Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of widely adopted but under-studied synthetic humanlike spokespersons (SHS) compared to organic human spokespersons in workplace training videos. The primary aim is to evaluate whether employees will rate training videos more negatively when they perceive their trainer to be synthetic such…

In this article, I argue that one of the paradoxes of the internet age is the contradiction between two aspects of freedom of opinion: expressing an opinion and forming an opinion based on facts. Expressing one's opinion may risk others' freedom to form opinions based on facts, because the freedom to express one's opinion also implies the freedom…

We assess the underlying topics, sentiment, and types of information regarding COVID-19 vaccines cycling through Twitter during the initiation of the vaccine rollout. Once tweets about COVID-19 vaccine posted between 1 December 2020 and 28 February 2021 were collected and preprocessed, they were categorized as either relevant or irrelevant by a…

This study explores digital competence education by looking into how discourse in a typical digital competence framework for educators may or may not promote democracy in the way it features information and communication technology (ICT). The authors examined the Norwegian "Professional Digital Competence Framework for Teachers," which…

Purpose: This study adopts a qualitative approach to a critical media analysis of the multifaceted aspects of child marriage in the Yemeni context as an example of the broader Arab context. It seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the current situation, underlying causes and consequences of child marriage, as well as efforts to curb the…

Since September 2020, Fox News spawned an anti-critical race theory (CRT) disinformation campaign, that has reverberated in the whitestream's echo chamber. The disinformation largely appeals to white people who refuse to see racism, unless they feel it is impinging their rights. The campaign against CRT has penetrated the e-tailer site Amazon.com…

This study investigates community sentiments and opinions regarding the use of ChatGPT in education within online user forums. Large Language Model (LLM)-based sentiment analysis was conducted on the posts and comments submitted to Teachers Subreddit, an online community for educators. The analysis revealed that the members of Teachers Subreddit…

With the rise of many coaching regulatory organizations, such as The International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), women are becoming central to the dialogue. This is especially the case with The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (GCC, 2024) which…

Mastery of the art of crafting online reviews and responses is essential as a valuable additional tool for enhancing learners' English proficiency in specialised contexts. This study aims to: 1) Examine the formality levels in crafting reviews and responses; 2) Explore face-threatening acts utilised in reviews and politeness strategies employed in…

This poll was conducted between February 2-5, 2024 among a sample of 2,252 Adults. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Results based on the full survey have a measure of precision of plus or minus 2.41 percentage…