bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Clostridium difficiletoxin B differentially affects GPCR-stimulated Ca2+ responses in macrophages: independent roles for Rho and PLA2
Authors: Rebres Robert A , Moon Christina , DeCamp Dianne , Lin Keng-Mean , Fraser Iain D , Milne Stephen B , Roach Tamara I A , Brown H Alex , Seaman William E
Published: March 2010

Distinct activities of toxin B up-regulate PLCβ3 or down-regulate PLCβ4-dependent IP3-Ca2+ coupling.

Clostridium difficile toxins cause acute colitis by disrupting the enterocyte barrier and promoting inflammation. ToxB from C. difficile inactivates Rho family GTPases and causes release of cytokines and eicosanoids by macrophages. We studied the effects of ToxB on GPCR signaling in murine RAW264.7 macrophages and found that ToxB elevated Ca2+ responses to Gαi-linked receptors, including the C5aR, but reduced responses to Gαq-linked receptors, including the UDP receptors. Other Rho inhibitors also reduced UDP Ca2+ responses, but they did not affect C5a responses, suggesting that ToxB inhibited UDP responses by inhibiting Rho but enhanced C5a responses by other mechanisms. By using PLCβ isoform-deficient BMDM, we found that ToxB inhibited Ca2+ signaling through PLCβ4 but enhanced signaling through PLCβ3. Effects of ToxB on GPCR Ca2+ responses correlated with GPCR use of PLCβ3 versus PLCβ4. ToxB inhibited UDP Ca2+ signaling without reducing InsP3 production or the sensitivity of cellular Ca2+ stores to exogenous InsP3, suggesting that ToxB impairs UDP signaling at the level of InsP3/Ca2+coupling. In contrast, ToxB elevated InsP3 production by C5a, and the enhancement of Ca2+ signaling by C5a was prevented by inhibition of PLA2 or 5-LOX but not COX, implicating LTs but not prostanoids in the mechanism. In sum, ToxB has opposing, independently regulated effects on Ca2+ signaling by different GPCR-linked PLCβ isoforms in macrophages.
Maternal cardiac arrhythmias during pregnancy and lactation
Authors: Cordina Rachael , McGuire Mark A
Published: March 2010

Arrhythmias occurring during pregnancy can cause significant symptoms and even death in mother and fetus. The management of these arrhythmias is complicated by the need to avoid harm to the fetus and neonate. It is useful to classify patients with arrhythmias into those with and without structural heart disease. Those with a primary electrical problem, but an otherwise normal heart, often tolerate rapid heart rates without compromise whereas patients with problems such as rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease or cardiomyopathy may quickly decompensate during an arrhythmia.
Behçet's syndrome in pregnancy
Authors: Martineau Marcus , Haskard Dorian O , Nelson-Piercy Catherine
Published: March 2010

Behçet's syndrome (BS), a systemic inflammatory disease characterized by oral and genital ulceration, eye inflammation and arthritis, usually presents in the third and fourth decades of life, but is rare in pregnancy. BS is not usually associated with a detrimental effect on pregnancy outcome. In most women BS is reported to improve in pregnancy, although it may not always follow a similar course in successive pregnancies and it is not possible to predict the course of BS in a particular pregnancy. Many of the drug therapies used to treat BS are safe to use in pregnancy and in the breastfeeding mother. These include corticosteroids, azathioprine, calcineurin inhibitors and probably colchicine. Experience with use of biologics in pregnancy is increasing. Drugs used in the management of BS that should be avoided in women planning a pregnancy include methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil, thalidomide, cyclophosphamide and chlorambucil.
Dialysis for severe hyponatraemia in preeclampsia
Authors: Hennessy Annemarie , Hill Ian
Published: March 2010

Severe hyponatraemia is a rare complication of preeclampsia. In the case presented, the rapid recovery of liver function test abnormalities and thrombocytopenia were accompanied by acute renal failure, relative oliguria and progressive hyponatraemia contributing to confusion and ileus. Dialysis was instigated and the patient promptly recovered. Renal function recovered fully.
Pruritus in pregnancy: a study of anatomical distribution and prevalence in relation to the development of obstetric cholestasis
Authors: Kenyon A P , Tribe R M , Nelson-Piercy C , Girling J C , Williamson C , Seed P T , Vaughan-Jones S , Shennan A H
Published: March 2010

The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and anatomical distribution of pruritus in 6532 pregnant women from a UK antenatal population. Pregnant women attending and completing antenatal care at two general hospitals over a 12-month period were recruited and contacted on three occasions by post. Medical advice and a questionnaire detailing the nature and severity of their pruritus were included. Pruritus in pregnancy, as reported by questionnaire, affected approximately 23% of pregnancies ( n = 1521/6532 women) and 1.6% ( n = 25) of these women developed obstetric cholestasis (OC). Overall, 0.66% of the antenatal population (43/6532) had a clinical diagnosis of OC (95% CI: 0.48–0.89%). Itching unrelated to OC was most commonly reported to be worst on the abdomen (31%, 616/2014). Women with OC reported pruritus to be most severe on the palms and soles in 16% (4/25) and ‘all over’ in 24% (6/25) compared with 5% (54/1120) ( P < 0.05) and 4% (42/1120, P < 0.0001) of those without OC. In conclusion, pruritus affected approximately one in four women and OC one in 135 women during the study period. Women whose pruritus is ‘all over’ or most severe on the ‘palms or soles’ may be at greater risk of the disease.
Iron deficiency in pregnancy
Authors: McMahon Lawrence P
Published: March 2010

Iron deficiency (ID) and related anaemia (IDA) during pregnancy are highly prevalent worldwide in both developed and developing nations although the causes are often different. At conception, many women lack sufficient iron stores to meet the increased requirements of pregnancy, which are calculated at approximately 1200 mg. Appraisal of iron status in pregnant women is problematic, however the most reliable available diagnostic test is a serum ferritin < 20 µg/L. ID is often associated with other nutritional disorders, and there is frequently a secondary cause or association. A greater oral intake is usually insufficient to meet the increased demands of pregnancy, however regular oral supplements (given either daily or intermittently) can often meet maternal needs and avoid associated neonatal complications of IDA. Over-treatment with iron should be avoided, but intravenous administration is useful when deficiency is discovered late, is severe, or if the woman is intolerant of oral formulations. This paper reviews the current literature, and addresses differences in the prevalence and causes of ID betwen developed and developing nations. It examines gestational iron requirements, distinguishes between ID and IDA, and highlights difficulties in diagnostic testing. Finally, it appraises the evidence for and against different treatment regimens, ranging from food fortification to intravenous iron infusions, according to availability and to need.
Eltrombopag; Romiplostim
Authors: King Jaclyn S. , Farland Joseph B. , Waddell J. Aubrey , Solimando Dominic A.
Published: March 2010

The complexity of cancer chemotherapy requires that pharmacists be familiar with the complicated regimens and highly toxic agents used. This column reviews various issues related to preparing, dispensing, and administering antineoplastic therapy and to the agents, commercially available and investigational, used to treat malignant diseases.
Atorvastatin: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Authors: Generali Joyce A. , Cada Dennis J.
Published: March 2010

This Hospital Pharmacy feature is extracted from Off-Label Drug Facts, a quarterly publication available from Wolters Kluwer Health. Off-Label Drug Facts is a practitioner-oriented resource for information about specific drug uses that are unapproved by the US Food and Drug Administration. This new guide to the literature will enable the health care professional or clinician to quickly identify published studies on off-label uses and determine if a specific use is rational in a patient care scenario. A summary of the most relevant data is provided, including background, study design, patient population, dosage information, therapy duration, results, safety, and therapeutic considerations. References direct the reader to the full literature for more comprehensive information before patient care decisions are made. Direct questions or comments regarding Off-Label Drug Uses to hospital pharmacy@drugfacts.com .
Fospropofol Disodium
Authors: Cada Dennis J. , Levien Terri L. , Baker Danial E.
Published: March 2010

Each month, subscribers to The Formulary Monograph Service receive 5 to 6 well-documented monographs on drugs that are newly released or are in late phase 3 trials. The monographs are targeted to Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committees. Subscribers also receive monthly 1-page summary monographs on agents that are useful for agendas and pharmacy/nursing inservices. A comprehensive target drug utilization evaluation (DUE) is also provided each month. With a subscription, the monographs are sent in print and are also available online. Monographs can be customized to meet the needs of a facility. Subscribers to The Formulary Monograph Service also receive access to a pharmacy bulletin board, The Formulary Information Exchange (The F.I.X.). All topics pertinent to clinical and hospital pharmacy are discussed on The F.I.X.

Through the cooperation of The Formulary, Hospital Pharmacy publishes selected reviews in this column. For more information about The Formulary Monograph Service or The F.I.X., call The Formulary at 800-322-4349. The March 2009 monograph topics are plerixafor, degarelix, armodafinil, iloperidone, and lasofoxifene. The DUE is on degarelix.
Does communication studies have an identity? Setting the bases for contemporary research
Authors: Jiménez Leonarda García , Guillem Susana Martínez
Published: March 2010

This article is a reflection on the identity of communication research, motivated by what we perceive as an important need for consolidating our field of study. It therefore takes the form of a self-inquiry into the nature of communication research. Whereas the field of communication
has expanded and consolidated, its identity continues to be problematic. At this moment, communication studies is defined as a field rather than as a science; we would argue, however, that we have enough features to be something more than a field. This is the central argument of this article:
communication research is more than a field but less than a science. Why are we more than a field? Why aren't we a real science? What exactly are the meanings of science and field? We will first consider the importance of the identity issue; second, we will list the main features of communication
research in order to justify our identity as something other than a field. Finally, we will propose a multidisciplinary theoretical base for performing communication research in our contemporary period.
Looking beyond the B-side from the G-side: the under- and misrepresentation of the Roma in the media
Authors: Tortajada Iolanda , Willem Cilia
Published: March 2010

In this article we present the results of two different studies What Of Us Is In This? (carried out in 2006 at the University of Lleida and supported by the Catalan Audiovisual Council) and Roots&Routes (carried out between 2005 and 2008 at the University of Barcelona). These studies,
on the one hand, reach the same conclusions using different methodologies and, on the other, illustrate that the results obtained from engaging in a dialogue with Roma people about their media representation (using qualitative techniques with the intention of giving them a voice) are not any
different from the conclusions that have come out of more classical content and discourse analyses about minorities and the media performed to date.

When we asked the Roma about their perceptions and opinions of their representation in the media, we realized that they were quite conscious
and critical about media discourses that offer a stereotyped vision of them, constructing a definition of being Roma by using difference and conflict. The Roma who participated in our study described how the media make them invisible and represent them in a distorted way. Thus, we can affirm
the validity of a methodology that focuses its attention on giving a voice to the subjects, as this will not only contribute to reinforcing the results of other techniques, but also makes us think about the adequacy of research based exclusively on an analysis of the message (object), without
taking into account the groups that are marginalized, and not only by the media, but also by research itself (subjects).
Catalan public diplomacy, soft power, and noopolitik: A public relations approach to Catalonia's governance
Authors: Xifra Jordi
Published: March 2010

In this article, we provide a brief introduction to stateless nation-building and public diplomacy based on the case of Catalonia. On the basis of Manuel Castells' idea of informational society and the concepts of soft power of Joseph S. Nye, and noopolitik of John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, we show the rich contribution of these phenomena in understanding the theory and practice of public diplomacy of non-state actors, such as stateless nations, in order to build their national identity. Furthermore, when we talk about public diplomacy, soft power and noopolitik, we are talking about governance rather than government (diplomacy, hard power and realpolitik). Accordingly, we suggest that a noopolitikal model of public relations can contribute to effective governance for both public and private actors. Through some examples of the current policies in Catalonia, this article advances a public relations approach to governance.
Self-observation, self-reference and operational coupling in social systems: steps towards a coherent epistemology of mass media
Authors: Aguado Juan Miguel
Published: March 2010

This paper is concerned with the role of self-observation in managing complexity in meaning systems. Revising Niklas Luhmann's theory of mass media, we approach the mass media system as a social sub-system functionally specialized in the coupling of psychic systems' (individuals) self-observation and social systems' self-observation (including, respectively, themselves as each other's internalized environment).According to Autopoietic Systems Theory and von Foerster's second order cybernetics, self-observation presupposes a capability for meta-observation (to observe the observation) that demands a specific distinction between observer and actor. This distinction seems especially relevant in those social contexts where a separation between the action of observation and other social actions is required (in politics, for instance). However, in those social contexts (such as mass-media meaning production) where the defining action is precisely observation (in terms of the differentiation that constitutes the system), the border between observer and actor is blurred.We shall consider the significant divergence between the implicit and the explicit epistemologies of the mass media system, which appears to be characterized by the explicit assumption of a classic objectivist epistemology, on one side, and a relativist epistemology on the other, posing a hybrid epistemic status somewhere in between science and arts.
Straw men or cyborgs?
Authors: Dovey Jonathan , Lister Martin
Published: March 2010

This paper responds to calls in the last two years for a Media Studies 2.0 that would reformulate the discipline to take account of the radical changes in Media practices brought about by digital technologies and their cultures. Whilst agreeing on the pace and scale of change this paper
argues that Media Studies as a broad interdisciplinary area has many traditions which are readily equipped to deal with the contemporary situation. In particular it argues through a number of case studies for a discipline that finds fruitful conjunctions of traditional and novel forms of critical
analysis.
Sounds like teen spirit: iTunes U, podcasting and a sonic education
Authors: Brabazon Tara
Published: March 2010

This paper probes a moment in the history of Media Studies education. My study enters iTunes U to explore how teaching, learning and scholarship are defined and operate in this environment. Podcasting is neither celebrated nor vilified, but situated within a much longer history of sound
in education. Instead of positioning the iPod as a rupture in music, commerce and downloading practices thereby triggering the historical redundancy of analogue sound this platform becomes an opportunity to reconfigure the function of sound in media education. The interest remains, not Media
Studies 2.0 or 1.0, but media literacy. Such a phrase and study does not require a designation or an imperative for platform migration. The development of media literacy remains contiguous, gradual, considered, contemporary, passionate and planned.
Improvising in Ruyang: Community Art as Ecological Practice
Authors: Sarco-Thomas Malaika
Published: March 2010

This study reports on the activities of the improvisation-based project TWIG, Together We Integrate Growth, which developed as a community initiative to facilitate ecological awareness through creative activities. It analyzes the TWIG Project as a model for practices of social, mental
and natural ecology, as defined by Felix Guattari (2000) and in terms of its ability to use improvisation as a method for developing individual bodily perception and generating community interest in conservation of the local environment. Drawing parallels between TWIG's improvisatory programme
and Michel de Certeau's notion of play as an act of political resistance, this article suggests that ecological practice necessarily engages multiple aspects of individuals, their communities, and the surrounding environment.
Puppetry as Community Arts Practice
Authors: Smith Matt
Published: March 2010

This project/workshop report introduces the ways Matt Smith and PickleHerring Theatre approaches community puppetry. The report emphasizes the group experience, the participants' play and the levels of creativity in the workshops/projects. The efficacy of puppetry as an important form
of community arts practice is given in the summary.
Talking the Game: A Case Study of an Oral Narrative Project with Professional Footballers
Authors: Ryan Patrick
Published: March 2010

This case study describes a storytelling residency running in over twenty professional football (soccer) clubs in England over the past eight years. Its practices and outcomes, to date, provide many points of interest for those practising or administrating community and educational
arts projects. These, as well as the projects' future development, also provide academics with topics of further study.
Song and the Presence of Absent Communities
Authors: Biggs Iain
Published: March 2010

This essay is in two parts the first an academic argument, the second a loosely woven presentation of song lyric fragments and images that parallels concerns expressed in the first. The aim is to indicate why certain types of old, quasipagan songs might help a particular section of the population develop another sense of place and community. Using a distinction between metropolitan locals and the commitment of certain artists to an ethical identification with necessary limits inherent in community as understood by local cosmopolitans, I argue from greater attention to collective, communal, and social practices typified here by walking and song that are rooted in the lived realities and shared needs of ordinary people. I do so in the context of Edward S. Casey's claim that place, despite our assumption that it is a static entity, is best understood as an essay in experimental living within a changing culture. Declining to side either with phenomenologically-inclined promoters of enchantment or post-structural advocates of the primacy of absence, I seek to validate a particular and endless oscillation between these positions an oscillation I find performed in exemplary fashion by certain songs in their capacity to simultaneously enchant and to remember absence in the context of the animistic values of a now absent indigenous community.
Book Reviews
Authors: Persighetti Simon
Published: March 2010

Community Performance: An Introduction, Petra Kuppers (2007) Abingdon: Routledge, (238 pp.), ISBN: 978-0-415-39231-0, Paperback 19.99
Book Reviews
Authors: Siddall Jeanette , Webster Mark
Published: March 2010

An Introduction to Community Dance Practice, Diane Amans (ed.) (2008), Palgrave Macmillan, (269 pp.), ISBN 978-0-230-55168-8, Hardback, 16.99, 978-0-230-55169-5, Paperback

Art, Community and Environment: Educational Perspectives, Glen Coutts and Timo Jokela
(eds) (2008), Bristol: Intellect Books, (312 pp.), ISBN 978-1841501895, Hardback, 24.95
Truth, Ethics and Efficacy in the Training of Actors for Role Play
Authors: Grant David
Published: March 2010

Krysia M. Yardley-Matwiejczuk has addressed the clinical and psychological implications of role play (Yardley-Matwiejczuk 1997) and Judith Ackroyd has thoroughly reassessed the place of role play in education (Ackroyd 2004). But there has been no systematic analysis of the implications
for actor training of this growing area of employment. This article interrogates some of the implications of role play for actor trainers, particularly in relation to the need for a clear ethical framework governing spontaneous performance in non-theatrical environments. The article also suggests
guidelines on distancing and presencing techniques to equip actors to cope with the unpredictability of role-play based performance.
Along Paseo Boricua: The Art of Josu Pellot Gonzalez
Authors: Irish Sharon
Published: March 2010

This article focuses on an individual artist, Josu Pellot Gonzalez, who works in a Chicago community that generally shares his Puerto Rican heritage. Two of Pellot's works,Family Portrait as Boricua Toys: Vending Machine Project(2006) and1493at La Municipal Food and Liquors (2008), were inspired by a section of Division Street that is called Paseo Boricua. Pellot first saw the vending machine inside of a local eatery; he subsequently purchased a machine and inserted into it figures of his own immediate family as toys.1493was a trio of animated neon signs hung in a store window facing Division Street. Both works self-consciously investigated the collisions and collaborations of commercial spaces and ethnic identity by directly engaging with the visual and spatial fields of shoppers and diners on Paseo Boricua.
Rendering Embodied Heteroglossic Spaces
Authors: Sameshima Pauline , Irwin Rita L , Beer Ruth , Grauer Kit , Xiong Gu , Bickel Barbara , Ricketts Kathryn
Published: March 2010

Using Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia as a basis for appreciating the rich opportunities the multiple voices of researchers and participants present, we posit thatembodied heteroglossic spacesenhance the collaborative a/r/tographic research project entitled The City of Richgate. Working with visual, narrative, and performative forms of enquiry, contiguously and separately, researchers and participants become a community of inquirers engaged in embodied heteroglossic spaces that exist simultaneouslyand inter-corporeallywithin the qualities of a variety of artistic languagesandthe variation of these qualities as found in particular moments of time and space. Recognizing the inter-corporeal nature of our work extends Bakhtin's notion into a multimodal (perhaps multilingual) context and offers lenses for engaging in collaborative research design and analysis.
Inventing rituals; inhabiting places ritual and community in public art
Authors: Jones Ruth
Published: March 2010

In May 2008, five temporary art events were commissioned by Ruth Jones in public spaces in Cardigan (Wales) as part of the project Holy Hiatus. The project explored the possibilities for ritual to be employed creatively in public art practice, and to examine the ways that artists
can draw audiences into unexpected and potentially liminal experiences of place through ritual. Some people locally and from further a field knew about the events through publicity material or word of mouth, and made an active decision to attend, while others came across interventions unexpectedly
whilst going about their daily business: for example, Alastair MacLennan was working on the footbridge over the River Teifi for twelve hours, tying ribbon, greenery and paper boats to the railings and talking to curious users of the bridge; while Simon Whitehead worked with dancers Kate Willis
and Andrea Buckley to create an improvised dance Drift (which followed the flow of the tides) through the town over three days. A few people living in and around Cardigan became collaborators through their involvement in the artists' projects; Yvonne Buchheim created a public performance
at Cardigan swimming pool in collaboration with two local swimmers and two singers and Anna Lucas spent three weeks meeting teenagers in West Wales who were actively involved with working animals, in order to gather film footage for a new video installation that was exhibited in the Pendre
Art Gallery. Maura Hazelden collaborated with acoustic singer Lou Laurens and created a six-hour performance in the newly built Small World Theatre: a company deeply engaged with local communities. The temporary, mobile and in some cases, understated nature of the works meant that the impact
was often subtle, but the artworks nonetheless created a ripple of effect for both active and incidental audiences, leading witnesses to wonder what they had just seen and to what extent they had knowingly, or unknowingly, participated.

Following the completion of the projects, a series
of interviews with twelve audience members were carried out by researcher Sarah Pace from Safle (an independent public art consultancy based in Cardiff) in order to gain an insight into how the artworks were received. This article integrates the findings from these with theoretical understandings
of ritual from fields such as anthropology, sociology, cultural and communication theory. The article begins by laying out the arguments for and against the creative potential of ritual. The interviewees' experiences of the artworks for Holy Hiatus are then compared to find support
for the proposition that experiences of liminality are possible in public art projects that employ ritual. Finally, the article looks at how experiencing public rituals in places that are familiar to us might alter our perception of those places in both exciting and challenging ways.

The
names of the interviewees have been altered to maintain anonymity.
Riverscross A Drama-in-Health Project with Young People, run by Spanner in the Works
Authors: Coult Tony
Published: March 2010

This is an article about Riverscross, a drama project to devise and produce a TV soap opera, at the Snowsfields Adolescent Unit, Guy's Hospital, in London. This is a residential and outpatient unit for young people with mental health problems. It is part of the Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Services (CAMHS) of the NHS. The drama workers delivering the project are Spanner in the Works, who have been providing drama sessions at the Unit since 2000.

Riverscross is the name of the project, and the name of the devised TV drama. Riverscross International is
a fictional international railway station in Deptford, South London, and the drama deals with the lives of workers and travellers who use the station. The article outlines the processes by which Spanner in the Works identified a need for the project, and sought funding to allow for professional
standards of performance and production. It also outlines how the professional model of TV drama production is adapted and modified to meet the particular needs and challenges of a very varied client group, both in terms of individual clinical needs and also an irregularly shifting cohort.
Popular music and political change in Cte d'Ivoire: the divergent dynamics of zouglou and reggae
Authors: Schumann Anne
Published: March 2010

In Cte d'Ivoire, popular music genres such as reggae and zouglou have served as a domain for the articulation of ideas about politicians, corruption, citizenship, national history and identity. This paper specifically analyses the divergent dynamics of reggae and zouglou.
Reggae, in Cte d'Ivoire as in its country of origin Jamaica, has characteristically been associated with commentary on socio-political issues. zouglou emerged in the 1990s in the context of the student demonstrations for political liberalization and, along with reggae, served as a platform
for criticism of prevailing social and political conditions. Ivorian popular music has consequently been associated with the return to multi-party politics. It has also been very outspoken against divisive political rhetoric such as Ivoirit. However, after the outbreak of open conflict
in 2002, new themes have emerged in zouglou. In compilations that have been termed patriotic albums, many well-known artists have aligned themselves with the government and the Alliance of Young Patriots, depicting a partial, southern portrayal of the conflict. Thus ideological positions
in Ivorian music have varied over time and across genres, and a category such as protest music is ill suited to fully capture its dimensions.
The politics of corruption and the media in Africa
Authors: Rnning Helge
Published: March 2010

This paper explores the linkages between debates about corruption and the role of the media in Africa. It advances arguments about how citizens in Africa encounter corruption both grand and petty and how they perceive it, as well as factors that may contribute to the development of
corrupt practices. These reflections are then linked to a discussion of how the press in Africa deals with corruption and whether the media may serve as a strong deterrent in combating this form of criminal behaviour.
Film Reviews
Authors: Pedersen Mona , Wasserman Herman
Published: March 2010

Bling bang: diamonds for dummies Blood Diamonds, Directed by Edward Zwick (2006) USA: Warner Bros

Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood South African release 3 February 2006; USA & Canada, Miramax, 24 February 2006; UK, Momentum, 17 March 2006
African media research in the era of globalization
Authors: Ndlela Nkosi
Published: March 2010

This article revisits the position of African media and communication research in the era of globalization. It examines the settings and philosophy of African media research, and its development and enmeshment in the contemporary context of globalization. It asks: what is the status
of African media research and what are its recurrent themes? How can African media researchers influence the dominant paradigms that have guided the field of media and communication research? Through a review of literature and dominant themes of media and communication research in Africa,
the paper argues that the parameters for research in African media research have closely followed the research paradigms set by external scholars, especially Western scholars. Despite the increasing number of African media researchers, they have yet to extricate themselves from the methodological
and theoretical entrapments that have hindered the growth of new models and theories that are inherently African in perspective.
Fata Morgana: Mirage in the Desert - a sequence of images (2005)
Authors: Evans Graham
Published: March 2010

A road movie of stills on a journey through the Egyptian desert, Fata Morgana was the original hallucination or mirage conjured from the heat bending light on the extremes of the horizon. Here the natural is supplanted by the cultural world of commodity free trade, which comes to obliterate
the visible desert and instead presents us with the desert of the commercial signage which is made strange by its juxtaposition with the barrenness of the Egyptian landscape.
Repositioning African media studies: thoughts and provocations
Authors: Tomaselli Keyan G
Published: March 2010

This article engages with contemporary debates on the state of media studies in Africa. It comments on the dialectic between metropolitan centres of knowledge production and dependent peripheries. A brief discussion of Fordism and post-Fordism and their implications for Africa follows.
Nation-building discourses are opposed to hyper-real notions of meaning, calling on Africans to transcend their idealized understanding of culture, African values and identity as unchanging absolutes. The often alarming anti-democratic conceptual, policy and ideological shifts that occur when
theories travel between different contexts are examined. Some research agendas for Africa in the postmodern age are proposed.
The politics of broadcasting, language policy and democracy in Uganda
Authors: Chibita Monica B
Published: March 2010

This article examines the interweaving between socio-political history, broadcast policy and regulation, and political participation. Although the article primarily discusses the Ugandan situation, it draws conclusions that could be helpful in examining similar situations in Africa
and in other parts of the world. The research was conducted in Uganda in three phases over three years (20032006) and additional research was conducted between 2007 and 2008.1 The first phase of the research constituted a socio-historical analysis of Uganda's media and politics.
The second phase focused on the language debate in Uganda and the final phase sought to interpret the Ugandan language debate in light of the findings from the socio-historical analysis. The article is conceived within a critical media studies framework and the methodology is inspired by J.B.
Thompson's (1990) depth hermeneutics. The study employed qualitative interviews and an analysis of media, communication and education policy documents and other archival sources to elicit information at various levels on indigenous language broadcasting policy in Uganda. Placing the debate
on indigenous language policy in historical context made it possible to critically examine the relationship between language policy and political participation in Uganda. The article concludes that effective future policy and regulation must strike a balance between the priorities of government,
media proprietors and audiences. It must also take cognizance of current commercial realities, while being sensitive to the socio-historical factors that determine attitudes towards the use of specific languages in the media.
Book Reviews
Authors: Berger Guy , Obonyo Levi
Published: March 2010

Taking Journalism Seriously: News and the Academy, Barbie Zelizer, (2004) London: Sage, 296 pages, ISBN 0-8039-73144, Paperback, $46.95

50 Years of Journalism: African media since Ghana's independence, Elizabeth Barratt and Guy Berger (eds.), (2007) Johannesburg:
African Editors Forum, 200 pages, ISBN 9780868104386, Paperback.
China in the African mediascape: a critical injection
Authors: Banda Fackson
Published: March 2010

Deepening Beijing media support in Africa is resulting in an infrastructural realignment reflecting more export of Chinese media technology and technical knowhow; this has been matched by increasing African dependence on such external media intervention. This infrastructural realignment
seems to be underpinned by China's dual objective of ideological consolidation and cultural reproduction across Africa, often associated with its soft power. The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the dimension of China's intervention in the African media landscape. At the core
of this analysis is an assessment of the type of support that China has been extending to African media institutions since it rekindled its interest in Africa after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Related to the assessment of such Chinese support is the need for a critical-theoretical
framework within which Chinese interventions can be studied and analysed in future research, focusing on this Sino-African media interpenetration. This study thus sets out to historically contextualize Chinese support to the African mediascape, arguing that contemporary Chinese media interventions
in Africa must be seen as part of China's long history of anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggle in its project of national and international identification. The study concludes that current Chinese support to Africa's media takes the tripartite form of infrastructural realignment, ideological
expurgation and cultural reproduction. It ends with a call for a critical-theoretical trajectory for understanding Sino-African media relations, suggesting a triangulated theoretical approach that draws on a critical cultural studies tradition. Key to this theoretical project is the need to
study China in Africa's mediascape in terms of how its influence will, if at all, reconfigure African media production, representation, identity, consumption and regulation. The setting up of Confucius Institutes in some African countries often with Chinese financial support presents a platform
for both theoretical and empirical engagement.
The lion and the dragon: African experiences in China
Authors: Rennie Namvula
Published: March 2010

Tens of thousands of Africans are flocking to Guangzhou, China. They are drawn there by business opportunities, and encouraged by the official discourse of a mutually beneficial Sino-African relationship that permeates China's deepening diplomatic and economic ties with Africa. A new
land of opportunity has entered into the imagination of Africa. Yet relations between Chinese and Africans in Guangzhou are deteriorating. Rising racism, police harassment, and an increasingly stringent and corrupt visa system dominated by Chinese middlemen, has made life difficult for even
the most successful. A number of Africans now live illegally in Guangzhou, unable or unwilling to return; the costs of getting caught are high. For many, life is not what they had expected. Money is not the sole objective: African evangelicals who see China as a land of potential converts
also make the journey. Despite the number of Africans now in Guangzhou, the experiences of these migrants remain largely undocumented.
How the North pictures the neighbouring South: Portuguese press coverage of the Sahrawi conflict
Authors: Novais Rui Alexandre
Published: March 2010

This article explores how the media, in a country that used to be a colonial power yet belongs to a relatively peaceful culture, depicts one of the oldest disputes in Africa. Drawing on a three-year analysis of the Portuguese press coverage of the Sahrawi conflict, it also tests some basic foundations of the selective representation of Africa in news reporting: the predominantly one-way traffic of information between the North and the South, as well as a similar imbalance in terms of the nature of the news treatment which tends to focus on negative and deviant issues often portrayed in a highly stereotyped fashion. The study does not corroborate Africa's thinness and invisibility but rather points to the pivotal influence of national context the Portugueseafectio comunitatiscombined with a notable sensitivity towards human rights and self-determination issues in the reporting of a given political process.
Book Reviews
Authors: Pype Katrien , Way Maria , Franks Suzanne , Kerr David
Published: March 2010

Mobile Phones. The New Talking Drums of Everyday Africa, Mirjam de Bruijn, Francis Nyamnjoh, & Inge Brinkman (eds), (2009) Bamenda/Leiden: Langaa/African Studies Centre, 173 pages, ISBN: 9956-558-53-2, Paperback 19.95

African Media, African Children: Nordicom
Yearbook 2008, Pecora Norma, Enyonam Osei-Hwere and Ulla Carlsson (eds), (2008) Published by The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media, Gothenburg, Sweden: University of Gothenburg/Nordicom, ISSN 1651-6028; ISBN 978-91-89471-68-9; 243 pages. Price: SEK 240, 25

Africa:
Altered States, Ordinary Miracles, Richard Dowden, (2008) London: Portobello Books, (576pp) ISBN 978-1-84627-154-0, Hardback 25.00 Paperback(2009) 9.99

Africa Writes Back: The African Writers Series & the Launch of African Literature, James Currey, (2008) Johannesburg:
Wits University Press; Athens: Ohio University Press; Ibadan: HEBN; Nairobi: EAEP, Harare: Weaver Press; Dar Es Salaam: Mkuki Na Nyota, ISBN 978-1-84701-503-7 & ISBN 978-1-84701-502-0, 19.95
Films out of Africa
Authors: Orgeret Kristin Skare
Published: March 2010

The article argues that fiction films from and about Africa may play an important role in increasing global audiences' knowledge of Africa. The article explores both the potential and the challenges of such films when it comes to create broader perspectives of the African continent. It argues that there is a general need for film producers with African knowledge. The discussion has direct bearing on debates about how Africa is represented in the media of the so-called global north.
Anna Halprin and the Sea Ranch Collective, an embodied engagement with place
Authors: Poynor Helen
Published: March 2010

This paper examines Anna Halprin's life-long engagement with the environments that have supported and inspired her dance practice from the 1950s to the present. It traces the evolution of Halprin's practice in locations that include the dance deck in the redwoods at her home in Marin
County, her work with the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop in the city and with the Sea Ranch Collective on the Californian Coast. Drawing on extensive personal interviews with Halprin and members of the Sea Ranch Collective, and the experience of participating in the Sea Ranch Retreat in 2005,
I examine in detail Halprin's current approach to creating dances in the environment. The paper elucidates Halprin's understanding of the relationship between the natural world, human beings and dance-making. It analyses the processes used to heighten sensory awareness and engender a kinaesthetic
engagement with nature to create embodied dances which are of personal significance to the dancer, and which demonstrate an awareness of the wider environment and an aesthetic sensibility. This includes Halprin's use of self-portrait visualizations and performances in the environment.
The experience of discourses in dance and somatics
Authors: Fortin Sylvie , Vieira Adriane , Tremblay Martyne
Published: March 2010

An action research consisting of somatic education classes within a bachelor program in dance has showed how dancers negotiate the dominant dance discourse and the marginal discourse of somatic education in relation to the complexities of body and health issues. More specifically, the students appreciated the approach of the Feldenkrais Method that favoured a pedagogy compatible with health concerns and with Foucault's concept of technologies of the self.
The potent persuasive pleasurable unappeasable pli
Authors: De Leon Jennifer
Published: March 2010

I am thinking about a movement that I, as a psychotherapist working with dance and movement, have reframed and re-visioned as a therapeutic tool. Every dance sequence contains this movement in it. It is a movement that all people who do not think of themselves as dancers also, unknowingly,
do. The movement is named pli.

I think about the pli. I: dancer teacher, choreographer, educator, writer, or any combination of the above certainly have done and certainly know about, the pli. My objective in speaking about the pli is to bring to our attention
the capacity, inherent in this most familiar of acts, for healing and transformation.
The Transition to Digital Television in the United States: The Endgame
Authors: Hart Jeffrey A
Published: March 2010

The switching off of analogue television on 12 June 2009 and the delays that led up to it are the focus of the analysis here. All digital transitions are difficult but the US transition was successful in the end, in spite of a number of decisions and policies that made life confusing
and overly complicated at one time or another for all concerned. The decision to delay the analogue switch off from 17 February to 12 June 2009 was one of the first initiatives undertaken by the newly elected Obama administration. The delay was necessary because of the under-funding of a programme
to provide coupons for analogue-digital converter boxes to those still dependent on over-the-air broadcasts.
Preparations for Digital Switchover in Japan: An Update
Authors: Kumabe Norio
Published: March 2010

Now that Germany and the USA have switched over to digital terrestrial television (DTT), Japan is one of the countries with a large number of television households that are preparing for digital switchover in two to three years. It is planning to switchover on 24 July 2011, in less
than two years. The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has accelerated preparations since 2008. This is a brief report on the present situation concerning digital switchover in Japan.
Doing there vs. being there: performing presence in interactive fiction
Authors: Seegert Alf
Published: March 2010

The ability of computers to produce presence the visceral feeling of actually being there is typically associated with the presentation of intensive graphical effects. But studies on presence indicate that what players are able to do in fact contributes more to their sense of presence
than graphical realism. Keeping this in mind, I explore possibilities for performing presence in digital narratives, particularly through the non-graphical digital medium of interactive fiction. I draw from critical theorists (Barthes, Iser and especially Gumbrecht) as well as theorists of
new media (Aarseth, Ryan, Montfort) to frame an investigation into two major aspects of presence production in interactive fiction, namely: 1) how interactive fiction generates presence through the exclusive use of verbal signifiers rather than graphical images, and 2) how it allows users
to generate presence themselves through their own actions. I conclude by examining three works of interactive fiction: Adventure, All Roads and Luminous Horizon (Crowther and Woods 19756; Ingold 2006; O'Brian 2004).
Teleporting the library?
Authors: Heilesen Simon B.
Published: March 2010

In 2007, six Danish public libraries established a virtual library, Info Island DK, in Second Life. This article discusses the library project in terms of design. The design processes include the planning and implementation of the virtual library structure and its equipment,
as well as the organizing and carrying out of activities in the virtual setting. It will be argued that, to a large extent, conventions have determined design and use of the virtual library, and also that design has had an impact on the attitudes and understanding of the participants.
The body of the avatar: rethinking the mind-body relationship in virtual worlds
Authors: Doyle Denise
Published: March 2010

A pivotal concern surrounding the recent growth in Massively Multiplayer Online Games and virtual worlds, and an issue that this article sets out to explore, is our understanding of the mind-body relationship when moving between real and virtual space. How do we understand our avatar
as our represented presence in virtual space? What are we identifying with when we identify with an avatar? Do we have bodily experiences of our avatar?

Can Spinoza's theory of the imagination as a form of bodily awareness help us understand the phenomenon of embodied experience in virtual
worlds? Drawing from Spinoza, and the Dalai Lama's discussions of the mind-body relationship in Investigating the Mind at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003, along with Bachelard's theory of the material imagination, this article will test concepts of the relationships between the
body and the imaginary against the backdrop of the virtual world of Second Life created by Linden Lab in 2003.

The new imaginary present in virtual worlds is a continual interplay between, and stimulation from, both our sense of presence and the image of our presence. The third space,
between real space and the virtual space of the screen, is the charged space of tele-presence; where presence and absence are acted out. This article will define these new dimensions of experience that are based on a simultaneity or plurality of presence and absence, and will argue that the
relationship between the imaginary and the body of the avatar plays a significant role when interacting with virtual worlds.