The social determinants of health are increasingly well understood by paediatricians. Policy and individual practitioner actions are emerging and have been described in previous Social Paediatrics ...symposia in this journal. This article describes a Poverty Truth Commission; an innovative approach to addressing the impact of poverty of children's health. This brings people who may not otherwise spend much time together, takes away job titles and uses the power of storytelling to effect change in the members of the commission and beyond.
One important class of applications entails a robot scrutinizing, monitoring, or recording the evolution of an uncertain time-extended process. This sort of situation leads to an interesting family ...of active perception problems that can be cast as planning problems in which the robot is limited in what it sees and must, thus, choose what to pay attention to. The distinguishing characteristic of this setting is that the robot has influence over what it captures via its sensors, but exercises no causal authority over the process evolving in the world. As such, the robot’s objective is to observe the underlying process and to produce a “chronicle” of occurrent events, subject to a goal specification of the sorts of event sequences that may be of interest. This paper examines variants of such problems in which the robot aims to collect sets of observations to meet a rich specification of their sequential structure. We study this class of problems by modeling a stochastic process via a variant of a hidden Markov model and specify the event sequences of interest as a regular language, developing a vocabulary of “mutators” that enable sophisticated requirements to be expressed. Under different suppositions on the information gleaned about the event model, we formulate and solve different planning problems. The core underlying idea is the construction of a product between the event model and a specification automaton. Using this product, we compute a policy that minimizes the expected number of steps to reach a goal state. We introduce a general algorithm for this problem as well as several more efficient algorithms for important special cases. The paper reports and compares performance metrics by drawing on some small case studies analyzed in depth via simulation. Specifically, we study the effect of the robot’s observation model on the average time required for the robot to record a desired story. We also compare our algorithm with a baseline greedy algorithm, showing that our algorithm outperforms the greedy algorithm in terms of the average time to record a desired story. In addition, experiments show that the algorithms tailored to specialized variants of the problem are rather more efficient than the general algorithm.
Smart cities as corporate storytelling Söderström, Ola; Paasche, Till; Klauser, Francisco
City (London, England),
20/5/4/, Volume:
18, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
On 4 November 2011, the trademark 'smarter cities' was officially registered as belonging to IBM. This was an important milestone in a struggle between IT companies over visibility and legitimacy in ...the smart city market. Drawing on actor-network theory and critical planning theory, the paper analyzes IBM's smarter city campaign and finds it to be storytelling, aimed at making the company an 'obligatory passage point' in the implementation of urban technologies. Our argument unfolds in three parts. We first trace the emergence of the term 'smart city' in the public sphere. Secondly, we show that IBM's influential story about smart cities is far from novel but rather mobilizes and revisits two long-standing tropes: systems thinking and utopianism. Finally, we conclude, first by addressing two critical questions raised by this discourse: technocratic reductionism and the introduction of new moral imperatives in urban management; and second, by calling for the crafting of alternative smart city stories.
In this essay, I further explicate the construct of affective publics by drawing elements from two case studies, the first focusing on uses of Twitter leading up to and following the events ...surrounding the resignation of Hosni Mubarak via #egypt, and the second one focusing on online iterations of the Occupy movement, and specifically #ows, one of the more connective and central tags of the movement. I explore what mediated feelings of connectedness do for politics and networked publics in the digital age, and explore their impact on structures of storytelling, sentiment, and the mediality of events broadcast through different platforms. Technologies network us, but it is our stories that connect us.
This study traces the rhythms of news storytelling on Twitter via the #egypt hashtag. Using computational discourse analysis, we examine news values and the form of news exhibited in #egypt from ...January 25 to February 25, 2011, pre‐ and post‐resignation of Hosni Mubarak. Results point to a hybridity of old and newer news values, with emphasis on the drama of instantaneity, the crowdsourcing of elites, solidarity, and ambience. The resulting stream of news combines news, opinion, and emotion to the point where discerning one from the other is difficult and doing so misses the point. We offer a theory of affective news to explain the distinctive character of content produced by networked publics in times of political crisis.
Les nouvelles affectives et les publics en réseau : le rythme de la narration des nouvelles sur l’Égypte
Zizi Papacharissi, Ph.D. & Maria de Fatima Oliveira, Ph.D.
Cette étude suit les rythmes de la narration des nouvelles sur Twitter par le mot‐clic (hashtag) #egypt. Par une analyse de discours computationnelle, nous examinons les valeurs de nouvelles et la forme des nouvelles présentées sous #egypt du 25 janvier au 25 février 2011, avant et après la résignation de Hosni Moubarak. Les résultats indiquent une hybridité de valeurs de nouvelles anciennes et plus récentes, insistant sur le théâtre de l’instantanéité, l’externalisation ouverte (crowdsourcing) des élites, la solidarité et l’atmosphère. Le flot de nouvelles qui en résulte combine informations, opinions et émotions au point où il est difficile de distinguer les unes des autres et où faire cette distinction passe à côté de la question. Nous proposons une théorie des nouvelles affectives qui explique le caractère distinctif des contenus produits par les publics en réseau en période de crise politique.
Mots clés : Twitter, printemps arabe, Égype, en ligne, journalisme, nouvelles affectives
Affektive Nachrichtigen und Netzwerk‐Öffentlichkeiten: Der Rhythmus des Nachrichtenstroms über #egypt
Die Studie verfolgt den Rhythmus des Twitter‐Nachrichtenstroms über das #egypt Hashtag. Wir nutzen die computergestützte Diskursanalyse und untersuchen Nachrichtenwerte und die Art der Nachrichten auf #egypt vom 25. Januar bis 25. Februar 2011, das heißt vor und nach dem Rücktritt von Hosni Mubarak. Die Ergebnisse deuten auf eine Hybridform alter und neuer Nachrichtenwerte hin, da sie das Drama der Unmittelbarkeit, das Crowdsourcing der Eliten, Solidarität und Atmosphäre in den Vordergrund stellen. Der daraus resultierende Nachrichtenstrom verknüpft Nachrichten, Meinung und Emotion so eng miteinander, dass diese nur schwer zu unterscheiden sind, und der Versuch einer Unterscheidung seinen Zweck verfehlen muss. Wir entwickeln eine Theorie der affektiven Nachrichten, um den spezifischen Charakter von Inhalten zu erklären, die von Netzwerk‐Öffentlichkeiten in Zeiten politische Krisen produziert werden.
Schlüsselbegriffe: Twitter, Arabischer Frühling, Ägypten, Online, Journalismus, Affektive Nachrichten
Las Noticias Afectivas y los Públicos de la Red: Los Ritmos de la Narración de las Noticias sobre #Egipto
Zizi Papacharissi, Ph.D.
Professor and Head, Communication, University of Illinois‐Chicago
Maria de Fatima Oliveira, Ph.D.
Research and Project Manager, Prime Research, New York City
Resumen
Este estudio traza los ritmos de la narración de noticias en Twitter a través del buscador de etiqueta #egipto. Usando un análisis de discurso computacional, examinamos los valores de las noticias y la forma de las noticias exhibidas en #egipto desde el 25 de Enero 25 hasta el 25 de Febrero del 2011, antes y después de la renuncia de Hosni Mubarak. Los resultados indican una hibridez de los valores de noticias viejos y nuevos, con énfasis en el drama de la instantaneidad, la tercerización masiva de las élites, la solidaridad, y el ambiente. La corriente de noticias resultante combina las noticias, la opinión y la emoción hasta el punto que el discernimiento entre uno y otro es difícil y el hacerlo pierde sentido. Ofrecemos una teoría de las noticias afectivas para explicar el carácter distintivo del contenido producido por los públicos de la red en tiempos de crisis políticas.
Palabras claves: Twitter, la primavera Árabe, Egipto, online, periodismo, noticias afectivas
This article addresses the question as to why such a much loved and iconic Australian animal—the koala—has long been headed on a trajectory of extinction; primarily due to a lack of public concern ...and political will. Despite the affectionate regard in which they are held, koalas remain out of sight and out of mind for most Australians. However, the widely publicized catastrophic Australian bushfire season of 2019–2020 is a rare and illuminating case in which public support for koala welfare was stimulated by significant national and international media attention. The primary problem facing koala conservation was thrown into sharp relief—the need to proactively protect them from human activities destroying their habitat. This article explores how a marketer‐lead intervention, employing cultural branding, story‐telling, and personification, could potentially motivate the public to apply pressure at all levels of government to proactively protect the koala's habitat and grow their numbers. This solution is grounded in an awareness of several issues likely to impact its success, including: (1) the koala's biology and behavior, (2) uncertainty around koala population numbers, (3) the emergence of the koala as an (inter)national) icon, (4) the Australian 2019–2020 bushfire emergency, (5) postfire complacency, (6) Lewis and other koala stories, (7) acknowledging competing interests, and (8) taking learnings forward. Finally, the proposed campaign centers on forging emotional links between the koala and consumers, which are likely to positively impact consumers' attitudes, information processing and memory functions associated with messages highlighting the need to preserve the koala's habitat.
Writing a research paper is like telling a story of your journey, your discoveries, and your contributions to medical science. It's not something you rush through; it requires careful planning and ...attention to detail. Each section, from the introduction that sets the stage to the discussion that interprets your results, plays a crucial role. And when it comes to increasing citations and quality, publishing in reputable journals, writing clear and concise abstracts, and adhering to guidelines for reporting research studies are key factors to consider. How many of us are familiar with the reporting guidelines for various research studies, such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, and COREQ? These guidelines provide valuable frameworks for writing different types of studies, including randomized controlled trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, and qualitative research. As editors, we look for manuscripts that align with these principles, ensuring that each paper contributes meaningfully to the scientific community.
A World of Many explores the world-making efforts of Tzotzil Maya children from two different localities within the municipality of Chenalhó, Chiapas. The research demonstrates children’s agency in ...creating their worlds, while also investigating the role played by the surrounding social and physical environment. Different experiences with schooling, parenting, goals and values, but also with climate change, water scarcity, as well as racism and settler colonialism form part of the reason children create their emerging worlds. These worlds are not make believe or anything less than the ontological products of their parents. Instead, Norbert Ross argues that by creating different worlds, the children ultimately fashion themselves into different human beings - quite literally being different in the world. A World of Many combines experimental research from the cognitive sciences with critical theory, exploring children’s agency in devising their own ontologies. Rather than treating children as somewhat incomplete humans, it understands children as tinkerers and thinkers, makers of their worlds amidst complex relations. It regards being as a constant ontological production, where life and living constitutes activism. Using experimental paradigms, the book shows that children locate themselves differently in these emerging worlds they create, becoming different human beings in the process.
The journey experienced by women in higher education spans across the areas of teaching, research and leadership. As academics and scholars within these areas, women professionals find few ...opportunities to share what and how they have navigated this space. Adding in the complexity and challenges of pursuing a PhD to the existing burden placed on women in a gender-segregated environment can be taboo. In this paper, a novel methodology of Narrative Inquiry of reflective writing is used to explore the stories that may be difficult to articulate. We explore the experiences of women as they discover their leadership competencies and academic identities, and the support, motivation and successes they harnessed to complete their PhD. The collaborative sharing of these poetic pieces highlights new ways to actively engage outside of the existing closed communities. While we know that no two lived experiences are the same, this study will draw on the diversity of the experiences as a unifying and enabling narrative for other women on this path.
