scholarly journals “You Want Your Guests to Be Happy in This Business”: Hoteliers’ Decisions to Adopt Voluntary Smoke-Free Guest-Room Policies

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 1740-1746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. McDaniel ◽  
Ruth E. Malone

Purpose: To explore why some hotels have implemented 100% smoke-free policies voluntarily, the perceived consequences of doing so, and media responses. Design: Qualitative study of hotel management and quantitative content analysis of media coverage of smoke-free hotels. Setting: Hotels and media based in the United States. Participants: Eleven representatives of 5 independent and 4 chain hotels. Other data included 265 news items about smoke-free hotels. Method: We conducted 30-minute semi-structured interviews with hotel representatives and analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis. We also searched 3 online news databases for news items about hotels in our study, and collaboratively coded retrieved items; we analyzed the content and slant of news items. Results: Business considerations, including guest requests, competitor action, and cost savings, were the primary motivations for implementing 100% smoke-free guest-room policies. Health concerns played a minimal role. Hotels received positive feedback from customers and employees. Media coverage was favorable, emphasizing positive aspects of going smoke-free; the overall slant of news items was positive or neutral. However, few hotels marketed the change. Conclusions: Since hotel customers and employees are likely to experience long periods of smoke exposure and smoke-free hotels appear to be so well received, it may be timely to pursue policies making all hotels smoke-free.

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Schmid-Petri ◽  
Silke Adam ◽  
Ivo Schmucki ◽  
Thomas Häussler

Skepticism toward climate change has a long tradition in the United States. We focus on mass media as the conveyors of the image of climate change and ask: Is climate change skepticism still a characteristic of US print media coverage? If so, to what degree and in what form? And which factors might pave the way for skeptics entering mass media debates? We conducted a quantitative content analysis of US print media during one year (1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013). Our results show that the debate has changed: fundamental forms of climate change skepticism (such as denial of anthropogenic causes) have been abandoned in the coverage, being replaced by more subtle forms (such as the goal to avoid binding regulations). We find no evidence for the norm of journalistic balance, nor do our data support the idea that it is the conservative press that boosts skepticism.


Author(s):  
Gaëlle Ouvrein ◽  
Charlotte J.S. De Backer ◽  
Heidi Vandebosch

Researchers, in studies of online news-site commenting, have found a huge number of aggressive comments and have indicated that such comments should be interpreted within the discussion context that other bystanders, such as journalists and other readers, have created. In this study, we aimed to offer insights into bystanders’ reactions to negative news articles and other bystanders’ aggressive comments in the specific context of celebrity news. Therefore, we subjected Flemish celebrity-news articles (N = 69) and the Facebook reactions (N = 5,529) to those articles to a content analysis. First, using a quantitative content analysis, we coded each comment as having a negative, neutral, or positive tone. Next, we conducted a qualitative content analysis, which consisted of a vertical coding phase and a horizontal coding phase, so as to investigate the comments’ content in more depth and to determine which elements resulted in some comments’ negative and even aggressive tone. The results indicate that most readers’ reactions stayed on topic, thus merely contributing to the negative atmosphere that the journalist had already created. However, unlike the journalists, who tended to express their emotions rather subtly, the readers reacted using extreme aggressive language. Furthermore, although these aggressive reader reactions generally seemed to set an aggressive tone for future reactions, some readers broke this aggressive cycle and explicitly disapproved of the aggressive expressions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 030802262098847
Author(s):  
Tawanda Machingura ◽  
Chris Lloyd ◽  
Karen Murphy ◽  
Sarah Goulder ◽  
David Shum ◽  
...  

Introduction Current non-pharmacological treatment options for people with schizophrenia are limited. There is, however, emerging evidence that sensory modulation can be beneficial for this population. This study aimed to gain insight into sensory modulation from the user’s and the treating staff’s perspectives. Method A qualitative content analysis design was used. Transcripts from occupational therapists ( n=11) and patients with schizophrenia ( n=13) derived from in-depth semi-structured interviews were analysed for themes using content analysis. Results Five themes emerged from this study: Service user education on the sensory approach is the key; A variety of tools should be tried; Sensory modulation provides a valued treatment option; There are challenges of managing perceived risk at an organisational level; and There is a shortage of accessible and effective training. Conclusion People with schizophrenia and treating staff had congruent perceptions regarding the use of sensory modulation as a treatment option. The findings suggest that sensory modulation can be a valued addition to treatment options for people with schizophrenia. We suggest further research on sensory modulation intervention effectiveness using quantitative methods so these results can be further explored.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 398-431
Author(s):  
Hillary L. Berk

Abstract:What is the value of surrogate labor and risks, and how is it negotiated by participants as they contract within an unsettled baby market? This article presents novel data on compensation, fee, and bodily autonomy provisions formalized in surrogacy contracts, and the experiences of actors embedded in exchange relations, as they emerge in a contested reproductive market. It combines content analysis of a sample of thirty surrogacy contracts with 115 semi-structured interviews conducted in twenty states across the United States of parties to these agreements, attorneys who draft them, counselors, and agencies that coordinate matches between intended parents and surrogates. It analyzes the value of services and medical risks, such as loss of a uterus, selective abortion, and “carrier incapacity,” as they are encoded into agreements within an ambiguous field. Surrogacy is presented as an interactive social process involving law, markets, medicine, and a variety of cultural norms surrounding gender, motherhood, and work. Contracts have actual and symbolic power, legitimating transactions despite moral anxieties. Compensation transforms pregnancy into a job while helping participants make sense of the market and their “womb work” given normative flux. Contracts are deployed by professionals without informed policies that could enhance power and reduce potential inequalities.


Author(s):  
Anna Tupetz ◽  
Ashley J. Phillips ◽  
Patrick E. Kelly ◽  
Loren K. Barcenas ◽  
Eric J. Lavonas ◽  
...  

To categorize the Patient-specific Functional Scale (PSFS) activities in snakebite envenoming (SBE) using the International Classification of Function (ICF) model in order to describe the impact of SBE on patients’ activities and daily lives and to develop a theoretical SBE model of functioning, we performed a post-hoc analysis of two multi-center, prospective studies, conducted at 14 clinical sites in the United States with consecutive SBE patients presenting to the emergency department. Qualitative content analysis and natural language processing were used to categorize activities reported in the PSFS using the ICF model. Our sample included 93 patients. The mean age was 43.0 (SD 17.9) years, most had lower extremity injuries (59%). A total of 99 unique activities representing eight domains came within the Activity and Participation component of the ICF model, with the majority in the Mobility and General Tasks and Demands domains. The main concerns of SBE patients are the ability to perform daily activities and to engage within their social environment. Applying the ICF model to SBE can facilitate the creation of a patient-centered treatment approach, moving beyond body-structural impairments towards a function-based treatment approach and facilitate early integration of rehabilitation services.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Elham Sepahvand ◽  
◽  
Hamidreza Khankeh ◽  
Mohammadali Hosseini ◽  
Behnam Akhbari ◽  
...  

Background: During traffic accidents, professional staff provide care to the patient at the scene of the accident and then transport the victim to the hospital by ambulance. But sometimes this transition is carried out by relatives and laypeople. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors affecting people’s involvement and transmission of the victims of the traffic accident. Materials and Methods: This study was done with a qualitative content analysis method in 2018. The study participants were 16 people. In this study, a purposeful sampling method with maximum diversity was used. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data using guiding questions. To observe the research ethics, the researcher, after obtaining permission from the University Ethics Committee, conducted interviews (IR.USWR.REC.1395.399). Results: In total, 15 spinal cord injury victims and their relatives or laypeople and medical emergency technicians were interviewed. The class of wrong belief of delay was the main class in all interviews. Concepts such as past experiences, the pressure time, the lack of emergency time, cultural beliefs, and the tension explaining the wrong belief concept. Conclusion: Wrong belief of delay was a concept that was extracted from the present study. It is recommended that the scene of the accident be examined in-depth and how to create a spinal cord injury in the injured with a grounded theory approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Nuriely ◽  
Moti Gigi ◽  
Yuval Gozansky

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the ways socio-economic issues are represented in mainstream news media and how it is consumed, understood and interpreted by Israeli young adults (YAs). It examines how mainstream media uses neo-liberal discourse, and the ways YAs internalize this ethic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome its limitations. Design/methodology/approach This was a mixed methods study. First, it undertook content analysis of the most popular Israeli mainstream news media among YAs: the online news site Ynet and the TV Channel 2 news. Second, the authors undertook semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 Israeli YAs. The analysis is based on an online survey of 600 young Israelis, aged 18–35 years. Findings Most YAs did not perceive mainstream media as enabling a reliable understanding of the issues important to them. The content analysis revealed that self-representation of YAs is rare, and that their issues were explained, and even resolved, by older adults. Furthermore, most of YAs' problems in mainstream news media were presented using a neo-liberal perspective. Finally, from the interviews, the authors learned that YAs did not find information that could help them deal with their most pressing economic and social issue, in the content offered by mainstream media. For most of them, social media overcomes these shortcomings. Originality/value Contrary to research that has explored YAs’ consumerism of new media outlets, this article explores how YAs in Israel are constructed in the media, as well as the way in which YAs understand mainstream and new social media coverage of the issues most important to them. Using media content analysis and interviews, the authors found that Young Adults tend to be ambivalent toward media coverage. They understand the lack of media information: most of them know that they do not learn enough from the media. This acknowledgment accompanies their tendency to internalize the neo-liberal logic and conservative Israeli national culture, in which class and economic redistribution are largely overlooked. Mainstream news media uses neo-liberal discourse, and young adults internalize this logic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome the limitations this discourse offers. They do so by turning to social media, mainly Facebook. Consequently, their behavior maintains the logic of the market, while also developing new social relations, enabled by social media.


Author(s):  
M. Chekunova

The presented article tests the application of the method of quantitative content analysis to identify the spread of confrontational tendencies in the public consciousness. It proves the broad possibilities of monitoring and forecasting conflicts in society on the basis of it. The source base of the study was the archives of the New York Times newspaper for the period from 1851 to 2019. The author calculated the number of used indicative conflict-containing lexemes, the integrated dynamics of which expresses the coefficient of confrontation. The coefficient of confrontation correlates with the dynamics of conflicts in the history of the United States and the world, explanations of the increase and decrease of the corresponding indicators are given. The maximum phases of the confrontation coefficient fall on the period of the Second World War and the modern period. Modern maximization is viewed as a significant threat to the security of Russian society.


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