The term “people” occupies a subjective, foundational, and fundamental status and function within the scientific system of Xi Jinping’s cultural thought. Through a systematic examination and profound comprehension of the people-centered concept embedded in Xi Jinping’s cultural thought, this paper deeply elucidates its theoretical value and contemporary significance. The research indicates that the people-centered concept in Xi Jinping’s cultural thought inherits the people-oriented essence of Marxist cultural theory, continues the people-first ideology of traditional Chinese culture, innovates the theory of “unity between party spirit and the people-centered principle”, and enriches Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It fully demonstrates that Xi Jinping’s cultural thought is a scientific theory that always places the people at the forefront of its concerns and is deeply etched in the hearts of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) reshapes human-machine collaboration and innovative behavioral patterns in journalism by visualizing cognitive process through Chain-of-Thought (CoT) technology. Grounded in threat-rigidity theory and cognitive fit theory, this study employs a 3 (Thinking Visualization Type: full process/brief process/no process) × 2 (Task Complexity: simple/complex) two-factor experimental design to conduct an online experiment with domestic journalists (n=300). Utilizing two-way analysis of variance and mediation analysis, the study examines the pathways through which GenAI thinking visualization influences journalistic innovation behavior. The findings indicate that thinking visualization has a significant positive impact on journalistic innovation behavior, with the brief process yielding the strongest effect. Both the full process and the no process conditions were less effective than the brief process, demonstrating an inverted U-shaped relationship. AI identity threat plays a significant negative mediating role between thinking visualization and innovation behavior; however, strong emotional identification mitigates this negative impact. Furthermore, task complexity primarily influences innovation behavior by exacerbating job-related threat. The discussion concludes that under varying conditions of task complexity, transparent design nonlinearly enhances journalistic innovation behavior, it simultaneously intensifies a dual professional crisis. This dynamic produces a transparency paradox where empowerment and threat coexist, offering a new theoretical perspective for research on journalistic innovation in the intelligent era.

Understanding digital news practices requires moving beyond traditional, profession-centered research--an idea increasingly recognized in journalism studies. Scholars have particularly focused on peripheral actors--those engaged in news production outside the conventional journalism system. Drawing on 54 cases of peripheral actors identified in prior scholarship, this study reanalyzes their journalistic practices through the lens of Parsons’s Action Frame of Reference (AFR). The findings suggest that actors’ identities and purposes are key dimensions for understanding their news practices. On this basis, the study proposes five new types of peripheral actors and systematically examines their respective logics of action. Building on this typology, the study further explores the emergent dual “balance-of-power” relationships between peripheral actors and traditional news media within the occupational domain of news production. These insights deepen our understanding of the complex structures and evolving pathways of networked journalism in the digital age.

The transformation of media technologies has led to complex and diverse temporal experiences of news consumption. Journalism studies are undergoing a profound user-centric turn as well as a paradigmatic shift toward temporal analysis. This study draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 32 digital news users to investigate the temporal dimensions of digital news consumption practices through three analytical lenses: perceptions of temporal regimes, the orchestration of rhythmic order, and the lived experience of social life. We found that users, based on their perception of the algorithmically driven temporal regime of news dissemination, actively organize the temporal order of their news consumption through three strategies: situational switching, dedicated deployment and routine arrangement. At the intersection of news time and everyday life time, users construct a temporal form referred to as the “news kairos”, generating temporally embedded and pluralized experiences of news consumption. This study situates news consumption practices within a dynamic framework of coordination between structured news time and subjective experiential time, and adopts an organic conception of time to reveal the relational and processual nature of news time. Theoretically, it contributes to a shift in news consumption research from a fragmented, behaviorist perspective toward an embedded, everyday life perspective.

The messenger provides an archetypal image for understanding communication. Several Western communication scholars have recognized this and employed the messenger image to propose corresponding theories of communication. However, current research on the messenger not only offers inconsistent functional interpretations based on preconceived notions of communication, but also excessively relies on the universal archetype of the “angel,” thereby obscuring the historicity of the messenger and the modernity of communication. The “death of God” and the disappearance of intermediaries have turned everyone into a messenger—dutifully delivering messages yet unaware of the reason or the recipient. This predicament of communication demands a re-examination of the messenger image situated between the human and the non-human. Both Raymond Henry Williams and Walter Benjamin rejected the idea of the messenger acting solely as the sovereign “source” of the message. The former proposed returning to experience and the public sphere to reshape the messenger's subjectivity, while the latter emphasized “gesture” as a “means without end” to reconcile the conflict between subject and medium. This paper argues that only when the medium is not merely a value-neutral object, and when the messenger is not merely a functionalized “non-human entity,” can communication theory developed from the perspective of the messenger genuinely comprehend the mediatized existence of modern humans.

This study, based on a nationwide survey of psychology and behavior investigation of Chinese residents (PBICR), explores the impact of social media identity bubble on loneliness, depression and anxiety of Chinese adolescents, and examines the mechanism of perceived social support (PSS) and problematic Internet use (PIU) between identity bubble and mental health, as well as group differences. The results indicate that the impact of identity bubble on adolescents’ mental health is multifaceted, exhibiting a double-edged sword effect. Identity bubble can not only improve mental health through the mediating effect of PSS, but also lead to PIU and become a risk factor of mental health. The multi-group analysis shows significant differences in the risk mechanism of identity bubbles on adolescents’ mental health across gender, residence, and schooling stage. Female, urban, or high school and above adolescents are more susceptible to PIU triggered by identity bubbles, which in turn exacerbates their mental health problems. In addition, identity bubble directly reduces depressive emotions in female adolescents, but this positive effect is suppressed by PIU. With the popularity of online social interaction, being involved in identity bubble can either build a fortress for adolescents’ self-identity or become a hotbed of mental health risks. These findings provide new insights to the impact of online social interaction on adolescents’ mental health.

The sound interface is ubiquitous yet often remains inconspicuous. Moving beyond the visual-centric paradigm, this study adopts a procedural perspective of the interface, focusing on voice interfaces embedded in domestic smartphones and embodied as intelligent assistants. It explores their formation, maintenance, and the complex interface effects triggered by sound media. Through discursive interface analysis and semi-structured interviews, the study finds that within the “black box”, the interface modifies users’ spoken language based on a cybernetic technical logic, simulating interpersonal communication while masking the programmed nature of interactions. In the interactive practices, users engage in continuous efforts to address interface failures or breakdowns and to reconcile the contradictions arising from the dual nature of voice—as both an interactive tool and a medium of communication. Furthermore, as a relational medium that constructs the relationship between humans and the technological environment, sound activates an auditory turn in interface interaction and a paradox in technological perception. While users rationally assess the semantic limitations of voice assistants, they also develop imaginative conceptions of technology as possessing a sense of life. This study conceptualizes voice-dominated human-computer interaction as “acoustic interface communication”, emphasizing the urgent need to recognize the unique significance of sound in human-machine interfaces.

This study adopts a media archaeology approach to investigate the “China Education Computer,” a microcomputer that gained widespread popularity in China during the 1980s. By examining its developmental background, hardware configuration, and policy-driven promotion, this paper analyzes the computer’s mediating role in educational practice, social relations, and the broader project of Chinese modernization. I argue that, as a medium, the “China Education Computer” materially embedded educational technology schemes tailored to late-developing countries; practically facilitated the dissemination of computer literacy and the formation of information subjects; and discursively produced and reinforced the governance logic of state-led modernization. The designation of “education (xuexi in Chinese)” was not merely a commercial tactic driven by market logic; rather, it functioned as an intervention into a broader socio-historical conjuncture shaped by the pressures of the emerging information society and the anxieties associated with modernity. In this sense, the “China Education Computer” embodied an expansive vision of social development that integrated information futurism, technological progressivism, and discourses of individual “quality” (suzhi). Although it ultimately became a “failed medium” amid complex historical tensions, the technological practices and developmental ideals it articulated have continued to shape the trajectory of Chinese society. By unearthing this neglected medium, the study not only enriches the historical narrative of Chinese digital media but also provides a nuanced perspective and analytical framework for understanding the cultural politics of a society in transition.