{"title":"On the Construction of Indigenous Chinese Communication Theories: An Analysis of the Cultural Roots","authors":"Dexin Tian, Hongliang Yu","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study aims to look into the cultural roots in the active construction of indigenous Chinese communication theories. Theoretically guided by the paradigmatic cultural assumptions between China and the West and the Chinese cultural discourse system and research, and via qualitative content analysis, this study has found: First, there are three general categories of indigenous Chinese communication theories: (a) tapping the essence of the traditional Chinese culture embedded in terms, concepts and events, (b) visualizing and modeling the Chinese cultural factors like wind, grass, and water, and (c) integrating the advantages of Chinese and Western cultures, with each category illustrated by three representative samples. Second, the three categories are the three adopted approaches to fulfilling the three goals of the Chinese cultural discourse system and three missions of the Chinese cultural discourse research. The findings can bring about complimentary and mutual benefits to the communication studies within China and beyond.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46427663","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":"Rethinking the Rhetorical Epistemics of Gaslighting","authors":"C. Graves, Leland G. Spencer","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Gaslighting is defined as a dysfunctional communication dynamic in which one interlocutor attempts to destabilize another’s sense of reality. In this article, we advance a model of gaslighting based in an epistemic rhetoric perspective. Our model directs attention to the rhetorics used to justify competing knowledge claims, as opposed to philosophical models that tend to rely on objective truth-value. We probe the discursive manifestations of gaslighting in logocentric, ethotic, or pathemic terms. We then apply our model to explain sexist and racist gaslighting that derives power from normatively instantiated discourses of rape culture and White supremacy. Specifically, our analysis identifies the appeal structures used to legitimate such gaslighting in response to disclosures of sexual violence and testimony about racial injustice.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43073850","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":"Social Control of Intellect: Four Features of the Academic–Media Nexus","authors":"Michael McDevitt","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Intellect in social theory is often presented as an ideal type—the critical, iconoclastic side of the mind—but it must anticipate an audience in mediated contexts, unlike in the Kantian realm of transcendent reason. The terrain in which academia and media meet, consequently, is ripe for exploration into the fate of intellect when transgressive. This article explicates four features of the academic–media nexus that contribute to social control of intellect: instrumental rationalism of faculty, strategic management of university communication, journalistic appropriation of the “public intellectual” role, and surveillance of academic discourse. The article situates the features in a framework to recognize whether they originate primarily in academia or media, and whether the controlling process occurs through internalized norms or calculated practice. While social control is understood as recursive and reinforcing, reflexivity induced in an inter-field dynamic implies the possibility of reconciling intellect with news work.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43672557","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":"Book Review: Recovering the Voice in Our Techno-Social World: On the Phone","authors":"Kelly Errera","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Recovering the Voice in Our Techno-Social World: On the Phone serves as an exemplar and timely work that calls attention to several consequences of our techno-social world, most notably, the loss of voice. Eicher-Catt argues that the field of human communication study is largely preoccupied with the textual and visual realms of communication, and thereby neglects the vibrant medium of the voice. Upon review, Recovering the Voice proves to be an innovative and detailed call of attention to the auditory, sonorous voice in a world of technology, new media, and cyberspace. The book’s clear and persuasive exigency points to a re-enchantment with the voice in a world that seems to be becoming more and more voiceless.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43122054","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":"Theodor Adorno, Paul Lazarsfeld, and the Public Interest Mandate of Early Communications Research, 1935–1941","authors":"J. Shepperd","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Through detailed archival analysis of personal letters, this article examines how the “public interest” mandate of the Communications Act of 1934 inspired the formation of the Princeton Radio Research Project (PRRP), and influenced Paul Lazarsfeld’s development of two-step flows and media effects research. Buried in federal records, a post-Act Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Pursuant that mandated analysis of educational broadcasting additionally turns out to be the causative reason that Theodor Adorno was brought to America by the Rockefeller Foundation. Crucial to the intellectual history of media and communication theory, Lazarsfeld invited Adorno not only to develop techniques to inform educational music study, but to strategically formulate advocacy language for the media reform movement to help noncommercial media obtain frequency licenses. The limits and pressures exerted by the FCC Pursuant influenced the trajectory of the PRRP research, and consequently, the methodological investments of Communication Studies.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41445682","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}
Hartmut Wessler, Scott L. Althaus, Chung-hong Chan, Marc Jungblut, Kasper Welbers, Wouter van Atteveldt
{"title":"Multiperspectival Normative Assessment: The Case of Mediated Reactions to Terrorism","authors":"Hartmut Wessler, Scott L. Althaus, Chung-hong Chan, Marc Jungblut, Kasper Welbers, Wouter van Atteveldt","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article provides a model for how communication phenomena can be normatively assessed using multiple normative perspectives simultaneously. We exemplify the procedure of multiperspectival normative assessment (MNA) using mediated reactions to terrorism as our case in point. We first identify the normative challenges related to the speed and substance of terrorism communication and the ways in which relations of solidarity are communicatively constructed in reacting to terrorism. We link these challenges to four distinct normative theories that prioritize competing values for public discourse (freedom, community values, empowerment of the marginalized or constructive debate). The resulting set of competing normative expectations, which help assess the performance of terrorism communication, are eventually translated into recommendations for professional and non-professional communicators. In conclusion, we show how MNA can help ground empirical scholarship in firmer theoretical foundations while simultaneously demonstrating the usefulness of normative theory in analyzing a wide range of issues.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44455353","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}
R. Paquin, Vanessa Boudewyns, Kevin R. Betts, Mihaela Johnson, Amie C O'Donoghue, B. Southwell
{"title":"An Empirical Procedure to Evaluate Misinformation Rejection and Deception in Mediated Communication Contexts","authors":"R. Paquin, Vanessa Boudewyns, Kevin R. Betts, Mihaela Johnson, Amie C O'Donoghue, B. Southwell","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Although misleading health information is not a new phenomenon, no standards exist to assess consumers’ ability to detect and subsequently reject misinformation. Part of this deficit reflects theoretical and measurement challenges. After drawing novel connections among legal, regulatory, and philosophical perspectives on false, misleading or deceptive advertising and cognitive-process models of persuasive communication, we define deception and misinformation rejection. Recognizing that individuals can hold beliefs that align with a persuasive message without those beliefs having been influenced by it, we derive empirical criteria to test for evidence of these constructs that center on yielding or not yielding to misinformation in mediated contexts. We present data from an experimental study to illustrate the proposed test procedure and provide evidence for two theoretically derived patterns indicative of misinformation rejection. The resulting definitions and empirical procedure set the stage for additional theorizing and empirical studies on misinformation in the marketplace.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42153275","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":"Social Media Information Environments and Their Implications for the Uses and Effects of News: The PINGS Framework","authors":"A. Kümpel","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab012","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Social media have become a central source for news and current affairs information. This article focuses on the overarching attributes that shape how people come in contact with news, engage with news, and are affected by news on social media. Although all social media are different and change constantly, news experiences on these platforms can consistently be characterized as personalized, incidental, non-exclusive, as well as granularized and social (PINGS). Accordingly, this article introduces the PINGS framework, which acts as a systematization of social media news experiences and can be used to map key opportunities and challenges of using news across various social media platforms. In addition to presenting the framework components, the article also discusses how researchers can investigate PINGS in empirical studies.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46022376","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":"Beyond Neutrality: Conceptualizing Platform Values","authors":"Blake Hallinan, Rebecca Scharlach, L. Shifman","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab008","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Social media platforms are prominent sites where values are expressed, contested, and diffused. In this article, we present a conceptual framework for studying the communication of values on and through social media composed of two dimensions: scale (from individual users to global infrastructures) and explicitness (from the most explicit to the invisible). Utilizing the model, we compare the communication of two values—engagement and authenticity—in user-generated content and policy documents on Twitter and Instagram. We find a split between how users and platforms frame these concepts and discuss the strategic role of ambiguity in value discourse, where idealistic meanings invoked by users positively charge the instrumental applications stressed by platforms. We also show how implicit and explicit articulations of the same value can contradict each other. Finally, we reflect upon tensions within the model, as well as the power relations between the personal, cultural, and infrastructural levels of platform values.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45149793","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":"Poetry and Journalism Revisited: Toward an Affective Dimension of Journalism Culture","authors":"Perry Parks","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtab006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article seeks to reconcile disparate conceptions of thinking and feeling in journalism by foregrounding an affective dimension of news epistemology through the example of journalistic poetry. Drawing from Archibald MacLeish’s classic 20th-century lecture linking knowledge and the imagination, and locating Postema and Deuze’s continuum of journalism and the arts within Hanitzsch’s broader framework of journalism culture, I explore the generative spectrum in which certain kinds of journalism are best performed as poetry, and certain kinds of poetry are simply affective journalism by another name. The argument draws on historical, cultural, and literary scholarship to define the relationship between poetry and journalism, review historical uses of poetry in newspapers, show how poetry developed as a boundary object that “objective” news has defined itself against, and present four mini-case studies of poetry doing journalistic work in the 21st century.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48325078","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}