Showing papers in "Communication Theory in 2021"

Digital Wellbeing as a Dynamic Construct

Abstract: Mobile media support our autonomy by connecting us to persons, content and services independently of time and place constraints. At the same time, they challenge our autonomy: We face new struggles, decisions, and pressure in relation to whether, when and where we connect and disconnect. Digital wellbeing is a new concept that refers to the (lack) of balance that we may experience in relation to mobile connectivity. This article develops a theoretical model of digital wellbeing that accounts for the dynamic and complex nature of our relationship to mobile connectivity, thereby overcoming conceptual and methodological limitations associated with existing approaches. This model considers digital wellbeing an experiential state of optimal balance between connectivity and disconnectivity that is contingent upon a constellation of person-, device- and context-specific factors. I argue that these constellations represent pathways to digital wellbeing that—when repeated—affect wellbeing outcomes, and that the effectiveness of digital wellbeing interventions depends on their disruptive impact on these pathways.

Theorizing News Literacy Behaviors

Abstract: Despite renewed interest in news literacy (NL) as a way to combat mis- and dis-information, existing scholarship is plagued by insufficient theory building and inadequate conceptualization of both “NL” and its application. We address this concern by offering a concise definition of NL and suggest five key knowledge and skill domains that comprise this literacy. We distinguish NL from its application to behaviors that communication scholars have been interested in, including news exposure, verification, and identifying misinformation. We propose an adapted Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to include NL in addition to the existing components (attitudes towards the behavior, social norms, perceived behavioral control) when modeling NL Behaviors. We discuss how this model can unite scholars across subfields and propose a research agenda for moving scholarship forward.

The Social Media Privacy Model: Privacy and Communication in the Light of Social Media Affordances

Abstract: Privacy has been defined as the selective control of information sharing, where control is key. For social media, however, an individual user’s informational control has become more difficult. In this theoretical article, I review how the term control is part of theorizing on privacy, and I develop an understanding of online privacy with communication as the core mechanism by which privacy is regulated. The results of this article’s theoretical development are molded into a definition of privacy and the social media privacy model. The model is based on four propositions: Privacy in social media is interdependently perceived and valued. Thus, it cannot always be achieved through control. As an alternative, interpersonal communication is the primary mechanism by which to ensure social media privacy. Finally, trust and norms function as mechanisms that represent crystallized privacy communication. Further materials are available at https://osf.io/xhqjy/

Fake News is Not a Virus: On Platforms and Their Effects

Abstract: This article attempts to uncover the intellectual, economic, and methodological structures that have led to the recent emergence of a particular notion of digital communication on social media platforms, one that emphasizes the power of (false) media messages to cause irrational political behavior and combines individual level understanding of media effects with a networked notion of society and information diffusion After pointing out some of the real political-economic forces at work in setting the contours of this intellectual turn, I discuss how spaces between mutually constructed but overlapping paradigmatic understandings of media behavior lead to theories that serve as boundary objects, linking (and misunderstanding) older fields in order to advance new agendas I then turn to the consequences of particular methodological choices, drawing on key works in Science and Technology Studies (STS) to make the point that these methodological choices not only establish scientific fields, they construct certain types of human subjects as well The article concludes with a call for a more humanistic and interpretive approach to the understanding of political behavior and communication

Algorithmic Personalization and the Two-Step Flow of Communication

Abstract: This study examines the relevance of traditional mass communication’s two-step flow-of-communication theory in relation to algorithmic personalization. I compare the two-step flow theory’s concept of personalized content through opinion leaders with the current notion of personalized algorithms, arguing that opinion leaders and algorithms both function as gatekeeping agents. I also discuss the nature and role of peer groups in the two cases, arguing that while in the original theory, groups were seen as relatively solid (family, friends, and work colleagues), groups in the algorithmic era are much more liquid, transforming according to data inputs and users’ behavior. Finally, the article also considers differences in the source of authority of opinion leaders and algorithms in both eras, as well as the different social settings and public awareness in the second step of the communication flow.

Theory of Motivated Information Management: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract: The theory of motivated information management ([TMIM]; Afifi & Weiner, 2004) was proposed to explicate the processes through which uncertainty motivates information management. Over the past 15 years, the theory has been tested and applied to a wide range of topics and contexts. The current study meta-analyzes 33 studies from 31 articles that have empirically tested predictions from TMIM. Potential moderating effects of age, issue importance, and study design were also examined. Results, in general, provide support for bivariate associations proposed by TMIM, although these associations are heterogeneous and moderated by the average age of the sample and study design. A path model testing TMIM associations found good model fit after some modifications. Findings highlight the utility of TMIM as a theoretical framework (e.g., proposed paths operate as predicted), but also suggest changes that might better explain the range of ways in which uncertainty motivates information management.

BLINDED BY THE LIES? Toward an integrated definition of conspiracy theories

Abstract: Despite widespread concern over the alleged rise of conspiracy theories, scholars continue to disagree whether it is possible to distinguish specific kinds of conspiracist accounts that can justifiably be denounced as objectionable. In this article, we review scholarship from multiple disciplines to develop a composite definition of “conspiracy theories proper” (CTP) that violate fundamental norms of democratic discourse. Besides referring to grand conspiracies to account for social phenomena, we argue, such conspiracy theories: (a) assume conspirators’ pervasive control over events and information, (b) construct dissent as a Manichean binary, and (c) employ an elusive, dogmatic epistemology. We discuss the operational potential and limitations of our definition using news user talkbacks on the U.S., British and German online editions of Russia Today (RT), a popular platform among proponents of out-of-mainstream political views. Identifying key operational challenges in the classification of natural discourse, we sketch avenues toward a more rigorous study of contentious political talk.

From Counterpublics to Contentious Publicness: Tracing the Temporal, Spatial, and Material Articulations of Popular Protest Through Social Media

Abstract: This article presents a new approach to the study of public contestation through social media. Developing this approach, we make three conceptual moves. First, to capture the dynamic character of contemporary contestation, we shift attention from publics to publicness as an interactive process. Second, we turn the focus from the “counter,” as a public or space distinct from the dominant sphere, towards distributed forms of contention. Finally, instead of considering media as arenas of claims, we investigate how media are constitutive of contentious publicness, which can be studied along its material, spatial, and temporal dimensions. These moves lead to an analytical framework through which trajectories of contentious publicness can be systematically traced and evaluated. Through case studies on the 2011 Egyptian uprising and the Occupy protests, we demonstrate how this framework can be employed to examine the construction of new contentious actors and evaluate their democratic legitimacy as claim-makers.

A Meta-Theoretical Systematic Review of the Culture-Centered Approach to Health Communication: Toward a Refined, “Nested” Model

Abstract: While the influence of the culture-centered approach (CCA; Dutta, 2008 ) on health communication scholarship is undeniable, there has been no evaluation of its application in the field. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines for systematic reviews (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff & Altman, 2009), we analyzed a corpus of empirical, peer-reviewed literature (n = 47) that used the CCA. Our findings demonstrate that (a) the ontological axis of the CCA (culture, structure, and agency) was widely used as a heuristic for defining health problems; and (b) studies varied widely in their adoption of the CCA’s epistemological axis (that of dialogic co-construction with marginalized communities), either at the level of problem definition, problem interpretation, and/or community participation. Finally, while most studies reported self-reflexivity in design, we coded for methodological and philosophical reflexivity to assess fidelity to the CCA axiology. Based on the variations and consistencies in its use, we offer a refined, “nested” conceptualization of the CCA.

Communication as Constitutive Transmission? An Encounter with Affect

Abstract: Affect theory has met with an uneven welcome in communication studies, although attending to affect (i.e., the fluctuating intensities of encounter) could enhance the scope and impact of communication inquiry. This article makes a case for sustained engagement at the field level, across subfields. I argue that affect confronts a premise at the heart of our discipline today: the claim that communication is constitutive as opposed to mere transmission. By engaging with affect, we can recuperate potential eclipsed by this contrast and cultivate communication theory that: (a) informs transmission as a constitutive activity, (b) expands what counts as communication beyond human language and social interaction, and (c) recovers disappeared ways that power operates communicatively. Retuning communication in this way, we can inform what remains enigmatic in affect theory: how communicability happens. Arguably, the capacity to understand and intervene in the present moment depends on developing communication theory of this kind.

Rethinking Digital Democracy: From the Disembodied Discursive Self to New Materialist Corporealities

Abstract: To understand what digital democracy is, this article suggests looking at the individual level of democratic subjectivity. Who is the democratic subject and how is it constituted in digital democracy? It revisits the poststructuralist-inspired debate about cyberdemocracy in the 1990s, which conceptualized the democratic subject as disembodied discursive self, reifying through textuality in cyberspace. In contrast, current debates on new materialism offer novel perspectives with attention to the materiality of bodies and things. New materialist thought has been fruitfully incorporated for social interaction online, but they have yet to be applied to political participation. By discussing three examples of political online participation in which users materialize their classed, raced, and gendered bodies, this article contributes to a novel understanding of embodied democratic subjectivity in the digital age.

Audiences’ Communicative Agency in a Datafied Age: Interpretative, Relational and Increasingly Prospective

Abstract: This article develops a conceptualization of audience agency in the face of datafication. We consider how people, as audiences and users of media and technologies, face transforming communicative conditions, and how these conditions challenge the power potentials of audiences in processes of communication—that is, their communicative agency. To develop our conceptualization, we unpack the concept of audiences’ communicative agency by examining its foundations in communication scholarship, in reception theory and sociology, arguing that agency is understood as interpretative and relational, and applied to make important normative assessments. We further draw on emerging scholarship on encounters with data in the everyday to discuss how audience agency is now challenged by datafication, arguing that communicative agency is increasingly prospective in a datafied age. Thereby, we provide a theoretical conceptualization for further analysis of audiences in transforming communicative conditions.

The Other Side of Mediatization: Expanding the Concept to Defensive Strategies

Abstract: Most research on mediatization focuses on media-related actions and structural adaptations that aim to increase media attention. However, social actors may also opt for defensive strategies and try to avoid media publicity. In this article, we conceptualize defensive and offensive mediatization strategies as complementary methods that social actors use to deal with media publicity and public attention as well as to proactively shape mediatization processes. We employ an exploratory approach to identify and systematize defensive mediatization strategies. Consequently, we contribute to a more complete understanding of mediatization and provide starting points for further empirical analyses of media-related strategies used by social actors. A secondary analysis of the data from previous research projects suggests establishing three categories of defensive mediatization strategies—persistence, shielding, and immunization—with regard to the levels of individual actors, organizations, and social systems’ routines and norms.

Toward a Theoretical Framework of Relational Maintenance in Computer-Mediated Communication

Abstract: This article addresses the need for theoretical frameworks from which to advance the study of interpersonal relational maintenance in computer-mediated communication (CMC). We suggest one way to satisfy this need is to extend and adapt extant theories of offline relational maintenance to mediated interactions by addressing how CMC is likely integrated to sustain the underlying processes of human interaction in newer channels. Social penetration theory (SPT) is used to illustrate the process proposed. The building blocks of SPT—self-disclosure, reciprocal exchange, and the effect of environmental and situational contexts on interpersonal interactions—are still considered vital in sustaining relationships, even online. By considering how these components are affected by the idiosyncrasies of computer mediation, this work provides a path toward consistent, theoretically-driven research regarding the maintenance of relationships via CMC, and also exemplifies how scholars may forge additional avenues for such research.

The Theory of Informative Fictions: A Character-Based Approach to False News and other Misinformation

Abstract: This paper derives a theory of informative fictions. Common forms of misinformation--fake news, rumors, and conspiracy theories—while dysfunctional for communicating property information—information about the state and operation of things—can actually be valuable for communicating character information—information about the motivations of social agents. It is argued that narratives containing “false facts” can effectively portray a speaker’s theory of another individual’s character. Thus, such narratives are useful for gathering information about leaders and other important individuals who are evaluated in the community. After deriving the theory, TIF is used to derive propositions predicting the empirical conditions under which misinformation will be accepted, tolerated or promoted. The implications of the theory for addressing the normative problem of misinformation are also discussed.

Deception as a bridging concept in the study of disinformation, misinformation, and misperceptions: Toward a holistic framework

Abstract: We propose deception as a bridging concept that will enhance the study of misinformation, disinformation, and misperceptions. As we set it out here, the concept integrates insights from multiple social science disciplines and uniquely connects actors’ intentions, information, and attitudinal or behavioral outcomes. A focus on deception will enrich research that describes the existence of false and misleading information but stops short of identifying their influence. Equally, through its focus on how actors’ deceptive strategies are important in attempts to exercise power, it can augment the study of the cognitive and attitudinal biases that render people susceptible to misperceptions. We identify the main themes in the study of deception: media-systemic distortions in information supply; the relational interactions that both produce and activate cognitive biases; and the attributes, strategies, and techniques of deceptive entities. We conclude with a summary typology of ten principal variables and their 57 focal indicators. Keywords: deception, misperceptions, misinformation, disinformation, media, power

A Negotiative Theory of Journalistic Roles

Abstract: In probing how journalists negotiate the perceived discrepancy between their social role orientation and role performance, we arrive at a negotiative theory of roles. The theory is based on an inductive study where we combine classic theoretical frameworks of role theory with conceptual approaches of discursive institutionalism and Hochschilds’ theory of feeling rules. We examined journalists’ narratives from qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 Swiss newspaper journalists, who were asked to interpret the perceived gap—found in previous studies—between journalism ideals and journalism practice. The results compelled us to revisit role theories and to consider a number of overlooked or under-utilized analytic features of social roles to propose refinements to the concepts of journalistic roles and role performance. This resulted in a negotiative theory of roles that focuses attention on intra- and interpersonal discourse as well as what we call “role work.”

Rethinking the Rhetorical Epistemics of Gaslighting

Abstract: 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.

Expanding Advice Response Theory by Incorporating Goal Inference: College Students’ Perceptions of Parental Exercise Advice

Abstract: We expanded Advice Response Theory (ART) by proposing that recipient perceptions of advisor characteristics can be distal (e.g., parenting style) and proximal (e.g., goal inference). We examined how the recipient’s inference of the advisor’s goals (confirmation, change, and novelty) mediates associations between distal characteristics and message feature evaluations and outcomes. As predicted, positive associations occurred between perceptions of parenting style, confirmation goal inference, advice efficacy and positive facework, and desirable advice outcomes. Counter to predictions, inferring change and novelty goals did not have uniformly undesirable effects. An inference of the change goal was associated with higher efficacy ratings and the recipient changing plans following the conversation. Our findings support conceptualizing ART advisor characteristics as distal and proximal, and advisor goal inference as a relevant proximal characteristic.

The Neglected Medium: Postage Stamps as Mass Media

Abstract: The large number of comprehensive studies on mass media is indicative of the role mass media play in society and societal effects, as a result of which they are instrumental in the analysis, interpretation, and construction of social reality (Shoemaker & Reese, 2014). Mass media themselves—the print press, television, radio, books, as well as the Internet and social media—and especially the contents they produce and widely disseminate, have been the topics of diverse studies anchored in many disciplines. It appears, however, that one such medium has failed to attract the research attention it deserves and has even failed to be recognized as a mass medium. This medium is postage stamps, with billions of copies printed annually and disseminated worldwide. In 2009, 37 billion stamps were printed in the United States alone (Ballentine, 2016). This article proposes to define postage stamps as a mass medium, based on generally accepted definitions and well-known communication theories. Postage stamps constitute official state documents that reflect the values that a country wishes to represent to its citizens and the world. Embracing the definition of postage stamps as a mass medium would, among other things, extend the research horizons of fields such as media, politics, arts, and culture. The article has three aims: First, to define, identify, and explore the features of postage stamps as a mass medium; Second, to gain insight into the reasons for postage stamps' neglect in media research; and third, to propose potential research directions to explore postage stamps' functions as a mass medium.

What on Earth do Journalists Know? A New Model of Knowledge Brokers’ Expertise

Abstract: The article offers a new theoretical model that conceptualizes the “exotic” expertise of journalists and other knowledge-brokers who specialize in particular domains (e.g., teachers, librarians, analysts). The model adapts theories from sociology, pedagogy and philosophy and juxtaposes them against the insights of 14 editors-in-chief from leading Israeli media, in order to validate, refine and illustrate the theoretical generalizations. According to the suggested model, specialized knowledge brokers develop a unique type of expertise that can be modeled across four distinct dimensions: The manifestation of expertise (doing/talking), the mechanism of expertise (interplay between journalistic and domain knowledge), the socio-epistemic position (outsiders/insiders) and the density of expertise (homogenous versus heterogeneous knowledge). Understanding journalists’ expertise is crucial due to the overwhelming assault on experts in “post truth” societies; their role as mega brokers of expert knowledge from all disciplines (outside one’s own expertise) and the ongoing scholarly dispute on the nature of expertise.

Mobile Networked Creativity: Developing a Theoretical Framework for Understanding Creativity as Survival

Abstract: Mobile networked creativity is an emergent practice that arises from the ongoing relationships among people and people with technologies—or networked resources. In this article, we propose a concept of creativity as emerging from networked connections, (im)mobility, and situations of hardship. We, thus, make a connection between mobility and space as networked elements of creativity as opposed to individual agent models. We focus on how unplanned or emergent uses of digital technologies reveal how creative practices emerge, particularly in the context of mobile technology use where people are physically mobile and yet connected via the Internet. We define the concept of creativity as a constant process of becoming, a “recursive organization” that can be seen in groups such as migrants, or people living in disenfranchised communities that survive in make-shift locations such refugee camps or slums. Contrary to the affluent and capitalistic-embedded traditional ideas of creativity, mobile networked creativity is a practice that is found mostly in situations of economic hardship, power imbalances, and (im)mobilities.

Mediatization and the Absence of the Environment

Abstract: Mediatization remains a key concept for theorizing how our ever-evolving and intensifying media and communications environment underwrites and (re)constructs our social world, yet the socio-ecological effects of mediatization processes remain relatively unacknowledged within this research field. However, mediatization must be conceptualized as a cogent process whose impact extends beyond the confines of the “media environment” to the natural environment. We make this argument by reviewing how three dominant traditions of mediatization scholarship: (a) institutionalist, (b) cultural/social constructivist, and (c) materialist conceptualize “the environment.” We argue that scholars rarely acknowledge the materialist dimension of mediatization despite it being a fundamental aspect of mediatization processes. Consequently, we bring discourse surrounding the materiality of mediatization to the fore by drawing on theories of materiality from media and communication studies in general and highlighting three material dimensions of mediatization processes in particular: (a) resources, (b) energy, and (c) waste. In doing so, we make explicit the implicit material dimensions of mediatization processes that have been largely overlooked but are directly linked to how we understand, theorize and react to the societal, cultural, economic, environmental transformations brought about by media.

The Malleability Narrative in Entertainment and Social Media: Explaining Pathways to Happiness in Media Content

Abstract: Media effects research has documented the prevalence of different ideals in media content, and their effects on media users. We developed a framework for the representation of such ideals, and that may increase our understanding of the effects media have on users' well-being. Drawing on cultural sociology, communication theory, and psychological literature, we introduce the malleability narrative of mediated ideals, described as “a collection of media representations of a variety of ideals that tend to be portrayed as within reach for anyone who is committed to pursuing his/her own self-interest.” The aim of the framework is to foster content analytical research on the occurrence of the malleability narrative in popular media and to stimulate audience research on interactions between media users and the malleability narrative in media, while taking account of different explanatory routes and the heterogeneity of the audience.

Rethinking the Public Sphere in an Age of Radical-Right Populism: A Case for Building an Empathetic Public Sphere

Abstract: With right-wing populist movements gaining ever more traction worldwide, great attention is paid to addressing their exclusionary rhetoric. In this article, I focus on the question how to deal with these radical-right sentiments in our public debates. Believing that both exclusion and inclusion of right-wing populist voices wield counter-productive effects, I juxtapose Habermas’s public sphere theory to Mouffe’s model of agonistic pluralism and posit that both are ultimately insufficient to tackle the populist danger, albeit for different reasons. However, by synthesizing Mouffe’s model with the ideas of Zygmunt Bauman and Iris Marion Young, I introduce the concept of an empathetic public sphere as a model for creating minimal common grounds between right-wing populist “selves” and the “others” they oppose. Finally, I then move this normative model into the realm of media and communication studies and assess how empathetic storytelling might be given shape in today’s fragmented media ecology.

The Constitution of Organization as Informational Individuation

Abstract: Communication scholars, especially in organizational communication, call for a constitutive approach to communication that considers communicating and organizing as a single process. Yet, current theorizing seems unable to embrace that equivalence. As an alternative, we present an informationally grounded view of communication drawing from French philosopher Gilbert Simondon. Doing so, we extend scholarship on the communicative constitution of organization by highlighting the importance of framing communication in the context of informational individuation. Following a critical summary of constitutive communication theories, we provide a brief exegesis of Simondon’s concepts of individuation and transduction, which bind information and communication, and contribute four propositions to guide informationally-grounded work on the constitutive power of communication. We then emphasize how a Simondonian view contributes to discussions on the communicating–organizing equation. We end by providing a brief empirical example and analysis using key take-aways from a Simondonian framework and offer areas for further discussion.

Communicating Through or Communicating with: Approaching Artificial Intelligence from a Communication and Media Studies Perspective

Abstract: This review article examines two recent publications that explore the relationship between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and communication. Discussing Human–Machine Communication (HMC) as an emerging area of inquiry within communication and media studies, two important implications of this body of work are highlighted. First, the \"human\" component still plays a key role in HMC, since what we call “AI” derives from the technical and material functioning of computing technologies as much as from the contribution of the humans who enter in communication with AI technologies. Second, HMC challenges the very concept of medium, because the machine is at the same time the channel as well as the producer of communication messages. A potential way to solve this challenge is to mobilize existing approaches in media history and theory that expand the concept of medium beyond its conceptualization as mere channel.