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Although the importance of sustainability in the beverage industry for consumers rises, environmentally-friendly attitudes often do not result in sustainable buying behavior. Ineffective communication strategies or implemented sustainability measures of producers that do not deliver value from the consumer's perspective could be the reasons. Therefore, within three environmentally-aware focus groups, grocery choice motives are discussed and, by using a qualitative Kano-model approach, consumer requirements on sustainability measures within the beverage industry are categorized. Furthermore, expectations regarding the communication of sustainability-linked information are outlined. The results reveal that the participants pay particular attention to healthy diets, prices, and discounts when buying groceries and sustainability measures within the beverage industry can mainly be classified as must-be requirements. For communicating sustainability measures, the test subjects especially demand a stronger connection between online and offline communication channels. Based on the findings, implications for beverage manufacturers and future research directions are elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) use of its Telegram channel for social media outreach during the Russo-Ukrainian war. It employs a qualitative thematic analysis of Telegram posts published between February 2022 and October 2023 to investigate the SBU's communication strategies. The study identifies the SBU's focus on themes such as collaboration and treason, showcasing its operational successes, and countering Russian espionage in its social media messaging. The findings provide insights into the SBU's approach to engaging the Ukrainian public, in contrast with traditional concepts of intelligence communication, and emphasise its role in influencing public discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes Xiaomi's social media posts on Facebook and Weibo, addressing three different audiences: the global audience, the Egyptian audience, and the Chinese audience. Its primary aim is to dissect Xiaomi's strategies in employing local, global, or glocal approaches within its intercultural brand communication. To achieve this, the study employs a multimodal framework that integrates brand communication and linguistics, allowing for a comprehensive examination of Xiaomi's digital marketing strategies through brand personality appeals and the strategic use of linguistic features. The paper finds that Xiaomi displays an exciting personality on its global and Chinese social media pages, while it reflects a competent personality on its Egyptian social media page. The study also finds that Xiaomi employs culture-specific linguistic features in its social media posts, including intimate address forms for its Chinese audience, colloquial expressions for its global audience, and codemixing and dialect for its Egyptian audience. These insights not only affirm the existing literature's observations of cultural disparities in intercultural marketing but also contribute to our understanding of how global brands strategically adapt to diverse cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting the challenge of the global biodiversity crisis requires evidence-driven communication strategies to engage public and political audiences in conservation. This study used a real-world conservation campaign to test how messages framed as pessimistic and optimistic, emphasizing species losses or gains, affected emotional response and behavioral intent, including willingness to donate and adopt specific conservation behaviors. We administered a national, web-based survey to a random sample of U.S. adults (n = 1,998). Respondents exposed to pessimistically-framed messages were significantly more willing to donate than those exposed to optimistically-framed messages, and emotions mediated effects. Intention to engage in behaviors was greatest when a respondent's emotions aligned with the valence of the frame they received, such as when they experienced negative emotions in response to pessimistic frames or positive emotions in response to optimistic frames. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence guiding the strategic use of communications to promote conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's digital public diplomacy on social media and the ways in which Chinese diplomats communicate have received international attention and generated academic interest. As the first study to conduct country-specific investigation on how Chinese diplomats in Germany practice digital public diplomacy on Twitter, this article examines their communication strategies based on Twitter data collected from verified accounts of Chinese diplomats in Germany during the part of the pandemic from January 2020 to February 2021. The study also identifies discrepancies between the actual practices of China's Twitter diplomacy in Germany and media perception of China's Twitter diplomacy represented by relevant news articles from two German mainstream newspapers, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2020. The discrepancies, the author claims, can be attributed to the process of othering China, i.e. framing China as the other, that eventually compromises the effectiveness of China's communication strategies. Seeing China's Twitter diplomacy as network-centric public diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, this article depicts the ways in which the case of Germany contributes to the understanding of the global communication network of China's public diplomacy on Twitter by showing its country-specific communication strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variable-order fractional (VOF) chaotic systems offer a promising solution for applications in secure communication due to their unique properties. This paper addresses the synchronisation problem in secure communication for these systems, which have uncertainties and external disturbances with unknown bounds. According to the variable-order fractional type Mittag-Leffler stability theorem, a fractional-order derivative is applied to a sliding surface, and suitable adaptive laws are devised to address uncertainties and disturbances. A variable-order fractional control strategy and a new criterion are developed to ensure the synchronisation error systems achieve asymptotic stability in finite time, for which the upper limit can be obtained. Simulation outcomes demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed synchronisation strategy in secure communication scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined politicians' communication strategies with journalists in Poland within the context of the flow of information on social media (Facebook and Twitter). The main questions posed in the article concerned which entities used which patterns of information flow, and whether during election campaigns, politicians communicated with journalists on social media by reacting to the latter's published posts. The study focused on pre-electoral periods of two consecutive parliamentary elections in Poland conducted in 2015 and 2019. The results showed that politicians rarely reacted to journalists' Twitter posts. If they did, they most often used reactive communication. Additionally, political actors from opposition parties more intensely used information flow patterns with a higher level of interactivity in 2019 than in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visual social media platform Instagram is a popular tool for political image building. Drawing on image management theory as well as right-wing populist and visual communication, this study explores how eight European leading politicians of right-wing populist parties present themselves on Instagram. The aim is to provide a first insight into relevant characteristics and patterns of their Instagram communication. The approach is twofold: A comprehensive visual content analysis (N = 724) is followed by hierarchical clustering on principal components. Three types of messages were identified, the most important ones being the creation of a professional image and the demonstration of closeness to citizens. Surprisingly few of the categories considered as relevant for right-wing populist communication were detected. At the individual level, politicians differ in the messages they emphasize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ephemeral incidents, or events in traffic or on the roadside that have only local and short-term impact on road safety and road capacity, are noteworthy for vehicles nearby—especially those approaching and planning to pass by. We study ways to communicate detected ephemeral incidents between connected vehicles, comparing various decentralized (vehicle-to-vehicle) communication strategies and weighing with established centralized mechanisms with regard to efficiency and broadcasting redundancy. The strategies are implemented in a simulation using realistic road networks, travel routes and traffic. We identify the strategy that achieves up to 100% success rate in transmitting incident messages to the affected vehicles under each scenario, while minimizing broadcast redundancy. In general, decentralized vehicle-to-vehicle communication strategies show strong potential to transmit incident messages efficiently and effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to examine the antecedents/predictors toward customers' desire to choose a fast-food joint/base in a developing country (Ghana). The partial goal is to assess the moderating role of traditional media advertisement and electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) in the fast-food business. Relying on the 'Uses and Gratifications Theory,' we adopted a quantitative research inquiry with 405 valid responses from fast-food customers in the Cape Coast metropolis (Coastal area) of Ghana. Using a PLS-SEM, results revealed that, the variables, particularly, convenience and time, menu price, and taste and preference were significant factors influencing fast-food patrons to select a fast-food joint/base. Additionally, the moderation analysis revealed that, television and radio advertisement, as well as eWOM play a significant role on the interaction between taste and preference and the desire to choose a fast-food joint/base for a regular meal. The research outcome offered a strategic marketing guideline for fast-food operators particularly, with communication and advertising strategies that could enhance their market share while ensuring a competitive business environment. Limitation and recommendations for future study have been considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To understand the communicational and psychosocial effects of COVID-19 protective measures in real-life everyday communication settings. Design: An online survey consisting of close-set and open-ended questions aimed to describe the communication difficulties experienced in different communication activities (in-person and telecommunication) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study sample: 172 individuals with hearing loss and 130 who reported not having a hearing loss completed the study. They were recruited through social media, private audiology clinics, hospitals and monthly newsletters sent by the non-profit organisation “Audition Quebec.” Results: Face masks were the most problematic protective measure for communication in 75–90% of participants. For all in-person communication activities, participants with hearing loss reported significantly more impact on communication than participants with normal hearing. They also exhibited more activity limitations and negative emotions associated with communication difficulties. Conclusion: These results suggest that, in times of pandemic, individuals with hearing loss are more likely to exhibit communication breakdowns in their everyday activities. This may lead to social isolation and have a deleterious effect on their mental health. When interacting with individuals with hearing loss, communication strategies to optimise speech understanding should be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In public health crisis governance, effective communication has been shown to move people from awareness to compliance. This article examines the effectiveness of the communication strategy developed by stakeholders in the European multi-level governance during the COVID-19 pandemic. An original dataset of over 40,000 tweets from 65 actors in Switzerland, France, the UK, the EU and the UN is used to measure the timeliness, consistency and connectivity of tweets about mobility restrictions in the first phase of the pandemic. Analysis shows that the discourse surrounding mobility restrictions gradually becomes more politicised after an initial phase of high consistency and connectivity among actors. Additionally, low inter-level connectivity suggests a lack of coordination across governance levels, despite a strong consistency in the message. The study concludes that this pattern of communication could worsen the rising infodemic issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiating conversations and responding to initiations of others via gestural and verbal means are prerequisites for participating in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) interactions. However, research to date has not addressed the multimodal initiations and responses of young second language learners (SLLs) in natural ECEC settings. This study investigated their initiations and responses during shared picture book reading interactions with ECEC practitioners with a focus on modalities, strategies, as well as the multimodal meanings and types of utterances. Participants were 30 SLLs in German ECEC institutions. Results showed that SLLs responded to the initiations of the practitioners predominantly verbally and initiated interactions mostly multimodally. Furthermore, the children produced more combinations of multi-word utterances and gestures in their initiations than in their responses. These findings complement the body of work demonstrating the varied communicative skills young SLLs use in their interactions as well as by underlining the importance of gestural cues in everyday ECEC interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fears of relationship dissolution and the inability to bear healthy children remain barriers to HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) carries both clinical and symbolic benefits that counter these fears. We conducted a pilot messaging intervention through Uganda's assisted partner notification (APN) program, where providers assist HIV-positive index clients in notifying sexual partners and encourage testing. We randomized providers at three clinics to implement phone scripts over two months with (1) gain-framed or (2) loss-framed information about PrEP and childbearing; or (3) usual care. In 23 in-depth interviews with providers, index clients, and partners, five major themes emerged on intervention acceptability and feasibility: (1) value of PrEP and childbearing messaging in APN; (2) value of this messaging coming earlier in APN; (3) overall preference for gain-framed messages; (4) need to tailor timing of messaging; and (5) need for messaging outside of APN. Register data (109 index clients, 145 partners) indicated most index clients (95%) wanted their potential conception partners informed about PrEP. Preliminary trends suggest the intervention sites outperformed usual care in testing rates among potential conception partners. Messaging that highlights PrEP and safe childbearing may be a promising new communication strategy to promote HIV testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the surprising lack of preparedness in Russian propaganda preceding the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Despite previous successes in developing strategic narratives during the annexation of Crimea, Russia underestimated the need for unique communication strategies for the conflict in Ukraine. The article argues that Russia's miscalculation was due to the assumption that it already had a set of strategic narratives in place, from the international order to specific issues, and viewed the conflict as a continuation of the story it had already told. However, increased scrutiny from Western media and academia led to a reexamination of assumptions and attitudes towards the region. Instead of Russia adapting its strategic narrative for a Western audience, it fell back on the existing one, further alienating the audience. This chapter highlights the importance of strategic narrative in international conflicts and its complex relationship with audience perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western crisis communication theories focusing on individual attribution and stable underlying norms fail to account for crises embedded in larger social problems that lead to regulatory changes. By analysing three cases that Chinese crisis managers initially identified as "commission", "control" and "agreement" situations (Bradford & Garrett, 1995) but ended up as crises involving "absent standards", "bad standards" and "overrated standards", in which the first two resulted in normative changes, we highlight the deliberative potential of crisis communication embodied in the "standards situation". When neither journalistic narratives portraying the accused as a "villain" nor organizational accounts foregrounding a "victim/scapegoat" self-perception can contain attribution at individual levels, the society enters a deliberative mode that interrogates actors' collective guilt complicit in a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As digitally organized, conspiratorial extremist groups gain more attention in the United States, researchers face increasing calls to better understand their in-group and out-group communication strategies. Using the QAnon conspiracy community as a case study, we use data from news coverage, social media, and ethnographic field work surrounding a prominent QAnon conference to analyze the uptake and aftermath of a controversial comment made by a public figure at the event. Our mixed methods analysis finds that QAnon's efforts to use retroactive doublespeak produced mixed results, persuading some members to re-interpret the comment; however, there was a limit to its effectiveness. Our findings contribute to the literature on political extremism and digital media by elucidating how anti-publics within the QAnon movement reconstruct events and thread the rhetorical needle to reconcile contradictory messages. In particular, we highlight the factors that precede anti-publics' use of retroactive doublespeak and discuss its use to negotiate the tension between in-group and out-group interpretations of events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At their yearly summit, the bloc of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) countries issues an annual intergovernmental declaration. While these declarations are scrutinised for challenges they allegedly represent for global affairs, how they self-construct a positive representation about their global purpose is little studied. Notably, there is insufficient examination of the political deliberations behind the statements among the five different countries. By conducting a thematic content analysis based on coding content of the first ten intergovernmental declarations from 2009 to 2018, it is found that BRICS countries speak positively of their cooperative role to solve world problems without mentioning any internal disagreement. In parallel, they present Western institutions negatively in their communication strategy. An absence of deliberations does not imply an apolitical discourse. On the contrary, it can be a deliberate political communication strategy especially among the five different countries aiming to showcase alignment about their purpose in world politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, urbanization leads to increased pressure on prime agricultural land with irreversible impacts on the provision of life-supporting services such as food and drinking water production or habitat for plants and animals. As a basis for designing new policy instruments to protect soil resources, we applied Q-methodology to assess factors that influence the acceptance or rejection of such instruments. Using an online survey and interviews, we identified different social perspectives and their respective argumentation patterns. The results show that effect on people, institutional embeddedness, trust in the acting institutions, and the overall understanding of the instrument are the most important factors for the acceptance of policy instruments fostering the sustainable use of soil resources. During the interviews, idealistic and fact-based arguments were more important than person-based arguments. Based on our results, communication strategies in the policy-making process can be improved and tailored to the identified characteristics of the social perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value of experiential lab work can be measured by its ability to transform a student's self-identity related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Successful experiences help students shed notions of self-incompatibility with STEM and can often motivate a research career as they develop as a scientist. However, students of diverse and underrepresented populations, such as the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), may or may not reap these same benefits given the potential for isolation in lab settings. We conducted two surveys aimed at capturing the perspectives of students who are DHH who worked in a lab as part of an undergraduate research or internship experience and those of non-signing advisors who oversaw advisees who are DHH. Students and advisors were asked to provide strategies that they used to facilitate communication access and to rank the perceived effectiveness of those strategies. Students placed a strong emphasis on the benefits of sign language and interpreting while advisors valued written communication. For the majority of experiences, both groups indicated that advisors were actively engaged with students' training and that the experiences themselves were rewarding and productive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovery from a disaster is always a difficult process. But what happens when a second disaster befalls the library soon after the recovery from one is completed? In February and May 2020, the Ensor Learning Resource Center suffered this fate. Because of deferred maintenance and lack of oversight, large scale leaks caused major damage to the same area of the building twice in three months. Recovering from a disaster, especially as part of a larger organization, is never easy with pitfalls aplenty, but it can be done if you are patient and work within (and sometimes, without) your organization. This column focuses on efforts, communication & leadership strategies, and provides advice for those who may ever find themselves in this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undocumented youth engage in advocacy efforts to improve their social conditions. Deploying an expanded definition of advocacy communication, this study (a) examined the heterogeneity of undocumented collegestudents' advocacy communication by identifying profiles of undocumented college students based on their participation in various advocacy communication strategies and (b) examined how these advocacy profiles are associated with health (i.e. anxiety, depression, and self-rated health). Latent profile analysis of 1277 California undocumented, mostly Latina/o/x, college students identified four profiles.Frequent advocators had lower levels of self-rated health and higher levels of anxiety and depression than infrequent advocators. Media advocators reported higher levels of anxiety and depression than infrequent advocators. Finally, organizational advocators reported lower levels of anxiety than media advocators and frequent advocators. Our study advances research on the relationship between advocacy communication and health. We provide suggestions that university staff and programs can take to support undocumented students' advocacy efforts and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people with aphasia (language impairment post-stroke) want to know their prognosis for recovery, yet current understanding of their experience of receiving prognoses is limited. Such insight is necessary to inform clinical practice in formulating and delivering aphasia prognoses, especially given the psycho-emotional distress and secondary adverse effects on recovery associated with conversations about prognosis. We sought an in-depth understanding of the perspectives of people with aphasia in relation to receiving prognoses post-stroke, with the aim of informing an evidence-based approach to aphasia prognostication in clinical practice. Semi-structured interviews, facilitated by communication support strategies, were conducted one-to-one with eight people with aphasia (ranging from mild to very severe) 3–12 months post-stroke. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data, yielding two over-arching themes: (1) How would you know without knowing me?; (2) I need to know, but I don't want to know. Our findings illustrate issues of mistrust within the patient–clinician relationship, and complex emotions relating to hope and post-stroke adjustment. The present insight into the lived experience of receiving aphasia prognoses highlights the need for focused consideration of personal definitions of normalcy, measures for fostering trust, and the role of prognostic uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teams composed of human and machine members operating in complex task environments must effectively interact in response to information flow while adapting to environmental changes. This study investigates how interpersonal coordination dynamics between team members are associated with team performance and shared situation awareness in a simulated urban search and rescue (USAR) task. More specifically, this study investigates (1) how communication recurrence affected and reflected coordination dynamics between a USAR robot and human operator when they used different communication strategies, and (2) how these dynamic characteristics of the human–robot interpersonal coordination were associated with the team performance and shared situation awareness. The USAR interpersonal coordination dynamics were systematically characterized using discrete recurrence quantification analysis. Results from this study indicate that (1) teams demonstrating more flexibility in their coordination dynamics were more adaptive to changes in the task environment, and (2) while robot explanations help to improve shared situation awareness, revisiting the same communication pattern (i.e., routine coordination) was associated with better team performance, but did not improve shared situation awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates two accounts of political propaganda in autocratic regimes. One argues that propaganda's content does not matter substantively and that propaganda is mostly a signal of the regime's overwhelming power over citizens. A second argues that propaganda is substantively meaningful: autocrats may communicate strategically either by attracting attention through highlighting the regime's strengths or by distracting attention away from the regime's malperformance. Using nearly 135,000 North Korean state-generated news articles between 1997 and 2018 we show that North Korea systematically adjusted its communication strategies following the leadership transfer from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of the Internet, especially social media, enables political actors to address voters directly. However, on social media, where user interactions factor into the algorithmically determined relevance of messages and, in turn, their spread, political actors have to use communication features that entice users to interact with their messages. Taking mediatization theory as a starting point, I transferred assumptions about accommodation into the domain of social media. By conducting a content analysis of Facebook posts made by members of the Bundestag, the German Parliament, from 2010 to 2015, I analyzed whether political actors had adapted their communication to social media logic and more often used message features previously demonstrated to increase the number of interactions. Among the results, politicians had increasingly used message features that had previously raised the number of interactions, including new technical opportunities and social affordances on Facebook, whereas their use of established communication strategies had remained relatively stable. At the individual level, politicians with higher status were more likely to incorporate successful strategies, which suggests that accommodation is constrained by available resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context in which opportunities for oral interaction are limited (English as a foreign language courses at a Saudi tertiary institution), we carried out an action research project evaluating the introduction of computer-mediated spoken language tasks with a group of intermediate learners. Although the students were confronted with multiple challenges ranging from unfamiliarity with educational technology, through recurrent bandwidth issues, to their own limited linguistic repertoires, they showed themselves able to participate in discussion with increasing facility and levels of responsibility for conversation management. In this paper, we focus on the communication strategies (CS) which they deployed to achieve this. While CSs were not the subject of explicit instruction, the students showed themselves able to draw on their repertoires and on the strategies implicitly modelled by their instructor over the six weeks of speaking activities using the SpeakApps platform. We examine what these strategies were: change in CSs over time; CS use in different conversational configurations (teacher-led group discussion; student-led group discussion and peer-peer pair discussion); impacts of the audio-only nature of discussion on CS choice. The paper points to promising directions for future practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, COVID-19 healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and risk management became major challenges facing hospitals. Using evidence from a research project, this commentary presents: 1) various communication and information strategies implemented by four hospitals and their staff in Brazil, Canada and France to reduce the risks of COVID-19 HAIs, and how they were perceived by hospital staff; 2) the flaws in communication in the hospitals; and 3) a proposed agenda for research on and action to improve institutional communications for future pandemics. By analyzing "top-down" strategies at the organizational level and spontaneous strategies initiated by and between professionals, this study shows that during the first waves of the pandemic, reliable information and clear communication about guidelines and health protocols' changes can help alleviate fears among staff and avoid misapplication of protocols, thereby reducing infection risks. There was a lack of a "bottom-up" communication channel, while, when making decisions, it is crucial to listen to and fully take into account staff's voices, experiences, and feelings. More balanced communication between hospital administrators and staff could strengthen team cohesion and lead to better enforcement of protocols, which in turn will reduce the risk of contamination, alleviate the potential impacts on staff health, and improve the quality of care provided to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have examined the mobilising roles of text and images played during social movements. Studies of the Lennon Walls in Hong Kong have also discussed how citizens expressed opinions, shared information, and mobilised support for political reform. Few studies, however, have systematically examined the content of post-it notes and images on Lennon Walls and explored how the persuasive functions of movements have been distributed across text and image. In the research reported in this article, 10,000 post-it notes and 2,076 images collected from Lennon Walls across 18 districts in Hong Kong between June 2019 and April 2020 were coded, revealing important differences not only in the discourses presented but also in the persuasive functions of text and image. This analysis provides a more robust analysis of how the Lennon Walls were shaped by Hong Kong contentious repertoires. Meanwhile, Lennon Walls also served as a site of contention bound by its own specific contentious repertoire which demonstrates the spatial practice of counter-framing. This article examines the segmentation and distribution of the movement's persuasive functions across textual and visual means of communication, in which the legitimacy, acceptance, and diffusion of actions and claims were extensively utilised during the 2019 social unrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focusses on communication and discursive practices in private family proceedings with the aim of exploring procedural barriers obstructing court users from sharing their stories and having their voice heard. Drawing on survey and interview data in combination with the linguistically driven empirical method – ethnography of communication, the discussion illustrates the discrepancy between communicative aims of court users and communicative aims of individual procedural stages. The article expands on how information and narratives are currently elicited from court users and proposes how procedural changes could accommodate more effective elicitation strategies and enhance procedural justice tenets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will assess European Union Public Diplomacy (EUPD) in Latin America, with the main question being why EUPD has resulted in different performance levels in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Based on the current literature about public diplomacy, the article argues that EUDP performance varies depending on the convergence of three elements: a long-term contextual setting of EU foreign policy as a vehicle or obstacle for PD; intermediate policy and communication strategies to develop networks with local partners; and capacity to react to immediate disruptive events or crises. The article concludes that EUPD has been more effective in Mexico and Colombia than in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses coverage of the visual arts in the Australian "barbershop" magazine Australasian Post. It traces the function and position of art history and the visual arts in the magazine, exploring how they were communicated to audiences by a publication that self-consciously negotiated a delicate balance between "highbrow" and "lowbrow" content and style. The article focuses on the contributions of the magazine's most significant art critics, including Alan McCulloch in the mid-1940s and, in most detail, Arnold Shore in the early 1950s. It considers how the visual arts articles changed in style over this period and the multiple ways the magazine addressed its audiences. By analysing other features of the magazine, especially its letters from readers, I make clear that not only were audiences engaged with the arts content, but they also sought to influence its approach. In this way, Australasian Post provides a case study for how the arts have been presented to broad audiences and how art-historical knowledge can be communicated to increase audiences' understanding and visual literacy. With recent sector research showing that the arts are still perceived as elitist for significant portions of Australian society, understanding accessible communication strategies is more important than ever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forensic activity provides an opportunity for students to tackle a variety of topics and subjects. Many topics, specifically in individual events, can provide an outlet for competitors to self-disclose information to audience members. For this qualitative study, we interviewed 13 participants to understand how forensic competitors use self-disclosure within forensics. Our findings suggest that competitors use forensic competitions to implicitly and explicitly self-disclose private information. Additionally, competitors noted using negative experiences with disclosure and general forensic norms to develop privacy boundary rules when determining whether to self-disclose. Most importantly, the study results provide descriptions of and explanations for the types of communication strategies competitors incorporated when considering self-disclosures in forensics. We discuss implications for communication privacy management theory and for competitors, forensic practitioners, and communication scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In higher engineering education, students' learning outcomes are typically measured via tests and examinations. In that way, so it is claimed, students have reached the learning goals intended by the teachers. However, students' learning experiences and perceived learning gains remain unclear. To gain insights into their perceived learning gains, thirteen students from a Dutch technical university were interviewed. This university is in the process of changing its curriculum from teacher-centered to student-centered approaches. The results show that students' reported learning gains could be grouped into five different strands: (1) the disciplinary conceptual and procedural knowledge strand; (2) the general cognitive learning strand; (3) the affect, thought and learning strand; (4) the teamwork and communication strand; and (5) the entrepreneurial learning strand. Moreover, we nuanced these five strands with the help of the student interviews and the relevant literature. The findings of this study can be valuable and helpful for teachers and curriculum leaders for their course and curriculum design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transportation plays an essential role in the social participation of people living with a communication disability. However, the attitudes and communication skills of public transport drivers may influence access to the service. A communication partner training programme offered to public transportation staff may help drivers better interact with people living with a communication disability. To explore the effects of communication partner training on adapted transport drivers: 1) knowledge about communication and strategies to use with persons living with a communication disability, 2) relational communication, and 3) communication behaviours with passengers living with a communication disability in authentic communication contexts. An exploratory single group naturalistic design was used. Thirteen drivers were provided with a novel communication partner training programme. Participants' knowledge about communication with individuals living with a communication disability was assessed with written situational scenarios presenting passengers with either an expressive, receptive, or pragmatic communication profile. Videos of the participants interacting with passengers living with a communication disability during real-life trips were captured and analysed using the Relational Communication Scale. The videos were further analysed to determine if the participants' use of gestures had changed after training. Paired-sample t-tests were undertaken for each measure to identify any post-training changes. Drivers' knowledge about communication with people living with a communication disability significantly increased after training. Also, significant behavioural changes occurred in drivers post-training videos as indicated by the better evaluation of all dimensions of the Relational Communication Scale and the increased use of gestures. Emblematic gestures were the most frequently employed. This study suggests that the communication partner training programme for adapted transport drivers could improve their communication with people living with a communication disability. Future studies are needed to replicate these findings and further determine their external validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the joint effect of nostalgia appeals and product types on receivers' purchase intention. The current study also tested the roles of mixed thoughts and mixed emotions as mediators in explicating the processing of nostalgia-themed messages based on heuristic-systematic model (HSM). The results from an online experiment showed that when a public product was promoted, exposure to personal nostalgia-themed advertising led to a higher level of intention to purchase through increased mixed emotions and favorable attitude toward advertising relative to exposure to historical nostalgia-themed advertising. Theoretically, the findings in the currents study are valuable in that the current study empirically examined one of the untested propositions taking rest in the prior literature. That is, the current study opens up a new avenue to examine the effect of nostalgia appeals in the realm of prior literature on advertising message processing. Practically, the findings are contradictory to the stated but untested proposition, which alerts scholars in the academic world and advertisers and marketers in the real world to take into account age-segmented communication strategies for nostalgia-themed strategic messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how the complex notion of higher education quality is understood and (strategically) handled by a specific group of key university actors: directors of educational programmes. A framing analysis of in-depth interviews was conducted to explore how bachelor-programme directors in Dutch social science departments understand and enact quality, while maintaining multiple commitments. The analysis revealed that directors share a non-problematic, understanding of quality as realising a good educational programme, programme. They enact different quality frames while upholding their programme and position but face issues in practice. Balancing different goals and interests is a recurrent strategy. The directors' room for manoeuvre to enact their quality views, however, is position-dependent. Whereas some directors can play it out in any direction, others experience responsibility without power. Quality's plasticity provides the flexibility to maintain the idea of improvement, even in limiting circumstances, while preventing structural changes at a more fundamental level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on human health and ecological effects of ionizing radiation are rapidly evolving as innovative technologies arise and the body of scientific knowledge grows. Structuring this information could effectively support the development of decision making tools and health risk models to complement current system of radiation protection. To this end, the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) approach is being explored as a means to consolidate the most relevant research to identify causation between exposure to a chemical or non-chemical stressor and disease or adverse effect progression. This tool is particularly important for low dose and low dose rate radiation exposures because of the latency and uncertainties in the biological responses at these exposure levels. To progress this aspect, it is essential to build a community of developers, facilitators, risk assessors (in the private sector and in government), policy-makers, and regulators who understand the strengths and weaknesses of, and how to appropriately utilize AOPs for consolidating our knowledge on the impact of low dose ionizing radiation. Through co-ordination with the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) High-Level Group on Low-Dose Research (HLG-LDR) and OECD's AOP Programme, initiatives are under way to demonstrate this approach in radiation research and regulation. Among these, a robust communications strategy and stakeholder engagement will be essential. It will help establish best practices for AOPs in institutional project development and aid in dissemination for more efficient and timely uptake and use of AOPs. In this regard, on June 1, 2021, the Radiation and Chemical (Rad/Chem) AOP Joint Topical Group was formed as part of the initiative from the NEA's HLG-LDR. The topical group will work to develop a communication and engagement strategy to define the target audiences, establish the clear messages and identify the delivery and engagement platforms. The incorporation of the best science and better decision making should motive the radiation protection community to develop, refine and use AOPs, recognizing that their incorporation into radiation health risk assessments is critical for public health and environmental protection in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrorist groups that have survived for many years have developed sophisticated information-gathering techniques to counter imminent threats. Al-Shabaab, a Somali-based armed Islamic group, has also developed its own intelligence-gathering strategy through the Amniyat, an intelligence unit focused on tactical efficiency, targeting, counterintelligence (CI), and communication strategy to outperform their opponents. This study adopts a structural analysis to investigate how the organisation evolved historically and established the internal structure of its intelligence division. Emphasizing their counterintelligence (CI) operations, and how Al-Shabaab use CI to their advantage for survival. In doing this, the article draws on the perspectives of John Gentry on VNSA intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commissions of enquiry have become a common platform for establishing facts where there have been disputes. They are often established to unpack the facts that would have led to controversies and make recommendations for solutions to such conflicts. Language then becomes an essential tool that facilitates extracting information that helps the commission to get to the truth and make informed recommendations. This article critically analyses the role played by Sesotho figurative language in the Leon and Phumaphi commissions of enquiry in Lesotho. This is a non-intrusive study that relied on audio recordings that were made during the enquiries. The article argues that figurative language was a conversationally ineffective communicative strategy that withheld information from the commissioners who were not speakers of Sesotho, the home language for the majority of participants who testified before the commissions. In the end, the implications of the study for transforming conversational events in commissions of enquiry are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the motivations driving the production of ISIS's distinctive 2015 video, No Respite, released in response to the UN Security Council's condemnation of the terrorist organization's spate of violence. The article embraces a unique methodological framework that examines both the relationship between identity, discourse, and critical geopolitics and ISIS's specific organized persuasive communication strategies. The framework is used to explain ISIS's use of statistics as well as competitive and masculine discourse to bolster its legitimacy as a self-proclaimed state. The analysis is conducted through the lens of ISIS's goal to be seen as a legitimate statehood project in lieu of a violent non-state actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, policy narratives as a communication strategy are frequently used by governments to persuade target populations and obtain policy support. However, few studies have empirically examined whether and through what mechanisms policy narratives can enhance policy support intention. To fill this gap, this study uses the case of energy conservation policy to conduct a survey experiment among 300 industrial enterprises in Liaoning, China. The findings indicate that policy narratives are effective in strengthening policy support intention; this effectiveness is achieved through a mediating variable of subjective policy understanding. In other words, only when policy narratives make target populations think they understand the policy can they show strong policy support intention. Additionally, we examine how policy narratives should be designed to enhance subjective policy understanding. The study finds that a simple narrative form (i.e. reducing policy details and using images and symbols) and a narrative content with positive incentives (i.e. showing material and reputational incentives) are two measures to enhance subjective policy understanding, which then leads to strong policy support intention. The implications of these findings for the policy narrative theory and policy implementation practice are discussed at the end of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how nonprofessionals in early modern England used tactical technical communication and rhetorical strategies to build medical knowledge and healthcare expertise. Using a feminist ethos and tactical technical communication lens, this article details a content analysis study of 4,045 handwritten medical recipes from England dated between 1540 and 1860. Findings from the study extend tactical technical communication by examining non-digital/non-internet spaces and how extra-institutional nonprofessionals build ethos and expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies' social networking platforms can contribute to engaged stakeholder relationships, but many companies struggle to actually make that happen. An online experiment with IT companies' microblogs investigated effects of communication strategy, emoji use, and prior company involvement on the appreciation and online engagement of Western and Chinese users. The exogenous variables had strong effects. Chinese users showed more appreciation and online engagement than Western users. Prior company involvement contributed to appreciation and online engagement. The message characteristics did not have the expected effects. Action- or community-focused microblogs resulted in lower appreciation. Emojis did not affect appreciation and online engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While being a good communicator is a key skill for user experience (UX) practitioners, human-computer interaction (HCI) education typically prioritizes the creation of tangible project deliverables, e.g., wireframes, over providing students with a more complete set of communication skills. In this paper, we draw from an analysis of 60 interviews with experienced UX professionals to argue that a nuanced understanding of communication strategies should be explicitly included in HCI education. Specifically, we identify five goals that shape communications between UX practitioners and four distinct audiences and show that they select specific methods (techniques, artifacts, and tools) to achieve these goals. Drawing on theories of situated and authentic learning, we discuss three key implications for HCI educators: embracing rhetorical complexity, simulating real-world communication challenges, and highlighting the performative elements of communication. Educators must embrace these challenges to help students become more effective communicators and prepare them for UX careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As social actors, artificial intelligence (AI) devices are used in tourism. However, it's challenging for enterprises to choose recoveries for their service failures. To fill this gap, we divide these service failures from the perspective of consumers' basic psychological needs: being rejected and being ignored due to AI lacking flexibility and common sense. Based on the Need-Threat model and three experiments, we find that chatbots express gratitude (vs. apology) will be more likely to gain consumers' forgiveness if service failures of AI devices are being rejected (vs. being ignored); this main effect is mediated by relational needs (vs. efficacy needs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the finite-time distributed optimisation problem for multi-agent systems (MASs) is investigated by proposing a kind of new event-based aperiodically intermittent communication strategy. Firstly, the distributed optimisation problem with the sum of local objective functions is considered. A novel finite-time event-triggered intermittent control protocol is proposed over undirected networks, and some sufficient conditions are obtained to ensure the finite-time consensus of MASs and the asymptotical solvability of the optimisation problem. Secondly, a more general distributed optimisation problem, in which the optimisation objective is the convex combination of local objective functions, is considered and we also prove that MASs can achieve consensus in finite-time and asymptotically reach the optimal solution under the proposed protocol over directed networks. Finally, two numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological reactance theory (PRT) posits that when individuals' perceived freedoms are threatened or restricted, they become aversively aroused and are motivated to reestablish those freedoms, leading to a state of psychological reactance. Applying PRT, this study examined the effects of controlling language, fear, and disgust appeals on responses to COVID-19 vaccination promotion messages. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions across controlling language (high/low), fear appeals (high/low), and disgust appeals (high/low), wherein they viewed two messages, with responses measured after each message. Results showed persuasion was diminished when the levels of any of these three variables were elevated, as in conditions of either high controlling language, high fear appeals, or high disgust appeals. Relative to low levels of these variables, high levels resulted in greater freedom threat perceptions, reactance, source derogation, and less positive attitudes toward the message. A 2-way interaction between fear and disgust appeals on source derogation and message attitudes in the low controlling language condition was significant—participants reported the least source derogation and most positive attitudes toward the message in response to the low controlling language, low fear, and low disgust appeals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are rich citizens not taxed more heavily – despite growing inequality (aversion)? The literature offers several explanations, all of which ultimately work through the minds and actions of politicians. Taking Germany as a case, we therefore ask in 25 semi-structured interviews which obstacles left-wing politicians perceive in taxing the rich. Overall, tax increases are perceived as difficult projects. Organized business is described as a major barrier, but in a way that goes beyond existing accounts: besides classical lobbying, business interests are seen to influence electoral politics through long-term communication strategies shaping tax preferences. Moreover, the interviews point to a previously unrecognized organizational barrier that we coin the 'vicious competence cycle': left-wing politicians are often overwhelmed by tax issues which results in consequential disadvantages when confronted with resourceful anti-tax actors. They describe how party-internal discourses shape these competence patterns by influencing motivations, feasibility perceptions, and electoral strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In visual risk communication, there has been a push toward using realism to show potential effects of sea level rise on coastal communities, often with the assumption that higher degrees of realism are more effective. We challenge this assumption by sharing the results of a user-based study exploring reactions to simulated images of flooded landmarks. The findings identify nuanced rhetorical and emotional responses, encouraging technical communicators to contribute to risk scholarship in psychology and cartography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]