The Journal of Medicine, Humanity and Media
The Journal of Medicine, Humanity, and Media - a cutting-edge interdisciplinary publication dedicated to fostering dialogue and collaboration between the fields of medicine, humanities, and media. We are currently in the process of applying for recognition and indexing, and we invite you to join us on this exciting journey.
Embodied Mediations: Health Communication at the Intersection of Experience, Technology, and Governance
Health communication scholarship continues to evolve at the intersection of embodied experience, technological transformation, and the politics of care. This issue assembles nine original contributions—six research articles and three reviews—that collectively probe how health meanings are constructed, contested, and circulated across diverse contexts. From the intimate phenomenology of pregnancy to the algorithmic logics of AI medicine, from the narrative architecture of global health campaigns to the information avoidance patterns of aging populations, these studies trace a coherent intellectual arc: one that moves from the micro-politics of individual bodies to the macro-structures of mediatized governance, while insisting on communication as both the medium and the stake of health equity.
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Literature Review on Deshaming Communication Research of Women’s Health Issues
Women’s health issues have long been stigmatized within traditional socio-cultural contexts, with topics such as menstruation and gynecological diseases excluded from public discourse. With the rise of social media, a growing number of users have produced content and discussed such issues, while scholarly and industrial exploration of women’s health knowledge communication has continued to deepen. This paper reviews domestic and international literature on women’s health communication, stigma, and shaming related to women’s health, summarizes existing research findings and limitations, and proposes directions for future inquiry. It aims to provide implications for advancing women’s health knowledge communication and supporting the Healthy China initiative.
Rethinking Digital Clinics: A Communication Approach to Online Medical Consultation
This review examines Digital Clinics: A Communication Approach to Online Medical Consultation by Bolin Cao, which investigates how digital technologies are transforming doctor–patient communication and the organization of healthcare services. The book conceptualizes the “digital clinic” as a hybrid communicative space in which traditional medical authority, platform mediated interaction, and patient participation intersect. Through a communication centered framework, Cao demonstrates that online consultation does not merely extend conventional medical practice but fundamentally reshapes the communicative logic of clinical encounters. Digital platforms enable patients to access health information more easily and participate more actively in medical decision making, while physicians must adapt to new expectations related to responsiveness, digital visibility, and reputation building within platform environments. Drawing on theories from communication studies, health communication, media sociology, and platform research, the book provides a multidimensional account of the structural, relational, and cultural transformations associated with digital healthcare. This review highlights the book’s theoretical richness, interdisciplinary orientation, and relevance to contemporary debates on patient empowerment, digital trust, and platform governance.
Exploring the Path of Mediatized Governance in a Global Risk Society: A Review of Exploring the Evolution of Risk Issues in Mobile Communication
In today’s global risk society, mobile communication plays a central role in shaping public understanding of risks. Exploring the Evolution of Risk Issues in Mobile Communication focuses on three categories of global risks: health, technology, and environment. The book introduces the Platform Amplification/Attenuation of Risk Mechanism (PARM) to explain how user actions and platform algorithms interact to influence the visibility of risk issues. From the perspective of mediatized governance, this book broadens the scope of risk communication research and offers a practical framework for understanding the role of media as actor, object, and tool in risk governance.
Bridging different perspectives: Science Communication in the Mediatized Age: Challenges and Strategies
In the mediatized age, science communication has evolved into a critical bridge connecting technological innovation with societal understanding. This review examines Jian Rui's Science Communication in the Mediatized Age: Challenges and Strategies (2025), a work that systematically addresses both theoretical and practical dimensions of science communication within the Chinese context. The book constructs three theoretical bridges: between critical and strategic science communication; between science communication and mainstream communication theories; and between Western theoretical traditions and Chinese indigenous practices. Practically, it identifies core challenges facing Chinese science communication and proposes a "socialization pathway" mobilizing diverse actors—an approach aligned with recent national science policy. The book further demonstrates pedagogical value through systematically organized discussion questions and representative case studies. While engagement with critical perspectives remains limited, this limitation does not diminish the work's overall contribution to repositioning science communication within communication studies.
Why Older Adults Avoid Health Information: A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling Study
This study utilizes Two-Stage Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling (MASEM) to synthesize findings from 15 empirical studies involving 11,472 older adults, systematically examining the mechanisms underpinning health information avoidance among this demographic. The results indicate that: (1) both perceived hazard characteristics and negative information characteristics significantly and positively predict health information avoidance; (2) affective risk response mediates the relationship between perceived hazard characteristics and health information avoidance; and (3) factors such as older age, lower education attainment, and an Eastern cultural context reinforce the effects of information characteristics on avoidance behavior, while gender exhibits differentiated moderating effects across different pathways. This study elucidates the integrated mechanisms of health information avoidance among older adults and offers evidence-based implications for precise health communication.
Influence of Short Film Narrative Elements on Communication Effect of WHO Film Festival-A Case Study of Peking University Students
With the diversification of health communication formats in the digital media environment, short films have become an important vehicle for public health advocacy. Taking the World Health Organization’s Health for All Film Festival as a case, this study examines how different narrative elements influence the communication effectiveness of health-related short films. Based on the cognition–affect–behavior (CAB) model, an experimental design was employed using 18 shortlisted films from the 2023 festival. Seventy-two Peking University students participated in pre-test and post-test surveys measuring changes in cognition, emotion, attitude, and behavior. The study comparatively analyzes six narrative elements: live-action versus animation, first-person versus third-person narration, and data-driven versus non-data-driven storytelling, across three health themes (psychological, sexual, and environmental health). The results indicate that live-action narratives primarily enhance cognitive outcomes, while animated storytelling more effectively promotes emotional and behavioral change. Both first-person and third-person narration exert positive effects across all four dimensions, and both data-driven and non-data-driven narratives contribute to cognitive and behavioral improvement. Overall, narrative elements significantly shape health communication outcomes, providing empirical evidence for optimizing the design of health communication short films.
Understanding Public Awareness and Acceptance of AED Implementation
Objective: To conduct a nationwide survey examining public awareness, exposure, and willingness to undergo training related to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), while exploring factors influencing participation in AED training. Methods: A national questionnaire survey was performed using stratified random sampling, yielding 2039 valid samples. Descriptive statistics were supplemented with regression analysis and structural equation modeling. Results: Public awareness of AEDs and media promotion efforts remain at an initial stage. Gender, region, age, and living situation significantly influence public awareness of AEDs. Communication approaches, media channels, and self-efficacy exert effects on public awareness of AEDs and training willingness. Conclusion: The dissemination of AEDs, as a vital initiative pertaining to public health, necessitates profound engagement in health communication. Within this framework, selecting media channels with high public trust for science popularization, fostering the development of social support factors, and enhancing awareness rates will assume a pivotal role. Keywords:AED Dissemination; Media Exposure; Health Communication; Structural Equation Modeling
Alignment and Distancing: A Review of The Construction and Communication of Mental Illness and Health Discourse in China Since Modern Times
For years, the mention of Li Yungeng has evoked memories of the spring of 2009, when he first introduced the works of Michel Foucault at the "NJU Journalism & Communication Reading Group." At that time, Foucault was in vogue; translations of his major works were emerging in succession, sparking intense interest among young scholars. I have long maintained that, unlike many casual admirers, Li’s engagement with Foucault extended beyond mere appreciation. It was an epistemological and methodological immersion—one that influenced the faculty and students around him. Consequently, when I received the manuscript for The Construction and Communication of Mental Illness and Health Discourse in China Since Modern Times, I experienced the distinct illusion of reading Madness and Civilization or The Birth of the Clinic. Moreover, I felt a palpable sense of the painstaking effort Li dedicated to this volume. I have known Yungeng for nearly 20 years. In 2008, while I was an in-service postdoctoral fellow at Fudan University, I taught an course on Social Psychology to undergraduates at Nanjing University. It was then that I discovered a truly exceptional cohort. After two years of study, this grade was distinct from any I had encountered: nearly thirty students demonstrated a profound interest in academic reading, with Yungeng being the most active among them. For an educator, such students are a blessing. At their collective insistence, I established the "NJU Journalism & Communication Reading Group." Unexpectedly, this group has thrived for seventeen years, remaining a vibrant incubator for academic talent to this day. Yungeng naturally assumed the role of the inaugural Secretary-General. In my memory, Yungeng possessed boundless energy; he was animated and exuberant when sharing his reading insights. While his interest in communication texts was sparse, he had a particular affinity for philosophy—lighting up whenever Foucault was discussed. It was, therefore, a natural progression when he later enrolled in the Philosophy Department for his graduate studies. Through the students' presentations, I too acquired new knowledge. It was a quintessential experience of pedagogical reciprocity; they systematically liberated my attention from the dominance of American sociology and empirical communication research. Furthermore, Yungeng’s persistent introduction of Foucault’s oeuvre compelled me to prioritize Foucaultian thought in my own work.
Pregnancy as an Embodied Experience: Cultural Construction, Body Politics, and a Cross-Cultural Autoethnography of China and Canada
Pregnancy is commonly understood as a biological and medical process, yet women’s lived experiences of pregnancy are profoundly shaped by institutional arrangements, social relations, and cultural discourses. This article adopts a cross-cultural and reflexive autoethnographic approach to examine how pregnancy is socially and communicatively constructed in China and Canada. Focusing on medical systems, family practices, and discourses of motherhood, the study analyzes how different governance logics shape pregnant women’s embodied experiences and gendered subjectivities. The analysis shows that pregnancy in China is embedded in a highly medicalized and family-centered framework that emphasizes risk prevention and collective responsibility. Pregnant bodies are simultaneously positioned as objects of protection and regulation through intensive prenatal surveillance and everyday familial interventions. In contrast, pregnancy in Canada is shaped by a model of limited medical intervention and individualized responsibility, which foregrounds bodily autonomy and emotional well-being while governing through self-management and uncertainty. From the perspective of body politics and gendered health communication, this study argues that pregnancy is not a purely physiological condition but a culturally mediated and politically situated embodied experience. By foregrounding pregnancy as a site of everyday body politics, the article contributes to feminist health communication and medical humanities scholarship on gender, care, and subjectivity.
The Construction of Health Communication: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Health communication stands at a transformative juncture, shaped by rapid technological evolution, persistent global health disparities, and a deepening recognition that effective health promotion demands more than information dissemination. This issue brings together fourteen cutting-edge contributions, including a review of the work of twelve leading scholars and three independent research articles. This collection traces a coherent arc from theoretical innovation to pragmatic intervention, illuminating how communication can bridge the gaps between policy and practice, technology and humanity, global frameworks and local realities. Representing diverse geographical and intellectual traditions—from Singapore to South Africa, from the Netherlands to New Zealand—these contributions underscore the field’s maturation into a truly global, multidisciplinary enterprise.
Knowledge Mapping Analysis of International Communication in Chinese Higher Education: A Visualization Study Based on CiteSpace
International communication in Chinese higher education plays a pivotal role in facilitating cross-cultural exchange, enhancing China's global discourse influence, and advancing national strategic objectives. This study employs CiteSpace bibliometric visualization to systematically analyze scholarly literature on international communication research in Chinese higher education from 2010 to 2024. Four key findings emerge from this analysis: (1) Research activity has evolved through distinct phases, demonstrating a marked intensification after 2021, with concentrated attention on themes including "Telling China's Story Well," emerging foreign language pedagogies, and strategic talent cultivation; (2) Research priorities have shifted in alignment with evolving national strategies, progressing from foreign language education frameworks to international communication capacity building, and subsequently to the construction of a discourse system for Chinese modernization; (3) The field exhibits increasing interdisciplinary characteristics, yet remains constrained by insufficient cross-disciplinary integration and fragmented scholarly efforts; (4) Inter-institutional collaboration networks remain structurally dispersed, hindering the formation of systematic theoretical innovation communities. This research provides a comprehensive knowledge landscape for theoretical development and practical innovation in international communication within Chinese higher education, offering empirical foundations to advance scholarly inquiry in this domain.
A Study on Patients’ Privacy in AI Medical Applications from the Perspective of Privacy Calculus
[Purpose] This study investigates the mechanism through which users’ perception of intelligent medical platforms in AI medical applications influences their privacy concerns and disclosure intentions,mediated by perceived benefits and risks. The findings aim to provide strategic recommendations for privacy regulation and user profiling in the context of smart healthcare. [Method] Drawing upon Privacy Calculus Theory, this research constructs a theoretical path: “Usage Perception(Perceived Ease of Use,Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Reliability, Perceived Transparency) → Perceived Benefits/Perceived Risks → Privacy Concern.” Using a sample of users with experience in AI medical applications, 568 valid data points were collected via surveys. Reliability and validity tests,along with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) ,were conducted using SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0 to verify the hypotheses. [Results/Conclusion] The results indicate that Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness significantly and positively impact Perceived Benefits while negatively impacting Perceived Risks. Perceived Reliability and Perceived Transparency significantly reduce Perceived Risks but do not have a significant positive effect on Perceived Benefits. Furthermore, Perceived Benefits negatively influence Privacy Concern, whereas Perceived Risks exert a positive influence. Notably, Privacy Concern positively affects Privacy Disclosure Intention, illustrating the “Privacy Paradox” in medical contexts. This study theoretically extends the boundaries of the Privacy Calculus model in healthcare and enriches the dimensions of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in privacy research, revealing the internal logic of the privacy paradox in intelligent medical scenarios.
Narrative Mechanisms and Digital Technologies in Health Communication: A Systematic Review of Shuo Zhou’s Research Contribution
New technology brings new narrative studies. This review synthesizes Shuo Zhou’s research on health communication, highlighting the integration of narrative mechanisms and digital technologies. It demonstrates how narrative features, such as character identification, moral framing, and personalization, influence cognition, emotion, and health behaviors. This study also explores technology-mediated interventions, including virtual reality, AI, and mobile health applications, showing how digital platforms enhance engagement and behavioral outcomes. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, Zhou's research bridges theory and practice, emphasizing interdisciplinary integration, cultural sensitivity, and evidence-based strategies. This review emphasize the importance for designing effective, inclusive, and technologically informed health interventions.
Health Information Processing and Online Health Information Seeking Pathways in the New Media Environment
The advancement of internet technology has reshaped health communication, bringing new opportunities and challenges to academic exploration. Centering on "how new media technologies improve people's health," this study systematically synthesizes the academic achievements of Shaohai Jiang in health communication. This study found that at the health knowledge level, Jiang explores the dual influential mechanisms of digital technology on health communication based on theoretical frameworks such as the Cognitive Mediation Model (CMM) and the Three-Stage Model of Interactive Media Use for Health Promotion. Besides, at the health behavior level, Jiang conducts multi-dimensional and cross-contextual academic investigations into the antecedent mechanisms and behavioral effects of online health information seeking (IHIS). Additionally, Jiang examines the application value of new media in specialized areas including patient-centered communication (PCC) and older adults' e-health literacy. His research enriches the application boundaries of health communication theoretical models from a quantitative perspective, providing significant academic references for health communication practices in today’s new media environment.
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Optimization of Health Communication Strategies and Guidance of Digital Health Behaviors: A Critical Review of Jiang Li’s Research
Currently, with the advancement of social economy and the growing public awareness of health, health communication has emerged as a crucial pathway to enhance public physical health and improve people’s quality of life. Theoretical innovation and practical translation in this field have garnered significant academic and practical attention. Jiang Li, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong, has long been deeply engaged in health communication research, producing influential scholarly works on topics such as vaccination and mobile health. This study systematically synthesizes her academic achievements in health communication, conducting a detailed analysis from the dimensions of research context, research characteristics, and research contributions. It aims to reveal the developmental trajectory of her health communication research and provide valuable insights for future studies in this field.
Bridging Health Disparities through Communication Empowerment and Health Equity: The Theoretical and Practical Trajectory of Gary L. Kreps
Inequalities in health information access represent a critical driver of global health disparities. This paper examines the theoretical and practical contributions of Professor Gary L. Kreps, a pioneering figure in health communication scholarship. Through analysis of his work on patient empowerment, information-seeking behaviors, and vulnerable populations, this study illuminates Kreps's communication-centric approach to healthcare practice. The analysis demonstrates that enhancing provider-patient interaction, building health literacy, and addressing the digital divide are essential components of communication empowerment. These insights provide a theoretical framework for reducing health inequalities and advancing equity through strategic communication interventions.
Mechanisms and Practical Innovations in Physician-Patient Communication — Based on the Research of Richard Street
In the field of health communication, physician-patient communication serves as the core of interpersonal health communication and exerts a crucial impact on patients' health outcomes, medical care satisfaction, and the effectiveness of healthcare systems. Centered on the academic research of Professor Richard L. Street, an American scholar, this paper systematically combs through his theoretical and practical achievements related to physician-patient communication, focuses on analyzing the core mechanism of the Communication-Health Outcomes Pathway Model, explores his criticism and innovation of the "patient-centered" communication paradigm as well as his extended research in the fields of caregiver roles and end-of-life care, summarizes the application value of his diverse research methods, and provides theoretical references and practical enlightenment for the deepening of physician-patient communication research and the optimization of clinical practice.
Thomas Tufte: The Study of Entertainment-Education and Health Citizenship
This paper aims to review the outstanding contributions of Professor Thomas Tufte in the fields of communication and social change, with a particular focus on health communication. Professor Tufte integrates the ideas of empowerment and dialogue from Brazilian educator Paulo Freire into communication studies, summarizing and proposing the "Third Generation Development Communication" theory, which emphasizes community participation, attention to structural inequality, and citizen empowerment. In the field of health communication, he emphasizes the media cultural perspective of "Entertainment-Education" (E-E), which highlights the role of entertainment media in transmitting health information to influence individual behaviors and promote social structural change. Additionally, he advocates for health citizenship, arguing that citizens should be active agents in health decision-making and discussions. Against the backdrop of globalization and media proliferation, Professor Tufte calls for health communication to transcend the limitations of behavioral sciences, adopting interdisciplinary approaches that address the social roots of health inequalities, and building a citizen-centered communication agenda to address the complex global health challenges.
Julia C.M. van Weert’s Health-Communication Research: Technology-Assisted Risk-Control Strategies for Risky Populations
For almost three decades Professor Julia C.M. van Weert has advanced European health communication by focusing on “risky people.” This article synthesises her major contributions. Anchored in “risk identification - intervention design - system integration,” her research trajectory has moved from optimising information efficiency to supporting behaviour change and, ultimately, to fostering structural equity and ethical care. Throughout, she has pursued a dual-track methodology of original experiments plus systematic reviews to generate actionable, evidence-based knowledge.
Structure–Culture–Agency: A Review of Mohan J. Dutta’s Culture-Centered Approach
This article systematically reviews the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA), a theoretical framework pioneered by Mohan J. Dutta, a distinguished professor in the Department of Communication at Massey University, New Zealand. Against the backdrop of growing global health inequities, mainstream health communication models have been widely criticized for their individualistic assumptions and top-down intervention logic. Grounded in postcolonial critique and Marxist political economy, and informed by Dutta’s transnational life and academic trajectory, CCA constructs an analytical framework centered on the dynamic interplay of structure, culture, and agency. This study traces the theoretical origins of CCA, critically examines the limitations of dominant health communication paradigms, and elucidates how CCA reconceptualizes culture as a fluid field of meaning-making. It argues that health communication practices should be co-created through dialogue within communities, thereby empowering marginalized groups. As a profound challenge to mainstream models, CCA offers significant theoretical and practical insights for health communication research and intervention in Global South contexts, including China—particularly in studying rural populations, migrants, and other marginalized communities.
Jeff Niederdeppe: Persuasion and Strategy Research in Health Communication
Jeff Niederdeppe has long been deeply engaged in the fields of persuasion research and policy research, establishing himself as a renowned figure in empirical research within health communication. His work, aimed at achieving health equity, is characterized by distinct features in research positioning, theoretical application, and practical orientation. In terms of research positioning, he focuses on the "communication-policy-health" chain, conducting studies on diverse health topics such as tobacco control and obesity prevention. Theoretically, he adopts a problem-solving orientation, integrating multidisciplinary theories like narrative theory and inoculation theory, forming an academic logic of "theoretical integration-strategy design-dynamic interaction-effect optimization." Practically, his research yields a wealth of policy recommendations and practices that are precise and actionable, creating a complete cycle of "research findings-practical strategies-policy translation," providing strong support for the formulation and implementation of health policies. His research propels health communication towards greater policy relevance and practical significance, with future explorations potentially focusing on cutting-edge issues such as digital media and artificial intelligence.
Theoretical and Practical Explorations of Information Design and Persuasion: Research Contributions of Professor Zhao Xiaoquan to Health Communication
Professor Zhao Xiaoquan currently serves as a professor at George Mason University and Editor-in-Chief of the international top-tier journal Health Communication. As a leading scholar in the field of health communication, he earned his doctoral degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and possesses both a solid academic foundation and practical experience in tobacco regulation at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). His research follows a coherent logical thread of “audience cognition → information design → behavior change,” with key focuses on three thematic areas: tobacco control and health communication campaigns, COVID-19 pandemic information communication, and general health communication. Employing diverse research methods (e.g., large-scale national survey data, experimental methods, interview methods), his work systematically explores the laws and intervention effects of information design across different public health scenarios, and deeply reveals the health information cognitive characteristics and behavioral decision-making mechanisms of specific populations such as adolescents, ethnic minorities, and patients with chronic diseases. His research findings have provided direct scientific evidence and practical guidance for practical initiatives, including the FDA’s national tobacco control education campaigns and information management in public health emergencies. Professor Zhao’s research is characterized by strong logical consistency, a distinct practical orientation, and diverse methodologies. It has promoted the two-way interdisciplinary empowerment of communication studies and public health, and constructed a multi-dimensional research framework covering “routine-emergency” and “general-special” contexts. This article systematically sorts out his representative research achievements over the past 15 years, clarifies his academic ideas and research characteristics, analyzes his academic contributions and practical implications, and accordingly points out potential directions for future research.
Narrative in Medicine: Pathways to Healing and Vehicles of Power
This paper adopts Rita Charon’s theory of “narrative medicine” and Amanda Caleb’s critique grounded in Michel Foucault’s concept of “biopower” as a dialogic framework to examine the dual roles of narrative within the medical field. It first analyzes Charon’s approach, which positions narrative competence as a healing bridge that helps close the doctor–patient gap and fosters empathy and human connection. The paper then introduces Caleb’s critical perspective, revealing how narrative also functions as a discourse of power—one that has historically operated through social structures and institutional practices to “medicalize” social problems and legitimize various forms of inequality. The argument advanced here is that Charon’s constructive methodology and Caleb’s critical examination together illuminate two inseparable dimensions of narrative in medicine: narrative serves not only as an essential pathway to healing in clinical practice but also as a complex vehicle of power. Ultimately, the paper contends that in today’s mediated environment, an integrated narrative lens—one that combines empathic practice with sustained reflection on power—holds significant ethical value for cultivating a more inclusive, reflexive, and equitable medical humanities landscape.
May Lwin: Media Technology and Health Communication
Professor May O. Lwin of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, has long pioneered research at the intersection of media technology and health communication. Her work explores the relationship between technology adoption and health behaviors, combining academic rigor with practical relevance. This paper systematically reviews her academic research landscape using bibliometric methods and tools such as Citespace and VOSviewer. It analyzes 119 publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection from 2006 to present, examining dimensions including publication volume distribution, keyword clustering, field overlap, and author collaboration networks. The findings reveal that May Lwin's research centers on specific populations such as minors, with attitudes and behaviors as core measurement dimensions. Her work spans diverse topics including media technology-based health interventions, privacy protection, and cross-subject collaboration, exhibiting distinct evolutionary phases: 2006–2009: Exploring the intervention value of technology in specific health contexts 2010–2014: Focusing on precision and trust-building in health communication within digital media environments 2015–2019: Emphasizing scenario-based adaptation of technology and expansion of diverse pathways 2020–2025: Addressing information asymmetry and equity issues in health communication Its interdisciplinary research paradigm and research orientation focused on socially vulnerable groups provide important theoretical references and practical insights for the field of health communication.
Influence Factors of International Communication Effects of Chinese Audiovisual Programs Among Overseas-Born Chinese Youth: A Grounded Theory Analysis Based on Indonesian Students in China
Based on grounded theory methodology, this study explored the international communication effects and influencing mechanisms of Chinese audiovisual programs among overseas-born Chinese youth through focus group interviews with 20 Indonesian Chinese students studying in China. The findings revealed: (1) Current communication effects of Chinese audiovisual programs among overseas-born Chinese youth are suboptimal, with specific program exposure rates below 20% and 45% of respondents indicating "rarely watch"; (2) Communication effects are constrained by multiple factors including channel accessibility, language barriers, and content localization, which operate through four types of mechanisms: foundational, constraining, facilitative, and innovative; (3) Although Indonesian Chinese youth exhibit low exposure to audiovisual programs, 55% expressed willingness to recommend and disseminate Chinese audiovisual programs, demonstrating potential for transformation from passive recipients to active communicators. The study extends the traditional 5W communication model, reveals mechanisms of audience agency transformation, and provides theoretical foundations and practical implications for enhancing international communication effectiveness.
Knowledge Mapping of Medical AI Ethics: A Cross-Country Comparative Analysis
The widespread application of artificial intelligence(AI) technology in medicine has brought unprecedented opportunities for healthcare service and health management. However, ethical issues such as data privacy, fairness, transparency, and algorithmic bias have become more prominent, which attract attention of both the academia and the public. This study systematically analyzes the current status, hotspots, and trends of medical AI ethics research through a combination of bibliometrics and knowledge mapping analysis, while comparing Chinese and international research. The findings show that research in medical AI ethics has been increasing annually, with academic research networks gradually forming, although Chinese research lags behind English-language research in both quantity and growth rate. Chinese and international research share similar network structure characteristics, but neither has formed a close-knit academic community yet. In terms of research characteristics, international research is led by interdisciplinary departments, showing significant cross-disciplinary collaboration, while Chinese research is primarily conducted by medical schools and their affiliated hospitals, with more emphasis on inter-departmental collaboration within institutions. Although both focus on core issues such as privacy protection and data security, international research emphasizes the integration of technology and ethics, while Chinese research focuses more on developing localized ethical theoretical frameworks. The research results provide important references for promoting the development of medical AI ethics research.
This article acknowledges some of the reviewers who have contributed to this journal, sharing their insights and comments for both the JMHM and its authors.
This issue of the Journal of Medicine, Humanity and Media (Vol. 3, No. 4) brings together selected papers from the 8th International Conference on “Medicine, Humanity and Media” (MHM 2025) & Doctoral Symposium, along with regular submissions addressing emerging topics in digital health communication, artificial intelligence, and cultural perspectives on well-being. Centered on the theme “Health Communication and Cultural Construction in the Age of Intelligence,” this collection reflects the field’s deepening engagement with technology, culture, and global health contexts, while highlighting the integration of humanistic reflection with computational innovation.
JMHM Editorial Office Participates in the 2025 Annual Conference of the Health Communication Committee
The 2025 Annual Conference of the Health Communication Committee under the Chinese Association for History of Journalism and Communication was successfully held on September 13 at Northwest Minzu University in Lanzhou, Gansu Province.