Media Trends and Prospects in Educational Activities and Techniques for Online Learning and Teaching through Television Content: Technological and Digital Socio-Cultural Environment, Generations, and Audiovisual Media Communications in Education

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide information and data that will contribute to the enhancement of teaching methodologies for online learning and teaching at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education). More specifically, it attempts to shed light on media trends and prospects as educational activities and techniques, as well as on the utmost importance of the use of television content as audiovisual educational content. This venture focuses on the cases of Cyprus and Greece following literature materials and reviews, research results, and findings of previous numerous studies and research papers from and through the Internet that were considered as background. The aforementioned were applied in a pilot case study with adult educators as adult learners (18 years and older), providing literature data and historical elements as a source of further study. The findings from the pilot case study revealed that the television content can also shape (adult) learners’ perceptions on how they understand and learn in an online environment in regard to the generational cohort they belong. Furthermore, the results disclosed that an online educational process utilizing audiovisual media technologies and audiovisual content (audiovisual media communications) may support technology-enhanced learning through non-verbal communication in the new streamlined digital era in which we live. An important conclusion of this article is that the (inter)national genealogical characteristics and habits, the inherent and special characteristics, and the socio-cultural identity of learners, as well as the various (inter)national social-phenomena (e.g., media socio-phenomenon, Internet phenomenon, revival phenomenon, etc.) of the past and present, should always be taken into account by education administrators and educators, in order to maintain a quality and sustainable future education.

1. Introduction

The new order which has emerged due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has led education administrators and educators to make (new) “changes”, such as adjusting, adapting, or/and applying old (and forgotten) teaching methodologies and methods, educational activities, techniques, and communication tools [1,2,3,4,5]. The new modifications and changes, the so-called COVID-19 teaching methods or/and COVID-19 teaching tools and so on [4,5], have already been thoroughly studied, researched, and applied with different names in the recent past and led to various interesting research findings and results [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17], following the development of the first web browser by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 [18], thus marking the creation and development of online learning and teaching. Furthermore, throughout the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, all educational systems worldwide suddenly shifted to online learning and began to plan and design the (new) future of education and digital transformation at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education). Issues such as (a) educational technology (e.g., immediate utilization of audiovisual media technologies); (b) educator preparedness, and new skills and abilities; (c) digital divide and gap (e.g., between digital immigrants and digital natives, digital wisdom or/and digital nativism, etc. [19,20,21,22]); (d) student engagement; (e) inclusion; (f) special education; and more (still debated to the time of writing this article) were raised. All of the above have already been studied, researched, and discussed for many decades, and there have been proposed various solutions and applications (e.g., the disparity in education, emergency protocols, support for online education, etc.) [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,23,24,25,26,27].

The COVID-19 pandemic has arrived in a highly visualized period when the triptych of information communication technologies (ICTs), and in particular the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, fake news, conspiracy theories, and social media (e.g., online social networks; OSNs, social networking sites; SNSs, audiovisual, and sound platforms, etc. [28,29,30,31,32,33]) continue to dominate [34,35,36,37,38,39,40]. On the other hand, the modern and visual-centric way of our life has already created new trends, attitudes, and stereotypes. Moreover, new forms of television viewing and usage patterns, as well as new types of streaming content from and through applications have flooded the audiovisual landscape [23,41,42,43,44,45,46]. The digital transformation in education is now unprecedented, and the innovations that may emerge from now on will be beyond our imaginations. The new approaches in teaching methodologies through utilization of audiovisual media technologies and audiovisual content (audiovisual media communications), which have been proposed in recent years and have revolutionized the educational process in technology-enhanced learning, may be able to generate and further increase the likelihood of successful enhanced learning outcomes if used properly [15]. To accomplish this, we must keep in mind the genealogical characteristics, culture background and needs of each generational cohort must be taken into account [6,15,23,24,25], because it that is, the recipient of these “new changes”.

In summary, due to the circumstances mentioned, this article attempts to shed light on media trends and prospects in educational activities and techniques for online learning and teaching. Specifically, educational techniques harnessing audiovisual media communications providing technology-enhanced learning mainly in adult education, and more specifically the utmost importance of the use of television content as audiovisual content will be investigated. This argument arose taking into account two pylons to fill this gap and contribute to a sustainable future for a quality education for everyone. The primary pylon concerns the background study through literature review, data, research results, and findings of previous numerous studies and research papers in the field of media studies, audiovisual media, and education, especially in adult education and media studies education. This was achieved with systematic searches from and through the Internet, applying online and technology-enhanced research methods through Internet applications and services [47]. More specifically, the methods of finding information on the Internet were applied through (a) various bibliographic databases (e.g., ERIC, Web of Science, etc.) and (b) online archives from specific online press—such as, LiFO (Greece), VICE (Greece), Athens Voice (Greece), Parallaxi Magazine (Greece), In.gr (Greece), City Free Press (Cyprus), StudentLife (Cyprus), and Avant-Garde (Cyprus); using multimodal contents and materials, journalistic criticisms, and interactive articles from them. Likewise, all the information and data were cross-referenced through the information evaluation methods, while the information perceived from the online press was also cross-checked through two online focus group as part of the ratification process: (a) nine adults (18 years and older) from Thessaloniki (Greece) (five PhD candidates and four postgraduate students of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; as experts in the field) in November 2020 (first ratification); and (b) eight active adult educators (18 years and older) during the academic year 2020–2021, four participants from Cyprus and four participants from Greece, in June 2021 (second re-ratification; in the context of culturally related processes) and in October 2021 (third iterative re-ratification; thus ensuring the reliability and validity of information through triangulation). The secondary pylon concerns the attitudes and views of the official younger generations expressed through a confirmed teaching methodology, methods, and educational techniques employing audiovisual media technologies in (technology-)enhanced learning. Those were performed under the form of a digital educational seminar based on a tried and tested interactive lesson plan online using audiovisual content derived from the media (i.e., television content) through non-verbal communication [24] (pp. 971–972) as a pilot case study in Cyprus and Greece. These two countries are characterized by a similar polarized pluralist socio-cultural environment, media model, and recent sociopolitical context of economic crisis and austerity [40,42,48,49], while they have been exposed to the same media socio-phenomena. Furthermore, they have the same official language (Greek language) and similar cultural background and culture, manners, customs, religions, and behaviors, and they constitute the ideal field for investigating online teaching [40]. Finally, due to the complexity of the issues involved, this article partly follows a literature approach whilst including historical elements as a source for further study. This combination was necessary to clarify the landscape and context in which this article falls, while being something that will help potential readers from other countries.

The main purpose of this article is, therefore, to provide information and data that will contribute to teaching methodologies for online learning and teaching at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education), resulting in discovering the key to success for any educational process. More specifically, the research objective was to test the (new) theory of audiovisual media in education (e.g., teaching methodology and educational techniques) [15] through the digital storytelling methodology in online teaching (RO1). This theory summarizes and enumerates the main audiovisual media technologies with their operational characteristics (i.e., computer, visual media, sound/audio media, and video, as well as social media and audiovisual platforms) that can be used and applied mainly in a teaching environment [15]. In addition, the main teaching methodologies (i.e., differentiated teaching and interdisciplinary teaching), methods (i.e., inductive method, production method, interpretative method, and constructivist method), and educational techniques (e.g., re-energizing memory, brainstorming, group discussion, etc.) are suitable for the use of audiovisual media technologies, for the purposes of effective teaching and educational effectiveness [15]. At this point, it should be noted that this theory is the metaevolution of the theoretical framework [50] that was used for in the context of the research project “Non-Verbal Communication” (NVC) to adults (18 years and older), which began in 2014 and was completed in mid-2020 in Cyprus and Greece [51,52]. The main aim of the research project NVC was for the adult participants to understand the necessary, not only theoretical but mainly practical, knowledge relating to non-verbal communication at all levels, in order also to be able to effectively use the techniques that compose its rich range of communication, utilizing audiovisual media communications and applying critical pedagogy and non-distance informal structured teaching [51] (pp. 169–170). On one hand, the new theory focuses primarily on the educational use of audiovisual media technologies and the wider integration of ICTs in the educational process (especially in adult education) [15,50] and is based on the self-directed learning theory of Knowles [53] as adapted by Hammond and Collins [54], and the andragogy theory of Knowles [55]. It was proposed mainly for adult learners in media studies aiming at the quality of the educational process using technology-enhanced learning [15]. Moreover, this theory has so far been applied to non-distance education teaching (or regular teaching) in higher, professional, and adult educations through research, and the research results and findings confirm it [6,24,25,51,52]. Finally, part of this specific theory has been presented and published in the proceedings of numerous (inter)national scientific conferences with international participation in Greece and Cyprus from 2015 after blind peer reviews by experts in the field [9,10,13,14,56].

On the other hand, a research hypothesis was also delimited to validate this work. Based on the selection criteria of the individuals who will participate as a research sample of this pilot case study (something that will be mentioned below), it is expected that part of the research sample will not have the same genealogical characteristics as its international peers, while everyone will have the corresponding habits and behaviors with the generational cohort to which they belong (H1).

In recapitulating, the current pilot case study is also part of a larger, ongoing original and innovative research project that explores the multidisciplinary field that incorporates media, audiovisual content, and education (MACE), and especially ICTs in adult education in Greece and Cyprus, which began in 2016. This research project is considered original and innovative because it generates and presents for the first-time new information and data through and after technology-enhanced research. Also, the research approach methodology is applied for the first-time, as well as in both countries simultaneously. Finally, it contributes to the current debate of using audiovisual media technologies within the educational process in technology-enhanced learning, and especially in the field of audiovisual media in relation to adult education.

2. Background through Literature Review and/or Related Work

The use of audiovisual media communications as ICTs in education nowadays contributes to educational effectiveness in technology-enhanced learning as well as to the provision of knowledge or specific or/and combined skills that creating a new streamlined digital era and experience for generational cohort [6,11,15,17,23,24,25,57]. Furthermore, audiovisual media communications play an equally important role in the modern and visual-centric way of our daily habits [24], while requiring everyone who uses them for work purposes (not only for educators) to have multiple-multimodal skills and abilities for a successful professional practice on the job and professional career [6,15,24,25,39,47,57].

On the other hand, the rapid developments of ICTs, as well as the combination of technological and digital social changes, have led researchers over the last three decades to baptize the generations with different names. Following the “Fourth Turning” theory of generations by generational experts William Strauss and Neil Howe [58,59], as well as Tapscott’s research [60,61], the chronological rage of generations coincides and is influenced by the individuals’ motivations and the use of the media, who have different ways of thinking, communicating, and learning, while contributing to the evolution of their own linguistic models and new communication codes [6,19,20,21,23,24,25,40,42,43,44,45,46,60,61,62,63,64]. The most discussed-about and researched generations of recent times are mainly the new generations, such as Generation Y (GenY from here on) (people born from 1980 to 1994) [65,66,67] and Generation Z (GenZ from here on) (people born from 1995 to 2010) [68,69], whose members were born during the period that the Internet began to enter our daily lives. In the same category falls Generation X (GenX from here on) (people born from 1965 to 1979) [59,70] which are mostly the parents of the two mentioned generations (i.e., GenY and GenZ) [40,71,72].

In contemporary society, people refer primarily to the visible and not to the invisible part of the Internet, and especially to the World Wide Web (official name WorldWideWeb, commonly referred WWW or called just web). The Internet first appeared in the United States of America (USA) in the 1950s through a common communication code (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; TCP/IP) of an infinite network of computer systems with computer labs around the world, creating an underlying digital genetic material structure [31,32,33,39,40,47]. Nowadays, users use it mainly through various electronic devices as an extension of their daily lives between the continuous evolving culture relationships of humans versus machines towards everyday stories based on archetypal norms [38,39,40,47].

The WWW was created with the development of web browsers from 1991 onwards [18], and was baptized as web 1.0. DiNucci in 1999 [73] mentioned in an article the term web 2.0, attempting to describe the convergence and emergence of the new technological and electronic devices on the time, as well as the Internet applications and services [39,40,47,74]. The appearance of this new version changed the 3W (i.e., world, wide and web) to 3C (collaboration, contribution, and community) [75], creating the Generation C (GenC). This generation is not included in the official generational cohorts, but it is a term used in academic and non-academic literature to describe our transition to 3C [39,40,76,77], and refers primarily to active online users who now produce and distribute of multimedia material worldwide [6,30,38,39,40].

In principle, it should be mentioned that the term web 2.0 became widespread in 2004, when Tim O’Reilly used the term during in a conference [74], while it was enacted from 2007 onwards, with the formal conceptual definition of the definition by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [39,40]. The OECD term focused on the model of (online) content production and contribution from the users themselves (i.e., user-generated content; UGC) [78]. In addition, from 2001 onwards, there has been a discussion of the “Web-as-participation-platform” (or semantic web) as the meta-evolution of the original WWW (as the second version), with conceptual roots from 1960, where it is now widely known as web 3.0 [35,39,40,74]. To summarize, it should be mentioned that the WWW are in the light of ICTs, while today is characterized as web 2.5 [79,80].

In conclusion, the Internet is a part of all human activities on a daily basis, such as, for example, the consumption of audiovisual content of any kind (e.g., television content). Due to this fact, it has gained immense popularity among mainly active online users, while decision-makers in various fields have begun to become more sensitive and receptive to the new opportunities it provides [39]. Without a doubt nowadays the Internet is a global communication system network where mainly through web 2.0 platforms (e.g., Internet applications and services, social media, etc.) interactivity is promoted and enhanced, while often creating situations of real instability and dependence on its absence [31,32,33,39].

In the following next subsections, (a) the clarification and the international archetype of the three younger generations that have adults (18 years and older) of today (2021) (i.e., GenX, GenY, and GenZ) in relation to the socio-cultural background and media-technological environment are presented (Section 2.1); as well as (b) the case of the media in Cyprus and Greece for television are briefly outlined (Section 2.2), in order to crystallize the habits and behaviors of the generations mentioned. More specifically, in Section 2.2 there will be a brief overview of (a) the history of television landscape and cultures in Cyprus and Greece (Section 2.2.1), as well as (b) the most well-known (inter)national television phenomena in both countries (Section 2.2.2), while finally it will highlight (c) the types of television content consumption from the past and present, as well as for the future (Section 2.2.3).

2.1. Socio-Cultural Culture of the Generations and Media-Technological Environment: The Clarification and Archetype of International XYZ

In recent decades, there has been a strong debate about the analysis of generations or/and which generational cohort someone may belong to. The analysis of each respective generation, and its comparison with the next or even the previous one is of great interest, especially for the media environment and industry, the business world, and the public alike.

On the other hand, in recent years, the tremendous metaevolution of ICTs has also fueled an increase in the production and distribution of multiple-multimodal material worldwide as well as the widespread expansion of consumption of audiovisual content from and through the Internet [6,29,81]. This phenomenon occurs primarily in the adult generations’ members with the younger adults today (2021) (i.e., GenZ and GenY) as well as in people born at least in the last five decades (i.e., GenX), who tend to use the Internet and ICTs more and more in every aspect of their daily lives with multiple-multimodal media production, processing, and management tasks [6,23,25,40,42].

According to the above and the relevant literature that members of each generation are influenced by the motivations and uses of the media [6,23,24,25,40,42,43,44,46,59,60,61,64], below are summarized the international archetypal genealogical characteristics, habits, and behaviors of the adult members of the three younger generations who have today (2021) as socio-cultural culture:

• GenX lived the beginning of technological development mainly as a mere spectator, while they grew up reading books or/and listening to the radio and dancing to disco music [40,82,83]. Additionally, they were, accustomed to the (traditional) television and the acceleration of globalization, while almost all of the younger members around the world have been affected and influenced by the American popular culture, such as Hollywood blockbusters, new musical genres (e.g., hip-hop, rap, etc.), and the appearance of music videos (video clips) on television—that is why sometimes this generation is also called the MTV Generation [40,71,72,82,83]. Finally, the mainly youngest (or the last) members of this generation, such as adolescent students or/and young adults as students/learners, were among the first to have access to personal computers from home or/and in schools/universities [40,82]. In conclusion, the most typical cases for the portrayal of the people who make up GenX as the international archetype in the global market (including the educational market) to create new brands and new models of teaching and learning through the media around the world as global pop culture phenomena are the foreign television series (a) Friends from NBC (1994–2004) as 20-year-olds friends; (b) Sex and the City from HBO (1998–2004) as a group of four women—three in their mid-thirties and one in her forties; and (c) How I Met Your Mother (often abbreviated as HIMYM) from CBS (2005–2014) as a group of five 30-year-olds friends; as well as two of the best school shows of all time based on Internet search engines, (d) Beverly Hills, 90,210 (often referred to by its short title, 90,210) from FOX (1990–2000) as a group of friends living in the upscale and star-studded community of Beverly Hills, California, USA, as they transition from high school to college and into the adult world; and (e) Saved by the Bell from Peacock (1989–2003) as a group of high school friends which has been classified as educational and informational child programming (i.e., children’s educational television) due to the primarily focusing on serious and controversial social issues (e.g., drug use, driving under the influence of alcohol, homelessness, remarriage, death, women’s rights, environmental issues, etc.) [40,83,84,85].
• GenΥ is also known as the Millennium Generation, and is often referred to simply as millennials. The term millennials came from Neil Howe and William Strauss [65], who wanted to refer to the group of young people who would grow up in the early 21st century [40]. Psychologist Jean Twenge described millennials as “Generation Me” in her 2006 book Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before [86]. This generation grew up mainly watching (a lot of) television until adulthood [40,42,59]—having a particular preference for American television series about the daily life of GenX television characters, which they often have as behavior pattern [40]. Furthermore, GenY members can be considered as open-minded media users and open-minded media audiences because they acclimatized immediately with the new rapid expansion of media technological developments (e.g., cable television channels, satellite radio, etc.). On the one hand, because of this, nowadays, they seem to be turning more easily to new forms of television viewing from and through the Internet [40], especially during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic based on the results of descriptive quantitative statistical researches of (inter)national nonprofit and other organizations (e.g., OECD, Eurostat, etc.) [6,40]. Additionally, GenY grew up discovering and using the Internet—that’s why sometimes is also called the Net Generation (otherwise known as Net-Generation, N-Gen, Net Geners) [60,61,87,88]. Their way of thinking has allegedly changed from the repeated and prolonged exposure to it, with the result that they think, connect, and process various information in different pathways, and gradually acquire an open-minded critical thinking [40,87,88,89,90,91,92]. In addition, due to the direct involvement and preoccupation with the Internet by a portion of its members as online active users—mainly as users/members of the (modern) Internet forums (e.g., torrent community portals/forums) from the mid-1990s and the beginning of the 2000s [39,40]—nowadays, they created two of the most well-known phenomena in our socio-cultural environment. The first phenomenon is that contemporary online socialization with the formal norms, rules, and (sub)culture (e.g., creating online slang, expressions or/and even excerpts/slogans/cues from mainly television series in the form of abbreviations or/and through Internet memes or gifs as Internet phenomenon) governing mainly social media [30,33,38,39,40]. On the other hand, the second one is the revival phenomenon of various audiovisual content in audiovisual/sound Internet applications and services [40]. In this category falls popular and famous (a) television series of recent decades through the reboot or/and sequel in the form of a movie film or/and special episode or season, or/and re-performance/re-enactment with other (young) actors and the same story, and so on; or (b) television productions; and (c) cartoons/animated movies through audiovisual platforms with interactivity (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, etc.), Internet protocol television providers (IPTVs), over-the-top (OTT) platforms, pay-TV platforms of telecommunication providers, the service Web-TV or Video on Demand (VoD) platform of the television channels [40]. Likewise, in the same category of revival fall music/songs or/and sound/audio media through sound platforms or/and the audiovisual platforms with interactivity, and so on [6]. In this case, it was feasible due the rescue of historical and non-historical archives on the Internet in the form of “gift” and sharing for future generations through the Internet forums—something that now tends to disappear, because most of the potential Internet forums were banned or/and closed due to universal legislative reforms and copyright laws mainly in the mid-2000’s worldwide—or/and other audiovisual platforms (e.g., YouTube) [39,40]. Summing up, broadly equivalent names to GenY are, Generation D, Boomerang Generation, and Echo Boomers based on Internet search engines [40,42,88]. In summary, it should be noted that due to the constant technological developments and changes experienced by the majority of this generation mainly as kids or teenagers, as well as that they grew up discovering the use of the Internet as a source of information for research, GenY tends to be less brand loyal, to be just as flexible, and to adapt to environmental changes and new fashion trends, style of consciousness, and where and how it is communicated [84,85,93]. Finally, most of this generation’s members were the first to discover and experiment with various online learning management systems (OLMS) in the context of the learning or/and educational process (such as Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, as well as Wikis or blogs) as online learner forerunners, during their studies as college or undergraduate or/and graduate students [40]. In conclusion, the most typical cases for the portrayal of the people who make up GenY as the international archetype through the media around the world, as mentioned above for GenX, are the foreign television series (a) The Big Bang Theory from CBS (2007–2019) which follows the life of a GenY members group, most of whom are young, high-intelligence scientists, living in Pasadena, California, USA; (b) Greek (typographically stylized as GRΣΣK) from ABC Family (2007–2011) which follows the GenY students of the fictitious Cyprus-Rhodes University (CRU) with a school’s Greek system, as well as the fictional fraternities Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sorority Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒΖ), located in Ohio, USA; and (c) Valeria from Netflix (2020–) which follows the life of four women around thirty and over in Madrid, Spain.
• GenZ originated from Tapscott in 1998 [60,61], which was followed by education consultant Marc Prensky in 2001 [19,20,21], who included this generation in the “natives” of the digital world [25,40,42,43,44,46,64]. This generation was born in the digital age (i.e., Internet and social media era) amid significant new technological changes and discoveries (e.g., smart devices, social media, etc.) [23,25,43,44,94], while its communication code is multiple-multimedia and is considered comprehensive multimedia communication [31] (p. 43), as they use text, images, sounds/audio medias, and videos to understand the world [25]. To summarize, this generation is characterized as a technology literate, which has learned using the Internet as a second language, while it ignores the monotonous things and tends to lose interest pretty fast as attention span is getting even lower due to constant updates [6,23,25,43,44,46,64,94,95]. Furthermore, it seems to present a tendency of lesser television viewing compared to other generations due to their habit of constant multi-screening and binge-watching (i.e., through VoD and OTT platforms, etc.) [44,44,64,95]. Additionally, GenZ spend many hours consuming audiovisual content from and through the Internet and specific social media, such as the audiovisual platform YouTube or/and illegal downloading from torrent sources as a legacy and habit of previous generations (i.e., GenY) [40,43,44,46,64]. Although this generation is born in the social media era, however, a majority of its members are very protective of their privacy and use mainly specific social media (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok) or none at all [40]. In conclusion, this generation seems to have a lot in common with the members of the generation born between 1925 to 1945, the so-called Silent Generation [58,96], which are their grandparents or great-grandparents [24,40,82]. Moreover, this generation is mainly responsible for the creation of most global brands, technology products, and (new) trends that we have and use nowadays [40,43,44,64,82,85]. Finally, GenZ members are the youngest current adults (2021), and most of them are still at the learning age mainly in higher education as college or/and undergraduate or postgraduate students or/and in adult education as adult learners, who may be working full time or part time due to socio-economic situations like the financial and austerity crisis [6,23,25,40,43,44]. In conclusion, the most typical cases for the portrayal of the people who make up GenZ as the international archetype through the media around the world from the foreign television series are (a) SKAM from NRK1 (2015–2017) which follows the daily life of GenZ teenagers at the Hartvig Nissen School, a gymnasium in the wealthy borough of Frogner in West End Oslo, Norway; and (b) Elite (Spanish: Élite; stylized as ELITƎ) from Netflix (2018–) which follows the daily life of GenZ teenage students in Las Encinas, a fictional elite secondary school in Spain.

2.2. The Case of the Media in Cyprus and Greece: Uncovering the Socio-Cultural Identity of the Younger Generations from and through Television

It is generally accepted that the television culture and socio-cultural identity of a person or/and of an age group or generational cohort are closely intertwined [24,97,98,99]. However, on the other hand, nowadays, the generations between them, have been acknowledged that they approach information in different and innovative ways, learn more and better while watching audiovisual content, have multiple-multimodal skills (e.g., handle more than one screen simultaneously), prefer interactivity, and have an online active presence from and through the Internet and social media [6,15,23,24,25]. In summary, these two reported approaches, although seemingly they are going in opposite theoretical directions and there is a distinction between them, are closely linked if one investigates the media environment and television content in the respective context and the foundation in time and place (i.e., politically, educationally and socially) [24,97,98,99,100]. Nowadays, this distinction can now be easily investigated and identified through methods of finding information and data from and through the Internet (e.g., through the Internet applications and services) [47].

Studying the Greek-Cypriot and Greek generations in relation to television and politics through television series (as television content), especially among the younger generations (i.e., GenZ and GenY) [24], reveals a type of television culture on a national level and socio-cultural identity [97,98,99] with new forms of television viewing and usage patterns as new trends, attitudes, and stereotypes—era-triptych conduct [23,24,25,42,43,44,46,64]. In this triptych, therefore, the legacy of social behavior that comes from the consumption of audiovisual content and is created by each generation respectively is summarized. The fact that this important field of study has been neglected for years may be due, in addition to the researchers’ ignorance of the genealogical characteristics of generations and generational cohorts, to the lack of understanding of the utmost importance of delineating in time and place at all levels (including the media environment) as the most important factor (e.g., for the in-depth revision rather than changing or deleting specific educational policies and strategies), which may have arisen as a result of specific facts, situations, and circumstances. In conclusion, a country’s media environment reflects its political, social, and cultural level [100], and helps us to understand specific situations and behaviors, as well to provide solutions to indirect and immediate problems that may arise.

2.2.1. Brief Historical Evolution of the Greek-Cypriot and Greek Television

The non-official television broadcasting in Cyprus began in 1957 by the British government under the auspices and guidance of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a governmental department [98,101], while in Greece it began in the mid-1960s under the Colonels regime (1967–1974) [102]. The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC or RIK as the official abbreviation for English language) (RIK from here on) was set up under the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Act 300A6 in Cyprus in 1959 [101], while the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT as the official abbreviation for English language) in Greece in 1975 according to Law 230/1975 (Government Gazette A 272/1975) [103].

The television landscape in Cyprus includes two national channels from the public sector (RIK1 and RIK2) and eight channels from privately-owned nationwide television stations (OMEGA, ANT1 Cyprus, SIGMA, PLUS, EXTRA, CAPITAL, ALPHA Cyprus and 7 SPROTS TV) through the private company VELESTER (the official digital terrestrial broadcasting networking and Frequency License by the Ministry of Communications and Works in Cyprus) with the pancyprian free-to-air television broadcasting. Additionally, in operation there are four pay-TV platforms through telecommunication providers (CYTAVISION, PRIMTEL TV, CABLNET TV, and EPIC TV) and one pay-TV service through private satellite provider (NOVA TV Cyprus) with pancyprian range as well as six national or/and peripheral/local channels from the private sector (GREEK CINEMA, SMILE TV, ART TV, MAD TV, VILLAGE CINEMA, and COSMOTE HISTORY) and one national Greek satellite channel (ERT World) which are streamed through the private company VELESTER with peripheral/local free-to-air television broadcasting or/and through pay-TV platforms of telecommunication providers with pancyprian range [42,49,101,104,105]. On the other hand, in Greece, operating as panhellenic free-to-air television broadcasting there are four national channels from the public sector (ERT1, ERT2, ERT3, and Hellenic Parliament Channel) and seven channels from privately-owned nationwide television stations (ANT1 Greece, ALPHA Greece, MEGA Greece, OPEN, SKAI, STAR, and MAKEDONIA TV) and one national Greek-Cypriot satellite channel (RIK SAT) through the private company DIGEA (the official digital terrestrial broadcasting of all of the Greece’s free privately-owned television stations following the Hellenic Telecommunication and Post Commission’s Plenary decision; J.M.D. 716-003/30-04-2014 and J.M.D. 716-007/30-04-2014) [42,43,44,46,48,64,106,107,108]. There are, also, four pay-TV platforms of telecommunication providers (COSMOTE TV, VODAFONE TV, WIND VISION, and NOVA TV Greece) with panhellenic or peripheral/local range and ninety-two peripheral/local channels from the private sector that are streamed through the private company DIGEA with peripheral/local free-to-air television broadcasting or/and through pay-TV platforms of telecommunication providers with panhellenic or peripheral/local range [42,43,44,46,48,64,106,107,108].

In recent decades, the relationship between public and private sector or/and national and peripheral/local channels or vice versa between the two countries has become interconnected [97,98,99]. This collaboration has grown over the last decade, and especially after the economic crisis in both countries from 2012 onwards. If we exclude that (a) the homonymous channels (e.g., ANT1 Greece and ANT1 Cyprus, etc.); (b) the mutual cooperation they have between the public channels of both countries; as well as (c) the fact that most Greek-Cypriot channels cooperate with various Greek channels (e.g., today, SIGMA with SKAI, OMEGA with STAR and OPEN, etc.) for the retransmission of the respective program in Cyprus (e.g., reality television series such as, for example, Greece’s Next Top Model/GNTM and MasterChef from STAR, Survivor from SKAI, etc.); the effects of the economic crisis on the advertising industry proved detrimental for the budgets available for the television series, resulting in the co-producing of television productions that are broadcast simultaneously in both countries. Typical examples are the Greek-Cypriot drama and fiction television series starring Greek actors, but also Greek-Cypriot actors who had to speak only the official or/and colloquial Greek language of Greece and not the colloquial Greek-Cypriot dialect of Cyprus, such as the well-known and famous of the series (a) Mprousko/Brusco (Μπρούσκο of Greek language) (2013–2017) from private channel ANT1 Cyprus (which was broadcast for the first time in Cyprus and a few days later in Greece on ANT1 Greece respectively, as well as in 52 other countries around the world); and (b) To dachtilidi tis fotias/The ring of fire (Το δαχτυλίδι της φωτιάς of Greek language) (2014–2016) of the former private channel MEGA Cyprus (now OMEGA from 2018) (which was also broadcast in Greece on the private channel MEGA Greece a few months after its official screening in Cyprus).

At this point, a reference should be made to the fact that the private channel MEGA Greece (which is characterized as the leader in the production of Greek television series) shut down in 2018 from bankruptcy that started operating in 2015 [109,110,111], and this was characterized as one of the three worst blows in the Greek television environment due to the economic crisis. The first one was the final shut down of the private panhellenic channel ALTER in 2012 due to bankruptcy, and the second one was the abrupt closure of the public broadcaster ERT in 2013 [46,64], which reopened a few months later with a restructured form and name until 2015 where it was re-established as ERT again [46,64,106]. In summary, the (new) MEGA Greece reopened and has operated under a new ownership since February 2020. The remarkable thing in the case of MEGA Greece was that although officially it went bankrupt in 2015, due to legal disputes with the employees of the channel, the channel continued to broadcast only television series (Greek series mainly from its archives) through DIGEA, COSMOTE TV, and NOVA TV Greece until the end of 2018 (when was the official shutting down of the channel occurred). Additionally, it broadcast via live streaming through the audiovisual platform YouTube until the end of 2019 with an unexplained big impact in viewership in all mediums. In February 2020, when the MEGA Greece was re-launched, it restored the legendary television series, such as (a) Dolce Vita (Ντόλτσε Βίτα of Greek language) (1995–1997); (b) Dyo Xenoi/Two Strangers (Δύο Ξένοι of Greek language) (1997–1999); (c) S’ Agapo M’ Agapas/I Love You, You Love Me (Σ’αγαπώ Μ’αγαπάς of Greek language) (2000–2002); and (d) Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time (Στο Παρά 5 of Greek language) (2005–2007), gaining a big impact in viewership again. On the other hand, the homonymous channel in Cyprus became independent and since 2016 it has changed its brand name three times (i.e., MegaOne until 2017, TVOne until 2018, and OMEGA until today), while until the end of 2019 it continued to regularly broadcast various well-known television series of MEGA Greece. Likewise, after the official shut down of MEGA Greece, several well-known in-house television series were acquired by other channels for rebroadcast, such as Dyo Xenoi/Two Strangers from SIGMA, Oi Magisses tis Smirnis/The Witches of Smyrna (Oι Μάγισσες της Σμύρνης of Greek language) (2005–2006) from NOVA TV Greece, and so on.

2.2.2. Media Socio-Phenomena and Television Content from Greek-Cypriot and Greek Television

In the late 1990s in Greek and in the early 2000s in Greek-Cypriot media environment, television telenovela series (telenovela/s from here on) with Greek dubbing appeared with a big impact in viewership. These series are mainly financed by commercial Latin-American television conglomerates (e.g., the Mexican Televisa television group, the Televisión Federal, the Brazilian TV Globo, etc.) and were primarily produced for a home market [112,113]. The pioneering television channels that broadcast telenovelas with Greek dubbing were the private national channels ALPHA SKY (now ALPHA Greece from 1999) in Greece and SIGMA in Cyprus. Due to the huge impact, they presented, they became a new television fashion, as they were aired during primetime television hours and held a large audience. Most telenovelas after the completion of screening in their country, were usually broadcast (with Greek dubbing) after a few months first in Greece and then after a few days in Cyprus. Historically, the most popular telenovelas on the media environment of both countries that were rebroadcast with repetitions on various channels for more than a decade were (a) Rosalinda (Ροζαλίντα of Greek language) (1999 production); (b) Muñeca Brava (Wild Angel/Άγριος Άγγελος—the official translation into English and Greek language) (Μιλάγκρος, η ατίθαση of official title in the Greek language—Milagros, i atithasi/Milagros, the disobedient) (1998 production); (c) Por tu Amor (For your love/Για την αγάπη σου—the official translation into English and Greek language) (Όλα για την Aγάπη of official title in the Greek language—Ola gia tin Agapi/All about Love) (1999 production); (d) the trilogy “Marías” telenovela (i) María Mercedes (Μαρία Μερσέντες of Greek language) (1992 production); (ii) Marimar (Μαριμάρ of Greek language) (1994 production); and (iii) Maria la del Barrio (H Μαρία της Γειτονιάς of official title in the Greek language—Maria tis Gitonias/Maria of the Neighborhood) (1992 production); (e) Esmeralda (Εσμεράλντα of Greek language) (1997 production); (f) 90-60-90 modelos (90-60-90 Models of English language) (Τοπ Μόντελς of official title in the Greek language –Top Models) (1996 production); and (g) La Usurpadora (The Usurper/H Σφετερίστρια—the official translation into English and Greek language) (Παολίνα of official title in the Greek language—Paolina) (1998 production). At this point, it should be mentioned that La Usurpadora holds the greater number of rebroadcasts and repetitions from various Greek private channels, such as the private panhellenic channels ALTER in 2006 and EPSILON TV (now NEW EPSILON TV from 2018 with peripheral/local scope) in 2014 (which was also broadcast simultaneously in Cyprus on the private pancyprian channel CAPITAL) as well as from various peripheral/local channels in Greece during various television seasons (mostly by the peripheral/local channel WEST CHANNEL in Western Macedonia). Additionally, in 2014, together with La Usurpadora, EPSILON TV (as well as CAPITAL in Cyprus) rebroadcast Maria la del Barrio, presenting high viewership scores again, resulting in being considered the most well-known and famous telenovelas in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot media environment.

Telenovelas, as mentioned above, are mainly Latin-American melodramatic fictional television series relying on archetype stories about romantic couples whose relationships face opposition or/and deal with controversial social issues (e.g., drug abuse, abortion, corruption, homosexuality, cloning, environmental issues, racism, urban violence, etc.) [113,114], while their stories are strongly reminiscent of the narrative code of the old Greek cinema. The recollection of this narrative code is perhaps the basic factor of their overwhelming viewership, which led to the huge television success of these telenovelas for more than a decade in both countries. Additionally, the “bringing back the memories” effect may have been helped by the voices of the Greek actors as voice-over artists, who gave their voice for the dubbing. Most of the actors starred in numerous Greek films in the 1970s and 1980s cinema, while in the early 1990s they began to give their voices in numerous cartoons/animated movies and anime series that were broadcast by public and private channels in both countries. A typical example is the famous anime series Sailor Moon of Toei Animation (Toei from here on) (1992–1997) with Greek dubbing by ‘SPK Video Film Television’ (SPK from here on) (the company that was responsible for most of the telenovelas Greek dubbing) on behalf of the private channel AΝΤ1 Greece (in 1995 to 1998) (which has also been shown in Cyprus from private channel ANT1 Cyprus and former private local channel VOX TV in Larnaca/Larnaka) (something that will be discussed below). In this anime series all the lead actors/voice-over artists have starred in many old Greek films and also gave their voices as voice-over artists in many telenovelas, such as (a) Matina Karra in the legendary telenovelas as (i) Maria (María Hernández Rojas De de la Vega) in Maria la del Barrio; (ii) Meche (María Mercedes Muñoz González de del Olmo) in María Mercedes; and (iii) Cielo (María del Cielo Montalvo Arizmendi de Durán) in Por tu Amor; as well as (b) Maria Plakidi in legendary and unforgettable satanic villain Soraya Montenegro (Soraya Montenegro de la Vega/Soraya Montenegro Vda. de Montalbán) in Maria la del Barrio. At this point, it should be mentioned that Soraya’s Greek dubbing is considered one of the best dubbing interpretations worldwide and competes with the original performance by Itatí Cantoral who embodied her. Additionally, Soraya’s popularity as a character worldwide has reached a new peak with the rise of social media in recent years, where her performances are enjoyed for being overly dramatic (e.g., crying in Spanish). Due to this popularity, the legendary Soraya Montenegro by Itatí Cantoral returns in the form of crossover in a short video as part of a commercial/promotion for the fourth season of the worldwide successful Netflix series Orange is the New Black (2013–2019) in June 2016 (Appendix A), while a year later in May 2017 she returns for the official commercial trailer of the 5th season (Appendix B). In conclusion, Soraya along with the fictional character Paola Bracho (Paola Montaner de Bracho) from La Usurpadora are considered the most popular devilish women in Greece and Cyprus, while their legacies are now maintained and preserved mainly on social media through Internet memes or gifs or/and short videos with Greek dubbing (usually through YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok) individually or/and together through quarreling after digital processing and editing.

In summary, the telenovelas phenomenon that flourished with the advent of the new millennium in the media environment in both countries can be characterized metaphorically as a hurricane that has swept everything in its path, and in particular at the socio-media level. In our daily lives, (new and) epic words appear, and are included in our vocabulary, such as coastal, crayfish collector, garbage collector, and usurper (aka παρακατιανή, ρακοσυλλέκτρια, σκουπιδιάρα, and σφετερίστρια in Greek language). Furthermore, many scenes from the telenovelas have remained viral until today (2021), and more specifically the world-epic scene of Soraya from Maria la del Barrio where she furiously attacks Alicia, the daughter of the man she married (and killed to inherit) when she catches her kissing Nadito (Maria’s son). Finally, it should be mentioned that due to the huge television success of the telenovelas, the protagonists of the legendary telenovelas also came to Greece, like Leticia Calderón (Carmen Leticia Calderón León) (telenovela: Esmeralda) in 1999 (Appendix C), as well as Thalia (Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola) (telenovelas: María Mercedes, Marimar, Maria la del Barrio, and Rosalinda) (Appendix D) and Natalia Oreiro (Natalia Marisa Oreiro Iglesias) (telenovelas: 90-60-90 Modelos, and Muñeca Brava) (Appendix E), who were also world-famous singers, in 2000. Upon their arrival in Greece, many people of all ages, especially young children aged 5 to 15 years old (in 1999/2000—now around 26 to 38 years old/GenZ and GenY members), went to meet them with applause, screams, tears of joy, and fainting, while they followed them every step of the way.

On the other hand, the telenovela hurricane also left its mark on domestic productions in the Greek television environment. Several Greek television series made indirect references to various telenovelas, such as (a) Konstantinou and Elenis/Constantine’s and Helen’s (Κωνσταντίνου και Ελένης of Greek language) (1998–2000), aired on the private ANT1 Greece (which has been also shown in Cyprus from the private channel ANT1 Cyprus)—which has never stopped being shown repeatedly and still has a big impact in viewership in both countries (at the time of writing this article); and (b) Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time.

In the television series Konstantinou and Elenis/Constantine’s and Helen’s, it was an episode where the plot was that a Mexican television series based on a Latin-American melodramatic fictional plot (i.e., the fictional telenovela Elenalda/Ελενάλντα of Greek language—copy/parody of Esmeralda) should be shot. The protagonists of the television series (GenX members) had the ultimate intent of making money, taking advantage of the big impact of the Greek dubbed telenovelas that were flooded the Greek media landscape. There, the actors (who were the protagonists of the series) on set would speak Greek with a Spanish accent in a Greek script based on translated Mexican words and expressions, and then dubbed into Greek language (Appendix F). At this point, it should be mentioned that this particular television series during the primary broadcast from the ANT1 Greece was considered an outsider because it had a strong television competitor, the second season of the already successful television series Dyo Xenoi/Two Strangers from the rival private channel, MEGA Greece. Additionally, this television series has been characterized several times later in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot media, as well as from the timely interviews of the creators and actors who starred, as being much further ahead of its time. Moreover, the success of the television series may be due to the fact that all its cast, even the guest appearances, had character and personality, while they were very reminiscent of the old Greek comedians of old Greek cinema. Today (2021), it is now the most broadcast Greek television series on Greek and Greek-Cypriot media environment, breaking the record of the television series that has been rebroadcast with the most repetitions in both countries (in Greece as a domestic television series, while in Cyprus as a foreign/external television series). Furthermore, the slogans or expressions/words of its protagonists are now widely used as an online or oral slang or in oral speech or/and from and through the Internet and social media as Internet memes or gifs until today in both countries (e.g., μωρή κατακουζίνα/mori katazouna, βλαχάρα/vlachara, τα μάλα/ta mala, μοναδική μου αγάπη/monadiki mou agapi, and σκύλες της Λύσσας/skiles tis Lissas in Greek language and phonetic Greeklish—is a portmanteau of the words Greek and English, also known as Grenglish, Latinoellinika, or ASCII Greek, and is the official Greek language or the colloquial Greek language or/and local dialects of Greece or the colloquial Greek-Cypriot dialect or/and local dialects of Cyprus written using the Latin alphabet which became widely well-known in the early 2000s and onwards as a linguistic phenomenon with the advent of the first mobile phones through the short message service; SMS, or/and text message, and mainly as an “online language” of writing from and through the Internet in Greek and Greek-Cypriot Internet relay chats and Internet forums with the form phonetic or spelling rules or/and a form of abbreviation) (aka moron/witless katakouzina, bumpkin, very much, my only love, and bitches/dogs of Lyssas/Rabies in free translation into English language). Likewise, on the fan pages or/and profiles of the protagonists on various social media are listed thousands of Internet followers/users/friends who engage in daily interaction with them, such as the fan page of the fictional protagonist of the series, Eleni Vlachakis on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/elenivlaxako, accessed on 30 July 2021), with thousands of reactions, comments, and shares in each post uploaded by the page administrators with images/pictures/photographs, Internet memes, excerpt videos, and so on from the television series. Finally, it is characterized as a cult television series with a posthumous fame, as well as a postmodern television series that could easily have been filmed and broadcast today with the same scenario, as it is very popular even with television and online viewers who were not yet born in the time of the original broadcast (e.g., the younger GenZ members).

Another case is the television series Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time where one of the protagonists of the series the fictional character Dalia Hatzialexandrou (one of the wealthiest people in the world and GenX member), who watches a lot of television, did not like the plot of her favorite dubbed telenovela (i.e., the fictional telenovela The Tears of Consuela/Τα Δάκρυα της Κονσουέλας of Greek language) as it was played and decides to buy the Mexican channel and the production company of the series, to write the script in Greek language as she would like with a vocabulary base used in Greek dubbing for the telenovelas, then translated into Spanish language, played by Mexican actors and translated and dubbed into Greek language with local dialects of Greece, so she can watch and enjoy it. At this point, it should be mentioned that Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time, based on the data available through AGB Nielsen’s Yearbooks for the first 30 most popular Greek television series during the period 1993–2012 in Greece, is one of the five Greek television series that exceeded 3 million television viewers for one episode [111] (p. 22), gaining the third place (and first place as a comedy series) with a percentage of 31.3% [115] (p. 216). In the same framework, based on the television viewers of the 10 most popular Greek television series during the same period (1993–2012), it is the undisputed winner in the children’s television viewers (under 18 years) (i.e., GenY and GenZ members) gaining the first place with a percentage of 26.4% [115] (pp. 226–227). Additionally, during the period of its initial broadcast, Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time has become the highest-rated television series, as well as the first in popularity and spectacular television series (with a percentage of 60% to 65%, according to AGB Hellas). Due to the scenario that mainly negotiated (a) the friendship, which arose between five different people from different generations, characteristics and attitudes, habits and behaviors, and socio-economic background, as well as (b) the sense of justice, has aroused intense interest, theories, and discussions about the plot that followed. In addition, at the time of its initial broadcast, a large community of loyal television viewers, online communities and discussion groups had been created. This, is a phenomenon that mainly reflects a television series characterized as cult television, which at the time (2005–2007) in Greece and Cyprus existed mainly only for foreign series and productions. In summary, the huge success of this television series may be due to its fruitful dialogue with the modern pop culture and subculture of Greece, the old Greek cinema, the foreign television series, as well as the comics. In conclusion, nowadays, this television series is now considered a rare television phenomenon.

In January 2007 the private channel MEGA Greece aired the first Greek daily telenovela in the Greek media environment. The television series was called Maria i Asximi/Maria the Ugly (Μαρία η Άσχημη of Greek language) (2007–2008) and it was based on the story of the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea (often referred to simply as Betty, la fea) written by Fernando Gaitan and aired from 1999 to 2001 on RCN Televisión. Maria i Asximi/Maria the Ugly is the eighth adaptation of the Colombian telenovela, and is differentiated from the other international adaptations, such as the American version Ugly Betty (2006–2010) (which was rebroadcast in Greece and Cyprus on public and private channels) and the second Mexican version La Fea más Bella (2006) (6th adaptation) (the first is Azteca Trece’s El amor no es como lo pintan, aired in 2000) (which was broadcast in ALPHA Greece and SIGMA with Greek dubbing in 2007–2008). The Greek daily telenovela received quite a high viewership on first screening, it was broadcast in Cyprus by the former homonymous channel (MEGA Cyprus), and played several times in repetitions in Greece and Cyprus from the same channels—with the most recent in 2020 in Greece. The final 3 h episode with two parts reached a 56.7% the first part and 61.1% viewership in the second part, exceeding 2.5 million television viewers. Moreover, Maria i Asximi/Maria the Ugly is included among the first 30 most popular Greek television series during the period 1993–2012 in Greece, gaining the 14th place with a percentage of 23.3% (according to AGB Nielsen’s Yearbooks) [115] (p. 216). Since then, numerous Greek telenovelas, which are adaptations of Latin-American or Spanish ones, have aired by private channels in Greece and were broadcast in Cyprus, such as (a) Lakis o Glikoulis/Lakis the Sweetheart (Λάκης ο Γλυκούλης of Greek language) (2008–2010) and (b) Ola ston aera/All in the air (Όλα στον αέρα of Greek language) (2008–2009) from private channel MEGA Greece. Finally, it should be noted that the interest in the cases of Maria i Asximi/Maria the Ugly and Lakis o Glikoulis/Lakis the Sweetheart “is placed upon aesthetic and ethical differences through the promotion of narrative patterns of good and ugly versus wicked and beautiful, resonating the norm of the silly but sympathetic figure of the poor in old Greek cinema” [111] (p. 25).

Before continuing, reference should be made to some other typical cases in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot media environment. One such case is the reappearance of actors who embodied legendary couples in famous television series of the last decade in a new television series, such as the famous married couple Papadima from the Greek television series the Egklimata/Crimes from ANT1 Greece (Εγκλήματα of Greek language) (1998–2000) (which has also been broadcast in ANT1 Cyprus), Kostas Koklas and Kaiti Konstantinou as Alekos and Soso Papadima. The actors who embodied them appear again as a couple in the ERT television series I toyrta tis mamas/Mom’s cake (H τούρτα της μαμάς of Greek language) (2020–) as Tasos and Evanthia Vasilenas. At this point, it should be mentioned that Soso Papadima is the most famous and beloved absolute evil woman who has ever appeared in a Greek television series, and her fame and epic attacks are still maintained from and through the Internet and social media as Internet memes and gifs or/and as short videos (mainly on TikTok by GenZ members) with a huge impact and interaction. Another case is the comeback with the sequel of legendary television series, such as (a) the Greek television series To Kafe tis Charas/Chara’s Café from ANT1 Greece (Το καφέ της Χαράς of Greek language) (2003–2006) as new season in 2019 (2019–2021); (b) the Greek-Cypriot television series Run Neighbors/Vourate Geitonoi from SIGMA (Βουράτε Γειτόνοι of Greek-Cypriot dialect/Τρέξτε Γείτονες of Greek language) (2001–2005) as a new season in 2010 and as a movie in 2019 (Vourate Geitonoi: the movie/Βουράτε Γειτόνοι: η ταινία) (which was also shown in Greece, USA, United Kingdom; UK, and Australia); and (c) the sequel of the MEGA Greece television series S’ Agapo M’ Agapas/I Love You, You Love Me (which has also been shown in Cyprus on the former MEGA Cyprus) from the pay-TV platform of Greek telecommunication provider COSMOTE (2019–) (the new episodes are also available through audiovisual platform YouTube). This series is based on the Canadian TV series Un Gars, Une Fille/A Guy, A Girl from Radio-Canada (1997–2003) and it was broadcast for two seasons (2000–2002), had a big impact in viewership in both countries, and led the RIK to get the rights and make the Greek-Cypriot version of the series using the Cypriot dialect under the title Ego Kai Esy/Me and You (Εγώ και Εσύ of Greek language) for three seasons (2010–2013) on public Cypriot channel RIK1 and on the RIK VoD platform [24,116]. Finally, one last typical case is the revival of scenes or intersections of legendary fictional characters or references to other characters/persons from other television series or/and productions to new television series, such as ERT’s I toyrta tis mamas/Mom’s cake (a) in which legendary fictional characters from other well-known and famous Greek television series of other channels appeared as guests with the same actors who embodied them—for example, the eccentric millionaire Dimi Tsimiski-Hoffman of the Greek television series Stavlous tis Erietta Zaimi/Stables of Erietta Zaimi (Στάβλους της Εριέττας Ζαΐμη of Greek language) from ANT1 Greece and the unforgettable nurse Litsa who is looking for her partner Fani from the television series Dyo Xenoi/Two Strangers from MEGA Greece; (b) in which they revived the scene with the family table from the legendary Greek television series ‘Ti psichi tha paradosis mori?’/‘What soul will you deliver moron/witless?’ (‘Τι ψυχή θα παρα δώσεις μωρή;’ of Greek language) from MEGA Greece (2000); and (c) in which they constantly refer to individuals (e.g., the famous drag persona Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova or mononymously as Katya, or Soso Papadima from Egklimata/Crimes) or use jokes/slogans from international television production RuPaul’s Drag Race (American drag-themed reality competition television production created by RuPaul Andre Charles/American drag entertainer RuPaul, which is inspired from the American fashion-themed reality television production Next Top Model and the American reality television production that focuses on fashion design Project Runway) (2009–) from American basic cable television network VH1 (2017–)—previously from 2009 to 2016 on the American basic cable channel LOGOtv—(which is nowadays considered a global international television phenomenon with a huge influence on worldwide socio-cultural environment with thirteen seasons and seven spin-off series/productions in USA, and nine officially franchise in Thailand, Chile, UK, Canada, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand; Down Under, Spain, Italy, and Brazil at the time this article was written, making the term drag mainstream and art).

In closing, the famous anime series Sailor Moon of Toei should be mentioned. Sailor Moon is based on a Japanese manga shōjo series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi (GenX member) from 1991 to 1997, while adapted into an anime series produced by Toei with 200 episodes in an “innocent” (child/teen) version, promoting values and ideals, such as love, friendship, family, diversity, devotion, peace, justification, social responsibility, and so on. Toei also developed three animated feature films, a television special episode, and three short films based on the storytelling that has been followed in the anime version. The storytelling of the Japanese manga shōjo series was based mainly on Japanese culture, as well as Greek mythology, while as a kind of shōjo it was intended mainly for young girls. Additionally, Takeuchi was inspired by appearances on the catwalks of haute couture houses, such as Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel, in terms of clothing design and, at times, character hairstyles, as well as by various representations from photographs, movie posters and bands of her time. Due to the big impact the anime series had in Japan and in many foreign countries, in 2012, twenty years after its first release, it was announced that there would be an online reboot series, this time based on the manga plot which will call a Sailor Moon Crystal. In 2014, becomes the first online premiere of the new anime series and then on Japanese television (Tokyo MX), showing the first two manga stories as two seasons, while the third manga story as third season premiered only on Japanese television (Tokyo MX) in 2016 and then the whole anime series around the world, dubbed or not. The new anime series was completed in 39 episodes with three seasons, while the fourth manga story was adapted into two animated feature films (Part 1 and Part 2) as Pretty Guardia Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie, which were released and available exclusively through the Netflix platform from mid-2021 with Japanese and English dubbing, as well as subtitles (such, for the example, the Greek). To summarize, Sailor Moon is one of the most important projects in the development of the modern design and scenario of the manga. Takeuchi popularized the genre of manga with groups of girls with magical abilities, while “reviving” the genre of “magical girls”. Sailor Moon has now become the archetype for many other future anime series of this genre, and is characterized as an international anime phenomenon. In 2015, on a Louis Vuitton catwalk, French fashion designer Nicolas Ghesquière was inspired by Sailor Moon. In conclusion, nowadays, Sailor Moon is considered one of the global international television phenomena as a Sailor Moon phenomenon, which since the early 1990’s has continued to influence the socio-cultural environment around the world.

Finally, on the other hand, regarding the case Greece and Cyprus, as mentioned above, the anime series aired on the private channel AΝΤ1 Greece in Greece, the homonymous channel private channel ANT1 Cyprus and former private local channel VOX TV in Larnaca/Larnaka in Cyprus beginning in 1995, as well as on the private Greek channel STAR in 2001 to 2004, with a new Greek dubbing based on the same translation texts and scenario from SPK. At this point, it should be mentioned that Greece was one of the first countries in the world to air a foreign-language dubbing of this anime series on traditional television, while the first Greek dubbing of the anime series is characterized by international Sailor Moon fans as one of the best interpretations and performance by the actors/voice-over artists where they gave their voice. To summarize, SPK has dubbed 199 out of 200 episodes, while the STAR only 88 episodes. Also, episode 89, which was a television special episode, was never dubbed nor shown in Greece and Cyprus. In addition, the translation texts and script from SPK were based on the German dubbing. Due to this, unfortunately both the dubbing of SPK and STAR dubbing had several translation errors (e.g., variation or even change in names, genders, etc.), which were created by the translation on the translation. Moreover, like other countries where the anime series was broadcast, the anime series deviated considerably from the Japanese version (e.g., absent sound effects, Japanese music/songs, music investments, scenes were cut, etc.) or was adapted according to the legal framework in the country where it was shown (e.g., in the case of DiC Entertainment in North America in 1995, which it had to cut episodes that were deemed inappropriate for children to be watching or, to merge them together and cut out specific scenes focusing on violence or sexuality). In the case of Greece, and more specifically in the production from the SPK, in addition to translation errors, Japanese music/songs was removed or, probably during editing process they forgot to add in several scenes the sound effects or they cut invalid scenes/points for a few seconds, as if they were eaten up in the editing process by mistake. Furthermore, it is worth noting that in the SPK production some songs that were sung acapella by the protagonists in some scenes were replaced with Greek songs (e.g., in episode 49 with music/song Ksipoliti Xoreuo/Barefoot I dance—Ξυπόλητη Χορεύω of Greek language—by Kaiti Garbi, etc.), while in several cases Greek names were used for people (e.g., the name of an employee in a restaurant). In 2008, the Greek Internet team Wings of Destiny (WoD) (https://wingsofdestiny.forumotion.net/, accessed on 30 July 2021) decided to collect the Greek dubbing episodes from the various Internet forums (e.g., Blue-WhiteGT.com and Gamato.info—these legendary Greek torrent trackers no longer exist, due to the universal legislative reforms and copyright laws mentioned above) and audiovisual platforms that were posted/uploaded to fix them, with good-quality sound/audio media and video image, adding the missing music/songs, music investments and sound effects, as well as the cut scenes that were removed by mistake during in the SKP editing process. Additionally, WoD have translated and dubbed the three animated feature films, a television special episode, and three short films that were never dubbed into Greek dubbing by participating anime fans from Greece and Cyprus where they gave their voice as voice artists with the local accent they had. Furthermore, in 2015, the first animated feature film with Greek amateur/nonprofessional dubbing by WoD won the award for best fan dubbing in a nationwide competition in Greece by the Greek Internet forum GreekToons (https://www.greektoons.org/, accessed on 30 July 2021). Moreover, WoD has also translated and dubbed several excerpt scenes from anime series Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, as well as their official trailers, while several Japanese music/songs from both anime series were rendered in Greek version. All of WoD’s work is posted/uploaded on their official site and on their official social media. In conclusion, it should be mentioned that Sailor Moon Crystal animated feature films from the first moment they were available in Greece and Cyprus immediately became a trend on Netflix, while they continue to be among the top 10 trends in Greece and Cyprus (at the time this article was written).

2.2.3. The (Other) Television, Streaming Patterns, and (the Evolution of) Television Content Consumption in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot Media Environment: Past, Present, and Future

Although the documentation of the Greek and Greek-Cypriot television history is still at an early-stage in all levels (including the genres, manner, and the motive of consumption of television content) [44,98,111,117,118], on the other hand, technological developments are running well ahead of researchers who research and investigate or/and relate to the specific field at this time. In the last decade, the traditional television set is not the only choice in both countries, as digitization has disconnected and detached free-to-air television content from the television screen while globalization and constant technological changes have taken it to every corner of the globe free of charge or/and for a fee, as an unchanged or a new audiovisual content based on the legal framework of the destination [6,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,64].

Historically, the first private free-to-air television channel in Greece was the peripheral/local channel TV PLUS in Athens (now ALPHA Greece) in 1988, which a year later became the first subscription-paid channel through cable analog decoder in Greece (in 1989). In the same year, MEGA Greece was launched and is the first Greek private panhellenic free-to-air television channel. In 1994, the first Greek-owned subscription-based private satellite provider as pay-TV service was available in Greece, named FILMNET (replacing ITA 8—first local pirate channel in Athens from 1987— and now as NOVACinema1 of NOVA TV Greece from 2008). On the other hand, in Cyprus, LOGOS TV was created as the first Greek-Cypriot private pancyprian free-to-air television channel (in 1999 renamed to MEGA Cyprus) and LUMIÈRE TV (LTV) (1992–2015) as the first private pancyprian pay-TV service channel in 1992. Additionally, in 2004, MiVision was the first internet protocol television (IPTV) broadband infrastructure as pay-TV platform of CYTA telecommunication provider (now CYTAVISION), while the first Cypriot-owned subscription-based private satellite provider as pay-TV service was NOVA TV Cyprus, the same year.

Nowadays, as mentioned above, in the Greek media environment there are four private pay-TV platforms of telecommunication service providers through IPTV or/and satellite—as OTT platforms, and four respectively in Cyprus. NOVA TV Greece and NOVA TV Cyprus also provide their various thematic channels (i.e., NOVASports, NOVACinemas, etc.) through other providers with extra charge, while in Cyprus the providers CYTAVISION, PRIMTEL TV, and CABLENET TV also provide to each other their own sports channels with extra charge. All platforms in both countries cooperate with the Fox Networks Group to broadcast television content from (a) the American pay-TV network National Geographic, (b) the American private television FOX, the American premium cable television channel FX, and (c) multilingual international television channel BabyTV (for babies and toddlers under the age of 3); through the Greek company FORTHNET (now NOVA Telecommunication from June 2021, which also owns NOVA TV Greece and NOVA TV Cyprus, as well as the Greek company WIND Hellas from August 2021—WIND Hellas owns WIND VISION). FORTHNET/NOVA Telecommunication (now through the company NOVA Broadcasting) has undertaken the Greek streaming and the realization of the Greek subtitling of the channels of FOX Greece (FOX—former FX, and FOX LIFE) as well as the Greek subtitling and dubbing of the National Geographic Channels (e.g., National Geographic for all platforms; Nat Geo Wild for COSMOTE TV, NOVA TV Greece, NOVA TV Cyprus, CABLENET TV, CYTAVISION, and former OnTV in Greece; etc.) and Baby TV since 2001. Several FOX and FX television series are rebroadcast a few hours later, after the official screening of the corresponding episode in USA (e.g., American Horror Story from FX). Additionally, several well-know and famous television series of FOX and FX as well as other American network (e.g., HBO, ABC, AMC, CBS, NBS, etc.) have been broadcast or continue to be rebroadcast on national and local channels in both countries. A typical case is the legendary series Sex and the City from American pay-TV network HBO (which will be revived as a sequel and rebooted with the title ‘And Just Like That…‘ through the new audiovisual platform HBO Max at the end of 2021) that has been broadcast, rebroadcast, and repeated many times from various private pay-TV service or/and free-to-air television channels both in Greece and in Cyprus until today—sometimes even airing simultaneously on two channels, through different seasons (e.g., in Cyprus, from SIGMA and ANT1 Cyprus), while several scenes were cut from the respective channels due to unsuitability based on the legal framework. Furthermore, nowadays, in Greece and Cyprus there are also global players in the media environment, such as Netflix, Filmbox Live, Mubi, and Amazon Prime. The leader in both countries is considered Netflix, while also ranked in the first place with the higher number of subscribers in 2016 in Europe as an active private VoD subscription service with 47% [119] (p. 61). Netflix is a private pay-streaming platform and considered an audiovisual platform (such as YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, etc.) since 1997, which also includes a numerous television series and productions from various others American and international networks (e.g., The Walking Dead from AMC networks), while many of them are available for viewing at the same time or after a couple hours with Greek subtitles (e.g., RuPaul’s Drag Race from VH1).

All public and private national free-to-air television channels, in both countries, are streaming their program live through their official website, while some stream it simultaneously or individually (e.g., at the time of news bulletins) and through OSNs or SNSs (e.g., Facebook) or/and audiovisual platforms (e.g., YouTube)—such as, for example, ERT and STAR. Moreover, the only private free-to-air television channel which is streaming its program live abroad for an extra fee on various private pay-TV platforms is ANT1 Greece [107], while the Greek-Cypriot public channel RIK SAT is also available through Bell Fibe TV’s IP-based pay-TV service in Canada. At this point, it should be noted that RIK SAT and ERT World are also available free-of-charge through satellite mainly in Europe and around the world, while they are also available on a numerous pay-TV platforms and applications abroad, as well as other Greek private panhellenic free-to-air television channels through the respective international television services (e.g., STAR INTERNATIONAL of STAR, ALPHA SAT of ALPHA TV Greece, etc.). To summarize, nowadays, the available online television content through the official pages of most of the channels in both countries, are provided with free-to-access through live streaming, while VoD services usually consist of a combination of information and entertainment programs produced mainly in-house [107]. Additionally, most of the channels in both countries have Internet applications and services—such as the service Web-TV or/and VoD platform through official website or/and application—and social media accounts (mainly Facebook and Twitter), while some have their own audiovisual archive (i.e., television content) on audiovisual platform YouTube (such as, for example, the private panhellenic free-to-air television channel STAR, which is the first channel in both countries to apply it since 2012). Furthermore, the online television content from all public and most of the private national free-to-air television channels in both countries is also available free-of-charge on almost all continents through their official website or application for smart devices (such as smartphones, tablet computers and smartwatches with android or iOS operating system) or/and social media accounts. Finally, most Greek and Greek-Cypriot channels have the same format and layout on their official website in the form of online television portals, like other foreign websites that they have as a template (e.g., BBC iPlayer from BBC, ABC iView from ABC in Australia, etc.) [107].

On the other hand, in 2008, we have the first interactive television series in Greece, which evolved from and through the Internet and at the time well-known social media (i.e., Facebook and YouTube). dikiasou.com (as was the title of the series) was made up of 27 10-min episodes that aired/uploaded on YouTube, and is considered as the first webseries in Greek media environment [120]. In 2010, we have the first (online) interactive mini-film brand in the context of the promotion of LACTA chocolate in Greece, under the name Love in Action (http://www.loveinaction.gr, accessed on 12 March 2013—this website/weblog no longer exists) [121,122,123]. Love in Action production started in October 2009 and was made with the direct help of users/audiences/consumers from and through the Internet and social media (in this case, the Facebook). This mini-film brand would initially be online available on Valentine’s Day (14/02/2010) only on the official website/weblog of the campaign, but due to the huge impact on the Internet and social media, was finally broadcast also in MEGA Greece the same day with a huge impact in viewership. In 2013, we have the first full-length brand film about LACTA chocolate again [122,123], with the direct participation of users/audiences/consumers from and through the Internet and social media from Greece and Cyprus, under the name Love in the end (https://www.loveintheend.gr/, accessed on 30 July 2021). This brand film became an international case study on how a brand managed to create audiovisual content where the users/audiences/consumers, under normal circumstances, would have to pay to be able to see it (Appendix G). Additionally, in 2013, we have the first Greek interactive documentary (i-doc), with name NEW LIFE (http://lampsakos.com/, accessed on 30 July 2021). This i-doc presents the “new life” of a group of refugees who left ancient Lampsacus (present name Lapseki) in Asia Minor, Turkey—after the Minor Asia Catastrophe that occurred in their settlement, in New Lampsakos, Greece—through oral history testimonies, on-site observation, documentation of intangible cultural practices, and use of unseen archival material, contributing to the preservation of collective historical memory and sustainability of cultural heritage of this community from and through the Internet and social media [45].

In addition, in 2014, within the activities of the Greek television broadcaster Antenna Group (the group also includes ANT1 Greece, MAKEDONIA TV, and ANT1 Cyprus) as well as the international omen in the media environment, the Greek version of VICE from American-Canadian liberal digital media and broadcasting company Vice Media Group LLC was launched [107]. It started operating with Greek Vice (print and television) content which became available mainly from and through the Internet, as well as through the television channels and websites of the Antenna Group, and other homonymous VICEs, targeting GenY of twenty-somethings who do not watch much conventional television. In the same framework, the Antenna Group also launched Netwix as a free online channel (which is also available in Cyprus) aimed primarily to a young audience (GenZ and GenY of twenty-somethings) with “exclusive content” (which over time and the emergence of new opponents on the landscape in recent years, has evolved and nowadays claims to have broadcast 40 webseries with more than 2500 episodes) [107]. In 2016, Netflix officially appears on the Greek and Greek-Cypriot media environment [24,44], while OTE TV Go service operated through the Greek pay-TV platform of telecommunication provider OTE TV (now COSMOTE TV) through browsers in Greece. In the same year, FOX Play service came to Greece, as the VOD service of FOX Greece, which is available initially through VODAFONE TV, while from 2017 in NOVA TV Greece and later in 2019 in COSMOTE TV. In 2017, ERT launched ERT Hybrid as a service that enables users to have free access to ERT website through their smart television in Greece (today this service does not exist) [107]. In the same period, the Antenna Group launched Ant1Next as a pay-streaming and VoD platform offering access only to in-house Greek-produced content [107], such as episodes from the popular television series and shows of each current season as well as older legendary television series (e.g., Konstantinou and Elenis/Constantine’s and Helen’s), with the main advantage that subscribers can watch episodes before they are broadcast on free-to-air television and of course without commercial breaks, like Netflix (this service is also available in Cyprus and abroad from and through the Internet as well as through the Greek pay-TV platform of telecommunication provider VODAFONE TV). In 2018, Greek subtitles were finally added to Netflix [124], and the number of subscribers increased remarkably in both countries, while it started to have more recognition among the members of GenZ and GenY [24,43,44,46,64]. In the same year, WIND VISION appeared through IPTV service, being the first private pay-TV platform as Android TV with Netflix integrated and access to all Google services (e.g., Google Play movies, music applications, YouTube, etc.) in both countries. In 2019, the private pay-streaming platform Novaflix appeared in the Greek television environment as NOVA’s Greek Netflix, with FOX Play service integrated, while the Greek-Cypriot pay-TV platform of telecommunication provider CYTAVISION launched CytavisionGo service which is available worldwide through browsers or application for smart devices. In 2020, in the middle of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, three new audiovisual platforms appear in the Greek television environment, two Greek and one foreign, with high expectations regarding future audience penetration. More specifically, (a) the private pay-streaming platform CINOBO; (b) the public free-streaming and VoD platform ERTFLIX (the met-evolution of ERT Hybrid with a numerous of various foreign movies and television series, live streams ERT’s channels, all ERT television broadcasts and various audiovisual material from ERT Archive) from ERT (which is also available in Cyprus); and (c) the pay-streaming platform HBO Max offered through VODAFONE TV (which at the same time started operating as a streaming and VoD platform without the need for a set-top-box; STB). In 2021, all Greek and Greek-Cypriot pay-TV platforms of telecommunication providers and the respective streaming platforms (as well as all audiovisual platforms, such as YouTube through subscription service YouTube Premium since 2018—the evolution of the former Music Key from 2014 to 2015 and YouTube Red from 2015 to 2018) provide their go services and audiovisual content through an application for smart devices or/and other electronic devices (e.g., smart television) with or without extra charge.

In conclusion, following the timeline of the most important events mentioned in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot media environment, it can be safely stated that Netflix seems to be evolving as a new hurricane in the media environment of both countries. In summary, nowadays, Internet access seems to be the necessary condition for television viewing and television content consuming in the (new) streaming era. Additionally, in recent years, new services, new products, and new patterns have been constantly emerging, and changing at any time the media environment, such as the COVID-19 pandemic that brought new ways of consuming audiovisual content and modern television experience. The new ways of television experience and consumption in combination with the meta-evolution of the Internet (i.e., from web 1.0 to web 2.0 and from web 2.0 to web 3.0) are summarized in the emotional act of building a world, a phenomenon that allows the emergence of a third phase of television and the introduction of the new term Television 3.0. [125]. The Television 3.0 era is characterized by an enriched and a personalized content, which diffuses on various screens, transcends the boundaries of traditional television, and now becomes the product of a portable experience, without geographical and time constraints [64] (p. 74). All this leads us to the conclusion that the future of television from now on, is expected unknown, but at the same time unexpected.

3. Methodology, Methods, and Materials from and through Audiovisual Media Communications

3.1. Planning the Research Method and Participants

As mentioned above, this research as a pilot case study, is part of research project MACE, and applied the digital version of the quality experiment method utilizing ICTs [47]. A total of two quality experiments were performed in the form of digital educational seminar based on a tried and tested interactive lesson plan using audiovisual content from the media (i.e., television contents) through non-verbal communication (digital educational seminar from here on), applying the theory of audiovisual media in education [15] through the digital storytelling methodology. The benefits of a previously tested lesson plan are already well-known [6,126], while this theory has already been applied to studies in testing, and those research results and findings confirm it [6,24,25,51,52]. Furthermore, this interactive lesson plan was based on a previous lesson plan (original lesson plan from here on) which was prepared as seminar/workshop (“Life Skills: The Importance of Non-Verbal Communication”) in Thessaloniki in the context of the Panhellenic Conference with International Participation on “Re-Reflections on Childhood” in 2014 after blind peer reviews [127]. Since then, the original lesson plan was used in the framework of the various actions of the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute (Παιδαγωγικό Ινστιτούτο Κύπρου/ΠΙΚ in Greek language) (Nicosia/Lefkosia, Cyprus) during the school years 2013 to 2016 [52] (pp. 307–309); and in the research project NVC in the form of an interactive educational training/education, through the experimental method of the quasi-experiment [128] (pp. 139–141), in Cyprus and Greece from 2014 to 2020 [51] (pp. 169–170).

Regarding this pilot case study, it was carried out in the academic year 2020–2021, and specifically during the period of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with adult educators as adult learners from Cyprus in December 2020 and Greece in January 2021 respectively. The individuals who participated were selected through a special list of adult educators and adult learners volunteers from Greece and Cyprus from the ongoing research project MACE to participate in a pilot research (with pilot surveys) or studies, applying the rules of Internet sampling [129] (pp. 59–63). This list was created through the specialized online platform Survs.com as an online/electronic expression of interest (ΕοΙ) (i.e., web-based EoI) [130] and was available in February and August 2019 from and through the Internet and social media [24] (pp. 973–974).

The final sample from the final list at the end of September 2019 (when the web-based ΕοΙ closed) was 1363 participants (out of which 1052 were adult educators and 311 were adult learners) from different regions of Cyprus and Greece and belonging to different age groups, who worked (or work) or/and attended (or attend) an adult education program, course, lecture, or/and seminar in different structures/institutions of adult education, and in different academic years [24] (p. 974). Due to this, as well as due to the final list which was created in 2019, the specific requirements of the digital educational seminar and the current circumstances (e.g., due to the effects of COVID-19 pandemic), adult educators who would participate in this pilot case study had to meet certain conditions, such as (a) having a computer connected to another monitor/screen or to have a second computer, a smart phone or other electronic device, microphone and headphones or earphones built-in microphone, and good-quality access to broadband Internet speeds wired or wireless; (b) being active adult educators during the academic year 2020–2021; and (c) being available online to attend the digital educational seminar on the specific day that it would take place (December 2020 for Greek-Cypriot adult educators as well as January 2021 for Greek adult educators). This would be achieved after a relevant communication with all information and conditions through electronic mail (or e-mailing or e-mail or email or mail) (email from here on), applying the relevant privacy issues in Internet research (including the rules of Internet sampling through an ΕοΙ) [130]. In addition, for obvious reasons, it was decided to select samples from specific structures/institutions of adult education and training, such as the Public Vocational Training Institute (Δημόσιο Ινστιτούτο Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης/Δ.ΙΕΚ in Greek language) (D.IEK in the official abbreviation for English language) (IEK from here on) by the General Secretariat for Lifelong Learning and Youth in the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs from Greece, as well as Adult Education Centers (Επιμορφωτικά Κέντρα Ενηλίκων in Greek language) (AEC from here on) in the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, and Youth from Cyprus. Based on the mentioned criteria, the final sample of this pilot case study consists of 25 active adult educators as adult learners (adult learners from here on), 13 participants from Greece with a percentage of 52%, and 12 participants from Cyprus with a percentage of 48%, and consists of members of the GenZ, GenY, and GenX. The specific research sample in the pilot case study is conceptually valid [128] (pp. 143–145) and considered acceptable [131,132] based on the literature and the rules of Internet sampling [129] (pp. 59–63). Finally, it should be mentioned that (a) the relevant European provisions on the use of personal data (General Data Protection Regulation—GDPR) were applied, and (b) the Helsinki ethics protocol was followed throughout of this research [133].

Lesson Plan and Audiovisual Content

The digital educational seminar aimed to improve effective communication skills through non-verbal communication. Improving communication skills allows us to develop influential techniques in real and virtual (digital) world(s) [51,52]. All adult learners during the digital educational seminar were (a) guided by the instructor/educator (educator from here on) through the communication to learn more about non-verbal communication skills and other soft skills (i.e., teamwork, crisis management, critical thinking, etc.) using audiovisual media communications, while they (b) practiced in a safe environment from and through the media with digital storytelling using television content [24] (pp. 971–972).

Based on the original lesson plan as well as the lesson plan used, during the first activity the adult learners should not know who the educator was. Additionally, throughout the digital educational seminar (except in the case of individual or group activities) the educator as well as the adult learners had to have eye contact. Because of these special features and in order to have a good flow during the digital educational seminar, the adult learners had to have two screens, as mentioned above—one screen for the presentation and one with the participants from the digital room. The use of headphones was also necessary to ensure good sound quality, while the use of a mobile device was used for the assessment activity, in which the adult learners had to download a specific free software application. The use of headphones was also necessary to ensure good sound quality, while the use of a mobile device was used for the assessment activity (i.e., an exam/test for non-verbal communication), in which the adult learners had to download the free online interactive game-based learning software application “Kahoot!”. For the realization of the digital educational seminar the cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform Zoom (for the digital room) and the telecommunication application Skype from Microsoft (for the view of the presentation) were used. The presentation was created through the online Adobe-Flash-based presentation software Prezi. The educational activities of the final lesson plan carried out that applied the theory of audiovisual media in education [15] through the digital storytelling methodology are: (a) exercise of representation through two edited videos (Appendix H); (b) exercise of memory activation (bringing back memories of nostalgia [134] or/and creating willful nostalgia [135,136,137]); (c) brainstorming; (d) suggestion as digital storytelling about the non-verbal communication through edited video (Appendix I); (e) guided didactic discussion and learning discussions with experiential education; (f) awakening and plenary debate; and finally (g) meta-cognitive knowledge and evaluation meta-cognitive skill [24] (pp. 971–972).

The videos (i.e., video scenes or video with scenes) as audiovisual media communication, which were created (after sound/music editing and mixing or/and video editing and production) and used in the digital educational seminar, are a rich set of audiovisual content (e.g., television contents, music/songs, sound effects, music investments, etc.) and material. More specifically, the:

• Small videos scenes from Sailor Moon of Toei with (a) the authentic and classic Greek dubbing by SPK; (b) the Greek dubbing by STAR; and (c) the Greek amateur/nonprofessional dubbing by WoD; (d) the original Japanese dubbing by Toei and (e) the American/English dubbing by DiC Entertainment;
• Video with simple and panoramic shots from the romantic city of Thessaloniki (Greece) and specific well-known and famous scenes from various foreign (a) television series, such as (i) Sex and the City from HBO (1998–2004), (ii) The Walking Dead from AMC (2010–2021), (iii) Coven (2013–2014) and Apocalypse (2018) of American Horror Story (2011–) from FOX, and (iv) 9-1-1 (2018–) from FX; (b) television productions, such as (i) RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009–) from LOGOtv/VH1, (ii) America’s Next Top Model/ANTM (2003–2018) from UPN/The CW/VH1, (iii) Eurovision Song Contest 2019 by EBU (2019), (iv) Eye Contact by Ten Twenty Films (2012), and (v) Non-Verbal Communication—The Documentary by R.O.D. Films (2010); and (c) movies, such as (i) 300 (2006), (ii) Mean Girls 1 (2004), (iii) Sex and the City 1 and 2 (2008 and 2010), (iv) A Thousand Words (2012), and (v) Clueless (1995); enriched with music/songs, sound effects, and Greek voice-over/human speech through music production and editing (Appendix I);
• Small videos scenes from well-known Greek television series (which have been shown or continue to be shown in Greece and Cyprus), such as (i) the sequel of the series S’ Agapo M’ Agapas/I Love You, You Love Me of the private station MEGA Greece from the pay-TV platform of Greek telecommunication provider COSMOTE TV (2019–) (the new episodes are also available through audiovisual platform YouTube), (ii) Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time, Ichni/Wake (Ίχνη of Greek language) (2007–2008), and Dolce Vita from private channel MEGA Greece, as well as (iii) Konstantinou and Elenis/Constantine’s and Helen’s from private channel ANT1 Greece; and
• Video with scenes from the Greek production of GNTM 2 (2019) from the private Greek channel STAR (which have been shown in Cyprus from the private Greek-Cypriot channel OMEGA); after special processing through video editing and production as well as enriched with music/songs, sound effects, and Greek voice-over/human speech through music production and editing which evoke memories or even nostalgia, feelings, affects, and emotions (Appendix J).

Finally, it should be mentioned that the sound/audio media from all the videos were digitally processed so that the original audio material reached its final optimized form, using modern non-linear and non-destructive techniques [138] and considering the Quality of Learning (QoL) parameters [139,140,141]. The professional sound editing and mixing were done through Audacity 2.1.3, Adobe Audition 3.0 and WaveLab 7. Additionally, all videos were specially edited through Magisto by Vimeo 6.2.4.20511 (mobile application), Freemake Video Convert 4.1.10, Movie Maker 10 and YouTube Studio (online service).

3.2. Data Collection, Processing, and Analysis

The data collection was carried out through a specially designed online questionnaire (web-evaluation form from here on) as a measuring instrument from the specialized online platform Survs.com, in quantitative (using the Likert scale [142,143]) and qualitative format, which was given to the participants (adult learners) after the completion of the digital educational seminar (experiment) through a link. This measuring instrument was based on the “feedback form” of the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, which uses it for its various actions, and it has been widely used in various surveys and studies for research papers [51,52,144]. Regarding this evaluation form, it was tailored to be relevant to the fields of this pilot case study, and it was divided into three parts:

• The first part was constituted by eight questions in quantitative format with a five-point Likert scale based on the degree of satisfaction of quality (1 = ‘Very Poor’ to 5 = ‘Excellent’) for the “expectations”, the “organization”, the “interesting suggestions”, the “discussion time”, the “development issues” (if they were interested), the “questions/answers” at the end of the digital educational seminar, the “knowledge” acquired (theoretical background investigation), and the “audiovisual content” (i.e., videos, sounds/audio medias, etc.) which were used;
• The second part, involved one open-ended question (qualitative format) in relation to the views, to provide feedback, retrieve the problems, and evaluate possible solutions of the participants regarding the digital educational seminar through audiovisual media communications (as comments or/and suggestions); and, finally,
• The third part, where questions on the profile and demographics (i.e., gender and age group) of the sample where asked.

Subsequently, the data were collected after performing the experiments, and were coded and analyzed from and through Internet applications and services. Specifically, they were inserted in IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (version 25) and in the specialized online platform Survs.com, which were the software selected for the descriptive and statistical analysis. Before performing the analysis, the internal reliability of quantitative query data was tested using the “Cronbach’s alpha” index through SPSS, and the internal reliability of all quantitative queries (eight questions) from the web-evaluation form delivered α = 0.703, thus characterized as reliable (α > 0.700), providing the assurance of the internal reliability of the data [145].

All results of this pilot case study are presented in the next section (Section 4) either overall, or individually, or in single tables, or in double entry tables with percentages or rounded percentages, averages (mean values), or standard deviations (SD) after analysis through SPSS and Survs.com. In addition, the qualitative data collected from the second part of the web-evaluation form were grouped and adjusted as audiovisual media communications keywords quantitative data (i.e., video, presentation, and sound/audio media) through data segmentation and hermeneutical coding [146,147] and presented in graph form (as figures) through Excel Microsoft 365, for better understanding [148].

4. Results, Findings and Discussion

4.1. Sample Characteristics and Descriptive Statistics

The final experimental research convenience sample of this pilot case study (research from here on), as mentioned above, consisted of 25 active adult educators as adult learners (adult learners from here on) from AEC of Cyprus and IEK of Greece in the academic year 2020–2021, during the period of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the specific conditions mentioned above, the research sample in this research had to have specific technological and ICTs skills (e.g., basic skills or/and web 2.0 skills [149,150]) in order to be able to participate. Most of the adult learners who participated in this research are members of GenY (with a percentage of 64%) (Figure 1), which justifies them as digital natives along with GenZ (with a percentage of 20%) (Figure 1) based on Prensky [19,20].

At this point it should be noted that in recent years the digital natives term has been disputed by many scientists and academics that it characterizes only the specific generational cohort mentioned by Prensky [19,20] (will be discussed in more detail below)—something that is partly shared and this research based on the hypothesis that has been put forward from the beginning (H1)—however, in the context of the text flow of this research will be used. Based on the above, this leads to the conclusion that the specific GenX adult educators from Cyprus and Greece are also able to adopt technological innovations coming from and through the Internet and social media. Furthermore, they seem to adapt to the consumption of audiovisual content in modern ways and platforms such as GenZ members [6,22,23,24,25,43,44] and can also be described as digital natives. This conclusion is also confirmed through (a) the panhellenic survey FOCUS ON TECH LIFE of Focus Bari with participants 13–74 years old in the whole of Greece during the period 2019–2020 [151]; and (b) the Eurostat survey on social media use in 2020 among European member states with participants 16–74 years old [152].

In the Focus Bari survey in Greece showed that 9 out of 10 Greeks now use the Internet and social media in their everyday life. In addition, between the second half of 2019 and the first half of 2020 (i.e., during the period of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic), in the age groups 45–54 years old (GenX) the number of online users increased by one percent (1%), in the age groups 55–64 years old (Baby Boomer Generation—people born from 1946 to 1964 [153,154]) by eight percent (8%), and in the age groups 65–74 years old by ten percent (10%) (Baby Boomer Generation and Silent Generation), resulting in that the older ages in Greece being considered and included in the active online users in the digital world [151].

On the other hand, the Eurostat survey in Europe showed that almost 9 in every 10 Europeans in the age group 16–24 years old use social media with a percentage of 87%. Cyprus ranks third in Europe with a percentage of 78% in the age group 16–74 years old [152]. More specifically, among young social media users in the age group 16–24 years old (GenZ) the percentage is 95%, while among older social media users in age group 65–74 years old (Baby Boomer Generation and Silent Generation) the percentage is 33% [152]. Likewise, Greece, on the other hand, has the 21st place in Europe with a percentage of 59% [152]. More specifically, among young social media users in the age group 16–24 years old (GenZ) the percentage is 90%, while among older social media users in age group 65–74 years old (Baby Boomer Generation and Silent Generation) the percentage is 59% [152]. Based on the above, it leads to the conclusion that Greek-Cypriots are more ardent supporters of social media than Greeks. Additionally, that the Greek-Cypriots may be more familiar than the Greeks with the use of audiovisual media communications (based on the literature review, social media are included in the audiovisual media communications), something that is confirmed through the research results and findings of relevant researches that took place (a) in Greece (Thessaloniki) and Cyprus (Nicosia/Lefkosia) in 2016 with the sample consisting of young adults aged 18–25 years old as digital natives (now 23–30 years old/GenZ and GenY) [42,64,155]; and (b) in Greece (Athens and Thessaloniki) and Cyprus (Nicosia/Lefkosia and Limassol/Lemesos) in the academic year 2019–2020 with the sample consisting of adult educators as adult learners aged 25–59 years (now 26–60 years old/GenZ, GenY, GenX and Baby Boomer Generation) (research of the research project MACE) [24].

In conclusion, the statistical distribution of the variable of gender of this research was 13 males, with a percentage of 52%, and 12 females, with a percentage of 48%. More specifically, their age groups were as follows: (a) 5 adult learners 18–26 years, with a percentage of 20% (1 male, with a percentage of 20%, and 4 females, with a percentage of 80%) (GenZ); (b) 16 adult learners 27–39 years, with a percentage of 64% (10 males, with a percentage of 62.5%, and 6 females, with a percentage of 37.5%) (GenY); and (c) 4 adult learners 40–54 years, with a percentage of 16% (2 males, with a percentage of 50%, and 2 females, with a percentage of 50%) (GenX) (Figure 1).

4.2. Digital Educational Seminar

The grouped total responses of the research sample in terms of the degree of satisfaction obtained from the web-evaluation form ranged mainly between the choices of the five-point Likert scale from 3 to 5 (“Fair” to “Excellent”), with more answers given to option 5 (“Excellent”). The largest percentage of option 5 (“Excellent”) was presented in the “audiovisual content” used in the digital educational seminar (18 adult learners, with a percentage of 72%) (

Table 1. Grouped total responses of the adult learners.

Degree of Satisfaction	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent	Mean	SD
Expectations			2–8%	7–28%	16–64%	4.56	0.651
Organization				9–36%	16–64%	4.64	0.490
Interesting Suggestions			2–8%	8–32%	15–60%	4.52	0.653
Discussion Time			6–24%	4–16%	15–60%	4.36	0.860
Development Issues				14–56%	11–44%	4.44	0.507
Questions/Answers			5–20%	6–24%	14–56%	4.36	0.810
Knowledge			3–12%	10–40%	12–48%	4.36	0.700
Audiovisual Content				7–28%	18–72%	4.72	0.458

).

Regarding the average values in Table 1, which all ranged above 4, the question that gained the highest percentage was also the “audiovisual content” used in the digital educational seminar (mean value: 4.72, SD: 0.458). On the other hand, the lowest percentage was on the “discussion time” (mean value: 4.36, SD: 0.860) and the “questions/answers” (mean value: 4.36, SD: 0.810) made at the end of the digital educational seminar (webinar from here on for this section), as well as the “knowledge” they acquired (theoretical background investigation) on the subject (mean value: 4.36, SD: 0.700) (Table 1), something that is purely subjective for every individual [156]. These three questions that had the lowest and same average values are interrelated, in particular the “discussion time” and the “questions/answers” that were raised made at the end of the webinar on the subject. The participants, as shown in the results through the web-evaluation form, had several questions regarding the subject of the webinar like in the previous respective researches that used the specific lesson plan [24,51,52,127,157], making the study of non-verbal communication seriously important as well as an urgent high priority. Unfortunately, due to the specific circumstances of the webinar as well as the strict processing time requirements and schedules, it was not possible to answer all of the participants’ questions, and this was reflected in the data.

However, on the other hand, the question that gained the second highest percentage was the “organization” of the webinar. This is a very interesting result that was not expected for a twofold reason. The primary reason was that this webinar would be held for the first time in this form as online teaching and would function mainly as testing to investigate further at a later stage or/and to investigate through other future research in relation to technology-enhanced and online learning for all educational levels and disciplines. In particular, it would work as guidance on good practice for educators making the transition to technology-enabled learning for a sustainable quality education and learning for everyone. The second reason, in addition, was due to the high risk of genealogical characteristics of the participants and the way they use the technology from and through the Internet to communicate were taken into account, and in particular how the GenZ members, who are mainly characterized as visual, consume audiovisual content compared to other generations [6,23,24,25,43,44,64]. In a recent quantitative research in Greece in 2019 in relation to the effective integration of audiovisual media communications as educational techniques or/and communication tools to provide technology-enhanced learning through an interactive teaching (in this case a lecture) with emphasis on educational effectiveness to budding journalists as adult learners (18 years and older), it was indicated that a well-organized lecture with interesting suggestions manages to achieve its goal and satisfy the adult learners’ expectations who were members of GenZ, GenY, and GenX [6]. The authors had created a pattern lesson plan based on a previous lesson plan with educational activities derived from another previously tested lesson plan, concluding, “that students/learners as well as educators can reap the benefits of a previously tested lesson plan as well as save time by using certain aspects of the lesson plan (e.g., materials, procedures, educational activities, educational techniques and/or communication tools, etc.)” [6] (p. 178).

More information and details are provided in

Table 2. Mean values and standard deviations of questions in relation in relation to the country of origin.

	Expectations		Organization		Interesting Suggestions		Discussion Time		Development Issues		Questions/Answers		Knowledge		Audiovisual Content
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
CYPRUS	4.58	0.669	4.50	0.522	4.42	0.669	4.42	0.900	4.50	0.522	4.25	0.866	4.17	0.718	4.83	0.389
GREECE	4.54	0.660	4.77	0.439	4.62	0.650	4.31	0.855	4.38	0.506	4.46	0.776	4.54	0.660	4.62	0.506

,

Table 3. Mean values and standard deviations of questions in relation to the gender of adult learners.

	Expectations		Organization		Interesting Suggestions		Discussion Time		Development Issues		Questions/Answers		Knowledge		Audiovisual Content
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
males	4.38	0.768	4.54	0.519	4.23	0.725	4.46	0.776	4.31	0.480	3.92	0.862	4.08	0.641	4.69	0.480
females	4.75	0.452	4.75	0.452	4.83	0.389	4.25	0.965	4.58	0.515	4.83	0.389	4.67	0.651	4.75	0.452

and

Table 4. Mean values and standard deviations of questions in relation to the age groups (genealogical cohorts) of adult learners.

	Expectations		Organization		Interesting Suggestions		Discussion Time		Development Issues		Questions/Answers		Knowledge		Audiovisual Content
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
CenZ	4.80	0.447	5.00	0.000	5.00	0.000	4.20	1.095	4.80	0.447	4.80	0.477	4.40	0.894	4.80	0.447
GenY	4.44	0.727	4.63	0.500	4.38	0.719	4.25	0.856	4.31	0.49	4.25	0.931	4.36	0.719	4.69	0.479
GenX	4.75	0.500	4.25	0.500	4.50	0.577	5.000	0.000	4.50	0.577	4.25	0.500	4.25	0.500	4.75	0.500

.

4.3. Generational Cohorts Categorization and Generation Gap from and through the (New) Technologies

Generational cohorts’ categorization can be characterized as a historical neighborhood, based from and through the various (new) technological advancements and the worldwide events over time. About three decades ago, when GenY started growing up and went into adulthood, a number of researchers, policy makers, and especially journalists began to investigate the genealogical characteristics of its members, and to point out its alleged and supposed gap between previous generations, as well as whether they could coexist in the same place (e.g., in the workplace) [158,159,160,161]. Historically, this generation gap has already been pointed out for the first time by Karl Mannheim in 1928 as fresh contacts, which would have a deeper impact on young people [162]. With the rise of the Internet from 1992 onwards and due to the increased use of technology mainly by the younger ones, the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace in 1996 [163], categorized people as digital immigrants and digital natives [163,164]. These terms were widely disseminated from 2001 onwards by Prensky [19,20].

Digital immigrants are mainly people born before 1974, while in recent years due to digital literacy are also considered people over 30 years old who are digitally illiterate [42,164,165]. These people are trained in the use of technology and media in the same way they are trained as in learning a foreign language. Due to the conditions and the increasing use of technology, they realize that they have to adapt, but at the same time they know that to some extent they belong to the past [42]. Digital natives, on the other hand, are mainly people born from 1980 onwards, while people born from 2000 onwards are also called digital learners [165]. To summarize, digital natives were born when technology was in full swing, using the Internet, technology, and new media in every aspect of their daily lives, and they still remain the main social media consumers having the benefit that they fully understand the new online linguistic models and communication codes used in them [6,25,64,166].

In recent years, as mentioned above, these terms have begun to be challenged more and more, because they mainly classify and put labels on students/learners in relation to educators based on various inherent characteristics [22,64]. Nowadays, this phenomenon is said to be more pronounced in primary and secondary general education, as well as in higher education with newly admitted students/learners at the undergraduate level, due to the fact that students/learners are mainly GenZ as well as Alpha members (people born from 2011 [167]) [6,25,94]. Additionally, on the other hand, in higher education at postgraduate level, which began to embrace the modern theoretical and methodological approaches and trends in adult education, students/learners regardless of inherent characteristics are all treated primarily as adults, taking into account only the age factor. Of course this is a big mistake, because adult education mainly concerns “adults with inherent (e.g., performance, gender, religion, and age) and specific characteristics, such as people in general or/and minority populations, vulnerable social groups, and special audiences (e.g., people with muscular disabilities or kinetic problems, impaired vision) who cannot read or have a different native language, aiming to fight against cultural inequalities, exploring adult learning opportunities, and raising the general level of culture” [24] (pp. 969–970).

Recent studies of the research project MACE in Greece and Cyprus in the academic years 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, which applied the use of audiovisual media communications in non-distance education teaching to adult learners (18 years and older), showed that there is finally a separation in digital immigrants and digital natives of those who participated in the researches based on their genealogical characteristics, habits, and behaviors, and the genealogical cohorts to which they belong respectively [6,24,25]. More specifically, in the research conducted during the academic year 2019–2020 in Greece and Cyprus, the authors justified this distinction based on the research methodology, and in particular that the individuals who participated were selected through a special list following an online/electronic EοI where it was (a) published as an announcement in relevant online groups in social media and (b) emailed. The authors also found through a systematic search that “for some unexplained reason, academia and researchers have stopped exploring the use of mass media in recent decades, as well as the audiovisual media technologies as new technologies in adult education” [24] (p. 969); concluding that perhaps then adult educators and adult students/learners (that is, they were members of the Baby Boomer Generation, and especially of the Silent Generation, who are unfamiliar with the use of technology as digital immigrants based on Prensky [19,20]) “were not ready to manage the use of new technologies in adult education. New technologies five decades ago were considered the (traditional) radio (1920) and television (1957), while today, interactive websites and weblogs/blogs, social media networks and platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), audiovisual platforms (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, etc.), Internet applications and services (e.g., Internet relay chat or messaging apps/social messaging/social chat, such as Skype, Viber, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc.), new media (e.g., Internet radio/TV or web-radio/TV), etc.” [24] (p. 969). Based on the research findings, the authors concluded that the younger adult educators as adult learners or/and the younger genealogical cohorts (GenZ and GenY) (younger adults) “adopt new technological innovations easily, since the consumption of audiovisual content in contemporary ways and platforms compared to the older generations (older adults), which confirms why research for the use of media in education has ceased in the last five decades” [24] (p. 984). On the other hand, in the research conducted on budding journalists (18 years and older) as adult learners who were studying media studies in the academic year 2018–2019 in Greece, the authors not only discovered that there is this separation, they also found that there is the Xennials Generation (Xennials from here on) (people born from 1977 to 1981—this chronological position has not yet been officially defined, because in recent years academics and researchers have only recently begun to investigate it) [6] (p. 167). Based on the systematic search of the authors, this generation emerged because most of the then young teenagers in the early to mid-90s (age group 13–19 years old) tended to have different genealogical characteristics, habits, and behaviors from the members of the generation to which they belonged. To summarize, Xennials is placed between two generations [6] (p. 167], the GenY and GenX, and is characterized as a cusp generation (i.e., crossbreed generation or cross-over generation) or a microgeneration [6] (p. 157). According to the above, as well as the chronological position of the Xennials, its members can be simultaneously characterized as digital immigrants or digital natives following what is defined by Prensky [19,20], something that was presented in the results and findings of the reported research.

On the other hand, another research that used adult college students (27 to 61 years old) in the academic year 2008–2009 in USA (i.e., GenY, GenX, and Baby Boomer Generation) in online courses in a graduate health science program, the research results and findings showed that older adult college students (i.e., Baby Boomer Generation) were more active in the websites associated with the online courses and were more likely to be considered digital immigrants rather than digital natives, while they also showed more zeal than younger adults college students (i.e., GenY) [168]. The reason for this result may have been that the authors had not taken into account the genealogical characteristics, habits, and behaviors of the research sample, adapting the online teaching accordingly to maintain the interest of the younger ones; as a result, their research findings showed that GenY members had poorer knowledge application skills and were more self-reliant than older college students. If the above reason is valid, then the technological methods of online teaching and the educational material used could be characterized as boring for the younger adult college students, while for the older ones as an interest, thus justifying this research finding. In conclusion, the authors state that educators who teach GenY members need to encourage active, meaningful participation in applying knowledge [168].

Now, regarding this research and the specific requirements of the webinar that the research sample already knew before participating, hypothetically the final sample should be digitally literate and logically there should be no gap between the genealogical cohorts, even although the sample that participated was digital immigrants and digital natives. However, following Figure 2, we eventually saw that the generational cohorts have different views and attitudes in relation to the webinar they attended, with a more pronounced gap between the younger generation and the older one, confirming once again the Prensky theory [19,20]. This result is very important and useful for educators, and especially for adult educators, who should always keep this in mind, and not take anything for granted regarding the particularities of their students/learners.

4.4. Audiovisual Media Communications

The use of audiovisual media communications in education contributes to effective teaching, to technology-enhanced learning, and to the provision of easier acquired knowledge [6,15,17,57]. Furthermore, they play a critical role in the success of teaching and learning processes [169] as well as an important non-verbal role in our psychological health, mainly through the consumption of audiovisual content or/and narratives [24]. Following now the participants’ recorded views on online teaching of the webinar (as comments or/and suggestions) from the open-ended question in grouped quantitative forms in Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6, it can be safely considered that the above seems to be confirmed.

The participants seem to have a positive attitude towards the use of these audiovisual media communications as audiovisual content in a webinar (Figure 3), while they also seem to accept them. In addition, it seems that the use of audiovisual content through a presentation kept the interest and attention of adult learners, something which is also confirmed in the corresponding studies through research in which the same lesson plan was used as well as the same audiovisual content through presentation [6,24,25,51,52]. It is apparent that a lesson plan using a presentation as its main educational communication tool, which was enriched with multimodal content and material as audiovisual educational content from and through audiovisual media technologies, has several positive effects for the learners themselves [6] (p. 176), and especially in this case for adult learners. Furthermore, this type of interactive presentation has been shown to promote enhanced interactivity in non-distance education teaching, and seems to have the same effect also in online teaching.

On the other hand, this positivity and acceptance seems to be due to the specific choice of audiovisual educational content (i.e., the television contents) used in this webinar. By choosing the right audiovisual educational content, the maximum attention of learners in online teaching can be achieved, as in non-distance education teaching based on the research findings of other relevant studies [6,24,25]. Additionally, following the relevant literature review referring to adult education, audiovisual educational content is considered helpful and useful for the adult learners to make sense of and understand a lesson [9,10,13,14,15,50].

In summary and according to the research results from the qualitative data after the analysis, the video has the most overall popularity in relation to the sound/audio media and the presentation, both based on the age or/and genealogical cohort (Figure 4) and the gender (Figure 5), as well as the country of origin (Figure 6) of the participants. This may be due, as mentioned above, to the use of the specific television content through the video as audiovisual content. A video in the context of technology-enhanced learning always has a dual use in an educational process [24] (p 984), both as audiovisual media technology (i.e., as educational communication tool) and as audiovisual content (i.e., as educational/teaching material) [13,14,15,50].

In addition, based on the results and findings of this particular research, the video seems to have functioned more as audiovisual content rather than audiovisual media technology. In the discussion of the results in a research of the research project MACE with adult educators as adult learners from Greece and Cyprus during the academic year 2019–2020, where the same lesson plan was used as in this research, it is emphasized that the television content “used as audiovisual content through the use of video, may have played a key role in the successful conduct of interactive teaching” [24] (p. 984) which was in the form of a non-distance seminar. The television contents used in both researches have been shown or/and are being shown (at the time of writing this article) both in Cyprus and Greece through the public or private channels of the country or/and through pay-TV platforms of telecommunication providers or are available through the various audiovisual platforms (e.g., the private pay-streaming platform Netflix), as mentioned above in Section 2.2. Typical examples are (a) The Walking Dead from AMC, which is broadcast from FOX through pay-TV platforms of telecommunication providers in Greece and Cyprus, while it is also available through Netflix’s private VoD subscription service in both countries; (b) Apocalypse of American Horror Story from FX has already been rebroadcast twice in 2021 through FOX in both countries (the last screening/repetition was in September 2021); and finally (c) RuPaul’s Drag Race from VH1 which, although the last season (13th season) was completed in April 2021 with rebroadcast after a few hours through Netflix in both countries, all its other seasons (where scenes were used as audiovisual educational content through video as part of the presentation material) are also available through Netflix’s private VoD subscription service in both countries as well. Furthermore, on the other hand, most of the Greek television series that have been used as audiovisual educational content, although they come from past decades (e.g., Dolce Vita or/and Konstantinou and Elenis/Constantine’s and Helen’s, etc.), are still shown repeatedly on television in both countries until today (at the time of writing this article) with a big impact in viewership as well as on the Internet through the service Web-TV or VoD platform of the channels or/and through audiovisual platform YouTube (e.g., Konstantinou and Elenis/Constantine’s and Helen’s as mentioned above in Section 2.2.2), resulting in acquired familiarity by the younger adults (e.g., GenZ) who participated in this research as in relevant research. At this point, it should be mentioned that this familiarity of younger adults is clearly reflected in the qualitative data of the third part of the web-evaluation form which unfortunately in this article have been converted and presented as quantitative data. To summarize, all this leads to the conclusion that the successful conduct of the webinar for adult learners, may be due to the specific choice television contents that was already familiar and well-known. This conclusion is also confirmed through the literature which says that adult learners learn better when the content of education has a direct relation to everyday life [9,10,13,14,15,50,170].

In conclusion, it should be mentioned that during the screening of the animation excerpts from Sailor Moon with the Greek dubbing from ANT1 Greece, all adult learners recognized them at once with the corresponding surprise shock and admiration in their faces that one of the protagonists’ voice is the Greek voice of the legendary Soragia from Maria la del Barrio, namely, Maria Plakidi (as Sailor Mars/Rei Hino with an adult vocal color and Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino with a mature adult vocal color, and Chibiusa Tsukino/Small Lady/Sailor Chibi Moon with a child vocal color). This was a pleasant and unexpected surprise, because the youngest adult learners (i.e., GenZ) from Greece usually watched this animation series with the Greek dubbing from STAR. Additionally, the same surprise, shock and admiration in their faces arose when they recognized the characteristic voice of the actress Rania Ioannidou (as Sailor Venus/Minako Aino with an adult vocal color) from Greek television series (a) Dyo Xenoi/Two Strangers who played the indiscreet neighbor Marianthi Mantouna; and (b) To Kafe tis Charas/Chara’s Café who played Marika Sergianopoulou, the gossip wife of the village priest papa-Triantafyllou (aka papadia/παπαδιά of phonetic Greeklish and Greek language). In addition, during the discussion at the end of the webinar, all the adult learners reported that they recognized the other voices from the animation excerpts, especially the voices of (a) Matina Karra (as Sailor Moon/Princess Serenity/Usagi Tsukino with a teenage vocal color, Sailor Neptune/Michiru Kaioh with an adult vocal color and Sailor Pluto/Setsuna Meioh with a mature adult vocal color); (b) Maria Bonikou (as Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno with a teenager vocal color, Sailor Uranus/Haruka Tenoh with an adult vocal color, and Luna a child vocal color); and (c) of Manos Venieris (Tuxedo Mask/Prince Endymion/Mamoru Chiba with an adult vocal color). Furthermore, through the plenary debate, and in particular in the discussion at the end of the webinar, adult learners remembered the corresponding telenovelas or other anime series in which the actors as voice-over artists had given their voice from Sailor Moon, in both Greek dubbings (from ANT1 Greece and STAR), while the much older ones, listening to the voices with an adult vocal color of the actors, also remembered old Greek films in which the actors had starred. One such typical case is that the elders mainly (i.e., the adult learners from GenX and the older ones from GenY) mentioned that as soon as they had heard the voice of Matina Karra with a teenage vocal color and Manos Venieris with an adult vocal color, they remembered their favorite anime series when they were children Candy Candy (Κάντυ Κάντυ of Greek language) (1975–1979), in which (a) Matina Κarra had given her voice to the protagonist, Camdice “Candy” White Ardlay; while (b) Manos Venieris had given his voice to the protagonist, Terrence “Terry” G. Grandchester. Historically, this anime series was first aired with Greek dubbing in the mid-1980s from ERT in Greece, and then rebroadcast again from the mid-early to mid-1990s on her channels ERT1 and ERT3, as well as national Greek satellite channel ERT SAT (1996–2006) (in 2016 reopened and renamed to ERT World) in Cyprus, while the anime series was also rebroadcast with a new Greek dubbing in the mid-1990’s from former ALPHA SKY in Greece. The specific anime series with the first Greek dubbing from ERT, and after the special and professional processing and editing of the videos by the Greek team of Candy Candy (The Candy In Greek Project—http://thecandyingreekproject.blogspot.com/, accessed on 30 July) (such as, the WoD), is now preserved in its entirety on various Internet forums or/and individually on various audiovisual platforms (e.g., YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Metacafe, etc.). Additionally, on the other hand, adult learners recognized the characteristic voice of celebrity Maria Ioannidou (actress of theater, television, and old Greek cinema, as well as dancer) (as Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino with an adult vocal color) from the corresponding Greek dubbing from STAR, who has recently starred in the ANT1 Greece television series Min Psaronis/Do not Fish (Μην Ψαρώνεις of Greek language) (2018–2020). Finally, all of the above were also captured and reflected in most of the comments in the open question of the third part of the web-evaluation.

In addition, it should be mentioned, all of the above can be also justified from the point of view of audiovisual content as television content (i.e., as video) through relevant researches conducted in both countries over time [24] (pp. 985–986). More specifically, reference is made to (a) researches in Cyprus (i) on students aged 11–13 in 1995 (now 37–41/GenY) [97]; and (ii) on students aged 13–18 in 1997 (now 37–41 years old/GenY) [98], as well as (b) research in Greece on students aged 9–18 years old in 2009 (now 21–30 years old/GenZ and GenY) [171]. The results showed that the then young Greek-Cypriot students in both researches had a special preference and close relationship with television [97,98], something which is documented through literature [99]. Moreover, in the 1995 research, the results showed that students have a particular preference for American television series (e.g., 90210 from FOX) [97], while in the 1997 research first for the Greek-Cypriot television programs, subsequently for the Greek television series and programs and finally for the American television series and programs [98]. Additionally, in the 1995 research, the results showed that students watched television for more than over 2 h a day (with a percentage of 63%) [97], while in the 1997 research, the students watched television average 2 to 4 h a day (with a percentage of 85.9%) [98]. On the other hand, in the 2009 research in Greece, the results showed that students watched television for at least 1 to 2 h a day (at a percentage of about 47%) [171]. Based on the above conclusions, it can be disseminated that (a) the then Greek-Cypriot students were more familiar with television (as audiovisual media communications) from the then Greek students as well as (b) the then Greek-Cypriot students consumed more audiovisual content through it from the then Greek students; who would probably still continue to behave the same way when they grow up [24] (p. 986), something that have been shown in this research results and findings (Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6) and is confirmed through the research results and findings of relevant studies that took place in Greece and Cyprus in 2016 with the sample consisting of young adults aged 18–25 years old as digital natives (now 23–30 years old/GenZ and GenY), using as a case study the i-doc NEW LIFE [42,64,155].

As a final conclusion, it can be stated that the complete success for the understanding of a training program/lesson/lecture/course/seminar from the respective students/learners can be influenced and determined by the use and proper selection of a television content as educational/teaching material. Choosing any educational/teaching material is not an easy task for the educator of any educational levels and disciplines (including adult education). On the one hand, of course, there is always the danger of their pointless and superficial application. Plus, the learners through them should be able to actively participate in the educational process and not be a mere spectator.

4.5. Concluding Discussion

Based on the above research results and findings, this webinar is considered to have achieved its goal, and to be successful. After all, what led to its success? Using a tried and tested lesson plan, or/and using and selecting the right television content as audiovisual content? If there was a change in the television content, would the webinar still have the same success again? Unfortunately, based on these research results and findings, these questions cannot be answered scientifically with certainty, and further research is needed for better understanding of these issues.

The particular lesson plan of the webinar that was used has proven over time that (a) it is considered flawless; and (b) the teaching methodology and methods, educational activities, techniques, and communication tools used are appropriate for use in adults as part of a teaching and learning process whole. Historically, the original lesson plan in 2014, was intended for the then adults, and especially for GenX and the older GenY. The specific choice of television contents at that time was intended to be “bringing back the memories” to the adult learners, in order for them to understand and comprehend a lesson [127].

In the case of the research project MACE (2016–), where one of the objectives was to investigate audiovisual content, in its third main research (including the pilot survey) (2019–2020) [24] the original television contents of the original lesson plan had to be revised and undergo special processing for its new version (which was also the version used in this research). More specifically, as mentioned above, all sound/audio media spots from the videos were digitally processed so that the original audio material reached its final optimized form, using modern non-linear and non-destructive techniques [138] and considering the QoL parameters [139,140,141]. Furthermore, one of the videos was updated and revised based on the original used in the original lesson plan, using Greek vocalization, while it was deemed necessary to include new videos, such as (a) videos for the exercise of representation (Appendix H); (b) small videos scenes from Sailor Moon of Toei with (i) the Greek dubbing by STAR; and (ii) the Greek amateur/nonprofessional dubbing by WoD; (c) small videos scenes from the sequel of the series S’ Agapo M’ Agapas/I Love You, You Love Me; and (d) video with scenes from GNTM 2 (Appendix J), to consider the interactive educational seminar more complete and in line with the times, based on the feedback and comments of the 40 adult participants from Cyprus and Greece who participated in pilot survey of the third main research of the research project MACE (2019–2020) [24] (p. 973). In conclusion, the mentioned procedure (i.e., to revise an old lesson plan) was applied to another research of the research project MACE, as mentioned above, and their results showed “students/learners as well as educators can reap the benefits of a previously tested lesson plan as well as save time by using certain aspects of the lesson plan (e.g., materials, procedures, educational activities, educational techniques and/or communication tools, etc.)” [6] (p. 178). This is also confirmed in this research, and leads to the conclusion that “the educator must firstly acquire specific skills and abilities in ICTs, as well as communication skills and multiple-multimodal skills” [6] (p. 179), while the effective integration of audiovisual media communications in the context of the educational process at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education) requires talented, dedicated, and committed educators “with imagination, charisma, uniqueness, nervousness, patience, and perseverance” [24] (p. 987) for amplifying a comprehensive teaching and learning process.

In addition, based on the research results and findings of this research in relation to the literature review, the participants who participated may be possessed by specific values and ideals. More specifically, the television series in Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time and S’ Agapo M’ Agapas/I Love You, You Love Me, as well as the anime series Sailor Moon, negotiate friendship. The television series Konstantinou and Elenis/Constantine’s and Helen’s and Sto Para 5/In the Nick of Time are reminiscent of the old Greek cinema, while the anime series Sailor Moon has proved that in this research it brings back to mind the old Greek cinema, especially of the older adult participants through the voices of the actors as voice-over artists. All this leads to the conclusion that the specific participants have a strongly developed sense of friendship and nostalgia for old Greek cinema. Moreover, if other television content was used that negotiates other values and ideals, the webinar might not have had the same success. In the same framework, it is concluded that the older ones (i.e., GenY and GenX) have grown up watching Sailor Moon and Greek dubbing telenovelas influenced by international media hurricanes and socio-phenomena, while the younger ones (i.e., GenZ) got to know them, even if they hadn’t heard of them, due to the Greek and Greek-Cypriot media environment (Section 2.2), the rise of social media in recent years, and the new streamlined digital era (Section 2.2.3). Additionally, the younger ones mainly (i.e., GenZ and GenY) have exactly the same behaviors as their international peers. Furthermore, it is also emphasized that although the participants are from different countries, they have the same television habits, confirming that they have been exposed to the same media socio-phenomena. Finally, it can be formulated that the generational cohort’s categorization and the generation gap between genealogical cohorts will always exist, even if everyone probably has the same qualifications and skills.

In conclusion, what can be said with certainty is that the success of the lesson plan is due not only to the teaching methodology and methods, educational activities, techniques, and communication tools used, but also to the content itself (in this case, the television contents), thus making it of the utmost importance in the context of teaching, and in this case online teaching that uses media trends and prospects. Additionally, the specific selection and use of the television contents used had already been preserved in the memory of the participants from the media environment, and from and through the Internet over time, meaning it contributed significantly to the success of the webinar. Finally, as a final conclusion, the educator (a) must be very careful in choosing the television contents in the teaching and learning process, and (b) must take into account the characteristics, culture background, and needs of their learners, as a result learning will never end and will obviously be lifelong.

5. Instead of an Epilogue

The modern visualized, interconnected, and unexpected era in which we live requires all of us to ultimately have multiple-multimodal skills (e.g., ICTs skills, communication skills, etc.) in order to survive in this (un)real and virtual (digital) world [6,51], and not to create the various socio-technology gaps in all sectors of everyday life. Ongoing contemporary rapid advancements in science and technology, as well as the unexpected circumstances (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic), have brought about and will continue to convey changes in this globalized world. Nowadays, we live in a world dominated by social media and fake news, national closures are threatening not only educational systems but also global communities and societies, while the television, on the other hand, is now already borderless due to the streaming era.

Globalization combined with technology and scientific inventions, although they have made our lives easier and more comfortable (e.g., annihilation of distances, information and knowledge are accessible from everywhere, etc.) [40], they have affected us to the degree that we have become dependent upon them, while they have created hurricanes that have changed our socio-cultural environment forever, causing changes in our behavior and the way we talk, think, and learn. Education as one of the institutions of utmost importance is directly and indirectly affected by these changes and needs to redefine its role to keep pace with these technological and social behavior changes. The solution to these changes lies in the study of the past as a whole, where in conjunction with the present, we can create the future. Studying history, social-phenomena, and technological and digital socio-cultural environments through the lens of the media [100] and looking at media through the lens of generational cohorts, the future of education will look bright and sustainable for a quality education for everyone, so that learning will never end and will be evidently lifelong.

This article with this pilot case study, albeit with a small research sample size, led to the confirmation of the research results and findings of previous studies and research papers of the research project MACE. Furthermore, it led to the revision of response criteria that the success of an educational process (e.g., through the implementation of a lesson plan) is mainly due to the quality of the audiovisual educational content and not only to the effective use of audiovisual media technologies, which is something that all educational systems worldwide, education administrators, and educators should definitely focus on from now on. Here it should be noted that the use of video or/and sound/audio media in the educational process in technology-enhanced learning always has a dual use, as audiovisual media technology and as audiovisual content (i.e., as audiovisual media communication), and it is always up to the educator how to manage it, because it is not an easy task, and there is always a great risk of their unnecessary and superficial implementation [15,24]. To summarize and more specifically, following this research results and findings, the utmost importance of the use of television content in an educational process is also presented, as well as how learners can more easily understand and learn more effectively [24]. It moreover confirms once again the theory of audiovisual media in education [15], while it can also be applied to online teaching from and through the Internet (RO1), under the circumstances mentioned and the reported conditions. Although the theoretical framework of this article refers to a case in the media environment of Cyprus and Greece, the research findings, and results of this research, as well as the data of the research project to which it belongs (i.e., MACE), can be used for all educational levels and disciplines, and not just in adult education. In addition, the generalization of research results and findings and their reproduction on different socio-economic bases, as well as the use of different audiovisual content in experiments and their analysis and presentation as qualitative rather than quantitative data are a matter of further scientific enquiry. This is something that may be also explored later as one of the next stages in the framework of the ongoing research project MACE or/and in the context of a new research project. Finally, it should be mentioned that the research results and findings from this research, unfortunately, cannot allow their generalization to the population and certain limitations are imposed, due to (a) the research methodology as a pilot case study; (b) the very small number of participants in the research; as well as (c) the sampling method followed, and the research sample selected (i.e., adult educators from AEC of Cyprus and IEK of Greece).

In conclusion, the success of this pilot case study, as well as in previous studies and research of the research project NVC (2014 to 2020) and MACE (2016–), is mainly due to the fact that the specific television content used through the lesson plan was maintained over the years through the television channels in Cyprus and Greece or/and from and through the Internet. Based on the international genealogical characteristics of the research sample that participated in this research, in relation to the results in combination with the media socio-phenomena, television content, the relevant literature reviews, and research papers conducted in recent decades in both countries [6,23,24,25,40,42,43,44,46,51,52,64], the research sample has exactly the same characteristics as their peers. The most typical example is that the young adults of the GenY and GenZ in both countries as minors watched television a significant amount of time in the traditional way, while in recent decades they continue with the same or/and even more frequent consumption of audiovisual content mostly through the modern ways (mainly the members of GenZ) [24] (pp. 985–986).

Finally, the utmost importance of non-verbal communication in the course should be mentioned, such as the use of good quality sound or music (which are included in the types of non-verbal communication) [51,52]. The study, application, function, utility, and knowledge of non-verbal communication in the educational process on all educational levels and disciplines is crucial. With the use of audiovisual media communications, we can reduce the symptoms of fatigue and tiredness, improving concentration and helping learners in their psychological health [24]. Any type of audiovisual media communications must be customized, and it must take into consideration the inherent and specific characteristics as well as genealogical characteristics of learners as digital natives or/and digital immigrants [6,15,24]. If all this is taken into account and implemented, online learning and teaching is predicted to remain an important educational element. Knowledge is ultimately found in the television content as well, and should always be used sparingly from and through the Internet.