Primary Communication Channel Research Articles

“We Lost Our Connection with the Children, the Smiles, the ‘Good Mornings’”: Caring for Special Education Pupils During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Special education teachers care for their pupils’ physical, emotional, and social needs, serve as the primary communication channel between the school and the parents, and coordinate other care workers such as paraprofessionals and psychologists. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Israeli special education system moved to distance instruction, and slowly resumed operations following the first lockdown, even while the general education system remained shuttered. The life-threatening situation of the pandemic, where special education workers faced the crisis situation both personally and at the same time, professionally, in helping their students, families, and colleagues, created a situation of “shared trauma” for the teachers. Semi-structured interviews with 17 Israeli special education teachers were conducted to explore how they experienced the phenomenon of the pandemic. The teachers felt frustrated with the system, fearful for their health, lonely, and helpless in their ability to accomplish their job. Their work was negatively affected by masking and distance restrictions upon returning to the classroom. Many teachers benefitted from the support of colleagues and principals. We explore the implications for those who work with special education pupils and highlight the potential for increased cooperation and collaboration between care workers for their own benefit and the welfare of children.

Central Bank Digital Currency in an Emerging Market Economy: Case of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye

Central banks have historically been using traditional channels for communication and physical money for transactions, fulfilling the needs of previous millennia, while the evolution of technology, electronic devices, and needs in transactions necessitate the use of modern communication channels, such as X (formerly known as Twitter), as well as modern payment systems, such as central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Hence, this paper aims to unfold where the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), as an example of emerging markets, stands in informing the public about CBDC. To this end, it conducts an event study on the official X account of CBRT in English over 10.2020-12.2022 by utilizing Nvivo. The findings of the quantitative analysis of the tweets show that CBRT does not regard X as a primary communication channel and mainly shares links to publications from the official websites in X. Also, CBRT tends to adopt a ‘cold-turkey’ informative approach about CBDC with the public rather than ‘gradualism’. Consequently, CBRT should rigorously design a communication strategy that fulfills the needs of the modern economy and start addressing CBDC to raise awareness if a quick transition to digital currency is targeted.

EMPLOYER BRAND PROMOTION: DOES IT REALLY MATTER IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES?

The employer brand refers to the reputation that an organisation has as an employer. The employer brand can be influenced by all the information that the organisation puts out about itself, as well as by all the actions it takes. A positive and strong employer brand has a direct impact on the attraction of quality candidates, their engagement, and retention of current employees. That is why contemporary organisations use all available communication channels to promote their employer brand, i.e. their values and unique culture. In contemporary business environment, the internet and social media represents the primary channel of communication with stakeholders, including job candidates. Additionally, continuous use of the organisation’s website can enhance employer attractiveness, support the recruitment process, deliver job-related information, and strengthen their image. The main purpose of this research is to explore the level of employer brand promotion via company websites in the context of transition countries. The aim of the conducted empirical research is to acquire new empirical insights in the fields of human resource management and employer branding. A total of 303 large companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina were included in the empirical research. The analysis was performed through a targeted search of the official websites of the observed companies. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. As expected, the data analysis indicated that organisations operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not recognize the importance of the organisation’s website in promoting the employer brand and establishing two-way communication with potential job candidates. Regardless of the fact that in the structure of large companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina dominated companies that require lower-skilled labour, employer branding is a useful management tool that contemporary organisations use in the labour market competition. In this context, the use of all available means of communication, including the company website, is the right approach that can attract quality job candidates.

Interactive frames: user responses to the framing of COVID-19 in the Instagram account of an Emarati news agency

The last few years have witnessed an increased reliance on social media as a primary communication channel to disseminate news, updates, and information on different subjects. Media practitioners have been using framing to highlight certain segments of news stories and shape public opinion to engage audiences with the news stories and influence their perception and response. This study investigates the types and frequency of frames used in an Emirati Instagram news account (@UAE_Barq) during the COVID-19 outbreak to explore if certain frames, such as gain vs loss, human interest, and attributing responsibility, can elicit negative, neutral, or positive responses from Instagram users. The study found that various types of frames emotionally influenced Instagram users. The academic and practical implications of the study are also discussed.

EXPLORING COMMUNICATION DYNAMICS AT A FOOD MANUFACTURING COMPANY: AN INTERVIEW-BASED STUDY

In this day and age, the world has slowly been shifting to the widespread use of technology in almost all aspects, including employment. This is proven by the continuous growth in the number of remote jobs globally, which allows people to work from home through the use of technology anytime and anywhere. Naturally, challenges and dilemmas, especially when it comes to communication, arise in the workplace. However, the challenges experienced in the face-to-face setup may differ from what is experienced in a remote or online setup. That being said, this research aims to discover the organizational culture being practiced in a remote work setup, specifically its organizational culture, communication flow, and practices, as well as the communication model being observed in the workplace through the conduction of an interview between two engineers. The findings reveal that the organization has both linguistic diversity and cultural pluralism. Moreover, their primary communication channels are digital tools, which is an indication that the interactive model of communication is observed in their company. In addition, employees, irrespective of their positions, are also given the chance to participate and talk during meetings, which signifies that the company's communication flows are both vertical and horizontal. Lastly, technological barriers like internet connectivity impact project development, which may lead to miscommunications in the workplace. Overall, the research sheds light on communication challenges and practices in remote work environments while also highlighting the healthy work atmosphere the selected organization has cultivated.

Making social media applications inclusive for deaf end-users with access to sign language

Social media apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and Viber are primary communication channels for most people today. Even within these Mainstream Social Media Applications, persons who are deaf are not provided with the rights and means to interact using sign language. This work, an outcome of the research project’ “Accessible System and Social Media Mobile Application for Deaf Users (ASM4Deaf)”, supports the inclusion of deaf end-users in social media applications. This was achieved via: 1) design and development of the ASM4Deaf system, which includes the Connect Deaf mobile application, enabling use of Sign Language Alphabet keyboards in social media apps in 17 different sign languages and 2) the evaluations of Low- and High-Fidelity prototypes aimed to enhance the app’s design and functionality, i.e. the ability to browse, search and edit animated videos/GIFs in the American Sign Language (ASL), using the face swapping feature. This makes the full set of features offered by social media applications accessible to deaf end-users and their personal network, which is the main contribution of this work. A Human-Centred Design methodology was employed, with the end-users at the heart of the process, to design and evaluate the Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi prototypes, and based on the evaluation results to develop the ASM4Deaf system and the Connect Deaf mobile application to fully meet the requirements of the deaf end-users.

Information Seeking Behavior and Information Blockades: An Antithetical Relationship?

ABSTRACT With more than half of the humans on the planet becoming internet users, the amount of information created and accessed is enormous. The Internet has become the most popular medium and source for seeking information. The information-seeking behavior is exhibiting itself. In Kashmir, India – users, businesses, and institutions use Internet to access and disseminate information. But, information blockades seem to hamper the seeking and delivering of information. Information blockades have become an increasing occurrence in various countries worldwide. Most often imposed in regions that witness some form of instability, such as economic or political; information blockades disrupt the primary communication channels. However, studies exploring the relationship between information-seeking behavior and information blockades are scarce. This study is a novel call for focusing research endeavors on information-seeking behavior and its antithetical counterpart, i.e. Information blockade. This paper uses various statistical resources and employs an intensive content analysis method to analyze the literature and identify key themes and patterns of research undertaken on information-seeking behavior and information blockades, especially in Kashmir, India. For the current discourse, ostensibly, the two phenomena have an antithetical relationship and more studies need to be conducted to understand the dynamics of how these two phenomena co-exist.

Design of Enhanced Document HTML and the Reliable Electronic Document Distribution Service

Electronic documents are becoming increasingly popular in various industries and sectors as they provide greater convenience and cost-efficiency than physical documents. PDF is a widely used format for creating and sharing electronic documents, while HTML is commonly used in mobile environments as the foundation for creating web pages displayed on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. HTML is becoming a more critical document format as mobile environments have been raised as the primary communication channel nowadays. However, HTML does not have the standard content integrity feature, and an electronic document based on HTML consists of a set of related files. Therefore, it has a vulnerability in terms of reliable electronic documents. We have proposed Document HTML, a single independent file with extended meta tags, to be a reliable electronic document and Chained Document, a single independent file with a blockchain network to secure content integrity and delivery assurance. In this paper, we improved the definition of Document HTML and researched certified electronic document intermediaries. Additionally, we designed and validated the electronic document distribution service using Enhanced Document HTML for real usability. Moreover, we conducted experimental verification using a tax notification electronic document, which has one of the top distribution volumes in Korea, to confirm how Document HTML provides a content integrity verification feature. Document HTML can be used in an enterprise that must send a reliable electronic document to a customer with an electronic document delivery service provider.

Enhancing Spam Message Classification and Detection Using Transformer-Based Embedding and Ensemble Learning.

Over the last decade, the Short Message Service (SMS) has become a primary communication channel. Nevertheless, its popularity has also given rise to the so-called SMS spam. These messages, i.e., spam, are annoying and potentially malicious by exposing SMS users to credential theft and data loss. To mitigate this persistent threat, we propose a new model for SMS spam detection based on pre-trained Transformers and Ensemble Learning. The proposed model uses a text embedding technique that builds on the recent advancements of the GPT-3 Transformer. This technique provides a high-quality representation that can improve detection results. In addition, we used an Ensemble Learning method where four machine learning models were grouped into one model that performed significantly better than its separate constituent parts. The experimental evaluation of the model was performed using the SMS Spam Collection Dataset. The obtained results showed a state-of-the-art performance that exceeded all previous works with an accuracy that reached 99.91%.

Postural and Gestural Synchronization, Sequential Imitation, and Mirroring Predict Perceived Coupling of Dancing Dyads

Body movement is a primary nonverbal communication channel in humans. Coordinated social behaviors, such as dancing together, encourage multifarious rhythmic and interpersonally coupled movements from which observers can extract socially and contextually relevant information. The investigation of relations between visual social perception and kinematic motor coupling is important for social cognition. Perceived coupling of dyads spontaneously dancing to pop music has been shown to be highly driven by the degree of frontal orientation between dancers. The perceptual salience of other aspects, including postural congruence, movement frequencies, time-delayed relations, and horizontal mirroring remains, however, uncertain. In a motion capture study, 90 participant dyads moved freely to 16 musical excerpts from eight musical genres, while their movements were recorded using optical motion capture. A total from 128 recordings from 8 dyads maximally facing each other were selected to generate silent 8-s animations. Three kinematic features describing simultaneous and sequential full body coupling were extracted from the dyads. In an online experiment, the animations were presented to 432 observers, who were asked to rate perceived similarity and interaction between dancers. We found dyadic kinematic coupling estimates to be higher than those obtained from surrogate estimates, providing evidence for a social dimension of entrainment in dance. Further, we observed links between perceived similarity and coupling of both slower simultaneous horizontal gestures and posture bounding volumes. Perceived interaction, on the other hand, was more related to coupling of faster simultaneous gestures and to sequential coupling. Also, dyads who were perceived as more coupled tended to mirror their pair's movements.

Investigating the Impact of Facebook Advertising Features on Consumer Behavior

Many agencies have selected Facebook, one of the most popular social media platforms in Vietnam, as their primary communication and connection channel in their units due to its widespread usage and simplicity of use. Using social networks to advertise products could make people more likely to buy things. Nevertheless, there is still a need for more scholarly attention to understand the impact of social media usage on users' purchase intention, especially in Vietnam— a country with a significant number of social media users worldwide. Hence, this study aims to examine factors regarding social media advertising including informativeness, performance expectancy, perceived relevance, and interactivity that impact consumer buying intention through popular platforms in Vietnam such as Facebook. The authors utilized a set of established scales to measure the constructs under investigation. An online questionnaire with 22 items was designed and developed based on previous research. The survey specifically targeted Vietnamese shoppers who regularly engage in online activities through the social media platform Facebook. From the collected questionnaires, a data of 217 valid responses were utilized for the analysis using SPSS. The study revealed the indicators relevant to Facebook advertising of consumer purchase intention. Among them, two-way communication in the form of interactivity, one of the most common features of social networks plays a vital role in fostering purchase intention as its greatest effect on consumer purchase intention, followed by perceived relevance, performance expectancy, and informativeness. The current research extends consumer behavior literature in online shopping settings and consolidates further the importance of advertising value toward behavioral intention in the context of social media. The findings provide valuable insights for advertising companies to leverage Facebook media in their marketing and advertising endeavors such as providing users with the informative and relevant content, appealing appearance, as well as two-way interaction features so that they will be able to attract potentials consumers. Yet there were some limitations including the generalizability, the focus on a specific product category and the extension of other social media platforms which should be suggested in the future research.

Persua: A Visual Interactive System to Enhance the Persuasiveness of Arguments in Online Discussion

Persuading people to change their opinions is a common practice in online discussion forums on topics ranging from political campaigns to relationship consultation. Enhancing people's ability to write persuasive arguments could not only practice their critical thinking and reasoning but also contribute to the effectiveness and civility in online communication. It is, however, not an easy task in online discussion settings where written words are the primary communication channel. In this paper, we derived four design goals for a tool that helps users improve the persuasiveness of arguments in online discussions through a survey with 123 online forum users and interviews with five debating experts. To satisfy these design goals, we analyzed and built a labeled dataset of fine-grained persuasive strategies (i.e., logos, pathos, ethos, and evidence) in 164 arguments with high ratings on persuasiveness from ChangeMyView, a popular online discussion forum. We then designed an interactive visual system, Persua, which provides example-based guidance on persuasive strategies to enhance the persuasiveness of arguments. In particular, the system constructs portfolios of arguments based on different persuasive strategies applied to a given discussion topic. It then presents concrete examples based on the difference between the portfolios of user input and high-quality arguments in the dataset. A between-subjects study shows suggestive evidence that Persua encourages users to submit more times for feedback and helps users improve more on the persuasiveness of their arguments than a baseline system. Finally, a set of design considerations was summarized to guide future intelligent systems that improve the persuasiveness in text.

Landscape Analysis of Social and Behavior Change in Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Programs

ObjectivesNutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSeA) aims to improve consumption via improved production of and/or access to nutritious foods. Social and behavior change (SBC) has potential to maximize NSeA impacts on diet behaviors, but the design and implementation of SBC within NSeA is heterogeneous and often not documented. The objective of this research is to conduct a landscape analysis of SBC in NSeA programs. MethodsThirteen ongoing NSeA programs were enrolled in this landscape analysis. Data were collected in two phases: a desk review of program documents and remote interviews with program staff and stakeholders; and in-person site visits to conduct additional interviews, observe activities, and conduct focus group discussions with community members. Data collection is designed to understand program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of SBC in addition to overall implementation successes, challenges, and learnings. ResultsAfter considerable delays due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, three of thirteen site visits have been completed. Initial learnings indicate variability both in SBC approaches employed by NSeA programs, and in alignment with SBC best practices. Interpersonal communication is a common approach in NSeA, often in concert with community engagement. Advocacy, while common, is infrequently identified as an SBC approach. We observed audience-focused, participatory participant engagement. Integration within existing systems and structures, often governmental, is common. We have less commonly observed programs that conduct formative research or utilize behavioral theory in intervention design; rather, programs rely heavily on local staff’s knowledge of communities and social norms. While many programs aim to engage multiple audiences, there are noted barriers to meaningful engagement with secondary audiences. Lastly, we observe that programs tend to rely on a primary platform or communication channel; additional channels may be present but not emphasized. ConclusionsInterpersonal communication and community engagement are cornerstones of SBC in NSeA. Alignment with best SBC practices is mixed, with limited strategic SBC design and implementation. A key challenge to this research is the lack of documentation of SBC design and implementation. Funding SourcesBill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Formative Research to Tailor Maternal Nutrition Services Introducing Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) for Pregnant Women in Rural Madagascar

ObjectivesTo develop tailored social marketing approaches for introducing multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) to pregnant women in rural Madagascar. MethodsDesign. This formative study utilized a Rapid Assessment Procedures approach conducted over two iterative phases in Itasy and Vatovavy Fitovinany, Madagascar from October 2020 – March 2021. Data collection and sampling. Phase 1 utilized community workshops, focus groups, and market observations to generate community inputs for developing culturally appropriate and tailored MMS programming. Phase 2 included free lists and semi-structured interviews among pregnant women and health workers for an ethnographic understanding of pregnancy-related practices in this setting. Analysis. Textual data from interviews were thematically analyzed using Dedoose software. Numerical data from market observations and community workshops were summarized using descriptive statistics. Findings were grounded in a social marketing framework and triangulated across methods and participant types to enhance data credibility. ResultsFormative findings can be conceptualized using the ‘4ps’ of social marketing: Product. In this setting, women voted for an orange-colored MMS box design because the color reflects locally-available fruits such as mangoes and oranges. Red and white colors were secondary preferences. Price. Pregnant women explained some willingness to pay for MMS, suggesting that 500 to 600 Ar/30-day supply may be appropriate, but emphasizing the need for free provision to increase coverage among more vulnerable groups. Placement. Distributing MMS using a combination of both facility-based and community-based approaches was suggested by participants for ensuring optimal program coverage and reach. Promotion. Pregnant women suggested the need for community-based, interpersonal communications using health agents and health workers as the primary communication channels to promote MMS compliance. Several local language (Malagasy) phrases were generated through participatory workshops to promote MMS specifically to pregnant women in this setting. ConclusionsParticipatory formative research in rural Madagascar provided context-specific, social marketing inputs that may help improve MMS acceptability and compliance in Madagascar. Funding SourcesSight and Life Foundation.

Do Board of Directors Ensure Quality of Disclosures in Annual Reports?

A company’s published annual report is the primary channel of communication with shareholders and shareholders use these reports as a tool to monitor the activities of the Companies. The present study is an attempt to assess the effectiveness of annual reports in communication and its utility in monitoring affairs of the companies. The prime focus of this study is to rate management discussion and analysis on perceived risk factors of the company and the disclosure quality of risk perceptions of the management. The purpose of the study is to explore the quality of disclosures in the annual reports hence exploratory-qualitative analysis technique has been applied. Reports of selected companies were analysed and results were discussed with selected stakeholders to corroborate findings with the existing patters in disclosures. The study concludes that the level of reporting is associated with stages of maturity of a company and during a larger phase of a company quality of disclosure remains irrelevant to management as well as to shareholders. Existing researches on the subject have identified various factors influencing comprehensiveness of disclosures in the annual reports while this research has explored a new theory of irrelevance in disclosing crucial risk-related perceptions.

Lens Application of Social Construction Theory and Social Influence Theory to Examine the Factors of WhatsApp Usage as an Organizational Communication Medium

Social Construction Theory assumes that the development of communication technology in the organization causes the organization's staff to share meanings and actions responding to the technology. Meanwhile, the Theory of Social Influence explains the impact of new technology applications such as social media usage affects the environment. These theories emphasise that social media such as WhatsApp has taken over traditional communication and become one of the primary communication channels in the organization. Accordingly, based on the assumptions found in both theories, this study was conducted to identify the determinants of WhatsApp acceptance as a medium of interaction between staff in an organization. Specifically, this study applies a qualitative method to examine WhatsApp usage as a medium of interaction. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with the middle-level management staff at a public university. All informants were the staff members who have served the university for more than five years and have used WhatsApp for work-related matters. The interview transcription was analysed using the thematic analysis based on the assumptions of both theories. The research finding shows that the combination of both theories were able to explain the factor of WhatsApp usage and its implications among the staff in the organization. Therefore, this study has contributed towards the strengthening of the assumptions found in the Theory of Social Construction that is interpretive flexibility, tolerance, socio-cultural and stability, and also in the Theory of Social Influence which is compliance, identification, and internalization. In addition, this study has also contributed to studies related to communication technology usage and strengthening the theories related to these aspects. Keywords: Social media, WhatsApp, qualitative study, social construction theory, social influence theory.

Performance evaluation of IEEE 802.11p, LTE and 5G in connected vehicles for cooperative awareness

AbstractIn recent years, researchers and scientists are continuously striving to design and develop advance wireless technologies for vehicular communication. Advanced short‐range (IEEE‐802.11p/ITS‐G5) and long‐range (LTE, LTE‐A, and 5G) technologies are indispensable for Vehicular Ad hoc networking (VANETs). Meanwhile, exploiting technologies for cooperative awareness of connected vehicles is important for seamless network connectivity in hazardous situations. For seamless network availability, there is a need to integrate short‐range and long‐range technologies together. In this article, we design a pilot platform based on IEEE‐802.11p, LTE and 5G test network (5GTN) utilizing road traffic and weather information. The use of real‐time and accurate road traffic and weather information together with road condition information is crucial to enhance road safety. To deliver updated road weather and traffic information, we have used a combination of networks. In this article, a comparison of vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) pilot scenarios was carried out considering the mentioned networks. The used IEEE 802.11p acts as a primary vehicular communication channel, assisted by other cellular‐based LTE and 5G networks. Network performance was analyzed by considering latency, packet loss, and throughput in V2V and V2I scenarios. These pilot measurements revealed that the state‐of‐the‐art 5G test network performs better in contrast of IEEE‐802.11p and LTE network by delivering real‐time road weather and road traffic observation data. These pilots filed measurements show the potential of combining short‐ and long‐range technologies for enhanced road safety.

Strategic responses by European airlines to the Covid-19 pandemic: A soft landing or a turbulent ride?

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically affected the aviation industry. This paper investigates how 20 European airlines communicated their crisis messages during the pandemic by employing Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to airline responses. This qualitative study consisting of a systematic review and content analysis, examined 7237 messages from social media channels and press releases posted between December 1, 2019, and May 25, 2020, when the crisis unfolded worldwide. The results indicate that the airlines primarily emphasized instructing and adjusting crisis communication strategies. Further, Twitter replaced Facebook as the primary communication channel. This study provides insights on how airlines can and should communicate crisis-related messages amidst a severe pandemic. The study concludes with the implications of these findings and recommendations for airline stakeholders moving forward.

Learning to Ignore

Bulk email is a primary communication channel within organizations, with all-company emails and regular newsletters serving as a mechanism for making employees aware of policies and events. Ineffective communication could result in wasted employee time and a lack of compliance or awareness. Previous studies on organizational emails focused mostly on recipients. However, organizational bulk email system is a multi-stakeholder problem including recipients, communicators, and the organization itself. We studied the effectiveness, practice, and assessments of the organizational bulk email system of a large university from multi-stakeholders' perspectives. We conducted a qualitative study with the university's communicators, recipients, and managers. We delved into the organizational bulk email's distributing mechanisms of the communicators, the reading behaviors of recipients, and the perspectives on emails' values of communicators, managers, and recipients. We found that the organizational bulk email system as a whole was strained, and communicators are caught in the middle of this multi-stakeholder problem. First, though the communicators had an interest in preserving the effectiveness of channels in reaching employees, they had high-level clients whose interests might outweigh judgment about whether a message deserves widespread circulation. Second, though communicators thought they were sending important information, recipients viewed most of the organizational bulk emails as not relevant to them. Third, this disagreement was amplified by the success metric used by communicators. They viewed their bulk emails as successful if they had a high open rate. But recipients often opened and then rapidly discarded emails without reading the details. Last, while the communicators in general understood the challenge, they had a limited set of targeting and feedback tools to support their task.

Exploring EFL student use of digital backchannels during collaborative learning activities

This chapter highlights several findings related to the learners' use of digital communication channels during online collaborative activities. The term "digital backchannel" is used to imply that there are two channels of communication operating simultaneously during collaborative activities. The predominant digital channel is that of the online content management system controlled by the instructor and accessed in the target language, English. The secondary channel of digital communication (backchannel) is that of the external personal social network systems (SNS) that students employed to interact with group members and others. The researcher collected qualitative and quantitative data on learner interactions within a yearlong series of language learning activities through internet logs and interviews. The students employed digital backchannels with increasing frequency throughout the study period, even though there was an initial reluctance to use a communication channel, they considered very private for public educational activities. These digital backchannels were primarily mobile-based SNS. The students reported that the use of these backchannels increased in use over the study period and led to increased peer communication and networking. Also, students' language use changed when moving between these primary and secondary communication channels, with L1 being used for the main-channel and L2 used for the backchannel.