Search Results (209)

This study examines how the ideal woman is discursively constructed and negotiated in contemporary Vietnamese online media amid globalisation and rapid social transformation. Using framing analysis, it examines recurring metaphors, catchphrases, depictions, exemplars, slogans and visual representations across a corpus of Vietnamese online texts concerning accomplished women, femininity, marriage and identity. The findings delineate three competing interpretive frames: (1) modernized traditional femininity, which reinterprets Confucian gender ideals through contemporary narratives of female empowerment; (2) relational negotiation, which situates women’s achievements by their impacts on heterosexual relations, emotional balance, and familial responsibilities; and (3) critical challenges to gender inequality, which questions restrictive gender norms, idealized femininity, and unequal relational expectations. Collectively, these frames demonstrate that contemporary media frequently portray women’s empowerment alongside persistent expectations of caregiving, emotional labor, and relational responsibilities. Building on these findings, functional persistence and relational negotiation are proposed as complementary analytical concepts for explaining how contemporary empowerment narratives accommodate and transform, rather than simply displace, traditional gender norms. The study contributes to sociological scholarship on gender discourse, media framing, and globalisation by demonstrating how competing representations of the ideal woman collectively shape a hybrid configuration of femininities in contemporary Vietnam. Full article

The tourism industry is witnessing an increase in innovative AI-generated content (AIGC). AI-generated images are a key visual form of AIGC, and this study focuses on a specific subset of them: AI-generated images that realistically depict destination scenery, which we define as AI-generated photos (AIGP). Based on construal level theory, this study explored the visual cues of AIGP. Two empirical studies were conducted to examine the influence of scene presentation within AIGP on tourists’ travel intention. The findings revealed that panoramic series in AIGP, as opposed to close-up series, significantly enhanced travel intention. The results further suggested an indirect association through destination images and a moderating role of AIGP source. Specifically, the effects of scene presentation were found to be diminished when an AIGP was sourced from user-generated content. This study makes several notable contributions. First, it expands the application of AIGP within the tourism sector. Second, it enriches the literature on visual cues and destination images by delineating the process through which AIGP scene presentation influences travel intention. Third, the research clarifies the moderating role of the AIGP source, expanding the boundary of AIGP effects. These insights add depth to the dual fields of social media and destination marketing, highlighting the contextual variability in the efficacy of AIGC-driven marketing strategies. Full article

Previous research has shown that both victim intoxication and narrative framing can influence the levels of victim blame. However, far less attention has been paid to how coercive strategy and narrative framing may interact to shape victim-blaming judgements and perceptions of sexual assault. The present study addresses this gap by examining how combinations of coercive strategies (physical force versus alcohol facilitated), narrative framing (active versus passive), and rape myth acceptance (RMA) influence victim blame and the recognition of sexual assault. Participant gender and age were also assessed in relation to RMA and victim-blaming attitudes. A total of 202 participants aged 18–63 (78.7% of women, 21.3% of men, M_Age = 28.93, SD = 14.36) completed an online survey evaluating vignettes depicting a male perpetrator sexually assaulting a female victim. Age significantly predicted victim blaming, with older participants assigning greater blame to the victim. Gender predicted both RMA and victim blame, with men reporting higher RMA and greater victim blame than women. Active framing in both the physical force and alcohol-use conditions reduced participants’ recognition of the incident as sexual assault. Participants with lower RMA consistently reported lower victim blame across conditions, and were more likely to identify the incident as sexual assault in the physical force condition. These findings highlight the influence of coercive strategies and the importance of victim-centred language in policing, legal, and media contexts, where narrative framing can meaningfully shape the recognition of sexual assault. Full article

This article examines the utilization of WhatsApp as an alternative communication tool for disseminating visual content among social activists during protests. While WhatsApp is typically conceptualized as an interpersonal or group messaging platform, research on its role as an infrastructure for alternative media and citizen journalism remains limited. The study focuses on the “Tikva” group, established at the onset of the public struggle against the 2023 judicial reform in Israel, which evolved into a nine-month mass protest movement described as one of the largest in the country’s history. Through qualitative thematic content analysis of videos distributed within the group, the article explores how WhatsApp functions simultaneously as a channel for digital activism and as a site of bottom-up, democratic, non-institutional news production. The findings indicate two primary trends: functionally, WhatsApp operates as a mechanism for resource mobilization, calls to action in physical and digital spaces, and the cultivation of belonging and solidarity among activists facing institutional power; in terms of content and production, the videos articulate an anti-hegemonic discourse and challenge mainstream media conventions. The analysis shows how these videos dismantle delegitimizing frames and construct a counter-narrative depicting protesters as citizens defending democracy, thereby sustaining the protest movement’s momentum. Full article

In the 1930s and 1940s, Kumbum Monastery (Tibetan: sku’ bum byams pa gling) emerged as a significant spatial node in visual culture during the period of war and modern nation-building in the Republic of China (1912–1949). Through photography, painting, and film, a diverse range of visual media depicted the monastery’s architectural layout, inscribed plaques and steles, Cham dance (Tibetan: འཆམ་, Wylie: ’cham) rituals, lamaic prayers, and scenes of temple fairs and marketplaces. These visual representations not only documented historical detail but also constructed a composite space in which sacredness, transcendence, and secularity intersected. Due to its unique geographical location, religious doctrines, historical narratives, and political entanglements, Kumbum functioned as both a spiritual center and a politically charged symbol. Within this visual discourse, cham rituals and collective prayers were imbued with wartime ideological meanings, aligning religious transcendence with the national aspiration for resistance and victory. The inscribed plaques by state officials visually asserted political authority over sacred religious spaces, while the depiction of temple fairs foregrounded the entanglement of religious practices with everyday secular life, becoming key arenas for ethnic integration and political mobilization. Artists and photographers actively engaged with and reproduced both the symbolic and the quotidian landscapes of the monastery. These visual materials contributed to the broader project of narrating the Republic’s frontier and constructing the nation’s image. By examining how both monastic actors and external observers visually constructed Kumbum Monastery’s political and spiritual space, this study illuminates the complex interplay between religion and state power, and shows how visual media articulated ideological meanings and negotiated spatial relationships as collective responses to the site within the conditions of modernity. Full article

This study developed a two-step statistically integrated optimization framework to identify the effects of key fermentation medium components controlling hyaluronic acid (HA) biosynthesis by Streptococcus zooepidemicus. As an initial phase, the Plackett–Burman design was employed to identify the most influential components among yeast extract, casein, peptone, beef extract, MgSO₄·7H₂O, K₂HPO₄, KH₂PO₄, and (NH₄)₂SO₄ by conducting 12 fermentation runs, and 30 g/L of glucose was used as the carbon source. Among the eight ingredients, yeast extract, MgSO₄·7H₂O, and KH₂PO₄ were identified as the most significant factors in enhancing HA production. The following steps were based on the selection of the best carbon and yeast extract sources. Sucrose was selected as the optimal carbon source among glucose and lactose, and Tastone 900-Baker’s yeast extract was selected as the optimal nitrogen source among various yeast extract sources. The final phase of the optimization procedure employed the Box–Behnken design to determine the optimal concentrations of three ingredients: yeast extract (10–30 g/L), MgSO₄·7H₂O (0.2–2.0 g/L), and KH₂PO₄ (1–4 g/L). The results depicted that the optimized media formulation, composed of 30.0 g/L of yeast extract, 1.16 g/L of MgSO₄·7H₂O, and 4.0 g/L of KH₂PO₄, enhanced HA production and biomass OD600 to 545.9 mg/L with 1250–1500 kDa and 2.53 OD600 in a 250 mL shake flask scale, which was around a 10-fold increase in HA production compared with run #10 of Plackett–Burman (57.42 mg/L). This study provided preliminary results for future process conditions optimization, scale-up studies, and techno-economic evaluation. Full article

Animals feature regularly on children’s television, exposing children to implicit and explicit messages about the natural world. Although animal representation and anthropomorphism have been examined across children’s media, film, literature, and popular culture, less is known about how animals are portrayed in preschool television, particularly in relation to biological and ecological accuracy. This study examined animal representations in programs aired on ABC Kids, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s free-to-air children’s television channel, using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. A total of 947 episodes from 92 programs were analyzed, with a subset of 265 episodes (43 h and 45 min) from 39 programs examined in greater detail. Animals were prominently featured, appearing on screen for 88% (171 h and 40 min) of total programming time, with programs featuring animals as central characters accounting for 41% (81 h). Nearly all central animal characters exhibited anthropomorphic traits, such as walking, talking, dressing, or behaving like humans. Inaccuracies in species depiction were common, including portrayals of animals in human-like social structures, unrealistic environments, and mixed predator–prey groupings, alongside a hierarchy based on roles and relationships. These findings indicate that realistic portrayals of animals and the natural world were uncommon. The study highlights the need for greater consideration of how animal characters are represented in preschool television, and how imaginative animal portrayals might be balanced with biologically and ecologically grounded depictions. Further research should examine how such portrayals influence children’s understanding of animals and their connection with nature. Full article

This paper probes into the propagation characteristics of Rayleigh waves in a partially saturated, porous, thermo-viscoelastic half-space, with full consideration of the fractional viscoelastic effect and thermal coupling effect. A fractional Zener model is introduced to depict the thermo-viscoelastic mechanical behavior of the solid skeleton by constructing a complete set of governing equations that include mass balance, generalized Darcy’s law, momentum balance, and generalized heat conduction. Field equations are derived by means of Helmholtz vector decomposition, and the dispersion equation, and the phase velocity expression of Rayleigh waves are obtained by combining the traction-free and adiabatic boundary conditions of the medium. The impacts of key material properties, such as medium saturation, intrinsic permeability, medium viscoelasticity, and thermal expansion coefficient, on the dispersion feature of Rayleigh waves are discussed in detail. Numerical analysis results show that an increase in the thermal expansion coefficient will lead to a rise in Rayleigh wave phase velocity, in which the increase in P1 compressional wave velocity plays a dominant role among the velocities of various types of waves. Meanwhile, the attenuation coefficient of Rayleigh waves presents a decreasing trend and gradually tends to be stable with the growth of the thermal expansion coefficient. Similarly, the phase velocity of Rayleigh waves also increases with the rise in fractional order index, which is jointly dominated by the velocity enhancement of P1 waves and S waves. In addition, the attenuation coefficient of Rayleigh waves increases first and then decreases with the increase in fractional order index and reaches the peak value when the fractional order index is about 0.4. The research results reveal the influence of laws of thermal expansion characteristics and viscoelasticity on Rayleigh wave propagation and provide theoretical support for the analysis of wave propagation characteristics in porous media in relevant engineering applications. Full article

Periods of major technological transformation have historically coincided with the emergence of political movements. The current Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution, alongside the expansion of platform-based media, has reshaped how political dissent is produced, circulated, and normalized. This study examines contemporary anti-monarchist discourse associated with the UK-based Republic movement, focusing on how opposition to constitutional monarchy is articulated on YouTube within an environment shaped by profit-driven goals. Using NVivo 14, this qualitative study analyzes 62 publicly available YouTube videos published over a twelve-month period from January 2025 to January 2026, employing a hybrid inductive–deductive thematic analysis supported by Large Language Models. Findings identify three interrelated discursive themes: monarchy framed as legalized theft and extraction of public wealth; monarchical authority depicted as undemocratic and constitutionally manipulative; and the reproduction of colonial, elite, and mythic power through mediated narratives of tradition and national identity. Rather than evaluating the factual accuracy of anti-monarchist claims, the analysis treats this content as a mediated cultural practice through which broader socio-economic anxieties—such as inequality, democratic distrust, and fears of technological displacement—are symbolically organized. Digital platforms, such as the Republic Campaign YouTube channel, thus enable political discourse to gain visibility and resonance. Full article

Given the lack of research on the intersection of media and religion outside the U.S. and in South Korea, this study analyzed how two mainstream daily newspapers have depicted Christianity and compared their tones and frames toward this religion and megachurches in Korea. News stories on three major religions—Protestantism, Buddhism, and Catholicism—were identified and collected from the newspapers’ online archives. Overall, 302 out of 895 articles were focused on Christianity. Quantitative content analysis was utilized with a manual holistic approach. One of the major findings is that Chosun Ilbo, a conservative-leaning publication, described Protestantism in a more positive manner than Kyunghyang Shinmun, a liberal-leaning newspaper. Another finding is that there has been a shift in religion news coverage between 2011 and 2022 in terms of frames applied. Frames such as political power and corrupt were used more often in 2011, whereas the social work frame was employed more frequently in 2022, when covering Protestantism. The findings offer critical implications for journalists, religious communities, and the public by identifying journalistic practices that potentially fuel audience polarization. This exploratory study serves as a foundational step in advancing scholarly discourse on the media–religion interface in South Korea. Full article

Considering the expanded interest in reducing organic solvents in synthesis, surfactants and surfactant-based catalysis have been used to carry out various organic transformations in water. In recent years, the integration of Lewis and Brønsted acid catalysis with micellar systems has gained considerable attention as a powerful approach to enhance reaction efficiency while minimizing the environmental impact of synthetic processes. In this article, we depict the most recent advances in the water-interceded synthesis of different organic systems by utilizing different surfactant-type catalysts, which are important structural motifs in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and functional materials. Further, these methods incorporate green reaction media, mild reaction conditions, and a great yield of product with high purity in a shorter interval of time. Understanding the scope and impact of this area, authors have made efforts to collect and compile the data that indicates many named reactions, such as Friedlander annulation, aldol condensation, the Biginelli reaction, the Mannich reaction, Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling, etc., now take place using surfactant-based catalysts. Full article

Magic lantern slides are fragile objects consisting of transparent images depicted on thin glass plates to be projected by magic lanterns. Despite their widespread presence in archives and museums, these collections are often undervalued and understudied. The Portuguese Cinematheque holds the most extensive collection of slides in Portugal. This article presents the first preventive conservation case study focused on the collection of painted slides, reflecting on the general origins of this collection, examining the challenges faced by caretakers when adapting historical buildings to accommodate collections of this nature. Environmental monitoring of light and radiation, temperature, and relative humidity in storage and exhibition rooms was combined with ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy to measure the fading of one of the most light-sensitive colours identified in these slides in previous studies, the pink eosin-based lake, by comparing a slide exhibited under the measured light conditions with one kept in storage during the same period. The results identified damaging light exposure in display areas with illuminance values far above the recommended levels for these materials, and significant RH fluctuations in both spaces. These conditions are consistent with deterioration factors known to affect the material that composes these fragile media (e.g., light-sensitive painting materials and organic frames, and unstable glass). This study also showcases how raising awareness on the fragility of this heritage stimulated discussions and encouraged small and feasible changes that can positively impact its preservation. Full article

Social media platforms have become central infrastructures for disaster communication, yet their role in shaping ethnic cohesion in post-conflict societies remains insufficiently examined. Sri Lanka, marked by a legacy of ethnic conflict, provides a critical context for exploring how moments of crisis are narratively and symbolically negotiated online. This study employs a qualitative digital ethnographic approach to analyze publicly accessible social media content circulated during a recent national disaster. Data were collected from Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok between 1 and 10 December, yielding an initial corpus of 344 posts, of which 200 were purposively selected for in-depth analysis following the removal of duplicated and near-identical content. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three dominant and interrelated narrative patterns: expressions of solidarity, resource sharing and mutual aid, and visual–symbolic representations of unity. These narratives were articulated through inclusive language, unity-oriented hashtags, depictions of material assistance, and imagery emphasizing co-presence across religious and institutional lines. Engagement metrics were examined as indicators of narrative resonance within platform visibility structures. The findings suggest that social media temporarily foregrounded discursive cohesion and symbolic unity during the disaster period. However, these representations should be interpreted as context-specific and performative rather than as evidence of durable inter-ethnic integration. This study contributes by demonstrating how social media platforms operate as spaces for the performative articulation of ethnic unity during disasters in post-conflict contexts, using a digital ethnographic approach to methodologically and empirically research digital ethnography, disaster communication, and social cohesion in post-conflict settings. Full article

Geothermal energy—despite its potential as a reliable source—has received limited media attention and is less familiar to the public than other renewable technologies. This study is part of a regional interdisciplinary research project and analyzes how geothermal energy has been framed in German news media over the past decade. A quantitative content analysis (n = 452) of the coverage of the five largest regional (focus on Saxony) and four largest national public and private media in Germany between March 2014 and March 2024 was conducted. The results show that coverage on geothermal energy has become more political and increasingly linked to the energy transition, while negative examples and risks associated with the technology receive less attention. Acceptance of geothermal energy in media discourse has grown, and forecasts on the technology are mostly positive. Political stakeholders dominate media coverage, whereas economic experts are mentioned less frequently, and scientists are underrepresented. Reporting on geothermal energy is mostly event-driven and focuses on regional projects. The technology remains rather poorly depicted, particularly regarding broader societal discussions on climate change or energy independence. The results demonstrate a prevailing lack of technological differentiation in media discourse which contributes to a blurred risk perception and limits the communicative potential of shallow geothermal energy as an ecologically sound alternative. Full article

Negative body image is a widespread phenomenon among women in Western cultures. Appearance-related social media trends such as “thinspiration” and “fitspiration” have been found to be related to poor body image, and recent research suggests that food-related social media may also impact women’s body dissatisfaction, though this literature is in its infancy. The current study examined the impact of diet- and food-related social media among undergraduate women. Participants (N = 256) were randomized to view either “What I Eat in a Day” (WIEIAD) or interior design TikTok videos, with or without a depiction of a “thin-ideal” body. They completed measures of body image before and immediately after viewing the video, and a measure of dieting intentions after viewing. Results indicated a worsened body image among those who watched WIEIAD videos depicting thin-ideal bodies, which was significantly greater than the change reported by those who viewed either interior design videos (with or without thin-ideal bodies depicted). This finding suggests a possible detrimental effect of WIEIAD videos on body image; however, they did not appear to affect dieting intentions, as no significant group differences were found in this outcome between WIEIAD and interior design video groups. Considering WIEIAD videos are common across social media platforms, it is important for young women to be aware of the potential adverse impact of the social media they are exposed to. Full article