Yuping Mao and Lu Shi
Past studies have shown that acculturation has been linked with media consumption (Shi, 2005; Shohat & Stam, 1996). Some risky health behaviors are associated with immigrants’…
Abstract
Purpose
Past studies have shown that acculturation has been linked with media consumption (Shi, 2005; Shohat & Stam, 1996). Some risky health behaviors are associated with immigrants’ acculturation into the American society. In this study, we investigate the association between Latino adolescents’ recreational use of media with acculturation as related to risky health behaviors such as the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, the experience of getting sunburns, smoking, and drinking alcohol.
Methodology/approach
Regression models were run to analyze the Latino adolescent subsample (aged 12–17) of the 2009 California Health Interview Survey (Ponce et al., 2004).
Findings
The regression models show that weekend television and video gaming are significantly associated with the number of sunburns one had in the past year (incident rate ratio = 1.008, z = 2.73), and weekend recreational computer use is significantly associated with the number of cans of soda with sugar one drank during the previous day (incident rate ratio = 1.003, z = 2.09). The use of English for the interview, age, parents’ educational attainment, household size, and gender are also found to be associated with different acculturation-related risky health behaviors investigated in this study.
Originality/value
This study is the first to analyze media consumption’s association with sunburn among Latino adolescents. Our findings indicate that among Latino adolescents in the United States, a large amount of media consumption can lead to risky health behaviors that were not common in Latin America. Therefore, parents should heed possible behavioral consequences when they decide on the amount of media exposure children have.
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Using a Constrained Choice Theory framework, this paper will identify variation in choosing the constraint-reflective priorities of budget, taste, or health by sociodemographic…
Abstract
Purpose
Using a Constrained Choice Theory framework, this paper will identify variation in choosing the constraint-reflective priorities of budget, taste, or health by sociodemographic group, familial status, and weight category. Identifying which groups experience unique constraints will allow for customized healthy eating programs to address barriers specific to each group.
Methodology/approach
Data are derived from a paper survey of families with children in Lexington, KY and analyzed using logistic regression.
Findings
The results of this study confirm that some sociodemographic groups are more likely to choose priorities that reflect contextual constraints in their lives than others. In particular, having a higher income reduces likelihood of prioritizing budget and increases chances of prioritizing taste. Being married or cohabitating is correlated with choosing health, but having more children reduces the likelihood of prioritizing health. Being obese correlates with increased likelihood of prioritizing budget. Membership in each of these categories reflects constraints on which foods are purchased for the home.
Social implications
Families are encouraged to improve their diets by eating at home, but families face many constraints when choosing healthy foods at the grocery store. Understanding the constraints experienced by various groups when shopping for food will lead to health policy that more fully addresses barriers to healthy eating for groups with disproportionately high incidence of diet-related disease.
Originality/value
This paper extends Constrained Choice Theory by applying it to a new aspect of health, purchasing groceries, and also by examining a wider variety of sociodemographic groups than previous research.
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Abstract
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Wence Yu, Hao Chen and Liqiang Yang
In order to alleviate China's crisis of marginalization in international trade, combined with the development characteristics of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the development…
Abstract
In order to alleviate China's crisis of marginalization in international trade, combined with the development characteristics of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the development direction of the bonded cold chain business of Shanghai Yangshan Comprehensive Bonded Port Area was proposed. From a long-term perspective, a free trade zone integrating processing, logistics, finance, culture, and internal and external market trade was formed. By taking advantage of the huge consumption of imported food in the Yangtze river delta region, the policy advantages of Yangshan Port Area are exploited. Combined with the development of cross-border e-commerce, innovative experiences that could be replicated and promoted are formed. The results showed that the free trade zone is the development direction of the bonded port area. Therefore, the Shanghai Bonded Port Area should focus on the integration with the development of the free trade zone in the initial stage. This lays a solid foundation for the construction of the bonded port area as a comprehensive internal and external trade platform for ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the domestic market. Research on the planning and layout of trade zones can help plan the future development of trade zones and their direction. The trade zone is pre-controlled. The efficiency of future construction and upgrading of the bonded area is improved. It is of great practical significance to the current development and construction of the Shanghai Bonded Port Area.
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The detection of surface breaking defects in ferromagnetic components using magnetic particle crack detection methods is one of the most versatile, effective and sensitive methods…
Abstract
The detection of surface breaking defects in ferromagnetic components using magnetic particle crack detection methods is one of the most versatile, effective and sensitive methods of non‐destructive testing. Magnetic particle inspection is used for testing welds, wrought products, forgings and castings and for the inspection of aerospace, pipeline, undersea, power and general engineering applications.d
Lisa M. Powell, M. Christopher Auld, Frank J. Chaloupka, Patrick M. O’Malley and Lloyd D. Johnston
We examine the extent to which food prices and restaurant outlet density are associated with adolescent fruit and vegetable consumption, body mass index (BMI), and the probability…
Abstract
We examine the extent to which food prices and restaurant outlet density are associated with adolescent fruit and vegetable consumption, body mass index (BMI), and the probability of overweight. We use repeated cross-sections of individual-level data on adolescents from the Monitoring the Future Surveys from 1997 to 2003 combined with fast food and fruit and vegetable prices obtained from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association and fast food and full-service restaurant outlet density measures obtained from Dun & Bradstreet. The results suggest that the price of a fast food meal is an important determinant of adolescents’ body weight and eating habits: a 10% increase in the price of a fast food meal leads to a 3.0% increase in the probability of frequent fruit and vegetable consumption, a 0.4% decrease in BMI, and a 5.9% decrease in probability of overweight. The price of fruits and vegetables and restaurant outlet density are less important determinants, although these variables typically have the expected sign and are often statistically associated with our outcome measures. Despite these findings, changes in all observed economic and socio-demographic characteristics together only explain roughly one-quarter of the change in mean BMI and one-fifth of the change in overweight over the 1997–2003 sampling period.
Organizations are communicating with the public about their thoughts and behaviors relevant to the environment via social networking sites. The purpose of this paper is to explore…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizations are communicating with the public about their thoughts and behaviors relevant to the environment via social networking sites. The purpose of this paper is to explore for-profit and nonprofit organizations' Twitter messages to understand their environment-related messages and their influences on the publics' responses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a content analysis adopting four message classification systems: environmental message orientation, message specificity, message framing, and environmental issue. Guided by attribution theory, this study also explored how the organization's environmental messages influence social media (Twitter) user responses, likes, retweets, and replies.
Findings
The analysis showed that for-profits' messages tend to discuss their green products and manufacturing processes with specific numeric evidence, while nonprofits are disposed to describe a severely degraded environment. In addition, the study revealed that tweets yield a high number of likes and replies when the organizations are for-profits and the messages emphasize green products.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study showed that the green message categorization systems are applicable to the social media context. But, this study focused on Twitter only. Future studies need to examine various social media platforms.
Practical implications
The study findings recommend communication practitioners use substantive green messages highlighting actual pro-environmental performances. Also, practitioners might need to make a linkage between the discussed environmental issue and the organization (e.g. a water issue by a wildlife-related nonprofit, an energy issue by a home appliance manufacturer, an air pollution issue by a bicycle company). In addition, regarding the message specificity, infographics can be present specific information that audiences can readily understand because it is described visually.
Originality/value
Scholars investigated environmental messages in advertising and cautioned that environmental messages that are not substantive or specific can cause audiences to perceive the messages as greenwashing. However, these previous studies focused on conventional media, and they have not been replicated in the age of social media. Thus, it is important to explore the current status of organizational environmental messages on social media.
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Samira Mohammadi, Ali Ramezankhani, Ali Montazeri, Akbar Nasrollahi and Nastaran Keshavarz Mohammadi
Health-related issues are widely covered in news agencies by medical and health journalists. The quantity, format and quality of their coverage influence the general public as…
Abstract
Purpose
Health-related issues are widely covered in news agencies by medical and health journalists. The quantity, format and quality of their coverage influence the general public as well as policymakers and professions. Current studies and observations suggest that news agencies are more dominated by medical topics (disease, symptoms, epidemiology, treatment and medicines) than general public health issues (risk prevention, health protection, education and promotion). This study explores the causes of the current situation in Iran and generates solutions for supporting health-promoting media that may also prove beneficial for other countries.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was conducted to explore the coverage of health-related topics in selected news agencies. Stakeholders, including health journalists, health professionals and public relations staff at the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education were interviewed. Data were collected until data saturation was reached. The transcripts of all the 17 interviews conducted were analyzed using conventional content analysis.
Findings
Four groups of causes were identified, including individual factors, organizational factors, socioeconomic factors and the different nature of medicine and public health. The participants proposed several solutions that were classified into three categories, including the empowerment of stakeholders through capacity development, organizational change and mutual communication and culture change.
Originality/value
Creating health-promoting media is a complex but urgent task, and providing a comprehensive and deep understanding of the dynamic interdependencies of the multiple factors at play in it and developing and implementing the most effective interventions for it requires a systematic approach.
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Maia Carter Hallward and Crystal Armstrong
Social media platforms are increasingly receiving attention as legitimate locations for civil society discourse and social movement mobilization. Initial work by Lovejoy and…
Abstract
Social media platforms are increasingly receiving attention as legitimate locations for civil society discourse and social movement mobilization. Initial work by Lovejoy and Saxton suggests NGOs use digital platforms such as Twitter to engage their constituencies through information dissemination, community building, and mobilization to action. Here, we explore the applicability of Lovejoy and Saxton’s communicative functions framework to resistance movement behavior by exploring two examples of digital engagement in political conflict. Through content analysis of tweets using hashtag indicators #BDS and #ICC4Israel collected during the spring of 2015, we affirm Lovejoy and Saxton’s findings that information dissemination is the most prevalent communication function for grassroots and institutionally grounded movements. Further, we find that informational tweets in our sample often provide information about grievances, and therefore propose an expansion of the framework to accommodate tweets that may be more common in resistance movements than in NGO communication. In addition to general findings about the communicative functions framework, the content analysis yielded several findings specific to the resistance movements studied. Notably, we find that #BDS and #ICC4Israel tweets are overwhelmingly nonviolent, and that sentiment is generally favorable across both hashtags, with the exception of tweets focusing on academic boycott, which were more ambiguous.