Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Support for Businesses’ Use of Artificial Intelligence: Dynamics of Trust, Distrust, and Perceived Benefits
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9534
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9534
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9534
Author-Name: Lisa Tam
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Queensland Technology of Technology, Australia
Author-Name: Soojin Kim
Author-Workplace-Name: School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales, Australia
Author-Name: Yi Gong
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Queensland Technology of Technology, Australia
Abstract: Current research on AI has extensively examined drivers that predict individuals’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward AI use. Despite this, there is limited research that explores factors that influence consumers’ acceptance of AI integration into businesses. As more businesses have integrated AI systems into different aspects of their operations, consumers have experienced increasing interactions with AI systems adopted by businesses. Thus, it is critical to understand not only whether individuals trust and accept the use of AI in their everyday lives, but also whether they trust and accept the use of AI by businesses they interact with. As such, this study tests a theoretical framework developed on the basis of current research on AI and technology acceptance. This study used a survey dataset collected from a nationally representative sample of 420 Australian consumers in 2024. The findings revealed that the interplay between faith in general technology, trust and distrust in businesses' AI use, and perceived AI benefits shaped attitudes and behavioral intentions toward businesses using AI. These dynamics also contributed to the approval of businesses’ use of AI. The findings offer theoretical and practical insights on how to manage these dynamics to foster positive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward businesses that use AI.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; consumers; distrust; faith in technology; perceived benefits; trust
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9534

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Regulating Disinformation and Ideological Entrepreneurs: An Exploratory Research on the Digital Services Act Implementation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9471
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9471
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9471
Author-Name: Sara Monaci
Author-Workplace-Name: Inter-university Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Author-Name: Simone Persico
Author-Workplace-Name: Inter-university Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Abstract: The introduction of the Digital Services Act (DSA) by the EU marks a fundamental step in the governance of social media platforms, by outlining content-moderation guidelines aimed at preventing disinformation and the systemic risks related to the “business of polarization” for the digital public sphere (Geese, 2023). According to others (Husovec, 2023b), DSA is an ambitious legal framework that must be tamed in consideration of the priorities of different stakeholders: platforms, legislators at the European and national level, journalists responding to the challenges of fact-checking, and citizens entitled to participate in a safe and non-discriminatory public sphere. Thanks to a critical approach (Van Dijck, 2021; Zuboff, 2019), the article discusses how platforms manage controversial political influencers: the ideological entrepreneurs. From the point of view of the empirical analysis, the essay identifies ambiguities in the DSA text that neither clarify the role of ideological entrepreneurs nor explicitly outline the concept of disinformation. Furthermore, a longitudinal analysis (18 months) of the content moderation measures implemented in compliance with the DSA and accessible thanks to the DSA Transparency Database, shows that social media platforms tend to privilege temporary measures such as accounts suspension, rather than more effective actions such as deplatforming (Van Dijck et al., 2023). This reflects ongoing tensions in the regulation of digital services, especially when balancing innovation in governance with the protection of the democratic information environment. As a result, the article highlights a double-standard policy adopted by platforms towards the influencers: On one side they actively contribute to feeding the flow of disinformation and fake news, but on the other hand, they enable platforms to generate visibility and traffic, thus reinforcing the “business of polarization” typical of surveillance capitalism.
Keywords: content moderation; Digital Services Act; disinformation; ideological entrepreneurs; platform governance; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9471

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Harmonizing Traditional Journalistic Values With Emerging AI Technologies: A Systematic Review of Journalists’ Perception
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9495
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9495
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9495
Author-Name: Sangyon Oh
Author-Workplace-Name: Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Republic of Korea
Author-Name: Jaemin Jung
Author-Workplace-Name: Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
Abstract: This study investigates how news organizations perceive the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in news production, focusing on the synthesis of traditional journalistic values with AI advancements. By conducting a meta-analysis of 59 scholarly articles published between 2020 and 2024 in the field of journalism, the research examines the perceptions of journalists, editors, and decision-makers regarding AI. The primary research question explores the general findings of previous studies on journalists’ perceptions of AI in their workflows and the frameworks used to reconcile AI with journalistic values. The findings indicate that AI is regarded as a transformative tool, enhancing efficiency, effectiveness, and fostering a new organizational culture. However, it raises concerns about costs and job security. Attitudes toward AI are polarized, with optimism about efficiency gains and skepticism due to potential impacts on employment and ethical standards. Three theoretical models—field theory, human–machine communication, and the technology acceptance model—are employed to understand these dynamics, with field theory addressing power shifts and human–machine communication and the technology acceptance model examining human–AI interaction. To effectively integrate AI with journalistic values, the study proposes three strategies: AI technologists should embed journalistic ethics into their processes, journalists should acquire basic AI technical skills, and collaborative platforms should be established to bridge gaps between journalists and technicians. These strategies aim to create a balanced framework where AI-driven news production can uphold essential journalistic standards while embracing technological innovation.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; journalism; journalistic values; newsrooms; organizational culture
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9495

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Unmasking Machine Learning With Tensor Decomposition: An Illustrative Example for Media and Communication Researchers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9623
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9623
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9623
Author-Name: Yu Won Oh
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Digital Media, Myongji University, Republic of Korea
Author-Name: Chong Hyun Park
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea
Abstract: As online communication data continues to grow, manual content analysis, which is frequently employed in media studies within the social sciences, faces challenges in terms of scalability, efficiency, and coding scope. Automated machine learning can address these issues, but it often functions as a black box, offering little insight into the features driving its predictions. This lack of interpretability limits its application in advancing social science communication research and fostering practical outcomes. Here, explainable AI offers a solution that balances high prediction accuracy with interpretability. However, its adoption in social science communication studies remains limited. This study illustrates tensor decomposition—specifically, PARAFAC2—for media scholars as an interpretable machine learning method for analyzing high-dimensional communication data. By transforming complex datasets into simpler components, tensor decomposition reveals the nuanced relationships among linguistic features. Using a labeled spam review dataset as an illustrative example, this study demonstrates how the proposed approach uncovers patterns overlooked by traditional methods and enhances insights into language use. This framework bridges the gap between accuracy and explainability, offering a robust tool for future social science communication research.
Keywords: automated content analysis; explainable AI; machine learning; PARAFAC2; tensor decomposition
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9623

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: How Generative AI Went From Innovation to Risk: Discussions in the Korean Public Sphere
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9523
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9523
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9523
Author-Name: Sunghwan Kim
Author-Workplace-Name: Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
Author-Name: Jaemin Jung
Author-Workplace-Name: Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
Abstract: Technological progress breeds both innovation and potential risks, a duality exemplified by the recent debate over generative artificial intelligence (GAI). This study examines how GAI has become a perceived risk in the Korean public sphere. To explore this, we analyzed news articles (<em>N</em> = 56,468) and public comments (<em>N</em> = 68,393) from early 2023 to mid-2024, a period marked by heightened interest in GAI. Our analysis focused on articles mentioning “generative artificial intelligence.” Using the social amplification of risk framework (Kasperson et al., 1988), we investigated how risks associated with GAI are amplified or attenuated. To identify key topics, we employed the bidirectional encoder representations from transformers model on news content and public comments, revealing distinct media and public agendas. The findings show a clear divergence in risk perception between news media and public discourse. While the media’s amplification of risk was evident, its influence remained largely confined to specific amplification stations. Moreover, the focus of public discussion is expected to shift from AI ethics and regulatory issues to the broader consequences of industrial change.
Keywords: AI; amplification stations; ChatGPT; generative AI; public discourse; risk amplification; risk attenuation; risk communication
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9523

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Building a Cross-Border European Information Network: Hyperlink Connections Among Fact-Checking Organizations
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9389
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9389
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9389
Author-Name: Regina Cazzamatta
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, University of Erfurt, Germany
Abstract: This article examines the hyperlinking practices of European fact-checking organizations as one of many indicators of efforts to establish a transnational community and identify organizations perceived as “opinion leaders” in combating disinformation. Through a content analysis of 1,976 fact-checking articles from 12 organizations (independent, in-house, and global news agencies) in Germany, Portugal, Spain, and the UK, the study reveals significant variations in hyperlink practices. We measured internal and outbound hyperlinks to fact-checking units used as verification sources or further reading material. The article also evaluates the transnational character of disinformation by analyzing the scope of verified falsehoods. Among the core findings, independent organizations are more likely to establish cross-border connections through outbound links to peer organizations, primarily linking to global news agencies like Reuters and AFP or to other independent fact-checking units from former colonies. In contrast, legacy media units rarely hyperlink to other fact-checkers as evidence sources or for reading suggestions. The study identifies European global news agencies as key opinion leaders, frequently linked for their reliability, particularly amid the heightened disinformation landscape following the Russia–Ukraine war. US fact-checking units, such as PolitiFact and Snopes, also maintain significant influence. This research enhances fact-checking studies by extending beyond liberal systems and emphasizing the strategic importance of hyperlinks in creating a global network of organizations. It offers new insights into linking practices within this domain, complementing existing literature on journalism and political communication. Additionally, the findings advance disinformation research by demonstrating the transnational nature of the issue.
Keywords: disinformation; fact-checking; hyperlinking; information flows; media systems; opinion leadership
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9389

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Romanian Televisuality in the Post-Broadcast Era: Visual Signature of Popular News TV Talk Shows
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9423
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9423
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9423
Author-Name: Andreea Alina Mogoș
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Digital Media, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Author-Name: Constantin Trofin
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Digital Media, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Abstract: The current Romanian television landscape presents an unusual abundance of 24-hour news channels that emerged in the 2000s. As these media still play a central role in the public sphere, the media logics (technologies, formats, genres, norms) followed by prominent Romanian news TV channels need to be discussed in relation to the growing influence of digital and social media because, in this hybrid media system, power is exercised by those who are able to create information flows “across and between a range of older and newer media settings” (Chadwick, 2013, p. 207). The current study aims to analyse how traditional news media logics are merging with new televisual practices by thoroughly examining how television formats and visual conventions have changed under the influence of digital technologies, social media, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The textual analysis of prime-time talk show programmes broadcast by the most popular Romanian news TV channels (România TV, Antena 3 CNN, Digi24, Realitatea Plus) focuses on news talk shows and their respective translation into audiovisual language (mise-en-scène, image, sound, image–text relation). The findings support prior research, emphasising that news programmes employ both visual and textual codes and conventions within specific formats to construct a credible representation of reality. These programmes feature a fragmented visual signature centred on authoritative figures such as academics, analysts, and political leaders, which serves to reinforce the credibility of the news content.
Keywords: multi-screen display; post-broadcast; televisuality; TV news programmes; visual construction; visual setup
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9423

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: When Latin American Melodrama Meets Nordic Noir: How SVOD Reshapes Chilean TV Fiction
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9586
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9586
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9586
Author-Name: Consuelo Ábalos
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Chile
Abstract: This article aims to understand the impact of subscription video-on-demand commissions on locally produced content in Latin America’s smaller markets. It focuses on the case of <em>42 Days of Darkness</em> (2022), the first Netflix Original in Chile produced without the participation of local broadcast channels nor with contributions from state funds. Through a contextualized textual analysis of the series, focusing on Netflix’s strategic approach to national/global production, a shift has been identified in both the look and practice of national TV series programming with this new stakeholder. Although the local industry has already ventured into the detective genre based on local crimes, Netflix’s first production in Chile adopted narratives and visual motifs congruent with melancholic elements of Nordic noir. We conclude that one of Netflix’s main strategies in this project was to embrace the global popularity of the Scandinavian genre’s aesthetics while maintaining elements of Latin American melodrama, a predominant genre in the region, in order to appeal to local audiences, creating content with a negotiated, “glocal” appeal. The participation of subscription video-on-demand giants in small industries such as Chile could help to create captivating TV series and energize the local audiovisual production industry. However, it might lead to the homogenization of content and the erasure of cultural specificity.
Keywords: Chile; Latin American melodrama; melodrama; Netflix; Nordic noir; SVOD; SVOD originals
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9586

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Beyond the Dutch Quota: Media Policy and Cultural Diversity in Local Video-on-Demand Production (2013–2023)
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9593
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9593
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9593
Author-Name: Berber Hagedoorn
Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Sandra Becker
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Abstract: Starting January 1, 2024, a new Dutch investment obligation requires that streaming services with annual revenues exceeding 10 million euros allocate 5% of their turnover to Dutch content production. This policy aligns with similar obligations in countries like France, Germany, and Italy, which introduced tax-based investment obligations for streaming platforms before the 2018 revision of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMSD). The AVMSD established a 30% European content quota for subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) platforms and permitted member states to implement revenue-based investment obligations to support local industries. Our article situates the Netherlands as a small-screen media industry and the base of Netflix’s first European headquarters. We contextualise the Dutch investment obligation within the evolving European media landscape, examining shifts in diversity and inclusion in Dutch VoD fiction productions from 2013 to 2023. We assess production trends by type and genre by critically analysing policy frameworks and production data from international SVoD platforms (e.g., Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+) and domestic steaming services (Videoland, NPO Start/Plus). Our findings reveal significant gaps in genre diversity and underinvestment in high-cost historical dramas and fantasy/horror/sci-fi series, highlighting a decade-long reliance on mainstream-oriented genres, including drama and crime series. This context underscores the importance of the new regulation in addressing these disparities and critically examines the requirements of the new regulation. Our article contributes to understanding the state of Dutch VoD production and evaluates the potential of the investment obligation to foster cultural and genre diversity in Dutch VoD fiction.
Keywords: cultural diversity; Dutch television; local content production; small market; subscription video-on-demand; streaming platforms; TV genres
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9593

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Easy to Snack—Hard to Digest? Strategies of Dis/Array in Streaming, Social Media, and Television
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9430
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9430
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9430
Author-Name: Kim Carina Hebben
Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Academic Teaching and Faculty Development, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Author-Name: Christine Piepiorka
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Marketing and Digital Media, FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management, Germany
Abstract: In the digital age, the television landscape is profoundly expanded and dispersed across multiple media, introducing new paradigms of (post-)televisuality shaped by its constant digital transformation. Television content is distributed across digital platforms that fundamentally change its consumption practices. Through its fragmentation and digitization, television is breaking down into snippets—short, engaging pieces of media—that provide a dynamic, customizable, and “snackable” viewing experience, so that it is supposedly easy to digest. As a result, not only is there a shift in how content is viewed, but there is also a shift in how content is produced. Social media platforms and their algorithms have emerged as central to this transformation, facilitating the dissemination and discovery of television content in unprecedented ways. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are not just venues for discussion and sharing but are also directly influencing the digital transformation of television. While specific essential characteristics define television (such as its seriality, scheduling, or formats), the digital transformation emerging from the internet is disrupting the medium and requiring (or even demanding) participatory modifications based on experimenting with different forms of media so that television gets expanded, explored, manipulated, and played with by consuming snackable content bit by bit. The concept of dis/array proposed in this article encapsulates the dual forces of fragmentation and reorganization. Disarray, characterized by the oversupply of content, reflects the challenges audiences face in navigating a dispersed landscape. Conversely, array represents the efforts by platforms and users to restore order through algorithms, categorization, and interactive engagement. By analyzing current trends and audience behaviors, this article reveals how streaming, social media, and snippets contribute to the transformation of television.
Keywords: array; disarray; fragmentation; memes; participation; snippet TV; social media; streaming; television; transformation
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9430

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: Redefining Televisuality—Programmes, Practices, and Methods
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/10310
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.10310
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 10310
Author-Name: Susanne Eichner
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies, Film University Babelsberg, Germany
Author-Name: Lothar Mikos
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Abstract: This thematic issue updates John T. Caldwell’s concept of televisuality in response to digitalization, globalization, and streaming platforms like Netflix. It explores how traditional television, social media, and streaming intersect, reshaping audience practices, aesthetics, and cultural discourses. Key topics include binge-watching, meme culture, and the impact of datafication and global content. Case studies from Chile, Costa Rica, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and the US illustrate the evolving media landscape.
Keywords: audiences; convergence; drama series; Netflix; social media; streaming; television industry; televisuality
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:10310

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Countering Disinformation: A Delicate Balance Between International Action and National Particularities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9529
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9529
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9529
Author-Name: Flavia Durach
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Communication and Public Relations, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania
Author-Name: Mălina Ciocea
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Communication and Public Relations, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania
Author-Name: Cătălina Nastasiu
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Communication and Public Relations, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania
Abstract: Policies to address disinformation aim to protect a number of key public goods, such as self-determination by citizens, fair elections, and a healthy media and information ecosystem. The literature on resilience to disinformation finds striking differences between states, resulting from particular combinations of factors. Consequently, there is a need to maintain a delicate balance between coordinated action at the global level and localized interventions in response to particular vulnerabilities. Starting from this premise, this article explores the complexities of local contexts that contribute to resilience and addresses the tensions in developing evidence-based policies grounded in a wider societal context and system of values. Our study relies on data collected in an EU-funded project, Strategic Planning to Strengthen the Disinformation Resilience and the Management of Hybrid Threats, implemented jointly by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Bucharest) between 2020 and 2023. By using insights from key project activities (public opinion survey and policy brief), we assess Romania’s needs and vulnerabilities, which can be addressed through personalized interventions for countering disinformation; we distinguish a particular architecture of policy responses and debate the possible courses of action for a systematic approach to disinformation. Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding of how effective policies for countering disinformation need to be fed by an awareness of relevant global and regional contexts as well as local factors, values, vulnerabilities, and sensibilities.
Keywords: countering disinformation; disinformation; disinformation regulations; public policy; resilience to disinformation
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9529

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Detecting Covid-19 Fake News on Twitter/X in French: Deceptive Writing Strategies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9483
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9483
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9483
Author-Name: Ming Ming Chiu
Author-Workplace-Name: Analytics\Assessment Research Center, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong / Department of Special Education and Counseling, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Author-Name: Alex Morakhovski
Author-Workplace-Name: Analytics\Assessment Research Center, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Author-Name: Zhan Wang
Author-Workplace-Name: Analytics\Assessment Research Center, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Author-Name: Jeong-Nam Kim
Author-Workplace-Name: Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma, USA / Debiasing & Lay Informatics (DaLI) Lab, USA
Abstract: Many who believed Covid-19 fake news eschewed vaccines, masks, and social distancing; got unnecessarily infected; and died. To detect such fake news, we follow deceptive writing theory and link French hedges and modals to validity. As hedges indicate uncertainty, fake news writers can use it to include falsehoods while shifting responsibility to the audience. Whereas <em>devoir</em> (must) emphasizes certainty and truth, <em>falloir </em>(should, need) implies truth but emphasizes external factors, allowing writers to shirk responsibility. <em>Pouvoir</em> (can) indicates possibility, making it less tied to truth or falsehood. We tested this model with 50,000 French tweets about Covid-19 during March–August 2020 via mixed response analysis. Tweets with hedges or the modal <em>falloir</em> were more likely than others to be false, those with <em>devoir</em> were more likely to be true, and those with <em>pouvoir </em>showed no clear link to truth. Tweets of users with verification, more followers, or fewer status updates were more likely to be true. These results extend deceptive writing theory and inform fake news detection algorithms and media literacy instruction.
Keywords: Covid-19; deception; disinformation; fake news; French; hedges; modals; uncertainty
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9483

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Reversing the Privatisation of the Public Sphere: Democratic Alternatives to the EU’s Regulation of Disinformation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9496
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9496
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9496
Author-Name: Alvaro Oleart
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Author-Name: Julia Rone
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: The emergence of social media companies, and the spread of disinformation as a result of their “surveillance capitalist” business model, has opened wide political and regulatory debates across the globe. The EU has often positioned itself as a normative leader and standard-setter, and has increasingly attempted to assert its sovereignty in relation to social media platforms. In the first part of this article, we argue that the EU has achieved neither sovereignty nor normative leadership: Existing regulations on disinformation in fact have missed the mark since they fail to challenge social media companies’ business models and address the underlying causes of disinformation. This has been the result of the EU increasingly “outsourcing” regulation of disinformation to corporate platforms. If disinformation is not simply a “bug” in the system, but a feature of profit-driven platforms, public–private cooperation emerges as part of the problem rather than a solution. In the second part, we outline a set of priorities to imagine alternatives to current social media monopolies and discuss what could be the EU’s role in fostering them. We argue that alternatives ought to be built decolonially and across the stack, and that the democratisation of technology cannot operate in isolation from a wider socialist political transformation of the EU and beyond.
Keywords: Big Tech; democracy; digital technology; disinformation; European Union; public sphere; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9496

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Spreading False Content in Political Campaigns: Disinformation in the 2024 European Parliament Elections
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9525
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9525
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9525
Author-Name: Andreu Casero-Ripollés
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Author-Name: Laura Alonso-Muñoz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Author-Name: Diana Moret-Soler
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Abstract: Electoral campaigns are one of the key moments of democracy. In recent times, the circulation of disinformation has increased during these periods. This phenomenon has serious consequences for democratic health since it can alter the behaviour and decisions of voters. This research aims to analyse the features of this phenomenon during the 2024 European Parliament elections in a comparative way. The applied methodology is based on quantitative content analysis. The sample (<em>N</em> = 278) comprises false information verified by 52 European fact-checking agencies about the campaign for the European elections in 20 EU countries. The analysis model includes variables such as time-period, country, propagator platform, topic, and the type of disinformation. The results show that the life cycle of electoral disinformation goes beyond the closing of the polls assuming a permanent nature. In addition, national environments condition the profiles of this question, which is more intense in Southern and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, although multiple channels are involved, digital platforms with weak ties are predominant in disseminating hoaxes. Finally, migration and electoral integrity are the predominant topics. This favours the circulation of an issue central to the far-right agenda and aims to discredit elections and their mechanisms to undermine democracy. These findings establish the profiles of this problem and generate knowledge to design public policies that combat electoral false content more effectively.
Keywords: disinformation; elections; electoral integrity; European Union; fact-checking; political campaign; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9525

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Fact-Checking Initiatives in the EU: A Diverse Ecosystem Against Disinformation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9421
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9421
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9421
Author-Name: Mar García-Gordillo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism II, University of Seville, Spain
Author-Name: Rubén Rivas-de-Roca
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain / Department of Communication, Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, Society and Culture, Macquarie University, Australia / Department of Communication, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain / Digital Media and Society Observatory, Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), Brazil
Abstract: Disinformation in Europe is a significant challenge to democracy. The pan-European conversation faces a landscape dominated by misleading or false information targeting the EU. In response, various public institutions have been promoting fact-checking initiatives. Our research analyzes the fact-checking initiatives developed by these institutions at national and regional levels. This study identifies and describes organizations ranging from dedicated initiatives, such as VerificaRTVE in Spain and ARD-Faktenfinder in Germany, to news media and fact-checking platforms funded by public money. Our analysis is based on nine semi-structured interviews with professionals conducting fact-checking across the EU. We explored topics such as content selection criteria, audience involvement, collaboration with stakeholders, dissemination practices, and the evolving role of AI in supporting these activities. Results highlight a growing number of fact-checking initiatives, particularly those associated with public service media, with AI increasingly integrated into their operations. However, our findings also reveal concerns related to the pace of digital transformation and limited resources. This research provides insights into the future of fact-checking in Europe, where public fact-checking efforts and media literacy initiatives remain underdeveloped. Our study contributes to ongoing discussions about the creation of a robust European Public Sphere, arguing that public institutions can play a pivotal role in mitigating disinformation within a shared space for democratic deliberation.
Keywords: fact-checking; disinformation; media literacy; public service media; European Union; European Public Sphere
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9421

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Reinforcing or Rethinking? What do News Consumers Want from Journalism in the Post-Truth Era?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8823
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8823
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8823
Author-Name: Martin Moland
Author-Workplace-Name: ARENA—Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway
Author-Name: Jacopo Custodi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy
Author-Name: Hans-Jörg Trenz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy
Abstract: Policymakers and news producers have long grappled with the challenges that fake news and misinformation pose to quality journalism. This has given rise to an extensive body of literature, covering various aspects from the characteristics of fake news to strategies for addressing it. However, the preferences of news consumers regarding the future of journalism and their views on how journalistic commitment to truth can best be maintained remain relatively overlooked in scholarly research. This article utilizes primary data from a survey (<em>N</em> = 4,521) fielded in Norway, Italy, and Poland in 2023 to show that, even in contemporary media environments, people continue to regard traditional journalistic ideals as the normative goals for future journalism. This suggests that journalists in an age of post-truth should focus less on rethinking journalism and more on adhering to its traditional goals of unbiased dissemination of facts.
Keywords: disinformation; fake news; journalism; journalistic quality; post-truth politics; public opinion
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8823

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Post-Truth Politics in Action? Representation of the Media in Spanish Radical Parties’ Electoral Campaigns
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9514
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9514
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9514
Author-Name: Taru Haapala
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Jyväskylä, Finland / Department of Political Science and International Relations, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Juan Roch
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
Abstract: Recent research on the EU institutional response to post-truth politics has shown a gradual shift of focus from external threats to internal democratic challenges, including populist parties and elections. The case of Spain is particularly relevant as the country’s “disinformation landscape” has been assessed as exhibiting “acute political and media polarisation” originating from weak media regulation and changes in political and media environments. Furthermore, the Spanish media landscape is characterised by high levels of media ownership concentration with a lack of transparency regarding media influence on governments and politicians. In this context, this article examines how Spanish left and right radical parties discursively constructed media elites for their political purposes and the (potential) evolution of their electoral campaign discourse in 2019 and 2024. We expect that the increasingly central role of the debate on digital regulation at the EU level and the context of post-truth politics more broadly serve as a new ground for radical parties with a populist discourse to de-legitimise mainstream media. The primary sources of the study include the left-wing (Unidas Podemos/Sumar) and the right-wing (Vox) party leader campaign speeches and manifestos in national and EU elections in 2019 and 2024. Our findings show that, when it comes to European elections, the Spanish populist discourse has an increasing trend towards the inclusion of more transnational discourses on media and media elites, especially regarding disinformation and post-truth, although with significant differences between the left and the right.
Keywords: campaign speeches; European elections; media elites; populist discourses; post-truth politics; Spain
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9514

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: SMART 2.0: Social Media Analytics and Reporting Tool Applied to Misinformation Tracking
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9543
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9543
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9543
Author-Name: Mahmoud Mousa Hamad
Author-Workplace-Name: Data Institute for Societal Challenges, University of Oklahoma, USA
Author-Name: Gopichandh Danala
Author-Workplace-Name: Data Institute for Societal Challenges, University of Oklahoma, USA
Author-Name: Wolfgang Jentner
Author-Workplace-Name: Data Institute for Societal Challenges, University of Oklahoma, USA
Author-Name: David Ebert
Author-Workplace-Name: Data Institute for Societal Challenges, University of Oklahoma, USA
Abstract: The rapid proliferation of social media has created new data stemming from users’ thoughts, feelings, and interests. However, this unprecedented growth has led to the widespread dissemination of misinformation—deliberately or inadvertently false content that can trigger dangerous societal ramifications. Visual analytics combines advanced data analytics and interactive visualizations to explore data and mine insights. This article introduces the Social Media Analytics and Reporting Tool (SMART) 2.0, detailing its application in tracking misinformation on social media. An updated version of its predecessor, SMART 2.0 enables analysts to conduct real-time surveillance of social media content along with complementary data streams, including weather patterns, traffic conditions, and emergency service reports. SMART 2.0 offers enhanced capabilities like map-based, interactive, and AI-powered features that enable researchers to visualize and understand situational changes by assessing public social posts and comments. As a misinformation classification and tracking case study, we collected public, geo-tagged tweets from multiple cities in the UK during the 2024 riots. We showcased the effectiveness of SMART 2.0’s misinformation detection and tracking capabilities. Our findings show that SMART 2.0 effectively tracks and classifies misinformation using a human-in-the-loop approach.
Keywords: machine learning; misinformation; SMART; SMART 2.0; social media; surveillance; visual analytics
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9543

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Motivations and Affordances of ChatGPT Usage for College Students’ Learning
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9508
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9508
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9508
Author-Name: Sun Kyong Lee
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Media and Communication, Korea University, South Korea
Author-Name: Jongsang Ryu
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Media and Communication, Korea University, South Korea
Author-Name: Yeowon Jie
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Media and Communication, Korea University, South Korea
Author-Name: Dong Hoon Ma
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Media and Communication, Korea University, South Korea
Abstract: This study explored college students’ experiences and evaluations of using ChatGPT for class-related activities including essay writing, exam preparation, and homework. Students from two classes on the same subject were surveyed, and quantitative data on their motivations and usage of ChatGPT were collected (Class 1, <em>n </em>= 48; Class 2, <em>n</em> = 106; <em>N</em> = 154). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that using ChatGPT as a study guide and for active interaction were significant predictors of actual usage level, while its usage for entertainment and study guide was associated with higher trust in the tool. We further collected qualitative data through open-ended surveys (Class 1, <em>n </em>= 154; Class 2, <em>n</em> = 106). Responses were manually coded and thematically analyzed, with comparisons drawn between the two classes. Students’ perceptions varied, with many acknowledging the affordances of ChatGPT, such as helping to organize thoughts, clarifying concepts, and structuring essays. However, some participants raised concerns about the tool’s limitations—particularly its potential to inhibit critical and creative thinking—as well as issues related to the reliability, accuracy, and quality of information provided. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the uses and gratifications theory, the technology acceptance model, and the concept of media affordances.
Keywords: affordances; ChatGPT; ChatGPT usage; generative AI; higher education; motivation
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9508

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: AI Transparency: A Conceptual, Normative, and Practical Frame Analysis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9419
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9419
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9419
Author-Name: Sónia Pedro Sebastião
Author-Workplace-Name: Centro de Administração e Políticas Públicas, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Author-Name: David Ferreira-Mendes Dias
Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Abstract: This study aims to dissect the normative discourse about artificial intelligence (AI) transparency using frame analysis. By employing a predominantly deductive, qualitative, and interpretative approach, the research leverages a qualitative frame analysis informed by a literature review on AI ethics and transparency. The study examines various AI ethical frameworks and regulations—China’s Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, the OECD’s Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence, the White House’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, and the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act—to understand how transparency is framed, transparency’s objects, the defined accountability, and the responsible entities for ensuring transparency in the production of AI information. The study highlights transparency as a core ethical principle for trustworthy AI, emphasising its importance in final outputs and throughout AI development and deployment stages for fostering public trust. The findings indicate variability in language, priorities, and approaches to transparency across different frameworks, influenced by their socio-political, economic, and cultural contexts. Despite encouraging transparency as an ethical principle, the study notes a need for concrete guidance for its practical implementation across different AI applications. This gap underscores the need for critical examination and improvement in governance to enhance transparency and accountability in AI development and deployment. The innovative methodological approach, combining qualitative frame analysis with a theory-driven codebook, offers a novel template for investigating key concepts and issues in AI ethics and governance.
Keywords: accountability; artificial intelligence; ethical frameworks; regulation; transparency
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9419

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Gen Z Sexual and Gender Fluidity in US Scripted Television
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9374
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9374
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9374
Author-Name: Traci B. Abbott
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of English and Media Studies, Bentley University, USA
Abstract: This essay addresses the rise in sexual and gender-fluid characters in scripted US television targeting the Gen Z audience (born 1997–2012), based on their moniker as the “queerest” generation, with over 20% of younger US and international respondents identifying as LGBTQ in polls, the majority as sexually fluid (bi/pansexual) or non-binary (genderfluid/genderqueer). By analyzing six series (2019–2023) marketed as “authentically” Gen Z, I argue this shift invests in Gen Z’s “hip” attitude towards such fluidity the same way Caldwell argues that 1990’s diversification of the televisual audience produced a “programming agenda…that cultivates and rewards distinction in ethnic, racial, and class terms” (2020, p. 376). Caldwell’s (2020) theory of boutique programming, described as “a selective, signature world where artistic sensitivity went hand in hand with social relevance and viewer discrimination” (p. 164), exposes how these recent series rely on “visual flourishes…and narrative embellishments” (p. 377) but move beyond cinematic techniques by combining palatial settings and extravagant lifestyles with shockingly explicit sexual situations. Caldwell’s (2020, p. 377) assertion that “stardom and gossip defeat the dramatic obligation or need for narrative coherence” is reflected in the 21st century’s reliance on social media promotions with hypersexual imagery and expensive designer outfits for its high school-age characters and an entertainment media which highlights their “edgy,” “sexy,” “explicit,” and “provocative” content. Therefore, I argue that, like Caldwell, we should avoid “overestimat[ing] the political value” (2020, p. 376) of these presentations when these non-binary identities are shown as inaccessible, depoliticized, and hypersexualized, which maintains rather than challenges entrenched binary ideals of gender and sexuality.
Keywords: American television; bisexuality; gender non-binary; Gen Z; LGBTQ; television; televisuality; teen series
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9374

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: From Fact-Checking to Debunking: The Case of Elections24Check During the 2024 European Elections
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9475
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9475
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9475
Author-Name: Carlos Rodríguez-Pérez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Management, Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia
Author-Name: Rocío Sánchez-del-Vas
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Jorge Tuñón-Navarro
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Abstract: Misleading and false information is an issue in the European public sphere. This article analyzes the verified disinformation by fact-checkers during the 2024 European Parliament elections. From the lens of fact-checking, as a journalism practice to fight against disinformation, this research explores the European initiative Elections24Check, a collaborative fact-checking project associated with the European Fact-Checking Standards Network. The research aims: on the one hand, to demonstrate the prevalence of debunking over fact-checking; and on the other, to dissect the thematic nature, format, typology, and deceitful technique of the hoaxes verified during the last European elections. Using content analysis, the sample comprised 487 publications verified by 32 different fact-checkers across a total of 28 countries for one month related to the 2024 European elections. The results present implications regarding the collaborative fact-checking project that made a greater effort to verify other contextual disinformation issues rather than checking disinformation directly involved in the elections and EU politics. Also, this case study revealed the shift in the European fact-checking movement with the prevalence of debunking activity over scrutinizing public statements. Finally, the verified disinformation underscored the continued dominance of text as the primary format for spreading false information and the predominance of content decontextualization. The results of this study aim to deepen the understanding of fact-checking in the European media landscape.
Keywords: debunking; fact-checking; disinformation; Elections24Check; European Union; European Parliament elections
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9475

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Balancing Intimacy and Trust in Audio Journalism
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/10104
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.10104
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 10104
Author-Name: Mia Lindgren
Author-Workplace-Name: RMIT University, Australia
Abstract: This thematic issue explores the complex relationship between intimacy and trust in audio journalism, particularly focusing on podcasting as it evolves as a medium. It examines how podcasting’s intimate format creates both opportunities and challenges for journalistic practice. The opportunities include enhanced storytelling capabilities, deeper audience connections, and the ability to address social justice issues more effectively, as demonstrated through various case studies from sports podcasting to investigative journalism. However, the studies also identify significant risks, including the potential for parasocial relationships to compromise journalistic integrity, the challenge of maintaining professional standards while fostering audience connection, and the possibility of reinforcing echo chambers rather than bridging societal divides. The research spans multiple geographical contexts, from Serbian podcasting in hybrid regimes to Chinese platforms, offering insights into how these dynamics manifest across different political and cultural frameworks. The collection of articles employs diverse methodological approaches, from theoretical frameworks combining cosmopolitan ethics with feminist ethics of care to empirical analyses of listener trust and content analysis of podcast platforms. Ultimately, the thematic issue suggests that as podcasting continues to mature, finding the right balance between personal connection and professional practice remains crucial for the medium’s development as a journalistic tool.
Keywords: audio journalism; intimacy; news podcasts; podcast; professionalism; trust
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:10104

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intimacy and Professionalism: Dilemmas in the Practice of Chinese Podcasters
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9054
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9054
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9054
Author-Name: Haiyan Wang
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China
Author-Name: Zhengqing Yan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China
Author-Name: Jing Meng
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media and Communication, Shenzhen University, China
Abstract: As an inherently intimate medium, podcasting offers new opportunities for journalists to engage in innovative media practices. However, for journalistic podcasters, managing intimacy and balancing it with traditional journalistic norms is an important but complex matter that affects the long-term development and democratic potential of news podcasting. This study focuses on a subject rarely studied: Chinese journalistic podcasters, both in terms of how they perceive and construct intimacy and their approaches to navigating the balance between intimacy and professionalization in their podcasting practices. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and document research, this study finds that by adopting humanized storytelling, emotive language, exposure of personal details, use of background audio, and natural dialects, etc., Chinese podcasters are redefining journalistic norms according to the specific demands of podcasting as an intimate medium. At the same time, they are also carefully guarding journalistic boundaries and are wary of abusing intimacy in commercializing podcasts and expanding the market. By examining on these innovative practices, this study enhances our understanding of how news can continue to stay connected with the public amidst digital transformation. It suggests that the practices of these journalistic podcasters reflect the potential for revising the traditional norms of journalism in adapting to new technological environments.
Keywords: authenticity; boundaries; China; emotion; intimacy; journalism; podcasts; professionalism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9054

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Televisual Inequalities and Gender Dynamics in German News: Health Experts During the Covid-19 Crisis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9395
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9395
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9395
Author-Name: Juliane Wegner
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Research, University of Rostock, Germany
Abstract: This study explores gender representation among healthcare experts on German television during the first wave of Covid-19 reporting, addressing the broader issue of gender disparities in media coverage. Using Caldwell’s concept of televisuality and the audio-visual character analysis (ACIS) method for content analysis, we examined 174 corona-related news programmes that aired between 16 April and 30 April 2020. Of the 2,240 characters analyzed, 1,299 were experts, yet only 15% were women. Despite women’s strong presence in healthcare professions, men overwhelmingly dominated medical and political discussions during this period, while women were more frequently shown in supportive or emotional roles. These findings reveal a significant gender gap in the visibility and portrayal of experts during the pandemic’s early crisis communication, with men disproportionately occupying authoritative roles. This imbalance underscores how media coverage in public health emergencies continues to reinforce traditional gender norms, limiting female representation in leadership positions. The study highlights the need for more equitable media representation in crisis reporting to better reflect societal diversity and ensure inclusive communication.
Keywords: Covid-19; gender representation; healthcare experts; televisuality; women in media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9395

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intimacy in Podcast Journalism: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities in Daily News Podcasts and Documentaries
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8994
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8994
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8994
Author-Name: Elvira García de Torres
Author-Workplace-Name: Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Spain
Author-Name: José M. Legorburu
Author-Workplace-Name: Universidad CEU San Pablo, Spain
Author-Name: David Parra-Valcarce
Author-Workplace-Name: Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Concha Edo
Author-Workplace-Name: Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Lilly Escobar-Artola
Author-Workplace-Name: Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities
Abstract: This research contributes to understanding how podcast intimacy shapes the evolving relationship between journalists and their audiences in the digital age. Intimacy in podcasting refers to creating a close emotional connection between journalist and audience, facilitated by this audio format and the growth of headphone—and earbud—listening. Podcasting allows for a more personal relationship, where journalists not only inform but also share emotions and experiences. However, this “emotional truth” can blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, raising ethical challenges regarding objectivity. Based on 14 semi-structured interviews with journalists producing daily news podcasts and documentaries, we examine how intimacy is constructed and experienced in these types of productions. Using a qualitative approach, we explore the boundaries of intimacy in journalists’ discourse, as well as the challenges it poses and the opportunities it offers for the production of news podcasts.
Keywords: audience; intimacy; journalism; podcast; Spain; trust
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8994

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Producing Diversity: On the Discourses at the Heart of Netflix’s Production Culture
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9410
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9410
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9410
Author-Name: Axelle Asmar
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Author-Name: Tim Raats
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Author-Name: Leo Van Audenhove
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium / CoLab for eInclusion and Social Innovation, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Abstract: This article critically explores Netflix’s use of diversity as a strategic tool within its global production culture; it focuses on how the streamer increasingly deploys various narratives about diversity and inclusion to legitimate its presence, rationalize its operations, and normalize the industrial changes it generates. Through a critical discourse analysis of Netflix’s corporate communication—press releases and diversity reports published between June 2022 and February 2024—the study identifies four central discourses that shape Netflix’s approach. These discourses reveal that while Netflix positions itself as a socially responsible actor championing diversity and inclusion, its strategy intertwines cultural values with commercial imperatives. By appealing to local talents worldwide, Netflix’s rhetoric not only opens opportunities for underrepresented voices but also risks simplifying complex local identities to fit global market demands. The article concludes that Netflix’s approach to diversity, while progressive on the surface, may in practice constrain creative autonomy, subtly reinforcing existing global power structures and shaping diversity through a commercial lens.
Keywords: diversity; inclusion; media production; Netflix; power; production culture; SVODs; television
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9410

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Gendered Zootopia on Instagram: Curation of Pet Accounts and Identity Representation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8784
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8784
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8784
Author-Name: Natalia Vereshchagina
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media, HSE University, Russia
Author-Name: Irina Dushakova
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media, HSE University, Russia
Abstract: The social media landscape is replete with images of animals that users share, repost, and like. The various nonhuman species that have become a part of the social media ecosystem are no longer merely models for different content formats but have their own accounts and become influencers almost like humans. Instagram’s gender-related politics do not regulate images of animals; one can hypothesize that pet accounts could serve as spaces, tools, and sources of creative content for gender representations free from stereotypes or undermining gender norms. This article aims to answer two main research questions: In what sets of actions is gendered human–animal identity performed in pet accounts? What curating strategies and platform tools are selected by owners to perform gender in pet accounts, within the limits of the platform affordances? To answer these questions, the article addresses three theoretical fields: (a) human–animal relationships, (b) the representation and performing of identity, and (c) the politics and affordances of digital platforms. Based on previous research in these fields, the authors suggest an analytical approach comprising account architecture (content of the header, saved/pinned stories, and relationships with other pet accounts) and account content (format in which content is created and presented). The empirical part is based on the analysis of six regularly updated accounts run on behalf of pets that were active at least three months prior to the beginning of the research.
Keywords: platform affordances; gender; human–animal relationships; identity; Instagram; pet accounts; representation; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8784

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: Gendered Cultures in Platform Economies—Entertainment, Expertise, and Online Selfhood
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/10069
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.10069
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 10069
Author-Name: Panos Kompatsiaris
Author-Workplace-Name: IULM University, Italy
Author-Name: Cláudia Álvares
Author-Workplace-Name: Iscte—University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal
Author-Name: Sofie Van Bauwel
Author-Workplace-Name: Ghent University, Belgium
Abstract: This thematic issue examines the gendered dimensions of platform economies, focusing on the construction of gendered online selfhood. Through the affordances of social media platforms, users expand the range of topics and content accessible to the public, simultaneously exposing these subjects to increased visibility and potential debate. Platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, X, and Telegram enable anyone to create channels and publicize content on virtually any topic, fostering niche communities. In other words, platforms, driven by their pursuit of attention, time, and data, cannot be analyzed solely through a business or organizational lens. The economic dimension is intertwined with cultural formations—beliefs, values, and identity constructions—which carry an anthropological dimension. In this thematic issue, we are particularly interested in the gendered aspects of this intertwining.
Keywords: authenticity; digital platforms; entertainment; expertise; gender; selfhood; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:10069

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Listening in Good Faith: Cosmopolitan Intimacy and Audio Journalism
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9147
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9147
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9147
Author-Name: Kate Lacey
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, UK
Abstract: This article interrogates the privileging of intimacy in contemporary discussions of media in general and audio journalism in particular (within a broadly Anglo-American frame). It posits that the prominence of the term in relation to podcasting specifically, together with the communicative practices it purports to describe, has become ideological. The article begins by exploring how the intimate address of radio and podcasting has been variously invoked and celebrated in public and academic discourse across a century of spoken word media. This historical overview provides a context and counterpoint to the ways in which intimacy is invoked in contemporary discourses and the contradictions encapsulated by the notion of an “intimate public sphere” (Berlant, 1998). It highlights how the language of intimacy in the public realm—with all its positive connotations, including in relation to building trust—can be appropriated or transformed under the logics of communicative capitalism (Dean, 2005) to disguise unequal power relations, restrict communication across difference, and feed into a culture of atomised individualism. The article turns instead to a cosmopolitan ethics of “proper distance” (Silverstone, 2004) combined with a feminist ethics of care as a way to negotiate the balance between intimacy and trust for the listening public.
Keywords: care; cosmopolitan intimacy; ethics; feminism; listening; media history; podcasting; proper distance; publics; radio
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9147

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Between Memeability and Televisuality: The (Self-)Memefication of Television Series
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9408
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9408
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9408
Author-Name: Jana Zündel
Author-Workplace-Name: Configurations of Film Research Group, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Abstract: This essay explores how seriality and televisuality inform and fuel meme culture. Television and streaming series not only provide material for internet memes, i.e., appropriable audio-visual extracts that circulate on social media and video-sharing platforms, but often already feature meme-like visuals themselves, e.g., visual or scenographic imitations of artwork, reenactments of movie scenes, or even entire iconographies of a media franchise. In a semi-historical approach, this essay explores these “memefications” as intertextual practices for recalling, recycling, and preserving cultural artifacts. Citing various cases in US series from an autobiographical collection of such revisualizations and elaborate referential networks in both legacy TV series and popular contemporary shows, this essay proposes a taxonomy of pre-internet memefication within and between series: intermedial, interserial, and intraserial memefications. I discuss them as aesthetic and praxeological precursors of current moving image memes such as TikToks, which similarly restage scenes, characteristics, or tropes from other shows, films, or media. As it is a key characteristic of televisuality to adopt and transform modes of representation from other media, I argue that television may have premeditated and mastered memefication before the conception of internet memes, which are now prevalent in everyday communication.
Keywords: internet memes; memefications; memeability; pre-internet memefication; seriality; televisuality
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9408

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Datacasting: TikTok’s Algorithmic Flow as Televisual Experience
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9392
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9392
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9392
Author-Name: Ellenrose Firth
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Author-Name: Alberto Marinelli
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Abstract: Recommendation algorithms have acquired a central role in the suggestion of content within both subscription video on demand (SVOD) and advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) services and media-sharing platforms. In this article, we suggest the introduction of the datacasting paradigm, which takes into account the increasing relevance algorithms have in selection processes on audiovisual platforms. We use TikTok as a case study as it is an entirely algorithmic platform, and therefore embodies the heart of our discussion, and analyse how the algorithmic flow within the platform influences user experience, the impact it has on the enjoyment of content, and whether the platform can be considered televisual. We have opted to frame TikTok within debates on flow, as we believe that is what is at the core of the platform experience. Through the analysis of in-depth interviews, we extracted two main categories of responses: TV on TikTok and TikTok as TV. The former includes all responses related to the consumption of traditional televisual material on the platform, while the latter looks at all potential connections between the platform and television viewing habits.
Keywords: algorithmic flow; datacasting; media-sharing platforms; on-demand platforms; televisuality; TikTok
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9392

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Oblique Agency: Mapping the Globalised Workflows of Television Dubbing and Their Impact on Practitioners
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9613
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9613
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9613
Author-Name: Simone Knox
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading, UK
Author-Name: Kai Hanno Schwind
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Arts, Design, and Media, Kristiania University of Applied Science, Norway
Abstract: This article offers a comprehensive analysis of how increasingly globalised infrastructures, marked by industry expansion, consolidation, and the impact of streamers, affect the workflows and practices within local dubbing industries. Informed by extensive, original interviews with managerial and creative dubbing practitioners, and industry fieldwork observations since 2017, the article is located within a post-Bourdieuian framework, exploring what significant change for the field and its habitus has meant for agency. Having identified a persistent lack of engagement with the dubbing of television in existing scholarship across several disciplines, the article considers how dubbing practitioners negotiate a wider industrial push towards more streamlining, standardisation, and more attendance to issues concerning equity, diversity, and inclusion. Here, the article offers the notion of oblique agency, to capture how creative agency is moved away from local creative practitioners, through more managerial oversight, prescriptive guidance and tools, and feedback cultures shaped by corporate agendas. Simultaneously, some agency is left to these practitioners, most acutely felt in the case of dubbing contemporary television (marked by narrative and tonal complexity), due to a lack of investment and recognition of dubbing as inherently creative. The article takes care to explore the complexities of these dynamics, especially a pronounced heterogeneity of views, including simultaneous criticism and enjoyment by creative practitioners, as well as a considerable gap between their perspectives and those of managerial practitioners. In this way, the article seeks to make a much-needed contribution to nuanced engagement with dubbing infrastructures and working practices.
Keywords: audiovisual translation; creative agency; dubbing; streamers; televisuality; production cultures
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9613

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Analysis of Narrative Strategies in Independent Non-Fiction Narrative Podcasts in Ibero-America
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9096
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9096
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9096
Author-Name: Raúl Rodríguez-Ortiz
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication and Image, University of Chile, Chile
Author-Name: Manuel Fernández-Sande
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Abstract: This study analyses the narrative strategies employed in 11 independent narrative non-fiction podcasts from seven Ibero-American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico. The research concentrates on identifying the primary narrative trends applied within this genre of audio journalism, focusing on how the role of the narrator and the structure of the story boost credibility and listener engagement. The methodology combines semi-structured interviews with 16 podcast producers and content analysis of 73 episodes to explore how these podcasts shape their narrative approaches. The results reveal that these podcasts use various journalistic subgenres, including interviews, sound chronicles a recognised genre within narrative and radio journalism in Ibero-American, and other more artistic or experimental formats such as radio features, along with narrative structures like episodic, Aristotelian, and counterpoint, allowing for diverse forms of storytelling. In addition, the study underscores the incorporation of sound archives, personal life stories, and other audio techniques to enhance the narrative’s depth and emotional resonance. These elements contribute to producing socially relevant stories that often challenge stereotypes and address underrepresented voices in society. Ultimately, this research highlights the role of independent non-fiction podcasts in the evolution of audio journalism in Ibero-America.
Keywords: audio journalism; Ibero-America; independent podcast production; narrative podcasts; non-fiction podcasts; podcasts; podcast narrator; podcast storytelling; Portuguese podcasts; sound narrative strategies; Spanish podcasts
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9096

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Gender Rhetoric for Sale: Ferragni and the Platformization of the Female Body That Crushes Ideologies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8783
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8783
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8783
Author-Name: Elisabetta Risi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Arts and Media, University Institute of Modern Languages (IULM), Italy
Author-Name: Maria Angela Polesana
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Arts and Media, University Institute of Modern Languages (IULM), Italy
Abstract: This article aims to make a contribution to the study of liberal feminism, social media, and influencer culture, especially in the Italian context. The feminism of Chiara Ferragni, Italian fashion influencer with over 29 million followers, is an interesting case study that questions the relations, as well as the interaction, between activism, gender, and influencer culture. Ferragni’s body simulacrum, exhibited through numerous social media advertising images, was displayed at Sanremo, a renowned Italian song festival, watched by 12 million people in 2023. At Sanremo, that body carried on the feminist battle through the wearing of manifesto luxury designer dresses together with the reading of a letter addressed to herself, a vector of a rhetorically powerful message that was, however, directed to the single woman rather than to women as a collectivity. This neoliberal discourse is emblematic of the instrumental use of gender issues for self-promotion, which often leads to the dilution of feminist meanings and the trivialization of social movements.
Keywords: digital platforms; female bodies; feminism; gender; influencers; rhetoric; social media influencer
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8783

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Trust in Pod: Listener Trust of News Content Heard on Different Genre Podcasts
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9182
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9182
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9182
Author-Name: Kristine Johnson
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Relations and Advertising, Rowan University, USA
Author-Name: Michael McCall
Author-Workplace-Name: The School of Hospitality Business, Michigan State University, USA
Abstract: There are several news podcast programs for listeners to choose from, but other genre podcasts (e.g., comedy, true crime, history) also include news in their content. This study measures listener trust in news content aired in different genres. The findings indicate most listeners trust content heard on news podcasts, which may relate to an increase in available news programs, as well as an overall increase in podcast listenership. The research also shows some listeners trust news heard on non-news podcasts. This may relate to interest in alternate sources for news and the storytelling formats used in the programs. When examining the trust of news content based on genre, news heard on comedy, news, and history podcasts are more likely to be trusted by listeners. The majority of gratifications associated with listening to podcasts based on the various genres are similar, with minimal differences seen among certain genres. Discussion of AI and its influence on trust in news heard on podcasts is also addressed.
Keywords: listener trust; news; podcast; podcast genres; podcast news; podcasting; trust in news; uses and gratifications
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9182

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: 21st Century Televisuality? Golden Ages and Collateral Damage in Industry Stress Research
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9435
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9435
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9435
Author-Name: John T. Caldwell
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media, University of California – Los Angeles, USA
Abstract: This article examines how the innovations of, and fallout from, the post-1980s US multichannel cable era both prefigured and were transformed by the 21st-century online platform streaming era. Intense corporate competition, in which traditional networks and studios collided with disruptive new firms, triggered producers to innovate new ways of financing, making, and conceptualizing media content. Both disruptions spurred mergers, bankruptcies, hostile takeovers, and collapsing institutional distinctions. At the same time, these periods of acute market uncertainty also triggered widespread forms of innovation in production, technical imaging, narrative content, seriality, programming strategies, and aesthetics. So much so that the periods have been deemed “The 2nd Golden Age of Television,” and a “European Television Fiction Renaissance,” respectively. Yet traditional qualitative paradigms like these can also divert scholars who intend or need to unpack, document, and explain two more modest industry realities. First, acute televisual stylizing and golden age attributions gloss over television’s and streaming’s less-remarkable but essential and problematic industrial routine. Second, celebrating industrial exceptionalisms often ignore the creative media workers that disruptive innovations inevitably displace; or they caricature routine workers as a monotonous “rule” that proves the talented rise-above-the-pack “exception.” I have tried to look beyond the vanguard masterworks in the two historical disruptions. My research focuses on habitual practices in production, in order to unpack the collateral damage, the “industrial ashes” that “media peaks” and masterpieces often (necessarily) arise from. Fieldwork and human-subjects research in media industry studies make it difficult to overlook the human costs and displaced workers that have followed in the wake of aesthetic and technical innovations in both periods. Drawing on the ethnographic fieldwork for <em>Specworld (Caldwell, 2023), </em>this article targets one problem scholars unavoidably face if they hope to account for the habitual, the losers, and the routine in worlds of production. Taking this approach makes justifying one methodological framework a precondition for scholarship: the <em>scope</em> of the evidence or data media scholars intend to “sample” in research on the immense complex production systems that characterize both periods. As an alternative to the bracketed-off masterworks, “quality television” (or “cinemas”), and auteurs favored by arts and humanities scholars, research on complex media ecosystems requires finding a system-wide logic or basis for the evidence gathered. I argue that production rifts and fractures offer scholars unintended (unplanned and uncensored) self-portraits of what complex industries “betray” as most important to the system as a whole. In proposing “rift-trace data-sampling” for evidence I argue that industrial failures (rather than masterworks) act as unintended, even subconscious disclosures of key industrial practices. Triggered disclosures of this sort may offer a more convincing way to understand the televisual complexities—and system-wide functions—of golden-age digital innovations.
Keywords: creative labor; exceptionalism; media ecosystem; precarity; production culture; routine; stylization; technical innovation; televisual
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9435

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Strategic Choices for Balancing Intimacy and Professionalism: Content Analysis of Chinese Podcasts on Himalaya
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9126
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9126
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9126
Author-Name: Jinghong Xu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China / The International College, Krirk University, Thailand
Author-Name: Zining Wang
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, China
Author-Name: Tong Luo
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Asian and African Languages, TianJin Foreign Studies University, China
Author-Name: Shiyu Liu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Abstract: By analyzing 120 episodes from 12 podcast accounts, representing central, provincial, commercial, and individual Chinese news outlets on the Himalaya platform, this study examines the strategies employed by news publishers to balance intimacy and professionalism. Our findings show that while all media types prioritize professionalism, their strategies for cultivating intimacy differ significantly. Compared to commercial and provincial media, central media achieved the best balance between intimacy and professionalism. Individual media demonstrated the highest intimacy scores, whereas central media excelled in professionalism. This study enhances our understanding of how institutional backgrounds shape strategies in audio journalism. It offers insights into balancing intimacy with professional standards in the podcast medium.
Keywords: audio journalism; Chinese podcasts; Himalaya; intimacy; news podcasts; podcasts; professionalism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9126

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intimate Yet Exploitative: Representations of Gender-Based Violence in Platformed True Crime Narratives
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8964
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8964
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8964
Author-Name: Christine Linke
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Architecture and Design, Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Author-Name: Lisa Brune
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Architecture and Design, Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Abstract: True crime is a highly controversial yet successful entertainment genre that is widely available on streaming, video, and podcast platforms. The content often includes visual depictions of victims and survivors of gender-based violence, as well as depictions of the acts of violence themselves, such as surveillance footage, police or court videos, or photographs. Additionally, producers and account holders on social media platforms frequently use stereotypical, clichéd, and even eroticized representations of violence. True crime formats rarely address neither the structural causes and backgrounds which lead to crimes, nor the impact on victims, survivors, and their relatives. To address these issues, we apply audio-visual content analysis, focusing on the YouTube channel of Bailey Sarian and her content combination of narrating true crime stories while doing her makeup. Drawing on communication and media studies, we explore the dual tenor of subversive-empowering versus voyeuristic-exploitative representations in the context of narratives of gender-based violence. Our analysis highlights that the unreflective and voyeuristic tone of commercialized true crime narratives can lead to the unethical exploitation of real events and the people affected. The Murder, Mystery &amp; Makeup Monday series exemplifies a dual approach, blending affective storytelling, which fosters viewer intimacy, with sensationalistic portrayals that often simplify and stigmatize those involved in criminal cases. Although some empowering and informative voices regarding gender-based violence exist online, they are frequently overshadowed by the sensationalism typical of commercial true crime. The series underscores a tension between intimate engagement and ethical responsibility, shaped by platform-driven pressures that prioritize engagement over quality. Our findings emphasize the need for platforms to actively enable nuanced, balanced portrayals that foster a more informed and empathetic media environment.
Keywords: affective storytelling; audio-visual content analysis; Bailey Sarian; gender-based violence; platform-culture; true crime; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8964

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Beyond Play: Researching the Transformative Power of Digital Gaming in Deeply Mediatized Societies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8800
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8800
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8800
Author-Name: Christian Schwarzenegger
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen, Germany
Author-Name: Erik Koenen
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen, Germany
Author-Name: Kerstin Radde-Antweiler
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen, Germany
Author-Name: Karsten D. Wolf
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen, Germany
Abstract: Digital gaming has evolved from a peripheral activity to a central aspect of mediatized lifeworlds, significantly impacting media culture and society. Despite its pervasive influence, digital gaming research often occupies a marginalized status within broader academic disciplines. This article advocates for recognizing digital gaming as an integral part of the media landscape and understanding its role within a deeply mediatized society. By adopting a holistic perspective, this study emphasizes the interconnectedness of digital gaming with other media forms and cultural practices, highlighting its significance in driving digital transformation. Therefore, we argue for a dual development: one that removes gaming from its segregated special status and recognizes it as an integral part of the media landscape, and another that situates the unique aspects of gaming within the broader context of a society deeply transformed and shaped by media; capturing both its significance and its role as part of the whole. We elaborate on the concept of gamevironments bridging deep mediatization research and communicative figurations to comprehend change brought about by the transformative power of digital gaming in deeply mediatized societies. Gamevironments encompass transmedia figurations and narratives, cross-media adaptations, social interactions, user-generated content, and the cultural and educational impacts of gaming. We discuss the analytical potential of gamevironments along five distinct yet interrelated areas (making of gamevironments, values in and of gamevironments, governance of gamevironments, education in and for gamevironments, and researching gamevironments) to provide a comprehensive view of digital gaming’s transformative impact on digital society.
Keywords: communicative figurations; consequence; deep mediatization; digital gaming; emergence; gamevironment; media cultures; transformation
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8800

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Survey Study on Public Attitudes Toward Gaming Disorder
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8701
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8701
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8701
Author-Name: Felix Reer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Münster, Germany
Author-Name: Lena Maria Küpper
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Münster, Germany
Author-Name: Florian Wintterlin
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Münster, Germany
Author-Name: Thorsten Quandt
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Münster, Germany
Abstract: The World Health Organization’s decision to include addictive game use (“gaming disorder”) in the International Classification of Diseases was the subject of controversial scientific debates (e.g., Aarseth et al., 2017; Rumpf et al., 2018; for an overview, see Reer &amp; Quandt, 2021). However, knowledge is scarce on how addictive game use is perceived outside of academic circles (Schatto-Eckrodt et al., 2020). The current study aimed to fill this research gap by interviewing a stratified German sample (<em>N</em><em> </em>= 1,075) on their attitudes toward the topic. We found that critical views about games and their addiction potential are rather common among the German general population. Further, we found evidence that many participants overestimated the number of players affected by gaming disorder. Regression analyses showed that age, gender, and gaming experience play a role in how individuals think about risks associated with game use. Interestingly, having heard about the topic in the media was associated with more critical attitudes and higher presumed prevalence rates. More exchange between scholars and the wider public is needed to increase knowledge on the topic. Further, media reports on gaming disorder should cover the latest research findings and the opposing views of scientists.
Keywords: computer games; digital games; gaming addiction; gaming disorder; problematic game use; societal perception; video games
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8701

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Introduction of the Digital Gaming Relationship
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8738
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8738
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8738
Author-Name: Miikka Sokka
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Finland
Author-Name: Kwok Ng
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Finland / Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland / Institute of Innovation and Sports Science, Lithuanian Sports University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Sami Kokko
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Author-Name: Pasi Koski
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Finland
Abstract: In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in studying the appeal of digital games. However, there is still a call for further research, especially on the theoretical and methodological advancements. Hence, a novel approach and a concept of the Digital Gaming Relationship (DGR) is presented. The DGR model is adapted from earlier work on physical activity and with the central concept as “meaning,” it provides an alternative perspective to motivation-oriented literature for the field of game studies. With this approach, the fundamental view is that each person has a varying relationship with digital games and gaming over their life span. The relationship builds on the individual’s encounters with the social world of digital gaming and its cultural meanings. In the long term, accruing digital gaming-related knowledge, experiences, and emotional connections contributes to a rich tapestry of meaning, thus creating a deep and meaningful relationship capable of shaping one’s actions, behaviors, and even identity. The framework theorizes the mechanisms of an individual’s socialization process to the digital gaming world and illustrates that the relationship with digital games includes much more than just playing them. In this article, the theoretical roots and key concepts of the DGR are introduced, and the practical applicability of the approach is discussed.
Keywords: digital game studies; digital gaming; digital gaming relationship; video games; social world; socialization; meaning; significance
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8738

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Sympathy for the Devil: Serial Mediation Models for Toxicity, Community, and Retention
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8676
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8676
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8676
Author-Name: Mingxuan Liu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Macau, China
Author-Name: Jack Lipei Tang
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Advertising and Public Relations, The University of Alabama, USA
Author-Name: Dmitri Williams
Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, USA
Abstract: Disruptive behaviors in online gaming communities are a growing concern, affecting player experience, retention, and well-being. While previous research has primarily focused on the victims’ experiences, this study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying the attitudinal and behavioral responses to both encountering disruptive behaviors and being flagged for such behaviors, as well as the effects on retention. The study retrieved longitudinal telemetry records of player reporting and gameplay data from the North American server of a popular competitive player vs. player multiplayer online game, coupled with a psychometric survey of a randomly selected sample of 1,217 players. Based on the rejection-disidentification model, this research identifies a shared pathway for both reporting and being reported for disruptive behavior. Our findings support a serial mediation model where both experiences are linked to decreased player engagement. This reduced engagement, reflected in diminished participation in game battles over time, is mediated by perceived discrimination and a reduced sense of community. Moreover, drawing on the concept of procedural justice from the group engagement model, the study delineates unique pathways for the disengagement process for reporters and those reported. Being flagged for disruptive behavior leads to a significant drop in sustained engagement through a decreased sense of community, which is not the case for reporting disruptive behavior. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
Keywords: disruptive gaming behavior; gaming toxicity; online gaming community; online video games; player engagement; procedural justice; sense of community
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8676

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “I bet she’s ‘not like other girls’”: Discursive Construction of the Ideal Gaming Woman on r/GirlGamers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8802
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8802
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8802
Author-Name: Maria Ruotsalainen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Author-Name: Mikko Meriläinen
Author-Workplace-Name: Tampere University Game Research Lab, Tampere University, Finland
Abstract: Research on women and hostile behaviour in video games has largely focused on women as victims rather than perpetuators of hostile behaviour. In this study, by utilizing discourse analysis, we examine how women’s hostile behaviour is discussed in the subreddit r/GirlGamers, and how the ideal gaming woman is discursively constructed in these discussions.
Keywords: female gamers; gender; hostile behaviour; online games; Reddit
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8802

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Empowered by the Experience: Playing as Female Characters in Video Games
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8733
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8733
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8733
Author-Name: Teresa Lynch
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, The Ohio State University, USA
Author-Name: Annie Dooley
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, The Ohio State University, USA
Author-Name: David M. Markowitz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Michigan State University, USA
Abstract: Research on female video game characters often investigates negative outcomes of playing as stereotyped characters. Yet, video games increasingly offer people opportunities to play as capable, prominent female characters that may be meaningful and promote positive outcomes (e.g., feelings of empowerment). This manuscript shares the results of a mixed methods survey of individuals (<em>N</em> = 751) recruited via online forums who recalled their experiences playing as female game characters. We analyzed qualitative response data using a traditional, top-down approach to identify themes. We focus our analysis and discussion on the results of a human-derived analysis, which indicated both positive and negative dimensions of experiences that participants found meaningful. Participants reported that taking on the role of a female character was often very important to them, but the reason for this significance varied across players. Often, these reasons involved their own gender identities and the context in which the gameplay occurred (e.g., online multiplayer). We consider findings as evidence of eudaimonic media effects.
Keywords: avatar; entertainment media; eudaimonia; gender; media psychology; video games
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8733

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Parasocial Interactions in Otome Games: Emotional Engagement and Parasocial Intimacy Among Chinese Female Players
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8662
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8662
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8662
Author-Name: Hao Gao
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University, China
Author-Name: Ruoqing Guo
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University, China
Author-Name: Qingqing You
Author-Workplace-Name: Television School, Communication University of China, China
Abstract: This study conducts qualitative research on female players of otome games, exploring the mechanisms of romantic relationship formation within these games and their impact on perceptions of real-life intimate relationships. The findings reveal that the parasocial romantic relationships formed in otome games are not entirely detached from reality; instead, they are embedded in daily life through game interaction mechanisms and the players’ internalized imagination, thereby influencing the reconstruction of real-life intimate relationships. Female players show a high degree of acceptance and immersion in these romantic relationships, focusing on the emotional support provided by male characters. These relationships play a positive role in fulfilling emotional needs, regulating negative emotions, constructing self-identity, and redefining perceptions of intimacy. The intangibility of physical contact remains the only significant shortcoming, as perceived by a minority of players, pointing to a primary direction for the future development of otome games.
Keywords: emotional feedback; otome games; parasocial relationships; parasocial romantic relationships; video games; self-perception
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8662

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Amplifying Player Experience to Facilitate Prosocial Outcomes in a Narrative-Based Serious Game
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8637
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8637
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8637
Author-Name: Lewen Wei
Author-Workplace-Name: School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales, Australia
Author-Name: Mike Schmierbach
Author-Workplace-Name: Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Author-Name: Bingjie Liu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, The Ohio State University, USA
Author-Name: Jin Kang
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Information Technology, Carleton University, Canada
Author-Name: Cheng Chen
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communications, Elon University, USA
Author-Name: Frank E. Dardis
Author-Workplace-Name: Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Author-Name: Ryan Tan
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, USA
Author-Name: Olivia Cohen
Author-Workplace-Name: Lew Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University, USA
Abstract: The rise and development of serious games have shown promise in addressing critical social issues, including school bullying. However, prior work often compares game-based interventions with the conventional non-game approach, failing to generate insights about which game features should be emphasized to create more effective games. To bridge this research gap, in light of video games’ advantages for creating immersive experiences that benefit persuasion, we created a narrative-based serious game addressing school bullying and conducted two studies (Study 1, <em>N</em> = 130; Study 2, <em>N</em> = 250) to explore the persuasive effects of two game features, respectively player–avatar similarity and in-game control, on player experience (including player–avatar identification, narrative engagement, and empathy) and prosocial intention. We found mixed results subject to player perspective such that only when players took the bully’s perspective did one of the game features—in-game control—successfully create the intended empathy via amplified narrative engagement toward the desirable prosocial intention.
Keywords: empathy; in-game control; narrative engagement; player–avatar identification; player–avatar similarity; prosocial intention; serious game
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8637

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: FABLE: A New Horizon in Digital Learning and Serious Game Design
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8647
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8647
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8647
Author-Name: Salvador Reyes-de-Cózar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Education, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Spain
Author-Name: Alba Merino-Cajaraville
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Education, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Spain
Abstract: Serious games have stood out as a new pedagogical format capable of motivating students through interactive learning. The lack of standards in the conception of these video games has led to the creation of different models, where the ludic aspects often prevail over the educational ones. This research analyzes the models present in the literature to identify those key elements in the design of serious games and to determine the presence of ludic-pedagogical elements. A systematic review is carried out following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement to identify the existing models for creating serious games. A qualitative analysis of the selected models is carried out to extract the key elements that should be present when creating a guide for designing serious games and to evaluate a ludic-pedagogical approach. Finally, a directed content analysis is performed to evaluate the presence of ludic-pedagogical elements in the selected models. The results show a lack of attention paid to the elements of the pedagogical dimension of the game in the studies reviewed. Other elements, such as the format or the audience, are not specified, and most models prove incomplete. From this study emerges FABLE (Fun And Balanced Learning Experience), a model that incorporates both the playful and pedagogical dimensions of the serious game.
Keywords: educational technology; game-based learning; ICT; interactive learning; serious games; video games
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8647

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Case of Cities: Skylines Versions—Affordances in Urban Planning Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8747
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8747
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8747
Author-Name: Laura Cañete Sanz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information and Documentation, University of Murcia, Spain
Author-Name: Sjors Martens
Author-Workplace-Name: Academy of Built Environment and Logistics, Breda University of Applied Science, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Teresa de la Hera
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: Studies on city-building games as educational tools show positive results in addressing different learning objectives, but also identify a missing link to reality, as they are mostly computer-based. Given the differences between existing games and their capabilities, the exact function of these games in an urban planning curriculum is unclear. The city-building game Cities: Skylines currently has three different versions (Digital, Tabletop, VR). Through an affordance analysis of the game’s three versions, this study analyses how the versions afford four primary knowledge dimensions, and in doing so identifies different educational applications for each version of Cities: Skylines in different planning disciplines. The results show that: (a) the board game is strong in fostering player participation and critical thinking more suited for the social and health studies, public policy, and citizen participation domains of urban planning; (b) the digital version functions as moddable simulator, ensuring familiarity with existing systems and monitoring their effects, useful in logistics and transportation planning; (c) the VR form viscerally involves players in the simulated processes, applicable in design-focused segments of urban planning, such as sustainable design theory, housing, and land-use management. The results of this study can help urban planning educators identify possible uses for different versions of Cities: Skylines.
Keywords: affordances; city-building games; knowledge dimensions; urban planning; urban planning education
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8747

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Experiencing the Call of Duty: Exploring Emotions in Commercial War Games
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8667
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8667
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8667
Author-Name: Joseph Pattison
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, UK
Abstract: This article explores how players interpret and reflect on themes in mainstream war videogames, specifically the Call of Duty franchise. Scholars have long focused on the ideological content of war games, which is marked by increased collusion of military institutions with the gaming industry and assumptions about the influential capabilities of war games, in which player agency is often downplayed. This study builds on Lenoir and Caldwell’s (2018) observations that the interpretation of mainstream franchises should focus more on their attempts to create an “affective framework” that emphasises certain emotions in players. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, this study found that participants outlined their discomfort in certain missions, to the point where they even altered their playstyle, suggesting that players often reflect critically on the aspects of war these games explore. This article concludes that mainstream franchises, like Call of Duty, should be considered complex cultural artefacts consisting of various layers of meaning. Rather than directly transmitting militaristic ideologies, these games craft an emotional aesthetic capable of exploring more controversial aspects of war. The key to understanding these franchises lies directly with the players themselves, which is why audiences should be treated as conscious agents who play an active role in drawing meaning from such an aesthetic.
Keywords: affect; audience research; Call of Duty; commercial war games; emotion; military; videogames
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8667

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Contemporary Political Discourse in Digital Games: A Systematic Approach
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8689
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8689
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8689
Author-Name: Jenniffer Soto de la Cruz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philology, Communication, and Documentation, University of Alcalá, Spain
Author-Name: Sara Cortés Gómez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philology, Communication, and Documentation, University of Alcalá, Spain
Author-Name: Pilar Lacasa
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philology, Communication, and Documentation, University of Alcalá, Spain
Abstract: This study reviews existing literature on how video games are being used to convey contemporary political discourse. Digital games, as meaningful cultural artifacts, have become a communication medium in their own right. They can serve as social mirrors, framing contemporary reality through metaphors that represent and recreate transcendent events or social facts through immersive experiences. Likewise, video games have played a significant role in shaping our current politics and culture. This article seeks to answer the research question: How has contemporary political discourse been explored through digital games in academic literature? To do so, we conducted a systematic literature review following the SALSA (search, appraisal, synthesis, and analysis) framework. We identified <em>N</em> = 25 journal articles written in English and Spanish, published between January 2013 and September 2023. We found that first-person shooter games were the most frequently discussed game genre in the academic literature, followed by newsgames. We propose a new method for categorizing political messages in digital games, which we have called the PRICE dimensions model (participation, representation, ideology, conflict, and education). The studied papers were classified into five main thematic groups: (a) video games as a tool for digital propaganda; (b) video games aiming to raise awareness of political issues; (c) games and gamification elements for radicalization; (d) game design that justifies, minimizes, or downplays violence; and (e) players’ role in conveying political messages.
Keywords: digital games; first-person shooters; newsgames; political communication; political discourse; political games
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8689

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Dive Into the Past: Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Represented in Chinese Mobile Games
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8749
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8749
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8749
Author-Name: Yixiang Que
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Teresa de La Hera
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Jeroen Jansz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: This study delves into the representation of intangible Chinese cultural heritage in Chinese mobile games. Nowadays, even with huge economic potential, Chinese mobile games are still faced with negative comments, especially from parents. To develop their reputation, Chinese mobile games have portrayed considerate Chinese intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The representation of cultural heritage in video games has been a subject of discussion for a long time, while console and computer games and tangible cultural heritage have been at the centre of academic studies. Hence, we strived to investigate how Chinese ICH is depicted in Chinese mobile games. A thematic analysis was conducted on data collected through analytical gameplay of 30 Chinese mobile games selected from Apple’s App Store and the Chinese TapTap platform. Our analysis indicates that Chinese ICH is represented in Chinese mobile games to fulfil the persona of game characters, to create a more engaging and immersive game world experience, to provide more intense combat moments, to offer visually enjoyable virtual goods, and to deliver culturally driven updates during traditional festivals. Among the various forms of Chinese ICH, Chinese traditional craftsmanship is found to be used most frequently because of the huge effort it requires to be mastered, which could be educational to players. Theatrical traditions were found to be depicted in most game elements because they combine visual, audio, and motional elements. Lastly, folk and classical literature is portrayed in Chinese mobile games to provide a narrative resource that culturally resonates with players.
Keywords: Chinese culture; Chinese mobile games; intangible cultural heritage; cultural heritage representation
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8749

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Games and Game Studies Are Meaningful—Are They?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9857
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9857
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9857
Author-Name: Felix Reer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany
Author-Name: Teresa de la Hera
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Salvador Gómez-García
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Global Communication, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Abstract: Building on the idea that digital games are more than trivial pastimes and can have deeper meanings, this article collection brings together emerging findings from the field of game studies. The foundation for this thematic issue was laid at the 2023 symposium of the Digital Games Research Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) held in Madrid. The articles in this collection examine the rich content of games as cultural artifacts and how they encourage reflection, the role of games as social environments and learning tools, the dynamics of identity negotiation and socialization in gaming contexts, the societal perceptions of games, and the increasingly important roles of games and game studies in mediatized societies.
Keywords: cultural artifacts; digital games; eudaimonia; game studies; meaningfulness; media effects; serious games
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9857

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Podcasting the Truth: Challenging Journalistic Knowledge and Building Epistemic Authority in Independent YouTube Podcasts
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8984
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8984
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8984
Author-Name: Viljami Vaarala
Author-Workplace-Name: Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland
Abstract: The legitimacy of journalism as a truth-teller has become contested during the era of digitalisation and newly emerging platforms. Recently, the epistemic authority of legacy journalism has been challenged by right-wing podcasting. This article explores metajournalistic discussions on the identity of legacy journalism as a truth-oriented practice and institution in six Finnish podcasts published independently outside legacy media on YouTube. This metajournalistic discourse of truth is identified through topic modelling in 229 podcast episodes, of which 119 are scrutinised using qualitative discourse analysis. The discursive articulations in the YouTube podcast episodes are assessed in the light of realist and antirealist philosophies as well as epistemic theories of journalistic truth structured by critical realist and pragmatist philosophies. The results show that the epistemic authority of legacy journalism is challenged through three interconnected themes through which legacy journalism is articulated as an antirealist practice and institution. By contrast, YouTube podcasting is framed as a platform for a balanced, authentic, and uncut talk that realises the epistemic ideals of journalism. The challenges to the epistemic authority of legacy journalism presented by the Finnish YouTube podcasts are also similar to those identified in previous research on right-wing podcasting and online counter-media. The findings point to the need for legacy journalists and podcasting practitioners to adopt more nuanced and context-bound understandings of journalistic knowledge and truth structured by critical realist and pragmatist philosophies.
Keywords: antirealism; critical realism; epistemology of journalism; journalism; legacy journalism; metajournalistic discourse; podcast; pragmatism; realism; truth; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8984

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Rewatching Content on Streaming Platforms: The Pursuit of Ontological Comfort
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9338
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9338
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9338
Author-Name: Ignacio Siles
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
Author-Name: Rodrigo Muñoz-González
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
Author-Name: Luciana Valerio-Alfaro
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
Author-Name: Vanessa Valiati
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Media Studies, Feevale University, Brazil
Abstract: Why do people tend to rewatch series and films when they have numerous new options at their disposal? This article develops the notion of rewatching on streaming platforms as an essential and enduring aspect of televisuality. Our analysis draws from diary reports completed during one month by 40 streaming platform users in Costa Rica, as well as focus group conversations with 13 of these participants. We examine rewatching as a pursuit of <em>ontological comfort</em>, that is, the sense of well-being derived from people’s understanding of everyday life and their conscious capacity to act in it. We argue that rewatching expresses an active search for stability, predictability, and orchestrated surprise through the narratives and conventions of certain televisual genres and the self-schedule affordances of streaming platforms. This study thus examines the nuanced significance of rewatching and its fundamental connection to the notion of comfort.
Keywords: audiences; comfort; Latin America; ontological security; rewatching; television; television genres; temporality
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9338

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Binge-Watching Netflix? Insights From Data Donations
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9362
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9362
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9362
Author-Name: Karin van Es
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Dennis Nguyen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Abstract: Netflix is often credited with mainstreaming binge-watching through its release strategy and interface features. However, despite this reputation, data on actual consumption patterns remains scarce, enabling Netflix to shape the narrative about how content is consumed on its platform and what this implies about content quality and viewer attentiveness. This article provides unique empirical insights into Netflix viewing patterns in the Netherlands, based on a pilot study involving data donated by 126 subscribers. It introduces a definition of binge-watching tailored for computational analysis and offers an empirical understanding of its prevalence and manifestations. The findings suggest that binge-watching is a diverse and complex activity. While it is seemingly popular, in that it is practiced by many subscribers, the data suggest it occurs less frequently and is less extreme than would be expected from the hype.
Keywords: binge-watching; data transparency; Netflix; streaming; viewing patterns
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9362

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Televisuality on a Global Scale: Netflix’s Local-Language Strategy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9356
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9356
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9356
Author-Name: Frédérique Khazoom
Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands / Department of Art History, Film, and Audiovisual Media, Université de Montréal, Canada
Abstract: This article focuses on Netflix’s local-language strategy, the context leading up to it, and the extent to which transnationality, in this particular case, becomes televisual in John Caldwell’s sense. I argue that Netflix has developed a different business model for transnational TV formats through this strategy. For that, I use the Netflix original and exclusive series <em>Criminal</em> (Field Smith &amp; Kay, 2019–present-a–d) as a case study and show that its production context triggers a specific visual response due to Netflix’s economic and legal obligations in Europe. Building on the “transnational TV format trading system” approach of Jean K. Chalaby, this case study highlights how the affordances of multi-country video-on-demand providers like Netflix allow for the successful international franchising strategy in linear television to be conducted internally and simultaneously. Specifically, it shows that fictional TV series no longer need to be developed for a national broadcaster before reaching international markets because multi-country video-on-demand providers do not require various national intermediaries to distribute and stream TV series in different markets. The adaptation process can also be bypassed entirely if the decision to localize a programme into multiple versions is made before production starts. As a result, companies like Netflix can produce several local variations of TV content without running into as many barriers as national broadcasters. From there, I further argue using Mareike Jenner’s “grammar of transnationalism” that the impact of production and distribution processes on the visual treatment of <em>Criminal</em> leads to style excess at the interface level and stylistic scarcity at the aesthetic level.
Keywords: aesthetics; media globalization; Netflix; televisuality; transnational television; TV formats; TV production
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9356

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Cultural Authenticity as Netflix Televisuality: Streaming Industry Discourse and Globally Commissioned Original Series
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9407
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9407
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9407
Author-Name: Michael L. Wayne
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Deborah Castro
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract: This analysis uses a media industry studies approach in conjunction with Caldwell’s concept of “televisuality” to explore the significance of cultural authenticity within Netflix’s industrial discourses. The authors argue that Netflix’s emphasis on cultural authenticity in its global content strategies mirrors the concept of “televisuality” as a form of corporate behavior and cultural representation in the streaming era. Specifically, the findings demonstrate the ways in which cultural authenticity can be understood as an industrial practice, distinct from the specific textual, narrative, or genre-related elements of its content. In addition, this research finds that executives’ assertions about universal storytelling diminish the significance of cultural differences, enabling them to present this diluted version of cultural authenticity as a catalyst for fostering global empathy and understanding. Yet, the broader utility of conceptualizing cultural authenticity as the overarching industrial logic of contemporary streaming television remains unclear as a result of Netflix’s distinctive position within the industry.
Keywords: cultural authenticity; Netflix; streaming; television industry
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9407

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Instagram and #Wellness: Uncovering Gender and Body Patterns
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8776
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8776
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8776
Author-Name: Ana Marta M. Flores
Author-Workplace-Name: NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Author-Name: Rita Sepúlveda
Author-Workplace-Name: NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract: The concept of “wellness” and its associated representations have become key aspects of modern culture, with social media platforms like Instagram playing a significant role. Not only do these platforms serve as spaces for the public expression of wellness-related topics, but they also influence public perceptions. This becomes particularly meaningful when these expressions are linked to gender. Our research explores how wellness and gender are depicted in popular Instagram posts. By analysing 300 public Instagram posts tagged with #wellness from 2023, we investigate whether traditional notions of gender and bodies are challenged or reinforced. Wellness is a multifaceted process, but our findings show that users often adhere to a narrow concept. To understand these representations, we focused on posts tagged with #wellness, particularly those in the physical category. The study employed a digital methods approach (Rogers, 2013) and thematic analysis (Braun &amp; Clarke, 2006, 2021), uncovering three primary themes: Practices &amp; Workout, Body &amp; Expressions, and Clothing &amp; Adornment. Predominantly, all themes in the context of wellness depict gender in a binary form and bodies as thin or athletic. These traditional gender and body norms are perpetuated on Instagram, reinforcing societal standards of beauty and body image. Instagram’s engagement logic preferentially promotes content conforming to dominant societal norms, strengthening these patterns. Alternative or counter-narratives, while they exist, often face challenges in gaining visibility due to both algorithmic biases and cultural predispositions. Although Instagram has the potential to offer a platform for such counter-narratives, our findings indicate that normative content continues to dominate in terms of visibility and engagement.
Keywords: app studies; gender norms; gender representations; hashtags; Instagram; social platforms; wellness
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8776

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Podcasting in Serbia: Podcasters’ Perspectives on Emerging Roles, Practices, and Functions
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9050
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9050
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9050
Author-Name: Simona Žikić
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, Serbia / Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Serbia
Author-Name: Čedomir Markov
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract: Podcasting has become increasingly popular in Serbia, a hybrid regime country characterized by profound polarization, a lack of media professionalism, and widespread anti-press sentiment. This study aimed to explore how podcast creators view their roles and practices within the evolving media landscape, as well as the implications of podcasting’s growing popularity in the Serbian public sphere. The data were obtained through focus groups with 16 independent and mainstream media-affiliated podcasters, exploring their perspectives on podcasting’s distinctiveness, functions, affordances, and obstacles. Participants noted the ability of podcasts to provide in-depth analysis of often neglected topics due to their flexible, informal presentation style, as opposed to the perceived routinization, rigidity, and superficiality of traditional media. Podcasters affiliated with professional media described podcasting as an extension of their practices, providing behind-the-scenes insights and additional journalistic content, whereas independent podcasters prioritized genuine conversations to create resonant content tailored to specialized communities. Journalist podcasters attributed the appeal of podcasting to the authenticity and intimacy it creates but emphasized the struggles of matching these features with journalistic standards. While most participants believed that podcasting contributes to greater external pluralism by providing a space for neglected subjects, alternative narratives, and marginalized voices, some were concerned about the possibility of exacerbating polarization, as podcasts frequently serve divided audiences. By exploring the perspectives Serbian podcasters bring to production and the meanings they attach to their roles and practices, this study offers insights for scholars and practitioners exploring media innovation in hybrid regimes and emerging democracies.
Keywords: authenticity; hybrid regime; intimacy; media innovation; media professionalism; podcasters’ perspectives; podcasting; podcasting practice; self-reflexivity; Serbia
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9050

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Media Literacy in a Digital Age: Taking Stock and Empowering Action
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9759
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9759
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9759
Author-Name: Leen d'Haenens
Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Willem Joris
Author-Workplace-Name: Media, Culture & Politics Research Group (ECHO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Abstract: This thematic issue presents 12 articles that explore the transformative potential of media literacy, digital skills, and ICT interventions in diverse contexts and populations, ranging from adolescents and youth with disabilities to university staff and vocational educators. It provides a comprehensive overview of research, including systematic and scoping reviews, empirical studies, and innovative measurement frameworks, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges in fostering media literacy and digital skills. The studies examine positive outcomes, barriers, and enablers of intervention programs, emphasizing the importance of tailoring approaches to specific contexts, addressing systemic inequities, and fostering interdisciplinary and international collaboration. Together, all contributing authors underscore the critical role of media literacy and digital skills in promoting empowerment, equity, and resilience in navigating the complexities of today’s digital age.
Keywords: data literacy; digital literacy; digital skills; ICT interventions; media literacy; news literacy
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9759

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Developing Performance Tests to Measure Digital Skills: Lessons Learned From a Cross-National Perspective
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8988
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8988
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8988
Author-Name: Ester van Laar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Science, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Alexander J. A. M. van Deursen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Science, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Ellen J. Helsper
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Author-Name: Luc S. Schneider
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Abstract: This article discusses the development of task-based performance tests designed to measure digital skills among children aged between 12 and 17 years old. The tasks reflect authentic everyday situations to evaluate skill levels. The primary objective is to design performance tests that provide a comprehensive understanding of children’s digital skills. The tests cover three distinct skill dimensions: (a) information navigation and processing; (b) communication and interaction; and (c) content creation and production. These include several subdimensions, offering a detailed perspective on children’s digital skills. The development process itself revealed several methodological challenges that needed to be addressed, yielding valuable lessons for future applications. Key lessons from our cross-national experiences include the importance of involving children early in the design process, using a combination of open-ended and closed tasks, and allocating ample time to walk through the coding scheme.
Keywords: children; children’s digital skills; cross-nationally applicable tasks; digital skills; international performance tests; performance tests; performance test development
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8988

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Flexible Framework Integrating Digital and Social Competences in Vocational Education Across Diverse Contexts
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8974
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8974
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8974
Author-Name: María José Hernández-Serrano
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Theory and History of Education, University of Salamanca, Spain
Author-Name: Joe Cullen
Author-Workplace-Name: Arcola Research, Tavistock Institute London, UK
Author-Name: Barbara Jones
Author-Workplace-Name: Bibliometrica, UK
Author-Name: Noelia Morales Romo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca, Spain
Abstract: Competence frameworks in general education environments have emerged to define the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that contemporary educators need to acquire. Such frameworks have been less developed within vocational education and training (VET) although this sector is directly impacted by rapid and complex technological changes increasingly embedded in industrial and organisational demands of the working context. Many VET classrooms with dual or flexible contexts, with a range of demographically and culturally diverse learners, now require teachers to be trained with new competences and cross-cutting skills to cope with the resultant wider and deeper changes in knowledge. This article presents the outcomes and data of the design and validation processes of a competence framework combining digital and social skills. It was piloted in five countries (UK, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and Spain) to provide a flexible, and needs-based competence framework for VET teachers working with vulnerable learners. After conducting a literature review and a needs assessment of VET teachers and learners, a flexible three-domain framework is presented, with pathways and training methods that account for the so-called poly-contextual skills that combine digital and social skills. The flexible framework and 26 competences were tested with 358 VET teachers using three evaluation tools (self-assessment survey, game-quiz scores, and programme satisfaction survey). Conclusions highlight the need to combine digital and social skills together with media literacy through flexible pathways to achieve better results for teaching, learning, and empowering learners.
Keywords: competence frameworks; digital skills; self assessment; soft skills; vocational education and training; vulnerable learners
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8974

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9109
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9109
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9109
Author-Name: Eduard-Claudiu Gross
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work, Journalism, Public Relations, and Sociology, Lucian Blaga University Sibiu, Romania
Author-Name: Delia Cristina Balaban
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Abstract: <span lang="EN-US">There is an ongoing debate among scholars on how to tackle disinformation. Media education initiatives to increase literacy are effective ways to counter disinformation. Hence, the European Commission (2022) published <em>Guidelines for Teachers and Educators on Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Digital Literacy Through Education and Training</em>. The present research looked at the role of social media literacy in increasing awareness of the role of social media in spreading disinformation. We developed an educational intervention based on the European Commission guidelines. We investigated its impact on perceived social media literacy, the intention to share fake news on social media, and general conspiracy beliefs. We conducted a within-subject (two times measurement: before the educational intervention and one week after) +1 experiment with <em>N</em> = 127 young adults (aged 18 to 23). After filling in an initial survey, the experimental group received a 15-minute educational intervention on the role of social media for disinformation dissemination in complex digital information environments. One week later, all participants completed the second survey to assess perceived social media literacy and general conspiracy beliefs. In both surveys, participants saw three Instagram posts from a fictitious media outlet to express potential intentions to share on social media. Among the three posts, two showed false information. Findings showed that educational intervention produces a significant increase in perceived social media literacy and a decrease in general conspiracy beliefs. Intellectual humility moderates the impact of educational intervention on algorithmic awareness.</span>
Keywords: conspiracies; conspiracies belief; digital literacy; Instagram; intellectual humility; social media; social media literacy
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9109

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Unveiling Disability Empowerment: Evaluating ICT Skill Enhancement Initiatives in Indonesia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9078
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9078
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9078
Author-Name: Amri Dunan
Author-Workplace-Name: The National Research and Innovation Agency, Indonesia
Author-Name: Bambang Mudjiyanto
Author-Workplace-Name: The National Research and Innovation Agency, Indonesia
Author-Name:  Karman
Author-Workplace-Name: The National Research and Innovation Agency, Indonesia
Author-Name: Djoko Walujo
Author-Workplace-Name: The National Research and Innovation Agency, Indonesia
Abstract: This study examines the role of information and communication technology (ICT) skill development programs, such as the Digital Talent Scholarship and ICT Jamboree, in empowering people with disability across Indonesia. Grounded in empowerment theory, it investigates how these programs contribute to personal autonomy, economic engagement, and social inclusion. The research focuses on participants’ perceptions of the impact of ICT training on their independence and social integration. It also identifies challenges in applying ICT skills in daily life, including barriers to employment and limited access to assistive technologies like Braille displays and hearing aids. Through a qualitative approach—using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with 99 participants from diverse people with disability groups—the findings reveal significant improvements in self-confidence, digital literacy, and participants’ ability to overcome employment and online communication challenges. While ICT shows potential to reduce social isolation and foster digital inclusion, disparities in proficiency and access to adaptive tools remain. The study emphasizes the need for more tailored interventions and advocates for increased funding, better accessibility, and stronger public-private partnerships to advance disability inclusion through ICT, extending beyond Indonesia to Asia and the Middle East.
Keywords: disability; empowerment; evaluating; ICT skills; ICT training; Indonesia; social inclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9078

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Reflecting With Teachers on Research-Based Tools: The ySKILLS Education Toolkit
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9051
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9051
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9051
Author-Name: Susana Batista
Author-Workplace-Name: Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA), NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Author-Name: Cristina Ponte
Author-Workplace-Name: NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Author-Name: Rita Baptista
Author-Workplace-Name: NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract: This article focuses on the links between academic research and educational practices, examining how practitioners use, contextualize, and co-construct research findings on digital skills. To explore these issues, firstly we present an education toolkit developed within a European research project and aligned with normative and substantive guidelines for science communication. Aiming to grasp the potentialities and limitations of the toolkit in action, we then explore the perceptions of teachers from two educational settings in Portugal who employed it in their classrooms. Subsequent focus groups evidenced overall positive feedback from teachers, complemented by practical tips to improve the usefulness of the toolkit and adherence to it by teachers and students, thus adding layers of knowledge to the performative dimension of an evidence-based resource and building bridges between the academic and professional worlds.
Keywords: education toolkit; educational tools; digital skills; research-based education; science communication
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9051

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Effects of a News Literacy Video on News Literacy Perceptions and Misinformation Evaluation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8983
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8983
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8983
Author-Name: Rita Tang
Author-Workplace-Name: Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, USA
Author-Name: Melissa Tully
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, USA
Author-Name: Leticia Bode
Author-Workplace-Name: Communication, Culture, and Technology Program, Georgetown University, USA
Author-Name: Emily K. Vraga
Author-Workplace-Name: Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, USA
Abstract: The mixing of misinformation with high-quality news and information on social media has reinvigorated interest in the value of news literacy (NL) to build audience resiliency to misinformation. Optimizing NL messages for social media environments—where they may be seen alongside misinformation—allows these messages to reach audiences when they are most likely to benefit from them. Using a 2 (NL video vs. control video) x 2 (sunscreen promotion video vs. sunscreen misinformation video) online survey experiment (<em>N</em> = 780), we examine whether exposure to an NL video improves perceived personal NL skills and value for news literacy, as well as enables participants to recognize and avoid engaging with misinformation. Our findings suggest that after watching the NL video, individuals valued NL more but their self-perceived news literacy did not improve. Furthermore, watching the NL video made individuals rate the second video as less credible and reduced engagement with it no matter whether the second video contained misinformation or quality information. This research has several important implications. While watching an NL video could protect individuals by discrediting and decreasing engagement with misinformation, it may do so at the expense of high-quality information. We discuss the difficulty in designing NL messages that lead people to be appropriately skeptical and able to discern between high- and low-quality health information, rather than cynically disengaging with media content altogether.
Keywords: health information; media literacy; misinformation; news literacy; skepticism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8983

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Exploring Media Literacy Formation at the Intersection of Family, School, and Peers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9098
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9098
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9098
Author-Name: Nika Šušterič
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Author-Name: Katja Koren Ošljak
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Author-Name: Veronika Tašner
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract: Today, media literacy and digital skills are essential for personal communication and social interaction. Children and adolescents need these skills to act autonomously in highly digitised social contexts. These skills are acquired in different social spaces, most frequently and primarily at home, followed by peer groups, school, and extracurricular activities. The present study aims to conceptually situate media literacy within a broader network of social power relations. It is therefore grounded in an academic theoretical framework that constructs media literacy as a form of digital cultural capital. As such, media literacy also contains the principles of media preferences and choices that condition the media choices of young people. This draws our attention to the social contexts in which media literacy and digital skills of children and teenagers are formed: within the family, school, and peers. With a selective thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with 67 primary and secondary school students (12–19 years), the empirical research is focused on different contextual incentives and regulations related to the formation of students’ media literacy, primarily in relation to digital media. First, we examine parenting practices that frame home access to media and media practices within families. Then, we explore the characteristics of formal media education within schools, which seems limited to teaching with/through media. Finally, we identify peer networks as important promoters of both digital capital and elements of advanced media practices and skills, compared to the media literacy encouraged within families and schools.
Keywords: digital capital; media education; media literacy; media practices; primary school students; secondary school students
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9098

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Beyond Digital Literacy: Exploring Factors Affecting Digital Performance of University Staff
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8913
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8913
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8913
Author-Name: Carmen Koch
Author-Workplace-Name: IAM Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland
Author-Name: Fiona Fehlmann
Author-Workplace-Name: IAM Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland
Abstract: Digital literacy is essential but doesn’t guarantee digital performance. Many researchers consider factors such as attitude, cultural environment, or institutional setting in their frameworks when researching digital literacy. Yet, their significance often gets lost in a catalog of required skills and knowledge. Here we develop a model outlining factors influencing university personnel’s digital performance across diverse tasks, and we discuss associated challenges. The model derives from literature and insights from 20 qualitative interviews with academic staff in teaching, research, or consulting roles. Results show that institutional settings and employee empowerment are pivotal in shaping openness to digital tools. Intentions fail due to resource constraints and lack of recognition, leading to limited experience with digital opportunities. Well-being significantly influences willingness to embrace digital resources amidst the balancing act of anticipating future efficiency against investing time and resources. Maintaining a team atmosphere often results in alignment with the least digitally competent. With appropriate conditions, time resources, and support, staff could efficiently utilize digital resources, even with only basic skills, which fosters the integration of all workforces. We argue for comprehensive assessments of university employees’ digital performances, considering context and holistic aspects beyond personal skills and knowledge. Our model encompasses digital literacy, openness to digital developments, digital culture, primary conditions, services/empowerment offerings, and mindfulness.
Keywords: academic digital literacy; digital culture; digital literacy; digital performance; digital well-being; empowerment
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8913

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Skills’ Role in Intended and Unintended Exposure to Harmful Online Content Among European Adolescents
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8963
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8963
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8963
Author-Name: Natalie Tercova
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Author-Name: David Smahel
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Abstract: Digital skills play a crucial role in shaping adolescents’ online experiences, serving both as a shield against harmful content and as a gateway to accessing it. Previous studies on online harmful content have predominantly focused on general exposure, overlooking the distinction between intended and unintended exposure (i.e., whether the adolescent deliberately sought out the content or was unexpectedly exposed to it). Moreover, existing studies did not consider the role of adolescents’ digital skills. This exploratory study aims to newly examine the role of the subtypes of digital skills in the intended and unintended exposure to harmful online content among adolescents from four European countries, as well as the influence of protective and risky factors according to the problem behavior theory. Using multinomial logistic regression, a sample of 3,934 adolescents aged 12 to 17 (<em>M</em> = 14.4, <em>SD</em> = 1.3; 51% boys) from Estonia, Finland, Italy, and Poland was examined. The results show different associations with respect to the type of exposure. For instance, knowledge skills and technical/operational skills were found to be associated with unintentional exposure to harmful online content, but not with intentional exposure. Similarly, the protective role of the family was suggested in intentional exposure but not in unintentional exposure. These findings underscore the importance of raising awareness among educators and parents regarding the dual nature of digital skills. Rather than solely emphasizing their protective potential, we shall acknowledge and address the potential risks associated with certain facets of digital proficiency.
Keywords: adolescents; digital skills; harmful online content; intended exposure; risk factors; unintended exposure
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8963

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Beyond Numeracy, a Data Literacy Topical Scoping Review (2011–2023)
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9237
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9237
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9237
Author-Name: Lotte Vermeire
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Author-Name: Wendy Van den Broeck
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Author-Name: Fazlyn Petersen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Systems, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Author-Name: Leo Van Audenhove
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium / CoLab for eInclusion and Social Innovation, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Abstract: As society increasingly recognises the value of data, proficiency in using and understanding data has become crucial. However, there is no universal consensus on the definition of data literacy. Therefore, this study provides the first extensive, mixed methods scoping review of the topical evolution of data literacy within social and educational sciences from 2011 to 2023. By identifying key themes and research trends, this review offers a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic nature of data literacy. Our sample consists of 210 English-language, peer-reviewed articles from Scopus and Web of Science. The findings reveal a field that is evolving alongside media and digital literacy discussions, with notable growth in publications, particularly in 2019, 2020, and 2023, thus highlighting data literacy’s recognition as a distinct paradigm. Data literacy is shifting beyond traditional frameworks, with increasing attention to issues of equity and accessibility—areas still underexplored in current literature. Notably, the research demonstrates a shift from simply developing individual data skills to fostering a socially aware form of data literacy that empowers citizens to critically engage with data and navigate a datafied society actively and responsibly. This review emphasises the need for a nuanced, context-specific approach to data literacy, much like digital literacy, as different demographics and contexts encounter varying needs and challenges. As a dynamic, ever-evolving concept, future research and programs must address these diverse levels of engagement and expertise, ensuring that data literacy is inclusive, adaptable, and supported by social structures.
Keywords: data literacy; data skills; media education; topical evolution; understanding data; using data
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9237

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Fostering Media Literacy: A Systematic Evidence Review of Intervention Effectiveness for Diverse Target Groups
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8901
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8901
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8901
Author-Name: Leen d'Haenens
Author-Workplace-Name: Media Culture & Policy Lab, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Joyce Vissenberg
Author-Workplace-Name: Media Culture & Policy Lab, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Marit Puusepp
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Natalia Edisherashvili
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Diego Martinez-Castro
Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communications Department, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Author-Name: Ellen Johanna Helsper
Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communications Department, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Author-Name: Łukasz Tomczyk
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Author-Name: Tania Azadi
Author-Workplace-Name: Media Culture & Policy Lab, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Sylwia Opozda-Suder
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Author-Name: Erika Maksniemi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Guna Spurava
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
Author-Name: Katariina Salmela-Aro
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Niina Sormanen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Author-Name: Sini Tiihonen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Author-Name: Terhi-Anna Wilska
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Author-Name: Lauri Hietajärvi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Gemma Martínez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, University of the Basque Country, Spain
Author-Name: Nekane Larrañaga
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country, Spain
Author-Name: Maialen Garmendia
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country, Spain
Author-Name: Rubén Olveira-Araujo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, University of the Basque Country, Spain
Author-Name: Verónica Donoso
Author-Workplace-Name: Media Culture & Policy Lab, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Margus Pedaste
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Dominika Sepielak
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Abstract: Investigating the effectiveness of media literacy interventions is essential to identify the most promising programs. This 2022 systematic evidence review, guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline, aimed to collect and synthesize scientific evidence on effective media literacy intervention programs across different target groups and the used frameworks. A comprehensive search across major scientific databases (Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, Communication &amp; Mass Media Complete, and Education Resources Information Centre) and rigorous screening and coding processes identified 119 studies on media literacy intervention effectiveness and outcomes. This review offers valuable insights into the current state of media literacy intervention research, emphasizing the importance of considering diverse target groups and exploring a wide range of outcomes to enhance our understanding of these interventions’ impact.
Keywords: digital skills; effective interventions; impact assessment; media literacy; media literacy interventions; outcomes
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8901

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: 360 Degrees of Feminine Competence: Surface Aesthetics, Expertise, and Authority Among Drip Cake Baker-Influencers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8887
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8887
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8887
Author-Name: Vanessa Brown
Author-Workplace-Name: Nottingham School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Author-Name: Steve Jones
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Abstract: This article explores the gendered expertise of neoliberal female influencers associated with a novel baking form, the “drip cake.” It engages in a close historically and theoretically informed analysis of a selection of popular online bakers’ content, majoring on their skill-sharing tutorials. Online images of drip cakes are distinctive and spectacular, and their creation is demanding. Yet they have become a mainstream standard of fashionable baking. First, the research shows how exclusive knowledge drawn from patisserie and modernist design has been co-opted by this mix of amateur and professional bakers and transformed and capitalised on through their non-boundaried community of practice into something they announce as definitively theirs. Second, digital cake and baking have been considered previously as part of a post-feminist retreat, reframing and aestheticizing traditional white, cis-gendered, female domesticity. However, in the case of the drip cake, a remarkable lack of reference to family or domestic life in the sample demands further analysis. Drip cake images exemplify aspects of post-feminist digital “food porn,” but again elements of this are extended and defied by this phenomenon. Alternatively, cake images have been interpreted as expressions of mastery and competence. We build on these perspectives to explore the drip cake as a form of fashionable capital that stands for an ideal skin, body, and subjectivity in a striking performance of multiple aspects of cool, post-feminist perfection. We focus especially on the laboured and contradictory surface of the drip cake, finding little pleasure in eating or feeding, but instead, a celebration of rationality, cleanliness, and control; distinction produced through the creation of something formally perfect and fashionably current from the most unruly of substances.
Keywords: baking; modernism; neoliberalism; patisserie; post-feminism; surface
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8887

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Mediating the Sugar Baby Imaginary: Popular Narratives About Gender and Sexuality in Sugar Dating
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8811
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8811
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8811
Author-Name: Megan Sawey
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, USA
Abstract: The internet is rife with opportunities to participate in dating practices, discourses about gender, romance, and sexuality, and, increasingly, efforts to restrict sexual expression. Therefore, it is important to square popular discourse with the perspectives and thought processes that color women’s participation in romantic and sexual phenomena. This article explores how media narratives about women who pursue relationships at the intersection of intimacy, social class, and labor map onto the realities of their lived experiences. Specifically, I compare an analysis of popular press articles about sugar dating—a mutually beneficial relationship practice wherein people engage in frank negotiations of companionship, intimacy, and material benefits—with interviews with 13 women who have participated in sugar dating. I sought to understand how these women defined sugar dating, what motivated them to sugar date, and where their sugar relationships felt most rewarding or difficult. I argue that, for women, sugar dating can be a site of both labor and leisure. These interviews complicate how contemporary press coverage tends to frame sugar dating, revealing important insights about how women may conform to but also challenge popular narratives about their identities, labor, sexual desires, and agency. My findings, therefore, constitute a narrative about sugar dating that captures the nuances of women’s thinking and operating logics. This is a crucial step forward in elevating the voices of those who participate in sugar dating and other romantic and sexual practices.
Keywords: gender; identity; intimacy; labor; media; platforms; popular culture; sexuality; sugar dating
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8811

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Father Influencers’ Short Videos in China: Representations of Hybrid Fatherhood and Commercialisation on Xiaohongshu
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8762
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8762
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8762
Author-Name: Min Xu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Yangzhou University, China
Author-Name: Xinchen Liu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Yangzhou University, China
Author-Name: Hao Zhang
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Yangzhou University, China
Abstract: This study investigates the emerging trend of “dad vlogs” and short videos on Xiaohongshu, a popular lifestyle platform in China that incorporates e-commerce. Specifically, it examines how dad vloggers represent fathers’ parenting practices and responsibilities in their videos, and how they construct the commercial aspects of their content. Through a netnography approach and the analysis of 285 popular dad vlogs and short videos created by ten father influencers on Xiaohongshu, the study reveals how these dad vloggers showcase the various activities and efforts involved in raising children. They take on the roles of friend, playmate, and mentor, incorporating a type of humour and playfulness that end up characterising their approach. Notably, a hybrid model of fatherhood has emerged that combines new practices—such as encouragement and an “emotionally strategic” approach—with the traditional Chinese father’s role as an educator, aiming to cultivate high-achieving children. Based on such representations, the commercialisation of father influencers’ content involves different approaches to integrating product endorsements into well-crafted, informative videos with a well-received persona. The findings provide insights into contemporary parenting practices popularised in short videos, where representations of fatherhood attract large audiences, particularly female viewers, while enabling monetisation in the context of Chinese platform economies.
Keywords: Chinese short-video platforms; dad vlogs; father influencers; fatherhood; parenthood; representation; Xiaohongshu
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8762

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “Finally, Me Time!”: Korean Middle-Aged Women’s Platform Practices
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8746
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8746
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8746
Author-Name: Eujong Kim
Author-Workplace-Name: Content Strategy Team, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Republic of Korea
Author-Name: Yeran Kim
Author-Workplace-Name: Kwangwoon University, Republic of Korea
Abstract: This work builds on the legacy of feminist reception studies by expanding the research focus from mass media to digital platforms, particularly YouTube, and from media use to the practices of consuming and engaging with media in the context of Korean middle-aged women. The research also integrates Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance with the digital media environment: It suggests that while Rosa may reject digital technology in his view of resonance, digital technology, or YouTube in this case, can contribute to enhancing resonance, but only depending on how people practice it. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the importance of middle-aged women, who are not merely viewers, but rather active participants within the burgeoning YouTube scene. Lastly, we expand the current understanding of how audience groups may potentially exert agency, moving beyond the ideological binaries of submission versus resistance in the process of interpreting media texts. Our emphasis lies in the creativity embedded in Korean middle-aged women’s platform practices within their daily lives. This process is fuelled by a deep desire and will to find resonance with themselves, others, and the world.
Keywords: digital platforms; feminist reception studies; middle-aged women; resonance; South Korea; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8746

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Emotions on Social Media as Catalysts for Change: Epistemic and Motivational Potentialities for Gender Equality
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8591
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8591
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8591
Author-Name: Babette Lagrange
Author-Workplace-Name: Ghent University, Belgium
Abstract: To this day, people still face gender discrimination and battle with gender injustices. To change this, we both need accurate knowledge about these injustices and we need to strive for active change. This article provides a theoretical reflection on how social media, by serving as an accessible platform for people to portray their emotions, can be a tool for both of these needs. In terms of the topics it discusses, the article operates at the intersection of the literature on digital activism on the one hand and emotions and social media on the other. However, I approach these topics using a combination of multidisciplinary lenses. I employ the epistemic injustice framework to emphasise the link between gender inequality and the production and distribution of knowledge. In line with the literature on affect theory, I argue both that emotions can generate epistemic novelties and that emotions have collectivising and motivational power. Finally, the article builds on existing research on how social media provide a space for people to portray, distribute, and adopt emotions. The theoretical reflection in this article then combines these insights to demonstrate how social media—by allowing the expression and distribution of emotions—can catalyse both the production of new knowledge and active change. With social media enabling emotions to be heard and seen, this online sphere can contribute to the epistemic empowerment of women and to the fight against gender discrimination and gender injustices.
Keywords: affect; emotions; epistemic injustice; gender; social media; societal change
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8591

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intimacy, Trust, and Justice on The Greatest Menace, a Podcast Exposing a “Gay Prison”
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9066
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9066
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9066
Author-Name: Siobhán McHugh
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Australia
Abstract: In the tradition of narrative podcasts exposing historical injustices, <em>The Greatest Menace </em>(TGM) examines how a government-run prison in Australia used those imprisoned to study the causes and treatments of homosexuality. Hosted by gay Arab-Australian journalist Patrick Abboud, TGM interweaves Abboud’s struggle for acceptance in his homophobic community with his forensic documentation of lives ruined by a society where homosexuality was illegal till 1984. Gay men entrust Abboud with their experiences of aversion therapy and estrangement from family; a former cop reveals how he entrapped, then arrested, gay men; a trans woman runs away to New Zealand after being imprisoned. TGM charts the palpable intimacy between Abboud and most of his informants, but as this article explores, the podcast also held potential for the privileging of activism over ethics. The cop could have been depicted as evil, but in pursuit of fairness, the TGM team settled on a more nuanced portrayal. An evangelical interviewee conflates “homosexual” with “paedophile” to Abboud’s face; he retaliates by recording his meta-fury and writing it into the script. Intimacy and trust are intertwined as Abboud and his mother navigate the shame and fear that shadowed his coming out. Using textual analysis, semi-structured interviews, iterative scripts, reflexive practice, and theory of audio storytelling and podcast intimacy, this article analyses, from an autoethnographic insider/maker perspective, how the producers of this acclaimed podcast (17 awards) balanced intimacy and trust while exposing historic queer true crime in all its messy humanity.
Keywords: audio documentary; audio storytelling; ethics; intimacy; narrative podcast; podcast production; queer studies; trust
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9066

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Parasocial Intimacy, Change, and Nostalgia in Podcast Listener Reviews
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9059
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9059
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9059
Author-Name: M. Olguta Vilceanu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Relations and Advertising, Rowan University, USA
Abstract: As the medium of podcasting reaches maturity, exploring the evolving nature of parasocial intimacy, nostalgia, and change is crucial. With the podcasting industry increasingly focused on financial viability, listener loyalty and nostalgia are critical components in podcast audience studies. Listener reviews are an integral part of this research. This study enriches podcast audience studies by investigating the connection between the parasocial relationships of trust and intimacy listeners develop with show hosts and nostalgic reactions to show changes. Using automated semantic network analysis of over 12,000 podcast reviews for two of the longest-running and best-regarded US podcasts, this study has confirmed the pivotal role of the show host and content in developing and maintaining the parasocial rapport of intimacy and trust with listeners. It also revealed that changes in the show’s host(s) or content trigger nostalgic reactions, which can be positive or negative. These findings have significant implications for long-lived podcasts as they approach the stage when host or content changes become inevitable, thereby underscoring this study’s practical relevance and importance for the podcasting industry.
Keywords: change; intimacy; listener reviews; nostalgia; parasocial relationships; podcast hosts; podcasting; podcast reviews; trust
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9059

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Strengthening Responsible Journalism Through Self-Efficacious Learning-Oriented Media Literacy Interventions
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9038
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.9038
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 9038
Author-Name: Auksė Balčytienė
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Communications, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania / Vytautas Kavolis Transdisciplinary Research Institute, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Abstract: This article investigates the challenges journalism professionals face in a rapidly changing digital media environment, proposing that a “processual” and human-centered perspective might offer valuable insights into developing resilient professionalism. The article builds its argument on theories of transmediality and hybridization in digital media ecosystems and the socio-psychological development toward accountable communication and responsible professionalism. It specifically looks at future journalists as active learners to whom media literacy interventions may offer new insights into the mental processes in professional decision-making. It tests these ideas in an experimental study with journalism students, where the lateral reading approach was applied within the framework of learning skills for information verification. Results from the thematic analysis of students’ reflexive assessments of their practice reveal norms illustrative of a self-efficacious learning process: Students’ answers demonstrate empowering and perseverance-directed approaches. As argued, these norms are geared toward imposing a higher media awareness and self-regulatory capacity, which is critical for accountable decision-making in transmedial and highly interactive digital information environments.
Keywords: digital media; disinformation; information verification; journalism education; lateral reading; media literacy; self-efficacy; resilience
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:9038

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Advocacy and Activism in Sports Podcasts: Expanding Journalistic Roles
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8975
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.8975
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 13
Year: 2025
Number: 8975
Author-Name: Kim Fox
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Author-Name: David O. Dowling
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, USA
Author-Name: Kyle J. Miller
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication and Mass Media, Northwest Missouri State University, USA
Abstract: This article examines the political turn in sports podcasting, focusing on the blurring and evolving boundaries of journalistic roles. The US-based sports podcasts <em>Social Sport</em>,<em> Burn It All Down</em>, and <em>Edge of Sports</em> offer three case studies of how podcasting opens space for politicizing sports coverage beyond scores and highlights. Podcast coverage of sports has adapted by enhancing a focus on the political implications of athletes’ personal stories. Analysis of episodic content and interview correspondence with podcast hosts focuses on how the podcast medium has opened new spaces advancing the cultural discourse on how issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion impact athletes’ lives. Our results indicate the affordances unique to the podcast medium, like temporality, have enabled the expansion of journalistic roles and performance to include advocacy functions and leaning toward more socially progressive content than traditional media coverage has allowed.
Keywords: activism; advocacy; journalistic roles; podcasting; sports media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8975