Search

This study examines Taiwan and India's media discourse and political elite statements from 1 July 2022 to 1 October 2023, starting from the fourth Taiwan Strait crisis in 2022. We conducted a discourse analysis of over 121,901 news texts using extensive data analysis and text-mining software. Additionally, our research team conducted expert focus group discussions with renowned think tanks and research centres in New Delhi, India. Building upon the data text analysis findings, we further explored India's stance on the Taiwan Strait conflict, its perception of the Chinese threat and the impact of the ongoing 'new normal' crisis on India's Indo-Pacific strategic layout. The aim was to uncover common security needs and intersecting interests between the two countries, considering their different national interests and geopolitical considerations. Based on the analysis of textual mining and expert discussions, this study reveals the following: First, India is concerned about the current situation in the Taiwan Strait. Second, the current tensions in the Taiwan Strait will influence India's strategic layout. Third, there is a growing consensus within India regarding the Chinese threat. In light of these findings, this study suggests that Taiwan and India share interests in democratic values, maritime traffic security and high-tech industry supply chains. Taiwan possesses expertise in China studies and a deep understanding of China's military threat, while Taiwan and India possess specific technological capabilities. Based on these foundations, there are potential opportunities for further dialogue, exchange and cooperation in relevant fields between India and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a 2018 Amazon Prime simulcast alongside the Fox broadcast announced by Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer became the first all-female broadcast team for a National Football League game. Utilizing a national sample of 415 subjects, a four-cell post-test-only experimental design of the on-air commentary was utilized to examine perceptions of announcer credibility. Incorporating social identity theory, findings reveal women sportscasters were deemed credible, but if one affiliated with a presumed sporting out-group (female and non-White fans), this was not the case. Highly identified sport fans indicated a shift toward acceptance of all-female announcers of all-male sporting events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on a polarized issue—U.S. gun violence—this study examines agenda setting as an antecedent of political expression on social media. A state-of-the-art machine-learning model was used to analyze news coverage from 25 media outlets—mainstream and partisan. Those results were paired with a two-wave panel survey conducted during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Findings show mainstream media shape public opinion about gun violence, which then stimulates expression about the issue on social media. The study also reveals that partisan media's gun violence coverage has significant cross-cutting effects. Notably, exposure to conservative media will decrease public salience of gun violence, pivot opinion in a more conservative direction, and discourage social media expression; and all of these effects are stronger among liberals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, tens of thousands of people go missing in Europe and across the globe, leaving the families of these individuals in the anguish of the unknown. Yet only some missing gain media attention, with others remaining the 'missing missing', and this contributes to a definition of who is, and who is not, worthy of being searched for. This article focuses on the Polish television programme Ktokolwiek widział, ktokolwiek wie (Has anybody seen, does anybody know), which for the last three decades has been helping to establish a more egalitarian politics of the visibility of, and the search for, the missing in Poland, going against the grain of the mass media's tendency to 'symbolically annihilate' those with less power in society. I explore how the programme supports the search for the marginalized missing, that is, those who have led precarious lives on the socio-spatial margins of Polish society, people who, to utilize Gatti's term, were 'socially disappeared' before they went physically missing. I show how the programme utilizes its power of mediation to articulate disappearances of the marginalized missing and mobilizes institutions and the public to help in finding them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interrogates the controversial field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), focussing in particular on the implication of the British press in its regulation. It grounds its analysis in a 'decentred' understanding of regulation; a socio-legal approach which moves beyond formal regulation and regulators, and instead foregrounds diverse social actors and their attempts to alter behaviour across a given domain. Focussing on The Times newspaper as a case-study, it identifies five regulatory techniques through which the newspaper drew (and redrew) lines separating the safe from the risky, the efficacious from the sham, and the normal from the deviant. By analytically decentring CAM's formal regulation, this article provides a conceptual contribution. It highlights an everyday form of healthcare regulation directed at prospective users which may be just as significant in potentially guiding users towards or away from particular healthcare practices/practitioners as the more traditional, formal kinds of regulation identified in regulatory literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have explored how science communication projects are evaluated and what impact they have. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the results of science communication projects carried out by academics. Drawing on the theory of change and evaluation models, possible results of science communication projects are conceptually distinguished at the levels of outputs, outcomes, and impacts. The study draws on a dataset of 128 science communication projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation from 2012 to 2022. Quantitative content analysis reveals few rigorous evaluation designs and a focus on reporting outputs, while outcomes and societal impacts are often neglected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the indicators of women's electoral participation in India, highlighting gender disparities in political engagement. Topics include the relationship between women's education levels and political participation, the role of media exposure in electoral involvement, and the rankings of states based on women's voter turnout and representation.

This paper presents a comparative discourse analysis of media representations of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the American newspaper New York Times and the Indian newspaper Business Today. Using an extended corpus-based discourse-historical approach incorporating tools from critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, the study identifies key differences in main themes, discursive strategies, and linguistic means modulated by each nation's geopolitics. The analysis reveals New York Times constructs the conflict predominantly as a moral and political crisis, employing critical language and ideological framing of Russia as the villain versus Ukraine as the victim. In contrast, Business Today approaches the conflict neutrally as an economic issue with pragmatic implications for India, avoiding explicit judgments and moral evaluations. While reflecting different ideological positions, the divergent framings and discursive strategies demonstrate the traditional "us versus them" dichotomy is an oversimplification. Through nuanced linguistic analysis of modal verbs, metaphors, analogies, hyperboles, and rhetorical questions, the study shows how historical relations, geopolitical interests, economic ties and cultural values create a complex discursive continuum rather than a static binary. By extending discourse-historical analysis, the paper advocates more pluralistic, self-reflexive journalism to enable nuanced policy debates attuned to on-the-ground realities, not just propagandistic binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of the current study is to understand Americans' attitudes toward deceased organ donation and to assess their level of acceptance on positions toward organ donation. Methods: In summer and winter of 2023, 2 national samples completed measures of attitudes toward donation, reported their registration status, rated positions related to donation, and provided demographic information. Results: Data from 2 samples indicated registration estimates between 50% and 57% and a significant proportion of those unregistered reported reluctance to register. The believability of national registry estimates and ratings of acceptability of 9 organ donation positions differed by registration status. Conclusion: Mass media and motor vehicles interventions seeking to increase registration rates should take into consideration individual attitudes and support toward donation may not be as strong as once thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Squid Game's phenomenal success calls attention to the local specificity of Netflix's global expansion as it commissions original K-dramas. This practice has rich implications, both positive and negative, for Netflix's production and distribution of Korean content. K-dramas classified as Netflix Originals have been riding its international market power to a wide range of transnational audiences, enabling national television creators to reimagine cultural spheres for both production and distribution that transgress the uneven circuit of transnational media. At the same time, the deterritorialisation of Netflix's K-dramas raises concerns about its deep interpenetration of the Korean TV industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing framing theory, the present study examined gender differences in Iranian state-run media and alternative media portrayals of elite athlete emigration. By analyzing 704 online news articles published between 2007 and 2022 and comparing gender disparities, the study provides insights into the framing narratives used by a nation without a free press to undermine gender equity and national dialogues about sport. The study determined that male athletes received disproportionally high framing coverage over time, but this gender imbalance shifted to the inverse in 2020. This can be attributed to a sudden influx of prominent female athletes emigrating from Iran to avoid political persecution. Study findings also uncovered a stark contrast in the prominence of frames attributed to each gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian-Ukrainian war (RUW) is responsible for extensive individual suffering and a socio-economic impact on the world and is reshaping global affairs. Many studies have focused on direct exposure to conflict and several public health policies have been devised. Nonetheless, indirect exposure through media has received minimal attention and there is limited evidence that mental health symptoms and disorders may arise as a result. We explored the role of voluntary or involuntary media-based exposure to the RUW on individuals' mental health including stress symptoms, coping strategies, daily functioning, and worries across demographic variables. In our sample, subjects with involuntary and higher amount of exposure seem to have higher stress symptoms. Also, those who had previous ruminations on war issues could be at risk of developing more post-traumatic stress symptoms. Therefore, media appears to be a conduit that spreads negative consequences of community trauma beyond directly affected communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media coverage of large-scale violence can result in interfering thoughts and depression. This research investigates the relationship between interfering thoughts and depression when watching the Russo-Ukrainian war. In the theoretical model, the more the war is watched, the more it is related to interfering thoughts, which are related to depression. With the ongoing pandemic, depression, when watching the war, was related to coronavirus threat. Data was collected online from April to June, 2022, with university students in Germany, Finland, and Canada (N = 865). Path analysis results in each sample showed that the model fit the data with sample-specific modification indices. There was full mediation of watching the war by interference on depression, indicating that it is not watching the war, per se, but rather its relationship to cognitive interference, that is associated with depression. Denial and coronavirus threat were positively related to depression. Implications for research and student support are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hallin and Mancini's Comparing Media Systems has provided Mass Communication research with valuable tools to compare media settings from a transnational viewpoint. However, most recent contributions around media systems theory focus on suggesting new dimensions or variables to update the three models presented in the authors' book, leaving behind the discussion concerning the factors galvanizing the transformation processes. We then ask: What factors explain the transformation of media systems? Through a literature review and the discussion of an extensive array of examples from different countries, our essay formulates new insights to refine a crucial concept in media studies. We examine material, institutional, and cultural logics of change to point out how the described transformations might unfold at different paces in particular social systems. By resorting to the idea of "critical junctures," our essay illustrates how supposedly isolated shifts in the media systems can have unexpected impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article underscores the transformative impact of victim–survivor voices in reshaping public discourse on child sexual abuse (CSA). The research project took as the backbone for analysis the Malka Leifer case that spanned 15 years and is linked to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's report of Case Study 22, which examined responses in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools to child sexual abuse. Adopting a mixed methods research approach, this study combines qualitative media analysis of 102 news articles and 8 in-depth focus groups to investigate the impact of media outlets in amplifying victim voice and influencing public discourse, and how this impacts the subjects of mediatised public crises. Drawing on the theorising of Couldry and Cottle, the article considers the capacity and limitations of survivor-advocates to leverage media power in the contemporary media system. By exploring the 'Privileging Victim Voice' frame, this paper sheds light on how victim–survivor advocates utilised mainstream, local religious, and social media to solidify their central place in the narrative and its reportage. The media analysis served as the foundation for a 'peer conversation' style of focus groups with Jewish community members to investigate local impacts of the case's media reportage. The focus group methodology sought to represent this diverse community as wholly as possible. Findings reveal the significant power of journalists' framing and sourcing practices, and how Jewish institutional child sexual abuse is framed by media outlets within the Australian media landscape. Further, it showcases the broader implications of public inquiries, such as Australia's Royal Commission, in empowering victim–survivors and centreing their narratives in media reportage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commitment problems and information asymmetries represent key impediments to peacekeeping. We posit that mass media—more specifically, United Nations (UN) peacekeeping radio broadcasts—is a cost-effective, easily implemented method of addressing common roadblocks to conflict resolution. We analyze monthly battle-related deaths across 51 UN peacekeeping missions during the years 1992–2014. Using negative binomial models with two-way fixed effects, we find that peaceful UN radio broadcasts are associated with decreased conflict intensity. We argue that radio-based, mass communication is particularly effective owing to the socio-economic conditions within conflict zones; these properties include severe under-development and lack of access to modern technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we investigate gender bias against politicians in a large set of news articles (n = 1,139,571) published in major media outlets in the United States between 2010 and 2020 by tracing changes in reporting about 1,095 US politicians. Using topic modeling with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), we identify main policy-related topics in media reports. We find gender differences in the coverage of certain policy issues, with major imbalances explained by societal factors. Specifically, we show that women in high-level political positions receive less media coverage than their male counterparts and women in less powerful positions on economic and national security issues. However, women and men in less influential positions do not differ in the amount and type of reporting they garner. Since women are still underrepresented in leadership positions, the US media may inadvertently reflect and reinforce existing gender biases in society by devoting more attention to high-profile politicians, who are overwhelmingly male. Although our longitudinal analysis shows positive changes, the gender gap in reporting continues to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been limited adoption of Immersive Journalism (IJ) by the audience; simultaneously, the audience's perspective is rarely considered in the production and research of IJ. At this point, however, it is crucial to incorporate an audience perspective to identify potentially unintended effects of IJ and improve on the innovation of IJ. This study investigates the audience's experience and evaluation of IJ by qualitatively analyzing their thoughts after viewing two IJ cases. Our results indicate that the audience may pick up on intended effects, such as a sense of presence and an intense emotional experience, but some also express unease towards these effects. Furthermore, the audience struggles to comprehend this study's two immersive journalistic cases as part of the journalistic genre. These findings provide insight into the gap between the initial hype and the current reality of IJ and provide the basis for propositions for future IJ productions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for newsrooms across the world range from severe economic hardship to increased threats to press freedom. The "perfect storm" that engulfed the media and journalists globally has threatened and continues to challenge their existence, and the core of their mission to serve the public interest. This study maps the impact of external political, economic, legal and societal factors on journalistic freedom and the way(s) news organizations and journalists operate in times of global crisis in four Southern European countries. It provides a fuller cross-national perspective on the complex relationship between media, journalism and politics in countries with existing democratic deficits. Findings are based on 32 semi-structured interviews with journalists working in four Southern European countries, namely Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, conducted in 2022. We find increased economic challenges to their fragile media markets, high level of state intervention, political parallelism in coverage of the pandemic and beyond, and numerous threats to the autonomy of journalists that hamper journalism and question its development in the future. The study's implications are relevant to different contexts, particularly in countries where journalism and media face similar challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study shifts the focus of research on media's role in facilitating and inhibiting self-stereotyping among the members of stigmatized groups. More specifically, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model explaining (un)intentional effects of a real-world anti-ageism social media campaign among stereotyped targets: Older workers. Drawing on an experiment among older Dutch adults (N = 649), we test the effects of two message strategies for reducing prejudice: the media-literacy and the counter stereotypical information strategy. The results show that exposure to content warnings as well as strong counter-stereotypical message (i.e., consisting of positive exemplars and the negation of generic age stereotypes) is powerful in inhibiting implicit stereotype endorsement, ultimately boosting favourable employability perceptions of older workers. By integrating insights from the parasocial content hypothesis and stereotype threat indications, we provide a nuanced understanding of how anti-bias campaigns impact stigmatized targets, and isolate reasons for the varied effectiveness of such interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1953 and 2023, mass media changed how they cover Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine. My thesis is that the defining narratives of Hugh Hefner and his famous creation involved five distinct media personas, which were entrepreneur, activist, paradox, tragic figure, and predator. Using key magazine articles as central points of information, I consider how changes in Playboy 's success combined with cultural shifts in the structure of feeling, such as fourth-wave feminism and the Me Too movement, to transform the dominant representation of Hugh Hefner from an entrepreneurial Horatio Alger to a salacious predator. Media attention after his death recognizes that Hugh Hefner had a definite but undeniably controversial influence on American life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on femicide news revealed discriminatory narratives against the victims in specific cases and social contexts. This article uses a quantitative approach to analyze the news content that serves to create social representations of victims and perpetrators. We propose a methodology based on examining independent elements in the descriptions, identifying extratextual patterns, and providing the data to compare the social representations of intimate partner violence (IPV), familiar, and non-IPV femicides. Three online news outlets were analyzed from July 2014 to December 2017, creating a corpus of 2,527 articles. The results revealed that it is more common to create negative representations of victims than negative representations of the perpetrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study explores how communication practice affects Swedish home care nurses' psychosocial work environment. Data consisted of interviews and field observations, analyzed from the perspective of Media Synchronicity Theory and the Job-Demand-Control-Support model. Individual home care nurses were found to manage an interorganizational communication web. The results indicated that this web could have a protective function for the nurses. Synchronous communication was found important to control the work situation. Nevertheless, asynchronous communication was enforced when communicating with other health care organizations. This reduced the level of control for the nurses. However, when possible, the nurses also arranged their communication practice to gain control. Thus, local optimization for one group could result in suboptimization for others. We conclude that communication practice should be designed holistically and promote synchronous communication to foster well-functioning interprofessional teamwork and to create a healthy psychosocial work environment for both home care nurses and their collaborators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health issues are prevalent among young people. An estimated 10% of children and adolescents worldwide experience a mental disorder, yet most do not seek or receive care. Media mental health awareness campaigns, defined as marketing efforts to raise awareness of mental health issues through mass media, are an effort to address this concern. While previous research has evaluated the outcomes of specific media mental health awareness campaigns, there is limited data synthesizing their overall effects. This study addresses the knowledge gap by reviewing the existing literature on the impact of media mental health awareness campaigns on young people. A search was conducted on MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for studies published between 2004 and 2022 with results specific to people aged 10 to 24. Out of 20,902 total studies identified and screened, 18 studies were included in the review. The following data were extracted from each study: characteristics and descriptions of the campaign, evaluation design and sampling, and summary of impact. The review identified evaluations of 15 campaigns from eight different countries. Outcome evaluation methods commonly comprised of surveys and quantitative data. The campaigns were generally associated with positive changes in the attitudes, beliefs, and intentions of young people (e.g., reduced stigma) and positive changes in behaviors (e.g., increased help-seeking behaviors). The inclusion of few studies in the review indicates a need for ongoing evaluations of media mental health awareness campaigns for young people to inform good practices in their development and distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paradox of documenting history through gruesome visuals depicting the prominence of stories intrigues media researchers. Foundational work on the dual representation theory explains trauma transference to brain functions following disturbing emotional triggers. The analysis suggests an existing link between exposure to disturbing information and trauma. In East Africa, trauma and related psychological effects thrive amid rigid newsroom structures devoid of intervention mechanisms. The scarcity of trauma mitigations is not just an issue in journalism, but in society, as mental health concerns and other deprivations become common. Data from in-depth interviews with journalists reporting trauma in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda indicate a positive correlation between a heightened frequency of exposure to violent visuals and an increased manifestation of trauma. Data also show a dearth in psychosocial support, indicating a need for alternative mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, ongoing armed conflicts worldwide have fueled global instability. This collection highlights the importance of understanding the evolving media landscape within the realm of conflicts. It delves into various research themes and future directions for examining news coverage amid unrest, featuring recent studies from Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. These studies shed light on media dynamics in conflict zones, emphasizing the importance of comparative analyses and transnational journalism to address challenges in high-conflict environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the establishment of the modern Iranian nation-state in 1923, successive regimes and governments of Iran have pursued an intricate policy of suppressing and persecuting its Kurdish people, presenting a significant threat to the Kurdish national identity, culture, and society. The successive Iranian regimes have, along with military means, employed the state's cultural, educational, religious, and economic institutions to accomplish their goals of assimilating and conquering the Kurds. An examination of Kurdish history and politics in Iran reveals that while the international community has some knowledge of the Iranian state's extensive deployment of military force and explicit militarization of Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat/East Kurdistan), the broader psychological and nonmilitary (soft power) practices employed to suppress the Kurdish movement, identity, and culture are lesser known to the outside world. By focusing on mass media and policies of "divide-and-rule" as measures and mechanisms used by the Iranian state to subdue its Kurdish citizens, this article aims to provide an analysis of the post-1979 state-Kurdish relationships in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2023, Indian politics witnessed two significant events: the transition from the 96-year-old parliament building to a new one in Sansad Marg Area and the passing of the Constitution 128th (Amendment) Bill, 2023—the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. Women's Reservation Bill, which passed with an overwhelming majority in both the Houses of the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha), culminates several previous attempts. The journey of this bill began in 1996, followed by attempts in 1998, 1999 and 2008, with a 2010 bill passing in Rajya Sabha but lapsing in Lok Sabha. At the time of its passing, around 15% of Lok Sabha members were women, a record high. This historical context is crucial to understanding the significance of the bill and its impact on Indian politics. As a powerful influencer of public opinion, the media responded to the Women's Reservation Bill with praise and criticism, reflecting the diverse public opinion. Some hailed it as a revolutionary step, while others dismissed it as an 'election jumla (lofty promise)'. The bill's delayed applicability and the perceived neglect of OBC reservations sparked controversy. This study examines how the news media framed the Women's Reservation Bill, using content analysis of six leading English newspapers in India: The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Hindu, The Indian Express, The Pioneer and The Statesman. The researchers identified various frames, including informational, political, policy and conflict that the media used to shape public perception and understanding of the bill. The newspaper coverage intensified from September 19 onwards, offering a mix of news stories, analyses and graphical representations, reflecting the complexity of the bill and the public discourse surrounding it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses popular mass media to illustrate the Black man's burden regarding the presidential candidacy and subsequent presidency of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. It draws on news accounts from November 2008 to January 2009, which vividly depict the burden Black people placed on Barack Obama's presidency and the burden they endured due to his visibility in holding the highest office in the United States. The article's inception resulted from the author's revisiting articles from Newsweek magazine, USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Miami Herald and other sources saved for years. This process revealed an emerging theme that forms the basis of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, conducted in Germany and Israel in May 2022, compares German and Israeli news media consumption concerning the Russian–Ukrainian war using a structured online questionnaire. A total of 1,310 and 509 valid questionnaires were completed in Germany and Israel, respectively, examining differences in how news consumers used media to access information. Specifically, objective and subjective proximity to Ukraine and Ukrainians, interest in politics and media perceptions were examined as potential predictors of use patterns of various media. For most variables, Germans and Israelis similarly sought news about the war, especially in mainstream news media. In Israel, objective and subjective proximities to Ukraine were the most significant predictors for consuming mainstream news media, with interest in politics and media trust being less important. In Germany, the latter factors predicted mainstream news media consumption more strongly than ties and subjective proximity, while trust in the mainstream media was not a significant predictor. Finally, the authors found that the lower the trust in mainstream media, the larger the volume of social media consumption about the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we explore homicides and fatal violence against transgender individuals using the framework of the trifecta of violence—violent ideology, violent policies and laws, and violent actions. In recent years, researchers, activists, and the media, particularly the news media, have been warning that the increase in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, especially but not exclusively online, coupled with a surge in anti-transgender legislation, has resulted in increased instances of violence against the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender people. In this article we examine patterns of transphobic ideology and rhetoric, anti-trans legislation, and fatal violence against transgender people in the United States from 2015 to 2022. We find that increases in all three occurred over this time period, with all three aspects of the "trifecta" correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media trust has been studied particularly from the audience perspective so far, while journalists' trust has been neglected. Therefore, based on representative survey data of journalists and recipients in Germany, we investigated media trust levels of both groups, and we examined political factors driving their trust. Our findings suggest that journalists indicate higher trust levels than recipients and their levels of political trust and political satisfaction increase it. In comparison, social and political trust, along with perceived political influences on journalistic work, are decisive for the level of media trust among recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares Swedish social workers, teachers, and journalists' experiences of workplace violence. It addresses similarities and differences between the three professional groups in terms of who exposed them to workplace violence, what it was about, and what triggered it. The article is based on an online survey study, and the findings suggest that consumer-related violence from target groups was the most common among all three professional groups. Looking at worker-on-worker relationship violence, the teachers were the most exposed, followed by social workers and journalists, and such violence suggests bullying in the workplace. Most respondents stated that the hate, threats, and harassment were about their professional competence. While all of these professional groups have a position of power in society, they also perceive that it is often in the situations in which they exercise their power (e.g., making a decision for social workers and teachers or when journalists publish) that they become targets for workplace violence. Plain Language Summary: Powerful and vulnerable: Workplace violence against Swedish social workers, teachers, and journalists This article compares Swedish social workers, teachers, and journalists' experiences of workplace violence. It addresses similarities and differences between the three professional groups in terms of who exposed them to workplace violence, what it was about, and what triggered it. The article is based on an online survey study. It was most common with workplace violence from target groups such as clients for social workers, pupils for teachers and readers/viewers for journalists. Most respondents stated that the hate, threats, and harassment were about their professional competence. While all of these professional groups have a position of power in society, they also perceive that it is often in the situations in which they exercise their power (e.g., making a decision for social workers and teachers or when journalists publish) that they become targets for workplace violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and extreme weather events have been shown to increase incidences of gender-based violence (GBV). Numerous organizations have devoted significant time, resources, and effort to the design and implementation of interventions aimed at reducing GBV in Africa. Some interventions effectively reduce violence, but GBV persists and remains pervasive. The United Nations has called for GBV interventions that consider the impact of climate change on violence. This review aims to determine whether public health interventions intended to reduce GBV in Africa take into account the effects of climate change on the region and the population. PubMed, PsychArticles, and CINAHL databases were searched systematically in February 2023 for interventions conducted in Africa published between 2010 and 2023. There were a total of 86 articles in the final review that described 40 distinct interventions. The intervention designs included empowerment and participatory approaches (microfinance, microfinance plus, community education, and community engagement), changing social and cultural norms (community education, community engagement, and media), and school-based programs. None of the 40 interventions mentioned climate, weather, or climate change as a component of the intervention. There are several opportunities to improve existing, successful GBV interventions in order to increase their efficacy. GBV interventions could incorporate economic independence programs that do not rely on agriculture and include climate change education. These findings could facilitate the integration of two previously distinct research disciplines—climate change and GBV prevention—to inform future research and develop more effective and cost-efficient interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial notes from the Fall 2024 issue of the Newspaper Research Journal highlight the prevalence of discussions around artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism and communication, particularly at the 2024 AEJMC conference. The sessions covered various topics, including AI, news deserts, and the ethical use of AI in journalism. The issue also includes studies on climate change coverage in Pakistan, community-focused media centers, journalistic autonomy in different countries, representation of women in sports, journalists' emotional well-being, and media platforms in Mexico. These articles provide insights into current trends and challenges in the field of journalism and communication. [Extracted from the article]

Along with the direct trauma of their experience, many rape victims also suffer secondary victimization due to the tendency of others to blame victims for their assault, particularly in cases of acquaintance rape. We explored the role of news media coverage in promoting victim blaming tendencies. In Study 1, a content analysis of articles reporting sexual assaults from two newspapers revealed a tendency for media to overreport stranger rapes and underreport acquaintance rapes, perpetuating the stranger rape as "real rape" prototype. More victim blaming language was also used in reports of acquaintance rape than stranger rape. Perceivers responded to these differences; a high victim blaming news article resulted in greater victim blaming compared to an article low in victim blame content (Study 2 and 3), and exposure to a high blaming article produced greater victim blaming in a subsequent unrelated case of rape and increased endorsement of rape myths (Study 3). These findings demonstrate the importance of the media in shaping public perception of rape victims, particularly in cases of acquaintance rape, and suggest that news media, legislators, and other visible communicators can change the culture of victimization through intentional efforts to delegitimize rape stereotypes in their reporting and dialogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals formerly involved in armed groups are positioned in the victim–perpetrator binary by legal systems and societies. Media participates in this process and influences the relationship between law and society by reproducing or challenging legal and social designations. We assess the relationship between the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecution of Dominic Ongwen, a former child soldier in Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and media representations of Ongwen. We conduct a content analysis of 779 Ugandan, African, and international newspapers' English-language articles published between January 2005 and October 2022. We find that media coverage focuses on Ongwen's adult roles in the group, including as an LRA leader, largely reproducing the ICC's portrayal of the accused. A minority of articles acknowledge a more complex status and increase in frequency once Ongwen's ICC trial is underway. An important faction challenges the ICC's narrative, with non-Africa-based media presenting a more complex depiction of Ongwen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding social media research on the Pacific Digital Revolution, this article explores the significance of Papua New Guineans' digital and visual articulations of Papua New Guinean identity through Instagram by analysing two public Papua New Guinean Instagram accounts, @archiveples and @taniabphoto. The research triangulates between Pacific, Indigenous, and Cultural studies, drawing on articulation theory and a multimodal thematic and visual cultural studies analysis. A Melanesian tok stori (storytelling) framework reveals how social media interactions fit within a culturally relevant Melanesian concept of storytelling and illustrates how social media has become a contemporary site for Pacific digital storytelling. This digital tok stori is a decolonsing digital wave of the Pacific artistic renaissance and reimagining emerging in 1970s post-independence art and literature. This research demonstrates how Papua New Guineans are subversively harnessing the tools and affordances of social media to counter reductive colonial narratives and mass media representations of Papua New Guineans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact of this latter strategy on the existing fanbase of the purchased team and on their relationship with sportswashing and the discourses surrounding it. This paper addresses this lacuna through analysis of a popular Manchester City online fan forum, which illustrates the manner in which this community of dedicated City fans have legitimated the actions of the club's ownership regime, the Abu Dhabi United Group – a private equity group operated by Abu Dhabi royalty and UAE politicians. The discursive strategies of the City fans are discussed, in addition to the wider significance of these strategies on the issue of sportswashing and its coverage by the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interventional reality programmes often give rise to speculations about how they treat their contributors. However, little is known about the actual production practices that lie behind these complex and often contradictory media texts. Based on in-depth interviews with crew members of a variety of popular formats, this article explores how ordinary people are turned into subjects of emancipation and spectacular transformations. By analysing the ideals, tactics and constraints characterising this process, I address how particular discursive and organisational mechanisms support or hinder morally viable compromises in situations where the imperative of 'selling strong performances' and personal standpoints come into conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicultural interactions bring individuals from varied cultural backgrounds together, leading to situations that either foster or impede social cohesion. This issue is critical as social cohesion significantly influences quality-of-life (QOL), which, together with marketing systems, forms the core of macromarketing. Our research contributes by introducing "boundary interweaving" – a novel concept in boundary-making strategy that aims to improve QOL and cultural well-being within marketing systems. Boundary interweaving is a process wherein two or more cultural boundaries interweave together to create a new, unique cultural boundary. Integrating marketing systems and boundary-making theories, this study on ethnic minority marketing shifts from the traditional single-level focus to explore multi-level interactions among market actors. Employing discourse analysis of a documentary and news articles, particularly focusing on food narratives from wet markets and adjacent hawker stalls, we examine interactions between market actors consisting of government, politicians, mass media, sellers, and consumers. Our findings reveal that interactions among market actors exemplify boundary interweaving within the realms of space, language, and foodways. Rather than delineating us and them among different ethnic groups, this paper demonstrates that joint efforts by market actors across macro-, meso-, and microlevels can facilitate the integration, social inclusion and coexistence of diverse ethnic cultures within the marketing system. Boundary interweaving fosters cultural well-being, promotes a sense of belonging and facilitates social cohesion among different ethnic groups. This study highlights the influence of culture on the functioning, growth, and evolution of a marketing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: HIV remains a global public health concern, and women continue to be disproportionately affected. Understanding the factors associated with pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness among women is crucial as an effective HIV prevention strategy. Objectives: We investigated the prevalence and associated factors of pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness among women in Burkina Faso. Design: This was a cross-section study that used population-based data. Methods: A total of 17,659 women of reproductive age (15–49 years) from the 2021 Burkina Faso Demographic and Health Survey were analyzed. Percentage and multivariable logistic regression model were used to examine the prevalence and factors associated with pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness. Results: The prevalence of pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness was 8.2% (95% confidence interval = 7.8%–8.6%). Women's age was positively associated pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness. Women with primary and secondary education had 39% and 48% higher odds of pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness, when compared with women with no formal education. The odds of pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness were 1.40 (95% confidence interval = 1.19–1.66) times higher among Christians when compared with the Muslims. Women who were exposed to mass media including newspaper or magazine, radio, TV, and Internet had higher odds of pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness, when compared with those without exposure to mass media channels. Women who have previously tested for HIV had 37% higher odds of pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness, when compared with those who have not been tested (adjusted odds ratio = 1.37; 95% confidence interval = 1.09–1.72). Conclusion: This study found women's age, geographical region, education, religion, exposure to mass media channels, employment, and HIV testing to be associated with pre-exposure prophylaxis awareness. These findings can inform the development of targeted interventions and public health campaigns to increase awareness and practice to pre-exposure prophylaxis, particularly among key population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the visual representation of the refugee child in digital news media in Cyprus at two historical moments of significant immigration rise in Europe as a result of violent conflict: the period of May 2015-2016 and February 2022-2023. The analysis showed that refugee children were portrayed in ways which led to their de/humanization. However, differences in the language, themes, and visual grammar applied gave way to the emergence of a hierarchy of refugee child subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While in the last decade we made strides in the pursuit of gender equality, women's rights, dignity, and safety continue to be under threat around the world. There is a growing body of research documenting contemporary misogyny, mainly focused on extreme manifestations found in online environments. Conversely, we know less about how misogyny features in other spheres of our daily lives. The current study focuses on such an environment, namely segments from the British show This Morning in which guests are invited to take opposing stances on a variety of topics related to women's appearance, behaviour, competencies, and experiences with sexual harassment. Using discursive psychology, we identified two sets of argumentative discursive practices employed by guests who espoused misogynist views. First, when guests were prompted to present their controversial views, they constructed them as reasonable, strategically differentiating them from established misogynist tropes. By contrast, when guests' views were challenged, they doubled down on their positions by drawing on scientific explanations for human behaviour that ostensibly justified bigoted views. This study sheds light onto the discursive mechanisms through which misogyny escapes eradication, and through which it mutates into subtler forms that are increasingly difficult to identify and denounce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades there has been a significant increase in diagnosing children and adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), and in the use of pharmacological treatment with Ritalin, Concerta and Strattera for AD/HD. This development has given rise to scientific criticism, claiming that the pharmaceuticals prescribed by doctors are, to a large extent, ineffective or harmful. This study discusses media's portrayal of treatment of AD/HD. The aim of the article is to develop a social constructionist perspective, highlighting how scientific critique of pharmaceuticals for AD/HD is handled in the mass media. The authors introduce the concept of "psychopharmacological extensibility," which demonstrates the importance of collective definitional processes in society. Psychopharmacological extensibility reflects the fact that the perception of AD/HD agents as beneficial medicines or harmful drugs is open to interpretation and dependent on social factors related to context, power, rhetoric, and marketization. The empirical data are based on 211 articles from eight of the largest newspapers in Sweden, published between 2002 and 2021. The result shows that Swedish mass media, in numerous ways, neglects or undermines the scientific criticism made, thereby facilitating an increased use of the diagnosis and of psychotropic agents in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been an increasing number of studies investigating media representations of the COVID-19 outbreak around the world, less international attention has been given to Chinese media outlets' coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak than that of their western counterparts. This study employs corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to investigate how China is linguistically represented in a state-run English-language news media. The analysis reveals that China is respectively represented as a victim, a fighter, and a cooperative/supportive country with ideological implications for global solidarity and humanitarianism. This study sheds light on the effective use of discursive strategies in promoting international cooperation and building a national image amid a global health crisis. The value of using corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to examine national image is also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with similar research mainly focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Australian mainstream media using discourse analysis, this paper explores the reasons for the narrative shift by conducting semi-structured interviews with leading and well-known Australian narrative producers. This paper takes two conditions as a given. Firstly, the BRI narratives in Australian mainstream media shifted in tone from mostly positive to highly critical. Secondly, the Australian mainstream media's increasingly negative attitudes towards the BRI are essentially not just about the BRI but the Chinese government. Based on my analysis and interviews, this paper makes contributions by filling in the gap of finding out reasons to explain this narrative shift. More concretely, this paper finds out that while mainstream media is influential in many areas of national policy making, mainstream media reporting on foreign affairs is less so. By comparison, the Australian government's BRI or China policy has a significant impact on Australian mainstream media reporting. This narrative shift has been driven by international politics and Australia's China policy, influenced by Australian audiences' preference of local news and their local position, and its democratic responsibilities. Meanwhile, the vagueness and constant changing characteristics of the BRI do not help the understanding of the BRI in Australian media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on six newsroom surveys, this article analyzes the history of digital German journalism. The surveys cover a period of 17 years (1997–2014). Periodizing the history of digital journalism into three phases, this article considers the interplay between journalism and journalism research. The results show how journalistic digital media define their role in the relationships between old media and the Internet, digital media and other outlets, and digital media and their audiences. Furthermore, the results substantiate how digital editorial staff define their journalistic identities regarding tasks, rules, and skills. During the first period (surveys conducted in 1997 and 2000), the view from old mass media to the Internet dominated, also in scholarship where the mass media paradigm was extended to the Internet. The second period (surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007) was characterized by clarifying the relationships between journalism and newly emerged outlets. These studies focused on how participative formats (such as Wikipedia and blogs) and search engines could be used for journalistic purposes without compromising quality. These new outlets were not regarded then as much of a threat. This attitude did not change during the third period (surveys conducted in 2010 and 2014). In this phase, too, the studies focused on how editorial staff utilized the ever-increasing number of social media. The six surveys' different research interests reveal that the reviewed journalism research primarily addressed changing demands in journalistic practice. Therefore, exogenous factors ("the sector") had a greater impact than endogenous factors (the "scholarship") on research interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to sketch a brief history of complex digital transformation of media and journalism in the context of Serbia, a European country which has undergone politically turbulent transition from authoritarian to democratic rule over the past 20 years. Despite the long process of the EU integration, the country has been recently downgraded to a partly free hybrid regime with rapid decline of press freedom, high political and media polarization and raising political and economic instrumentalization of media. Against this background, the paper problematizes how the main structural transformations of the media environment, such as the transition from state to public broadcasting, the introduction of new media laws and the lengthy process of media privatization intersected and influenced different phases and outcomes of the digital transformation of journalism and news media in the country. Unlike the digital journalism development in established democracies of the West, the real systemic change and adaptation of Serbia's media market to easy-to-use technologies, newsrooms convergence, profitable content and participatory journalism has been largely limited and overpowered by the interplay between the state and the media over the past two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the "protest paradigm" have long explored how a society's mass media system frames the social movements occurring within that society. This study adopts a social movement diffusion perspective to sharpen the transborder dimension of the protest paradigm. Specifically, we introduce the concept of the "diffusion-proofing" protest paradigm, given that an understudied and undertheorized function of the protest paradigm is the prevention of the import of exogenous social movements. Taking the Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement as an example, we investigate how mainland China's mass media acted to prevent movement diffusion. Four transborder components of the diffusion-proofing protest paradigm are proposed: reactions, attributions, consequences, and solutions. Through content analysis, we argue that by highlighting these transborder components, China's newspapers attributed the movement's rise to foreign intervention, emphasized the movement's negative effects on both Hong Kong and mainland China, and revealed the uncompromising nature of China's reaction and the urgency of cross-border cooperation for containing the movement and its diffusion. Further, we identify two modes of reporting: a mainly descriptive mode that relied on a local framework to depict the movement and its local context and an evaluative mode that emphasized the level of deviance and foreign intervention, thus amplifying the movement's transborder effects and the need to prevent its diffusion. Notably, the level of deviance acts as a mediating channel between the two modes, transforming the local framework into a transborder one. The diffusion-proofing protest paradigm is also found to vary across media types and periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]