scholarly journals Risk-Yuck Factor Nexus in Reclaimed Wastewater for Irrigation: Comparing Farmers’ Attitudes and Public Perception

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Ricart ◽  
Antonio Rico ◽  
Anna Ribas
Keyword(s):  
Health Risks ◽  
Water Reuse ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Reclaimed Wastewater ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Product Certification ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Questions

The successes and failures of water reuse schemes are shaped by complex interrelationships between technological, economic, and socio-political factors. However, it has long been recognized that the main challenges to more effective water management are largely social rather than technical. This article reviews the recent literature (2007–2017) to analyze driving factors associated with farmers’ concerns and public perception of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation. The aim of the paper is to synthetize how both environmental and health risks and the yuck factor could be addressed in order to promote mutual understanding between farmers and the public. Results show: (1) how farmers and the public perceive environmental and health risks in a similar way, (2) how the yuck factor is more noticeable for the public than farmers, and (3) how constructed wetlands, reclaimed water exchange consortiums, product certification, and direct site visits to water reuse infrastructure could be promoted in order to foster understanding between farmers and the public. The article concludes by providing key research questions for managers and public authorities relating to how to focus on the study of technical and social issues related to water reuse.

Public perception of COVID-19 vaccines from the digital footprints left on Twitter: analyzing positive, neutral and negative sentiments of Twitterati

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aasif Ahmad Mir ◽  
Sevukan Rathinam ◽  
Sumeer Gul
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
The Impact

PurposeTwitter is gaining popularity as a microblogging and social networking service to discuss various social issues. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic and is discussed worldwide. Social media is an instant platform to deliberate various dimensions of COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to explore and analyze the public sentiments related to COVID-19 vaccines across the Twitter messages (positive, neutral, and negative) and the impact tweets make across digital social circles.Design/methodology/approachTo fetch the vaccine-related posts, a manual examination of randomly selected 500 tweets was carried out to identify the popular hashtags relevant to the vaccine conversation. It was found that the hashtags “covid19vaccine” and “coronavirusvaccine” were the two popular hashtags used to discuss the communications related to COVID-19 vaccines. 23,575 global tweets available in public domain were retrieved through “Twitter Application Programming Interface” (API), using “Orange Software”, an open-source machine learning, data visualization and data mining toolkit. The study was confined to the tweets posted in English language only. The default data cleaning and preprocessing techniques available in the “Orange Software” were applied to the dataset, which include “transformation”, “tokenization” and “filtering”. The “Valence Aware Dictionary for sEntiment Reasoning” (VADER) tool was used for classification of tweets to determine the tweet sentiments (positive, neutral and negative) as well as the degree of sentiments (compound score also known as sentiment score). To assess the influence/impact of tweets account wise (verified and unverified) and sentiment wise (positive, neutral, and negative), the retweets and likes, which offer a sort of reward or acknowledgment of tweets, were used.FindingsA gradual decline in the number of tweets over the time is observed. Majority (11,205; 47.52%) of tweets express positive sentiments, followed by neutral (7,948; 33.71%) and negative sentiments (4,422; 18.75%), respectively. The study also signifies a substantial difference between the impact of tweets tweeted by verified and unverified users. The tweets related to verified users have a higher impact both in terms of retweets (65.91%) and likes (84.62%) compared to the tweets tweeted by unverified users. Tweets expressing positive sentiments have the highest impact both in terms of likes (mean = 10.48) and retweets (mean = 3.07) compared to those that express neutral or negative sentiments.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the study is that the sentiments of the people expressed over one single social platform, that is, Twitter have been studied which cannot generalize the global public perceptions. There can be a variation in the results when the datasets from other social media platforms will be studied.Practical implicationsThe study will help to know the people's sentiments and beliefs toward the COVID-19 vaccines. Sentiments that people hold about the COVID-19 vaccines are studied, which will help health policymakers understand the polarity (positive, negative, and neutral) of the tweets and thus see the public reaction and reflect the types of information people are exposed to about vaccines. The study can aid the health sectors to intensify positive messages and eliminate negative messages for an enhanced vaccination uptake. The research can also help design more operative vaccine-advocating communication by customizing messages using the obtained knowledge from the sentiments and opinions about the vaccines.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on an essential aspect of COVID-19 vaccines and how people express themselves (positively, neutrally and negatively) on Twitter.

Scientific Uncertainty in Health and Risk Messaging

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Zehr
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Public Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
New Research ◽  
Societal Problems

Expressions of scientific uncertainty are normal features of scientific articles and professional presentations. Journal articles typically include research questions at the beginning, probabilistic accounts of findings in the middle, and new research questions at the end. These uncertainty claims are used to construct clear boundaries between uncertain and certain scientific knowledge. Interesting questions emerge, however, when scientific uncertainty is communicated in occasions for public science (e.g., newspaper accounts of science, scientific expertise in political deliberations, science in stakeholder claims directed to the public, and so forth). Scientific uncertainty is especially important in the communication of environmental and health risks where public action is expected despite uncertain knowledge. Public science contexts are made more complex by the presence of multiple actors such as citizen-scientists, journalists, stakeholders, social movement actors, politicians, and so on who perform important functions in the communication and interpretation of scientific information and bring in diverse norms and values. A past assumption among researchers was that scientists would deemphasize or ignore uncertainties in these situations to better match their claims with a public perception of science as an objective, truth-building institution. However, more recent research indicates variability in the likelihood that scientists communicate uncertainties and in the public reception and use of uncertainty claims. Many scientists still believe that scientific uncertainty will be misunderstood by the public and misused by interest groups involved with an issue, while others recognize a need to clearly translate what is known and not known. Much social science analysis of scientific uncertainty in public science views it as a socially constructed phenomenon, where it depends less upon a particular state of scientific research (what scientists are certain and uncertain of) and more upon contextual factors, the actors involved, and the meanings attached to scientific claims. Scientific uncertainty is often emergent in public science, both in the sense that the boundary between what is certain and uncertain can be managed and manipulated by powerful actors and in the sense that as scientific knowledge confronts diverse public norms, values, local knowledges, and interests new areas of uncertainty emerge. Scientific uncertainty may emerge as a consequence of social conflict rather than being its cause. In public science scientific uncertainty can be interpreted as a normal state of affairs and, in the long run, may not be that detrimental to solving societal problems if it opens up new avenues and pathways for thinking about solutions. Of course, the presence of scientific uncertainty can also be used to legitimate inaction.

scholarly journals Waste water reuse in France – social perception of an unfamiliar practice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrice Garin ◽  
Marielle Montginoul ◽  
Benjamin Noury
Keyword(s):  
Social Perception ◽  
Water Reuse ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Treated Wastewater ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
Recreation Areas ◽  
Local Farm ◽  
Growing Region

Abstract This article presents the results of a local survey conducted in a French wine-growing region where the public authorities were considering irrigating fields and green spaces with treated wastewater. Interviews were conducted face-to-face with 845 potential consumers close to their purchasing place. The majority were in favour of such a project and willing to use recreation areas and purchase local farm products irrigated with treated wastewater. However, we demonstrated the paucity of lay knowledge about treated wastewater. Simple information flyers have a significant effect on attitudes and intended behaviours. Nevertheless 20% of informed respondents said they would no longer buy such irrigated products. Given the lack of confidence in the public authorities' guarantee of food quality, they will be unlikely to change their minds. These unacceptable results to farmers may interest public authorities promoting these projects, still rare in France, in response to the increase in droughts.

Sir Gawain Hits the Radio Waves

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Manno
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
The United States ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Radio Waves ◽  
Portable Equipment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sir Gawain ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Public Group

This research project examines some of the complexities of the Medieval work “Sir Gawain and the Green  Knight” from the perspectives of both world­renown scholars and laymen interviewees. The study uses professional in­studio equipment to record responses to research questions asked of academics by long­  distance phone interview. In the same way, the researcher asks questions of a randomly selected public group and records the commentary with portable equipment. The researcher then compiles raw material from interviews in bricolage format. The result juxtaposes the original views of both prominent researchers and the public on controversial issues within the “Gawain” text. The study likens the complex issues of  gender, public morality, community and capitalism occupying medieval audiences to the types of  challenges society faces today. This comparison of medieval and modern issues show that historical literary works are of enduring value to the contemporary reader; works, like “Sir Gawain”, deal with a complex set of social issues in a way that encourages a multiplicity of readings and engages with various different audiences. As a way of reaching the broad audience concerned with these issues, the project arranges the interview feedback into a radio program format complete with medieval musical segue­ways. The program originally aired on CFRC, Queen’s Radio in two parts on March 28th and April 6th, 2006, respectively, and remains available on­line via www.chatterbook.ca. Professors from Canada, the United  States and Europe have requested permission to use the project as a teaching aid.

scholarly journals FACTORS AFFECTING ON THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS' MANAGER CHOICE

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 173-185
Author(s):  
Akın Erdemir ◽  
Ramazan Erdem
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Public Administrators ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Public ◽  
Selection Of

Motivation/Background: The aim of this research to evaluate that Public Perception on the Factors that Affecting Turkish Public Administrators' Manager Choice in Turkey. Method: Quantitative research method was used in the research and the data obtained from the survey method were analyzed with SPSS (SPSS 16.0 for Windows, SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). Results: According to public perception, Turkish public administrators act in a favorable manner in the selection of managers. Conclusions: According to the result of the research, participants think that the administrators in Turkish public sector mostly pay attention to the criteria for manager choice: relationship and citizenship factors, external influences and political factors and ethnicity and sect factors but they do not take representation and capability factors and merit criteria into account.

scholarly journals Perceptions of the IQOS Heated Tobacco Product on Twitter in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Canruo Zou ◽  
Xueting Wang ◽  
Zidian Xie ◽  
Dongmei Li
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Enforcement Policy ◽  
Quit Smoking ◽  
Twitter Users

After the approval of the sales of IQOS in the United States market, discussions about IQOS have become active on social media. Twitter is a popular social media platform to understand public opinions toward IQOS. This study aims to explore public perceptions toward IQOS on Twitter in the United States. IQOS-related tweets from the United States between November 19, 2019, and August 24, 2020, were collected using a Twitter streaming application programming interface (API). Sentiment analysis was performed to determine whether the public perceptions toward IQOS were positive, neutral, or negative. In addition, topics discussed in these tweets were manually coded. From November 2019 to August 2020, the number of tweets discussing IQOS was relatively constant except for a peak starting from July 7, 2020, which lasted for 4 days. Among IQOS tweets with positive sentiments, the most popular topic is “IQOS is safer than cigarettes,” followed by “IQOS helps quit smoking.” Among tweets with negative sentiments, the most popular topic is “illegal marketing/selling to youth,” followed by “health risks/fire hazards.” “FDA approval/regulation” is the most popular topic for tweets with neutral sentiments. After the announcement of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforcement policy on unauthorized flavored e-cigarette products on January 2, 2020, the proportion of tweets with positive attitudes toward IQOS significantly increased, while the proportion of negative tweets significantly decreased. Our study showed that the public perception of IQOS in the United States became more positive after the FDA enforcement policy on flavored e-cigarettes. While many Twitter users thought IQOS is safer than cigarettes and helps quit smoking, some Twitter users complained about the illegal marketing and health risks of IQOS. These findings provide useful information on future tobacco regulations.

Public Acceptance: The Greatest Barrier to Widespread Water Reuse

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Wade Miller
Keyword(s):  
Water Reuse ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Reclaimed Water ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Potable Reuse ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Indirect Potable Reuse ◽  
Past Half

Most knowledgeable observers would agree that the greatest barrier to the use of recycled/reclaimed water for various applications around the globe is gaining the acceptance of the public. Several highly qualified researchers have conducted studies on public perception and public acceptance over the past half-dozen years. Each of these studies has advanced the state of understanding of the public's reluctance to fully accept the use of reclaimed water, especially for indirect potable reuse. It is incumbent upon the water reuse community to move beyond gaining an understanding of public concerns to a phase in which we devise practical and workable approaches to the problem of acceptance. The water reuse community must formulate a basic strategy and then implement it. While it would be naïve to believe that every local situation is the same, it is possible for the global water reuse community to begin to agree on the basic elements of the strategy needed to ensure public acceptance. This paper will focus on these needed elements, which include common terminology, positive branding, research on microconstituents, embracing stakeholders, and communicating the value of water.

Latinos in Film

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Isabel Serna
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
History Of

Latinos have constituted part of the United States’ cinematic imagination since the emergence of motion pictures in the late 19th century. Though shifting in their specific contours, representations of Latinos have remained consistently stereotypical; Latinos have primarily appeared on screen as bandits, criminals, nameless maids, or sultry señoritas. These representations have been shaped by broader political and social issues and have influenced the public perception of Latinos in the United States. However, the history of Latinos and film should not be limited to the topic of representation. Latinos have participated in the film industry as actors, creative personnel (including directors and cinematographers), and have responded to representations on screen as members of audiences with a shared sense of identity, whether as mexicanos de afuera in the early 20th century, Hispanics in the 1980s and 1990s, or Latinos in the 21st century. Both participation in production and reception have been shaped by the ideas about race that characterize the film industry and its products. Hollywood’s labor hierarchy has been highly stratified according to race, and Hollywood films that represent Latinos in a stereotypical fashion have been protested by Latino audiences. While some Latino/a filmmakers have opted to work outside the confines of the commercial film industry, others have sought to gain entry and reform the industry from the inside. Throughout the course of this long history, Latino representation on screen and on set has been shaped by debates over international relations, immigration, citizenship, and the continuous circulation of people and films between the United States and Latin America.

scholarly journals Researching Personal Information on the Public Web

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wilkinson ◽  
Mike Thelwall
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Publications ◽  
Research Questions

There are many personal and social issues that are rarely discussed in public and hence are difficult to study. Recently, however, the huge uptake of blogs, forums, and social network sites has created spaces in which previously private topics are publicly discussed, giving a new opportunity for researchers investigating such topics. This article describes a range of simple techniques to access personal information relevant to social research questions and illustrates them with small case studies. It also discusses ethical considerations, concluding that the default position is almost the reverse of that for traditional social science research: the text authors should not be asked for consent nor informed of the participation of their texts. Normally, however, steps should be taken to ensure that text authors are anonymous in academic publications even when their texts and identities are already public.

scholarly journals The role of the community engagement towards the success of water reuse in isolated islands and tourist areas

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Valentina Lazarova ◽  
Vincent Sturny ◽  
Gaston Tong Sang
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Water Reuse ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Recycled Water ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Stakeholders

This paper presents and discusses the role of community engagement, i.e. attitudes of local stakeholders, engagement of elected officers and pricing, towards the success of water reuse on the island of Bora Bora, French Polynesia. To better preserve public health and overcome all constraints related to public perception, a membrane tertiary treatment was implemented for the production of high-quality recycled water. Consequently, the demand for the new recycled water has steadily increased during the last four years with a wide diversification of urban uses including irrigation, cleaning, industrial and commercial uses and fire protection. The primary keys to success of this water reuse scheme are the strong commitment of elected officers and large industrial users with the implementation of an adequate public communication and education programme. The resulting outcome is the public trust in recycled water and the recognition of the economic and environmental benefits of water reuse with perspectives for new water reuse projects.

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