درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Background: With the rapid digital transformation across the African continent, ensuring the protection of personal data through effective regulatory frameworks is crucial. Key regulations, including Nigeria’s Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and the African Union’s Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, have been enacted to address growing concerns about data privacy and cybersecurity.Aims: This literature review critically examines the impact of data privacy regulations on cybersecurity practices in Nigeria and across Africa, focusing on empirical studies that highlight the interplay between regulation enforcement and cybersecurity outcomes.Methodology: This review synthesizes empirical studies that explore the effectiveness of these regulations in improving cybersecurity practices in both public and private sectors.Results: Empirical research from Nigeria indicates that while the NDPR has led to some positive changes in organizational data protection strategies, challenges in enforcement, resource allocation, and awareness continue to hinder its full impact. Studies reveal that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) face difficulties in complying with the regulations due to a lack of capacity and knowledge. Similarly, research across several African countries shows a significant gap in both the implementation of data privacy laws and the cybersecurity measures required to mitigate emerging threats, such as ransomware and data breaches. Furthermore, empirical evidence highlights that varying levels of regulatory enforcement across the continent result in inconsistent cybersecurity practices, leading to vulnerabilities in the digital infrastructure. The review also explores empirical findings on the socio-economic and political barriers that affect the successful enforcement of data privacy regulations, with particular focus on limited technical expertise, political instability, and insufficient resources for regulatory bodies. Additionally, studies suggest that there is a growing need for cross-border collaboration and capacity building to bridge the regulatory gaps and improve overall cybersecurity resilience.Conclusion: Empirical evidence underscores the need for stronger regulatory frameworks and greater cooperation across African nations to enhance the protection of personal data and fortify cybersecurity practices across the region. Recommendations for future policy development are provided, based on the insights gained from existing empirical studies.

Background: Space is a constructed concept: a cultural and ideological segmentation, and a translation of the sociopolitical structures of society. On social media platforms, the public becomes a composite of privates, where individuals’ multiple selves are (re)presented before a multiplicity of audiences within a third type of space, which we coin the “publivate” sphere. This sphere emerges from the combination and blurring of public and private spaces on social media platforms.Aims: This article aimed to shed light on issues related to cyber self-(re)presentation within this “publivate” space.Methodology: We utilized cross-level integration, synthesizing micro- and macro-level theories, and interdisciplinary integration, incorporating concepts and theories from diverse fields, including social media studies, sociology, psychology, and regulatory perspectives.Discussions: We discussed how the interplay among public, private, and “publivate” selves, along with the reciprocal influences of conformity, pluralistic ignorance, normalization, and normativity, have been transforming the traditional compartmentalization of spaces in Iranian social life. Additionally, we discussed the complications of trans-jurisdictional regulation of cyberspace and their implications for users, particularly Iranians.Conclusions: Given the dynamic nature of societies, norms, and cultures, effective governance of cyberspace and cultural practices should account for sociocultural dynamics.

Background: Throughout history, humans have consistently developed groundbreaking technologies, from fire and the wheel to modern computing, showcasing their ability to innovate and control their creations. The rise of artificial intelligence has sparked renewed concerns about whether machines might eventually surpass human intelligence and autonomy.Aims: This study aims to critically assess AI’s role in human society, particularly addressing concerns that it may surpass human control and agency. It seeks to demonstrate that while AI is a powerful tool, it lacks autonomy, self-augmentation, and intentionality, making it unlikely to replace human decision-making. Additionally, the paper examines historical technological advancements, showing how humans have always adapted and controlled new innovations.Methodology: Employing a historical-comparative methodology, this study traces the evolution of computing technologies from early tally systems to quantum computing. It incorporates philosophical analysis through the works of Hubert Dreyfus, John Searle, and Michael Tomasello, assessing AI’s limitations in replicating human cognition.Findings: The study finds that despite AI’s rapid advancements, it remains fundamentally dependent on human input, lacks true understanding, and is incapable of independent self-enhancement. The historical trajectory of technological progress demonstrates that while new technologies can disrupt societies, humans have consistently adapted and maintained control. Philosophical critiques of AI further reinforce the argument that intelligence is not solely computational but deeply rooted in embodiment, intuition, and shared intentionality—qualities that AI lacks.Conclusions: Concerns about AI overwhelming human agency are largely misplaced. Just as humanity has managed previous technological revolutions—including writing, mechanization, and computing—AI will be integrated and regulated according to human needs and ethical considerations. While vigilance is necessary, the myth of AI autonomy is exaggerated.

Background: The visual turn is one of the most important features of contemporary culture. Therefore, in climate change communication, images can play a crucial role in conveying environmental messages. Environmental advocates use the potential of visuals to deliver part of their messages to their audience. However, only a limited number of studies have focused on the visualization of climate change communication. Given the characteristics of social media, free from the constraints of mainstream media, they can serve as a suitable platform for visualizing climate change messages.Aims: Despite Iran's role in greenhouse gas emissions and the engagement of environmental activists, no research has been conducted on the role of images in conveying climate change messages on Iranian social media. Therefore, the main question of this research is: How do Iranian users on social media platform X frame climate change through images, and within what discourses?Methodology: To answer the question of the research, a combination of quantitative and qualitative visual discourse analysis was applied to 500 images in 2023.Findings: Studies on the visualization of climate change messages have predominantly focused on developed countries. The findings reveal that Iranian users have addressed climate change through four key discourses: scientific, political, ecological, and protest. Furthermore, the results show that visual discourses have been seen globally in Persian X and it has addressed the present tense and the framework of the consequences.Conclusion: In general, the public's attention to climate change in Iranian society reflects the dynamism of the environmental movement in Iran and the growth of environmental literacy among Iranian social media users.

Background: Many efforts have been put into using serious games for education over the past two decades. Although there are different definitions for serious games, there is a relative agreement that the education of knowledge or skills through or by means of entertainment is at the heart of every serious game. However, educational capacities of serious games and learning strategies exploited in them require further studies.Aims: Considering the capacities of Fauconnier and Turner’s Blending theory, this paper aims to show that the learning strategies in serious games can have other dimensions.Methodology: This paper employs a conceptual and theoretical analysis methodology, drawing on Fauconnier and Turner’s Conceptual Blending Theory to examine the learning strategies embedded in serious games. Additionally, it utilizes a case study approach, analyzing the serious game FLIGBY to illustrate how structural and conceptual blending contribute to creative learning.Findings: The focus point of the paper as the source of the generation of different kinds of unconscious learning processes will be conceptual blending. In the end, the paper will also introduce the serious game FLIGBY from the perspective of Fauconnier and Turner’s blending theory at both structural and conceptual levels.Conclusions: By means of blending theory, it will be discussed that the elevation of serious games to a higher level is possible; a level that will not only reduce the tiredness of serious games but also pursue a more innovative learning, happening at two levels of structural and conceptual.