Paper presented at Diversity of Journalisms. ECREA Journalism Studies Section and 26th International Conference of Communication (CICOM) The launch of more than 300 free daily newspapers worldwide during the last 15 years defies the idea that newspaper markets are impossible to penetrate. Although a third of papers closed down in the last ten years, newspaper circulation in most countries with free newspapers is actually higher than before their entry. Readership analysis of free newspapers shows that these papers have a younger audience than paid newspapers, contradicting the notion that young people don’t read newspapers anymore.
The European Manifesto for Inclusive Learning is an initiative of the University of Florence to promote adult education for migrants and refugees. The program seeks to provide “a concrete tool for adult educators to promote adult learning in their local context”. In order to achieve this goal, eight European Union partners in different EU countries collaborated intensively for 1 ½ year to exchange experiences, expand opportunities and to seek to promote a more coordinated and integrated approach. Each partner collected case studies of good practices using a common tool for collecting data. The results of the Dutch partner, The Hague University of Applied Sciences are presented here. Seven cases have been studied with very different, mainly informal ways of mutual learning in the Netherlands. First the Manifesto is described in more detail. This is followed by a sketch of refugee flows to the Netherlands and the Dutch asylum system. After these chapters, the different cases are presented, followed by a conclusion and recommendations based on the Dutch good practices.
This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sign language interpreting profession drawing on data from a fourth and final survey conducted in June 2021 as part of a series of online “living surveys” during the pandemic. The survey, featuring 331 respondents, highlights significant changes in the occupational conditions and practices of sign language interpreters due to the sudden shift towards remote video-mediated interpreting. The findings reveal a range of challenges faced by interpreters, including the complexities of audience design, lack of backchanneling from deaf consumers, the need for heightened self-monitoring, nuanced conversation management, and team work. Moreover, the study highlights the physical and mental health concerns that have emerged among interpreters as a result of the shift in working conditions, and a need for interpreters to acquire new skills such as coping with the multimodal nature of online interpreting. While the blend of remote, hybrid, and on-site work has introduced certain advantages, it also poses new challenges encompassing workload management, online etiquette, and occupational health concerns. The survey’s findings underscore the resilience and adaptability of SLIs in navigating the shift to remote interpreting, suggesting a lasting transformation in the profession with implications for future practice, training, and research in the post-pandemic era.
“Empowering learners to create a sustainable future” This is the mission of Centre of Expertise Mission-Zero at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS). The postdoc candidate will expand the existing knowledge on biomimicry, which she teaches and researches, as a strategy to fulfil the mission of Mission-Zero. We know when tackling a design challenge, teams have difficulties sifting through the mass of information they encounter. The candidate aims to recognize the value of systematic biomimicry, leading the way towards the ecosystems services we need tomorrow (Pedersen Zari, 2017). Globally, biomimicry demonstrates strategies contributing to solving global challenges such as Urban Heat Islands (UHI) and human interferences, rethinking how climate and circular challenges are approached. Examples like Eastgate building (Pearce, 2016) have demonstrated successes in the field. While biomimicry offers guidelines and methodology, there is insufficient research on complex problem solving that systems-thinking requires. Our research question: Which factors are needed to help (novice) professionals initiate systems-thinking methods as part of their strategy? A solution should enable them to approach challenges in a systems-thinking manner just like nature does, to regenerate and resume projects. Our focus lies with challenges in two industries with many unsustainable practices and where a sizeable impact is possible: the built environment (Circularity Gap, 2021) and fashion (Joung, 2014). Mission Zero has identified a high demand for Biomimicry in these industries. This critical approach: 1) studies existing biomimetic tools, testing and defining gaps; 2) identifies needs of educators and professionals during and after an inter-disciplinary minor at The Hague University; and, 3) translates findings into shareable best practices through publications of results. Findings will be implemented into tangible engaging tools for educational and professional settings. Knowledge will be inclusive and disseminated to large audiences by focusing on communication through social media and intervention conferences.
Het doel van het onderzoeksproject Immersieve journalistiek en het Betrokken Publiek is om samen met publieke mediaorganisaties en drie kennisinstellingen meer inzicht te krijgen in hoeverre emotionele betrokkenheid van nieuwsconsumenten bij journalistieke producties van invloed kan zijn op de publieke functie van journalistieke organisaties. Het overdragen van informatie aan burgers en het duiden van gebeurtenissen en ontwikkelingen in de samenleving is een kerntaak van de journalistiek. Publieke mediaorganisaties moeten tevens hun specifieke publieke functie waarmaken. Tegelijkertijd is door de toegenomen concurrentie en commercialisering in de mediasector, de journalistiek nog meer genoodzaakt het publiek centraal te stellen en zoeken journalistieke organisaties naar nieuwe manieren om de mediaconsument aan zich te binden. Zij zoeken daarom naar nieuwe technieken en vormen van journalistiek. Een vorm is immersieve journalistiek. Via immersieve journalistieke technieken zoals 360-graden video, augmented reality en virtual reality gaat het publiek als het ware deel uitmaken van een verhaal in plaats van het alleen te ‘ondergaan’. Hierdoor zouden gebruikers meer emotioneel betrokken worden bij nieuws, waardoor de media hun publieke functies (beter) kunnen waarborgen. Of immersiviteit de betrokkenheid van het publiek daadwerkelijk vergroot en of emotionele betrokkenheid ook bijdraagt aan de informatieve - en duidingsfunctie van de journalistiek is echter de vraag. Onderzoek naar immersieve technieken in de journalistiek is nu nog grotendeels gericht op de productiekant en op de narratieve elementen van dergelijke media-uitingen. Er bestaat nog weinig kennis over de ervaring van de gebruiker en welke impact immersiviteit heeft op kennisoverdracht. Veel publieke media-organisaties experimenteren met immersieve journalistiek, maar worstelen met de vraag of ze daarmee hun publieke functie kunnen waarmaken. Dit onderzoek biedt een nieuw perspectief op de ervaringen van de huidige mediaconsument en de rol die emotie speelt bij immersieve journalistieke verhalen. Volgens de werkveldpartners is er in het werkveld veel behoefte aan publieksonderzoek, waarna praktische tools ontwikkeld kunnen worden.
In leaving the more traditional territories of the concert performance for broader societal contexts, professional musicians increasingly devise music in closer collaboration with their audience rather than present it on a stage. Although the interest for such forms of devising co-creative musicking within the (elderly) health care sector is growing, the work can be considered relatively new. In terms of research, multiple studies have sought to understand the impact of such work on musicians and participants, however little is known about what underpins the musicians’ actions in these settings. With this study, I sought to address this gap by investigating professional musicians’ emerging practices when devising co-creative musicking with elderly people. Three broad concepts were used as a theoretical background to the study: Theory of Practice, co-creative musicking, and Praxialism. Firstly, I used Theory of Practice to help understand the nature of emerging practices in a wider context of change in the field of music and habitus of musicians and participants. Theory of Practice enabled me to consider a practice as “a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion, and motivational knowledge” (Reckwitz, 2002, p. 249). Secondly, I drew the knowledge from co-creative musicking, which is a concept I gathered from two existing concepts: co-creation and musicking. Musicking (Small, 1998), which considers music as something we do (including any mode of engagement with music), provided a holistic and inclusive way of looking at participation in music-making. The co-creation paradigm encompasses a view on enterprise that consists of bringing together parties to jointly create an outcome that is meaningful to all (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004; Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2014). The concept served as a lens to specify the jointness of the musicking and challenge issues of power in the engagement of participants in the creative-productive process. Thirdly, Praxialism considers musicking as an activity that encompasses “musical doers, musical doing, something done and contexts in which the former take place” (Elliott, 1995). Praxialism sets out a vision on music that goes beyond the musical work and includes the meanings and values of those involved (Silverman, Davis & Elliott, 2014). The concept allowed me to examine the work and emerging relationships as a result of devising co-creative musicking from an ethical perspective. Given the subject’s relative newness and rather unexplored status, I examined existing work empirically through an ethnographic approach (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). Four cases were selected where data was gathered through episodic interviewing (Flick, 2009) and participant observation. Elements of a constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014) were used for performing an abductive analysis. The analysis included initial coding, focused coding, the use of sensitizing concepts (Blumer 1969 in Hammersley, 2013) and memoing. I wrote a thick description (Geertz, 1973) for each case portraying the work from my personal experience. The descriptions are included in the dissertation as one separate chapter and foreshadow the exposition of the analysis in a next chapter. In-depth study of the creative-productive processes of the cases showed the involvement of multiple co-creative elements, such as a dialogical interaction between musicians and audience. However, participants’ contributions were often adopted implicitly, through the musicians interpreting behaviour and situations. This created a particular power dynamic and challenges as to what extent the negotiation can be considered co-creative. The implicitness of ‘making use’ of another person’s behaviour with the other not (always) being aware of this also triggered an ethical perspective, especially because some of the cases involved participants that were vulnerable. The imbalance in power made me examine the relationship that emerges between musicians and participants. As a result of a closer contact in the co-creative negotiation, I witnessed a contact of a highly personal, sometimes intimate, nature. I recognized elements of two types of connections. One type could be called ‘humanistic’, as a friendship in which there is reciprocal care and interest for the other. The other could be seen as ‘functional’, which means that the relationship is used as a resource for providing input for the creative musicking process. From this angle, I have compared the relationship with that of a relationship of an artist with a muse. After having examined the co-creative and relational sides of the interaction in the four cases, I tuned in to the musicians’ contribution to these processes and relationships. I discovered that their devising in practice consisted of a continuous double balancing act on two axes: one axis considers the other and oneself as its two ends. Another axis concerns the preparedness and unpredictability at its ends. Situated at the intersection of the two axes are the musicians’ intentionality, which is fed by their intentions, values and ethics. The implicitness of the co-creation, the two-sided relationship, the potential vulnerability of participants, and the musicians’ freedom in navigating and negotiation, together, make the devising of co-creative musicking with elderly people an activity that involves ethical challenges that are centred around a tension between prioritizing doing good for the other, associated with a eudaimonic intention, and prioritizing values of the musical art form, resembling a musicianist intention. The results therefore call for a musicianship that involves acting reflectively from an ethical perspective. Doctoral study by Karolien Dons
