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Guided by Family Communication Patterns, O-S-R-O-R Model, and Information Repertoires Theories, this study explores how family communication patterns developed in childhood mobilize adults’ civic e...

Self-determination theory (SDT) is an approach to understand human motivations, personality development and behavioral self-regulation. SDT research suggests that parental mediation styles help facilitate children’s motivations and internalization of rules, values and demands. In an effort to advance the utility of SDT knowledge about general parenting in the field of mass communication, P. M. Valkenburg et al. developed the Perceived Parental Media Mediation Scale (PPMMS) to explore media-specific parenting. Exploratory factor analysis of the PPMMS’s follow-up items led to a five-factor solution: autonomy-supportive restriction; controlling restrictive mediation; inconsistent restrictive mediation; autonomy-supportive active mediation; and controlling active mediation. Construct validity of the PPMMS was assessed by examining the relationships between each of the PPMMS’s subscales and general parenting styles, family conflict, and adolescents’ prosocial and antisocial behavior by Valkenburg et al. The PPMMS appears to be a reliable scale rooted in a widely cited theory that measures adolescents’ perceived parental media mediation.

Social media has emerged as a primary source of information, entertainment, and communication. Social media dependence is expected to have an impact on many important aspects of a person’s life, including peer communication, trust, public engagement and purchase behaviors. Built on the Internet Dependency Scale and the Television Affinity Scale, Men and Tsai developed a four-item, one-dimension scale that measures social media dependency. As an initial test of construct validity, Men and Tsai examined the effects of social media dependency on relational outcomes utilizing structural equation modeling. Individual media dependency theory explains how users rely on using a particular media to satisfy individual goals. Both social psychological factors and structural factors influence the formation of media dependency. People who rely more on social media tended to be more engaged and have more interactions with corporate social media pages than those users who rely less on the technology.

This research explores how integrating course modality changes through blended learning technologies impacts the framework of public speaking curriculum. Public Speaking is a unique area of study, as it involves a large number of student performances, requires a small class size, and incites increased communication apprehension in students. Authors of this study incorporated a blended learning course change to tackle these challenges. Through quantitative assessment comparing student knowledge, performance/skills, and communication apprehension between a blended course modality versus traditional face-to-face classes, more is understood regarding the impact of modality on public speaking pedagogy. Results of this study demonstrate how a blended learning modality of instruction is able to enhance the quality of instruction, specifically by increasing student knowledge, improving performance/skills, and lowering communication apprehension. Challenges of hybrid modality are also discussed.

This research explores how integrating course modality changes through blended learning technologies impacts the framework of public speaking curriculum. Public Speaking is a unique area of study, as it involves a large number of student performances, requires a small class size, and incites increased communication apprehension in students. Authors of this study incorporated a blended learning course change to tackle these challenges. Through quantitative assessment comparing student knowledge, performance/skills, and communication apprehension between a blended course modality versus traditional face-to-face classes, more is understood regarding the impact of modality on public speaking pedagogy. Results of this study demonstrate how a blended learning modality of instruction is able to enhance the quality of instruction, specifically by increasing student knowledge, improving performance/skills, and lowering communication apprehension. Challenges of hybrid modality are also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to better understand how physicians utilize social media technologies to facilitate patient communication and the motivations and barriers towards doing so. Additionally, it explores how power distances influences physician’s willingness to utilize social media as a resource in health communication by conducting in-depth interviews with physicians in the United States and in the Phillippines, based on divergent power distance scores from Hofstede’s (2010) research. Qualitative analysis of transcripts revealed two major themes : 1) hesitancy in utilizing social media in doctorpatient communication for diagnosis and treatment; and 2) the role of social media for marketing, education, and communicating with hard-to-reach patients. These findings suggest that although physicians understand the many possible benefits of utilizing social media for health communication, there are many other factors to consider. Cultural issues should be taken into account as future social media health communication programs are developed.

Metallothioneins (MTs) are low molecular weight, cysteine-rich metal-binding proteins found in a wide variety of organisms including bacteria, fungi and all eukaryotic plant and animal species. They are the single most abundant group of intracellular zinc-binding proteins in eukaryotic cells [Prog. Food Nutr. Sci. 14 (1990) 193]: 5-10% of zinc in human hepatocytes is bound to MTs [Methods Enzymol. 205 (1991) 613; FEBS Lett. 39 (1974) 229]. A critical physiological role for MTs has been suggested to encompass control of zinc availability to proteins requiring zinc for activity, but has not been definitively described. Nevertheless, a hallmark of MT gene regulation is their pattern of expression in different cell types and tissues, and their inducibility by a host of chemical and physical agents acting directly or indirectly on multiple cis-acting motifs in the regulatory regions of MT genes [Prog. Nucleic Acid. Res. Mol. Biol., 66 (2001) 357]. The pattern of physical and chemical events regulating basal MT gene transcription, and induction or repression of MT gene activity, provides valuable insight into the potential functions of MTs. In this review, we describe the transcriptional regulatory processes involved in MT gene expression.

An estimated 34 million people globally are living with HIV, with Sub-Saharan Africa being the most severely affected area, with nearly 1 in every 20 adults diagnosed (UNAIDS, 2012). Botswana experiences one of the highest adult prevalence rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, with almost 100,000 children, in a country of only two million people, having lost a parent to the virus (Botswana Country Report, 2010). Makgabaneng is a serial radio soap drama that addresses critical HIV/AIDS awareness and behaviour change issues in Botswana. This study aims to understand how fans of the programme understand the storyline that presents narratives where female characters are portrayed as educated, independent and confident individuals. Results of 42 in-depth interviews with self-defined fans of the drama show that males are constructed as uneducated, irresponsible and dependent in society. It is recommended that Makgabaneng address this inequity by creating a more balanced number of positive and negative female and male characters.