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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>2026-10-18T05:39:02.205+00:00</pubDate>
        <ttl>60</ttl>
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        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1933317</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1933317</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Predicted visual attention and cognitive demand in luxury beauty retail: an exploratory AI-based neuromarketing study]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-16T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Hedda Martina Šola</author><author>Jasenka Gajdoš Kljusurić</author><author>Aljoša Šestanović</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionThis exploratory study examines how AI-supported neuromarketing tools can be used to predict visual attention and cognitive demand in a luxury beauty retail environment.MethodsThe research was conducted in a high-end cosmetics store in Zagreb, where 11 static images, selected from 21 photographs of the store, and a 9-minute in-store video recording, edited into an 85-second simulation of the consumer journey, were analyzed using a predictive platform informed by large-scale eye tracking and EEG datasets (eye-tracking data from approximately 180,000 participants and EEG data from 27,000 participants; more than 100 billion data points in total). No shoppers were tested; all reported values are model predictions. The analysis focused on how store layout, product positioning, visual hierarchy, and branded communication elements influence predicted focus, attentional efficiency, and cognitive effort.ResultsThe results reveal several consistent patterns. Brand areas that were visually separated from competing stimuli attracted stronger, more sustained predicted attention, whereas visually crowded or externally exposed zones reduced attentional efficiency. Central product placement proved particularly effective when surrounded by fewer distracting elements, suggesting that spatial clarity can support more efficient visual processing of branded and product-related stimuli. At the AOI level, Engagement and Cognitive Demand rose together (r = 0.90). In the video simulation, Cognitive Demand remained uniformly high while Focus varied with the field of view, and the two were not related.DiscussionThese findings highlight the interaction between attention allocation, cognitive load, visibility conditions, and spatial organization in luxury retail communication. Overall, the study demonstrates the value of AI-supported neuromarketing for understanding how consumers process visually complex retail spaces. It contributes to communication and consumer research by clarifying how visual structure and cognitive demand shape brand visibility and decision-related processing in luxury beauty retail. The findings also offer practical guidance for improving store design, in-store communication, and experiential branding strategies by applying state-of-the-art technology for predicting consumer behavior in visually complex retail environments.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1978630</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1978630</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Perceived cross-cultural competency and purchase intention in foreign-influencer live streaming commerce: an extended theory of planned behavior perspective]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-15T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Qingqing Liu</author><author>Kavitha Balakrishnan</author><author>Mokhtarrudin Bin Ahmad</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Foreign influencers are playing a growing role in China's live-streaming commerce industry. Yet, little is known about how consumers respond to foreign influencers’ ability to communicate and adjust across cultures. To address this gap, the present study draws on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and distinguishes between two consumer perceptions: Intercultural Communication Competency (ICC) and Intercultural Adaptability (ICA). It examines the relationship between each perception and Purchase Intention (PI). The study also considers whether this relationship operates through three key TPB factors—Attitude (ATT), Subjective Norm (SN), and Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC). Survey data from 450 eligible consumers in Zhejiang Province, China, were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. ICC was positively associated with PI directly and indirectly through all three TPB constructs. ICA had no significant direct association with PI but showed significant specific indirect associations through ATT, SN, and PBC. ATT was the strongest indirect pathway for ICC, whereas SN was the strongest for ICA. The findings differentiate communication-based and adaptation-based routes into consumer decision-making and show how culturally relevant perceptions of foreign communicators can be incorporated as antecedents within TPB. Because the data are cross-sectional and were obtained from a convenience sample of topic-interested consumers in Zhejiang Province, the findings represent conditional associations within this specific sample and should not be generalised to all Chinese consumers.]]></description>
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        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1967803</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1967803</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Consumer perceptions of marketing mix in supermarkets: a cross-cultural analysis of Croatia and Tanzania]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-15T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Marko Šostar</author><author>Robert Suphian</author><author>Gabrijela Garić</author><author>Josip Knežević</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The primary objective of this study was to examine whether significant differences exist in the perception of supermarket marketing mix elements between consumers in Croatia and Tanzania. The analysis focused on five key dimensions (product, price, distribution, promotion, and personnel) with the aim of identifying the factors contributing to consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction within distinct market contexts. The research employed a quantitative methodology, gathering data from 991 respondents (400 from Croatia and 591 from Tanzania) through a structured survey based on a five-point Likert scale. The findings revealed statistically significant differences across all five marketing mix dimensions. Tanzanian respondents consistently expressed more favorable perceptions, particularly in relation to promotional activities and personnel interactions. Exploratory factor analysis suggested three broader dimensions, whereas confirmatory factor analysis provided stronger support for the theoretically specified five-factor structure. Multi-group CFA further supported metric and scalar measurement invariance across the Croatian and Tanzanian samples. The findings highlight the importance of adapting retail marketing strategies, particularly communication, service delivery, and promotional activities, to the specific characteristics of different national market contexts.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1943408</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1943408</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Platform visibility, historical narrative, and subject position: a communication-oriented systematic review of comparative interfaces between historical nihilism and neoliberalism, with a future research agenda]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-14T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Systematic Review</category>
        <author>Peilin Yang</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionPlatformized dissemination has changed the production, circulation, and reception conditions of historical content, raising questions about how historical narrative, capital logic, subject position, and platform visibility may intersect without presupposing a stable causal relationship between historical nihilism and neoliberalism.MethodsGuided by a historical-materialist analytical orientation that foregrounds historical conditions, social relations, institutional organization, and subject positions, this paper conducts a theory-oriented systematic literature review of Chinese and English studies from 2006 to 2026. Database-specific searches produced 3,306 raw records, from which 72 records (40 Chinese and 32 English) were retained for direct coding. The review compares three literature streams (historical nihilism, neoliberalism, and digital dissemination) across four comparative dimensions: historical narrative, capital logic, subject formation, and digital dissemination. It distinguishes theoretical association, textual or institutional articulation, and empirical dissemination evidence as complementary forms of evidence whose adequacy depends on the claim being made.ResultsThe results show that Chinese studies mainly organize their analyses around historical continuity, historical subjectivity, historical memory, and ideological security; neoliberalism studies emphasize market rationality, state restructuring, responsibilization, and public values; and digital dissemination studies focus on platformization, algorithmic visibility, fragmented narrative, and audience participation. Only three direct-bridge records explicitly connect capital logic and historical nihilism, and the available evidence therefore supports limited comparative interfaces rather than a generalized causal coupling.DiscussionThe review consequently proposes a claim-matched and cross-context framework in which theoretical association, textual/institutional articulation, and empirical dissemination evidence are selected according to the scope of the research claim. Within empirical dissemination evidence, platform-level and audience-level evidence are distinguished according to whether the claim concerns visibility/circulation or reception/change. Future research should select evidence and designs according to the type and scope of the research claim under examination.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1928028</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1928028</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Dynamic experiments: deconstructing the body in feminist experimental film and performance]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-14T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Zhuoran Zhang</author>
        <description><![CDATA[This study is situated at the intersection of two fields: the exploratory practices of female experimental artists and the speculative extension of the female body in imagery and philosophical texts. Employing textual analysis alongside examples from visual texts, this research reconstructed and critiqued structuralist and postmodernist interpretations to explore deconstructive misreadings and reflections of the female body within temporal and spatial dimensions in experimental film works. In doing so, the study offers innovative and diverse perspectives on the theoretical expression possibilities available to avant-garde female artists, as Illustration as on the multidimensional elements within philosophical practice texts. This includes the entanglement and contradictions betien bodily imagery and postmodernist texts, alongside a decentralised reconstruction of the social and natural realities of the body. The project's theoretical framework was grounded fundamentally in the works of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, with significant reference to Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Donna J. Haraway, and Giorgio Agamben. The analysis explored the malleability of bodily autonomy practices across time and space, proposing a future state of self-awareness for the body that transcends gender-centricity, and underscoring the significance of constructing social networks of embodied existence.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1981401</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1981401</link>
        <title><![CDATA[AI-based relighting in moving images: current potentials, limitations, and implications for cinematographic practice]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-14T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>David Brenner</author><author>Katja Schmid</author><author>Jan Adamczyk</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continuously opens up new possibilities in film post-production, including the subsequent relighting of moving images. As a systematic assessment from a film-design and professional-practice perspective has been lacking, this study examines the potentials, limitations, and implications of current AI-based relighting workflows for cinematographic practice. Methodologically, the study follows a qualitative-exploratory research design within practice-based and practice-led frameworks. Three current AI-based relighting systems (Nvidia DiffusionRenderer, Beeble Studio, and SwitchX) were tested across five test shots and evaluated using a cinematography-oriented qualitative evaluation scheme focusing on light plausibility, image quality and texture retention, as well as image integrity and temporal stability. These observations were complemented by eight semi-structured expert interviews with professionals from cinematography, lighting, and color grading. Results suggest that AI-based relighting does not currently replace on-set lighting but offers considerable potential as a selective correction and extension tool. Its strengths are particularly evident in wide and establishing shots, where faces and fine image details are less perceptually salient, as well as in situations where the desired lighting conditions are difficult to achieve or maintain on set due to weather, time, or budget constraints. Technical and creative limitations are most apparent in workflow integration and usability, as well as in texture loss and image alterations that impair visual credibility, particularly in portrait shots. The findings suggest the potential for a selective shift of certain lighting decisions toward post-production rather than a general replacement of on-set lighting. To maintain a coherent lighting design when substantial lighting decisions are deferred to post-production, greater continuity of cinematographic expertise and creative agency across production and post-production may be required.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1962569</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1962569</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Copyright governance and the dynamics of secondary-creation ecosystems in the platformized video industry]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-14T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Yuan Meng</author><author>Qingqing Shi</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Secondary creation on short-video platforms has become an important part of the circulation, interpretation, and consumption of long-form audiovisual works. Such participation can generate attention spillovers and cultural engagement, but it may also divert audience attention or substitute for full-length viewing. This study examines how a long-form video copyright holder's content-quality governance, licensing openness, and copyright enforcement shape the behavior of a large population of secondary creators and the evolution of the resulting creator ecosystem. We develop a finite-horizon leader-follower mean-field model in which the copyright holder commits to a governance path and creators differ in traffic capital and choose both an evaluative and narrative orientation and a level of creation and source-reliance intensity. Individual decisions interact through collective reinforcement and aggregate into ecosystem-level outcomes that enter the copyright holder's evaluation of the governance path. Numerical analysis under normalized benchmark parameters yields three main findings. First, creator activity and collective content orientation can move in different directions, so a highly active secondary-creation ecosystem is not necessarily favorable to the original work. Second, the direct effect of a creator incentive may differ from the complete leader-follower outcome when the copyright holder optimizes its governance portfolio while anticipating the population response. Third, stronger quality inducement is associated with a more positive average orientation and lower cross-state orientation dispersion even as the complete copyright-holder objective declines over the examined range and licensing openness responds non-monotonically; a steeper penalty schedule is associated with lower creation and source-reliance intensity and reduced reliance on broad enforcement. These findings conceptualize copyright governance in platformized video industries as creator-ecosystem governance rather than infringement suppression alone.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1986584</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1986584</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Aware but not verifying: media literacy, verification behaviour, and misinformation resilience at three universities in Somalia]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Abdullahi Mohamud Mohamed</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Somalia combines rapid growth in internet use with fragile institutions and a clan-based social structure in which rumour carries real consequences, yet almost nothing is known about how Somali students evaluate the information they consume. This study examined self-reported media literacy, misinformation-fighting competency, and demonstrated verification performance among students at three universities in Mogadishu, Hargeisa, and Garowe. A cross-sectional, convergent mixed-methods design with an embedded behavioural component combined a non-probability (purposive) online survey (N = 393) with semi-structured interviews and a five-item performance task administered to 15 purposively selected interviewees. Self-report measured media literacy and misinformation-fighting competency; the task measured demonstrated resistance on specific items. Resilience is used here as the higher-order outcome these components feed into, and is not itself measured directly. Students reported moderately high media literacy (M = 3.82, α = .84) and strong awareness that unverified information harms society (M = 4.15), but markedly weaker verification behaviour (M = 3.08) and source-identification skill (M = 2.91). Within the study sample, media literacy was positively associated with misinformation-fighting competency (r = .62, p < .001); given the cross-sectional design and non-probability sampling, this is a statistical association within the sample rather than a causal or population-level relationship. In the performance task, participants correctly classified only 35% of misinformation items against a mean self-rated confidence equivalent to 72%. In the interviews students attributed these gaps to a forwarding culture that rewards speed over scrutiny, to clan affiliation operating as an informal credibility filter, and to a functional differentiation of platforms in which Facebook serves as the default news infrastructure. These patterns suggest that awareness-oriented media literacy programming may not be sufficient on its own to change behaviour, and that curricula in Somali universities could usefully prioritise habitual verification practice, source evaluation, and resistance to identity-based manipulation. The quantitative findings are descriptive and exploratory: the three universities were purposively selected and the Garowe sub-sample comprised only 12 students, so the results are not statistically representative of, and should not be generalised to, all universities or university students in Somalia.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1988712</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1988712</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Shared question, divergent verdicts: media framing of the national-disaster threshold in Indonesia’s 2025 Sumatra floods]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-09T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Rudianto Rudianto</author><author>Yan Hendra</author><author>Ribut Priadi</author>
        <description><![CDATA[In decentralized systems, declaring a national disaster marks a contested threshold: the point at which subnational capacity is deemed exhausted and central authority must assume control. Because Indonesia's disaster law names criteria without numerical triggers, that judgment is argued in public, and news media are one place where it is argued. This study examines how three Indonesian online outlets, Detik.com, Kompas.com, and Waspada.id, framed the government's response to the 2025 Sumatra floods and the question of national-disaster status. Using qualitative framing analysis, it examines forty articles published between 27 November 2025 and 2 January 2026, coded by two authors independently against Entman's four framing functions and an additional case-specific code recording each article's stance toward the capacity threshold. All forty articles are analyzed and reported: 29 news items form the comparison across the three outlets, and the remaining 11 (six from the Kompas.com environment desk and five analysis and opinion items) are reported separately because they are not comparable across outlets. All three outlets raised the threshold question in part of their coverage, so they differed less in agenda than in verdict and remedy. Detik.com presents state conduct as capable and carries no moral censure; the other two predominantly present delay as a failure of obligation. Remedies also differ: operational measures predominate in Detik.com and a national-disaster declaration in Waspada.id, while the general news of Kompas.com is dispersed across remedies and ecological reform is concentrated in its environment desk. The study argues that outlets can share a problem agenda while offering incompatible remedies. In decentralized systems, the question of who should act is therefore contested through remedy selection more than through agenda exclusion. The analysis concerns media texts only; audience reception was not studied.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1893894</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1893894</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Emotional design and advertising: a systematic review of the literature on consumer behavior]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-09T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Systematic Review</category>
        <author>Luis Miguel Viñan-Carrasco</author><author>Wilson Xavier Castro-Ortiz</author><author>Pablo Xavier Rosas-Chávez</author><author>Raúl Guillermo Zambrano-Pontón</author><author>Shawnny Daniela Dillon-Abarca</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionEmotional design integrates sensory, functional, social, and symbolic elements to elicit affective responses that may influence consumer perception, attitudes, and behavior. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between emotional design, advertising, and consumer behavior based on recent scientific literature.MethodsA systematic literature review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Searches were performed in Scopus and Web of Science, and 66 primary studies published during the last ten years were included.ResultsThe reviewed evidence shows that emotional design strategies incorporate perceptual stimuli, user experiences, and meaning-making processes. Color, shape, texture, packaging, and multisensory stimuli contribute to attraction, attention, and perceived quality, while usability, ergonomics, interactivity, and demonstrations enhance the user experience. Storytelling, cultural identity, sustainability, and personalization contribute to meaning construction and strengthen consumer-brand connections. The literature also identifies positive, negative, and complex emotions, including pleasure, trust, fear, guilt, nostalgia, attachment, and identification, which are associated with purchase intention, satisfaction, loyalty, repurchase, and other consumer responses.DiscussionThe findings indicate that emotional design operates across sensory, experiential, social, and symbolic dimensions, extending its influence beyond immediate purchase decisions toward longer-term consumer-brand relationships. However, the methodological diversity of the reviewed studies highlights the need for more integrated approaches combining subjective, physiological, and digital measures to evaluate emotional and behavioral responses.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/QR9YN]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1927812</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1927812</link>
        <title><![CDATA[The impact of social media on job search in Costa Rica: an analysis from digital communication]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-08T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Carolina Ulate-Vindas</author><author>José Pablo Salazar-Aguilar</author><author>Nazira Castillo-Alfaro</author><author>Marco Andrés Carbonell-Parés</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionDigital transformation has reshaped recruitment and job-search processes, positioning social media as communication environments through which employment opportunities are disseminated, interpreted, and acted upon. This study analyzes the use and perceived effectiveness of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn in job-search practices among digitally active adults aged 20 to 49 in Costa Rica during 2024.MethodsA quantitative, descriptive, non-experimental, and cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected through an online self-administered survey of 220 participants selected through non-probability convenience sampling. The questionnaire examined social media use for job search, perceived effectiveness compared with traditional methods, platform use, demographic and professional factors, and employment-related content preferences. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages.ResultsSocial media was widely used for job search, with 77.7% of participants reporting having used a social platform for this purpose. Half of the sample perceived social media as effective or very effective compared with traditional job-search methods. Platform use showed differentiated patterns, with Facebook associated with broad access and employment-related groups, Instagram with visual and dynamic content, and LinkedIn with specialized professional searches and networking. Access to updated information emerged as the most frequently identified benefit (51.36%), while message clarity was the main factor motivating interaction with employment-related content (72.27%).DiscussionThe findings indicate that social media functions as an important communication environment for job search among digitally active users in Costa Rica, but its perceived effectiveness varies according to platform characteristics, content, and users' digital competencies. The results support differentiated recruitment-marketing and employer-branding strategies rather than uniform cross-platform communication. Given the non-probability sample and descriptive design, the findings should be interpreted as patterns within the analyzed sample rather than generalized to the Costa Rican population.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2008141</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.2008141</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Correction: ‘Me and my besties in 50 years’. Aspirational aging in Italy’s Sciuraglam content marketing strategy]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-08T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Correction</category>
        <author>Gloria Dagnino</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1950049</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1950049</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Diversity, equity and inclusion in EU public communication. Between policy mainstreaming and communicative clashes]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-08T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Lucia D’Ambrosi</author><author>Gabriella Radano</author><author>Valentina Taverna</author><author>Evandro Oliveira</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Inclusive communication has become a strategic priority for the European institutions, which over the past decade have built an extensive framework of equality, diversity and inclusion commitments under the Union of Equality agenda. These frameworks, however, do not specify who is accountable for putting them into practice. Whether they hold depends on the daily choices of the people who draft the texts, a level of practice that research has so far rarely examined. The study combines documentary analysis of European policy frameworks and communication guidelines issued between 2018 and 2026 with twenty semi-structured interviews conducted in 2026 with communication officers, policy officials and external practitioners working for European Institutions at the central level. Interview data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis. The analysis identifies a condition of entrusted inclusion: inclusive practice is sustained day to day by the discretionary commitment of individual professionals, with limited support from formal organizational arrangements, leaving it vulnerable to changes in personnel and leadership. Three dynamics compound this fragility: the validation chain understood by professionals as a safeguard of quality, is reported to dilute inclusive intent (1); the feminization of the field concentrates inclusion work in roles with limited decision-making authority, reproducing the asymmetries it is meant to address (2); and external backlash produces divergent institutional responses, from resistance to adaptation and formal retreat (3). The internal rules governing AI use in institutional communication, oriented to data protection and factual accuracy, remain silent on the representational quality of generated content, leaving it to review processes not designed for that purpose. The study analyses professional accounts and institutional documents as opposed to communication outputs or audience responses: its claims therefore concern how inclusion is produced and perceived inside the institutions, not the properties of published content. The paper terms these breakdowns communicative clashes: the points at which communication designed to include collides with its own production, representational or reception dynamics. Furthermore, it conceptualizes the gap between policy mainstreaming and structural practice and specifies the organizational dynamics through which inclusive intent is diluted - dynamics that professionals associate with tokenism, diversity washing and algorithmic bias.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1734083</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1734083</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Narrating childhood under state violence: media power, territorial stigma and the Malvinas case in Ecuadorian journalism]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-08T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Fernanda Tusa</author><author>Jorge Maza-Córdova</author><author>Ignacio Aguaded</author><author>Santiago Tejedor</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionThis study examines how Ecuadorian digital newspapers constructed childhood and attributed responsibility in coverage of the Malvinas case, in which one child and three adolescents aged 11–15 were detained by military personnel in Guayaquil on 8 December 2024, forcibly disappeared, and later found dead near Taura. Childhood is conceptualized as a socially produced, rights-bearing category, while direct state violence is distinguished from structural violence.MethodsA qualitative content analysis, informed by critical discourse analysis, framing, indexing theory, the hierarchy-of-influences model, moral-panic scholarship, and mediated-memory studies, was conducted on a purposive final corpus of 12 digital journalistic texts published by eight Ecuadorian outlets between December 2024 and August 2025. The analysis examined actor visibility, source hierarchy, lexical agency, territorialization, visual ethics, genre, narrative frame, underlying message, and transmitted values.ResultsThree recurrent configurations were identified: securitized/officialist, rights/forensic, and sensationalist. Officialist tendencies were strongest when coverage depended on military or governmental definers and when Las Malvinas was rendered as a geography of danger. Rights-oriented accounts emerged through family testimony, forensic evidence, legal categories, and longer investigative formats.DiscussionJournalistic discourse can either reproduce institutional self-legitimation or re-humanize children as subjects of rights. Ethical reporting on child victims of state violence requires precise legal language, contextual depth, genre transparency, child-protection protocols, and an ethics of memory that resists territorial stigma and symbolic erasure.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1759634</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1759634</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Wicked problems, gender violence, and media ethics: Reflections on improving journalistic coverage of violence against women and girls]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-07T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Conceptual Analysis</category>
        <author>Leandra H. Hernández</author><author>Stevie Munz</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Violence against women and girls is a complex global public health and human rights crisis sustained by intersecting cultural, institutional, and structural conditions. News coverage plays a consequential role in shaping public understandings of such violence and frequently relies on episodic framing, victim-blaming narratives, sensationalism while simultaneously upholding enforcement perspectives, marginalizing survivors' voices, and obscuring systemic causes. In this article, we interrogate trends surrounding news coverage of violence against women and girls through the lens of wicked problems and consider the ethical responsibilities of journalists who report on gender violence. Drawing on ethical witnessing and gender-sensitive reporting principles, we advance the framework of space-making as a praxis-based framework for more humane and socially responsive journalism. Through an illustrative case analysis of news coverage surrounding the murder of Gabby Petito, we demonstrate how disproportionate attention to white women can render missing and murdered women of color, transgender women, and other marginalized communities less visible. We assert that space-making moves beyond minimizing harm by asking journalists to examine how reporting practices reproduce inequity, connect individual cases to systemic conditions, and create opportunities for survivors and communities to exercise voice and agency. We conclude that reflexive, relational, and intersectional reporting can strengthen journalism's democratic role, improve representations of gender violence, and support collective witnessing and social change.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1935069</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1935069</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Algorithmic allure: a theoretical framework for dark AI patterns and the erosion of informed consent in AI-driven digital marketing]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-07T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Keltoum Bentameur</author><author>Zineb Hamadi</author><author>Riyad Bouaici</author>
        <description><![CDATA[This study examines how generative AI is reshaping digital marketing by enabling unprecedented levels of personalization, automation, and consumer interaction, while simultaneously producing subtler, more complex forms of algorithmic manipulation that extend well beyond conventional dark patterns and threaten meaningful informed consent. Prior research has treated AI-enabled persuasion in a fragmented way—focusing on personalization, recommender systems, or deceptive interface designs in isolation—without offering an integrated account of how generative AI shapes influence across the consumer journey. To address this gap, we conduct a multi-case qualitative analysis of seven documented international incidents of AI-driven marketing practices from 2024 to 2026. Data sources include regulatory reports, investigative journalism, corporate disclosures, and peer-reviewed literature. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified seven high-level themes: identity manipulation, social-proof exploitation, synthetic evidence, AI-washing, agentic AI manipulation, synthetic authenticity, and autonomous commercial manipulation. These themes form a taxonomy of “Dark AI Patterns”. Building on these findings, we propose Algorithmic Allure Theory (AAT), which conceptualizes AI-enabled persuasion as a dynamic, six-stage process: observation, interpretation, algorithmic allure, behavioral steering, delegation, and algorithmic governance. AAT argues that contemporary commercial persuasion relies on adaptive computational systems that continuously generate, test, and refine influence tactics in real time—processes that often erode informed consent while preserving a veneer of legitimacy and transparency.Contributions(1) establish Dark AI Patterns as a distinct class of deceptive practices; (2) introduce AAT as a transdisciplinary framework for understanding AI-mediated influence; (3) reconceptualize informed consent as an ongoing cognitive and temporal process rather than a one-time legal event; (4) offer a practical taxonomy to guide future research, regulation, and ethical AI marketing practices As a primary goal.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1966278</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1966278</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Developing an AI literacy policy framework for responsible AI governance: perspectives from South Korean media experts]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-07T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Sunkyung Shin</author><author>Jooyeun Park</author>
        <description><![CDATA[This study investigates the societal impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and develops policy directions for mitigating associated risks through qualitative content analysis of written structured expert interviews with eleven media experts in South Korea. The findings indicate that the impacts of AI extend across three interconnected domains: individual, societal, and industrial. Among the risks identified, experts expressed particular concern about job displacement, data-related vulnerabilities, and ethical challenges. In response to these concerns, the development of AI literacy policy was mentioned by all participants as a policy response, while strengthening corporate accountability and reinforcing legal and institutional safeguards were also identified as relevant policy measures. More importantly, the findings suggest that effective AI literacy policy should move beyond a narrow focus on technical knowledge and skills toward a holistic framework encompassing three core dimensions: ethics and responsibility, practical and context-sensitive application, and social inclusion. Building on these findings, this study proposes an AI literacy policy framework that positions literacy as a critical component of responsible AI governance rather than solely as an individual competency.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1995028</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1995028</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Layered narrative sovereignty: communicative authority and hybrid infrastructures in Mexican Indigenous and community media]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-07T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Alma Delia Zamorano-Rojas</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Indigenous and community media in Latin America increasingly circulate through digital environments that include externally governed platform infrastructures. This article examines how three Mexican media organizations—Radio Tosepan Limakxtum, Radio Tsinaka, and Ojo de Agua Comunicación—exercise narrative sovereignty under these conditions. Drawing on a comparative qualitative content analysis of 24 publicly accessible communication units, the study analyzes the articulation of Indigenous-language use, community voice, cultural identity, territory, memory, community knowledge, autonomy and rights, collective action, gender, environment/extractivism, collaboration, and translocal circulation. The analysis distinguishes three related but analytically separate dimensions: narrative authority, organizational media capacity, and infrastructural configuration. The findings show that the three organizations sustain distinct forms of communicative authority while operating through heterogeneous combinations of community radio, organizational websites, audiovisual archives, streaming services, collaborative networks, and external digital platforms. Rather than treating platform presence as equivalent to communicative dependence, the analysis shows that narrative sovereignty can operate across hybrid infrastructures that combine organizational, collaborative, and externally governed channels. The article argues that narrative sovereignty is therefore best understood as layered: communicative authority may remain substantial even when circulation occurs across infrastructures governed by different actors.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1959385</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1959385</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Cultural and multimodal realization in various AI models: text to image, image to text]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Areej Albawardi</author><author>Alyaa Olwi</author>
        <description><![CDATA[This study examines how various AI models realize different visual and cultural aspects in advertisements. The research is based on an exploratory case study that analyzes AI generated texts, as well as images generated from the same AI produced texts. Six advertisements are used to produce 42 textual prompts and 54 images. Seven AI models are used to produce texts, and 9 AI image generators used to produce images. Tools from multimodality are utilized to analyze collected data. Themes are identified across the collected data. A comparison of AI models’ strengths and weaknesses in relation to their representation of themes is also presented. Findings indicate that current AI models are efficient in representation of color, setting, action, people, and modality. However, most AI models lack accurate representation of cultural artifacts, including language and cultural dress. The intended aim of the original image in relation to advertisement, logos and brands is also not fully captured nor represented in textual prompts or generated images. The study has a number of implications in relation to theories of multimodality and culture. In addition, findings can be beneficial for those developing AI.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1962502</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1962502</link>
        <title><![CDATA[From assimilation to discursive annexation? Tracing ‘multicultural family’ in South Korean government and media discourses]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-10-05T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Yidan Luo</author><author>Pengfei Bao</author>
        <description><![CDATA[South Korea's shift from ethnic homogeneity to state-led multiculturalism has produced the policy category “multicultural family.” This study conducts a diachronic corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of English-language government white papers and two conservative newspapers (Korea JoongAng Daily, The Korea Times) across 2006–2023. Findings reveal that while government discourse modernised lexically—from welfare provision toward empowerment and diversity—it nonetheless frames multicultural families as requiring managed integration into an imagined “Korean family,” a strategy we theorise as discursive annexation. Conservative media, by contrast, sustains a negative semantic prosody of conflict, discrimination, and victimhood. The narrowing semantic distance between multicultural family and Korean family in government texts reflects nation-branding rather than genuine inclusion. Integrating intercultural communication theory, the study demonstrates how computational tools, paired with critical interpretation, expose the discursive limits of liberal multiculturalism in ethnocentric societies.]]></description>
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