Tag Archives: information

News Websites Should Target “Reward Seekers”, MU Researcher Finds

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2013Media, Technologyadvertising, brain friendly designs, Entertainment, gratification, information, media professionals, mobile apps, news organizations, news websites, newspaper sales, paul bolls, readership, revenues, reynolds journalism institute, school of journalism, university of missouri

Website designers should strive for simplicity, invoke emotion to boost online revenue

As newspaper sales continue to decline, many news organizations are searching for ways to improve readership and revenues from their online presences. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that news organizations should target readers with certain personality traits in order to optimize their online viewership. Paul Bolls, an associate professor of strategic communication at the MU School of Journalism and a 2011-2012 MU Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, has found that news consumers who have “reward-seeking” personalities are more likely to read their news online and on mobile devices, and to engage with websites, by leaving comments on stories and uploading user-generated content.

In a study accepted for presentation at the 2013 International Communication Association conference in June, Bolls surveyed more than 1000 respondents and placed them into two personality groups: reward seekers and threat avoiders. He found that reward seekers tend to use the Internet liberally, searching out entertainment and gratification, while threat avoiders tend to be more conservative, looking only for information that directly affects them. Bolls found that respondents identified as reward seekers were much more likely to engage with news websites as well as more likely to use mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to consume news. He says this knowledge should direct news organizations to target these reward seekers. (more…)

Technology in the Classroom

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2013Educationcampaign ads, classroom, election campaign, facebook group, information, ipads, it transformation grant, karl rove, new york times, paul brewer, presidential election, public opinion polls, ralph begleiter, road to presidency, robert gibbs, rove gibbs debate, Technology, traditional media, university of delaware, washington post

UD students use iPads to study the presidential election

Ralph Begleiter and Paul Brewer, professors in the University of Delaware’s Department of Communication, wanted to see if students enrolled in their Road to the Presidency class would pay more attention to the presidential election if media were at their fingertips 24/7. Through a UD Information Technologies (IT) Transformation Grant, iPads were distributed to students enrolled in the course.

“There is something about a student laying their finger on the iPad and discovering what event occurred to make a jump in public opinion popularity occur. It’s that interactivity that makes it a personal experience for the student,” Begleiter observed. (more…)

New Qubit Control Bodes Well for Future of Quantum Computing

By Guest PostJanuary 13, 2013Sciencecollege de france, control, digital electronics, f schackert, feedback, information, integrity, large scale, m mirrahimi, michael hatridge, michel devoret, microscopic units, quantum computing, quantum feedback, quantum information, quantum mechanics, quantum object, qubit state, qubits, random errors, real, s shankar, theoretical formula, ultra fast, volatile realm, yale physicists, yale university

Yale University scientists have found a way to observe quantum information while preserving its integrity, an achievement that offers researchers greater control in the volatile realm of quantum mechanics and greatly improves the prospects of quantum computing.

Quantum computers would be exponentially faster than the most powerful computers of today. (more…)

Made in IBM Labs: IBM Lights Up Silicon Chips to Tackle Big Data

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2012Technology100nm, advance, big data, breakthrough technology, cmos, computer chips, computing power, data traffic, detectors, electrical signals, fabrication line, future computing, ibm, information, john e kelly, manufacturing environment, modulators, nano photonics technology, network, optical components, optical data streams, semiconductor technology, servers, silicon chip, silicon nanophotonics, supercomputers, transmit, wavelength division multiplexers, wdm

• From the Lab to the Fab: Technology Breakthrough Demonstrates Feasibility of Silicon Nanophotonics for Chip Manufacturing
• Light Pulses Can Move Data at Blazing Speeds to Help Solve Bandwidth Limitations of Servers, Datacenters and Supercomputers
• After More Than a Decade of Research, Silicon Nanophotonics is Ready for Development of Commercial Applications

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – 10 Dec 2012: IBM announced today a major advance in the ability to use light instead of electrical signals to transmit information for future computing. The breakthrough technology – called “silicon nanophotonics” – allows the integration of different optical components side-by-side with electrical circuits on a single silicon chip using, for the first time, sub-100nm semiconductor technology.

Silicon nanophotonics takes advantage of pulses of light for communication and provides a super highway for large volumes of data to move at rapid speeds between computer chips in servers, large datacenters, and supercomputers, thus alleviating the limitations of congested data traffic and high-cost traditional interconnects. (more…)

Technology in the Classroom

By Guest PostNovember 17, 2012Educationaudio, chrystalla mouza, concept, delaware, digital book, electronic text, Environment, fred hofstetter, future educator, graphics, hyperlinks, information, ipad, kindle, learn by doing, multimodal text, multiple modes, rachel karchmer klein, teaching, university, video, website

Teaching future educators how to read and write in a new way

Rachel Karchmer-Klein, an associate professor in the University of Delaware’s School of Education, is teaching future educators to read and write multimodal texts, which includes everything from literature on a Kindle or iPad to information on a website.

“With traditional texts we teach students to read left to right, top to bottom, but electronic text is different because it contains multiple modes,” Karchmer-Klein explained. (more…)

Author Paul Tough Gives Talk on the Traits that Help Children Succeed

By Guest PostNovember 14, 2012Culture, Educationariel kalil, character strength, character traits, chicago harris, college, completion rate, conscientiousness, crime lab, curiosity, dimension, homecoming, how children succeed, information, international house, james heckman, joshua anderson, journalistic enterprise, neighborhoods, nobel laureate, non cognitive skills, northwestern university, optimism, paul tough, perseverance, public policy, school success, Science, self control, social policy, stress, success, trauma, uchicago

To Paul Tough, his recent visit to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy was “a nice homecoming.”

During the two years of research for his new book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, Tough spent time at UChicago and in its surrounding neighborhoods.

“The nerve center of my journalistic enterprise was a small dorm room in International House,” he joked Oct. 18 in a speech at Chicago Harris, saying that many of the ideas in the book drew from work in the Department of Economics, the Economics Research Center, the Crime Lab and from the Consortium on Chicago School Research. (more…)

New Study Analyzes Why People Are Resistant to Correcting Misinformation, Offers Solutions

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2012Scienceautism, childhood, colleen seifert, decision, erroneous belief, fiction, global warming, health care, ideology, information, michigan, misinformation, norbert schwarz, President Obama, queensland, reform, rumor, stephan lewandowsky, ullrich ecker, united states, university, vaccine, western australia

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. President Obama was born in the United States. Global warming is confirmed by science. And yet, many people believe claims to the contrary.

In a study appearing in the current issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, researchers from the University of Michigan, University of Western Australia and University of Queensland examined factors that cause people to resist correcting misinformation.

Misinformation can originate from rumors but also fiction, government and politicians, and organizations, the researchers say. (more…)

Press Freedom Leads to Happiness, Environmental Quality, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostAugust 9, 2012Culture, Media, Politicsbruno takahashi, democracy, Economy, edson tandoc, environmental degradation, environmental quality, freedom, government, happy, information, life satisfaction, predict, press, united nations, university of missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Freedom of the press is viewed by many as a cornerstone of democracy. But can it actually help improve people’s lives and make them happy? Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that citizens of countries with press freedom tend to be much happier than citizens of countries without free presses. Edson Tandoc, Jr., a doctoral student in the MU School of Journalism, says that press freedom directly predicts life satisfaction across the world.

“We already know that having reliable, objective news sources can benefit democracy, but in this study, we found that press freedom also benefits communities by helping improve the overall quality of life of citizens and, in the process, by also making them happier,” Tandoc said. “People enjoy having an element of choice about where they get their news. Citizens of countries without a free press are forced to rely on the government for information, when what people really want is diversity in content where they are free to get the information they want from the source of their choosing.” (more…)