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The body of literature on underrepresentation and gender inequality is vast. However, despite its potential to perpetuate gender stereotypes, the overrepresentation of women in media has received inadequate attention. This study explores how traditional news media and social media overrepresent females as drivers when discussing traffic accidents, and whether social media could be the 'new equalizer' for gender. Focusing on China, we collected 97,120 posts from Weibo, China's largest microblogging site, and 11,290 newspaper articles dated between January 2010 and November 2018. We analyzed the data through a mixed-methods design and found that female drivers are overrepresented in discussions of traffic accidents, in both newspapers and on Weibo. While the gender bias against female drivers is more prevalent on Weibo than in newspapers, Weibo has provided a platform for gender-aware discussion. Our study closes by offering suggestions for cross-platform and cross-cultural comparisons of gender representation in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares American, British, and Chinese news coverage of Internet privacy policies. Specifically, we examine media discourse about the “real-name” policies established by Facebook and Weibo. We find that U.S. and UK news coverage of Internet privacy policy is broadly similar, when compared with the more authoritarian–corporatist media system in China. British and U.S. newspapers were much more independent from state control, and were able to maintain a more critical stance than the Chinese newspapers. But there were additional factors that shaped the patterns in news discourse in complicated ways, which are related to (a) the difference between domestic and international news genres, (b) specific narratives about national identity, and (c) more general discourses about civil society, democracy, and the public good. We suggest that the range of comparative media research can be extended by paying attention to how these cultural factors interact with media system dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current period of disruptive social change is inextricably bound up with new means and modes of communication, information, and media streams. The Communication, Information Technologies & Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS) locates these factors at the center of our collective interests, investigating them through a plethora of methods, theories, and empirical cases. Each year, CITAMS runs a special issue in ICS showcasing select works presented at the previous year's American Sociological Association conference and the affiliated Media Sociology preconference. Papers in the 2022 CITAMS Special Issue reflect a social context defined by a prolonged global pandemic and wrought by democratic uncertainty. Across these social circumstances, technology and media loom large. Simultaneously, everyday life continues and classic CITAMS scholarship sustains relevance for the ways people interact, construct identity, consume, and mobilize. All of this and more are contained in the pages of this year's Special Issue, from which readers can get a sense of what CITAMS has to offer and consider how their own work may fit within the broad CITAMS umbrella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each year the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association curates a special issue highlighting sociological contributions to technology and media studies. That tradition continued in 2020, even as everything else changed. The articles included in this year's special issue were mostly written pre-Pandemic, yet their implications seem amplified by the current historical moment. With a globe gone remote, mediated communication rose from a specialist academic subject to an acute social consideration, intersecting with and illuminating basic sociological concerns about inequality, the nature of work, family life, and the compounding effects of race, class, gender, and sexuality as they interplay with social and material conditions. These topics are all reflected in the articles from this year's issue, now inflected with a post-Pandemic reality that shows insights from CITAMS are needed now, more than ever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the effects of dietary coated sodium butyrate (CSB) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory response in weaned lambs. A basal diet was supplemented with CSB at 0, 2 or 3 g/kg feed for 28 days and/or intraperitoneally injected with 100 μg/kg BW Escherichia coli LPS (0 g/kg CSB, 0 g/kg CSB and LPS, 2 g/kg CSB and LPS, 3 g/kg CSB and LPS). The results showed that CSB supplementation conferred significant protective effects against LPS-induced inflammatory response by reducing in the levels of D-lactate (DLA), diamine oxidase (DAO), inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-8) in the serum and upregulated expression of tight junction proteins (claudin-3, ZO-1 and occludin) in the ileum. Meanwhile, CSB pre-treatment significantly suppressed LPS-induced TLR4/NF-κB signalling pathway mRNA expression (MyD88, TLR4, NF-κB, IL-6 and IL-1β) and down-regulated TLR4/NF-κB signalling pathway protein expression (MyD88, TLR4, NF-κB p65 and p-NF-κB p65). Furthermore, dietary CSB supplementation improved intestinal morphology. Lastly, bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that CSB could alter intestinal microbiota composition at genus levels. Taken together, our results indicate CSB could maintain intestinal health, improve intestinal morphology, modulate the microbial community and decrease LPS-induced inflammatory response in lambs. The addition of CSB improves the permeability of lamb's intestinal tract The addition of CSB enhances lamb's intestinal barrier function CSB alter intestinal microbiota composition at genus levels CSB alleviates LPS-induced intestinal injury in weaned lambs through TLR4/NF-κB signalling pathway [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]