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Following the fast spread of Covid-19 across Europe and North America in March 2020, many people started stockpiling commodities like toilet paper. Despite the high relevance for public authorities to adequately address stockpiling behavior, empirical studies on the psychological underpinnings of toilet paper stockpiling are still scarce. In this study, we investigated the relation between personality traits, perceived threat of Covid-19, and stockpiling of toilet paper in an online survey (N = 996) across 22 countries. Results suggest that people who felt more threatened by Covid-19 stockpiled more toilet paper. Further, a predisposition towards Emotionality predicted the perceived threat of Covid-19 and affected stockpiling behavior indirectly. Finally, Conscientiousness was related to toilet paper stockpiling, such that individuals higher in Conscientiousness tended to stockpile more toilet paper. These results emphasize the importance of clear communication by public authorities acknowledging anxiety and, at the same time, transmitting a sense of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although journalism has long been considered a profession of lone wolves, its present and future is shaped by collaborative practices of various kinds. The investigation of the Panama Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its more than 100 media partners worldwide is an impressive example of collaborative journalism across media, language and national borders. This article focuses on the impact of such cross-border journalism projects on the transnationalization of public communication in digital media environments. It addresses the question of what kind of 'networked public sphere' was created by the revelations of the Panama Papers, exemplified by the communication structures that evolved on the networking platform Twitter. Digital media such as Twitter have the potential to constitute more grounded public spheres than traditional media and to foster interconnections between different publics across national and language barriers. We trace whether or not the transnational collaborative Panama Papers investigation paved the way for a networked public sphere characterized by (1) transnational attention to the issue and (2) transnational interconnections through Twitter users interacting across country and language boundaries and thereby contributing to global public communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds upon recent scholarship on the recycling - or 'salvage' - schemes organized by the British government during the Second World War. Viewing the act of recycling as part of an interactive 'communications circuit', it uses records produced by the Ministry of Information to analyse the development of publicity produced for the national salvage campaign. Particular attention is paid to the public's role in shaping the course of the campaign. By demonstrating that a disjuncture between publicity and perceptions of inaction led to a sense of frustration, the article suggests that this example complicates the notion of a 'people's war'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the premises and theories of public communication, this paper aims, through a qualitative study, to capture, on the one hand, the main aspects of the image of agricultural companies with direct impact on their profitability and, on the other hand, to identify the mechanisms of public communication that have the greatest impact on image formation. The importance of agricultural companies is becoming more and more strongly perceived lately, the post-Covid 19 experience, the danger of uncontrolled increase in prices of basic foods, have made it easier for public opinion to understand the role of agricultural companies in ensuring food security. Certain governmental strategies to promote Romanian products, cooperation on the short producer-consumer chain, have led to putting on the public agenda, especially in recent years, the role and importance of agricultural companies within the Romanian society. In this context, the paper aimed to analyze the specific public communication strategies in promoting agricultural companies for increasing their credibility, enhance their competitiveness and conquest new markets. The qualitative research conducted through the method of the self-administered structured questionnaire analyses how agricultural companies, through their communication strategies, use recommendations and European funds in promotional campaigns to increase market image and build their own brand. The scientific premises, on which the research was based, were validated, the responses showing a significant correlation regarding information, access to funds, or the use of online promotional campaigns for building the image and brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a novel approach to the functional transformation of the public communication of science and technology in the context of the commodification of academia and academic research. It contends that the public representations of university-industry relations and academic entrepreneurship policy should be understood as an instance of the leveraging of the public communication of science and technology for propaganda purposes. To substantiate this approach, this paper elaborates on the concept and functions of propaganda by drawing from traditional and contemporary scholarship. It also examines what the commodification of academic knowledge production consists of, underscoring its contradictions and the negative consequences that it has had for some domains of social life, including academia itself. In view of the foregoing, it is possible to hypothesise the use of the public communication of science and technology for disseminating the ‘ideology of academic entrepreneurship’ for propaganda purposes. The final section outlines some general criteria that ought to be considered when operationalising this theoretical framework for analysing the media coverage of university-industry relations and academic entrepreneurship. The approach described here should be understood as a first step towards uncovering and criticising the ‘common sense’ on which the contemporary political economy of academic knowledge production rests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of his life, Stuart Hall called for the reengagement of Cultural Studies and Marxism. This paper contributes to this task. It analyses Stuart Hall's works on communication and the media. The goal of the paper is to read Stuart Hall in a manner that can inform the renewal of Marxist Humanism and the development of a Marxist-Humanist theory of communication. This involves reconstructing elements of Hall's approach, criticising certain aspects of his work, and through this engagement developing new theory elements. The article's analysis of Stuart Hall's theory of communication and the media is conducted in four steps. First, the paper reengages and re-evaluates what Hall called the two paradigms of Cultural Studies: Structuralism and "Culturalism"/Humanism. It discusses the role of human agency in society. Second, the paper engages with Hall's and Althusser's notions of articulation and sets the notion of articulation in relation to the concept of communication. Third, it discusses the relationship between communication and work in the context of Hall's works. Fourth, the article revisits and engages with Hall's encoding/decoding-model in the context of digitalisation. This paper grounds a dialectical concept of communication that is based on the dialectic of articulating and articulatedness, the dialectic of work and communication, as well as the dialectic of communication in the public sphere and society's power forcefields. It shows how a critical, dialectical theory of communication benefits from engagement with Stuart Hall's works. The present work argues with, for, against, and beyond Stuart Hall in order or productively draw on ideas that emerge from this engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contracampo: Brazilian Journal of Communication is the property of Revista Contracampo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The rapid dissemination of information through various media platforms has significantly transformed the landscape of health communication and public health. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored how health faculty and practitioners face an increasing challenge in navigating the complex terrain of mis/disinformation that permeates the online world. The proliferation of false or misleading health information poses a significant threat to public health, eroding trust in evidence-based practices and potentially leading to adverse health outcomes. In this post-truth era, it is crucial to equip students and those working in health occupations with the knowledge and skills that enhance their media literacy and ability to discern credible from suspect information. However, we must go further to help students critically examine mis/disinformation from an ecological perspective to understand the historical and socio-political factors that lead to its spread and their vulnerability to it. In this paper, we offer a rationale for focusing on pedagogy to prevent and to mitigate the spread of mis/disinformation in health promotion, and we provide examples of evidence-based approaches for doing so. Additionally, we offer resources to support teaching and learning in this area and identify opportunities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the linguistic complexity (LC) of public legal information (PLI) texts for young persons by deploying the Hallidayan model of lexical density and grammatical intricacy. It examines how the Australian legal statutes' grammatical intricacy and lexical density are reformulated into PLI texts to make them more accessible for a specific vulnerable group. The findings reveal that although the PLI texts were claimed to be written in plain language, they trade some types of complexity for others. The paper extends Halliday's model of complexity by adding lower rank complexes and embedded clause complexes as realisations of intricacy and density. It proposes "embedded intricacy" as a feature of a hybrid of spoken and written language. Furthermore, the study suggests reconsidering how law can be recontextualised for young persons in a more accessible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to systematize the political practice of three initiatives related to the concept of plain language on the Latin-American legislative arena. On the one hand, I explore part of literature on legislative studies to account for one of the communicative limits faced by legislation (Xanthaki, 2010, 2019) and on the other, present the instrumental nature of plain language to overcome this limit and achieve the widest possible dissemination of legislative messages for lay audiences. The work is based on a descriptive-analytical review of three public initiatives that inhabit three Latin America countries that, in turn, have in common a collective phenomenon called «Plain Language Networks». These Networks involve the parliaments of each country, and they are implementing (or have implemented) a very similar initiative: 'Ley Fácil' (Chile), 'Ley Simple' (Argentina) and 'La ley en tu lenguaje' (Uruguay). The paper draws, methodologically, on the results of a questionnaire sent to those responsible for the three initiatives, designed to understand their implementation in greater depth. Arguably, the initiatives are aimed and are framed by principles of open parliament, institutional strengthening, transparency, trust, and citizen participatory; my argument is that Ley Fácil ('Eays Law' (Chile)), Ley Simple ('Simple Law' (Argentina)) and La Ley en tu lenguaje ('Law in your Language' (Uruguay)) are, essentially, political pedagogy tools to increase the «ability of people to (i) access and (ii) understand the laws that govern their lives» (Roznai & Mordechay, 2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crisis communication plays a crucial role in preserving the national reputation during significant national crises. From the perspective of Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), this research paper analyzed over 1,790,816 YouTube comments from Chinese-speaking audiences, using sentiment analysis alongside the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) model, in order to investigate the influence of strategic crisis communication on public perceptions during public health crises. The study findings indicate that during this public health crisis, YouTube Chinese media, whose audience mainly consists of overseas Chinese-speaking users, primarily incorporated the enhancing strategies, succeeded by the diminish strategies, with limited application of deny strategies, while the use of rebuild strategies was virtually absent in this context. In addition, the research analysis confirms that Chinese media effectively increased the public's positive perceptions of crisis events through crisis communication. Particularly, enhancing strategies proved most effective in improving public perceptions, followed by diminish strategies. In contrast, deny strategies failed to influence public perceptions of the crisis, and rebuild strategies demonstrated a negative impact on public perception. Thus, the research findings of this paper extend essential insights for effectively managing potential public health crises in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to develop effective strategies of science communication and public outreach in linguistics, one needs to choose what topics to prioritise in such efforts. We carried out a global online survey study among experts in linguistics (n = 538) asking what they perceive as the most important facts about language that the general public should be aware of. We used two distinct methods to collect the respondents' opinions: open‐ended text responses and rating questions. In this paper, we compare the findings from the two tasks and we discuss the differences between them. Thus, the paper constitutes a methodologically‐laden commentary on the nature of linguists' opinions on what everyone should know about language. We argue that both open‐ended responses and rating questions provide valuable information about linguists' views, but from different perspectives. In particular, we see a need to distinguish between what issues are the most salient to linguists, and what issues are perceived as the most important. The aim of our study is to provide a starting point for a rich and methodologically diverse line of research—and, consequently, for an empirically‐based debate—on the public relevance of language‐related knowledge and the role of linguists as science communicators in disseminating that knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

In recent years, Censorship and anti-censorship technology is developing rapidly. The censorship and surveillance systems track traffic on the network; they identify protocols and traffic, block malicious and illegal transportation, and keep the network under control. It can protect the security of network users but also bring risks to their private security, especially that of users chat. In this paper, we introduce MuChat, a free convert chat application for instant communication on mobile, which is designed as censorship as well as surveillance-resistant platform for coverting communication in the censorship region. To evade detection by Internet censors, MuChat uses multi-instant messaging channels provided by public companies to transform messages. It applies end-to-end encryption for information security and transmits data covertly by steganography technology for individual privacy. It also provides perfect forward security protection of users' historical messages. We design and implement MuChat, with this report on the security and performance of MuChat. The evaluation shows that MuChat has proved its high security in terms of running against active attacks, passive attacks, and traffic analysis methods in recent years. It supports all the functions of instant messages with low latency. For short words, it takes only 1–2 s while the base channels take about 0.5 s, and for 20-megabyte files messages with 35–45 s while about 30–40 s for base channels. In our view, this meets the instant communication needs of users. Besides, its architecture can fully support any other public communication channels which can be added by the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wide circulation of conspiracy narratives and their frequent intertwining with populist rhetoric is both an element of concern and a topic of intense scientific and philosophical debate. The depth of the link between conspiracy theories and populism represents a crucial issue whose comprehension can facilitate understanding their specific nature and the factors behind their diffusion in public communication. To this end, it is necessary to cultivate an interdisciplinary approach and great critical attention, eschewing monocausal explanations. This paper addresses the question of the essentially political nature of conspiracism, confronting the recent epistemological debate that, by putting the positivist paradigm aside, has sought to explore and understand the socio-cultural roots of conspiracy rhetoric, with its sceptical, antagonistic and hermetic traits. By integrating the reflections of epistemologists such as Cassam or Harris with the considerations of political scientists such as Taggart and with Schmitt's radical reflections on politics, it is perhaps possible to reintegrate the different approaches to populist conspiracism into an overall social genealogical perspective, thanks also to recent demographic elaborations. Thus, we could ascribe the spread of conspiracism to the prevalence in societies of a hyperpolitical discursive regime, i.e., founded on the principle of opposition, without the possibility of compromise, between different groups and interests. At the basis of such Manichaeism, it is plausible to place in the first place the growing inequalities and related social disintegration, which hinder the circulation of trust and recognition between individuals and groups, thus ending up undermining democracy at its roots, as a political system that legitimises and thus peacefully regulates conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a public goods laboratory experiment, this paper analyzes the extent to which face-to-face communication keeps its efficiency gains even after its removal. This is important as communication in real world is costly (e.g. time). If the effect of communication is long-lasting, the number of communication periods could be minimized. This paper provides evidence that there is a lasting positive effect on contributions even after communication was removed. Yet, after the removal, the contributions are lower and abate over time to the previous magnitude. This is referred to as the reverberation effect of communication. As we do not observe an effect of endogenizing communication, the strongest driver of the size of the contributions is the existence of communication or its reverberation. Eventually, the experiment provides evidence for a strong end-game effect after communication was removed, insinuating communication does not protect from the end-game behavior. In total, the results of the paper imply, that the effects of communication are not permanent but communication should be repeated. Simultaneously, results indicate no need for permanent communication. Since communication is conducted using video-conference tools, we present results from a machine learning based analysis of facial expressions to predict contribution behavior on group level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the quantitative and qualitative systematic analysis of the multimodal semiosphere pertaining to the linguistic landscape of the selected urban spaces in Banská Bystrica. It examines public urban communication in the form of text-based public signs (road signs, billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, public signs, etc.) as information units to which passers-by are exposed. This paper explores both local features and commonalities that may show the patterns of globalisation, as well as general areal and historical patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the paper is to identify how public institutions in Romania, specifically the City Hall of Hațeg communicate online in order to build and consolidate identity, as well as to inform, connect and interact with citizens. The study also tries to provide clues that can influence decisions regarding the improvement of electronic communication activities through the results of the questionnaire applied to citizens for which the interaction of communication with the electronic means of the city hall taken as a studio object in this paper is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper explores crosslinguistic and multimodal health communication strategies employed by the South African government during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2022. Some governments used multiple languages, yet in most cases, English monolingualism was a predominant form of communication. This paper utilised a multimodal critical discourse analysis to explore public health communication by government officials in South Africa and by members of the National Coronavirus Command Council mandated to combat the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa. The paper interrogates how this language and messaging limited or enabled linguistic equity and social justice. The paper concludes that in a country such as South Africa, for any government's initiative to promote linguistic and social justice, it ought to be 'languaged' and messaged through the linguistic repertoires that the majority of its citizens understand; if not, it is doomed to fail as was the case with the South African government's COVID-19 communication strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts an analysis of the concept of "good administration" in contrast to the concept of "flawed administration", with both concepts being examined through the lens of free access to public information. Issues related to access to public information are often timely and can have a significant impact on society and political processes. Therefore, research in this field can be particularly relevant and can capture public attention. Transparent and responsible public administration is essential for good governance. This theme can contribute to identifying issues of flawed administration in the domain of public information communication and can provide solutions for enhancing governmental transparency. The uniqueness of the theme lies in its multifaceted approach, including transparency and administrative responsibility, legislation concerning access to public information, as well as the use of specific case studies to illustrate issues related to this topic. Thus, in this article, we will present several pertinent cases from judicial practice that illustrate how flawed administration is often linked to the denial or restriction of access to public information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the discussions surrounding laryngeal cancer on Twitter. The study aims to identify the most frequently discussed topics, as well as the sentiments and emotions expressed in these conversations. It conducts a geospatial analysis to examine the geographic distribution of relevant tweets. The study explores the role of social media in disseminating information about laryngeal cancer and its potential impact on public health communication. To fulfil its objectives, the researchers compiled a dataset spanning 13 years, encompassing all tweets related to laryngeal cancer. This study examined 10,457 tweets using five distinct methods: to track temporal and spatial patterns, pinpoint prevalent discussion themes, gauge the sentiment of the text, and discern emotions expressed in these conversations. Results indicate that Twitter conversations predominantly revolve around recent research and literature, with limited discussions on diagnosis and outcomes. Tweet volume for laryngeal cancer is notably lower compared to breast and lung cancers, and overall sentiment tends to be positive. The absence of pronounced sentiments suggests organizational involvement over individual contributions. Notably, celebrities play a discernible role in drawing attention to the topic and sparking online conversations. The study concludes by considering the advantages and challenges of leveraging social media for public health communication, emphasizing the importance of promoting global awareness days or months for laryngeal cancer to encourage more individuals to share their experiences online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional unidirectional power systems that produce large-scale electricity and supply it using an ultra-high voltage power grid are changing globally to increase efficiency. Current substations' protection relays rely only on internal substation data, where they are located, to detect changes. However, to more accurately detect changes in the system, various data from several external substations, including micro-grids, are required. As such, communication technology regarding data acquisition has become an essential function for next-generation substations. Data aggregators that use the GOOSE protocol to collect data inside substations in real-time have been developed, but data acquisition from external substations is challenging in terms of cost and security, so only internal substation data are used. This paper proposes the acquisition of data from external substations by applying security to R-GOOSE, defined in the IEC 61850 standard, over a public internet network. This paper also develops a data aggregator based on R-GOOSE, showing data acquisition results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers secret-key generation between several agents and a base station that observe independent and identically distributed realizations of correlated random variables. Each agent wishes to generate the longest possible individual key with the base station by means of public communication. All keys must be jointly kept secret from all external entities. In this many-to-one secret-key generation setting, it can be shown that the agents can take advantage of a collective protocol to increase the sum rate of their generated keys. However, when each agent is only interested in maximizing its own secret-key rate, agents may be unwilling to participate in a collective protocol. Furthermore, when such a collective protocol is employed, how to fairly allocate individual key rates arises as a valid issue. This paper studies the tension between cooperation and self-interest with a game-theoretic treatment. This paper establishes that cooperation is in the best interest of all individualistic agents and that there exist individual secret-key rate allocations that incentivize the agents to follow the protocol. In addition, an explicit coding scheme that achieves such allocations is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Redes (1414-7106) is the property of Associacao Pro-Ensino em Santa Cruz do Sul - APESC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this essay, I present a brief panorama of the field of science communication in Latin America based on some studies carried out within RedPOP, the Latin American network for science communication, and the Brazil's Institute of Public Communication of Science and Technology, looking at Policies for science communication, Diplomas, Masters and PhD programmes, and Research in science communication. I will then highlight some of the challenges and trends in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public opinion supervision is an important part of the national security supervision system. In the Internet era, especially with the rapid development of mobile social media, the position of online public opinion supervision in public opinion supervision is becoming more and more prominent. Internet public opinion supervision has a wide range of subjects, diverse objects, multiple channels, instant and efficient communication speed, and two-way interaction and has its distinctive features, but at the same time there are phenomena such as online rumors, invasion of others' privacy, and venting private anger. The existence of these problems requires strengthening the legal system of public opinion supervision, enhancing the network literacy of Internet users, government management departments, website operators, and other subjects of online public opinion supervision, continuously improving the technical level of online public opinion monitoring, and public opinion guidance ability of network supervision departments, and strengthening the regulation of online public opinion supervision through the improvement and improvement of legal system and coordinated promotion of cyberspace governance. Meanwhile, mobile Internet is the soil for social opinion dissemination. With the development of technology, cognitive wireless network is becoming an important infrastructure in the mobile Internet. Therefore, this paper studies social opinion dissemination and cyber law management in cognitive wireless networks and proposes a cognitive engine model based on artificial intelligence algorithms for cognitive wireless networks for enhancing opinion dissemination and law management. The extended experiments demonstrate the advanced performance and effectiveness of the proposed method in this paper and provide a new technical approach for enhancing public opinion dissemination and legal management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this publication is to identify the opportunities and threats arising from the use of chatbots and voicebots in Polish public sector institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical basis presented in this paper is the available literature on the subject. Expert research was conducted with practitioners and theoreticians from the Lodz Province about chatbots, voicebots and public institutions. The research technique was a standardized interview. Findings: The results of the research made it possible to identify the opportunities, limitations and risks of implementing chatbots and voicebots in a public institution. Research limitations/implications: The survey conducted with experts indicates the problem and the need for change and identifies a way forward for digitization in public institutions. Practical implications: The results of the expert research can provide a path to the successful digitization of many public institutions and consequently provide inspiration and savings when designing bots that serve clients. Social implications: The quality of customer service of public institutions is a problem identified in this article. By implementing the suggestions resulting from the research, client service can be improved or completely reorganized. Originality/value: The article highlights the possibility of transferring artificial intelligence tools, i.e. chatbots and voicebots, to public institutions, also pointing out the possibilities of solutions and their limitations and risks of implementation. For the purpose of the paper, expert practitioners and theoreticians were invited to express their opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Yearbook of Swiss Administrative Sciences is the property of Ubiquity Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseno y Comunicacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study draws parallels between the Major and Johnson eras to reclaim a discursive space beyond the media and political battlefields to examine long-term systemic failure of government PR. Design/methodology/approach: As part of a wider study into government communications from 1979 to date, this paper draws on evidence from government archives from the 1990s, as well as contemporary accounts, official documents, media accounts, memoirs and biographies, to examine the PR record of two Conservative administrations divided by three decades. Findings: News management during the Major premiership is worth serious scrutiny, not just as an interlude between two media-friendly Prime Ministers, Thatcher and Blair, but in comparison to Boris Johnson's struggle to contain the news narrative between 2019 and 2022. Both administrations experienced terminal reputational crises during their closing years but their means of managing the news were counter-productive and damaging to public trust (65). Practical implications: Does this failure in public communication illustrate a systemic dysfunction in government-media relations and, if so, what is the role of government PR in these circumstances? Originality/value: This article uses a comparison between fixed and moving variables associated with two very different administrations to identify the causes of ongoing systemic failure in government communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Face-to-face interactions between public officials and citizens are a key venue of state service delivery, but they are rarely studied empirically. To address this gap, we present a novel conceptual taxonomy of spoken administrative language. We combine theoretical insights from communication studies and an analysis of 64 exploratory expert interviews with frontline officials. In these interviews, we asked what officials perceive as those aspects of spoken administrative language that affect citizen (dis-)satisfaction with the encounter. The ensuing taxonomy consists of an informational component with two dimensions: comprehensibility (is the language comprehensible?) and reification (is the regulative context explained?); and a relational component with two dimensions: emotionality (does language convey personal commitment to client concerns?) and complaisance (does language impart support and helpfulness?). With its theoretical and empirical insights, the paper contributes a novel conceptualization of administrative language enabling measurement of spoken communication in public service encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research question: What are the characteristics of the target population which public health messages should be tailored to, in order to contribute to skin cancer prevention and early detection? Motivation: The implementation of preventive behaviour is of key importance taking into account the global increase in the incidence of skin cancer over the past decades. Communication campaigns represent an effective tool in creating awareness and education of population on harmful effects of exposure to UVR and a necessity of conducting preventive measures. The basis for creating such campaigns is to examine the knowledge, behaviour and information habits of target population. Idea: To examine the knowledge and attitudes regarding harmful effects of exposure to UVR, as well as preventive practices of adult urban population and determine the main sources of information on this topic. Data: The research took place in the period March-May 2018 in Belgrade and was based on surveing of 237 adult respondents from Belgrade. The sample was acquired by using the method of convenience sampling. Tools: The questionnaire consited of close-type questions with multiple choices of answers regarding sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge about risks of UVR exposure, preventive behaviour and preferred information sources. It was distributed in paper to patients while waiting for their appointments. Obtained data were manually coded and analysed by using SPSS. Results: A majority of both women (45.6%) and men (42.9%) report that they use sunscreens regularly, but a larger percentage of men (25% vs. 11.9%), as well as older respondents did not use sunscreens at all. Women reported to spend longer hours sunbathing (41.9% vs. 33%) and using indoor tanning than men (17.6% vs. 5.2%). Youngest respondents (age 20-30) also claim to practice excessive sunbathing (52.6%) and use indoor tanning (23.2%). Older respondents consider them being at higher risk of skin cancer (68.2% of those older than 60). There is a higher level of awareness of female in comparison with male respondents regarding the importance of skin cancer screening (62.3% vs. 44.7%), as well as of university educated respondents. Television has been noted to be the most significant source of information (57.8%), followed by internet sources (43.5%) and printed media (40.5%). Contribution: Knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, as well as preferred sources of information differ by gender, age and education of respondents so targeted public health campaigns should be tailored to specific characteristics of target groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the importance of environmental policies in a social and economic context characterized by multiple structural crises. The beginning of the XXI-st century proposes a new perspective, based on the transition from industrial to clean energy and green economies. In this context, environmental preservation should be seen as a main goal for decision-makers and the civic community. The paper aims to identify several relevant predictors that are involved in the further dynamics of the Environmental Performance Index. In order to argue the role played by economic factors in preserving the environment, the paper used quantitative and multivariate statistics, being based on linear, nonlinear, and multiple equations of regression. Using one-way ANOVA and nearest neighbourhood methods, the paper highlights the fact that environmental performance is strongly related to economic welfare, governmental coordination of climate policies, the level of sustainable development, and civic accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we engage with five Swedish universities' discursive articulation of, and responses to, an alleged post-truth crisis in communication, aimed at the public. Taking discourse theory as our point of departure, the aim is to analyse how universities are trying to maintain or restore trustworthiness against a backdrop of problems with fact resistance, fake news, and mistrust in academic institutions. The dilemma for universities is how to counteract post-truth without falling into the trap of returning to a realist paradigm, with its strict notions of truth and objectivity. The paper shows how public events are characterised by a crisis rhetoric, a dislocation, together with imaginaries of both external and internal threats of disorder, which convey a narrow and simplified understanding of scientific knowledge as objective and neutral. 'Defenders of truth' seem to foreclose any discussion by deeming knowledge relativism an irrational and dangerous position that fuels arguments claiming a truth crisis. A conclusion is that universities risk increasing polarisation, rather than trying to tackle problems of trustworthiness. The authors argue that, instead, universities need to be attentive to matters of democracy, power, and privilege, as well as a plurality of epistemological ideals, when discussing the so-called post-truth crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article maps the linguistic views on the common language users as non-experts in the field of linguistics and their ability to think reflectively and rationally about issues related to language. An overview of attitudes towards non-linguists is presented against the background of the development of linguistics, ranging from a structural understanding of language with an emphasis on standard language cultivation and linguistic prescription, through a sociolinguistic approach that emphasizes the role of the language user as a creator of the linguistic norm and its variation, to the view of folk linguistics and citizen linguistics, which examine how ordinary people in various forms of public communication present their opinions, beliefs, as well as their myths and ideologies about language. At the same time, the paper argues for the view that some folk knowledge and beliefs about language are not only incorrect or inaccurate, but, on the contrary, that they provide valuable information for linguistics about the background of language behaviour and language change. The material was drawn from the databases of Slovak linguistic journals and the specialized corpus of the journal Slovenská reč. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German government struggled with the question of what to do to mitigate the COVID-related crisis. Since vaccines had become available for all, the focus turned to unvaccinated individuals. This paper investigates public communication about unvaccinated people and the possible social consequences of the latter. For this purpose, selected statements of politicians and medical/scientific representatives are analyzed. Some representatives put the responsibility for the ongoing pandemic on unvaccinated people. They were pictured as supporters of conspiracy theories or as individuals that lacked cognitive or social competences. In order to persuade them to be vaccinated, several measures were suggested. To enhance the persuasion, political communication sometimes seemed to simplify or even neglect scientific knowledge. Finally, it is critically discussed what it could mean for society and the handling of the crisis if the described social representations of unvaccinated people reflected, at least to some extent, public understanding; this includes stigmatization, scapegoating and fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Applying the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions, paired with the interdisciplinary framing approach, this paper investigates how incumbent actors of automobility in Germany framed the issue of a "transition of mobility and transport" ("Verkehrs/Mobilitätswende") in their public communication in 2020. We first identified representatives of industry, science, policy, and media, since the Verkehrs/Mobilitätswende and its implementation measures are contested among these actors. Employing qualitative content analysis, we then screened 325 public documents according to the elements of the framing approach problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation. Results: Findings show that most of the actors frame a transformation of transport and mobility as a necessity. Their arguments encompass environmental and climate-related issues as well as infrastructural problems for bikes and public transport caused by the hegemony of automobility. The actors propose a variety of solutions, primarily focusing on technical innovations for cars or on the expansion of different infrastructures to achieve a modal shift towards sustainable mobility. Conclusion: This paper demonstrates that there is no common understanding of the problems and solutions to foster a mobility transition, as the diversity of problems and solutions proposed within the frame elements is high and complicates the prevailing implementation gap of the mobility transition. Therefore, MLP should be conceptually and methodologically bridged with the interdisciplinary framing approach, particularly with regard to the transition of mobility and transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the globalised world connected via communication technologies and social media, this paper endeavours to understand how politicians succeed in influencing peopleʼs linguistic worlds through their public communication. The patterns in politiciansʼ precise verbal usage convey intended connotations and redefine how people naturally experience the expressions concerning their conceptual knowledge associated with words. The paper thus suggests adjusting the schema of lexical meaning based on the biology of cognition, which acknowledges the uniqueness and diversity of how people understand received expressions and convey various contents in communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the nuances of information sharing in the context of infodemics, with a concentrated examination of the effects of opinion leaders and information attention on users' disposition towards sharing information during public health emergencies. The research adopts a quantitative methodology, employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to empirically test the proposed hypotheses. By employing a rigorous analytical framework, the research also scrutinizes the mediating role of risk perception in shaping users' intentions to disseminate information related to public health emergencies. Additionally, it investigates the moderating effect of perceived usefulness, shedding light on how it influences the strength of the relationship between information attention and risk perception. The findings underscore the significance for public health communication strategies, emphasizing targeted messaging utilizing trusted opinion leaders and emphasizing information utility to foster responsible sharing. This research contributes to the academic conversation on infodemic management, providing empirical insights to guide policies and practices in mitigating misinformation during public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge brokers are among the main channels of communication between scientists and the public and a key element to establishing a relation of trust between the two. But translating knowledge from the scientific community to a wider audience presents several difficulties, which can be accentuated in times of crisis. In this paper we study some of the problems that knowledge brokers face when communicating in times of crisis. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected interviews with Italian experts that played a major role as knowledge brokers in the local media. We asked them questions about five main topics: the features and role of science communicators; the use of language in communicating science; the importance of the relation of trust with the public; the peculiarity of communicating in a context of emergency; the problem of disagreement among experts, and its public perception and communication. The goal of this paper is to understand, through the words of knowledge brokers themselves, what they consider as best practices (and obstacles) to create trust between scientists and the public. Our empirical work can inform normative accounts of what knowledge brokering should be about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public art communication in colleges and universities needs to be launched with the support of artificial intelligence systems. According to the current situation of public art communication in colleges and universities, this paper builds a smart cloud platform for public art communication in colleges and universities with the support of artificial intelligence algorithms. Moreover, this paper introduces the bandwidth offset coefficient to judge the change of network throughput, introduces the slice download rate difference to first judge the consistency change trend of bandwidth, and then further proposes the calculation method of bandwidth prediction value by situation. In addition, this paper proposes a flexible transmission mechanism based on smart collaborative networks. Through in-depth perception of network status and component behavior, this mechanism implements the selection of the optimal path in the network according to the current network status and user service requirements to complete the transmission of service resources. If the current transmission path fails, the mechanism should ensure the continuity and reliability of the service. The research results show that the system constructed in this paper has good performance and can be applied to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the globe, public administrations are employing communication to develop programs to respond to the challenges of bringing society to the core of policy making and of searching for innovative ways to generate growth. But how much do these programs achieve, and to what extent are their consequences positive? Building on theorizing about intangible assets in the public sector and based on economic indicators as well as on survey data from 17 countries, this paper explores whether specific intangible assets that are citizens' perceptions-based can operate as sources of growth. More specifically, the article looks at citizen engagement and trust, intangible resources that are built upon organizational behaviors as well as activated through communication. Results allow us to compare the relation of these resources with growth with the relation of tangible capital with growth in 17 countries. Based on findings, the article discusses implications for public sector communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: This paper examines whether and how firms' engagement in related-party transactions (RPTs) is shaped by public communication of audit risks as required by the expanded audit report. Using the phased regulatory changes in China and a difference-in-differences design with firm fixed effects and matching, we find that firms significantly reduce their RPTs after the adoption of expanded audit reports (EARs). To investigate potential mechanisms, we find that (1) investor scrutiny increases after the adoption of EARs, (2) the reduction of RPTs is more pronounced when EARs are more likely to attract investor attention, and (3) the reduction of RPTs is weaker when firms are less concerned about investor scrutiny. The results suggest that EARs can attract investor scrutiny and increase the possible penalty associated with self-dealing, thus motivating firms to reduce RPTs. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: G30; G34; G38; M10; M16; M40; M41; M42: M48. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internet has reached a mature stage of development, and Online Social Media (OSM) platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have become vital channels for public communication and discussion on matters of public interest. However, these platforms are often plagued by improper statements or content, propagated by anonymous users and trolls, which negatively impact both the platforms and their users. Existing methods for dealing with inappropriate information rely on (semi)-manual offline assessments, which do not fully account for the streaming nature of OSM feeds. In this paper, we implement a robust and decoupled system that considers social media data as streaming data. With a publisher and consumer model, our system can process more than 179 MB of data per second with only 166.3 ms latency using Apache Kafka. Accordingly, we deploy a well-trained transfer learning model to classify incoming data streams, with an accuracy of 0.836. Our proposed architecture has the potential to assist online communities in developing more constructive and flawless OSM platforms. We believe that our contribution will help address the challenges associated with improper content on OSM platforms and pave the way for the development of more effective and efficient solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Starting from a classical literature in the field, but also from a series of more recent papers and researches, the text aims to identify new communication strategies in public administration and to make a theoretical analysis of them from the perspective of advantages and disadvantages that such structural changes can bring in relation to the public. The premise of our analysis is that, regardless of the tool used, communication is an avatar of democracy. We also show that the entire reading we make of the phenomenon is circumscribed to an epistemological approach that privileges an approach through which technologies and tools used by man and in society have the status of generative metaphors (N. Free) in the sense that they recreate and reconstruct public space and beyond. From this perspective, participatory democracy is a new democratic formula of the old representational democracy, technologically restored. The pluses and minuses arising from this change at the communication level in public administration provide enough ground for reflection when research results correlate with mental and social data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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