Analysing eight recent Hindi blockbusters streaming to over 100 markets, this article shows how Bollywood reformats Indian social values for global screens. Using Hall’s encoding/decoding model and a critical reading of Schwartz’s value theory, reflexive thematic and discourse analyses identify three recurring logics: (1) family honour, fusing tradition, conformity and security; (2) patriarchal protection, casting male dominance as benevolent care and (3) romance as regulation, reinscribing heteronormativity after brief female autonomy. These tropes convert hierarchy into cultural heritage and travel intact through OTT circulation, unsettling liberal assumptions that ‘openness to change’ is inherently progressive. The study reframes Hindi cinema as epistemic production and advances feminist-postcolonial debates on transnationalization, media networks and knowledgescapes.
Women are significantly underrepresented in above-the-line roles in film and television, but anecdotal evidence suggests they are gravitating to web series. To explore this, the authors built the largest known international archive of web series released during 2012–2019 and analysed women’s participation. In the top five web series producing countries in the West, women achieved or approached parity with men in producing, directing and writing, but not cinematography. Do achievements in low-budget, transitory media count for anything? Drawing on ephemeral media scholarship, we discuss the potential of such forms to disturb entrenched patterns of gender discrimination in screen industries worldwide.
This paper reflects critically on the concept of ‘communicative resilience’ and its application in the field of media development. It draws on the case study of a development programme implemented in Tunisia and Lebanon, which was intended to support community-owned media through the framework of communicative resilience. The article reports on the findings of 47 fieldwork interviews with local civil society actors and independent journalists, and argues that the agenda of resilience often fails to harness—and at times undermines—organic grass-roots communication practices. As an alternative, it proposes redefining communicative resilience as an organic process of communicative resistance.
This content analysis offers a benchmark of product placement (PPL) in eight Korean dramas that earned top viewership on Netflix during the COVID-driven media consumption of 2020 and continued streaming 5 years later. Researchers found 507 labelled products from 78 unique brands, including a heavy presence of brands from 11 non-Korean countries. Automobiles appeared most frequently as a product category, followed by food and beverages. Branded products were often used by primary characters for extended periods of time. Findings add to PPL literature by evaluating non-US over-the-top (OTT) programming with continuing global SVoD viewership and includes explanations of regulation differences in South Korea.
This paper examines how dissent and social mobilization were constructed on Persian X (formerly Twitter) during the protests following Mahsa Amini's death in 2022. Through a combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of posts using the hashtag #MahsaAmini (sic), the study shows that X functioned not only as a space for reporting events but also as a medium for coordination, framing political demands, and articulating visions of systemic change. The findings highlight how digitally mediated communication enabled the rapid formation and circulation of oppositional narratives despite severe restrictions on access and expression within Iran.
How do elite US news outlets frame AI within accounts of hype, disappointment and tempered expectation? This study finds that rather than fueling hype, coverage tends to adopt a cautious tone - emphasizing everyday uses and current impacts over speculative futures. A content analysis of three high-profile US dailies shows more positive tones when only developers or vendors discuss their own AI tools. The findings underscore journalists' important role in contextualizing and balancing biased narratives and will be a valuable contribution for academics, journalists and policymakers seeking to understand hype, disappointment and expectation dynamics in technology discourse and their broader social implications.
This article examines closures of American Cultural Centers in the People's Republic of China and Confucius Institutes in the United States as actions taken in alignment with, and justified by, government produced strategic communications. In the sphere of public diplomacy, these cases represent dynamic resistance action linked to US/PRC global paradigms. Here, shuddering state-sponsored education and cultural activities displays the strategic competition apparent in the Trump (2017)/Biden (2022) US National Security Strategies as well as the PRC's National Defense White Paper (2019). When public diplomacy is deferred, the shifting US-PRC relationship and pathways for opposing strategic influence processes are made apparent.
This study explores 5 years of international media coverage of the Cyprus conflict through the lens of a peace journalism framework. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, researchers analyzed coverage from The New York Times, the Associated Press (AP) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The study employs a combined framework of peace journalism, conflict journalism, cultural identities, and economics to assess how these factors interact in shaping international news narratives. Researchers found that Western foreign news agencies frequently emphasize violence and conflict in their reporting, rather than fostering peace initiatives in Cyprus.
This study examines the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) media coverage of Azerbaijan and Sweden to consider possible Eurocentric bias in international communication. Using Media Influences Theory and textual analysis, it analyzes visual symbology and notes consistent differences in portrayals of Western and non-Western participants. Western European media appear to respond to ingrained audience preferences, which may reinforce Eurocentric frames. These tendencies shape intercultural perception within ESC coverage. The study suggests reconsidering media practice toward representation that reflects global cultures rather than privileging Western norms.
This article introduces and explores the concept of 'hybrid political actors' (HPAs) and the implications of their rise for contemporary democracy. It argues that the phenomenon is not new but has become increasingly significant amid the digital disruptions of the fourth age of political communication. As explained, professions in the fields of politics and journalism have lost their communication primacy within the political public sphere, while hybridity has simultaneously enabled further boundary blurring between these and other professions. Thus, HPAs have flourished. Four of which are sketched out here are politician-publishers, political pseudo news sites, celebrity-politicians and political flexions. As the piece concludes, the growing influence of such actors challenges democracies in various ways. The recent rise to power of Donald Trump and a number of allied business celebrity-politicians, epitomises these trends and the challenges.
This article examines the evolution of reality television in Malaysia, focussing on the initial impact of Malaysian Idol and Akademi Fantasia and their adaptation in the digital age. It explores how these global formats were tailored to align with Malaysia's socio-cultural context and how digital advances have transformed audience engagement. Using qualitative content analysis, the study investigates how these programmes reflect Malaysian cultural values while embracing modern entertainment formats. It also examines the role of digital technology in enhancing real-time audience participation through platforms like Big Stage and Gegar Vaganza, where viewers influence outcomes via live voting and social media interactions. The findings highlight a nuanced balance between global trends and local traditions, with digital tools reshaping viewer interaction and community engagement. This shift highlights the challenges of preserving cultural values amid increasing global and digital influences. The study contributes to understanding how Malaysian reality television navigates the intersection of globalization and digitalization, impacting both production practices and audience reception.
This study seeks to identify the digital media frames of the violations committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian female journalists as presented on the AlJazeera YouTube channel and BBC YouTube channel from 1/1/2020 to 30/06/2023. The media framing theory foregrounds the current study. This study is considered descriptive and uses the media survey methodology as well as quantitative and qualitative analysis. A sample of 105 videos posted on the two YouTube channels were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The study results reveal that both TV news channels covered Israeli violations against Palestinian female journalists, such as killing, arrests, and abuse, while completely ignoring Israeli violations related to restricting freedom of opinion and expression. Furthermore, the YouTube channels primarily documented Israeli violations against Palestinian female journalists through videos created by citizens using mobile phones. The study also revealed that the assassination of the Palestinian journalist Sherine Abu Aqelah is the most significant incident featured in YouTube videos. Results indicate that the number of videos published on AlJazeera YouTube channel is greater than that published on the BBC channel. In addition, AlJazeera's YouTube channel used emotional and rational persuasion techniques in covering Israeli violations. The news coverage by AlJazeera gives more attention to the violations against its journalists and reporters than those working for other media organizations.
This study analyzes the X communication strategy of the IDF's Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, during the short 3-day Operation Breaking Dawn in August 2022. Using grounded theory, the analysis of 126 posts reveals five core strategies: segmented digital diplomacy, justified power framing, digital credibility control, psychological fragmentation tactics, and strategic morality framing. These strategies targeted diverse Arabic-speaking audiences to influence perception and control the wartime narrative. The study contributes a conceptual framework for understanding strategic digital diplomacy and state propaganda in conflict zones.
Heightened geopolitical tensions give rise to digital diplomacy scholarship that frames social media as a digital battleground where rival states amply diplomatic messaging. Yet, interactions between ambassadors and host countries amidst geopolitical tensions remain underexplored. This study used mixed methods to analyze the 2022–2023 X posts of China’s ambassadors in Washington, DC, and their US counterpart in Beijing. Computational analysis reveals different sentiment curves and diplomatic priorities on ambassadorial accounts. Qualitative interpretation reveals that ambassadors were positive on topics of bilateral cooperation, interaction and historical connections. Whereas Chinese ambassadors were critical of the US on Taiwan and human rights, the US ambassador was negative on China’s human rights, geopolitical actions and censorship.
Using qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews, this study examines the hybrid media culture within which the pan-Arab diasporic media in the UK function as they exist physically in a liberal media system while operating virtually in a more restrictive one. The paper further investigates the hybrid patterns of interactions, spaces and politics/media logic to specify new connections between social actors within such a transnational system. It employs two conceptual frameworks: comparing media systems and the hybrid media system as starting points for developing a novel definition of the 'Transnational Hybrid Media System' and advancing a comprehensive discussion of its characteristics.
This article examines the discursive representation of the Nile Water Treaties as portrayed by Ahram Online, Sudan Tribune and The Ethiopian Herald, national newspapers in Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, respectively. Guided by Postcolonial Theory, the study employs the Postcolonial Critical Discourse Analysis method. Findings reveal that these newspapers divergently portrayed the Nile treaties as binding, alternative and obsolete trichotomies, respectively. We argue that the structural legacies of colonialism, as evidenced by colonial treaties, still influence how contemporary media portrays projects on transboundary resources. Consequently, such divergences contribute to conflicting terms rather than cooperation between the three riparian countries regarding the project.
The US has 'international' laws, created domestically, which used to support national global interests, enforced by threats of exclusion from the dollar-based world trading system. These create problems for, and are contested by, governments around the world, Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper analyses BBC international news reporting on one case where these laws were used against the chief financial officer of Huawei in regard to breaking US sanctions against Iran. The case was dismissed as groundless in 2021. Reporting foregrounds drama, personalization and details of legal process, but never questions the nature of this 'international law'.
