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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The expression of the early dissemination of the concept of Leninism in China generally experienced the process of subordinate phrase of Lenin's/extremist's ism, the word translated from English and Japanese, and the borrowing of the original English word "Bolshevism" and its transliteration and free translation. and then consciously interpreting and finally shaping into a special concept of “Leninism”. Before and after the appearance of “Leninism”, its acceptance and stereotype showed that Leninism gradually changed from “acquaintance with” to “knowledge about” and then became a guide to action.This process reveals the media bias, power relations and even accidental factors in the early dissemination of Leninism as knowledge in China. Among them, it not only comes from the insight into the knowledge source of “Leninism” and the struggle for meaning in the process of Leninism from thought to practice, but also is influenced by specific events, mobility of staff, even translation and writing, which suggests the process of historical choice.

In the context of rural revitalization, discussing mediated governance requires going beyond media logic and delving into deeper social structural layers. A field study of an agri-tourism project in M Village, Jiangsu Province, reveals that the logic of intermediary rural governance is a more fundamental and structural logic beyond the technology and content of mediated governance. As an intermediary medium, the agri-tourism project not only connects the urban and rural economies and values’ but also actively reproduces urban-rural relationships, thereby creating a new rural village that integrates urban and rural areas. This holistic process reflects the mediated logic of rural governance, which contains three levels. First, it emphasizes connection and the resolution of contradictions; second, it stresses linkage, focusing on the capacity, process and changes brought to both ends by the medium’s active reproduction; finally, it highlights regeneration, shifting from process to outcome, and focusing on the new things that emerge from the collision of the both ends, which reflects the era and future potential.

With the rise of online videos, the dissemination of emerging technologies and technological achievements in the country has become more vivid. The younger generation, who have grown up amid the national rejuvenation, has also demonstrated stronger confidence and identification in the nation’s science and technology in the comment area. This paper takes the comment text of science and technology videos on Bilibili as the research object, and applies sentiment analysis, semantic network analysis, BTM topic model and other techniques to examine youth audience’ attitudes towards national identity after watching science and technology videos through the cognition-affect-conation model. The results show that after watching science and technology videos, youth audience always take the country as the core subject in cognition process; they also show strong positive emotions in terms of affect and mainly express their emotions through four ways: comparing China to other countries, endorsing local brands, honoring researchers, and forming collective memories; in terms of conation, they mainly show positive behavior intentions such as support, expect and tribute. This paper aims to explore cognation, affect and conation towards national identity among youth audience which shown in comments on science and technology videos, and to provide a new research perspective for the research on the effect of science and technology video communication.

While the field of Communication Studies has evolved through perspectives such as the “communication as transmission” and the “communication as culture”, it is in need of developing new epistemological orientations. With the development of new technologies, the media landscape has undergone profound transformations and the emotional tone of society has shifted dramatically, yet the epistemology of communication studies has remained stagnant. This stagnation not only reflects but also exacerbates the ongoing predicament of communication research and the discipline’ s development. How communication studies should develop and what stance it should adopt to conduct research that is social, public, and powerful is a matter of common concern among communication scholars. This paper presents an interview with Professor Yang Guobin on his concept of “communication as translation”. Professor Yang discusses a translation-oriented view of communication from the perspective of stance and methods. He emphasizes the importance of respecting differences and approaching the subject with a humble, learning-oriented mindset. By reflecting on and correcting existing biases, he advocates for conducting academic research that is not only rigorous but also compassionate and hopeful.

Imaginary serves as a crucial tool for understanding the early internet, reflecting the intertwined relationship between the internet and society. It provides a valuable pathway for exploring the early stages of internet development. Adopting a “long duration” analytical perspective and drawing upon the framework of sociotechnical imaginaries, this study integrates language, rhetoric, and action to investigate public and memory discourses about early Chinese internet imaginaries (1984–1999). The findings reveal that early internet imaginaries, as assemblages of materiality, meaning, and normativity, unfold across technological, value, and social dimensions, centering on connecting the world, realizing national revival, and reconfiguring daily life. These imaginaries exhibit characteristics of macro-level comprehensiveness, strong technological optimism, and pronounced pragmatism. Within the narratives of “catching up” and “revival,” the internet, as embedded in Chinese society, was envisioned as a means for underdeveloped regions to leapfrog in development, reflecting its unique socio-cultural significance in modern China. Significantly, 1995 emerges as a pivotal exploratory node in this “long duration,” marking the transition of the internet from an abstract concept to practical implementation. This period witnessed profound changes across technical infrastructure, policy support, commercialization, and social applications, with imaginaries shifting from elite-driven narratives to broader public participation, and themes extending from macro-level visions to everyday experiences. Internet imaginaries serve as an analytical lens, offering insights into the evolving perceptions of the internet in Chinese society and presenting a promising avenue for studying the social history of the internet in China.

The study aimed to explore the impact of relatively objective and subjective dimensions on digital inequality, considering both structural and agency factors. Based on data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS 2017), the study analyzed the degree, pathways, and group discrepancies of how structural social capital, cognitive social capital, relative deprivation, and subjective well-being affect digital inequality. It revealed that cognitive social capital and subjective well-being were elemental factors affecting perceived digital inequality, among which cognitive social capital significantly negatively predicted digital inequality, particularly in male or youth groups; and subjective well-being also significantly negatively predicted digital inequality, particularly among women or young people; while the relative deprivation and structural social capital had no significant impact. Therefore, it suggests that digital inequality should be a multi-perspective, multi-dimensional, and multi- stage issue. When determining intervention measures to enhance digital equality, it is necessary to take a long-term perspective, combine social and technological development prospects and predictions, and consider integrated factors as a whole, such as subjective and objective social capital, psychological capital, and adopt comprehensive measures with multiple subjects, levels, and dimensions.

As digital connectivity causes four harms which include time displacement, interference, boundary blurring, and exposure effects, disconnection and optimization of connection based on technological affordances have become alternative choices for social media users. Unlike WeChat Moments, which is a curated circle of friends, and Weibo, where no one cares about posts, WeChat Status has built a middle stage where users can show their authentic selves and gain attention from close friends through imagined visibility and concrete visibility provided by the platform. Based on the qualitative analysis of 23 WeChat Status users’ in-depth interviews, this paper finds that users domesticate some functions of WeChat Status in order to break the “online siege”, reduce social burnout, and regain the dominance of the “social neighborhood”, thus increasing the “de-connecting” online social behavior in the middle region. In order to meet the new social needs that are difficult to perceive, can be forgotten online, and can shape identities, users have appropriated traditional in-person communication ways such as “electronic diaries”, online “tree holes”, and ceremonial “wish pools” through WeChat Status to find the middle region of online social spaces and have shown a new “reconnection” behavior of online interactions that will balance users’ desire for privacy and expression. Whether it is the de-connection social regulation based on the connection function or the reconnection social expression based on the disconnection demand, it is a communication behavior of user domestication technology and reversing connection function, in which online social mediation is achieved in the process.

Over three decades ago, the internet entered China as a new medium inherently equipped with international communication attributes. Today, international communication has risen to the level of a national strategic priority—an outcome not only of China’s own developmental trajectory but also of the global proliferation of the internet. To fully grasp China’s strategic position and contemporary mission in international communication, it is imperative to re-examine the internet’s essential role and historical evolution as foundational infrastructure for cross-border communication. It also calls for a critical reflection on the long-standing cognitive separation between international and domestic communication. Revisiting this trajectory and re-centering the internet’s transformation from an “inward-facing” to an “outward-facing” infrastructure is key to achieving breakthroughs in China’s international communication. Looking ahead to the next thirty years of the internet, the challenges of China’s international communication will not only be limited to the traditional levels of technology, application, market and policy, but will also go deeper into the “deep-water zone” of how China can truly go global and deeply integrate with the rest of the world.

In the mobile Internet era, Internet cafes are disappearing in both rural and urban areas. While a minority of urban Internet cafes have been transitioned into eSports arenas, rural Internet cafes have not undergone such a transformation and are thus closing down. The rise of the platform society in the mobile Internet era has led to a triple disembedding of rural Internet cafes, fundamentally undermining their operational foundation. Therefore, the prevailing wave of closures in the Internet cafes industry cannot be merely attributed to the widespread adoption of smartphones. Instead, it reflects a broader social transformation driven by the iteration of ICTs. In this major transformation, emerging platform technology systems have exerted a profound impact on the outdated infrastructure of Internet cafes, leading to their gradual disembedding from rural society and eventual decline. This also reflects the progress of China’s Internet over the past 30 years, as rural society moves beyond the era of underdeveloped network infrastructure characterized by the use of Internet cafes, and gradually integrates into the platform systems of the mobile Internet era.

Digital and intelligent technology is deeply embedded in the society, which makes the knowledge circulation and communication network in the social technology system more complicated. The existing researches mainly focus on the mediating role of platform and technology in knowledge transmission, but neglect the function of knowledge translation and transmission of human in knowledge transmission network. Through participatory observation and interviews, this study further expands the relevant discussion by taking the knowledge mediation and translation practice of medical companions in the medical health system as the entry point. The study finds that medical companions play the roles of “knowledge expert”, “knowledge navigator” and “knowledge tinker” in transferring patients’ disease experience and medical expertise, the tacit knowledge of medical organization system and the knowledge of digital medical technology system, and become human patches embedded in the medical health system through the intermediary and translation of relevant knowledge of the medical system. The inclusion of human as an important intermediary in the analytical framework of knowledge transmission is helpful to reveal the cognitive regulating role of human in the complex knowledge transmission network and the bridging and complementing role of human in supporting knowledge flow.

During the Yan'an period, the educational function of the CCP’s press developed to a mature stage, which was particularly shown in the fact that the educational function was greatly enhanced vis-à-vis the propaganda and organizational functions and became an extremely important function. Hu Qiaomu’s Newspapers are Textbooks written in early 1943 provided a vivid historical grounding for this. This article explores the specific connotations, logical foundations, theoretical significance, and the relationship between the educational function and other press functions of the CCP during the Yan’an period.As an extension of the central metaphor “Newspapers as Textbooks”, the elements in the “education” domain and the “journalism” domain naturally formed a mapping relationship, constructing a conceptual framework around the educational function of the press, including the role and characteristics of the party newspaper and the responsibilities and ethics of newspaper workers.It provides a powerful interpretation for the redesign of party newspaper.Concepts such as “the party nature and people’s nature of newspapers,” “propaganda,” “organization,” “CCP characteristic journalism,” and “learning for education” constituted a network of meanings that help understand the connotations and positioning of the press's educational function, making it an important part of the CCP’s party press theory.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence enabled it to closely link various things such as human-cyber-physical system, creating a social pattern of interconnection of everything positioning AI as an increasingly critical media force. However, how countries understand, shape and govern the mediated use of AI remains an area that requires further in-depth analysis. Utilizing the discourse network analysis method, this research dissects the AI governance policies of China, the United States and Europe. It specifically scrutinizes the structural composition and authority distribution within their collaborative governance systems. Through this analysis, the research aims to unravel the imagined content, subject relations, and construction logic of the AI sociotechnical imaginaries. It is found that there are some differences in the governance objectives and key governance stakeholders across countries, leading to distinct challenges related to discursive closure. It also verifies that the AI collaborative governance is a subjective political decision. To prevent the AI sociotechnical imaginaries from succumbing to Collingridge’s dilemma due to discursive closure, this research suggests that China can enrich the content of AI sociotechnical imaginaries and foster the diversity of imaginary actors by examining the governance systems of other countries, while grounding its approach in the context of its own national conditions.

Under the national situation of aging and childlessness, intelligent elderly care products and services represented by companion robots are coming into families. For companion robots to better serve the elderly, inner social support from the family is important. Through 9-month participant observation and 4-stage in-depth interviews, the study found that the inner social support from children, grandchildren, and spouses in the family that aging people get from using companion robots is mainly reflected in instrumental, informational, and emotional support. Intergenerational support shows a dynamic and intertwined process of “nonsupport- limited support-moderate support-excessive support”. Aging people also generate reverse support for their children and grandchildren. Spousal support is predominantly emotional, and male older adults are less likely to support their female partners, while female older adults are more dependent on spousal support. The companion robot is more of a mediator in the family that connects aging people than a companion in human-robot communication.

Village cadres are intermediaries in the interaction between the state and rural society. The implementation of national government platforms in rural areas often relies on village leaders for coordination and execution. Based on field research on the implementation of government service platforms in rural areas in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, this study found that village cadres are tasked with handling state’s digital tasks, such as national information collection and platform downloading, and there is a trend towards screen-based approaches for village cadres. The platform interface fixes the identity of village cadres as state agents, and the state’s standardized digital formats are embedded in the rural governance system, enhancing governance clarity. The essence of the interaction between the state and village cadres is the interaction between the state and rural society, which is mediated by national platforms. The state interacts with village cadres through platforms to form a more structured rural social interaction order. However, during the process of platforms reaching rural areas, there have also been issues such as “digital formalism” and “digital suspension” in rural society. This study aims to investigate the experience of using village cadre platforms and promote the theory and practice of national rural governance in the digital age.

From the perspective of media studies, this paper first presents a comprehensive overview of the experience materials related to the “Qianle Bridge,” including its historical evolution and current status, as well as various local rituals held at the bridgehead. Following this, the article explores the connotations of “bridge” in Chinese, elucidating why “bridge” can be considered a “medium” within the Chinese context. Building upon this foundation, the paper reconnects with the experience materials from the “Qianle Bridge” to enrich and refine the specific meaning of “bridge” as a “medium” - that is, connectivity and separation. Furthermore, based on these empirical materials, the paper uncovers another layer of the specific significance of “bridge” as a medium, namely that its role in connecting and separating also manifests between yin and yang, giving it the meaning of a “spirit medium”. Engaging in such dialogues holds great importance for enhancing the theoretical framework of media studies. It facilitates the academic convergence of Chinese and Western theories, transforms certain abstract concepts of media studies into more tangible discussions, and embodies the efforts towards localizing and theorizing Chinese communication research.

Websites that have disappeared are crucial objects of study in web history. This article examines the life span of an online BBS (Bulletin Board System) called “Journalists’ Home” and explores its interactions with Chinese journalism. At its peak, the website attracted a large number of journalists who integrated it into their daily work, engaging in various stages of news production and fostering a professional community. It served as a key intermediary for journalists in China’s commercial media, facilitating informal socialization beyond the formal workplace. This study finds that “Journalists’ Home” emerged at the intersection of web history and China’s journalism reform. It illustrates how professional socialization in journalism occurs within informal settings, such as online social networks. Informal socialization contributed positively to community cohesion by shaping work practices and fostering collective interpretation.

Public health crises pose acute challenges to the aging population in rural China. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this study analyzes 321 valid questionnaires to verify the integration of social support theory and coping appraisal framework. Through in-depth interviews with 24 villagers in southern Anhui, it reveals how grassroots strengths and new media technologies synergistically enhance health-protective behaviors among elderly residents by providing instrumental, emotional and informational support, demonstrating the core role of grassroots forces in crisis communication and public health protection. Based on social support theory, findings demonstrate that these three dimensions of support significantly strengthen self-efficacy and response efficacy of the residents, highlighting grassroots governance’s irreplaceable role in bridging the “last mile” of health communication and emphasizing social environments as key drivers of rural health behavior patterns.

The emotional/affective turn represents not only a shift in the knowledge agenda but also highlights the prominence of emotions in contemporary social life. Reckwitz refers to the internet as an “affect machine” in his theoretical diagnostics of contemporary society, yet he does not elaborate on this concept in detail. This article draws on Reckwitz’s theories of practice and the society of singularities to analyze how the internet becomes an affect machine.Since the 1980s, modern society has been evolving into a society of singularities, characterized by the significant role of affect. The internet serves as a crucial arena where social entities compete for singularity. Whether these entities are recognized and acknowledged for their singularity depends on their ability to affect others. Therefore, the core function of the internet is not to impartially disseminate news as an information medium, but rather to affect others through narrativization, aestheticization, and other means as an affect machine, producing what is known as affective publics. This provides an alternative perspective on why breaking out of echo chambers fails to make the affectively-driven platform less polarizing.

Based on the perspective of affect theory, this article is dedicated to an interpretation of individuals’ affective experience when they use online crazy literature, focusing on the discussion of line of flight generated from the sequence-structure in their daily life, and its liberating potential in the ethical dimension. This research indicates that the affect of madness is mainly triggered by the preconditioned dilemma linked to power and emotion in communicative action,while the expressing practice of crazy literature leads to an experiment with stuff-stacking, as an overflows of the symbol system, by virtue of its deterritorialization of language. Hence, the subjects of the discourse expose their own entities during the differential setting process of “to become others”. The affect genealogy of crazy literature also highlights the fundamental significance of the body and its affective dimension in communication, so that the individuals’ events are endowed with an angle detached from the limited stipulation of the representational mechanism, through which people are enabled to find out their true life styles and forms in the practice of technologies of self.

In the process of technological change and the development of a media society, the interaction and functional evolution between media and society are gradually intensifying. Interpreting the relationship between media, society, and people from the perspective of structural function is an important path for modern social media practice and theory. The function of Chinese media is constructed and developed in the process of the Chinese path to modernization, which is not completely equivalent to Western definition of media function and value, but has its own connotation, characteristics, and reference. Based on this basic position, based on rethinking western functionalism and developing communication science, this paper proposes to return to the real world and reveal the formation mechanism and core performance of social functions of Chinese media in China’s specific social context, in the context of China’s long history and culture, the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and the historical process of Chinese path to modernization. Based on the social system theory as the fundamental theoretical perspective and empirical materials, it is found that the social function of Chinese media is formed and constructed in a system of “unity and isomorphism” between the state, society, people, and media. Its unique function is mainly manifested in two aspects: 1) serving the country and social governance, providing systematic government services; 2) shaping modern lifestyles and promoting human modernization.

Douyin’s sparks have created virtual digital contracts for intimate relationships and shaped new social behavior and culture. This study adopts observation and in-depth interviews to analyse the symbolic significance of sparks in intimate relationships, the process of relationship development based on sparks, and the impact of sparks on intimate relationships. Research shows that, sparks, as virtual mediators, influence and regulate user behavior. The process of maintaining sparks reveals dynamic developmental features. Based on social penetration theory and the ladder model, this study proposes the “contract metaphor”, which divides the process of sustaining sparks into six stages: “contract signing”, “contract compliance”, “contract strengthening”, “contract negotiation”, “contract internalization” and “contract breaking”. Sparks impact intimate relationships, either intensifying, downgrading, or reconciling them. This study triggers reflections on the role of sparks as virtual mediators and deepens existing understanding of how virtual mediators affect intimate relationships, which is conducive to exploring the path to the creation and positive development of intimate relationships.

This paper attempts to explore the specific mechanisms and processes of the microscope’s influence on disease discourse. The microscope mediates human’s sense towards the world and also mediates the presentation of the world towards human. The former regards the microscope as an extension of the naked eye, and research inevitably falls into the premise that the microscope enhances vision in a similar way. The latter jumps out of the body-centered perspective, as a result, the specificity of the microscope’s visible way is highlighted in the process of presenting the world. Based on the latter, this paper introduces Foucault’s concept of discursive practice and proposes that the microscope frames the possibility of discourse formation by stipulating the visible way of the object of disease discourse. Unlike visual inspection with the naked eye, the microscope makes the object of disease discourse visible in the form of technical images, which represents an entity independent of the patient’s body, and the pathogenicity is judged by the “whether” relationship between technical images. On this basis, the disease discourse needs to be developed around professional terms, accurately and objectively pointing to visible, static and fragmentary disease entities. This paper attempts to open up the media research perspective of technologies such as microscopes.

Migrant children have become a focal point in contemporary discussions of urbanization and population mobility. The urban-rural duality of their identity places them in a predicament- unable to return home yet struggling to integrate into urban life. Grounded in Lefebvre’s spatial triad theory and employing an action research approach, this research engaged 19 fourth-grade students from Class 3 at X Primary School in Beilin District, Xi’an, in a year-long intervention comprising seven interactive new media courses, three collaborative new media practices, and three urban exploration sessions. By framing new media as both a pedagogical tool and a participatory platform, this research establishes an organic interconnected framework linking urban space, media use, and social relations. The findings demonstrate that implementation of structured interventions effectively enhanced migrant children's new media literacy and skills, facilitating a shift from passive media consumption to active use of media for self-empowerment. Specifically, their improved media communication skills strengthened their ability to express themselves and participate in urban spaces. Through city exploration and engagement with digital platforms, migrant children co-constructed a sense of shared identity, fostering localized social networks and enhancing their sense of urban integration.

The emergence of hometown newspapers represents a fusion of hometown sentiments and the demand for information within a mobile society. These publications, a unique form of local newspaper published in Shanghai but maintained a strong focus on their hometowns, yet they have not received sufficient attention from academia so far. This paper takes “place” as the keyword and combines the history of local journalism with human geography, to analyze the multiple dimensions and meanings of hometown newspapers in “place” reconstruction, from aspects such as origin from place, visible place, from space to place, transformation of place, and beyond place. This study reveals that hometown newspapers make efforts to maintain a visible and enduring social, cultural, and emotional connection between immigrants and their hometowns, which is beneficial for the recognition and cohesion of local communities among immigrants. These newspapers also demonstrate a distinct critical consciousness of local issues, striving to reform local society in fulfillment of their local responsibilities and historical mission of “supervising the locality and guiding the villagers”. Furthermore, they guide readers to transcend localism, cultivating their national consciousness and ethnic concepts, thereby shaping the villagers into citizens, which is conducive to the production and reproduction of their national identity. However, outside of the home village and the country, there is no place for Shanghai. Hometown newspapers do not encourage immigrants to identify with Shanghai, which is different from the American immigration press.

After the Southern Anhui Incident, the Communist Party of China timely proposed the strategic concept of “establishing a new Subei” (Northern Jiangsu). In the context of this era, the “intellectuals” of the New Fourth Army participated in the struggle against the enemy a democratic construction through propaganda practices. The group went from “being cultural warriors of the proletariat” to becoming cadres of propaganda and culture, and then created a “new culture” through collective actions, and eventually became a key force in “establishing a new Subei”. Taking the cadres of propaganda and culture of “a new Subei” as the subject perspective of historical interpretation, the organic process and logical occurrence of this historical event can be clarified through examining individual actions and collective practices. The historical process from “a cultural city” to “an exemplary base area” and eventually becoming “a part of the new democratic republic” was essentially a process of the dual creation by the cadres of propaganda and culture of “a new Subei”. In this process, the cadres of propaganda and culture of “a new Subei” not only participated in revolutionary practices and transformed the objective world, but also they transformed the subjective world and eventually shaped themselves into a historical subject within the New Democratic Movement.

On the basis of existing studies on geeks, this paper adopts a perspective of philosophy of technology and conducts qualitative interviews with technical enthusiasts to explores their human-computer interaction practices in the era of generative artificial intelligence. As a form of digital object, artificial intelligence technology continuously evoles through individualization. While technical enthusiasts combine technical elements to invent technical individuals and deploy technical infrastructure, they also act as technical individuals to co-create associated milieu with AI technology and develope discursive and existential relationships in both technical and material senses. These enthusiasts can grasp the causal logic and temporal relationships within AI systems, then the technology is ready-to-hand and the elixir could be refined, promoting the process of technical infrastructure. In the meantime, drawing on the phenomenological concepts of protentions and retentions, AI technology can serve as a kind of tertiary protention and tertiary retention, intervening in the infrastructure processes at both psychological and collective levels. And in this process, technical enthusiasts act as curcial transducteurs. Since AI technology can be both a poison and an antidote, the possibility of technical alienation could not be excluded from practices of human-machine. However, this paper prefers to emphasize the potential of technical enthusiasts as alchemists and the magical abilities possessed by human beings, thus highlighting the agency of the subject.

Unlike existing human–computer interaction studies focused on functional exchanges,this research investigates emotional relationships between humans and computers. It examine show users, driven by psychological motivations and needs, engage in emotional transmission and communication with Affective AI Agents (AI agents with emotional communication capabilities) within specific contexts, thereby exploring the possibility and mechanisms of human-computer empathy. Focusing on users’ recent generative emotional empathy practice with Affective AI Agents, the study employs in-depth interviews to gather empirical data on emotional communication. It analyzes human emotional perception and empathy toward Affective AI Agents, alongside the underlying empathy dilemma. Key findings reveal that users’ psychological motivations are central to Affective AI Agents’ generation of emotional responses, with the agents’ “digital memory” serving as the primary basis for expressing and responding to human emotions. Concurrently, users’ contextual framing and agents’ capture and interpretation of situational cues emerge as critical elements for empathy generation. As human-computer empathy becomes a social strategy in an alienated society, fluid emotions arise from the interplay between flesh and computer. The “sense of witnessing” engendered by technological embodiment forms a vital foundation for empathy and offers new directions for re-evaluating the ethics and values of intelligent agents.

This study transcends the social constructivist notion of “place-making” by adopting the theoretical framework of “place-weaving” to investigate the mechanisms that texture neighborhood space under digital platform-enabled community group buying. Through a four years of ethnographic fieldwork in three residential communities in Wuhan, the research reveals that dynamic and pluralistic couplings emerge between neighborhoods and platforms across diverse media practices, giving rise to multiple forms of community group buying and superimposed neighborhood spaces. Commercial platform-led groups, characterized by singular automated infrastructures and plain-weave coding, produce neighborhood spaces with homogeneous grid-like textures akin to plain-woven fabric. In contrast, resident-led groups employ collaborative automation and jacquard-style coding, generating refined and distinctive jacquard textures reminiscent of brocade through emergent processes. The study advances critical platform scholarship from a spatial perspective, demonstrating that the large-scale technical rationality of platforms undergoes unexpected qualitative transformations when translated into localized labor practices and everyday routines. This process generates micro-scale orders, affirming the persistent possibilities of “nearby practices” within digital-era neighborhood spaces.

In the Song Dynasty, Fenbi Xiaoshi was an important means of disseminating information, used for communication between officials and the public. This activity involved posting thecontents of the document on the wall for people to read. Fenbi Xiaoshi was widely used in prefectures, counties, townships and other places to clearly announce the relevant content of government orders, regulations and public affairs. Through the Fenbi Xiaoshi, the official could effectively convey a variety of important information, including sovereign edicts, government orders, laws and regulations, etc. At the same time, the public could also understand the government’s policies and regulations by reading the public content on the Fenbi, so as to better adapt to the social environment and comply with laws and regulations. In the Song Dynasty, Fenbi Xiaoshi played an important role in maintaining social order and strengthening communication between the government and the civilians, and contributed to the stability and development of society at that time.

Previous studies on the 1905 Anti-American Boycott have generally acknowledged the important role played by newspapers, yet few have examined how and why the press collectively engaged in reporting the movement. Drawing inspiration from the “interactive” mechanisms among chambers of commerce, this paper conceptualizes newspaper coverage as a form of “chorus” and explores how nationwide press coordination emerged in the absence of a unified organization. In the initial stage, Eastern Times and Shen Bao jointly launched the coverage; a week later, newspapers across the country followed suit, significantly expanding the boycott’s reach. During the sustained stage, newspapers amplified the movement’s voice by participating directly, establishing dedicated columns, reprinting peer coverage, and offering targeted support. While leading newspapers such as Eastern Times, Shen Bao, and Ta Kung Pao provided national perspectives, many others focused on local mobilization. This “variation” helped embed the movement deeper into local societies. This paper argues that the press linkage in 1905 was enabled not only by nationalist sentiments but also by the press’s own growing institutional development—shaped by evolving media structures and a belief in journalism as a public duty.

In their work The German Ideology, Marx and Engels creatively introduced several core concepts, including “intercourse” (Verkehr) and a range of compound words derived from it.These concepts played a crucial role in the development of the materialist conception of history and communist theory. However, due to historical circumstances, both “intercourse” and its related compounds have long been obscured. The discourse on historical materialism has largely been dominated by terms such as material production, productive forces, and relations of production, while Marx’s sociological insight that “ human nature is the true community of men” has been overlooked. This article discusses four reasons for the neglect and misinterpretation of the concept of “intercourse.”; examines all 168 instances of Verkehr in The German Ideology along with their corresponding Chinese translations; analyzes 608 occurrences in Marx and Engels’ other works and their Chinese translations; briefly surveys 1,119 instances found in their published notebooks (most of which remain untranslated); and studies the textual variants compiled in MEGA2. These investigations collectively demonstrate that “intercourse” ( Verkehr) and its compound forms constitute one of the core concepts of The German Ideology and of the theory of historical materialism

AI has disrupted the traditional certainty paradigm of advertising, which has historically focused on capturing attention. This paper examines the characteristics of the certainty paradigm in AI advertising, based on the impact of AI on advertising activities. It firstly proposes five stages of the certainty paradigm throughout the evolution of advertising: the uncertainty of the “product” searching for the “consumer” in the natural media era, the certainty of the “product” searching for the “consumer” in the mass media era, the certainty of the “consumer” searching for the “product” in the early internet era, the certainty of the “product” searching for the “consumer” in the early programmatic advertising era, and the certainty of the “consumer” leveraging the virtual-real world to serve themselves in the AI era. Then it further explores the fundamental mechanisms of certainty paradigm in AI advertising. Certainty is determined by the temporal, spatial, interactive, sensory, interoperable, and transparent dimensions of media technologies. The key characteristics of certainty are temporal immediacy, spatial three-dimensionality, intelligent reasoning, and ecological consumption. The aim of certainty is to achieve better return on investment among consumers, advertisers, and intelligent platforms ultimately. The “consumer-product-scene” is reconstructed through generated intelligence between “consumer-product”, embodied intelligence between “consumer-scene”, and IoT intelligence between “product-scene”. As a result, consumers can continuously pursue the certainty of their needs through intelligent interactions among the “consumer-product-scene”.