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        <title>Frontiers in Communication | New and Recent Articles</title>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication</link>
        <description>RSS Feed for Frontiers in Communication | New and Recent Articles</description>
        <language>en-us</language>
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        <pubDate>2026-11-13T08:03:12.887+00:00</pubDate>
        <ttl>60</ttl>
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        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1985632</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1985632</link>
        <title><![CDATA[A fragmented ecosystem: ephemerality and standardization gaps in digital serious games designed to counter misinformation]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-13T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Arnau Solé Guàrdia</author><author>Manuel Armayones-Ruiz</author><author>Giuliano Duarte-Anselmi</author><author>Lourdes Guàrdia Ortiz</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionThe proliferation of online misinformation has prompted the development of a growing number of digital serious games designed to strengthen users' competencies in identifying and resisting false or misleading content. However, comparing their design, theoretical foundations, and evaluation evidence requires attention to how interventions are described and documented.MethodsThis study combines a scoping review with a framework-based qualitative comparative analysis of six digital serious games represented in seven eligible peer-reviewed publications. The framework examined core design features, pedagogical and theoretical foundations, communicative mechanisms, and motivational design using the eight Core Drives of Octalysis.ResultsWithin this corpus, the analysis identified variation in interaction mechanics, player roles, instructional strategies, motivational features, and evaluation approaches. Variation was not treated as fragmentation in itself; fragmentation concerned barriers to comparison, reproduction, and cumulative development. Four interconnected dimensions were identified: design fragmentation, theoretical fragmentation, evaluation fragmentation, and technological ephemerality. Differences in outcome measures and documentation complicated comparison, while restricted access to some interventions required documentary or archival reconstruction.DiscussionThese findings provide an exploratory account of the included games and do not establish the prevalence of fragmentation across the wider field. We identify four priority directions for future research: standardized game design taxonomies, longitudinal evaluation protocols, evaluation methods that distinguish discrimination from response bias, and collaborative co-design frameworks.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1965621</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1965621</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Toward an intersectional framework for accessible and expansive advertising communication]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Alessia D’Andrea</author><author>Giorgia Fusacchia</author><author>Arianna D’Ulizia</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionThis article investigates the concept of expansive and accessible advertising communication, examining how inclusivity and accessibility are articulated across the textual, visual, and multichannel dimensions of advertising. Although Inclusive Marketing (IM) has gained increasing prominence in both corporate strategies and consumer expectations, the academic literature remains fragmented.MethodsTo address this issue, the paper uses a qualitative review of the literature based on selected seed papers and backwards citations searches for the identification of the main research perspectives regarding diversity, accessibility, and advertising communication.ResultsExisting literature tends to examine the different domains of inclusive marketing and the various social identity categories (including gender, ethnicity, age, and disability) in isolation, adopting predominantly sector-specific rather than integrated approaches.DiscussionIn response to this fragmentation, the article proposes an analytical and design-oriented framework for expansive advertising communication, structured around the textual, visual, and communication channel dimensions and grounded in an intersectional perspective. The framework adopts a socio-cultural approach that conceptualizes advertising not merely as a market practice, but also as a symbolic device and a site for the construction of social imaginaries.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1915777</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1915777</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Learning communication before patient encounters: everyday relational reflections as precursors to professional communication judgment]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-11T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Yoonjung Lee</author><author>Yoo Jin Um</author><author>Hoon-Ki Park</author>
        <description><![CDATA[BackgroundMedical schools commonly teach communication through clinical interviews, standardized patients, and assessment rubrics. These approaches make communication teachable and assessable, but may frame it as a set of behaviors to perform rather than as situated judgment about what a given interaction requires. This study examined how first-year medical students interpreted communication in reflections on ordinary, non-clinical relationships, and how these interpretations related to developmental precursors of professional communication judgment before patient encounters.MethodsWe analyzed 692 written reflections from 173 first-year students in a required course at Hanyang University College of Medicine, South Korea, of which 688 contained analyzable narrative content, using framework-informed thematic analysis. Students responded to four prompts concerning communication in family or friendship relationships, listening and empathy, nonverbal habits, and emotion regulation. Because the prompts structured the domains in which reflection could occur, the analysis focused on the interpretive patterns that appeared within and across those domains rather than on the domains themselves. All coding was conducted in Korean. The Kalamazoo Consensus Statement was used as a sensitizing framework rather than a coding template. Trustworthiness was supported through independent coding, consensus discussion, investigator and analytic triangulation, reflexive memoing, an explicit search for divergent and less interpretively developed responses, and bilingual review of translated quotations.ResultsFive themes described how students interpreted what a given situation required: recognizing ambiguity and the limits of assumed understanding; validating emotion before giving advice; interpreting nonverbal behavior through the other person's response; regulating emotion to sustain dialogue; and re-engaging after communication breakdown. Several themes appeared beyond the prompts that most directly elicited them. Re-engagement after communication breakdown, for which no dedicated prompt existed, appeared across all four prompts (139 responses from 100 students; P1/P2/P3/P4 = 53/22/10/54). Responses varied considerably in interpretive development: 290 of 688 substantive responses (42.2%) were primarily descriptive, whereas 398 (57.8%) showed interpretive reconstruction.ConclusionsThe reflections provided evidence of several patterned ways in which students interpreted communication as context dependent. These patterns may represent developmental resources that communication education can further examine and reorganize in clinical contexts, rather than evidence of professional communication judgment itself.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1925732</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1925732</link>
        <title><![CDATA["We are all alone together": male loneliness, relational recognition, and peer support in YouTube public discourse]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Anurag Shekhar</author><author>Thulile L. Ngonyama-Ndou</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionMale loneliness has emerged as a significant public health concern, yet men's experiences of disconnection remain underexplored in naturalistic digital settings. This study examines how male loneliness is described and publicly negotiated in a large YouTube comment corpus.MethodsData were drawn from the comment section of The Male Loneliness Epidemic, which had generated 57,359 comments and more than five million views at extraction. Following cleaning, 45,807 comments were analysed using computational methods to examine sentiment, emotion-related language, recurring concerns, and differences between parent comments and replies. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted on a purposive subsample of 654 comments.ResultsThe comments contained expressions of distress alongside encouragement, care, and solidarity. Five qualitative themes showed that commenters frequently described loneliness not simply as a lack of social contact, but as feeling unseen, unheard, or emotionally unsupported. They discussed difficulties expressing vulnerability, the dismissal or misunderstanding of men's emotional needs, pressures associated with masculine and provider expectations, and the importance of being acknowledged by others. Replies were less negative and contained more trust-related language than parent comments. Some replies offered validation, encouragement, and recognition to those describing loneliness.DiscussionThe findings suggest that male loneliness in this YouTube corpus was often framed as relational deprivation, involving a perceived absence of recognition, emotional reciprocity, and being valued. Drawing on precarious manhood theory, recognition theory, and affective publics, the study shows how YouTube comment threads can provide opportunities for public acknowledgement and recognition-oriented peer interaction, although the findings do not establish that loneliness was reduced.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2010077</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2010077</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Attention fragility in digital news ecosystems: a mixed-methods study of editorial perceptions, news avoidance, and the case for sustainable media literacy]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Burcu Süerdem</author><author>Mustafa Ufuk Çelik</author><author>Sinem Kasimoĝlu</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionThe accelerating production and circulation of digital news have transformed the continuity of public interest. Constant updates, algorithmic visibility, and information abundance shorten the period during which news stories remain prominent. This study examines declining public attention in digital news ecosystems from the perspective of media professionals and explores the educational implications for sustainable media literacy.MethodsA convergent mixed-methods design combined semi-structured interviews with eight senior media professionals and managers and a structured survey of 40 professionals representing 23 news organizations (76.9% response rate). Qualitative data were analyzed thematically, while the survey assessed news-cycle acceleration, algorithmic gatekeeping, audience-attention decline, editorial adaptation, and the need for sustainable media literacy education. Construct reliability was acceptable (Cronbach's α = .76–.88).ResultsInterviewees described faster news cycles, algorithmically shaped visibility, shorter attention spans, and increasing reliance on continuous updates, serialized content, and bite-sized formats. Survey findings supported these accounts: respondents reported accelerated news cycles (M = 4.35, SD = 0.61; 90.0% agreement), algorithmic gatekeeping (M = 4.05, SD = 0.74; 80.0%), declining audience attention (M = 4.28, SD = 0.66; 87.5%), and an urgent need for media literacy education (M = 4.48, SD = 0.55; 92.5%). Integration revealed broad convergence between qualitative and quantitative findings, although digital coordinators perceived stronger algorithmic pressures than editors-in-chief.DiscussionThe findings indicate that attention fragility affects both editorial practices and the depth of public debate. The study proposes sustainable media literacy as an educational framework integrating critical evaluation, conscious selectivity, and attention management. This framework may inform educators, curriculum designers, and newsroom trainers across professional roles and diverse educational contexts.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1957930</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1957930</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Lost in translation? A corpus-assisted critical discourse study of left-behind children in China Daily and three Western news outlets, 2004–2023]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Yangfeng Gu</author><author>Nor Fariza Mohd Nor</author><author>Anis Nadiah Che Abdul Rahman</author><author>Shuangquan Deng</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionChina's rural-to-urban labour migration has left many children in rural communities, yet few studies compare how Chinese state-affiliated and Western English-language outlets represent these left-behind children (LBC) to international readers. This study examines how outlets construct LBC as social actors and distribute agency, voice, and responsibility.MethodsDrawing on Fairclough's three-dimensional model, this corpus-assisted critical discourse study compares 576 China Daily articles (385,920 words) with 298 articles from The Guardian, The New York Times, and Reuters (253,300 words) published 2004–2023, using keyword and collocation analysis; concordance analysis of social actors, quoted voices, and responsibility attribution; coding of four article-level frames (κ = .86); validated sentiment scores; and regression models.ResultsThe Government Action frame appeared in 72% of China Daily and 18% of Western sample articles, and the Victimhood frame in 35% and 81%, respectively. China Daily mostly presented children as passive beneficiaries of institutional action, quoted officials most often, and rarely named the hukou system (12% vs. 58% of articles). Western outlets more often depicted children's emotional states and quoted families and experts. Lexical sentiment was positive in China Daily (M = .12) and negative in Western outlets (M = −.28; d = 1.08), which had about eight times the odds of Victimhood framing (OR = 8.08).DiscussionDifferences were outlet-specific and institutionally patterned: China Daily foregrounds state response and service provision, whereas Western outlets foreground family separation and psychological harm. Neither construction captures the heterogeneity of LBC's circumstances. The study analyses published texts, not their reception.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1900435</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1900435</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Politicized science communication and motivated reasoning: social media responses to the Fukushima radioactive water discharge in Japan, South Korea, and China]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Dongwoo Lim</author><author>Haichun Yu</author><author>Mikihito Tanaka</author><author>Fujio Toriumi</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The Fukushima radioactive water discharge became a major international controversy in East Asia, where scientific risk, evaluations of government and institutional actors, and diplomatic conflict intersected. While the Japanese government promoted the discharge policy by emphasizing its scientific safety, the South Korean government adopted a relatively cooperative stance toward Japan, whereas the Chinese government strongly criticized the discharge. This study comparatively examines how social media users in Japan, South Korea, and China interpreted and circulated discourse surrounding the Fukushima radioactive water discharge within these differing political and social contexts. To this end, X data from Japan and South Korea and Weibo data from China were collected and analyzed using repost network analysis and political orientation analysis. The findings show that pro-discharge discourse was relatively dominant in Japan and was closely associated with government-supportive and conservative users. In contrast, anti-discharge discourse overwhelmingly dominated in South Korea and was primarily linked to anti-government users. On Chinese Weibo, the high-engagement posts examined were predominantly critical of the discharge and included political, diplomatic, and anti-Japanese narratives, with state-affiliated media accounts visible among highly circulated content. These findings suggest that public responses to the Fukushima discharge were shaped not only by perceptions of scientific risk, but also by political identity, evaluations of government and institutional actors, and international relations. The study demonstrates how science communication in East Asian social media environments becomes politicized and embedded within broader political and nationalistic discourse structures.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2019050</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2019050</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Correction: The influence of attitudes and perceptions of green values: a study on lontar innovation in Indonesia]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Correction</category>
        <author>Maria Augustin Lopes Amaral</author><author>Anggelina Delviana Klau</author><author>Adrianus Ketmoen</author><author>Engelbertus G. Ch. Watu</author><author>Apryanus Fallo</author><author>Nurhaflah Soraya</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1977955</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1977955</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Prior brand cognition and behavioral intention: omnichannel experience and consumer trust as complementary psychological pathways]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Guozhi Ben</author><author>Jie Shi</author><author>Yabing Shi</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Restaurant consumers increasingly encounter brands across interconnected online and offline touchpoints, yet less is known about how prior brand knowledge relates to the interpretation of these encounters and subsequent decision making. Drawing on customer-based brand equity, schema-based information processing, customer-journey research, and trust theory, this study examines a cognition–experience–trust–behavior model. Survey data were collected from 510 restaurant consumers in three Chinese cities who had used at least two channels of a focal restaurant brand. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted in R/lavaan, and indirect effects were assessed using 10,000 bootstrap resamples. Cognitive brand equity was positively associated with omnichannel experience and consumer trust. Omnichannel experience was positively associated with trust and behavioral intention, while trust showed the strongest proximal association with behavioral intention. All three specific indirect effects were significant, including the sequential pathway through omnichannel experience and trust, and the model explained 52.2% of the variance in behavioral intention. The findings are consistent with two complementary psychological routes: a practical route related to reduced interactional friction and a diagnostic route in which coherent cross-channel experiences provide cues associated with trust. Given the cross-sectional design, these pathways are interpreted as theory-guided associations rather than established causal processes.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2006868</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2006868</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Meme as environment, movement as climate: the Trump indictment events in the political anthropocene]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Brief Research Report</category>
        <author>Christina M. Knopf</author>
        <description><![CDATA[If memes are a type of communication produced by the environment—a composition of human and non-human elements, that environment influences and is influenced by climate or atmosphere that facilitates the body politic's in/action. This article, thus, explores the symbolic interactions within and surrounding political memes, focusing on intertextualities and paratexts in the visual (re)presentation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2023 indictments. The critique suggests that memeification of politics presents possibilities for community, but may also pollute the media environment with distorted rhetorical patterns. It recognizes similarities between movements and memetics, both of which are part of a media ecological system and share characteristics of imitation and identity formation.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1991467</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1991467</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Correction: The attitudes of communicators toward cybersecurity concerning security, safety in national institutions]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-05T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Correction</category>
        <author>Husain A. Murad</author><author>Mohammed Qudah</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2022776</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2022776</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Editorial: The role of human communication in addressing global wicked problems]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-05T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Editorial</category>
        <author>Uttaran Dutta</author><author>Naíde Müller</author><author>John Parrish-Sprowl</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1991699</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1991699</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Film form and the combat sequence in contemporary Chinese martial arts cinema: a neoformalist analysis of Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert (2026)]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-05T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Xueyu Chen</author><author>Hasrul Hashim</author><author>Nurzihan Hassim</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Chinese martial arts cinema is among the most widely circulated forms of Chinese popular culture, yet a systematic literature review found formal and aesthetic analysis to be its least developed strand. This study analyzes the film form of a combat sequence from Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert (2026), a leading production of the wuxia revival. It asks how the sequence builds its film form from its devices, their functions, and their motivations, how that form defamiliarizes the conventions of contemporary Chinese martial arts film combat, and what dominant organizes it. Thompson's neoformalist approach was applied through directed qualitative content analysis supported by shot measurement, with a sequence from Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants (2025) as the documented baseline. Results are reported under five themes: defamiliarization; systems of form and style; fabula and syuzhet; device, function, and motivation; and the dominant. Every device proved conventional for its stratum, but their organization did not. The sequence's narrative, stylistic, and temporal systems converge on still shots, which carry the transactions of the story. The syuzhet delays and stretches a simple fabula at its turning points. Compositional motivation carries most of the construction, transtextual motivation supplies its inherited figures, realistic motivation keeps violence consequential, and artistic motivation marks the weight given to stillness. The findings propose stasis as the local dominant of the sequence, a defamiliarization of organization rather than of device. The study offers communication research a documented and replicable procedure for describing how the film form of a visual narrative is built in contemporary Chinese martial arts cinema.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1975582</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1975582</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Framing media literacy and digital safety in Kazakhstan's television news]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-04T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Brief Research Report</category>
        <author>Zhansaya Akylbek</author><author>Amangeldy Shurentayev</author><author>Taras Chernega</author><author>Gulzabira Shauyenova</author><author>Sayagul Alimbekova</author>
        <description><![CDATA[In increasingly complex digital information environments, media literacy is closely connected with digital safety, as citizens must not only evaluate information but also recognize digital threats, verify sources, and make protective decisions. This study examines how Kazakhstan television news communicates digital risks and the extent to which such reporting provides audiences with actionable information. A comparative quantitative content analysis was conducted of 342 purposively sampled news items published by nine Kazakhstan television outlets between January 2025 and August 2026. Drawing on framing theory, research on mobilizing information and solutions journalism, and the digital-resilience literature, items were coded for digital-risk theme, dominant journalistic frame, practical advice, and a three-level actionability measure. Internet fraud and scams was the most frequent theme (40.1%). Practical advice was present in 56.1% of items, but only 17.0% reached the highest level of actionability by providing specific verification procedures, official resources, or concrete protective actions. Journalistic frame was strongly associated with practical advice (Cramér's V = .665) and actionability (V = .565), digital-risk theme showed moderate associations, and outlet identity was not significantly associated with either outcome in bivariate tests. Robustness analyses showed that the frame association was concentrated in prevention- and warning-oriented reporting: 50 of the 58 items with operational guidance were framed as education or prevention, whereas only one of the 196 incident, regulatory, law-enforcement, or other items reached this level. Operational guidance was thus concentrated in prevention-oriented reporting rather than being routinely incorporated into incident-, regulation-, or enforcement-oriented stories. Building on constructive and solutions journalism, the study proposes resilience-supportive journalism as a content-level framework describing reporting that complements risk visibility with graded information supporting recognition, verification, and protective action. Audience effects were not measured. Limitations include the purposive thematic sample, the partial 2026 observation period, and the conceptual proximity between some frame categories and the guidance measures.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1868402</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1868402</link>
        <title><![CDATA[The Instagram paradox: a mediation analysis of consumer orientations, psychological, cognitive and deep structure dimensions & Instagram motivations shaping purchase intention of sustainable apparel in India]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-04T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Ashiqha Sultana</author><author>Kalyani Suresh</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionThis study examines how distinctive consumer orientations - Thrifty, Frugal, Moral, and Shopper influence sustainable apparel purchase intention among Indian Instagram users. Grounded in Uses and Gratifications theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the study examines the parallel mediating roles played by inherent psychological, cognitive and deep structures and external stimuli of Instagram motivation in rendering consumer orientation to purchase intention, thus presenting an empirical justification for the ‘Instagram Paradox’ in the framework of sustainable fashion.MethodsA quantitative survey was administered to 285 Instagram users and followers of sustainable apparel brands in India, recruited via snowball sampling. Factor Analyses was conducted to validate constructs spanning consumer orientation, psychological, cognitive and deep structure dimensions, Instagram motivations, and purchase intention.ResultsK-means cluster analysis identified four distinct consumer orientation segments. Four parallel mediation models tested whether psychological, cognitive and deep structure dimensions along with Instagram motivation mediated the relationship between each consumer orientation and purchase intention.DiscussionAcross all the mediation models, psychological, cognitive and deep structure constructs emerged as the sole significant mediator, while Instagram motivation consistently failed to generate a significant indirect effect on purchase intention in any model, constituting the central empirical evidence for the Instagram Paradox.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1998362</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1998362</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Constructing AI safety: a comparative cognitive-discursive analysis of corporate and regulatory discourses]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-04T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Junjie Ma</author><author>Hongting Chen</author>
        <description><![CDATA[BackgroundThe global proliferation of generative artificial intelligence has transformed safety governance into a highly contested sociopolitical battleground, yet existing discourse studies frequently under-theorize the micro-cognitive mechanisms of epistemic reality construction within AI safety standardization.ObjectiveTo investigate how corporate and regulatory actors engineer divergent cognitive realities of AI safety through specific micro-grammatical choices.MethodsWe proposed an integrated Cognitive-Critical Discourse Analysis framework by synthesizing Langacker's cognitive conception of reality with Fairclough's three-dimensional model, and applied it to a comparative corpus of corporate safety frameworks and regulatory policy documents.ResultsTech enterprises engineer a reality of techno-pragmatic containment via active voice, high-certainty evidentiality, and immediate projection to naturalize self-regulation. Conversely, regulatory bodies construct a reality of socio-structural vulnerability using distal modals, passive constructions, and deontic mandates to legitimize state-enforced compliance.ConclusionsLinguistic normalization is actively deployed to facilitate or contest corporate epistemic hegemony in AI governance. These findings provide empirical references for revising regulatory discourse and enhancing public media literacy against algorithmic exceptionalism.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1788095</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1788095</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Assessing Washington’s local news ecosystem: journalistic infrastructure and news production capacity]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-04T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Brief Research Report</category>
        <author>Jennifer R. Henrichsen</author><author>Pawel Popiel</author><author>Kathryn Robinson-Tay</author><author>Elizabeth M. Chambers</author><author>Alexandra Fil</author><author>Lisa Waananen Jones</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Local news is declining across the United States. Our study contributes to understanding this phenomenon by providing the first comprehensive account of Washington state's news ecosystem and descriptively operationalizing two theoretical concepts: journalistic infrastructure and news production capacity. Drawing on a survey, we assess the presence of news outlets constituting the state's journalistic infrastructure and descriptively operationalize news organizations’ news production capacity by examining ownership types and structures, annual budgets, publication frequency, and staffing numbers. Our findings indicate limited media diversity across the state, suggesting a vulnerable journalistic infrastructure and diminished news production capacity, with implications for democratic society.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1956041</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1956041</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Artificial intelligence in science communication: emerging practices, credibility, and public trust]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-03T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Mini Review</category>
        <author>Yuliya P. Kosheleva</author><author>Natalia V. Savchenko</author><author>Ravil A. Khaliulin</author><author>Alexey A. Chistyakov</author><author>Elena N. Kolomoets</author><author>Larisa B. Vaskova</author><author>Denis A. Dobrokhotov</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Generative artificial intelligence has spread rapidly through the infrastructure of science communication. However, its implications for how the public accesses, evaluates, and trusts science remain uncertain. This mini-review brings together current conceptual, experimental, and survey-based research. The aim is to develop an integrated framework that positions generative AI as an epistemic intermediary. The framework connects three areas: emerging communication practices, the credibility of AI-enhanced messages, and public trust in science. The literature on practices shows that large language models can enhance understanding through simplification, translation, and dialogue, and may even reduce skepticism toward science. However, these tools carry risks of inaccuracy and bias. Credibility studies attribute a small but consistent penalty to visible AI authorship. However, this effect is strongly context-dependent; findings regarding both pro-human bias and the lack of impact from labeling remain controversial. Trust studies, meanwhile, reveal that the public's trust in generative AI remains limited. Furthermore, the disclosure of AI use, even by researchers, can reduce perceived legitimacy and thereby diminish trust. Across these three areas, transparency design, AI literacy, prior trust in science, and the controversial nature of the topic emerge as key moderating factors.]]></description>
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        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1951972</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1951972</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Consumer sustainability judgments in omnichannel luxury retail: social media engagement and perceived last-mile delivery performance in Saudi Arabia]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-30T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Karim Mohamed Soliman</author><author>Hatem Mohamed Garamoun</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Consumers may form sustainability judgments from general brand-engagement and service-performance cues even when those cues do not directly measure sustainability communication or environmental performance. This study examines the associations of social media engagement (SME) and perceived last-mile delivery performance (LMD), operationalized as respondent-reported delivery-performance perceptions, with customer satisfaction, consumer sustainability perception, and attitudinal brand loyalty in Saudi omnichannel luxury retail, while testing digital literacy and brand perception as moderators of the SME–sustainability association. A cross-sectional English-language survey conducted in Jeddah and Riyadh yielded 900 completed submissions; sequential eligibility screening followed by a post-eligibility response-quality review produced a primary analytical sample of 384. The survey did not separately verify personal receipt of a focal-brand delivery or the informational source underlying each LMD rating; accordingly, LMD may combine experience-based evaluations with inferred or halo-based brand beliefs. The scoring strategy uses compatible response formats: CS1–CS4 for satisfaction, S1–S3 for sustainability perception, BL1–BL3 for loyalty, SME1–SME2 for social media engagement, and LE1–LE3 for delivery-performance perception; binary CS5 and SME3 are analyzed separately rather than combined with the Likert composites. All hypotheses were estimated using HC3 heteroskedasticity-robust inference. In the primary N = 384 analysis, SME was positively associated with satisfaction (β=.277, p < .001) and loyalty (β = .351, p < .001), but not with sustainability perception (β = .136, p = .084). LMD was positively associated with satisfaction (β = .199, p = .023), sustainability perception (β = .288, p < .001), and loyalty (β = .205, p = .020), and the LMD–sustainability association remained significant after adjustment for brand perception, satisfaction, and respondent-profile controls (B = .189, p = .006). A sample-selection sensitivity analysis using all 453 eligibility-qualified submissions preserved H1, H2, H3, H5, H6 and the fully adjusted LMD–sustainability association, while H4 and H8 were sensitive to inclusion of the 69 quality-screened submissions; H7 remained unsupported. The findings therefore support a cautious cross-touchpoint inference account while showing that H4 and H8 are sample-selection-sensitive and that H7 remains unsupported with an unstable direction.]]></description>
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        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1920971</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1920971</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Strengthening communication for post-conflict educational reconstruction: a community case study of Burkina Faso's technical secretariat for education in emergency situations]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-30T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Siman Inès Josiane Kaouane</author><author>Firmin Gouba</author>
        <description><![CDATA[By March 2023, the security crisis affecting Burkina Faso since 2015 had closed 6,334 schools and displaced more than one million students and 32,000 teachers. The Ministry of National Education (MENAPLN) created a Technical Secretariat for Education in Emergency Situations (ST-ESU) to sustain schooling. This case study asks how the ST-ESU's communication practice has supported, or constrained, the management of the crisis, and what mechanisms would be needed for the return of displaced students. Drawing on programme documentation and two phases of semi-structured interviews, fifteen in 2021 with MENAPLN communication staff, teacher unions, parent and student associations, and a technical partner, and three in 2023 with ST-ESU managers and a development partner, read through organisational and participatory communication theory, we identify four features of current practice: no ministry-wide communication strategy since 2018; communication that reacts to events rather than anticipating them; limited involvement of frontline stakeholders; and no dedicated plan for communicating with communities during return. We propose a six-axis framework covering strategic planning, anticipatory design, stakeholder involvement, dialogic training, community-based relay communication, and monitoring. It is a preliminary, practice-derived model requiring empirical testing, intended to help the ST-ESU and comparable Sahelian institutions prepare for post-conflict educational reconstruction.]]></description>
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