Communication

the study of ants and insects com understand human behaviour and discourse, his politics and ways do keep alive some dreams that can come true.

Over one million annual deaths have been attributed to bacterial antimicrobial resistance. Although antibiotics have saved countless other lives, overuse and misuse of antibiotics increases this global threat. Developing new antibiotics and retraining clinicians can be undermined by patients who pressure clinicians to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics. So we validated two low-cost, scalable interventions for improving antibiotic decisions in an online randomized control trial and a pre-registered replication (N = 985). Both first-person vignette experiments found that an infographic and text message (...) caused intermediate to large improvements in antibiotic decisions compared to active controls — even when controlling for a dozen confounds. Notably, these educational interventions also reduced trust in a clinician who offered antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection. These data show how low-cost adjustments to existing communication systems can teach people to reduce the existential risks of antibiotic resistance and how inappropriate antibiotic prescribing can erode trust in health systems. (shrink)

This paper introduces the "Status Loss Theory of Humor," as detailed in "How Humor Works" and "How Humor Works, Part II," in a single page. This theory has the potential to fully, clearly, and naturally explain the human humor instinct, and has made predictions that are being confirmed by other studies.

This paper takes the Status Loss Theory (introduced and explained in the first "How Humor Works" paper), and applies it to 40 real-world examples, including memes, radio and TV shows, movie and comic book tropes, song parodies, humor sayings, stand-up comedy cliches, known psychological quirks of humor, and more, to demonstrate the theory's potential to function as the first clear, complete, logical, and simple basis for defining, studying, and understanding humor in all of its forms.

A short, clear and complete theory that explains the origins and properties of the human humor instinct, which has been the subject of incomplete research for thousands of years. The paper's theory uses evolutionary psychology and a basic informal equation, and unites the findings of the previous theories, including explaining the logical basis behind many types of humor as well as the common sayings associated with it.

This paper develops a unified account of musical experience through the Universal Principle of Collapse (UPC), showing how music uniquely mirrors the structure of consciousness. We argue that instrumental music is a collapsed, structured expression that nevertheless reopens into pure potential for the listener. Using UPC’s distinction between inner potential, recognition, articulation, and collapse, we demonstrate that musical performance and musical listening occupy fundamentally different roles within the same framework (Escagedo Gutierrez, 2025b). For the performer, writing, recording, and playing music (...) is a collapse event: an inner, irreducible state is recognized, shaped, and committed into the material world as a musical trace. For the listener, that same trace induces a non‑collapse state, structured sound that carries no fixed semantic coordinates and therefore re-enters the listener’s inner world as open potential. This asymmetry explains why music can express what language cannot, why it bypasses social and linguistic constraints, and why it resonates so deeply with the fluid, non‑judgmental character of conscious experience. By formalizing these processes with UPC operators, we show that music is not merely an art form but a structural analogue of consciousness itself: a domain where collapse produces form without fixing meaning, and where meaning arises internally rather than being imposed. This framework offers a new foundation for understanding musical expression, musical perception, and the role of art in the architecture of mind. -/- Authored by Eloy Escagedo Gutierrez as part of The Universal Principle of Collapse (UPC) Research Project. (shrink)

This analysis integrates two critical factors shaping the current Middle Eastern landscape: the evolving global power order influenced by China’s and India’s rise, and the intricate role of Israel within the internal politics of the United States.

Quotes re the situation of the 10,000 embedded male-biased names in language about our species making people believe the basis of mind is male.

This essay seeks to introduce a philosophy of science communication: Total SciComm or all out science communication. The concept is inspired by the Dutch total football, in which, every player can play at any role. Similarly, in Total Scicomm, the scientific community employs every medium to communicate scientific ideas and engages all scientist in the process. -/- この論文は、科学のコミュニケーションの哲学を紹介することを目指している：Total SciComm (トータルサイコム) またはすべての科学のコミュニケーション。 このコンセプトは、あらゆるプレーヤーがあらゆる役割を果たすことができるオランダ全土のフットボールに触発されています。 同様に、トータルサイコムでは、科学界はあらゆる媒体を使用して科学的アイデアを伝え、その過程ですべての科学者を関与させる。.

The study of large language model behavior has focused almost exclusively on the model: its architecture, its training data, its parameters, its benchmark performance. This paper argues that focus is misplaced. The behavior that matters most in practice does not live in the model. It lives in the interaction. -/- This is not a theoretical claim. It is an empirical one. Observations across extended human-LLM interaction document that structured linguistic input, introduced consistently across turns, produces stable, recoverable reasoning trajectories that (...) cannot be predicted or explained by examining the model in isolation. The interaction is not a delivery mechanism for instructions. It is the primary site where behavior is shaped, stabilized, and constrained. -/- The Hudson Recursive Interaction System (HRIS) is an empirically grounded framework developed to describe this phenomenon. It documents how constraint regimes introduced through structured interaction stabilize reasoning trajectories in high-dimensional semantic space, how those trajectories exhibit resistance to perturbation, and how previously established interaction patterns enable rapid re-entry into coherent reasoning without reliance on persistent memory. These are interaction-level phenomena. They are invisible to model-level analysis. -/- Once the interaction is treated as the primary unit of analysis, findings from multiple independent disciplines fall into place. Communication theory, psycholinguistics, rhetoric, semiotics, formal semantics, and information theory have each described pieces of this dynamic from their own angles. None has applied it systematically to human-LLM interaction. This paper does. -/- The central claim is simple: if you want to understand how large language models actually behave in use, stop looking at the model. Start looking at the interaction. (shrink)

The dominant framework treating human-AI interaction as prompt-based instruction execution is inadequate as an account of long-horizon engagement. When interaction extends across repeated exchanges, accumulated history, and developing shared structure, the instruction-execution model fails to capture the phenomena that actually govern behavior. This paper argues that long-horizon human-AI interaction is more accurately understood as a communicative process, subject to the same structural dynamics that communication theory has formalized for human dyadic interaction, and that this reframe is not metaphorical but mechanistic. (...) -/- Drawing on Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, 1973), common ground theory (Clark and Brennan, 1991), the interactive alignment model (Pickering and Garrod, 2004), transactive memory systems (Wegner, 1987), and Peircean semiotics, we develop a Relational Compression Theory of Long-Horizon Human-AI Interaction (RCT-HAII). The central claim is that repeated exchange produces a shared interactional architecture in which meaning is reconstructed rather than transmitted, context shapes interpretation before content does, and coordination efficiency increases as explicit information content decreases. These properties are well-documented in human dyadic communication. We argue they have functional analogs in long-horizon human-AI interaction that are theoretically consequential rather than merely analogical. -/- We introduce Interactional Shorthand Structures (ISS) as the primary new construct. ISS are compressed signals that develop over long-horizon interaction and carry reconstructive weight substantially exceeding their surface information content. They function as the HAII analog of the shorthand that develops between long-term human communicative partners, activating large pre-shaped reasoning regions from minimal surface cues. Grounded in Clark and Brennan's conceptual pacts, Wegner's transactive memory framework, and Peirce's theory of indexical signs, ISS names a phenomenon observable in long-horizon interaction transcripts and generates testable predictions about coordination efficiency and failure mode severity. -/- We further develop basin depth echo chamber dynamics as the primary failure mode of long-horizon HAII. Communicative convergence, which is adaptive in human dyads because social friction, misunderstanding, and repair sequences create natural perturbation, becomes pathological in HAII because the correction mechanisms that constrain human communicative closure are absent or structurally weakened. As interaction history accumulates, the model's accessible response geometry narrows around an attractor, producing scope restriction that is not visible in surface output and is not correctable through naive prompt adjustment. This failure mode is communicative in origin, not behavioral, and requires analysis at the level of interactional architecture rather than individual model outputs. -/- The empirical grounding for these claims draws on the Human Recursive Interaction System (HRIS) validation study series (Studies I through IV) and longitudinal naturalistic documentation preserved in Hudson and Hudson (2026), which records the developmental arc of an extended long-horizon human-AI interaction system across the full cycle of architecture formation, drift risk, and constraint-governed stabilization. -/- We close by naming two mechanistic constructs, Pattern Reconstruction Without Developmental Access (PRWDA) and Interaction-Conditioned Distributional Collapse (ICDC), that Part II of this series develops fully. Together, these constructs provide a mechanistic account of why the failure mode cascade in long-horizon HAII is self-concealing, structurally resistant to naive correction, and addressable only through governance interventions at the architectural level. -/- The contribution of this paper is a disciplinary reorientation. Prompting is not instruction. It is communication. That reframe changes what counts as data, what counts as failure, what the right analytical tools are, and where effective interventions must be located. Communication theory, applied to long-horizon human-AI interaction, makes visible phenomena that the instruction-execution frame cannot see at all. (shrink)

This study investigates the determinants of utilizing open science practice among researchers through structural equation modeling analysis. Drawing on responses from 1,002 Vietnamese students across disciplines, we investigate how self-efficacy, institutional, attitudes, perceived benefits, and value alignment separately predict open science usage. Our enhanced model records better fit indices (CFI = 0.994, TLI = 0.958, SRMR = 0.011) and accounts for 55.6% variance in utilization behavior. Results indicate that self-efficacy is the strongest direct predictor of use (β = 0.478, p (...) < 0.001), while institutional factors possess strong direct (β = 0.184, p < 0.001) as well as indirect effects via attitudinal paths (β = 0.570, p < 0.001). Contrary to our hypotheses, perceived benefits and value alignment did not directly predict use but had mediational effects. The hypothesized roles of language proficiency, research experience, and support from institutions were not supported. These findings integrate psychological and institutional explanations of scientific practice adoption, suggesting that effective interventions need to develop simultaneously researchers’ self-efficacy through intensive training and institutional environments conducive to favorable attitudes toward open science utilization. This empirical model makes theoretical contributions and has practical implications for driving open science adoption in academic settings. (shrink)

Entre las figuras que hicieron de parteaguas para la filosofía en México después del exilio español de fines de los años treinta, una cuya importancia está todavía por conocerse y difundirse es la de Eduardo Nicol, que murió apenas en 1990. Su amplia obra intelectual se articula durante alrededor de cincuenta años. En las siguientes líneas se recogen pasajes de dos capítulos que forman parte de Ideas de vario linaje, y que revelan ciertos trazos del pensamiento del pensador catalán, pertinentes (...) para la situación actual de la cultura. (shrink)

Math literacy is miniscule compared to the near universal language literacy of mother tongues. Our search for the root cause of this undesirable human condition led us to: Grammar (or the abstract essence) of a language. Language learning begins with grammar, unless the language happens to be mathematics, which is unique in not even considering including the grammar (abstract general/theory) of mathematics in the mathematical pedagogy. Here we make a case for introducing the abstract essence of mathematics--Conceptual Mathematics--in high school (...) math curriculum. Recognizing that the singular purpose of education is to nurture the universal yearning for understanding, we show how a nurturing pedagogy naturally resolves the "learning crisis", with the solution manifesting as human development. Furthermore, the nurturing pedagogy that we advocate invariably results in the culture of research excellence. (shrink)

This paper explores the structural limitations of algorithmic cognition in open decision environments, extending the theoretical formulation of the Infinite-Choice Barrier through an empirical case study and recent AI literature. Building on an earlier formal “Infinite-Choice Barrier”-Theorem that showed semantic closure, non-generativity of new frames, and statistical collapse, this study examines how these theoretical constraints manifest behaviorally in high-complexity, low-structure dialogues. The findings highlight recurring patterns—retrospective rationalization, resistance to frame shifts, and linguistic fragmentation—that align with the predicted boundary phenomena. In (...) doing so, the paper offers not only a diagnosis of AI's systemic limits but also a map of cognition at its edge. (shrink)

A Cultural Criticism --- Clearly there can be nothing more praiseworthy than conferring virtues on things. Then the most celebrated strand of ecstasy of communication can be identified as the factor responsible for conferring an extra virtue to an already virtuous. This is problematic because, according to Nietzsche, one virtue is more of a virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for one's destiny to cling to. Excessive communication is the antipode of authenticity. Because where there is (...) reinforcement there is lack. (For instance: talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself). (shrink)

TSI-OCT proposes a trace-source, emergent evolutionary ontology with regards to cultural origins framed as a sequential function-to-requisites-to-deficit-to-behavior-to-culture progression. Once structure-and-function stabilizes, continuation becomes conditional on requisites; requisites imply the likelihood of shortfall; and shortfall, when present, is deficit. Deficit instantiates Need Functions (NF) as organized closure patterns that bias sensing, prioritization, coordination, and action toward restoring or advancing viable continuation within a declared boundary and horizon. Because closure is frequently complementary—distributed across internal and external co-mechanisms—effective closure often requires recruitment and (...) coordinated participation at group scale. Communication is therefore treated as a downstream instrument of recruitment rather than an origin cause: internal states and reasons are conveyed outward into a shared field so coordinated closure becomes feasible. A single worked exemplar (hunger) traces the pathway from tissue shortfall to sensing, hunger, hunt/gather action, recruitment, and stabilized group procedure. Culture is defined as the transmissible procedure-memory of how a group repeatedly completes closure across time, carried in tools, roles, norms, routines, and institutions. "Full UID Master Index available on GitHub; search for repository: armandosotouidt". (shrink)

TSRECT (Trace-Source Rational Equivalency Communication Theory) develops communication as a trace-source phenomenon that extends from reactivity in connected systems. A functional entity (module) expresses function only by consuming requisites (energy/matter/conditions); expenditure produces deficit; deficit produces stress-effects; and stress-effects bias procedure toward closure (restoration of viable continuation) within a declared boundary and horizon. Because modules are coupled by connectivity κ (intrinsic coupling enabling carry-over, co-modulation, and propagation), deficits do not remain local: a deficit in one module becomes a distributed stressor across (...) dependents, generating a shared need factor and forcing coordinated correction. Communication is introduced at this point as externalized informational reactivity: κ-enabled token propagation that co-modulates other agents inside a shared field so recruitment and coordinated closure across boundaries become feasible. -/- The manuscript then explains how repeated closure corridors compress into re-instantiable triggers (tokens). These tokens acquire standing-for power—operational substitution—so closure can be recruited even when the originating condition is absent. Rational equivalency names this capacity as tokenizable, transferable closure-potential: equivalency as unfulfilled restitution (prospective), expressed along a hx/actual/prospective trace corridor where retention (hx) stabilizes what was actual and makes prospective closure addressable by substitution rather than direct contact. -/- TSRECT also formalizes an unavoidable constraint: partial proportionality. Modules couple reliably with proximal partials but not with totality, producing unavoidable informational deficit. When reactive commitment pressures demand completeness despite that deficit, systems are driven into creative compensation (gap-filling). As systems become more informationally capable, need triggers arise not only from actual material deficits but also from probabilistic informational needs (anticipatory, perceptive, conceptual) that can generate strong feeling–emotion–empathy envelopes, sometimes even false sensation-like triggers. This introduces probabilistic variability directly into token generation and correspondence: communication can be true or can yield inappropriate correspondence (error, untruth), and under additional “artificial want” pressures can be biased toward purposeful deceit rather than mere mistake. The manuscript closes with explicit assumptions, predictions/test hooks for critique, and a glossary anchoring these contributory concepts as an integrated mechanism rather than a list of terms. "Full UID Master Index available on GitHub; search for repository: armandosotouidt". (shrink)

Does browsing the world through a screen change a person, especially in the context of COVID-19? Recent studies indicate that self-care, psychological well-being, and empathy may suffer. The “Californian ideology” privileges expression of the self even as digital technology tends to interrupt the modern trend towards elaborating distinct selves via texts that convey knowledge. Meanwhile, digital browsing may be fracturing attention and empathy. -/- As these changes proceed, legislators react to a medical and social crisis. Relaxation of business, community center, (...) and school closures prevailed, under pressure from advocates of liberty, jobs, and pro-market economics. A rival set of regulatory reforms would prioritize fighting the virus and providing more relief to its victims as being forms of care for others. In the international domain, nationalist ideology and economic warfare intensify disparities in access to medical care, imported goods, and livelihoods. At stake is how best to take beings into care. (shrink)

What about polite politics, even in the streets? A brief reflection about sense and violence and representational difference.

Symbolic violence from TV, due to false regulation on content, in Spain, Portugal, Canada, France and US.

Contemporary economic theory relies on a set of concepts—labour, value, production, exchange—that are treated as explanatory primitives. Despite their centrality, these notions are applied to increasingly heterogeneous forms of activity without preserving a consistent criterion of distinction. Activities requiring substantial effort are routinely classified alongside those directly involved in material reproduction, obscuring a fundamental difference between effort and labour. This paper proposes that the difficulty lies not in the diversity of activities, but in the absence of a criterion distinguishing expenditure (...) from integration into processes of reproduction. Effort is understood as expenditure, whereas labour presupposes integration into systems that maintain conditions of life. To clarify this distinction, the paper introduces a minimal account of culture as the continuity of reproducible forms of activity and the relations between them. Within this framework, the persistence of activities detached from their original conditions is explained through objectification: the stabilization of activity in forms that can be reproduced, circulated, and coordinated independently of their initial context. Drawing on examples ranging from tourism and play to money and technological devices, the analysis shows how relational complexity is displaced into stable forms, enabling a reduction of both cognitive and physical effort. This process is interpreted as a redistribution of effort across internal and external domains. The emergence of economic systems from subsistence-oriented activity is reconsidered in this light. Rather than constituting a simple expansion of activity, systematic exchange transforms the criteria by which activity is integrated into processes of reproduction. As a result, the distinction between effort and labour becomes unstable. The paper concludes by suggesting that categories such as property, justice, and exploitation operate at a derivative level: they describe configurations in which objectified forms of activity are already stabilized, rather than the processes that give rise to them. (shrink)

In this first of two essays written on the topic of ancient greek inscriptions, I will briefly explore and discuss the role of the written word and of visual language within the cult of Asclepius at Epidauros, by both looking at the creation and function of the Epidaurian sanctuary's healing inscriptions—also called 'iamata'. Throughout the essay I have made use of J.L. Austin's Speech Act Theory to better contextualize the meaning of the inscriptions dealt with.

In this second of two essays on the topic of ancient Greek inscriptions, I will briefly explore and discuss the textuality of ritual norms or, 'sacred laws', by looking 1) at the reasons for these ritual norms to have been written down in the first place and 2) how these norms/laws/decrees were able to get their observers to adhere to them. Throughout the essay I have made use of J.L. Austin's Speech Act Theory to better contextualize the meaning of the (...) inscriptions dealt with. (shrink)

Lo que sabemos y lo que no sabemos sobre las desigualdades, como en muchos otros temas de las ciencias sociales, depende de lo que hayamos leído, de lo que aprendimos de profesores y colegas y de las experiencias de investigación de las que participamos. Mucho se ha investigado y escrito sobre las desigualdades sociales en nuestra región. De hecho, el concepto de desigualdad es uno de los más amplios y mencionados de las ciencias sociales. Por esta razón -y por algunas (...) otras que veremos- proponemos partir de una premisa: cada uno de nosotros sabe algunas cosas y desconoce muchas otras sobre las desigualdades. El objetivo de esta exposición es relacionar en un mismo texto un conjunto de desafíos metodológicos relativos a la investigación sobre desigualdades de clase y étnicas. Se trata de consideraciones metodológicas básicas que, si se dan por conocidas y saldadas, se pierde una ocasión de reflexividad metodológica y de explorar buenos caminos que otros transitaron pero que no conocemos personalmente. En particular, el escrito propone detenerse en las implicancias de cinco desafíos en la investigación de desigualdades de clase social y étnicas: 1. Las definiciones de conceptos 2. Las escalas temporales y espaciales 3. Las maneras de teorizar las articulaciones entre formas de desigualdad 4. Los recursos para medir y 5. Lo político y lo ético. (shrink)

In dit hoofdstuk presenteer ik de belangrijkste bevindingen en uitspraken uit mijn diepte-interviews met de respondenten. Ik geef hiermee antwoord op de deelvragen ‘Wat voor beeld wordt er gevormd in Nederlandse kranten over geweldpleging door de Staat in Nederlands-Indië?’, ‘Welk beeld in Nederlandse kranten is exemplarisch voor positieve of negatieve berichtgeving over geweldpleging door de Staat in Nederlands-Indië?’, ‘Wat zijn de belangrijkste reacties geweest van media, Staat of andere betrokkenen op de berichtgeving in kranten over Nederlandse oorlogsmisdaden in Indië?’ en (...) ‘Hoe kijken representatoren voor media, Staat, betrokkenen en/of nabestaanden zelf aan tegen de beeldvorming over de misdragingen in Nederlands-Indië?’ De vijf geïnterviewde experts hebben zich uiteraard uitgelaten over beeldvorming in Nederlandse kranten over verschillende perioden. Ik heb de paragrafen daar voor het gemak tevens chronologisch naar ingedeeld. (shrink)

Seeing how the idea of the ‘ruler cult’ and the necessary ‘myth-making’ to establish it exists to this day, as seen with the regime of a 21st century dictator like Kim Jong-il, it would be most interesting to see what parallels exist between cases of divine leadership and what we might learn about our contemporary cult rulers when looking at the dynamics of the two-millennia-old cult of the deified Emperor Augustus. As such, I have formulated a central question that focuses (...) on the reign of Divus Augustus, and in doing so provides opportunity to extrapolate from it new insights in similar but contemporary figures of leadership. A clear case of 'to understand motives in the present, one must look at actions in the past.'. (shrink)

This article explores the moral ambivalence of online political activism by film and television celebrities, grounded in media and communication scholarship. The first part reviews key factors that draw audiences to celebrity communications, emphasizing their charisma, authenticity and visibility that amplify political messages. Celebrity online political activism is presented as an instance of dialogic engagement and an opportunity for critical discourse. The second part examines actions that may negate the potential benefits this practice may have and explains why such communication (...) may be considered harmful. Specifically, it argues that celebrity online political activism may be perceived as performative and self-serving, leading to a loss of trust when a social good becomes a means to an end. (shrink)

This paper establishes the force execution layer of the Protected Class Architecture — the military and covert operation mechanism that eliminates nation-states whose monetary independence threatens the dollar hegemony architecture. The paper traces the full 70-year prior chain from the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 through the current Iran pressure campaign, establishing that the Clark list — Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran — is not a post-September 11 innovation but the most recent iteration of a (...) mechanism operating continuously since 1953. The PNAC document's explicit statement that the desired military transformation would require 'some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor' is examined against the documented personnel overlap between PNAC signatories and Bush administration officials who occupied every position required to execute the Clark list. The Wesley Clark testimony is used as a structural probe rather than primary evidence. The execution record — twenty-two years against the specific Clark list across five administrations spanning both parties — is established as the primary evidence of prior planning. The Saudi dual-function problem is named directly: the United States classified for 14 years the documented connections between the Saudi government and September 11 hijackers in order to protect a petrodollar relationship with the same government whose religious export produced the catalyzing event the architecture had publicly stated it required. The Ukraine conflict is examined as the current force execution iteration — the proxy method deployed against a theater where direct military intervention is not viable. The cross-partisan continuity of the force execution layer across five administrations is established as the architecture's most visible structural signature. (shrink)

This article examines contemporary representations of sakura (cherry blossom) in cosmetics marketing. Since the Heian period, sakura has been loved and regarded as having tangible and metaphorical significance in Japan. Imagery of sakura is rich in ambiguity and has a complex history as evident in its use in the militaristic promotion of heroism, especially related to the Second World War. However, in recent decades, sakura imagery has proliferated across a range of popular culture both inside and out of Japan. In (...) this article we focus on the circulation and meanings of sakura imagery accessible and appropriated in Australia with specific attention to cosmetics. Sakura offers not only aesthetic pleasure but also potentially some health benefits. Our discussion draws on data from surveys and interviews with participants in Australia about their perspectives of sakura aesthetics related to colour symbolism. This is accompanied by close analysis of colour symbolism in recent perfume, skincare and cosmetic marketing, branding and packaging which use sakura imagery. We argue that, using the complex symbolism associated with the wide colour spectrum, sakura imagery has now been refashioned as a versatile promotional tool in the global market, as exemplified by the brand engagement of sakura-themed cosmetics. (shrink)

Science communication is a broad field and involves very diverse activities. This paper aims to illuminate and partly systematise the diversity of science communication. We focus on three important dimensions: size of the audience, frequency of interaction, and decision-making relevance. Based on them, we introduce a three-dimensional space of science communication wherein particular scenarios can be located. We argue that relevant challenges for science communication are particularly associated with certain areas of this space. Based on the proposed framework, we also (...) address potential strategies and developments in science communication. (shrink)

Philosophy: the intersubjectivity of Sophos, the one and the real self, of the mystic, pure consciousness..

In this paper, I explore the normative underpinnings of ghosting in the job market. Ghosting involves the abrupt cessation of communication without prior warning or explanation, which can be done by prospective employers or job seekers at various stages of a hiring process. This is a common phenomenon in the job market. I argue that the moral wrongness of ghosting can be explained by a principle of communicative reciprocity, which yields a duty of transparency and a right to be adequately (...) informed for both parties. I further highlight the importance of corporate duties and corporate responsibility for ghosting done by organizations qua corporate moral agents. Organizations have corporate duties that require them to create and update relevant policies and infrastructure for conducting their hiring processes in a morally adequate manner. Finally, I reflect on why blame for ghosting in the job market is unlikely to be publicly expressed by both prospective employers and job seekers. (shrink)

Japanese pop idols occupy an ambiguous position in the broader popular music landscape, straddling a line between fiction and non-fiction, simultaneously characterological yet physically instantiated. As idealized representations of the girl or boy next door, idols serve as both ‘image characters’ who can be used to sell a variety of products, as well as ‘quasi companions’ meant to provide fans with a manufactured sense of intimacy. Using a joint quantitative and qualitative approach, this article analyses the lyrics of female idol (...) groups. Specifically, I demonstrate how the combination of first- and second-person pronouns and sentence-final expressions are utilized to construct both female-coded and male-coded gendered personae, revealing that idol lyrics engage in the process of cross-gender performance. As a result, through their performance of these personae, female idol groups explicitly reinforce a binary imagination of normative gender expressions, allowing such idol groups to capitalize on idealized heterosexual adolescence through affective resonance and nostalgia. (shrink)

Digital propaganda is widespread across all social media platforms and in many cases is unintentionally spread. Most people are currently incapable of determining what is factual and what is not on these networks. A number of studies suggest we have entered a period of "truth decay" where facts have been replaced by opinions and subjectivity. Disinformation online is a major contributor to societal polarization and has contributed to a distrust in established organizations like the press, academia, and science. It has (...) been used to great effect by dictators and autocrats who use it to gain supporters and maintain their positions of power. Stopping disinformation will require changes to how social media companies operate, support for legitimate news organizations, and the use of encryption, blockchain and AI technologies. It will also require changes to the educational system which focus on how to evaluate information online. (shrink)

While US-Hip Hop has been attested considerable influence of the controversial Black supremacy movement Five Percent Nation, a similar pattern can be observed with the rigid Rastafarian doctrine of the Bobo Shanti Order and Jamaican Dancehall-Reggae. Considering the commercial relevance and global popularity of both musical styles, this study attempted to shed light on the question if either artists are using controversy for promotional agendas or it is them being used for missionary purposes in turn. A multi-layerd cross-case study based (...) on Critical Discourse Analysis as well as ethnographic research has been conducted to determine the degree and direction of Bobo Shanti-representations in Jamaican Dancehall-Reggae as compared to Five Percenter Rap in the US, focusing on visual representations, declared affiliations as well as claims of moral superiority and gender roles in reference to doctrinal sources. -/- . (shrink)

This study is aiming at analyzing extemporaneous methods of instructional speech in the context of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order and its parallels with improvised music as well as potential for modern educational purposes. Focusing on a processual analysis covering the flow of events in the communication and its environment, the work is using approaches applied in performance studies as well as improvised music, as well as cognitive science and psychological perspectives concerned with the mechanisms of the subconsciousness. Field research data (...) collected at the Naqshbandi lodge in Lefke/Cyprus as well as a considerable amount of recorded speech acts serve as material for the conducted qualitative content analysis. (shrink)

This chapter aims at pointing out the correspondences between the transformative Five Percenter process of self-cultivation outlined in the Supreme Mathematics and previous interpretations articulated and transmitted in the sapiential traditions of Islam, Christianity, or Taoism.

This article brings Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) into the history of communication. The author argues Guicciardini should be added to the short list of Renaissance authors considered part of the so-called proto-history of public relations, like Machiavelli. In his work, the Italian author Guicciardini crafts several maxims and reflections that emphasize the importance of reputation in public and private affairs and how the use of communication and power can help to achieve a solid reputation. Ricordi’s communication menu includes advice about the (...) importance of monitoring and cultivating public opinion, deeds, timing, context and information management. With certain nuances, immorality, as in the case of Machiavelli, seems to be the norm in this period, characterized by pragmatism. A main conclusion of this article is that Guicciardini belongs to a group of historical authors, alongside Machiavelli, Gracián and Cardinal Mazarino, who used communication management with a purpose of hegemony and control over publics on behalf of the powerful class. In fact, nobles, princes and kings used communication management, despite the differences the use of media technology imposes, in a similar fashion to current organizations and enterprises. (shrink)

Along with discussing bibliometric analyses’ limitations and potential biases, this paper addresses the growing need for comprehensive guidelines in evaluating bibliometric research by providing systematic frameworks for both peer reviewers and readers. While numerous publications provide guidance on implementing bibliometric methods, there is a notable lack of frameworks for assessing such research, particularly regarding performance analysis and science mapping. Drawing from an extensive review of bibliometric practices and methodological literature, this paper develops structured evaluation frameworks that address the complexity of (...) modern bibliometric analysis, introducing the VALOR framework (Verification, Alignment, Logging, Overview, Reproducibility) for assessing multi-source bibliometric studies. The paper's key contributions include comprehensive guidelines for evaluating data selection, cleaning, and analysis processes; specific criteria for assessing conceptual, intellectual, and social structure analyses; and practical guidance for integrating performance analysis with science mapping results. By providing structured frameworks for reviewers and practical guidelines for readers to interpret and apply bibliometric insights, this work enhances the rigor of bibliometric research evaluation while supporting more effective peer review processes and research planning. The paper also discusses potential areas for further development, including the integration of qualitative analysis with bibliometric data and the advancement of field-normalized metrics, ultimately aiming to support authors, reviewers, and readers in navigating the complexities of bibliometrics and enhancing the meaningfulness of bibliometric research. (shrink)

This article argues that Friedrich Nietzsche offers a generative contribution to communication ethics through his conception of self-knowledge as a rhetorical and symbolic practice. Drawing especially on The Gay Science and On the Genealogy of Morality, the article interprets Nietzsche’s aesthetic ideal not as moral relativism, but as an ethical demand to become the kind of self who can relate justly. In contrast to rationalist or rule-based ethics, Nietzsche offers a model of intrapersonal justice grounded in coherence, stylistic integrity and (...) symbolic self-formation. The article places Nietzsche in dialogue with communication ethics scholars, rhetorical theorists and the continental tradition, developing a view of justice as responsive presence rather than prescriptive conformity. By doing this, it advances an existential-ethical account of communication as the space where the self becomes answerable to the other. Nietzsche emerges not as an enemy of ethics, but as a thinker of moral formation whose insights deepen our understanding of rhetorical subjectivity and interpersonal responsibility. (shrink)

This article examines trust by grounding it in the constitutive fragility of human existence. Drawing on Blaise Pascal’s metaphor of the ‘thinking reed’, it argues that human life is fundamentally characterized by the tension between interdependence and independence, which renders trust both indispensable and vulnerable. Through the thought of K. E. Løgstrup and P. Ricœur, trust and fragility are interpreted as basic constitutive elements of the human being. Trust is framed in a threefold structure – cognitive, affective and volitional – (...) which helps to explain why it is marked by the possibility of rupture and disappointment. Instead of attempting to eliminate this vulnerability, the article proposes two complementary response strategies: resilience, understood as the virtue of the right action of the trustor, whose claim may be accepted or rejected; and resonance, understood as a virtue of the right action of the trustee, who remains receptive to the needs of others. The final section turns to examples from contemporary literature to highlight the reparative dimension of narrative and the possibility of ‘retrust’ as a continuous practice of beginning anew. Thus, trust appears not as a stable state but as a dynamic ethical exercise sustained through fragility itself. From the confirmation of independence through interdependence, the discussion arrives at the proposal of a just conception of trust – one that rests on the right proportion between the demand for, and, the offering of, trust. (shrink)

Internet memes – images and GIFs – have become part of internet pop culture and are here to stay. Memes’ success as an online communication phenomenon is due, to some extent, to the fact that memes are self-explanatory. Indeed, messages conveyed in memes, however complex, are instantaneously grasped. The themes that memes cover can be casual or serious, but the humour and wit they radiate diffuse the tension of most sombre topics. However, it is unclear what makes a particular meme (...) popular or, as they say, viral. Notably, when using the word viral to refer to a meme, internet users inadvertently uphold the take on memes as gene-like units of information that evolve as quasi-biological entities. In this article, the authors intend to move away from this approach and investigate memes from a semiotic and logical perspective. To do that, the authors deploy Peircean terminology that helps position memes in the sphere of signs and analyse meme structure using both ‘icon–index–symbol’ and ‘token-type’ classifications, as well as ‘the habit of inference’ concept. This analysis allows them to describe the mechanics of meme transformation and define the boundaries that memes do not cross. (shrink)

Historically oriented Kant commentators like John Zammito have long maintained that serious Kant scholarship must include attention to the socio-cultural influences on Kant and his contemporaries. While significant historiographical work has been done on Kant and the French Revolution, the impact of the American Revolution on German thinkers—and Benjamin Franklin’s role therein—has been comparatively understudied, with leading scholars suggesting that it had little to no impact on Kant. The following investigation will be therefore oriented by Zammito’s admonition, in this case (...) by way of its focus on key actors in the print and press world of the Berlin Enlightenment. My hope is that by reconstructing the material history of Kant’s access to news regarding the American Revolution, we can use this evidentiary scaffolding as the basis for a more confident reassessment of Kant’s views and his own role in the structural transformation of the late eighteenth-century public sphere. (shrink)

Despite their clear relationship, the classical rhetorical concept of stasis (or status) and the more contemporary notion of ‘framing’ have rarely been considered together, a situation that is made all the more surprising considering that the latter term can be argued as originating from a rhetorical context, namely, Kenneth Burke’s ‘acceptance frames’. This article seeks to examine the similarities between stasis theory and the various ways in which the trope of framing has come to be instantiated in argumentation in the (...) social sciences, the humanities and select therapeutic modalities. While it is Goffman’s Frame Analysis that is usually provided as the origin point for the adoption of the concept of framing into common intellectual parlance, Goffman himself credited Gregory Bateson’s formulation of ‘psychological frames’ as his source. Consequently, I will argue that it is the therapeutic-oriented work of Bateson (and its later development by Watzlawick) that represents the potential bridge between the current demotic understanding of framing, the introductory conceptualization of Burke and the classical stasis tradition. The uncovering and exploration of the relationships between the traditions of stasis, Goffman’s frame analysis, Burke’s acceptance frames and the Batesonian approach to therapeutic reframing will allow us to re-position stasis at the heart of modern rhetorical theory and, furthermore, advance a therapeutic understanding of rhetoric that both reconnects it to its deepest past while also preparing it for its future place in an increasingly disordered (even [dis]eased) environment of public address and interpersonal communication. (shrink)

This article presents neo-liberal notions of knowledge and market and explains why this is important for the functioning of digital platforms. Neo-liberals are concerned with everyday knowledge of the common people, their mental states and feelings, not intellectual knowledge. The satisfaction of consumers and prediction of their future preferences is the basis for creating Big Data. Neo-liberals utilize it, fully cognisant of its status as a failed post-truth mechanism for interpreting everyday knowledge. The market functions through individual use and mutual (...) adjustment of limited personal knowledge, of customers as well as producers. It is not free but cybernetically ordered market. Hayek defines market as a communication system that is digesting dispersed information. Millions of minds are doing data generation and processing. That way, neo-liberals see all digital platforms, including Wikipedia, as markets. Classical encyclopaedias are centrally controlled and expert driven, while neo-liberal markets create knowledge through crowds’ ‘voluntary exchange’ and ‘spontaneous cooperation’. The fundamental difference is that encyclopaedias were an Enlightenment project, while Wikipedia is producing recycled intellectual and layman’s knowledge without any political or revolutionary engagement. (shrink)

New theories of user agency within algorithmic digital environments abound. Averse to humanist tradition, these theories emphasize non-human elements in mediating user agency and action opportunities online brought about by algorithmic digital technology. In this article, I foreground disturbing aspects of digital culture, such as covert racism illuminated by Microsoft chatbot Tay’s incident, to scrutinize shared assumptions originating in posthumanist and new materialist philosophies behind this trend. Revisiting Neff and Nagy’s case for understanding Tay’s incident in terms of symbiotic agency, (...) I show how it cuts across two distinct understandings of agency: agency that is distributed among human and non-human entities on the one hand and the indivisible or inescapable human agency posited by the constitutivist theory in metaethics on the other. Focusing on communicative and cultural contexts helps to see why the attempts to go beyond the human are contradictory: blurring the boundary between human and non-human agents by conceiving agency as inherently distributed or relational leaves us blind to the apparent fact that machine agency traces back to human agency. In my turn, I propose a psychoanalytical reading of Tay as a case of interpassive disavowal – users performatively fleeing their agency. This reading moderates Kantian constitutivist theory and helps us advance in agency debates within media and communication studies by a constructive, culturally focused critique. (shrink)

This article explores the construction of extremism in media discourse, the factors driving specific constructions and the implications of these constructions for counterterrorism policy. We contend that extremism has predominantly and increasingly been framed as a security issue. This article explores the implications of this practice through the framework of securitisation. We measure the average intensity of security framing in 38,616 articles found in three major US newspapers, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, between 20 January (...) 1993 and 19 January 2017 comprising the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies, and look at factors influencing the shift in intensity over time. Through our analysis, we show that it is possible to return to a pre-9/11 discourse but that the confluence of real-world events and the strategic choices of political actors have so far prevented this from fully occurring. We then explore the effect of securitisation on public perceptions of the threat from terrorism, finding that increases in the intensity of security framing artificially increases the public’s worry about becoming a victim of terrorism. We conclude by discussing implications for the communication of counterterrorism policy and the requirements for an after, after 9/11 approach. (shrink)