Author: Tayba Aziz

The article I chose is “Negative consequences from heavy social networking in adolescents: The mediating role of fear of missing out.” This article explores the effects of SNS (social networking sites) on Latin American youth. The participants were from 17 different Latin American countries, totalling 5280 social media users in total. The data was collected through an online questionnaire. The ages of the participants were 16-18, and participants were in secondary school.

The questionnaire included questions from the self-report Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. This has 14 question with 4 alternative answers and is used to assess depression in teens. Fear of Missing Out was assessed using the Spanish translation of the FOMO scale, this included ten questions that could be ranked on a scale of 1 to 5. The questionnaire was hosted online and the participants were guaranteed confidentiality and had given  informed consent. The statistical standard procedures were performed by using SPSS 21.0 for Windows. Pearson correlations were calculated to test for zero-order relationships between two variables. The structural equation model analysis was computed with MPLUS 6.12.  Because the proportion of female participants was much higher than that of males, and because women scored higher on SNI, the model was tested separately for both genders, using mean structure analysis. The findings illustrate that in the case of males, depression showed no effect on negative consequences, which were also not mediated by FOMO and SNI. In contrast, in the case of females, psychopathological symptoms were still significant predictors of negative consequences.

There is plenty of bias in the news. Our own bias may twist the meaning of words expressed to prove our own opinions. The articles I chose for this assignment are on whether or not red meat should be consumed. The two articles I chose are: “10 Reasons to Stop Eating Red Meat,” published by Prevention, and “Why cutting out red meat is bad for you,” published by Men’s Health. One of the reasons I chose these articles is that I found it so interesting that both companies are owned by the same corporation Rodale. I believe that the differences in content is due to the target audience. When it comes to these companies, they rely on the views of their articles to gain money so they produce content that they know will appeal to their readers. Men’s Health is primarily read by men, and men are also the primary consumers of red meat. On the other hand, Prevention primary readers are vegetarians and vegans. Despite their different stances both articles had such vague sources, such as “A study in European Journal of Epidemiology linked higher red meat intake to enhanced neurological development,” in the Men’s Health article, and “Meat can… raise levels of iron in the brain and may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study from UCLA,” in the Prevention article. Both of theses articles mention the link between red meat and brain development, yet the mention of the studies are vague and shady at best. The same is true when they mention the connection between the consumption of red meat and cancer.  The Prevention article mentions that women who ate red meat daily doubled their risk for breast cancer when compared to women who ate red meat fewer than 3 times per week. This study left out the fact that red meat did not cause the increased risk, rather it was the HCAs and PAHs, resulting from frying and burning meat, that cause an increase in carcinogens. The fact that this was not included in the article shows that there was some bias present. In fact both articles look like they were written with a specific point of view in mind while researching and that both articles were written keeping just that predetermined judgement in mind.

Citations:

Bailey, Mark. “Why cutting out red meat is bad for you,” Men’s Health. Rodale Inc. May 2017. Accessed September 2017.

Melone, Linda. “10 Reasons to Stop Eating Red Meat.” Prevention. Rodale Inc. January 2017. Accessed September 2017.

The article I chose is “Coseasonal sublingual immunotherapy reduces the development of asthma in children with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.” The objective of this article is to determine the effects of Coseasonal sublingual immunotherapy on the development of asthma in children who have seasonal allergies to pollen. The researchers took one hundred thirteen children who were allergic to environmental factors such as grass pollen and had them receive immunotherapy for the standard 3 years. 59 children were apart of the control group (they received a placebo) and 53 children actually received the immunotherapy. The children who received the immunotherapy showed a significant decrease in the amount of asthma attacks experienced throughout the year as compared to the control group. The experiment was conducted with the informed consent of the parents of the children.

CItation:

Elio, N. (2004, October). Coseasonal sublingual immunotherapy reduces the development of asthma in children with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Retrieved August 29, 2017