The metafor package provides functions for conducting meta-analyses in R. The package includes functions for fitting the meta-analytic fixed- and random-effects models and allows for the inclusion of moderators variables (study-level covariates) in these models. Meta-regression analyses with continuous and categorical moderators can be conducted in this way. Functions for the Mantel-Haenszel and Peto's one-step method for meta-analyses of 2 x 2 table data are also available. Finally, the package provides various plot functions (for example, for forest, funnel, and radial plots) and functions for assessing the model fit, for obtaining case diagnostics, and for tests of publication bias.

Conducting Meta-Analyses in R with the metafor Package

Mother Nature knows best--How engineered organizations of the future will resemble natural-born systems.

Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do

Research on framing is characterized by theoretical and empirical vagueness. This is due, in part, to the lack of a commonly shared theoretical model underlying framing research. Conceptual problems translate into operational problems, limiting the comparability of instruments and results. In this paper I systematize the fragmented approaches to framing in political communication and integrate them into a comprehensive model. I classify previous approaches to framing research along two dimensions: the type of frame examined (media frames vs. audience frames) and the way frames are operationalized (independent variable or dependent variable). I develop a process model of framing, identifying four key processes that should be addressed in future research: frame building, frame setting, individual-level processes of framing, and a feedback loop from audiences to journalists.

/pdf/framing-as-a-theory-of-media-effects-2r7ssng9hs.pdf

Framing as a theory of media effects

One of the most perplexing problems in risk analysis is why some relatively minor risks or risk events, as assessed by technical experts, often elicit strong public concerns and result in substantial impacts upon society and economy. This article sets forth a conceptual framework that seeks to link systematically the technical assessment of risk with psychological, sociological, and cultural perspectives of risk perception and risk-related behavior. The main thesis is that hazards interact with psychological, social, institutional, and cultural processes in ways that may amplify or attenuate public responses to the risk or risk event. A structural description of the social amplification of risk is now possible. Amplification occurs at two stages: in the transfer of information about the risk, and in the response mechanisms of society. Signals about risk are processed by individual and social amplification stations, including the scientist who communicates the risk assessment, the news media, cultural groups, interpersonal networks, and others. Key steps of amplifications can be identified at each stage. The amplified risk leads to behavioral responses, which, in turn, result in secondary impacts. Models are presented that portray the elements and linkages in the proposed conceptual framework.

/pdf/the-social-amplification-of-risk-a-conceptual-framework-5310s3qj6e.pdf

The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework

This sales letter may not influence you to be smarter, but the book that we offer will evoke you to be smarter. Yeah, at least you'll know more than others who don't. This is what called as the quality life improvisation. Why should this research methods in social relations? It's because this is your favourite theme to read. If you like this theme about, why don't you read the book to enrich your discussion?

Research methods in social relations

The essay addresses these questions: What is news? Why do we have news? My answers involve the synthesis of theories from biology and culture; I also show how the constructs time and reality can be used in news studies. Deviance is my primary construct, which in biology is defined as a threat or something novel in the environment. In studies of culture, deviance is defined according to whether the rules and norms of a society are followed. People are innately hard wired to survey the environment and attend to threats, but threats are defined by culture. The brain’s circuitry prioritizes information about negative stimuli, which results in more negative news than positive or neutral.

Hard Wired for News Revisited: Biology, Culture, Deviance, Time, and Reality

UNIVERSUS MULTIDIMENSIONAL COMPARISON OF POLITICAL GROUPS Critics of the traditional left-right, liberal-conservative scale frequently used to compare political entities have suggested the need for additional dimensions of comparison. This study investigated the hypothesis that the left-right scale would be as good a predictor of the dependent variable for politically sophisticated and knowledgeable subjects as a multidimensional approach would be. The hypothesis was supported for a sample of newspaper editors, suggesting that journalists readily think in ideological terms and regularly array political group: on the left-right scale. If, as the critics of 4-hc left-right scale suggest, the general audience is composed of less politically knowledgeable people, then the ideological information provided in news reports may not provide adequate information for the average reader to evaluate a political group.

/pdf/uni-versus-multidimensional-comparison-of-political-groups-46xv9nykn0.pdf

Pamela J. Shoemaker

Papers

Hard Wired for News Revisited: Biology, Culture, Deviance, Time, and Reality

Uni- Versus Multidimensional Comparison of Political Groups.