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When new technologies are introduced to the public, their widespread adoption is dependent, in part, on news coverage (Rogers, 1995). Yet, as weblogs began to play major role in the public spheres of politics and journalism, journalists faced a paradox: how to cover a social phenomenon that was too large to ignore and posed a significant threat to their profession. This article examines how blogs were framed by US newspapers as the public became more aware of the blogging world. A content analysis of blog-related stories in major US newspapers from 1999 to 2005 was conducted. Findings suggest that newspaper coverage framed blogs as more beneficial to individuals and small cohorts than to larger social entities such as politics, business and journalism. Moreover, only in the realm of journalism were blogs framed as more of a threat than a benefit, and rarely were blogs considered an actual form of journalism.

Analysis of a new fiber optic sensor based on the principle of Fresnel reflection is presented in order to develop a robust, flexible, readily embedded, high sensitivity and low-cost cure monitoring tool for intelligent control of composite manufacturing. This approach is distinct from previous work on on-line in-situ monitoring sensors in that the transducer is simply the fiber optic/epoxy interface. This leads to a more simple, less intrusive, and lower cost sensing system. The response of the sensor is a function of the mismatch in refractive index between the fiber optic end/resin interface. The refractive index of the resin is a nonlinear function of the temperature and the cure reaction of the resin. The sensing system detects the mismatch in the refractive index and generates a characteristic profile that gives the chemorheological information about the curing resin. Under isothermal cure conditions, the effect of the temperature on the refractive index mismatch can be eliminated. In this situation, the optical response of the sensor is only dependent on the cure kinetics and the state of the cross-linking in the material. A calibration method has been developed to interpret the optical response directly as the degree-of-cure of the resin. This work provides analysis of the fundamental sensor response and correlates it to the material state (degree-of-cure). These results provide a basis for extending the use of this sensor technology for on-line real-time cure monitoring and control.

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