Increasing demands on water resources have made water reuse an attractive option for extending water supplies in the southwest. However, concerns remain about the potential risks of contact with recycled water. This study focused on perceptions regarding water reuse and how these may affect future utilization of the resource. This study, based on a telephone survey of 400 randomly-selected Arizona residents, was used to assess public opinion of water reuse in the state. Survey results indicated that residents feel it is important for their community to use recycled water. In fact, 76% of those surveyed support using 'consumer incentives for using recycled water', and over two-thirds of respondents support 'increasing water or sewer rates to treat water to higher standards'. Despite this support, the survey revealed that almost two-thirds of the respondents have concerns about recycled water. Those concerns can be alleviated by providing 'better information about recycled water'. Education level proved to be the most significant demographic affecting perception of terminology and recycled water uses. These results can be used by water agencieseven those outside Arizonato address community concerns, effectively promote water reuse, and develop more sustainable and accepted alternatives to augment their water portfolios.
IntroductionThe Internet has recently become an important part of the democratic process (Firestone and Corrado 1996; Kamarck and Nye 1999; Rash 1997; Wilhelm 2000). It was only a matter of time until democracy and politics entered the digital world, and now we are moving toward holding elections over the Internet. A major step in this direction took place early in the 2000 presidential election when the Arizona Democratic primary offered the first binding Internet election for public office (Alvarez and Nagler 2000; Solop 2000).
This article weaves together insights from the social sciences and humanities to explore the link between Web 2.0 technology, information diffusion, and what we describe as a 'hunger for reality'. Using David Shield's book Reality Hunger as both a critical muse and analytic lens, we explore linkages between form and meaning in the digital age. We suggest that Shields' central argument in Reality Hunger accurately reflects the way new information technologies have altered information production, distribution, and meaning. As a result of opportunities created by Web 2.0 technology, information today is increasingly 'sampled', rather than digested in whole. Information consumption comes in bits and bytes, fragmented and disconnected from original sources; it is repurposed in ways that increasingly valorise creativity over content, social networks over corporations, and collective knowledge over private intellectual property. In this article, we explore the social consequences of this new reality. In particular, we argue that individuals are no longer merely consumers of information; through social networks, they are increasingly both producers and distributors of information in the digital age, satisfying their own hunger to define reality. Through the use of Web 2.0 technology, ordinary people around the world are creating a new digital knowledge commons. We explore the implications of this new knowledge commons for the future and suggest reasons that new forms of reality hunger are likely to emerge.
This article employs a grounded, qualitative analysis of election reporting to examine competing narratives constructed by media professionals covering the 2012 presidential election. Traditional journalists covered the election using time-worn strategies. In contrast, new data journalists relied upon analyses of large quantitative data sets to generate election stories. Two competing narratives emerged from these different reporting strategies: traditional journalists reported the election as competitive and volatile while data journalists reported the election as stable and consistent. Utilizing analytic frameworks from the media and politics literature, this article explores why the competition narrative provided by traditional journalists dominated election reporting, despite the greater accuracy of data journalists. Our analysis reveals that organizational, market, and structural forces tend to privilege competitive election narratives. To incorporate data journalists more centrally into future election coverage, we recommend heightening the transparency of their work and encouraging greater utilization of the digital commons for news distribution.
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