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Media reports and refutation factors have an important impact on the spread of rumors. At present, most scholars have separately analyzed the effects of media reports and individual refutation on the spread of rumors. It is not common to comprehensively consider the two on the spread of rumors. This paper proposed a SIDRW (Susceptibility–Infection–Refutation–Recovery–Medium) model, which regarded media as a separate subcategory and comprehensively considered the influence of media reports and individual repudiation on rumor propagation. The existence and local asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point of the model are proved by calculation. The results of numerical simulation under the parameters given in this paper show that positive media publicity can reduce the spread of rumors, but cannot prevent the spread of rumors. In the process of spreading, with an increase in the initial value of rumormongers, the duration of rumor spreading decreases, and the time to reach the peak decreases. This is conducive to controlling the spread of rumors.

Public tolerance toward predators is fundamental in their conservation and is highly driven by people’s perception of the risk they may pose. Although predator attacks on humans are rare, they create lasting media attention, and the way the media covers them might affect people’s risk perception. Understanding how mass media presents attacks and how this can affect perception will provide insights into potential strategies to improve coexistence with these species. We collected media reports of predator attacks on humans and examined their content. Almost half (41.5%) of the analyzed reports contained graphic elements. Differences in framing between species groups or species were found, with sharks and leopards having the highest proportion of graphic reports, whereas canids and bears had the highest number of neutral reports. This bias in coverage, instead of providing insights into the causes of these incidents and possible remedies, may provoke fear and decrease support for predator conservation.

Purpose This paper aims to discuss whether the attention of investors to abnormalities can serve as a mechanism for the influence of online media coverage on earnings management. Design/methodology/approach Based on Baidu index data of China’s A-share listed companies between 2014 and 2018, this paper studies influencing mechanism of online media reports on earnings management from the perspective on abnormal investor attention. Findings The results show that internet media reports can impose pressure on managers of companies by inducing abnormal focus of the public on listed companies and further force the latter to generate more actions on the management of earnings. It is the abnormal rather than normal investor attention that mediates network media reports and earnings management. Practical implications This research enriches and refines the theory on influencing mechanism of media effects on earnings management and provides significant empirical evidence for future researches. Meanwhile, the conclusion of the research is of great practical importance for instructing listed firms dealing with media reports, guiding rational investment of investors and intensifying precision regulation of regulators. Originality/value By categorizing abnormal investor attention into active spontaneous abnormal attention which is not guided by media report and passive guided abnormal attention which is guided by media reports, the authors clarify the difference between the two categories. The result indicates that it is only the latter that is the influential mechanism of media report on earnings management.

Modern social networks are especially beneficial for spreading rumors since they perform as multichannel communication platforms. The spread of false information has a detrimental impact on people, communities, and businesses. Media reports significantly affect rumor propagation by providing inhibiting factors. In this paper, we propose a new ISCRM fractional-order model to analyze the law of rumor propagation and provide appropriate control strategies. First, under fractional differential equations, the boundedness and non-negativeness of the solutions are obtained. Second, the local and global asymptotic stability of the rumor-free equilibrium and rumor-permanence equilibrium are proved. Third, employing Pontryagin's maximum principle, the conditions necessary for fractional optimum control are derived for the rumor model, and the optimal solutions are analyzed. Finally, several numerical simulations are presented to verify the accuracy of the theoretical results. For instance, while media reports can mitigate the propagation of rumors across various dynamic regions, they are unable to completely restrain rumor spread.

It is perhaps uncontroversial to claim that behavioral science research is playing an increasingly important role in practice. However, practitioners largely rely on media reports rather than original research articles to learn about the science. Do these media reports contain all the information needed to understand the nuances of the research? To assess this question, we develop a set of rubrics to evaluate the fidelity of the media report to the original research article. As an illustration, we apply these rubrics to a sample of media reports based on several research articles published in one journal and identify common patterns, trends, and pitfalls in media presentations. We find preliminary evidence of low fidelity in presenting participant characteristics, contextual elements, and limitations of the original research. The media also appear to misreport correlational evidence as causal and sometimes miss acknowledging the hypothetical nature of evidence when hypothetical scenarios were used as the sole basis of conclusions. Furthermore, the media often present broad conclusions and personal opinions as directly backed by scientific evidence. To support more discerning consumption of behavioral insights from media sources, we propose a checklist to guide practitioners in evaluating and using information from media sources.

Background The media serves as an important link between medical research, as reported in scholarly sources, and the public and has the potential to act as a powerful tool to improve public health. However, concerns about the reliability of health research reports have been raised. Tools to monitor the quality of health research reporting in the media are needed to identify areas of weakness in health research reporting and to subsequently work towards the efficient use of the lay media as a public health tool through which the public’s health behaviors can be improved. Methods We developed the Quality Index for health-related Media Reports (QIMR) as a tool to monitor the quality of health research reports in the lay media. The tool was developed according to themes generated from interviews with health journalists and researchers. Item and domain characteristics and scale reliability were assessed. The scale was correlated with a global quality assessment score and media report word count to provide evidence towards its construct validity. Results The items and domains of the QIMR demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability. Items from the ‘validity’ domain were negatively skewed, suggesting possible floor effect. These items were not eliminated due to acceptable content and face validity. QIMR total scores produced a strong correlation with raters’ global assessment and a moderate correlation with media report word count, providing evidence towards the construct validity of the instrument. Conclusions The results of this investigation indicate that QIMR can adequately measure the quality of health research reports, with acceptable reliability and validity.

Improper, unprofessional, or misleading media reports about violence against medical care providers (typically doctors and nurses) may provoke copycat incidents. To examine whether media reports about violence against medical care providers in China follow professional journalism recommendations, we identified 10 influential incidents of violence against medical care providers in China through a systematic strategy and used standardized internet-based search techniques to retrieve media reports about these events from 2007–2017. Reports were evaluated independently by trained coders to assess adherence to professional journalism recommendations using a 14-item checklist. In total, 788 eligible media reports were considered. Of those, 50.5% and 47.3%, respectively, failed to mention the real and complete names of the writer and editor. Reports improperly mentioned specific details about the time, place, methods, and perpetrators of violence in 42.1%, 36.4%, 45.4%, and 54.6% of cases, respectively. Over 80% of reports excluded a suggestion to seek help from professional agencies or mediation by a third party and only 3.8% of reports mentioned the perspectives of all three key informants about an event: medical care providers, patients, and hospital administrators. Of those that mentioned medical care providers, patient, and/or hospital administrator perspectives, less than 20% indicated they had obtained the interviewee’s consent to include their perspective. We concluded that most reports about violence against medical care providers in the Chinese media failed to strictly follow reporting recommendations from authoritative media bodies. Efforts are recommended to improve adherence to professional guidelines in media reports about violence against medical care providers in China, as adherence to those guidelines is likely to reduce future violent events against medical care providers like doctors and nurses.

When a rumor appears on social networks, the media of relevant departments need reaction time to make an authoritative announcement. Considering the effects of the media report and time delay on a rumor spreading, and the different attitudes of individuals towards media reports. We proposed a susceptible-expose-infective-media-remover (SEIMR) rumor propagation model with media reports and time delay. Firstly, the basic reproduction number of the model is obtained. Secondly, the positivity, boundedness and existence of the solutions of the model are analyzed. Then, the local asymptotic stability of the rumor free equilibrium and the boundary equilibriums is proved, and the global asymptotic stability of the equilibriums is proved by constructing Lyapunov function when the time delay is zero. Besides, the prevention and control effects of the media report on rumor spreading and the effect of time delay are analyzed. The shorter time delay in media report and the greater the impact of the media report, the more effective the suppression of rumors will be. Finally, the accuracy of the theoretical results as well as the effects of different parameters of the model have been verified through numerical simulations, and the effectiveness of the SEIMR model has been verified via comparative experiments.

Background: The global fast fashion industry is known to be a prominent contributor to sustainability challenges which the United Nations seeks to address through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainability disclosures remain largely voluntary and applicable to listed companies. A balanced assessment of the alignment to SDGs therefore necessitates the inclusion of independently reported sustainability information. Aim: This study explores which SDGs are disclosed in fast fashion companies’ corporate reports and determines the extent to which independently reported information corroborates or contradicts SDGs. Setting: The study employed a content analysis of corporate and other reports from eight of the largest global fast fashion companies. Method: Scores were calculated for each company, for each of the 17 SDGs over the 3-year period of 2020–2022. Results: Although SDGs are frequently mentioned in the corporate reports, detailed disclosures relating to specific targets and specific initiatives are lacking. We find a misalignment between the SDG focus in corporate reports and in media reports. Media reports tend to provide a more balanced perspective, addressing both positive and negative impacts of the industry’s practices on the SDGs. Coverage of specific sustainability transgressions by these reports makes them a relevant source of information that is not discussed in corporate reports. Conclusion: Overall, the authors found a misalignment between SDG focus in corporate reports and the SDGs which attract media attention. Contribution: The authors relate the SDGs to the fast fashion industry, which is notable because of the established significance of the industry in the attainment of these goals. Furthermore, our focus beyond self-reported disclosures contributes to the research on the relevance of corporate sustainability disclosures.

Nowadays, rumors spread more rapidly than before, leading to more panic and instability in society. Therefore, it is essential to seek out propagation law in order to prevent rumors from spreading further and avoid unnecessary harm. There is a connection between rumor models and symmetry. The consistency of a system or model is referred to as the level of symmetry under certain transformations. For this purpose, we propose a fractional-order Ignorant–Latent–Spreader–Remover (ILSR) rumor propagation model that incorporates media reports and a nonlinear inhibition mechanism. Firstly, the boundedness and non-negativeness of the solutions are derived under fractional differential equations. Secondly, the threshold is used to evaluate and illustrate the stability both locally and globally. Finally, by utilizing Pontryagin’s maximum principle, we obtain the necessary conditions for the optimal control in the fractional-order rumor propagation model, and we also obtain the associated optimal solutions. Furthermore, the numerical results indicate that media reports can decrease the spread of rumors in different dynamic regions, but they cannot completely prevent rumor dissemination. The results are also exhibited and corroborated by replicating the model with specific hypothetical parameter values. It can be inferred that fractional order yields more favorable outcomes when rumor permanence in the population is higher. The presented method facilitates the acquisition of profound insights into the dissemination dynamics and subsequent consequences of rumors within a societal network.