Megan Boler, Hoda Gharib, Yoon-Ji Kweon, Amanda Trigiani, Barbara Perry
{"title":"Promoting Mis/Disinformation Literacy Among Adults: A Scoping Review of Interventions and Recommendations","authors":"Megan Boler, Hoda Gharib, Yoon-Ji Kweon, Amanda Trigiani, Barbara Perry","doi":"10.1177/00936502251318630","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251318630","url":null,"abstract":"This scoping review contributes an overview of recent research on effective media literacy interventions and recommendations relevant to cultivating critical mis/disinformation literacies for adults. The review examines articles published between 1 January 2016–22 November 2021 that report on or provide recommendations for media literacy interventions for adults suited to the emerging challenges of disinformation. Our findings reveal diverse intervention formats and evaluation methods including course-, web-, or game-based interventions, public events, and visual resources. Experts recommended teaching about emotion targeting and regulation, algorithmic governance, lateral reading, visual technology, and using interactive formats. Studies of evaluated interventions outside of formal education were scarce. Our review reveals significant debates around the usefulness of checklists and how to address politically sensitive issues, skepticism, and authority in programing. Future research and programing must attend to the needs of adult populations outside of formal education, and draw particularly upon librarians’ integral role in delivering community-based mis/disinformation literacy programing.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143528353","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":"More Sources Create Greater Audience Engagement: An Investigation into the Relationship Between the Number of News Sources and Audience Responses","authors":"Youngkee Ju, Pureum Lee","doi":"10.1177/00936502251324549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251324549","url":null,"abstract":"Journalism quality has been examined primarily through a normative lens and investigated through descriptive methods that overlook news consumers’ actual responses to it. Taking a more empirical, media-effects approach, we explore how a particular index of journalism quality—the quantity of news sources—relates to audience engagement. The concept of multiple news sources inherently involves normative elements of quality journalism, such as being truthful, impartial, and complete. This study examines how responses by news consumers to COVID-19 news coverage varied based on the number of sources cited in each news story. We quantified the sources in pandemic news coverage from two South Korean newspapers and one broadcast television channel, comparing them with recipients’ responses in the form of comments, emotional expressions, and recommendations. Our findings reveal that the number of news sources used in COVID-19 health crisis coverage was associated with the number of comments made by news consumers. Similarly, audience clicks on emotional expressions increased as the number of news sources increased. Furthermore, there were more consumer recommendations for COVID-19 news coverage when the news media cited a greater number of sources. These findings underscore the implications of the multiple-source effect on audience engagement and suggest avenues for improving journalism quality.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143528352","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":"Navigating Social Media News Use: Exploring the Impact of Intentional and Incidental News Consumption on Objective and Subjective Political Knowledge","authors":"Jana H. Dreston, German Neubaum","doi":"10.1177/00936502251317818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251317818","url":null,"abstract":"Research consistently shows that while social media use does not enhance objective political knowledge, it increases users’ sense of being knowledgeable (subjective knowledge). However, it is unclear which specific modes of social media use lead users to an enhanced feeling of being knowledgeable. This work focuses on two factors that are believed to shape users’ subjective knowledge when using social technologies: (a) the intentionality of social media use (intentional vs. incidental news consumption) and (b) the relevance of the news content. In a pre-registered, two-wave experiment ( N = 921), participants were exposed to either personally relevant or non-relevant topics on social media, either intentionally or incidentally. The results indicated that while intentionality of exposure did not affect subjective knowledge, intentional news search improved objective knowledge more than incidental exposure. The latter can still facilitate objective knowledge and increase subjective knowledge, as long as the news is considered as highly relevant.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143470633","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}
Nicholas A. Palomares, Rebecca Baumler, Moo Sun Kim, Arjana Almaneih, Maya Dennis, Preetina Ramkissoon, Gianna Rivas, Alyssa Sanchez, Anish Sankhavaram, Rachel Shore, Caroline Van Cleve, Major Wheless
{"title":"Goal Understanding and Anonymous Cyberbullying in Social Media: How Victims Interpret, Cope with, and Respond to Hurtful Messages Online","authors":"Nicholas A. Palomares, Rebecca Baumler, Moo Sun Kim, Arjana Almaneih, Maya Dennis, Preetina Ramkissoon, Gianna Rivas, Alyssa Sanchez, Anish Sankhavaram, Rachel Shore, Caroline Van Cleve, Major Wheless","doi":"10.1177/00936502251318617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251318617","url":null,"abstract":"We experimentally manipulated social media affordances theoretically linked to cyberbullies’ anonymity using hypothetical scenarios taking advantage of the diverse ways people get bullied by someone they can identify versus an anonymous cyberbully. Nine different social media platforms–from TikTok, Twitter, and Tumblr to Instagram, iMessage, and Email–manipulated a cyberbully’s anonymity to uncover pathways known to precipitate poor mental health in a 2 × 9 design. Inferring upward-mobility and highlight-difference goals did not predict affective outcomes; whereas inferring insecurity goals predicted increased hurt and negative emotion regardless of anonymity but inferring personal-attack goals was more hurtful, emotionally negative, and severe when victims knew the bully. Second, inferring the goals predicted decreased coping via increased use of motivation (but not identity) uncertainty reduction strategies, especially if the bully was anonymous. Third, inferences of the insecurity and personal attack goals predicted decreased attraction to the cyberbully via increased coping if the bully was anonymous.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143452372","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":"A Fresh View of the Veracity Effect in Deception Research: Bond and DePaulo Re-examined","authors":"Timothy R. Levine, Kim B. Serota","doi":"10.1177/00936502251316927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251316927","url":null,"abstract":"A reanalysis of Bond and DePaulo’s meta-analysis of deception detection accuracy from the perspective of truth-default theory is reported, focusing on truth bias, the veracity effect, and the implications of the ubiquitous 50%–50% base rates used in primary experiments. Unlike Bond and DePaulo, we examine the relationships among truth bias, the veracity effect, and overall accuracy providing new insights from old data. Truth bias is substantially positively correlated ( r = .88) with accuracy for truths, negatively correlated ( r = −.88) with accuracy for lies, uncorrelated with overall accuracy ( r < .03), and functionally isomorphic with the veracity effect. When accuracies for truths and lies are reported separately, the results may reflect truth bias, message veracity, or both. Substantially improved overall accuracy would be expected with more realistic base rates and levels of truth bias. The reanalyzed data highlight insights from truth-default theory and suggest that the 54% accuracy claim needs to be contextualized.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143071750","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":"Patient Evaluation of International Medical Graduates’ Verbal and Nonverbal Strategies to Manage Their Lack of Comprehension: Investigating the Role of Goal Inferences","authors":"Danni Liao, Lisa M. Guntzviller","doi":"10.1177/00936502241311938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502241311938","url":null,"abstract":"Guided by goal understanding theory, we investigated how U.S. patients evaluate communication strategies international medical graduates (IMGs) adopt to manage their lack of comprehension of patient idioms. Participants ( N = 569) watched a video of an IMG and a patient interacting in a 3 (verbal: being blunt, feigning comprehension, providing rationale) × 2 (nonverbal: higher, lower immediacy) × 2 (message variations: “out of sorts,” “frog in the throat”) online experiment. Participants inferred IMG goals of understanding the patient and establishing trust most strongly when IMGs provided rationale with higher nonverbal immediacy and least strongly when IMGs feigned comprehension with lower nonverbal immediacy. These inferred goals were positively associated with participants’ evaluations of IMGs and their satisfaction. The findings suggest that patients may integrate verbal and nonverbal behaviors to infer IMGs’ goals, yielding implications for goals theorizing and IMG communication.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143030922","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":"Empowered by Curation: Spatial Differentiation in the Interrelationship Between Social Media Political Curation, Political Competence, and Trust—The Case of Michigan","authors":"Taewoo Kang","doi":"10.1177/00936502241311943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502241311943","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines geographic variations in the relationship between social media political curation and political trust. Analyzing survey data from the U.S. state of Michigan, findings reveal a positive relationship between social media political curation and internal political efficacy, which is stronger among rural residents compared to urban counterparts. Moreover, this geographic pattern extends to trust in state government; the positive indirect relationship between social media political curation and trust in state government via increased internal political efficacy is only observed among rural residents. These results highlight social media’s potential as a civic platform that can connect geographically disconnected communities to politics.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"204 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142961447","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}
Fabienne Bünzli, James Price Dillard, Yuwei Li, Martin J. Eppler
{"title":"When Visual Communication Backfires: Reactance to Three Aspects of Imagery","authors":"Fabienne Bünzli, James Price Dillard, Yuwei Li, Martin J. Eppler","doi":"10.1177/00936502241306707","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502241306707","url":null,"abstract":"Although many persuasive messages include imagery, relatively little is known about the potential for the visual components to induce reactance. This research examined the effects of three message variations—camera angle (low vs. eye-level), antithesis (vs. thesis) (i.e., the juxtaposition of contrasting images), and facial expression of emotion (anger vs. happiness)—on reactance and subsequent persuasion. Two experiments ( N = 240 and N = 259) using pro-environmental appeals found that variation in each of the visual features was associated with increased perception of threat to freedom, reactance and decreased persuasion. Political conservatives felt more threatened by any message than liberals, but were not differentially sensitive to image variations. This research opens the door for a programmatic analysis of imagery and reactance.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142940473","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":"Which Visuals Really Matter? Effects of (Counter) Stereotypical Visual Information on Candidate Evaluations","authors":"Jennifer Bast, Corinna Oschatz","doi":"10.1177/00936502241309957","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502241309957","url":null,"abstract":"Building on research on gender stereotypes and a parallel-constraint-satisfaction theory on impression formation, this project investigates the effects of gender stereotypical and counter-stereotypical visuals on voters’ evaluations of political candidates with two pre-registered experimental studies. Study 1 ( N = 1,225) is a conceptual replication of an online experiment on the effect of visual communication of fictional U.S. candidates, testing main assumptions in the context of real-world German candidates on X (formerly Twitter). In contrast to the original study, we find that visuals reinforcing masculine as well as feminine stereotypes can be detrimental to men candidates. Evaluations of women candidates were not affected by (counter) gender stereotypical visual information. Study 2 ( N = 1,058) repeats Study 1 outside of an election context. Findings differ from the first study. Moreover, no effects of visual communication are found when prior attitudes are controlled. The project highlights the importance of replicating experimental findings in different contexts.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"70 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142917097","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 a More Powerful Experimental Communication Science: An Assessment of Two Decades’ Research (2001–2023)","authors":"Ye Sun, Lijiang Shen, Zhongdang Pan, Sijia Qian","doi":"10.1177/00936502241308599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502241308599","url":null,"abstract":"Low statistical power undermines a credible scientific discipline. This paper presents a statistical power assessment of experimental communication research based on a random sample of 416 studies published in five central communication journals over the last two decades (2001–2023). Our analyses showed that there was a lack of attention to power and power analysis, with the majority of studies not even mentioning statistical power. We also demonstrated that between-subjects studies were overall underpowered for two-group, one-way multi-group, and factorial designs. Our findings suggest that conducting power analyses to ensure adequate statistical power should be a key priority for experimental communication research.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"154 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142917258","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}