The political economy of the print media and the decline of corporate investigative journalism in Australia

Newspapers in developed economies are experiencing declining advertising and circulation revenues, closures and cutbacks. Investigative journalism's normative role has been described as scrutinising concentrated power sources in liberal democracies. This article examines investigative reporting by the Australian print media that has exposed corporate wrong-doing from affluent times to the current era of newspapers' financial hardship. Applying two content analyses, the article examines business investigative journalism from selected newspapers and specific categories of the peer-reviewed Walkley Awards. The socialist tradition identifies corporate power above other groups in society, and this article finds in accordance with political-economic theories that mainstream newspapers have become conspicuously absent in their investigative role in detecting and exposing corporate transgressions. I conclude that this failure was most notable prior to and during the Global Financial Crisis, and this has implications for the exercise, and scrutiny, of corporate power in Australia.

发达国家的报纸遭遇了广告和发行的滑坡,还有倒闭和削减。调查性新闻的规范角色被描述为自由民主体制内的监督力量。本文考察了澳大利亚印刷媒体从丰裕时代一直到如今报纸财政艰难岁月,对公司过失所做的调查报道。本文使用了内容分析,从选择的报纸和同行评审的Walkley奖的特定类别对商业调查做了研究。社会主义传统认定公司的权力高于社会其他群体,本文同意政治经济学理论,指出主流报纸在履行揭露公司违法不端的调查职责时,是明显缺席的。笔者的结论是,在全球金融危机之前及之中,这种缺席是再明显不过了。这个结论对于公司力量的运动和监督,或许有参考意义。     

Floor Response Spectra for Bare and Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frames

The objective of this article is to study the effects of structural nonlinear behavior on Floor Response Spectra (FRS) of existing reinforced concrete frames. This study examines how the FRS vary with the level of post-elastic behavior in buildings of different number of stories and masonry infill wall configurations. The effect of damping modeling assumptions is also investigated. Differences and similarities with findings from the literature are discussed. On the basis of the obtained results, a commentary on the adequacy of basic assumptions used in predictive equations proposed by different seismic codes is offered.     

Daily risks: A biocultural approach to acute trauma in pre‐colonial coastal populations from Brazil

Brazilian coastal pre‐colonial skeletal series were examined for accidental fractures, which were grouped according to biomechanical interpretation of the causative events, and results were interpreted based on cultural and environmental aspects. More than 19% of the shell mound builders and 27% of the fisher–hunter–gatherers presented healed fractures. Both series presented balanced values between male and female (18.7 and 20%, respectively, for shell mound builders; 28.1 and 25.6%, respectively, for fisher‐hunter‐gatherers), and more than the double that proportion of the individuals (69.6% for shell mound builder and 88.5% for fisher–hunter–gatherers) had localised lesions, associated with only one traumatic event. The most common type of fractures were those caused by falls blocked by lower limbs (47.8% for shell mound builders and 46.1% for fisher–hunter–gatherers), interpreted as a result of moving along the rocky coastal cliffs. Despite these similarities, both series presented particular aspects which were related mainly to differences in subsistence strategies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tradition,myth and the dilemma of Australian foreign policy

For a middle power with a relatively short history of framing a self determined foreign policy, Australia has actively sought to engage with both its immediate region and the wider world. Elite agreement on this external orientation, however, has by no means entailed consensus on what this orientation might involve in terms of policy. Consequently, two, often conflicting, traditions and their associated myths have informed Australian foreign policy-making. The most enduring tradition shaping foreign policy views Australia as a somewhat isolated bastion of Western civilisation. In this mode Australia's myth is pragmatic, but uncertain and sees Asia as both an opportunity and a potential threat which requires the support and counsel of culturally similar external powers engaged in the region to ensure stability. Against this, an alternative and historically later tradition crafted a foreign policy that advanced Australian independence through engagement with a seemingly monolithic and increasingly prosperous Asia. This paper explores the evolution and limitations of these foreign policy traditions and the myths that sustain them. It further considers what features of these traditions continue to have resonance in a region that has become more fluid and heterogeneous than it was during the Cold War and which requires a foreign policy flexibility that can address this complex and strategically uncertain environment.     

Children as community planners: embodied activities,visual-spatial thinking,and a re-imagined community

ABSTRACT

This qualitative research endeavor explored the role of embodiment as a pathway to visual-spatial thinking. The researchers relied on an interdisciplinary approach using geography and theater rooted in kinesthetic and empathetic embodied activities to facilitate visual-spatial thinking within the context of a community redevelopment project. The participants consisted of 14 elementary and middle school aged girls attending a Girls Inc. program within a low-income housing community. The researchers situated the findings using McCormack’s ([1998. Visual/Spatial Thinking: An Essential Element of Elementary School Science. Washington, DC: Council for Elementary School Science]; [2011. “Don’t Verbalize, Visualize!” NSTA WebNews Digest. Accessed June 15, 2016. http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=58298]) visual-spatial thinking typology and theories of embodiment. The findings revealed that the girls exhibited three types of visual-spatial thinking, which ranged from foundational to highly advanced ways of thinking about space, to include visual-spatial perception, memory, and creative thinking. The results also illustrate that embodied activities that engage sensorimotor functions through an interdisciplinary approach, can facilitate visual-spatial thinking.     

Characterisation of archaeological mortars and plasters from kyme (Turkey)

The present study focuses on the compositional characterisation of Roman, proto-Byzantine and Medieval mortars, sampled in the archaeological site of Kyme (Turkey), an Aeolian city, founded in the middle of the XI century BC by Greek populations. The mortars were studied through elemental (SEM-EDS, XRF), mineralogical (XRPD, De Astis calcimeter) and petrographic (polarised optical microscopy) analysis. The comparison between the samples allowed us to emphasise compositional differences within mortars of the same historical period.In particular, we detected the prevalent use of cocciopesto, which was used as a pozzolanic additive to create hydraulic mortars in the Roman and Byzantine period. The cocciopesto was used to improve the technological properties of an initially slaked lime. Furthermore, compositional similarities allowed us to attribute an unknown sample to the Roman period. Our study also pointed out the fact that the lower quality mortars belonged to the Medieval period. As a matter of fact, the most friable sample belonging to the Middle Ages turned out to be a mixture of clay, lime and volcanic sand.