What role do podcasts play in spreading information about climate change? For a research project on environmental communication, I explored how these issues are discussed in podcasts. I found that serious channels with the ambition to inform about climate change issues share the space with channels with a dubious agenda and a loose relationship to facts.
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Older adults are the fastest-growing segment of the population. In Canada, one in five people are 65 or older, and by 2065, this will increase to more than one in four. Yet, despite their growing numbers, older adults often face exclusion and marginalization in technology design. This digital divide has significant consequences, leading to isolation, loneliness, frustration, and poor health outcomes, particularly when we intersect factors like lower socioeconomic status, race, gender, and immigrant status.
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Communication technologies help people communicate with each other, whether through email, computer-mediated technologies such as message boards and Internet forums, and through voice, video, or conferencing systems, and the long list of new media (virtual reality, augmented reality, AI communication, podcasts, video sharing platforms, etc.). These communication technologies influence social and cultural transformations by evolving how people communicate, impacting the patterns of communication they use, and resulting in social interactions designed and carried out through a web-based environment.
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Zizians, an emerging and loosely defined intellectual network, hold anarchist beliefs, emphasise animal rights and veganism, and promote a non-dualistic understanding of consciousness, including the idea that the hemispheres of the brain can have different genders and conflicting interests. This perspective challenges conventional Western assumptions about individual identity, rationality, and the pursuit of knowledge. By looking into how these two communities approach information, one can better understand their impact on contemporary discussions, from scientific discourse to digital subcultures.
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How might we understand the way in which research and education can be used as a positive force in bringing the world closer together? This difficult question is one that those of us within digital humanities at University College London want to address. Looking at our institutional history can help to clarify this. The history of digital humanities is gaining attention, with an increasing focus on understanding its development and recognising its role of addressing diversity, gender, race, and linguistic backgrounds in knowledge production, and promoting inclusive representation.
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Academic Libraries North is sharing resources about how libraries can support mental health and wellbeing, including case studies based on experience. ALN is a consortium of 33 higher education libraries in the north of England in the United Kingdom. Through collaborative activities and mutual support, they provide opportunities for their members in the exchange of knowledge and experience.
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Creating an environment that fosters Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) is a shared responsibility, meaning that librarians have a role to play too. The first step in addressing bias is recognizing that it exists and raising awareness among others. But once the bias has been recognized, it can be challenging to know how to go about addressing it.
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Today, the average person relies heavily on digital technologies, with daily survival intricately tied to these tools. While digital devices offer connectivity, they also raise concerns about mental well-being and emotional stability. Many therapeutic platforms like Calm and Woebot are also digital, deepening this reliance. However, libraries can provide stability by blending traditional methods with technological innovations. As they adapt to the digital age, libraries have transformed from quiet reading spaces into vital resources for mental health.
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Librarians are the polymaths of this century. They are voracious readers, consuming information from all fields. As information gatekeepers, their engagement in knowledge classification, cataloging, and organization grants them a birthright to know more than others. Librarians help create all professions, but no other profession creates librarians. This is a unique quality that makes librarians stand out and excel among other fields. The secret lies in the fact that librarians never take a break from research.
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Religious cults represent the worst form of marginalization. Libraries must help people avoid falling into the trap of cults by informing them. Otherwise, it becomes almost impossible to return cult members to normal life, and even if a person leaves a cult after several decades, the effects of living in a closed system will keep them marginalized forever.
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