Learning a foreign language and being first-year students at the same time can be challenging as they struggle to make the transition in learning a new language and adjusting to their new lives as a university student. Students have to deal with not only the academic challenges but also the adaptation challenge since they are making a transition to their new day to day life on campus. One of the significant challenges students frequently faces as a foreign language learner is a lack of communication confidence, which can turn into a hampering factor for their academic achievements. This mixed-methods study aimed to examine students’ communication apprehension (CA) level and explore factors that contributed to their current level of CA. In this paper, the authors measured the level of CA in 57 first-year students of French Language departments in an Indonesian university. Quantitative data was analysed via McCroskey’s Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24). Qualitative questions explored how the first-year students perceived their senses of experiencing the communication apprehension. In addition, the qualitative thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the qualitative data. The findings indicated a moderate level of CA in most of the first-year studentssuch as  fear of negative evaluation which was considered as the leading cause of the students’ high level of anxiety., Meanwhile, while prior knowledge and  a supportive teacher-student relations were appraised as the main foundation of the low level of CA students.

More than 60 years ago, Cognitive Dissonance Theory was introduced by Leon Festinger (1957), and arguably, this classic theory is still relevant to this day. Festinger described that cognitive dissonance occurs whenever people are confronted with facts that contradict their beliefs, values, and ideas; they will thrive on finding a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort. The theory applies to all social situations involving the formation and changes of human attitude, and it is particularly pertinent to the process of decision-making and problem-solving. The relevance of the theory is still reflected today in the era of the Internet-of-Things (IoT). The information overload and exposure of conflicting opinions on the Internet lead people to a state of mental fatigue where they become confused to seek the right information and may result in social and psychological conflicts.  Hence, this review paper attempts to provide an overview of the classic theory by exploring the core assumptions of the theory, causes of dissonance, and the theoretical implications on current social issues. It is expected that the results of the review could provide a sound basis for further practical study within the field of social studies.

Objective: This study is aimed at exploring the motivation and impression management strategies of “Instagram Stories” users. Materials and Methods: The authors interviewed 30 Instagram influencers in updating their contents on the Instagram Stories feature. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to capture the informants’ experience and consciousness in producing their online content as a part of their impression management. Results: The main findings of the study were as follows; First, Self-existence, viewers’ attractiveness, and innovativeness of the application have become the core motivation for the users in choosing the Instastory feature. Secondly, the impression management applied by the users as their front stage lies in the construction of their uploaded contents. Lastly, the users of Instagram Stories constructed their content in the form of thematic consistency, uniqueness, “captions” and information (image) editing. Conclusion: The present study indicated that the impression management pattern in using Instagram stories had become an integral part of the uploaded content to fulfil the users’ highest self-satisfaction and maximum impacts on the viewers as well as their virtual followers.

Through the establishment of FIT Malaysia, the Malaysian Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) aimed to ensure the adoption of healthy lifestyles by all Malaysians particularly youth, with initiatives to provide a variety of sports and fitness activities. This paper discusses the characteristics of the healthy lifestyle campaign by MOYS in spearheading the promotion of healthy living among youth after joining the social media bandwagon, with consideration of the time spent online by this targeted community. The study is significant to ensure that MOYS not only organises, but most importantly, utilises the most appropriate means in reaching the intended youth audiences. Through in-depth interviews with policy makers and implementers at MOYS, it was discovered that the characteristics of campaign management were not in line with social media characteristics and this has resulted in the superficial understandings of the success rate of promoting FIT Malaysia in Facebook and Twitter. This further highlighted the needs for the stakeholders to possess holistic knowledge on the social media realm as well as appropriate tools and sufficient budget to implement healthy lifestyle campaigns on social media. From this perspective, the paper provides in-depth discussions of health promotion from two aspects; the characteristics of campaign and how it can be synthesised with social media characteristics to reach out to youth and their healthy lifestyle in Malaysia through social media.

In this information-saturated world, people are thriving to cope with seemingly overload streams of information and images. The digital advancements alter and extend our means of communication abilities, information access, and spatial formations. Hence, a new literacy is needed to wield this new digital world. In this regard, the current conceptual paper attempts to explore the nexus of media literacy and geography education in coping with the digital era. The paper reviews the literature on geographic media literacy by describing the essential elements of the relevant literacy coined by Lukinbeal (2008). The paper goes on to discuss the three factors that play a prominent role in geographic media literacy. Finally, this paper recalls the importance of geographic media literacy and how it can contribute to the development of geography education in the Indonesian Setting.