{"title":"What on Earth do Journalists Know? A New Model of Knowledge Brokers’ Expertise","authors":"Zvi Reich, Hagar Lahav","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtaa013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The article offers a new theoretical model that conceptualizes the “exotic” expertise of journalists and other knowledge-brokers who specialize in particular domains (e.g., teachers, librarians, analysts). The model adapts theories from sociology, pedagogy and philosophy and juxtaposes them against the insights of 14 editors-in-chief from leading Israeli media, in order to validate, refine and illustrate the theoretical generalizations. According to the suggested model, specialized knowledge brokers develop a unique type of expertise that can be modeled across four distinct dimensions: The manifestation of expertise (doing/talking), the mechanism of expertise (interplay between journalistic and domain knowledge), the socio-epistemic position (outsiders/insiders) and the density of expertise (homogenous versus heterogeneous knowledge). Understanding journalists’ expertise is crucial due to the overwhelming assault on experts in “post truth” societies; their role as mega brokers of expert knowledge from all disciplines (outside one’s own expertise) and the ongoing scholarly dispute on the nature of expertise.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ct/qtaa013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46080382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theorizing From the Global South: Dismantling, Resisting, and Transforming Communication Theory","authors":"M. Dutta, Mahuya Pal","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtaa010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa010","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue explores what theory looks like from the Global South. Whether it is in the work of the women farmers organized into Sanghams under the umbrella of the Deccan Development Society (DDS) or in the organizing of farmers under the collective formations of La Via Campesina, the emergent work of theory is intrinsically tied to plural practices embedded in community life. We argue that we need to theorize from the narratives embedded in experiences of actors who are disenfranchised from metropolitan/mainstream/Euro-US/neoliberal economics and society. We mark the local politics of the Global South at the intersections of the local and global forces as sites of knowledge in this special issue.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ct/qtaa010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44231545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Communicative Ethics of Racial Identity in Dialogue","authors":"Leda M. Cooks","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtaa007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa007","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the role of narratives about racial identity in constituting ethical performances in dialogue. SpeciBically, a dialogic communication ethics is described and placed in the context of intergroup dialogue (IGD) and communication approaches to dialogue. Then the focus turns to how these ethical frames and models for conducting dialogue functioned in a large-scale campus dialogue on race and whiteness. The paper addresses the ways identities were constructed and deployed in the dialogues by examining how dialogue topics are framed and discussed by facilitators and participants. This discussion of intention and outcome raises theoretical and practical questions in order to facilitate further conversations about identity and ethics in a controversially “Post-racial” era. Finally, the paper looks at how communication ethics and dialogue might work to address the discursive power of social group identities in pedagogical discussions of civility, inclusion, merit or a “good” life.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ct/qtaa007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60983029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Developmental Stages of Information and Communication Technology","authors":"Anthony Löwstedt","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtaa015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 With a media anthropological-philosophical approach to ICT, four convergent developmental stages are distinguished and defined: pictography, ethography, phonography, and prography. They are invented/acquired in this sequence by human individuals as well as the human genus in general. Pictograms were first invented in forager cultures, ethograms in permanently settled village communities, phonograms in the early cities and civilizations of southwest Asia and northeast Africa, and electronic programs in a globalized society under North Atlantic domination. Print is considered as a corollary to phonography. Anthropological contextualization of technologies and institutions and the socio-politico-economic inclusivity and exclusivity of media are highlighted. Since the ‘agricultural revolution’, exclusive as well as inclusive media have accompanied humanity. Lately, inclusive potential has grown again through the accessibility, ubiquity, and convergent depth of prography. However, new challenges to inclusivity, including new forms of surveillance, weaponization of the media and widening wealth disparities, have materialized in the same context.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ct/qtaa015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47440128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fake News is Not a Virus: On Platforms and Their Effects","authors":"C. W. Anderson","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtaa008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa008","url":null,"abstract":"This article attempts to uncover the intellectual, economic, and methodological structures that have led to the recent emergence of a particular notion of digital communication on social media platforms, one that emphasizes the power of (false) media messages to cause irrational political behavior and combines individual level understanding of media effects with a networked notion of society and information diffusion After pointing out some of the real political-economic forces at work in setting the contours of this intellectual turn, I discuss how spaces between mutually constructed but overlapping paradigmatic understandings of media behavior lead to theories that serve as boundary objects, linking (and misunderstanding) older fields in order to advance new agendas I then turn to the consequences of particular methodological choices, drawing on key works in Science and Technology Studies (STS) to make the point that these methodological choices not only establish scientific fields, they construct certain types of human subjects as well The article concludes with a call for a more humanistic and interpretive approach to the understanding of political behavior and communication","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ct/qtaa008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43518321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Other Side of Mediatization: Expanding the Concept to Defensive Strategies","authors":"Daniel Nölleke, Andreas M. Scheu, Thomas Birkner","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtaa011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Most research on mediatization focuses on media-related actions and structural adaptations that aim to increase media attention. However, social actors may also opt for defensive strategies and try to avoid media publicity. In this article, we conceptualize defensive and offensive mediatization strategies as complementary methods that social actors use to deal with media publicity and public attention as well as to proactively shape mediatization processes. We employ an exploratory approach to identify and systematize defensive mediatization strategies. Consequently, we contribute to a more complete understanding of mediatization and provide starting points for further empirical analyses of media-related strategies used by social actors. A secondary analysis of the data from previous research projects suggests establishing three categories of defensive mediatization strategies—persistence, shielding, and immunization—with regard to the levels of individual actors, organizations, and social systems’ routines and norms.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ct/qtaa011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43606622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Organizational Crisis Communication: Suboptimal Crisis Response Selection Decisions and Behavioral Economics","authors":"An-Sofie Claeys, W. Coombs","doi":"10.1093/CT/QTZ002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/CT/QTZ002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Organizations in crisis often fail to select the optimal crisis response strategy, preferring strategies that avoid short-term losses over the ones that offer long-term gains. This article proposes a descriptive theory of behavioral crisis communication that uses principles of behavioral economics to explain the recurrence of suboptimal anomalies found in crisis communication. Based on decision-making literature we first argue that the distinct context in which crisis communication takes place (e.g., time pressure, information overload) determines whether or not decisions are made in an analytical or an intuitive manner. Behavioral economics further allows us to explain how intuitive decisions can sometimes be biased by heuristics, which can result in the choice for a suboptimal crisis response strategy in the heat of the moment.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/CT/QTZ002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47771196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toward Intersectional Ecofeminist Communication Studies","authors":"Norie Ross Singer","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtz023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtz023","url":null,"abstract":"After many years of sluggish engagement between environmental and feminist communication studies, scholarship in this area is gaining momentum. Ecofeminist theory informs much of the literature at this nexus. Yet what makes ecofeminist communication research timely and uniquely important within the discipline, and what core principles guide or should guide it, have not been adequately addressed. This essay covers these questions and advocates for intersectional ecofeminist communication approaches.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ct/qtz023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47984842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prophylactic Versus Therapeutic Inoculation Treatments for Resistance to Influence","authors":"J. Compton","doi":"10.1093/CT/QTZ004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/CT/QTZ004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 One of the most significant departures from conventional inoculation theory is its intentional application for individuals already “infected”—that is, inoculation not as a preemptive strategy to protect existing positions from future challenges, but instead, inoculation as a means to change a position (e.g., from negative to positive) and to protect the changed position against future challenges. The issue is important for persuasion scholarship in general, as theoretical boundary conditions help at each stage of persuasion research development, serving as a guide for literature review, analysis, synthesis, research design, interpretation, theory building, and so on. It is an important issue for inoculation theory and resistance to influence research, specifically, for it gets at the very heart—and name and foundation—of inoculation theory. This article offers a theoretical analysis of inoculation theory used as both prophylactic and therapeutic interventions and concludes with a set of recommendations for inoculation theory scholarship moving forward.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/CT/QTZ004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47875200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conceptualizing, Organizing, and Positing Moderation in Communication Research","authors":"R. Holbert, Esul Park","doi":"10.1093/CT/QTZ006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/CT/QTZ006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Meta-theoretical focus is given to how communication researchers are approaching and hypothesizing moderation. A moderation typology is offered and an evaluation of the field’s common practices for positing moderation reveals an inability to discern between three overarching classifications (Contributory, Contingent, Cleaved). A content analysis of eight communication journals reveals moderation hypotheses lacking a level of precision that can best aid the field’s knowledge generation. In addition, vague hypothesizing is leaving communication researchers vulnerable to the commitment of Type III error (i.e., correctly rejecting a null hypothesis for the wrong reason). Recommendations are provided in an effort to improve the field’s conceptualization and presentation of moderation.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/CT/QTZ006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46682629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}