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Pandemics threaten world stability; however, spread is mitigated with prevention behaviors. We introduce "personally relevant knowledge" to explain the knowledge–behavior gap (i.e., objective and subjective knowledge on information acquisition and behavioral change). Hypotheses are derived from prior knowledge literature, economic psychology, and relevance theory. Multimethod analysis (survey data, partial least squares structural equation path modeling [PLS-SEM], and an asymmetric information theoretic statistical analysis) is applied to H1N1 data from the USA and Australia. Personally relevant knowledge is an important addition to prior knowledge conceptualizations, and information theory uncovers asymmetric variable relationships concerning the knowledge–behavior gap, not captured by PLS-SEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a pragmatic approach to addressing speakers with different cultural backgrounds and their use of communication style. It applies this approach to data collected in radio advice talk shows broadcast in China and Britain. This research indicates that the distinction between direct and indirect communication style, the term which was used to characterise cultures by early studies of culture and communication, is being redefined from a pragmatic perspective. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how Relevance Theory, a cognitive pragmatic model of communication proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1995/1986), offers significant insights into the processes involved in the production and comprehension of utterances, which may help explain the socio-cultural phenomenon. The findings from this study indicate that, in the context of radio advice talk shows, speakers from China and Britain - two cultures that have been characterised as using direct and indirect styles-both fall into the same category of using indirect communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the existing research on tourism advertising has focused on visual semiotics rather than verbal language. This research note discusses the methodological approach that was taken to investigate language use in British tourism print advertising. Pragmatics, a branch of linguistics, was utilized to support the content analysis of figures of speech. This methodological approach is the first serious attempt to explore the language use in tourism advertising. The approach taken provides rich insight into the interpretation of figures of speech and demonstrates how language contributes to the communication of tourism images. The major contribution of this research lies in the detailed textual analysis of figures of speech. This analysis is based on pragmatic approach, relevance theory, which enhances the interpretation of tourism images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]