Information technology & media sociology in a (still) pandemic world

The current period of disruptive social change is inextricably bound up with new means and modes of communication, information, and media streams. The Communication, Information Technologies & Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS) locates these factors at the center of our collective interests, investigating them through a plethora of methods, theories, and empirical cases. Each year, CITAMS runs a special issue in ICS showcasing select works presented at the previous year's American Sociological Association conference and the affiliated Media Sociology preconference. Papers in the 2022 CITAMS Special Issue reflect a social context defined by a prolonged global pandemic and wrought by democratic uncertainty. Across these social circumstances, technology and media loom large. Simultaneously, everyday life continues and classic CITAMS scholarship sustains relevance for the ways people interact, construct identity, consume, and mobilize. All of this and more are contained in the pages of this year's Special Issue, from which readers can get a sense of what CITAMS has to offer and consider how their own work may fit within the broad CITAMS umbrella. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Task-Technology Fit and ICT Use in Remote Work Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examines the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in remote work practice during the COVID-19 pandemic by integrating task-technology fit theory and the post-acceptance model of IS continuance into a research framework. In addition, it operationalizes the technological characteristics of TTF (task-technology fit) with the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory. The methodology to test the research model takes support from the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method using a sample of 320 employees. The results show that TAM significantly explains TTF. Furthermore, there is a positive impact of ICT use on individual and organizational performance. User satisfaction has the most significant effect on individual performance, organizational performance, and IS continuance intention. The authors provide some managerial implications for addressing the challenges of remote work related to ICT disruptions for the post-COVID-19 period.

Loss of organic community and decentralized communications

This chapter explores the barriers and disruption to community and communication resulting from remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The University of Utah's decision to abruptly transition to a fully online model resulted in several communication impacts for staff. First, staff participants received little and inconsistent communication from the University. This caused uncertainty within departments, which trickled down to the students staff serve. Second, this led to staff participants feeling disconnected from the institution and increased their concerns around misinforming students. At the same time, the move to online learning and work decreased efficient communication between colleagues. Casual interactions in the office became email threads and extended feedback processes. Third, staff reported that online communications with students became less personal, which created difficulty for building and maintaining rapport. Finally, staff members' overall sense of community consistently dropped as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on and they were forced to continue to work remotely. The discontent and apprehension felt by staff members around the communication provided from University leadership was compounded by the impact of working from home. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Templated Crisis Communication for People With Disabilities, Access and Functional Needs

Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act being more than 30 years old, many government institutions fail to fully support their constituents, and provide understandable and actionable crisis communications before, during, and after emergencies and disasters. When residents do not effectively receive, understand, and act on crisis communications in a timely manner, life safety issues can occur. People may choose not to evacuate when necessary or lack the information for properly sheltering-in-place. These and other bad decisions can be deadly. Crisis communications, as a subset of risk communications, should be aligned with all the disaster phase cycles—the before, during, and after stages of disasters and crises—so that impacted residents obtain complete information they can use. U.S. government websites, including posted crisis communications public releases, must be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) under Title II and they should use templated crisis communications available in other languages, English-only audio recordings, and videos of American Sign Language.

Cloaked science: The Yan reports

This paper describes a 2020 disinformation campaign promoting the unsubstantiated claim that the novel coronavirus is the product of a Chinese bioweapons program. Exploiting a vulnerability in open-access scientific publishing, the campaign was based on papers posted to an online preprint repository designed to accelerate the diffusion of scientific knowledge. This provided the campaign with an air of scientific legitimacy, helped it reach millions of Americans, and muddied public discourse over the origins of SARS-CoV-2. This case study offers insights into the tactics and practices of media manipulation, the contested nature of modern epistemic systems, the interplay of technical and social systems, and the vulnerability of open systems to manipulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

From Asymptomatics to Zombies: Visualization-Based Education of Disease Modeling for Children

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, visualizations became commonplace in public communications to help people make sense of the world and the reasons behind government-imposed restrictions. Though the adult population were the main target of these messages, children were affected by restrictions through not being able to see friends and virtual schooling. However, through these daily models and visualizations, the pandemic response provided a way for children to understand what data scientists really do and provided new routes for engagement with STEM subjects. In this paper, we describe the development of an interactive and accessible visualization tool to be used in workshops for children to explain computational modeling of diseases, in particular COVID-19. We detail our design decisions based on approaches evidenced to be effective and engaging such as unplugged activities and interactivity. We share reflections and learnings from delivering these workshops to 140 children and assess their effectiveness. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Dual-band Air-Ground Radio Performance: Example Flight Test Results

We recently concluded a four-year University Leadership Initiative (ULI) project sponsored by NASA, which investigated multiple aviation communications technology areas aimed at enhancing future aviation safety. These areas were dual-band air-ground communications for air traffic management, detection and interdiction of small drones, and high-capacity terrestrial airport communications networking. In this paper we report on flight test results of our dual-band radios. These radios were designed to use a spectrally efficient multi-carrier modulation, filterbank multicarrier (FBMC), which we had previously shown to improve resilience to high-power distance measurement equipment (DME) adjacent-channel interference, in comparison to existing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) schemes. In our NASA project, we designed the FBMC radios to extend performance even further, using the following techniques: (i) simultaneous dual-band transmission and reception;(ii) ground station (GS) spatial diversity;(iii) higher-order modulation for a factor of 5 capacity increase over QPSK;(iv) a Doppler-resilient option using a smaller number of subcarriers;and, (v) 5-MHz bandwidth C-band transmissions for an order of magnitude capacity increase over existing 500-kHz channel schemes. To our knowledge, these are novel achievements for civil aviation, and our flight test results attained a technology readiness level (TRL) of 5. In this paper we briefly describe the project history, in which we spent approximately one year working with Boeing to participate in one of their Eco-Demonstrator flight trials, and obtained special temporary authorizations to transmit in both the L-band and C-band, from the FAA, the FCC, and the DoD. When COVID-19 dispersed worldwide, Boeing was no longer able to support us, so we revised our plans and teamed with the South Carolina Civil Air Patrol (SC CAP) to conduct smaller-scale flight tests. This paper summarizes the radio designs and the novel features we employed, as well as analyses, computer simulations, and laboratory tests prior to terrestrial mobile testing, all of which culminated in our successful flight tests. We show example flight test results that serve as proof of concept for all the five aforementioned radio performance enhancements. Example results include signal-to-noise ratio and bit error ratio, diversity gains, and throughput gains through both higher-order modulation and wider bandwidth channels. We also report on some lessons learned, and some ideas for future advancement of our work. © 2023 IEEE.

When do data visualizations persuade? The impact of prior attitudes on learning about correlations from scatterplot visualizations

Data visualizations are vital to scientific communication on critical issues such as public health, climate change, and socioeconomic policy. They are often designed not just to inform, but to persuade people to make consequential decisions (e.g., to get vaccinated). Are such visualizations persuasive, especially when audiences have beliefs and attitudes that the data contradict? In this paper we examine the impact of existing attitudes (e.g., positive or negative attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination) on changes in beliefs about statistical correlations when viewing scatterplot visualizations with different representations of statistical uncertainty. We find that strong prior attitudes are associated with smaller belief changes when presented with data that contradicts existing views, and that visual uncertainty representations may amplify this effect. Finally, even when participants' beliefs about correlations shifted their attitudes remained unchanged, highlighting the need for further research on whether data visualizations can drive longer-term changes in views and behavior. © 2023 ACM.

SECURED COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR A METALLURGICAL COMPANY

This paper examines the use of videoconferencing systems for production (metallurgical) site management. Such systems help achieve a significant reduction in costs associated with meetings and related business trips. Application of such systems was especially wide-spread during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, none of the existing systems takes into account certain features typical of the corporate network infrastructure. Sophisticated communication systems consisting of various segments, as well as of symmetric and asymmetric channels with multiple parameters, which may vary numerous times, make it more difficult to build efficient VoIP solutions, especially when growing videoconferencing services. As the typical approach to securing confidentiality when transmitting voice and video data across communication networks implies that every sender-receiver route is considered public, it loses the benefits of network topology control in the corporate sector. At the same time, the typical client-server architecture across corporate IP networks demonstrates lower performance when compared with peer-to-peer networking because of lesser use of network infrastructure knowledge. The authors propose a new approach to building secured corporate communication systems, which does not have at its basis the client-server architecture but rather a p2p architecture. The latter enables to take into account the existing corporate network structure (including that of a metallurgical company), unload external and internal communication channels and reduce the computing costs at the host level. © 2023, Ore and Metals Publishing house. All rights reserved.

What really matters? A phenomenological exploration of two YouTube dialogues on living through corona times

On 23 March 2020, in response to the growing threat of Covid-19, world leaders including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told their countries that people must stay at home and avoid all unnecessary social contacts, including contact with family members, friends and romantic partners living elsewhere. As existential psychologists living in the UK, it is decided to engage in an online dialogue about the experiences of living in, and working therapeutically through, 'corona times'. This chapter explores and elaborates upon several of the key existential themes and concerns discussed in the two dialogues. The first dialogue took place a mere two weeks after UK lockdown had begun and was subsequently uploaded onto YouTube on 6 April 2020 where it can still be viewed. Just over a year later, following the realisation that many of the feelings and experiences had changed considerably, it is decided to engage in a second dialogue, which was primarily focused on the longer-term psychological and existential impact of this strange period in human history. Once again, the dialogue was uploaded onto YouTube on 30 April 2021. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Net neutrality in the USA during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to review net neutrality and the notion that bright light rules are necessary to hold broadband providers from exercising market power. The 2015 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Open Internet Order asserted that broadband providers have the capability and incentive to harm their customers and third-party service providers. It imposed a set of rules to control broadband providers' offers, prices, and traffic management. The 2017 FCC vacated all but the transparency provisions of the OIO, restoring the oversight of broadband to the FTC. This paper offers a review of the evidence regarding the effects of net neutrality regulation, including an investigation of the incidence of violations, or lack thereof, during the 2020 pandemic in the United States. It provides a review of the net neutrality literature and the international research on broadband provider behaviour during COVID-19. The paper presents original research conducted with FCC and FTC reports and a survey of news stories. Brief reviews of federal data on network performance and broadband adoption provide additional context. Given the limited incidence of violations that could be uncovered for the period, the paper suggests why broadband providers behaved opposite to regulatory advocates' predictions. Contrary to many policy assertions, broadband providers did not block or throttle service, nor did they increase prices arbitrarily or decrease quality. Broadband providers appeared to expand availability, lower broadband prices, and make more networks available, frequently without customer charge. The paper suggests how policy could be updated to reflect the actual behaviour of broadband providers. © 2023 the authors.

Internet Tools in Marketing Communications of Agribusinesses in Ukraine

Modern technologies have expanded into all spheres of the human activity, including a marketing one. As for the marketing sphere, it especially concerns promotion policies and marketing communications. The Internet allowed a lot of companies and business to get closer to their clients regardless of their location and their language. Because of the Internet advertising and its type, the companies got an opportunity to send messages to the strictly defined target audience and the consumers can sift them out and select only those of a special interest at a particular moment. Many technologies capable of boosting the effectiveness of the marketing communications requests have recently emerged, which determines the relevance of the study. Thus, the use of Google Ads, SEO promotion, and social media permits to analyse accurately the communications campaign results and establish strong feedback with a potential client. The aim of the study - the analysis of the spread of the Internet and social networks in Ukraine agribusiness, which testifies - considerable prospects of the Internet advertising and the Internet communications usage by agro-industries and companies. Despite the noteworthy advantages of these tools, the volumes and the level of their use by Ukrainian agribusiness are not sufficient neither in the B2C marketing nor in the B2B one. On the one hand, it is attributed to the focus of many agribusinesses on the external market. On the other hand, it is caused by the deficient understanding of marketing and its tools by companies. The coronavirus crisis with its restrictions proved the necessity to apply different Internet tools in all businesses in Ukraine, particularly in the agro-industries. The war made it difficult to use internet tools and forced us to adapt quickly to new realities. As a result of this article, an algorithm for positive marketing communication campaigns during the war was developed, it was concluded that they should employ modern means of communications with the target audience, resort to experience in other spheres, introduce marketing tools into their activities and cultivate an efficient marketing communication policy. Copyright©2023 by authors, all rights reserved.

Media synchronicity implications for Indian white-collar employees' work-from-home wellbeing and preference, mediated by psychological needs satisfaction

PurposeWork-from-home (WFH) gained ground with COVID and will now continue to be a part of India's future of work. Under WFH information and communication technologies (ICT) media become the primary/sole mode of communication for employees, which holds several implications for employers and employees. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of ICT media characteristics and usage frequency on multiple WFH outcomes. Specifically studied was ICT media's ability to support synchronicity or coordinated behaviours of individuals working together.Design/methodology/approachThis work examined the effect of ICT media's synchronicity-supporting ability and usage frequency on WFH employees' need for competence and relatedness satisfaction, thereby wellbeing and preference to WFH. Data from 301 white-collar employees of varied manufacturing and services organizations of India was analysed via partial least squares structural equation modelling.FindingsAchieving more synchronicity by frequently using ICT media that can better facilitate coordinated behaviours did not directly influence WFH employees' feeling of belongingness (need for relatedness) or wellbeing. It did, however, positively affect their feeling of effectance (need for competence) and thereby wellbeing. However, unexpectedly, it negatively influenced preference to WFH more often.Originality/valueThis study has uniquely combined media synchronicity and self-determination theories to investigate the implications of a work practice on employee wellbeing and preferences. Also, an extensible media evaluation parameter was created that encompasses the characteristics and usage frequency of a set of ICT media.

"We Speak Visually": User-Generated Icons for Better Video-Mediated Mixed-Group Communications Between Deaf and Hearing Participants

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, videoconferencing technology has been widely adopted as a convenient, powerful, and fundamental tool that has simplified many day-to-day tasks. However, video communication is dependent on audible conversation and can be strenuous for those who are Hard of Hearing. Communication methods used by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community differ significantly from those used by the hearing community, and a distinct language gap is evident in workspaces that accommodate workers from both groups. Therefore, we integrated users in both groups to explore ways to alleviate obstacles in mixed-group videoconferencing by implementing user-generated icons. A participatory design methodology was employed to investigate how the users overcome language differences. We observed that individuals utilized icons within video-mediated meetings as a universal language to reinforce comprehension. Herein, we present design implications from these findings, along with recommendations for future icon systems to enhance and support mixed-group conversations. © 2023 ACM.

Metaverse Skills for Executives and Senior Managers: The Pros and Cons

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift from traditional office setups to remote working, driven by information and communication technology advancements. As a result, the metaverse concept is gaining popularity in modern organizations, allowing users to create avatars for virtual work, socializing, and other activities. While its corporate adoption is rising, managers must acquire the necessary skills to integrate and utilize the technology successfully. However, technological progress can be disruptive, making it essential to weigh the benefits and drawbacks.Methodology: This proposal aims to investigate metaverse skills that managers require for remote working using virtual realities, assessing the positive and negative risks for employees and management within business organizations. Using secondary data from reliable online databases, a qualitative research approach was used to understand the pros and cons of the metaverse and remote work.Purpose: The study examines the essential skills managers need to adopt metaverse virtual realities for remote working and how employees and organizations can implement it while maintaining a positive work environment. Keywords such as metaverse, remote working, virtual reality, and information and communication technology are critical. As technology evolves, managers and organizations must consider the metaverse's inherent advantages and disadvantages to ensure a successful transition to remote.Research Questions: What are the necessary skills needed by managers towards the adoption of metaverse virtual realities for remote working? How can employees and organizations adapt to implementing metaverse for remote work and sustain a positive work environment? © 2023 IEEE.

Citizen empowerment through smart surveillance: evidence from Indian smart cities

PurposeCitizens often perceive surveillance by government authorities as oppressive and, hence, demonstrate reluctance in value co-creation from such services. This study aims to investigate the challenges and benefits of citizen empowerment through technology-driven surveillance or "smart surveillance.”Design/methodology/approachGuided by Dynamic Capability theory, the authors conduct in-depth interviews with officers in-charge of surveillance in smart cities. Given the contemporary advancements, this approach allows a retrospective and real-time understanding of interviewees' experiences with smart surveillance.FindingsThe authors develop five propositions for citizen empowerment through smart surveillance to summarize the findings of this study.Research limitations/implicationsThis study advances the relevance of Dynamic Capability in public administration.Practical implicationsSmart city authorities and policymakers may leverage the insights provided in this study to design appropriate policies for smart surveillance.Originality/valueThe authors find that factors such as digital technology and infrastructure, information management, skill divide and perceived return on investment may influence citizen empowerment through smart surveillance.

EU digital communication strategy during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign: Framing, contents and attributed roles at stake

If in recent years the European Union (EU) has had to face complex and multifactorial "poly-crises" (such as Brexit, refugees or the euro), the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has been an unprecedented event on a global scale with important implications at all levels. Indeed, it has reinforced public health issues aimed at protecting the population as nodal elements of the policies implemented by this organization. This research aims to analyze the different organizational communication strategies on Twitter implemented by the main EU institutions during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, in order to examine the presence of this exceptional milestone. This study has been carried out using an eminently quantitative methodology, based on a content analysis to quantify the different variables and indicators established for the publications of the official profiles of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council. The proposed categories focus on exploring their predominant thematic areas, as well as main purposes/attributed functions. In the light of the results obtained, it is concluded that the vaccination campaign is a milestone with a considerable volume of publications by all profiles. However, among the attributed functions, the distribution of aseptic information has been predominant, which is why it is discussed whether these institutions have sufficiently taken advantage of the possibilities offered by the digital environment of Twitter for the dissemination of the European message. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Communication & Society is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, S.A. 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.)

A Comparative Analysis of IoT Protocols for Resource Constraint Devices and Networks

Communication standards and protocols are detrimental to the success of any Internet of Things (IoT) system or application. Selecting a communication standard and a suitable middleware or messaging protocol for IoT connectivity is challenging due to the heterogeneous resource-constrained IoT devices and their messaging requirements. Recently, several messaging/middleware protocols in the IoT field were developed and adopted in the industry. However, to date, there is no specific messaging protocol that can support all messaging use cases and fulfil the overall requirements of IoT systems. Therefore, it is critical to understand the application layer messaging and communication protocols of IoT systems to identify the most appropriate protocol that could fit and be applied in various contexts. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the MQTT, CoAP, and AMQP messaging protocols including their security. © 2022 ACM.

COVID Challenges for Trials in Low-to-Middle-Income Countries

While the substantial majority of clinical trials still take place in countries classified by the World Bank as high income, a review of clinical trial registrations on the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and clinicaltrials.gov shows that a significant and growing number are being conducted in LMICs, with major centers in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. COVID-19 will likely have a longlasting effect on global supply chains.11 The U.S. and more than 50 other countries are restricting or considering restrictions on exports of supplies that are needed to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 locally.12 Internationally, the World Trade Organization and the World Customs Organization issued a joint statement noting the disruptive impact of the virus on global supply chains and pledged to cooperate to facilitate trade in essential goods.13 LMICs are struggling to obtain limited hospital supplies in the global market in competition with the U.S., the European Union, Japan, and similar high-income buyers, as recent reporting about the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria shows.14 Clinical trial sites in LMICs that cannot obtain needed supplies in-country could obtain them from a study sponsor, assuming the products can be legally imported and shipments to that country are not cost-prohibitive in light of global freight and logistic disruptions. [...]informed consent forms and study institutional review board (IRB) and independent ethics committee (IEC) approvals may need to be revisited in light of local conditions. Clint D. Hermes is an attorney at Bass, Berry & Sims References 1. https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/guidelines/EC_Guidance_ COVID19_06_05_2020.pdf 2. http://www.sahpra.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/SAHPRACommunication_COVID_19-Final-25032020.pdf 3. https://pharmacyboardkenya.org/files/?file=Clinical_Trials_During_ COVID-19_Pandemic.pdf 4. http://portal.anvisa.gov.br/documents/219201/4340788/SEI_ ANVISA+-+0989653+-+Nota+Técnica14.pdf/6b48273f-550f-47618ba1-4e731a87b526 5. https://www.gob.mx/cofepris/articulos/medidas-extraordinarias-enrelacion-a-estudios-clinicos-ante-la-pandemia-de-covid-19 6. https://ensayosclinicos-repec.ins.gob.pe/images/Nueva_actualización_12.12.19/Actualización_2020/Comunicado_N_002-2020.pdf 7. https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responsesto-COVID-19 8. https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/coronavirusgovernment-response-tracker 9. https://covidtracker.bsg.ox.ac.uk/stringency-map 10.https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunitypassports-in-the-context-of-covid-19 11. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/supply-chains-leadership-business-economics-trade-coronavirus-covid19/ 12. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid-19-coronaviruslessons-past-supply-chain-disruptions/ 13.http://www.wcoomd.org/en/media/newsroom/2020/april/wco-wtojoint-statement-on-covid-19-related-trade-measures.aspx 14.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/17/world/africa/coronaviruskano-nigeria-hotspot.html 15. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/amB7fBxLw8KSR9DcUsbTWg

Technological Devices and Digital Competences: A Look into the Digital Divides for University Continuity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Virtual education has gained great relevance in recent years, due to the pandemic. The access to electronic devices and services represents an urgent necessity and thus the concern for acquiring digital competences, which allow a proper interaction within the teaching–learning process. Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of having digital resources and the adaptability of their use from the university students' homes during the pandemic crisis. This research intends to identify the relevant challenges regarding the accessibility to technological devices and digital competences that university students had to face to obtain suitable learning during the lockdown, due to the pandemic. The sample information consisted of 9326 Peruvian university students. The data was obtained from the National Homes Survey from the Statistics and Information National Institute, and it was distributed in twenty-five regions (in groups of five macro-regions) over a period of three years (2019–2021). The results showed significant differences in the number of students with internet access from home: between 40% and 60% access classes with a desktop or laptop, and digital competences have improved in the last year. This is evidence that digital divides set limits on the opportunities for a quality education.