Score Use and Interpretation of First Signed Language Assessments

This chapter provides a critical examination of the different uses of test scores; their interpretation by test administrators, educators, professionals, and researchers; and the implications these scores may have for test-takers. Before discussing the issues of test scores, an overview of the complexities involved in defining the L1 of deaf signers will be shared. Understanding the potential pitfalls of signed language assessment with a diverse background of L1 users is emphasized. Four sections address critical issues on scoring and interpreting assessments: purpose, consistency, norming and scoring, and interpreting the results beyond the score. Conducting valid and reliable language assessment is critical to establishing a baseline for intervention, education or research, monitoring an individual’s language competency and growth, justifying the need for additional language support, and providing accurate reporting to parents and administrators.

AE Reporting and Causality

Adverse effects may be related, unrelated, or unknown in relation to a vaccine and may range from self-limited mild reactions to permanent sequelae. The causal inference of any adverse effect to a vaccine is based on assessing the strength of association, temporal response, consistency and specificity of the association, and biological plausibility. Safety evaluation depends on accurate reporting of adverse events during pre-licensure studies and post-licensure surveillance.

Implications of Misleading News Reporting on Tourism at the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

The tourism sector plays a major role in the economic development of a number of countries in the Global South, particularly Southern Africa. One such country is Zimbabwe, which struggles with significant economic hardships and relies heavily on the tourism sector. The Victoria Falls, a key tourism attraction of Zimbabwe on the Zambezi River was the subject of a plethora of news articles published between November 2019 and January 2020. The media suggested that the world’s largest waterfall had dried up due to climate change induced drought. These reports arose during the dry season and were thus arguably ill-founded and downplayed the natural seasonal characteristics of the Zambezi River. This paper presents content analysis of these media articles and the phenomenological qualitative data analysis of interviews conducted with tourism operators in Victoria Falls. Although some of the articles published within this period strived for accurate reporting, some articles claimed that the Victoria Falls was dry, which was inconsistent with experiences of tourism operators. This inaccurate reporting is argued by the tourism operators to have negatively affected the tourism sector and destination image of the key attraction. This paper highlights the need for accurate science-based media reporting on weather, climate, climate change and the knowledge of the local tourism stakeholders within the tourism sector.

Serious Injuries and Fatalities: A Study of Data and Prevention Strategies

Serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs) occurring in the workplace have become a significant focus in the field of safety. Over the past 20 years there has been a steady decline in the prevalence of all injuries, however the rates of SIFs have plateaued in recent years, contrary to Heinrich's Triangle. In one of the largest studies of its kind, we set out to identify trends and common factors of SIF incidents to identify strategies to reduce the risk of SIF incidents occurring. We have studied OSHA log records and OSHA recorded fatalities of over 50,000 companies over multiple years broken down by numerous different indicies including industry, age, day of the week, body part affected, type of incident and severity of incident to give a picture of SIF prevalence and trends. This data has also been cross referenced against qualititive information of these companies to identify trends, commonalities and disparities in order to identify causes and opportunities for improvement. The data reported on has shown different risk groups for SIF incidents occurring, that 60% of companies are at low risk of SIF incidents occurring and identifying the highest risk injuries for SIF events occurring (drilling and construction work). In addition, seemingly random factors such as day of the week and month of they year are found to statistically vary, presenting opportunities for targetted outreach based on this data in order to reduce risk. Furthermore, the study reveals companies who work with chemicals, performing welding work and work at heights should be the top targets for SIF prevention intervention, whilst the impact of heavily regulated industries (e.g., PSM facilities) and ensuring organisations have good safety procedures are linked to lower risks of SIF events occuring. This information is of valuable use for all organisations who are interested in truly understanding the root causes of incidents and learning techniques to achieve a Vision Zero of a reduction of incidents, particularly serious injuries and fatalities, to the lowest possible level. A no-blame culture to the accurate reporting of incidents is also vital to a deeper understanding of causation and prevention.

RUMOURS AND INFODEMICS: JOURNALIST'S SOCIAL MEDIA VERIFICATION PRACTICES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The spread of rumors and infodemics on the Internet and social media during the Covid-19 pandemic which is unstoppable and usually believed to be the truth is more dangerous than the transmission of the Covid-19 outbreak because it has the potential to threaten safety, cause racism, and hatred of the community. It is the duty of journalists to doing fact-checking and corrects any rumors or infodemics. Fact-checking is one of the most important elements of professional journalism. Technological advances have made infodemics spread rapidly which has become a new challenge for professional journalists as information agents and spearheads of accurate reporting. This became the basis for mass media companies such as Kompas.com and Solopos.com to form journalism team checks to verify the facts and infodemics rumors that circulated widely on the Internet and social media during the Covid-19 pandemic. Fact-checking journalism is a new trend in digital journalism studies. This paper reviews the work practices of fact-checking journalists in verifying infodemics from social media content as the spearhead of accurate reporting as well as a manifestation of hypermedia organizations. A series of qualitative interviews were conducted with journalists at Solopos.com and Kompas.com who were in charge of the fact-check section. The results showed that journalists carried out a series of processes both manually and utilizing digital technology in verifying content and checking several facts to ensure rumors and infodemics on social media about Covid-19 that were spread on social media be compiled into news using journalistic principles. The work process of fact-checking journalists is often done collaboratively to form hypermedia organizations.Keywords: rumors, infodemics, online journalism, fact-check, covid-19, journalism, journalists Abstrak. Persebaran rumor dan infodemik di Internet dan media sosial selama pandemi Covid-19 yang tidak terbendung dan sering kali diyakini sebagai kebenaran oleh masyarakat dinilai jauh lebih berbahaya daripada penularan wabah Covid-19, karena berpotensi mengancam keselamatan, menimbulkan rasisme, serta kebencian terhadap suatu golongan. Sudah menjadi tugas jurnalis dan untuk mengecek fakta dan meluruskan setiap rumor serta infodemik yang beredar di masyarakat. Pengecekan fakta adalah salah satu elemen penting dalam jurnalisme profesional. Kemajuan teknologi membuat infodemik tersebar dengan cepat yang kemudian menjadi tantangan baru bagi jurnalis profesional sebagai agen informasi dan ujung tombak pemberitaan yang akurat. Hal ini menjadi landasan bagi perusahaan media massa berskala nasional seperti Kompas.com maupun lokal, yaitu Solopos.com membentuk tim jurnalisme cek fakta untuk memverifikasi rumor serta infodemik yang beredar luas di internet dan media sosial. Jurnalisme cek fakta merupakan tren baru dalam perkembangan jurnalisme digital. Tulisan ini mengulas praktik kerja jurnalis pemeriksa fakta dalam memverifikasi infodemik dari konten media sosial sebagai ujung tombak pemberitaan yang akurat sekaligus sebagai manifestasi organisasi organisasi hipermedia. Serangkaian wawancara kualitatif dilakukan kepada jurnalis di Solopos.com dan Kompas.com yang bertugas sebagai jurnalis pemeriksa fakta. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan para jurnalis melakukan serangkaian proses verifikasi konten dan pengecekan fakta baik secara manual maupun memanfaatkan teknologi digital untuk mengkonfirmasi rumor serta infodemik tentang Covid-19 yang tersebar di media sosial untuk disusun dalam berita sesuai kaidah jurnalistik. Proses kerja jurnalis pemeriksa fakta ini sering kali dilakukan secara kolaboratif yang membentuk organisasi hipermedia.Kata kunci: rumor, infodemik, jurnalisme online, cek fakta, covid-19, jurnalisme, jurnalis