SOCIETY – Page 7

In An Age Of Social Media Do Unbiased Jurors Exist? – Dzokhar Tsarnaev, (Boston Marathon Bomber) Supreme Court Appeal

18Oct

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SOCIETY

In An Age Of Social Media Do Unbiased Jurors Exist? – Dzokhar Tsarnaev, (Boston Marathon Bomber) Supreme Court Appeal

Thaddeus Hoffmeister, University of Dayton The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on Oct. 13, 2021, in the case of Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the lone surviving Boston Marathon bomber. While much of the news coverage has focused on whether the court will uphold the death penalty for Tsarnaev, the case also presents a fundamental question for this era: Is it possible to find unbiased citizens to serve on a jury in high-profile cases during an age of ubiquitous social media? This aspect of the case focuses on the “voir dire” process, which employs a French term that roughly translates to “speak the truth.” Voir dire occurs prior to the start of trial, when lawyers or the judge, depending on the jurisdiction, question prospective jurors to determine whether they harbor any kind of bias or prejud...

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism, SOCIETY

10 Years In 1 Day: How Did It Pass?

Envision this: You dozed off at a companion's New Year's celebration and you've quite recently woken up. The solitary thing is, it was Dec 31 2010 when you showed up however now you take a gander at the schedule on the kitchen divider you understand it's January 1st 2021! Much the same as that, 10 years have flown by! After you battle out the entryway, you end up remaining in a dubiously recognizable road and you locate that equivalent battered old earthy colored wallet in your back pocket. Some way or another you were cryogenically frozen (however that is a story for one more day) and now you have a ton of making up for lost time to do. How about we take a gander at the world around and perceive how things have changed, particularly for you-a tech enthusiast and one of the main compu...

Thanks To A Long-Overdue ‘Thrifty Food Plan’ Update, SNAP Benefits Are Rising For Millions Of Americans

4Apr

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SOCIETY

Thanks To A Long-Overdue ‘Thrifty Food Plan’ Update, SNAP Benefits Are Rising For Millions Of Americans

Tracy Roof, University of Richmond The U.S. Department of Agriculture adjusts Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits to reflect changes in food prices once a year. The government agency will take two other factors into account when it increases those benefits, which help people buy food, on Oct. 1, 2021. One is an unprecedented update of the Thrifty Food Plan – an estimate of the minimum cost of groceries to meet a family’s needs. That revision is behind the largest-ever permanent increase in benefits and puts a healthier diet within reach for the 42 million Americans enrolled in SNAP, which replaced food stamps. The other change, the expiration of a temporary 15% increase in SNAP benefits to offset some of the economic hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic, will hav...

How Clutter Accumulates – Psychological ‘Specialness Spirals’ Can Make Ordinary Items Feel Like Treasures

23Sep

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SOCIETY

How Clutter Accumulates – Psychological ‘Specialness Spirals’ Can Make Ordinary Items Feel Like Treasures

Jacqueline Rifkin, University of Missouri-Kansas City Years ago, I bought a blouse at Target. That same day, I considered putting it on, but for no particular reason decided not to. That weekend, I again considered wearing the blouse, but the occasion didn’t seem good enough, so again, I passed. A week later, I considered the blouse for a date, but again, the event didn’t seem special enough. Fast forward to today. I have never worn my Target blouse. What had started out as ordinary now holds a special place in my closet, and no occasion feels quite worthy of my wearing it. What happened here? Why do people own so many unused possessions, treating them as though they are too special to use? I’m an assistant professor of marketing, and these are the questions that inspired my latest res...

Middle-Class Millennials With Student Debt Have Trouble Buying Groceries Too, It Isn’t A Problem Just For The Poor

9Sep

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SOCIETY

Middle-Class Millennials With Student Debt Have Trouble Buying Groceries Too, It Isn’t A Problem Just For The Poor

Cassandra M. Johnson, Texas State University When I teach undergraduate and graduate students about food insecurity, I sometimes mention that my perspective is based not only on professional expertise but also on my personal experience. Food insecurity might sound like the same thing as hunger, but that’s not the case. The somewhat technical term food insecurity applies when people can’t get the food they need for themselves or their families because of a lack of money or other resources. Food security, on the other hand, is more of an ideal – being able to access culturally preferred foods to support an optimal diet and health. This is my personal take on the gray area between food security and food insecurity – and how student loan debt blurs the line between low-income and middle-inc...

For Millions Of Out-Of-Work Americans The Pandemic Hardship Is About To Get A Lot Worse

4Apr

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Journalism, SOCIETY, WORK

For Millions Of Out-Of-Work Americans The Pandemic Hardship Is About To Get A Lot Worse

WORK Jeffrey Kucik, University of Arizona and Don Leonard, The Ohio State University Millions of unemployed Americans are set to lose pandemic-related jobless benefits after Labor Day – just as surging cases of coronavirus slow the pace of hiring. In all, an estimated 8.8 million people will stop receiving unemployment insurance beginning on Sept. 6, 2021. An additional 4.5 million will no longer get the extra US$300 a week the federal government has been providing to supplement state benefits. But with the pandemic still raging thanks to the rise of the delta variant, particularly in Southern states, the expiration of these benefits seems ill-timed. While some claim that the aid is no longer needed and doing more harm than good, we believe that the data tell another story. Benefits lo...

Landlords Continued To Find Ways To Kick Renters Out Even With The Eviction Moratorium

1Sep

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SOCIETY

Landlords Continued To Find Ways To Kick Renters Out Even With The Eviction Moratorium

SOCIETY Matthew Fowle, University of Washington and Rachel Fyall, University of Washington Millions of renters in the U.S. lost a key protection keeping them in their homes on Aug. 26, 2021, with a Supreme Court ruling ending a national moratorium on eviction. The federal stay on evictions was put in place during the coronavirus pandemic to protect renters falling behind on monthly payments and therefore in danger of needing to stay at homeless shelters or with friends or relatives. This pandemic response was designed to keep tenants in their housing, prevent overcrowding in shelters and homes, and reduce the spread of COVID-19. In early August, 7.9 million renter households reported being in arrears, with 3.5 million saying they were at risk of eviction within two months. The large n...

1 real-world way to prevent sexual exploitation – 4 myths debunked – Sex trafficking isn’t what you think

2Aug

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SOCIETY

1 real-world way to prevent sexual exploitation – 4 myths debunked – Sex trafficking isn’t what you think

Corinne Schwarz, Oklahoma State University The idea that sex trafficking is an urgent social problem is woven into American media stories, from reports of Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz’s alleged trafficking of teenage girls to debunked QAnon conspiracy theories about a sexual slavery ring run through online retailer Wayfair. The common perception of sex trafficking involves a young, passive woman captured by an aggressive trafficker. The woman is hidden and waiting to be rescued by law enforcement. She is probably white, because, as the legal scholar Jayashri Srikantiah writes, the “iconic victim” of trafficking usually is depicted this way. This is essentially the plot of the “Taken” movies, in which teenage Americans are kidnapped abroad and sold into sexual slavery. Such concerns f...

Why Fighting Everyday Sexism Enriches Men Too – And Why Women Need Male Allies In The Workplace

21Jul

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SOCIETY

Why Fighting Everyday Sexism Enriches Men Too – And Why Women Need Male Allies In The Workplace

Meg Warren, Western Washington University Women and groups advocating for gender equality are increasingly urging men to become allies in the fight. Research has shown that in the absence of male support, women have to shoulder the burden of battling routine workplace sexism such as misogynist humor and microaggressions on their own. This can lead to a sense of isolation, stress and exhaustion. But what difference can one un-sexist man make? My colleagues and I had a hunch that the actions of individual male allies – even through simple acts such as highlighting the strengths of female colleagues or checking in on their well-being – might serve as a counterweight to the negative effects of everyday sexism. But not only that, we decided to study how that might impact men as well. How to...

The Article That Says Yes, Not Maybe Or No

11Jul

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SOCIETY

The Article That Says Yes, Not Maybe Or No

"Wherever the universe takes me that is productive, I will go. If not, I just found out one more way that will not work, and since there is always an ultimate answer or solution, I will not quit." That is a modified Thomas Edison quote that defines my reality to a tee. When I think of reality, I think of the ultimate process of deduction until the goal is achieved, really. I do not think there is any such thing as ultimate failure unless we give up before that deductive, and inevitable success that comes from finding out what will not work and what ultimately does work after looking at what does not work. In short, I respect the process as well as the result in this sense: I know that sometimes it is all a zig-zag process to get to an ultimate goal, not always straightforward. The grea...