{"title":"In search of the (Black) international: The Black Scholar and the challenge to communication and media studies","authors":"Armond R. Towns","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtad001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtad001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In the 1970s, the journal The Black Scholar (TBS) published two special issues largely under-read in communication studies, titled “Black Media I” and “Black Media II.” The lack of engagement in these special issues by communication scholars represents not merely disciplinary differences but it also signifies different trajectories that both fields take on Marxism. Communication studies would take Europe as its starting point, while Black studies would not dismiss Europe, but would take the Third World as its point of departure. In the process, media and communication analysis in TBS holds more critical potential than what currently exists in communication studies approaches to both Blackness and Marxism. Using a sociology of knowledge approach, I argue that the place to start a wholistic, Marxist, Black studies analysis of communication begins not in communication studies, but in Black studies, which TBS’s special issues are representative of.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41973727","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":"Communicative labor resistance practices: organizing digital news media unions and precarious work","authors":"Errol Salamon","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Unionization among newsworkers has increased in the U.S. since 2015. This article develops a relational theoretical framework to examine communicative labor resistance practices. It is grounded in critical organizational communication, social movement studies, sociology of work, and labor studies, responding to how newsworkers’ union resistance has been undertheorized in extant journalism and media studies research. It argues that communicative labor resistance practices should be based on three propositions: a dialectical process and continual cycle of organizing unions’ resistance and exploitative precarious work; the relationship among heterogenous alternative digital communication labor resistance practices; and a relational approach to digitally-mediated communicative material conditions and discursive forms of resistance rhetoric in social movement genres of organizational communication that mutually co-produce and constitute unions’ resistance practices and organizational self-structuring. This framework has implications for understanding precarious work, class, professional identity, and journalism’s democratic role in society, and for doing labor resistance-oriented communication research.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45811287","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":"Not everything is changing: on the relative neglect and meanings of continuity in communication and social change research","authors":"Olivier Driessens","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 One of the central interests of media and communication research is how technologies and communication media are involved in social and cultural change. Often such studies are rather one-sided because they disregard questions of continuity, which can lead to inadequate analyses and exaggerated claims of change. Three categories of reasons for this bias towards change are identified through a literature review. Crucially, since continuity remains an undervalued concern, we lack sophisticated theorizations and analytical approaches to study it adequately. In response, this article presents a taxonomy of continuity based on a thematic analysis of 74 articles in leading communication journals. The five observed dimensions of continuity offer scholars the vocabulary and a conceptual framework to study continuity more systematically as a complex and multi-dimensional issue. This contribution serves as a starting point towards building a theory of change and continuity, and suggestions for necessary future work are given.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45079233","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":"Anthropomorphism in human–robot interactions: a multidimensional conceptualization","authors":"R. Kühne, J. Peter","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 With robots increasingly assuming social roles (e.g., assistants, companions), anthropomorphism (i.e., the cognition that an entity possesses human characteristics) plays a prominent role in human–robot interactions (HRI). However, current conceptualizations of anthropomorphism in HRI have not adequately distinguished between precursors, consequences, and dimensions of anthropomorphism. Building and elaborating on previous research, we conceptualize anthropomorphism as a form of human cognition, which centers upon the attribution of human mental capacities to a robot. Accordingly, perceptions related to a robot’s shape and movement are potential precursors of anthropomorphism, while attributions of personality and moral value to a robot are potential consequences of anthropomorphism. Arguing that multidimensional conceptualizations best reflect the conceptual facets of anthropomorphism, we propose, based on Wellman’s (1990) Theory-of-Mind (ToM) framework, that anthropomorphism in HRI consists of attributing thinking, feeling, perceiving, desiring, and choosing to a robot. We conclude by discussing applications of our conceptualization in HRI research.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48372351","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":"Disinformation as a context-bound phenomenon: toward a conceptual clarification integrating actors, intentions and techniques of creation and dissemination","authors":"M. Hameleers","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Although disinformation has become a popular concept, we lack an integrative conceptualization that connects the actors, intentions and techniques underlying deceptive information. In this article, we conceptualize disinformation as a context-bound deliberate act for which actors covertly deceive recipients by de-contextualizing, manipulating or fabricating information to maximize utility with the (targeted) outcome of misleading recipients. This conceptualization embeds fragmented accounts of disinformation in a networked and participatory information logic, and offers a comprehensive account of the conditions under which different actors may decide to deceive, how they deceive, and what they aim to achieve by deceiving recipients. Our conceptualization may inform (machine-learning) techniques to detect disinformation and interventions that aim to trigger suspicion by breaking through the truth-default state.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48088826","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}
Leah E. LeFebvre, Kate G. Blackburn, Nicholas Brody
{"title":"Virtual relationship memory: a conceptual model of mediated communication and relational dissolution","authors":"Leah E. LeFebvre, Kate G. Blackburn, Nicholas Brody","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac018","url":null,"abstract":"Virtual Relationship Memory (VRM) is a conceptual model to explore the way people remember and socially construct their romantic relationships, with a focus on the breakup process and memories after a relationship has ended. The model is situated within the research exploring relationships, technology, and memory. We articulate three components—objects, networks, and stories—which independently and concurrently represent how communication technology affects relational and memory-making processes. We first review research into memory, relational dissolution, and mediated communication to situate the VRM at the nexus of those three domains of study. We define and describe features of the VRM (objects, stories, and networks) and build towards a comprehensive conceptual model. To conclude, we present several potential future research directions—management strategies, curation of emotion, and dualistic functions of memory—with implications for building, extending, and stretching the boundaries of VRM.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48795103","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}
H. Hoeken, K. Fikkers, Anita Eerland, B. Holleman, J. V. van Berkum, H. Pander Maat
{"title":"The Perceived Convincingness Model: why and under what conditions processing fluency and emotions are valid indicators of a message’s perceived convincingness","authors":"H. Hoeken, K. Fikkers, Anita Eerland, B. Holleman, J. V. van Berkum, H. Pander Maat","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Persuasive messages aim to influence people’s behavior. Arguments in these messages typically refer to the positive consequences of the advocated behavior or the negative consequences of failing to do so. It has been claimed that people automatically generate a judgment about the message’s convincingness. We present the Perceived Convincingness Model (PCM) to explain how people generate this judgment based upon the fluency with which they process the message and the intensity of the resulting emotions. When these experiences are elicited by the processing of the message’s arguments, they can be crude, yet relevant indicators of the extent to which the arguments meet the normative criteria of acceptability, relevance, and sufficiency. Thus, under some conditions, trusting one’s feelings may be a rational strategy when deciding to heed an advice or not.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47609599","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":"Approaching evolutionary communication","authors":"J. Lull","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The determining roles played by communication in the ongoing evolution of our species remain largely unexplored in communications-related disciplines. An unhelpful controversy that raged over E. O. Wilson’s sociobiology last century contributed to the problem and is reconsidered here in terms of the fault lines that run between natural science, social science, and politics. The article describes paths for future theoretical development by focusing first on the link between human communications behavior and evolutionary psychology. With an emphasis on understanding the crisis of community facing the world today, evolutionary communication is proposed as a theoretical alternative to limited proximate perspectives afforded by cultural analysis alone. The inherent interdisciplinary nature of communication makes the field a prime candidate for conducting research grounded in the deep-time explanatory framework of evolutionary theory and the epistemological assumptions of scientific humanism.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49469921","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":"Strategic illiteracies: the long game of technology refusal and disconnection","authors":"E. Plaut","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Disconnection and avoidance have been theorized various ways, e.g., by analyzing communicative and non-communicative affordances of devices and platforms; categorizing tactics and patterns of non-use; and through analogy with historical ways of seeking solitude and resisting technologies. This article, however, treats history not only as a source of analogies for momentary disconnections, but also as a timescale on which to understand slower undercurrents of resistance. I define “strategic illiteracies” as: purposeful, committed refusals to learn expected communication and technology skills, not only as individual people in specific moments, but also in communities over time. This concept connects technology refusal to historical lineages of resistance to linguistic and orthographic imperialism, analyzing examples including the Greek alphabet in antiquity, Chinese characters in Asia, and the Latin alphabet through European colonization. This new framework and genealogy of avoidance and technology refusal elucidates ways forward, slowly, for successive generations to reclaim their communicative futures.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43097381","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":"Global media ethics, the good life, and justice","authors":"Thomas Hove","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 One of the challenges for global media ethics is to define a theoretical perspective from which to adjudicate cross-cultural value conflicts. Early work in this field attempted to identify a universal norm from which the specific, applied norms of media professions and practices could be derived. However, postcolonial and pluralist critiques have revealed potential problems with this approach. To avoid such problems, neo-Aristotelian critiques have proposed focusing less on defining universal norms of obligated action and more on acknowledging local variations in conceptions of the good life. These critiques rightly stress the goal of understanding the diversity of ethical values both within and across cultures. However, when the goal of media ethics is to provide guidance for cooperative resolutions of value conflicts, the generalizability of norms remains an important issue. This article reframes this debate more as a division of labor than as a rivalry in approaches.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47373215","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}