ABSTRACT Since 2017, China and Vietnam have intensified cybersecurity regulation, raising concerns about state surveillance and restrictions on online expression. While both governments justify these measures through narratives of national security and cyber sovereignty, their communication strategies differ significantly. This study compares how cybersecurity is articulated and legitimized in Chinese and Vietnamese state media, focusing on the communicative construction of digital authoritarianism. Using a mixed-methods approach combining Discourse Network Analysis, topic modeling, and corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis, the study examines actor coalitions, dominant themes, and framing strategies in official media discourse. The findings reveal distinct models of digital governance. China's discourse emphasizes data security, digital economic development, and technological leadership, framing cybersecurity as part of national modernization and global influence. In contrast, Vietnam's discourse portrays cyberspace primarily as a threat to political stability and social order, prioritizing domestic control and regime security. These differences reflect two communicative logics of digital authoritarianism: one oriented toward global competitiveness and economic legitimacy, and the other toward internal securitization and political survival. The study contributes to scholarship on authoritarian resilience and demonstrates how state media narratives legitimize divergent models of internet governance in contemporary authoritarian contexts.

ABSTRACT This study examines the intersection of gender, fandom, and nationalism within contexts of digital authoritarianism. With a focus on a female-led nationalist movement, this study explores the operational mechanisms of digital authoritarianism through the subjective experiences and digital practices of social actors, utilizing actor-network theory and gender performativity as analytical lenses. The study employs participant observations and semi-structured interviews to investigate a meme war – the 930 Online Expedition. In doing so, it highlights how diverse actors, including ‘fanquan girls’ (young female fans), cyber-nationalist communities, and digital platforms, negotiate and align their interests to form cohesive networks in support of pro-China narratives, illustrating the phases of problematization, interessement, enrollment, and mobilization. It advances scholarship on digital authoritarianism by theorizing ‘governance through non-action’ as a feminized, networked process. It shows how fanquan girls’ gendered fandom practices diffuse control through sociotechnical infrastructures, connect micro-level participation to macro-level nationalist mobilization, and foreground ordinary netizens’ lived experiences in co-producing authoritarian resilience beyond overt repression and surveillance.

ABSTRACT This study examines how recalling product-harm crises generates spillover from corporate failures to domestic publics’ country identity at both the micro level (product-based perceptions) and the macro level (general perceptions of national strength and development). Drawing on the accessibility–diagnosticity framework, crisis spillover is conceptualized as a conditional process in which recalled crisis information shapes national judgments when it is cognitively accessible and perceived as informative. Using data from an online survey in China (N = 596), the results show that crisis recall is negatively associated with both micro- and macro-level country identity, indicating domestic vertical spillover. Social media engagement strengthens these negative associations, while political cynicism amplifies spillover only for macro-level country identity. In contrast, collective efficacy mitigates spillover for both dimensions. By shifting attention from country image to country identity and identifying conditions that intensify or attenuate recall-based spillover, this study offers a more conditional and internally oriented understanding of crisis spillover dynamics.

ABSTRACT This study examines embedded governance in China’s private television drama industry. We analyze how the Central Propaganda Department (CPD) and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) coordinate to steer this commercialized sector through the Grand United Front (大统战) at the micro level. Through institutional analysis and a two-mode network map of 59 key elites and 58 organizations – linked to 131 National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA)-backed private dramas (2013–2024) – we identify a three-stage process of elite co-optation. We argue that the Party-state builds a sophisticated control network by deploying ‘Red Capitalist’ insiders, mobilizing their kinship networks, and absorbing outsiders through institutional approaches. This process transforms guanxi (关系, interpersonal ties) into a media governance infrastructure for transmitting political signals and normalizing compliance. We identify three patterns of relational control – Relational Infiltration, Relational Co-optation, and Regime Co-optation – that demonstrate a shift from external co-optation to deeply embedded governance by insiders. The case of Macao’s ‘Aollywood’ (澳涞塢) suggests a possible extraterritorial extension of the model. Our findings contribute to the political economy of communication, specifying how an authoritarian regime institutionalizes embedded governance to maintain ideological control within a marketized media system.

ABSTRACT This study, based on media richness theory and social cognitive theory, explores the materials, processes, and perceived effects of virtual reality (VR) therapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety in China. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 30 patients, results indicate that participants perceived VR therapy as enhancing their sense of immersion through real-time interaction, multisensory signals, and the integration of Chinese cultural elements. By examining patients’ experiences from the perspectives of modeling, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancies, most patients reported perceiving emotional relief. However, a few patients also reported limitations, including simplistic VR scenes, insufficient interactivity, and a decline in perceived effectiveness over time. This study suggests that future VR therapies should focus on cultural adaptation by designing treatment scenarios that resonate more deeply with local cultural characteristics, and on integrating VR therapy with other forms of treatment to support longer-term engagement through regular follow-ups and ongoing support. In addition, exploring multi-user interaction modes that allow patients to communicate with other patients or healthcare professionals in virtual environments is recommended.

ABSTRACT AI agents have emerged as prominent alternatives in mental health service delivery. However, users consistently express a preference for human agents over their AI counterparts. This study examined the factors influencing users' intentions to switch from AI agents to human agents in mental health contexts. Grounded in the expectation disconfirmation theory, we developed a theoretical model examining the effects of user expectations and AI agent performance on disconfirmation, satisfaction, and switching intention. The model was empirically validated through a 2 × 2 (user expectations: high vs. low × AI agent performance: high vs. low) between-subjects experimental design (N = 200). The results suggested that AI agent performance emerged as the primary determinant of user satisfaction and switching intention in mental health contexts. In contrast, user expectations, while influencing disconfirmation, exhibited a relatively limited direct influence on satisfaction and switching intention. Intriguingly, the impact of AI performance on satisfaction was moderately strengthened under conditions of high user expectations. These findings both validate the applicability of expectation disconfirmation theory in human-AI interaction research and offer practical recommendations for developers of AI-based mental health interventions.

ABSTRACT With the widespread integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into health information seeking, the prevalence of AI hallucinations necessitates effective verification behaviors. Grounded in the digital divide framework, this study investigates heterogeneous verification patterns for AI-generated health information. We surveyed 597 Chinese adult residents and identified four verifier profiles through the latent profile analysis: verifiers preferring internal verification, verifiers preferring institutional sources, verifiers preferring interpersonal sources and verifiers emphasizing multiple sources. Further analyses suggested that demographic and socioeconomic factors (gender, age, education and income) significantly predicted profile membership. Additionally, the study revealed significant outcome divides associated with individual differences in verification patterns. Specifically, verifiers emphasizing multiple sources reported the highest levels of self-efficacy in identifying AI-generated health misinformation and superior health management outcomes. Notably, verifiers preferring interpersonal sources exhibited weaker self-efficacy and worse health management outcomes compared to verifiers preferring institutional sources. These findings highlight the structural barriers underlying verification divides, offering empirical implications for designing targeted interventions to promote public verification behaviors and narrow associated digital divides.