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Public relations (PR) research has given little space to the opinions, innovations and experiences of those working in marginalised or ‘dirty’ roles or occupations. To ensure that the worlds of these ‘others’ are represented this chapter explores the lives and work of women working in PR and communication roles in the ‘adult’ industry (worth an estimated $15 billion worldwide). Tibbals notes that ‘the voices and experiences of women working in the adult film industry are often overlooked’ (2013, p. 21) and dismissing a highly profitable but ‘dirty’ sector is to overlook and denigrate the people who work in it and the experiences and knowledge created therein. To explore my research questions I gathered informal interview data from women working in PR and combined this with published literature which recorded the lives of women who carried out PR and communications roles in the adult industry. My research demonstrates that high quality PR work is carried out within the adult industry and that the industry attracts women from diverse backgrounds, many of whom progress quickly within a meritorious environment. Nonetheless, these women often feel difficulty in explaining or justifying their work to family and friends and have strategies to avoid discussing their work to those outside the industry. They also have to work within a media environment where adult industry issues are not well or correctly reported.

This study aims to examine the potential of Information Ethics (IE) to serve as a coherent ethical foundation for the library and information science profession (LIS profession).

This study consists of two parts: the first part present IE’s central theses and the main critiques it has received; the second part offers the authors' own evaluation of the theory from the LIS perspective in two steps: (1) assessing its internal consistency by testing its major theses against each other; (2) assessing its utility for resolving frequently debated LIS ethical dilemmas by comparing its solutions with solutions from other ethical theories.

This study finds that IE, consisting of an informational ontology, a fundamental ethical assertion and a series of moral laws, forms a coherent ethical framework and holds promising potential to serve as a theoretical foundation for LIS ethical issues; its inclusion of nonhuman objects as moral patients and its levels of abstraction mechanism proved to be particularly relevant for the LIS profession. This study also shows that, to become more solid an ethical theory, IE needs to resolve some of its internal contradictions and ambiguities, particularly its conceptual conflations between internal correctness, rightness and goodness; between destruction, entropy and evil; and the discrepancy between its deontological ethical assertion and its utilitarian moral laws.

This study alerts LIS professionals to the possibility of having a coherent ethical foundation and the potential of IE in this regard.

This study provides a systemic explication, evaluation and field test of IE from the LIS perspective.

There are limited risk assessment tools validated for use with the internet child abuse material (I/CAM) offender cohort. Developed through a multi-stage process, the purpose of this paper is to present the “Estimated Risk for Internet Child Sexual Offending” (ERICSO), a new tool for I/CAM offender assessment, including demographic, collection, nature of engagement and social domains, plus a structured professional judgement section. Validation studies remain ongoing.

This paper presents a case series analysis of six Australian men, including two Aboriginal men, convicted of I/CAM offences to pilot proposed ERICSO domains and commence validation against the short self-esteem scale, University of California Los Angles loneliness scale, internet sex screening test and the sexual violence risk-20 V2.

Participants of all ages generally reported histories of mental health diagnosis and/or treatment and substance abuse. Two participants reported prior sexual offending, one for I/CAM offences. Participants expressed sexual preferences for female child victims and were convicted of possessing thousands of I/CAM files. Two participants reported accessing I/CAM for over six and 10 years, respectively, before detection by law enforcement.

Preliminary implications indicate ERICSO higher scores are consistent with I/CAM offenders having more online sexual behaviour diversity and more areas of risk/treatment need. For example, participants with problematic self-esteem and loneliness in our data set have higher ERICSO scores. Social connectedness may be a relevant factor though definitive conclusions cannot be drawn from the small sample size.

The ERICSO presents novel assessment of factors in considering treatment targets in addressing both illegal I/CAM and problematic legal sexual behaviours.

Relying on social influence and sociomateriality theories, this research provides new insights about the social and material drivers relating to the sexualisation of online behaviour of social media influencers.

Using a netnographic approach, observation data were gathered from the Instagram accounts of 20 influencers dedicated to beauty and fashion. In addition, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted with women adopting sexualisation practices online. The data were analysed using an abductive strategy; all materials were coded according to thematic analysis principles.

The authors observe that sexualisation is a result of a complex system of social interactions encouraged and reinforced by multiple factors and actors. In particular, the authors outline the major influence of technology that has become a non-human authority defining implicit norms and shaping the beliefs and behaviours of women influencers.

In contrast to existing literature which mainly focuses on the negative consequences of sexualisation, this work sheds some light on social constructs in social media. The authors contribute to the growing literature on social media influencers. Although many works focus on their persuasiveness, this work helps to better understand the social setting, motivations and pressures that are contained in social and technological contexts.

The purpose of this essay is to explore the ramifications of Web 3.0 on sports media and the desire for the ultimate fan experience.

The essay explains how Web 3.0 will influence (1) the social TV experience, (2) the drive for zero latency in sports streaming, (3) the desire for exclusive sports memorabilia and experiences, (4) artificial intelligence-driven content and (5) the potential decentralization of certain elements within the sports media ecosphere.

The core fan experience will still be recognizable, but AI, VR, blockchain and other elements will be infused within it.

Ramifications on sports media scholarships are offered.

This study aims to identify the risks to corporate reputation presented by deepfakes and how to manage them.

The approach involves a review of the current literature on deepfakes across different sectors to create a clear picture of the risks that deepfakes entail and how best to deal with them.

While deepfakes are still mostly easily detectable, their sophistication increases daily, and corporations need both technology and culture shifts to deal with this evolving threat.

While deepfakes have been the subject of intense interest, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first attempt to look at the problem from the perspective of corporate enterprise risk.

Internet addiction (IA) has become a global health problem. As the research on IA has progressed, this study aims to explore the antecedents and consequences of IA, particularly in the Indian context. A conceptual model was developed, and hypotheses were formulated based on the conceptual model and the hypotheses were tested.

This study investigated 752 schools and collected students from the southern part of India. First, psychometric properties of the survey instrument were tested, and hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses.

The results revealed that time spent on the internet every day is positively related to IA, internet experience in terms of years is positively related to IA, income and gender moderates the relationship between time spent every day on the internet and internet experience and IA and IA is positively related to time spent on networking, video streaming, short video apps, educational apps, chat apps, online shopping apps, money-involved apps, etc.

The outcomes of this study are essential for the school and college students and their parents. As IA has become chronic in the present-day digital world, it is necessary to take rectification measures to avoid facing the perils of IA. The conceptual model provides a simple framework of explaining how young students spend their time on the internet to become addicted gradually. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of controlling the younger generation's behavior, particularly regarding internet use.

This study is unique and innovative to the extent that it explores the antecedents of IA and the moderating role of gender and income in the relationship between the time spent on the internet and the IA. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, developing a conceptual model is the first of its kind to study school and college students in India.

E-learning has become a polarizing issue. Some say that it enhances accessibility to education and some say that it hinders it. While the literature on the subject underscores the effectiveness of the pedagogical frameworks, strategies and distance learning technologies, the firsthand accounts of students, parents and practitioners challenge the validity of experts’ assessments. There is a gap between theory and practice and between the perceptions of providers and consumers of online learning. Following a period of lockdowns and a transition to online learning during the recent pandemic, the prevailing sentiment toward a distance mode of instruction became one of strong skepticism and negative bias. The aim of the study was to examine why e-learning has struggled to meet stakeholder expectations. Specifically, the study posed two research questions: 1. What are the reasons for dissatisfaction with online learning? 2. What are the implications for future research and practice?

The study used a mixed methods approach to examine the reasons behind negative perceptions of online learning by comparing the firsthand accounts posted on social media with the literature. To this end, n = 62,874 social media comments of secondary and postsecondary students, as well as parents, teachings staff and working professionals, covering the span of over 14 years (2008–2022), were collected and analyzed.

The study identified 28 themes that explain the stakeholder’s discontent with the online learning process and highlighted the importance of user-centric design. The analysis revealed that the perceived ineffectiveness of distance education stems from the failure to identify and address stakeholders’ needs and, more particularly, from the incongruence of instructional strategies, blindness to the cost of decisions related to instructional design, technology selection and insufficient levels of support. The findings also highlight the importance of user-centric design.

To address dissatisfaction with e-learning, it is imperative to remove barriers to learning and ensure alignment between technology and learners’ needs. In other words, the learning experience should be personalized to account for individual differences. Despite its cost-effectiveness, the one-size-fits-all approach hinders the learning process and experience and is likely to be met with resistance.

Drawing from the extensive literature, the study offers an explanation for stakeholders’ discontent with e-learning. Unlike survey research that is prone to social desirability bias, the sample provides a rare opportunity to observe and measure the visceral reactions that provide a more authentic sense of stakeholders’ perceptions toward online learning. The authors offer recommendations and identify areas for future research.