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Showing papers in "Communication Theory in 2019"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider how Henri Lefebvre's humanist Marxism can contribute to the foundations of a critical theory of communication, by reflecting on the role of communication in the books The Production of Space and The Critique of Everyday Life.
Abstract: This article asks how Henri Lefebvre’s humanist Marxism can contribute to the foundations of a critical theory of communication. It does so by reflecting on the role of communication in Lefebvre’s books The Production of Space and The Critique of Everyday Life. Lefebvre’s humanist Marxist stress on the role of human production in society is the aspect of his theory that can be most fruitfully integrated into a critical theory of communication. There are also striking parallels between Lefebvre and Raymond Williams’ cultural materialism. Lefebvre also anticipated discussions of the commodification of the communicative commons.

55 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors proposed a theoretical model of the development of parasocial relationships (PSRs) building on Knapp's model of relationship development, which conceptualizes the relational goals and parasocial interactions (PSIs) specific to the PSR.
Abstract: The article proposes a theoretical model of the development of parasocial relationships (PSRs) building on Knapp’s model of relationship development. Through synthesis of research across disciplines, the model conceptualizes the relational goals and parasocial interactions (PSIs) specific to the PSR. The model identifies variables that predict engagement at that level, describes the stage’s outcomes/effects, and considers the utility of existing measures to assess these stages. The conceptualization of PSRs as a dynamic process rather than intensity of a monolithic experience offers new directions worthy of empirical examination.

48 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a theoretically sound planned risk information avoidance (PRIA) model and accompanying propositions in three overarching areas: cognitive, affective and socio-cultural are presented, and the model shows promise in advancing our collective understanding of the PRIA phenomenon.
Abstract: Risk information avoidance is widespread, and happens in contexts ranging from the personal to civic spheres. Disciplines from communication to psychology have been exploring the avoidance phenomena for decades, yet we lack a unifying theoretical model to understand it. To develop such a model, we start with the planned risk information-seeking model (PRISM) and explore its tenets, and related research, as they apply to information avoidance. We end with a theoretically sound planned risk information avoidance (PRIA) model and accompanying propositions in three overarching areas: cognitive, affective and socio-cultural. This model shows promise in advancing our collective understanding of the PRIA phenomenon.

38 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The construal level theory as mentioned in this paper is a recent psychological theory that examines the relationship between psychological distance and mental construality, and it can guide new hypotheses that test the persuasiveness of certain combinations of message features and tailoring messages to different individual orientations.
Abstract: Construal level theory is a recent psychological theory that examines the relationship between psychological distance and mental construal. However, the theory’s implications for message effects research requires more attention. Construal level theory can guide new hypotheses that test the persuasiveness of certain combinations of message features and tailoring messages to different individual orientations. This is possible as the theory may reveal underlying similarities across disparate message topics, design elements, and message processing styles. Core principles of construal level theory are explicated, and message effects research areas that may benefit from its propositions are reviewed and elaborated upon. Finally, caveats of applying the theory to message effects research and future directions are discussed.

30 citations





Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The post-truth era was first announced by theorists such as Jean Baudrillard as discussed by the authors, and late-night comedians are making various rhetorical moves to reassert a commitment to truth incompletely secured by conventional, cool-style journalism.
Abstract: As “post-truth” was Oxford Dictionaries’ 2016 word of the year, late-night comedians were featured on Time magazine’s cover bearing the tagline “The Seriously Partisan Politics of Late-Night Comedy.” This article attempts to frame what is going on in theoretical and philosophical terms. By a “Baudrillard World,” we mean the post-truth era that was first announced by theorists such as Jean Baudrillard. By a modernist project, we mean that the late night comedians are making various rhetorical moves to reassert a commitment to truth incompletely secured by conventional, cool-style journalism. We identify a number of offenses against truth that the late night comedians counter in an attempt to rescue not just particular facts but the very notion of truth.

18 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that the platforms employ profiles to enable and incentivize particular ways and foreclose other ways of self-performance, and coax—at times coerce—their users into making of abundant but anchored selves.
Abstract: The practice of profile making has become ubiquitous in digital culture. Internet users are regularly invited, and usually required, to create a profile for a plethora of digital media, including mega social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Understanding profiles as a set of identity performances, I argue that the platforms employ profiles to enable and incentivize particular ways and foreclose other ways of self-performance. Drawing on research into digital media and identities, combined with mediatization theories, I show how the platforms: (a) embrace datafication logic (gathering as much data as possible and pinpointing the data to a particular unit); (b) translate the logic into design and governance of profiles (update stream and profile core); and (c) coax—at times coerce—their users into making of abundant but anchored selves, that is, performing identities which are capacious, complex, and volatile but singular and coherent at the same time.

17 citations







Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine Jürgen Habermas' concept of communicative power and describe how it transforms into political power in actual decision-making, by analyzing how public performances invoking these validity claims affect actors' authority.
Abstract: This article examines Jürgen Habermas’ concept of communicative power and describes how it transforms into political power in actual decision-making. For this purpose, the article develops the use of Habermas’ typology of validity claims in communicative action as a framework for analysis. This means analyzing how public performances invoking these validity claims affect actors’ authority, which is then capitalized in policymaking. The article thus integrates Habermas’ procedural view on deliberative politics with the more culturally oriented view on political performances. It also contributes to the discussion about the “mediatization of politics” by introducing a communicative perspective to complement the more common institutional and systems perspectives. This theoretical and analytical approach is illustrated by examples drawn from evidence in 16 semi-structured interviews conducted with participants in the policy networks involved in the 2015 Finnish labor market negotiations.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined effects of four common news attributes (personalization, fragmentation, authority disorder bias, and dramatization) on news exposure and the moderating impacts of hedonic, epistemic, and civic news use motivations.
Abstract: This study examined effects of four common news attributes—personalization, fragmentation, authority–disorder bias, and dramatization (PFAD)—on news exposure and the moderating impacts of hedonic, epistemic, and civic news use motivations. In a lab experiment, participants browsed online news while selective exposure was unobtrusively logged. Findings yielded longer exposure to personalized and dramatized articles and news with low authority–disorder bias. Fragmentation had no significant impact. However, selective exposure to fragmented news was influenced by participants’ political understanding (epistemic motivation), exposure to personalization by news enjoyment (hedonic motivation), and exposure to authority–disorder bias by civic duty to keep informed (civic motivation). Results suggest that news styles may need to become more diversified to better address the informational needs of today’s fragmented audiences.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors survey theoretical justifications for copyright and consider the implications of the notion of cultural democracy in regard to copyright law and policy, and advocate for the first-sale doctrine's expansion to digital goods based on a discussion of the doctrine's policy implications and a review of the arguments for and against a digital first sale doctrine.
Abstract: This study surveys theoretical justifications for copyright and considers the implications of the notion of cultural democracy in regard to copyright law and policy. In doing so, the study focuses on the first sale doctrine and advocates for the doctrine’s expansion to digital goods based on a discussion of the doctrine’s policy implications and a review of the arguments for and against a digital first sale doctrine. The study argues that democratic copyright theories, in general, and the notion of cultural democracy, in particular, can and should guide copyright reforms in conjunction with a digital first sale doctrine. This study contributes to the growing discussions about the democratic theories of copyright by demonstrating their applicability to copyright policy and doctrine.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The work in this article forms part of the R&D project "Evaluacion y monitorizacion de la Comunicación para el Desarrollo y el Cambio Social en Español" (MINECO, 2014-52005-R) (2015-2017), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competition.
Abstract: This paper forms part of the R&D project “Evaluacion y monitorizacion de la Comunicacion para el Desarrollo y el Cambio Social en Espana” (MINECO, Espana) (CSO2014-52005-R) (2015-2017), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competition.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article argued for a redeployment of Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of "smooth" and "striated" space for the future of journalism in the digital age.
Abstract: The future of journalism in the digital age is a major topic of both vocational and academic debate—as is the question of whether anything is “new” with the rise of the digital more broadly. This article argues for a redeployment of Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of “smooth” and “striated” space. Conducting a synthesis of a new wave of scholarship on digital journalism with the body of “sociology of news” literature from the late 1970s and 1980s, it maps continuities and intensifications of processes in the interplay between journalistic desire and the constraints of liberal capitalism, while also noting a key shift in the relationship between journalism and dominant economic classes, concomitant with a new form of “datafied capitalism.”

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify outsourcing as a growing trend in the media industries: as leading media corporations integrate vertically and invest in segments that increase their asset specificity, they are also withdrawing from other segments and delegating a growing number of tasks to suppliers.
Abstract: The aim of this study is twofold. First, it identifies outsourcing as a growing trend in the media industries: as leading media corporations integrate vertically and invest in segments that increase their asset specificity, they are also withdrawing from other segments and delegating a growing number of tasks to suppliers. This article uses the United Kingdom as a case study to demonstrate that while broadcasters are investing in TV content production, they are also stepping away from technology investments and media delivery tasks. It is a significant phenomenon that contributes to redefine the scope of companies whose engineering know-how was part of their core activity. Then, this article analyses the consequences of outsourcing as it contributes to vertical disintegration and the formation of global value chains in the media industries. It is also creating power asymmetries between lead firms and suppliers that have an impact on the type of M&A activities these companies pursue . The second contribution is theoretical in scope, as this article aims to state a case for GVC analysis in media and communication studies, showing the benefits of placing the evolution of the media industries in the context of long-term trends in the world economy.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that Uber's rhetoric works by deploying the language of the private sphere in order that the company can operate like a taxi company even as it evades the obligations that ordinarily attach to providing taxi service to the public.
Abstract: This article extends the growing conversation on the rhetoric of economics through a critical analysis of the rhetoric of the “sharing economy” firm Uber. After reconfiguring the economic concept of arbitrage from a rhetorical perspective, I demonstrate the means by which “ride sharing” services exploit their customers and workers. Ultimately, I contend that Uber’s rhetoric works by deploying the language of the private sphere in order that the company can operate like a taxi company even as it evades the obligations that ordinarily attach to providing taxi service to the public.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how the visuals of two children affected by the Syrian conflict, Alan Kurdi and Omran Daqneesh, circulate within the humanitarian imaginary, and explore the links between two areas not often thought of in conjunction: ethical theory and mediation.
Abstract: This paper investigates how the visuals of two children affected by the Syrian conflict, Alan Kurdi and Omran Daqneesh, circulate within the humanitarian imaginary. I argue that these communication artifacts offer us an opportunity to explore the links between two areas not often thought of in conjunction: ethical theory and mediation. The goal is to contribute to our understanding of the relationships between communication ethics and the mediated representations of subjects who are perceived as “Others.” The visuals of Alan and Omran are appropriate for this investigation, given their evident Otherness as Syrians to a predominantly Western audience. Exploring these visuals in the light of Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical call of the Other and the mediated visibility of sufferers will further our understanding of the connections between communication ethics and mediation as textual and social/ethical practice.