Psychological reactance theory is an important theoretical framework that explains resistance to persuasive messages. However, research has shown inconsistencies regarding the effects of reactance on persuasion, the operational treatment of reactance, and the manipulation of threatening language. This meta-analysis (k = 35, combined N = 10,658) consolidates findings from research on psychological reactance in health communication regarding the associations between freedom-threatening language, perceived freedom threat, state reactance, and persuasion outcomes, as well as the potential moderating impact of different reactance measures and other outcome- and recipient-related variables. Findings generally align with prior theorizing, with significant heterogeneity across studies. Sample type, age, and participant gender were identified as significant moderators. Moreover, our analysis presents a typology of threatening language features and examines their roles in inducing freedom threat perceptions. The analysis highlights the need for additional work to unravel underlying mechanisms and define the scope of boundary conditions.
{"title":"Words that trigger: a meta-analysis of threatening language, reactance, and persuasion in health","authors":"Rong Ma, Zexin Ma, Callie S Kalny, Nathan Walter","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf004","url":null,"abstract":"Psychological reactance theory is an important theoretical framework that explains resistance to persuasive messages. However, research has shown inconsistencies regarding the effects of reactance on persuasion, the operational treatment of reactance, and the manipulation of threatening language. This meta-analysis (k = 35, combined N = 10,658) consolidates findings from research on psychological reactance in health communication regarding the associations between freedom-threatening language, perceived freedom threat, state reactance, and persuasion outcomes, as well as the potential moderating impact of different reactance measures and other outcome- and recipient-related variables. Findings generally align with prior theorizing, with significant heterogeneity across studies. Sample type, age, and participant gender were identified as significant moderators. Moreover, our analysis presents a typology of threatening language features and examines their roles in inducing freedom threat perceptions. The analysis highlights the need for additional work to unravel underlying mechanisms and define the scope of boundary conditions.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"183 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143744982","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}
Whether perceived message effectiveness (PME) can be diagnostic for the differences of actual message effect (AME) in campaign message pretesting and how the diagnosticity of PME should be tested have been controversial. To address these issues, we conducted a survey involving 19 campaign messages (N = 760) and statistically analyzed the multilevel relationships among the between-message, within-message, and disaggregated across-message PME–AME correlations. From our analysis, we advocate for a multilevel analysis of between-message PME–AME correlation as the optimal method for testing PME’s diagnosticity. We also evaluated O’Keefe’s (2018) message-pair standing comparison method and suggested using statistical significance tests to examine PME differences between messages. The between-message PME–AME correlations were strongly positive (greater than 0.824), and PME standing corresponded with AME standing in 94.5% of the message-pairs. Our findings confirm that PME is diagnostic for AME.
{"title":"Diagnosticity of perceived message effectiveness in campaign message pretesting: multilevel analysis of the between-message correlation and message-pair standing comparisons","authors":"Sungeun Chung, Byeong-Hyeon Lee, Youllee Kim","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf006","url":null,"abstract":"Whether perceived message effectiveness (PME) can be diagnostic for the differences of actual message effect (AME) in campaign message pretesting and how the diagnosticity of PME should be tested have been controversial. To address these issues, we conducted a survey involving 19 campaign messages (N = 760) and statistically analyzed the multilevel relationships among the between-message, within-message, and disaggregated across-message PME–AME correlations. From our analysis, we advocate for a multilevel analysis of between-message PME–AME correlation as the optimal method for testing PME’s diagnosticity. We also evaluated O’Keefe’s (2018) message-pair standing comparison method and suggested using statistical significance tests to examine PME differences between messages. The between-message PME–AME correlations were strongly positive (greater than 0.824), and PME standing corresponded with AME standing in 94.5% of the message-pairs. Our findings confirm that PME is diagnostic for AME.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"210 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143677640","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}
In recent years, the scholarly critique of tech power as a form of digital colonialism has gained prominence. Scholars from various disciplines—including communication, law, computer science, anthropology, and sociology—have turned to this idea (or related ones such as tech colonialism, data colonialism, and algorithmic colonization) to conceptualize the harmful impact of digital technologies globally. This article reviews significant historical precedents to the current critique of digital colonialism and further shows how digital rights activists from the Global South have been actively developing and popularizing these ideas over the last decade. I argue that these two phenomena help explain why scholars from varied disciplines developed adjacent frameworks simultaneously and at this specific historical juncture. The article also proposes a typology of digital colonialism around six core features. Overall, this article encourages historicizing current debates about tech power and emphasizes the instrumental role of nonscholarly communities in knowledge production.
{"title":"An intellectual history of digital colonialism","authors":"Toussaint Nothias","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf003","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, the scholarly critique of tech power as a form of digital colonialism has gained prominence. Scholars from various disciplines—including communication, law, computer science, anthropology, and sociology—have turned to this idea (or related ones such as tech colonialism, data colonialism, and algorithmic colonization) to conceptualize the harmful impact of digital technologies globally. This article reviews significant historical precedents to the current critique of digital colonialism and further shows how digital rights activists from the Global South have been actively developing and popularizing these ideas over the last decade. I argue that these two phenomena help explain why scholars from varied disciplines developed adjacent frameworks simultaneously and at this specific historical juncture. The article also proposes a typology of digital colonialism around six core features. Overall, this article encourages historicizing current debates about tech power and emphasizes the instrumental role of nonscholarly communities in knowledge production.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143631367","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}
Media effects research has observed significant diversity in the effects of social media on adolescent well-being, with outcomes ranging from positive to negative and, in some cases, neutral effects. In an effort to comprehend and elucidate this diversity, we have formulated The Swiss Cheese Model of Social Cues, a theoretical framework that systematically categorizes potential sources contributing to these variations. This dynamic model encompasses the complex layers of social cues present within platforms, the social environment, and individual (neuro)susceptibility, collectively shaping how social media influences the well-being of adolescents. The primary goal of this model is to enhance research by concurrently considering a broader range of individual difference factors, providing a comprehensive framework for investigations into the complex interplay of social context in social media effects.
{"title":"The Swiss cheese model of social cues: a theoretical perspective on the role of social context in shaping social media’s effect on adolescent well-being","authors":"Jolien Trekels, Eva H Telzer","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqaf001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf001","url":null,"abstract":"Media effects research has observed significant diversity in the effects of social media on adolescent well-being, with outcomes ranging from positive to negative and, in some cases, neutral effects. In an effort to comprehend and elucidate this diversity, we have formulated The Swiss Cheese Model of Social Cues, a theoretical framework that systematically categorizes potential sources contributing to these variations. This dynamic model encompasses the complex layers of social cues present within platforms, the social environment, and individual (neuro)susceptibility, collectively shaping how social media influences the well-being of adolescents. The primary goal of this model is to enhance research by concurrently considering a broader range of individual difference factors, providing a comprehensive framework for investigations into the complex interplay of social context in social media effects.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143470963","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}
News organizations have been under financial pressure to streamline their activities for decades. Critics argue that this pressure undermines the quality of news, posing a severe threat to democracy. However, the effects of media consolidation on news quality are theoretically ambiguous and empirical evidence is scarce. To address this gap, we study the case of the Swedish newspaper industry between 2014 and 2022, a period where more than half of the country’s newspapers changed their owners. We collect over 2 million articles from 108 newspapers and apply state-of-the-art computational methods to create theoretically grounded, fine-grained measures of news content quality. Our results indicate that mergers are associated with slight increases in content quality. However, we also find evidence of content homogenization, as merging newspapers tend to slightly decrease their provision of local news, while relying more on content shared with co-owned newspapers.
{"title":"Media consolidation and news content quality","authors":"Marcel Garz, Mart Ots","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqae053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqae053","url":null,"abstract":"News organizations have been under financial pressure to streamline their activities for decades. Critics argue that this pressure undermines the quality of news, posing a severe threat to democracy. However, the effects of media consolidation on news quality are theoretically ambiguous and empirical evidence is scarce. To address this gap, we study the case of the Swedish newspaper industry between 2014 and 2022, a period where more than half of the country’s newspapers changed their owners. We collect over 2 million articles from 108 newspapers and apply state-of-the-art computational methods to create theoretically grounded, fine-grained measures of news content quality. Our results indicate that mergers are associated with slight increases in content quality. However, we also find evidence of content homogenization, as merging newspapers tend to slightly decrease their provision of local news, while relying more on content shared with co-owned newspapers.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"113 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143030920","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}
The “queer vanguard” theorizes how Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and other television streaming platforms articulated intersectional lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and nonbinary (LGBTQ+) representations with attributes of narrative complexity, hipness, prestige, and authenticity in pursuit of subscribers. Streamers reworked branding strategies innovated in the 1980s and 1990s by cable and broadcast channels that produced Black-cast shows, and by cable channels in the early twenty-first century that centered gay and lesbian characters. Using an innovative approach that explores media practice as research method, I argue that streamers advanced the queer vanguard to attract subscribers to their original content, develop distinctive libraries, sustain subscribers’ attention, and expand their markets. As the streaming wars have ensued, digital distributors are returning to traditional television practices of appealing to mass audiences with ad-supported content that threatens the future of the complex, intersectional LGBTQ+ narratives that have been central to “Peak TV.”
{"title":"The queer vanguard: how television streaming platforms promoted intersectional LGBTQ+ content to establish their brands","authors":"Katherine Sender","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqae049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqae049","url":null,"abstract":"The “queer vanguard” theorizes how Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and other television streaming platforms articulated intersectional lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and nonbinary (LGBTQ+) representations with attributes of narrative complexity, hipness, prestige, and authenticity in pursuit of subscribers. Streamers reworked branding strategies innovated in the 1980s and 1990s by cable and broadcast channels that produced Black-cast shows, and by cable channels in the early twenty-first century that centered gay and lesbian characters. Using an innovative approach that explores media practice as research method, I argue that streamers advanced the queer vanguard to attract subscribers to their original content, develop distinctive libraries, sustain subscribers’ attention, and expand their markets. As the streaming wars have ensued, digital distributors are returning to traditional television practices of appealing to mass audiences with ad-supported content that threatens the future of the complex, intersectional LGBTQ+ narratives that have been central to “Peak TV.”","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143027188","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}
Many families in the United States hold divergent political beliefs, which may cause relational issues between parents and affect the political socialization of their child(ren). Through a mixed-methods approach, we first assess data from in-depth interviews (N = 30) with parents in cross-cutting romantic relationships, or relationships where partners hold different political beliefs, to inductively explore the connection between parent politics and political socialization within the family. We find that parent political differences shape parent political communication, which is related to the political socialization of their child(ren). Drawing from these interviews, we employ survey data of cross-cutting and politically similar parents in the U.S. (N = 484), offering complementary evidence that cross-cutting parent relationships are negatively associated with expressiveness and political socialization, and that the relationship with political socialization is mediated by parent expressiveness. These findings showcase the role that parent disagreement plays in family political communication and political socialization.
{"title":"Cross-cutting families: how parent politics shape political communication and socialization practices","authors":"Emily Van Duyn, Kirsten Pool","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqae051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqae051","url":null,"abstract":"Many families in the United States hold divergent political beliefs, which may cause relational issues between parents and affect the political socialization of their child(ren). Through a mixed-methods approach, we first assess data from in-depth interviews (N = 30) with parents in cross-cutting romantic relationships, or relationships where partners hold different political beliefs, to inductively explore the connection between parent politics and political socialization within the family. We find that parent political differences shape parent political communication, which is related to the political socialization of their child(ren). Drawing from these interviews, we employ survey data of cross-cutting and politically similar parents in the U.S. (N = 484), offering complementary evidence that cross-cutting parent relationships are negatively associated with expressiveness and political socialization, and that the relationship with political socialization is mediated by parent expressiveness. These findings showcase the role that parent disagreement plays in family political communication and political socialization.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142991998","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}
Stephen A Rains, Shelby N Carter, Levi S Ross, Michelle I Suarez
Drawing from theory about rumination, we examine the impact of verbal rumination over time and in conjunction with co-rumination in online health communities. Our analyses show that when users verbally ruminated in a message starting a thread (compared to when they did not), they were more likely to again verbally ruminate and to report a negative mood in the next thread they started. These relationships, however, varied over time as well as when other community members co-ruminated. When co-rumination from stronger ties or weaker ties in the community was present in responses (compared to when co-rumination was absent), users were less likely to continue engaging in verbal rumination. Users were also less likely to report a negative mood over time when co-rumination by stronger and weaker ties was present. This project advances our understanding of verbal rumination and co-rumination as communication phenomena in the context of online health communities.
{"title":"Talking about problems in online health communities: examining verbal rumination over time and in conjunction with co-rumination","authors":"Stephen A Rains, Shelby N Carter, Levi S Ross, Michelle I Suarez","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqae030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqae030","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing from theory about rumination, we examine the impact of verbal rumination over time and in conjunction with co-rumination in online health communities. Our analyses show that when users verbally ruminated in a message starting a thread (compared to when they did not), they were more likely to again verbally ruminate and to report a negative mood in the next thread they started. These relationships, however, varied over time as well as when other community members co-ruminated. When co-rumination from stronger ties or weaker ties in the community was present in responses (compared to when co-rumination was absent), users were less likely to continue engaging in verbal rumination. Users were also less likely to report a negative mood over time when co-rumination by stronger and weaker ties was present. This project advances our understanding of verbal rumination and co-rumination as communication phenomena in the context of online health communities.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142924960","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}
This article conducts a discourse analysis of continuously collected screenshot data capturing responses from US mobile users and their broader ecosystems to a series of Daesh (ISIS) terrorist attacks in Europe and North Africa in 2017. It identifies four genres of mediatized rituals in observed responses. Three micro-ritual genres focus on individual reparative action detached from systemic analysis or obvious collective action. The fourth genre, accretion of violence, draws on the micro-rituals while aiming to mobilize users against the specter of a left-liberal-Islamist alliance, the decline of “Western Civilization,” and coming sectarian violence. These mediatized ritual genres overlap beyond a confined “space” or “time” as we might understand more traditional conceptions of ritual, and traverse platforms and events. Most urgently, the accretion of violence articulates transnational far-right authoritarian and conspiratorial discourses. The ritual accretion of violence reveals mediatized dynamics among contemporary anti-democratic subjects, with political implications beyond personalized reparative actions.
{"title":"Mobile and platform users’ mediatized rituals in response to terrorist attacks: a discourse analysis of continuously collected screenshots","authors":"Andrew A Fitzgerald","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqae052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqae052","url":null,"abstract":"This article conducts a discourse analysis of continuously collected screenshot data capturing responses from US mobile users and their broader ecosystems to a series of Daesh (ISIS) terrorist attacks in Europe and North Africa in 2017. It identifies four genres of mediatized rituals in observed responses. Three micro-ritual genres focus on individual reparative action detached from systemic analysis or obvious collective action. The fourth genre, accretion of violence, draws on the micro-rituals while aiming to mobilize users against the specter of a left-liberal-Islamist alliance, the decline of “Western Civilization,” and coming sectarian violence. These mediatized ritual genres overlap beyond a confined “space” or “time” as we might understand more traditional conceptions of ritual, and traverse platforms and events. Most urgently, the accretion of violence articulates transnational far-right authoritarian and conspiratorial discourses. The ritual accretion of violence reveals mediatized dynamics among contemporary anti-democratic subjects, with political implications beyond personalized reparative actions.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142908464","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}
This article analyses the global dominance of three U.S.-based platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix) on the streaming market. It investigates their reconfiguring of the TV industry around a global value chain, akin to other highly globalized industries, and characterized by the presence of a few lead firms operating in multiple markets and leveraging hundreds of suppliers worldwide. These streaming platforms benefit from transnational network effects and the coordination of supply chains on a global scale. By building large content libraries and accumulating foreign assets, they are transforming international trade flows in the process. Since 2020, the United States imports more audiovisual services, including movies and television programming, than it exports. This research demonstrates how the impact of these platforms is positive on local creative ecosystems, despite power asymmetries at play, and negative on local broadcasters.
{"title":"Streaming giants and the global shift: building value chains and remapping trade flows","authors":"Jean K Chalaby","doi":"10.1093/joc/jqae040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqae040","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the global dominance of three U.S.-based platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix) on the streaming market. It investigates their reconfiguring of the TV industry around a global value chain, akin to other highly globalized industries, and characterized by the presence of a few lead firms operating in multiple markets and leveraging hundreds of suppliers worldwide. These streaming platforms benefit from transnational network effects and the coordination of supply chains on a global scale. By building large content libraries and accumulating foreign assets, they are transforming international trade flows in the process. Since 2020, the United States imports more audiovisual services, including movies and television programming, than it exports. This research demonstrates how the impact of these platforms is positive on local creative ecosystems, despite power asymmetries at play, and negative on local broadcasters.","PeriodicalId":48410,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142849145","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}
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