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Article History

Received: 13 October 2024

Accepted: 28 November 2025

First Online: 15 December 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: The study was approved by the Experimental Ethics Committee of the School of Journalism and Communication, Shaanxi Normal University (Approval No.: 002). The Committee reviewed the project on 10 August 2023, and the approved period for data collection was 15–30 August 2023. The research was conducted in accordance with relevant institutional guidelines and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. A scanned copy of the original Chinese approval letter has been submitted with this manuscript. An English translation has also been provided.

: For the questionnaire, an electronic informed consent form is attached on the homepage of the survey platform. The form clearly explains the purpose of the survey, guarantees the anonymity of personal information, clarifies that the data will only be used for academic research (not for commercial purposes), and confirms that there are no potential risks of participation. Participants must read the entire consent form and click the “I agree” electronic button to proceed to the questionnaire—this operation is regarded as a valid expression of informed consent. The collection of questionnaire-based informed consent was conducted in two phases: the first phase was August 20, 2023 to August 25, 2023, and the second phase was September 5, 2023 to October 10, 2023. The second phase of data collection was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Journalism and Communication, Shaanxi Normal University through a supplementary approval (date: September 1, 2023). For the interviews, all participants are adults, and no vulnerable groups (e.g., patients, refugees) are involved. Given that all interviews were conducted online, written signature for informed consent was not feasible, so verbal consent was adopted instead. Prior to each interview, the researcher first read the standardized informed consent script (a copy of the script is provided) to the participant, and answered any questions raised. After confirming that the participant fully understood the purpose of the research, the scope of data use (including academic publication), and the recording arrangement, the researcher asked the participant to verbally confirm “I agree to participate” (the verbal consent process was recorded alongside the interview content for verification). The verbal informed consent for each participant was obtained on the same day as the interview, with the overall interview and consent collection period being August 26, 2023 to August 29, 2023.