"Background: During the early phases of Covid-19, social media platforms became a significant source of misinformation, and India emerged as a global hotspot. Studies show that ‘miracle cure’ for preventing and treating Covid-19 infection has been a prominent topic of misinformation. This study
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explores the extent to which beliefs in cure for Covid-19 in three prominent medical traditions popular in India are associated. Methods: We conducted an online structured questionnaire survey of 500 respondents in August 2020 in four major cities of India. Results: Despite the scientific consensus at that time that there was no cure for Covid-19, close to three-quarters of our respondents believe that there was a cure in at least one of the three popular medical traditions in India: Allopathy, Homeopathy, and Ayurveda. We find that exposure to and trust in WhatsApp are associated with false beliefs regarding the existence of a cure for Covid-19 (p = 0.001 and p = 0.014, respectively). While trust in science is associated with correct beliefs (p = 0.025), there is evidence that trust in government information may foster incorrect beliefs (p = 0.031). Conclusions: The high trust in scientific research and its potential ability to instill correct beliefs could be exploited to combat Covid-19 misinformation in India. Potential interventions such as awareness campaigns to increase digital media literacy, regulating social media platforms, and voluntary content regulation by social media platforms – might help policymakers tackle Covid-19 related misinformation effectively." (Abstract)
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"Misinformation and fake news are severe threats to society. The role of critical reading skills is crucial in the battle against misinformation. Despite the promising results of game-based interventions to mitigate the effects of misinformation, the corpus of research on games supporting critical r
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eading skills needs an overview. Therefore, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyze how games have been used to tackle misinformation and reveal game design trends. A total of 15 papers eventually met the defined inclusion criteria and were analyzed. The review revealed that the use of games in critical reading education had emerged recently and focused mainly on fake news. Most games were grounded on inoculation theory and consequently designed to expose players to weakened doses of the misinformation manipulation techniques to build resistance against them. So far, the games have been studied mainly in informal settings and with adult participants. The median sample size was 196, and the median playing time was 15 min across the studies reported in the papers. Although all the reviewed papers reported positive outcomes, the game-based learning research on the critical reading domain is not yet mature enough to generalize findings." (Abstract)
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"Die Wikipedia präsentiert das Wissen der Welt im digitalen Zeitalter. Damit stellt sie sich in eine Linie mit den Aufklärern des 18. Jahrhunderts - und quer zu den irrationalen Exzessen digitaler Filterblasen. Aber wie sehen die Produktionsbedingungen dieses Wissens in der Praxis aus und nach wel
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chen Kriterien wird »wahres« von »falschem« Wissen unterschieden? Olaf Rahmstorf diagnostiziert aus einer wissenssoziologischen Perspektive einen verkürzenden Formalismus, der sich vor inhaltliche Argumentation schiebt. Hiervon ausgehend analysiert er den »Neutral point of view«, das formale und epistemologische Kernstück der Wikipedia, konfrontiert ihn mit den Erkenntnissen zeitgenössischer Rationalitätstheorien und entwickelt daraus schließlich eine diskurstheoretische Bestimmung der Wikipedia." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Populists and the Pandemic examines the responses of populist political actors and parties in 22 countries around the globe to the Covid-19 pandemic, in terms of their attitudes, rhetoric, mobilization repertoires, and policy proposals. The responses of some populist leaders have received much publ
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ic attention, as they denied the severity of the public health crisis, denigrated experts and data, looked for scapegoats, encouraged protests, questioned the legitimacy of liberal institutions, spread false information, and fueled conspiracies. But how widespread are those particular reactions? How much variation is there? What explains the variation that does exist? This volume considers these questions through critical analysis of countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, by leading experts with deep knowledge of their respective cases. Some chapters focus on populist parties, others on charismatic populist leaders. Some countries examined are democracies, others autocracies. Some populists are left-wing, others right-wing. Some populists are in government, others in opposition. This variation allows for a panoramic consideration of factors that systematically influence or mediate populist responses to the pandemic. The book thus makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the intersection between two of the most pressing social and political challenges of our time. The book will be of interest to all those researching populism, extremism, and political parties, and those more broadly interested in political science, public policy, sociology, communications, and economics." (Publisher description)
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"Since the mid-2010s, chatbots have grown in usage and popularity across the humanitarian sector. While this usage has gained traction, there is scarce information on the collective successes, risks, and trade-offs of this automation. This research addresses this gap, documenting chatbot deployments
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across the humanitarian sector and exploring the existing uses, benefits, trade-offs and challenges of using chatbots in humanitarian contexts. The research was conducted by The Engine Room, with support from the American Red Cross, the IFRC and valuable input from our advisory committee. This report is not created as a comprehensive overview of chatbots use, instead, the goal of the report is twofold: to offer guiding questions and considerations for humanitarian organisations deciding if a chatbot is an appropriate tool to address programme and community needs. It also contains use cases highlighting the experiences of practitioners working in diverse geographic contexts and issue areas." (Executive summary)
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"There is a profoundly troubling history of research being done on Indigenous peoples without regard for their priorities and accompanying calls to decolonize health research. Storytelling methods can privilege Indigenous voices in research. Indigenous people’s knowledge systems have existed for m
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illennium, where knowledge is produced and shared through stories. Our collaborative team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, and Indigenous Elders, patients, healthcare providers, and administrators, conducted a participatory, scoping review to examine how storytelling has been used as a method in Indigenous health research on Turtle Island (North America), Australia, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). We searched key databases and online sources for qualitative and mixed-methods studies that involved Indigenous participants and used storytelling as a method in health research. Reviewers screened abstracts/full texts to confirm eligibility. Narrative data were extracted and synthesized. An intensive collaboration was woven throughout and included gatherings incorporating Indigenous protocol, Elders’ teachings on storytelling, and sharing circles. We included 178 articles and found a diverse array of storytelling approaches and adaptations, along with exemplary practices and problematic omissions. Researchers honoured Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing through careful preparation and community engagement to do storywork, inclusion of Indigenous languages and protocols, and Indigenous initiation and governance. Storytelling centered Indigenous voices, was a culturally relevant and respectful method, involved a healing process, and reclaimed Indigenous stories. But it could result in several challenges when researchers did not meaningfully engage with Indigenous peoples. These findings can guide respectful storytelling research that bridges divergent Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, to decolonize health research." (Abstract)
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"This study analyses how governments, public health experts and other professionals communicated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of these communication strategies. It investigates COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation practices, and how these practices were addressed in the Europea
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n Union by the Member States and the European Commission. It draws up recommendations to improve responses in the future, including by analysing the role of the Code of Practice on disinformation ad the expected impact of the Digital Services Act." (Abstract)
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"Global land and resource grabbing has become an increasingly prominent topic in academic circles, among development practitioners, human rights advocates, and in policy arenas. The Routledge Handbook of Global Land and Resource Grabbing sustains this intellectual momentum by advancing methodologica
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l, theoretical and empirical insights. It presents and discusses resource grabbing research in a holistic manner by addressing how the rush for land and other natural resources, including water, forests and minerals, is intertwined with agriculture, mining, tourism, energy, biodiversity conservation, climate change, carbon markets, and conflict. The handbook is truly global and interdisciplinary, with case studies from the Global South and Global North, and chapter contributions from practitioners, activists and academics, with emerging and Indigenous authors featuring strongly across the chapters." (Publisher description)
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"This volume explores how religious and spiritual actors engage for environmental protection and fight against climate change. Climate change and sustainability are increasingly prominent topics among religious and spiritual groups. Different faith traditions have developed "green" theologies, launc
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hed environmental protection projects and issued public statements on climate change. Against this background, academic scholarship has raised optimistic claims about the strong potentials of religions to address environmental challenges. Taking a critical stance with regard to these claims, the chapters in this volume show that religious environmentalism is an embattled terrain. Tensions are an inherent part of religious environmentalism. These do not necessarily manifest themselves in open clashes between different parties but in different actions, views, theologies, ambivalences, misunderstandings, and sometimes mistrust. Keeping below the surface, these tensions can create effective barriers for religious environmentalism. The chapters examine how tensions are manifested and dealt with through a range of empirical case studies in various world regions. Covering different religious and spiritual traditions, they reflect on intradenominational, interdenominational, interreligious, and religious-societal tensions." (Publisher description)
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"Heat risks, such as those associated with heatwaves, are increasing in frequency, severity, and duration due to climate change. The ways in which people around the globe perceive and respond to heat risks are now of great importance to reduce a range of negative health outcomes. A growing body of l
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iterature aims to assess the factors that influence people's behaviors in relation to heat risks. This research can inform better interventions, such as improved communications approaches, that attempt to facilitate adaptive behavioral responses to such risks. This review focuses on how insights from behavioral and attitudinal studies about heat risk responses can inform communication approaches. These insights are organized into three key themes: (1) Behaviors—What types of actions can be taken by people, and what evidence is there for adaptive behavior? (2) Antecedents—Which individual and contextual factors can influence people's behaviors? (3) Communications—How can existing insights be better integrated into interventions? Aspects of communication, including the role of message characteristics, messenger, and imagery, are discussed, with examples of messages and narratives that target influential antecedents of adaptive responses to heat risks. The paper makes three important contributions. First, it organizes literature on the antecedents and behavioral responses to heat risk; second, it provides a typology of the range of heat risk behaviors; and, third, it discusses how antecedents can be integrated into communication interventions. The review concludes with a proposed agenda for research, highlighting the need for substantial testing and evaluation of heat risk communication, applying insights from the literature." (Abstract)
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"Las conclusiones generales y aplicables a toda la muestra, independientemente de su edad, sexo y comunidad autónoma, son: 1. TikTok se posiciona como la red social en donde los menores siguen a más influencers, seguida de YouTube e Instagram. 2. El tipo de influencer más seguido son los gamers,
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y aquellos que hacen contenido de entretenimiento y humor. 3. El 70 % es consciente de que la publicidad de los influencers tienen como finalidad que ellos compren el producto anunciado. 4. El 42,4 % de los menores declara recibir publicidad sobre alimentación y aspecto físico a través del móvil. 5. El 44,5 % de los entrevistados afirma que recibe publicidad de alimentos poco saludables. 6. La publicidad sobre cuidado del cuerpo que los menores reciben con mayor frecuencia es: moda (48,7 %), cosmética y belleza (33,1 %), fitness y gimnasio (23,2 %) y procedimientos estéticos (13,5 %). 7. Cuando los adolescentes ven publicaciones de influencers colaborando con productos de alimentación y aspecto físico: el 27,8 % siente frecuente o muy frecuentemente que un cuerpo bello es un cuerpo delgado y tonificado; el 26,2 % siente frecuente o muy frecuentemente que el aspecto físico determina mucho cómo te valoras a ti mismo; el 13,9 % de los menores siente frecuente o muy frecuentemente que no está a la altura y que su presencia física no cumple con el estándar; el 13,8 % establece metas para conseguir un cuerpo perfecto frecuente o muy frecuentemente. 8. El aspecto físico figura como un indicador importante para la socialización en los menores: alrededor del 50 % de los menores señala que tener un buen físico ayuda a ser más aceptado/a." (Conclusiones)
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"Este artículo analiza cómo Acción Cultural Popular (ACPO) aplicó la comunicación para desarrollar la educación a distancia dirigida a la población adulta rural de un pequeño municipio en Boyacá, y su impacto nacional entre 1954 y 1974, tema que integra la tesis doctoral "Educación y menta
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lidades de líderes campesinos con los institutos de Acción Cultural Popular (ACPO): 1954-1974". Así mismo se expone cómo la radio, prensa, discos, el cine y la televisión, se adaptaron para la educación de los campesinos adultos. Por otra parte, se destacan los temas que ACPO determinó como fundamentación de su proyecto educativo, enfocado principalmente a la dignificación del campesino. La investigación se desarrolla desde el método histórico, para conocer cómo la comunicación fue fundamental en la propuesta educativa de ACPO, transformando la mentalidad y vida de los campesinos que participaron. Para mayor comprensión, se tendrá en cuenta la ideología y propuesta educativa del padre José Joaquín Salcedo Guarín, explorando las iniciativas del programa de la Acción Social de la Iglesia en Boyacá, y la creación de programas como la efi -Educación Fundamental Integral-para la educación y desarrollo social del campesino. " (Resumen)
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"Acción Cultural Popular fue una institución católica de largo alcance que ofreció educación a la población campesina y que buscó mejorar sus condiciones de vida en una época violenta, con alta migración rural-urbana y una creciente urbanización y pobreza. Las investigaciones sobre esta ex
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periencia han crecido en los últimos años y es conveniente presentar un balance historiográfico que identifique y analice los principales aportes, conclusiones, limitaciones, vacíos y tendencias de investigación. Este artículo analiza la producción científica sobre Acción Cultural Popular entre 1975 y 2021 para propiciar nuevas investigaciones que contribuyan a la comprensión de esta obra social católica. Se compiló la bibliografía a partir de los repositorios universitarios, así como de las principales bases de datos científicas y revistas académicas. Se incluyeron todas las disciplinas de las ciencias sociales y humanas, a su vez los textos se sistematizaron y analizaron de acuerdo con la temática tratada y prestando atención a la discusión investigativa desarrollada. La revisión nos permitió identificar que la discusión en torno al sistema educativo y el impacto social en las comunidades campesinas valora los aportes de la organización, mientras que la discusión acerca de los discursos desarrollistas y la influencia de la Iglesia católica presentan evaluaciones más desfavorables." (Resumen)
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