Communications

Background: It is well known that most suicide cases meet criteria for a psychiatric disorder. However, rates of specific disorders vary considerably between studies and little information is known about gender and geographic differences. This study provides overall rates of total and specific psychiatric disorders in suicide completers and presents evidence supporting gender and geographic differences in their relative proportion. Methods: We carried out a review of studies in which psychological autopsy studies of suicide completers were performed. Studies were identified by means of MEDLINE database searches and by scanning the reference list of relevant publications. Twenty-three variables were defined, 16 of which evaluating psychiatric disorders. Mantel-Haenszel Weighted Odds Ratios were estimated for these 16 outcome variables. Results: Twenty-seven studies comprising 3275 suicides were included, of which, 87.3% (SD 10.0%) had been diagnosed with a mental disorder prior to their death. There were major gender differences. Diagnoses of substance-related problems (OR = 3.58; 95% CI: 2.78-4.61), personality disorders (OR = 2.01; 95% CI: 1.38-2.95) and childhood disorders (OR = 4.95; 95% CI: 2.69-9.31) were more common among male suicides, whereas affective disorders (OR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.53-0.83), including depressive disorders (OR = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.42-0.68) were less common among males. Geographical differences are also likely to be present in the relative proportion of psychiatric diagnoses among suicides. Conclusions: Although psychopathology clearly mediates suicide risk, gender and geographical differences seem to exist in the relative proportion of the specific psychiatric disorders found among suicide completers.

Based upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Shanghai and Beijing, China, this paper analyzes different applications of the Chinese terms wangluo youxi (literally defined as 'internet games') danji youxi (literally defined as 'single computer games') and dianzi jingji (literally defined as 'electronic sports') in order to unearth cultural assumptions and contradictions about different types of game play and their varied motivations and effects. By problematizing the manner in which gamers, the media and the government employed the terms wangluo youxi, danji youxi, and dianzi jingji, the author reveals the processes by which different types of gamers are alternately constructed as 'addicts' and 'athletes', and the links between such constructions and larger cultural discourses on Chinese nationalism, 'spiritual civilization' and neoliberal ideals.

This study examined the flow of government messages through Iran’s nondemocratic press system by measuring the exchange of news frames from the national media apparatus, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), onto two commercial sources: ultra-conservative newspaper, Jomhuri-ye Eslami, and rare reformist daily, Aftab-e Yazd. This mixed-methods research compared the news coverage of Iran’s nuclear program and subsequent conflicts with the United States and Israel. The findings revealed Jomhuri-ye Eslami’s characteristic reflection of government policy messages (91% rhetoric-reception), signifying what this research calls the model of media compliance. Conversely, Aftab-e Yazd rejected the majority of IRNA (Government) frames (55% rhetoric-rejection), demonstrating not only an extraordinary breach in media compliance, but also the rare indications of anti-government/antiwar sentiments growing inside the Islamic Republic.

This research sought to identify how 2 news outlets, Israel’s Ynetnews and Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), framed the Iranian nuclear issue and Israeli-Palestinian conflict beyond the scope of objective reporting. The study examines the embedded strategy of journalists to spiritually elevate a national cause against the assumed enemy nation. Fifty-two news stories were examined under the chosen pretext of international conflict reporting. The findings show that IRNA typically framed the nation of Israel as a ‘‘savage regime,’’ Zionist oppressors, and general enemies of Islam. Ynetnews demonstrated a more narrow characterization of Iran’s president rather than his countrymen, regularly casting the Iranian leader as the chief supporter of Islamic terrorist action and immediate threat to the Jewish State.

Many studies in recent years have addressed the notable ways that Internet features such as blogs and search engines have democratized the community of information seekers and providers, however, fewer investigations have addressed the darker element that has emerged from that same democratic sphere. That is, the huge resurgence and transformation of racist communities across cyberspace. This article presents a new theory of information laundering to explain the process by which racial hate speech is becoming legitimized through a borrowed network of online associations. This Internet-specific theory builds upon research of ''information-based'' racist propaganda to explain how today's search engines, social networks, and political blogs unwittingly enable purveyors of bigotry to infiltrate into mainstream spaces of public discourse.

This mixed methods study examines the 2014 Sochi Olympics as an exceptional time period in which the commercial culture shifted potentially forming a convergence of mainstream support behind LGBT rights. A content analysis initially illustrates how LGBT-coverage surged among popular US magazines and websites in sports, business, home & lifestyle, technology, and entertainment, surrounding the Olympic games. From the 2011 repeal of " Don't Ask, Don't Tell " to the 2014 Olympics, LGBT coverage among these media increased by 1024%. A deeper frame analysis of select media then reveals how within 77% of the articles, LGBT rights were aligned with " pro-Western values " set against Russia's " oppressive antigay culture. " Twenty percent of the characterizations reflexively focused on the lack of equality in certain US/Western policies. Thus, as nations openly criticized the antigay culture of Russian society, they were also forced to confront their own definitions of LGBT equality. Finally, a political economy analysis of brand name institutions such as AT&T, Chevy, NFL, and Google found an unprecedented sponsorship of LGBT equality emerging during the Games, which continues today as major American corporations like PayPal and sports organizations like the NBA and NCAA increasingly boycott US states that discriminate against LGBT citizens.

This research examines the recently suspended online channel of the National Rifle Association, NRATV, through the frame and rhetorical analysis of 220 videos shared on its Twitter channel. The study provides systematic evidence to articulate how the NRA used the mantle of an online network devoted to guns to espouse hostile political discourses about liberal America. The study reveals a broadcast acutely dedicated to the discussion of perceived "enemies"-media outlets, Democrats, and social movements like the Women's March-rather than subjects of gun rights or gun ownership. The findings established a rhetorical pattern by which these subjects were discussed, not as political opposition , but as domestic threats and public enemies. The research then explored the communication strategy of frame bridging, which NRATV hosts used often to align the so-called "violent left" with global threats, and to present liberal America as dangerous and anti-American. By explicitly linking the NRA platform to this series of anti-liberal themes, NRATV hosts were no longer advancing the organization's core message of personal self-defense, but rather an ideological case for imminent national defense against the American left.

This case study examines social networks as the modern intersections of radical discourse and political extremism. But, as this research will show, extremist content in social networks, even that which has telegraphed violent hate crimes, is seldom communicated in textbook forms bigotry or provocations of violence. Today, the true challenge for social networks like Facebook and Twitter is addressing hate speech that reads more like fear mongering and identity politics, and thus, does not get flagged by monitors. From accounts dedicated to inciting fear over the "threat of immigrants" or "black crime," to groups that form around hashtags declaring that a "#whitegenocide" is underway. These narratives represent the more ubiquitous versions of hate culture that permeate these popular spaces and radicalize cultural discourses happening there. This case study explores how such rhetoric has the same capacity to deliver messages of hate, and even incite violen...

This mixed methods study examines the 2014 Sochi Olympics as an exceptional time period in which the commercial culture shifted potentially forming a convergence of mainstream support behind LGBT rights. A content analysis initially illustrates how LGBT-coverage surged among popular US magazines and websites in sports, business, home & lifestyle, technology, and entertainment, surrounding the Olympic games. From the 2011 repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to the 2014 Olympics, LGBT coverage among these media increased by 1024%. A deeper frame analysis of select media then reveals how within 77% of the articles, LGBT rights were aligned with "pro-Western values" set against Russia's "oppressive antigay culture." Twenty percent of the characterizations reflexively focused on the lack of equality in certain US/Western policies. Thus, as nations openly criticized the antigay culture of Russian society, they were also forced to confront their own definitions of LGBT equality. Finally, a political economy analysis of brand name institutions such as AT&T, Chevy, NFL, and Google found an unprecedented sponsorship of LGBT equality emerging during the Games, which continues today as major American corporations like PayPal and sports organizations like the NBA and NCAA increasingly boycott US states that discriminate against LGBT citizens.

This study examines the Twitter rivalry of two groups of the alt-Right and antifascist movement to understand how certain appeals, launched through social media, may promote material violence. Several studies have explored the impact of extreme political rhetoric in motivating hostile responses, such as the one that erupted at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The present study contributes to this literature by examining how Twitter can offer a staging ground for political hostilities to swell, circulate, and sometimes activate the call for confrontation. A textual analysis deconstructs the Twitter accounts of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and Antifa over a six-week-period culminating in the violent Charlottesville rally. A focus on the groups’ framing of the opposition and use of persuasive appeals offers insight into the priming nature of political extremism happening on Twitter today.

Since the beginning of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted many aspects of almost every industry worldwide. This paper will cover the financial effect that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on production crew members working within the theater industry. Research will be conducted through literature review, evaluating similar historical events and current discussions throughout the industry, and one-on-one structured interviews with production crew members who were financially impacted by the pandemic. The main goal of this thesis is to examine the different financial situations of production crew members and determine if management and production companies within the industry were successful in financially supporting their employees throughout this difficult time. The Covid-19 pandemic began at the beginning of 2020 and is still ongoing as this research is being completed, due to the emergence of the Delta variant. Due to new discoveries and changes that will occur as the ...