Staying Online, Staying Connected: Exploring the Effect of Online Chatting on Adolescents’ Psychological Well-being during COVID-19 Quarantine

Rooted in scholarship of social connectedness and social support, this research raises the question: Can online chatting help mitigate the negative psychological influence of physical distancing during COVID-19? By a correlational and cross-sectional research design, the current study testified the mediating role of two factors—social connectedness and perceived social support in the relationship between online chatting and three indicators of psychological well-being (happiness, self-esteem, and loneliness) for adolescents. This research demonstrated the potential of online chatting in mitigating the severity of quarantine from the supplementary perspective of online communication effects on adolescents, which provided a further insight into understanding the ways in which adolescents use media during school closure. Possible contingent factors that should be paid special attention to in future researches are discussed.

Anuran Vocal Communication: Effects of Genome Size, Cell Number and Cell Size

Significant variation in genome size occurs among anuran amphibians and can affect cell size and number. In the gray treefrog complex in North America increases in cell size in autotriploids of the diploid (Hyla chrysoscelis) altered the temporal structure of mate-attracting vocalizations and auditory selectivity for these properties. Here we show that the tetraploid species (Hyla versicolor) also has significantly fewer brain neurons than H. chrysoscelis. With regard to cell size in tissues involved in vocal communication, spinal motor neurons were larger in tetraploids than in diploids and comparable to differences in erythrocyte size; smaller increases were found in one of the three auditory centers in the torus semicircularis. Future studies should address questions about how environmental conditions during development affect cell numbers and size and the causal relationships between these cellular changes and the vocal communication system.

Emergency Response and Risk Communication Effects of Local Media during COVID-19 Pandemic in China: A Study Based on a Social Media Network

As the country where the COVID-19 was first reported and initially broke out, China has controlled the spread of the pandemic well. The pandemic prevention process included emergency response and risk communication, both of which could notably increase public participation, people’s anxiety has been alleviated, their confidence in the government has been enhanced, and the implementation of prevention and control measures has been understood. This study selected 157,283 articles published by 447 accounts across 326 cities in February 2020 from WeChat, the largest social media application in China, to systematically compare the spatial distributions in the effectiveness of emergency responses and risk communication. The results showed that there were significant regional differences in the effectiveness of emergency response and risk communication during the pandemic period in China. The effectiveness of emergency response and risk communication are related to the exposure risk to the COVID-19, the level of economy, culture, and education of the region, the type of accounts and articles, and the ranking of the articles in posts. The timeliness and distribution types of articles should take into account the psychological changes in communication recipients to avoid the dissemination of homogenized information to the masses and the resulting information receiving fatigue period.

China in Classics: Narrative Construction of Multiple Texts and the Value of the Times

As a spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation, traditional culture is the spiritual power and support for the survival and development of the Chinese people. In the new era, China emphasizes cultural confidence. Its inheritance and promotion of traditional culture have made cultural programs flourish. More recently, specific to multi-dimensional text, learning Chinese culture and extracting spiritual nutrients from TV programs has become an advantageous choice for the broad masses of people to enrich their spiritual life. Through the reconstruction of the text of classics and the narrative construction of the integration of multiple texts, China in Classic Books gives voice to ancient books. By expressing people’s humanistic feelings towards classics, it attracts young people’s attention and realizes mainstream values with its unique charm. Based on the creation rules and communication effects of China in Classics, this paper analyzes the exploration of the contemporary communication of traditional culture of TV programs.

Our Daily Communicative Contexts: More Evidence for the Food Environment Puzzle

Much of the research on food environments suggests that problematic access to healthy food restricts its consumption, contributing to adverse outcomes such as obesity, stroke, and heart disease. In addition to these direct relationships, we propose indirect relationships involving the Communication Mediation Model (CMM). Using nationally representative survey data from 1435 adults in the United States, we explore the multipronged role that perceived food environments play in shaping communication, attitudes, and reflective food consumption, considering communicative contexts. Results indicate a negative correlation between the perception of a difficult food environment and reflective consumption, supporting prior research. Most importantly, the food environment is also negatively correlated with news media use, discussion, and attitudes about healthy eating within the CMM. Our findings suggest that indirect communication effects of the food environment on reflective consumption compound the detrimental role of its direct effects.

Digital Communication Effects on Loneliness and Life Satisfaction

The question of whether and how digital media use and digital communication affect people’s and particularly adolescents’ well-being has been investigated for several decades. Many studies have analyzed how different forms of digital communication influence loneliness and life satisfaction, two comparatively stable cognitive indicators of subjective well-being. Despite this large body of empirical work, the findings remain ambivalent, with studies resulting in positive, negative, or nonsignificant effects. Several meta-analyses suggest that the overall effect of digital communication on life satisfaction is probably too small to suggest a detrimental effect. The net effect of digital communication on loneliness, by contrast, is positive, but likewise small. Yet the studies on which these meta-analyses are based suffer from several limitations. They often adopt a limited perspective on the phenomenon of interest as a disproportionate amount of work focuses on interpersonal differences instead of intra-individual, contextual, and situational effects, as well as their interactions. Furthermore, studies are often based on cross-sectional data, use unvalidated and imprecise measurements, and differ greatly in how they conceptualize digital communication. The diversity in studied applications and forms of digital communication also suggests that effects are most likely bidirectional. Passive digital communication (e.g., browsing and lurking) is more likely to result in negative effects on well-being. Active and purposeful digital communication (e.g., posting, liking, conversating), by contrast, is more likely to result in positive effects. Future research should therefore investigate how the various levels of digital communication (including differences in devices, applications, features, interactions, and messages) interact in shaping individuals’ well-being. Instead of expecting long-term effects on comparatively stable cognitive indicators such as life satisfaction, scholars should rather study and identify the spatial and temporal boundaries of digital communication effects on the more fluctuating affective components of well-being.