ABSTRACT
Despite improvements in the universal usability of digital technologies and growing numbers of conversational agents (CAs), new technologies rarely reflect older adults' needs, perceptions, and interests. Following this urgent call, we aim to identify older adults' (ranging in age from 65 to 75) perceptions, needs and challenges when conversing with a smart speaker-based voice assistant (Google Home) about the Covid-19 pandemic during the first-Time user interaction. Based on CASA (Computers are Social Actors) Paradigm and Similarity Attraction Theory, our user-centered qualitative research showed that an emphatic voice assistant triggered older adults to disclose to a CA more than a human being and build a digital companionship with them. Going beyond the standard universal usability considerations, we revealed how their cultural biases, beliefs and ageing stereotypes affected their perception of the voice assistant. However, the similarity attraction effect is not activated in older adults since a voice assistant with an older voice was not perceived as close or similar to them and they perceived technology as a young tool to be adapted. Unexpectedly, the older is wiser stereotype has been deactivated in a technological context for older adults in Turkey. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese political leadership has devoted substantial efforts to shape, through media and institutional discourses, a specific narrative of its response to the crisis, framing it as a fight in which the Chinese people, under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, promptly came together to defeat the virus. The present paper examines this dominant narrative focusing on the Chinese language section on the fight against COVID-19 of the multilingual online platform China Keywords, a project run by State and Party-affiliated institutions. Drawing on the theoretical background and analytical tools from Critical Discourse Studies, the paper provides an analysis of the discursive representation of social actors constructed by this tool. The analysis shows how different discursive strategies employed to represent specific social actors contribute to reinforce the constitutive elements of the Chinese leadership's dominant narrative of the events of early 2020. Moreover, the paper argues that the section of China Keywords on the topic should be understood as one of the products of the multifaceted institutional efforts to "tell China's Covid-19 story well," both domestically and internationally. © 2022 Universita degli Studi di Milano. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Access to public information is the basis for effective citizen participation and the strengthening of democracy. This research was conducted using a quantitative approach at an exploratory level, using a mixed documentary and field study strategy with the aim of presenting the transparency levels of public information in the municipal websites of different capitals of Ecuador during COVID-19. During July 2021, a questionnaire of 13 questions was applied, which consisted on two open and 11 closed questions, the latter with dichotomous and Likert scales. The sample consisted of 343 individuals. Among the most relevant results, the interest of citizens (62.10%) in using the municipalities' webpages to obtain information stands out;however, they express the limited availability of information as well as its quality (clarity and reliability), especially during the health crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the needs of the population (95.30%) for having means and tools that allow the different social groups and actors to have access to public information, in order to exercise effective participation and civic auditing of public affairs. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
In the context of the SARS COV-2 pandemic, a weak water governance is a health problem given that it is generally scarce;and in this case, it is not suitable for human consumption and the social actors are unaware of it. The text analyzes and links the results of two investigations from different but complementary fields of knowledge regarding the problem of the upper Lerma River basin, especially groundwater, showing an interdisciplinary exercise. The results reveal that the actors do not identify the problems of the basin, this limits their integration to the collegiate bodies of councils, commissions, or basin committees, even though the regulatory frameworks have spaces for these. CSOs, as social actors, still present areas of opportunity for their advocacy, even though in Mexico, there is a long history regarding their social participation.
ABSTRACT
Thanks largely to the affordances of social media, the Covid-19 pandemic has provoked a glut of neologisms, loan-words, abbreviations, calques and other linguistic variants. The crisis was accompanied in most nations by social measures curtailing what have long been seen as fundamental liberties;hence, it has foregrounded the re-emergence of old controversies about individualism vs collectivism, the nature of personal freedom, the role of the state, the right to healthcare, the distribution of wealth, and so on. On the UK side, our study explores some emergent neologisms in English and Russian, especially implicit meaning in terms like "social distancing" and "lockdown". We consider cross-cultural implications that relate to the way each national group conceptualized, and lived through, the experiences of lockdown. Linguistic practices may reflect deep-seated habits of being that characterize different countries, and thus our research may shed light on long-standing questions of national stereotypes. We look at some of the Covid-19 neologisms produced and/or used in British and Russian contexts, on the assumption that, by comparing these micro-linguistic practices, it is possible to learn something concerning the cultural realities of the countries in question, along the lines proposed in the works of Hofstede (2001) and Wierzbicka (2003).
ABSTRACT
Resumen En este texto se propone un esquema para analizar dilemas éticos en el contexto de la pandemia del Covid 19, los cuales se presentan ante un conflicto moral al que se enfrenta una persona (por criterios normativos en tensión) o, cuando varias personas o instancias normativas tienen distintas estrategias ante un evento específico y, además, cada quien asume que su postura es la más aceptable. La ética no decide cuál es la referencia moral correcta, sino que analiza los supuestos de distintas normatividades y acompaña a tomar conciencia de los mismos. El texto no propone soluciones, sino que presenta un esquema de análisis ético, que considera como insumo clave la identificación de actores relacionados con el contexto de la pandemia y la forma en que son tomados en cuenta. Se recupera la categoría de cuidado, como recomendación central para lidiar con la pandemia y como supuesto de todo análisis ético.
Resumo Este texto propõe um esquema para analisar dilemas éticos, no contexto da pandemia Covid 19, que se apresentam diante de um conflito moral enfrentado por uma pessoa (por critérios normativos em tensão) ou quando várias pessoas ou órgãos políticos têm estratégias diferentes diante de um evento específico e, além disso, cada um assume que sua posição é a mais aceitável. A ética não decide qual é a referência moral correta, mas analisa os pressupostos de diferentes normatividades e auxilia a a tomar conhecimento deles. O texto não propõe soluções, mas apresenta um esquema de análise ética, que considera como insumo fundamental a identificação de atores relacionados ao contexto da pandemia e como são levados em conta. A categoria de cuidado é recuperada como recomendação central para lidar com a pandemia e como pressuposto de toda a análise ética.
Abstract This text proposes a scheme to analyze ethical dilemmas in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, which present the sembling of a moral conflict faced by a person (by tensed normative criteria) or when several people or policy-bodies have different strategies in the face of a specific event and, in addition, each one assumes that their position is the most acceptable one. Ethics does not decide what the correct moral reference is, it analyses different normativity assumptions and helps to become aware of them. The text does not propose solutions, but presents an ethical analysis scheme that considers as a key input the identification of actors related to the context of the pandemic and how they are taken into account. The category of care is restored as a central recommendation to deal with the pandemic and as an assumption of all the ethical analysis.