The media’s role in shaping the public opinion on education: A thematic and frame analysis of externalisation to world situations in the Portuguese media

This article uses thematisation theory (Luhmann, 1996; Pissarra Esteves, 2016) and frame analysis (Entman, 1993) to analyse externalisations to world situations (Schriewer, 1990) in the Portuguese print media’s discussion of education. Our data constitutes news and opinion articles collected after each PISA cycle’s results was published. The analysis demonstrates that the education themes discussed in the media between 2001 and 2017 are consistent, despite occasionally being discussed more intensively, frequently following the themes highlighted by PISA reports and OECD media communications. The frames used for these themes are more diverse, changing according to the speaker’s agenda and viewpoints. Externalisations (frequently PISA, OECD, and other participants in the survey) serve as sources of authority that help in thematising and framing education. This process works as a mechanism of double reduction for the complexity of the social world, narrowing the possibilities of how education is seen and interpreted by the public.

Mass media communications and their impact on young people

The article discusses theoretical approaches to the definition of the concept of “media communication”, presents the characteristics of the generalized classification of theories of mass communication. It is established that in the course of historical development, specific signs of media communications were formed in certain socio-economic and political conditions. According to the results of a study conducted in 2021, in order to influence social networks on young people, positive and negative effects of social networks as the most popular modern mass media have been established. The author substantiates the effectiveness of gatekeeping as the main method of reducing the influence of social networks on young people, which consists in the development of a message filtering system in media communications.

Official Uses of Social Media

Many people use social media as a main source of information and news, and unofficial sites attract vast numbers of visitors. It has become crucial for governments and healthcare authorities to establish and use social media in order to communicate with their populations and counteract misinformation. Beyond this, technical efforts need to be established to ensure that internet and social media users are directed effectively to these official channels. It is also important to encourage these websites to share and repost their content. Social media and IT companies also have a sensitive role to play in supporting this and validating reliable information while disrupting fake news and false content. This chapter covers a number of themes relating to this issue, such as the reasons for and potential benefits of social media communications by governments and health authorities, the role of social media and tech companies to improve the quality of online information, and the risks and challenges of disseminating official information via social media.

Formation of Psychological Media Competence of Specialists in the Field of Advertising and Public Relations

The importance of media competence research is connected with the totality of media communications; its psychological component is necessary for a person to understand the peculiarities of media influence and is, at the same time, poorly studied. For specialists in the field of advertising and public relations, psychological media competence (PMC) is of particular importance, since their activities involve the creation of an attractive product for the audience, while not violating the psychological safety of consumers. This determines the relevance of the presented research, the task of which was to analyze the components of psychological media competence among students. The study was conducted using the semantic differential (SD) method and a questionnaire methodology compiled by the author, which allows assessing the ability of a person to determine the psychological characteristics of media texts. Factor analysis, nonparametric Mann-Whitney and Kraskal-Wallis criteria were used for processing. The program developed by the author and tested in the course of the formative experiment is presented, it is aimed at increasing students’ PMC as of future specialists in the field of advertising and PR. 110 people participated in the study. A low level of students’ PMC was revealed. According to the analysis of the results of the experiment, a judgment on the effectiveness of the experimental program aimed at the development of psychological media competence, in particular, the skills of psychological analysis of media texts, is substantiated.

Ubiquitous Networks: A Need of Future World of Things

With an exponential increase in the number of applications and user demand, it is essential to respond to the query of users with fast services and networks used. This is possible only by the use of ubiquitous networks supporting mass media communications. The integration of advanced technologies such as Communication, Navigation and Sensing Services (CONASENSE) and Human Bond Communications (HBC) takes care of sensing, services, data, speed, cooperation, content, and cost of communication. The combination of Data, Technology, and Media used for intelligent computation and communication over the internet could serve the purpose, and that’s the urgent demand of growing networks marching towards a fusion of IoT and 5G leading to 6G. IoT with 5G will be the backbone of networks in the future generation network, adding the concept of virtualization at Anytime, Anywhere, Anything, and Anybody. The definition of ubiquitous technology considers it networked, wireless and mobile, to connect a more significant number of users and the world around them. The ubiquitous network connects the D2D, M2M, D2M and uses the ICT and Cloud-based technology to mitigate the QoS parameters. The paper’s primary contribution is the proposal of 6G enabling technologies and use cases to demonstrate the need and integration of various prime techniques as IoT++5G++Cloud++AI/ML. The technology road map and proposed C6-WISDOM model illustrate the fundamentals of enabling future ubiquitous networks (6G). It also focuses on the critical requirements of 6G technology in support of ubiquitous networks and identifies the present technologies integrated to provide vertical sustainable wireless networking solutions.

Media Culture as the Information Age Phenomenon

The article raises the issues of scientific reception of such a phenomenon as media culture. The authors offer their interpretation of media culture as a special type of culture of the information society in the broadest understanding of this phenomenon. The authors consider the concepts of media and culture and establishes their functional corresponddence. The contemporary stage of media development is characterized by a combination of communication and information intentions: classical media and mass communication media, including new media, blogs, social networks, as well as digital copies of non-network artifacts and their network modifications. The result of these media communications is a media text in the broadest interpretation of this concept. According to the authors concept, contemporary media culture realizes itself in two main aspects. In the applied sense, a media culture is a form of representation and digitalization of classical and network cultural units. In the global sense, media culture is understood as an aesthetic and axiological sphere of societys life, in which culture combines the value and artistic heritage, using the information and communication channels of the media for its representation in politics, education, and culture itself.

Research on the Mechanism of Public Participation in the Planning and Design of Urban Park Playground

Over the recent years, citizens in Taiwan have proposed increasingly stringent demands and standards for urban park playgrounds. Thus, this study aimed to explore and discuss mechanisms for public participation in its planning and design procedures. Furthermore, this study proposed suggestions on mechanisms for public participation in the planning and design process by analyzing public recognition in each of the four phases of public participation. Moreover, questionnaires were distributed to experts and interviews were conducted among park users to gather the appropriate data. The research result showed that participatory design could effectively improve public recognition toward urban park playgrounds and earn confidence among citizens. However, it is noteworthy that the public favors social media communications over traditional forms. On the other hand, the public shows disapproval of a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Finally, the proposed suggestions and recommendations of this study are formulated based on the research findings

Importance of University Social Media Communications in Czech Republic

This article currently focuses on the problems of university communications with target groups in the Czech Republic. This issue has been chosen with respect to the ongoing demographic crisis causing a decrease in the number of prospective university applicants. The topic reflects new trends in effective communication of university, i.e. social media communications and concentrates on prospective university applicants. The presented study introduces the results of sub-analyses carried out within selected Czech universities. The sub-analyses dealt with the problems of university social media profiles and their conceptuality, approach of individual universities towards profile administration and the importance of involving fans into communications on Czech university profiles. The necessary data have been gained using both primary and secondary research as well as with help of social media monitoring by Newton Media. The study concludes with the identification of common and different attributes of Czech universities´ social media communications and with suggestions as to how to make these communications more effective.

How ‘public’ is communicated in China’s public diplomacy: communicating environmental justice in the case of air pollution in China

This study re-evaluates the media communications of the domestic public’s interests related to environmental justice in the case of China’s air pollution in China’s public diplomacy initiatives. It examines media representations of environmental justice by China’s state-sponsored China Daily, and compares them with the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, and British and American mainstream newspapers. The examination starts from 2015, when Beijing issued the first ever red alert for air pollution, to 2018, when air pollution still haunted the country. This study finds that, besides the general policy schemes of smog mitigation, China Daily extended coverage to the general causes of smog and the domestic public’s detailed demands for smog mitigation. It mainly adopted a neutral tone in covering environmental justice. The obvious discrepancy in coverage patterns between China Daily and other news media appears in the tone of covering ‘adequacy’ in environmental justice, with the former being neutral and the latter adopting more critical voices. This study offers a better understanding of China’s evolving governmental stances in dealing with environmental justice issues in the case of air pollution.

Media Trends and Prospects in Educational Activities and Techniques for Online Learning and Teaching through Television Content: Technological and Digital Socio-Cultural Environment, Generations, and Audiovisual Media Communications in Education

The purpose of this article is to provide information and data that will contribute to the enhancement of teaching methodologies for online learning and teaching at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education). More specifically, it attempts to shed light on media trends and prospects as educational activities and techniques, as well as on the utmost importance of the use of television content as audiovisual educational content. This venture focuses on the cases of Cyprus and Greece following literature materials and reviews, research results, and findings of previous numerous studies and research papers from and through the Internet that were considered as background. The aforementioned were applied in a pilot case study with adult educators as adult learners (18 years and older), providing literature data and historical elements as a source of further study. The findings from the pilot case study revealed that the television content can also shape (adult) learners’ perceptions on how they understand and learn in an online environment in regard to the generational cohort they belong. Furthermore, the results disclosed that an online educational process utilizing audiovisual media technologies and audiovisual content (audiovisual media communications) may support technology-enhanced learning through non-verbal communication in the new streamlined digital era in which we live. An important conclusion of this article is that the (inter)national genealogical characteristics and habits, the inherent and special characteristics, and the socio-cultural identity of learners, as well as the various (inter)national social-phenomena (e.g., media socio-phenomenon, Internet phenomenon, revival phenomenon, etc.) of the past and present, should always be taken into account by education administrators and educators, in order to maintain a quality and sustainable future education.