Communication Science Journal Tracker — newest papers

When it’s your own child: effects of media narratives on U.S. parents’ support for their LGBTQ+ teen

Marie‐Louise Mares, Yuchi Anthony Chen — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journal of Communication · Marie‐Louise Mares, Yuchi Anthony Chen

Topics: Media effects, Parasocial interaction, Attitude change, Media narratives

Abstract Parents’ responses to their LGBTQ+ child are varied, often intense, and have important consequences for the child. To examine how media depictions may shape responses, a pre-registered online experiment of 494 parents tested effects of viewing two TV narratives, depicting either control (non-LGBTQ+) family interactions, parental rejection, gradual growth toward acceptance, or unalloyed acceptance, of a lesbian or transgender teen, on parents’ support and behavioral intentions regarding their own LGBTQ+ teen. Guided by theories of vicarious contact and inspiring media, we assessed mediation via identification with characters, and via feelings of inspiration and manipulation, testing baseline support as a moderator. Effects of condition were indirect-only, and contingent on baseline support. Among highly supportive parents, growth and acceptance narratives (vs. control) increased feelings of inspiration, which predicted positive behavioral intentions. Among less supportive parents, rejection and (unexpectedly) growth narratives reduced identification with depicted LGBTQ+ teens, indirectly decreasing support and behavioral intentions.

Promoting Support for Anti-Racism Movements and Intentions to Intervene: Effects of Common-Identity Narratives and the Moderating Role of Prior Prejudice

Yan Huang, Lan Ni, Zexin Ma, Natasha Saad — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · Yan Huang, Lan Ni, Zexin Ma, Natasha Saad

Topics: Persuasion, Social identity, Narrative persuasion, Social influence

Two experiments examined whether emphasizing a common ingroup identity with racially different characters, operationalized as university affiliation with an African American character (Study 1) and parent identity with an Asian American character (Study 2), enhanced the impact of victim narratives. Findings indicate that emphasizing a common ingroup identity increased perceived similarity and identification with the character and reduced perceived social distance, which then fostered greater support toward anti-racism movements and stronger intentions to intervene. Common-identity narratives were particularly effective among participants with higher prior prejudice, and the moderation effect was mediated by reduced social distance.

How Chinese and U.S. media construct legitimacy at sea differently: A corpus-based comparative analysis of China’s distant-water fishing

Cheng Chen, Renping Liu — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Cheng Chen, Renping Liu

Topics: Media framing, Journalism, Comparative media systems, Sentiment analysis

Journalism plays a vital role in shaping how societies interpret and legitimize global environmental controversies. This study compares how Chinese and U.S. media discursively frame China’s distant-water fishing (DWF)—a domain where environmental, economic, and geopolitical interests intersect. Using a corpus-based mixed-method approach that integrates sentiment analysis, keyword extraction, and nomination strategies, the research analyzes 167 English-language news articles from leading outlets in both countries to uncover how legitimacy is communicatively constructed within distinct media systems. The findings reveal two coherent yet contrasting framing logics. U.S. media adopt a critical and moralized framing that emphasizes illegality, environmental harm, and systemic accountability, reflecting a liberal-institutionalist orientation rooted in watchdog journalism and rule-based governance. Chinese media, in contrast, employ a more procedural and developmental framing that highlights regulation, cooperation, and economic pragmatism, reflecting a greater emphasis on institutional coordination, policy implementation, and national development priorities. The study advances comparative journalism research by linking media framing with policy paradigms, showing how institutional and communicative contexts shape the realization of ostensibly universal news values such as Negativity and Eliteness. Methodologically, it demonstrates the value of combining computational and qualitative discourse analysis to reveal patterned differences in journalistic representation. Substantively, it underscores journalism’s dual role in global environmental discourse—as both a site where legitimacy and responsibility are contested, and a communicative bridge that may either intensify conflict or foster mutual understanding in governing shared environmental commons.

Enhancing Democratic Listening in Online Discussions: The Role of Reaction Buttons, Discussion Moderation, and Large Language Models

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Political Communication · Shota Gelovani, Philipp Müller, Hartmut Weßler, Hendrik Meyer, Louisa Pröschel, Anke Stoll, Marc Ziegele

Topics: Democratic listening, Online discussion, Large Language Models, Content moderation

Political communication research in general – and research on political online discussions in particular – has previously focused on the exercise of democratic voice and thus largely neglected the complementary practice of democratic listening. Against the backdrop of a wide-spread perception that democratic listening is lacking in online discussions, we investigate whether listening can be strengthened through novel platform affordances. We developed an experimental online written discussion platform with listening-oriented reaction buttons and both human and AI moderation (based on GPT-4). We then conducted an experiment involving n = 740 respondents in 40 discussion groups (N = 4,355 comments), each lasting 30 minutes, covering three experimental conditions and a control condition. We compare the effect of (1) listening-oriented reaction buttons versus (2) a combination of these buttons and listening-oriented human discussion moderation versus (3) a combination of buttons and AI moderation on the level of democratic listening demonstrated in discussants’ textual contributions. We find that listening-oriented buttons alone do not enhance democratic listening. However, when combined with listening-oriented AI moderation, they are associated with a democratic listening rate of 27% within discussions, compared to 21% in the condition without either feature. Our findings lay the basis for the implementation of a combination of listening-oriented buttons and discussion moderation on news media websites, social media apps or dedicated discussion spaces using LLM-based chatbots.

The managed sisterhood: Gendered labor and intimacy in Chinese fashion influencer industry

Qiheng Lin, Chenyu Dong — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

New Media & Society · Qiheng Lin, Chenyu Dong

Topics: Gender differences, Platform studies, Social media influencers, Digital labor

As China’s leading multi-channel network (MCN) institutions become increasingly industrialized and bureaucratic, their operations are paradoxically characterized by intensified emotional dynamics. Drawing on ethnographic research within a women-dominated fashion influencer team, this study identifies a sisterhood-based production model that embeds sisterly ties within hierarchical organizational structures. It traces the formation and collapse of this managed sisterhood. By cultivating an illusion of unity and belonging, intimacy makes labor more governable, obscuring coercion while facilitating the mobilization of emotional, aesthetic, and physical capacities. In this way, sisterhood becomes integral to production, intensifying labor and rendering precarity routine. Under platform capitalism, traditional Chinese sisterhood, once grounded in kinship and flexible resistance, is reconfigured into an occupational form of informal labor control, producing “disposable kinship” in which affective bonds become temporary and replaceable. This study challenges dominant political readings of sisterhood and demonstrates how intimacy itself becomes a mechanism of governance within platform capitalism.

The news production circuit: Tracing the implementation of constructive journalism

Jacob Christian Eriksen, Peter Bro — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Jacob Christian Eriksen, Peter Bro

Topics: Journalism, Journalistic practice, News production, Newsroom practices

Constructive journalism is increasingly invoked in newsroom strategies, educational programs, and professional debates. Yet scholarship has struggled to account for how constructive ambitions are implemented in practice over time. Existing research tends to cluster around partially disconnected domains – such as professional discourse, newsroom initiatives, and content and audience effects – without specifying the dynamic, on-going processes that link organizational decisions to editorial action and the resulting news products. This conceptual article addresses that gap by introducing an analytical framework – the MAP model (Mechanics, Actions, Products) – that conceptualizes implementation as recurring production pathways connecting organizational conditions, situated newswork, and published output. Implementation relies on sustaining these pathways through feedback loops that carry evaluations back into subsequent cycles of production. A pathway may be reinforced and repeated or left unsupported and abandoned, depending on whether the output’s value is registered and recognized. Together, these domains and processes constitute the news production circuit. The article demonstrates the analytical value of MAP through three distinct implementation configurations derived from recent research on constructive journalism. In doing so, it provides a vocabulary for comparative research on how journalistic practices, more generally, are implemented – and for identifying where and why implementation remains partial, uneven, or fragile.

Dependence or Interdependence? A Folk-Theories Perspective on Journalists’ and Activists’ Mutual Perceptions

Marlene Strehler-Schaaf, Charlotte Löb — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · Marlene Strehler-Schaaf, Charlotte Löb

Topics: Social movements, Journalism, Journalistic roles, Public opinion

Drawing on folk theories , this study explores how mutual perceptions and experiences shape the journalist–activist relationship. We analyze data from two German interview studies: activists from diverse protest movements ( N = 33) and journalists covering them ( N = 38). Both groups tend to hold simplified views of each other’s work yet apply similar criteria when evaluating “good” journalism/activism and affirm the importance of their roles for democracy. Conflicts often arise from unmet expectations. The study offers insights into how journalism is understood in movement contexts and vice versa. It also clarifies the recently debated boundaries between journalism and activism.

How does young children’s digital resilience operate within and across homes and communities? A thematic analysis of parents and early years educators’ experiences

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Simon P. Hammond, Jeanette D’Arcy, Laura Jennings-Tallent, Gray Prothero-Gibbs, Sandra El Gemayel, Harry T. Dyer

Topics: Digital resilience, Social capital, Parental mediation, Qualitative methods

This paper examines how young children aged 0–5 years build digital resilience within interconnected home and community contexts. While playing, exploring, and socialising are central to early experiential learning, little is known about how parents/carers and educators support children to recognise, manage, and recover from mistakes in connected environments. Conceptualising digital resilience as a socio-ecological construct, the paper draws on findings from the TYKES project to address this gap. Using a multi-method qualitative design, the study thematically analyses semi-structured interviews with parents/carers (n = 17) and early years educators (n = 5), alongside focus groups with educators across two settings (n = 8), conducted using purposive sampling over a ten-month period (May 2024–February 2025). The paper argues that digital resilience is a relational and context-dependent process that unfolds across nested home and community environments, rather than solely within individual children or discrete settings. It highlights the importance of social capital and everyday interactions in shaping children’s emerging capacities to navigate online challenges. The paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating how parents/carers and educators actively cultivate digital resilience as an emergent capability, embedded in socio-ecological relations. The findings point to the need for more holistic and coordinated support across education systems, policymakers, industry, and governments to enable young children to thrive on the Internet.

Black technofeminism as critique of biological essentialism in AI anthropomorphization

Melissa C. Brown — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Melissa C. Brown

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Intersectionality, Generative AI, Gender representation

This article uses Black technofeminism to examine how artificial intelligence (AI) anthropomorphization coincides with racialized and gendered dehumanization. It builds on Black feminist thought to inform a qualitative audit of YouTube search media and images generated by Gemini and ChatGPT as a discourse on AI and humanity. The findings reveal how humans associated with AI are predominantly portrayed as white men, while AI entities are typically embodied as white women. In contrast, Black women are notably absent from general AI search results yet are disproportionately depicted as AI-generated entities portrayed in dehumanizing ways. Images of women generated by the multimodal large language models (MLLMs) default to whiteness. Because the models require a racial identifier in the prompt to show Black women, both MLLMs distort their features, including favoring lighter skin and looser hair textures as ‘more feminine.’ I argue that AI visual culture reinforces hierarchical power relations by embedding biologically deterministic constructs of humanity, rooted in racial and gender essentialism, into digital environments. It therefore concludes that Black technofeminism resituates understandings of intersectionality in the study of racial and gender bias as a critique of power, revealing AI's paradoxical implementation as a tool of progress and an instrument of oppression.

Whose knowledge counts? Epistemic power in digital governance

Rohan Grover — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Rohan Grover

Topics: Platform governance, Epistemology, Artificial intelligence, Generative AI

While companies scramble to rebrand as AI companies, there is a parallel, but less visible, scramble to brand what ‘AI’ is and means. Firms such as Anthropic, Meta, and OpenAI are employing traditi...

War, Feelings of Belonging, and News Diets: How Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine Did (Not) Change the News Repertoires of Russian Speakers in Germany

Anna Ryzhova, Eunike Piwoni, Florian Toepfl — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Anna Ryzhova, Eunike Piwoni, Florian Toepfl

Topics: News consumption, Media use, Social media, Disinformation

This study examines how Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, has influenced the news repertoires of first-generation Russian-speaking migrants living in Germany. While previous research suggests that news consumption patterns are typically stable, it has also shown that major disruptive events - such as the COVID-19 pandemic - have the potential for significant shifts. However, little research has explored how wars impact the transnational news repertoires of migrant communities. Grounded in 25 semi-structured interviews, the study demonstrates that the four types of news repertoires identified by previous research on Russian speakers in Germany prior to 2022 remained valid. Although very few participants indicated that they had completely switched repertoire type, nuanced changes were observed within the four types. These changes were accompanied by a complex process of renegotiating their sense of belonging to Russia. Moreover, across the four types, there was a spike in news use in the first weeks of the full-scale war, followed by news avoidance, and a “migration” to the platform Telegram. This study advances research on diasporic news repertoires, digital war, and disinformation by showing that geopolitical crises can shape the news repertoires of transnational audiences who have feelings of belonging to actors involved in conflict.

Negotiating Infrastructural Integration: Cloud Services and the Evolution of News Website Ecosystems in France and the Netherlands

Agustin Ferrari Braun, Fernando van der Vlist, Thomas Poell — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Agustin Ferrari Braun, Fernando van der Vlist, Thomas Poell

Topics: Digital platforms, Journalism, Digital journalism, Digital media

This paper analyzes the infrastructural integration of European news media with digital platforms and third-party service providers between 2015–2025. Reviewing current research, we note increased scholarly attention to the infrastructural relations between news organizations and digital platforms. Yet, despite this heightened interest, we are still missing a systematic empirical examination of how infrastructural integration shapes the spaces of negotiation between news media and tech companies. We provide such an examination through a historical analysis of the top ten news websites in France and the Netherlands, using a custom version of the 4CAT Capture and Analysis Toolkit on 9,456 archived snapshots. The analysis of evolving third-party service (de-)integrations, highlight the rise of audiovisual content and the decline of website analytics, as well as broader industry and regulatory developments (e.g., GDPR). These changes in website architectures point to shifting strategies of news organizations to adapt and preserve their independence in an online environment increasingly dominated by digital platforms. Yet, paradoxically, those strategies are enabled by cloud infrastructures provided by the same platform companies, deepening the dependence of news organizations on these companies. Thus, infrastructural integration is a process of demarcation of spaces and activities between news organizations and tech companies.

Monitoring Electoral Democracy: Discovering and Reusing Text and Multimedia Data for Political Communication Research

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Jakob‐Moritz Eberl, Jana Bernhard-Harrer, Mariken Anna Catharina Geertruida van der Velden, Sofía Gil‐Clavel, Paul Balluff, Johannes B. Gruber, Noëlle S. Lebernegg, Kasper Welbers, Marvin Stecker, Claes H. de Vreese

Topics: Political communication, Communication research, Digital media, Content analysis

Political communication research relies on a fragmented landscape of media sources, text and multimedia corpora, analytical tools, and research workflows. Researchers face two related barriers: identifying which resources exist and determining whether and under what conditions they can be accessed and reused. This article presents Monitoring Electoral Democracy (MEDem), a distributed European research infrastructure for comparative political communication research, with particular attention to its Service Center for Text and Multimedia Data. The Service Center develops two complementary services: MEDem Meteor provides a curated, knowledge-graph-based discovery layer that connects media sources, datasets, archives, analytical tools, and publications; MEDem Amsterdam Content Analysis Toolkit supports the hosting, controlled reuse, and non-consumptive analysis of text and multimedia corpora. Together, the services address discovery and access as interconnected infrastructural problems. MEDem Meteor makes dispersed resources, relationships, and coverage gaps visible, while MEDem Amsterdam Content Analysis Toolkit makes access conditions transparent and enables reuse without redistributing protected content. This combination can reduce duplicated data collection, support more theoretically informed source selection, and strengthen cumulative and comparative research. Its realization, however, depends on sustained curation, community participation, and long-term institutional commitment.

Can AI Gauge Deliberative Quality? Evaluating Deliberation on Social Media With Large Language Models

Patrick Frey, Smita Bhattacharya, Gregor Wiedemann, Cornelius Puschmann — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Patrick Frey, Smita Bhattacharya, Gregor Wiedemann, Cornelius Puschmann

Topics: Large Language Models, Political polarization, Civic engagement, Social media

Although social media has become a central arena for deliberative discourse, debates are frequently characterized by incivility. Due to the volume of online discourse, it is challenging to assess when and where interventions, such as community-based counterspeech, are required. Accordingly, automated measurement of deliberative quality is a powerful tool for facilitating constructive online communication. Since deliberation is multidimensional, attempts to monitor online discourse must consider alternative forms of communication to foster inclusive deliberation. Whereas Type I deliberative dimensions, such as rationality and civility, are grounded in Habermasian ideals, Type II deliberation extends this perspective by incorporating alternative communicative forms, including emotionality and storytelling, into a more inclusive assessment of deliberative quality. Addressing the limitations of prior studies that primarily focused on classic Type I deliberative dimensions and tested only a small number of large language models, this study evaluates multiple open-weight models to conduct a nuanced assessment of deliberative quality. We applied the large language model that achieved the best overall balance between predictive performance, model size, and computational efficiency to a dataset of 64,223 comments from German-language climate change discourse on X. Our results demonstrate that large language models can reliably capture complex Type II deliberative dimensions despite class imbalances and subtle linguistic cues that generally hinder automated text classification. Class imbalance often impairs classification performance due to highly skewed label distributions, and Type II dimensions are particularly difficult to detect as they are often signaled by implicit, context-dependent markers. The empirical analysis also reveals distinct communicative patterns: While public speakers predominantly employ civil, rational, constructive, and common-good-oriented communication, other debating users exhibit higher levels of reciprocal engagement, humor, and negative emotions, alongside more frequent incivility. Our study demonstrates that AI-driven measurement can serve as a foundational tool for identifying norm violations, directing counterspeech toward specific debates, promoting inclusive digital public spheres, and observing broader long-term effects of moderation and interventions on the quality of debate.

Positioning enjoyment and appreciation as key components of news use

Jennifer Hoewe, Brett Sherrick, Diane L. Jackson, Sam Woodland — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journal of Communication · Jennifer Hoewe, Brett Sherrick, Diane L. Jackson, Sam Woodland

Topics: News consumption, Media use, Affective polarization, Entertainment media

Abstract In response to the continued convergence and hybridization of news and entertainment media content, this research explores the roles of enjoyment and appreciation in contemporary news use. Three studies (two surveys and one experiment) show a clear link between enjoyment, appreciation, and news use. Both enjoyment and appreciation are positively related to agreement, value alignment, attitude change, and attitude reinforcement in the context of news use. News enjoyment is related to increased positive and decreased negative emotions, while news appreciation is connected to an increase in and tolerance of mixed emotions. Importantly, news enjoyment decreases actual knowledge while facilitating greater affective polarization. News appreciation increases more positive feelings toward other people. These results illustrate the value of merging research on entertainment and news media, and they also suggest that news enjoyment is a driving factor in the growth of less democratic news use outcomes.

The democratic value of local information: How journalistic and non-journalistic sources relate to community attachment, civic engagement, and democratic attitudes

Leyla Dogruel, Jakob Henke, Wiebke Moehring — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Leyla Dogruel, Jakob Henke, Wiebke Moehring

Topics: Local news, Civic engagement, Media use, Political participation

This study investigates the relationship between local information use, community integration, and political attitudes within the German context. Drawing on representative survey data from 2069 citizens, we examine how using journalistic and non-journalistic local information sources, specifically official municipal sources, community-based sources and interpersonal communication, relates to community attachment, civic engagement, satisfaction with local democracy, and trust in local politics. Results indicate that, consistent with previous scholarship, frequent local media use is positively associated with stronger community attachment, higher civic engagement, and more favorable evaluations of local politics and local democracy. Compared to non-journalistic sources of information, local media emerged as stronger predictors of community attachment, satisfaction with local democracy, and trust in local politics, but not civic engagement. Our findings highlight the need for closer examination of how the growing diversity of local information sources impact community integration and civic engagements in an increasingly hybrid media environment.

Invisible Women in Economics: Almost Two Centuries of Gender Representation in the Financial Times and The Economist (1843–2021)

Andrea Barigazzi — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · Andrea Barigazzi

Topics: Gender representation, Journalism studies, Content analysis, News coverage

This study examines gender representation in the Financial Times and The Economist between 1843 and 2021. Using millions of articles and name-frequency analysis, it traces the long-term evolution of women’s visibility in economic news. Results reveal a U -shaped pattern: relatively high representation in the nineteenth century, a decline through much of the 20th century, and a gradual recovery since the 1980s. Comparisons with benchmarks of women’s participation in high-status occupations and economic sectors show a persistent gap between media visibility and real-world presence. The findings point to a lasting paper ceiling in economic journalism. JEL codes: J16, N34, L82

Digital transformation in Public Service Media: Adaptation strategies of European broadcasters

Clara Almeida Santos, Felisbela Lopes — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

European Journal of Communication · Clara Almeida Santos, Felisbela Lopes

Topics: Digital transformation, Public service media, Platformization, Digital platforms

Public Service Media (PSM) are currently undergoing a structural transformation driven by the digitalization of the media ecosystem. Audience fragmentation, the emergence of multi-platform environments and the growing centrality of digital platforms are compelling public service broadcasters to rethink their organizational models, editorial practices and content distribution strategies. This article examines how different European PSM organizations are responding to these challenges and explores how digital transition processes are contributing to the redefinition of the role of PSM in contemporary media systems. The study draws on a comparative analysis of five public service operators – British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, the United Kingdom), RTÉ (Ireland), RTBF (Belgium), Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE, Spain),and RTP (Portugal) – supported by semi-structured interviews with key institutional actors and a systematic review of strategic reports, concession contracts and regulatory documents produced between 2018 and 2025. The findings reveal that, despite national specificities, several convergent trends are emerging, including the growing importance of digital platforms, the reorganization of production structures into convergent and cross-media models, and the redefinition of public service missions in a media environment shaped by platformization and intensified informational competition. The article argues that digital transformation does not diminish the relevance of PSM; on the contrary, it reinforces their importance as critical infrastructures for trustworthy information, cultural diversity and democratic cohesion.

Calls to action and voter engagement on Facebook: a comparative study of eight European election campaigns

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Anders Olof Larsson, Daniel N. Jackson, Márton Bene, Andreu Casero-Ripollés, Vicente Fenoll, Dren Gërguri, Jörg Haßler, Simon Kruschinski, Sara Monteiro Machado, Alena Macková

Topics: Political communication, Social media, Political engagement, Election campaigns

This study examines the use of Facebook by political actors across eight European countries – Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Kosovo, Norway, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom – as they attempt to engage voters through calls to action. By analysing what is often referred to as the supply and demand of political communication, the paper conceptualizes three primary types of calls to action: informing, mobilizing, and interacting. Our findings reveal that mobilizing calls are the most prevalent, reflecting the central mission of election campaigns to secure voter turnout. However, such calls do not necessarily result in higher user engagement compared to informative content. Despite the potential for interactive features to enhance dialogic communication, they remain underutilized, with political actors apparently favouring controlled interactivity to maintain message control. The study highlights significant cross-country differences, with variations in the degree of engagement reached by different calls to action as influenced by national political contexts and campaign cultures. The research underscores the importance of considering both the strategic priorities of political actors and the cultural and institutional factors that shape voter engagement on social media.

Data visualisation as an ‘emotional repository’

Monika Frątczak — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Monika Frątczak

Topics: Data visualisation, Climate change communication, Social media, Emotion regulation

Understanding the role of emotions in engagements with data visualisations (graphs, charts, maps) is important given their increasing circulation in everyday life and their influence on how people make sense of social and political issues. This paper builds on sociological perspectives on emotions and advances existing research on the interplay between data visualisation and emotions by proposing the concept of ‘emotional repository’ to describe data visualisations. I argue that data visualisations do not simply evoke emotional responses but become sites where emotions attach to, accumulate around, and acquire meaning through specific visual, data, and socio-political contexts. To explore this, the paper draws on empirical research, analysing thirty-four semi-structured interviews and thirteen follow-up interviews with diverse social media users who responded to climate data visualisations published on social media by environmental organisations. The paper makes an original contribution to the limited existing research on data visualisation in society by showing how data visualisations are socially and politically structured through their embedding within broader socio-political contexts. Moreover, it argues that data visualisations have the potential to make distressing topics, such as climate disaster, more palatable and aesthetically enjoyable, thereby influencing how social media users emotionally engage with and respond to the information presented in the data visualisation. The findings suggest that approaches to data visualisation should extend beyond clarity and accuracy to consider the social, political, and emotional contexts that shape how people engage with data.

Building and Maintaining Trust in AI Chatbots: Introducing Generative Information Retrieval Accountability Assessment Framework (GIRAAF)

Michael Karlsson, Joanne Kuai, Cornelia Brantner, Haiqing Yu, James Meese — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media · Michael Karlsson, Joanne Kuai, Cornelia Brantner, Haiqing Yu, James Meese

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Large Language Models, Trust, Algorithmic accountability

Social integration of AI requires public trust and appropriate governance. This paper introduces the Generative Information Retrieval Accountability Assessment Framework (GIRAAF), designed to appraise accountability for Large Language Models and their applications, including AI chatbots. Drawing on Dahl’s (1998) notion of enlightened citizens, the framework comprises six interlinked dimensions: Information Readiness, Factual Correctness, Normative Alignment, Sourcing Practice, Transparency and Explainability, and Responsiveness and Adaptivity. Together, these dimensions link observable text outputs to intelligible standards, enabling systematic evaluation and accountable oversight. For scholars, developers and policymakers, GIRAAF provides a diagnostic heuristic and shared vocabulary for critical analysis of AI chatbot performance.

With a Little Help From AI?! Governing Visual Hate Speech Through AI-Assisted Counter-Image Practices

Stefano Pedrazzi, Franziska Oehmer — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Stefano Pedrazzi, Franziska Oehmer

Topics: Visual hate speech, Counter-speech, Generative AI, Content moderation

The attention-grabbing and memorable nature of visuals makes them a powerful vehicle for spreading hate online. As platforms increasingly reconsider or scale back content moderation efforts, user-centered interventions are gaining importance as complementary governance strategies. While prior research demonstrates the effectiveness of empathy-based textual counter speech, little is known about the role of visual counter speech in mitigating hateful imagery. This preregistered study examines the effectiveness of user-centered interventions against visual hate speech. Using an experimental design (N = 666), we tested four interventions against a no-intervention control condition in response to hateful images targeting transgender persons: (a) empathy-based textual counter speech, (b) AI-generated generic counter images, (c) AI-generated specific counter images replicating elements of the original, and (d) platform-issued warning labels. Results show substantial variation across interventions. Empathy-based textual counter speech and AI-generated specific counter images showed the most consistent reductions in amplification-oriented behaviors, particularly forwarding. Visual interventions did not outperform textual counter speech, suggesting that effectiveness depends less on modality and more on the specificity and contextual alignment of the intervention. Furthermore, effectiveness varied with the intensity of the hate content. Interventions were most effective for humor-based, more ambiguously harmful content, whereas their impact diminished for more severe forms of hate. The consistent performance of AI-generated specific counter images further points to the potential of generative AI to provide users with a rapid, low-cost, and accessible means of producing context-sensitive counter speech.

Guardians of the cyberverse: Dispositional, attitudinal, and autobiographical correlates of user engagement against misogynist digital hate

Rinat Meerson, Kevin Koban, Jörg Matthes — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

New Media & Society · Rinat Meerson, Kevin Koban, Jörg Matthes

Topics: Online harassment, Digital misogyny, Content moderation, Empathic anger

As digital misogyny remains widespread, user intervention is an essential complement to lenient platform governance. Yet, willingness to intervene varies considerably across individuals and cultural contexts. In a cross-national survey conducted in Austria ( n = 791), France ( n = 800), Hungary ( n = 775), and Sweden ( n = 785), we examine how dispositional, attitudinal, and autobiographical characteristics relate to users’ direct and indirect intervention and support for moderation. Empathic anger consistently emerged as the strongest positive predictor of all three outcomes across countries. Perspective-taking, online self-presentation, and victimization experiences showed meaningful positive associations with intervention, while misogynist attitudes were inconsistently related. Toxic disinhibition showed a dual pattern, negatively associated with moderation support but positively associated with direct intervention across all countries, suggesting its potential to be cleverly repurposed toward counterspeech. These findings underscore the importance of emotionally activating literacy programs and highlight the need for culturally sensitive intervention models.

Participatory journalism in practice: Assessing interactivity and citizen contributions in newsrooms

Adelino Cunha — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Adelino Cunha

Topics: Journalism, Digital journalism, News production, Social media engagement

Digital news organisations offer audiences multiple opportunities to comment, share, submit information, and engage with journalists, but these mechanisms do not necessarily redistribute editorial authority. This article examines how interactivity enables, channels, and constrains citizen participation across the news production process. It combines a conceptual literature review, a comparative synthesis of 20 studies published between 1999 and 2025, a case analysis of The Washington Post , National Post , and The Guardian , and six written semi-structured interviews with journalists. The findings show that participation is concentrated in Access/Observation, Distribution, and Interpretation, with more limited involvement in Selection/Filtering, while Processing/Editing remains under stronger professional control. The article develops a qualitative evaluation model that distinguishes selective, communicative, and productive interactivity according to production stage, citizen agency, and implications for editorial authority. It argues that participatory journalism is best understood as managed openness: news organisations widen opportunities for citizen involvement while retaining control over the institutional core of news production, contributing to broader debates on digital participation and media power.

Negotiating exit: Career mobility and institutional status premium among young journalists in China’s mainstream media

Wanrong Li, Mingde Li — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Wanrong Li, Mingde Li

Topics: Journalism, Journalistic practice, Professional identity, News production

This study examines how young journalists in China’s mainstream media negotiate career exit amid structural and technological change. Drawing on a constructivist grounded theory approach and 30 in-depth interviews with former journalists aged 35 or younger across China’s four-tier media system, we identify three interconnected concepts that shape how mobility decisions take form. First, the erosion of professional values, rooted in blurred editorial–commercial boundaries, dual-track personnel stratification, and declining social recognition, generates cumulative dissatisfaction. Second, peer comparison makes alternative career paths visible and desirable through exposure to peers’ successful transitions. Third, institutional status premium, the non-transferable symbolic capital, social recognition, and resource access tied to state-affiliated media membership, anchors journalists by raising the perceived cost of leaving. These forces do not operate uniformly. Participants from central-level media reported stronger institutional constraints and higher perceived exit costs than those from lower-level media. Older cohorts attribute greater weight to institutional status, while younger journalists, particularly the post-95 generation, place markedly less emphasis on it. Exit thus emerges not as a direct response to a single pressure but as a delayed, negotiated outcome shaped by the convergence of dissatisfaction, opportunity, and constraint. By demonstrating how these forces interact and how constraints are unevenly distributed across hierarchies and generations, the study challenges static, factor-based explanations and advances a process-oriented account of career mobility in an institutionally distinctive context.

DIMS: a no-code dashboard linking multimodal dynamic signals to communication practices

Grace Qiyuan Miao, Michał Weiss, Yuqian Ni, Jingjing Han — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Methods and Measures · Grace Qiyuan Miao, Michał Weiss, Yuqian Ni, Jingjing Han

Topics: Interpersonal communication, Multimodal analysis, Physiological measurement, Communication research

Communication research increasingly relies on multimodal time-series data spanning physiological, behavioral, audiovisual, and transcript-based measures. Yet the phenomena these data are meant to capture, such as social connection or attitude, often unfold in temporally specific ways that are lost when signals are reduced to averages or analyzed in isolation. This article introduces the Dynamic Interaction and Multimodal Signals (DIMS) Dashboard, an open-source tool that aligns multiple time series with synchronized video and transcript, allowing researchers to inspect how statistically identified patterns correspond to communicative events. We present two exploratory case studies. The first examines inter-brain synchrony during interpersonal conversation; using a dynamic dyadic systems lens, we show how synchrony peaks can be read as candidate dyadic events whose meaning depends on interactional context. The second examines coupled facial electromyography during advertisement viewing; using an emotional-flow lens, we show how orbicularis oculi activity that appears positive in isolation can signal a sustained, co-active mixed-emotion state when paired with corrugator activity. Across both cases, DIMS supports an iterative qualitative-quantitative workflow: quantitative signals flag moments worth inspecting, and qualitative interpretation clarifies what they mean. DIMS does not replace statistical or qualitative analysis but creates a shared analytical space for theoretically meaningful observation.

Press freedom and media control in Pakistan: Analyzing the impact of censorship, ownership, and regulatory challenges on journalistic practices

Muhammad Ali, Hina Ali — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Muhammad Ali, Hina Ali

Topics: Press freedom, Media systems, Journalistic practice, Media control

This study explores press freedom in Pakistan shaped by censorship, ownership, and regulatory control. Drawing on 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews with journalists and senior media professionals, the study shows that restrictions on journalism are not driven by a single mechanism but by a reinforcing system in which formal regulation (e.g., licensing and legal pressures) combines with informal coercion, surveillance, economic pressure, and organizational self-discipline. These dynamics narrow the space for independent reporting, weaken watchdog journalism, and normalize self-censorship as a professional survival strategy. Conceptually, the study argues that Pakistan’s press cannot be adequately explained through classical normative models (Developmental and Authoritarian Press) alone. It therefore advances a Hybrid Developmental–Authoritarian Press Model, capturing how developmental legitimacy narratives coexist with authoritarian enforcement tools to steer media content while preserving the appearance of pluralism.

OSINV vs. Core International Crimes: Practices and Professional Identities of Ukrainian Journalists, Investigators, and Researchers Investigating Atrocities

Johana Kotišová, Dariya Orlova — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Johana Kotišová, Dariya Orlova

Topics: Investigative journalism, Journalistic practice, Professional identity, Digital trace data

In this article, we examine how the practices, technologies, and collaborations of Ukrainian journalists, investigators, and researchers investigating war crimes during the Russo-Ukrainian war—particularly the use of OSINV and their engagement with international legal discourse—shape their professional identities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Ukraine, including semi-structured interviews with 18 professionals investigating war crimes, we ask: How do journalists, investigators, and researchers use OSINV practices and technologies to investigate core international crimes? How do they (re)negotiate their relationships with legal and criminal discourses and institutions? How do journalists, investigators, and researchers investigating core international crimes integrate OSINV practices into their professional identities? Through illustrating how their professional identities absorb OSINV-related practices in the context of armed conflicts, we argue that OSINV-driven atrocity crime investigations lie at multiple intersections of diverse logics, roles, and ways of positioning, particularly the public service logic and the commercial, gamified logic of journalism, the watchdog and the facilitator roles, local and global justice processes, and across the discursive institutions of journalism, law, and human rights. The findings testify to the increasing hybridization of journalism and human rights advocacy, and blur the boundary between storytelling and processes that lead to legal justice.

Two Paths of Conversation: How Stories and Statistics are Associated With Community Engagement in Online Debate Surrounding Vaccine Science Skeptical Content

Han Zao Li, Inhwan Bae, Pengfei Zhao, Natalya N. Bazarova, Drew Margolin — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Research · Han Zao Li, Inhwan Bae, Pengfei Zhao, Natalya N. Bazarova, Drew Margolin

Topics: Misinformation, Health communication, Social media discourse, Online communities

Statistical and narrative evidence represent two distinct ways of substantiating claims in public reasoning, but does this distinction matter for how people engage with vaccine science skeptical (VSS) content and the discursive spaces surrounding it? This study addresses this question through a large-scale, LLM-assisted observational analysis of online engagement with VSS posts and comments that support or counter such content using statistical versus narrative evidence in the Reddit community r/DebateVaccines . Building on Fisher’s distinction between rational and narrative paradigms , we theorize two paths of conversation through which evidentiary forms are associated with audience engagement with contentious vaccine discourses in a naturalistic social media setting: a rational pathway, marked by concentrated participation and corrective contestation around statistical claims and counterclaims, tending toward a single evidence-based truth “approved” by one-click reactions; and a narrative pathway, characterized by generative engagement featuring broader and more distributed participation, more discursive and generative engagement, and greater acceptance of competing viewpoints. These findings provide a springboard for theorizing evidentiary form as a key epistemic logic associated with how conversations evolve in real-world engagement with contentious, socially consequential issues such as vaccine misinformation, while informing hybrid approaches to addressing skepticism toward established vaccine science.

Constantly Connected, Differently Affected: Response Speed Shapes Parents’ and Adolescents’ Feelings of Connection

Razieh Pourafshari, Miriam Brinberg, Joseph Bayer — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Research · Razieh Pourafshari, Miriam Brinberg, Joseph Bayer

Topics: Social media use, Interpersonal communication, Well-being, Communication theory

Response speed in digital communication serves as a signal of availability, yet past research has overlooked how speed expectations in specific relationships translate into social connection. This study addresses this oversight by integrating theoretical perspectives on constant connectivity and chronemics to test the implications of perceived response speed for parent-adolescent relationships. Using a 28-day dyadic daily diary design of 142 parent-adolescent dyads, we examined how one’s own and one’s partner’s perceived response speed were associated with feelings of connection. Results revealed asymmetric and interdependent patterns. Faster response speed perceptions predicted greater connection, but these associations were more pronounced for parents. Additionally, parents’ perceptions of adolescents’ response speed predicted adolescents’ feelings of connection. These findings indicate that response speed perceptions can act as a mechanism that links connectivity to social connection in everyday life, but this depends on relational role.

Religious information repertoires in Switzerland’s hybrid information environment: asymmetric associations with trust and reputation

Rebekka Rieser, Mark Eisenegger — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Rebekka Rieser, Mark Eisenegger

Topics: Media use, Social media, Trust, Digital media

In hybrid media environments, public understanding emerges from patterned combinations of legacy news media, digital platforms, and interpersonal communication. Rather than relying on single channels, individuals assemble repertoires of mediated sources, interpersonal encounters, and direct personal experiences that structure how they make sense of public issues and evaluate social groups. Religion provides an instructive case: as a morally charged and contested domain, it circulates across hybrid media environments while also being shaped by biographical and interpersonal experience. Drawing on a Swiss online survey conducted in 2024 (N = 1,000), we use latent class analysis (LCA) to identify six religious information repertoires based on patterns of digital media use, legacy news consumption, and interpersonal experience. These repertoires are associated with distinct patterns of trust and reputation across Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Overall, this study advances research on hybrid media environments by showing that combinations of various sources function as infrastructures of public evaluation. The findings indicate that legacy news media and interpersonal experience remain central, while digital-born sources play a more selective role. The study refines repertoire theory and illustrates how everyday information behavior is associated with social recognition and mistrust, with implications for the social-relational foundations of cohesion in pluralistic societies.

Subversive memory work: Reworking journalism and its digital archives to contest dominant memory regimes

Rahoof Kaliyarakath — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Rahoof Kaliyarakath

Topics: Journalism, Digital archives, Media memory, Journalistic practice

Media scholarship has long established journalism as a form of memory work. Yet conventional journalistic practices, particularly elite-centered sourcing and dominant news values, privilege certain actors and experiences while marginalizing others, producing dominant memory regimes. Drawing on a qualitative case study of the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), this study examines how dominant memory regimes can be contested from within journalism. It develops subversive memory work as a conceptual framework organized around two domains of mnemonic power, production and access. The framework identifies four interrelated dimensions, namely everyday witnessing, structural witnessing, cultural witnessing, and accessible counter-memory infrastructure. Together, these dimensions capture journalistic and archival practices that bring the lives, experiences, and forms of knowledge of ordinary people and historically marginalized communities into the journalistic record and make them available for future access. The study argues that subversive memory work contests dominant memory regimes by reworking both journalistic production and archiving practices.

Centralized hashtags, embedded discourse: Two structural logics of youth climate activism on social media

Yuzhe Zhu, Gustavo Cardoso — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

European Journal of Communication · Yuzhe Zhu, Gustavo Cardoso

Topics: Social media activism, Climate change communication, Digital activism, Social media analysis

Youth-led climate action increasingly unfolds on digital platforms, where hashtags structurally connect issues, actors, and publics. Using hashtag co-occurrence data (2022–2024) from prominent youth climate activists on X and Portuguese youth climate activists on Instagram, this study applies link community analysis, which captures overlapping multi-membership structures that node-based clustering obscures. Two contrasting structural logics emerge. The international network exhibits a centralized configuration in which core climate hashtags such as #FridaysForFuture and #Peoplenotprofit occupy bridging positions across issue communities, so that visibility and structural centrality closely align. The Portuguese network displays a more horizontal configuration in which climate-related hashtags co-occur with feminism, education, domestic politics, and art-based activism, embedding climate discourse within everyday publics. Digital climate publics take shape as relational structures produced through patterns of hashtag overlap and cross-issue connectivity.

Victim identity and political consequentiality: Framing migrant and citizen deaths in the Greek press

Nikolaos Lampas, Vasileios Vlaseros — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

European Journal of Communication · Nikolaos Lampas, Vasileios Vlaseros

Topics: Media framing, News coverage, Political communication, Journalism

Why do mass-fatality events with comparable human tolls generate unequal political resonance? This article examines Greek newspaper coverage of two major 2023 tragedies, the Tempi train crash and the Pylos shipwreck, to assess how victim identity shapes evaluative framing, responsibility attribution, and political consequentiality. Drawing on a within-country comparison of three ideologically distinct newspapers, the study analyses how each event was narrated, politicized, and sustained over time. The findings show that, although both tragedies were covered within a broadly negative register, Tempi generated denser evaluative language, more direct attribution of responsibility, and more durable integration into debates over governance and institutional accountability. By contrast, Pylos was more frequently framed through humanitarian, administrative, or border-management narratives and declined more rapidly after the initial news cycle. These differences were patterned rather than categorical and persisted across outlets. The article argues that routine journalistic framing practices help determine not only how tragedy is represented, but whether it becomes politically consequential as a sustained object of public accountability.

Navigating GenAI in the workplace: skills transformation & tension

Simin Michelle Chen, Kate J. Cassidy — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Simin Michelle Chen, Kate J. Cassidy

Topics: Generative AI, Artificial intelligence in journalism, Technology adoption, Digital transformation

By automating the content creation process, Generative AI is reshaping creative work, but its impact on knowledge workers remains underexplored, which this study seeks to examine. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 20 knowledge workers, this study examines what is being transformed in the workplace and how these shifts are being perceived by the knowledge workers who use GenAI. Using Social Shaping of Technology (SST) as a conceptual lens to understand the interaction between technology and knowledge workers, the study finds that participants perceived GenAI as an efficient tool that provides cognitive relief and enhances productivity during times of resource constraint. Tensions also arose around authenticity, creativity, a sense of fulfillment, and the perception of effort. The adoption of GenAI has created downstream labor and demand for new skills as it shifts knowledge workers’ roles away from creator to editor/fact-checker while creating tension as participants balance their desire for efficiency with fears of diminished creativity and domain knowledge, skills atrophy, and threats to content ownership.

Where the World Connects: How Intergroup Contact on Social Media Influences Intergroup Outcomes

Yansheng Liu, Yilan Guo, Alex Thomas Paloma, Mary Beth Oliver — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media Psychology · Yansheng Liu, Yilan Guo, Alex Thomas Paloma, Mary Beth Oliver

Topics: Social media, Social identity, Intergroup contact, Computer-mediated communication

This study examines how, following the U.S. TikTok ban and the subsequent digital migration of foreign users to the Chinese social media platform RedNote, mediated intergroup contact with American users shaped intergroup outcomes among Chinese users. Guided by intergroup contact theory and communication accommodation theory, we did two 2 (poster identity: American–outgroup vs. Chinese–ingroup) × 3 (post language: English vs. Chinese vs. both) between-subjects online experiments with Chinese RedNote users (N = 833 in total; Nstudy 1 = 364, Nstudy 2 = 469) to explore how intergroup contact through posts featuring cat images (Study 1) and messages seeking connection (Study 2) influenced intergroup outcomes. Results showed that intergroup contact increased Chinese users’ inclusion of Americans in the self, moral regard toward Americans, and intention to interact with Americans. Such effects were mediated by perceived connectedness with Americans. However, these effects did not extend to broader outgroups—people all over the world. Post language did not play an important role in the process of intergroup contact on social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Stress and self-efficacy under artificial intelligence disruption: A mixed-methods study on the usage of artificial intelligence among Finnish workers

Atte Oksanen, Teo Keipi, Moona Heiskari, Iina Savolainen — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

New Media & Society · Atte Oksanen, Teo Keipi, Moona Heiskari, Iina Savolainen

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Well-being, Professional identity, Digital transformation

Rapid workplace integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping work practices and challenging employees’ self-efficacy and well-being. This mixed-methods study examines these experiences using national survey data ( N = 2109) and qualitative interviews ( N = 54) with Finnish workers. Frequent AI use, AI-induced identity threat, and organizational AI deployment are associated with higher AI strain, whereas AI self-efficacy relates to frequent use, positive AI attitudes, and subjective well-being. Identity threat moderated several of these associations, highlighting the role of professional identity in AI-related experiences. Analysis drawing on Greimas’ semiotic modalities (must, can, know, and want) explains how these patterns are interpreted and negotiated in practice, revealing tensions between perceived self-efficacy and pressures to integrate AI. AI use was often described as voluntary. However, participants anticipated increasing competence demands and responsibility. The findings emphasize the need for organizational strategies that address identity-related challenges and support employee well-being in AI-driven work transformations.

Institutional sentinel: Journalistic role performance and the defense of media autonomy under democratic threat

Vytautas Valentinavičius — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Vytautas Valentinavičius

Topics: Journalistic role performance, Media autonomy, Public service media, Press freedom

This article develops the concept of the institutional sentinel to explain how journalists may temporarily reconfigure professional role performance when the institutional conditions of independent reporting become objects of political contestation. Existing debates on journalism under democratic strain often frame departures from conventional objectivity as either activism or part of a moral turn. Such binaries overlook a more specific form of intervention: the public defense of governance arrangements, editorial autonomy, and organizational safeguards that enable impartial reporting. The institutional sentinel is defined as a situationally activated role-performance logic in which journalists collectively shift from monitorial observation to defending these conditions when they are publicly framed as being under procedural threat. The article is conceptual and uses the 2025–2026 conflict surrounding Lithuania’s public broadcaster, LRT, as a revelatory vignette. The vignette clarifies three elements: activation under perceived procedural threat within a context shaped by threat fusion; boundedness, expressed through temporariness, role transparency, object specificity, and reversibility; and a defensive paradox whereby institutional self-defense may protect autonomy while exposing journalism to accusations of bias, self-interest, or partisanship. The article offers a mid-range conceptual tool and develops scope conditions and propositions for comparative research on media autonomy, legitimacy, and professional boundary work.

What Makes Child Harm Newsworthy? Event Characteristics, Victim Characteristics, and Media Attention

Тернов Николай Максимович, Kuralay A. Mukhambetova, Z.T. Abetova — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · Тернов Николай Максимович, Kuralay A. Mukhambetova, Z.T. Abetova

Topics: News values, News coverage, Media attention, Journalism studies

Media coverage shapes public understanding of social problems, yet harmful events receive uneven attention even when they involve children. This study examines factors shaping media visibility of child harm in Kazakhstan. Using a corpus of more than 230,000 Telegram news posts (2020–2025), we identify 1,571 incidents involving harm to children and estimate negative binomial regression models to test explanations derived from news values and ideal victim theory. Results show that event characteristics predict media attention more strongly than victim characteristics. Fatal interpersonal violence receives more coverage, while systemic failures receive less. Victim age and gender are not significant predictors.

Individual Political Attitudes and Group Norms Interact to Explain Biased Political Information Sharing

Xinyao Zhang, Christin Scholz, Gijs Schumacher, Marte Otten — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media Psychology · Xinyao Zhang, Christin Scholz, Gijs Schumacher, Marte Otten

Topics: Political polarization, Social influence, Social norms, Social media use

Previous research shows that people selectively share messages congruent with their political beliefs (pro-attitudinal sharing) and with like-minded others (ingroup sharing). However, it is difficult to observe how characteristics of both individual- and audience-level affect sharing decisions interactively. We address this gap by taking a cross-level, experimental approach. We recruited an online sample of Dutch residents across the political spectrum via a data panel company. Participants were introduced to 4 groups in political-themed group chats. Groups differed in political attitude (left/right) and tolerance to dissent (tolerant/punitive). Per group, participants indicated sharing intention for 4 political messages varying in their alignment with left/right-leaning political ideology. Our pilot (N = 402) and pre-registered, confirmatory main (N = 930) studies found a strong pro-attitudinal sharing effect and, to a lesser extent, ingroup sharing and pro-group sharing. Tolerant group norms increased online sharing in general, regardless of whether the message aligned with the sharer’s individual political attitude. Our findings provide causal evidence of how individual- and group-level factors affect sharing intentions of political information concurrently, and the role of tolerant general group norms to de-bias and promote online sharing. Insights taking into account both individual and group-level factors are thus required to effectively de-bias online political information sharing.

More Than Core and Periphery: How a Mapping Approach Can Add Nuance to Understanding the Journalistic Field

Phoebe Maares, Kim Löhmann, Folker Hanusch, Daniel Nölleke — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Phoebe Maares, Kim Löhmann, Folker Hanusch, Daniel Nölleke

Topics: Journalistic practice, Digital journalism, Journalistic roles, News organizations

The influx of new (digital) actors and the resulting changes to the composition of the journalistic field have attracted considerable attention from journalism scholarship in recent years. However, much of the discussion about the new, so-called peripheral actors and the traditional mainstream has tended to, somewhat simplistically, assume a certain homogeneity in each. Recently, scholarship has begun to question this dichotomy, pointing to the vast variety of peripheral actors as well as traditional journalists, and instead argued for a more relational spectrum along which to locate all actors in the field. Yet, we still have an incomplete, and, crucially, under-theorized understanding of the different kinds of constellations in which peripheral journalism may exist vis-à-vis the so-called core of the journalistic field. To address this research gap, we draw on photo elicitation mappings of 101 journalistic and journalism-like actors in Austria and relate them to their position in the journalistic field. The findings show that both the core and the periphery are more nuanced, yet there are commonalities in their relational position-taking, which adds to our understanding of the journalistic field’s changing boundaries.

Do Malaysian Newsrooms Jump on the AI Bandwagon? Empirical Evidence From Journalists’ Perspectives

Jiankun Gong, Yu Zuo, Izzati Aziz, Mumtaz Aini Alivi, Kunjin Luo, Yuqing Lin — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Jiankun Gong, Yu Zuo, Izzati Aziz, Mumtaz Aini Alivi, Kunjin Luo, Yuqing Lin

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Newsroom practices, Journalistic practice, Generative AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly promoted as a transformative force in journalism, yet most research on newsroom AI adoption remains concentrated in Western and other well-resourced media settings. This study examines how AI is interpreted, organized, and used in Malaysian newsrooms, offering insight from an emerging Southeast Asian media context. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 20 journalists across six Malaysian news organizations, the article investigates how national AI governance signals are translated into newsroom norms, how organizational resources and managerial priorities shape uptake, and how AI is incorporated into everyday reporting, editing, and verification. The analysis shows that AI adoption in Malaysian newsrooms is uneven and selective rather than uniform. First, national AI momentum has not yet produced strong newsroom-level governance; instead, the practice remains shaped by limited written rules, selective disclosure, and strong human accountability. Second, organizational capacity is patchy, with uneven access to tools, training, and infrastructural support across organizations and roles. Third, AI is used mainly in bounded, assistive tasks such as transcription, translation, summarization, and headline generation, while verification labor is redistributed rather than reduced. The findings identify a typology of newsroom responses—cautious minimalists, experimental pragmatists, and human-gated adopters—showing that Malaysian newsrooms are not simply “jumping on the AI bandwagon,” but engaging AI pragmatically under uneven governance and resource conditions.

The Project O.C.T.O.P.U.S.: Observing Cyberdelic Transformations of Priors Under Simulation

Gökalp Boz, Maria Sansoni, Giuseppe Riva — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Gökalp Boz, Maria Sansoni, Giuseppe Riva

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Computational methods, Communication theory, Human-AI interaction

The impact of artificial intelligence on journalism: How media trust and attitudes toward journalists shape acceptance, trust, willingness to pay for AI news, and support for replacing journalists

Manuel Goyanes, Marína Urbániková, Beatriz Jordá — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Manuel Goyanes, Marína Urbániková, Beatriz Jordá

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Media trust, Journalism, Audience perception

Although AI is advancing rapidly in many fields, its use in journalism is especially significant, as journalism shapes public opinion and fosters democratic discourse. Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, has attracted attention for its potential to greatly enhance journalists’ work, but also raises concerns about ethics and job displacement. However, previous research has largely overlooked the public’s perspective on AI, even though understanding these views is crucial for predicting future consumption patterns. This study addresses this gap using data from cross-sectional surveys in Spain ( N = 2337) and Germany ( N = 2213), revealing cautious public attitudes toward AI in journalism. In both countries, acceptance of AI in journalism, trust in its output, willingness to pay for it, and acceptance of AI replacing human journalists are moderate to low. Favorable attitudes toward human journalists positively influence views of AI in journalism, while trust in the media shows a mixed effect. Overall, the findings suggest that public attitudes toward AI in journalism align with broader views on AI, with individual perceptions of AI being a stronger determinant than opinions on media and journalists.

Love Without Borders: Explaining Why People Interact with National Out-Groups on Tinder

Ainhoa Arranz Aldana, Giulia Ranzini, Philipp K. Masur — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media Psychology · Ainhoa Arranz Aldana, Giulia Ranzini, Philipp K. Masur

Topics: Online dating, Intergroup contact, Social norms, Social identity

Despite our tendency to select romantic partners who are similar to us, a growing body of research seems to suggest that online dating may increase the diversity of couples. However, to this day, there is no clarity around what might drive users to cross social boundaries on these platforms. Building on the Theory of Reasoned Action, we propose a model that integrates individual (e.g. attitudes, perceived norms), relational (e.g. intergroup contact, social identity), and platform-specific antecedents (e.g. use motivation, experience) that could explain national-identity-based intergroup interactions on Tinder. Based on a survey with 668 adult Tinder users living in the Netherlands and the UK, recruited through an online panel, we found that norms and attitudes both positively related to intentions to date national out-groups, which was in turn associated with behavior. Intergroup contact positively relates to intergroup dating norms and, in turn, intergroup dating intentions. The strength of social identity and different motives for using Tinder did not influence intentions. Frequent Tinder usage was linked to greater out-group dating intentions, suggesting online dating could lead to more diverse relationships regarding nationality. Findings highlight the role of intergroup contact and social norms in digital romantic settings.

Uniformity, diversity, and memetics: Editorial adaptation in Civil War–era American journalism

Zef M. Segal, Menahem Blondheim — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Zef M. Segal, Menahem Blondheim

Topics: Journalistic practice, News production, News media, Media systems

This article examines how U.S. newspapers during the Civil War circulated shared news content while persistently reshaping it, revealing a dynamic interplay between national integration and local differentiation in nineteenth-century American journalism. While scholarship has emphasized the homogenizing effects of postal exchanges and telegraphic wire services, this study shows that diversity in news presentation was a routine and structured feature of wartime journalism. Drawing on a close comparison of twenty-six matched articles published in the Chicago Tribune and the Alexandria Gazette, the article uses the lens of journalistic memetics to distinguish between uniform transmission and patterned editorial adaptation. The analysis identifies six recurring forms of editorial intervention: typographic adjustment, lexical change, selective omission, reordering, shifts in placement and headlines, and factual divergence. Through these interventions, shared items were adapted to local audiences, material constraints, and sectional political environments. Using memetics as a heuristic for distinguishing replication from adaptation, the article contributes to journalism studies by reframing reprinting not as passive reproduction but as an active process of journalistic transformation. It argues that uniform infrastructures of distribution did not eliminate editorial diversity; rather, they depended on persistent local adaptation as a condition of news circulation.

Negotiated Adaptability: How Peripheral Actors’ Perceptions of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Shape Journalistic Practice

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Kevin C. Mudavadi, Bingbing Zhang, Melissa Tully, Brian Ekdale, Jonas Nyabor, Nur Hossain, Shitemi Khamadi

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Generative AI, Journalistic practice, News production

While Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming newsroom practices globally, studies often examine journalists and peripheral actors in isolation, overlooking the reciprocal influence these actors exert on journalism. This study addresses this gap by drawing on 94 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with journalists and peripheral actors in Kenya’s urban and rural areas. Specifically, we examine how Kenyan journalists and peripheral actors engage with GenAI, how they believe it should be used in newsrooms, and how their practices and perspectives shape journalistic adaptation. Our findings show that the adoption of and resistance to GenAI by Kenyan journalists illustrate “negotiated adaptability”—a form of technological adaptation in which journalists’ decisions about whether, where, and how to use GenAI are shaped through ongoing negotiations, including with actors located at the periphery of the newsroom ecosystem.

From Institutionalized Data to Inconsistent Practices: The Dynamics of Datafied Employee Evaluation in Journalistic Work

Rasa Jämsen, Ward van Zoonen, Mikko Villi — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Rasa Jämsen, Ward van Zoonen, Mikko Villi

Topics: Datafication, Journalism, Digital journalism, Journalistic practice

Organizations are increasingly relying on data to evaluate work, yet the role of data in shaping managerial practices remains uneven. The quantitative turn, referred to as datafication, has been an integral part of journalistic organizations for decades, while continuing to raise fundamental challenges for management. This paper examines how datafication is perceived when evaluating and being evaluated through data. Drawing on 25 interviews and 61 open-ended survey responses from a public-service media organization, we show how data becomes institutionalized in everyday work through organizational routines, technologies, and discourses that render data ‘taken-for-granted’. At the same time, its enactment in managerial practices remains uneven. Despite shared access to analytics, managers diverge in how they incorporate data into evaluation and feedback, resulting in inconsistent practices in the same organization. These findings refine research on datafication by demonstrating that institutionalization is selective rather than uniform, and by showing that data-related relational activities within organizations are central to how analytics are interpreted, negotiated, and enacted in practice.

Mapping Gaps in Local News Coverage

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Alexander L. Curry, Yujin Kim, Caroline Murray, Emily Graham, Natalie Jomini Stroud

Topics: Local news, News coverage, Journalism, Digital media

Building on Anderson’s concept of imagined communities and Ball-Rokeach’s work on Communication Infrastructure Theory, we demonstrate how cartographic mapping can be used to help communities understand how the media construct their geographic area. We compare media coverage to other datasets about particular geographies, documenting gaps between the two. We do this work through four case studies. Each case study illustrates a unique way in which external data can be compared to coverage. We compare media coverage of Philadelphia locations to how many people live in various regions, the issues emphasized in the media and those that Philadelphia residents say are important for their neighborhoods, media coverage of crime that mentions various locations to crime statistics in Chicago, and data about the number of COVID cases in different parts of Chicago to news organizations’ Facebook posts about the disease. The gaps revealed by these analyses, we propose, allow for reflection on whether media coverage is serving the needs of communities. We conclude by discussing lessons learned about using mapping across these projects, and how similar studies can be used by communities and newsrooms.

Beyond Seamlessness: Mobile AI and Situated Sense-Making

Thilo von Pape — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile Media & Communication · Thilo von Pape

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Mobile media, Human-computer interaction, Communication theory

This commentary explores what it means for generative artificial intelligence (AI) to become mobile, as interaction shifts from screen-bound querying to AI participation in the flow of everyday situations. Rather than framing this shift in terms of access or use, it approaches mobile AI through situated sense-making, understood here in terms of the constitution of sense through ongoing activities, embodied cues, social coordination, and mobile communication affordances as AI becomes part of the situation. Starting from a café interaction staged in a promotional video for a future AI device, the commentary confronts corporate claims of seamless interaction with theoretical accounts of situated sense-making. Drawing on mobile communication studies and human–machine communication (HMC), it argues that mobile AI requires a specification of sense-making as HMC's central boundary object: not only as mutual interpretation between users and interfaces but also as a process embedded in ongoing activities and interactions. The commentary develops this argument through three interrelated aspects of situated sense-making—coordination, distribution, and stabilization—showing how mobile AI may reshape participation, redistribute epistemic authority, and steer relevance toward either shared problematization or premature closure. It thereby advances an approach to analyzing and designing embodied AI that foregrounds visible coordination, responsive alignment, and stabilization that remains open to collective deliberation.

“I’m Here to Work and Not to Call”: Blue-Collar Workers Navigating Interruptions by Mobile Devices

Floor Fiers — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile Media & Communication · Floor Fiers

Topics: Mobile communication, Workplace interruptions, Blue-collar workers, Organizational communication

In blue-collar work, such as construction and landscaping, mobile devices allow for communication across dispersed workplaces while posing risks to worker outcomes, including physical safety. When mobile devices interrupt workers, they are tasked with making rapid decisions about how to respond. This study examines how blue-collar workers experience and navigate interruptions by mobile communication technologies. Based on 46 semi-structured interviews nested in a phone survey of employees of a blue-collar company in the Netherlands, results reveal that when interrupted by their mobile devices, workers engage in a complex negotiation process in which they weigh a myriad of contextual factors and consider different response options. Participants describe three general strategies to approach these negotiations: devising rules to guide their choices, taking preventative measures to limit the choices they need to make, and structurally deprioritizing mobile communication altogether. Ultimately, the study highlights that managing interruptions in high-risk environments constitutes a complex skill, one that demands more scholarly and managerial attention.

PRISM Project—Predictive-Processing Reshaping via Immersive Simulated Multisensory Experiences

Giulia Brizzi, Albert Garcia‐Romeu, Johan Rocher, Giuseppe Riva — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Giulia Brizzi, Albert Garcia‐Romeu, Johan Rocher, Giuseppe Riva

Topics: Virtual reality, Cognitive processing, Media effects, Multimodal analysis

Psycho-social risk and protective factors associated with resilience in journalism

Маријана Марковиќ, Елеонора Серафимовска — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Маријана Марковиќ, Елеонора Серафимовска

Topics: Journalism, Well-being, Mental health, Political communication

The polarized socio-political context is a defining feature of Macedonian society, marked by challenges such as limited transparency in political and media institutions, pressure on journalists, disinformation, and self-censorship. Reporting under such prolonged and complex conditions places considerable demands on journalists’ coping capacities and resilience. This study examines the relationship between psychosocial risk factors in the work environment and resilience among journalists in Macedonia. A field survey was conducted between March and June 2025 using the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ-III) to assess psychosocial risk factors and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25) to measure resilience. The findings suggest that journalists identify job insecurity, organizational justice, horizontal trust, work-life conflict, quality of leadership, and emotional demands as key psychosocial risk factors. The results further indicate a moderately high level of resilience, suggesting that journalists are generally able to cope with demanding working conditions, although not without strain. Correlation analysis reveals that resilience is positively associated with protective work-related factors, including meaning of work, role clarity, possibilities for development, influence at work, and sense of community, while showing a significant negative association with job insecurity. Overall, the findings suggest that journalists’ resilience is strengthened by supportive organizational conditions and weakened by uncertainty and insecurity in the work environment. The study underscores the need to reduce psychosocial risks and enhance supportive and fair working conditions in order to sustain journalists’ resilience in the Macedonian socio-political context.

The hierarchy of humanization: A theory of victim visibility in news narratives

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Maurice N. Emelu, Chika Nwugo, Regina Tuma, Sean Sims, Mariah Moulds, Elijah Williams, Felipe Covarrubias

Topics: News framing, Gender representation, Journalism, Media representation

Journalism frames events and distributes human recognition in public discourse, yet little is known about how narrative attention is allocated among individuals within the same event. This study introduces Victim Visibility Theory (VVT), conceptualizing news stories as systems of narrative allocation in which victims receive unequal levels of humanization. Drawing on a content analysis of 433 articles from four U.S. elite newspapers covering 52 victims across four mass shootings, it examines how identity cues, symbolic capital, and structural narrative prominence shape representation. The findings show that humanization is allocated at two levels: first between events, where whole tragedies are humanized unequally, and then within events, where editorial placement provides a second-order layer of differentiation. Victims granted headline and lead placement consistently receive expanded interpretive development, while identity attributes and symbolic capital show limited, inconsistent effects. This two-level hierarchy of humanization repositions framing in a broader model of narrative visibility and informs more equitable journalistic practice.

The False Will Set You Free: How Lower Courts Have Translated the Supreme Court’s Latest Falsity Doctrine into Practice

Robert L. Kerr — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · Robert L. Kerr

Topics: Misinformation, Press freedom, Communication theory, Content moderation

This study provides the first descriptive mapping of the impact of the First Amendment’s rationale for advancing truth-seeking being extended counter-intuitively to provide greater protection for intentional falsehoods. Scholarly concerns over the Supreme Court’s Alvarez ruling focused on potentially creating a doctrinal vacuum of limited guidance. The study found lower courts reflected more clarity of guidance when cases involved the sorts of historically unprotected categories of false expression targeting harm beyond falsity—but considerably less so in other types of cases where it was often “not entirely clear what level of scrutiny is appropriate for laws that criminalize lying.”

Stories that Make Hawks? Digital News-Based User-Generated Content and Foreign Policy Orientations Among China’s Generation Z

Yang Li, Ying Hooi Khoo, Siti Ezaleila Mustafa — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · Yang Li, Ying Hooi Khoo, Siti Ezaleila Mustafa

Topics: Social media, User-generated content, Narrative persuasion, Political communication

This study examines the relationships between exposure to news-based user-generated content on Bilibili and Chinese Generation Z’s support for hawkish foreign policies. Guided by the Narrative Policy Framework, a survey ( N = 688) shows that self-reported exposure to villain, hero, and mixed narrative strategies is positively associated with hawkish orientations, both directly and indirectly through national pride and national humiliation. These findings suggest that, within the highly performative and affectively embedded dynamics of social media, nonofficial actors may rely on dramatized storytelling and serve as a nonnegligible component of the broader rise of hawkishness within Chinese youth communities.

(In)congruent synergies? Discursive boundary-spanning between the Italian anti-gender galaxy and anti-trans groups

Elena Pavan, Aurora Perego, Matteo Scianna — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Elena Pavan, Aurora Perego, Matteo Scianna

Topics: Social media, Political polarization, Gender representation, Media framing

This article investigates increasing alignment between the anti-gender galaxy and anti-trans groups by looking at the symbolic synergies that these two collective endeavors create in and through social media discourse. Building on social movement theory, we examine processes of discursive boundary spanning through which ecclesial and right-wing actors, dedicated anti-gender organizations, and anti-trans groups converge when discussing gender-related issues at large on social media, aligning around similar agendas, objects of interest, priorities, and frames, while setting aside differences that might hinder their collaboration. Empirically, the study relies on a mixed-method analysis of Facebook and Instagram posts published between 2021 and 2023 by twenty-two prominent actors mobilizing around anti-gender and anti-trans claims in Italy. Combining topic modeling with a computational adaptation of frame semantic grammar and qualitative frame analysis, we examine patterns of discursive convergence across the four sectors as well as the ideological differences that are bracketed to sustain it. Our findings reveal the existence of a transversal and yet fragile cross-sectoral discursive convergence. While all four sectors align around a limited set of shared interests and priorities, stronger discursive commonalities are found between anti-trans actors, dedicated anti-gender organizations and right-wing actors. Moreover, although common diagnostic frames emphasize the protection of women and children from gender ideology, divergent prognostic frames and long-term horizons persist within and across sectors.

Human Imagery and Psychological Reactance in Persuasive Health Messages

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Research · Chelsea L. Ratcliff, Helen M. Lillie, Manusheela Pokharel, Jakob D. Jensen, Doris E. Acheme, Benjamin Sam-Paintsil

Topics: Psychological reactance, Persuasion, Health communication, Message effects

Although mass-mediated persuasive messages often feature images of people, their impacts are surprisingly understudied. We tested whether attributes of human imagery influence psychological reactance to a health promotion PSA, either alone or combined with language style. Participants ( N = 1,100) viewed a message promoting sun safety that contained a forceful (vs. courteous) appeal and featured a model with forceful (vs. neutral) body language. The model’s physical characteristics (gender and skin tone) also varied. Both forceful text and forceful body language indirectly lowered protective behavioral intentions via reactance, and male-model messages had this effect for female participants. Our findings demonstrate the potential for features of human imagery to inadvertently hinder persuasion. Study results also highlight the value in measuring perceived visual freedom threat alongside traditional reactance measures. We discuss implications for reactance theory and measurement and highlight important directions for research on reactance to visuals.

Who Verifies the Verifiers? AI, Local Knowledge Production, and Credibility in Tanzania’s 2025 Election

Gregory Gondwe — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Political Communication · Gregory Gondwe

Topics: Fact-checking, Misinformation, Artificial intelligence, Political communication

This study examines how Factchecking AI tools and community-based credibility practices interacted during Tanzania’s 2025 presidential election. Using data from five regions, we analyzed 342 media materials, 87 interviews, field observations, and 22 distinct contested election events. The findings identify three forms of verification disjuncture. First, AI-assisted translation and transcription sometimes changed the meaning of politically important statements before journalists could verify them. Second, fact-checks and disputed claims often moved through different communication channels, which limited the chances that people would see the correction. Third, some communities trusted personal experience, familiar sources, and collective discussion more than professional fact-checkers. Participants judged credibility through relationships, lived experience, group discussion, humor and satire, and social accountability. These practices sometimes supported the same conclusions as institutional verification and sometimes produced different judgments. We argue that fact-checking becomes politically effective when the meaning of a claim is preserved, the correction reaches the people discussing it, and the source of the correction is recognized as credible. This explains why an accurate fact-check can still have limited public influence.

Hearts for hating Activists: how far-right actors dominate polarized TikTok debates on climate protest

Hendrik Meyer — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Hendrik Meyer

Topics: TikTok, Political polarization, Climate change communication, Social movements

This study investigates degrees of polarization in political climate protest debates on TikTok. Drawing on a dataset of automatically transcribed TikTok videos posted by German politicians between 2022 and 2025 (N ≈ 1,700), alongside associated user comments (N ≈ 53,000), this study compares discussions on general climate activism, reformist activism (Fridays for Future), and disruptive activism (Letzte Generation). Using a mixed-method approach that combines Large Language Model-based frame classification, stance detection, and network analysis, this study operationalizes Discursive Polarization across ideological, affective, and interactional dimensions. Findings reveal that while all protest debates on TikTok are polarized, disruptive protests are associated with particularly intense attacks and less attention to policy-oriented climate discussions. However, conservative and far-right politicians consistently frame all activist groups as extremists, criminals, or threats to public order, with far-right accounts dominating content production and audience support. Network analyses demonstrate that far-right politicians and their supporters form highly connected clusters in which both emotionally positive and hostile user engagement amplifies elite-level antagonism. Even moderate posts by center-left or progressive politicians attract disproportionate backlash, suggesting asymmetric polarization dynamics linked to partisan user networks. Overall, the study shows that political TikTok debates around climate protest are consistently polarized along ideological lines, but that greater disruptiveness coincides with more intense antagonistic engagement and weaker Connective Action among supporters. Most crucially, far-right politicians emerge as the clear beneficiaries of this polarization, occupying central positions in antagonist networks of Connective Counteraction and dominating the debate through disruption.

Too Much or Not Enough? The Decline of the Iconic News Image and the Adaptive Challenges of Visual Digital Journalism

Ellie Macdonald — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Ellie Macdonald

Topics: Visual journalism, Digital media, Generative AI, News coverage

Iconic news images have traditionally played a central role in journalistic praxis and public discourse, transcending news cycles and forming shared visual narratives. However, in contemporary digital media ecologies, single images struggle to gain traction amid multimedia storytelling, divergent editorial priorities, and dynamic platform affordances. To investigate the adaptive context of this shift, this article presents a case study of photographic reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict from October 2023 to March 2024, analysing lead images from Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, and BBC News. While some unifying themes were evident, the outlets tended not to republish single images, instead favouring a high volume of imagery alongside multimedia content. In contrast, the viral circulation of a related AI-generated image indicates the continued importance of symbolic condensation within contemporary visual discourse. As such, the widespread circulation of this image illustrates how adaptive behaviours within a complex system can incite visual coherence outwith journalistic production. The image therefore signals a potential risk: in the absence of effective journalistic adaptation, the civic function of iconic news photographs could be displaced by epistemically synthetic imagery; loosening the connection between iconic visual symbolism and photographic witnessing.

Texting for Connection in an “Always-On” Society: Roles of Content, Availability Pressure, and Emotional Fatigue

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile Media & Communication · David de Segovia Vicente, Mariek Vanden Abeele, Kyle Van Gaeveren, Stephen Lee Murphy, Jeffrey A. Hall

Topics: Computer-mediated communication, Interpersonal communication, Smartphone use, Well-being

Texting is the most ubiquitous form of computer-mediated communication, but its ability to satisfy relational needs in an always-on society remains under scrutiny. This study examines how message content and psychological context—specifically emotional fatigue and availability pressure—determine the relational value of texting. Analyzing 5,821 ecological momentary assessments from 112 adults, the results reveal that while texting and offline interactions positively predict connectedness, offline interactions demonstrate a meaningfully stronger effect. Within the context of texting, meaningful and affectionate interactions are associated with high levels of connectedness compared with those of small talk or practical exchanges, supporting the hierarchy of communication episodes proposed by communicate bond belong theory. Notably, neither emotional fatigue nor availability pressure significantly influences the association between texting and connectedness. These findings highlight that the relational benefits of texting are resilient to emotional fatigue and availability pressure and primarily depend on the nature of the content instead of users' psychological context.

Compressed Time, Narrow Space: The Visual-Temporal Aesthetics of Mobile Microdrama on ReelShort

Seda Aktaş — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile Media & Communication · Seda Aktaş

Topics: Short-form video, Digital media, Visual communication, Mobile media

The widespread adoption of digital platforms and mobile devices has significantly transformed audiovisual storytelling. Short-form mobile microdramas represent not only a new mode of distribution but also a narrative form that reorganizes cinematic time and space. While previous research has primarily focused on platform economies, audience engagement, and algorithmic circulation, the visual-temporal organization of mobile microdramas has received comparatively little attention from the perspective of quantitative film analysis. Addressing this gap, this study investigates how mobile microdramas reorganize cinematic form through temporal compression and spatial narrowing. A quantitative formal analysis was conducted on the first episodes of 10 ReelShort series representing different narrative tropes. The analysis examined average shot length (ASL), editing rhythm, shots per minute, shot-scale distribution, and the use of establishing shots. Shot boundaries were automatically identified using Adobe Premiere Pro's Scene Edit Detection tool, while shot scales and spatial indicators were analysed through qualitative coding. The findings show that an exceptionally short ASL of 2.31 s, together with the predominance of medium shots and the limited use of full/long shots and establishing shots, minimizes spatial exposition while privileging character-centred compositions and producing a dense visual rhythm optimized for smartphone viewing. The results suggest that ReelShort reorganizes cinematic form by simultaneously compressing cinematic time and narrowing cinematic space, extending long-term stylistic tendencies in film history while adapting them to the perceptual and technological conditions of vertically oriented mobile media.

Defensive avoidance: How intimidating, belief-incongruent, and repetitive news disengages social media users from news

Maliha Khanam, Md. Sayeed Al-Zaman — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Maliha Khanam, Md. Sayeed Al-Zaman

Topics: News avoidance, Social media, Selective exposure, Digital media

Social media has become a key news source worldwide, transforming how people access and consume news. Despite easy access and availability of news, many users gradually tend to disengage from news consumption. Research indicates that factors such as overload and fatigue contribute to this trend, while some psychological mechanisms remain less understood, especially in non-Western contexts. To address this, we surveyed 417 Bangladeshi social media users who consume news and tested four hypotheses. Our multiple regression analysis revealed that belief-based selective avoidance, perceived threat, and news redundancy are positively associated with news avoidance, with perceived threat being the strongest factor (β = 0.24, p < 0.001). News redundancy (β = 0.16, p = 0.001) and belief-based selective avoidance (β = 0.10, p = 0.039) also play significant roles. Trust showed a weaker, nonsignificant effect (β = −0.04, p = 0.383). These results indicate that news avoidance reflects selective disengagement from news perceived as threatening, repetitive, or belief-incongruent. By focusing on Bangladesh, this study broadens research on social media news avoidance to the Global South. Exploring some tentative steps for news outlets, such as promoting constructive journalism and reviewing digital-friendly editorial policies, could help reduce news avoidance. Limitations remain in sampling, among others.

Public reactions on TikTok: Emotional dynamics in comments to the president of Romania's posts

Tănase Tasențe, Cristina-Dana Popescu — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

European Journal of Communication · Tănase Tasențe, Cristina-Dana Popescu

Topics: TikTok, Political communication, Sentiment analysis, Social media discourse

This article examines how TikTok structures the emotional dynamics of presidential communication during the initial months of a mandate, focusing on the official account of the President of Romania. Drawing on 44 TikTok posts and 29,756 unique public comments recorded between 26 May and 27 October 2025, the study combines multilingual transformer-based sentiment analysis, change-point analysis and co-commenting network analysis. After deduplication and temporal filtering, 21,654 comments were classified. The results show a positive plurality rather than a uniformly positive baseline, alongside issue-specific negativity around economic governance, justice and public safety, security, Moldova and democratic legitimacy. Validation sensitivity checks caution against strong comment-level claims, whilst a bipartite null model shows that much co-commenting density is expected from shared participation in viral threads. TikTok is therefore interpreted as a high-co-presence environment in which episodic affective pressure emerges around salient political themes.

From Grassroots Sleuthing to Global Uptake: Epistemic Legitimation of Open-Source Investigations in Journalism Through Mediazona’s War Casualty Project in Russia’s War on Ukraine

Volha Kananovich — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Volha Kananovich

Topics: Open-source investigation, Journalism, Epistemic authority, Digital journalism

This study examines how open-source investigation (OSINV) is legitimized within journalism through an analysis of a casualty-counting project by Mediazona, an exiled independent Russian newsroom documenting Russian military deaths in Ukraine. Drawing on Mediazona’s public-facing project materials and coverage by seven international news organizations, the analysis traces how epistemic authority is established and re-anchored as the project circulates across journalistic institutions. The findings show that Mediazona constructs epistemic authority through a rich epistemic repertoire grounded in procedural rigor, radical transparency, and aesthetic sense-making. As the project gains global uptake, however, these articulations do not circulate intact. Instead, news organizations selectively mobilize elements of Mediazona’s epistemic repertoire in ways that reflect their editorial routines, epistemological commitments, audience expectations, and culturally resonant interpretive frames. In this process, Mediazona’s epistemic labor—and that of its citizen contributors, whom news organizations consistently avoid labeling “sleuths”—receives varying degrees of recognition: elevated as that of an independent outlet, absorbed into the institutional authority of international collaborators, or folded into professional routines that recast the project through a data-journalistic vocabulary and original field reporting. Taken together, the findings show that OSINV legitimation is uneven and context-dependent, shifting away from amateurist connotations toward more methodologically disciplined epistemic labor.

The Relational Costs of Asymmetric Mixed Reality Headset Use in Large Groups

Monique Santoso, Portia Wang, Jeremy N. Bailenson — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media Psychology · Monique Santoso, Portia Wang, Jeremy N. Bailenson

Topics: Mixed reality, Virtual reality, Interpersonal communication, Social presence

Mixed reality (MR) technologies are increasingly used in classrooms, workplaces, and collaborative environments, yet little is known about how asymmetric headset use, that is, when some interactants wear headsets and others do not within the same group, shapes interpersonal perception. Guided by uncertainty reduction theory (URT), this study examined how headset use and familiarity jointly influence social presence, closeness, ostracism, and group interaction dynamics in face-to-face MR group collaboration. University students (N = 101) were assigned to groups of 9–10 participants to either wear a headset or not before engaging in a discussion task. Compared to participants with headsets, participants without headsets felt less close to and less present with headset-wearing partners. In contrast, headset wearers, who could see the other group members via passthrough video, did not exhibit parallel decreases. Behavioral analyses showed a crossover pattern in compromise behavior, where individuals who wore a headset compromised more in unfamiliar settings (i.e. where they rated group members less familiar) but those who did not wear a headset compromised more in familiar settings, suggesting that individuals adapt communication strategies to manage uncertainty in asymmetric MR environments. Overall, MR headsets selectively affected interpersonal connection and group dynamics.

Heterogeneities of Smartphone Use Among Chinese Urban Older Adults: A Life Course Approach

Lu Chen, Miaoting Cheng — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile Media & Communication · Lu Chen, Miaoting Cheng

Topics: Smartphone use, Older adults, Life course, Digital inequality

Drawing on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data, this research adopts a life course perspective to examine how Chinese urban older adults adjust their smartphone use in response to significant life events across later life. The findings reveal that multi-level life events foster a dynamic continuum of (dis)connection. At the same time, adaptive and maladaptive use patterns coexist among Chinese urban older adults, demonstrating heterogeneity in their smartphone use. By proposing a shift from an age-as-variable approach to an aging-as-process approach, this study emphasizes older adults’ contextualized (dis)connectivity situated within life course transitions and trajectories, which reflects a negotiation between individual agency and socio-technical structures.

Data benefits? Attitudes and aspirations of recipients towards social security administrative data sharing

Victoria Gorton, Morgan E. Currie — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Victoria Gorton, Morgan E. Currie

Topics: Public attitudes, Trust, Digital inequality, Data sharing

This paper outlines benefit recipients’ views towards the sharing of data that is collected about them when they routinely interact with social security services. Sharing this administrative data between public bodies promises to transform the delivery and evaluation of social security. However, there remains a lack of research into public attitudes, understandings, and aspirations for the sharing of this data, particularly from those whose data would be shared. Drawing on discussions from deliberative focus groups with 41 individuals, we reflect on the scope for increased data sharing to deliver improvements for recipients.While participants were aware of how their data is currently shared and how increased data sharing might have advantages, they expressed strong distrust in government agencies to manage their data and concerns about being placed in a position of increased vulnerability. We argue individuals’ views towards data sharing cannot be separated from their lived experiences of data systems – their data realities – which are often markedly different from system designers. We conclude by offering considerations against data systems re-introducing paternalistic policy, unintentionally, via automation – which we term ‘automated paternalism’.

From mobilization to diversion: a comparative study of wartime communication tactics of Ukrainian and Russian political elites on Telegram

Mykola Makhortykh, Aytalina Kulichkina, Kateryna Maikovska — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Mykola Makhortykh, Aytalina Kulichkina, Kateryna Maikovska

Topics: Political communication, Telegram, Crisis communication, Political polarization

This study examines how Ukrainian and Russian political elites communicate on Telegram during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. Using a dataset of Telegram public posts from 2019 to 2024, we analyze changes in communication volume, thematic content, and actor engagement before and after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. While the invasion triggered a massive spike in elites’ activity on Telegram in both countries—most notably among actors associated with Russia’s ruling pro-regime party—the focus of this communication diverged sharply. While Ukrainian elites initially prioritized war-related mobilization, this emphasis has declined over time. By contrast, Russian elites from the start adopted a tactic of strategic diversion, avoiding discussion of the war and shifting public attention to unrelated issues, such as crises in the West. Finally, we show that communication patterns are stratified by party size, with smaller parties specializing in narrow policy niches. These findings shed light on how political elites adapt their communication strategies in online environments during wartime.

Trust in algorithms biased appraisal and boosted affect in online dating

Jian Ming Hu, Yoo Jung Oh — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Jian Ming Hu, Yoo Jung Oh

Topics: Online dating, Trust, Algorithmic curation, Social media algorithms

The algorithmification of social encounters is a topic of immense scholarly interest. People often form layperson beliefs about how algorithms work, which can predict how people psychologically navigate algorithmic social encounters. Online dating scholars have drawn upon correlational findings to speculate that trust in algorithms primes daters to think and feel about their dating experiences in certain ways. Within a sample of U.S. adults (N = 165), we experimentally test this speculation by manipulating participants’ trusting beliefs in the efficacy of algorithms (high vs. low), assigning them to evaluate online dating profiles drawn from the same pool, and observing whether appraisal and emotion differed between conditions. Post profile evaluation, high-belief participants perceived higher online dating success than low-belief participants. In turn, more successful participants felt more self-assured and jovial, and meanwhile less anxious or sad. Our study is the first to experimentally examine trusting beliefs in dating algorithms. Findings suggest a self-fulfilling prophecy of beliefs about algorithmic social processes and warrant more future investigation.

Between Journalism and Justice: Disciplinary Humility in Open-Source Investigations

Isabella Regan, Imar de Vries — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Isabella Regan, Imar de Vries

Topics: Journalism, Open-source investigations, Professional norms, Digital journalism

Open-source investigations (OSI) have become an increasingly influential method for reporting on conflict, documenting human rights violations, and supporting justice and accountability efforts. As the field has matured, OSI practitioners have increasingly operated across journalistic, legal, human rights, and technical domains, creating innovation and collaboration opportunities, but also disciplinary tensions. Despite growing scholarship on the institutionalization of OSI, less attention has been paid to how practitioners navigate overlapping disciplinary mandates. Drawing on interviews with 35 practitioners involved in OSI across journalism, human rights, law enforcement and specialized investigative organizations, this article examines how disciplinary boundaries are experienced and responded to within justice and accountability contexts. The findings show that practitioners respond to tensions between journalistic and legal norms through forms of boundary recalibration, including recognizing disciplinary limitations and restructuring investigative work. To explain these dynamics, this article introduces disciplinary humility, defined as the recognition of the limits of one’s disciplinary expertise and mandate when operating across overlapping professional jurisdictions. The article contributes to digital journalism scholarship by showing that the OSI institutionalization is shaped not only by hybridity and boundary crossing, but also by boundary recalibration through which practitioners re-examine expertise and mandates across journalistic and legal contexts.

Between Ideals and BoPo: Daily Associations Between Exposure to Appearance Content and Body Image Among Young Individuals with Visible Differences

Laure Dedecker, L. Coosemans, Chelly Maes, Lara Schreurs, Laura Vandenbosch — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media Psychology · Laure Dedecker, L. Coosemans, Chelly Maes, Lara Schreurs, Laura Vandenbosch

Topics: Body image, Social media use, Social media algorithms, Mental health

Exposure to appearance-related content, including beauty ideals and body positivity (BoPo) elements, is linked to young individuals’ body image. Despite being challenged to develop a healthy body image, research has overlooked young individuals with visible differences. This daily diary study among a community-recruited sample of 117 Dutch-speaking (i.e. 110 Belgians, 7 Dutch) young individuals with visible differences (Mage = 25.41), therefore, examined the short-term relationships between exposure to beauty ideals and BoPo elements with/without visible differences and appearance satisfaction, and body/visible difference surveillance. Also, the moderating role of protective filtering was explored. Multilevel regression models showed that on days when participants saw more beauty ideals without visible differences, they showed less appearance satisfaction, and higher body/visible difference surveillance, compared to their typical daily exposure and body image levels. Protective filtering moderated this association: individuals high in protective filtering experienced smaller decreases in appearance satisfaction. No between- or other within-person associations emerged. These findings highlight the complexity of social media exposure for the body image of young individuals with visible differences and the value of enhancing their protective filtering.

Platformed affective withdrawal: Quiet quitting and the refusal of gendered emotional labour on TikTok

Aybüke KAPLAN — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

New Media & Society · Aybüke KAPLAN

Topics: Short-form video, TikTok, Digital labor, Platform studies

This article examines #quietquitting on TikTok as a platform-mediated articulation of gendered affective withdrawal. While organisational research interprets quiet quitting as reduced discretionary effort or declining work engagement, this study examines how quiet quitting is articulated as a digitally circulated refusal of feminised emotional labour. Drawing on feminist theories of affective labour and critical platform studies, the analysis explores how workers renegotiate expectations of emotional availability within algorithmically structured visibility regimes. The study is based on a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods analysis of 586 TikTok videos shared under #quietquitting between 2020 and 2026. Combining thematic discourse analysis with descriptive engagement indicators, the findings show that creators frequently frame quiet quitting as a refusal of unpaid relational mediation, emotional management, and workplace care. The article introduces the concept of platformed affective withdrawal to explain how narratives of workplace disengagement circulate through algorithmic visibility systems that amplify and individualise gendered labour inequalities.

Praise, rent, and the platform: Substack and the enclosure of blog culture

Will Riley — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

New Media & Society · Will Riley

Topics: Platform studies, Platformization, Digital labour, Social media platforms

This article situates Substack within the platformisation of blogging and the enclosure of cultural production within proprietary infrastructures. Tracing the genealogy of blogging as a decentralised practice that carried within it the seeds of citizen journalism and informal intellectual life, I argue that Substack does not restore an apparently lost cultural practice but renegotiates and interpolates blogging into a platformised logic. Framed as a return to independent, writer-led publishing, Substack instead, as I argue, renders free-labour interaction as a source of rent. I analyse the rhetoric and revolving discourse around Substack’s internal curatorial project, ‘The Substack Post’. Drawing on Jodi Dean’s account of blogs as displaced mediators alongside theories of digital labour and platform capitalism, and approaching Substack as a simultaneously platformised and infrastructuralised formation, I argue that praise operates as a platform-specific form of commodity fetishism, animating the platform while obscuring the labour relations that sustain it.

Reconfiguring repression: Violence against journalists in Indonesia under democratic backsliding (2014–2025)

Wisnu Prasetya Utomo — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Wisnu Prasetya Utomo

Topics: Press freedom, Journalism, Political communication, Digital harassment

Violence against journalists in Indonesia has been reconfigured as a broader system of repression under democratic backsliding. This article examines how repression adapts under such conditions by conceptualizing violence as authoritarian innovation. Repression is redistributed across forms, perpetrators, and targets, preserving deniability while maintaining disciplinary effects. Analyzing 780 documented incidents (2014–2025) from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the study codes violence across forms (physical, digital, legal, obstruction), perpetrators (state actors, non-state actors, unknown), and targets (individual journalists, media organizations). The analysis traces violence’s longitudinal reconfiguration under democratic backsliding. Three patterns emerge. First, physical attacks persist but increasingly coexist with digital harassment and obstruction. Second, perpetrator attribution becomes increasingly opaque, with unknown actors responsible for more incidents than police or non-state actors by 2025. Third, attacks targeting media organizations rise sixfold. The findings extend authoritarian innovation and press freedom scholarship, revealing how repression adapts temporally through accumulation and layering.

Quietly taking sides: The machine habitus and metaphorical framing in human and LLM-generated news

Xiaoshuang Guo — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Xiaoshuang Guo

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Generative AI, Large Language Models, Journalistic practice

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to draft the news. These systems may frame the news differently from human journalists. In particular, it remains less understood how they handle metaphor, a potent framing tool in news discourse. Following Bourdieu’s field theory, we compare LLMs’ metaphorical framing with the journalistic habitus of human reporting in two studies of German news on Chinese investment spanning a quarter century (with 2975 metaphors from human journalism and 1924 from LLM-generated news writing), and conduct a prompting experiment across four instructions and three recent LLMs (DeepSeek V4, GPT-5.5, and Claude Sonnet 4.5) with 4877 metaphors. We find that compared to journalists that favored deliberate, evaluatively charged figurative expressions, the LLM-generated news was conventional by default, framing investment as a procedural, depoliticized process. We regard this disposition as a “machine habitus”. It proved durable across prompted years and model versions, bound to a closed set of source domains, and generative , varying under instruction only within that set. Its conceptual sources and deliberateness moved sharply with the prompt, yet showed little variation across LLMs, while its evaluative orientation tracked the prompt, with only weak differences by model origin. Across two versions of LLMs, the disposition proved more durable than the volume of metaphor it governs: the newer LLMs wrote more figuratively yet remained conflict-averse. The study contributes to debates on automation, framing, and accountability in journalism.

A genealogy of conceptual confusion: Epistemological fault lines across media-ritual concepts

Hung-Yen Hsu — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

European Journal of Communication · Hung-Yen Hsu

Topics: Communication theory, Media effects, Mediatization, Communication science

Research on media–ritual intersections deploys seven concepts: media events, media rituals, mediatized rituals, media ritualization, ritual mediatization, ritual media, and ritualized media. Their overlap generates unmarked substitution between analytically divergent registers. The slippage is a structural consequence of three epistemological tributaries (Durkheimian social theory, Carey's ritual view, and mediatization theory), each foregrounding a different dimension of the same phenomena. Genealogical analysis diagnoses four confusions: process conflated with product, unmarked shifting among power paradigms, materiality–practice divergence, and directional inversion. Three fault lines (integration vs. domination, process vs. structure, exceptional vs. everyday) constitute a meta-theoretical framework. The article advances positioned conceptual deployment: researchers specify their coordinates along all three dimensions. The seven concepts serve as a diagnostic case: concept use in communication research presupposes epistemological commitments, marked or not. An under-theorized intersection, mediatized ritualization, is advanced as a provisional theoretical proposition about how platform architectures may reshape ritualized media practice.

The Politics of the “Non-Political”: A Conceptual Review

Yufan Guo, Yibin Fan — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Political Communication · Yufan Guo, Yibin Fan

Topics: Political communication, Communication theory, Political polarization, Depoliticization

Recent literature has documented a growing entanglement between political processes and many nonpolitical entities. This calls into question the traditional presupposition of politics as a self-contained sphere, highlighting the need to clarify how the conceptual relationship between the political and the nonpolitical has been established. In line with a relational understanding of politics, we provide a boundary analysis by looking at the “non-political” labeling in 140 empirical studies published in political science and communication journals. Two major conceptual treatments are identified: categorical, treating the “non-political” as an inherent, exclusive feature; and contextual, viewing it as a temporary, transformative state. Intellectual traditions, theoretical orientations, methodological standards, and rhetorical norms in academic knowledge production may explain why this boundary has been constructed in such different ways. We call for a more active reconciliation between these treatments, and argue that the nonpolitical, as well as (de)politicization, should be recognized as a meaningful analytical lens. It signifies a relational stance against the explicit, institutionalized politics in political communication studies, offering an indirect yet heuristically productive response to the question of what the political is.

“Hogwarts is My Home.” The Influence of Transportation, Identification, and Emotion-Specific Personality Traits on the Perceived Sense of Heimat in Fictional Media Worlds

Holger Schramm, Julia Grunwald — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media · Holger Schramm, Julia Grunwald

Topics: Parasocial relationships, Media psychology, Uses and gratifications, Well-being

In the course of globalization, people are often uprooted from their geographical homes and satisfy their need for a sense of home (sense of Heimat) through alternative sources. Until now, fictional media worlds have hardly been studied in this context, even though fiction has been shown to satisfy social needs. The results of a stimulus-based online survey, in which participants watched an excerpt from the film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” show that transportation into the fictional world and identification with Harry Potter can promote a sense of Heimat and, as a result, positive affect.

Methods Hub: A Community-Driven, Interactive Platform for Open-Source Computational Tools and Tutorials

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Christina Viehmann, Johannes Kiesel, Arnim Bleier, Chung-hong Chan, Po-Chun Chang, Raniere Silva, Ahrabhi Kathirgamalingam, Taimoor Khan, Stephan Linzbach, Fakhri Momeni

Topics: Computational methods, Open science, Research methodology, Digital methods

As computational methods become increasingly central to social science research, there is a growing demand for research software infrastructures that are sustainable, grounded in principles of open science, and embedded in the community. In response, we are introducing the Methods Hub as an open-source, community-driven collection of computational tools designed to support social science research in solving complex data-related tasks. The Methods Hub integrates three complementary components: First, quality-curated content, including computational methods and accompanying tutorials, which are specifically presented from a social science research perspective. Second, the methods and tutorials are hosted on a web portal enabling researchers to discover, apply, learn, and publish computational methods. Third, interactive, browser-based execution backends allow users to directly run, test, and adapt the code of methods and tutorials. These components are guided by a set of core principles: a long-term infrastructure perspective, reproducibility requirements, and a focus on community. The Methods Hub builds a long-term infrastructure that extends beyond the scope of single projects. Further, reproducibility functions as a quality assurance measure while advancing the practices of open science. Finally, the Methods Hub is built on public, community-based submissions by treating research software as citable academic output and providing visibility, accessibility, and formal recognition. We are also broadening the community by fostering learning and ease of access. Looking ahead, the Methods Hub is exploring the potential of AI as both a research tool and to further strengthen the infrastructure, while maintaining transparency, reproducibility, and quality standards for computational social science research.

A Framework for Classifying Uncertainties in AI-Driven Newsrooms

Luna Paladino, Paula Castro Pires de Souza Chimenti, André Fonseca — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Luna Paladino, Paula Castro Pires de Souza Chimenti, André Fonseca

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Generative AI, Newsroom practices, Journalistic practice

This study examines how generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is adopted and integrated into the newsroom of a major Brazilian media organization—Globo. While AI deployment in journalism has expanded globally, the experiences lived by journalists in contexts that are not Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic remain underexplored. Combining in-depth interviews, internal documents, organizational presentations, public materials, and direct observation within a qualitative case study, this study analyzes how GAI is reshaping newsroom practices, routines, and professional identities. It introduces a framework for classifying uncertainties in AI-driven newsrooms, a type II theory, which is designed to describe, classify, and organize the main forms of uncertainty faced by journalists when interacting with GAI systems, and then structure these uncertainties into three analytical levels—macro (ecosystem), meso (organization), and micro (identity)—while pairing each level with its associated coping strategies. Given its single-case basis, the framework is presented as a possible framework whose analytical categories require further empirical application before broader validation.

Proxies in Print: Strategic Narratives of the Sudan Conflict in Digital Media

Téwodros W. Workneh — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Téwodros W. Workneh

Topics: Media framing, News coverage, Political communication, Digital media

The Sudanese civil war exemplifies how contemporary proxy conflicts are fiercely contested within digital information ecologies. Utilizing strategic narrative theory, this study examines the structural weaponization of transnational journalism to construct the geopolitical ontology of state collapse. An interpretive analysis of 402 English-language articles from Qatar’s Al Jazeera English, the UAE’s The National, and the US’s The New York Times reveals significant divergences in narrative projection. The New York Times frames the crisis through a “global instability” index, actively legitimizing US-led diplomatic intervention. Al Jazeera English deploys an identity narrative of “state victimhood” to delegitimize rival paramilitaries and subtextually indict competing Gulf patrons. In stark contrast, The National exercises “humanitarian obfuscation,” actively depoliticizing the disaster to shield Emirati proxy interventions from international scrutiny. These findings demonstrate that democratic and authoritarian regimes alike systematically co-opt digital news platforms as soft power arsenals to dictate the geopolitical imaginaries of the Global South.

Social Media “Image Operations” During the Tigray War (2020–2022)

Matti Pohjonen, Amanuel Tesfaye Kebede — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Matti Pohjonen, Amanuel Tesfaye Kebede

Topics: Social media, Visual communication, Social media analysis, Political communication

This article examines the use of social media images during the Tigray War (2020–2022), one of the world’s deadliest armed conflicts of the 21st century. Drawing on a corpus of 92.9 million tweets and over 500,000 images shared on Twitter, we analyse what types of images were shared by the opposing sides of the conflict and what specific functions these images served in antagonistic information campaigns. The article shows how images were used not only to amplify the opposing strategic narratives about war but also to shape the emotional or affective registers related to it. The pro-Tigray campaign relied on the heavy use of emotive images of casualties as well as images of material destruction, which, combined with the use of infographics, collectively conveyed victimhood with the goal of putting pressure on the Ethiopian government and its allies. The pro-government side, in turn, relied more on images that tried to evoke patriotism and resistance in the audience, organise protests, as well as represent a stance of anti-colonial defiance against international pressure. The article contributes to the growing literature on digital media in contemporary conflicts by proposing a novel research framework and methodology and providing original empirical findings on an understudied dimension of contemporary conflicts.

The Metajournalistic Discourse and the Sociopolitical Construction of AI Risk in Chinese Journalism

J. Zhang — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · J. Zhang

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Journalistic practice, Journalistic roles, Media systems

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into journalism has improved production efficiency but raised concerns about its potential to compromise content quality and undermine journalists’ professional capacity. These tensions are particularly pronounced in China, where AI deployment in journalism intersects with state-led advocacy and professional authority. Drawing on metajournalistic discourse and taking a sociopolitical perspective, I examine how journalistic discourse frames and responds to AI risks in structurally constrained contexts. I conducted a textual analysis of 102 articles published between 2022 and 2025 by Chinese journalists affiliated with institutional media. These articles narrate journalists’ perceptions of, or working experiences with, AI. AI risks are discursively framed at three levels: content quality, mainstream values, and professional subjectivity. Journalistic discourse constructs an asymmetrical attribution of these risks, assigning responsibility primarily to opaque AI systems, technology companies, and individual journalists positioned as “risk filters,” while largely overlooking the responsibilities of media organizations and the state. Political intervention, institutional hierarchy, and professional commitments shape adaptive boundary work that aligns with state-led AI advocacy while establishing boundaries by limiting AI capability in journalistic work. This study provides an empirical account of how journalists negotiate AI risks and professional autonomy amid advanced AI development and state-sanctioned boundaries, extending Western-centric and Global South research.

Finding Love in the Black Box: Algorithm Awareness on Dating Apps

Doris Bukman, Liesel L. Sharabi, Elisabeth Timmermans — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Doris Bukman, Liesel L. Sharabi, Elisabeth Timmermans

Topics: Online dating, Algorithm awareness, Trust, Human-computer interaction

Most dating apps use algorithms to match users to one another, but are not fully transparent about how their recommender systems work. In turn, users have varying degrees of awareness of matching algorithms. Unfortunately, little is known about how awareness of algorithmic functioning relates to online dating. This research examined the relationship between algorithm awareness, trust in algorithms, and satisfaction with the quality of matches. A survey was conducted among 500 users of the Dutch dating app Breeze, presented to respondents within the app itself. Relationships were estimated with structural equation modeling. Higher algorithm awareness was associated with more trust in algorithms, which positively related to satisfaction with the quality of matches. This mediated association between awareness and satisfaction with matches suggested that awareness of matching algorithms is associated with better outcomes of dating app use. This research contributes to the limited literature on human-algorithm interaction on dating apps. Overall, the results suggest that algorithm awareness may be a relevant part of the online dating experience.

Not only correcting lies. Analysis of interventionist strategies in news articles dealing with misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

David Blanco‐Herrero, Toni G.L.A. van der Meer, Bas van den Putte — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · David Blanco‐Herrero, Toni G.L.A. van der Meer, Bas van den Putte

Topics: Misinformation, Journalistic roles, Health communication, COVID-19 pandemic

During crises, when falsehoods often spread faster than facts, journalists face the challenge of deciding how to fight misinformation without amplifying its reach. This study focuses on Dutch journalists who addressed pandemic-related misinformation during the COVID-19 crisis (January 2020–May 2023), distinguishing between actively interventionist strategies (correction and prebunking) and more detached approaches. Drawing on a content analysis of 698 news articles, it investigates the use of actively interventionist strategies, and their variation across pandemic phases and in their use of expert sources. Findings show that 14.2% of articles adopted actively interventionist roles, with corrections being more common than prebunking. Such strategies were more frequent during the initial uncertain phase of the pandemic and during vaccine rollouts. Articles using these strategies relied on a greater number and diversity of sources, especially academic, governmental, and health-related. The results highlight a cautious engagement by journalists in actively countering misinformation, favoring a more detached reporting. Overall, the study advances the understanding of journalistic role performance in health crises and the interplay between journalism practice and misinformation management.

Young people and the data gaze: experiencing datafication in everyday life

Julia E. Coffey, Steven Threadgold — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Julia E. Coffey, Steven Threadgold

Topics: Datafication, Digital media, Young people, Digital platforms

Young people’s capacity to see and know themselves is increasingly informed by algorithmic and classificatory logics. In this article, we extend Beer’s concept of the data gaze, drawing from qualitative empirical examples to illustrate how young people navigate and incorporate datafied ways of seeing and knowing in their everyday practices via engagement with financial technology (fintech) and photo editing apps. We argue that whilst young people are increasingly ‘gazed upon’ in their interactions with fintech and image-editing apps, that is, categorised and imagined by algorithmic and machinic processes, they also gaze back. We explore two specific aspects of the broader data gaze: (1) datafied money and the financialised gaze that young people experience when being nudged while using gamified fintech services, and (2) datafied bodies and the forensic gaze young people use to inform selfie-editing practices through digital ‘corrections’ to their faces and bodies. The implications of these ever-finer capacities for predictive classificatory processes are essential for understanding how life feels under the gaze of the data industry, and how inequalities and exclusions are made, automated and remade in contemporary datafied lives.

Does Immersive Journalism Erode News Objectivity? Effects of Immersion on Audience Emotional Engagement and Objectivity Perception

Qi Zhou, Zongya Li — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Journalism · Qi Zhou, Zongya Li

Topics: Journalism, Journalistic practice, Digital journalism, Media effects

Immersive journalism’s potential to foster empathy and engagement has been widely highlighted. However, its impact on the core journalistic norm of objectivity remains critically underexplored. Drawing on a value perception framework, this study examines how immersive news affects enjoyment, alertness, and perceived active objectivity in risk communication. Two between-subjects experiments compared MR-enhanced news with 2D news and high- with low-immersion MR news. Results show that immersion consistently increased enjoyment but reduced alertness. However, the studies did not provide consistent evidence that immersion directly enhances or erodes perceived active objectivity. Instead, more robust pattern emerged through indirect pathways: enjoyment was negatively associated with perceived active objectivity, whereas alertness was positively associated with it. Exploratory moderation analysis further suggests that spatial distance may shape these affective pathways. This study advances a novel value perception framework to digital journalism and demonstrates the interplay effect of immersive strategies and audience characteristics in journalism persuasion.

Deconstructing the MeToo Movement and the Blue Wave in the 2018 House Elections

Lucas Shen — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Computational Communication Research · Lucas Shen

Topics: MeToo movement, Social movements, Election campaigns, Political participation

At the peak of the #MeToo movement in 2018 is the historical performance of women candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. I examine three ways in which the movement could have an electoral impact using geocoded #MeToo tweets that text analyses show engage core movement discourse and figures, and that geographically predict individual attitudes. I find no credible evidence that the movement increased Democratic vote shares or turnout. Instead, I find that in districts with a stronger movement, Democratic women are more likely to challenge their co-partisan male incumbents, a pattern absent in the Republican Party and in 2016. Hence, the more likely channel is the rise of new Democratic women through a weakening of party norms against same-party challenges.

FOMO in Sub-Saharan African AI Hype: The Quest for a Decolonized AI Adoption Framework

Danford Zirugo, Bruce Mutsvairo — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Danford Zirugo, Bruce Mutsvairo

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Journalism studies, Generative AI, Journalistic practice

Based on an abductive analysis of 54 opinion, editorial, and analytical articles published between 2019 and 2025 in nine English-speaking Sub-Saharan African countries, this study examines negotiation of the place of AI within journalism. Conceptualizing AI hype as a form of metajournalistic discourse, the study finds that discussions about AI in journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa are driven by a fear of missing out and a call for a decolonial approach to the technology’s adoption in a way sensitive to the region’s context.

Moral Archivists and Agents of Accountability: Typologies of Advocacy Journalism in Local Indonesian Media's Coverage of the Kanjuruhan Tragedy

Reza Safitri, Dicky Wahyudi, Ainun Qisthi Rosyidah, Ranee Tuta — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Reza Safitri, Dicky Wahyudi, Ainun Qisthi Rosyidah, Ranee Tuta

Topics: Advocacy journalism, Local media, Journalistic practice, Journalistic roles

This study examines how local media implemented advocacy journalism in their coverage of the Kanjuruhan Tragedy, an event that killed 135 people and triggered prolonged collective trauma in Malang, Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach, the study analyzed 160 news articles and conducted in-depth interviews with journalists and editors from four local media outlets. The findings identify six typologies of advocacy journalism that are not isolated but interconnected, forming a dynamic spectrum of practices. Segmented Advocacy emerges as the dominant form through the direct representation of victims’ voices, often integrated with Emotional Advocacy to build public empathy. Meanwhile, Woven Advocacy and Counter-Frame Advocacy demonstrate strategic critiques that range from implicit to explicit challenges to state narratives. Emerging new typologies and Community Alliance further indicate the expansion of advocacy into cultural, spiritual, and collaborative engagement with civil society. The findings also reveal that institutional pressures and journalist polarization dynamics shape advocacy practices. These findings offer an empirically grounded perspective on advocacy journalism in the Global South, where local media act as moral archivists and agents of accountability sustaining collective memory and justice.

Harmful YouTube Video Detection: A Taxonomy of Online Harm and MLLMs as Alternative Annotators

Wonjeong Jo, Miki Wesołowska, Magdalena Wojcieszak — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Computational Communication Research · Wonjeong Jo, Miki Wesołowska, Magdalena Wojcieszak

Topics: Content moderation, Large Language Models, Digital platforms, Misinformation

Video platforms, used by billions globally, are criticized for exposing users to harmful content. Yet, detecting online harm remains challenging due to inconsistent approaches to what constitutes harm and limitations of human annotation. We address both challenges. Theoretically, we integrate and expand existing taxonomies and platform guidelines to multimodal contexts and develop a comprehensive taxonomy for online harm. We categorize online harm on video platforms into six content-based categories: Information, Hate and harassment, Addictive, Clickbait, Sexual, and Physical harms. Methodologically, we propose and systematically test multimodal large language models (MLLMs) as alternative annotators of harmful videos. We curate a dataset of 19,422 potentially harmful YouTube videos and annotate them using GPT-4-Turbo, non-trained crowdworkers, and trained annotators. We discuss the potential applications of MLLMs in platform content moderation and social science research, particularly in contexts where they perform comparably to human annotators in binary and multi-label classification tasks.

Does the TikTok Feed Lean Right? Exposure to Political Content Among Non-Partisan Users in Germany

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Political Communication · Jasper Tjaden, Johannes Wolfgram, Aaron Philipp, Sarah Weissmann, Licia Bobzien, Ulrich Köhler, Roland Verwiebe

Topics: TikTok, Political content exposure, Algorithmic curation, Political polarization

Populist parties are gaining popularity among young voters in many Western democracies. Young voters increasingly obtain news online through social media websites. TikTok has quickly ascended to become one of the most popular platforms globally. We evaluate exposure disparities regarding political parties by measuring the extent to which parties enter non-partisan users’ feeds. By implementing a sock puppet audit using 78 automated users, we can hold individual user behaviour constant – the main mechanisms through which platform algorithms curate user feeds. We collect data in Germany ahead of the three regional elections in 2024 and the federal election in 2025 (N= 561.000 videos). Overall, political content constitutes 4-10% of user feeds in our sample. When non-partisan users encounter (unsolicited) political content, it is more likely to feature videos posted by or supportive of the far-right, populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party than moderate parties. Further evidence on mechanisms explaining this right-wing visibility advantage points to the importance of multiplier networks and content virality.

“They Don’t Understand What it Means to be Poor”: How Representation, Relevance, and Relatability Shape the News Experience of Marginalised Young Adults

James Dennis — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · James Dennis

Topics: News avoidance, Journalism, Social media, Media representation

There are significant concerns about young adults from low socioeconomic backgrounds becoming disengaged from the news. Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with participants aged 18–25 in England, this study examines how social inequality shapes how young adults experience news. Interviewees avoid legacy news media, citing a lack of representation, as stories about them and their communities are omitted from coverage. Where relevant topics are included, they feel that the reporting masks the complexity of how an issue impacts marginalised communities. Crucially, however, this group are not consistent news avoiders but remains engaged with news found on social platforms, accessing perspectives that resonate with their lived experience. This often comes from non-traditional actors who draw on new forms of journalistic storytelling. This paper argues that relatability—understood as a felt sense of proximity to news based on shared communicative norms, cultural experiences, and perceived social relevance—is crucial to understanding this population's news experience. By analysing relatability alongside representation and relevance, the study demonstrates how the interviewees’ lived experience of inequality shapes their relationship to news, both in its content and form. The paper offers practical recommendations for how inclusive storytelling and support for creator journalists can better serve this population.

Claiming sociodigital futures? Knowledge practices and their consequences

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Susan Halford, Kirsten F. Cater, Sabine Hauert, Rasheed Hussain, Daniel McQuillan, Weiru Liu

Topics: Sociotechnical imaginaries, Digital media, Knowledge practices, Sociology of expectations

There is currently intense and widespread speculation about the implications of digital technologies for future societies, despite a wealth of evidence that past claims to predict how technology will shape the future have usually failed. Nonetheless, it is now well established that claims to knowledge about how emerging technologies will shape future worlds are performative, exercising powerful effects on the futures they claim to describe. Building on the Sociology of Expectations and work on Sociotechnical Imaginaries, this paper turns attention to the ontological and epistemological ‘nuts’ and ‘bolts’ of claims about digital technologies, social life and the future. We ask: how are these entities and the relations between them constituted and given traction as knowledge practices? Specifically, we explore the practices used by major future-claiming institutional actors in a selection of published documents. We find a strikingly coherent ontological performance of the relations between ‘the digital’, ‘the social’ and ‘the future’ and the circulation of (what comes to count as) knowledge across these institutions. Indeed, what is striking is the re-purposability of these knowledge practices despite the distinctive institutional interests in play. These knowledge practices offer a limited grasp on the futures that are currently in the making. Moreover, they enable the persistence of a latent set of assumptions which are powerful in limiting consideration of critical questions about the future.

From Facebook to front page: the influence of the Gilets Jaunes’ social media on local press language and framing

Davide Morselli, Maite Beramendi, Olivier Fillieule — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Davide Morselli, Maite Beramendi, Olivier Fillieule

Topics: Social media activism, Media framing, Journalism, Social movements

This article examines how social media discussions within a protest movement intersect with local news coverage, focusing on the French Gilets Jaunes in the Var department. We hypothesize that journalistic language may progressively align with activists’ semantic universe, thereby contributing to the diffusion of movement claims and terminology. We analyze activists’ Facebook discussions and reporting by the regional daily Var-Matin between 2018 and 2021. Study 1 combines qualitative analysis of reciprocal mentions between Facebook groups and press articles to document mechanisms of interdependence. It shows that local journalists routinely relied on Facebook as a source of information about the movement’s activities and claims, using activists’ online discussions both to anticipate protest events and to contextualize them. Study 2 applies word embeddings to measure semantic proximity between activist and journalistic discourse over time. Results reveal a selective and time-structured semantic convergence consistent with journalists’ sustained exposure to activists’ internal communication. Although Facebook discussions gradually shifted away from some initial claims, local press coverage repeatedly mobilized these founding frames whenever the movement re-entered the news agenda. At the local level, these findings refine the protest paradigm by showing that coverage emphasized protesters’ motivations.

Whose voices and which effects? A scoping review of migration and social media effects

Aleksandra Lazić, Maryam Khaleghipour, Jörg Matthes — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Aleksandra Lazić, Maryam Khaleghipour, Jörg Matthes

Topics: Media effects, Social media, Migration, Differential susceptibility to media effects

Social media plays a central role in shaping migration experiences and public perceptions of migration. However, despite growing research activity, no systematic overview exists on how social media effects are examined across host and migrant populations. This scoping review synthesizes 65 empirical studies on social media effects in the context of migration published between 2020 and 2025. Guided by the differential susceptibility to media effects model, the analysis focuses on content types, sample characteristics, the conceptualization of social media, effect types, and mediating and moderating factors. The findings reveal two largely disconnected strands of research: quantitative, host-focused studies that emphasize negative attitudinal effects, and qualitative, migrant-centered studies that focus on empowerment. Framing effects, platform affordances, producer perspectives, and individual, structural, and social factors remain largely neglected. Overall, the review highlights the need for integrative research that bridges the perspectives of both hosts and migrants and pays greater attention to how migrants themselves perceive, interpret, and respond to social media portrayals and migration-related content.

Communication strategies and barriers in friends’ mental health conversations on college campuses

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Monographs · Aurora Occa, Kelly G. McAninch, Diane B. Francis, Anita Silwal, Hayley M Stahl, Anne Amegbeha Amissah

Topics: Mental health, College students, Interpersonal communication, Social support

Mental health challenges among college students are common yet difficult to identify and address. Friends often serve as the first line of support, making mental health conversations a critical but understudied intervention avenue. Research has emphasized disclosure over how friends offer support, engage with struggling peers, or handle emotional and relational complexities. These interactions is less studied. We conducted 10 focus groups (N = 68) to examine strategies friends use to navigate mental health conversations and identify facilitating and hindering factors. Participants identified signs of distress, created safe spaces, used direct and indirect strategies to foster conversation, attended to timing, and prioritized protection. Individual, relational, contextual, and societal factors shaped these conversations. We discuss conceptual and practical implications and propose future research.

Perceiving the News as Toxic: A Longitudinal, Cross-National Analysis of Negative News Evaluations in Flanders and Ireland

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Pauljan Truyens, Cassandra Craig, Eirini Evangelia Psychari, Ike Picone, John O’Sullivan, Paul McNamara

Topics: News avoidance, News consumption, Fake news, Longitudinal study

In today’s media environment, where information overload, negativity, and news fatigue are increasingly common, news can feel toxic. Yet little research examines how users perceive this toxicity and adjust their news practices in response. This study addresses that gap through a repeated cross-sectional analysis of Flanders and Ireland. Drawing on DNR-data from 2017-2025 and latent class analysis, we identify three archetypal news repertoires: Panoramic, Limited, and Traditional. Our findings reveal a shift toward limited repertoires, particularly among younger and less socioeconomically advantaged groups, while panoramic repertoires have become rarer, and traditional repertoires have remained stable. These shifts are associated with negative news attitudes, including distrust, avoidance, disinterest, fake news concerns and perceived fake news exposure. The cross-national comparison highlights sharper transitions in Flanders, whereas Irish users retained higher engagement, though early disengagement emerged. By linking negative attitudes or evaluations with changes in repertoires, we contribute to audience research and underscore the need to reconsider the journalism-audience relationship as disengagement is no longer marginal but increasingly mainstream. From a user perspective, repertoire narrowing may be understood as a coping response, although it risks deepening informational inequalities.

Automated Influence: How Social Bots Reshape Discursive Opportunities in Online Activism

Linda Li, Helen Margetts — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Social Media + Society · Linda Li, Helen Margetts

Topics: Social bots, Social media activism, Digital activism, Computational text analysis

Social bots are an increasingly prominent presence in online protest discourse. We adapt the discursive opportunity structure (DOS) framework for digital protest, refining its dimensions of visibility, resonance and legitimacy to account for platform-mediated discourse and automated activity. Applying the refined framework through computer-assisted content analysis of bot activity in two major protests – Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Extinction Rebellion (XR) – we move beyond treating bots as a monolithic or uniformly disruptive force, identifying competing pro- and counter-protest strategies distributed differently across the three dimensions. In BLM, pro-protest bot content concentrates on cultural resonance, whereas counter-bot content targets legitimacy; in XR, pro-protest bots are used to build legitimacy and participatory visibility, whereas counter-bots more often work to downplay the movement’s salience. The framework’s granularity discriminates between movement types in ways coarser accounts of ‘political bots’ cannot, showing that understanding contemporary movements requires attending to how automated activity is deployed within their discourse.

Social Media Platform Repertoires in Everyday Life: Measuring Social Media Use With Passive Metering

Moreno Mancosu, Mario Quaranta, Fabio Torreggiani — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Social Media + Society · Moreno Mancosu, Mario Quaranta, Fabio Torreggiani

Topics: Social media use, Smartphone use, Digital trace data, Facebook

Social media platforms structure the ways in which billions of citizens access information. Nevertheless, to assess social media time use, most research relies on limited data sources, such as self-reported survey measures or behavioral data from single platforms or convenience samples. Using 6 weeks of passive metering of smartphone and computer activity from a quota sample of Italian adults (18–70, n = 1,457), this study provides a behaviorally measured account of platform-specific social media use across the adult population. We quantify time allocation across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter/X and examine how use varies by sociodemographic factors. Results show that Facebook and YouTube dominate everyday social media time, accounting for nearly three-quarters of consumption, while Instagram attracts comparable average time from a narrower user base, and TikTok shows concentrated usage among younger adopters. Twitter/X occupies a marginal niche. Use is overwhelmingly app-based (>90%), a pattern that browser-based measurement cannot capture. Age is the strongest demographic predictor: Gen Z concentrates attention on Instagram and TikTok, while older cohorts favor Facebook; YouTube shows weak demographic patterning. Gender and education are consistent secondary predictors: women devote more time to Facebook, Instagram, and social media overall, and higher education is associated with lower aggregate use and a smaller share on Facebook and TikTok. Employment and income show null effects. Together, these behavioral, cross-platform figures provide a more accurate basis for weighting platforms by their actual audiences than self-reported or single-platform evidence allows.

Seeing Is Believing? Most People Struggle to Detect AI-Generated Images

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Social Media + Society · Mads Fuglsang Hove, Frederik Hjorth, Yevgeniy Golovchenko, Rebecca Adler‐Nissen, Anja Bechmann, Arjen van Dalen, SARA BINZER HOBOLT, Claes H. de Vreese

Topics: AI-generated content, Generative AI, Misinformation, Information credibility

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) dramatically lowers the costs of creating high-quality, realistic images, allowing a wider range of actors to create and distribute such content on, for instance, social media. A core concern is that easy-to-use generative AI tools can be misused for manipulation through misinformation and microtargeted persuasive material. However, we still need more contextual nuance to a fundamental question: To what degree can people discern photorealistic AI-generated images from authentic images? In a preregistered survey experiment, we find that, on average, people are not substantially better than chance at discerning AI-generated images from authentic images, regardless of the context of the image. While younger people, highly analytical-thinking individuals, and experienced users of generative AI have better discernment abilities, no demographic group other than young individuals (<25) performs substantially better than chance. Contrary to our expectation, we do not find that people’s confidence in their discernment abilities varies depending on the context of the image. As generative AI technology likely advances and the realism of AI-generated images continues to improve, these findings are concerning, as people already struggle to discern between AI-generated and authentic images, even in an experiment where they have been primed and are assessing images of relatively low quality.

Algorithms of Injustice: An Ethnographic Content Analysis of Black Youth’s Experiences with Racial Trauma Online

Amanda M. McLeroy, Tiera Tanksley — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Social Media + Society · Amanda M. McLeroy, Tiera Tanksley

Topics: Adolescent mental health, Social media algorithms, Algorithmic curation, Mental health

This study explores the pervasive presence of racially traumatic content (RTC) on social media and its profound impact on the mental well-being of Black youth. Utilizing ethnographic content analysis and grounded in critical race technology theory (CRTT), the research identifies key manifestations of RTC, including Black death, digital harassment, deepfakes, and war content. Social media’s algorithmic structures amplify RTC, perpetuating systemic anti-Black racism while exposing Black youth to vicarious trauma, anxiety, and depression. Despite these challenges, social media platforms also provide spaces for activism and community-building. Black youth use these digital arenas to engage in social justice narratives, find solidarity, and develop coping strategies. The findings emphasize the critical roles of educators and counselors in mitigating the adverse effects of RTC by fostering media literacy, digital resilience, and culturally responsive mental health support. This research contributes to evidence-based interventions aimed at empowering Black youth to navigate digital spaces safely, advocate for systemic change, and thrive in an equitable and inclusive online environment.

Webs of Ainu Mosir: Indigenous Creative Networks on YouTube

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Social Media + Society · Xanat Vargas Meza, Takumi Yokoyama, Chieko Nishimura, Ryohei Nishida, Ochiai Yoichi

Topics: Social networks, Social media, Online communities, Digital media

The Ainu are Indigenous people living primarily in Japan. As they have recently adopted social media, and network-based analyses of First Nations cultural manifestations are uncommon, this study drew on Indigenous and social network frameworks to examine creative networks in the virtual Mosir (the world as viewed by the Ainu). Our objective was to clarify the types of collaborators, their cooperation patterns and relationships relevant to producing Ainu-related YouTube videos. Three YouTube lists of 428 videos were utilised in this study. Publicly available data were downloaded using a YouTube Application Programming Interface (API). The videos were watched and classified, including anonymised data on collaborators. The relationships of the collaborators were quantified and mapped, network measurements were calculated and collaborator clusters were examined. The most frequent types of collaborators were individuals and communities. We also observed that individuals moderately affected network clustering ( p = .002). Furthermore, individuals were somewhat correlated with the average number of ties ( p = .004) and the bridging of clusters through betweenness ( p = .006), with Japanese male celebrities and Ainu people, particularly Ainu women, showing high centrality. As Indigenous rights advance internationally, the virtual Mosir shows how crucial it is for First Nations to participate in multimedia production processes, particularly if such productions are available on social media. Indigenous network frameworks were highly compatible with network analysis, allowing for a more comprehensive overview of Indigenous production processes. This can enhance the multiple knowledges of First Nations, while fostering accountability and reciprocity of their allies.

Careful Dis/Connection: Bringing Digital (Inter)Dependent Relations Out From the Shadows of Autonomy

Sara Van Bruyssel — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Social Media + Society · Sara Van Bruyssel

Topics: Digital well-being, Digital media, Well-being, Privacy

Although always-on connectivity affords autonomy, it also creates dependencies on digital devices. Digital disconnection has emerged as a countermovement, with people seeking ‘authentic’ offline reconnection under the discourse of (self-)care. Yet, a pertinent question is whether certain care relations are contingent on digital dependencies between people and, despite being perceived as burdensome, should therefore not be broken through disconnection. Drawing on feminist ethics of care, which understands care as all the work that maintains everyday life, this article examines how care and digital dis/connection practices shape each other. Empirically, it draws on ethnographic fieldwork with 20 adults and analyses three vignettes through a relational framework that follows care occurring in, through and away from digital devices. The findings show that digital well-being is shaped less by individual media use than by the care relations that digital technologies sustain. Experiences of digital dis/connection reveal how connectivity is embedded in often invisible responsibilities, dependencies, and forms of care. Rather than locating digital tensions in technologies themselves, the analysis suggests that such tensions expose underlying challenges in how care is organised, valued, and distributed. In response, the article develops the framework of careful dis/connection to evaluate digital practices according to how they sustain, redistribute, and make visible the care on which everyday life depends.

Press freedom in a post-authoritarian context: evolving challenges for Bangladeshi journalists after Sheikh Hasina

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Manwar Hossain, Mahbubul Haque Bhuiyan, Muhammad Saurav Rahman, Md Saddam Hossain

Topics: Press freedom, Journalism, Political communication, Journalistic practice

Authoritarian constraints on press freedom manifest across diverse political contexts, from typical illiberal democracies to flawed democracies. While substantial scholarship examines journalistic challenges under authoritarian rule, the dynamics of press freedom in recent post-authoritarian transitions remain underexplored. Drawing on in-depth interviews with journalists from Bangladesh, this article investigates how press freedom evolves in these settings. Findings show that an authoritarian regime change does not guarantee press freedom or journalist safety. The study makes three theoretical contributions. First, ownership structures and political pressures from authoritarian periods persist after regime transitions. Second, control over the press may shift from predictable, top-down tools (laws and state agencies) to more scattered, bottom-up forces, such as street intimidation and social media harassment. Finally, the press-power relationship is often renegotiated rather than automatically liberalized following authoritarian collapse.

Book notes: Streaming Europe: How Transnational Streaming is Reshaping European Film and Television Markets by Tim Raats and Catalina Iordache (Editors) Tim Raats and Catalina Iordache (Editors) Streaming Europe: How Transnational Streaming is Reshaping European Film and Television Markets , Routledge: Oxon, 2026; xxi + 304ISBN: 978-1-003-67212-8 (ebook)

Zoya Ivanova — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

European Journal of Communication · Zoya Ivanova

Topics: Digital platforms, Media systems, Media consumption, Streaming media

When Populism? Consistent and Opportunistic Populist Communication in the 2022 Brazilian Presidential Elections

Gustavo Luiz Venturelli, Paolo Ricci, Guilherme Tiengo, Raphaela Velho — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Political Communication · Gustavo Luiz Venturelli, Paolo Ricci, Guilherme Tiengo, Raphaela Velho

Topics: Populism, Political communication, Election campaigns, Computational methods

When do presidential candidates use populist communication, and does its prevalence vary across policy domains? We address these questions using an original dataset of 11,885 tweets from nine Brazilian presidential candidates during the 2022 elections. Drawing on the ideational approach, we operationalize populist discourse as the co-occurrence of people-centrism and anti-elitism, measured with fine-tuned BERT-based classifiers, and classify policy domains with the Comparative Agendas Project framework. Our findings reveal substantial heterogeneity across candidates, challenging expectations that populist communication uniformly intensifies during campaigns or systematically varies across policy domains according to ideology. Rather than increasing uniformly during the campaign, populist appeals escalate strategically for some candidates as elections approach, while remaining stable for others throughout the electoral year. We propose a typology distinguishing opportunistic from consistent populists. Across policy domains, government operations serve as a baseline facilitating populist framing. Left-wing candidates increase populist rhetoric in labor/employment, consistent with issue ownership expectations, but right-wing candidates reduce populist appeals in their traditionally owned domains of law and crime and civil rights, contrary to expectations. Overall, we show that populism is neither a universal campaign imperative nor a content-neutral communication style, but a flexible discursive frame shaped by candidate strategy, electoral context, and policy content.

Skewed toward uniformity? Investigating algorithmic stereotyping and amplification in AI-generated images

Daniela Mahl, Lars Guenther — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Daniela Mahl, Lars Guenther

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Generative AI, Media representation, Algorithmic curation

As text-to-image generative artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly shapes visual communication, concerns are growing about its role in reproducing social stereotypes. While recent algorithm auditing studies have advanced our understanding of stereotypical AI-generated imagery, they have largely focused on a narrow set of stereotypes – primarily gender and race – overlooking more nuanced forms. Addressing this gap, our study adopts a case-sensitive approach that conceptualizes stereotypes as multi-layered phenomena composed of multiple, context-specific indicators. Applying the Draw-a-Scientist Test framework, we analyzed stereotypical representations of scientists in images generated by DALL·E 3 and examined potential amplification by benchmarking against Google Images. Specifically, we compared 16 stereotype indicators across six stereotype subjects. Using Latent Class Analysis, we identified six classes reflecting distinct patterns of stereotypical depiction. Our findings show that DALL·E not only produces highly stereotypical portrayals of scientists but also amplifies these patterns compared to Google Images. Both image sources lack adequate visual references for disciplines beyond the traditional laboratory context – a pattern we interpret as epistemic narrowing, whereby diverse forms of knowledge production are reduced to a uniform, laboratory-based representation of science. We conclude by discussing potential drivers of epistemic narrowing, the broader implications of algorithmic visibility, and mitigation strategies.

From constituencies to audiences: lessons from Brazil about audience analytics in representative politics

André K. Rodarte — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · André K. Rodarte

Topics: Political communication, Audience perception, Mediatization, Social media use

The pursuit of audiences is a key driver of the mediatization of politics, yet it remains unclear how parliamentarians carry out this task. Drawing on interviews with members of Brazil’s Congress, this study investigates how politicians incorporate audience analytics into their communication strategies. It introduces a conceptual framework of audience perception – distinguishing among loyalists, followers, and audience reservoirs – to explain how politicians interpret digital publics. Findings reveal that parliamentarians’ perceptions of their audiences differ from their perceptions of electoral bases. Their follower base undergoes context collapse, disembedding audiences from their social context. Digital media re-embed these constituencies in platform contexts, wherein parliamentarians believe they must become always-on content producers, perform authenticity, and engage in information cycles. These findings reveal that audience analytics incentivize a sales orientation in parliamentary communication, distorting representation by recasting audiences as targets of influence rather than publics to whom politicians are accountable.

Immersion Matters: Virtual Reality Influences Personal and Systemic Bias Outcomes

Elisabeth S. Noland, Christopher R. Agnew, Margo J. Monteith — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media Psychology · Elisabeth S. Noland, Christopher R. Agnew, Margo J. Monteith

Topics: Virtual reality, Racial bias, Empathy, Media effects

Social psychological research has used traditional empathy-inducing strategies (e.g. reading, listening to, or watching narratives) to heighten recognition of and motivation to combat personal and systemic bias. We investigated whether a non-embodied 360° virtual reality (VR) experience increased recognition of and motivation to combat both personal and systemic racial bias and examined empathy as an underlying mechanism. Non-Black undergraduates in the United States (N = 313) were randomly assigned to (a) a non-embodied immersive 360° VR experience depicting racial discrimination, (b) an audio-only version of the same experience, or (c) a race-unrelated audio (control). VR exposure (vs. audio-only and control) heightened recognition of systemic bias, motivation to combat both systemic and personal bias, and perceptions of racism in isolated incidents. Emotional empathy, but not cognitive empathy, was a significant mediator. In contrast, the audio-only condition did not differ from the VR or control condition on personal and systemic bias outcomes or recognition of racism. These findings highlight the theoretical and practical value of non-embodied 360° immersive VR as a tool for combating personal and systemic bias.

Algorithmic News Selection Under News Avoidance: Assessing News Values on Chinese Tiktok (Douyin)

Jinhui Li, Wen Shi — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Jinhui Li, Wen Shi

Topics: News avoidance, Algorithmic curation, Social media algorithms, News values

This study explores how recommendation algorithms on Douyin respond to users’ growing disengagement from news by shaping the visibility of news content. Adopting an agent-based testing (ABT) approach, we conducted a 2 (intentional news avoidance: 0% vs. 100%) × 2 (unintentional news avoidance: 50% vs. 100%) between-subject experiment to simulate distinct user behaviors and capture large-scale data from news-related videos. Findings indicated that two avoidance behavioral patterns result in contrasting algorithmic outcomes which reinforce or weaken certain news values such as prominence, uniqueness, timeliness, and influence. A significant interaction effect further reveals that the influence of intentional news avoidance on the news values of influence diminishes as users’ preference for non-news content increases, whereas its influence on uniqueness becomes stronger. These findings show that recommender systems adapt to user disengagement by reprioritizing content, highlighting algorithmic curation as a socio-technical process that shapes attention amid selective news exposure.

Soft Power from the Outside, Career Choice from the Inside: Understanding Job Attractions of Chinese Media Expats in Thailand

Tucker Wang-Hai — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Tucker Wang-Hai

Topics: Journalism, Professional identity, Media systems, Journalistic practice

China’s global media expansion is often interpreted as a state-led soft power strategy. Yet little is known about how individual journalists enact this expansion while working overseas for Chinese media organizations. Taking Thailand as an empirical case, this article examines how Chinese journalists assigned to overseas postings come to view their roles as a worthwhile career decision. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Thailand and in-depth interviews with Chinese expat journalists, it argues that alignment with state goals emerges not from ideological commitment, but from personal motivations, career timing, and everyday practical reasoning. The article draws on Bourdieu’s concept of illusio to conceptualize this process as a socially grounded belief that the pursuit is worth investment. Journalists accept overseas postings insofar as these roles make sense within their own trajectories, at once professionally viable and personally meaningful. The findings complement state-centric models of media expansion and offers a framework for understanding journalists’ on-the-ground motivations amid broader transformations in global journalism.

The Many Notions of Audience Engagement: A Scoping Review

Bernadette Uth — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Bernadette Uth

Topics: Audience engagement, Journalism studies, Engaged journalism, News media

In recent years, “audience engagement” and “engaged journalism” have emerged as buzzwords in journalism studies. Audience engagement is regularly discussed as a potential remedy for declining trust in journalism and its precarious financial situation. Over the past two decades, journalism studies have thus extensively analyzed the concept, resulting in a vast body of literature on engagement. However, this has created definitional confusion around audience engagement, with numerous definitions, interpretations and characteristics of the concept discussed in existing scholarship. By conducting a systematic scoping review of 174 peer-reviewed journal articles on audience engagement, this study sheds closer light on the existing research on engagement, offers an overview on theoretical and empirical conceptualizations, and examines goals and challenges associated with engagement. The review highlights how audience engagement is examined and conceptualized in journalism scholarship, and identifies key directions for future research.

Black Lives Matter on the Ballot, in the Press: An Argument for Reporting the Long View of Contentious Solutions in Local Journalism

Brad Limov, Martin Johannes Riedl, Melissa Santillana, Sharon Strover — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Brad Limov, Martin Johannes Riedl, Melissa Santillana, Sharon Strover

Topics: Journalistic norms, Local journalism, Black Lives Matter, Solutions journalism

This paper investigates how local journalists in Austin, Texas reported on a 2021 ballot initiative mandating increased police staffing. Representing a backlash to 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the initiative followed efforts to reallocate funds away from the Austin Police Department. Grounded in interviews with journalists who described their news choices and positionality in relation to the initiative, this case study reveals how contentious solutions to intractable social problems exacerbate tensions inherent to dominant journalistic norms. Journalists adhering to impartiality described the initiative’s underlying conflict narrowly to avoid the appearance of bias; more alarmingly, some acted as unfiltered conduits for false information by viewing coverage as a public forum for debate. We evaluate these findings against solutions-oriented journalism—an umbrella term for emerging paradigms that prioritize constructive reporting on solutions to engage news audiences in civic life—and demonstrate how these models fall short when solutions themselves are sites of intense social struggle. Inspired by journalists who resisted norms of impartiality and balance to investigate histories and trajectories of local social action, we encourage proponents of solutions-oriented journalism to prioritize rigorous, factual reporting of the long view for audiences to engage with solutions as people continuously struggle to enact them.

A privacy-preserving approach to identify riot-related footage on social media

Bryan van Horik, Naufal El Khatibi, Maurits van Galen, Lucas Spierenburg — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Computational Communication Research · Bryan van Horik, Naufal El Khatibi, Maurits van Galen, Lucas Spierenburg

Topics: Computational methods, Social media analysis, Visual communication, Machine learning

Visual social media data provides unprecedented opportunities for studying riot dynamics at fine spatiotemporal scales, yet analyzing such content raises significant privacy concerns as images can identify individuals participating in politically sensitive events. This creates tension between analytical transparency and ethical obligations that existing methods inadequately address. We propose a privacy-preserving methodology for identifying riot-related content from visual social media posts by converting images to text descriptions during data collection, then classifying these captions rather than analyzing raw visual content. Using France’s 2023 riots as a case study, we collect 107,674 Snapchat posts (19% of images, 81 % of videos) and process them through a BLIP2 image-to-text model, generating descriptive captions at a frame rate of 2 frames per second. A BERT classifier trained on 2,084 manually annotated captions achieves an F1 score of 0.73±0.03 at video-level classification, approaching the performance of direct computer vision methods (F1=0.72) while substantially enhancing privacy protection. The methodology enables researchers to share interpretable text data for replication and secondary analysis, reconciling open science principles with privacy requirements. While computational costs increase significantly (2.7B vs 5M parameters), this trade-off represents a meaningful advance for ethically studying social movements through visual social media data.

The Promise and Practice of Sharing Qualitative Data in Communication Research: Insights from the Qualitative Data Repository

Dessislava Kirilova, Lee Humphreys — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Dessislava Kirilova, Lee Humphreys

Topics: Academic publishing, Research methodology, Communication research, Open science

As open science ideas gain traction in communication and media studies, qualitative researchers face unique challenges and opportunities in adopting transparent and reproducible practices. This article contributes to the growing conversation on open research infrastructures by introducing the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) as a domain-specific solution for qualitative and multi-method data sharing. QDR is particularly well-equipped to manage data derived from human participants or existing media materials, both of which are widely used in this field. We explore how QDR’s infrastructure, services, and ethical frameworks can be adapted to the needs of communication scholars. First, we briefly outline the benefits of qualitative data sharing—including increased transparency, methodological rigor, and pedagogical value—while acknowledging possible barriers such as ethical concerns, time constraints, and disciplinary histories. We then review practical developments that have taken place over the last five years by scholars practicing some of the principles for trustworthy qualitative communication research laid out by Humphreys et al. (2021). Using examples from a wide variety of projects where QDR has already facilitated data publication and annotations for transparent inquiry, we illustrate how similar practices can be adopted systematically in communication research. We also highlight QDR’s support for researchers throughout the data lifecycle, from planning and consent to curation and controlled access. This article aims to demystify qualitative data sharing and encourage broader adoption among communication and media studies scholars by showcasing QDR’s model and its alignment with findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable principles. We argue that embracing more open and transparent research practices not only enhances the quality and visibility of individual projects but also fosters a more inclusive and collaborative scholarly community.

African Community Media, AI, and the Question of Community Participation in the Disruptive Era

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Lyton Ncube, Allen Munoriyarwa, Albert Chibuwe, Refilwe Whitney Mofokeng, Antonette Kakujaha- Murangi

Topics: Artificial intelligence in journalism, Community engagement, Misinformation, Journalistic practice

In this article, we examine the nexus of Southern African community newspapers’ sceptical AI integration and grassroots democracy. The sceptical approach to AI integration in marginalised media markets of Southern African community newspapers’ news ecosystems is interrogated. We respond to the questions: In what ways is the integration of AI tools in everyday news production routines within Southern African community media institutions defined by scepticism? What is the basis of scepticism amongst Southern African community media journalists? What are the implications for grassroots democracy in these communities? The Southern African community media under study are drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with purposively sampled journalists and editors from these newsrooms. Findings show that the sceptical approach to AI adoption among Southern African community newspapers is largely driven by fears and concerns about AI’s documented mass production of misinformation and disinformation. In addition, the sceptical approach to AI adoption in these newsrooms is rooted in a lack of technical proficiency with AI tools and financial limitations occasioned by the decline in philanthropic funding.

Navigating Online Visibility: Construction of Feminine Identity in Chinese Influencers’ Affective Networked Publics

Qing Ma — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Qing Ma

Topics: Social media influencers, Gender representation, Self-presentation, Social media platforms

The rise of fashion and beauty influencers in China has produced highly visible representations of idealised femininity that increasingly appeal to young women and girls. This study examines how influencers on the Chinese social media platform Weibo discursively construct feminine identity through digital self-branding and how young women interpret and negotiate this mediated feminine visibility. By employing in-depth interviews with 31 Chinese urban young women and a feminist critical discourse analysis of 48 selected posts produced by leading female influencers, this study identifies three interrelated discursive resources through which idealised femininity is assembled: ambiguous feminism, an entrepreneurial beauty discourse, and aspirational consumption. Drawing on Berlant’s concept of intimate publics, the study argues that these discourses circulate affectively through relatability, producing both belonging and discipline within the community. Participants actively negotiate these representations through tactically extracting symbolic values and managing pressures to construct a legible feminine subjectivity. Furthermore, this study argues that asymmetric gendered power relations are reproduced through affective circulation within feminised digital spaces.

The role of democratic values in shaping perceptions of political incivility in European liberal democracies

Sara Bentivegna, Rossella Rega — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

European Journal of Communication · Sara Bentivegna, Rossella Rega

Topics: Political incivility, Democratic values, Political polarization, Cross-cultural communication

This study investigates whether citizens’ perceptions of political incivility converge across liberal democracies and the extent to which individual orientations towards democracy and democratic values are associated with sensitivity to incivility. Drawing on a comparative survey conducted in Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom ( N = 3500), it examines the individual factors associated with sensitivity to incivility. The results show that support for democracy and endorsement of democratic values are the most influential predictors of sensitivity to incivility, with higher levels associated with greater sensitivity, whereas anti-political attitudes are associated with lower sensitivity. These findings indicate that sensitivity to incivility is primarily associated with citizens’ orientations towards democracy and its normative principles rather than with national contextual differences. Citizens in Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom assess incivility in remarkably similar ways, despite differences in electoral systems, media systems, and political cultures.

Journalistic Routines and the Social Construction of Race: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Tyreek Hill Police Encounter

Joseph Jones — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Joseph Jones

Topics: Media framing, Journalistic practice, Discourse analysis, News coverage

To gauge U.S. journalism’s post-2020 racial reckoning, this article examines news coverage of football player Tyreek Hill’s police encounter in September 2024. Using Critical Discourse Analysis to interpret and explain digital media texts, this project mimics the contingency of the internet and considers local, national, legacy, digital-only, and sports outlets. Overall, it finds that news discourse continues to operate through a white racial frame. Even outlets that acknowledged systemic inequities or foregrounded the perspectives of the racially marginalized could recreate this dominant perspective, reinforcing tropes such as Black criminality, victim blaming, and deference to official sources. It’s thus argued that routine journalistic practices such as descriptive reporting, bothsidesism, headline conventions, reliance on official sources, and other supposedly objective norms, actually limit social discourse and the ability to have honest, good faith conversations about race. The project further highlights coverage that did counter the white racial frame and ultimately argues such coverage should be the standard. These practices are more ethical (i.e., take responsibility for the social consequences of news narratives) and provide a more nuanced and rigorous approximation of truth.

Watchdog Science Journalism: How Retraction Watch Fosters Accountability in Science

Declan Fahy — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Declan Fahy

Topics: Science journalism, Academic publishing, Journalistic roles, Accountability journalism

Although science reporters have long been urged to adopt the role of the journalistic watchdog, scholars have not extensively examined how this role can be understood conceptually or in practice. This exploratory case study examines Retraction Watch, founded in 2010, as an illuminating example of watchdog science journalism that holds science to account around the epistemological claim, central to science’s cultural authority, that it is self-correcting. Drawing on a thematic analysis of interviews with senior staff at the site and scholars who study retractions, the study finds that the site has undertaken accountability journalism of the little-scrutinised phenomenon of retractions, has reported systematically on retractions, has questioned and determined the reasons for retractions, has created a database of retractions to aid science in its self-correction, and has provided knowledge-based journalism for its specialist public interested in scientific integrity. The article argues that Retraction Watch has expanded beyond journalism to operate as a novel journalistic hybrid institution that combines science journalism with the scientific infrastructure of its database, activities underpinned by a normative value of accountability. As a journalistic hybrid institution, it illustrates what future organisational forms of science journalism might look like.

Journalism as Science’s Watchdog: The Vibrancy and Vulnerability of an Increasingly Diverse Ecosystem

Alice Fleerackers, An Nguyen — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Alice Fleerackers, An Nguyen

Topics: Science journalism, Research integrity, Journalistic roles, Journalism studies

Watchdog science journalism, broadly understood, investigates, exposes, and warns society of the misuses and abuses of science methods, processes, outcomes, and authority by those practicing, funding, and/or using science in the public domain. Amid rising threats to research integrity, this thematic issue provides a first comprehensive set of empirical and conceptual insights into how this type of journalism is becoming both vibrant and vulnerable. It reveals that watchdog science journalism is recognized as essential by members of the public and by journalists alike and is empowered by an increasingly diverse set of actors, both within and beyond traditional journalism. Yet, ongoing challenges within and beyond the news industry are putting pressure on this role, undermining journalists’ capacity to effectively scrutinize and sound the alarm about research integrity problems that put the public interest at risk.

From Hate Speech to Collective Action Intentions: The Role of Counter-Speech and Accuracy Cues Among Targeted Minorities

Desirée Schmuck, Magdalena Obermaier, Nancy Molina-Rogers, Muniba Saleem — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Research · Desirée Schmuck, Magdalena Obermaier, Nancy Molina-Rogers, Muniba Saleem

Topics: Online hate speech, Counter-speech, Collective action, Social identity

Online hate speech targeting minority groups poses a significant social identity threat to those affected, often prompting coping strategies like out-group avoidance or derogation, which can harm intergroup relations in diverse societies. However, collective action as an empowering response has received limited attention in this context. Drawing on the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA), this study examines both the mechanisms and boundary conditions of online hate speech’s impact on minority groups. Across two experiments ( N Study1 = 328 Muslims; N Study2 = 583 Latinos), we find that online hate speech increases group-based injustice, which in turn drives collective action intentions, supporting the SIMCA. This effect is amplified when information embedded in the online hate speech is perceived as inaccurate or flagged for inaccuracy. In Study 2, we further demonstrate that counter-speech can reduce group-based injustice and, when paired with low-accuracy hate speech, enhance collective efficacy beliefs.

AI-Mediated Mental Health Support: The Role of Attachment Orientation and Psychological Distress

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Dorit Hadar Shoval, Elad Refoua, Karny Gigi, Yuval Haber, Inbar Levkovich, Iftach Tsafrir, Oori Pen, Zohar Elyoseph

Topics: Artificial intelligence, Mental health, Generative AI, Attachment orientation

General-purpose generative AI (GenAI) models are increasingly serving as quasi-social agents, representing a novel form of informal AI-mediated help-seeking. This study examined associations between adult attachment orientations (Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures questionnaire), psychological distress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21), and the use of GenAI for mental health support. In a nonprobability sample of 584 Israeli adult GenAI users, 29.3 percent reported having turned to these models at least once for emotional support, coping advice, or mental health assistance; the proportion reached 47.0 percent among those reporting severe distress. These self-reported figures reflect any such contact, from a single exchange to sustained use. Hierarchical logistic regression identified distress as the strongest psychological correlate of use. Younger age and female gender predicted use. Attachment anxiety was associated with use, but this association did not remain significant once distress was included, a pattern consistent with the shared variance between the two constructs. Attachment avoidance was negatively but nonsignificantly associated with use. Findings position general-purpose GenAI as an accessible, low-barrier resource disproportionately used by distressed individuals. The high uptake among severely distressed users (47.0 percent) points to potential safety concerns and to a need for systematic evaluation of the safety, crisis-response quality, and clinical-displacement risks of consumer-facing AI use.

Internet Addiction Disorder and Cybersecurity Risk: A Neurobiological and Behavioral Review

Daniel Robinson, Ray Robinson — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Daniel Robinson, Ray Robinson

Topics: Internet addiction, Well-being, Digital well-being, Social engineering

Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has attracted substantial clinical and scientific interest over the past two decades. Although the condition remains outside formal diagnostic frameworks in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, accumulating neuroimaging evidence demonstrates that compulsive Internet use is associated with disruptions in dopaminergic reward circuitry and prefrontal cortical function that closely parallel those observed in substance use disorders. These neurobiological changes, encompassing impaired executive function, elevated impulsivity, and heightened reward sensitivity, may carry implications for cybersecurity. Available evidence suggests that individuals exhibiting addictive patterns of Internet use show reduced compliance with security protocols, increased vulnerability to social engineering, and elevated engagement in risky online behaviors, although directionality cannot be established with confidence given the predominantly cross-sectional evidence base. The present narrative review synthesizes evidence from addiction neuroscience, clinical psychology, and cybersecurity research to propose a mechanistic account of the IAD-cybersecurity risk relationship. The review identifies impaired prefrontal inhibitory control as the central neurobiological mediator linking IAD to cybersecurity vulnerability, mediated primarily through impulsivity and compounded by the attentional and affective characteristics that render addicted individuals susceptible to social engineering. Drawing on literature spanning 2017-2026, the review also situates this account within a contemporary regulatory context, including the documented acceleration of problematic Internet use during the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia's landmark social media minimum age legislation, and an influential 2026 civil verdict in which a U.S. jury found major platform operators liable for harms arising from addictive design. Clinical, organizational, and policy implications are discussed.

Parent–Child Play and Media Addiction in Adolescence: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Chaeyun Lee, Hye In Jeong, Yeolib Kim — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Chaeyun Lee, Hye In Jeong, Yeolib Kim

Topics: Media addiction, Parent-child play, Executive function, Longitudinal study

Although media addiction is a recognized public health concern, the theoretical framework surrounding its longitudinal development remains relatively underdeveloped. This study addresses that gap by evaluating a developmental model that traces a path from early parent-child play at age 6 to adolescent media addiction at age 14, with executive function and peer attachment at age 10 examined as parallel mediators. We used three waves of data from a representative sample of 1,130 parent-child dyads in the Panel Study on Korean Children. Early parent-child play at age 6 significantly predicted higher executive function at age 10, which subsequently predicted lower media addiction at age 14. This indirect path via executive function was statistically significant. Conversely, the indirect effect through peer attachment was not significant, as peer attachment was unrelated to both early play and subsequent media addiction. The direct effect of parent-child play on adolescent media addiction was nonsignificant, demonstrating that the protective influence of early family play operates through cognitive mechanisms rather than social bonds. These findings shift the clinical focus from proximal adolescent factors to early prevention, emphasizing middle childhood as a critical therapeutic window for bolstering executive function to mitigate later media addiction risks.

The perturbing voice: Minority journalists and the struggle for journalistic legitimacy in Thailand’s Deep South

Treepon Kirdnark — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Treepon Kirdnark

Topics: Journalistic legitimacy, Journalism, Social media, Political communication

While scholarly attention to journalistic legitimacy is growing, most studies remain concentrated in the West, overlooking the experiences of journalists in the Global South. To redress this gap, this study draws on in-depth interviews with five Muslim minority journalists in Thailand’s Deep South who actively counter Thai state narratives through social media. It examines how these journalists perform boundary work to establish legitimacy while operating amid armed conflict, securitization, and intense state surveillance. The findings identify three emerging practices that enable these minority journalists to claim the role of “partisan truth-teller”. First, they employ social media to assert cultural authority as “partisan narrators” sharing close proximity to local communities marginalized by the Thai state. Second, they use such platforms to challenge the “views” of outsiders and resist the Thai public’s widespread distrust of Malay Muslims. Finally, they confront security authorities, thereby reclaiming citizen rights and advocating for the security of Malay Muslims. In contrast to Western models of journalism as “public service”, this study contends that legitimacy in this context derives mainly from the enactment of “truth” via “partisan and perturbing voices” that defend the rights of Malay Muslim communities in Thailand.

Negotiating Professional Roles in a Constrained Media System: Role Perception and Narrated Enactment among Fact-Checkers in China

Hanye Yang — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Hanye Yang

Topics: Journalistic role theory, Fact-checking, Professional norms, Journalistic roles

This study offers the first detailed investigation into how Chinese fact-checkers perceive and narrate the enactment of professional roles within a constrained media environment. Drawing on 14 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with fact-checkers from four types of Chinese fact-checking organizations, the article provides rare qualitative evidence on a professional community that remains difficult to access. The study identifies six roles rooted in the Chinese media context: educator, rumor-buster, curator, independent advocate, gate-watcher, and facilitator. These roles show how fact-checkers negotiate professional ideals, institutional constraints, and national communication priorities in their everyday work. The article contributes to journalistic role theory by linking role perception with narrated role enactment. It shows that professional roles in constrained media systems are not simply adopted or abandoned, but situationally interpreted, negotiated, and combined. Rather than revealing a sharp divide between ideals and practice, the findings suggest a relatively strong convergence between perceived roles and narrated enactment. This convergence reflects the stability of Chinese fact-checkers’ professional self-image under institutional constraint. The article therefore demonstrates how Chinese fact-checkers articulate, justify, and normalize their professional roles, while foregrounding the symbolic and discursive processes through which perception and enactment are connected.

Optimizing Naloxone Education

Huai-yu Chen, Nicky Lewis — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journal of Media Psychology · Huai-yu Chen, Nicky Lewis

Topics: Health communication, Message effects, Information processing, Media psychology

Abstract: Message sensation is commonly used in educational messaging to capture attention, yet its impact on cognitive learning appears paradoxical. Drawing on the Activation Model of Information Exposure and the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing, this study examines how message sensation influences memory and knowledge improvement. An in-person 2 (death imagery: absent vs. present) × 2 (sound effects: absent vs. present) × 2 (animation: talking-head vs. action) between-subjects experiment was conducted among 603 US adults. Path modeling revealed that the need for activation moderated the effects of perceived message sensation on visual encoding and retrieval: as this need decreased, the association between perceived message sensation and memory accuracy (visual encoding and retrieval) shifted from positive to negative. These findings advance media psychology by showing how message features and individual traits interact to shape learning in high-stakes public health contexts.

Algorithmic Silences: Postcolonial Blind Spots in Dutch AI Media Discourse

Jessy de Cooker, Adája Unlandt, Jessie van Wijk — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media and Communication · Jessy de Cooker, Adája Unlandt, Jessie van Wijk

Topics: Artificial intelligence, News coverage, Journalism studies, Media framing

The Kingdom of the Netherlands comprises four countries: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten, as well as three public entities located on the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. All these regions are former Dutch colonies and are located in the Global South. News coverage from former colonisers toward their former colonies is shaped by historical frameworks, political interests, evolving global power dynamics, and unequal news creation. This study specifically focuses on AI coverage in European-Dutch and Caribbean-Dutch newspapers, analysing 128 articles published between 2015 and 2025. By using a structured approach to analyse AI positioning, agency attribution, political-geographical framing, and epistemic visibility, this study develops a framework for examining and understanding how news media construct narratives along colonial lines. The analysis uncovers a structural imbalance: European-Dutch media rarely engage with AI developments in the Dutch Caribbean, producing what de Sousa Santos (2015) calls a “sociology of absences,” while Caribbean outlets frequently report on European-Dutch contexts and cite Dutch policymakers, institutions, and technologies. Across both media systems, AI is predominantly described as an externally produced technology, reinforcing Northern epistemic authority and positioning the Caribbean as a recipient rather than a co-producer of AI futures. These patterns reflect structural postcolonial inequalities within the Kingdom’s media ecosystem. The study highlights the need for more inclusive and locally informed reporting on AI to ensure that technological developments and societal implications in the Dutch Caribbean are part of the wider public debate.

Media Use for Strong and Weak Ties: A Configural Examination of Personal Media System and Well-Being

Xinyi Zhang, Ronald E. Rice — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Research · Xinyi Zhang, Ronald E. Rice

Topics: Well-being, Digital stress, Social networks, Media use

Taking a configural approach to personal media use, this study examined how strong- and weak-tie media configuration relate to digital stress and well-being. Using a sample of 1,197 U.S. adults (analytic N = 1,143), we explored how media configuration attributes (size, density, and centralization by tie strength, and homogeneity) are associated with well-being, directly and indirectly through five dimensions of digital stress (overconnectivity, communication overload, deficient self-regulation, self-presentation pressure, and technological frustration). Our results highlight the importance of maintaining a larger, more interconnected, and centralized weak-tie configuration, and overall, a more uniform configuration, for well-being benefits (direct and indirect). Notably, larger weak-tie configuration is indirectly associated with lower well-being through greater technological frustration, while larger strong-tie configuration is indirectly associated with higher well-being through lower technological frustration. These findings emphasize the relational context of communication media use and suggest tie-specific strategies for managing communication flows and supporting well-being.

Stratified Mobile Parenting Capital: Restrictive, Reformist and Radical Parenting Among Rural Migrant Working Families in China

Na Liu, Yutian Xiong — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile Media & Communication · Na Liu, Yutian Xiong

Topics: Mobile parenting capital, Digital inequality, Digital divide, Digital media

This study proposes the concept of mobile parenting capital, defined as the knowledge and capacities that parents draw upon to mobilise resources across spaces to support their parenting. Through interviews and observations with rural migrant worker parents, social workers and teachers in China, the study identifies three stratified parenting strategies: restrictive, reformist and radical. Restrictive parents possess limited digital resources and rely heavily on rural schools. Reformist parents actively employ digital tools to facilitate translocal parenting and support their left-behind children. Radical parents, who frequently relocate their children between rural hometowns and urban destinations, accumulate the highest levels of mobile parenting capital, while further mobilising resources from both urban and rural contexts digitally and physically.

Digital Agency Tools: A Way to Buffer the Negative Effects of Excessive Phone Use?

Lise-Marie Nassen, Kathrin Karsay — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Lise-Marie Nassen, Kathrin Karsay

Topics: Smartphone use, Digital well-being, Well-being, Mobile media

In times of ubiquitous smartphone use, most users adopt one or more self-imposed rules regarding their device usage, also known as voluntary digital disconnection. Drawing on the Integrative Model of Mobile Media Use and Need Experiences (IM³UNE), this study provides empirical evidence on the adoption of digital agency tools and their potential in mitigating ill-being (depression, anxiety, and stress) associated with excessive smartphone use. We conducted a quota-based online survey involving n = 384 ( M age = 49.6) smartphone users in Flanders (Belgium). The results provide a systematization of different digital agency tools, showing they are widely used among adults. Importantly, we provide preliminary evidence on their potential in buffering ill-being due to excessive smartphone use. For users of detox apps and in-app well-being features, the associations between excessive use and ill-being were nonsignificant, unlike for nonusers of these tools. For users of default device settings, such as iOS ScreenTime, there were no differences. Our findings contribute to theory by applying and empirically testing critical elements of the IM³UNE model. Empirically, our findings indicate the importance of studying different types of tools, as they do not appear to be equally beneficial.

War or humanitarian crisis? A framing analysis of flemish media coverage of Gaza in 2023 and 2024

Gianni Blok, Ans De Nolf — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Gianni Blok, Ans De Nolf

Topics: Media framing, News coverage, Journalism, Political communication

This study analyzes how the Gaza conflict is framed in Flemish media, focusing on articles from De Standaard (DS) and Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN). Coverage was examined during three key moments over 1 year: the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, the bombings of Rafah starting May 6, 2024, and the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant on November 21, 2024. Using an existing framing matrix, the study investigated (1) which frames were used, (2) how they differed between newspapers, and (3) whether they shifted across time. The results show that the human interest frame, followed by the war frame, dominated coverage in both newspapers. In the first two periods, the three most common frames were similar across DS and HLN. Only in the third period (November 2024) did the most frequently used frames differ. Over time, different framings emerged for each event, although human interest and war frames remained consistently present. Both outlets relied primarily on Western sources, leading to a potential source bias. Compared to DS, HLN presented events in a less nuanced way, which is expected from a popular newspaper. This study offers new insight into Flemish media representations of the Gaza conflict, a largely underexplored subject.

Du Boisian practice & thought for journalism studies

Tyler Leeds — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Tyler Leeds

Topics: Journalism studies, Black press, Journalistic practice, Journalism history

W.E.B. Du Bois was a massively important 20th century journalist and intellectual. However, his journalistic practice and social theorizing are not often retrieved by journalism studies scholars as analytic resources. To make the case for his utility, I first demonstrate how Du Bois alters scholarly analyses of the 1619 Project that stress the effort’s novelty. In contrast, I situate the 1619 Project in a Du Boisian tradition marked by empiricism and positive propaganda, a combination which swims against professional journalists’ emic understandings of objectivity. I then tour moments of Du Bois’s career that show how he theorized processes of interest to journalism scholars, including his analysis of the Black press and his wider theorizing of discursive culture and its impact on habitual racism. I conclude by contrasting Du Bois to his contemporary and correspondent Walter Lippmann.

From normative principles to epistemic governance: A workflow-based analysis of European journalism ethics in datafied environments

Laurence Dierickx, Marília Gehrke, Carl‐Gustav Lindén — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Laurence Dierickx, Marília Gehrke, Carl‐Gustav Lindén

Topics: Data journalism, Journalism ethics, Datafication, Automated journalism

Data journalism has received limited attention in journalism ethics, where it is often assumed that established normative principles apply directly to data-driven practices. However, data journalism relies on complex data processes that introduce distinct epistemic challenges related to bias, interpretation, and accountability. This study examines data journalism ethics as a form of epistemic governance embedded across key stages of the data journalism workflow, from data gathering to data visualisation, drawing on a thematic analysis of 37 ethical codes from 32 European countries. The findings show that, while ethical codes consistently articulate principles such as accuracy, fairness, and transparency, they rarely operationalise them in relation to methodological decisions shaping data-driven reporting. The epistemic governance framework serves as a bridge between data journalism ethics and AI ethics, as many AI-related ethical challenges originate in data practices and are intensified by automation.

Taking artificial intelligence from the ‘priesthood’ and providing it as a service: a media-genealogical perspective on big tech’s AI platformisation

Inga Luchs — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Information, Communication & Society · Inga Luchs

Topics: Platformization, Artificial intelligence, Digital platforms, Media theory

Recently, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have been positioning artificial intelligence as a utility that should be accessible to everyone. At the same time, they promote their cloud platforms as a means of ‘democratizing’ AI as they distribute easy-to-use AI services at scale. In this article, I propose a media-genealogical approach to situate this claim of ‘democratization’ within a broader development in the infrastructuralisation and platformisation of computing. I focus on three historic moments: (1) the invention of time-sharing and the idea of a ‘computer utility’ in the 1960s; (2) the introduction of abstraction to facilitate software development in the 1970s; and (3) the rise of digital platforms and the provision of user-friendly internet services in the 2000s. I demonstrate how each of these moments of ‘democratization’ is marked by a certain duality: on the one hand, they have expanded access to information technologies through the large-scale distribution of resources and the simplification of complex technologies into services. On the other hand, they have introduced new avenues for the centralisation of power. By means of a critical discourse analysis of Google’s cloud AI platform, I show how cloud companies leverage this duality to forward a process of platformisation, where they establish themselves as the central intermediaries and transform AI technologies into services to be provided at scale. This allows them to increase dependency on their infrastructures and to exert control over technological design. The media-genealogical analysis, finally, points to alternative paths that the democratisation of AI could take.

Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of Journalists’ Emotional Well-Being: Precarity, Identity and Shared Concern in Latin America

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Sallie Hughes, Armando Gutiérrez Ortega, Grisel Salazar Rebolledo, Carlos Arcila Calderón, Manasvi Maheshwari, Adriana Amado, Jesús Arroyave, Summer Harlow, Mireya Márquez-Ramírez, Janara Nicoletti

Topics: Journalism, Well-being, Precarity, Press freedom

This study examines determinants of journalists’ emotional well-being. Drawing on stress and coping theory, role theory, and research on precarity and safety, it proposes a framework to explain concern about emotional well-being under workplace stress. Data come from the Worlds of Journalism Study in 10 Latin American countries with varying levels of press freedom. The dependent variable is a single-item report of concern about emotional well-being due to work. Hypotheses address gender, precarity, professional roles, victimization, coping, support, and press freedom. Findings show widespread concern driven by structural, organizational, and identity-based vulnerabilities. Indicators of precarity are the strongest predictors: heavier workloads increase concern, while higher income serves as a protective factor. Identity-related factors also matter: identifying as a woman and experiencing workplace bullying—reported more frequently by women—predict higher concern. Role discordance, or tension between self-censorship and professional values, further elevates concern. Unexpectedly, receiving colleague support after attacks is associated with greater concern, suggesting reactive coping or emotional contagion. Press freedom is not a significant predictor. Potential limitations include the single-item outcome and sensitivity of press freedom measures to local conditions. The study calls for organizational interventions while noting that addressing precarity requires structural changes to journalism’s financial model.

Revisiting the Indian Emergency: Collective Memory and Political Narratives in English-language Dailies

Subin Paul — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism Studies · Subin Paul

Topics: Journalism studies, News coverage, Political communication, Media framing

Although the press is credited with writing the first draft of history, the relevance of the past to journalists as “purveyors of the present” remains less understood, particularly in the Global South. This article grapples with this problem by investigating the uses of the past to journalism. Building on scholarship from journalism and memory studies, I investigate the contemporary news media’s references to the Indian Emergency (1975–1977), in which the government instituted strict controls on freedom of speech and the press. Specifically, by drawing on the concept of “collective memory,” I analyze how mainstream English-language dailies constructed narratives about the Emergency during April-June 2024, a period encompassing the 2024 national election and the anniversary of the Emergency. Narrative analysis reveals two themes in coverage. First, narratives harked back to the Emergency to highlight the ruling government’s suppression of the press in contemporary India. Second, narratives projected the Emergency as a site where political debates and differences between the ruling and opposition parties were played out. This article argues that the narrative use of vernacular linguistic registers, particularly in English-language newswriting, constitutes an important feature of collective memory work and journalistic invocation of the past in this Global South context.

Does Smartphone Application Use Impact Adolescents’ Affect? Or Vice Versa? An Experience Sampling Study

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Media Psychology · Michaela Šaradín Lebedíková, David Lacko, Michał Tkaczyk, Jana Blahošová, Steriani Elavsky, David Šmahel

Topics: Smartphone use, Adolescent mental health, Experience sampling, Well-being

Responsibility vs. sensationalism: A cross-cultural review of media coverage of sexual violence

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Mian Ahmad Hanan, Noshina Saleem, Nasim Ishaq, Masroor Ahmed, Arooj Arshad, Imran Saeed

Topics: Media framing, News coverage, Cross-cultural communication, Media effects

In this study, the media coverage of various incidents of sexual violence across the various countries of the world has been analyzed, and to surface that whether the media is responsible, sensational or neutral in coverage of such events. Media Coverage of sexual violence is examined in the context of Galdi and Guizzo (2021), the Media-Induced Sexual Harassment (MISH) framework and Simon and Gagnon (2003) Sexual Script Theory. The review suggests that sensationalized framing and sexually objectifying representations may reinforce harmful stereotypes, reduce empathy toward survivors, and contribute to public attitudes associated with sexual violence. Through a systematic search, the data was collected from major databases from 2012 to 2021 across major academic and open-access databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, JSTOR, Web of Science, Sage Journals, and Library Genesis. Out of an initial pool of 172 potentially relevant research articles, the researchers identified and selected 135 articles that were most directly related to their specific research topic sexual violence against women for an in-depth, systematic review. The review indicates that sensational reporting remains more prevalent than responsible reporting across many cultural contexts, although important regional differences were identified.

Ten years of the mobile world congress: Media impact on the city of Barcelona

Marta Gil Ibáñez, Silvia Guillén Ruiz, Lara Martín-Vicario, Javier Bustos Díaz — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Marta Gil Ibáñez, Silvia Guillén Ruiz, Lara Martín-Vicario, Javier Bustos Díaz

Topics: Media coverage, Sentiment analysis, Journalism, City branding

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) has become an international benchmark in mobile technology and one of the most significant events hosted in Barcelona. Beyond its technological relevance, its media visibility may have played a key role in shaping the city’s public image and international reputation. This study aims to examine the impact of media coverage of the Mobile World Congress on the promotion and positioning of the city of Barcelona. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining content analysis and sentiment analysis through the implementation of a hierarchical multiclass automatic classification system. The study analysed news coverage published in three major regional newspapers— La Vanguardia , Ara.Cat , and El Periódico ( n = 3523 news articles). This methodological design enabled the identification of thematic patterns, dominant narratives, and the frequency with which Barcelona was associated with the event. The findings indicate that media coverage of the MWC has had a notably positive effect on Barcelona’s visibility and reputation. The newspapers consistently presented the city as a leading hub for technological innovation, international business, and large-scale global events. Recurrent references to Barcelona’s organisational capacity and strategic relevance within the mobile technology sector contributed to strengthening its urban brand and enhancing its symbolic capital in both regional and international media discourse. The MWC has significantly contributed to boosting and promoting the city of Barcelona. Media representation of the event has reinforced the city’s status as a global, innovation-driven urban centre and has consolidated its position within the international technological landscape.

Involuntarily mediatized third place: sustaining cultural practices in China’s post-industrial communities

Xin Wenjuan — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication, Culture & Critique · Xin Wenjuan

Topics: Mediatization, Digital media, Social media platforms, Digital inequality

Abstract Drawing on third place and mediatization theories, this study examines how cultural practices are reorganized under infrastructural withdrawal in post-industrial China. Through ethnographic fieldwork with a Qinqiang opera troupe in a former danwei mining settlement, it analyzes how the erosion of physical venues and institutional support transforms collective participation. Findings show that cultural practices are reorganized through fragmented digital arrangements—WeChat coordination, platform visibility, livestream interaction, and temporary hybrid spaces. Rather than voluntary adoption, this constitutes involuntary mediatization, where mediation becomes structurally necessary when offline alternatives vanish. The study conceptualizes this as the involuntarily mediatized third place, extending third place theory by showing how sociability reconstitutes through distributed socio-technical infrastructures under withdrawal. It argues that cultural continuity persists not through institutional reproduction, but through fragile, intergenerationally distributed mediation shaped by platform logics and infrastructural dependency.

Predicting Irritation Disclosures in Romantic Relationships: Testing and Extending the Revelation Risk Model

Rudy C. Pett, Anita L. Vangelisti — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Communication Research · Rudy C. Pett, Anita L. Vangelisti

Topics: Self-disclosure, Interpersonal communication, Relationship power, Longitudinal study

Feelings of irritation often emerge in romantic relationships. However, the theoretical mechanisms predicting whether individuals disclose these feelings to their romantic partner remain limited and largely reliant on examining indicators of future behavior rather than actual future behavior. Using a two-month, longitudinal survey design involving 448 participants, the current study tested the Revelation Risk Model (RRM) as a mechanism for predicting whether individuals would disclose or conceal feelings of irritation about their romantic partner. Relationship power was also incorporated as an additional predictor. The original RRM components (i.e., closeness, risk, communication efficacy, willingness to disclose) collectively predicted whether individuals disclosed or concealed feelings of irritation about their romantic partner. Relationship power predicted individuals’ communication efficacy, as well as perceived risk associated with disclosing their feelings of irritation. The findings are discussed in terms of their contributions to existing research on disclosure, irritations, and power in romantic relationships.

mlstats : An R Package for Multilevel Descriptive Statistics and Data Preparation

Felix Dietrich — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile Media & Communication · Felix Dietrich

Topics: Research methodology, Computational methods, Measurement validity, Mobile communication

Mobile research methods such as experience sampling, smartphone logging, and daily diary designs produce nested data, in which within-level fluctuations must be distinguished from between-level differences. Yet, there is no established convention for preparing and descriptively reporting such multilevel data. This paper introduces mlstats , an open-source R package that computes multilevel descriptive statistics—including intraclass correlation coefficients and within- and between-group correlations—in a single call, exports publication-ready tables, and decomposes variables for random effects within-between modeling. Supporting both frequentist and Bayesian estimation, mlstats is freely available on Comprehensive R Archive Network with extensive online documentation at https://felixdidi.github.io/mlstats/ .

LENS—LLM Effects on News Scrutiny: Influence, Delegation, and Memory in AI-Mediated News

Lorenzo Reina, Stefania La Rocca, Federico Longoni, Giuseppe Riva — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Lorenzo Reina, Stefania La Rocca, Federico Longoni, Giuseppe Riva

Topics: Large Language Models, Generative AI, News consumption, Artificial intelligence in journalism

Weekly Gaming Duration and Internet Gaming Disorder in Relation to Depression and Loneliness: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study

Joshua J. Condry, Isabel C. Singer, Zachary A. Reese — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · Joshua J. Condry, Isabel C. Singer, Zachary A. Reese

Topics: Video games, Internet Gaming Disorder, Depression, Loneliness

The current study examined the association between weekly video game engagement and mental health, specifically Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), loneliness, and depression. We recruited 377 U.S. adults through CloudResearch Connect using gaming-frequency quotas, resulting in a sample representing a wide range of weekly gaming duration (range = 0–80 hours, M = 14.62). Analyses revealed that weekly gameplay hours did not consistently predict depression and loneliness. In contrast, people with higher IGD scores tended to have higher weekly playtime, more depressive symptoms, and greater feelings of loneliness. We readministered the same survey 2 years later ( N = 172 or 45.6 percent of baseline sample). Here, we found that both higher weekly hours and higher IGD scores at baseline predicted increases in depressive symptoms 2 years later, controlling for their baseline depression. We did not find that gaming was predictive of loneliness longitudinally. These findings are particularly relevant given the American Psychiatric Association’s interest in IGD in the DSM-5 coupled with the ongoing public debate about the benefits and ills of video games. Our findings suggest that people who struggle to balance gaming with other life demands may experience more depressive symptoms over time. Thus, clinicians may opt to focus on helping clients with IGD better balance their priorities.

Feeling the crisis, building the alternative: Women journalists in nonprofit digital media through the lens of feminist epistemology and the affective turn

Majda Hrženjak — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Journalism · Majda Hrženjak

Topics: Journalism, Alternative media, Feminist epistemology, Digital media

This article draws on feminist standpoint epistemology and the affective turn to examine how women journalists respond to deteriorating working conditions in Slovenian legacy media. The study focuses on three analytically selected cases of women journalists who co-founded nonprofit, women-led digital media outlets, drawn from 15 exploratory autobiographical interviews. Their narratives articulate experiences of marginalization alongside agentic responses that critically interrogate developments in the legacy media system and call for a rethinking of journalistic ethics and labor organization. Journalism is approached as affective labor, marked by the entanglement of passion, self-exploitation, and precarity, in which emotions such as anger, care, and responsibility – combined with digital affordances – enable the creation of alternative media spaces. These initiatives are interpreted not merely as individual survival strategies but as micropolitical and epistemological interventions that reclaim professional autonomy and integrity. While embedded in neoliberal conditions and structurally fragile, they demonstrate the potential of alternative practices to reimagine journalism from the margins.