Communication Norms Research Articles

Student perceptions: How virtual student-led talking circles promote engagement, social connectedness, and academic benefit

Many expect upward trends in online college course enrollment to continue. Despite perceived improvements in online pedagogical practice and advantages afforded by virtual platforms, most students and professors still perceive social interaction, engagement, and overall learning to be more challenging online than in person. More than 3 in 10 college students are less willing to participate in discussions online compared to in person. More than 7 in 10 professors report needing help with strategies for keeping students engaged online. As such, we must identify strategies that cater to students’ academic, and social-emotional needs in an online environment. Breakout rooms have often been implemented to promote discussion and collaboration, however, when not well-structured, they often increase social discomfort instead. In this mixed methods study, using surveys, interviews and class observations, we examine student-led talking circles in an undergraduate adolescent development course ( N = 61), in which student discussion leaders prepared questions and facilitated small group conversations using structured turn-taking protocols. Nearly 95% of students felt talking circles increased peer connectedness, 92% felt they improved content learning, and 90% felt they increased engagement. Students largely attributed these benefits to specific elements of the talking circle format. Regression results revealed significant associations between peer connectedness and perceived academic benefit, after accounting for demographics, basic psychological needs, dispositional factors, and norms of communication.

ПРАВОВОЙ РЕАЛИЗМ КАК ОСУЩЕСТВЛЯЮЩАЯСЯ НОРМАТИВНАЯ КОММУНИКАЦИЯ ЛЮДЕЙ И РАЗНОВИДНОСТЬ ЮРИДИЧЕСКОГО МЫШЛЕНИЯ. РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯ О ПРАВОВОЙ РЕАЛЬНОСТИ

The article deals with the generalized concept of legal realism as the normative communication of people being carried out through the variety of normative systems used by them and a kind of legal thinking, understood as summing up practical phenomena under a legal norm, which is one of the variants of the rational understanding of law, not ascending to the comprehension of its essence, stopping at the direct perception of visible normative communication of people as a valid law, the process of formation of which in this case remains unknown. The substantiation of the transition from the positivist interpretation of the concept of legal realism to the philosophical-legal one, made in the doctrine of law by G. Hegel and R. Iering, is given.

Effective Communication for Doctor-Patient Narrative Inquiry on TBC

The community service aims at training the internship medical doctor on effective communication for doctor-patient narrative inquiry on TBC. This workshop was held due to need for the achievement on TBC contact investigation. Four-step training was conducted including exposure to effective communication and narrative inquiry, focus group discussion on problems and alternative solutions, peer doctor-patient communication practice, and reflection. The results of the current community service reveal that the achievement on TBC investigation rises due to the internship medical doctors willingness to do the follow through of the program. They have initially followed the standard norms of doctor-patient communication, and even improve their method of communication by utilizing their knowledge and understanding of the conversational maxims and use it in the narrative inquiry on TBC.

FEATURES OF CONDUCTING PRESENTATIONS IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION CONDITIONS

The article is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of the development of communicative competence and intercultural abilities and skills of students of higher educational institutions of Ukraine in the conditions of international academic mobility and cross-cultural communication. Emphasis is placed on the need to introduce intercultural communication courses in the curriculum at the tertiary level in Ukraine, in particular, on the peculiarities of conducting presentations using modern multimedia tools. The urgency of this issue is due to the need for Ukrainian students to be aware of the values, traditions and norms of verbal and nonverbal cross-cultural communication in order to be successful in their academic and professional environment. The aim of the article was to highlight the specifics of intercultural aspects in the classroom using modern multimedia technologies. In our research we used interdisciplinary approaches, as well as theoretical and empirical methods: observation and generalization, and methods of deduction and systematization. Modern students represent a generation characterized by openness to the outside world and academic mobility. This means that awareness of differences in cultural norms, values, attitudes to the environment is absolutely necessary for effective interpersonal and cultural communication. Graduates of Ukrainian technical universities who have such skills will be especially valuable, as they will be able to use effective communication tools to present products created by Ukrainian companies and make them useful in foreign countries and vice versa. It is necessary to teach future professionals to use information technology in planning, organizing, editing materials for presentations of new products and especially when conducting them for different cultures.

Exaggeration of emotional responses in online communication

Two studies tested differences in reported (Study 1, N = 197) and perceived (Study 2, N = 875) level of exaggerated emotional responses published on four online platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and email. We found differences between platforms that may reflect divergent communication norms. Participants judged the level of exaggeration by comparing a given message to a message that they would have published as well as to the norms that govern the communication platform. Overall, participants reported that they exaggerated less than other users. Content format (text, picture, or video) and perceived privacy level moderated the impact of the platform on judgment of exaggeration. We suggest that since online media filter out communication cues, users tend to amplify their emotional responses. This amplification generates an atmosphere in which exaggerating is the norm of communication.

Enabling people living with dementia to make choices during creative workshops: a conversation analysis study of co-creativity, choice-sequences, and the supportive actions of carers

Purpose Creative workshops can promote various positive outcomes for people with dementia, such as reductions in undesirable symptoms and achieving levels of autonomy. Although these are undoubtedly positive outcomes, there is little understanding of the specific processes that can enable such outcomes. To address this issue, our study investigates the interactional processes of “choice-sequences,” in which a PlwD makes a choice pertaining to materials (e.g. pens, coloured papers) for a creative activity. Methods This Conversation Analysis study draws upon around 60 hours of video-recorded creative workshops involving artists, people with dementia, and carers. Drawing upon the notion of “co-creativity,” we examine the collaborative work that goes into accomplishing choice- sequences. Results While these sequences typically begin with an artist presenting a choice to a PlwD, carers routinely enter these interactions and provide various forms of support needed to accomplish each basic action of a choice-sequence. Conclusions This study shows carers working alongside the artist to pursue the PlwD’s choice in a triadic participation framework, and carers supporting the PlwD in a dyadic participation framework with the artist having exited the interaction. In providing such support, carers can utilize their understandings of the communicative norms and requirements of the PlwD.

Ritual agency and moral panics: toward the anthropology of blasphemy and sacrilege

The introduction to the journal issue's special theme on “The Icon and the Axe: Discourses on Blasphemy and Sacrilege in the Russian Culture” deals with some theoretical aspects of anthropological research focusing on blasphemy, sacrilege, and desecration. The history of religious, secular, and post-secular cultures from the Middle Ages to the present day involve different types of discourses on blasphemy and sacrilege. Local cults of sacred sites, miraculous images and objects employ the concept of desecration to articulate the rules and norms of communication between humans and supernatural agents. Organized forms of sacrilege, like Reformation iconoclasm or Soviet anti-religious campaigns, aim at transformation of habitual ritual activities along with formation of new types of human and non-human agency. Present day “blasphemy panics” produce new identities and ideas of the moral order. The Russian history and culture of the recent centuries provides examples of coexistence and evolution of all these types.

Taboo Language as a Means of the Category of Impoliteness
 in the English Language

The article considers means of the linguistic category of impoliteness, and the research is based on the pragmatic approach in linguistics. Impoliteness is associated with the so-called communicative sabotage, behavior violating communicative norms. To interpret the speaker’s verbal behavior one should judge not only by the wording, but take into consideration the communicative situation, which, in some cases, is of paramount importance. In the research, impoliteness
 is understood as a language used to offend or / and is perceived as offensive. But the analysis touches upon the instances with marked vocabulary, which cause damage to the addressee. All the tabooed words in English are classified into four big semantic groups. The first group includes the semes related to the Christian
 religion that used to be associated with blasphemy but now have lost their initial capacity, especially among teenagers. The second group embraces roots with the meaning ‘sexual relations,’ ‘excretion’ but nowadays they lack their original status in most contexts and mostly perform the function of catharsis. The third group is mentioned as zoovocatives and, according to the research, are used to diminish the addressee’s importance, to rise in the estimation of the public. The last group comprises the words with the seme ‘blood’ which no longer refers to Jesus’s blood and has undergone desemantization. It mostly performs expletive function – emphasizes the speaker’s negative emotions.

Overperception of moral outrage in online social networks inflates beliefs about intergroup hostility.

As individuals and political leaders increasingly interact in online social networks, it is important to understand the dynamics of emotion perception online. Here, we propose that social media users overperceive levels of moral outrage felt by individuals and groups, inflating beliefs about intergroup hostility. Using a Twitter field survey, we measured authors' moral outrage in real time and compared authors' reports to observers' judgements of the authors' moral outrage. We find that observers systematically overperceive moral outrage in authors, inferring more intense moral outrage experiences from messages than the authors of those messages actually reported. This effect was stronger in participants who spent more time on social media to learn about politics. Preregistered confirmatory behavioural experiments found that overperception of individuals' moral outrage causes overperception of collective moral outrage and inflates beliefs about hostile communication norms, group affective polarization and ideological extremity. Together, these results highlight how individual-level overperceptions of online moral outrage produce collective overperceptions that have the potential to warp our social knowledge of moral and political attitudes.

Zero Tolerance to Plagiarism in Multicultural Teamwork: Challenges for English-Speaking non-EU and EU Academics

The paper discusses scientific communication and notes that the primary means is through scientific literature, which serves as a vessel for circulating knowledge and information about the world around us. However, in today's post-academic scientific landscape, where the number of publications in international databases is the main yardstick for assessing the productivity of scientists, research, and educational institutions, the issue of plagiarism in scientific communications has become increasingly relevant. It's worth noting that scientific articles are recognized as the primary form of communication, while other types of scientific publications such as monographs, abstracts in collections, and conference proceedings, which constitute a significant portion of modern scientific communication, are often overlooked. It has been shown that in Ukraine and EU countries where scientists from different nationalities and cultures participate, the objective isn't to eradicate plagiarism as a deviation from morality and law, but rather to significantly decrease its prevalence in science and higher education by addressing the factors that contribute to it. The most immediate consequence of plagiarism is the inundation of outdated scientific information with articles that imitate scientific activity, making it challenging to discover genuinely novel scientific information even with the assistance of the internet. Plagiarism also devalues the significance of scientific publications, complicates the identification of truly valuable publications, and violates the ethical and legal norms of scientific activity and scientific communication.

Digital Diplomacy and Social Media Networks: Contemporary Practices of Innovation in Foreign Policy

Introduction. The article is devoted to contemporary digital diplomacy, which is implemented within the framework of social networks. Unlike traditional diplomacy digital one operates in a different communicative space where blogs, electronic media and global social networks are the key communication channels. Using these tools allows digital diplomacy actors to influence events and communities in other countries. Methods and materials. Method of mixing qualitative and quantitative data, hashtag-analysis, comparative analysis of the social networks’ messages and accounts were able to understand the dynamics and interactions in social networks, engagement and possibilities of institutional and private actors in digital diplomacy. Analysis. In the 2000s foreign policy and public diplomacy began forming based on data on the mood of users of social networks and their preferences in politics. Thanks to this, digital diplomacy may well become one of the innovative tools for resolving modern global problems. Digital diplomacy, as a new method and the tool for implementing foreign policy, contributes to the effective functioning of departments and ministries of foreign affairs, their response to the needs of citizens, to emerging challenges and threats to state security, like a global epidemic or natural disasters. Using digital tools, it is possible to shape the norms of communication, interaction and decision-making by which diplomats perform their work, modifying the diplomatic process. Besides this digital diplomacy increases the attractiveness of the state in the eyes of the world community. Results. Based on a comparative analysis study of the content of social networks, it could be concluded that over almost a decade, from the 2010s to the 2020s, digital diplomacy has developed from a “soft power” mechanism to a method of information warfare and propaganda which involves artificial intelligence tools and big data. But this is predominantly characteristic of technologically developed countries. It is possible to conclude about future co-existence of traditional and digital diplomacies in a new hybrid variety. Authors’ contribution. In this article Liudmila M. Reshetnikova has contributed Introduction, Research Methods, Analysis and Results sections: identified risks and threats to digital diplomacy, analyzed the development of the soft power methods, identified features and tools of digital diplomacy. Irina M. Samokhina has contributed Analysis and Results sections: analyzed social networks and digital infrastructure for digital diplomacy and diplomatic activity, contemporary computer tools for learning about social networks.

Speech Acts of Apology and Request by Arab Postgraduates with Malaysian Supervisors

This study investigates the pragmatic and linguistic competencies of Arab postgraduate students and native English-speaking postgraduate students in Malaysian universities, focusing on their speech act strategies for requests and apologies. Using qualitative methods such as Discourse Completion Tests and conversations, the study addresses three research questions related to pragmatic and linguistic forms, gender differences, and cultural norms in English-speaking settings. The participants consisted of 95 individuals, including an equal number of males and females from four universities in Malaysia during the academic year 2022-2023. Of the participants, 32 were of Arab origin, and 63 were native English speakers. The study found significant differences in response rates between the two groups and emphasized the importance of understanding cultural norms for effective communication. The findings suggest that learners from Arab countries must comprehend the differences between cultural norms and conventions in English-speaking environments to communicate efficiently. The study has implications for assisting Arab-speaking graduate students in improving their communication abilities and promoting cross-cultural understanding in academic settings in Malaysia.

Lessons Learned from a Mixed-Method Pilot of a Norms-Shifting Social Media Intervention to Reduce Teacher-Perpetrated School-Related Gender-Based Violence in Uganda

Background: Violence against children (VAC) is a global epidemic rooted in gender norms. One of the most common forms of VAC is school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). Research has shown the promise of social media to shift norms underlying abusive behaviors, but, to-date, no studies have reported on social media norms-shifting interventions to prevent SRGBV by teachers. This study describes lessons learned from a pilot social-media intervention to shift social norms among Ugandan teachers to promote gender equity and reduce SRGBV. Methods: We extracted information on group size, posts, engagements, and teachers’ comments from intervention Facebook and WhatsApp social media groups and conducted mixed-methods data analysis. The study and program team met weekly to review findings and adjust the approach. Results: We found many teachers voiced social norms and attitudes upholding SRGBV in online groups, highlighting the need for intervention. Social media groups were largely acceptable to teachers, reached many teachers throughout Uganda, and often promoted active discussion. The program team carefully monitored online engagement, identified needed shifts, and performed mid-course adjustments in response to emerging challenges. Lessons learned included focusing on positive norms instead of harmful norms, engaging peer-influencers to shift norms, and including educational resources to inform behavior change. Conclusions: This study offers learnings on application of social and behavior-change communication and social norms principles to future online violence prevention initiatives.

The roles of social norms and leadership in health communication in the context of COVID-19

The global struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic has lasted for almost three years. Although national and local leaders have often called on the public to comply with preventive measures through health communication, large sections of society sometimes violated precautions and did not adequately follow these calls. We propose that social norms and leaders' identity entrepreneurship characteristics could be essential in effective health communication. In line with this notion, we investigated the effects of social norm types and leadership on complying with preventive measures, the intention to be vaccinated, and prosocial behavioral tendency through a high-powered experiment that focused on three factors: leadership quality (presence/lack of entrepreneurship), descriptive norm (supportive/obstructive), and injunctive norm (supportive/obstructive). Results showed that when support for injunctive and descriptive norms was present, people tended to more readily adhere to preventive measures, get vaccinated, and engage in prosocial behavior. There was also a significant effect of the interaction between descriptive and injunctive norms on compliance with preventive measures. The compliance level was highest when both norm types were supportive and lowest when both were obstructive. The effect decreased in the discrepant norms condition, where one type of norm was supportive and the other obstructive. There is also a significant interaction between leadership and the descriptive norm, indicating that a combination of an entrepreneur leader and a supportive descriptive norm increases compliance with the preventive measure. We discussed the role of leadership and social norms in effective health communication.

The telephone answering machine: Mediated presence and the participatory condition

During the 1970s and 1980s, telephone answering machines became widely available in the United States. Their use immediately disrupted long-established patterns of interpersonal communication and self-presentation. While solving the temporal limitations and lopsided power of telephone calls, answering machines introduced a range of new techno-social problems. Significantly, they required callers to interact with a machine instead of a human being. The history of the household answering machine provides insight into how telephone users were habituated to changing communication norms during the closing decades of the 20th century. This study examines cultural responses to the answering machine during the 1970s and 1980s, drawing attention to the following three key themes: the perils of perpetual contact, mediated performances, and social surveillance. These themes would shape understandings of digital mediation and become defining characteristics of an emergent “participatory condition.”

An Unconventional Turn: a Linguosynergetic and Diachronic Study of Evolving English Business Discourse

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the transformational changes observed in English business discourse over time. Employing cutting-edge methodologies such as functional linguistics, linguosynergetics, and diachronic analysis, the authors delve into the evolutionary dynamics of business communication, examining the extralinguistic factors that drive the inner discursive mechanisms of self-regulation and modification of the functional field. By highlighting these factors, the study sheds light on the complex interplay between language, society, and cognition in shaping business communication. Drawing on a rich corpus of oral and written English business discourse spanning from the late 19th century to the present day, the research reveals that the rise of new tendencies in social and political life, coupled with the historical development of British and American societies, have sparked changes in the cognitive models of structuring speech behavior in business verbal interaction. Consequently, new trends have emerged, including simplification, deregulation, deviation from communicative norms of standardized Business English, and popularization of unconventional, non-standard business rhetoric.

Theoretical Foundations of Social Education of Schoolchildren

The concept of social education of pedagogical culture is considered. The problem of social education is now particularly relevant. During the school period, important changes take place in the life of the child, namely, the acquisition of a new social status "schoolchild". This period is the most sensitive for the development of human social abilities. At school age, he acquires social experience, begins to learn the norms of communication and behavior. In conclusion, the author concludes that the essential meaning of socialization is the integration and autonomation of the individual into the system of social relations. But in the conditions of a family, social education is not implemented in full, in this case, an institution of additional education comes to the rescue.

ФОРМУВАННЯ В УЧНІВ ПОЧАТКОВОЇ ШКОЛИ ТОЛЕРАНТНОГО СТАВЛЕННЯ ДО ДІТЕЙ З ОСОБЛИВИМИ ОСВІТНІМИ ПОТРЕБАМИ

The article highlights the results of a theoretical-empirical study of the process of forming a tolerant attitude towards children with special educational needs in primary school students. One of the most important qualities that younger schoolchildren should acquire during the educational process is the key competence that everyone needs for personal fulfillment, personal development, active citizenship, social inclusion, etc. An important moment for the formation of a tolerant attitude is emphasized - the introduction of socially significant activities of an elementary school teacher, the disclosure to students of their active social position, the formation of awareness of the importance of tolerance, the development of an emotional response to another person who has special educational needs, etc. It was found that equality between the participants of any process, in particular, an educational one, which aims to ensure new interests, the emergence of mutual respect, the development of the ability to reveal oneself as an individual to solve issues that the whole society is working on, forms the basis of the formation of tolerance. Empirical research proved that such components as valuable, psychological-emotional, behavioral include informational awareness of the equality of people with disabilities, the possibility of response and help, moral values and norms of communication with persons who have special educational needs, the importance of peacefulness, benevolence, empathy, the ability to listen and hear, emotional stability, politeness, sensitivity in behavior, the ability to empathize, willingness to help, communicativeness, etc. Therefore, the manifestation of a tolerant attitude towards children with special educational needs means the need for the student to adhere to his own beliefs, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the ability to recognize the rights of children with special educational needs.

Customizing governance mechanisms to reduce opportunism in buyer–supplier relationships in the digital economy

Digitalization benefits supply chains but also creates new challenges for buyer–supplier relationship governance. An imbalance of digitalization between exchange partners increases dependence, information asymmetry, and data leakage, which can result in a high risk of opportunism for the less digitalized firm. However, few studies have examined how to handle this opportunism in today's digital economy. Adopting a transaction cost economics perspective, we examined the customization of combinations of traditional governance instruments, including contracts, monitoring, communication, and relational norms, to efficiently combat opportunism. Applying fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to data collected from 137 manufacturing firms, we identified five customized combinations of various governance mechanisms that effectively reduce opportunism between supply chain partners. However, transactional mechanisms alone offer the best empirical explanation for lowering perceived opportunism than a combination of relational and transactional mechanisms. This study contributes to the literature on supply chain relationship management in the digital economy and provides practical guidance to help firms establish an appropriate governance structure to mitigate opportunism.

'The wife should do as her husband advises': Understanding factors influencing contraceptive use decision making among married Pakistani couples-Qualitative study.

This paper explores the perceptions and attitudes of married couples which prevent them from using modern contraceptive for purpose of family planning, based on semi-structured interviews with 16 married couples from rural Pakistan. This study, with married couples, not using any modern contraceptives, discussed issues of spousal communication and religious norms using qualitative methods. Despite near universal knowledge of modern contraceptives among married Pakistani women, the use continues to be low, with high unmet need. Understanding the couple context about reproductive decision making, pregnancy and family planning intentions is imperative to helping individuals fulfil their reproductive desires. Married couples may have varying intentions and desires about family size; a lack of alignment between partners may lead to unintended pregnancies and affect uptake and use of contraception. This study specifically explored the factors which prevent married couples from using LARCs for family planning, despite their availability, at affordable prices in the study area of rural Islamabad, Pakistan. Findings show differences between concordant and discordant couples regarding desired family size, contraceptive communication and influence of religious beliefs. Understanding the role that male partners play in family planning and use of contraceptives is important in preventing unintended pregnancies and improving service delivery programmes. This study also helped identify the challenges married couples, particularly men have in understanding family planning and contraceptive use. The results also show that while men's participation in family planning decision making is limited, there is also a lack of programs and interventions for Pakistani men. The study findings can support development of appropriate strategies and implementation plans.