The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has led to significant advancements in human-computer interaction. However, the resulting confusion regarding self- identity and the emerging crisis of human-computer trust warrant closer attention in theoretical research. The emergence of AI anchors has not only driven profound changes in the intelligence transformation of the online live-streaming industry but also presents significant opportunities and challenges for reshaping media trust and constructing new forms of human-computer trust relationship. This study employs social trust theory as the foundation and media equation theory as the research perspective. Utilizing survey data and structural equation modeling, it examines the mediality of AI anchors and reveals the path and mechanisms of human-computer trust construction under the iterative development of artificial intelligence technology. The study found that anthropomorphic and intelligent mediality presentations directly impact the formation of human-computer trust in AI anchors; mediality also indirectly affects the human- computer trust relationship through the mediator variable of perceived value; technology self- efficacy plays a moderating role in the relationship between mediality and the trust formation, and individuals with higher levels of technology self-efficacy being more likely to develop trust in AI anchors during interactions. The innovative ideas put forward in the study can promote the construction of a new human-computer relationship with the core concept of “intelligence for good, technology for humans”, and thus improve the social trust system in the context of new technologies.

Social media has driven the worldwide spread of femvertising. While achieving great monetization benefits, femvertising has also been criticized for its post-feminist discourse, which may worsen gender inequality. Focusing on femvertising practices in Weibo, the paper uses thematic analysis and semantic network analysis to investigate post-feminist discourses in advertising, as well as audience responses to post-feminist discourses and meaning production. It is found that the confidence culture discourse and the positive mentality discourse are largely echoed. “Empowerment” is constructed as the process of individual “realizing beauty”, and the self-discipline of “confidence” and “positive mentality” is regarded as the key way of “empowerment”. Consumption is also given a “rewarding” meaning to advertisers. Finally, the paper introduces the theoretical perspective of Marxist feminism, examines the unequal economic relations and ideology reflected by post-feminist discourse, and explores the “true empowerment” approach of femvertising.

The rapid development of live-streaming e-commerce in China has led to the formation of a business model uniquely characterized by affective interaction. Based on Slavoj Žižek’s critical psychoanalytic theory, this study employs digital ethnography and in-depth interviews to offer a “symptomatic interpretation” of the affective labor performed by e-commerce livestreamers. It examines deep connections between ideological mechanisms and the psychological dimensions of the livestreamers, within the framework of the political economy of communication. The research finds that the affective labor of e-commerce livestreamers is reconstructed into a “hybrid affective labor” through the mediation of digital technology, with its core symptom being digitalized intimacy. This symptom manifests as a dual fragmentation of the subject, perceptual fragmentation and cognitive fragmentation, which reveals the contradictions and complexities of commodified affects. By analyzing the exploitative forms that result from the simultaneous operation of capital logic and desire logic within hybrid affective labor, the study examines how to transcend the surplus enjoyment illusion of the digital big Other on two levels: namely, the reshaping of affects and the reconstitution of identity. The study proposes that e-commerce livestreamers should reconnect with the essence of labor by emphasizing the embodied and authentic dimensions of affective labor, thereby effectively resisting capitalist ideology.

The year 2024 marks not only the 30th anniversary of China’s full access to Internet services but also a pivotal moment in the accelerated development of generative artificial intelligence technologies and applications. This year has witnessed extensive scholarly discussions and in-depth analyses on topics such as knowledge production and human-computer relationships in the context of generative AI. Guided by criteria including topical relevance, theoretical innovation, and research depth, this article identifies five key themes from new media research published in core journals in 2024: the transformation of the knowledge production paradigm driven by generative AI, evolving dynamics and challenges in human-computer relationships, cross-disciplinary interactions and innovative emotional practices in the AI era, studies on digital nomadism, and research on micro-short dramas. By categorizing and briefly reviewing these themes, this article aims to provide a structured overview that serves as a reference for future research in the field.

Mass media has played an important role in shaping and continuously reinforcing the “ideal body” through selectively presenting certain types of appearances and bodies. In the age of social media, pictures, videos and texts about appearance and body shape are also featured on various platforms, explicitly or implicitly influencing individuals’ perception of body image. Considering the ubiquity of body image content on social media and its negative impacts on individuals and on society, this study focused on Xiaohongshu APP and explored how body pictures, comments and sex affected negative emotions, inspiration and social comparison based on gender differences theorizing and social comparison theory. By adopting a 2 (participant sex: male vs. female) ×2 (commentator sex: male vs. female) ×2 (comment content: attainable vs. unattainable) between- subject factorial design, an online experiment (N = 292) was conducted. The results showed that, after controlling for social comparison tendency and body mass index, women experienced more negative emotions than men; attainable comments elicited more inspiration and less negative emotion than unattainable comments. Same-sex comments elicited more social comparisons than opposite-sex comments. For female participants, reading attainable comments written by female elicited the highest level of inspiration. While for male participants, reading unattainable comments written by female elicited the lowest level of inspiration. Implications were discussed in terms of gender differences and social comparison.

This article selects innovative journalism papers in addressing research questions, offering unique perspectives, and employing novel argumentation methods from nearly 30 Chinese academic journals (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) published in 2024. In 2024, Chinese journalism research maintained a relatively stable focus on topics and continue advancing through innovative perspectives. Firstly, research on journalism theory, news production,media convergence, journalistic practitioners, and audience engagement has supported the core foundation of news knowledge production over the past year. Secondly, with the continuous reshaping of news practice by digital communication technology, theoretical explorations on journalism business models and diverse storytelling techniques have returned to the forefront of journalism research. In addition, researchers have made significant progress in tracking and comparing innovative practices in Chinese journalism, critiquing and revisiting classic journalism concepts, conducting cross-disciplinary research between journalism history and socio-political history, and exploring issues such as gender representation in news and its role in society.

In today’s culture of the internet, young women who have not yet married or had children are interested in “raising” virtual babies. The intersection of girl culture and motherhood studies has prompted a rethinking of how the connotation and extension of “motherhood” expand and change in the digital era. This study focuses on the practice of “cyber-motherhood” in recent years among online communities of plush doll players, with empirical data gathered through in-depth interviews and participatory observation methods. In contrast to previous studies that focused on how technology affects biological child rearing, “cyber-motherhood” focuses on the intertwined interaction of humans and technology through the concept of the cyborg. According to research, media technology, social structure, and the agency of girl players interact to shape the “cyber-mothering” practice, which is based on embodiment practice and visual techniques. It echoes the social institution of motherhood while also undermining its sanctity.While “cyber- motherhood” provides girls with a flexible strategy of dealing with life’s pressures, flowing eros emerges from the cracks of rigid binary logic, acting as a transient but widely spread force while also opening up new opportunities for various gender subject-positions.

The advent of the social media era has broadened people's sources of information and broken the monopoly of traditional media as the "gatekeepers". With the development of multimedia technology and the emergence of fragmented and quick reading habits, video-based social media has increasingly become a new forum for information intake for global users and a new battleground for international communication. This paper conducted a content analysis and semantic network analysis on 387730 China-related videos posted on YouTube from 2019-2021, revealing the types, temporal changes, and cross-linguistic differences of China-related sub-topics on overseas video-based social media. The results of the second and third levels of agenda-setting analysis show that while other types of channels are closely linked in their construction of China's image, media channels present relatively independent agendas and are not well integrated into the YouTube opinion field. The study makes a theoretical contribution to the integration of international communication theory and agenda-setting theory. It innovatively compares the second- and third- level agenda-setting effects and proposes specific strategies for China on how to expand video channels for international communication.

Changes in labor specialization can stem from developments in industrial structure, changes in factors of production, employment structure, employment relationships, and transaction costs. The development of digital platforms has also led to the differentiation of labor types, which has become a topic of increasing attention. This paper conducts an empirical study on several Xiaohongshu (former) staff members, two MCN agency staff members, and 38 fashion bloggers to show that the expansion of Xiaohongshu has directly led to the professional differentiation of fashion Labor. This paper posits that Xiaohongshu’s data-driven operations, business model, and feminine focus have directly led to the categorization of fashion bloggers into three main groups. The first two categories encompass “established bloggers,” who have been promoting fashion brands either full-time or part-time before the advent of Xiaohongshu. Their attitudes towards Xiaohongshu can be further subdivided into “flexible established bloggers,” who are open to Xiaohongshu, and “resolute established bloggers,” who resist it. The third category is the “new bloggers” group, comprising “digital natives.” Their understanding of fashion is primarily shaped by their digital practices. Moreover, due to the opaque nature of algorithms, the significant involvement of MCN agencies, and the invisibility of the platform behind the platform, the operational mechanisms of the platform remain unclear to most MCN agency employees and individual bloggers.

As a “social factory” implementation space, short video/live streaming replicates and produces specific masculinities of social life in particular scenarios of digital communication, then symbolizes and characterizes them to serve the purpose of profits. This paper studies the male anchors in Kuaishou and their cultural production through digital ethnography and discusses the connection and tension between the bottom life, the performance of Jianghu culture, the governance of the state and the platform in the process of the diachronic transformation of masculinity discourse from “shehuirener” to “jingshen lad”. By analyzing the relationship between the replication and production of masculinities, short videos/live streaming, and consumer communication in the virtual world, we aim to glimpse and reveal a corner of the practice and cultural reproduction of bottom men and masculinities, in order to better understand contemporary Chinese society in the context of digital fission.

This study redefines the concept of digital hoarding from the perspective of communication and explores the psychological motivation associated with digital hoarding among young people through in-depth interviews. The research found that digital content hoarded by youth groups on social platforms pointed to “useful” self-optimization practices and “interesting” digital experience practices, the former stems from anxiety about coping with the dual performance of social space and real-life in the rat race, while the latter points to the need for positive emotional energy. We believe that the current widespread digital hoarding among young people is a kind of passive performance-oriented practice in the form of compliance and action laziness, and its psychological drive is the superposition effect of auto-exploitation and allo-exploitation, it can also be seen as a swaying practice of “enterprising lying flat” under the shadow of utilitarianism, which reflects the inner contradictions in the feelings and behaviors of the youth group. We need to be alert to the “suspension” mentality behind digital hoarding. Digital hoarding has the potential to magnify the risks of digital practices getting off track with reality. Beyond this case study, we need to continue to reflect on how the practice of negative-performancism based digital hoarding can address and whitewash the structuralism dilemmas of today’s society.

The advancement in generative artificial intelligence technologies, as illustrated by ChatGPT, signifies not only technological progress but also the emergence of novel themes and nuanced interpretations of longstanding issues, giving rise to a distinctive problematic domain. In 2023, scholars extensively deliberated on ChatGPT’s applications, exploring its potential social ramifications, alterations in human-machine dynamics, shifts in living environments, and more. This led to in-depth exploration and reflection. Utilizing criteria such as topical freshness, theoretical innovation, and research depth, this paper distills six key themes from the pivotal journals of new media studies in 2023. These encompass the evolving relationships and interactions between humans and machines, novel mechanisms for knowledge production, intelligent machines, media objects (including technological and virtual entities), new media in rural settings, and the exploration of “short videos + live streaming.” Despite the constraints of limited data, the paper categorizes and succinctly reviews these themes, aiming to provide a valuable reference for researchers in the field.

Existing studies on public opinion patterns in China generally find polarization within online public opinion. However, these studies stay at the level of descriptive analysis and pay less attention to the underlying formation mechanisms. Based on the 2021 Chinese Netizens Survey, this study analyses whether polarization of public opinion exists and its underlying causal mechanism. Contrary to prior findings, the results show that the structural attitudes of Chinese netizens is not bimodal but a unimodal distribution, of which the position of netizens on domestic controversial topics is relatively neutral and mild, and the attitude on diplomatic topics is a one- sided “strongly support” of the government’s position. Moreover, there are widespread “false consensus” effects in overestimating the proportion of the actual opinions held by others with individuals holding more extreme attitudes showing more “false consensus”. In terms of the formation mechanism, authoritarian personality, ideology, and media exposure can significantly predict the polarization of people’s attitudes, but the false consensus is the internal drive of attitude polarization. While contributing greater insight to public opinion in China, the research results also have significance for the construction of healthy and normal public opinion in China.

As AI social chatbots are seen as human communicators, it is crucial to understand the problems of gender bias in their interactions with humans. Using the method of conversation test, this paper designs a series of questions for testing gender bias of robots and to test the gender bias of three mainstream social chatbots in China. The interaction texts are analyzed through qualitative coding analysis.The results indicate that social chatbots exhibit significant gender bias in self- perception of gender, gender stereotypes, gender equality, and response to gender harassment, which are unrelated to the male and female gender roles of the social chatbots themselves. The gender bias of social chatbots as products of human-computer interaction technology, they are constructed by user participation, dialog system technical support, technology companies and program developers. The result is that AI, as represented by social chatbots, replicates and reinforces the construct power of gender bias in the gender culture of human society in learning and imitation.

Digital platforms such as social media have become space to raise gender consciousness, foster women’s solidarity and call for social change. Through qualitative methods such as in-depth interview and participatory observation, this study explores the process of gender consciousness among young female users who actively speak out on gender issues in local digital space. In addition, this paper proposes the concept of “mediated affective solidarity” to understand how individuals who suffer from affective dissonance, experience gender consciousness and become affective alien can connect, support with each other and make collective voices to form a sense of solidary as affective communities based on the connective affordance of social media. This study argues that social media and other digital platforms have reconfigured the relationship between individual, collective and space, and shaped the feminist politics of transformation in contemporary China, in which affect plays a significant role.

This article uses the Douban group “Don’t Buy” as the research object. Based on online ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews, this paper analyzes the cultural phenomenon and communication landscape of anti-consumerism online community from the perspective of culture studies, arguing that anti-consumerism culture reflects the realities of some youth groups’ reflexivity and the awakening of female consciousness. The “resistance” is not based on rejection,but on seeking balance and protection from alienation, selecting and reconstructing those aesthetic feelings, ideologies and logical elements that serve modern society. The interconnection of scattered individuals through online communities opens up a space of meaning and resistance under technological support, offering new possibilities for the formation of a cultural critical field.

Currently, entertainment-oriented expressions are gradually occupying the public sphere, and it seems to have become a consensus that communication effects can be enhanced by means of entertainment. However, further research is needed to examine whether entertainment will necessarily enhance communication effects. Built on the elaboration likelihood model and consistency theory, this study explores how topics and media attributes moderate the influence of entertainment on the number of likes, an important indicator of the communication effect, by content analyzing 467 anti-fraud short videos on Douyin. The results show that preventive education and unveiling scam information inhibited the positive effect of entertainment on the number of likes, but case description and property loss information strengthened the positive effect of entertainment on the number of likes. The use of entertainment in self-media significantly boosted the number of likes, and this effect was not affected by any type of information. However, the number of likes received by official media was not affected by entertainment. This study not only provides strategies on how to use entertainment techniques for public communication, but also reveals the boundaries of the effect of entertainment on communication effects, shedding new insights on the relationship between audiences and media in this era of pan-entertainment.

Since the emergence of generative AI its continuous development has led to interactions between users and AI that have begun to transcend the boundaries of traditional interpersonal communication. This study focuses on the unanticipated emotional practice of “human-AI romance” and employs qualitative research methods to examine how users collaborate with AI to cross and reshape communication boundaries based on the theory of affordance. The findings reveal that users guide AI to break through limitations and cross existing boundaries by using special prompts; they engage in natural language programming and co-construct worlds with generative AI to create virtual lovers, thereby reshaping communication boundaries. Confronted with AI’s technological limitations and iterative development processes, which lead to new boundaries like limited “memory” and the “death” of AI companions, users are adopting various strategies and negotiating with technological systems to sustain this emotional practice. These strategies include memory inscription and “reincarnation” of their AI companions. This dynamic boundary-crossing game not only presents new possibilities for human-AI communication but also reveals the significance of “processuality” and “in(un)determinacy” to the theory of affordance.

Over the past few years, there have been historical transformations in the global political, cultural, and communication landscape. Under these remarkable changes of the new era, academics have argued that the fundamental philosophy of China’s global cultural communication has to be advanced from “intercultural communication” to “transcultural communication”. This study will delineate the theoretical foundations of transcultural communication by following three trajectories--the communicative consequences of globalization, the critique of post-colonialism, and the methodological reflection--and inspect its implications within the current global political, economic, and cultural milieu, inspiring its potential to engage with China’s global communication practices. Based on this, we explore three transcultural practical directions for China’s global communication. The primary direction is to establish multicultural connections and fostering the networks among cultures worldwide. The second direction aims to attain the “liberation” of diverse cultural entities in practical politics within the framework of “critical transculturalism”, and to facilitate the “transformative reproduction” among Chinese and other cultures through hybridity. The third direction involves embracing a comprehensive perspective of global cultural fluxion, absorbing the traditional Chinese philosophical idea of “all-under-heaven” (tian-xia), considering the transcultural actors and establishing a “cosmopolitan risk collectivity” based on “rationality-cognition” throughout cultural interaction and transformation. These three directions are interconnected and mutually supportive, creating a synergistic mechanism when implemented collectively.

This study aims to explore the public’s perception, assessment and use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in human-computer interaction. With the help of science communication theory and the AIDUA research framework, and structural equation modeling analysis of 1805 sample data, the study deeply explores the factors that form the public’s multidimensional cognitive attitudes towards Generative Artificial Intelligence, as well as the paths that influence the public’s segmented content production behaviors. The study finds that the public’s cognition, assessment and use of generative AI take place in a context of intertwined and Interco structed technological imagination and technological practice. In the primary assessment stage, the public’s technological outlook is shaped by peripheral, front-end factors, including an individual’s optimistic technological disposition, prior technological experiences, and the influence of their local community. These elements drive their perceptions and practical engagement with GAI. In the subsequent evaluation stage, the public’s understanding of GAI’s usage, advantages, and potential risks, informed by their own technological activities, gives rise to a complex cognitive attitude that encompasses both favorable and unfavorable elements. Ultimately, at the behavioral outcome stage, these multidimensional cognitive attitudes significantly impact the public's intricate content creation decisions.

This article focuses on the “digital death” on Chinese social media platforms. It refers to social media platforms’ depriving individuals of their right to live digitally on platforms through repressive account suspensions (namely “account bombing”). We collected 131 online writings about digital lives and conducted 39 in-depth online interviews on users’ experiences of account bombing. These narratives publicize the politics of memory in Chinese cyberspace. This study argues that account bombing as an incident interrupts individuals’ daily lives and causes death- like pain and trauma. The blocked users’ digital memories are entirely deleted, with (part) their digital self annihilated and stripped. Writing is a way to resist forgetting and protest against the deviant stigma imposed by the authorities. It also reproduces and confirms the blocked users’ identity and subjectivity. As a result, Internet governance, committed to forgetting through deleting, has stimulated proactive memory inscription. The long-term effects of deletion on the technologized memory structure are also worth further exploring.

In contrast to western research on “digital disconnection”, which focuses on the digital “connection” or “disconnection” from the perspective of technology-based individual use, this paper explores the concept of “alienated connections”. It situates the disconnection practices within social media when the Chinese cultural context of guanxi, and focusing on the reconnection between contemporary youth who influenced by individual culture and their family and acquaintances in the context of guanxi-individualization, as well as the change of differential mode of association. In the horizontal, parallel relationships with family members and zijiaren (one of us), the traditional emphasis on deferring to parents (“obliged affection”) is no longer prominent. This has been replaced by “natural affection” expressed through intimacy without respect and the construction of pattern of “filial piety but disobedience”. Conversely, within the vertical hierarchical structure, the rule of renqing and mianzi continue to serve as strong forces in interaction. The inherent “order” structure of superiors and subordinates remains intact, manifesting itself as expressions of “obliged affection” characterized by respect without intimacy. In parallel acquaintance relationships, the intertwining of instrumental and emotional dimensions jointly determines the direction of the relationship. Under the mediation effect of digital media, the “internet-based relationship” established with potential relationships has become a new form of online acquaintance relationship. On the one hand, instrumental considerations cause such relationships tend to become distant. On the other hand, “natural affection” has become dynamics of such relationships to be close. In short, “alienated connections” is a coupling relationship strategy between individualization (self-culture) and guanxi culture for contemporary youth in the context of guanxi-individualization. “Alienated connections” not only aligns with Chinese practice between the guanxi structure and the process of individualization, but also has the theoretical potential for further dialogue with the western concept of “disconnection”.

Digital game is an open symbolic field and playing digital game is a creative signifying practice. By focusing on the self-presentation and emotional narrative of gamer who is the main action subject of meaning construction in the game world and through semiotic analysis and semi- structured interviews, it is suggested that the gamer trend to establish the “transitional self” by avatar identification and objectification as well as construct the interactive subjectivity of “social self ” by interactive action and meaning sharing. Furthermore, they can shape collective identity and “cultural self ”by community symbol co-creation and interaction rituals and form a “right-subjectivity” to resist digital capitalism in the real-time or indirect symbolic struggle and feedback. By using and creating symbols, gamers not only promote the development of the game world, but also construct and evolve their self-concepts , social relations, and group identity.

The practice of “self-certification” has become widespread in contemporary Chinese fandoms. From selling fan-made merchandise and joining online communities to publicly expressing emotions, self-certification has become a crucial prerequisite for establishing trust among fans. The normalization and routinisation of “self-certification” reflect the trust crisis faced by individuals in the digital age, providing an entry point for studying digital communication among young people. This study conducted semi-structured interviews and participatory observations with fan groups from different areas to sort out the genesis and operational mechanisms of the digital “self-certification” phenomenon from the theoretical perspective of “the transparency society”. The findings reveal that the rise of self-certification reflects a shift from private interactions to the public sphere, in which fans retroactively construct transparent identities on social media and engage in self-governance according to fanquan rules. In building a trust system, fan groups generate “reputation capital” through diverse practices and evaluate emotional intensity using a complex “multi-currency” system. As interpersonal trust among fans becomes more abstract and technologically-mediated, digital tools like lists, screenshots, and watermarks play an increasingly central role. However, the logic of digital transparency, characterized by an overload of data and the erasure of emotional nuance, also brings about existential anxieties and deepens the difficulties surrounding trust. The potential for underlying violence within these dynamics deserves further exploration.

The idea of “a Community of a Shared Future for Mankind” in the new era is not only based on the common values of mankind, but also has rich and multi-dimensional connotations. Such dimensions include those from traditional Chinese culture, scientifc socialism, crosscultural community, ecological community, and imaginary community. Exploring the significance and connotations of the thought of “a Community of a Shared Future for Mankind” from these five different perspectives helps deepen our appreciation of this thought. Furthermore, communicating the idea of “Building a Community of a Shared Future for Mankind” in the global contexts should be explored first and foremost from the perspectives of interracial/interethnic, intracultural, cross-cultural, comparative-cultural, intercultural, multicultural, transcultural and global communication and their subsequent transformations all in one. The form and content of “representation, transmission and transculturation” of this thought in different countries and cultures will inevitably both collide and merge with the language, society, and culture of a given country or culture, thus accruing a plurality of interpretations in addition to the mainstream political discourse. Especially, it may experience a continuous contingency in its integration into other national cultures and undergo a process of both deterritorialization and re-territorialization of the ideological terrain in different spatial-temporal contexts, which would be a trajectory for it to enhance global relevance and accelerate the trend of its universalization.

Different from the mainstream framework that focuses on the examination of conflicts between platform companies and workers, this study turns its attention to the non-mainstream group in the digital gig economy –“Zhinv”(needlework women), that is, those who use platform infrastructure to engage in textile gig work. Drawing on online ethnography, in-depth interviews, and survey, this study found that “Zhinv” are composed of women with different backgrounds and skill levels. They have developed complex strategies and double-encoded manual labor and platform infrastructure to form an informal economic network that is both flexible and resilient. Starting from the labor and organizational practices of “Zhinv”, the study further discusses how Zhinv digitalized the traditional textile gig work by making use of the platform infrastructure, and develops an imaginary of living labor based on their flexible strategies. Furthermore, a historical comparative perspective is introduced to connect the historical relationship between women and coding and its realistic paradoxes. This study hopes to provide empirical observations through the case study, supplement the gender perspective of the gig economy, and offer a more theoretically extensible vision for mapping aspects of China’s gig economy.

Drawing on the perspective of digital curation, this article analyzes the life trajectories of several short videos widely circulated during the Wuhan lockdown to explore the making of digital iconic events and the performing of COVID-19 and its memories. The comparative analysis of multiple cases reveals that the social life of digital iconic events covers three interpretive phases, i.e., circulation, domestication, and canonization. In their multi-modal memory practices, social media users and institutional media mobilize a wide variety of digital curation strategies to create copies or variants of the short videos, extend or reverse the performance scenarios, amplify or transform the emotions of performers and the audience, and integrate them into the grand narrative. Eventually, some short videos became fleeting moments, while others were etched into public memory with a “moving” tone.

In the current historiography of the Internet, the years 1994 and 1987 are marked as two competing temporal nodes regarding the origin of Chinese Internet. As early as 1986,Chinese overseas students had begun to disseminate information and form communities through computer networks, resulting in the launch of the world’s first English electronic journal established by Chinese, the first Chinese electronic journal and the first Chinese online forum. This article examines the “prehistory” of Chinese Internet from 1986 to 1994 and finds that intellectual elites at the forefront of information technology as well as on the national borders were full of anxiety about China’s technological and cultural modernization, and were prompted to actively explore computer input method for Chinese characters and seek community-based public expression. Despite the gradual decline of these Chinese online communities, they still had inextricable intersections with China, bringing talent and technical enlightenment to domestic Internet construction, shaping foreign and domestic political imagination on China’s Internet in the post-Cold War context and providing a reference for exploring alternative Internet culture and understanding the global Internet histories.

The findings regarding the relationship between information attributes and communication effects on social media have predominantly been derived from textual information in previous research, while video information in the form of audiovisual symbols remains an area in need of further exploration. Questions such as: What is the relationship between its information attributes and communication effects? How do its formal and content characteristics intertwine to influence communication outcomes? —have yet to be fully addressed. This study conducts a full-sample analysis of short video content related to the 2017 NPC & CPPCC released by the official accounts of three central mainstream media outlets on Weibo. Employing computer-assisted and manual coding for content analysis, combined with participatory observation, the study examines the relationships between the communication effects and three dimensions of short video information, including the textual features of video titles, content characteristics, and audiovisual format attributes. Findings reveal that short videos with better communication effects tend to convey positive, equitable, and stable informational attributes. Compared to previous studies based on textual information, video information aligns more closely with the social attributes of social media, such as information communication and emotional management. However, the positive impact of formal features remains limited.

Adolescents in rural Western China, who are influenced by the developmental characteristics of adolescence and regional constraints, are prone to problematic mobile phone use. As the primary socialization setting for adolescents, understanding family communication patterns and their impact on adolescent behavior is essential for addressing and alleviating problematic mobile phone use among junior high school students. Based on psychological and behavioral data from 601 rural junior high school students in Western China, this study reveals that: (1) Among approximately 8.59 million rural junior high school students in Western China, the prevalence of problematic mobile phone use ranges from 31.6% to 39.2%, which is higher than that of their peers at home and abroad, with boys being particularly affected; (2) Influenced by both western Confucian traditions and modern educational values, family communication patterns in rural Western China can be categorized into three types: “authority- conformity”, “guidance-conformity” and “respect-conversation”; (3) Family communication patterns significantly impact problematic mobile phone use of rural junior high school students in Western China, among which the “guidance-conformity” pattern is more likely to induce their loneliness, and thus positively predicts problematic mobile phone use. This mediating effect is further strengthened when there is a high level of school connectedness. Thus, addressing the challenge of “overloaded media” hinges on restoring “lost connections” within the family.

Research on memory practices has richly discussed representational and archival memory practices, but has not yet fully analyzed imaginative, non-representational and affective memory practices. This paper analyzes three types of affective mnemonic imagination of Xiami Refugees’ “difficulties” and the related affective nostalgic connotations. The mnemonic imagination of daily recommendations demonstrates the affective experience of flipped music discovery and a mediated sense of being-in-the-world. The mnemonic imagination of genre labeling integrates a nonhuman- centered world imagery in the recollection of post-rock and ambient music. The mnemonic imagination of playlist and music library demonstrates the affective connection of individual, community, and the platform in the construction of collective vernacular music archiving as well as the public value behind cultural heritage. These three kinds of emotional mnemonic imagination are the momentum of Xiami Refugee’s affective nostalgia. What underneath the affective nostalgia of “No home to go to, and no world to be in” is the ethics of hope: clarifying people’s longing for online public music life, reflecting on the precarity of mediated being-in-the-world with three strategies to cope with it, relying on residuals of body memory and affective memory to re-explore relational connection with multiple bodies.

Cyber violence incidents have frequently attracted great attention of the whole society, and relevant research has continued to heat up. However, some basic academic issues need to be clarified urgently. Based on the methodology of “unification of logic and history”, this article uses a method that combines multiple-case studies and text analysis to conduct an academic analysis of the normative judgement and the theoretical basis in the researches on cyber violence governance. The research finds that there is a big gap between the existing research on whether the behaviors in the sample cases are illegal and the judicial reality. Most of the identification of what kinds of illegal behaviors doesn’t meet the standard of the normative judgement. Besides, the theoretical basis adopted by the researches in which the sample cases are characterized as cyber violence is mostly specious, and the misuse of the theory abounds. As a result, researchers’ characterization of behaviors in cases of cyber violence tends to be expanded, vague, and one-sided. Not only is it unable to provide the necessary academic support for the legalization of cyber violence governance, but it also may mislead the policy orientation and judicial practice of cyber violence governance, which deserves great attention on the issue.

Health information avoidance behavior is a vital interfering factor in health communication among the elderly, while previous studies have rarely investigated the influencing paths on it. Based on the SOR theory, this study explored the mechanism of health information avoidance behavior among the elderly. A total of 465 older adults in China were recruited to participate in this survey. SEM shows that perceived hazard characteristics, negative affective response, and weak channel beliefs were positively associated with health information avoidance behavior. Furthermore, negative information characteristics, salience, cognitive dissonance, and social support were associated with health information avoidance behavior through the above three variables in the stage of organism. Additionally, fsQCA shows that there were three main configurations for health information avoidance behavior, including externally-driven avoidance with weak channel beliefs and the absence of social support as core conditions, factually-driven avoidance with negative information characteristics and salience as core conditions as well as emotionally-driven avoidance with negative affective response and negative information characteristics as core conditions. The study not only examines the pathways among factors influencing health information avoidance behavior in the elderly, but also verifies configuration effects of these factors, which provides theoretical and practical implications for improving geriatric education and risk management in public health.

Online health information avoidance, a modern form of “ignoring health issues”, has become a crucial public health concern in the context of an aging society. This study aims to uncover the mechanisms by which algorithm-recommended content influences elderly individuals’ health information avoidance behaviors and to evaluate the effectiveness of digital intergenerational support as family intervention. Study 1 (N = 343) constructs a influence model of health information avoidance behaviors of the elderly based on the “Stress - Strain – Outcome” (SSO) framework, which is validated using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Study 2 (N = 110) conducts an intergenerational digital support intervention experiment to test its intervention pathways and effectiveness. The findings are as follows: 1) The similarity and overload of algorithm-recommended content contribute to health information avoidance behaviors through increased information fatigue of the elderly; 2) Information relevance does not lead to health information avoidance; 3) Intergenerational digital support significantly reduces elderly individuals’ information fatigue regarding digital health content and effectively mitigates subsequent health information avoidance behaviors. The conclusions provide both theoretical insights and practical guidance for understanding health information avoidance behaviors among the elderly and developing effective interventions.

What are the challenges and possibilities in promoting the adaptation and understanding of Chinese culture among members of other cultural groups through cultural identity adjustment in the practice of cross-cultural communication? This research explores a new path for cultural identity studies by introducing Communication Theory of Identity (CTI), and conducts interviews and practical investigations with Chinese personnel from 14 Confucius Institutes worldwide, as well as “cultural contactees” from different countries. It is found that the “the third culture space” represented by “festival culture” is a domain that requires attention in crosscultural communication research. The perceived security of cultural participants’ identity after encountering Chinese festival culture is influenced by factors such as identity gaps, effectiveness of dialogue, and bicultural identity backgrounds. Furthermore, the challenges in understanding cultural identity are mainly attributed to identity gaps created by conceptual boundaries. Festival culture, through the construction of a community of shared meanings and open dialogue, connects the fourfold identity in the framework of CTI. It achieves enchantment through setting micronarratives,creating cultural experiences, and promoting two-way integration, thus facilitating the “awakening-integration-belonging” of cultural participants’ cultural identities.

With the development of social media, the internet has emerged as an increasingly important space for feminist activists. Based on the paradox of the participation of the privileged, this paper explores the exclusionary discourses that the male feminists as feminist advocators encounter from feminist solidarity when they participate in debates about the gender issues in network public sphere and analyzes the causes. The study shows that the exclusionary discourses mainly reflect that the feminist solidarity distrusts the motives of male feminists and their standpoints of epistemology, and alienates male feminist advocators, and that such discourses stem from complex technical and social factors, including the weak continuity between the discourses and actions, the epistemological conundrum of distinguishing the benevolent sexism from cultural behaviors without any intension of sexism, and the base of solidarity itself on experiencing some forms of oppression or injustice. The clarification and reflection of this paradox can lead to better understanding, less conflicts and stronger solidarity between two sexes so as to achieve genders equality eventually.

There is an extensive use of the words ‘Kommunikation’ (communication) and ‘Verkehr’ (intercourse) in Marx’s Das Capital and its manuscripts. Marx uses these two words in many cases include both the material dimension of transport and the mental dimension of message passing, telegraphic exchanging, interpersonal communication and relationship building, etc. Based on the second edition of Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2), we have checked all the two words and the related word ‘Transport’ (including derivatives and compounds), in which a total of 1,213 words are compared with the existing Chinese translations of Das Kapital and its manuscripts of about 12 million words. We made a variety of comparative tables and wrote an analysis about 500,000 words. It is confirmed that a considerable number of ‘Kommunikation’ and ‘Verkehr’ are translated as ‘transportation’ in chinese, whereas ‘transportation’ in contemporary Chinese mainly refers to trains, ships and other means of transport, which inadvertently causes Marx's rich view of communication to be obscured. So we make a comprehensive analysis of this situation from five aspects in this paper, and endeavour to return to Marx’s original meaning.

The development of emerging media presents the “Janus face” of technology: it brings convenience and prosperity, but also implies risks and crises. To some extent, the evolution of emerging media forms is promoting the development of emerging media to a macro context. In such a context, “security” is constantly on the agenda of national policies and media. As an important category of security issues,national security issues also show new types and characteristics in the new context. Due to the prominent nature of security discourse, national security issues in the context of emerging media are not only a problem with both traditional and non-traditional security, but also a discourse process and micro practice participated by emerging media, interwoven in politics, military, economy, culture, society, science and technology information and other aspects of holistic national security and show the characteristics of generalization, acceleration, hybridization and cross domain. Behind the emergence of these issues, it involves an important conceptual mechanism “securitization” in the security concept of constructivism. This paper holds that holistic national security issues have experienced two kinds of securitization process in the internal and external environment of emerging media construction. In this process, various interwoven security issues integrate different subjects and multiple actors into the technology of emerging media. In the logic of technology, a new type of risk with discursivity between subjects and derivative between fields comes into being. Theoretically and practically, the understanding of the context composition, type characteristics and process mechanism of holistic national security issues can provide a general antecedent reference for the construction of the overall cyberspace security governance system.

Considering the universal connection in the digital association today, social media users seek a sense of self/private boundaries in an ever-expanding public space. This study focuses on the alternative account (xiaohao) in Weibo using by the young groups and the new relationship situation and new self-practice based on it. The study found that the user's personal emotional work based on xiaohao can effectively regulate and alleviate the self-tension and emotional dilemma in real life. In this process, the self, identification and identity realize the flow and reconstruction between the communication law of traditional Chinese relationship orientation and the increasingly prominent individual will, the situation also moves from the situation re-separation to the creation of new reality situation; This new self-reorganization method is unexplicable to the separated self in the network and the suppressed self in the reality, and the creation of its realistic situation also endows the realistic role and the social-self with the vitality of new individual meaning, reflecting the subjective individual will and creative actions of young people today.

In the development of the Internet dominated by the logic of connectivity, disconnection is an alternative Internet-using practice that has not received enough attention for a long time. This paper focuses on the historical development process of network disconnection in our country, and divides network disconnection into partial connectivity phase (1994-2006), universal connectivity phase (2007-2013), and generalized connectivity phase (2013-present). During the historical development of disconnection, two controversial issues emerged: the right to personal information and the right to disconnection. The right to personal information changed with the development of the connection phase. The right to disconnection faced two dilemmas: the conflict with the organizational culture of “busy is successful” and the challenge of redefining the work-life boundary. Whether it is the right to disconnection or the right to personal information, the controversy surrounding both revolves around whether online disconnection can become a social mechanism. The debate about disconnection from the internet revolves around whether disconnection can become a social mechanism. Netizens carry out the life deceleration exploration of situational disconnection, and “wander” between the states of connection and disconnection. This paper points out that disconnection has a tendency to become a way of life, but there are still many questions about whether it can be used as a social mechanism.