This research aims to question how the digital screens could affect the subtle aspects of face-to-face communication, specifically, empathy, prolonged eye contact and the art of listening to the speaker. By analyzing these variables systematically, the study attempts to shed light on the mechanisms in which electronic engagements can mitigate or reorient inter-personal communications. A quantitative survey of fifty subjects conducted in the cross-sectional setting and rigorously, has demonstrated statistically significant, negative correlations between daily screen-time and feeling uncomfortable during eye contact (ρ = −0.28, p = 0.046). A substantial waning of self-reported empathic ability was linked to a higher social-media use (ρ = −0.31, p = 0.034). Chi-square analysis also showed that participants who indicated that they spent (>4 h daily) a day on screens agreed that they faced significantly higher detriments to their interpersonal communicative efficacy. The results denotes that the overuse of digital devices should be viewed as a priority that not only kills the chances of meaningful and face-to-face communication but also negatively affects the execution of vital social skills. The research provides sufficient empirical evidence that adds to the current scholarly discussion of the psychological and social impact of digital media today.

We use the Structural Influence Model (SIM) to explore how information seeking mediates the relationship between stigmatized health topics—like pelvic floor disorders (PFDs)—and persistent health disparities. Health disparities exist in part because of the impact of race on some part of the health seeking process. For the current topic, PFD research has largely been conducted on White women but less so on non-White women. To broaden our understanding women’s perceptions of PFDs, 32 Black women were interviewed using qualitative individual interviews, dyad interviews, and focus groups. Data suggests that Black women have some unique perceptions about PFDs. Women express that PFDs are another health issue 1 they must deal with, and they are reflective of “regular racism that Black women face.” These perceptions of discrimination are commingled with experiences around shame because of stigma related to PFDs, like about the dynamics of relief, particularly in problematic public and work environments. Women navigate decision-making across a contradiction of childhood-learned norms as well as conflicting information with co-existing health rules. These double stigmatizations–of women’s identities, and of PFDs–suggest a deeply complex mediating condition affecting a low rate of Black women seeking information about PFDs. According to the SIM, this perpetuates health disparities. We present participants’ recommendations for communication campaigns that consider health communication, stigmatized health, and health disparities.

Leadership studies in recent decades have increasingly shifted away from transactional command-and-control models toward transformative and socially situated leadership frameworks that emphasize empowerment, inclusion, ethics, and systemic equity. However, the intersection of transformative, critical, and intersectional frameworks within an integrated analytical framework is missing; although it is significant in the context of politically fragmented and historically unequal societies. Films, as cultural texts, provide a powerful medium for exploring how leadership is constructed and interpreted in real-world sociopolitical contexts. Moreover, biographical political films serve as the mass media through which historical leaders become mythologized, humanized, or reinterpreted for later generations. Against this background, this study interrogates the portrayal of Nelson Mandela, the first Black president of South Africa, as a transformational leader in the 2009 film Invictus. Using text-interpretive and multimodal analyses, this study concludes that the transformative leadership of Mandela in Invictus does not preclude critical and intersectional issues; rather it should be viewed as an overarching strategy that steadily opens the doors to mitigate the complex issues of uneven power, systemic inequality, and multilayered exploitations in the long run and in a harmonious way.

Drawing on framing and attribution theories, this study examined how viewing Fox News and other public affairs outlets related to racial resentment in the U.S. in 2011, 2016, and 2020, and whether party moderated that relationship. An analysis of panel data from 2011, 2016, and 2020 found Fox News viewing as measured in 2011 was positively related to racial resentment in 2011 and 2020, even when controlling for party, ideology, and (in 2020) prior resentment. This relationship was consistently greater among those with stronger Democratic party affiliation, counter to what motivated reasoning would predict. Party’s interactions with the viewing of other public affairs outlets were rarer and more inconsistent, but when party moderated these relationships, it was most often the case that outlet use relationships were strongest for the party for whom the content would be cross-cutting.

This study examines how Nigerian online news headlines discursively construct emerging opposition party mergers led by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) ahead of the 2027 general elections. Although previous research in Nigerian political communication has focused on election-day reporting and campaign rhetoric, little attention has been given to preelection discourse or to how headlines shape public perceptions of alternative political blocs before formal campaigns begin. To address this gap, the study applies Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which enables an examination of how textual features (lexis, modality, transitivity), discursive practices (news routines, sourcing, digital circulation), and sociocultural contexts (media ownership, ideological alignments, political economy) interact to construct meaning and reproduce power relations. Using a purposively selected corpus of 100 headlines published between March and September 2025 across six nationally influential online platforms, the study investigates how linguistic strategies frame the legitimacy, cohesion, and viability of the ADC-led merger movement. Findings show that headlines predominantly depict the mergers as unstable, fragmented, or politically insignificant, thereby delegitimizing opposition actors and reinforcing incumbent advantage. These discursive patterns reflect broader sociopolitical structures, demonstrating how headline discourse functions as an ideological instrument that shapes public perception and restricts democratic plurality.

Researchers used textual analysis to examine news coverage of Caitlin Clark’s and Angel Reese’s rookie seasons in the Women’s National Basketball Association. Researchers examined local reporting from the Indianapolis Star and Chicago Sun-Times—Clark’s and Reese’s respective home-city newspapers—as well as national coverage from ESPN.com. In contrast to earlier studies on sports media representation, race and gender were not central themes in the articles analyzed. Instead, coverage primarily focused on standard sports journalism stories such as game summaries, analysis, and feature profiles. Both Clark and Reese were framed as professional competitors, signaling a shift toward more equitable sports reporting. The study offers two potential explanations for this “normalization” of coverage. First, female athletes—especially Clark and Reese because of their longstanding basketball rivalry—are increasingly visible in team sport coverage, indicating a growing acceptance and popularity of women’s basketball. Second, much of the coverage was authored by female sports journalists, who previous researchers have found write in a different tone, talk to different sources, and frame stories differently than their male counterparts. These findings suggest that both increased visibility of female athletes and diverse newsroom representation may be contributing to a more balanced portrayal of women in sports media.

Social media plays a critical role in human rights advocacy and awareness. This study examines how human rights activists in Zimbabwe used hashtags to mobilize support for human rights issues. The study investigates the correlation between human rights activism and hashtags, utilizing digital and alternative public sphere theories. Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative approach, utilizing digital archives for data collection and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) for analysis. The findings show that activists used hashtags to mobilize support for Job Sikhala and justice for the murder of Moreblessing Ali. Hashtags such as #FreeWiwa, #StandWithWiwa, and #JusticeForMoreblessingAli raised awareness of the violations against Sikhala and Ali. The results confirm that hashtags enable discussions, advocacy, and lobbying for human rights. Additionally, activists invoked religious beliefs in these campaigns.

I interrogate the Association of Catholic Information in Africa’s (ACI Africa) mediated coverage of same-sex marriage blessings, following Fiducia Supplicans’s publication, to expose how religious discourse enacts “de-queering” by erasing, pathologizing, and delegitimizing queer African identities. Through discursive strategies of nomination, predication, argumentation, mitigation and intensification, and perspectivation, ACI Africa reproduces colonial heteronormative logics that cast queerness as an alien, immoral threat to “an authentic African subjectivity.” This essentializing rhetoric invokes tradition, morality, and cultural sovereignty to uphold a monolithic, heteropatriarchal Africanness while rendering queer existences invisible and deviant under a veneer of pastoral compassion. Drawing from postcolonial queer theory, I argue that such religious news media not only silence queer voices but also reinscribe colonial epistemologies that police sexual and gender diversity. By theorizing “de-queering” as a critical intervention, I challenge normative sexual exclusions, advance intersectional, decolonial praxis that center queer African epistemologies, resists heteronormative violence, and imagines transformative queer futures in Africa.

This study investigated how Human Resource Managers (HRMs) evaluate the employability skills of recent graduates during job interviews. Employing a qualitative approach, ten experienced HRMs from diverse sectors in Kuala Lumpur were interviewed via WhatsApp due to pandemic-related constraints. Transcribed data were analyzed using NVivo software, guided by Human Capital Theory. Findings indicated that successful candidates demonstrated strong presentation and interpersonal skills, whereas those classified as “Keep in View” (KIV) exhibited personality strengths but struggled to articulate them effectively. Unselected candidates often lacked self-awareness, limiting their ability to communicate competencies. English proficiency emerged as a critical factor, with reliance on Malay expressions sometimes disadvantaging candidates. Problem-solving, collaboration, and organizational skills were also key evaluation criteria. The study highlights the increasing emphasis on these competencies over formal academic qualifications, particularly within the Industry 4.0 context. Implications include the need for universities to integrate employability skills into curricula and for educators to support holistic student development. HRMs further emphasized the importance of enhanced academia-industry collaboration to better prepare graduates for the competitive and rapidly evolving labor market.

This study is a multimodal critical discourse analysis that examines the work of Bad Bunny (two interviews and two music videos – “Caro” and “Yo Perreo Sola”) to analyze it as a site of counter-hegemonic discourse for gender norms in masculine music genres/fields. It applies Faiclough’s three dimensional framework to analyze the interviews and Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar theory to analyze the music videos. The analysis found that the counter-hegemonic discourse of gender norms in Bad Bunny’s work generated themes of fluidity of gender expression, the genderless-ness of things, and the erasure of the Black Body.