other generation of journalists has experienced such a rapid shift from analog to electric and “electronic,” and then digital technologies within such a short span of time. Paying particular attention to four disruptive technologies over three decades—namely, mainframe computers, minicomputers, microprocessors, and personal computers—Mari traces and depicts the historical context of the relationship between newsworkers and their machines vividly, foregrounding the co-evolution of editorial technology, newsworkers and newswork. Drawing from literature in the fields of science and technology studies, journalism studies, and the sociology of work, this book’s arguments are based on Mari’s analysis of more than 1,000 trade publications, independent studies, and archival material
from the US Living Computer Museum.
BIG 3-07/TROG 07.01 is an international, multicentre, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial evaluating tumour bed boost and hypofractionation in patients with non-low-risk ductal carcinoma in situ ...following breast-conserving surgery and whole breast radiotherapy. Here, we report the effects of diagnosis and treatment on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) at 2 years.
The BIG 3-07/TROG 07.01 trial is ongoing at 118 hospitals in 11 countries. Women aged 18 years or older with completely excised non-low-risk ductal carcinoma in situ were randomly assigned, by use of a minimisation algorithm, to tumour bed boost or no tumour bed boost, following conventional whole breast radiotherapy or hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy using one of three randomisation categories. Category A was a 4-arm randomisation of tumour bed boost versus no boost following conventional whole breast radiotherapy (50 Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks) versus hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy (42·5 Gy in 16 fractions over 3·5 weeks). Category B was a 2-arm randomisation between tumour bed boost versus no boost following conventional whole breast radiotherapy, and category C was a 2-arm randomisation between tumour bed boost versus no boost following hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy. Stratification factors were age at diagnosis, planned endocrine therapy, and treating centre. The primary endpoint, time to local recurrence, will be reported when participants have completed 5 years of follow-up. The HRQOL statistical analysis plan prespecified eight aspects of HRQOL, assessed by four questionnaires at baseline, end of treatment, and at 6, 12, and 24 months after radiotherapy: fatigue and physical functioning (EORTC QLQ-C30); cosmetic status, breast-specific symptoms, arm and shoulder functional status (Breast Cancer Treatment Outcome Scale); body image and sexuality (Body Image Scale); and perceived risk of invasive breast cancer (Cancer Worry Scale and a study-specific question). For each of these measures, tumour bed boost was compared with no boost, and conventional whole breast radiotherapy compared with hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy, by use of generalised estimating equation models. Analyses were by intention to treat, with Hochberg adjustment for multiple testing. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00470236.
Between June 1, 2007, and Aug 14, 2013, 1208 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive no tumour bed boost (n=605) or tumour bed boost (n=603). 396 of 1208 women were assigned to category A: conventional whole breast radiotherapy with tumour bed boost (n=100) or no boost (n=98), or to hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy with tumour bed boost (n=98) or no boost (n=100). 447 were assigned to category B: conventional whole breast radiotherapy with tumour bed boost (n=223) or no boost (n=224). 365 were assigned to category C: hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy with tumour bed boost (n=182) or no boost (n=183). All patients were followed up at 2 years for the HRQOL analysis. 1098 (91%) of 1208 patients received their allocated treatment, and most completed their scheduled HRQOL assessments (1147 95% of 1208 at baseline; 988 87% of 1141 at 2 years). Cosmetic status was worse with tumour bed boost than with no boost across all timepoints (difference 0·10 95% CI 0·05–0·15, global p=0·00014, Hochberg-adjusted p=0·0016); at the end of treatment, the estimated difference between tumour bed boost and no boost was 0·13 (95% CI 0·06–0·20; p=0·00021), persisting at 24 months (0·13 0·06–0·20; p=0·00021). Arm and shoulder function was also adversely affected by tumour bed boost across all timepoints (0·08 95% CI 0·03–0·13, global p=0·0033, Hochberg adjusted p=0·045); the difference between tumour bed boost and no boost at the end of treatment was 0·08 (0·01 to 0·15, p=0·021), and did not persist at 24 months (0·04 –0·03 to 0·11, p=0·29). None of the other six prespecified aspects of HRQOL differed significantly after adjustment for multiple testing. Conventional whole breast radiotherapy was associated with worse body image than hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy at the end of treatment (difference –1·10 95% CI –1·79 to –0·42, p=0·0016). No significant differences were reported in the other PROs between conventional whole breast radiotherapy compared with hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy.
Tumour bed boost was associated with persistent adverse effects on cosmetic status and arm and shoulder functional status, which might inform shared decision making while local recurrence analysis is pending.
National Health and Medical Research Council, Susan G Komen for the Cure, Breast Cancer Now, OncoSuisse, Dutch Cancer Society.
Anticancer drug resistance is a large contributing factor to the global mortality rate of cancer patients. Anticancer macromolecules such as polymers have been recently reported to overcome this ...issue. Anticancer macromolecules have unselective toxicity because they are highly positively charged. Herein, an anionic biodegradable polycarbonate carrier is synthesized and utilized to form nanocomplexes with an anticancer polycarbonate via self‐assembly to neutralize its positive charges. Biotin is conjugated to the anionic carrier and serves as cancer cell‐targeting moiety. The nanoparticles have sizes of < 130 nm with anticancer polymer loading levels of 38–49%. Unlike the small molecular anticancer drug doxorubicin, the nanocomplexes effectively inhibit the growth of both drug‐susceptible MCF7 and drug‐resistant MCF7/ADR human breast cancer cell lines with low half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50). The nanocomplexes increase the anticancer polymer's in vivo half‐life from 1 to 6–8 h, and rapidly kill BT474 human breast cancer cells primarily via an apoptotic mechanism. The nanocomplexes significantly increase the median lethal dose (LD50) and reduce the injection site toxicity of the anticancer polymer. They suppress tumor growth by 32–56% without causing any damage to the liver and kidneys. These nanocomplexes may potentially be used for cancer treatment to overcome drug resistance.
Unlike small molecular anticancer drugs, the biotin‐functionalized anticancer nanocomplexes effectively inhibit the growth of both drug‐susceptible and drug‐resistant cancers via apoptosis with low effective concentrations. They significantly reduce toxicity and prolong blood circulation of anticancer polycarbonate and suppressed tumor growth without causing any damage to major organs. These nanocomplexes may potentially be used for cancer treatment to overcome drug resistance.
WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT
• There are presently no published data on tramadol transfer into breast milk or on its effects in the breastfed infant.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS
• We have ...provided quantitative data on the absolute and relative infant doses of rac‐tramadol and it rac‐O‐desmethyl metabolite for the breastfed infant.
• We have also demonstrated a novel sparse sampling data collection method for investigating infant exposure via milk.
AIMS
To investigate the transfer of rac‐tramadol and its rac‐O‐desmethyl metabolite into transitional milk, and assess unwanted effects in the breastfed infant.
METHODS
Tramadol HCl (100 mg six hourly) was administered to 75 breastfeeding mothers for postoperative analgesia on days 2–4 after Caesarian section. Milk and plasma samples were collected after administration of four or more doses. Rac‐tramadol and rac‐O‐desmethyltramadol were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. Milk : plasma ratio (M : P) and infant doses were calculated by standard methods. The behavioural characteristics of the exposed breastfed infants and a matched control group of infants not exposed to tramadol were also studied.
RESULTS
At steady‐state, mean (95% CI) M : P was 2.2 (2.0, 2.4) for rac‐tramadol and 2.8 (2.5, 3.1) for rac‐O‐desmethyltramadol. The estimated absolute and relative infant doses were 112 (102, 122) μg kg−1 day−1 and 30 (28, 32) μg kg−1 day−1, and 2.24% (2.04, 2.44)% and 0.64% (0.59, 0.69)% for rac‐tramadol and rac‐O‐desmethyltramadol, respectively. The exposed infants and control breastfed infants had similar characteristics, including Apgar scores at birth and Neurologic and Adaptive Capacity Scores.
CONCLUSIONS
The combined relative infant dose of 2.88% at steady‐state was low. The similarity of NACS in exposed infants and controls suggests that there were no significant behavioural adverse effects. We conclude that short‐term maternal use of tramadol during establishment of lactation is compatible with breastfeeding.
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