Abstract Communication skills do not have an agreed upon definition despite the importance contemporary communication culture attributes to them. Instead of asking what communication skills are, this study adopts a relational approach and asks how skills materialize as elements of the situation in and with which speakers interact. I review the sociopsychological theoretical tradition’s conception of skills as typologies of skills and skill components, and the sociocultural tradition’s conception of skills as discursive resources, to analyze and interpret practical metadiscourse about skills in a U.S. undergraduate public speaking course. I find that theorists and practitioners alike constitute communication skills as generic objects, that is, discrete but non-specific objects that encompass specific features and serve as templates for action. Further, the generic nature of skills allows them to circulate broadly. The constitution of skills as generic objects resolves the contradiction between the importance ascribed to them and their lack of specificity.

Abstract Social media have profoundly changed social communication practices across a vast range of contexts. To theorize these changes, numerous authors have proposed digital affordances as a conceptual lens. Yet, to date, most accounts of digital affordances either gloss broadly over cross-platform or use-dependent differences in practices; or they are highly context-specific, obstructing theoretical integration. In this article, we conceptualize social media affordances on an intermediate level of abstraction that foregrounds consequential differences in how digital social media platforms structure social communication practices. Focusing on the characteristic communication needs of social movements as an exemplary case, we identify how social media platforms present users with differential affordances for articulating public claims, building collective identities, and mobilizing contentious performances. We examine how key contextual conditions alter the value of differential affordances, potentially resulting in differential communication practices and platform preferences. We conclude by discussing key opportunities of our approach for comparative research and theory building.

Abstract This study introduces the Dynamic Intermediary Model (D[X]IM) to address how knowledge processes have evolved with digital platforms by shifting from a dyadic to a triadic communication model of content flow with a potential intermediary. This intermediary, which can be a journalist, influencer, artificial agent, or another platform actor, provides services to the source and recipient of a message, thereby transforming traditional direct communication. It aims to better understand information diffusion in the networked public sphere by recognizing the intermediary’s role in altering source-recipient dynamics. The D[X]IM applies across different communication levels (macro, meso, and micro) and is designed for empirical research using diverse methodologies. It focuses on single instances of platform communication to explore the impact of intermediated communication. The article concludes with a research agenda and examples of how D[X]IM can be applied in empirical research.

Abstract Whereas media reliance is one of the classical concepts in media and communication studies, this article argues that deep mediatization imposes a renewed relevance of the term, as well as a need to develop a more nuanced framework for studying its social implications. Traditionally, media reliance was used to explain how people develop a citizen identity. Today, while connective media, datafication and AI have transformed what it means to be reliant on media, the very concept is marginalized and theoretically under-developed. Against this backdrop, the article starts out from an overview of how media reliance, and related terms, have been utilized in media research and then develops an analytical framework that accounts for different social modes and realms of media reliance. The matrix is implemented to crystallize blind spots in the research field and to highlight new types of questions that different research strands could address in times of pervasive connectivity.

Abstract Digitalization and declines in news use underscore the tension between journalistic ideals of detachment and audience communities’ demands for journalistic actors’ engagement. This is enhanced by the emergence of non-traditional actors who can effectively assert journalistic authority within communities by deviating from specific traditional journalistic values. However, scholarly understanding of the role of community membership in claims of journalistic authority remains limited. To address this, we propose a theoretical framework that draws on boundary work and fan studies. This framework allows us to examine how diverse journalistic actors in a variety of communities can base their journalistic authority claims on their: (1) proximity to news sources and protagonists; (2) authenticity as perceived by the audience community; and (3) professionalism in relation to the journalistic field. Through empirical research, this framework may help us to better understand how diverse journalistic actors can claim authority while meeting communities’ diverse needs.

Abstract Communication researchers have long sought to situate or contextualize media behaviors in their natural settings. However, the many approaches taken to understand media behavior in context have varied considerably. This article proposes a metatheoretical framework for theorizing media behavior at the situational level, encompassing the entirety of circumstances surrounding a media behavior at a given moment. The framework describes how psychological states, environmental context, and media context combine to shape moment-to-moment media behavior. We then describe how situational factors have the potential to interact with the three phases of media behavior—i.e., selection, processing, and disengagement—in distinctive ways. We argue that communication researchers only gain the ability to explain the variability in media behavior by taking the situational level into account. We conclude by providing future theoretical and empirical directions to guide the field in building a more generalizable and durable understanding of situated media behavior.

Abstract Embodiment has been incorporated in communication studies researching the experiencing self, motivated cognitive information processing, and embodied medium theory. This article highlights another factor—past bodily experiences—as important for understanding the impact of embodiment on communication processes. Expanding schema to a construct spanning multiple levels of the neural hierarchy, we propose embodied schema as a minimal framework to capture the idea that all mental structures are grounded in the body. Based on the function of embodied schemas, we describe an Embodied Schema Information Processing Theory (ESIPT) that includes an embodied dual-process theory, which offers a more coherent account of the automatic cue- or heuristic-based processing mode, and a model that describes the influence of the environment and bodily state on high-level cognitive processing. This article systematically explores the role of past bodily experiences and provides a general account of embodied information processing that can inform a wide range of communication studies.

Abstract This article makes a case for the productive synergy between positive organizational communication scholarship (POCS) and critical scholarship, which have been often viewed as incompatible. The article opens with an overview of POCS and its key critiques from critical audiences, which allows us to unpack the metatheoretical assumptions driving each research tradition. Next, the article discusses the limits of relying only on a Eurocentric definition of the “positive.” Notably, this article delineates how Buddhist philosophies refresh our understanding of the “positive” and challenge existing ways of thinking and problem-solving in organizational communication. We apply the Buddhist-inspired people-conditions-goals framework to a case study on the 2022 University of California system strikes.

Abstract One of the central interests of media and communication research is how technologies and communication media are involved in social and cultural change. Often such studies are rather one-sided because they disregard questions of continuity, which can lead to inadequate analyses and exaggerated claims of change. Three categories of reasons for this bias towards change are identified through a literature review. Crucially, since continuity remains an undervalued concern, we lack sophisticated theorizations and analytical approaches to study it adequately. In response, this article presents a taxonomy of continuity based on a thematic analysis of 74 articles in leading communication journals. The five observed dimensions of continuity offer scholars the vocabulary and a conceptual framework to study continuity more systematically as a complex and multi-dimensional issue. This contribution serves as a starting point towards building a theory of change and continuity, and suggestions for necessary future work are given.

Abstract Although disinformation has become a popular concept, we lack an integrative conceptualization that connects the actors, intentions and techniques underlying deceptive information. In this article, we conceptualize disinformation as a context-bound deliberate act for which actors covertly deceive recipients by de-contextualizing, manipulating or fabricating information to maximize utility with the (targeted) outcome of misleading recipients. This conceptualization embeds fragmented accounts of disinformation in a networked and participatory information logic, and offers a comprehensive account of the conditions under which different actors may decide to deceive, how they deceive, and what they aim to achieve by deceiving recipients. Our conceptualization may inform (machine-learning) techniques to detect disinformation and interventions that aim to trigger suspicion by breaking through the truth-default state.