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AbstractThis study examines how Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest’s #GoodbyeStigma webpages aligns with stigma reduction theory via qualitative content analysis. Data showed stigma reduction theory is a useful framework for evaluating and designing digital abortion stigma reduction communication. Recommendations for further research and how to implement stigma reduction theory in digital abortion stigma reduction communication are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco 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 importance of family-school relations and their positive effects on children's developments is well documented. They can be shaped predominantly by one-way (schools informing parents) or two-way (a partnership approach) communication. When fostering these relationships, schools and families engage on individual and collective levels, using a variety of tools such as text messages, emails, phone calls or personal contacts. A growing body of literature suggests that digital technologies are changing the way families and schools communicate and digital media contacts are often considered to be more immediate and convenient. In this contribution, we present findings from a Swiss project focusing on school websites. Using data from interviews with 33 families and personnel in eight schools (principals, teachers and other staff), we explore how family-school communication is embedded in specific contexts, including rural contexts, and takes place through diverse channels. While parents make use of and appreciate diverse communication channels, schools' choices of communication channels are often related to specific functions. Overall, we found that one-way information rather than dialogue still dominates family-school relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism plays a crucial role in international economic relations and is an integral part of the global economic development. Georgia, with its rich cultural heritage, unique nature, and historical significance, is a distinguished tourist destination. During the Soviet era, the country had an extensive network of mass tourism, resort treatments, and recreational facilities, and after independence, it quickly became a rapidly growing tourist destination. In the 21st century, as the world became more interconnected through digital media, the impact of media communication phenomena on the tourism industry reached unprecedented heights. Information spreading rapidly in the digital landscape is critical for shaping perception and attracting tourists. Positive information flows can strengthen Georgia's image as a tourist and culturally rich country. Conversely, negative information can deter potential tourists. Research in Georgia on media communication has primarily focused on political or social phenomena, and informational (PR) campaigns in the tourism sector have never been a subject of special research, and thus, analysis and evaluation. The present study examined PR campaigns conducted by Georgia's tourism sector between 2019- 2023 and their impact on tourist inflows, highlighting factors influencing Polish tourists' perceptions of Georgia. Using mixed methods (narrative and quantitative content analysis, comparative analysis, case study), it studied tourist inflows during the reporting period, PR materials, articles, blogs, posts, and other social media content about Georgia. The findings indicate that the strategic marketing and PR efforts implemented, especially through digital media, significantly increased the visibility and attractiveness of Georgia as a tourist destination, contributing to substantial growth in tourism revenues and international visitors. The research emphasizes the significant contribution of media campaigns in portraying a positive image of Georgia. Intensive marketing and PR campaigns implemented after the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a noticeable increase in the number of international tourists and tourism revenues, as evidenced by the analysis of economic indicators, highlighting the sector's resilience and its critical role in the national economy. The study concludes with recommendations for maintaining and increasing Georgia's growth as a top tourist destination, emphasizing the need for digital marketing, targeted marketing campaigns, and investments in tourism infrastructure and services. These initiatives are crucial for maintaining Georgia's competitive advantage in the global tourism market and ensuring sustainable development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In digital communications, the imperative for secure data transmission is increasingly addressed through steganography, wherein information is clandestinely embedded within various digital media. This study is concerned with the enhancement of steganographic techniques through a modified U-Net architecture, designed to embed 256×256 colored message images into identically sized cover images, thereby augmenting capacity for data concealment. The classical U-Net architecture has been adapted by the incorporation of batch normalization and residual blocks, aiming to refine the embedding and extraction processes's efficiency. The novel model, trained on the expansive ImageNet database, introduces the one cycle learning rate scheduler and the AdamW optimizer into the U-Net framework, achieving enhanced training efficiency, hastened convergence, and superior generalization. Validation was conducted through two distinct analyses: the first evaluating the impact of secret image size variations on the cover image within the steganographic process, and the second assessing model performance on three datasets—Linnaeus 5, ImageNet, and Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW). Empirical assessments indicate that the proposed model outperforms existing deep learning-based steganographic methods, as evidenced by the attained metrics, particularly Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). On the Linnaeus 5 dataset, embedding yielded a PSNR of 44.4656 dB and an SSIM of 0.9897, while extraction recorded a PSNR of 43.5393 dB and an SSIM of 0.9875. The ImageNet dataset saw an embedding PSNR of 45.3966 dB and an SSIM of 0.9906, with extraction values of 44.8206 dB PSNR and 0.9903 SSIM. Notably, the LFW dataset embedding resulted in a PSNR of 48.1407 dB and an SSIM of 0.9930, and extraction achieved a PSNR of 47.5296 dB and an SSIM of 0.9907. The qualitative and quantitative outcomes affirm the efficacy of the proposed method for the secure transmission of confidential imagery, with potential applications ranging from the safeguarding of medical records to the protection of sensitive data across various digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos.info is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Facultad de Comunicaciones 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.)

This article is derived from master's research, whose objective is to understand how analogue and digital communication tools have been used on Oeste FM community radio to provide community participation, in order to achieve the principles of a community radio. The community broadcasting service was legalized in Brazil in 1998 through law 9,612/98, which establishes the guidelines for the service. This investigation was carried out based on a Case Study, conducted with the support of bibliographical and documentary research, semi-structured interviews, a study of the usability and design of the homepage and a study of the station's programming. The main hypothesis of this work is that analogue and digital tools bring the community closer together in radio actions and create new relationships, intensifying participation. However, the research results show that, despite the availability of analogue and digital tools, community participation is extremely limited and is reduced to entertainment, with an emphasis on musical requests. Therefore, it does not essentially meet the objectives of a community radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik is the property of De Gruyter 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.)

Notable differences have been observed in how society perceives and understands the agricultural industry. Consumers today are concerned with how their food is raised and produced, and drastic changes in how information is gathered regarding those subjects have occurred due to the rapid development of digital media. As a result, the agricultural industry has fallen behind in ensuring accurate information is shared about the daily work done to feed the world. A form of digital media that has infiltrated the daily lives of society is social media (SM). This study sought to evaluate the impact established agricultural social media influencers (SMIs) on Instagram can have on changing participants' perceived knowledge regarding several agricultural topics. Participants were recruited through the platform Prolific and were asked to complete an anonymous Qualtrics survey. Survey questions were asked before and after participants were shown example images of agricultural SMIs. Data collected were analyzed utilizing IBM SPSS (Version 28) to compare pre-image and post-image results to determine the contents' impact on participants' perceived knowledge of subjects relating to agriculture. Results indicated significant differences between the pre-image and post-image perceived knowledge results and between different forms of reported engagement willingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on evidence from literature in branding, marketing, digital media, and communications, this article finds that museums' branding strategies are framed within marketing disciplines and therefore create simplistic dichotomies between "internal" and "external" actors, as well as between "physical" and "digital" spaces. This marketing frame inevitably led museums to create their identities by placing higher value on their physical attributes (collection and building) as well as to the stakeholders (curators and visitors) who either managed or engaged with these physical attributes. Therefore, when museums began using social media, their approach was to instrumentalise these platforms as communication tools and to reflect the identity they had built "offline" through marketing or broadcasting-style online posts. This approach to social media is limiting because it does not acknowledge the role of the platform and that of the user within these online spaces. Based on a systematic review of literature, this article argues the need for a different approach to museums' digital identities by proposing an approach based on Actor-Network theory and a new media frame. In doing so, it addresses the need for an integrated approach that connects mission and social practices to create value for online audiences and that is open to the active participation of networked users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents the key ideas of the 13 works that make up the special issue, "The Role of News Media in Promoting Hate Speech," exploring the mechanisms by which hate speech spreads in media-related environments. The objective of this collection of studies is. The authors of these works, hailing from Spain, the United States, India, Portugal, and Norway, have contributed to establishing an approach to the central issue from diverse perspectives, including a legal perspective and addressing elements associated with journalistic practice and the dissemination of hate speech in current digital communication scenarios and help to exacerbate the polarization and prejudice in the public opinion of our current societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When governments mandated lockdowns to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the resulting reduction of face-to-face communication threatened many people's psychological well-being by fostering feelings of loneliness. Given social media's eponymous social nature, we study the relationship between people's social media usage and their loneliness during these times of physical social restrictions. We contrast literature highlighting the social value of social media with a competing logic based on the "internet paradox," according to which increased social media usage may paradoxically be associated with increasing, not decreasing, levels of loneliness. As the extant literature provides opposing correlational insights into the general relationship of social media usage and loneliness, we offer competing hypotheses and offer novel longitudinal insights into the phenomenon of interest. In the empirical context of Germany's initial lockdown, our research uses survey panel data from February 2020 (before the lockdown) and April 2020 (during the lockdown) to contribute longitudinal evidence to the matter. We find that more usage of social media in the studied lockdown setting is indeed associated with more, not less loneliness. Thus, our results suggest a "social media paradox" when physical social restrictions are mandated and caution social media users and policy makers to not consider social media as a valuable alternative for social interaction. A post-hoc analysis suggests that more communication via richer digital media which are available during physical lockdowns (e.g., video chats) softens the "social media paradox". Conclusively, this research provides deeper insights into the social value of social interactions via digital media during lockdowns and contributes novel insights into the relationship between social media and loneliness during such times when physical social interaction is heavily restricted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern everyday life environment, where the Internet, social media platforms, and electronic communication have grown pervasive, cyberbullying, a new and disturbing type of bullying, has emerged. Cyberbullying is using internet communication and digital media to harass and victimize others. This review divides cyberbullying detection techniques into two major categories: text-based and multimodal approaches. Within these categories, we examine various suggested approaches, their benefits, and drawbacks. This study provides a complete summary of the current concerns and challenges in cyberbullying detection methods and possible remedies. In addition, we explore the future opportunities for expanding and refining these models to suit the developing cyberbullying situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Religious and secular pilgrimages present rich opportunities for investigating information activities in an original and intriguing context. While the Information Science community has previously shown interest in digital expressions of religion and spirituality, discussion on pilgrimage is at a nascent stage. The purpose of this study is to conduct an in situ investigation of how pilgrims record, curate, and share their experiences. Design/methodology/approach: A field ethnography was conducted while walking with, observing and interviewing pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago, a popular European pilgrimage and UNESCO World Heritage route. Data collected from 25 semi-structured interviews and participant observations were thematically analysed within a theoretical framework combining Stebbins' contemplation and Nature Challenge Activity in serious leisure and Hektor's model of information behaviour. Findings: This study expands the interpretation of pilgrimage by introducing new insights into pilgrims, different types of mobilities, spaces and objects, and social interactions. By using field ethnography and close-up observations of praxis, pilgrimage is analysed as a socio-technical process and discussed literature within and beyond Information Science. The work presents new understandings of the interplay between spirituality, embodied information practices, physical and online social interactions, analogue and digital media before, during and after these journeys and legacy aspirations. Originality/value: The study is original in its combination of theoretical models and their ethnographic in situ application. It contributes to a more in-depth, in-the-field understanding of how pilgrims document their experiences via a rich palette of old and new media, the dynamics of using digital technologies during such physical and inner journeys and pilgrims' sharing practices. Implications for serious leisure and information practices are discussed, from theoretical to practical challenges and opportunities offered by pilgrimage experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the significance of communication science and research methodology, focusing on the advancements made by the journal Communication Methods and Measures (CMM). It acknowledges the existing challenges in the field, such as the lack of standardization and outdated data analysis techniques. The article emphasizes the need for clear standards and expectations in research methodology, particularly in areas like scale development, validation, and computational methods. It also discusses the importance of computational methods in studying the impact of algorithms on social media platforms, while addressing the issues of fragmentation and lack of transparency in computational research. The authors express their commitment to maintaining high-quality research and extending its impact beyond communication science. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Analisi: Quaderns de Comunicacio i Cultura is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 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 article we expand upon the conceptual framework of Félix Guattari's 1989 essay, The Three Ecologies. Here Guattari examines changes in subjectivity that have come about due to scientific and technological advances which, as he sees it, brought about an "ecological disequilibrium" ([1989]2000, 27) and deteriorated individual and collective modes of being. In response to this Guattari proposes a kind of holistic therapy or 'ecosophy' between three ecological registers: "the environment, social relations and human subjectivity" (ibid., 28). Guattari cautions that we not only take note of these macro determinations, but also heed the libidinal impulses of desire – what captures it, what directs it, and what shuts it down. Since the publication of The Three Ecologies, the rise of digital technologies has dramatically influenced the ways in which people think, live and communicate. Technological infrastructures, for instance, are used to spread disinformation at a vast speed and scale, and because social networks are often homophile many people infrequently encounter critical disagreement and debate. The increase in media and digital communications usage has also led to new forms of social inclusion and exclusion, the most exacerbated form of which is probably the phenomenon known as hikikomori – acute, prolonged social withdrawal. Taking hikikomori as our focus, we describe what we see as a general set of symptoms of society and trace its myriad intersections with an ever-increasing algorithmic ubiquity, which we posit as the new form of hyper-modulation following from Foucault's disciplinary societies and Deleuze's control societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Rezensionen zur Germanistischen Sprachwissenschaft is the property of De Gruyter 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.)

What does the increased reliance on digital communication technologies by migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, migrant communities, governments and researchers reveal about the benefits, limits and politics of everyday mobile and immobile experiences during the pandemic? This introduction to the special issue on cultures of (im)mobile entanglements addresses this inquiry, alongside ten articles covering themes of governance and surveillance, agency and negotiated subjectivities, translocal and transnational solidarity, as well as doing research in pandemic times. Critically engaging with both mobility and immobility in the intersecting field of mobilities and migration research, the special issue centres a multidimensional and multi-scalar perspective on the deep interlinking of various modes of mobilities and stasis in and beyond spatial and temporal conditions mediated by politically and culturally structured digitalization. It endeavours to create a vantage point to critically examine the mobility–immobility continuum as informed by power relations, hierarchies and inequalities in a networked and global society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unionization among newsworkers has increased in the U.S. since 2015. This article develops a relational theoretical framework to examine communicative labor resistance practices. It is grounded in critical organizational communication, social movement studies, sociology of work, and labor studies, responding to how newsworkers' union resistance has been undertheorized in extant journalism and media studies research. It argues that communicative labor resistance practices should be based on three propositions: a dialectical process and continual cycle of organizing unions' resistance and exploitative precarious work; the relationship among heterogenous alternative digital communication labor resistance practices; and a relational approach to digitally-mediated communicative material conditions and discursive forms of resistance rhetoric in social movement genres of organizational communication that mutually co-produce and constitute unions' resistance practices and organizational self-structuring. This framework has implications for understanding precarious work, class, professional identity, and journalism's democratic role in society, and for doing labor resistance-oriented communication research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the interactiveness of digital trade rules and anti-epidemic policies on China's digital product export. Using monthly data across 241 products from 187 countries from January 2018 to December 2021, the authors find that adopting stringent anti-epidemic policies improves the value and quantity of digital trade in the presence of digital trade rules. And that the lack of face-to-face communication due to these policy restrictions is the primary cause of the stimulated digital product exports, with consumer privacy protection and non-discrimination terms playing essential roles, especially for digital consumer products. Independently, digital trade rules have an insignificant impact on China's digital product exports. However, when China's trade partner adopts more stringent anti-epidemic policies, digital trade rules improve the value and quantity of trade while reducing investigative time and sunk costs associated with digital trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how social media platforms can facilitate greater visibility of Tunisian women in political communication activism to survive male politicians' domination and the conventional media's boycott. The authors chose to focus on the case of Tunisian activist Abir Moussi to investigate how she uses Facebook for political mobilization and self-branding purposes. A monographic approach to the content of the Facebook page was carried out, along with a semiotic analysis of the speech given by Moussi on the decisions announced by President Kais Said on 25 July 2021. The results revealed a Facebook-Live-based communication strategy to address audiences as well as a large number of photos and videos. Besides, The Tunisian political activist used several linguistic elements in her discourse to make her political discourse effective, such as contrast, intertextuality, metaphor, etc. Unlike President Said, who uses Standard Arabic, the Tunisian political activist speaks the Tunisian dialect; Abir's tone ranges from humorous, enthusiastic, provocative, menacing and promising; she provides her propaganda speech with legal texts and arguments to convince her audience, claiming to enlighten minds by simplifying ordinances and complex political terms. Moreover, she revealed several political and economic 'hot issues' that led to the Tunisian crisis. The authors conclude that social media does not create new ways of activism but rather amplifies traditional ones; they suggest enhancing the political efficacy of social media to boost political activism and emphasizing the concept of 'online political efficacy' in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political campaigns on social media constitute a fundamental component of contemporary democracy. However, there is limited evidence regarding the evolution of the usability of these platforms in Latin American contexts. This article presents the results of a longitudinal investigation comparing the use of social media, specifically Twitter, by candidates in the 2019 sectional elections and the 2021 national elections in Ecuador. The methodology combines content analysis and discourse analysis of available resources (hashtags, photos, and videos) and the main themes. The objective is to comprehend the effects of communication dynamics on Twitter during electoral campaigns in Ecuador, focusing on the structure of relationships generated by messages and their relationship with social events. The results demonstrate a high usability of the resources offered by the platform for discourse projection. Thematic elements refer to campaign activities, partisan content, campaign-related slogans, or self-promotional phrases. In conclusion, the identified patterns during the elections and the evolution of these findings contribute to understanding the role of social media in campaigns, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Imagofagia is the property of Imagofagia - AsAECA 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 Revue Universitaire des Sciences Humaines et Sociales is the property of University of Kasdi Merbah Ouargla 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 transmission of video content over a network raises various issues relating to copyright authenticity, ethics, legality, and privacy. The protection of copyrighted video content is a significant issue in the video industry, and it is essential to find effective solutions to prevent tampering and modification of digital video content during its transmission through digital media. However, there are stillmany unresolved challenges. This paper aims to address those challenges by proposing a new technique for detectingmoving objects in digital videos, which can help prove the credibility of video content by detecting any fake objects inserted by hackers. The proposed technique involves using two methods, the H.264 and the extraction color features methods, to embed and extract watermarks in video frames. The study tested the performance of the system against various attacks and found it to be robust. The evaluation was done using different metrics such as Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Squared Error (MSE), Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM), Bit Correction Ratio (BCR), and Normalized Correlation. The accuracy of identifying moving objects was high, ranging from 96.3% to 98.7%. The system was also able to embed a fragile watermark with a success rate of over 93.65% and had an average capacity of hiding of 78.67. The reconstructed video frames had high quality with a PSNR of at least 65.45 dB and SSIMof over 0.97, making them imperceptible to the human eye. The system also had an acceptable average time difference (T=1.227/s) compared with other state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.)

These days, digital art has substantially improved painting art in China's new media period through modern technology and specialized software, which has generated various digital artworks with painting effects, demonstrating their aesthetic, commercial, and cultural worth. As a result, designers must actively investigate intelligently linked and content-diverse techniques to innovate and improve digital media art. This investigation will allow the extraction of pivotal role of digital media communication and drives visual art to new heights in the modern digitized era. Based on this motivation, this paper tries to analyze the application of new media digital technology in painting creation using big data. The major goal is to obtain insights into artists' behavior using behavioral habits and a morphological algorithm in digital painting. The study investigates the design process of digital painting by analyzing the habitual forms displayed by diverse painting user groups and integrating them with user experience design concepts. Two experimental methodologies are used to investigate painting user behavior: the interview method and the observation method. The observation approach collects comprehensive user behavior data to develop a habit form model that includes a both virtual and real activity. This model employs a hierarchical scheme emphasizing various behavior aspects and concepts throughout user interactions and painting system operations. The interview method, on the other hand, captures the psychological activities involved in user behavior decision-making. The study discovers and decomposes the traits specific to these characters by defining painted characters, developing their behavior sets, and making interactive decisions. The learned information and experience are then applied in interactive decision-making processes. Based on these findings, prototype development includes explicit and implicit interaction prototypes, with usability tests determining whether specific roles are included in the design. Throughout the study process, fuzzy mapping associations are built, and behavior mappings are labeled with varying relationship proportions, providing critical data for the habit form model's construction. The paper uses new digital media technology to create paintings and experiments with 50 randomly selected persons. Forty-four participants are well-known authors on major painting websites, with the remaining six being interviewed as professional painters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing predominance of the use of digital artifacts, fast technological evolution, and the inherent complexity of the digital era, studies on how to communicate information are relevant since the beginning of the Information Society in the 1990s. With the efficiency of information communication as its central focus, Information Design (ID) can be an important area in the construction of knowledge about digital media. This article presents a systematic review of the Brazilian scientific production of digital media through the look of Information Design to record the development of ID in the country since the first CIDI+CONGIC event in 2003. The review pointed to some prominent themes in these decades, such as infographics and interfaces used for science and education. It also revealed some universities with an emphasis on the type of scientific production investigated. In addition, some difficulties were noticed at the conception of a registry of Brazilian science due to the change in terminologies and the evolution of theoretical approaches over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universitas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana 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.)

Over the past two decades, digital communication and information technologies have enabled new avenues of conflict. Information has historically been used as a medium for projecting power, but the scale and speed at which it can be disseminated today have led to new ways in which power can be acquired and exercised. As a result, a reassessment of the security challenges brought about by emerging information and communication technologies has started in Western strategic thinking. To contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which information can be used for strategic, adversarial purposes, this paper traces the genealogy of the category of 'hybrid threats' and reflects on the novel concept of 'cognitive threat' as a new type of hybrid security challenge that is characteristic of the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VR technologies occupy a peculiar position in the contemporary media landscape. Periodically, they seem to be at the dawn of a popularisation which, however, struggles to actualise. They have a central place in marketing discourses, in the film and video game industries, in cultural heritage and artistic experimentation, but their actual diffusion have hardly achieved the status of a mass phenomenon. This eccentricity to the mainstream does not necessarily make it an object of the elite since it embodies a conflict between imaginary and empirical uses where numerous tensions of contemporary aesthetic forms clash. This exploratory study investigates the role of the VR medium theatrical performance, analysing how spectators construct their spectatorial position between the theatrical dispositif and the virtual reality medium. The research asks what kind of liveness is involved in this genre of performance. The case study is La Mappa del Cuore di Lea Melandri in VR, by Ateliersi The case is investigated through in-depth interviews with spectators and the creators of the performance. The results show that the frame of the VR medium as "attraction" is still central. Furthermore, it emerges how the audience recognises a specific gradient of liveness to the work given by the coconstruction of the vision and the entrance into the performance space, while mentioning copresence with the audience and simultaneity among the main deficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual communication is considered one of the most effective way to express institutional contents and therefore a strategic field for public sector communication. In order to explore how visual languages - such as infographics, icons, maps, tables, pictograms, etc. - are adopted by Italian Public Administrations in their digital spaces, the contribute aims at investigating the infographic contents in the instituional timelines. Which are the opportunites and the risks to test these visual languages? Are there significant differences in the use of infographics among the Italian Regions and the Ministry of Health? Which contents are more often expressed by visuals?. This study is a second step research: in the first phase we have paid attention to the large use of infographics during the pandemic, when they were urged to the emergency; the second step examines the current use of visual communication, after the pandemic, in the daily routines to inform citizens on a wider range of public issues and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the so-called "digital revolution" has massively driven individuals to move the main activities they perform in their daily lives within entirely digital spaces. This is obviously leading to significant cultural and social consequences, and mass culture is one of the areas that has been most affected by these consequences. It is therefore relevant to wonder how the arrival of the digital world has changed the nature and functioning of mass culture. It is difficult to develop a detailed analysis of the changes that have taken place within the framework of a (necessarily short) journal article, but it is nevertheless possible to try to summarily "map" these changes. Furthermore, it is also possible to attempt to focus on the most relevant characteristics to mass culture in the current digital age. The article also attempts to consider two particularly important features of mass culture in the digital age. The first concerns the progressive lowering of the quality of the expressive aspects of languages, while the second relates to the growth of what sociologist Franois Jost (2013) called the "cult of the trivial" a few years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shares the preliminary results of a larger research study that explores the main forms of appearence of so-called reaction videos and the motives for their viewing. Based on a thematic analysis of the narratives of experience shared by the participant subjected to the viewing of selected reaction videos within 6 focus groups, we examine how participants define reaction videos, their consumption dynamics, and motives. The research participants' narratives centre around the identification with the reaction of the reactor, according to two main declinations: reaction as a commentary/critique on a specific media content and reaction as an emotional manifestation. The current popularity of reaction videos thus invites us to reconsider the idea of an aesthetic specificity of digital media characterized by agency, i.e. the interactivity of the digital user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platforms are conditioning the way public communication is conducted while presenting themselves as neutral connectors. Social media logic encompasses norms, strategies, mechanisms and economies acting at the intersection between online platforms and society. Military communication is adapting itself to communicative and socio-technical innovations dictated by online platforms and social network sites. Armies are currently using digital media and online platforms in at least two different ways: a promotional one, based on the 'normalization' of militarism, and a conflictual one, based on the display and management of conflicts. In this article, the authors apply qualitative content analysis to investigate the platformed strategy of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Twitter account. Results show how the IDF embraces platformization and uses social media logic to develop a coherent narrative, projecting an attractive image, establishing an international positioning and defining international interlocutors. The institution of communicative formats, the multiplication of themes and representational artefacts, and a re-defined aesthetics of army and violence are enabled by social media logic. Tweets from the IDF follow a dual path: they contribute to normalizing militarism and act on the conflictual display of current affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the ways in which the super-sticky all-in-one platform WeChat acts as the coordinator of a polymedia environment – and not just part of the polymedia environment – in mediating intercultural romantic relationships in the Greater Bay Area of China. Based on qualitative interviews, the article explores how WeChat coordinates a diverse range of digital communication tools for typical intercultural couples (Chinese women and foreign men) to mediate and maintain intimacy. The article contends that WeChat mainly derives its coordinator legitimacy and power from the government's prohibition of non-Chinese social media, WeChat's multi-functionality and its 'local' nature – Chinese language, social networking capacities and connectivity to other Chinese applications. Finally, this article finds that the power asymmetry caused by WeChat coordinating ecosystem of converged communication has significantly empowered middle-class Chinese women to take control of their intimate intercultural relationships. Research limitations and theoretical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitous mobile communication technologies have played an integral role in the way people navigated forced physical immobilities produced through restrictive measures during a pandemic. This paper critically investigates how 15 ageing people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Victoria, Australia used a range of digital communication technologies and online platforms to cope during the 2020 lockdown. The study deploys the mobilities lens (Urry, 2007) in analysing a data set based on conducting remote and in-depth interviewing. It foregrounds how everyday and multi-scalar digital behaviours afford cultural and social connectedness, reflecting diverse forms of care practices. However, forced immobile practices emerged as shaped by disproportionate network capital. In sum, this study puts forward a nuanced perspective in understanding the scales and textures of (im)mobile practices of ageing migrants during a lockdown in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social protests of 2019 and 2021 in Colombia marked a turning point in the political culture of protest. From the perspective of the processes of mediatization, digitalization, and democratization that digital convergence confers on political participation, a reflection is made around the concept of participatory culture as the axis of analysis of the transformations of social protest, its media construction, and its individual and collective experimentation. Sixteen digital communicative pieces produced by native digital media were analyzed, which, supported by resources of digital communication, evidence a political and media culture of protest, supported by the logic of social media, with a strong counter-hegemonic and discursive opposition component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of new technologies applied to social interaction currently reproduces actions that violate human rights; meanwhile, they limit the capacity of the democratic State to unite in a fair way the diverse human ways of being. In consideration, the validity of equitable relationships of coexistence requires guaranteeing the prevalence of dignity in the situations that digital mediation presents. Consequently, the research has the purpose of analyzing the ethical limits of digital communication media; considering the relationship between the Extracontractual Civil Liability System and the violation of privacy in social networks. The type of inquiry is descriptive-explanatory, with a descriptive correlational design. The study considers a sample of 110 judges, prosecutors and lawyers from the Judicial District of Lima. It is about enabling legal strategies that guarantee the capacity of surveillance and control of the ways in which social mediations take place as a guarantor of common equitable provisions. It concludes that all interaction must be ethically regulated to make possible democratic arrangements for coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While it is true that ageing dramatically affects the sustainability of welfare systems, increasing life expectancy in most Western countries is also seen as an opportunity to live longer and better: The healthiest older people are also the most dynamic in terms of work activity and social and cultural capital. In this debate, media and communication technologies are often seen as tools to enable older people to age actively, thanks to their potential for inclusion. The empowerment of older people through the use of communication technologies is strongly influenced by the social and family context in which digital media are used and by the formal and informal contexts in which their use is learned. Starting from this context, this article investigates the relationship between career paths and the use of digital media among older people. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews and ethnographic sessions with Italian internet users aged over 65. The results show how their current condition (retired or employed) and the job previously held have a fundamental impact in both the processes of domestication of technologies and internet use, but also in the structuring of the home itself and the positioning and use of technologies in the domestic space of older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how business-to-business (B2B) companies operating in durable goods use digital communications after the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, this paper focuses on the objectives of these digital communication tools for the marketing strategies of B2B white goods firms. Design/methodology/approach: As the research objective is explorative, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis by collecting 13 semi-structured interviews with B2B marketing professionals working for white goods firms in Italy. Primary data was triangulated with secondary data about the white goods industry, such as sector reports. Findings: The findings of this paper show an acceleration in the adoption of digital communication tools among B2B firms after COVID-19. The authors also discuss the effects in the use of such tools both in the short and long term. Originality/value: This paper attempts to contribute to the B2B marketing literature by providing an original analysis of the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak focusing on the use of digital communication tools among white goods firms. It also provides managerial implications for firms operating in B2B. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the public visibility of science has greatly increased. In the digital media landscape, a wide range of players is now engaged in science communication via various online channels. While these developments offer opportunities, they also entail risks for the quality of science communication. This study explores how the quality of science communication can be assessed and promoted in the increasingly complex digital ecosystem. A two-wave survey with international science communication experts served as a basis to develop a quality framework for digital science communication and to formulate strategies to promote the quality of science communication online. Besides these outcomes, results hint at blind spots in the discourse of science communication quality that demand further investigation and reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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