Although equitable digitalization has been stressed ever since the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals have been launched, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the digital divide as a key issue affecting the achievement of UN’s SDGs in many countries. Particularly, the situation in the developing countries, is apprehensive because a lack of ICTs continues to effect education, social and commercial activities, and people’s routine life even in the post-pandemic world. This study specifically reflects upon the case of Pakistan, a developing country, which was ranked 91 out of 100 in the Inclusive Internet Index of 2025. Pakistan’s digital divide is increasing that can affect the country’s capacity to achieve the UN’s sustainable development goals. Therefore, informed by the theory of digital divide, this study aims to explore the impacts of the first and second levels of digital divide on the achievement of sustainable development goals in Pakistan. This study employs a deductive inductive thematic analysis to analyze the interview data. Findings suggests that Pakistan’s first and second levels of digital divide affect key areas related to SDGs including: industrial innovation (i.e., SDG 9) and sectoral development (i.e., SDGs 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15); technological and social equity in terms of equal access to technology, education, employment, health, and well- being services (i.e., SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 8); education regardless of gender disparity (i.e., SDGs 4 and 5); equal employment opportunities (i.e., SDGs 5 and 8); public’s engagement through ensuring their well-being, peace, and justice (i.e., SDG 16).
Existing scholarship on Chinese poverty alleviation has largely proceeded from institutional or economic perspectives, paying insufficient attention to the role of cultural discourse in understanding this new campaign of China. The present study adopts Cultural Discourse Studies (CDS) as methodology to examine the television series Minning Town, aiming to reveal the discursive strategies reconstructing the emergence, methodologies, and underlying logic of the Minning poverty alleviation efforts. It makes the following argument. Firstly, the success of the township’s alleviation poverty efforts is made possible by such forces as state policy initiatives, relocational migration, technological assistance, the nation’s East-West collaboration, industrial development, the unity between the Party and the masses, the awakening of human agency, and dialectical synthesis of ecological modernization. Secondly and most crucially, these motivating factors are rendered present through a diversity of Chinese discursive-cinematic techniques: Chinese-specific parole and narratives, particular types of personages, dialectal dialogue, polyphonic soundscapes, and contrast montage. This study demonstrates that Chinese cinematic discourse provides an effective way of understanding Chinese poverty alleviation efforts.
In the current context of geopolitical turbulence, characterized by value clashes among other things, the younger generation in Russia is becoming a crucial audience for fostering national interests. The nature of the content young individuals independently consume has the potential to shape their worldview and lifestyle, while also serving as a vehicle for transmitting cultural codes. This is where social media content takes center stage, as media consumption serves as both a lifestyle practice and a means of gaining insights into preferred lifestyles. The present study aims to explore the analysis of youth communities’ content on social media platforms in order to understand how it influences their lifestyle choices. To this end, a methodical approach combines content analysis of young people’s communities with comparative analysis of values expressed on social media in relation to cultural codes embedded in national folklore. It has been shown that social media content effectively incorporates most of these designated cultural codes and values. However, it fails to recognize the significance of Orthodox faith, which is also an important aspect of many young people’s lives.
This article develops and tests a within-outlet framework for evaluating news content diversity in the regional output of a state news agency operating in a hybrid media system. Building on debates about media pluralism and news diversity, we propose a set of indicators for three content-level dimensions – spatial, source and topical diversity – and apply them to a ten-year corpus of regional news from TASS, Russia’s state-owned news agency. The analysis shows that while regional output has become more diverse in terms of thematic scope, spatial and source diversity remain strongly constrained by centre– periphery hierarchies, the predominance of state actors and a persistent reliance on negative, event-driven news. Conceptually, it advances a “diversity at the core” perspective, arguing that assessing within-outlet diversity in dominant news suppliers is a necessary complement to exposure-centred approaches and a prerequisite for understanding downstream diversity outcomes.
In an era of rapid digital transformation, government agencies struggle to engage Generation Z, Indonesia’s largest demographic with public science information. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s reception theory, this study uses in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to examine how 42 Generation Z social media users (aged 15–24) in Indonesia, Central Java province interpret and respond to official government content. Three decoding positions emerge: dominant readings, i.e. professionally produced, clear, and relevant posts fostering positive engagement and trust; negotiated readings, i.e. appreciation for substance alongside critiques of design, tone, and timeliness; and oppositional readings, i.e. static, unresponsive messaging leading to disengagement. We extend reception analysis into digital science communication by integrating “affective publics” and refine Hall’s model by showing how intrinsic values and extrinsic platform cues jointly shape interpretation. From these insights, we propose a six-pillar framework: concise narratives; high- impact visuals; local influencer partnerships; judicious humor; rapid feedback loops; and consistent branding. Implementing these strategies can boost Generation Z’s science literacy, content shareability, and trust in government initiatives.
