{"title":"Anticolonialism and qualitative methods for culture-centered interventions","authors":"Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Ambar Basu, Satveer Kaur-Gill, Debalina Dutta, Mahuya Pal, Iccha Basnyat, Selina Metuamate, Venessa Pokaia, Phoebe Elers, Indranil Mandal, Rabindranath Mandi, Pankaj Baskey, Devalina Mookerjee, Shaunak Sastry, Jaime Robb, Andrew Carter","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf021","url":null,"abstract":"In this essay, we a collective of Indigenous, Black, and migrant Global South scholars engaged in experiments with the culture-centered approach (CCA) draw on our lived experiences amidst struggles against land grab, neoliberal extractivism, and capitalist exploitation to outline a framework for qualitative methods as anticolonial politics. We begin by exploring the interplays of colonialism, imperialism, and racial capitalism that have shaped the origins and uses of qualitative methods toward serving extractive agendas of global capital. This critique serves as the basis for outlining the key principles of the CCA, turning to voice, storytelling, and embodied action as the basis for situating qualitative methods amidst anticolonial struggles that resist settler colonialism and extractive neoliberal neocolonialism. Through our review of diverse culture-centered interventions, we explore the roles of voice infrastructures in anticolonial resistance, outlining the contribution made by the CCA to decolonizing research methods by offering a theoretical-methodological framework for communication interventions for social justice.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"98 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144684650","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":"What is a trend?","authors":"Devon Powers","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf029","url":null,"abstract":"Trends are a common feature in the contemporary media and cultural environment as well as media and communication research. Yet trends remain undertheorized. This article seeks to address this gap. Rather than just a synonym for shift or change, I define trend as a temporally bounded, dynamic pattern of observable change and argue that such a concept deserves greater prominence within the study of media and communication. In addition to this definition, I theorize trends by characterizing the trend’s key features, exploring its relationship to media, and mapping its connection to questions that animate media and communication research. The case of “brat summer” of 2024 is offered as an exemplary case from which trend’s core features may be discerned. The article’s primary contribution is to advance the trend as a central concept through which communication and media studies researchers may think more comprehensively and critically about change.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144639747","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":"Time is the fire in which message effects burn: Decay and sustenance of correction effects over time","authors":"Je Hoon Chae, Tim Groeling, Hyunjin Song","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf030","url":null,"abstract":"The rapid dissemination of misinformation has raised concerns about its persistence despite corrective efforts, as the influence of fact-checking often diminishes quickly. This study explores “time” as a central theoretical and methodological construct in understanding the effects of fact-checking interventions. Across two large-scale, pre-registered panel experiments (N = 6,983), we examine the temporal dynamics of both the persuasive and unintended consequences of factual corrections. Results show that while fact-checks yield immediate belief updating, their effects largely fade within two weeks and do not produce durable belief echoes. In Study 2, we introduce a novel design treating time lag as an experimental treatment and show that simple interventions aimed at increasing the temporal accessibility of corrections—termed “accuracy reminders”—significantly extend the durability of their effects. These findings reconceptualize correction effects as inherently temporal processes, advancing communication theory and offering scalable, time-sensitive strategies for sustaining the influence of fact-checking in dynamic information environments.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144629824","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":"Streaming users as temporal publics: recalibrating platform power in Latin America","authors":"Ignacio Siles, Vanessa Valiati, Rodrigo Muñoz-González, Luciana Valerio-Alfaro","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf031","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes how streaming users in Latin America experience time in relation to platforms. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach that employed daily reports of platform usage, focus groups, and “rich picture” analysis, we examine the cases of two countries with some of the highest digital media usage statistics in Latin America: Brazil and Costa Rica. We conceptualize platform users in these countries as “temporal publics,” defined by their varied experiences of time and the complexity of their “time work” practices. The article discusses how individuals engage in recalibration practices to navigate the temporal ambivalences of everyday life and what they perceive as the power of streaming platforms to control their time. By doing so, we demonstrate how users simultaneously reproduce and subvert specific temporal orders through their everyday interactions with streaming services, reflecting a sustained and intentional ambivalence toward the platforms’ power.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"28 18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144629822","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":"An “Identity Turn” in political communication?: testing the relationship between media use and identity alignment in the United States","authors":"Daniel S Lane, Melody Chen, Yifei Wang","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf026","url":null,"abstract":"Despite a rise in identity-centric communication scholarship, there is a lack of theory and evidence regarding how media use relates to the on-going alignment between political and social identities (i.e., identity alignment). We offer a framework for theorizing this dynamic and apply it to examine the relationship between Americans’ media diets and on-going psychological alignment between political and social identities in the United States (i.e., partisan social sorting). We use data from 33,690 American respondents from three national surveys: one longitudinal (1972–2020) and two fielded in 2020. There is evidence that identity alignment (i.e., sorting) has grown over time, but only among those who are most interested and attentive to politics and media. In 2020 surveys, we find no evidence that the frequency of media use was a significant predictor of social sorting. Instead, the composition of individuals’ media diets predicted the alignment between their social and political identities.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144612871","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}
Mohan J Dutta, Phoebe Elers, Andee Zorn, Stephen Bray, Selina Metuamate, Venessa Pokaia, Pooja Jayan, Mahbubur Rahman, Shakila Hashim, Jie Liu, Negin Nematollahi, Akbar Shah Bin Mohd Sharif, Christina Teikmata-Tito, Francine Whittfield, Sarah Holdaway, De’Anne Jackson, Bronwyn Kerr, Ihaia Raharuhi
{"title":"Preventing Violence in the Disability Margins: A Culture-Centered Study in Aotearoa","authors":"Mohan J Dutta, Phoebe Elers, Andee Zorn, Stephen Bray, Selina Metuamate, Venessa Pokaia, Pooja Jayan, Mahbubur Rahman, Shakila Hashim, Jie Liu, Negin Nematollahi, Akbar Shah Bin Mohd Sharif, Christina Teikmata-Tito, Francine Whittfield, Sarah Holdaway, De’Anne Jackson, Bronwyn Kerr, Ihaia Raharuhi","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf027","url":null,"abstract":"Disabled people are overrepresented as victims of sexual violence and family violence, but are often excluded from research and the development of communication campaigns, laws, and interventions. Grounded in the culture-centered approach, we undertook 77 qualitative interviews with predominantly Māori (Indigenous) and low-income disabled individuals to identify primary prevention needs for reducing family and sexual violence. Participants articulated disability as being structural, intersectional, and layered with erasure, contributing to conditions that perpetuate violence. Erasure and the resulting loss of agency were pervasive across diverse disabilities and participant groups, with Māori bearing a disproportionate burden. Emergent in the participants’ narratives were strategies around addressing communication inequalities and grounding prevention resources within local community contexts, set against structural determinants of violence perpetuated by the settler colonial State. This study challenges the hegemonic approach to addressing sexual violence and family violence, revealing a relationship between communicative and material forms of violence.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144612869","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 labor of love: romance authors and platform solidarity","authors":"Christine Larson","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf011","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, emerging technologies and neoliberal policies have transformed the way people work. This article explores the impact of sociotechnical change on platformized cultural production, where creators depend on digital platforms to make a living. By examining the case of American romance writers, the paper reveals how unique solidaristic practices, including gender-focused community building, an emphasis on pan-hierarchical connections, and communicative norms of open information-sharing, empowered romance authors throughout the platformization of publishing. Through 57 in-depth interviews and 40 years of archival research, the study demonstrates how these practices facilitated the diffusion of digital self-publishing, reducing romance writers’ precarity. By introducing a novel, multi-level communicative framework, this paper integrates meso-level theories of innovation with macro- and micro-level understandings of platform power. This framework provides a new model for understanding collective agency within platformized industries The paper contributes to broader discussions of “good work,” suggesting that communicative strategies can reshape power imbalances even under platformized conditions.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144603137","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":"Evidence of balance theory as a predictive framework for character interdependence","authors":"C Joseph Francemone, Matthew Grizzard","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf025","url":null,"abstract":"Across three studies, we examined how balance theory can be used to predict interdependent character evaluations. Leveraging the propositions of balance theory as suggested by Grizzard, Francemone et al. (2020), our findings demonstrate that moral information about a single character biases perceptions and judgments of other characters within the same narrative. Beyond replicating binary comparative judgments between characters, similar to past work on character interdependence, we show that the relational information conveyed by a character network can reveal how interdependent effects between several characters will manifest. Specifically, our results demonstrate that characters are either contrasted or assimilated to one another based on the relationship valences communicated by the narrative’s character network. Extrapolating from these findings, we discuss several aspects of character networks that should be considered to further develop the concept of character interdependence.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144516028","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":"Privacy calculus, privacy paradox, and context collapse: A replication of three key studies in communication privacy research","authors":"Philipp K Masur, Giulia Ranzini","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf007","url":null,"abstract":"Since the advent of social network sites, researchers have investigated how and why users share personal information online. Yet, the replicability of individual findings remains unclear. We addressed this gap by closely replicating three seminal studies: Krasnova et al.’s (2010) study on the privacy calculus, Vitak’s (2012) analysis of the impact of context collapse, and Dienlin and Trepte’s (2015) investigation of the privacy paradox. While only 32.5% of the original effects replicated exactly across the three studies, 67.5% were significant and in line with the original direction. Despite this overall replication success, the prominent negative privacy concerns and self-disclosure link did not replicate and became positive instead. Additional specification curve analyses revealed that the strength of this relationship is contingent on a variety of analytical decisions. The findings offer insights into the replicability of survey-based privacy research, highlighting the role of replication in a dynamic research landscape.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144516029","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":"Struggles for believability: from rape victims to senators, dictators, and news brands","authors":"Jayson Harsin","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf010","url":null,"abstract":"One of the rare uncontested contemporary public facts is that especially Western academic and popular discourse became preoccupied with problematizing public untruth, misbelief, and distrust in the wake of Brexit, Trump, and the Covid-19 pandemic, a conjuncture more controversially referred to as “post-truth politics.” Three diverse books under review here can be gingerly approached under that post-truth banner, so long as it means a public anxiety about the possibility of securing publicly accepted facts (as opposed to, say, Oxford dictionaries’ definition). Considering them together affords us a broader global and deeper historical, social, and psychological perspective on the conjuncture. Dannagal Goldthwaite Young’s Wrong encourages us to see what appears as a perplexing polarization of politics and entrenched (mis)beliefs as, instead, a distilled product of media-economic logics and the political exploitation of basic psychological needs for agency, control, comprehension, and/or community. Sarah Banet-Weiser and Kathryn Claire Higgins’ Believability—engaging with the post-#MeToo and post-truth political entanglements—explores how disbelief in factual accounts has always been reserved for women and other structurally demoted truth-tellers in historically specific “economies of believability”. In Spin Dictators, meanwhile, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Triesman draw attention to shifting styles of dictatorship, from bloodily repressive autocratic and totalitarian historical examples—the test cases of Arendt’s proto-post-truth politics around the “fragility” of public facts—to something more liberal-democratic in terms of style and strategy.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144513188","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}