International Communication Research Paper Topics

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  • Americanization of the Media
  • Arab Satellite TV News
  • BBC World Service
  • Bertelsmann Corporation
  • China Central Television Channel 9 (CCTV-9)
  • Cultural Imperialism Theories
  • Cultural Products as Tradable Services
  • Deutsche Welle
  • Francophonie
  • Free Flow of Information
  • Global Advertising Industry
  • Global Satellite Communication
  • Globalization Theories
  • History of Global Media
  • Hybridity Theories
  • Independent Media Centers Network
  • International Communication Agencies
  • International News Reporting
  • International Radio
  • International Regulation of Internet
  • International Television
  • Korean Cultural Influence
  • Kurdish International Broadcasting
  • Le Monde Diplomatique
  • Migrant Community Media
  • Music Industry
  • NAFTA and International Communication
  • New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)
  • News Corporation
  • Public Relations in Global Firms
  • Radio France Internationale
  • Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
  • Samsung Corporation
  • Security and Surveillance Agencies
  • Sony Corporation
  • Time Warner Inc.
  • Tourism Industry
  • Transnational Social Movement Media
  • Vatican Radio
  • Voice of America
  • War Propaganda

Four Theories of the Press, by Siebert, Petersen and Schramm (1956), was the first major comparative media study. The theories in question were normative, the official views of media goals in four contrasting polities: authoritarian, libertarian, Soviet, and “social responsibility.” Comparative news studies have substantially revived recently.

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Another major stimulus to research was ‘third world’ development, often framed at the time by the modernization’ schema which held that unless the west’s modernity spread, global raw materials and markets risked Soviet/Chinese takeover. Lerner’s book, The Passing of Traditional Society (1958) and Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations (1962) were key texts.

Schiller’s series of studies of global media from 1969 onwards (e.g. Schiller 1991) challenged this schema. From the 1980s onwards, he argued emerging ICTs were being used to intensify transnational corporate hegemony. A second challenge came from Armand Mattelart (2000), who wrote on international advertising, international communication history, and multicultural policies, but paid more attention to cultural dynamics than Schiller.

Three Theories of International Communication

‘Cultural imperialism’ (Schiller, Mattelart) covered education, religion, business practice, consumerism, law, governmentality, dress, as well as media. The term framed the US as a global superpower pursuing cultural domination overseas. Tomlinson (1991) argued that cultural imperialism presumed that third world media users could not interpret western media fare in their own ways, and that the term’s popularity canalized discontent at modernity’s juggernaut. China’s and India’s global media industries, and Nigeria’s video-movie industry (Nollywood), considerably complicated these issues.

The ‘hybridization’ metaphor focused on how global audiences refract cultural imports (Kraidy 2005). Some Latin American scholars argued that Latin America’s history of Indigenous, European, and African exchange, and Mexican–US cultural exchanges, made the metaphor more compelling. The notion of ‘cultural proximity’, although critiqued for cultural essentialism, claimed that regional or linguistic resonances often rivaled foreign cultural imports’ attractiveness. The emergence of ‘Hallyu’, the ‘Korean Wave’ of media exports, complicated the picture further.

‘Globalization’ could mean cultural imperialism, modernity, postmodernity, or even the ascendancy of free-market dogma. The roles of computer networks, satellites, and global media firms were plainly central, as were key world cities. Some found the term over-stated for the media and information sectors.

Global Media Firms

Global media players such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Bertelsmann, News Corp., Samsung, Sony and Time Warner Inc. (Fitzgerald 2012) usually have varied media interests (e.g., cinema, publishing, music, video games, theme parks). Advertising, public relations and marketing firms also play significant roles internationally (Sinclair 2012). The recorded music industry has three key global players (Warner Music, Universal Music and Sony Music).

This scenario marks a sea change from some decades earlier, when cultural policies were often run by government ministries. All these companies are considerably smaller in financial terms than General Motors or ExxonMobil. Nonetheless, although media products are tradable commodities, their cultural impact cannot be assessed simply by the money spent on them.

Global Media Policies

In the years before and since World War II, the US government worked in a sustained manner to promote the ‘free flow of information policy’. This challenged British domination of ocean cable traffic and its Reuters news agency. Attempts to forge partly noncommercial global policies emerged in the 1970s NWICO debates (Many Voices, One World, 1980/2004, the MacBride Report), and the 2003 and 2005 World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS). The international Internet Governance Forum has emphasized ‘multi-stakeholderism’, i.e. the public, not just states and corporations, has a compelling interest in framing Internet policies.

Certain trade regimes and international agencies influence transnational communication policies: the World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NA FTA), the European Union, UNESCO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Within the EU, France has actively supported exempting cultural products trade from WTO rules (the so-called ‘cultural exception’), while the UK has militantly supported the US. Canada and South Korea, amongst others, have supported France’s stance. Global media and information policy has been marked by clashing agendas.

Global News Flows

The 1980 MacBride Report noted how most western news coverage (as now) emanated within the global north and reported on its doings. International news about the global south, when available at all, focused on disasters, natural or political. This made for a gravely under-informed planetary citizenry.

However, the turn of the millennium witnessed new international news interventions. Established stalwarts, such as the BBC World Service, Voice of America, CNN International, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale, and Vatican Radio, were joined by Arab satellite TV news and entertainment channels, and China’s English-language global TV channel CCTV-9. Britain’s The Guardian newspaper could claim 16 million Internet readers worldwide.

Nonhegemonic International Communication Flows

Given the increasing activity of global social movements of many kinds, it appears likely that nonhegemonic transnational media may become a growing force. The emergence of the Qatar-based news broadcaster Al-Jazeera is an example. It has challenged the deferential state broadcast news of the Arabic-speaking world, and influential US government definitions of Middle Eastern affairs.

Perhaps the successful anti-apartheid movement (1948–94), challenging the white-minority regime which ran South Africa during those decades, could be defined as the first major transnational media campaign. In a series of countries, independent media, campaigning mainstream journalists, ongoing demonstrations, university teach-ins, media smuggled into and out of South Africa, the African National Congress’s Zambia radio station, very effectively combined together over time.

Bibliography:

  • Curtin, M. & Shah, H. (eds.) (2010). Reorienting global communication: Indian and Chinese media beyond borders. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
  • Fitzgerald, S. (2012) Corporations and cultural industries. New York: Lexington.
  • Kraidy, M. (2005). Hybridity, or the cultural logic of globalization. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
  • Lerner, D. (1958). The passing of traditional society. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
  • Mattelart, A. (2000). Networking the world: 1794–2000. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of innovations, 5th edn. Glencoe, NY: Free Press. (Original work published 1962).
  • Schiller, H. (1991). Not yet a post-imperialist order. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8(1), 13–28.
  • Siebert, F., Peterson, T., & Schramm, W. (1956). Four theories of the press. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
  • Sinclair, J. (2012). Advertising, the media and globalization. London: Routledge.
  • Tomlinson, J. (1991). Cultural imperialism. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

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International Communication Strategies of Chinese Radio and TV Networks pp 1–41 Cite as

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In recent years, the process of globalisation has increased the opportunities for interactions between different countries and cultures, with the mass media playing a central role in building a country’s national image, sharing its culture, as well as maximising its influence around the globe.

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The Book of Documents is a collection of rhetorical prose, and served as the foundation of Chinese political philosophy for over 2,000 years. The Five Classics represent an important literary component of classical Confucian culture. They are: the Book of Odes ( Shi Jing ), Book of Documents ( Shang Shu ), Book of Rites ( Li Ji ), Book of Changes ( Yi Jing ), and Spring and Autumn Annals ( Chun Qiu ). More details are provided at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Documents and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Books_and_Five_Classics#Five_Classics .

This conceptualisation of ‘second-round coding’ draws upon the work of Liu and Zhang (2011, p. 41).

All these statistics are drawn from Wang (2006).

In the state-owned system, media institutions are incorporated within government units and are mainly funded by the state with very few advertisements so as to ensure their independence from business. PSB implies media serve the public rather than government or business interests, with financial support coming from TV license fees and limited advertisements. This model is exemplified by the BBC. In the case of the market model, media organisations are driven by commercial interests. For more details of these three models of media systems, please see Liu and Zhang (2011, p. 63).

The I Ching is rendered, and pronounced, as Yi Jing in pinyin, the form of Romanisation used in modern China.

The ‘Matthew Effect’ is a phenomenon whereby ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’. It has been widely applied to the disciplines of social psychology, pedagogy, finance and science. Its name is taken from a verse in the Gospel of Matthew: ‘For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath’ (Matthew, 25:29, King James Version).

See more at: http://www.millwardbrown.com/global-navigation/news/press-releases/full-release/2015/05/26/apple-overtakes-google-for-the-top-spot-in-the-10th-annual-brandz-top-100-most-valuable-global-brands-ranking .

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Language and communication in international students’ adaptation: a bibliometric and content analysis review

Michał wilczewski.

1 Faculty of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, Dobra 55, 00-312 Warsaw, Poland

2 Department of Economics and Business Administration, University of Ariel, 40700 Ariel, Israel

3 School of Business and Law, University of Agder, Gimlemoen 25, 4630 Kristiansand, Norway

This article systematically reviews the literature (313 articles) on language and communication in international students’ cross-cultural adaptation in institutions of higher education for 1994–2021. We used bibliometric analysis to identify the most impactful journals and articles, and the intellectual structure of the field. We used content analysis to synthesize the results within each research stream and suggest future research directions. We established two major research streams: second-language proficiency and interactions in the host country. We found inconclusive results about the role of communication with co-nationals in students’ adaptation, which contradicts the major adaptation theories. New contextualized research and the use of other theories could help explain the contradictory results and develop the existing theories. Our review suggests the need to theoretically refine the interrelationships between the interactional variables and different adaptation domains. Moreover, to create a better fit between the empirical data and the adaptation models, research should test the mediating effects of second-language proficiency and the willingness to communicate with locals. Finally, research should focus on students in non-Anglophone countries and explore the effects of remote communication in online learning on students’ adaptation. We document the intellectual structure of the research on the role of language and communication in international students’ adaptation and suggest a future research agenda.

Introduction

One of the consequences of globalization is the changing landscape of international higher education. Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in the number of international students, that is, those who have crossed borders for the purpose of study (OECD, 2021a ), from 1.9 million in 1997 to over 6.1 million in 2019 (UIS Statistics, 2021 ). Even students who are motivated to develop intercultural competence by studying abroad (Jackson, 2015 ) face several challenges that prevent them from benefitting fully from that experience. Examples of these challenges include language and communication difficulties, cultural and educational obstacles affecting their adaptation, socialization, and learning experiences (Andrade, 2006 ), psychological distress (Smith & Khawaja, 2011 ), or social isolation and immigration and visa extension issues caused by Covid-19 travel restrictions (Hope, 2020 ).

Cross-cultural adaptation theories and empirical research (for reviews, see Andrade, 2006 ; Smith & Khawaja, 2011 ) confirm the critical importance of foreign-language and communication skills and transitioning to the host culture for a successful academic and social life. Improving our understanding of the role of foreign-language proficiency and communication in students’ adaptation is important as the number of international students in higher education worldwide is on the rise. This increase has been accompanied by a growing number of publications on this topic over the last decade (see Fig.  1 ). Previous reviews of the literature have identified foreign-language proficiency and communication as predictors of students’ adaptation and well-being in various countries (Smith & Khawaja, 2011 ). The most recent reviews (Jing et al., 2020 ) list second-language acquisition and cross-cultural adaptation as among the most commonly studied topics in international student research. However, to date, there are no studies specifically examining the role of language and communication in international students’ adaptation (henceforth “language and communication in student adaptation”). This gap is especially important given recent research promoting students’ self-formation (Marginson, 2014 ) and reciprocity between international and domestic students (Volet & Jones, 2012 ). The results challenge the traditional “adjustment to the host culture” paradigm whereby international students are treated as being out of sync with the host country’s norms (Marginson, 2014 ). Thus, this article differs from prior research by offering a systematic and in-depth review of the literature on language and communication in student adaptation using bibliometric co-citation analysis and qualitative content analysis. Our research has a methodological advantage in using various bibliometric tools, which should improve the validity of the results.

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Object name is 10734_2022_888_Fig1_HTML.jpg

Yearly publication of articles on language and communication in student adaptation (

Source: HistCite). Note . TLC, total local citations received; TGC, total global citations received; Articles, number of articles published in the field; International Students, number (in millions) of international students worldwide (UIS Statistics, 2021 )

We focus on several questions:

  • What are the most impactful journals and articles about the role of language and communication in student adaptation?
  • What is the thematic structure of the research in the field?
  • What are the leading research streams investigating language and communication in student adaptation?
  • What are the effects of language and communication on student adaptation?
  • What are the future research directions?

After introducing the major concepts related to language and communication in student adaptation and the theoretical underpinnings of the field, we present our methodology. Using bibliometric and content analysis, we track the development of the field and identify the major themes, research streams, and studies that have shaped the state-of-the art and our current knowledge about the role of language and communication in student adaptation. Finally, we suggest avenues for future research.

Defining the concepts and theories related to language and communication in student adaptation

Concepts related to language and communication.

Culture is a socially constructed reality in which language and social practices interact to construct meanings (Burr, 2006 ). In this social constructionist perspective, language is viewed as a form of social action. Intertwined with culture, it allows individuals to communicate their knowledge about the world, as well as the assumptions, opinions, and viewpoints they share with other people (Kramsch, 1998 ). In this sense, people identify themselves and others through the use of language, which allows them to communicate their social and cultural identity (Kramsch, 1998 ).

Intercultural communication refers to the process of constructing shared meaning among individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds (Piller, 2007 ). Based on the research traditions in the language and communication in student adaptation research, we view foreign or second-language proficiency , that is, the skill allowing an individual to manage communication interactions in a second language successfully (Gallagher, 2013 ), as complementary to communication (Benzie, 2010 ).

Cross-cultural adaptation

The term adaptation is used in the literature interchangeably with acculturation , adjustment , assimilation , or integration . Understood as a state, cultural adaptation refers to the degree to which people fit into a new cultural environment (Gudykunst and Hammer, 1988 ), which is reflected in their psychological and emotional response to that environment (Black, 1990 ). In processual terms, adaptation is the process of responding to the new environment and developing the ability to function in it (Kim, 2001 ).

The literature on language and communication in student adaptation distinguishes between psychological, sociocultural, and academic adaptation. Psychological adaptation refers to people’s psychological well-being, reflected in their satisfaction with relationships with host nationals and their functioning in the new environment. Sociocultural adaptation is the individual’s ability to fit into the interactive aspects of the new cultural environment (Searle and Ward, 1990 ). Finally, academic adaptation refers to the ability to function in the new academic environment (Anderson, 1994 ). We will discuss the results of the research on language and communication in student adaptation with reference to these adaptation domains.

Theoretical underpinnings of language and communication in student adaptation

We will outline the major theories used in the research on international students and other sojourners, which has recognized foreign-language skills and interactions in the host country as critical for an individual’s adaptation and successful international experience.

The sojourner adjustment framework (Church, 1982 ) states that host-language proficiency allows one to establish and maintain interactions with host nationals, which contributes to one’s adaptation to the host country. In turn, social connectedness with host nationals protects one from psychological distress and facilitates cultural learning.

The cultural learning approach to acculturation (Ward et al., 2001 ) states that learning culture-specific skills allows people to handle sociocultural problems. The theory identifies foreign-language proficiency (including nonverbal communication), communication competence, and awareness of cultural differences as prerequisites for successful intercultural interactions and sociocultural adaptation (Ward et al., 2001 ). According to this approach, greater intercultural contact results in fewer sociocultural difficulties (Ward and Kennedy, 1993 ).

Acculturation theory (Berry, 1997 , 2005 ; Ward et al., 2001 ) identifies four acculturation practices when interacting with host nationals: assimilation (seeking interactions with hosts and not maintaining one’s cultural identity), integration (maintaining one’s home culture and seeking interactions with hosts), separation (maintaining one’s home culture and avoiding interactions with hosts), and marginalization (showing little interest in both maintaining one’s culture and interactions with others) (Berry, 1997 ). Acculturation theory postulates that host-language skills help establish supportive social and interpersonal relationships with host nationals and, thus, improve intercultural communication and sociocultural adjustment (Ward and Kennedy, 1993 ).

The anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory (Gudykunst, 2005 ; Gudykunst and Hammer, 1988 ) states that intercultural adjustment is a function of one’s ability to cope with anxiety and uncertainty caused by interactions with hosts and situational processes. People’s ability to communicate effectively depends on their cognitive resources (e.g., cultural knowledge), which helps them respond to environmental demands and ease their anxiety.

The integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation (Kim, 2001 ) posits that people’s cultural adaptation is reflected in their functional fitness, meaning, the degree to which they have internalized the host culture’s meanings and communication symbols, their psychological well-being, and the development of a cultural identity (Kim, 2001 ). Communication with host nationals improves cultural adaptation by providing opportunities to learn about the host country’s society and culture, and developing intercultural communication competence that includes the ability to receive and interpret comprehensible messages in the host environment.

The intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954 ; Pettigrew, 2008 ) states that contact between two distinct groups reduces mutual prejudice under certain conditions: when groups have common goals and equal status in the social interaction, exhibit intergroup cooperation, and have opportunities to become friends. Intercultural contact reduces prejudice toward and stereotypical views of the cultural other and provides opportunities for cultural learning (Allport, 1954 ).

These theories provide the theoretical framework guiding the discussion of the results synthesized through the content analysis of the most impactful articles in the field.

Methodology

Bibliometric and content analysis methods.

We used a mixed-method approach to review the research on language and communication in student adaptation for all of 1994–2021. This timeframe was informed by the data extraction process described in the next section. Specifically, we conducted quantitative bibliometric analyses such as co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis, and conceptual thematic mapping, as well as qualitative content analysis to explore the research questions (Bretas & Alon, 2021 ).

Bibliometric methods use bibliographic data to identify the structures of scientific fields (Zupic and Čater, 2015 ). Using these methods, we can create an objective view of the literature by making the search and review process transparent and reproducible (Bretas and Alon, 2021 ). First, we measured the impact of the journals and articles by retrieving data from HistCite concerning the number of articles per journal and citations per article. We analyzed the number of total local citations (TLC) per year, that is, the number of times an article has been cited by other articles in the same literature (313 articles in our sample). We then analyzed the total global citations (TGC) each article received in the entire Web of Science (WoS) database. We also identified the trending articles in HistCite by calculating the total citation score (TLCe) at the end of the year covered in the study (mid-2021). This score rewards articles that received more citations within the last three years (i.e., up to the beginning of 2018). Using this technique, we can determine the emerging topics in the field because it considers not only articles with the highest number of citations received over a fixed period of time, but also those that have been cited most frequently in recent times (Alon et al., 2018 ).

Second, to establish a general conceptual structure of the field, we analyzed the co-occurrence of authors’ keywords using VOS software. Next, based on the authors’ keywords, we plotted a conceptual map using Biblioshiny (a tool for scientific mapping analysis that is part of the R bibliometrix-package) to identify motor, basic, niche, and emerging/declining themes in the field (Bretas and Alon, 2021 ).

Third, to determine specific research streams and map patterns within the field (Alon et al., 2018 ), we used the co-citation mapping techniques in HistCite that analyze and visualize citation linkages between articles (Garfield et al., 2006 ) over time.

Next, we used content analysis to synthesize the results from the 31 most impactful articles in the field. We analyzed the results within each research stream and discussed them in light of the major adaptation theories to suggest future research directions and trends within each research stream (Alon et al., 2018 ). Content analysis allows the researcher to identify the relatively objective characteristics of messages (Neuendorf, 2002 ). Thus, this technique enabled us to verify and refine the results produced by the bibliometric analysis, with the goal of improving their validity.

Data extraction

We extracted the bibliographic data from Clarivate Analytics’ WoS database that includes over 21,000 high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarly journals (as of July 2020 from clarivate.libguides.com). We adopted a two-stage data extraction approach (Alon et al., 2018 ; Bretas and Alon, 2021 ). Table ​ Table1 1 describes the data search and extraction processes.

Keyword search in WoS

First, in June 2021, we used keywords that would best cover the researched topic by searching for the following combinations of terms: (a) “international student*” OR “foreign student*” OR “overseas student*” OR “study* abroad” OR “international education”—to cover international students as a specific sojourner group; (b) “language*” and “communicat*”—to cover research on foreign-language proficiency as well as communication issues; and (c) “adapt*” OR “adjust*” OR “integrat*” OR “acculturat*”—to cover the adaptation aspects of the international students’ experience. However, given that cross-cultural adaptation is reflected in an individual’s functional fitness, psychological well-being, and development of a cultural identity (Kim, 2001 ), we included two additional terms in the search: “identit*” OR “satisf*”—to cover the literature on the students’ identity issues and satisfaction in the host country. Finally, based on a frequency analysis of our data extracted in step 2, we added “cultur* shock” in step 3 to cover important studies on culture shock as one of critical aspects of cross-cultural adaptation (Gudykunst, 2005 ; Pettigrew, 2008 ; Ward et al., 2001 ). After refining the search by limiting the data to articles published in English, the extraction process yielded 921 sources in WoS.

In the second stage, we refined the extraction further through a detailed examination of all 921 sources. We carefully read the articles’ abstracts to identify those suitable for further analysis. If the abstracts did not contain one or more of the three major aspects specified in the keyword search (i.e., international student, language and communication, adaptation), we studied the whole article to either include or exclude it. We did not identify any duplicates, but we removed book chapters and reviews of prior literature that were not filtered out by the search in WoS. Moreover, we excluded articles that (a) reported on students’ experiences outside of higher education contexts; (b) dealt with teaching portfolios, authors’ reflective inquiries, or anecdotal studies lacking a method section; (c) focused on the students’ experience outside the host country or on the experience of other stakeholders (e.g., students’ spouses, expatriate academics); (d) used the terms “adaptation,” “integration,” or “identity” in a sense different from cultural adaptation (e.g., adaptation of a syllabus/method/language instruction; integration of research/teaching methods/technology; “professional” but not “cultural” identity); or (e) used language/communication as a dependent rather than an independent variable. This process yielded 313 articles relevant to the topic. From them, we extracted the article’s title, author(s) names and affiliations, journal name, number, volume, page range, date of publication, abstract, and cited references for bibliometric analysis.

In a bibliometric analysis, the article is the unit of analysis. The goal of the analysis is to demonstrate interconnections among articles and research areas by measuring how many times the article is (co)cited by other articles (Bretas & Alon, 2021 ).

Bibliometric analysis

Most relevant journals and articles.

We addressed research question 1 regarding the most impactful journals and articles about the role of language and communication in student adaptation by identifying the most relevant journals and articles. Figure  2 lists the top 20 journals publishing in the field. The five most influential journals in terms of the number of local and global citations are as follows: International Journal of Intercultural Relations (79 and 695 citations, respectively), Journal of Studies in International Education (28 and 343 citations, respectively), Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (14 and 105 citations, respectively), Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (13 and 302 citations, respectively), and Higher Education (11 and 114 citations, respectively),

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Object name is 10734_2022_888_Fig2_HTML.jpg

Top 20 journals publishing on language and communication in student adaptation (

Source: HistCite). Note . TLC, total local citations received; TLC/t, total local citations received per year; TGC, total global citations received; Articles, number of articles published in the field

Table ​ Table2 lists 2  lists the 20 most influential and trending articles as measured by, respectively, local citations (TLC) and trending local citations at the end of the period covered (TLCe), that is, mid-2021. The most locally cited article was a qualitative study of Asian students’ experiences in New Zealand by Campbell and Li ( 2008 ) (TLC = 12). That study, which linked host-language proficiency with student satisfaction and effective communication in academic contexts, also received the highest number of global citations per year (TGC/t = 7.86). The most influential article in terms of total local citations per year was a quantitative study by Akhtar and Kröner-Herwig ( 2015 ) (TLC/t = 1.00) who linked students’ host-language proficiency, prior international experience, and age with acculturative stress among students in Germany. Finally, Sam’s ( 2001 ) quantitative study, which found no relationship between host-language and English proficiency and having a local friend on students’ satisfaction with life in Norway, received the most global citations (TGC = 115).

Ranking of the 20 most impactful and trending articles (sorted by TLC)

All indices retrieved from HistCite: TLC , total local citations received; TLC/t , average local citations received per year; TGC , total global citations received; TGC/t , average global citations received per year; TLC/e , trending local citations at the end of the period covered

The most trending article (TLCe = 7) was a quantitative study by Duru and Poyrazli ( 2011 ) who considered the role of social connectedness, perceived discrimination, and communication with locals and co-nationals in the sociocultural adaptation of Turkish students in the USA. The second article with the most trending local citations (TLCe = 5) was a qualitative study by Sawir et al. ( 2012 ) who focused on host-language proficiency as a barrier to sociocultural adaptation and communication in the experience of students in Anglophone countries.

Keyword co-occurrence analysis

We addressed research question 2 regarding the thematic structure of the research in the field by analyzing the authors’ keyword co-occurrences to establish the thematic structure of the field (Bretas and Alon, 2021 ; Donthu et al., 2020 ). Figure  3 depicts the network of keywords that occurred together in at least five articles between 1994 and 2021. The nodes represent keywords, the edges represent linkages among the keywords, and the proximity of the nodes and the thickness of the edges represent how frequently the keywords co-occurred (Donthu et al., 2020 ). The analysis yielded two even clusters with 17 keywords each. Cluster 1 represents the primary focus on the role of language proficiency in student adaptation. It includes keywords such as “language proficiency,” “adaptation,” “acculturative stress,” “culture shock,” and “challenges.” Cluster 2 represents the focus on the role of intercultural communication and competence in student adaptation. It includes keywords such as “intercultural communication,” “intercultural competence,” “academic/psychological/sociocultural adaptation,” and “transition.”

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Authors’ keyword co-occurrence analysis (

Source: VOS)

Conceptual thematic map

Based on the authors’ keywords, we plotted a conceptual map (see Fig.  4 ) using two dimensions. The first is density , which indicates the degree of development of the themes as measured by the internal associations among the keywords. The second is centrality , which indicates the relevance of the themes as measured by the external associations among the keywords. The map shows four quadrants: (a) motor themes (high density and centrality), (b) basic themes (low density and high centrality), (c) niche themes (high density and low centrality), and (d) emerging/declining themes (low density and centrality) (Bretas & Alon, 2021 ). The analysis revealed that motor themes in the field are studies of Chinese students’ experiences and student integration. Unsurprisingly, the basic themes encompass most topics related to language in student adaptation. Research examining the perspective of the students’ parents with regard to their children’s overseas experience exemplifies a niche theme. Finally, “international medical students” and “learning environment” unfold as emerging/declining themes. To determine if the theme is emerging or declining, we analyzed bibliometric data on articles relating to medical students’ adaptation and students’ learning environment. We found that out of 19 articles on medical students published in 13 journals (10 medicine/public health-related), 15 (79%) articles were published over the last five years (2016–2021), which clearly suggests an emerging trend. The analysis of authors’ keywords yielded only three occurrences of the keyword “learning environment” in articles published in 2012, 2016, and 2020, which may suggest an emerging trend. To further validate this result, we searched for this keyword in titles and abstracts and identified eight relevant articles published between 2016 and 2020, which supports the emerging trend.

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Conceptual thematic map (

Source: Biblioshiny)

Citation mapping: research streams

We addressed research question 3 regarding the leading research streams investigating language and communication in student adaptation by using co-citation mapping techniques to reveal how the articles in our dataset are co-cited over time. To produce meaningful results that would not trade depth for breadth in our large dataset (313 articles), we limited the search to articles with TGC ≥ 10 and TLC ≥ 3. These thresholds yielded the 31 articles (10% of the dataset) that are most frequently cited within and outside the dataset, indicating their driving force in the field. We analyzed these 31 articles further because their number corresponds with the suggested range of the most-cited core articles for mapping in HistCite (Garfield et al., 2006 ).

Figure  5 presents the citation mapping of these 31 articles. The vertical axis shows how the articles have been co-cited over time. Each node represents an article, the number in the box represents the location of the article in the entire dataset, and the size of the box indicates the article’s impact in terms of TLCs. The arrows indicate the citing direction between two articles. A closer distance between two nodes/articles indicates their similarity. Ten isolated articles in Fig.  5 have not been co-cited by other articles in the subsample of 31 articles.

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Citation mapping of articles on language and communication in student adaptation (

Source: HistCite)

A content analysis of these 31 articles points to two major and quite even streams in the field: (a) “ second-language proficiency ” (16 articles) and (b) “ interactions in the host country ” involving second-language proficiency, communication competence, intercultural communication, and other factors (15 articles). We clustered the articles based on similar conceptualizations of language and communication and their role in student adaptation. As Fig.  5 illustrates, the articles formed distinct but interrelated clusters. The vertical axis indicates that while studies focusing solely on second-language proficiency and host-country interactions have developed relatively concurrently throughout the entire timespan, a particular interest in host-country interactions occurred in the second decade of research within the field (between 2009 and 2013). The ensuing sections present the results of the content analysis of the studies in each research stream, discussing the results in light of the major theories outlined before.

Content analysis

We sought to answer research question 4 regarding the effects of language and communication on student adaptation by synthesizing the literature within the previously established two research streams. The concept map in Fig.  6 illustrates the predictive effects of second-language proficiency and host-country interactions on various adaptation domains. Table ​ Table4 4 in the Appendix presents a detailed description of the synthesis and lists studies reporting these effects, underscoring inconclusive results.

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A concept map synthesizing research on language and communication in student adaptation

A synthesis of the literature on language and communication in student adaptation

(+) and (-) signify the positive and negative direction of the effect, respectively.

Second-language proficiency

This research stream focuses on language barriers and the role of foreign-language proficiency in student adaptation. Having host-language proficiency predicts less acculturative stress (Akhtar and Kröner-Herwig, 2015 ), while limited host-language proficiency inhibits communication with locals and academic integration (Cao et al., 2016 ). These results are in line with the acculturation theory (Berry, 1997 , 2005 ; Ward et al., 2001 ) and the communication and cross-cultural adaptation theory (Kim, 2001 ). Cross ( 1995 ) suggested that social skills predict sociocultural rather than psychological (perceived stress, well-being) adaptation (Searle and Ward, 1990 ). Indeed, several qualitative studies have explained that the language barrier affects sociocultural adaptation by preventing students from establishing contacts with host nationals (Wang and Hannes, 2014 ), developing meaningful relationships (Sawir et al., 2012 ), and limiting occasions for cultural learning (Trentman, 2013 ), supporting the acculturation theory (Anderson, 1994 ; Church, 1982 ; Searle and Ward, 1990 ).

Moreover, insufficient host-language proficiency reduces students’ satisfaction by hampering their communication, socialization, and understanding of lectures in academic contexts (Campbell and Li, 2008 ). Similarly, language affects academic adaptation in students who have difficulty communicating with domestic students (Young and Schartner, 2014 ) or when used as a tool in power struggles, limiting students’ opportunities to speak up in class and participate in discussions or decision-making (Shi, 2011 ). Students who have limited host-language proficiency tend to interact with other international students, which exacerbates their separation from domestic students (Sawir et al., 2012 ). These findings again confirm the theories of acculturation (Berry, 1997 ; Ward et al., 2001 ) and communication and cross-cultural adaptation (Kim, 2001 ).

With regard to the acculturation theory (Berry, 1997 ; Ward and Kennedy, 1999 ), we found inconclusive results concerning the impact of foreign-language skills on students’ satisfaction and adaptation. Specifically, some studies (e.g., Sam, 2001 ; Ying and Liese, 1994 ) found this effect to be non-significant when tested in regression models. One explanation for this result might be the indirect effect of language on adaptation. For instance, Yang et al. ( 2006 ) established that host-language proficiency mediated the relationship between contact with host nationals and the psychological and sociocultural adjustment of students in Canada. Swami et al. ( 2010 ) reported that better host-language skills among Asian students in Britain predicted their adaptation partly because they had more contacts with host nationals. In turn, Meng et al. ( 2018 ) found that the relationship between foreign-language proficiency and social and academic adaptation was fully mediated by global competence (understood as “intercultural competence” or “global mindset”) in Chinese students in Belgium.

Interactions in the host country

The second research stream comprises studies taking a broader look at language and communication in student adaptation by considering both individual and social interaction contexts: second-language (host-language and English) proficiency; willingness to communicate in the second language; communication interactions with domestic and international students, host nationals, and co-nationals; social connectedness (i.e., a subjective awareness of being in a close relationship with the social world; Lee and Robbins, 1998 ; and integrative motivation (i.e., a positive affective disposition towards the host community; Yu, 2013 .

Host-language proficiency predicts academic (Hirai et al., 2015 ; Yu, 2013 ), psychological (Hirai et al., 2015 ; Rui and Wang, 2015 ), and sociocultural adaptation (Brown, 2009 ; Duru and Poyrazli, 2011 ), confirming the acculturation theory (Ward et al., 2001 ). However, although some studies (Hirai et al., 2015 ; Yu, 2013 ) confirmed the impact of host-language proficiency on academic adaptation, they found no such impact on sociocultural adaptation. Yu’s ( 2013 ) study reported that sociocultural adaptation depends on academic adaptation rather than on host-language proficiency. Moreover, host-language proficiency increases the students’ knowledge of the host culture, reduces their uncertainty, and promotes intercultural communication (Gallagher, 2013 ; Rui and Wang, 2015 ), supporting the central aspects of the AUM theory (Gudykunst, 2005 ).

In turn, by enabling communication with academics and peers, second-language proficiency promotes academic (Yu and Shen, 2012 ) and sociocultural adaptation, as well as social satisfaction (Perrucci and Hu, 1995 ). It also increases the students’ willingness to communicate in non-academic contexts. This willingness mediates the relationship between second-language proficiency and cross-cultural difficulties among Asian students in England (Gallagher, 2013 ). This finding may explain inconclusive results concerning the relationship between second-language proficiency and cultural adaptation. It appears that second-language proficiency alone is insufficient for successful adaptation. This proficiency should be coupled with the students’ willingness to initiate intercultural communication to cope with communication and cultural difficulties, which is compatible with both the AUM theory and Kim’s ( 2001 ) communication and cross-cultural adaptation theory.

As mentioned before, host-language proficiency facilitates adaptation through social interactions. Research demonstrates that communication with domestic students predicts academic satisfaction (Perrucci and Hu, 1995 ) and academic adaptation (Yu and Shen, 2012 ), confirming Kim’s ( 2001 ) theory. Moreover, the frequency of interaction (Zimmermann, 1995 ) and direct communication with host nationals (Rui and Wang, 2015 ) predict adaptation and reduce uncertainty, supporting the AUM theory. Zhang and Goodson ( 2011 ) found that social interactions with host nationals mediate the relationship between adherence to the host culture and sociocultural adaptation difficulties, confirming the acculturation theory (Berry, 1997 ), the intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954 ; Pettigrew, 2008 ), and the culture learning approach in acculturation theory (Ward et al., 2001 ).

In line with the intergroup contact theory, social connectedness with host nationals predicts psychological and sociocultural adaptation (e.g., Hirai et al., 2015 ; Zhang and Goodson, 2011 ), confirming the sojourner adjustment framework (Church, 1982 ) and extending the acculturation framework (Ward and Kennedy, 1999 ) that recognizes the relevance of social connectedness for sociocultural adaptation only.

Research on interactions with co-nationals has produced inconclusive results. Some qualitative studies (Pitts, 2009 ) revealed that communication with co-nationals enhances students’ sociocultural adaptation and psychological and functional fitness for interacting with host nationals. Consistent with Kim’s ( 2001 ) theory, such communication may be a source of instrumental and emotional support for students when locals are not interested in contacts with them (Brown, 2009 ). Nonetheless, Pedersen et al. ( 2011 ) found that social interactions with co-nationals may cause psychological adjustment problems (e.g., homesickness), contradicting the acculturation theory (Ward and Kennedy, 1994 ), or increase their uncertainty (Rui and Wang, 2015 ), supporting the AUM theory.

Avenues for future research

We addressed research question 5 regarding future research directions through a content analysis of the 31 most impactful articles in the field. Importantly, all 20 trending articles listed in Table ​ Table1 1 were contained in the set of 31 articles. This outcome confirms the relevance of the results of the content analysis. We used these results as the basis for formulating the research questions we believe should be addressed within each of the two research streams. These questions are listed in Table ​ Table3 3 .

Future research questions

Research has focused primarily on the experience of Asian students in Anglophone countries (16 out of 31 most impactful articles), with Chinese students’ integration being the motor theme. This is not surprising given that Asian students account for 58% of all international students worldwide (OECD, 2021b ). In addition, Anglophone countries have been the top host destinations for the last two decades. The USA, the UK, and Australia hosted 49% of international students in 2000, while the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia hosted 47% of international students in 2020 (Project Atlas, 2020 ). This fact raises the question of the generalizability of the research results across cultural contexts, especially given the previously identified cultural variation in student adaptation (Fritz et al., 2008 ). Thus, it is important to study the experiences of students in underexplored non-Anglophone host destinations that are currently gaining in popularity, such as China, hosting 9% of international students worldwide in 2019, France, Japan, or Spain (Project Atlas, 2020 ). Furthermore, future research in various non-Anglophone countries could precisely define the role of English as a lingua franca vs. host-language proficiency in international students’ experience.

The inconsistent results concerning the effects of communication with co-nationals on student adaptation (e.g., Pedersen et al., 2011 ; Pitts, 2009 ) indicate that more contextualized research is needed to determine if such communication is a product of or a precursor to adaptation difficulties (Pedersen et al., 2011 ). Given the lack of confirmation of the acculturation theory (Ward and Kennedy, 1994 ) or the communication and cross-cultural adaptation theory (Kim, 2001 ) in this regard, future research could cross-check the formation of students’ social networks with their adaptation trajectories, potentially using other theories such as social network theory to explain the contradictory results of empirical research.

Zhang and Goodson ( 2011 ) showed that social connectedness and social interaction with host nationals predict both psychological and sociocultural adaptation. In contrast, the sojourner adjustment framework (Ward and Kennedy, 1999 ) considered their impact on sociocultural adaptation only. Thus, future research should conceptualize the interrelationships among social interactions in the host country and various adaptation domains (psychological, sociocultural, and academic) more precisely.

Some studies (Brown, 2009 ; Gallagher, 2013 ; Rui and Wang, 2015 ) confirm all of the major adaptation theories in that host-language proficiency increases cultural knowledge and the acquisition of social skills, reduces uncertainty and facilitates intercultural communication. Nevertheless, the impact of language on sociocultural adaptation appears to be a complex issue. Our content analysis indicated that sociocultural adaptation may be impacted by academic adaptation (Yu, 2013 ) or does not occur when students do not engage in meaningful interactions with host nationals (Ortaçtepe, 2013 ). To better capture the positive sociocultural adaptation outcomes, researchers should take into account students’ communication motivations, together with other types of adaptation that may determine sociocultural adaptation.

Next, in view of some research suggesting the mediating role of second-language proficiency (Yang et al., 2006 ), contacts with host nationals (Swami et al., 2010 ), and students’ global competence (Meng et al., 2018 ) in their adaptation, future research should consider other non-language-related factors such as demographic, sociocultural, and personality characteristics in student adaptation models.

Finally, the conceptual map of the field established the experiences of medical students and the learning environment as an emerging research agenda. We expect that future research will focus on the experience of other types of students such as management or tourism students who combine studies with gaining professional experience in their fields. In terms of the learning environment and given the development and growing importance of online learning as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, future research should explore the effects of remote communication, both synchronous and asynchronous, in online learning on students’ adaptation and well-being.

This article offers an objective approach to reviewing the current state of the literature on language and communication in student adaptation by conducting a bibliometric analysis of 313 articles and a content analysis of 31 articles identified as the driving force in the field. Only articles in English were included due to the authors’ inability to read the identified articles in Russian, Spanish, or Chinese. Future research could extend the data search to other languages.

This review found support for the effects of language of communication on student adaptation, confirming major adaptation theories. Nevertheless, it also identified inconsistent results concerning communication with co-nationals and the complex effects of communication with host nationals. Thus, we suggested that future research better captures the adaptation outcomes by conducting contextualized research in various cultural contexts, tracking the formation of students’ social networks, and precisely conceptualizing interrelations among social interactions in the host country and different adaptation domains. Researchers should also consider students’ communication motivations and the mediating role of non-language-related factors in student adaptation models.

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Author contribution

Both authors contributed to the study conception and design. Michał Wilczewski had the idea for the article, performed the literature search and data analysis, and drafted the manuscript. Ilan Alon critically revised the work, suggested developments and revisions, and edited the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

This research is supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange grant “Exploring international students’ experiences across European and non-European contexts” [grant number PPN/BEK/2019/1/00448/U/00001] to Michał Wilczewski.

Declarations

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Michał Wilczewski, Email: [email protected] .

Ilan Alon, Email: [email protected] .

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Intercultural and International Business Communication. Theory, Research and Teaching

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Related Papers

Juan C. Palmer-Silveira

Formato ISO 690-2 (Articulos de revistas electronicas) Palmer-Silveira, Juan Carlos, The need for successful communication in intercultural and international business settings: Analytic and comparative studies, new trends and methodologiesIberica [en linea] 2013, ( ) : [Fecha de consulta: 9 de noviembre de 2017] Disponible en: ISSN 1139-7241

research papers about international communication

Anne Kankaanranta , Leena Louhiala-Salminen

In recent years, the use of English has become everyday practice in multinational companies (MNCs), and it has been investigated in three disciplines: applied linguistics, international management and corporate communication, all of which can be housed in international business schools. While reviewing research in these disciplines, we ask the question: how does the research inform the teaching of ‘English’? By taking an example of an international business school located in a small non-English speaking country, we present the educational environment and the needs of future business graduates before moving on to demonstrating a continuum of English as a shared language constructed on the basis of the disciplines. The continuum extending from ‘official English’ to ‘working language’ BELF (English as Business Lingua Franca) illustrates different uses that English as a shared language meets in the MNC environment and in the students’ future work contexts. Based on this discussion, we conclude our paper by presenting the implications of the different conceptualizations of English for the teaching of ‘English’ at an international business school.

This paper focuses on the development of the concept of BELF, which originally stood for “Business English as Lingua Franca”, but later we have used the abbreviation to refer to “English as Business Lingua Franca”. With this change we want to emphasize the domain of use rather than the type of English. The concept of BELF originates from two large research projects conducted at the Aalto University School of Business from 2000 to 2009. The projects were inspired by research into English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and, from that perspective, they set on exploring the language and communication practices of internationally operating business professionals. The findings of the projects showed how the domain of business, and particularly its goal-oriented nature, was significant for BELF discourse and for the perceptions of BELF communication of the practitioners themselves. Overall, it can be argued that for BELF speakers, grammatical correctness is not nearly as important as the genre knowledge of their own specific field of expertise, involving a shared understanding of what, why, how and when to communicate. Thus, we argue that professional competence in today’s global business environment involves communication knowhow as an integral element of business knowhow. Further, in an international context, competence in BELF is a necessity.

ziya hasanli

Ana Bocanegra-Valle

Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez

The Routledge Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca

Anne Kankaanranta

Since the introduction of the concept of BELF (English as a business lingua franca; Louhiala-Salminen et al., 2005) it has inspired a number of researchers in applied and socio-linguistics, in business communication in particular, and recently also in the discipline of international management (e.g. Piekkari, Welch & Welch, 2014). The concept of BELF was developed to grasp three imperative qualities that make it distinct within the ‘umbrella discipline’ of ELF (English as a lingua franca): its domain of use (international business), the role of its users (professionals), and the overall goal of the interactions (getting the job done and creating rapport).

Miikka J . Lehtonen

English for Specific Purposes

With the increasing number of business professionals operating globally, knowledge of successful English lingua franca in business contexts (BELF) has become an important element in overall business know-how. Here, we report on a research project focusing on everyday BELF communication at work. It consists of an extensive survey, and related interviews among international business professionals. In addition to offering some quantitative data on communicative situations, the survey results show the respondents’ views of situation-specific factors in their communicative situations in relation to each other. Our findings suggest that English in today's global business environment is "simply work" and its use is highly contextual. Thus, knowledge of the specific business context, the particular genres used in the particular business area, and overall business communication strategies are tightly intertwined with proficiency in English, which impacts teaching.

David Victor

This article reviews the role that business communication, international business and information systems have played in common in the traditional business school. None of these fields fits easily into the discipline-bassed silos that solidified in business schools. The position posited is that this failure to fit in the pre-existing discipline is based on two factors. First, all three fields are by nature interdisciplinary. Second, all three fields flowered only after business schools had adopted field-based disciplines which in their rigidity represent the antithesis to interdisciplinary research and teaching. Both as new fields and as interdisciplinary subjects, all three have much to offer to the changing nature of business education. Far from viewing themselves as orphans without a home in an existing discipline, business communication, international business and information systems studies can help shape the future nature of the increasingly interdisciplinary business school of the future.

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Volume 626 Issue 8000, 22 February 2024

Smoke alarm.

Everyone’s immune system responds to challenges differently. A lot of this is a result of age, sex and genetics, but environmental factors such as lifestyle could also contribute. In this week’s issue, Darragh Duffy, Violaine Saint-André and colleagues explore the effects of 136 environmental factors on the immune responses of 1,000 individuals. Of all the factors studied, smoking had a significant influence, affecting both innate (general) and adaptive (pathogen-specific) immunity. Although the effects on innate immunity disappeared after the smokers stopped smoking, the effects on adaptive immunity continued for many years after quitting, altering the levels of cytokine released after infection, for example.

Cover image: Wirestock, Inc./Alamy

It’s time for countries to honour their million-dollar biodiversity pledges

Promises to safeguard biodiversity need to be translated into money in the bank.

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Science can drive development and unity in Africa — as it does in the US and Europe

A plan to establish Africa’s first continent-wide science fund should not be delayed any longer.

Generative AI’s environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret

First-of-its-kind US bill would address the environmental costs of the technology, but there’s a long way to go.

  • Kate Crawford

How to boost your research: take a sabbatical in policy

Academic researchers have a unique opportunity to benefit society — and their research — by spending time in government.

  • Jordan Dworkin

Research Highlights

A dna clutch controls a golden nanomachine.

The engine of a microscopic motor can be coupled or uncoupled from the rotor by means of DNA coatings that respond to a variety of stimuli.

Great ‘Stone Age’ wall discovered in Baltic Sea

Megastructure stretching nearly 1 kilometre long is probably one of the oldest known hunting aids on Earth.

The immune markers that predict who can keep SARS-CoV-2 in check

People infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 cleared the virus more quickly if they had high levels of certain immune cells.

What a tease! Great apes pull hair and poke each other for fun

The animals’ shenanigans hint that mischievous play evolved well before Homo sapiens did.

News in Focus

How journals are fighting back against a wave of questionable images.

Publishers are deploying AI-based tools to detect suspicious images, but generative AI threatens their efforts.

  • Nicola Jones

Climatologist Michael Mann wins defamation case: what it means for scientists

Jury awards Mann more than US$1 million — raising hopes for scientists who are attacked politically because of their work.

  • Jeff Tollefson

China conducts first nationwide review of retractions and research misconduct

Universities must declare all their retractions and launch investigations into misconduct cases; a Nature analysis reveals that since 2021 there have been more than 17,000 retractions with Chinese co-authors.

  • Smriti Mallapaty

Glow way! Bioluminescent houseplant hits US market for first time

Engineered petunia emits a continuous green glow thanks to genes from a light-up mushroom.

  • Katherine Bourzac

‘Geometry can be very simple, but totally deep’: meet top maths prizewinner Claire Voisin

Voisin won this year’s Crafoord Prize in Mathematics for research inspired by string theory, and work on a million-dollar unsolved problem.

  • Davide Castelvecchi

Introducing meat–rice: grain with added muscles beefs up protein

The laboratory-grown food uses rice as a scaffold for cultured meat.

  • Jude Coleman

Largest post-pandemic survey finds trust in scientists is high

Study of more than 70,000 people suggests that trust levels vary among countries and are linked to political orientation.

  • Carissa Wong

Mind-reading devices are revealing the brain’s secrets

Implants and other technologies that decode neural activity can restore people’s abilities to move and speak — and help researchers to understand how the brain works.

  • Miryam Naddaf

Scientists under arrest: the researchers taking action over climate change

Fed up with a lack of political progress in solving the climate problem, some researchers are becoming activists to slow global warming.

  • Daniel Grossman

Books & Arts

Book review, greener cities: a necessity or a luxury.

Are urban trees and parks essential to improving the environment and human health — or just a sop to middle-class ideals of gentrification? Two books debate these opposing views.

  • Timon McPhearson

Gripped by dinosaurs, and a unified theory of behaviour: Books in Brief

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

  • Andrew Robinson

Correspondence

Triple win: solar farms in deserts can boost power, incomes and ecosystems.

  • Haimeng Liu
  • Jianguo Liu

Stockholm declaration on AI ethics: why others should sign

  • Ross D. King
  • Teresa Scassa
  • Hiroaki Kitano

Pay rises for Serbia’s top 10% of research scientists

  • Dejan Brkić

New Chinese databases are a boost for rare-disease science

  • Jishizhan Chen

How my academic sabbatical offered a chance to hit the restart button on my career

Time away from his daily responsibilities taught Brandon Brown that he is replaceable — and that’s a good thing.

  • Brandon Brown

Technology Feature

Super-speedy sequencing puts genomic diagnosis in the fast lane.

Streamlined workflows for DNA and RNA sequencing are helping clinicians to deliver prompt, targeted care to people in days — or even hours.

  • Michael Eisenstein

Collection:

Where I Work

Building precision instruments to explore the cosmos.

Phil Korngut tests NASA’s SPHEREx telescope under extreme conditions at his laboratory in California.

  • Rachael Pells

News & Views

Rare isotopes formed in prelude to γ-ray burst.

The afterglow of a long burst of γ-rays suggests that the events leading to these explosions can be sizeable sources of some of the Universe’s rare isotopes — and that classifications of γ-ray bursts are too simplistic.

  • Daniel Kasen

A neural circuit for navigation keeps flies on target

Studies reveal how neuronal populations in the fruit fly brain work together to compare the direction of a goal with the direction that the fly is facing, and convert this into a signal that steers the fly towards its target.

  • Katherine Nagel

Energetic laser pulses alter outcomes of X-ray studies of proteins

Cutting-edge X-ray sources have enabled the structural dynamics of proteins to be tracked during biochemical processes, but the findings have been questioned. Two experts discuss the implications of a study that digs into this issue.

  • Richard Neutze
  • R. J. Dwayne Miller

Nanotraps boost light intensity for future optical devices

A method for configuring light-trapping devices promises better optical nanodevices by amplifying light and enhancing the emission efficiency of luminescent nanomaterials — without the need for complex technology upgrades.

  • Kirill Koshelev

From the archive: Tutankhamun’s coffin, and Darwin shares a letter

Snippets from Nature ’s past.

Smoking’s lasting effect on the immune system

It emerges from a study of human cells that smoking can influence certain immune responses to the same extent as can age or genetics. Smoking can alter the immune system in ways that persist long after quitting the habit.

  • Simon Stent

How population size shapes the evolution of guppy fish

A long-term fish experiment reveals how a mechanism called density dependence, in which the population growth rate slows as the number of individuals rises, affects population dynamics on time scales relevant for ecology and evolution.

  • Bernt-Erik Sæther

Natural killer cell therapies

This Review explores in detail the complexity of NK cell biology in humans and highlights the role of these cells in cancer immunity.

  • Eric Vivier
  • Lucas Rebuffet
  • Valeria R. Fantin

Heavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST

Observations from the JWST of the second brightest GRB ever detected, GRB 230307A, indicate that it belongs to the class of long-duration GRBs resulting from compact object mergers, with the decay of lanthanides powering the longlasting optical and infrared emission.

  • Andrew J. Levan
  • Benjamin P. Gompertz
  • David Alexander Kann

A lanthanide-rich kilonova in the aftermath of a long gamma-ray burst

A modelling analysis shows that an unusually long gamma-ray burst gave rise to a lanthanide-rich kilonova following the merger of a neutron star–neutron star or of a neutron star–black hole.

  • Yu-Han Yang
  • Eleonora Troja
  • Ignacio Pérez-García

Avoiding fusion plasma tearing instability with deep reinforcement learning

Artificial intelligence control is used to avoid the emergence of disruptive tearing instabilities in the magnetically confined fusion plasma in the DIII-D tokamak reactor.

  • SangKyeun Kim
  • Egemen Kolemen

Signatures of a surface spin–orbital chiral metal

A spin–orbital- and angular-momentum-sensitive methodology used to study Sr 2 RuO 4 reveals subtle spectroscopic signatures that are consistent with the formation of spin–orbital chiral currents at the surface of the material.

  • Federico Mazzola
  • Wojciech Brzezicki
  • Antonio Vecchione

Fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect in multilayer graphene

Integer and fractional quantum anomalous Hall effects in a rhombohedral pentalayer graphene–hBN moiré superlattice are observed, providing an ideal platform for exploring charge fractionalization and (non-Abelian) anyonic braiding at zero magnetic field.

  • Zhengguang Lu
  • Tonghang Han

Directive giant upconversion by supercritical bound states in the continuum

An experimental design consisting of a photonic-crystal nanoslab covered with upconversion nanoparticles demonstrates the phenomenon of supercritical coupling, resulting in giant enhancement of upconversion by photonic bound states in the continuum.

  • Chiara Schiattarella
  • Silvia Romano
  • Gianluigi Zito

A 3D nanoscale optical disk memory with petabit capacity

Optical nanoscale disk memory with petabit-level capacity is developed by extending the recording architecture to three dimensions with hundreds of layers, and exabit-level storage can be achieved by stacking the disks into arrays.

Twisted-layer boron nitride ceramic with high deformability and strength

A bulk ceramic composed of interlocked boron nitride nanoplates with a laminated structure of twist-stacked nanoslices is created using hot-pressing and spark plasma sintering, which exhibits large elastic and plastic deformability and high strength at room temperature.

  • Yongjun Tian

Progressive unanchoring of Antarctic ice shelves since 1973

Pinning-point changes over three epochs spanning the periods 1973–1989, 1989–2000 and 2000−2022 were measured, and by proxy the changes to ice-shelf thickness back to 1973–1989 were inferred.

  • Bertie W. J. Miles
  • Robert G. Bingham

Fertilizer management for global ammonia emission reduction

A machine learning model for generating crop-specific and spatially explicit NH 3 emission factors globally shows that global NH 3 emissions in 2018 were lower than previous estimates that did not fully consider fertilizer management practices.

  • Benjamin Z. Houlton
  • Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals

Convergence of coronary artery disease genes onto endothelial cell programs

Variant-to-gene-to-program is a new approach to building maps of genome function to link risk variants to disease genes and to convergent signalling pathways in an unbiased manner; its strength is demonstrated in coronary artery disease.

  • Gavin R. Schnitzler
  • Jesse M. Engreitz

Converting an allocentric goal into an egocentric steering signal

In  Drosophila , FC2 neurons signal a navigational goal, which is compared with the fly’s heading by PFL3 neurons to guide moment-to-moment steering.

  • Peter Mussells Pires
  • Lingwei Zhang
  • Gaby Maimon

Transforming a head direction signal into a goal-oriented steering command

Here we show how PFL2 and PFL3 neurons in the Drosophila brain compare a representation of direction with internal spatial goals, both anchored in world-centric coordinates, and produce body-centric steering commands that act to correct deviations from the goal direction. 

  • Elena A. Westeinde
  • Emily Kellogg
  • Rachel I. Wilson

Smoking changes adaptive immunity with persistent effects

A survey of 136 factors that may influence cytokine secretion identify smoking, cytomegalovirus latent infection and body mass index as influential factors, with varying effects on innate and adaptive immunity.

  • Violaine Saint-André
  • Bruno Charbit
  • Christophe Zimmer

The HIV capsid mimics karyopherin engagement of FG-nucleoporins

Dissection of the nuclear pore complex provides a model in which the HIV capsid enters the nucleus through karyopherin mimicry, a mechanism likely to be conserved across other viruses.

  • C. F. Dickson
  • D. A. Jacques

HIV-1 capsids enter the FG phase of nuclear pores like a transport receptor

The HIV-1 capsid behaves like a nuclear transport receptor entering and traversing an FG phase, with its interior serving as a cargo container, bypassing an otherwise effective barrier to viral infection.

  • Erika N. Weiskopf
  • Dirk Görlich

Bile salt hydrolase acyltransferase activity expands bile acid diversity

Acyltransferase activity of the enzyme bile salt hydrolase is identified and shown to mediate microbial bile acid conjugation, diversifying the bile acid pool and expanding their role in gut physiology.

  • Douglas V. Guzior
  • Maxwell Okros
  • Robert A. Quinn

Bile salt hydrolase catalyses formation of amine-conjugated bile acids

We find that bile salt hydrolase N -acyltransferase activity can form bacterial bile acid amidates that are positively correlated with the colonization of gut bacteria that assist in the regulation of the bile acid metabolic network.

  • Bipin Rimal
  • Stephanie L. Collins
  • Andrew D. Patterson

The nuclear factor ID3 endows macrophages with a potent anti-tumour activity

The Kupffer cell lineage-determining factor ID3 selectively endows macrophages with the ability to phagocytose live tumour cells and orchestrate the recruitment, proliferation and activation of natural killer and CD8 + T lymphoid effector cells to restrict the growth of a variety of tumours.

  • Pierre-Louis Loyher
  • Frederic Geissmann

Stress response silencing by an E3 ligase mutated in neurodegeneration

The E3 ligase SIFI is identified as a dedicated silencing factor of the integrated stress response, a finding that has implications for the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases caused by mitochondrial protein import stress.

  • Diane L. Haakonsen
  • Michael Heider
  • Michael Rapé

An epigenetic barrier sets the timing of human neuronal maturation

The slow maturation of human neurons is regulated by epigenetic modification in nascent neurons, mediated by EZH2, EHMT1, EHMT2 and DOT1L.

  • Gabriele Ciceri
  • Arianna Baggiolini
  • Lorenz Studer

Translation selectively destroys non-functional transcription complexes

Translation actively dislodges stalled transcription elongation complexes (ECs) from damaged DNA, which enables lesion repair and restoration of transcription activity, and coupled ribosomes discriminate between active ECs and stalled ECs, ensuring destruction of only the latter.

  • Jason Woodgate
  • Hamed Mosaei
  • Nikolay Zenkin

Conformational ensembles of the human intrinsically disordered proteome

A computational model generates conformational ensembles of 28,058 intrinsically disordered proteins and regions (IDRs) in the human proteome and sheds light on the relationship between sequence, conformational properties and functions of IDRs.

  • Giulio Tesei
  • Anna Ida Trolle
  • Kresten Lindorff-Larsen

Influence of pump laser fluence on ultrafast myoglobin structural dynamics

Ultrafast time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography is used to investigate a photodissociation reaction in a protein, revealing the strong impact of the pump laser fluence on the structural changes  and the reaction mechanism.

  • Thomas R. M. Barends
  • Alexander Gorel
  • Ilme Schlichting

Amendments & Corrections

Author correction: satellite mapping reveals extensive industrial activity at sea.

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  • Patrick Halpin

Publisher Correction: Revising the global biogeography of annual and perennial plants

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  • Itay Mayrose
  • Niv DeMalach

Publisher Correction: Developmental dynamics of two bipotent thymic epithelial progenitor types

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research papers about international communication

School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Visual media symposium 2024, state of visual evidence symposium.

We invite experts in the field of visual communication to discuss the current challenges and opportunities that synthetic media pose for the contemporary media environment, and how we can utilize visuals as data to answer social scientific questions.

Date: Monday, April 8, 3-6:30 p.m. (central time USA)

Conference Mode: Zoom  

Register here

Opening Remarks: 3-3:15 p.m.

Melissa Tully, Sang Jung Kim, Alex Scott and Bingbing Zhang

Keynote 1: 3:15-4:15 p.m.

Speaker: Bryce Dietrich  

Moderator: Sang Jung Kim

Topic: Video-as-data; Seeing Racial Avoidance on Virtual Streets

Speaker Bio: Dietrich is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. He is also a Research Scholar at the Center for C-SPAN Scholarship & Engagement. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Social Science Informatics at the University of Iowa and a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School and Northeastern University.

Dietrich's research uses novel quantitative, automated, and machine learning methods to analyze non-traditional data sources such as audio (or speech) data and video data. He uses these to understand the causes and consequences of non-verbal political behavior, such as vocal inflections and walking trajectories, especially in relation to descriptive representation and implicit gender/racial bias. Underlying this research is a love for high-performance computing and a genuine desire to make "big data" more accessible, while his substantive interests are firmly grounded in American political behavior at both the mass- and elite-level.

Keynote 2: 4:15-5:15 p.m

Speaker: Cindy Shen  

Moderator: Bingbing Zhang

Topic: Perception, mechanism, and intervention of visual misinformation 

Speaker Bio: Cuihua (Cindy) Shen is a professor of communication at UC Davis and the co-director of the Computational Communication Research lab. Her recent research focuses on computational social science and multimodal (mis)information in AI-mediated environments. She is the past chair of the Computational Methods Division of the International Communication Association, and the founding associate editor of the journal Computational Communication Research , as well as the associate editor of Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication . Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and Facebook. She is a recipient of numerous top paper awards from ICA as well as a Fulbright US Scholar Award. 

Keynote 3: 5:15-6:15 p.m.

Q & A with  T. J. Thomson  

Moderator: Alex Scott

Topic: Impact of AI generated images & visual misinformation 

Speaker Bio:   A majority of Thomson's research centers on the visual aspects of news and journalism and on the concerns and processes relevant to those who make, edit, and present visual news. He has broader interests in digital media, journalism studies, and visual culture and often focuses on under-represented identities, attributes, and environments in his research. Thomson is committed to not only studying visual communication phenomena but also working to increase the visibility, innovation, and quality of how research findings are presented, accessed, and understood.

Thomson has obtained more than $1.32 million in external research funding from a number of organizations, including the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Australian Research Council, the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, and the International Visual Literacy Association. He has also been awarded research fellowships in China and Germany.

Closing Remarks: 6:15-6:30 p.m.

Sang Jung Kim, Alex Scott and Bingbing Zhang

Symposium Co-Sponsors

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Visual Media Lab would like to thank the symposium co-sponsors for their support of this event:

  • Office of the Vice President for Research
  • College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Department of Communication Studies
  • Department of Cinematic Arts
  • SPARTA Lab - Department of Computer Science
  • Department of Political Science
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Black Americans have long had a complex relationship with the news media . In 1967, the  Kerner Commission  – a panel established by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the causes of more than 150 urban riots in the United States – sharply criticized the media’s treatment of Black Americans.

More than 50 years later, there is  ongoing discussion  of  many of the themes raised  in the commission’s report. Amid these discussions, here are some key facts about Black Americans’ experiences with and attitudes toward the news, based on recent Pew Research Center surveys:

This analysis is based on several recent Pew Research Center surveys, including our 2023 study on Black Americans’ experiences with news . Details on the methodologies of these surveys, including field dates and sample sizes, can be found by following the links in this analysis.

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Black Americans are more likely than other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. to get their news on TV.  About three-quarters of Black adults (76%) say they at least sometimes get news on TV , compared with 62% of both White and Hispanic adults and 52% of Asian adults. And 38% of Black Americans say they prefer to get their news on TV over any other platform – again higher than people of other racial or ethnic backgrounds.

Black Americans are more likely than White Americans to get news from certain social media sites. The shares of Black adults who say they regularly get news on YouTube (41%), Facebook (36%), Instagram (27%) and TikTok (22%) are each higher than the shares of White Americans who get news on these platforms. Like Americans overall, Black Americans get news from a wide variety of sources in addition to social media, including other digital platforms such as news websites and search engines.

Black Americans see issues with the way Black people are covered in the news, according to a 2023 survey . For example, 63% of Black adults say the news they see or hear about Black people is often more negative than the news about other racial and ethnic groups. And eight-in-ten say they at least sometimes see or hear news coverage about Black people that is racist or racially insensitive, including 39% who see such coverage extremely or fairly often.

We also asked Black Americans how likely it is that Black people will be covered fairly in the news in their lifetime. A relatively small share – 14% – see this as extremely or very likely.

A pie chart showing that most Black Americans say news about Black people is more negative than news about other groups.

Black Americans see a number of steps that could improve news coverage of Black people . For example, most Black adults say it is extremely or very important that journalists and reporters cover all sides of the issues (76%) and understand the history of the issues (73%) when covering Black people. Many also say it is crucial for journalists to personally engage with the people they cover (59%) and to advocate for Black people (48%).

A bar chart showing that Black Americans say journalists should cover all sides, understand history when they cover Black people.

Among Black Americans who say they at least sometimes see racist or racially insensitive news coverage of Black people, 64% say educating all journalists about issues impacting Black people would be highly effective in making coverage more fair. Substantial shares also say more representation would help – such as including more Black people as sources in news stories or hiring them at news outlets for leadership roles or as journalists and reporters.

Black Americans tend to be underrepresented in U.S. newsrooms. Just 6% of reporting journalists are Black, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. journalists . That is well below the Black share of U.S. workers (11%) and adults overall (12%).

About half of all U.S. journalists (52%) say their news organization does not have enough diversity when it comes to race and ethnicity. That is much larger than the shares of journalists who say the same about gender, sexual orientation and other aspects of diversity.

There is more proportional representation by race and ethnicity in  local TV newsrooms , according to the Radio Television Digital News Association . It found in 2022 that 13% of local TV newsroom employees are African American. However, only 6% of news directors – the leaders of such newsrooms – are Black.

Many Black Americans say it’s important to get news about race and racial inequality from Black journalists. But fewer feel this way when it comes to news in general. Four-in-ten Black Americans say it’s extremely or very important that the news they get about race and racial inequality comes from Black journalists. A much smaller share (14%) say it’s highly important that the news they get in general – regardless of topic – comes from Black reporters.

A bar chart showing that 40% of Black Americans say it’s crucial for news about race to come from Black reporters, but far fewer say the same about news in general.

Similarly, just 15% of Black Americans say that whether a journalist is Black is extremely or very important to deciding if a news story in general is trustworthy. Black Americans are much more likely to see other factors as highly important when assessing the trustworthiness of a news story. These factors include the sources cited in the story, the news outlet that covers the story, whether the story is reported by multiple outlets, and their own gut instinct.

About a quarter of Black Americans (24%) say they extremely or fairly often get news from Black news outlets . These outlets, which have a long history in the U.S. , are defined as those created by Black people and focused on providing news and information specifically to Black audiences. Another 40% of Black adults say they sometimes get news from such outlets.

A pie chart showing that About a quarter of Black adults often get news from Black news outlets.

Black Americans are more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to feel that the news media misunderstand them because of their race or some other demographic trait. Roughly similar portions of Americans who are White (61%), Black (58%) and Hispanic (55%) say the news media misunderstand them , but they cite markedly different reasons for this misunderstanding.

Among Black adults who feel this way, about a third (34%) say that what news organizations misunderstand about them most is their personal characteristics. This is far higher than the 10% of White adults and 17% of Hispanic adults who say the same. (The survey included Asian Americans, but the sample size for this group is too small to analyze separately.)

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Aug. 7, 2019.

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Five space agencies including NASA, Roscosmos, ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), have contributed to the station’s assembly.

Five space agencies including NASA, Roscosmos, ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), have contributed to the station's assembly.

Commercial modules installed on the station include BEAM, also known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, and the NanoRacks Bishop airlock.

Commercial modules installed on the station include BEAM, also known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, and the NanoRacks Bishop airlock.

The most recent module installed on the station is the Prichal docking module added on Nov. 26, 2021.

The most recent module installed on the station is the Prichal docking module added on Nov. 26, 2021.

The crew is installing new IROSAs, or International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, to augment the orbiting lab’s eight main solar arrays.

The crew is installing new IROSAs, or International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, to augment the orbiting lab's eight main solar arrays.

International Space Station Facts

  • An international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries operates the International Space Station. Learn more about  visitors to the space station by country .
  • The space station has been continuously occupied since November 2000.
  • An  international crew  of seven people live and work while traveling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth about every 90 minutes. Sometimes more are aboard the station during a  crew handover .
  • In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets.
  • Peggy Whitson  set the U.S. record for spending the most total time living and working in space at 665 days on Sept. 2, 2017.
  • The living and working space in the station is larger than a six-bedroom house (and has six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window).
  • To mitigate the loss of muscle and bone mass in the human body in microgravity, the astronauts work out at least two hours a day.
  • Astronauts and cosmonauts regularly conduct  spacewalks  for space station construction, maintenance and upgrades.
  • The solar array wingspan (356 feet, 109 meters) is longer than the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380 (262 feet, 80 meters).

A photograph from space of the International Space Station orbiting Earth. The station is a graceful horizontal cylinder with four rectangular solar panels oriented vertically, two on either side of center. In the center are horizontal square panels angled slightly to the right, and science instruments and modules extend out from the center cylinder.

  • The large modules and other pieces of the station were delivered on 42 assembly flights, 37 on the U.S. space shuttles and five on Russian Proton/Soyuz rockets.
  • The space station is 356 feet (109 meters) end-to-end, one yard shy of the full length of an American football field including the end zones.
  • Eight miles of wire connects the electrical power system aboard the space station.
  • The 55-foot robotic Canadarm2 has seven different joints and two end-effectors, or hands, and is used to move entire modules, deploy science experiments and even transport spacewalking astronauts.
  • Eight  spaceships  can be connected to the space station at once.
  • A spacecraft can arrive at the space station as soon as four hours after launching from Earth.
  • Four different  cargo spacecraft  deliver science, cargo and supplies: Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus, SpaceX’s Dragon, JAXA’s HTV, and the Russian Progress.
  • Through Expedition 60, the microgravity laboratory has hosted nearly 3,000  research investigations  from researchers in more than 108 countries.
  • The station’s orbital path takes it over 90 percent of the Earth’s population, with astronauts taking millions of images of the planet below. Check them out at  https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov .

Anchored to a foot restraint on the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) or Canadarm2, astronaut David A. Wolf, STS-112 mission specialist, participates in the mission's first session of extravehicular activity (EVA).

  • More than 20 different research payloads can be hosted outside the station at once, including Earth sensing equipment, materials science payloads, particle physics experiments like the  Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02  and more.
  • The space station travels an equivalent distance to the Moon and back in about a day.
  • The Water Recovery System reduces crew dependence on water delivered by a cargo spacecraft by 65 percent – from about 1 gallon a day to a third of a gallon.
  • On-orbit software monitors approximately 350,000 sensors, ensuring station and crew health and safety.
  • The space station has an internal pressurized volume equal that of a Boeing 747.
  • More than 50 computers control the systems on the space station.
  • More than 3 million lines of software code on the ground support more than 1.5 million lines of flight software code.
  • In the International Space Station’s U.S. segment alone, more than 1.5 million lines of flight software code run on 44 computers communicating via 100 data networks transferring 400,000 signals (e.g. pressure or temperature measurements, valve positions, etc.).

International Space Station Size & Mass

  • Pressurized Module Length: 218 feet along the major axis (67 meters)
  • Truss Length: 310 feet (94 meters)
  • Solar Array Length: 239 feet across both longitudinally aligned arrays (73 meters)
  • Mass: 925,335 pounds (419,725 kilograms)
  • Habitable Volume: 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters) not including visiting vehicles
  • Pressurized Volume: 35,491 cubic feet (1,005 cubic meters)
  • Power Generation: 8 solar arrays provide 75 to 90 kilowatts of power
  • Lines of Computer Code: approximately 1.5 million

Spot the ISS

The acre of solar panels that power the station means sometimes you can look up in the sky at dawn or dusk and see the spaceship flying over your home, even if you live in a big city. Find sighting opportunities at https://spotthestation.nasa.gov.

Backdropped by Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space, the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-130 crew member as space shuttle Endeavour and the station approach each other during rendezvous and docking activities. Docking occurred at 11:06 p.m. (CST) on Feb. 9, 2010, delivering the Tranquility node and its Cupola.

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