Archive
Blog 7 Affordable Care Act Influences
- This article explores the various choices the Affordable Care Act gives Americans and which choice influenced their decision the most. For example, it shows that 41% of Americans said that the monetary amount of the premium affected their choice of a plan. The study also showed that 4% of those surveyed had no idea what they were doing.
- The Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey, March–May 2015, was conducted by SSRS from March 9, 2015, to May 3, 2015. The survey consisted of 16-minute telephone interviews in English or Spanish and was conducted among a random, nationally representative sample of 4,881 adults, ages 19 to 64, living in the United States. Overall, 2,203 interviews were conducted on landline telephones and 2,678 interviews on cellular phones, including 1,729 with respondents who lived in households with no landline telephone access.
- a.) How do these numbers compare to those of private health care providers? b.) How do these numbers compare to other country’s plans?
Blog # 7- U.S. Attitudes About Physician Assisted Suicide
- This post shows that American’s attitudes and opinions about physician assisted suicide is changing. 68% of U.S. adults say that it should be permitted and 28% think it should not be. Those that think that it should be permitted have increased 10% in the past year and 17% in the past two years. I thought this article was interesting because it also showed that despite the above percentages, 56% of Americans think that physician assisted suicide is morally acceptable and 37% think that it is morally wrong. Also, 8 in 10 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 favor these laws. This article also showed that those that are religiously unaffiliated are twice as likely to favor these laws as those who are religiously affiliated.
- This data was found through a survey conducted by Gallup, a company that conducts public opinion polls. In the survey, participants were asked if they thought that a doctor should be allowed to assist a patient in suicide if the patient has a painful and incurable disease, and then if they thought that this was morally acceptable. Participants have been asked the same questions since 1997 and the answers were compared to get the presented data. The age, race, religion, as well as different situations in which assisted suicide might be permissible where also asked of the participants in order to find answers for the rest of the data.
- How many people took part in this survey? Also, since this survey was conducted in May, could these number have changed since California legalized physician assisted suicide in September?
Blog #6- Painkiller Use and Hospitalization in Missouri
- This post shows that the use of painkillers in Missouri has exponentially risen in the past decade. The use of painkillers such as Percocet, Vicodin and Oxycontin has increased 137 percent from 2005 to 2015. I chose this post because I found the data interesting and surprising. It was interesting that the article also said that the rate of use in St. Louis has increased 162 percent in the past 10 years. Also, the rate of use in Missouri is extremely higher than the average national rate but is leveling off.
- This study was conducted the Missouri Hospital Association and the Hospital Industry Data Institute. They found the data through secondary sources such as hospital inpatient and outpatient discharge databases and the Nielson-Claritas 2014 Popfacts Premier which is an overview of the demographics, populations, and census information. They compared how many people had been hospitalized for use of painkillers in respect to their zip codes.
- I wonder how HIPPA interfered with this study and what difficulties they had obtaining the confidential patient information. Also, I think that they should have changed the way that they framed and worded this study. They are almost misleading by titling the study ” Painkiller Abuse Has Soared in Missouri in the Last Decade”. It should have been titled, “Hospital Admissions due to Painkiller Use Has Soared in Missouri in the Last Decade”. By leaving out the fact that the study was based off of those that had been admitted, not all people using, it skews the information.
Blog #5 College Research on Religion and Spirituality
The article I chose is about college students and their relationship between spirituality and religion in college and the political beliefs that go along with these changes. As students go through college they tend to become less religious, but more spiritual and tend to have a more liberal viewpoint when it comes to politics.
The data in this article is from the Pew Research center and was collected over six years in a longitudinal study at the University of California Los Angeles.
UCLA Study: Comm 3422 Blog http://t.co/VPz1u69qLD
— Andrea Drake (@dredrake227) October 19, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsQuestion: Do you think if this study was conducted at another University you would get the same results?
Blog Post #5- Average College Student Spends $1,200 on Books
1.) This article shows the average amount that college students spend on textbook each year. It found that the average amount is $1,200 which has grown 82% in the last 10 years. I chose this post because it is something that I have personally experienced. I also found it interesting that the amount spent each year has grown exponentially.
2.) This study was conducted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group through the use of surveys. Two thousand students were surveyed from 33 states and 156 different campuses. From what was shown in the article, it looks as though they asked questions about how much they spend on average per year on books, how much their tuition is, if they attend a university or a community college, if the cost of textbooks had every stopped them from buying them, and if so, if they were concerned that this might effect their grades.
3.) This article included links to articles such as “8 Ways to Save Money on College Textbooks” and “How to Find Cheap College Textbooks”. This made me wonder if this study was skewed in a way that might have caused participants to answer questions in the ways that researchers wanted them to, or if the articles were placed there after they found their results.
“BLOG 8: The Flight From Conversation”
Psychologist @STurkle says replacing face-to-face communication with phones is diminishing our capacity for empathy http://t.co/4n8XBRbt2X
— APA (@APA) October 7, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
1. This article is about how people have been reacting and adapting to the new technologies that in turn change the way that people communicate with one another and ultimately is destroying all of our face-to-face conversations we would otherwise have. I chose this article because especially for people of my age, social media and ever-changing technology are apart of our every single day, every hour, every minute, and without it, many people probably wouldn’t know what to do with themselves today.
2. The article is from The Atlantic (theatlantic.com) and the study was conducted by a clinical psychologist and sociologist named Turkle at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has spent over the past 30 years studying how people react and adjust to new media trends and technology that in turn change the way individuals communicate with one another and has even published a book called, “Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age” in which she argues that “texts, tweets, Facebook posts, emails, instant messages, and snapchats—simultaneous, rapid-fire “sips” of online communication—have replaced face-to-face conversation, and that people are noticing the consequences.”
3. I question I have about the article is, “Does Turtkle believe that social media and our growing technology will take over all and any face-to-face conversation in the future?” I also want to know, “Are there certain areas of the world in which this social media and technology ‘takeover’ is more prevalent?”
Blog Post 4: Usage of social media during the Pope’s visit
- This tweet was chosen due to how recent the Pope visited the United States and the significance it had as well as the media coverage that was placed on the event. The article is about how surprisingly most media outlets did not use social media and instead focused on personal interviews and encounters with the public to shape the coverage. With the large amount of phones and other tablets out during the events little social media was used by journalists.
- The data was collected by PEW research analytics which looked at 12 different news sources. as well as across 12 websites, pulled from the top 25 sites listed in comScore’s news and information category. In each story, researchers coded the presence of 17 different source types and whether for each social media was referenced.
- This is very interesting due to the rise of social media use in news outlets. But why are we so concerned about social media when getting news coverage of the Pope? It is the Pope for crying out loud. Secondly, I am not surprised news outlets did not cite a social networking cite, with the importance of the Pope’s visit, wouldn’t one try and get the most credible source for an article? like a direct quote or video footage.
Blog 4: Emoji Use
Infographic: emojis are becoming a preferred communication tool across demographics http://t.co/UhhCMBG8cZ pic.twitter.com/mKvMU1Vhiu
— Adweek (@Adweek) October 6, 2015
- This article is about how emojis are becoming a preferred communication tool across demographics. I chose this article because of it’s communication focus and because it is a relevant topic.
- The research was conducted in a study where Emogi, a real-time emotional intelligence platform that decodes sentiment, found how people use emojis. They gathered information based on demographic, how many times per year, month, week, or day people use emojis, and even what companies use emojis.
- They brought up companies using emojis/making their own emojis and this brought me to ask this question: Does using emojis greatly effect consumers buying or not buying products? Also, does frequent emoji use cause problems with communicating or can it actually help communication?
Blog #4- Social Media Use Today
Internationally, the YouTube app is No. 1 followed by the Facebook app. bit.ly/1j722fM http://t.co/76ksjwxvt5—
Social Media Today (@socialmedia2day) September 25, 2015
1. This post shows the state of social media so far in 2015. It shows the most popular social networking sites, what platforms they are using to access these sites, and how marketers are using these sites. I though it was interesting because social media marketing is becoming more prevalent and necessary as times change. Also, this topic and the research questions involved we similar, on a larger scale, to those that my research group will be addressing.
2. This study used Global Web Index, a software platform that allows researchers and marketers to collect online data and statistics on a targeted audience. They also used SimilarWeb, a platform that tracks traffic and engagement of different sites. Lastly, they used Smart Insights, a marketing strategy and advice sight, for information on how marketers utilize social media.
3. At the bottom of this infographic, SimilarWeb and Smart Insights are both advertised. I wondered if this could have lead to biased information that might be trying to persuade those reading the study to use these platforms.
Blog 4: Why do people own a gun (or not)?
From our 2013 survey asking gun owners their reasons for obtaining a firearm http://t.co/yyj4w51QKmpic.twitter.com/Cqh6EI6r5P
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) October 3, 2015
- This study surveyed people about why they own guns (or do not own guns). They also asked people if they think the existing gun laws are effective. I chose this article because communication about gun laws in the U.S. is a very popular topic of conversation.
- This information comes from the Pew Research Center. They used national surveys and a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center to come up with their data.
- Does the percentage of people who say they own guns because it makes them feel safer or the percentage of people who think stricter laws are necessary to prevent mass shootings change drastically after there is a recent mass shooting in the U.S.?
Missouri Communication 