Search

This article reports on an experience where arts-informed pedagogy was combined with the traditional lecture-style teaching in a course on information and communication theories delivered at the Masters level in the School of Journalism and Communication Sciences (EJCAM) at Aix-Marseille University in France. After the course content had been delivered orally, students were required to work in groups to create art exhibits that showcased how information and communication theories operated in different historical or contemporary situations in the society. Sixteen impressive art projects were created by the students, and an arts exhibition was held within the school premises. To gauge students' reception of how the arts-informed pedagogy contributed to their appropriation of the course content, they completed an online survey two months after the course. Their responses showed an overwhelmingly positive reception and demand for more creative modes of learning in information and communication studies. The arts approach complemented the verbal mode of learning by creating a recursive and collaborative learning environment that enhanced students' participation, self-esteem, and creativity and served to illustrate the interdependence between theory and practice.

This paper reports on an experiment of using a hybrid pedagogical approach to tackle the challenge of teaching "Information and Communication theories" to students enrolled in Master of Communication and Digital Content at the School of Communication and Journalism of Aix Marseille University in France. The hybrid pedagogical approach combines the classical textual/verbal approach with an arts informed pedagogy, augmented by creative writing and storytelling activities. The fact that the arts-informed approach was not used in isolation but in combination with the traditional textual/verbal approach and creative writing and storytelling activities offered students a wide choice of learning modalities through which they could express themselves. Our preliminary findings suggest that using a hybrid pedagogical approach rather than one single pedagogical approach improved students' understanding of the abstract concepts implied by the communication theories discussed during the lectures. Students illustrated their understanding of these theories by recasting them in various real life or plausible situations during the creative writing activity which we call "Communication Stories" or cStories.

This study aims to examine the relationships of managers' compassionate goals with innovation and performance in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). By integrating social exchange theory with social information processing theory, we hypothesize a serial mediation model in which organizational cooperation and firm innovation sequentially mediate a positive relationship between managers' compassionate goals and firm performance. However, we predict that this positive indirect effect would occur only when managers have low self‐image goals and there is a high innovation‐supportive work environment. Based on survey data from a sample of 116 SMEs in France, our results provide support for our predictions. This study contributes to the literature by disclosing the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship of managers' compassionate goals with SMEs' innovation and performance. Theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What information do people search about other countries and why? In this study we coded and analyzed more than 15,000 Google searches related to France and Spain during a 16-year period, from 18 countries with diverse characteristics and relationships with France and Spain. We coded these search queries into topical categories. We also collected country-level variables to reflect the power of each country and its proximity to France and Spain. We studied the associations between the components of power and proximity of countries and their search topics. Our findings reveal that the power and proximity of the searching countries can predict much of their search topics with some specific differences between France and Spain. While economically powerful countries tend to search more for travel destinations, poorer countries search more for sports. Richer countries with geographic proximity tend to search for shopping and transportation, while poorer countries with historical and cultural proximity search more for language and education opportunities. We propose an integrative model to assess the different dimensions of power and proximity of countries and discuss the implications of our findings to theories of global information flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an experience where arts-informed pedagogy was combined with the traditional lecture-style teaching in a course on information and communication theories delivered at the Masters level in the School of Journalism and Communication Sciences (EJCAM) at Aix-Marseille University in France. After the course content had been delivered orally, students were required to work in groups to create art exhibits that showcased how information and communication theories operated in different historical or contemporary situations in the society. Sixteen impressive art projects were created by the students, and an arts exhibition was held within the school premises. To gauge students' reception of how the arts-informed pedagogy contributed to their appropriation of the course content, they completed an online survey two months after the course. Their responses showed an overwhelmingly positive reception and demand for more creative modes of learning in information and communication studies. The arts approach complemented the verbal mode of learning by creating a recursive and collaborative learning environment that enhanced students' participation, self-esteem, and creativity and served to illustrate the interdependence between theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article situates the emergence of cybernetic concepts in postwar French thought within a longer history of struggles surrounding the technocratic reform of French universities, including Marcel Mauss's failed efforts to establish a large-scale centre for social-scientific research with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the intellectual and administrative endeavours of Claude Lévi-Strauss during the 1940s and 1950s, and the rise of communications research in connection with the Centre d'Études des Communications de Masse (CECMAS). Although semioticians and poststructuralists used cybernetic discourse critically and ironically, I argue that their embrace of a 'textocratic' perspective – that is, a theory of power and epistemology as tied to technical inscription – sustained elements of the technocratic reasoning dating back to these 1920s efforts to reform French universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Big data analytics (BDA) increasingly provide value to firms for robust decision making and solving business problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore information quality dynamics in big data environment linking business value, user satisfaction and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the appraisal-emotional response-coping framework, the authors propose a theory on information quality dynamics that helps in achieving business value, user satisfaction and firm performance with big data strategy and implementation. Information quality from BDA is conceptualized as the antecedent to the emotional response (e.g. value and satisfaction) and coping (performance). Proposed information quality dynamics are tested using data collected from 302 business analysts across various organizations in France and the USA. Findings: The findings suggest that information quality in BDA reflects four significant dimensions: completeness, currency, format and accuracy. The overall information quality has significant, positive impact on firm performance which is mediated by business value (e.g. transactional, strategic and transformational) and user satisfaction. Research limitations/implications: On the one hand, this paper shows how to operationalize information quality, business value, satisfaction and firm performance in BDA using PLS-SEM. On the other hand, it proposes an REBUS-PLS algorithm to automatically detect three groups of users sharing the same behaviors when determining the information quality perceptions of BDA. Practical implications: The study offers a set of determinants for information quality and business value in BDA projects, in order to support managers in their decision to enhance user satisfaction and firm performance. Originality/value: The paper extends big data literature by offering an appraisal-emotional response-coping framework that is well fitted for information quality modeling on firm performance. The methodological novelty lies in embracing REBUS-PLS to handle unobserved heterogeneity in the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France, in particular the Rhône-Alpes region, is one of the three main centres of ragweed (Ambrosia) in Europe. The aim of this study is to develop a gridded ragweed pollen source inventory for all of France that can be used in assessments, eradication plans and by atmospheric models for describing concentrations of airborne ragweed pollen. The inventory combines information about spatial variations in annual Ambrosia pollen counts, knowledge of ragweed ecology, detailed land cover information and a Digital Elevation Model. The ragweed inventory consists of a local infection level on a scale of 0–100% (where 100% is the highest plant abundance per area in the studied region) and a European infection level between 0% and 100% (where 100% relates to the highest identified plant abundance in Europe using the same methodology) that has been distributed onto the EMEP grid with 5 km × 5 km resolution. The results of this analysis showed that some of the highest mean annual ragweed pollen concentrations were recorded at Roussillon in the Rhône-Valley. This is reflected by the inventory, where the European infection level has been estimated to reach 67.70% of the most infected areas in Europe i.e. Kecskemét in central Hungary. The inventory shows that the Rhône Valley is the most heavily infected part of France. Central France is also infected, but northern and western parts of France are much less infected. The inventory can be entered into atmospheric transport models, in combination with other components such as a phenological model and a model for daily pollen release, in order to simulate the dispersion of ragweed pollen within France as well as potential long-distance transport from France to other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of information problems in different markets is a challenging issue in the economic literature. In this paper, we study the identification of moral hazard from adverse selection and learning about risk within the context of a multi-period dynamic model. We extend the model of Abbring, Chiappori, and Pinquet (2003, Journal of the European Economic Association, 1, 767-820) to include learning about risk and insurance coverage choice over time. We derive testable empirical implications for panel data. We then perform tests using longitudinal data from France during the period 1995-1997. We find evidence of moral hazard among a sub-group of policyholders with less driving experience (less than 15 years). Policyholders with fewer than five years of experience have a combination of learning about risk and moral hazard, whereas no residual information problem is found for policyholders with more than 15 years of experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Introduction: In the French healthcare system, the intensive care budget allocated is directly dependent on the activity level of the center. To evaluate this activity level, it is necessary to code the medical diagnoses and procedures performed on Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of using an Intensive Care Information System (ICIS) on the incidence of coding errors and its impact on the ICU budget allocated. Patients and methods: Since 2005, the documentation on and monitoring of every patient admitted to our ICU has been carried out using an ICIS. However, the coding process was performed manually until 2008. This study focused on two periods: the period of manual coding (year 2007) and the period of computerized coding (year 2008) which covered a total of 1403 ICU patients. The time spent on the coding process, the rate of coding errors (defined as patients missed/not coded or wrongly identified as undergoing major procedure/s) and the financial impact were evaluated for these two periods. Results: With computerized coding, the time per admission decreased significantly (from 6.8±2.8min in 2007 to 3.6±1.9min in 2008, p <0.001). Similarly, a reduction in coding errors was observed (7.9% vs. 2.2%, p <0.001). This decrease in coding errors resulted in a reduced difference between the potential and real ICU financial supplements obtained in the respective years (€194,139 loss in 2007 vs. a €1628 loss in 2008). Conclusion: Using specific computer programs improves the intensive process of manual coding by shortening the time required as well as reducing errors, which in turn positively impacts the ICU budget allocation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Information Aesthetics was a short-lived but influential attempt to establish a mathematically rigorous aesthetic theory without subjective elements. It was based on information theory, semiotics and communication theory. It was mainly developed in Germany and France during the 1960s. It not only gained some influence among designers and artists, but also among teachers of art. Its concepts turned out to be reductionist and schematic, which we argue led to its eventual disappearance, if not failure. We provide a retrospective of its assumptions and results, and draw conclusions for current attempts at algorithmically evaluating the aesthetic merits of a work of art. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]