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The aim of the study is to show how the European Union’s vision for digital technology has evolved over the past ten years. In this regard, the paper focuses on three documents: <italic>Digital Futures – A Journey into 2050 Visions and Policy Challenges</italic>, published in 2014; <italic>2030 Digital Compass: The European Way for the Digital Decade</italic>, published in 2021; the declaration announced in March 2022, which calls for strengthening the <italic>EU’s Cyber Resilience</italic>. The purpose of the investigation is to show how the coronavirus epidemic and the Russian–Ukrainian war have changed the EU’s perception of digital technology, how medium- and long-term forecasts have been transformed, and how the issue of sustainability has been reflected in the texts.
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Digital Futures and Social Sustainability

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The interpretations of sustainability are varied. In most cases, the focus is on reinterpretations and transformations of human attitudes towards the natural environment and certain (unacceptable) social practices and conditions, i.e. the task would be to shape these spheres of human existence in the interests of sustainability. However, the creation and widespread use of the Internet is fundamentally changing human life that is no longer confined to the natural and social spheres. Web life, as a third sphere of human existence created by the universal use of the Internet, is also a component of human condition, both in itself and through its interactions with the natural and social spheres. It is essential to take this into account: the sustainability of these “three spheres” should be addressed together. The continuous construction of web life can be decisive for the sustainability of the whole human existence.
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Sustainability versus Web Life Construction

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One of the major new features of the digital environment is the increasing availability of information – but like so much else, this is not a completely new phenomenon. The history of culture and communication has led not only to an increase in the amount of information that can be transmitted but also to its interpersonal accessibility through newer technological tools. Techniques for recording knowledge (starting with various forms of writing) have increasingly widened the possibilities of dissemination and access. What is really new in the digital environment is the development of an information network that ensures continuous access. As a result, the accessibility of others’ ideas has increased significantly, and a kind of networked collective thinking process has developed alongside it. This puts the issue of trust in a completely new light: belief in the reliability of the information transmitted strengthens collective thinking, while doubt and rejection weaken it. Social sustainability in all areas of the digital environment may require processes that can both maintain and expand the supply of information and foster trust and communication that benefits the community. This article will seek to answer this question by examining the spread of misconceptions and of trusted knowledge.
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Trust and Rejection in the Reception of Information

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The aim of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the discursivemediatized image of the digital environmental subject. An ambivalent element of the neo-developmental language of digital life is the “digital divide”, which often takes ideological form when it constitutes the (non-)digital Other on the other side of the digital world, in the rigid binaries of centre–periphery. Of course, nothing illustrates the inequalities in access to digital and non-digital goods better than global crises such as the coronavirus epidemic, where the disparities between the living conditions (e.g. learning opportunities) of privileged and disadvantaged areas are widening, and this is one of the proofs of the existence of the digital divide. The school, which is the ideological state apparatus responsible for the reproduction of the subject as a basic productive force, became dysfunctional in different ways in different countries of the world, including Hungary, during the epidemic. In the latter, the epidemic has, according to many trusted research studies, further increased the backlog of disadvantaged and/or Roma students, and thus their segregation. Although it seems certain that the most important condition for the sustainability of digital life, and with it of the state, is the re-creation of digital environmental subjects through the education of digital literacy and critical-reflexive media use, the state seems to be abandoning these social groups in this respect; in their case, the interpellation value of digital education, or more precisely the lack of digital education, is the deterrence from learning. In the analytical part of the paper, I compare two media materials to highlight the possibility of a different narrative, coexisting with the negative trend briefly described above. These two items construct two images of digital environmental subject, and by analysing the differences between them, I would like to demonstrate that the hierarchy of centre–periphery can be made relative through the (non-)digital Other’s emic and critical self-repositioning, facilitated by participatory research.
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Same Place, Different Bicycles. The Etic and Emic Perspectives of Digital Life in Hungary

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Research on the political role of digital media, including social media, is often based on the assumption that new communication platforms can contribute to new forms of political participation such as taking part in deliberative political debates more actively and exercising the right to vote more often. Most of the studies focus on national processes: nationwide political campaigns and general elections. In this paper, we offer a different angle on these issues, focusing on a specific locality, more specifically the activities of a politically themed local Facebook group in a middle-sized town in Hungary. We also apply a digital anthropology approach that enables us to use a hybrid methodology combining online and offline tools in our research design. Results are presented in this paper in a research report format. We are far from a final conclusion about the interplay of social media use and political activity, but hopefully the experiences we share will shed some light on the functioning of these types of online communities.
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Pécs Chatter. A Digital Anthropological Study on the Impact of a Facebook Group on Local Politics

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The phrase “vaccine diplomacy” spread in the media during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examine where it comes from and locate it in health-related strategic communication. The article provides an overview of the history of vaccine diplomacy taken from the literature and then places the phenomenon among the branches of specialized diplomacy as well as among the components of public diplomacy. It highlights the difference between vaccine diplomacy and 20th-century public diplomacy. The article concludes that vaccine diplomacy as a tool of soft power and persuasion hardly differs from vaccine solidarity announced by the G7 member states. In fact, the only difference between vaccine friendship, vaccine diplomacy, and vaccine solidarity is in the perspective, that is, the evaluation by the speaker. These phrases are manifestations of the rivalling narratives that accompany the global power shift.
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What Is Vaccine Diplomacy?

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Social sustainability is a development alternative that focuses on preserving and sustaining opportunities and resources for future generations rather than exploiting them. In addition to resource management, it is important to emphasize the focus on human well-being, in which the provision of a healthy life is a key factor. One possible alternative to improve the quality, safety, and affordability of universal healthcare is to integrate artificial intelligence into the health system. The development of AI in healthcare has brought a paradigm shift, as big-data-driven analytics can enable AI itself to identify symptom complexities and communicate with patients. In this process, it is important to explore the attitudes of healthcare professionals towards AI-based technologies, as doctor–patient communication is moving away from authoritarianism towards partnership medicine, in which AI will be an integral part of communication. In my research, I investigate the attitudes of future doctors, i.e. medical students and doctors already in practice, towards AI by using a hybrid research method of semi-structured interviews, photo collage techniques, and a questionnaire survey. The photo collage technique, due to its projective nature, can be used to reveal the respondent’s underlying evoked memories and attitudes. The new image network (collage) can be used to model the doctor–patient–AI relationship envisioned by the doctors. The results highlight the aspect of the application of AI in medicine and point out that it is not only the capabilities of the software but the attitudes of the entire health stakeholder community that influence the uptake of innovation. The exploration of issues of authority and trust in the field provides an opportunity for the creation of educational and outreach programmes.
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Social Sustainability in Medicine: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Future Doctor–Patient Communication. A Methodological Experiment

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The presented research investigates the case of non-metropolitan, regional universities in Central-Eastern Europe to understand how their third mission strategy and practice contribute to the societal development of their localities. It intends to fill a gap in related contemporary research, which usually neglects such universities in this part of the EHEA. The investigation is built on a comparative case study design with non-random, purposive sampling on the cases of <italic>Universitatea Transylvania din Braşov</italic> (UTBv) in Braşov, Romania, and <italic>Dunaújvárosi Egyetem</italic> (DUE) in Dunaújváros, Hungary, and employs a mixed methodology of the convergent parallel design (parallel databases). The paper presents an outline of a doctoral research plan with an overview of its preliminary results, the author’s related publications, the present state of the research, and its possible future directions.
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The Third Mission of Central-Eastern European Regional Universities: Two Cases from Romania and Hungary

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This article examines the relationship between social sustainability and the fake news phenomenon in the light of the COVID-19 epidemic. Using existing statistical data and relevant media-related concepts, it compares the harmful impacts of the pandemic and the accompanying infodemic. The problem can be placed among the components of hybrid warfare. Examples, statistics, and research on COVID-19-related fake news are discussed with a focus on efforts for building resilience against fake news.
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Pandemic and Infodemic – Which One Is More Dangerous?

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Volume 9 (2022): Issue 1 (December 2022)

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Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Communicatio

 Communicatio is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published yearly. It aims at publishing theoretical and empirical research in communication studies, with a focus on information society issues. The journal is interested in all the variety of academic traditions in the field, and promotes dialogue between them.  Why subscribe and read Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Communicatio publishes genuine, previously unpublished research: surveys, case studies, reports and reviews, on both applied and theoretical aspects of communication issues.  Why submit Communicatio invites academic researchers and other professionals of communication and media to disseminate new and original works.  Rejection Rate   33%   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 