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This study examines the influence of urban and meteorological factors on the surface air temperature field of the medium‐sized city of Szeged, Hungary, using mobile and stationary measurements under different weather conditions between March and August 1999. This city, with a population of about 160 000, is situated on a low, flat flood plain. Efforts have been concentrated on investigating the maximum development of the urban heat island (UHI). Tasks include the determination of the spatial distribution of seasonal mean maximum UHI intensity and modelling of existing conditions in the period being studied. Multiple correlation and regression analyses are used to examine the effects of urban parameters (land‐use characteristics and distance from the city centre determined in a grid network) and of meteorological parameters (wind speed, temperature) on thermal conditions in the study area. The results indicate isotherms increasing in regular concentric shapes from the suburbs towards the inner urban areas where the mean maximum UHI intensity reaches more than 3°C in the studied periods. A strong relationship exists between urban thermal excess and distance, as well as built‐up ratio. In contrast, meteorological conditions do not have any significant effect on the UHI intensity at the time of its maximum development. Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society

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The present paper is the second part of our study in which we compare the results obtained in Szeged (Hungary) with those achieved through earlier outdoor thermal comfort projects based on simultaneous questionnaire surveys and on-site meteorological measurements. The main characteristics of the selected studies--conducted in Hungary, Sweden, Portugal, Canada, Taiwan and across Europe in the frame of project RUROS--are reviewed, emphasizing the common features and also the discrepancies in the applied methodology. We discuss their potential effects on the evolution and interpretation of the results concerning the subjective assessment of the thermal environment. Another aspect of the comparison focuses on the regional climatic differences naturally ensuing from the various locations, which left their marks on the results related to both physiological acclimatization and mental adaptation. The compared results of different studies include correlation coefficients expressing interrelationships between the different aspects of subjective estimations (thermal sensation, perceptions, preferences) and also between subjective assessments and the corresponding meteorological parameters. We compare neutral temperatures (expressed in physiological equivalent temperature, PET) which arose for Taiwan and Hungary, as well as thermal sensation zones for local inhabitants. Subjectively assessed temperature values of Sweden and Hungarians are analyzed according to the measured air temperature. According to our experiences the methodology should be standardized for the level of field surveys and also for the level of data processing in order to make the data collected in different locations comparable.

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This article applies the notion of hybridity to compare social media adoption by journalists in seven countries. Hybridity is operationalised through three constructs: complexity, interdependence and transformative potential. These three constructs frame the international comparison, which is based on empirical data from a survey of journalists (N=2763) carried out in Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, UK and US. The analysis found broad similarities between the countries, particularly in relation to widespread use of social media in journalistic practices, the importance of general public as a source of information online, high proportion of journalists interacting and responding to comments on social media, and declining importance of PR sources for a section of the respondents. However, there were differences too between the countries, especially regarding popularity of particular types of social media, specific combination of professional tasks social media was used for, and perceptions about the impacts of social media. Overall, the findings illustrate that although country specific characteristics do produce some differences, key features of social media adoption are broadly similar in the surveyed countries and in this sense the process is both about integration and fragmentation.

This article explores how audiences experience local news online. It discusses the findings of an empirical study that examined why audiences consumed local news online, what sources they were most likely to access, how important distributing platforms were in local news use, and what users understood by local news. The research had a qualitative design applying diaries as its main method collecting data in the South-East of England in 2016 and 2017. The findings suggest that there is no shared understanding among audience members about what local news is in the digital environment. The study identified three predominant ways in which participants understood local news: as personally relevant or interesting information, as content produced by legacy local media brands, and as community engagement. The study also found that each of the different understandings of local news was linked to particular online news consumption and engagement patterns. The paper argues that audience perceptions of news should be studied alongside motivations for and practices of news engagement and consumption in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of audiences and news in the digital age.