Background: The term “whitepaper” is used by a range of professionals to describe material made available through non-traditional publishing. Using critical race theory, we investigated whether continued usage is racially insensitive and can be perceived as a microaggression by Indigenous and racialized peoples. Analysis: A focus group gathered participants’ personal and professional views on the term, related issues of colonization and racialized language, and building a new inclusive naming policy. Conclusion and Implications: “Whitepaper” is a problematic term because it is meant to connote authority. Group consensus was to determine a new inclusive, non-racialized term taking into consideration historical context and use.

Background: This study explores how scientific research is used by groups opposed to COVID-19 vaccines on WhatsApp in Brazil. While anti-vaccine narratives often present themselves as critical of science, their relationship with scientific literature is more complex and strategic. Analysis: Using thematic and content analyses, we examined how 39 scientific articles and preprints were cited across six WhatsApp groups. Although only one of the referenced studies explicitly opposed vaccination, the majority of the messages framed the cited research in ways that contradicted established scientific consensus. This suggests a pattern of instrumentalization, in which science is selectively and strategically misrepresented to support anti-vaccine beliefs and conspiracy theories. Conclusions and implications: These findings indicate that anti-vaccine groups may not reject science outright but rather distort it to legitimize their views. Understanding how scientific content is manipulated in digital spaces is critical for developing more effective science communication and counter-disinformation strategies.

Contexte : Cet article examine la problématique de la désinformation scientifique au prisme des biais cognitifs qui parcourent l’exercice d’attribution de sens à l’événement inédit que représente l’émergence des manipulations génétiques dans les années 70. Analyse : Croisant théorie phénoménologique de l’événement, problème public, cadre et biais cognitifs, l’étude explore 48 documents télévisuels des chaînes françaises La Une, Antenne 2 et FR3 sur la période 1962-1990. Conclusions et implications : Grâce à la technique de l’analyse du discours, l’étude montre que les biais de confirmation, de représentativité, de disponibilité et d’ancrage sont entre autres des écueils discursifs au cœur de la constitution du problème des manipulations génétiques.

Background: This article applies an intersectional feminist political economy approach to examine the contexts and conditions of Google’s equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policy. Analysis: Google’s EDI policy framework is interpreted as a strategic response to criticisms of the inequities and oppressions surrounding Google’s work and labour conditions, technological products, and social power. Conclusions and implications: There are notable contradictions between Google’s EDI policy ideals and enduring practices. Google’s EDI policy may be an example of “EDI solutionism” in a context where many tech corporations have tried to co-opt identity politics in pursuit of profit.

Background: In this commentary, we argue that it is time for communication scholars to turn their attention to how and why data journalists engage with the increasing amount of open research and government data available online. Analysis: We review the limited scholarship that has investigated data journalists’ engagement with open data and suggest directions for future research. Conclusions and implications: Research that explicitly examines data journalists’ use of open data is sorely needed, especially research that attends to the varied forms and practices that can emerge in different national and institutional contexts.

Background: LGBTQ+ people have long used digital media for self-representation but platforms present specific affordances and constraints for sexual identity expression. Analysis: This article applies the identity modulation framework to TikTok and the account of a user whose representation of lesbian identity is prominent. Conclusions and implications: While TikTok allows users to control their personal identifiability, it incentivizes them toward a far reach. The platform’s algorithm favours posts with a high salience of sexual identity, though only within the bounds of TikTok’s vague policies on acceptable self-expression. This case study illustrates how one user navigates these platform dynamics.

Contexte : Les personnes peuvent subir des violences sexuelles, mais peu d’études ont exploré les expériences des hommes ayant des relations sexuelles avec d’autres hommes (HARSAH). Cette étude porte sur la violence sexuelle parmi les HARSAH qui utilisent les applications de rencontres au Canada. Analyse : Une analyse thématique d’entretiens avec 25 HARSAH a révélé des types communs de violence sexuelle et a mis en lumière la façon dont les HARSAH utilisent les affordances pour gérer ou réduire les incidents de violence sexuelle facilitée par la technologie. Conclusion et implications : Les HARSAH subissent et perpétuent la violence sexuelle en ligne et en personne, et la technologie peut exacerber ou atténuer ce problème.