Leadership, mobilization of risky behaviours and accountability: The Church of Greece leaders' public talk during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social psychologists have typically examined leadership and risk-taking behaviours through a social identity lens. However, the rhetorical/ideological aspects of such processes as well as leaders' accountability management practices have not been adequately studied. We address this gap by focusing on leaders of the Church of Greece (CoG), who, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, insisted that their congregation should keep receiving the Holy Communion, which typically involves the practice of spoon-sharing. We present a discursive analysis of 17 interviews with leaders of the CoG given in Greek media channels, exploring how they construct participation in the ritual. When Church leaders urged their audiences to engage in risky practices, they assumed various social identity positions (e.g. scientifically informed; civic minded), implicating competing ideological frameworks. They also managed their personal and institutional accountability for potential viral transmissions by placing responsibility for adverse effects on their followers. Implications for social psychological theory are discussed.

Muslim preachers' pandemics related discourses within social media: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis

Pandemics have been extensively represented in different discourse genres including journalistic discourse, media discourse, medical discourse, social media discourse, and academic discourse. This study explores the representation of COVID-19, Swine flu, and Monkey pox in the Arab Muslim preachers' discourses on Twitter and Facebook. The Muslim preachers' discourses remain one of the influential discourses that informs the ideology of its believers, as it is largely based on the Islamic authoritative discourses of the Quran and the Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad. The data set of 538 postings was generated through an extended observation of purposively recruited Arab Muslim non-mainstream scholars' postings on Facebook and Twitter from March 2019 to August 2022. The data were analyzed using corpus-based critical discourse analysis. The twofold analytical lens involving CL and CDA revealed that Muslim preachers frequently used ideological semantic patterns in communicating to the Muslim society at large regarding the pandemics. The utilized semantic patterns emerged as embedded in certain ideological frames established in the Islamic authoritative discourses of the Quran and the Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad. In their ideological representation of the pandemics, Muslim preachers framed the entire three pandemics mostly as the wrath of God. Religious scholars' postings cannot be considered an account of teaching and preaching;rather, they merely consume and produce Islamic ideology in a way to manipulate and influence Muslims' knowledge of existing reality by adding new meanings in line with the chosen ideological frames.

Exploring Mental Health in Ideological and Political Education System during COVID-19 lockdown: Moderating Effect of Ambivalent Sexism and Unconscious Bias

Recently, the COVID-19 lockdown has created many issues for the world's mental health that need a foremost solution and researchers' attention. Thus, the current article analyzes the impact of COVID-19 anxiety on the mental health of Jordan's ideological and political education system. The article also investigates the moderating role of ambivalent sexism and unconscious bias among COVID-19 anxiety and mental health in Jordan's ideological and political education system. The article has applied questionnaires, the primary data collection method, to collect the data from chosen respondents. The data was collected from a population of 5346 college and university students enrolled in Jordan under political and ideological education programs. A sample size of 356 was finally obtained for this research via a self-reported survey. The article has also applied the SPSS-AMOS to check the items and variables' reliability and validity and investigated the association among understudy variables. The results revealed that COVID-19 anxiety has a negative and significant linkage with the mental health of Jordan's ideological and political education system. The findings also revealed that ambivalent sexism and unconscious bias significantly moderated the relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and mental health in Jordan's ideological and political education system. The study is unique in addressing this sensitive issue in the cultural environment of GCC countries. Specifically, studies on such topics are very rare in a setting like Jordan. This study provides guidelines to the policy-establishing authorities on developing policies to improve students' mental health by eliminating COVID-19 anxiety. © (2023). All Rights Reserved.

The politics of civil society narratives in contestation between liberalism and nationalism in authoritarian Vietnam

The liberal-dominated civil society theory tends to obscure the dynamics and intricacy of state-society relations in authoritarian contexts. Existing accounts on Vietnam have not cast adequate light onto the struggles of ideology and positions between the state and civil society. Drawing on the most recent data from social media in Vietnam, the article contributes a new analytical approach to understanding state-society relations by offering granular insights into the contrasting but mutually reinforcing narratives adopted by the state and civil society actors. In particular, the article steers attention towards the opportunities that crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have provided for ideological struggles and legitimacy building between these actors. The paper argues that rather than continuously pushing forward the rhetoric 'civic space is shrinking', these alternatives must be steeped within wider historical understanding, attuned to particularities of the social-political context, and ultimately reflective of the evolving intricate state-society relations. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Contemporary Politics is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Chaos and Ideological Strife

This chapter discusses chaos as a philosophic concept and the concept of "constructive chaos” that occurs in the Middle East as an extension of global confusion in the core of the capitalist system. This "constructive chaos” is discussed through the lens of the Arab uprisings that began in 2011. Where other kinds of chaos happen in the most developed societies, which I refer to as the ‘quiet chaos,' and the role of the COVID-19 pandemic to bring this kind of chaos to the cultural forefront. This chapter discusses the indicators of a possible ideological conflict that could occur in the MENA, and may even extend to countries beyond the region. Involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool in such conflicts tells two stories. The former outlining the war on the mind and the second latter understanding the power of perceptions the subsequent need to control them. The power of the perception of man is the main discussion point here. As part of a new order, forms of manipulation that alter political and economic systems are given alongside evidence of global flailing that affects everyone. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Online and Offline Mixed Teaching Reform in the Practical Course of Artificial Intelligence and Application

It is necessary to ensure the quality of students' courses, especially practical courses, which is an important part of higher education, and plays a positive role in promoting and popularizing the improvement of innovation and entrepreneurship in the face of the non suspension of classes and schools under the COVID-19. This paper explores the mode of online and offline combined with ideological and political education mixed teaching reform in the course, in order to explore the educational functions and ideological and political elements of the course from the practical contents and objectives from the practical course of artificial intelligence foundation, explore the implementation methods and teaching concepts of ideological and political education in the course, so that students can better master and understand knowledge comprehensively, improve the results of students' ideological and moral education, and explore the reform mode which satisfy the requirements of talent training. © 2022 IEEE.

The Influence of Integrating the Basic Theory of Marxism into College Students' Mental Health Under the Data Driven and Internet Environment.

Introduction: The Internet has caused a great impact on everyone's psychology. Under this background, it is necessary to study whether Marxism can affect college students' mental health. Methods: Firstly, the introduction explains China's concern for college students' mental health and the research achievements. Then, in the method part, this paper analyzes the thoughts and connotations of basic Marxist theory, quality education, and mental health education, mainly studying the changes brought by the Internet to the development of Marxism and the mechanism and influence of Marxism on mental health education. The questionnaire survey is used to investigate the mental health of college students and the current situation of Marxist ideological and political education. Results: The results show that most college students are not interested in ideological and political education, and from the investigation results of five major factors of life stressors and five indicators of psychological crisis factors, it is concluded that college students' life stressors are the risk factors that induce psychological crisis tendency. Discussion: The discussion part shows that it is necessary to cultivate the core quality of college students' development through Marxism, and pay attention to actively preventing and intervening the psychological crisis of college students. This paper analyzes and confirms the effectiveness of Marxist theory on the development of mental health, injects fresh blood into the future ideological and political education and the research of college students' mental health education, and provides theoretical and experimental reference and new ideas. The research has practical reference value for promoting the deep integration of data-driven Marxist basic theory and college students' mental health monitoring.

Ideological responses to the breaking of COVID-19 social distancing recommendations.

COVID-19 has plagued the globe since January 2020, infecting millions and claiming the lives of several hundreds of thousands (at the time of writing). Despite this, many individuals have ignored public health guidance and continued to socialize in groups. Emergent work has highlighted the potential role that ideology plays in such behavior, and judgements of it. In response to this contemporary cultural phenomenon, we tested whether judgements of those allegedly flouting the guidance on social distancing were influenced by an interaction between the ideologies of those providing judgements and those allegedly breaking the rules. Our data suggest that judgements of those flouting social distancing guidance are influenced by ideology in a symmetrical way. That is, both liberals and conservatives condemn outgroup flouting more than ingroup flouting. We discuss this finding in the context of theoretical work into ideological symmetries, and the implications of growing ideological polarization in contemporary Western democracies.

Media Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Short-Term Trust Changes, Their Ideological Drivers and Consequences in Switzerland

We analyze short-term media trust changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, their ideological drivers and consequences based on panel data in German-speaking Switzerland. We thereby differentiate trust in political information from different types of traditional and non-traditional media. COVID-19 serves as a natural experiment, in which citizens' media trust at the outbreak of the crisis is compared with the same variables after the severe lockdown measures were lifted. Our data reveal that (1) media trust is consequential as it is associated with people's willingness to follow Covid-19 regulations;(2) media trust changes during the pandemic, with trust levels for most media decreasing, with the exception of public service broadcasting;(3) trust losses are hardly connected to ideological divides in Switzerland. Our findings highlight that public service broadcasting plays an exceptional role in the fight against a pandemic and that contrary to the US, no partisan trust divide occurs.

Participation in Problematic News Cycles on Social Media and Instant Messaging Services during the Covid-19 Pandemic The Impact of News Use, Political Discussion, and Ideological Extremism

After a period of initial enthusiasm about the greater communication power offered to citizens by the Internet, scholars now share a widespread concern about online participation in problematic news cycles. In particular, social media (SM) have attracted scholars' interest in mis and disinformation processes. Less attention has been paid to semi-private instant messaging services (IMs);moreover, the literature about SM/IMs has principally investigated the process of fake news amplification, neglecting other participatory practices that can challenge democratic processes when driven by cognitive bias, inadequate skills, or digital hate. Against this background, and distinguishing between SM and IMs, this study provides evidence about the impact of citizens' digital news use, online political discussion, and ideological extremism on misinformation amplification, verification, and correction. Relying on a longitudinal survey administered during the Covid-19 emergency to a representative sample of online Italian adults, the study shows a counter-intuitive and paradoxical positive association between the expressive use of SM/IMs and these three forms of participation in problematic information cycles. Moreover, the analyses show that extreme ideological stances asymmetrically affect these participatory practices. These associations encourage further research to understand the extent to which – in other social and media contexts – a politically active and ideologically extreme citizenry may increase online problematic information © 2022, Comunicazione Politica.All Rights Reserved.

The establishing of subject positions in Swedish news media discourses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the global media since 2020. To a large extent, it is via the news media that the public has learned about the risks, levels of danger, governmental regulations and mandatory actions. This article highlights the subject positions constructed by the Swedish news media from January 2020 to February 2021 in reports about the pandemic. The result shows that citizens can be active-passive or solitary solidarity, these positions appeal to individual accountability, thus potentially shaping and fostering citizens in line with the Swedish government's wider response to the pandemic. The news media's images are of self-regulated citizens who govern and discipline themselves and others according to the current discourses, all of which simultaneously evoke fear, togetherness and hope. The ideological dilemmas for citizens are whether to be active-passive or, if necessary, switch to the solitary solidarity subject position. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Ideological and explanatory uses of the COVID-19 as a war metaphor in science

This paper proposes to investigate the varying implications of the war metaphor in scientific publications discussing the COVID-19 pandemic. The corpus under study is composed of articles retrieved from the international scientific journal Nature, the weekly magazine New Scientist, and the international agency World Health Organisation. With a focus on three main characteristics of the pandemic - body health, medical solutions, and global impact of the virus - the present study asks to what extent the use of the war metaphor can vary to offer different viewpoints on the pandemic. The particular view on the virus - through metaphorical use - depends on the readers each publication targets, the pressure to find solutions, the editorial requirements, and the aim of the publication. We conclude that the war metaphor may not systematically be associated with disputable interpretations (as reported in literature), it also serves an explanatory function.

“Tem hora pra tudo”: The reframing adverstising of VIVO in “Conexão” to the isolation market

The pandemic of the new coronavirus has (re)configured several projects of saying, in the varied spheres of discursive communication. In advertising, the responses elicited were quick. An example is the utterance “Conexão” (2020), which belongs to VIVO's campaign “Tem hora pra tudo” (2018/2020), which is the corpus of the analysis. In order to interpret this advertising film in its concrete and living enunciative unit, understanding its meanings/values/positions, we resort to Bakhtinian theoretical-methodological propositions, above all to the notions of chronotope, ideological sign and utterance. Through the analysis, we found that the brand's enunciative choices resignify its campaign for the “connection” (virtual) as social value and merchandise. © 2022 Thesaurus Editora de Brasilia Ltda.. All rights reserved.

Modern Ideological Challenges to the Rule of the Cpc

China's ability to regulate and control the situation in the ideological sphere has increased markedly during the recent decade. At the same time, Chinese society is becoming more and more diverse, which makes social thought more and more heterogeneous. The article focuses on the changes that have taken place in relations between the ideology of CPC and non-official trends of thought. Through publications of Chinese researchers the article analyzes the key aspects of the CPC policy aimed at strengthening the leadership of the official ideology and preventing radicalization of public sentiment. In China experts are especially concerned about the ability of non-mainstream ideas to challenge the "national ideological security". The increase in the influence of official ideology led to weakening of neo-liberalism, universal values, and historical nihilism. However, the mode of interaction between the official ideology of the CPC and other ideological currents cannot be reduced to confrontation between "Chinese authoritarianism" and "Western liberalism". The full picture can be seen only by taking into account the complex relationship of Party ideology with the diverse ideas of the "gray" zone. Intense debates in China are focused on trends that have no clear theoretical basis and political orientation, but are capable to mobilize masses and radicalize public sentiment. The authorities search for optimal response to outbursts of radical Internet-populism while seeking to put nationalism and consumerism into reasonable limits. The reaction of Chinese society to the coronavirus epidemic has demonstrated that at a time of crisis and decrease in people's confidence in the effectiveness of the work of the state there was an explosive growth of pro-Western and populist sentiments. The task of combining the leading role of the normative ideology of the CPC with the diversity of social ideas will remain relevant over a long time.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in a polarized political system: Lessons from the 2020 election.

Given the deep polarization of the American political system in recent decades, was the 2020 presidential election an extension of the pre-existing partisan coalitions or did the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences have a significant impact on the outcome? Using a national probability sample provided by AmeriSpeak and voter verification provided by Catalist, we construct a structural equation model to examine the relative influence of age, race, gender, education, religious fundamentalism, ideological partisanship, affective partisanship, and measures of Covid-19 experiences and understanding to predict the 2020 vote. We re-construct the partisan polarization landscape to examine the role of politically interested non-partisans in the center of the ideological spectrum and examine their ability to select candidates in response of specific issues. The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant marginal impact on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Does Economic Restructuring during Covid-19 in South Africa amount to Disaster Capitalism?

I explore the ANC government's cadre-based (BBBEE/Broad-based Black economic empowerment) narrative in restructuring the economy amidst the pandemic, as an ideological vehicle to achieve an unstated nefarious purpose. The narrative that I aim to capture through the lenses of Naomi Klein's disaster capitalism read with Reiman's "pyrrhic defeat theory," is built around the fictitious idea of Black economic empowerment. Ultimately it serves as a vehicle for fraudulent personal enrichment by politicians and well-connected tenderpreneurs. This double theoretical vision is meant to augment and explain the opportunity that the Covid-pandemic provided for its exploitation as an example of disaster capitalism. I traverse the events which led to the current global pandemic as well as the way or ways in which a faction within government and its institutions has generally colluded with Big Business to profit from it. I consider the South African government's initial response to the pandemic as well as the ways in which such a response morphed into a self-enrichment scheme under the guise of BBBEE. This remains plausible even if one concedes that this purpose was not by original design or is solely driven by a faction within the ruling party. This discussion is preceded by an overview of the VBS Mutual Bank fraud scandal, foreshadowing my demonstration of how the pandemic proffers an opportunity for the RET-group within government to transform into a criminal shadow state as a going concern. In conclusion, I draw on the Covid-19 experience to suggest lessons for the future economic management of pandemics.

When polarised feelings towards parties spread to voters: The role of ideological distance and social sorting in Spain

Affective polarisation measured with feelings towards parties tends to overestimate the degree to which people dislike voters of opposing parties. This paper explores some of the factors that account for the gap between party affective polarisation (PAP) and voter affective polarisation (VAP). In particular, I first argue and show that the PAP-VAP gap increases with ideological distance between individuals and out-parties, although this difference begins to decrease after a certain level of ideological discrepancy is achieved. Second, social sorting increases the probability that individuals extend their antipathy towards parties to their voters, thus reducing the PAP-VAP gap. Third, whereas ideological distance leads to VAP among individuals with low levels of social sorting, it does not make a difference for socially sorted people. I discuss the relevance of these two factors by utilising the third wave of the E-DEM panel. The results have relevant implications for the consequences of affective polarisation. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Electoral Studies is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Affective polarization and coalition preferences in times of pandemic

Using the RepResent Voter Panel Survey conducted in Belgium since the 2019 Federal elections, we investigate the relationship between affective polarization and voters' coalition preferences, in the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results confirm a strict negative link between affective polarization and preferences for coalitions in general. Such result is robust to different types of coalitions, in terms of number and size of parties, as well as the ideological position of voters. However, we also show how the negative effect of affective polarization can be moderated if the coalition includes the voter's in-party. Overall, our results help better understanding the political consequences of affective polarization in a multiparty setting. Copyright © 2022 Bettarelli and Van Haute.

Role of politically motivated internet addiction and ideological passion in linking college student's mental health education and wellbeing.

College students are increasingly reporting common mental health issues like depression and anxiety, raising severe concerns for students' psychological wellbeing. Specifically, after the emergence of Post-COVID-19, digitization caused a potential role in mitigating students' psychological concerns. Therefore, the role of mental health education has been regarded as a topic of interest in managing the issue of Chinese college students' mental wellbeing. This study intends to look into the relationship between mental health education and psychological wellbeing, along with the moderating role of politically motivated internet addiction and the ideological passion of college students. For the given reason, the random sampling method was employed for collecting data from target respondents. The study uses 750 questionnaires prepared on a five-point Likert scale that were distributed to the respondents with an expected response rate of 50%. The partial least square (PLS) software was used to analyze the data for this study. The study concludes that there is a significant moderating role of politically motivated internet addiction and ideological passion in the relationship between college students' mental health and wellbeing. The study meaningfully contributes to the body of knowledge by establishing the unique, positive moderating role of Politically motivated internet addition in strengthening the relationship which undoubtedly will assist in improving the psychological wellbeing of college students through mental health education policies and implications.

Practical Analysis on the Integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture into Ideological Education in Colleges and Universities

Colleges and universities are not only an important base for cultivating young talents, but also the forefront of ideological education. Strengthening ideological education in colleges and universities is related to the long-term peace and stability of the party and the country. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a great creation of the Chinese nation and a treasure of ancient Chinese science. In the face of COVID-19, the TCM delivered in a satisfactory answer, which once again blessed the life and health of the people. TCM culture condenses the experience and wisdom of the Chinese nation for nearly one thousand years, and has unique national characteristics and spiritual pursuit. It is a great creation of Chinese culture. In the context of the new era, integrating TCM culture into ideological education in colleges and universities and giving full play to the function of TCM culture as the “key” of Chinese civilization is not only the urgent call of moral education in colleges and universities, but also the realistic development requirement of contemporary China. © 2022, Editorial department of Chinese Medical Ethics. All rights reserved.