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The global reality of the COVID-19/Corona pandemic paradoxically boosted national politics, broadcasting and citizenship. Media coverage, especially initially, praised citizen solidarity and the creative solutions that were pioneered to care for each other. A year later, a lasting social learning curve throughout and after this crisis seems illusory. The pandemic, this paper argues, needs to be understood in a longer timeframe as the working through and coming to terms with neo-liberal governmentality. The (often hilarious) early responses on social media provide a strong entry to do so. Our focus will be on the Netherlands which had a so-called 'intelligent' lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. Using the authors' own sharing back and forth of toilet paper memes as a starting point, we aim to explore the notion of collective self-reflection and citizen co-education underlying both heated and simply ridiculous posts. Using previous discussion of cultural citizenship, this paper inquires into how pandemic citizenship played out as a vast exercise in disciplining and distinction through jokes and anger. The material suggests a nostalgic turn that might point to an implicitly voiced critique of neoliberal governmentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written about the crisis of print newspapers, but with more attention paid to issues of production and distribution rather than reception. Furthermore, the scholarship on contemporary print newspaper reception has been limited by a focus on the information dimension and on countries in the Global North. To help overcome these limitations, in this paper we ask two questions that inquire into the reception of print newspapers in the contemporary media environment, and do so within a country from the Global South. Drawing upon an analysis of 158 semi-structured interviews conducted in the City of Buenos Aires and other parts of the country, we find that people continue reading print newspapers not solely, or even primarily, for the information contained in their pages, but for dynamics that tie together news content with materiality, routinization, and larger practices of incorporation of this media artifact into their daily lives. These dynamics are partly shaped by distinctive aspects of the Argentine context, including business strategies, family rituals, urban patterns, and a culture of nostalgia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internet has revolutionised our ability to communicate and connect across historic social, political and geographic divides. Where previously gatekeepers mitigated and negotiated access to mass media platforms, today potentially anyone – and any content – can reach millions of users in an instant. This development bears great opportunities for the democratisation of expression and the diversification of public discourse but has likewise broadened the impact of harm caused online. This raises the question how platforms and services can be regulated effectively to combat online harms without jeopardising free and open discourse. The paper explores the Online Harms White Paper published by the UK Government earlier this year and compares its regulatory approach with the infamous German Network Enforcement Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 5 April 2016, Iceland's prime minister became the first high-profile casualty of the Panama Papers investigations published around the world two days earlier, stepping down after reports of his family's hidden offshore wealth triggered massive public protests. The resignation was widely hailed as a demonstration of the power of investigative or "accountability" reporting to activate democratic citizens and effect real-world change. This paper reconstructs the Panama Papers reporting in Iceland as an important new case study in the growing literature on the impacts of journalistic revelations. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we ask what this dramatic case tells us about how major exposés produce political outcomes, as well as how the journalists involved understood the potential impacts of their work. We show that even in what looks like a clear-cut case of the so-called "mobilization model"—where change results from the public's response to a story—more complex dynamics are at work: Reporters worked actively to maximize the impact of their work, understanding these efforts in terms of its inherent newsworthiness, and the ultimate outcome of the revelations was shaped by a cycle of interactions between media and political actors that began well before publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent media ecologies are often characterized by their apparent excess and availability of information, in which elites have lost power to a multitude of citizen users. The 2010s, however, are marked by a new information battlespace, as governments, militaries and news organizations have arrested the initial chaotic free-for-all of the Internet. It was into this environment that the ‘Panama Papers’ were leaked in April 2016. We employ this story to illuminate some of the workings of information warfare in the contemporary Russian media ecology. We reveal the sophisticated gatekeeping work undertaken by a range of actors (state, journalists, news publics) in this ecology and their treatment of information across its historically established (television) and emergent (social) media forms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In late nineteenth-century USA, technological developments in paper production—a shift from a reliance on scarce cotton rag to plentiful wood—drastically reduced the price of newsprint. That decline helped overturn the reigning economics of the daily newspaper and resulted in the rise of new cheap papers with vastly expanded circulation. This novel mass press encompassed almost all Americans in the public sphere as represented by its pages. Focusing on newspapers in Detroit, this study examines the manifold consequences this shift had for the press's economics, its news agenda, and the implicit identity of the audience it addressed. The rise of a mass press in the late nineteenth century, however, was not specific to Detroit or the USA. As comparative historians have highlighted, the emergence of a mass press in Europe and elsewhere was a turning point that deeply marked the historical evolution of press systems around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

'Urban residents are surrounded by discrepant infrastructural capacities ... Being surrounded from all sides, and with such thick textures of surveillance and calculation, promises both the possibility of being really 'pinned down' and disappearing altogether.' (AbdouMaliq Simone)1 We are surrounded, negatively, by infrastructural capacities or, positively, extended by them? Or perhaps both, surrounded and extended? If so, in what proportions? And is it/was it ultimately a choice, or series of choices, ones that can still be made, or not? And what are these externalities, contexts? Are they media/technologies or perhaps the one-time project of 'the city' now taking on the (increasingly alien?) form of urbanisation? Or, beyond that, is there the now marginalised realm of the country/nature? And, 'space'? Are those realms, best characterised perhaps as 'nature', outside or inside us? If inside/outside, are we, somewhat paradoxically, surrounded by ourselves? Or by aspects of ourselves, whose inner/outer separation and possible distortion we need to recognise and address if we are to avoid 'the promises [of] both the possibility of being really 'pinned down' and disappearing altogether'? Or ... * * * * Such questions and some answers are suggested by our special feature in this issue on infrastructures, from which AbdouMaliq Simone's words are taken, by papers from three other substantial projects, one on urbanisation by Neil Brenner and Christian Schmid, with a reply from Richard Walker, a second on Africa by David Simon, and a third on technologised and politicised realms by Stephen Graham, now looking into 'urban air'. Introducing one of a series of particular temporal dimensions as explored in this journal, Melissa Wilson draws in part on a reading2 of a particular period, looking into the early pages of City, an early stage of its project, as elites and 'multitudes', edged towards 2000, towards and away from 'millennium.' Further investigations are undertaken in papers on the nature of smart cities as contexts, on a possible basis for social transformation in Poland, and on London's class structure and struggles. Only the third, Mark Davidson and Elvin Wyly's paper following, as does Chris Hamnett, our occasional series on London's class structure, is touched on here. We conclude with a return to Simone's thoughts on infrastructure's more than marginal role in social organisation and to a summing up and a polemical conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on media innovation among publishers of metropolitan newspapers in the United States, in cities such as San Diego, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia and Dallas. The situation for metropolitan newspapers is difficult, as they fall between national newspapers, which can aim for extending their reach both nationally and globally, and local newspapers, which have a smaller cost structure and can cater to a more limited, and often more engaged, audience community. Our paper demonstrates that there seems to be great awareness of what can be done by US metropolitan newspapers, but managers are struggling with constraints, such as lack of financial and human resources and general organisational anaemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of archival materials and objects appears as a primary challenge in conducting research on the history of media and communications in India, specifically while writing a comprehensive historical account of Bengali cinema. This paper will try to look at video halls and video tapes as the transient media spaces and objects. In the case of West Bengal, video tapes and video halls are an important part of media history about which little has been written or researched. This paper will try to look into the process of writing media history of scarcely archived media forms following the method of media archaeology and question how the method becomes important in cases of absence of archival materials. This paper will also try to enquire how media ethnography unfolds a different narrative of media history which is otherwise absent in the material archives or institutional records. Using the theoretical framework of the study of archives, this paper tries to explore new archives which present a different history of intermedia transactions in the history of Bengali cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early twentieth century, American newspapers enjoyed high circulations while presenting readers with diverse and plentiful content. After 1920, radio broadcasting made even more information available for public consumption, giving audience members an abundant range of media choices. During a time of plenty for readers and listeners, companies in the business of media struggled with the opposite problem: scarcity. As the amount of media content proliferated, the practical ability to disseminate it was determined by the access to scarce resources, and this was true for both radio broadcasting and newspaper publishing. In many respects, the history of the American mass media in the early twentieth century might best be told as a tale of two scarcities, one—the electromagnetic spectrum—defined by absolute limits and the other—the newsprint—defined by access to markets for a particular material, the supply of which often fluctuated in availability and price. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper assesses the contributions of Paulo Freire to communication theories, drawing upon a search for communication theory literature on the database Communication and Mass Media Open and the conglomerate source Encyclopedia of Communication Theory. Four encyclopedia entries are reviewed alongside 22 articles. Often identified as an education theorist, Freire and his contributions to the interdisciplinary field of communication can be seen in relation to international development; sign-language interpretation; communication ethics; public communication; culture; mass media; among others. Several studies are conducted in non-Western countries, with a notable focus on multicultural communication toward peace-building and cultural harmony. Additionally, severe social justice issues which involve violation of basic human rights are documented in two indigenous studies. Eight new theory-making papers are identified, in which Freirean theory is mobilized to support communication theory-building. The intersectional and multicultural nature of Freirean theory emerges as leading to diverse applications in social justice, and the review outlines six key Freirean concepts which recur in existing communication theories and studies: dialogue; praxis; banking model; problem-posing; critical consciousness; and emancipation. How each of these concepts are mobilized to guide theorizing in the field of communication are summarized, toward supporting future work in communication as social justice practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africans' voices and contributions to communication scholarship are of interest to many Africanists. Some discourses have explored reasons for this interest. This article continues this conversation. It recognizes the challenges contributing to the limited influence of the African voice in global communication scholarship and contributes to the theorizing of the African media. There are a range of factors impeding robust African engagement in global communication scholarship. These factors are explored in this paper. However, African scholars should look beyond these factors. The first part of the article explores reasons for the lack of active African input in this discussion. The second part of the paper explores the peculiarities of Africa that should form building blocks for the emergence of African media typologies. The extant normative media theories fail to consider the realities of African governance structures and philosophies. These should lead to a media framework more reflective of the realities of Africa. Indeed, the article proposes a conversation of four media typologies that closely match the continental conditions: pragmatic authoritarianism, pragmatic progressive, pragmatic libertarianism, and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The very existence of truth, let alone its worth, is currently under attack from many quarters. In the wider culture, disinformation and other forms of misrepresenting the truth spread far and wide, as information conduits proliferate. This paper suggests some reasons for the "anti-truth" trend. Mainstream media have played a role, as have theoreticians from fields as diverse as philosophy, psychoanalysis, science, and literary criticism. "Anti-truth" trends are having a serious impact on psychological treatment, affecting its content and the conception of its goals. This paper suggests some problematic outcomes of this phenomenon for practitioners and patients in various forms of psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2019, the government published its long-awaited Online Harms White Paper.[1] The White Paper proposes a comprehensive framework for digital media regulation under the umbrella concept of a duty of care. If implemented, the proposals will create a new regulatory regime that will sit alongside broadcast regulation and press self-regulation in determining what content can be made available to a mass audience. While various piecemeal regulations have since been introduced to different parts of the digital media, it was only a matter of time before comprehensive regulation found its way onto the agenda. [Extracted from the article]

This section invites authors to submit articles about big data and media management which will be reviewed for publishing.

A new method for transporting droplets is presented to avoid directive radiation of surface acoustic wave (SAW). An interdigital transducer (IDT) is fabricated on a 128°-YX LiNbO3 piezoelectric substrate using microelectric technology. A droplet to be transported is placed on a steel ball, which is driven by SAW. The droplet on the steel ball is then transported together with the steel ball. 0.5ul red ink solution was successfully transported by help of the steel ball with 2 mm diameters at 30.9 dBm electric signal power. Color development reaction is also implemented by transporting reaction solution using presented method to a paper-based device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of academic research documents harmful media coverage of indigenous populations across the globe. New Zealand is no exception. Aotearoa's indigenous people, Māori, share similar damaging experiences, leading one major NZ media company to publish an apology for their historically poor depiction of tangata whenua. This paper adds to that wealth of evidence using the automated methods of machine learning to examine coverage of Māori in NZ print media. Across roughly 800,000 sentences – spanning over two decades of coverage – this research investigates print media discourses involving Māori at a mass scale while demonstrating the applicability of such tools for further research. The results replicate a collection of existing findings at large-N scale, further documenting problematic discussions of violence, political representation, and culture, among several other concerns. The novel approach also hints at complex, obscure relationships embedded within problematic language in Aotearoa's print media, identifying notions of division - both implied and otherwise - along with notable instances of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the remapping of the American landscape as a mass reproducible visual medium onto foreign territories - particularly Afghanistan - during the Cold War. A series of films produced by the US Bureau of Mines and later screened in these territories are the sites of analysis. These films were the source material that applied the American landscape in its many forms, climates and uses to the US's physical infrastructure projects during the time. As sights, these projects of infrastructure building are indicative of the colonial gaze US technicians used to reproduce these landscapes and their underlying systems of power and class around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts meta-analysis and text mining approaches to systematically explore the prevalence of agenda setting theory (AST) in Africa-focused publications indexed in high-impact databases from 2000 to 2020. It aims to evaluate the usage frequency of AST in Africa-focused studies, the dominant perspectives explored in these studies, the dominant communication medium of reference, the dominant academic disciplines, the dominant regions of focus in Africa, frequent keywords within these studies, and the authors' institutional affiliations. The findings revealed a dearth of quality literature from 2000 to 2008, after which at least one paper was published each year from 2007 to 2020, with the exception of 2016. The research showed that media scholars (51%) published more papers, followed by scholars from political sciences (12%), ethnic studies (12%), public health (9%), development studies (6%), and public administration (6%). Although many papers were about South Africa (33%), other dominant countries of focus were Ghana (18%), Nigeria (12%), and Kenya (9%). The qualitative review revealed the major perspectives of the AST- related papers to be issues of political advocacy, governance, and social activism; rural, national, and regional transformation and development; and social representations and framing. The medium of communication most often referenced for agenda setting was the newspaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do far-right actors and issues structure public debates and become mainstream over time? Previous research has shown that far-right actors are central actors in political conflicts in Western Europe, partly due to their dominance in struggles on cultural issues. The entrenchment of the far right substantially depends on their networks and public visibility. However, we still lack a long-term understanding of public debates about far-right actors and their discursive interconnections across issues. In this paper, we deliver the first longitudinal analysis of the evolution and structure of far-right discourse networks and the diffusion of far-right ideas in public debates since the 1990s. Methodologically, this paper innovates by combining discourse network analysis with automated text analysis to investigate how the relations between far-right actors and issues are represented in mass media. We analyze more than 500,000 newspaper articles in six different mass media outlets in Germany. The results show that far-right actors have gained more public visibility since the 1990s. The study demonstrates that the mass media debates have introduced and amplified cultural issues "owned" by the far right. Far-right discourse networks in mass media have grown, discursive interactions have intensified and discourse networks have become more centralized. Our results indicate that the discursive mainstreaming of the far right evolved in the context of the "refugee crisis" in 2015, and was linked to the AfD's institutional access. Overall, the study aids in developing a better understanding of the success of the far right and the crucial role of public debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservative critique of mainstream media that has fed increasing levels of media distrust originated in anti-communist publications in the 1930s and was cultivated by various interests on the right over the next two decades. National Review was an influential purveyor of this critique in the late 1950s and used the publication of "The Last Days of Joe McCarthy" by political journalist Richard Rovere in 1958 to highlight it. An analysis of reader responses to Rovere's article reveals that this conservative media critique resonated with many on the right and provides evidence that National Review had begun to establish itself among conservatives as a trustworthy alternative to the mainstream media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the use of multiple platforms is tied to awareness of algorithms. It builds on the premise that users interact with ecologies or environments of technologies rather than single platforms. The study also supplements work on algorithmic awareness by implementing a mixed-method study to account for how Costa Rican users of Netflix and Spotify understood and related to the algorithms of these platforms. This study combined a survey of 258 participants and 21 in-depth semistructured interviews. Findings demonstrate that multi-platform users were more aware of algorithms and carried out more practical actions to obtain algorithmic recommendations than single-platform users. Although user type did not predict participants' attitudes towards algorithmic recommendations, higher levels of awareness were associated with more positive attitudes towards algorithms. The study also shows that differences in levels of awareness explained users' emotional arousal derived from algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only claimed innumerable lives but the concomitant inflation has also frustrated many small and large enterprises, not to mention the loss of jobs that employees have suffered and sometimes succumbed to through self-harm and suicides. In this context, this paper probes how a politics of representation has deeply informed the dissemination and consumption of 'COVID news,' rendering a legitimate visibility largely to the loss and contributions of subjects that have access to socio-economic and political resources. Milan Kundera uses the term 'symbolic voltage' to refer to the role that the media plays in 'constructing' our everyday realities. In The Lost Dimension, Paul Virilio states that modern media technology has created a 'crisis of representation' or an optical illusion, where the distinctions between near and far, object and image, have imploded. In a bid to keep apace with a metanarrative of pandemic-engendered loss, the collective consciousness of different societies has not adequately focused on the marginalised subjects – the wage worker, the woman, the juvenile and the scholar from suburban/rural area. The paper argues that the 'Covid-19-as-a-past' is likely to be represented through the semantics of traditional history, which is a narrative of and by the powerful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon two previously published research papers exploring Canadian media reporting of childhood in the first wave of the pandemic, this paper investigates how constructions of childhood evolved from the first wave to the fourth wave of the pandemic. This qualitative research is guided by the central research question: Over the span of 2 years, from 2020 to 2022, what changes are evident in discourses reported within media focused on the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on Canadians under the age of 18 years? Findings from this study suggest that in the fourth wave young people were constructed as innocent victims of pandemic restrictions framed through an adult-centric lens; noticeably absent were representations of young people under the age of 18 in their voices. A key recommendation emerged from this study: any future research investigating the impact of the pandemic on young people under aged 18 years must include their full participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 9/11, representations of Muslims and the Islamic world in Western mass media have received much scholarly attention, not least because such representations influence how Muslims are perceived by and integrated into Western societies. Most existing studies have shown that Muslims and Islam tend to be framed negatively through orientalist and Islamophobic discourses. However, this paper argues that in specific contexts, neoliberal ideology has generated mass-media representations of Muslims and the Islamic world that differ from orientalist versions. In contexts relating to the globalised halal market, for example, neoliberal discourses portray Muslims and the Islamic world as economically useful and/or exploitable rather than culturally threatening. This argument is supported by an analysis of representations of Muslims and the Islamic world in local and regional newspapers in Brazil, one of the largest halal meat and poultry exporters in the world. Drawing on theories of neoliberalism, a discourse theoretical approach and the notion of imaginative geographies, the study examines newspaper articles on the halal business. Based on the findings, this paper suggests that scholars should subject neoliberal ideology (and its interaction with orientalism and Islamophobia) to greater scrutiny in future research on representations of Muslims and the Islamic world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative dissemination of research findings in the public and media spheres has the potential to reach large audiences, enhance forced migrants' political participation and impact policies. 'Going public' further requires both researchers and forced migrants to engage visibly in a sphere that is often unexpected and less familiar to them. This paper discusses the methodological and ethical challenges and possibilities surrounding joint dissemination, drawing on a case study of public and media co-dissemination that occurred as part of an anti-deportation public campaign. In 2018, the Israeli government initiated a forced deportation plan aimed at deporting refugees to Rwanda. The authors had previously conducted research exploring the journeys of refugees who 'voluntarily' departed Israel to Rwanda, revealing that the deportees were pressured to embark on life-threatening journeys, eventually gaining protection in Europe. The findings were collaboratively shared through various activities, such as media interviews, public events, advocacy and cooperation with civil society organisations in Israel and globally. This paper discusses the three main aspects derived from our experiences: power imbalances and divisions of roles, consent as a process, and re-traumatisation and agency. Finally, ethical and practical recommendations for mitigating some of these challenges are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ubiquitous presence of media devices, media multitasking has become prevalent in an educational context. Several authors have synthesized the literature on this topic, but no systematic review has been carried out so far. The present study fills this gap by examining the academic papers in the past decade to delineate the research trends, gaps, and directions for future research. Following the Standard Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), we analyzed 88 papers from various aspects including study focus, contexts, participants, and methods. Findings point to the necessity to focus on the reasons behind multitasking, include more K-12 learners, and adopt qualitative methodology. To support future work on the predictors of media multitasking, we propose a conceptual framework that includes nine variables in technology, personal, and environment domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 health communicators around the globe have had to reach, urge, and persuade individuals and communities to adopt appropriate health protective behaviors. They have used a mix of communication channels, including outdoor media and public signage which are the focus of this paper. Drawing on a comparative linguistic landscape analysis, this paper critically examined the amount, content, and prominence of Covid-19 signage in Hackney, a London borough severely hit by the first wave of the pandemic. Having analyzed 1288 signs collected between May and July 2020, we found significant differences in Covid-19 signage between deprived and less deprived areas. These differences (e.g., in messaging about staying at home) have created inequalities in access to Covid-19 related health information and guidance. We also explored the changes in Covid-19 signage over time and the tailoring of risk and health messages to minority communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of Indian media. Utilizing the Propaganda Model formulated by Herman and Chomsky in the book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media (1988), the paper aims to critically assess the news patterns and media performance of the mainstream Indian media. The contribution of the paper will be the application of the propaganda model in the context of Indian media. For this study, we have analyzed the media coverage of two events – India's ban on Chinese apps and the Pulwama attack. We focus on how Indian Media has helped the Government to establish the propaganda of nationalism during both events, which is explained by Herman and Chomsky in the five filters of news production. We investigate how the anti-China sentiment and the Pulwama attack have been used by the Government to divert attention from their failure of governance, and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. The corporate media is playing its part in the machinations of the ruling BJP party. We conclude that the plurality of voices amongst journalists is in decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines the category of the sports image ad in contradistinction to the sports narrative ad. Image ads, unlike narrative ads, are characterised by the use of sports images without employing spatio-temporal logic and sequentiality. After engaging in a brief discussion of the term image, the paper focuses on a structuralist study of the images employed in sports image ads on Indian television, and subjects them to rigorous semantic and syntactic analysis, using numerous examples, in order to extract the implications these images have for Indian sports discourse. It also undertakes a historical analysis of the changes that sports images have undergone over time in order to trace the changes in sports discourse in India since the advent of television in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs the therapeutic landscape theory to explore how online religious services during lockdown restrictions shape experiences of well-being and intergenerational learning. We used qualitative data from in depth interviews and focus groups with older adults and pastors in five churches in Ghana to explore how online religious places are conceptualized as therapeutic landscapes for sustaining wellbeing goals amidst a global pandemic. We identified multiple pathways of meaning through which online religious services shape the lives of people in a faith community to sustain the experience of well-being in a difficult time. In addition, this paper reflects on the broader implications of COVID-19 in shaping a paradigm shift in digital religion and intergenerational learning experiences through a changing religious landscape precipitated by lockdown restrictions that have drastically altered traditional religious places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During health crisis, individuals need information to comprehend their circumstances. Channel complementarity theory posits that in meeting their informational needs, people will use different sources in a complementary fashion. This paper puts to test the main tenet of channel complementarity theory by focusing on information scanning (i.e. routine health information exposure) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. A survey was conducted among a sample of Chilean adults (N = 2,805). The questionnaire addressed information scanning across six sources (television, radio, internet, social media, family, and friends or coworkers) and explores how socioeconomic and demographic variables, as well as COVID-19 perceived risk related to scanning. Latent class analysis was employed to identify patterns of complementarity across channels. The analysis yielded a solution of five classes, namely 'high complementarity and high frequency' (21%), 'high complementarity and low frequency' (34%), 'high frequency on television and digital media' (19%), 'mass media predominant' (11%), and 'no scanning' (15%). Educational attainment, age, and COVID-19 perceived risk were associated with scanning. Television was a central channel for information scanning during the pandemic in Chile and more than half of participants scanned COVID-19 information complementarily. Our findings expand channel complementarity theory to information scanning in a non-US context and provide guidelines for designing communication interventions aiming at informing individuals during a global health crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of modernity and its association with the West and secularism is being challenged with the rise of religious movements in the age of globalisation. This provides a fertile ground for alternative modernities, disconnected from the West and secularism, to surface. This paper provides a theoretical explanation for the emergence of alternative modernities by drawing on insights from epistemic injustice and recognition theory, through an analysis of Turkish media outlets. Turkey serves as an illustrative case to examine the emergence of alternative modernities due to its long-standing tradition of incorporating Western modernity and its complex liminal identity between the boundaries of the East and the West. This paper argues that the period from 2005 to 2020 presented a window of opportunity for an alternative modernities paradigm to engage in epistemic struggles for recognition, supported by the ideological context of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AKP) government. This period paved the way for questioning the superiority and uniqueness of Western modernity. However, it also indicates the birth of a new form of epistemic injustice as counter-narratives defending the superiority of Islamic civilisation emerged, seeking to establish epistemic hegemony for Islam and its association with modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether the relationship between tourism development and income inequality is sensitive to the media environment. Using panel data from 88 countries for the period 1996 to 2020, we find that countries with uncensored media environments experience lower income inequality as the tourism industry develops. We also find that a favourable media environment enhances tourism development. Further analysis shows that asymmetries in a hostile media environment; namely, media biasedness, media corruption, and harassment of journalists, inhibit tourism development, particularly in emerging countries. This paper calls for strong support for press freedom to develop the tourism industry as countries emerge from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within Putin's conservative nation-building agenda, the Russian mediascape excludes or marginalises non-heteronormative sexualities' voices from the official discourse. However, certain manifestations of non-heteronormative sexualities infiltrate public space through convergent traditional and new media (Jenkins, 2006, Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide. New York University Press) and the performativity of non-heteronormative sexualities in popular culture. This paper claims that these convergent media-enabled representations of NS can challenge, inform, mediate or authenticate the establishment discourse. It focuses on a particular case of a sexually provocative video with homoerotic undertones (mimicking a popular music hit 'Satisfaction') produced by male cadets from the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation and uploaded onto YouTube in January 2018 (allegedly without the cadets' permission). The paper examines its mediation from the grassroots to semi-official peripheries, to mainstream media (TV) and back again (focus group data), highlighting a dramatic change in the official coverage as well as a lack of hegemonic consensus regarding representations of non-heteronormative sexualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes representations of Simone Biles in media coverage of two major gymnastics events in 2019. It asks which, if any, gendered and racial stereotypes identified in previous scholarship about media coverage of Black and women athletes are also present in coverage of Biles. It also interrogates in what ways these stereotypes intersect as distinct forms of representation of Biles as a Black woman. Employing the tenets of feminist theory and Black feminist thought through an intersectional lens, a qualitative textual analysis of 34 articles revealed that both gendered and racial stereotypes were present in coverage of Biles. The most prominent stereotypes include feminized emotions, lack of mental fortitude, negative attitudes, and physicality. These intersecting representations underscore the persistence of these stereotypes in contemporary discourse. This paper contributes to, and advances, the literature on media representations of women athletes, Black athletes, and Black women athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the data of cities in China from 2005 to 2015, this paper examines the impact of the sandwiching approach involving the media governance model on government responsiveness with a quasi-natural experiment of participation in politics on television (PPTV). The study found that PPTV can help strengthen government responsiveness. After a series of robustness tests, the conclusion is still valid. The heterogeneity analysis shows that PPTV can effectively enhance government responsiveness in technology, social security, and employment sectors. Furthermore, government responsiveness is more effectively enhanced by adopting PPTV in form of annual live broadcast activities with public rating and cooperation with print media. This policy has a stronger role in enhancing government responsiveness in cities with high levels of economic development and high government competition. Considering officials characters, the longer the tenure of the mayor and the secretary of the municipal party committee, the stronger the government responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of mis/mal/dis-information (MMDI) and studies how information managers/professionals can manage the phenomenon of infodemic during the COVID-19 pandemic. We review existing literature to explore the current concepts, models, associations, and gaps in MMDI to highlight the critical role of information managers/professionals. The findings focus on defining MMDI/fake news and evaluating ongoing and emerging information literacy frameworks. Next, we highlight the existing initiatives and efforts made by Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals, LIS associations, and libraries to contradict the diffusion of MMDI and fake news and educate the public on how to navigate through an era of MMDI. Finally, the study summaries effective strategies designed by those within the LIS profession while suggesting recommendations as to how the information managers/LIS professionals can continue to improve their keys position in the digital age and contribute effectively to managing the phenomenon of infodemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and practitioners have unanimously acknowledged the impact of legacy media coverage of past pandemics as well as COVID-19 and its importance for health-related risk communication. Therefore, this study provides scholars and health communication practitioners with a deeper understanding of the patterns, main themes, and limitations of media reporting and peer-reviewed research in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in different national media environments. Because the objective is to evaluate patterns, this paper focuses on early quantitative and automated content analyses for theoretical contribution, geographic diversity, methodological rigor, and inclusion of risk and crisis communication theory. It also assesses whether authors deduced implications, for both theory and practice of health-related risk and crisis communication. We conducted a content analysis of 66 studies in peer-reviewed journals from the beginning of the pandemic until April 2022. The findings demonstrate that early quantitative analyses of the news coverage of COVID-19 are often not theory-driven, apply heterogeneous forms of framing analysis, and lack references to risk and crisis communication theory. Consequently, only few implications for health communication practice during pandemics were drawn. However, there is evidence of improvement in geographic scope compared to previous research. The discussion addresses the importance of developing a consistent approach to framing analyses of risk and crisis media coverage and the importance of well-designed cross-cultural research in a global pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, the slash youth phenomenon gained attention in mainland China. It was seen as an ideal work plan to adapt to contemporary conditions, and was even endorsed by Chinese state media. However, this paper challenges these narratives and examines the practicality of slash youth as a work plan. Through in-depth research and interviews with 20 slash workers, it explores the work problems faced by young people in mainland China and highlights the discrepancies between practice and narrative. In reality, most slash youth work as flow workers, a new type of labor subject shaped by the specific contextual conditions of mainland China. This type of work typically fails to provide a decent income or opportunities for personal growth, contradicting the promises of slash youth narratives. The transition from slash workers to flow workers reveals the limited employment options available and underscores the need for systemic changes in the nature of work. An integrated work culture and system that adapts to new forms of work is needed to avoid dire consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child marriage is a problem that has continued to attract global attention. The media have been identified as critical to the fight against the scourge as it discusses the capacity to raise awareness of the issue as well as trigger action in solving the problem. The report of the alleged abduction of a minor, Ese Oruru by one Yunusa Dahiru for marriage jolted the nation and sparked public outcry for her release. This study explored newspaper framing of the incident. Drawing from qualitative frame analysis, it examined how Punch and Daily Trust newspapers framed the alleged abduction saga. The study found that there was contrastive framing of the incident with Punch newspaper portraying the issue as abduction while Daily Trust newspaper depicted it as elopement. The influence of socio-cultural leanings of these papers on the contrastive framing is discussed. The implication of the divergent framing of the saga on the fight against child marriage is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the role of different epistemic modes in how authority is established in right-leaning conspiratorial narratives? This paper sets out to answer this question through a mixed methods analysis. The first section sets out a model for the analysis of epistemic contestations, using six epistemic modes. This is then applied to a data set of Telegram posts in which key terms are used to identify these epistemic modes. Two questions were then asked of the data. First, how is power related to different kinds of knowledge claims in the far-right conspiratorial milieu? Second, what is the role of these different epistemic modes in how authority is established in right-leaning conspiratorial narratives? How does the epistemology of QAnon influence how they argue? We found that while a broader set of epistemic modes could be identified, there were contestations internally also, particularly around moments of "failed prophecy," and the role of Christianity and esoteric spiritualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the role of alternative far-right media in promoting and organizing mobilization against the Global Compact for Migration – the first intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, covering all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner. Exploring four European alternative far-right media: PI-News in Germany, Il Primato Nazionale in Italy, the UK localization of Breitbart, and the transnational Voice of Europe, we show that these media have gone beyond (dis)informing and have actively mobilized and channeled indignation through petitioning and protest organization. While most research on far-right media practices so far has focused either on social media interactions or exclusively on 'disinformation' and 'fake news', we analyse web based alternative news media as part of а far-right social movement that has successfully used progressive left-wing protests repertoires and tactics. We argue that alternative far-right news media act as 'indignation mobilization mechanisms' that not only fuel the indignation of the public by channeling the messages of far-right politicians but also channel bottom-up indignation through online campaigns, petitions, and offline street protests. This unabashedly biased and mobilization-oriented approach is what distinguishes far-right media from mainstream media and guarantees them a loyal and dedicated supporter base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the life cycles of the Nordic populist parties by exploring the relationship between media coverage and contemporary populist parties in Finland (Finns Party), Sweden (Sweden Democrats), Norway (Norwegian Progress Party) and Denmark (Danish People's Party). Empirically the study is based on a content analysis of 3337 journalistic articles published in the leading quality and popular newspapers of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark during the first parliamentary elections of the 2010s. The analysis confirms the life cycle model introduced inThe Media and Neo-Populism. A Contemporary Comparative Analysisedited by Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Julianne Stewart, and Bruce Horsfield (2003, Praeger, Westport, CT), which found that parties in their insurgent phase gained more media attention than parties in their established phase. This study found populism currently a more important topic in Finland and Sweden, where populist movements were entering parliament, whereas in Norway and in Denmark, after long-term success, the domestic populist parties had become more mainstream and their media attention normalized. The popular newspapers tended to be more positive about populist parties than quality papers. However, these results can be explained partly by journalistic routines and by country-specific political conditions. Thus, further research is needed to prove the life cycle model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The tale of 1939 voyage of the MS St. Louis has been retold in books, films, exhibits, and on the web. While researchers looking at U.S. newspaper coverage of the Holocaust have generally viewed its components as discrete pieces of evidence rather than as parts of a larger whole, this study reviewed coverage of the voyage in situ in the pages of thirty-nine newspapers from twenty-five American cities. The findings of the qualitative content analysis sorted those papers into four groups, based on how much coverage they gave the story and whether they supplemented wire copy with staff reporting, photographs, editorials, or cartoons. Neither a paper’s geographic proximity to the story nor the size of its city’s Jewish population appears to have been a good explanation of its coverage choices. Important distinctions were also found in how reporters, news services, and, thus, newspapers, told the refugee passengers’ story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on critical perspectives where normative and essentialist perceptions of language and ethnicity in policy discourses are challenged, and where the lack of attention to forms of social uses of language are highlighted, this paper discusses the limitations of even the most progressive pluralist language policy to capture the cultural and linguistic 'diversification of diversity' in Eritrea, a country in East Africa. The language policy in the country embraces all the languages of the country and promotes their use in education, mass media, provision of legal services, etc. Policy documents mention the equality of the nine languages. However, the presumed number of languages and, to some extent, their naming reflect a persistent colonial and missionary legacy, echoing the argument of some sociolinguists that languages in Africa are the creation of colonialists or missionaries. Based on insights from recent sociolinguistic and ethnographic studies on diversity, language and language use, this paper problematizes the notion of language, the naming of languages and their enumeration to highlight the limits of multilingual policy discourses to capture the superdiversity in countries of the global south, even within pluralistic language policy contexts such as the one in Eritrea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital globalization has established an interconnected virtual world, and profoundly transformed the landscape of literary practice. Anchored in the digital context, the development of new media technologies has exerted substantial influence on literature's context and mode of existence, giving rise to Internet literature, a new form of literary expression based on interactivity, hypertextuality and multimedia. Over the past two decades, the new media landscape opens up opportunities for the thriving development of Chinese web fiction, which is intrinsically a transmedia, fan-driven and – oriented text. With this in mind, this paper analyzes the rise of Chinese web fiction as a compelling cultural phenomenon, and argues that its operation model presents an exemplary alternative to how literature can benefit from new media technologies and reap the interests of digital globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines 59 online articles written about a photograph of Nancy Pelosi standing up in the White House cabinet room and pointing her finger toward Donald Trump. Trump released the photo and tweeted his own interpretation of it; online articles followed discussing descriptions and/or interpretations of the image and the surrounding events. This paper focuses on how the media discourse of this moment reflects views about the expression of power in politics, its tie to emotion and emotionality, and its sometimes subtle connection with gender. Analysis of the articles showed that the media interpreted the nonverbal cues in the photograph as reflective of individual power displays, relative power as enacted through dominance and submissiveness nonverbal cues, and changing relative power through one person's nonverbal cues lowering another's apparent power position. It also reflected an existing cultural belief that emotionality and power are generally inconsistent in politics, with some exemptions for anger displays, and the particular challenges of emotional display for women in politics. In doing so, the media coverage continued its masculinization of the political sphere in less visible ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the online fandom of a Thai Boys Love (BL) drama in Japan, called tai-numa, this exploratory study examines its background, fan practices and experiences, and negotiations between fandoms and the mass media and within the fandom. Through interviews with 19 fans active in the fandom, which was shaped by external and internal factors, such as mediascape, characteristics of consuming BL, and the global pandemic, this research argues that the fandom is a transnational, transcultural, and trans-subcultural contact zone, enabling fans to create, learn, reflect, negotiate, and update each other's values. Fandom activity was facilitated because it was equal and non-hierarchical, allowing for the engagement of a heterogeneous mix of fans from different subcultural backgrounds, and it offered a sense of simultaneity. Through fan voice and discussion, this paper suggests the potential impact of fandom activities on real life and what is needed for such fandoms to be established and sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]