Ryan Holiday: Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Digitalization has been changing the methods of production, distribution, and use of written and audiovisual products, according to a process of “platforming”. Most audiovisual content is available via streaming platforms, through a lot of devices (PCs, tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and videogame consoles), which have empowered the process of media convergence. Based on a theoretical framework related to the impact of the platforms on the ongoing process, we intend to analyse how platforms are changing the identity of the audiovisual industry and how they represent themselves online. In order to analyse the ongoing process, we intend to examine some platforms that could be considered as best practices in the audiovisual field: Netflix, MUBI, and Festival Scope. On the one hand, using these platforms as case studies will enable us to highlight some beneficial aspects of the ongoing process of digitalization and platforming: holding many gazes and points of view; catching market niches; building a peer-to-peer network. On the other hand, we intend to emphasize some risks connected to the intermediation of platforms in the audiovisual field in terms of economic, cultural, and social effects.
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New Digital Cinema: How Platforms Are Changing the Audiovisual Industry

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>In line with the principle of technological determinism, the linguistic context of computer games influences the (linguistic) behaviour of millions of active gamers. This makes it important to explore gamer communication thoroughly with respect to politeness, too. Indeed, the communication of gamers during games may also affect the users’ off-game communicative situations. The international literature suggests that the quasi-anonymity of online communication and the lack or weakness of sanction make it ruder than offline communication: it involves a higher number of insults or offensive personal remarks. The paper looks at this issue, in particular by a pragmatic – politeness-centred – investigation of a particular kind of online insults. The corpus of analysis is provided by “taunts”, i.e. inbuilt instructions triggering “mocking” remarks of League of Legends (LoL), a multiple-participant online arena game. The authors interpret in-game insults in the framework of speech act theory, the Cooperative Principle (conversational and politeness maxims), face threatening, and a matrix of aims and functions. The paper wishes to be a contribution to cyberpragmatics, a pragmatically-oriented branch of Internet linguistics.</abstract>

Politeness and Insult in Computer Games – From a Pragmatic Point of View

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The era of Web 1.0 implied the connection of web-based documents via links, which enabled search engines to scan for information and guarantee the search and availability of webpages. Web 2.0 represented the next evolutionary stage. Known as the collaborative web, the emphasis in this case was on the establishment of services and content by the community. Search options were complemented with labelling and frequently undesirable clickstream analysis coupled with push technology-supported information provision. The semantic web is a revolutionary development, which, in addition to processing information by humans, assures the readability of datasets by machines and facilitates communication between devices. In order to promote data and information processing by machines, the semantic web relies on a special ontology allocating the respective meaning to the given data along with relying on the global indexing and naming schemes of the web. Several ontologies emerged with differing basic guidelines while displaying compatibility to the RDF standard ranging from the more semantic description of bibliographical data in libraries to the description of information gained from social networks and human conversations. While Web 3.0 is often used interchangeably with the semantic web, the former one with its intelligent server function exceeds the semantic web. We have to ask ourselves, however, whether we can rely on the accuracy of the obtained data, and we must explore what progress have libraries – expected to increase reliability – made regarding the implementation of semantic data storage.</abstract>

Trend Analysis of Technologies Supporting the Availability of Online Content: From Keyword-Based Search to the Semantic Web

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The phrase “vaccine diplomacy” spread in the media during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examine where it comes from and locate it in health-related strategic communication. The article provides an overview of the history of vaccine diplomacy taken from the literature and then places the phenomenon among the branches of specialized diplomacy as well as among the components of public diplomacy. It highlights the difference between vaccine diplomacy and 20th-century public diplomacy. The article concludes that vaccine diplomacy as a tool of soft power and persuasion hardly differs from vaccine solidarity announced by the G7 member states. In fact, the only difference between vaccine friendship, vaccine diplomacy, and vaccine solidarity is in the perspective, that is, the evaluation by the speaker. These phrases are manifestations of the rivalling narratives that accompany the global power shift.
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What Is Vaccine Diplomacy?

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The literature contends that youth are particularly fashion- and brand-sensitive, and they mostly prefer fast fashion brands; however, up to now, there has been little empirical data regarding Romanian youth’s fashion brand preferences. In order to fill this gap, the article presents the results of an exploratory research based on mixed methodology which was realized among students in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in connection with their fashion brand preferences. The online survey showed that a little more than half of the students do have a preferred fashion brand, and these are indeed mostly fast fashion brands. However, taken relatively, i .e. compared to other cues, the brand of the apparel is less important for the students. The most brand-sensitive individuals are those who are fashion involved, early adopters of trends, and less price-sensitive. The narratives of the focus-group research enriched the insight about students’ brand preferences.</abstract>

Young Consumers’ Fashion Brand Preferences. An Investigation among Students in Romania

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This article examines the relationship between social sustainability and the fake news phenomenon in the light of the COVID-19 epidemic. Using existing statistical data and relevant media-related concepts, it compares the harmful impacts of the pandemic and the accompanying infodemic. The problem can be placed among the components of hybrid warfare. Examples, statistics, and research on COVID-19-related fake news are discussed with a focus on efforts for building resilience against fake news.
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Pandemic and Infodemic – Which One Is More Dangerous?

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The aim of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the discursivemediatized image of the digital environmental subject. An ambivalent element of the neo-developmental language of digital life is the “digital divide”, which often takes ideological form when it constitutes the (non-)digital Other on the other side of the digital world, in the rigid binaries of centre–periphery. Of course, nothing illustrates the inequalities in access to digital and non-digital goods better than global crises such as the coronavirus epidemic, where the disparities between the living conditions (e.g. learning opportunities) of privileged and disadvantaged areas are widening, and this is one of the proofs of the existence of the digital divide. The school, which is the ideological state apparatus responsible for the reproduction of the subject as a basic productive force, became dysfunctional in different ways in different countries of the world, including Hungary, during the epidemic. In the latter, the epidemic has, according to many trusted research studies, further increased the backlog of disadvantaged and/or Roma students, and thus their segregation. Although it seems certain that the most important condition for the sustainability of digital life, and with it of the state, is the re-creation of digital environmental subjects through the education of digital literacy and critical-reflexive media use, the state seems to be abandoning these social groups in this respect; in their case, the interpellation value of digital education, or more precisely the lack of digital education, is the deterrence from learning. In the analytical part of the paper, I compare two media materials to highlight the possibility of a different narrative, coexisting with the negative trend briefly described above. These two items construct two images of digital environmental subject, and by analysing the differences between them, I would like to demonstrate that the hierarchy of centre–periphery can be made relative through the (non-)digital Other’s emic and critical self-repositioning, facilitated by participatory research.
</abstract>

Same Place, Different Bicycles. The Etic and Emic Perspectives of Digital Life in Hungary

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The presented research investigates the case of non-metropolitan, regional universities in Central-Eastern Europe to understand how their third mission strategy and practice contribute to the societal development of their localities. It intends to fill a gap in related contemporary research, which usually neglects such universities in this part of the EHEA. The investigation is built on a comparative case study design with non-random, purposive sampling on the cases of <italic>Universitatea Transylvania din Braşov</italic> (UTBv) in Braşov, Romania, and <italic>Dunaújvárosi Egyetem</italic> (DUE) in Dunaújváros, Hungary, and employs a mixed methodology of the convergent parallel design (parallel databases). The paper presents an outline of a doctoral research plan with an overview of its preliminary results, the author’s related publications, the present state of the research, and its possible future directions.
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The Third Mission of Central-Eastern European Regional Universities: Two Cases from Romania and Hungary

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Social sustainability is a development alternative that focuses on preserving and sustaining opportunities and resources for future generations rather than exploiting them. In addition to resource management, it is important to emphasize the focus on human well-being, in which the provision of a healthy life is a key factor. One possible alternative to improve the quality, safety, and affordability of universal healthcare is to integrate artificial intelligence into the health system. The development of AI in healthcare has brought a paradigm shift, as big-data-driven analytics can enable AI itself to identify symptom complexities and communicate with patients. In this process, it is important to explore the attitudes of healthcare professionals towards AI-based technologies, as doctor–patient communication is moving away from authoritarianism towards partnership medicine, in which AI will be an integral part of communication. In my research, I investigate the attitudes of future doctors, i.e. medical students and doctors already in practice, towards AI by using a hybrid research method of semi-structured interviews, photo collage techniques, and a questionnaire survey. The photo collage technique, due to its projective nature, can be used to reveal the respondent’s underlying evoked memories and attitudes. The new image network (collage) can be used to model the doctor–patient–AI relationship envisioned by the doctors. The results highlight the aspect of the application of AI in medicine and point out that it is not only the capabilities of the software but the attitudes of the entire health stakeholder community that influence the uptake of innovation. The exploration of issues of authority and trust in the field provides an opportunity for the creation of educational and outreach programmes.
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Social Sustainability in Medicine: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Future Doctor–Patient Communication. A Methodological Experiment

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Research on the political role of digital media, including social media, is often based on the assumption that new communication platforms can contribute to new forms of political participation such as taking part in deliberative political debates more actively and exercising the right to vote more often. Most of the studies focus on national processes: nationwide political campaigns and general elections. In this paper, we offer a different angle on these issues, focusing on a specific locality, more specifically the activities of a politically themed local Facebook group in a middle-sized town in Hungary. We also apply a digital anthropology approach that enables us to use a hybrid methodology combining online and offline tools in our research design. Results are presented in this paper in a research report format. We are far from a final conclusion about the interplay of social media use and political activity, but hopefully the experiences we share will shed some light on the functioning of these types of online communities.
</abstract>

Pécs Chatter. A Digital Anthropological Study on the Impact of a Facebook Group on Local Politics

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Fake news texts often show clear signs of the deceptive nature; still, they are shared by many users on Facebook. What could be the reason for this? The paper tries to answer the question by collecting the linguistic and non-linguistic characteristics of fake news. Linguistic characteristics include among others the exaggerating, sensational title, the eye-catching, tabloid-style text, the correct or incorrect use of terms, and the fake URLs imitating real websites; non-linguistic characteristics are expressive pictures often featuring celebrities, the use of all caps, excessive punctuation, and spelling mistakes. The corpus was compiled using snowball sampling: manipulative news not originating from big news portals were collected from the social networking website Facebook. The aim of the study is to identify the characteristics of Hungarian fake news in comparison to the English ones and to elaborate a system of aspects which help identify fake news.</abstract>

Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Elements in Detecting (Hungarian) Fake News

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>In the past more than six months, not only the cultural institutional network but also all of humanity has entered in a peculiar existential state. All that was previously commonplace, accepted, or natural has become in many ways impossible or, in some cases, even illegal. In the last period, we could also witness the changes regarding museums and museum environments, and we ourselves, who inhabit/use the spaces of the museums, have also changed. These changes affect the frameworks of representation and reception as well as our habits of viewing and interpretation. The pandemic has caused in museum practice a backward step towards a previous practice. Museums have suddenly re-become archives preserving objects and meanings, and it will take time for them to recollect themselves and start searching for solutions.</abstract>

Museums and Online Spaces. The Society-Building Role of the Museums during the Pandemic

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>We live in a networked world with a fast pace of digitalization, and yet about half of the humanity is still offline (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_auscom-2019-0007_ref_020_w2aab3b8c14b1b7b1ab1ac20Aa">United Nations, 2018</xref>). Information and communication technologies are playing a key role in our public and private lives, both during work- and playtime. No wonder that social inequalities are increasingly reflected as digital inequalities in terms of infrastructural access, skills, and cultural practices online: those left behind can hardly keep up. The present research note brings together theoretical and practical resources related to <italic>digital inclusion issues globally, with local examples</italic> from Romania, where <italic>digital naïves</italic> – the poor, the rural, the elderly, the disabled, and the less educated – are more at risk.1</abstract>

Digital Naïves Go Online

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The number of marketing communications tools and channels is steadily increasing – in addition, this growth has been accelerated since the emergence of the Internet and social media. On the one hand, there is an increasing dilemma of which tools one should choose from the plentiful options, and, on the other hand, the (material, human, and time) resources devoted to this are limited. This is valid for the marketing communications of “classic” products, services, and countries. This review article attempts to present the variety of available options with the help of the POE (paid, owned, earned) model and describe their advantages and disadvantages. The novelty of the study is that it focuses on a review of country communication campaigns and initiatives. It offers various visual examples for the different components of the POE model, clarifying the paid media, owned media, and earned media options for country brand communication. It mostly uses examples from Hungary, but other countries’ good practices are also included. Finally, as a result of the analysis, the article summarizes the possible ways of country brand communication according to the POE model in a summary table, which may also contribute to the work of academics and practitioners in the field.</abstract>

The Possible Ways of Country Brand Communication and Their Classification Based on the POE Model

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Digital transformation and the expansion of social networks have essentially modified journalistic practice, facing challenges concerning its essential operation and boundaries. The traditional business models have collapsed, young people’s media consumption habits have changed, and more non-professional journalists participate in news production. Social media platforms have an immense effect on journalistic work, especially journalists’ professional and ethical standards. Perhaps traditional public service media are the ones that stand the farthest away from participatory practices and platform logic, characterizing today’s media environment. What are the public media services’ opportunities to fulfil their commitment of authentically and objectively informing citizens, including young people, about public affairs? This study aims to picture the boundary work of journalism currently underway by reviewing the phenomena emerging on the border of journalism and social media. Additionally, the study attempts to answer what a successful social media strategy looks like in public service media by presenting the social media activities of “tagesschau”, the newsmagazine of ARD, a German public-service channel.
</abstract>

Public Service Media in the Age of Social Networks

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Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Communicatio

The Journal of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

 Communicatio is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published yearly. It aims at publishing theoretical and empirical research in communication studies,...

 Communicatio is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published yearly. It aims at publishing theoretical and...

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Communicatio

The Journal of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

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