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The current post-truth era is characterized by the rapid spread of conspiracy theories which has been exacerbated by public's lack of agreement on objective facts and presentation of unverified information without supportive evidence. Existing research has examined a myriad of factors which explain the causes of conspiratorial thinking. To extend current research, this study examines the effects of institutional trust and demographic factors (i.e., age, gender, political ideology, household income and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]) in explaining conspiracy orientation (i.e., the dispositional tendency to subscribe to different conspiracy theories) and conspiracy attribution (i.e., the situational tendency to subscribe to conspiracy theories about specific problematic situations). A survey dataset ( N = 720) was collected in South Korea. The findings showed that institutional trust had greater effects than STEM education in explaining conspiracy orientation and attribution. On the other hand, different demographic factors had different effects on conspiracy orientation and attribution.

AbstractAccording to 2012 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) statistics, 11 of 19 OECD countries have a higher female international student participation ratio in student mobility. South Korea has a higher ratio of female international students in general and a higher ratio of female Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) recipients. In 2018 and 2019, we surveyed GKS students about their evaluation of South Korea's country image and discovered significant differences by gender. Female students tend to show a lower cognitive and affective evaluation of the GKS country image experience than male students. We aim to uncover the determinants of these asymmetrical gender‐based differences in the perceived country image of South Korea. Two adjustment indicators (emotional well‐being and feeling part of society) and three adjustment factors (language skills, length of stay, and perceived discrimination) were examined to explore the determinants of gendered favorability toward the country. The findings suggest that female and male GKS recipients have different gendered experiences in the country, which, in turn, impacts their evaluation of South Korea's country image. The findings contribute to the country image and public diplomacy studies and practice, particularly in sponsored student mobility programs, which often fail to distinguish gendered experiences in their analysis or program planning.Related Articles in this Special IssueAyhan, Kadir Jun, and Nancy Snow. 2021. "Introduction to the Special Issue—Global Korea Scholarship: Empirical Evaluation of a non‐Western Scholarship Program from a Public Diplomacy Perspective." Politics & Policy 49(6): 1282–1291. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12440.Istad, Felicia, Eriks Varpahovskis, Ekra Miezan, and Kadir Jun Ayhan. 2021. "Global Korea Scholarship Students: Intention to Stay in the Host Country to Work or Study after Graduation." Politics & Policy 49(6): 1323–1342. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12436.Tam, Lisa, and Kadir Jun Ayhan. 2021. "Evaluations of People, Affection, and Recommendation for a Host Country: A Study of Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) Recipients." Politics & Policy 49(6): 1292–1307. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12438.

Through international student mobility programs, such as Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), countries aim to influence international students' beliefs about and attitudes toward the host country. In this article, we explore GKS's role in bringing international students to the country and analyze changes in GKS students' and alumni's affective and cognitive evaluation of Korea after coming to the country. We compare results based on students' and alumni's length of stay, gender, and economic development level of their home country. Our findings suggest that after coming to Korea, GKS recipients evaluate Korea more positively in both affective and cognitive dimensions.

Based on framing theory and attribution theory, this research examines how the Korean news has framed and attributed the causes of fine dust in terms of external factors (i.e., China-responsibility) or internal factors (e.g., Korea-responsibility). We conducted a large-scale big-data analysis such as natural language processing and semantic network analysis to examine how news about fine dust in the Korean news had been produced and corrected. We used search terms, such as "fine dust" and "China," to collect 21,222 articles from 54 media outlets over 11 years from 2009 to 2019. Fine dust reporting could be divided mainly into two stages of (a) producing misinformation and (b) correcting misinformation. In the phase of producing misinformation (before 2015), the Korea Meteorological Administration appeared as a major source of information and emphasized "fine dust from China" in its weather forecast. In the phase of correcting misinformation (after 2015), environmental and civic groups appeared as major sources of information. They urged the Korean government to initiate policies rather than blame China. Another important group, the scholars, denied China-responsibility and started to talk about Korea-responsibility. The government also emphasized on cooperation of Northeast Asian countries and initiating eco-friendly domestic policies based on LTP results (Long-range Transboundary Pollutants). Overall, misinformation was produced in the process of "climate," → "socialization," → "politicization," and misinformation was corrected through "scientification," → "Asianization" internationally, and "Korea-responsibility" → "eco-friendly policymaking" domestically.

Through international student mobility programs, such as Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), countries aim to influence international students' beliefs about and attitudes toward the host country. In this article, we explore GKS's role in bringing international students to the country and analyze changes in GKS students' and alumni's affective and cognitive evaluation of Korea after coming to the country. We compare results based on students' and alumni's length of stay, gender, and economic development level of their home country. Our findings suggest that after coming to Korea, GKS recipients evaluate Korea more positively in both affective and cognitive dimensions.

AbstractPurposeThe digital setting empowers users to actively engage in communicative actions. The problem is that this active communication can increase misjudgment in determining the facts around social issues. When this communication is integrated with partisan biases, the effects can be particularly detrimental. Our study tested whether active communication actions regarding social issues and different trust levels toward presidential administrations (Trump vs. Biden) would increase belief in conspiracy theories.Design/methodology/approachTo examine this, the study used online survey datasets (Amazon Mechanical Turk,N = 1355) collected during July and August 2021 concerning three political issues: the Afghanistan issue, the Black Lives Matter issue, and the Voter Fraud issue.FindingsThe findings show that among participants with more active communication actions, the higher Trump government trust is and the lower Biden government trust is, the more belief in conspiracy theories increases. Interestingly, interaction effects of trust in government and active communicative actions were found among both Trump and Biden supporters.Practical/Social ImplicationsCombined with preexisting efforts to tackle misinformation online, there are extensive efforts underway to educate laypeople about the dangers of misinformation. People must understand that any person could fall into belief in conspiracy theories if they do not carefully diagnose their information behaviors.Originality/ValueOur study can increase knowledge about people's situational belief in conspiracy theories based on their political stance. The study can support future research, promoting a deeper understanding of belief in conspiracy theories.

Voluntary citizen attention and actions are key to successful public-sector communication. We investigated the conditions which increase such attention and actions using the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) and government-citizen relationships (GCRs). Using three national issues consisting of an environmental issue, a social issue, and a political issue from South Korea (N=275), this study examined three hypotheses regarding public engagement effect (the effect of GCRs on political conversations on national issues), government empowerment effect (the effects of GCRs and issue-specific trust toward government on constraint recognition), and public serenity effect (the effect of issue-specific trust on problem recognition and involvement recognition). We found significant public engagement and government empowerment effects and partially significant public serenity effect. The results of the public serenity investigation found that issue-specific trust toward government was significant with problem recognition but insignificant with involvement recognition. Consequently, the findings illustrate strategic values in government-citizen relationships on public engagement, empowerment, and serenity to enable participatory democracy.

This article reviews the evolution of public relations from its pre-science period to the present-day using Thomas Kuhn's theory of scientific development. The review discusses how public relations scholarship has grown and reached scientific maturity, in parallel with the institutionalization of public relations' professional practice and higher education. This article highlights the evolving nature of the discipline, including the paradigmatic shift toward a multifunctional definition of public relations and focus on relationship theories, ethics, public behavior, and technology.

This study determined the antecedents of diffusion scope (total audience), speed (number of adopters/time), and shape (broadcast vs. person-to-person transmission) for true vs. fake news about a falsely claimed stolen 2020 US Presidential election across clusters of users that responded to one another's tweets ("user clusters"). We examined 31,128 tweets with links to fake vs. true news by 20,179 users to identify 1,069 user clusters via clustering analysis. We tested whether attributes of authors (experience, followers, following, total tweets), time (date), or tweets (link to fake [vs. true] news, retweets) affected diffusion scope, speed, or shape, across user clusters via multilevel diffusion analysis. These tweets showed no overall diffusion pattern; instead, specific explanatory variables determined their scope, speed, and shape. Compared to true news tweets, fake news tweets started earlier and showed greater broadcast influence (greater diffusion speed), scope, and person-to-person influence. Authors with more experience and smaller user clusters both showed greater speed but less scope and less person-to-person influence. Likewise, later tweets showed slightly more broadcast influence, less scope, and more person-to-person influence. By contrast, users with more followers showed less broadcast influence but greater scope and slightly more person-to-person influence. These results highlight the earlier instances of fake news and the greater diffusion speed of fake news in smaller user clusters and by users with fewer followers, so they suggest that monitors can detect fake news earlier by focusing on earlier tweets, smaller user clusters, and users with fewer followers.

This retrospective review of nearly a century of publications in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly (JMCQ) traces the maturation of media studies toward a scientific discipline. The field's dominant paradigms—media effects and communicator uses—persist, adapt, and diversify over time, yielding actionable insights. Challenges include (a) bridging older and newer media theories, (b) harnessing data science, and (c) capitalizing on artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML). Future media research can conceptualize evolving three-dimensional interactions among media, people, and AI. We propose seven initiatives for the next century: revisiting classical theories, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, balancing descriptive and prescriptive theorization, nurturing indigenous theorizing, collaborating with industry, reverse theorizing with AI, and exploring and regulating AI's role in media.