While public intentions to get a COVID-19 vaccine have been shifting around the world, few studies track factors that help us understand and improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake. This study focuses on identifying changing public intentions to get a COVID-19 vaccine in New Zealand, a country that has been largely successful in containing the pandemic but risks new outbreaks as less than 20% of the population is fully vaccinated by August 2021. Data on COVID-19 intentions were collected just after the vaccine approval and rollout targeting old-age groups in February 2021 and then before the general public rollout in May 2021 (N = 650, 60% reinterview response rate). Results show that intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine increased in three months and was the highest in the last one year. Consistent with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, attitudes and efficacy beliefs were significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccine intentions, in the cross-sectional as well as longitudinal analyses. Findings highlight the persisting influence of attitudes, efficacy beliefs, and past intentions on future decision-making process to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Future research opportunities to understand vaccine intentions and improve public vaccine uptake are highlighted

This article examines the discursive constructions of income inequality in neo-liberal Singapore. While the city-state is touted as a model for smart governance captured in the ‘Singapore model’, the accounts of everyday lived experiences in Singapore depict the unsustainability of the model as a template of development, anchored in the deep inequalities interwoven with the model. This article draws on 34 in-depth interviews with high-, middle- and low-income groups in Singapore, stratified by race and citizenship status to reflect population demographics. The interviews document the ways in which inequalities are rendered meaningful amid the interplays of class, race and citizenship status. Based on grounded theory analysis of everyday accounts of inequality in Singapore, the article attends to the discourses of (a) individual responsibility and the disappearing state, (b) xenophobia and (c) paradoxical responses to government policies, simultaneously interrogating the state-espoused values of multiculturalism, meritocracy and pragmatism.

The traditional, formal approach to music learning has been via music schools and private tutoring. The newer, more informal way uses digital media—such as email, Facebook, Skype, and YouTube—as an adjunct to teacher-student interactions. In such an approach, digital media supplements in-person contact while preserving the master-student relationship. In both of these situations, there is in-person contact and the master-student hierarchy is preserved. This response considers these and other key points from Jonathan Savage’s chapter from a social science and digital media perspective.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now portrayed as a solution provider. Once considered to be an esoteric topic for being too math-heavy, AI has now become a household term with its presence in advertisements for commonly used items such as smartphones. AI devices fall under two fundamental categories – applied and general. Applied AI which is common in nature refers to systems designed to intelligently trade stocks and shares; whereas generalized AI, less common in nature, refers to systems that are capable of handling any task. Generalized AI, an emerging field, aims at functioning as a human with an ability to deal with complex situations with analytical thinking and depth of knowledge so that it can deal with diverse topics.

Although social media is a primary means for the general public to access science and health information and can help increase public knowledge, empirical evidence is mixed. Beyond social media exposure, this study investigates whether trust in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is related to public knowledge about the coronavirus. The findings, based on data from a nationally representative sample of 3933 people in the United States, show that trust in Facebook and Twitter is negatively associated with knowledge of COVID-19, even after controlling for a number of traditional factors associated with scientific knowledge. Republicans' trust in Twitter contributes to this knowledge gap, albeit the interaction between Republican affiliation and Twitter trust is weak but significant. The findings indicate that, despite increased suppression of fake and misleading information by social media companies, misinformation on social media persists and may lead to harm.