social dynamics research paper

Social Dynamics: Theory and Applications

Subscribe to the economic studies bulletin, h. peyton young h. peyton young professor in economics - johns hopkins university.

April 1, 2005

Agent-based models typically involve large numbers of interacting individuals with widely differing characteristics, rules of behavior, and sources of information. The dynamics of such systems can be extremely complex due to their high dimensionality. This chapter discusses a general method for rigorously analyzing the long-run behavior of such systems using the theory of large deviations in Markov chains. The theory highlights certain qualitative features that distinguish agent-based models from more conventional types of equilibrium analysis. Among these distinguishing features are: local conformity versus global diversity, punctuated equilibrium, and the persistence of particular states in the presence of random shocks. These ideas are illustrated through a variety of examples, including competition between technologies, models of sorting and segregation, and the evolution of contractual customs.

Economic Studies

Center on Social Dynamics and Policy

Kristin F. Butcher, Elizabeth Kepner , Kelli Marquardt, Brianna Smith

June 24, 2024

Phillip Levine, Luke Pardue

June 5, 2024

Isabel V. Sawhill, Kai Smith

May 29, 2024

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Introduction

• Published: May 2014
• Cite Icon Cite
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Social Dynamics could mean all sorts of things. In the essays in this book it means analysis of adaptive dynamics in prototypical models of social interaction.

By adaptive dynamics, I simply mean a dynamics that moves in the direction of that which succeeds, or seems to succeed, better that the alternatives. Inspiration comes from evolutionary dynamics. There are versions for both large and small populations, with and without mutation. Evolution may be cultural rather than biological, with imitation rather than replication driving the dynamics. Individuals who repeatedly interact may adapt to one another’s actions by various more or less sophisticated kinds of individual learning. These are all instances of adaptive dynamics.

In contexts of strategic interaction, everyone aiming for the best may very well lead to the worst. Or it may lead nowhere definite at all, as is the case when the dynamics is cyclic, or even chaotic. Adaptive dynamics need not lead to adaptation. Taking a shortcut by assuming that it does may lead to an erroneous analysis.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Breaking the spiral of silence: News and social media dynamics on sexual abuse scandal in the Japanese entertainment industry

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected] (TT); [email protected] (KM)

Affiliation Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation New York University, New York, NY, United States of America

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation YOKOHAMA National University, Yokohama, Japan

Roles Resources, Supervision

Affiliation University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

Affiliation Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana, USA

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

• Tsukasa Tanihara, 
• Mitsuki Irihara, 
• Taichi Murayama, 
• Mitsuo Yoshida, 
• Fujio Toriumi, 
• Kunihiro Miyazaki

• Published: June 27, 2024
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104
• Peer Review
• Reader Comments

Highlighting minorities and crime survivors through public discourse is essential for their support and protection. However, advocating for minorities is challenging due to the fear of potential isolation from one’s social circles. This reluctance contributes to the societal phenomenon known as the “spiral of silence,” significantly impeding efforts to support socially vulnerable individuals. This study centers on a pivotal instance where the silence surrounding sexual abuse in the Japanese entertainment industry was disrupted, in which the late company president had allegedly abused idol trainees of the company for decades. Utilizing extensive data from news media and social media, the study probes the engagement dynamics of public attention to this scandal. Results indicate that users on social media provided earlier and greater coverage for this scandal compared to news media outlets. Furthermore, television demonstrated a significant delay in addressing this issue compared to other news media, such as tabloids, magazines, and online news. Regarding social media engagement, idol fans exhibited a more subdued response to the issue compared to the general public. Notably, fans more loyal to the company tended to be slower to mention the issue, with a higher likelihood of standing in defense of the perpetrators. Moreover, conflicting attitudes were observed within the fan communities, culminating in an observable “echo chamber” phenomenon. This paper presents a novel examination of the process of disruption of social silence and offers critical insights for aiding vulnerable individuals in environments dominated by an unacknowledged spiral of silence. This study is novel in that it suggests a reinterpretation of the “spiral of silence theory” in the age of social media, through a comprehensive analysis of relevant social media data and news media data. This contributes to the body of research that has analyzed the spiral of silence theory online.

Citation: Tanihara T, Irihara M, Murayama T, Yoshida M, Toriumi F, Miyazaki K (2024) Breaking the spiral of silence: News and social media dynamics on sexual abuse scandal in the Japanese entertainment industry. PLoS ONE 19(6): e0306104. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104

Editor: Hans H. Tung, National Taiwan University, TAIWAN

Received: December 5, 2023; Accepted: June 7, 2024; Published: June 27, 2024

Copyright: © 2024 Tanihara et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The data underlying the results presented in the study are available from Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214997 .

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

1 Introduction

In March 2023, the biggest scandal within the Japanese entertainment industry emerged, implicating Johnny Kitagawa, the late former president of Johnny & Associates, Inc., Japan’s foremost male idol management company that dominated the male talent segment of the Japanese entertainment industry with a near-monopoly [ 1 – 3 ]. Posthumous investigations revealed accusations of Kitagawa engaging in sexual abuse toward his idol trainees spanning more than five decades [ 1 ]. Reports indicate almost 500 individuals are considered survivors [ 4 ]. An independent panel of experts declared this unprecedented crime as “extremely malicious” [ 5 ]. After the scandal was revealed in March 2023, the public attention to the incident extended beyond the borders of Japan, with consistent coverage from international media outlets such as the BBC and CNN [ 6 , 7 ], which ultimately led to investigations and press conferences conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council [ 8 ]. As of November 2023, the company underwent a de facto disbandment, compelling affiliated idol groups to rebrand [ 9 ].

A salient aspect of this scandal is the indifference of the news media and public to such serious sexual crimes, which remained largely unacknowledged for over five decades. While accusations of sexual abuse targeting Johnny Kitagawa have previously emerged [ 10 ], these claims were often relegated to speculation due to inadequate societal investigation and discourse [ 11 ]. This prevailing attitude, allegedly perpetuated by both the news media and the public, fostered an atmosphere of apathy, inhibiting the acknowledgment of these allegations as an urgent societal matter. Notably, both the BBC, instrumental in spotlighting the issue, and the United Nations, during their subsequent investigation, identified the “silence of news media” as a significant obstacle to the adequate acknowledgment and resolution of the issue [ 8 , 12 ]. This collective public silence aligns with the “spiral of silence” theory (see Theoretical framework ), wherein the prevalence of dominant public opinion suppresses the vocalization of opposing perspectives or unpopular narratives [ 13 ]. Such silence represents a significant impediment to the advocacy for and protection of socially vulnerable groups, including sexual abuse survivors, and necessitates thorough examination and understanding.

Therefore, we aim to unravel the dynamics that elevated Johnny Kitagawa’s alleged sexual abuse issue to become a significant social problem. Our analysis primarily focuses on the role of news media and social media, both central to the “spiral of silence” theory, and especially the behavior of idol fans, a key demographic in this context. Given the potential latent spirals of silence globally, examining instances where such silences are disrupted provides insights into amplifying marginalized voices and supporting overlooked vulnerable groups in societal discussions.

We utilize 14,808 news media articles and 14.5 million social media posts regarding Johnny & Associates, spanning a six-month trajectory from the initial BBC report that incited public discourse to the culmination marked by the expert team’s comprehensive report. The analytical framework of this research is threefold. First, by quantifying and visualizing the volume of news media and social media discourse, we trace the chronological emergence and amplification of the issue, aiming to identify the key stages of public awareness and engagement. Second, we classify news media sources, including newspapers and television, to assess which segments acknowledged the issue earlier or later. Third, through the categorization of social media users into diverse groups, idol fans included, we seek to understand the distinct roles these segments played in breaking the prevailing silence.

Our findings indicate that social media users initiated and engaged more extensively in discussions about this issue prior to Japanese news media. Furthermore, television exhibited a significant delay in coverage. Among social media users, it was evident that fans had a more reticent reaction compared to the general populace. Within the fanbase, there was a discernible division in attitudes, giving rise to what can be characterized as an “echo chamber” phenomenon, wherein individuals were exposed predominantly to opinions that mirrored their own. Fans more loyal to the idol groups that currently belong to the company were not only slower to respond but also tended to align with the alleged perpetrators when they did engage.

This study has strengths in observing phenomena using large datasets from news media and social media, as opposed to previous research on the spiral of silence that primarily focused on surveys and interviews with samples. This approach allows for suggesting new developments in the “spiral of silence theory.”

2 Theoretical framework

The “spiral of silence” theory, first proposed by Noelle-Neumann [ 13 ], addresses the phenomenon of media and public silence. The spiral of silence theory is based on the premise that individuals are always conscious of the opinion climate in society. This theory posits that individuals, fearing social isolation, may choose not to voice opinions they perceive as less popular or contrary to the majority view. People fear becoming isolated when they recognize that they belong to the minority, leading them to remain silent. While Noelle-Neumann [ 13 ] originally emphasized news media’s role in shaping opinion climates, subsequent research [ 14 ] expanded this view to include the influence of reference groups, i.e, the populations from which individuals refer to opinion climate, as well. The spiral of silence theory underscores a critical risk inherent in the formation of public opinion: the predominant visibility of majority viewpoints and the consequent suppression of minority perspectives, potentially impeding the cultivation of a robust marketplace of ideas. This phenomenon represents a significant impediment to the advocacy for and protection of socially vulnerable groups, including sexual abuse survivors.

With the media landscape’s evolution, particularly the rise of online platforms, recent scholarship has interrogated the applicability of this theory within digital environments. Studies indicate that social media not only act as contemporary public forums for opinion expression but also serve as alternative reference groups for individuals assessing opinion climates [ 15 – 20 ]. These findings suggest the persistent relevance and influence of the spiral of silence in shaping discourse, even amidst the diversification of media channels.

When applying the issue of Johnny Kitagawa, the sexual harassment problem was long silenced . Although there were a few who accused him, the topic never gained traction in the news media [ 10 , 11 ]. This state changed due to some factors in 2023, and it is considered that the silence was broken. In other words, a change occurred in the opinion climate regarding this issue, and speaking out about this problem became the majority. As of late 2023, Japanese news media and social media are consistently abuzz with discussions related to Johnny’s issue, indicating a significant shift in public discourse and media attention. Our analysis unravels how the break in the spiral of silence led to this long-ignored issue into a widely discussed topic. Utilizing an extensive dataset from social media platform X and archives of Japanese news articles, we aim to dissect the complexity of this transition, seeking to understand the nuanced dynamics that transformed a long-ignored issue into a subject of the national conversation.

3 Literature review

3.1 empirical analysis of the spiral of silence.

Extensive research on the spiral of silence theory predominantly centers on its application within political communication [ 16 , 21 – 25 ]. These studies typically employ survey designs to empirically validate the theory, using regression analyses to ascertain relationships between individuals’ willingness to express support for political candidates, their perception of the prevailing opinion climate, and their level of fear regarding social isolation. For instance, Kushin et al. [ 16 ] found the significant role of fear of isolation in the prediction of individuals’ expression of support for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential election. Similarly, Chan [ 21 ] observed, within the context of Hong Kong’s 2015 elections, a negative correlation between fear of isolation and self-censorship, noting that individuals were more likely to express their opinions within groups of like-minded political ideologies. However, certain research indicates the theory’s constraints, suggesting its diminished applicability among individuals with pronounced attitude certainty [ 23 , 26 ].

In addition to survey methods, qualitative approaches such as interviews have also been instrumental in exploring the spiral of silence theory. For instance, Fox and Warber [ 27 ] conducted interviews with 52 participants before and after the 2012 U.S. election, uncovering a spiral of silence among participants whose LGBTQ+ identities were concealed within their social networks, thereby subjecting them to the perceived heteronormative majority. Furthermore, experimental designs have yielded insightful data; Masullo et al. [ 28 ] orchestrated an online experiment that revealed individuals’ emotional responses, particularly negative ones elicited by rude comments, as pivotal in determining their propensity to engage in discourse, overshadowing the prevailing opinion climate. These findings suggest that emotional reactions may significantly influence the dynamics of the spiral of silence, indicating a nuanced interplay of factors that dictate public expression. The relevance and implications of these findings, particularly in non-political contexts such as the entertainment industry scandal discussed herein, warrant further exploration.

A limited corpus of research has ventured into testing the spiral of silence theory using observational methods on large-scale data sets. For example, Morales [ 17 ] capitalized on an event during which an automated bot retweeting Venezuelan President Maduro’s tweets was deactivated, leading to a notable surge in critical tweets against the president. This study, using the framework of the spiral of silence theory, posited that public opinion can shift when the promotional efforts of an autocratic regime are interrupted. Despite these advancements, an important gap remains in understanding how silence is disrupted and public opinion subsequently escalates, particularly in non-political contexts like the entertainment industry. By meticulously documenting this transition through the analysis of extensive social media data and news archives, the present study seeks to capture the dynamism inherent in social issues, breaking the spiral of silence. Furthermore, this research aims to significantly enrich the field of public opinion studies by elucidating the specific actions undertaken by social media users and news media personnel throughout this transformative process.

3.2 The impact of social media on the spiral of silence theory

There exists a small body of literature discussing the impact of social media on the Spiral of Silence Theory. For example, Chaudhry [ 29 ] analyzed comments attached to articles about race, racism, and ethnicity on Facebook pages. The results indicated that minority users with discriminatory views did not hesitate to express their opinions. This suggests that the effect of the Spiral of Silence Theory may be limited on Facebook. Furthermore, Laor [ 30 ] demonstrated through interview research that Facebook groups serve as a receptacle for diverse opinions. What the interviewees highlighted was the value of closed Facebook groups where they could share opinions different from those in the general society. This study suggests the potential for discourse on social media to be picked up by news media. Sohn and Sohn [ 31 ] clarified the behavior of the Spiral of Silence through simulation. They found that while the Spiral of Silence phenomenon is less likely to occur when an individual’s social network is small, it becomes more probable as the network expands. The authors suggest from these results that the Spiral of Silence phenomenon might occur in the context of mass media with universal access, whereas the formation of opinions might differ in online environments where opinions are locally concentrated.

The theoretical background for such occurrences can be explained by considering the structure of the Spiral of Silence Theory. The background for minorities to remain silent includes the fear of isolation. That is, the premise is recognizing that one is in the minority and fearing it. However, on social media, due to the existence of echo chamber phenomena or communities that share values like Facebook groups, individuals are more exposed to opinions similar to their own. This means that even if one is in the minority in real society, it is possible to avoid the fear of isolation on social media. In this way, opinions aggregated on social media can be picked up by news media and have the potential to shape public opinion.

3.3 #MeToo movement

The issue of Johnny Kitagawa can be contextualized within the broader #MeToo movement, which spotlighted sexual abuse allegations globally. This movement bears notable similarities to the case in Japan, echoing the scandal surrounding film producer Harvey Weinstein, who faced allegations of sexual abuse from over 80 individuals across three decades. Additionally, the #MeToo’s impact is further underscored by the recognition of the women who spoke up against sexual abuse, called the “Silence Breakers” [ 32 ], which infers a more analogous relationship can be found with the current issue.

In Western countries, extensive studies have been presented on the theme of the #MeToo movement and the media. Benedictis et al. [ 33 ] examined how #MeToo was handled in British newspapers, revealing that the newspapers played a significant role in enhancing the campaign’s visibility. Benedictis et al. [ 33 ] pointed out that, although there were some differences among newspapers, many treated #MeToo positively. However, they criticized the focus on the experiences of wealthy white female celebrities and the lack of discussion on solutions to sexual victimization. Noetzel [ 34 ] conducted a quantitative content analysis over two years, from one year before to one year after the #MeToo tweets, of news articles published in four U.S. newspapers. As a result, it was shown that not only physical sexual violence but also verbal sexual violence began to be reported, and there was a shift from a posture of pursuing third-party responsibilities to one of pursuing individual perpetrators’ responsibilities. However, the authors have warned against individualizing the issue, emphasizing that sexual violence is a societal problem.

In the literature on the spiral of silence theory and #MeToo and the media, there are few studies that dynamically and detailedly describe the process in which the silence state is broken, and public opinion subsequently gains momentum. This study, by using a large amount of social media data and news records to describe that process, records the dynamism in breaking the social silences, making a significant contribution to public opinion research by clarifying how social media users and news media editors reacted in that process. This study particularly excels in comprehensively analyzing the discourse across diverse mass media (TV, newspapers, tabloids, magazines, online news) and social media in a chronological manner. This effort, as examined in the previous section, provides profound insights into whether social media weakens the effect of the Spiral of Silence Theory. Ultimately, it adds insights into an essential discussion in social sciences regarding the visualization of social issues.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that the #MeToo movement has not gained as much traction in Japan compared to international arenas [ 35 , 36 ]. Cultural factors allegedly create an environment where public discourse is challenging [ 33 ]. In such a constrained atmosphere, the instances of the present paper where societal silence is effectively shattered are infrequent. Therefore, our study’s exploration of of spiral of silence e in the context of Japan’s unique cultural landscape offers critical insights into the dynamics of silence breaking within movements like #MeToo.

3.4 Research question

Previous research has highlighted the importance of “fear of isolation,” the relationship between social media and the spiral of silence theory, and the spread of the #MeToo movement in the media. However, these studies faced methodological limitations such as the use of sample data, interview, and simulations. In contrast, this paper utilizes a comprehensive and chronological large-scale dataset to elucidate the impact of social media on the spiral of silence theory. Specifically, it provides a detailed description of the dynamics involved when silence is broken and offers a contemporary interpretation of the spiral of silence theory. The research question is as follows:

• RQ: In the context of sexual abuse issues that were silenced by mass media, what role has social media played in shaping public opinion?

This study responds to the above research question by analyzing a large-scale dataset and seeks new developments in the application of the spiral of silence theory.

4 Data collection

To conduct an analysis of the news media and public response to the scandal involving Johnny & Associates, we collect a comprehensive dataset comprising Japanese news media articles and social media posts. It should be noted that the collection and analysis of these data comply with the terms of use of the respective data providers. Especially, social media data is not displayed in such a way as to reveal personal information.

4.1 News media data

The news media data for this study is sourced from Ceek.jp News ( https://news.ceek.jp/ ), a comprehensive aggregator of virtually all Japanese news media articles. The dataset encompasses various details, including the publisher name, headline, and the initial segment of the news articles that are accessible without a paywall. For the purposes of this study, we extract news articles that contain “ジャニーズ” (Johnny’s: the most common naming of Johnny & Associates in Japan) either in the headline or the introductory section of the news content. The timeframe for the articles for this study spans six months, from March 1, 2023, to August 31, 2023, encompassing a total of 14,808 articles. These articles were derived from 219 distinct news domains, including tabloids, newspapers, and televisions, providing a broad spectrum of perspectives and reporting styles on the issue. Here, to concentrate solely on Japanese media outlets, we excluded BBC news from the dataset. The rationales for this process are that BBC is exceptional as a silence breaker in the issue; we could not identify any other foreign news (e.g., CNN) written in Japanese reporting on Janney Kitagawa among the top 150 news domains; it is the domestic media that are considered to have substantial commercial ties to the Johnny & Associates [ 37 ].

4.2 Social media data

For the social media component of this research, we employ data from X (formally Twitter), a platform that boasts significant popularity in Japan, accommodating approximately 67 million active users, nearly half of the country’s population [ 38 ]. This figure is roughly on par with the number of daily active users in the United States [ 39 ], emphasizing X’s substantial reach and influence in the Japanese social sphere.

The data collection process is conducted via X’s search API. Our search queries are Japanese keywords (translation in parentheses): “ジャニーズ” (Johnny’s) OR “ジャニー” (Johnny) OR “ジャニ” (Johnny) OR “#ジャニーズ” (#Johnny’s). This approach is designed to encompass a wide range of public discourse pertaining to the Johnny’s scandal. The timeframe for data aggregation is from March 1, 2023, to August 31, 2023, aligning with the period of news media collection. During this period, we amass a substantial corpus of approximately 14.5 million posts. Of these, 11.3 million are reposts (constituting 77.5%), while the remaining posts were a mix of quotes, replies, and original posts. The number of users is 1.5 million.

5 Retrieval of sexual abuse posts/news

For our analysis, it is necessary to segregate news and posts associated with sexual abuse allegations from the general contents related to Johnny & Associates. For news media, a Japanese author annotates manually whether a certain news of Johnny’s is related to sexual abuse. Then, another Japanese author checked a random sample of 100 cases to confirm that Cohen’s Kappa score is 0.857, which can be interpreted as almost perfect agreement [ 40 ]. The results showed that 3,066 (26.1%) of the news stories were related to sexual abuse.

As for the social media data, we adopt a keyword-based approach since it is impracticable to annotate all the posts manually. To analyze Japanese sentences, we employ the MeCab [ 41 ], a Japanese morphological analyzer, and the NEologd, a Japanese dictionary [ 42 ]. The initial step involves isolating all posts that contain the word “性加害” (sexual abuse) from the posts related to Johnny’s. Subsequently, we extract the top 50 nouns that appear most frequently within these posts. Upon reviewing the top 50 nouns, we pinpoint eight terms that are highly relevant to sexual abuse. Then, we sample 100 posts incorporating each of these eight words to evaluate their validity to posts about sexual abuse. As a result, we judge five words out of eight–“被害者” (victim), “被害” (damage), “告発” (accusation), “性暴力” (sexual violence), and “性加害” (sexual abuse)–to be words related to sexual abuse with 100% accuracy, and we designate these five words as sexual-abuse words and posts containing as sexual-abuse posts. See S1 Table for an exhaustive list of the 50 most frequent nouns, along with the remainder of the keyword candidates and their respective accuracy rates. The current method does not cover all posts that are related to sexual abuse but are without our keywords, and we acknowledge this point as a limitation of the current study. As a result of these processes, we extracted approximately 2.48 million posts–equating to roughly 17.1% of all posts related to “Johnny’s”–that specifically pertained to sexual abuse (87.6% of these are reposts). Here, the number of users was 456,645. Note that since the definition of sexual abuse post/news differs between news media and social media, Fig 1 shown later, shows posts containing the exact word “性加害” (sexual abuse) separately from other sexual abuse-related posts for the purpose of comparison of these two media.

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(a) : Daily volume of Johnny’s-related posts/news. (b) : Daily counts converted to ratio. In both figures, color emphasizes the posts that contain the word “性加害” (“Sexual abuse”: denoted in pink), sexual abuse-related posts but not containing “性加害” (Sexual abuse related: denoted in orange), and other Johnny’s-related news (Other posts: denoted in blue). We regarded spikes in the volume that are annotated with grey dashed lines as the main events through their issue. For the details of Event IDs, see main texts.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.g001

6 Trends of reactions to the Johnny’s issue in news media and social media

Fig 1 illustrates the temporal variation in the volume of posts on both news media and social media concerning Johnny & Associates. Notable surges in activity, identifiable as spikes in the time series (denoted with dashed lines), correspond to specific events, which are enumerated below:

• March 8: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the UK initiated the wave in Japan with a documentary detailing allegations of sexual abuse committed by Johnny Kitagawa [ 6 ]. This pivotal report marked the beginning of widespread attention to the case.
• April 12: Kauan Okamoto, the survivor, held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, offering a personal account and additional details to the global media, amplifying the issue’s visibility [ 43 ].
• May 14: Amidst growing allegations, Julie Fujishima, president of Johnny’s company and Johnny Kitagawa’s niece, issued a public apology video. This represented the company’s first formal acknowledgment of the claims [ 44 ].
• May 27: The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the opposition party in Japanese congress, submitted a proposal for amending the Child Abuse Prevention Law, demonstrating the case’s escalating impact on national discourse and policy [ 45 ].
• June 12: A special investigative team dedicated to uncovering the truth and enforcing legal and ethical standards was formed and deployed due to the case’s complexity and severity [ 46 ].
• July 10: Tatsuro Yamashita, a famous musician recognized as one of Johnny’s most significant business collaborators, publicized his remarks about the sexual abuse allegations, potentially influencing public perception and the entertainment industry’s stance [ 47 ].
• August 4: The UN Working Group held a press conference and expressed concern about the hundreds of people involved in the Johnny’s sexual abuse and asserted that they are entitled to compensation [ 48 ].
• August 29: The special team presented its fact-findings to the public at a press conference, detailing the contents of the investigative report and possibly influencing subsequent legal, societal, and industry actions, culminating the period of intense investigation and speculation [ 49 ].

These pivotal events, reflected as spikes in online engagement and media coverage in Fig 1 , signify moments of heightened public interest and media focus, underscoring the case’s extensive influence on societal dialogue, legal considerations, and industry practices.

Fig 1 exhibits that the social media users responded more quickly to the scandal than the news media. Specifically, during Event 1 (the BBC report) and Event 2 (the accuser’s press conference), there were noticeable spikes in Johnny’s-related posts on social media that cannot be seen in news media ( Fig 1(a) ). Also, in Fig 1(b) , social media shows a greater proportion of posts containing the word “性加害” (sexual abuse) than news media: for Event 1, the ratio was 0.10 for social media, compared to 0.01 for news media; for Event 2, the ratio was 0.10 for social media, compared to 0.03 for news media. However, the dynamic shifted by the time of Johnny’s company president’s apology video (Event 3), with news media articles with the word “sexual abuse” expanding significantly to reflect 0.30 of all Johnny-related topics, which exceeded social media’s 0.15 response ratio ( Fig 1(b) ). Thereafter (after Event 4), news media continued to largely cover sexual abuse. This analysis underscores a noticeable lag in news media’s responsiveness compared to social media, persisting up to the point of direct accusations from the involved parties. Also, we found news media started to cover the issue substantially only after the apology video of the company’s president.

7 News media reactions by category

The previous section revealed a delayed response to the sexual abuse issue by news media outlets when compared to social media posts. In particular, it has been pointed out that among the news media, television has been particularly silent presumably due to their commercial ties with Johnny & Associates [ 50 , 51 ], necessitating further examination. Therefore, one of the authors, an expert in communication study, carefully categorizes the 150 most prevalent news domains in the dataset, which collectively constitute 99.8% of all news items in the corpus. These domains were classified into distinct categories (parentheses indicate the ratio of each category among the 150 domains):

• Televisions: News issued by TV companies (6.7%),
• Newspapers: News issued by newspapers focusing primarily on hard news (18.7%),
• Magazines: News issued by magazine publishers (14.0%),
• Tabloids: News issued by newspapers focusing primarily on soft news, such as sports and entertainment (5.3%),
• Online news: News not covered in the categories above, operated by specialized companies for online news (55.3%).

Note that the news by television means a televised story that is republished in the form of online news media.

Fig 2(a) illustrates the counts (top) and ratio (bottom) of news media coverage by media category. The result reveals that online news and magazines initially led the coverage. Television–typically regarded as mainstream media [ 52 ]–demonstrated a noticeable delay in their reporting on sexual abuse scandals.

(a) : The top panel shows the counts by category, and the bottom panel shows the ratio. Note that the counts are daily, but the ratios are 7-day totals for visibility. (b) : The stripplot the span, in days, of reporting by each category since the March 8 BBC documentary. On the right side are the results of the Mann-Whiteney U test showing the difference between each category. Significance levels are indicated: p <0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, and 0.05 are marked with ****, ***, **, and *, respectively.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.g002

For a closer look, Fig 2(b) plots the number of days elapsed since the BBC reports. The Mann-Whiteney U test results show that television is significantly slower than all four other categories ( p < 0.0001). Notably, television reports manifested a 36-day gap from the BBC’s initial coverage to their first corresponding broadcast. Although TBS [ 37 ], one of the largest television station companies in Japan, stated the delay was attributed to the broadcaster’s policy of conducting interviews and fact-checking with the perpetrator before reporting, this gap is strikingly larger than other types of media. Looking at the context of #MeToo movement, numerous leading media institutions from left to right, including CNN, Fox news, and the Guardian, initiated coverage of the MeToo movement within a week of its emergence on October 11, 2017 [ 33 , 53 ], underscoring that silence of 36 days is considerably protracted.

8 Social media users reaction by groups

In the previous section, our focus centered on the news media, the primary actor in the spiral of silence. Shifting our lens, we now investigate the corresponding reactions from the other pivotal actor: the public. Thus, we now categorize the X users with sexual abuse-related posts and analyze each user group. Due to the sheer number of users and posts in social media data, we use network analysis, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis for these categorizations.

8.1 Methods

8.1.1 user classification by network clustering..

To analyze the user group at the core of the discussion, we create a network of reposts and extract their largest connected components. In this network, the nodes are users who mentioned sexual abuse, and the edges indicate more than a single repost between users, which resulted in the network with 359,109 nodes (78.6% of users who mentioned sexual abuse). Considering that the number of nodes for the second largest connected component encompasses a mere seven nodes, it can be inferred that the rest of the discussions are trivial. To enhance analytical clarity, we eliminate peripheral nodes using k-core decomposition ( k = 3) [ 54 ] and remove the edges with reposts of less than 2 [ 55 , 56 ]. The resulting number of nodes in this largest connected component is 30,840 of the users who mentioned sexual abuse. We use Gephi software [ 57 ] to visualize the network, and ForceAtlas2 algorithm [ 58 ] to shape the network.

We then classify the users using clustering on the created network. Specifically, we adopt the Louvain method [ 59 ] for its efficacy in detecting community structure, setting the resolution parameter at one. As a result, we identified 135 clusters and extracted five groups with the largest number of nodes. The five nodes occupy 84.5% of the network (see S2 Table for the ratio of each group).

To understand the characteristics of user groups, we extract the profile text sentences of each user, and after connecting the profile text sentences within a group and considering them as a single sentence, we use the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (Tf-Idf) method to extract the representative nouns of each group [ 60 ]. We manually put the labels for each cluster based on the representative words assigned by Tf-Idf. During this process, we build a stop-word filter to exclude terms that are either ubiquitously Japanese, devoid of substantive meaning, or words directly meaning Johnny & Associates and Johnny Kitagawa, thereby refining the focus on more distinctive, content-rich terms.

8.1.2 Post classification via topic modeling.

For topic extraction from posts, we employ the biterm topic model (BTM) [ 61 ], which is known to work better for short sentences compared to more conventional models, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) [ 62 ]. After evaluating perplexity scores, as recommended in Zhao et al. [ 63 ], we determine six to be the optimal number of topics for our model. Once we build the topic model, we assign each post to one of the six topics (see S3 & S4 Tables for the labels and representative words of the topics).

8.1.3 Post classification via sentiment analysis.

We adopt machine learning-based sentiment text classification. While the standard practice often involves classifying sentiments into positive and negative categories [ 64 ], the nature of the discourse analyzed in this paper—predominantly negative—necessitated a more nuanced form of sentiment analysis. As such, we employ LUKE-based Japanese emotion analyzer [ 65 , 66 ] fine-tuned by WRIME dataset [ 67 ] that is able to classify Japanese text into one of eight distinct emotional categories: joy, sadness, anticipation, surprise, anger, fear, disgust, and trust. We assign each post to one emotion.

8.1.4 Comparison of topics and sentiments across user groups.

8.2 Results

Fig 3(a) distinctly illustrates the fragmentation of the repost network, mirroring the well-documented echo chamber phenomenon [ 70 ], which is represented by groups with pronounced polarities. Such groups typically have opposing viewpoints and tend to communicate predominantly within their own clusters, rarely engaging in cross-group interactions. It is interesting to see the emergence of this phenomenon in the presented case.

(a) : Network visualization indicating nodes as users and edges as reposts. The color of nodes indicates the cluster that nodes belong to. (b) : Table depicting the labels of clusters and representative words frequently associated with profiles of groups’ users, determined the scores by Tf-Idf. (c) : Temporal trend of the weekly volume of posts by each group, with the upper chart showing post counts and the lower one presenting the relative ratios. (d) : Temporal network snapshots showing the repost dynamics on specific dates (Apr. 12, May. 14, Jun. 12, and Aug. 31), indicating increasing polarization over time.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.g003

Fig 3(b) shows the user profilings derived from the top 10 Tf-Idf words (translated from Japanese; see S5 Table for original terms), revealing a nuanced landscape of fan groups and their affiliations. The groups are composed of there are three types of fans (Fan1 (14.8% of the network nodes), Fan2 (11.6%), and Fan3 (11.3%)) and political users (Politics1 (32.2%) and Politics2 (14.5%)). On social media, political users often join emerging discussions (e.g., [ 56 ]), which was true in this case. We see divergent attitudes between fans of Johnny’s idols. Fan 1, typified by idol groups like Kinki ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KinKi_Kids ) and individuals like Takuya Kimura ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takuya_Kimura ) and Jun Matsumoto ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun_Matsumoto ), showcases allegiance to the current Johnny & Associates. Conversely, Fan 2 and Fan 3 contain the names of groups such as SMAP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMAP ) and King and Prince ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_%26_Prince ) that have distanced themselves from Johnny & Associates, either in the past or imminently. This division of the fanbase reflects the situation of Johnny & Associates, where there has been a recent trend of several idol groups leaving the company to pursue independent careers even before the reveal of scandal [ 71 , 72 ].

By looking at the most shared posts by each group (see S6 & S7 Tables), Fan1 primarily shared the posts claiming “no evidence of sexual abuse” or posts with the hashtag “#ジャニーズ事務所を応援します” (Support Johnny’s Office). Notably, even in the face of allegations related to sexual abuse, these posts appear to defend Johnny & Associates and criticize the accusers. On the other hand, the most shared posts by Fan2 are somewhat neutral, many of which simply indicated news that showed the progress of the case. Fan3, contrarily, mainly shared posts criticizing Johnny & Associates and the company’s president. Thus, we can tell the stances of Fan1, Fan2, and Fan3 as pro-Johnny’s, neutral, and anti-Johnny’s, respectively. In the Politics groups, the most shared posts composed of criticisms of varied factors of this issue, including the injustice that only Johnny’s company has been allowed for years compared to other scandals, the media and entertainment industry for their silence, the political party’s handling of the situation, and feminists. Note that Politics groups are basically anti-Johnny’s.

Fig 3(c) shows the temporal volume of posts for each group. It shows that Politics group and Fan2 (Neutral) are the first to respond, followed by Fan3 (Anti-Johnny’s). Then, Fan1 (Pro-Johnny’s) finally showed up in May, which suggests there is an association between the strength of the relationship with Johnny & Associates and the delay in response.

The chronological breakdown of networks post-BBC documentary paints a compelling narrative ( Fig 3(d) ). Initially, one side of the polarity dominated the discourse. However, after the apology video of the company’s president (May 14) and with the onset of the external investigation (Jun. 12), the other side of the network emerged and eventually shaped the echo chamber phenomenon. This transitionary phase, marked by the looming crisis at Johnny & Associates, potentially urged the current fans into action to protect the company.

In the analysis above, we found a slow response from Fan1 (Pro-Johnny’s). Then, how the level of their interest transcend? Fig 4 shows the ratio of sexual abuse posts in each user group in their Johnny’s related posts. Fig 4(a) indicates the aggregation over the entire time period and shows that overall Fan1’s engagement with sexual abuse topic is low. Also, Fig 4(b) shows the transition of users’ interest in the scandal, which shows that Fan1 (Pro-Johnny’s) continued to have low engagement and finally caught up with Fan2 (Neutral) in August, when their engagement was highest. In other words, for a while after the scandal came to light in March, Fan1’s interest was not directed toward the scandal, indicating a strong atmosphere of silence regarding this issue.

(a) : The aggregation of the whole period (six months) and (b) : transition.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.g004

To gain a deeper understanding of their opinion, we applied topic modeling and sentiment analysis to the posts related to sexual abuse (see Methods for details). For topic modeling, we obtained six topics (parenthesis are the labels of topics that we put):

• Contents of the press conference of survivors, the investigative team, and the UN group (Press conference)
• Reports on scandals and investigative findings (News and fact-finding)
• Company’s responsibility and compensation (Responsibility)
• Johnny Kitagawa and the details of the scandal (Johnny and crime)
• How the media’s surmise exacerbated the scandal (Mass media’s surmise)
• Concerns of fans about the idols (Fans’ feelings)

We also perform sentiment analysis to categorize each post into eight sentiments (see Methods). Fig 5 is a heatmap showing how many topics and sentiments each group of posts had. The color of the heatmap indicates the degree of deviation from expectations (see Methods), with pink indicating more posts than expected.

Color of cells indicates the degree of deviation of post counts from expectations in each cell about topics and users (see Residuals). A shift towards pink indicates more posts than expected. Note that we omitted the “trust” from the sentiments due to its exceptionally low counts.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.g005

Fig 5(a) reveals that Fan1 demonstrates a marked interest in news and fact-finding, while exhibiting diminished concern for other topics. Contrarily, Fan2 and Fan3 show limited interest in news and fact-finding, with a pronounced focus on corporate responsibility. The Politics category, along with Others, predominantly pertains to the media’s surmise and the contents of the crime. The topical interests align with the posts that they most shared, which would lead to Fan1’s maintained critical perspective on media coverage of the scandals, while Fan2 is interested in the contents of news, and Fan3 frequently critiques Johnny & Associates.

Fig 5(b) indicates the prevalent sentiments among groups. Fan1 predominantly exhibits feelings of anger and disgust, signifying dissatisfaction with news coverage. Fan2 shows heightened surprise and anger, which makes sense considering their interests are directed to the contents of the news. Fan3 expresses disgust, which is seemingly towards Johnny & Associates. Politics groups display heightened anticipation, talking about improving the situation and future.

9 Discussion and conclusion

9.1 main results.

Compared to traditional news media, users on platform X responded more promptly to Johnny’s sexual abuse issue ( Fig 1 ). This suggests that social media users contributed more to breaking the spiral of silence around the matter. This observation aligns with the recent study that social media can undermine the effects of the spiral of silence [ 29 ]. Within the social media realm, users often form reference groups, as demonstrated by several studies [ 15 – 20 ]. Specifically, when individuals recognize that their peers on platform X are engaging in discussions of a particular issue, they become more likely to express their viewpoints, regardless of whether mainstream media has acknowledged the issue [ 18 , 73 ].

Contrarily, mainstream Japanese news media outlets–television–lagged behind the BBC and X users in reacting to the scandal ( Fig 2 ). This study thus offers quantitative evidence of the “silence of news media” highlighted in various news articles and reports [ 5 , 8 , 74 ]. Also, the pace of Japanese media coverage stands in contrast to the rapidity with which Western media outlets reported on the MeToo movement [ 33 , 53 ]. Several potential factors may explain this discrepancy. For example, in addition to the suspected collusion between the mainstream media and the entertainment industry, Japan may have had few proponents of the debate, such as the feminists who supported the #MeToo discussion in Western countries. One way to speed up news media coverage, for example, would be to deregulate the industry and increase the number of television stations [ 75 ].

On the other hand, the news media’s reaction was most evident following the apology video by the president of Johnny’s company ( Fig 2(a) and 2(b) ). Subsequent to this press conference, the prevailing public opinion began to perceive Johnny’s issue as a genuine concern, elevating it to the status of a “social issue.” Actually, TBS, a major Japanese media outlet, admitted in a retrospective analysis that its staff initially regarded Johnny’s issue as mere gossipp [ 37 ]. The progression of this issue—becoming a public concern primarily after the apology video from the company’s president, who was aligned with the perpetrator rather than centering on the survivors’ accusation—may suggest potential commercial interests intertwining the news media and entertainment industries. Such dynamics require further research and scrutiny.

As for the users on platform X, we found that whether or not their favorite idol groups belong to the company might have influenced their perception of the sexual abuse scandal. Particularly for Fan1 (Pro-Johnny’s), escalating reports of the abuse would likely damage the reputation of their favored idol group, which could be a reason to remain silent on the matter. Such inherent biases of idol enthusiasts may play a role in shaping the opinion climate and fostering the spiral of silence. Yet, since idol fans do not have any incentives to break their silence, disrupting this spiral might necessitate external intervention, such as media exposure. Additionally, the departure of the idol group supported by Fan2 and Fan3 might be substantially attributed to the demise of Johnny Kitagawa. An in-depth evaluation of these factors in dismantling the spiral of silence would be necessary.

As depicted in Fig 3(d) , echo chambers emerged among user groups. It’s critical to highlight that, amidst the controversy, Fan1 (Pro-Johnny’s) maintained a minority viewpoint (14.8% of the network nodes), defending Johnny’s company. In an environment where the overwhelming majority criticized Johnny’s company, these fans stood out as the sole defenders. In this context, they can be categorized as the “hard core” group, as described by Noelle-Neumann [ 14 , 26 ] in relation to Johnny’s controversy. Actually, Fan1, who is pro-Johnny’s, had been silent for some time since the scandal came to light ( Fig 4 ). If they were indeed a hardcore group, even if they were aware of the fear of isolation, a strong attachment to the Johnny company could have fostered a high level of conviction in their stance, making them less resistant to expressing opinions divergent from public sentiment [ 26 ]. Alternatively, they might have been insulated from the fear of isolation by the echo chamber effect, being surrounded by peers sharing similar views [ 16 ].

9.2 Social media and the spiral of silence

Originally, the theory of the spiral of silence was posited in an era predating social media. However, the advent and ubiquity of social media have reshaped the communication landscape, necessitating a reevaluation of the theory’s applicability. Three salient points from the Johnny’s case illustrate this shift:

• Rapid Social Media Reaction: The immediacy with which social media users responded to the BBC report, juxtaposed against the lag in news media response, highlights the agility of digital platforms in disseminating information.
• Echo Chambers: Even when faced with an overwhelming societal narrative to the contrary, the visibility of like-minded opinions within their echo chamber enabled them to voice their support without apprehension.
• Amplification of Opposition: The public opinion condemning Johnny & Associates, which was in the minority before the issue was made visible, became the majority after being reported by the major media. Subsequently, an opposing public opinion emerged in defense of Johnny & Associates as a counter to the majority, which then expanded its network through echo chambers.

Especially at the time the Spiral of Silence theory was proposed, it highlighted the phenomenon where, fearing isolation, people conformed to the majority opinion, leading to a situation where the majority grew increasingly dominant, the minority increasingly marginalized, and the free market of opinions distorted. However, what this study has implicated is a story in which the minority (initially those criticizing Johnny & Associates, and later, those defending it) gains strength potentially through the power of echo chambers. Thus, in the social media epoch, the spiral of silence theory’s core tenets requires contextualization. This study is novel in that it clarifies the role of social media under circumstances where silence prevails, through a comprehensive and chronological analysis of the interaction between multiple mass media and social media regarding this issue.

9.3 Implications for the media industry

The media fundamentally serves to illuminate societal injustices and elevate them to the status of public discourse. In this context, the BBC, an international broadcaster, assumed this responsibility. Yet, it was the discussion on the social media platform X that catalyzed widespread awareness in Japan. This digital fervor prompted an apology video by the president of Johnny’s, marking a turning point wherein Japanese mainstream media amplified its coverage, solidifying the matter as a nationally recognized issue.

This study suggests that in the current media environment, where social media is widespread, social media can break the silence even if the mainstream media remains silent, provided there is a trigger. On the other hand, it also revealed that reversing the majority and minority can lead to the emergence of an opposition to the new majority, and this opposition can be amplified.

Japan’s television industry is notably oligopolistic, with a starkly fewer number of TV stations than countries like the United States [ 76 ]. This is attributed to the permissive nature of broadcasting rights, which have become significant vested interests. Given this structure, Johnny’s company is a pivotal player, influencing viewer ratings across nearly all TV stations. This entrenched relationship potentially fosters undue influence. Introducing more TV stations, ensuring their independence from specific entertainment entities [ 75 ], and promoting inter-station competition could mitigate such concerns.

9.4 Limitation and futurework

In this study, we explored the disruption of silence surrounding the most significant scandal in the annals of Japanese entertainment. We acknowledge several limitations of our current approach. Firstly, while our keyword-centric method for identifying posts about sexual assault prioritizes the recall rate, it may overlook posts that don’t explicitly contain our chosen keywords but are still relevant to the topic. Employing machine learning models could address this oversight. Additionally, our categorization of users and posts relies on unsupervised learning rather than theory-driven coding, which presents an area for future refinement.

Regarding future research directions, as delineated in our discussion, several pertinent issues emerge. These include the relationship between commercial ties of media and entertainment agencies and the spiral of silence, the influence of Janie Kitagawa’s passing on this spiral, and the external pressures imposed on the Japanese media by foreign entities such as the BBC. While these are crucial subjects, they could not be comprehensively addressed given the constraints of our current dataset. A more in-depth exploration of these topics would provide valuable insights into strategies for breaking societal silences and fostering an environment more conducive to supporting the socially vulnerable.

Supporting information

S1 table. the top 50 frequent nouns that appear in x posts related to johnny’s that include “性加害” (sexual abuse)..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.s001

S2 Table. luster names obtained from network clustering and the percentage of size each cluster occupies in the network.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.s002

S3 Table. Cluster names of network clustering and their representative words (original) from profiles of users in each group.

Representativeness were calculated by Tf-Idf.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.s003

S4 Table. Result of topic modeling, indicating topic names of post contents and their representative words (English).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.s004

S5 Table. Result of topic modeling, indicating topic names of post contents and their representative words (original).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.s005

S6 Table. Clusters and the posts each group shared most (English).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.s006

S7 Table. Clusters and the posts each group shared most (original).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306104.s007

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Impact of the Network Size and Frequency of Information Receipt on Polarization in Social Networks

• Krishnarao, Sudhakar
• Selvamani, Shaja Arul

Opinion Dynamics is an interdisciplinary area of research. Disciplines of Psychology and Sociology have proposed models of how individuals form opinions and how social interactions influence this process. Sociophysicists have interpreted the observed patterns in opinion formation in individuals as arising out of nonlinearity in the underlying process and helped shape the models. Agent‑based modelling has offered an excellent platform to study the Opinion Dynamics of large groups of interacting individuals. In this paper, we take recent models in opinion formation in individuals. We recast them to create a proper dynamical system and inject the idea of clock time into evolving individuals' opinions. Thus, the time interval between two successive receipts of new information (i.e., the frequency of information receipts) by an individual becomes a factor that can be studied. In recent decades, social media has continuously shrunk time intervals between receipt of new information (i.e., increased frequency of information receipts). The recast models are used to show that as the time interval between successive receipts of new information gets shorter and the number of individuals in one's network becomes larger, the propensity for polarization of an individual increases. This explains how social media could have caused polarisation. We use the word "polarisation" to mean an individual's inability to hold a neutral opinion. A polarisation number based on sociological parameters is proposed. Critical values of the polarisation number beyond which an individual is prone to polarization are identified. These critical values depend on psychological parameters. The reduced time intervals between the receipt of new information and an increase in the size of groups that interact can push the polarisation number to approach and cross the critical value and could have played a crucial role in polarising individuals and social groups. We also define the extent of polarisation as the width of the region around neutral within which an individual is unable to have an opinion. Reported results are for values of model parameters found in the literature. Our findings offer an opportunity to adjust model parameters to align with empirical evidence. The models of opinion formation in individuals and the understanding arrived at in this study will help study Opinion Dynamics with all its nuances and details on large social networks using agent‑based​ modelling.

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Bretherton, J.; Pleace, N. The Needs of Women Using Homelessness Services: The Results of Collaborative Research in London. Soc. Sci. 2024 , 13 , 347. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13070347

Bretherton J, Pleace N. The Needs of Women Using Homelessness Services: The Results of Collaborative Research in London. Social Sciences . 2024; 13(7):347. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13070347

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Peer Relationship and Social Skills Development among Grade 6 Teachers

• Devine B. Escabarte , Remigilda D. Gallardo
• Published in International Journal of… 12 June 2024

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A study on detecting blood pressure dynamics in different age groups: a community health intervention in ranipet village, mahabubnagar dist., telangana, 27 references, the prosocial classroom: teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes, influence of teacher empowerment on teachers' organizational commitment, professional commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in schools., the impact of induction and mentoring programs for beginning teachers, paths of professional development: contrived collegiality, collaborative culture, and the case of peer coaching, collaboration and the need fortrust, the treatment of childhood social phobia: the effectiveness of a social skills training-based, cognitive-behavioural intervention, with and without parental involvement., the persistence of privacy: autonomy and initiative in teachers' professional relations, harsh parenting in relation to child emotion regulation and aggression., does exposure to counterstereotypical role models influence girls’ and women’s gender stereotypes and career choices a review of social psychological research, the effectiveness of whole-school antibullying programs: a synthesis of evaluation research, related papers.

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A scoping review on effective measurements of emotional responses in teamwork contexts

• Published: 27 June 2024

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• Xiaoshan Huang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2853-7219 1 &
• Susanne P. Lajoie 1  

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Effective collaboration within teams relies significantly on emotion regulation, a process vital for managing and navigating emotional responses. Various methods have been employed to measure emotional responses in team contexts, including self-report questionnaires, behavioral coding, and physiological measures. This review paper aims to summarize studies conducted in teamwork contexts that measured team members' emotional responses, with a particular focus on the methods used. The findings from these studies can lead to identification of emotion regulation strategies and can lead to effective interventions to improve team performance in future. The core question guiding this review is: What are effective measures in capturing individuals' emotional responses in team dynamics? Using a scoping review, the study aims to answer three research questions (RQs): 1: What was the distribution over time of the studies that examined team members’ emotional responses and/or regulation of emotions in team dynamic? 2: What type(s) of data were collected, and what are the theories used in these studies? 3: What are the advantages and challenges of each type of measurement on emotional responses in team dynamics? The synthesis of the findings suggests that multimodal data, combining various measures such as physiological data, observations, and self-reports, offer a promising approach to capturing emotions in teamwork contexts. Furthermore, combining multimodal data can benefit capturing individual and inter-personal regulation, including self-, co-, and social emotion regulation in teamwork. This paper highlights the importance of integrating multiple measurement methods and provides insights into the advantages and challenges associated with each approach.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Jason M. Harley and Dr. Adam K. Dubé for their invaluable contributions and insightful feedback during the development of the first draft of this article.

This work is supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) awarded to Xiaoshasn Huang and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) under the grant number of 895–2011-1006. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper, however, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FRQSC and the SSHRC.

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Xiaoshan Huang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology (ECP) at McGill University, and a member of the ATLAS (Advanced Technologies for Learning in Authentic Settings) Lab. Her areas of research interests include investigating learners’ cognition, motivation, and emotion regulation in both academia and the workplace using intelligent tutoring systems, as well as socially shared regulation in collaborative learning.

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The Essence and Scope of Sociology: a Comprehensive Understanding

This essay about sociology highlights the scientific study of society, examining social interactions and institutions. It explores how individuals and groups function within social structures, which influence beliefs and identities. The field uses various research methods to investigate themes like inequality, race, gender, education, and globalization. The concept of “Sociological imagination” by C. Wright Mills is central, linking personal experiences to broader social forces. Sociology addresses social inequalities, advocating for justice by identifying exclusion mechanisms. It also examines social change, such as the impact of technology and politics, and the relationship between society and the environment.

How it works

Sociology is scientific research of society, containing social co-operations and establishments. Then dug in the dynamics of that, how individuals and groups function within the limits of social structures and how these structures influence on maintenance, faith, and identity. The field investigates the different aspects of social life carefully, from the personal attitudes toward expansive of social tendencies, offering the deep penetrating in daily co-operations and structures that form them.

In his maintenance, sociology aims to educe the standards of social maintenance and lying in founding zmusza, then moves them.

Sociologists use the various array of experience methods, how quality, so and numeral, to collect and analyse data on the social phenomena. These methods allow the review of wide spectrum of themes, for example inequality, rejection, race and ethnic belonging, kind, education, and globalization. Through raw research, sociology increases our understanding of social problems and informs development of politics, social prosperity directed in an improvement.

Central concept in sociology is “Sociological imagination,” term, what is minted C. by Mills of Master. This concept encourages, that individuals associated the personal experience with anymore social zmusza, examining, how historical, cultural, and the set contexts form our lives and how our society of action of actions. This prospect encourages critical and informed worldview, illuminating the tangled cleating between an individual agency and social structures.

Sociology also plays central role to addressing of social inequalities and defence for a justice. Investigating root of reason and consequences of disparity in a profit, to education, health, and possibilities, sociologists identify the mechanisms of exception and isolation. These knowledge are critical for creation of interference and politics that moves forward equity and including. For example, research on systematic racism opened widespread nature of pedigree discrimination and his harmful effects on data second-rate societies, to turn off efforts discriminatory practices and to move forward heterogeneity, what leaves.

To that, sociology provides penetrating in the dynamics of social change, investigating, how social motions, technological progresses, economic moving, and political developments influence on norms and establishments. Understanding of these processes is substantial for the rule of actions of change on society. For example, ecological sociology investigates co-operation between society and surrounding natural world, distinguishing the social measuring of ecological problems and conducting viable practices.

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Intangible cultural heritage research in China from the perspective of intellectual property rights based on bibliometrics and knowledge mapping

• Weijun Hu 1 ,
• Mingxing Li 2 ,
• Xiaomeng Chi 3 ,
• Xinxing Wang 2 &
• Asad Ullah Khan 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  825 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Cultural and media studies

This research scrutinizes the trends and dynamics of Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in China, utilizing a dataset of 91 papers from the CNKI database spanning 2011 to 2020. The study uses CiteSpace software to visualise and analyse the literature across multiple dimensions, including article count, authorship, institutional affiliations, and keyword co-occurrence. Findings indicate a lack of robust collaboration among authors and institutions in IPP and ICH, with a scarcity of active cooperative groups. Critical research hotspots identified encompass intangible cultural heritage, intellectual property protection, inheritors, legal protection, copyright, intellectual property law, and geographical indications, with the legal safeguarding of ICH’s intellectual property, digital conservation, traditional cultural expressions, and original authentication emerging as the leading research frontiers. This investigation provides a holistic view of China’s IPP and ICH landscape, offering essential scientific insights for ongoing scholarly discourse. This study mainly benefits policymakers and stakeholders in the cultural heritage sector, underscoring the necessity of enhanced authorial and institutional collaboration and the prioritization of legal and digital protection mechanisms to safeguard China’s intangible cultural legacy for posterity. The analysis is critical, informing policy formulation and strategic planning to bolster ICH’s protection and sustainable management in China.

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Introduction.

Intangible cultural heritage is a valuable cultural information resource of human society, carrying the Chinese nation’s civilization and unique spiritual values. Recognizing its significance, protecting, transmitting, and developing ICH has become a priority for the state and ethnic groups. In 2003, the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was established by the UNESCO General Conference, aiming to preserve ICH represented by traditions, oral expressions, festive rituals, handicraft skills, music, dance, and other heritage. Numerous scholars have studied ICH’s preservation and development. Tan et al. ( 2018 ) examined the elements of the “people-place bond” that may contribute to the sustainability of ICH and found that a “sense of loss”, “sense of justice”, and “sense of mission” emerged as the three main themes of the “people-place bond”. Similarly, Lonardi et al. ( 2020 ) highlighted the significance of ICH, particularly language, in sustainable tourism research. Chen et al. ( 2020 ) proposed a framework for experiential landscapes of ICH that takes a multidimensional view of the “landscape”. Moreover, York et al. ( 2021 ) pointed out that the socio-cultural adjustment brought about by working in ICH tourism enterprises positively influenced migrant workers’ local identity.

At the same time, the IPP of ICH has become an increasing concern for both national and international parties. In 2019, China’s State Council issued the “2019 Promotion Plan for Accelerating the Implementation of the National Intellectual Property Strategy to Build a Strong Intellectual Property State” (the “Promotion Plan”), which aimed to promote the implementation of the national intellectual property strategy and emphasized the importance of ICH IPP. Later, in August 2021, the State Council released Opinions on Further Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (the 2021 Opinions). The plan highlights using various means, such as trademark rights, patent rights, and geographical indications, to reinforce ICH IPP and outline an in-depth intellectual property strategy for ICH protection.

Intellectual property protection of intangible cultural heritage refers to protecting ICH by incorporating it into intellectual property rights (Peng, 2021 ). To explore the hotspots and development trends in the field of research on ICH in the context of IPP in China and to give an overview of the overall development of this field, this paper analyzes the literature in much research on IPP of ICH in China based on the relevant literature in the Chinese database CNKI through a combination of bibliometric and knowledge mapping analysis.

Literature review

Studying Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) under the lens of Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) has emerged as a crucial academic endeavour. This paper conducts a systematic literature review on the intricate relationship between IPP and ICH, guided by bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping. The literature was selected based on stringent criteria: relevance to IPP and ICH, citation impact, and contributions to the theoretical and conceptual framework of the field. This review aims to trace the academic trajectory, identify pivotal works, and synthesize core themes and debates.

Research on the intellectual property protection of intangible cultural heritage

Problems of intellectual property protection of intangible cultural heritage.

While the IPP of ICH significantly impacts its safeguarding, transmission, and revitalization globally, many practical issues remain unresolved. Wagner and de Clippele ( 2023 ) contended that globally, the protection of ICH has evolved from rescue and salvage efforts to comprehensive safeguarding and, finally, to achieving sufficient protection. However, the IPP system has private rights and exclusive properties that contradict the collective and public interest nature of ICH, leading to the “tragedy of the commons” and “anti-tragedy of the commons” in the practice of ICH protection (Chen and Yang, 2021 ). The current intellectual property rights system has significant limitations in protecting traditional crafts, and its revision regarding these crafts needs to be more scientific and feasible (Yan and Li, 2021 ). Moreover, knowledge in the public domain is at risk of damage if it is not more widely protected from privatization (Raath and VerhoefI, 2021 ). A quantitative analysis of 12,123 ICH trademark search data in China found that ICH symbol trademarking was disorderly, and many trademark applications could distort, derogate, or dilute the ICH’s connotations (Luo and Wang, 2021 ).

The legal framework for the Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) encounters numerous obstacles. Specifically, concerning traditional medicine, the current intellectual property regulations exhibit notable delays and tend to prioritize administrative safeguarding measures, resulting in the inability of existing IPP laws to provide legal protection for all forms of ICH (Nan, 2023 ). Additionally, there needs to be more special legislation and target provisions for ICH’s IPP, and the scope, rights, obligations, and duration of ownership of the subjects of ICH have yet to be clearly defined (Gao et al. 2017 ). There is a necessity for a more precise delineation of the legal characteristics of folk paper-cutting art in China, alongside strengthening the legal acknowledgement of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) within society (Zhang, 2023 ). China’s intellectual property-related legislation started late, and the financial investment in folk paper-cutting needs to be increased. Further, although the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage calls for international cooperation in safeguarding the world’s intangible heritage, it inadvertently fosters nationalistic claims of local cultural traditions (Aykan, 2015 ). States Parties can use the Convention as a patent ratification system and its list to register common traditions as their national heritage. The current international protection of ICH favours a government-led administrative public law approach to safety, and international negotiations on IPP for ICH have needed to be faster (Wang and Huang, 2021 ). There are problems of “free-riding,” distortion and falsification, uneven protection, lack of justice in distribution, and high transaction costs in the security and utilization of ICH (Xiao, 2019 ). The safety and utilization of ICH resources and the distortion and falsification of ICH by external users of ICH heritage should be taken seriously and solved.

Measures for the intellectual property protection of intangible cultural heritage

Given the considerable challenges surrounding the intellectual property protection (IPP) of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), scholars have researched and proposed potential solutions. One such approach is the “Classified policy and joint protection” model for constructing an IPP system for ICH heritage (Wang and Huang, 2021 ). This model entails government leadership in defining the boundary between public and original ICH achievements and using platforms and data to protect ICH heritage innovation achievements through legal means such as patents and copyrights. Creating a supportive environment for preserving and developing time-honoured ICH techniques is also essential, as is respecting local customs during the ICH IPP process for traditional folklore.

Reducing the registration criteria for geographical indications of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is crucial for safeguarding ICH and enhancing its quality benchmarks (Arfini et al. 2019 ). This involves reducing related fees, clarifying ICH geographical indication owners and rights holders, and ensuring product quality standards. A new system must be designed, outlining rights subject and object, content limitations, and automatic protection authorization (Yan and Li, 2021 ). Furthermore, when selecting the geographical indication path for ICH, natural and human factors related to ICH products, geographical distribution inheritance, product quality characteristics, and prior rights, as well as the promotion and protection plan for geographical indication products, must be considered and tailored on a case-by-case basis (Campi and Dueñas, 2019 ). For example, some researchers studied the IPP of Miao embroidery and proposed that Miao embroidery should be protected for an indefinite period, defining folk organizations among the Miao people as the subjects of Miao embroidery rights and establishing a royalty system to ensure that Miao embroidery creators can profit from users (Luo, 2022 ).

Building an intellectual property protection system fully integrated with marketization is crucial for promoting traditional ethnic handicrafts while ensuring their inheritance and protection. This system must rely on modern intellectual property protection and leading enterprises to maximize its effectiveness. A special rights system for modernizing and developing traditional crafts should also be considered to ensure that conventional ethnic arts are preserved and developed effectively (Wang, 2022 ). In addition, to promote international cooperation and competition in intellectual property rights, countries along the “Belt and Road” should deepen and promote collaboration based on a joint interest base. Through the consensus of establishing a community of human destiny and implementing new TRIPS-plus rules as a practical strategy, “Chinese wisdom” and “Chinese solutions” should be applied to improve the protection of intangible cultural heritage on a global scale (Wang and Huang, 2021 ).

In terms of legislation on intellectual property rights protection of ICH, Reves ( 2023 ) suggests that the protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in intellectual property rights legislation should incorporate the use of criminal law, including the establishment of a dedicated section within the criminal code and the definition of specific offences related to the loss of ICH. Nan ( 2023 ) advocates for creating specialised legislation to protect intellectual property rights in traditional medicine. This entails enhancing the current legal framework for conventional medicine’s intellectual property rights protection, developing a unique legal safeguarding mechanism, and establishing a comprehensive database of traditional medicine knowledge. Tan and Cao ( 2018 ) highlighted the importance of constructing an intellectual property rights system for ICH in ethnic minority regions designed to meet the needs of the socialist legal framework with Chinese characteristics while also focusing on the innovation of intellectual property rights law for ICH. To protect ICH in Tibet, Xiao ( 2019 ) proposed a hybrid management mechanism of “public law-soft private law” constructed by the ICH Law, the internal norms of traditional communities, and the Copyright Law. Similarly, Lin and Lian ( 2018 ) recommended strengthening copyright, trademark, geographical protection, and patent protection to deal with the diversity and complexity of ICH and reconcile the various interests involved. As far as trademark management of ICH symbols is concerned, trademark grabbing by outsiders and scattered registration by indigenous people, as well as orderly use of ICH symbols under collective trademarks or certification trademarks, should be excluded, which should be identified as the primary goal of ICH trademark law protection. To achieve this goal, the “exclusion method plus uniform use” scheme shall be adopted in practice. Under this scheme, First Nations, trademark offices, courts, and ICH protection centres need to cooperate to improve trademark law protection of ICH through advocacy, action, institutions, and information (Luo and Wang, 2021 ).

At a macro level, the legal protection of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage must support the economic development of the country concerned based on its resources (Hilty, 2009 ). In the modern era, it is essential to not only enhance ICH digital preservation techniques but also to reflect on the cultural values and ethics that ICH embodies (Chen and Yang, 2021 ). To further bolster ICH development in China, efforts must be made to improve the protection path of the United Nations Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage. Additionally, local legislation and normative documents should be promulgated and integrated with specificity and operability based on the Law of the People’s Republic of China on ICH to strengthen the legal system for ICH protection (Chen and Luo, 2022 ).

Visual analysis of iIntangible cultural heritage research

In recent years, scholars in China have used CiteSpace visualization and measurement software to research ICH, with significant findings. While some studies have focused on ICH as a whole, others have explored specific types of ICH, such as drum lyrics and Sichuan opera, or ICH in different regions, such as ethnic minority regions. Ducharme et al. ( 2024 ) stated that ICH research needed a more robust cooperative network between authors and academic institutions, underscoring the need to strengthen such collaborations to enhance educational influence. Chen and Huang ( 2020 ) discovered that research on ICH in China had undergone three stages, including slow start, rapid growth, and steady-state development, and that the scope of study involved many fields, such as tourism economy, fine arts, and music. Fan and Wang ( 2022 ) identified cultural industries, cultural inheritance, legal protection, and tourism development as key research domains in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). They observed a low citation rate of foreign journals within this discipline. Zhang et al. ( 2024 ) emphasized the importance of increased collaboration among researchers and institutions in ICH studies. They further pointed out the field’s emphasis on theoretical analysis, advocating for an expansion into more applied research to enhance practical applications.

From the communication studies perspective, Chen et al. ( 2022 ) explored the research clustering of ‘ICH communication’ in China since 2007. He proposed that research on ICH from the communication perspective mainly consisted of two discourse systems: reflections and discussions on ICH’s essential characteristics and cultural attributes and problem strategy research on the protection, inheritance, and development of ICH. In the future, new media communication will play a crucial role in preserving the living heritage of ICH, and the “digital communication of ICH” will become an important research topic in the field. A lot of research was conducted on the ICH of ethinc minorities in China. The annual distribution of literature advanced wave-like, and the overall trend of publications had declined (Liu, 2021 ). While research hotspots in this area continue to deepen, there is still a need to expand into new research areas in theoretical ICH research of China’s ethnic minorities. In the field of drumming research, Li and Hu ( 2018 ) employed scientometrics theory to analyze drumming research literature between 1956 and 2016 and pointed out future directions for research, including a systematic study on the origin and flow of drums and research on the association and interaction between drumming and other music and art disciplines.

In terms of research on the digitization of ICH, Zhao ( 2013 ) found that the focus of the study had been on the digitization process of cultural heritage and its technological excavation, while issues related to remote visualization of networks and intelligent services for the public had not been studied enough. Fan et al. ( 2021 ) analyzed the theoretical construction and knowledge storage of knowledge graphs regarding the digital protection of ICH knowledge. They employed knowledge graph-related technologies to display different types of ICH in each region and constructed a regional ICH knowledge base platform. Shi et al. ( 2018 ) constructed a topic map of ICH digital resources and visualized it, indicating that topic map technology could help visualize the relationship between topics and provide visual navigation for users.

In terms of Chinese agricultural and cultural heritage, Cui and Shang ( 2020 ) the field is dominated by qualitative research and case studies and pointed out that primary national strategic needs should guide future scholars’ research. When it comes to ICH in theater, researchers have proposed using the essential event technique to study the dynamic evolution of Gaozai opera, which reflects the initial formation and inheritance development of the art form (Chen and Xu, 2015 ). Zhao and Tian ( 2021 ) conducted a quantitative and qualitative visual analysis of the current state of Sichuan opera communication and found that research on Sichuan opera has been gaining momentum over time. There are now many hotspots for research, including various forms of Sichuan opera communication, Sichuan opera works, and Sichuan opera artists. However, challenges such as limited cooperation among different regions and institutions and fragmented cooperation among scholars still exist. Li and Wu ( 2021 ) emphasized that Tibetan opera research is interdisciplinary, covering history, art, and communication. They found that 11 major categories, including Tibetan opera and Princess Wencheng, have been formed, and Tibetan opera, Intangible Cultural Heritage, and cultural heritage are research hotspots. However, there is a lack of research on Tibetan opera digital preservation, and inter-institutional cooperation is limited (Xu et al. 2021 ).

In sports and martial arts, Yang et al. ( 2021 ), research patterns have evolved from conceptual definitions, conservation, and development studies before 2014 to case studies focused on specific regions and sports. Sports ICH embodies a unique folkloric characteristic in each region, spatially dispersed. In another study, Cao and Lin ( 2020 ), Chinese martial arts have gained considerable attention in the international academic community, with research primarily focused on exercise science and neuroscience. They found that the engineering model was the primary approach to promote research in this field.

There are relatively few CiteSpace-based ICH research results in international academia. Dang et al. ( 2021 ) pointed out that digitization of ICH is indispensable for preservation and transmission, and combining ICH and cultural industries is a crucial approach for utilisation and dissemination. Meanwhile, Su et al. ( 2019 ) used CiteSpace to analyze ICH-related literature and discovered limited academic collaboration among researchers, research institutions, and countries conducting ICH research. The relationship between highly productive and highly cited authors was also weak.

Further, Robbins ( 2010 ) proposed new directions for technological innovation in ICH: direct documentation of indigenous traditions, the transformation of indigenous traditions into emerging technologies and contemporary cultural expressions, and the development of new technologies applying indigenous practices. Cozzani et al. ( 2016 ) argued that the European Community-funded project - “Treasures” had made a precious and innovative contribution to the preservation and transmission of ICH and that these projects are practical tools for organizations, schools, and institutions to promote endangered ICH. Alivizatou ( 2008 ) claimed that the concept of ICH had greatly enriched the cultural heritage discourse, leading to a more inclusive and human-centred understanding of past concepts and that the museum sector had the potential to benefit from this new approach. Rodzi et al. ( 2013 ) argued that cultural heritage sites and cultural tourism had a high potential to attract tourists and that ICH could only be sustainable if it were consciously and equally protected. Finally, Perkins and Krause ( 2018 ) argue that environmental conditions affected ICH.

The analysis above indicates a gradual increase in academics focusing on ICH from the perspective of intellectual property rights and visualization. Both qualitative and quantitative studies have yielded fruitful research results, providing valuable references for scholars studying this field. The intersection of ICH and intellectual property has become increasingly important. Moreover, CiteSpace has been applied to visual analysis in a broad range of subject areas, including environmental scanning (Robinson et al. 2021 ), intelligent libraries (Du et al. 2021 ), low-temperature electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries (Hu et al. 2022 ), hotel management (Li et al. 2017 ), molecular mechanisms of cancer (Zhong et al. 2021 ), advanced tourism (Pestana et al. 2020 ), mechanical energy harvesting (Azam et al. 2021 ), and barrier-free tourism (Qiao et al. 2021 ). For example, Zhong et al. ( 2021 ) identified hot research mechanisms, such as metabolism (aerobic glycolysis, insulin resistance, actin), oxidative stress, gene expression, and apoptosis, in studying the effects of exercise on cancer. Wei et al. ( 2022 ) identified the inflammatory and immune mechanisms, related diseases, and related cytokines as the primary research topics in atherosclerosis (AS), with research frontiers in B cells, mortality, inhibition rates, and monocytes. It can be seen that CiteSpace is used in an extensive range of research fields, such as sociology and engineering. Knowledge graphs can generate a traceable knowledge graph from disorganized data through visualization techniques and provide a reasonable and sufficient basis for relevant research.

In summary, the literature on systematic analysis and prediction of the future of research in the field of IPP of ICH is limited. There is also a need for more literature on the characteristics and development trends in this field using visualization methods. Therefore, it is an innovative and valuable attempt to study the current situation of the IPP of ICH through econometrics and to analyze the state of past research more precisely. The Promotion Plan has explicit provisions for the IPP of ICH and supports local research in this area. Against the State’s strong endorsement of IPP of ICH, the need for in-depth study on the inheritance, revitalization, and utilization of ICH has become a significant issue in academic and practical circles in China. What is the status of research in this field in the last decade? What are the hot topics and trends? Who are the foremost scholars and research institutions studying this field? To promote research in this field, it is essential to answer these questions and better understand the current state, core research themes, and development trends. Therefore, this paper collects relevant literature on ICH and intellectual property in the Chinese database CNKI and uses CiteSpace software to visualize and analyze the field of ICH intellectual property to reveal the research hotspots, research frontiers, and development trends in this field.

Data sources and research methods

Data sources.

To conduct an in-depth study on the intellectual property protection (IPP) of China’s intangible cultural heritage (ICH), this research has selected China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) as the primary data source. The choice of CNKI is due to its comprehensive coverage of academic research in China, encompassing a wealth of resources such as journal articles and dissertations, which significantly meet the analytical needs of this study. Compared to other databases, CNKI emphasises Chinese literature, which is crucial for investigating the domestic phenomenon of ICH IPP. This study specifically selected literature from the Peking University Core Database and Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) to ensure reliance on high-quality research. The time frame for the study was set from 2011 to 2020, with the aim of exploring the research progress and development trends in the field of ICH IPP over the past decade.

In terms of literature selection criteria, a search strategy was initially established. A secondary search was conducted after a preliminary search of the topic words to identify keywords closely related to the theme. In this study, the keywords related to intellectual property protection included “Intellectual Property Protection”, and those related to intangible cultural heritage included “Intangible Cultural Heritage”. Based on these keywords, an initial search expression was formed: TS= (Intellectual Property Protection) AND (Intangible Cultural Heritage), facilitating the literature search. Additionally, this research focused on including journal articles with high citation rates and academic influence while excluding non-academic articles and duplicate studies. Detailed information on the specific languages, types of literature, time frame, and search results are provided in Table 1 .

Furthermore, to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the research data, the retrieved samples were imported into CiteSpace for deduplication. Upon verification, it was confirmed that there were no duplicate articles in the sample, ensuring the uniqueness and accuracy of the data. This curated and verified set of samples will be used for an in-depth visual research analysis in this field.

Research methodology

The use of CiteSpace software for bibliometric analysis is due to its proficiency in visualizing academic collaboration networks and research trends. Integrating features of bibliometrics, databases, and information science, CiteSpace can create knowledge maps that depict the development status and research trends of various disciplines over different periods. These maps unveil the evolution of fields and current research frontiers, highlighting CiteSpace’s ability not only to forecast future developments in a domain but also to explore the logical relationships between works of literature, expressing these relationships through graphical representations (Chen, 2006 ; Chen et al. 2010 ). The knowledge evolution visual model provided by CiteSpace approximates the scientific development of specific physical world domains. Its high level of abstraction forms a “second-order science” category, offering more vivid visual effects that facilitate the interpretation of existing scientific discoveries and the establishment of literature-based scientific findings (Chen et al. 2015 ).

In this study, CiteSpace V5.7.R3 was employed to conduct a visual analysis of 91 papers in the field of intellectual property protection and intangible cultural heritage, encompassing an analysis of the basic overview of the field (distribution of countries/regions, co-cited journals, co-cited authors, institutional co-occurrence, and keyword clustering) as well as an examination of research hotspots and the overall research evolution. The temporal segment was set from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2020, with a time slice of one year. The version of CiteSpace used, V5.7.R3, is known for its efficient processing of large data sets and the generation of detailed knowledge maps, which are invaluable for understanding the state and mechanisms of scientific development. This methodology aims to comprehensively reveal the developmental trends and research hotspots in Chinese ICH studies, particularly from the intellectual property rights perspective. This enriched and expanded analysis is crucial for articulating a nuanced understanding of the field’s trajectory and current research emphases, thus contributing significantly to the scholarly discourse on ICH and IPP.

Results and analysis

Analysis of the total number of publications.

Over the past decade, the annual distribution of literature on the Intellectual Property Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (IPP of ICH) has served as a barometer for measuring China’s research interest and academic engagement in this field (La et al. 2021 ). As depicted in Fig. 1 , between 2011 and 2020, the overall trajectory of ICH IPP publications has declined, delineating two distinct phases. In the initial phase from 2011 to 2015, despite a decreasing annual output, the number of publications each year remained above ten, with the first two years witnessing relatively high outputs of 16 and 14 articles, respectively. This phase coincided with China’s intensified national strategy to strengthen the protection and utilization of intangible cultural heritage, aligning with global efforts to recognize and safeguard these heritages.

The number of published papers from 2011 to 2020.

However, during the declining phase from 2016 to 2020, with the year 2020 marking a low with only two published articles, a critical inquiry arises into the factors influencing this downturn. Several potential explanations merit exploration. The reduction in output could be associated with shifts in research focus, changes in policy, or the maturation of the field where foundational research questions have been extensively addressed, prompting a need for innovative methodologies and approaches. Therefore, while this study delineates the decadal trajectory of IPP literature in intangible cultural heritage, reflecting tangible research advancements, it is evident that both the quantity and quality of academic output could greatly benefit from enhanced scrutiny. Through this analysis, we posit that the impending academic endeavours in the IPP of ICH will integrate innovative theoretical propositions and methodological breakthroughs, fostering a revival in this critical research domain.

Analysis of the authors of literature

Firstly, utilizing CiteSpace V5.7.R3 software, we constructed the co-authorship visualization map (Fig. 2 ) and the co-authorship clustering view (Fig. 3 ) for the field of intellectual property protection and intangible cultural heritage research. These views reveal the collaborative patterns among scholars in this domain, where the co-authorship network elucidates the cooperative relationships between researchers, and the number of publications reflects the individual scholars’ contributions and engagement in the field. Upon delving into the author collaboration trends, Table 2 showcases the publication frequency of individual authors. This study identifies Chen Yuxi as the most prolific author, highlighting a prominent collaboration pattern. Similarly, the consistent, collaborative relationship between Wang Shuting, Xiong Wanzhen, and Sun Zhiguo indicates a stable research collective. However, a broader author collaboration network, predominantly characterized by single-article contributions, unveils a different, possibly nascent, research community.

CiteSpace-based author collaboration mapping.

CiteSpace-based author collaboration clustering mapping.

Further refinement in Fig. 3 showcases the collaborative clusters derived from the extensive cooperation network, revealing ten distinct research groups marked with “#”. These groups reflect the diversity and specialization within the research field, covering varied thematic directions and scopes ranging from developing heritage products to sports heritage, intellectual property of traditional medicine, and studies on folk arts. This prevailing pattern of individual research and sparse collaborative networks unveils key characteristics of intellectual property protection within the Chinese intangible cultural heritage academic ecosystem. While individual scholars’ contributions have brought diverse research perspectives and insights, the absence of a tightly-knit research collaboration network indicates that the synergistic effects of cooperation may not have been fully realized. This further suggests an urgent need to bolster interdisciplinary exchanges and collaboration to enhance the depth, robustness, and impact of research in the intellectual property of intangible cultural heritage.

Analysis of literature publishing institutions

Institutions are crucial in producing research results. The research institutions and their publication volume reflect the current situation and development trend of IPP of ICH research power in China. From the perspective of institutional cooperation density, it can be seen from Fig. 4 that the nodes in the figure are research institutions, the number of nodes is 111, the node linkage is 31, and the node density is 0.0051. The node linkages signify institutional cooperation in this field, with connection strength proportional to the inter-institutional collaboration level. Institutions are somewhat scattered and less connected, highlighting a need for more cooperation among institutions in IPP or ICH research in China, requiring further academic exchanges. Table 3 indicates that most publications originate from university faculties and research institutes. Specifically, most publications are from university law schools, colleges of the arts, history, management, resources, and environmental sciences, among others. The extensive involvement of universities and research institutes is evident in the IPP of ICH research. The School of Law of South-Central MinZu University and the Research and Creation Division of Guangxi Arts Institute have published the most articles, with three articles each. However, most research institutions issued only one article. Hence, institutions need to conduct more in-depth research on ICH’s IPP. Geographically, institutions with more articles are mainly located in Hubei Province, Sichuan Province, Beijing City, Chongqing City, and other regions. This indicates a positive correlation between research in the field and the level of regional economic and social development. However, the overall research strength of institutions in IPP of ICH is relatively weak, with fewer articles being issued. There needs to be more academic exchanges and cooperation among institutions, and research strength needs to be strengthened. The main research forces in this field are universities’ law schools. A region’s economic and social development of an area is directly proportional to the degree of development of a research field.

CiteSpace-based mapping of institutional collaboration.

Analysis of research hotspots

To identify research hotspots and development trends in the subject area, a knowledge mapping analysis of keywords was conducted using CiteSpace software to analyze data related to the IPP of ICH. The lines between nodes represent the co-occurrence of keywords. The larger the node circle, the higher the frequency of the node keyword appearing and the closer the relationship between the term and its co-occurring keywords. In Fig. 5 , the number of nodes is 149, links are 357, and network density is 0.0324, indicating a relatively compact network structure. The two largest nodes are “intangible cultural heritage” and “intellectual property”, reflecting their high frequency of appearance compared to other keywords (Table 4 ). From these two keywords, other high-frequency keywords such as “intellectual property protection”, “legal protection”, “copyright”, and “intellectual property law” were derived. These high-frequency keywords are significant nodes in the study of the IPP of ICH. In the past decade, they have also been the research hotspots for ICH’s IPP. Meanwhile, in CiteSpace, nodes with intermediary centrality higher than 0.1 are key nodes. In Fig. 5 , nodes such as “intellectual property” (the centrality of 0.55) and “intellectual property protection” (the centrality of 0.18) are key nodes, indicating that the state and academics are paying more attention to the protection of the intellectual property of ICH, and conducting follow-up studies on this issue.

CiteSpace-based keyword co-occurrence mapping.

Secondly, the frequency of keywords reflects the distribution and focus of a subject area, which is conducive to grasping the development trend of research in this area. The frequency of keywords in Table 4 shows that “intangible cultural heritage” and “intellectual property” appear most frequently, 73 times and 56 times, respectively. “Intellectual property protection” was mentioned nine times, and “legal protection” was mentioned seven times. “copyright” and “intellectual property law” appear 4 times, while “local legislation” and “ethnic minorities” appear 3 times. The high occurrence of these keywords signifies research hotspots, indicating growing attention toward the combination of ICH and intellectual property in the academic community. At present, practical circles have adopted intellectual property-related legislation to protect ICH vigorously. Local legislation is increasing. Furthermore, the research community has shown interest in the protection of ICH in minority communities, with ICH in such regions serving as a research hotspot. This focus can help strengthen ICH preservation among these groups.

To more intuitively demonstrate the correlation between keywords in the IPP of ICH in China, this paper uses CiteSpace to conduct a clustering analysis of keywords, aiming to reflect the closeness between nodes. Cluster labels are named after keywords with larger arithmetic values; the smaller the number of cluster labels, the more keywords are included in the clusters. Each cluster consists of a series of keywords with strong correlations in the mapping. Different clusters represent different research directions within a subject area. The clustering module value (Q value) and the clustering mean profile value (S value) in CiteSpace can be used to judge mapping effectiveness. It is generally considered that a Q value > 0.3 means that the clustering structure is significant, an S value > 0.5 indicates that the clustering is reasonable, and an S value > 0.7 means that the clustering is convincing. From the clustering results of keywords in Fig. 6 , it can be seen that Q value = 0.5306 and S value = 0.794. Therefore, the clustering of IPP of ICH research is significant and convincing. As can be seen in Fig. 6 , there are seven clusters, namely, “intellectual property”, “intellectual property protection”, “geographical indications”, “protection mode”, “copyright”, and “problem-oriented”. This indicates in-depth research into ICH protection in China under intellectual property rights. The smaller the number in the clustering labels, the more closely related keywords are included in the clusters. It is also evident from Fig. 6 that intellectual property is a hot spot in the current research field of IPP at ICH.

CiteSpace-based keyword clustering mapping.

Analysis of research frontiers and evolution

The time zone mapping of keywords provides valuable insights into the evolution and trends of IPP of ICH research from 2011 to 2020. The mapping shows the connections between keywords and reflects the research frontiers in the field. Research advances reveal new trends and mutational characteristics of a subject area. Figure 7 shows that intangible cultural heritage, geographical indications, intellectual property rights, legal protection models, and bearers have been the research hotspots in the field. The line between the keywords in the time zone map indicates that these hot keywords appeared in different years of literature and journals. New research hotspots emerged in different years, such as “local art, private rights protection, public goods, and sports culture” in 2013. In 2015, there were hotspots such as “traditional medicine, rights system, misconceptions about intangible cultural heritage protection, and protection of productive areas”. 2019 new research hotspots emerged, such as “judicial protection, excellent traditional culture, cultural and creative products, and criminal law protection”. The changes in research hotspots for these keywords reflect the evolutionary path of research on IPP of ICH, from initial research on the combination of intellectual property and ICH to research on the combination of intellectual property and specific ICH items to legal application of intellectual property of ICH. Finally, as research in this field continues to grow, the scope of research has expanded. For example, IPP has been extended to numerous kinds of ICH, from indigenous art to folk music, traditional medicine, folk paper-cutting art to fine arts. There are four main research frontiers in this field today: legal protection of intellectual property of ICH, digital protection, traditional cultural expressions, and original certification. Obviously, the research scope and research content of IPP of ICH have been expanded, but the depth of its research needs to be further promoted.

CiteSpace-based timeline mapping.

Conclusions and recommendations

This paper, leveraging bibliometrics and knowledge mapping through CiteSpace software, critically examined the landscape of Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in China. By dissecting 91 documents over the past decade, this study illuminated the research trends, collaboration patterns, and institutional contributions within this niche yet vital academic terrain.

Conclusions

Firstly, the analysis revealed a decremental trend in the annual publication volume, highlighting a research plateau in the IPP of the ICH domain. The initial phase (2011–2015) demonstrated robust engagement, aligning with national strategies for ICH preservation. However, a noticeable decline post-2015 raises concerns about diminishing research vigour. This downturn, possibly due to shifts in academic focus or policy changes, underscores the imperative for rejuvenated scholarly attention.

Secondly, a fragmented scholarly network was evident, with minimal collaborative endeavours among researchers, as showcased by the predominant single-article authorships. This scenario indicates a lacuna in multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations, essential for nurturing a holistic research ecosystem. Research concentration within certain law schools and regional institutions suggests a potential disparity between research intensities across different geographical and academic precincts.

Thirdly, the institutional analysis underscored a scant interconnectivity among entities engaged in IPP of ICH research. Predominantly anchored in law schools, the research landscape portrays a need for a broader engagement spanning various academic disciplines. The regional distribution of research output, correlating positively with economic and social development indicators, calls for strategic resource allocation and academic support enhancement, especially in underrepresented areas.

Finally, the shift in research hotspots, from general ICH preservation to nuanced aspects like legal frameworks, copyright, and geographical indications, reflects an evolving academic discourse. The current emphasis on legal protection, digital safeguarding, and traditional cultural expressions signifies a maturing research domain, albeit requiring deeper, more innovative explorations.

Recommendations for future research

Fostering multidisciplinary and international partnerships will be crucial to cultivating a vibrant academic environment. Enhancing research methodologies and diversifying analytical tools will enrich the scholarly narrative. Policy-makers and academic institutions must prioritize funding and support mechanisms to invigorate research in underexplored themes and regions.

As China progresses in its ICH protection journey, aligning with global intellectual property norms, a strategic fusion of public law mechanisms and private intellectual property rights is essential. The burgeoning awareness and legislative advancements in ICH protection herald a promising trajectory for future research, wherein an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach could unlock novel insights and sustainable heritage conservation strategies.

In conclusion, this study delineates a critical juncture in China’s ICH research landscape, marked by a call for strategic interventions and collaborative synergies to harness the full spectrum of intellectual property rights in safeguarding the cultural tapestry. Future scholarly endeavours should pivot towards an integrated, dynamic, and inclusive research paradigm that resonates with the evolving global discourse on intangible cultural heritage.

Limitations of the study

While this bibliometric analysis offers insights into the IPP of the ICH landscape, it is imperative to acknowledge the inherent limitations of such an approach. Reliance on published literature might not fully capture the extensive on-ground activities and nuanced cultural dialogues within the ICH spectrum. Furthermore, the methodological constraints and potential biases in data selection and analysis necessitate a cautious interpretation of the findings.

Data availability

The dataset used in this study can be reproduced by following the method described in our manuscript. The dataset and associated files can be made available upon reasonable request or accessed with the permission of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Dataset: Contains all the primary data used in the study. Associated Files: These include supplementary materials, scripts, and other relevant documents necessary for data analysis and the reproduction of the results. These files encompass all information needed to verify and replicate the study’s findings, ensuring transparency and reproducibility in the research process. Access to these materials can be granted upon reasonable request, adhering to the permissions set by CNKI.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Key Research Base of Universities in Jiangsu Province for Philosophy and Social Science “Research Center for Green Development and Environmental Governance”. This work was supported by The Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project (grant number 20YJCZH064), The Postgraduate Education Reform Project of Jiangsu Province (grant number JGKT22\_C091), Jilin Provincial Social Science Foundation Project "Ecological Design of Cultural Landscape of Archaeological Sites" (No. 2022B180), and Philosophy and Social Science Research Innovation Team Project in Jilin University (No.2022CXTD17).

Jilin Provincial Social Science Foundation Project “Ecological Design of Cultural Landscape of Archaeological Sites” (No. 2022B180) and Philosophy and Social Science Research Innovation Team Project in Jilin University (No.2022CXTD17).

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Weijun Hu, Mingxing Li, Xiaomeng Chi, Xinxing Wang, and Asad Ullah Khan conceived the study, collected the data, performed data analysis, and wrote the manuscript, with Mingxing Li and Asad Ullah Khan leading the study supervision. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Hu, W., Li, M., Chi, X. et al. Intangible cultural heritage research in China from the perspective of intellectual property rights based on bibliometrics and knowledge mapping. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 825 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03314-9

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