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Abstract: Advancing hypotheses derived from social identity theory, we investigated the influence of gamer identity affiliation on affective responses to identity threats and enhancements. Participants viewed a message that either devalued (i.e., threatened) or elevated (i.e., enhanced) the status of gamers when associating them with a mass shooting event. Relative to a control condition that neither threatened nor enhanced identity, our data demonstrated that gamer identity affiliation moderated affect. Specifically, greater gamer affiliation increased negative affect experienced after a threatening message. By contrast, greater gamer affiliation increased positive affect and reduced negative affect experienced after an enhancement message. Analyses of participants’ emotional reactions to the messages revealed that individuals with stronger gamer identity affiliation reported relatively more homogeneous emotions relative to individuals less affiliated with gamer identity. We discuss these response patterns with respect to how emotions may shape intergroup interaction in online communication.

The open science (OS) movement has advocated for increased transparency in certain aspects of research. Communication is taking its first steps toward OS as some journals have adopted OS guidelines codified by another discipline. We find this pursuit troubling as OS prioritizes openness while insufficiently addressing essential ethical principles: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. Some recommended open science practices increase the potential for harm for marginalized participants, communities, and researchers. We elaborate how OS can serve a marginalizing force within academia and the research community, as it overlooks the needs of marginalized scholars and excludes some forms of scholarship. We challenge the current instantiation of OS and propose a divergent agenda for the future of Communication research centered on ethical, inclusive research practices.

While visiting a science museum, mothers (N = 125) and their 4- to 7-year-old children were recruited to read one of four versions of an educational storybook. These storybooks detailed either male...

This ethnodrama is a script writing project based on qualitative research that explores deaf people’s experience of working as interpreter in Ireland. A collection of interview data was used to develop the ethnodrama by constructing scenes that reveal a series of interactive moments that capture the challenges faced by deaf interpreters. Framed within Sontag’s (1997) conceptualization of “translation,” the authors offer a critique of the term translation and discuss its significance from the perspective of deaf interpreters. Participants were invited to read and comment on aspects of the scenes and contribute to the script writing process. Their statements were integrated into the script to generate meaningful dialogue which appear in the final part of the play. The discussion indicated a positive response to this ethnodrama which was generally successful in producing realistic dramatized scenarios which stimulated reflective discussions in the epilogue.

In this paper, the authors consider issues relating to hearing interpreter teams, and deaf-hearing interpreter teams. A small-scale investigation of team interpreting in Ireland was conducted, considering where interpreters are working throughout Ireland and in what settings they are operating as a team. An anonymous survey was circulated to the interpreters of Ireland. From this it was observed that hearing interpreters tend to be the lead parties in organising interpreter teams. Furthermore it is interesting to note that Deaf Interpreters (referred to as DIs) report rarely working as part of a team. There is very little guidance for DIs, which further disadvantages them, as they cannot then easily advocate for their own position in the Irish context. The authors concluded by stating the need for guidance policies and/or toolkits surrounding how to decide who should be on an interpreter team. This would be beneficial for all interpreters, interpreting agencies and any organisation looking to book interpreters, whether they be public bodies or private sector.

How do physical digital inequalities persist as technology becomes commonplace? We consider this question using surveys and focus groups with U.S. college students, a group that has better than average connectivity. Findings from a 748-person nonrepresentative survey revealed that ownership and use of cellphones and laptops were nearly universal. However, roughly 20% of respondents had difficulty maintaining access to technology (e.g., broken hardware, data limits, connectivity problems, etc.). Students of lower socioeconomic status and students of color disproportionately experienced hardships, and reliance on poorly functioning laptops was associated with lower grade point averages. Focus group and open-ended data elaborate these findings. Findings quantitatively validate the technology maintenance construct, which proposes that as access to information and communication technology peaks, the digital divide is increasingly characterized by the (in)ability to maintain access. Data highlight overlooked nuances in digital access that may inform social disparities and the policies that may mitigate them.

The present study investigated how task demand (cognitive load and interactivity) and avatar sexualization in a video game influenced rape myth acceptance (RMA), hostile sexism, and self-objectification. In a between-subjects design, 300 U.S. college students either played or watched someone else play a videogame as either a sexualized or non-sexualized female avatar under high (memorize 7 symbols) or low (memorize 2 symbols) cognitive load. Hypotheses were derived from the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP) and perspectives on stereotype processing. Results contradicted hypotheses that greater task demands and sexualization would produce greater RMA, hostile sexism, and self-objectification. Instead, we found that sexualization did not affect these variables. Greater cognitive load reduced rape myth acceptance and hostile sexism for those in the sexualized avatar condition, but it did not affect self-objectification. We discuss these results with respect to the LC4MP and suggest that the processing of stereotype-inconsistent information might be the underlying cause of these unexpected findings. These results provide tentative evidence that cognitively demanding video game environments may prompt players to focus on stereotype-inconsistent, rather than stereotype-consistent, social information.

Game developers potentially convey socio-cultural values about gender through design choices. This study interpreted the designs of 11 purposively selected female game characters, developed by studios located in the United States and Japan, through the lens of ambivalent sexism. This social psychological theory posits that sexism consists of hostile and benevolent attitudes about women. Two themes emerged across characterizations: bodies as objects, bodies as weapons and (in)dependence. Both consisted of empowering qualities paired with problematic beliefs about women. This analysis contributes to interdisciplinary literature by using an empirical perspective to interpret gender representations in video games.

We analyzed in-game content from titles released between 1983 and 2014 (n = 571) featuring playable female characters. Results indicate that sexualization has diminished since an observed height in the 1990s. Traditionally male-oriented genres (e.g. fighting) have more sexualized characters than role-playing games. Games rated Teen or Mature did not differ in sexualization and featured more sexualization than Everyone games. Despite an increase in games featuring playable female characters, games still depict female characters more often in secondary roles and sexualized them more than primary characters. A positive relationship emerged between the sexualization of female characters and their physical capability. Critical success of games was unrelated to sexualization. We discuss these findings in light of social identity and objectification theories.

This study presents the results of a survey of 269 undergraduate students conducted to examine fright experiences caused by video games. Over half of the participants reported game-induced fear. Sex, sensation-seeking, and empathy all emerged as important individual differences in terms of enjoyment of frightening content, consumption of frightening content, and frequency of fright experience. Interactivity and presentations of realism also predicted fear. This work identifies titles, stimuli, and features that caused fright experience.

Research has used the cardiac orienting response (OR) to show that structural changes in the auditory environment cause people to briefly but automatically pay attention to messages such as radio broadcasts, podcasts, and web streaming. The voice change—an example of an auditory structural feature—elicits orienting across multiple repetitions. This article reports two experiments designed to investigate whether automatic attention allocation to repeated instances of other auditory structural features—namely production effects, jingles, and silence—is a robust phenomenon or if repetition leads to habituation. In Study 1 we show that listeners of a simulated radio broadcast exhibit ORs following the onset of auditory structural features that differ in semantic content. The prediction that listeners would not habituate to feature repetition was not supported. Instead, both jingles and synthesized production effects result in more iconic ORs to the second repetition compared with the first. However, orienting...

Digital games are a medium in which new forms of representations are possible and where new, imagined rules can be created and established. Unfortunately, many representations and rules within digital game worlds reinforce harmful sexist beliefs and attitudes belonging to the real social world. Male and female digital game characters are portrayed as sexist archetypes, and some games feature sexist themes and rulesets which depict women as objects. Yet the question remains if sexualized and sexist portrayals influence players of digital games. In this chapter, we will draw on social psychological theories as well as evidence from empirical research (e.g., Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, Sex Roles, 61(11–12):808–823, 2009; Fox and Bailenson, Sex Roles, 61(3–4):147–157, 2009; Fox et al. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3):930–938, 2013) to argue that critiques of sexist character portrayals have legitimacy and that this content may undesirably influence some players’ cognition, attitudes, and behaviors both during and after gameplay. We provide a dispassionate, evidence-supported argument that sexist content in games does contribute problematically to perceptions of women and their status in contemporary society. We also provide some suggestions for future research, such as asking scholars to carefully consider and distinguish sexist imagery from the game mechanics which may contribute to sexist thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.

Prostate Cancer UK's nurse-led service is outlined by Teresa Lynch, Patricia Smith and John Robertson

Nurse Teresa Lynch spent a day on the set of the BBC television drama Silk, advising the programme makers on the portrayal of character with advanced prostate cancer. She ensured equipment and procedures were accurate, and encouraged the script writer to make the storyline more hopefull.

Colorectal cancer is an important public health problem and one of the most common cancers registered in New Zealand. In 2009 the New Zealand Guidelines Group were commissioned to produce and evidence-based summary of current New Zealand and international data to inform best practice in the management of people with early bowel cancer. A guideline development team was convened, representing a range of stakeholder groups who met to discuss and agree on the recommendations for a clinical practice guideline. This article summarises the guideline methods and reports the recommendations from the Management of Early Bowel Cancer guideline, published in 2011.

This article examines recent progress at assigning monetary values to what are normally considered “hard to quantify” benefits of transportation projects. It focuses on three types of impacts – environmental quality, health and wider economic impacts – to examine how transportation project evaluation methods have evolved in recent years and how they compare to methods used for evaluation of non-transportation programs. Examples of recent practice are provided to show how transport agencies are continuing to refine performance measures to include broader impacts in project evaluation. A classification is provided to distinguish direct traveler effects from indirect effects on non-travelers, a step important to maximize coverage and minimize double-counting of impacts. For each type of impact, the paper discusses the range of variation in monetized values and shows that the variation is due less to imprecision in measurement than to fundamental issues about whether to use damage compensation, impact avoidance costs, stated preferences or behavioral valuation perspectives to define those values. Case studies as diverse as Australian roads, Wisconsin energy programs and Appalachian economic development programs are used to show how common methods are evolving among transport and non-transport agencies to improve impact measurement and its use in project evaluation.

This is the second of a two-part unit on the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Part 1 explored the concept and definition of mental capacity, advance treatment decisions, independent mental capacity advocates and the act's code of practice. This part discusses possible ethical and legal dilemmas in the interpretation of both the act and its code of practice.

This is the first of a two-part unit on the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Part 1 outlines the act's key principles and implications. Healthcare professionals' responsibilities are examined in relation to advance decisions.

Little is known about what it is like to live in adolescence with a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. This article reports the findings of a small qualitative study that explored the experience of four New Zealand youth aged between 16 and 21 years, who had been recently diagnosed with Crohn disease. Semistructured interviews focused on discovering the youth' thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of living with this condition. Analysis of the transcribed data is presented thematically. The findings reveal stress as integral to living with Crohn disease. They illuminate the paradoxical relationship between fear and hope and provide insight into what helps and what hinders young people's ability to cope with the disease and its treatments. Collectively, these three themes describe the ways in which the lives of young adults are drastically and almost irreparably changed by Crohn disease. The findings contribute to the "promoting wellness" literature and will inform those who support the increasing number of young people living and coping with a chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

There are problems with the adoption and use of many organizational implementations of Web-Based Education (WBE). This paper puts forward the view that the problems stem from a misfit between the development methodologies commonly used to implement these systems and the context in which they are being applied. This misfit contributes to a number of the problems and shortcomings faced with implementing WBE. The paper describes the application and use of emergent development methodologies of WBE and suggests that such methodologies are a better fit for many organizational level developments in WBE. The focus of this paper is WBE within the University sector.