This study aimed to model how substituting foods consumed by Canadians for alternatives with more favourable nutrient profiling (NP) scores would impact dietary intakes. The Ofcom NP system, developed to help the UK Office of Communication differentiate foods that can be advertised to children, was applied to foods consumed by Canadians aged 2 years and older in the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) (n = 19,447). Foods were substituted for similar options from the Euromonitor branded food composition database (Scenario 1) or from the primarily aggregated food profiles in the CCHS survey food composition database (Scenario 2) with either the most favourable (optimistic; 1A and 2A) or a more favourable Ofcom score (realistic; 1B and 2B). Mean intakes of Ofcom scores, calories, saturated fat, sugars, and sodium from these scenarios were compared to baseline. Only 2.9% of foods consumed had a similar Euromonitor option with a lower Ofcom score. Scenarios 1A, 1B, and 2A had lower Ofcom scores, calorie, sodium, saturated fat, and sugar intakes compared to baseline. Scenario 2B had lower levels of all outcome measures, except for an increase in calories compared to baseline. Selection of foods with more favourable NP scores has the potential to decrease the Canadian intake of nutrients of concern.
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Journal Article Response to Ofcom letter (1)—15/07/2022 & response to Ofcom letter (2)—27/02/2023 Get access A B Barker, A B Barker College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, DE22 1GB, UK E-mail: a.barker@derby.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4568-5114 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar R L Murray R L Murray Academic Unit of Lifespan and Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, City Hospital, Nottingham NG5 1PB, UKSPECTRUM Consortium, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Public Health, Volume 45, Issue 2, June 2023, Pages e395–e397, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdad019 Published: 06 March 2023 Article history Received: 01 February 2023 Accepted: 04 February 2023 Published: 06 March 2023
Purpose To examine whether OFCOM's Public Service Broadcasting Review has responded adequately to the contestable values entailed in this dimension of media policy. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of OFCOM's premises and reasoning, in particular its use of competition language, to test the implications for its statutory requirement to maintain and strengthen public service broadcasting. Findings OFCOM adopts a utilitarian approach when discussing normative issues relating to culture and media values. This is inappropriate in itself, but also reflects a desire to narrow the scope of its remit. Originality/value The paper challenges the current regulatory style of OFCOM and points to problems that need to be rectified for its legislative mandate properly to be fulfilled.
Warnings about the insidious dangers of Fox News for the future of America come from, among others, the Murdoch family itself.According to Gabriel Sherman, in a piece on the Murdochs for Vanity Fair in May this year, "James is horrified by Fox News and tells people the network's embrace of climate denialism, white nationalism, and stolen election conspiracies is a menace to American democracy".He is not alone.Many others have drawn a direct line from the infatuations of Fox talk show hosts with Donald Trump and his America First cult to the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the attempt to prevent Joe Biden taking power.Yes, the unfiltered and ubiquitous nature of social media helps to unite the fanatics and fantasists in their conviction that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.And yes, some of the astonishing evidence that emerged from the $1.6billion defamation suit (settled for $787 million) brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News demonstrates not just the contempt that some of those talk show hosts have for their audience, but their own cynicism about the baseless propaganda they were spewing on their own shows (one email showed Murdoch himself calling Trump's fraud claims "really crazy stuff ").And yes, Fox News has successfully monetised a gap in the news market for those happy to be trapped in a filter bubble of far-right conspiracy theorists and QAnon devotees.It is simply offering a significant segment of the population a news channel they wanted.However, all three issues are beside the point.Social media accounts are fragmented, and very few have the kinds of following that will help to incite
TV White Space (TVWS) has taken a big step forward with the UK regulator Ofcom initiating a pilot of the technology in the UK, based on rules for White Space Devices (WSDs) standardized and harmonized at the European level by ETSI. This paper reports on a subset of the work undertaken by our large-scale trial within the Ofcom Pilot, investigating what is achievable in TVWS in terms of availability and capacity, and strongly focusing on the potential to aggregate white space resources. Moreover, this paper provides some experimental results and observations from our trial, particularly around issues such as performance testing and assessment of appropriate scenarios for TVWS deployments. Some of the key observations in this paper, among numerous others, include: (i) In the UK, it seems likely that TVWS has most performance/benefit potential in below-rooftop receiver and indoor/underground deployments. For availability and capacity analyses, we particularly define and assess TVWS scenarios that we term as “mobile broadband downlink” and “indoor wireless local-area networking” based on this realization. We further demonstrate the strength of TVWS for indoor communications through a range of challenging experiments inside the Strand Campus of King's College London. (ii) There is ample TVWS available in much of the UK and particularly in the London area, although this is affected greatly by the scenario that is considered and can be very highly variable. The mobile broadband downlink scenario is particularly affected by availability reduction and variability outside of the London area. Impressive capacities can be achieved by optimal aggregation in TVWS. Achievable area capacity in TVWS is high. (iii) In a number of cases, and particularly under some aggregation scenarios, subsets or indeed all WSD spectrum mask classes give similar performance. (iv) A worst case 700 MHz spectrum reassignment for ITU Region 1 in WRC 2015 could significantly affect availability/capacity in some TVWS usage scenarios, for lower quality spectrum mask class WSDs.
Headline UK: Ofcom strengthens case for Online Safety Bill
This paper performs the world's first IEEE 802.11af based Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) operating in TV White Space (TVWS) indoor experiment in the Ofcom TVWS pilot program of the UK. The prototype system consists of TVWS Database (WSDB), Registered Location Secure Server (RLSS), and two prototype hardware for an Access Point (AP) and a Station (STA). The developed WSDB qualified by Ofcom TVWS pilot program of the UK. The prototype hardware meets to the transmission spectrum regulation of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI). By using the developed system, a trial indoor experiment performed in the building of the King's College London (KCL), Denmark Hill Campus in London, UK. The prototype system and the experiment results show an effectiveness of the IEEE 802.11af and indicate the way to the practical application.
TV White Spaces technology is a means of allowing wireless devices to opportunistically use locally-available TV channels (TV White Spaces), enabled by a geolocation database. The geolocation database informs the device of which channels can be used at a given location, and in the UK/EU case, which transmission powers (EIRPs) can be used on each channel based on the technical characteristics of the device, given an assumed interference limit and protection margin at the edge of the primary service coverage area(s). The UK regulator, Ofcom, has initiated a large-scale Pilot of TV White Spaces technology and devices. The ICT-ACROPOLIS Network of Excellence, teaming up with the ICT-SOLDER project and others, is running an extensive series of trials under this effort. The purpose of these trials is to test a number of aspects of white space technology, including the white space device and geolocation database interactions, the validity of the channel availability/powers calculations by the database and associated interference effects on primary services., and the performances of the white spaces devices, among others. An additional key purpose is to undertake a number of research investigations such as into aggregation of TV White Space resources with conventional (licensed/unlicensed) resources, secondary coexistence issues and means to mitigate such issues, and primary coexistence issues under challenging deployment geometries, among others. This paper describes our trials, their intentions and characteristics, objectives, and some early observations.
TV White Spaces (TVWS) technology allows wireless devices to opportunistically use locally-available TV channels enabled by a geolocation database. The UK regulator Ofcom has initiated a pilot of TVWS technology in the UK. This paper concerns a large- scale series of trials under that pilot. The purposes are to test aspects of white space technology, including the white space device and geolocation database interactions, the validity of the channel availability/powers calculations by the database and associated interference effects on primary services, and the performances of the white space devices, among others. An additional key purpose is to perform research investigations such as on aggregation of TVWS resources with conventional resources and also aggregation solely within TVWS, secondary coexistence issues and means to mitigate such issues, and primary coexistence issues under challenging deployment geometries, among others. This paper provides an update on the trials, giving an overview of their objectives and characteristics, some aspects that have been covered, and some early results and observations.
On 4 February 2014, the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications published its Report on Media Plurality proposing a number of changes to media ownership regulation in the UK. Among the most notable is the proposal to grant decision-making powers to the media regulator, Ofcom, in mergers raising potential media plurality concerns. This role is currently performed by the Secretary of State but the ability of politicians to undertake this role impartially has recently been called into question. In particular, the close contact between a NewsCorp lobbyist and a Special Adviser to (the then Culture Secretary) Jeremy Hunt during the NewsCorp/BSkyB assessment, as exposed by the Leveson Inquiry, highlights the sheer extent to which politicians can be subjected to undue influence in the media sector. This article scrutinises the Lords' proposals and finds that re-allocating the decision-making role to Ofcom could could amount to substituting one problem for another.
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This report summarises the results of the Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) on Online Misinformation and Media Literacy (REA), conducted from November 2020 to April 2021 and commissioned by Ofcom. The review is focused on studies that measure the effectiveness of interventions designed to tackle misinformation, both within the media literacy curriculum and in relation to technological interventions that draw on literacy principles (such as critical thinking, information evaluation and active engagement), even if they are not conducted in an educational setting. The results showed that robust evaluation of media literacy curriculum interventions is not very common. More evaluation has been done on the effectiveness of non-curricular interventions. Nonetheless, findings from both types of research provide important insights into how evidence-based, targeted approaches to dealing with misinformation by improving media literacy might be further developed, building on existing policy and industry initiatives and fostering audience empowerment and agency.
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Regulators are in the process of framing regulations to allow secondary use of vacant TV channels while protecting TV broadcast services from harmful interference. While the US and UK regulators have already passed such regulations in 2008 and 2015 respectively, other countries are still in drafting stages and the underlying circumstances in these countries could be different from those of the US and UK. Malawi released its final draft regulations in 2016. While the US and UK legislate for dynamic spectrum access and licence-exemption for secondary users, Malawi's draft regulations require such users to apply for a licence for assigned TV white space spectrum. This paper provides an analytical review of Malawi's regulations and a comparison with FCC and Ofcom regulations, which new regulations can build on. This analysis will also inform future work on network management tools that can enable practical deployment and coexistence of large-scale TV white space networks in a dynamic spectrum access environment in Africa.
BCS Past President and IT lawyer Rachel Burnett says that Ofcom has a key role to play on enforcement of the Digital Economy Act.
Este articulo presenta algunas conclusiones del Trabajo de Investigacion defendido por este autor en 2008, que analizo las actuaciones de organismos reguladores del audiovisual en Espana y en el Reino Unido, entre los anos de 2003 y 2007. El periodo coincide con los primeros cinco anos de andadura de la Office of Communications (OFCOM), el nuevo ente regulador britanico, creado para hacer frente al proceso de convergencia tecnologica.
BACKGROUND: In the United Kingdom, the Food Standards Agency-Ofcom nutrient profiling model (FSA-Ofcom model) is used to define less-healthy foods that cannot be advertised to children. However, there has been limited investigation of whether less-healthy foods defined by this model are associated with prospective health outcomes. The objective of this study was to test whether consumption of less-healthy food as defined by the FSA-Ofcom model is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). METHODS AND FINDINGS: We used data from the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk cohort study in adults (n = 25,639) aged 40-79 years who completed a 7-day diet diary between 1993 and 1997. Incident CVD (primary outcome), cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality (secondary outcomes) were identified using record linkage to hospital admissions data and death certificates up to 31 March 2015. Each food and beverage item reported was coded and given a continuous score, using the FSA-Ofcom model, based on the consumption of energy; saturated fat; total sugar; sodium; nonsoluble fibre; protein; and fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Items were classified as less-healthy using Ofcom regulation thresholds. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to test for an association between consumption of less-healthy food and incident CVD. Sensitivity analyses explored whether the results differed based on the definition of the exposure. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, behavioural risk factors, clinical risk factors, and socioeconomic status. Participants were followed up for a mean of 16.4 years. During follow-up, there were 4,965 incident cases of CVD (1,524 fatal within 30 days). In the unadjusted analyses, we observed an association between consumption of less-healthy food and incident CVD (test for linear trend over quintile groups, p < 0.01). After adjustment for covariates (sociodemographic, behavioural, and indices of cardiovascular risk), we found no association between consumption of less-healthy food and incident CVD (p = 0.84) or cardiovascular mortality (p = 0.90), but there was an association between consumption of less-healthy food and all-cause mortality (test for linear trend, p = 0.006; quintile group 5, highest consumption of less-healthy food, versus quintile group 1, HR = 1.11, 95% CI 1.02-1.20). Sensitivity analyses produced similar results. The study is observational and relies on self-report of dietary consumption. Despite adjustment for known and reported confounders, residual confounding is possible. CONCLUSIONS: After adjustment for potential confounding factors, no significant association between consumption of less-healthy food (as classified by the FSA-Ofcom model) and CVD was observed in this study. This suggests, in the UK setting, that the FSA-Ofcom model is not consistently discriminating among foods with respect to their association with CVD. More studies are needed to understand better the relationship between consumption of less-healthy food, defined by the FSA-Ofcom model, and indices of health.
Nutrient profiling (NP) is a method for evaluating the healthfulness of foods. Although many NP models exist, most have not been validated. This study aimed to examine the content and construct/convergent validity of five models from different regions: Australia/New Zealand (FSANZ), France (Nutri-Score), Canada (HCST), Europe (EURO) and Americas (PAHO). Using data from the 2013 UofT Food Label Information Program (n15342 foods/beverages), construct/convergent validity was assessed by comparing the classifications of foods determined by each model to a previously validated model, which served as the reference (Ofcom). The parameters assessed included associations (Cochran-Armitage trend test), agreement (κ statistic) and discordant classifications (McNemar's test). Analyses were conducted across all foods and by food category. On the basis of the nutrients/components considered by each model, all models exhibited moderate content validity. Although positive associations were observed between each model and Ofcom (all P trend<0·001), agreement with Ofcom was 'near perfect' for FSANZ (κ=0·89) and Nutri-Score (κ=0·83), 'moderate' for EURO (κ=0·54) and 'fair' for PAHO (κ=0·28) and HCST (κ=0·26). There were discordant classifications with Ofcom for 5·3 % (FSANZ), 8·3 % (Nutri-Score), 22·0 % (EURO), 33·4 % (PAHO) and 37·0 % (HCST) of foods (all P<0·001). Construct/convergent validity was confirmed between FSANZ and Nutri-Score v. Ofcom, and to a lesser extent between EURO v. Ofcom. Numerous incongruencies with Ofcom were identified for HCST and PAHO, which highlights the importance of examining classifications across food categories, the level at which differences between models become apparent. These results may be informative for regulators seeking to adapt and validate existing models for use in country-specific applications.