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Negotiating Trans Identity and Boundaries at Work: How Situational and Personal Factors Affect Workplace Identity Communication Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-17 Rebecca Baumler
This study extends boundary theory by arguing that situational factors and personal factors influence how individuals construct boundaries surrounding trans identity at work, and that identity comm...
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Encountering Material Rhetorics in the Ruins of Saturn Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-14 Saul Kutnicki
As interests in material rhetoric continue to evolve among communication scholars, questions persist about how the durability of objects impact their rhetorical dimensions. To more fully understand...
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Are you Cheating on Me? Identifying Factors Contributing to the Use of Suspicion Confirmation and Avoidance Strategies Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Daniel J Weigel, M. Rosie Shrout
This study integrates communication, motivational, and behavioral elements to identify factors that lead to the use of key information seeking strategies people employ to confirm or avoid suspicion...
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Temporary Workers Who Pursue the Contemporary Well-Lived, Flourishing Life: A Qualitative Study Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Ivan Gan
Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia guided this investigation on a growing and essential group of professionals that seeks voluntary role transitions to meaningfully advance their careers and nonwork ...
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Editorial Introduction Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2024-01-25 Lisa E. Silvestri, Casey R. Schmitt
Published in Western Journal of Communication (Vol. 88, No. 1, 2024)
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Framing Terrorism Survivors: Visual Representation of Boko Haram Survivors in International News Media Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2024-01-02 Doris Wesley
This study analyzed how African, American, and British online mainstream news sources visually represent Boko Haram survivors. A longitudinal study from 2014 to 2021 was conducted using purposive s...
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Same-Gender-Loving Black Male Television Characters: A Case Study of the Scripted Television Series Designated Survivor Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-12-29 David Stamps
Descriptive analyses of same-gender-loving (SGL) Black male characters in scripted television series are lacking. This content may expose SGL Black viewers to distinct narratives. Accordingly, I ad...
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Investigating Social Proliferation in Korean College Students’ Smoking Perceptions and Behaviors Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-12-27 YoungJu Shin, Yu Lu, Rebecca Leach
The present study investigated the processes of social proliferation in Korean college students’ smoking perceptions and behaviors. Using cross-sectional survey data (N = 208), the study tested ass...
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Visually Impaired Individuals’ Impression Management Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-12-25 Lynsey K. Romo, Mary E. Obiol, Melissa J. Taussig
We examined visually impaired individuals’ impression management strategies through Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective. Consistent with the biomedical model of disability and ableism, participants...
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Linking Health Consciousness and Social Media Information Seeking to College Students COVID-19 Prevention Behavior: Examining a Modified IMBP Model Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-12-25 Christopher McKinley, Yi Luo, Joseph Brennan
Health consciousness and health information seeking have been conceptually and empirically linked. Few studies, however, have explored the implications this relationship has for driving specific he...
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The Role of Anxiety and Fear in Sexual Orientation Self-Disclosure Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-10-27 Yachao Li, Jennifer A Samp
Revealing minority sexual orientation to others, or coming out, can be emotionally arousing and challenging. Yet, few studies have examined the role of emotions in sexual orientation self-disclosur...
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Correction Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-10-31
Published in Western Journal of Communication (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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The Role of Organizational Messages About Mental Health in Disclosure and Support-Seeking Decisions Among First Responders: A Qualitative Investigation Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-09-29 Erin Craw, Michelle Miller-Day
First responders, especially those without adequate support, are at heightened risk for experiencing adverse mental health outcomes. Workplace mental health interventions for first responders are b...
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The Discourse of Managing Attempted Levity in a Serious Situation: Relational Identity-Work in the Waco Standoff Negotiations Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Robert R Agne
This study examines the telephone negotiations between FBI agent, John Cox, and David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians, during the Waco Standoff of 1993. Using grounded practical theory (GPT)...
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Labor in Fissured Workplaces: Contract Workers’ Membership Negotiation in “Big Tech” Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-09-07 Camille G. Endacott, Jordan M. Duran, Karoline Summerville
The companies in Big Tech (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft) increasingly rely on contract workers, not only as suppliers but as contributors who fulfill key organizational functions without formal employment. To understand contractors’ communicative construction of their organizational membership, we analyzed contract workers’ descriptions of membership negotiation in Big Tech using crowdsourced
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Supporters Need Support: An Exploratory Analysis of Support Marshaling Among Informal Dementia Care Partners Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Michelle Matter, Meara H. Faw
Caring for someone with dementia is a challenging task, and informal dementia care partners (CPs) rely on their own sources of support to manage the demands they face. Investigating how CPs marshal support, or the ways they work to increase the positive support they receive while minimizing nonsupport, can illuminate how CPs communicate around their own supportive needs. Thematic analysis of 23 semi-structured
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Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Longitudinally Predict College Students’ Communication of Affirmative Sexual Consent Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-09-03 Lori Bednarchik, Mark Generous, Paul Mongeau
This study longitudinally explored antecedents to college students’ affirmative sexual consent behaviors. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), hypotheses predicted that time one (T1) attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) would predict students’ T1 intentions to communicate affirmative consent to their partner. Also, this study predicted that at time two, intentions to communicate
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Evangelical Celebrity and the Second Persona Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-08-28 Zachary Sheldon
This article uses the construct of the Second Persona to understand the evangelical Christian rhetorical culture constructed by evangelical celebrities via Instagram. As informal authorities, evangelical celebrities are unique figures. Understanding their media use in constructing an ideal evangelical auditor provides an assessment of evangelical culture and posits an “Evangelical Second Persona” characterized
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“I’m Just Going to Stay Out of the Way”: How Perceived Information Gathering Capacity Influenced Risk Information Seeking and Processing During the COVID-19 Pandemic Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-08-24 Olivia Bullock
When a new risk emerges, people must seek out and process information to help them understand how to manage the risk in their daily lives. The risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model has been used to explain what factors both contribute to risk information seeking and processing behaviors. The present study uses focus groups and deductive thematic analysis to examine how a novel risk context
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Diversity and Aggression on Police TV Dramas Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-08-22 Jack Glascock
A content analysis of TV police dramas was conducted to assess the portrayal of gender, race/ethnicity, and aggression among law enforcement, criminals, and victims. Representations of police personnel appeared more diversified than in past eras, with white personnel no longer overrepresented and some racial minority groups (African and Asian American) now overrepresented relative to consensus data
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“We Like the stock!”: Partial Organizing, Latency, and Communicative Contestations of Actorhood in r/WallStreetBets Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-21 William Roth Smith
This work investigates the dynamic of organizing without being organized on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets (WSB). Guided by tenets of partial organizing and organizationality frameworks, findings reveal how momentum building, validating, and membership affirming communication flows constitute the organization by latently interconnecting decisions. As external entities attribute actorhood to the collective
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Unpacking the Portmanteau: Megxit’s Implicit Racist Ideology Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-18 Star Medzerian Vanguri, Maggie M Werner
In this essay, we demonstrate the portmanteau’s value as an analytical tool for rhetorical study. We use the portmanteau Megxit as a case study to illustrate how the form of the portmanteau shapes ...
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Happy Birthday Title IX: The Role of Stakeholder Groups and Identity in Reactions to the 50th Anniversary of Title IX Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-16 Gregory Cranmer, Brandon Boatwright, Hannah Gertz, Kristina Kowalski
In this manuscript, researchers examine the multivocality in Twitter discourse around Title IX’s 50th anniversary in intercollegiate athletics via a multi-stakeholder issue network approach and soc...
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Problematic Integrations of Baptist Mothers’ Nested Identities During Sex Talks with Children Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-04 Katie Kassler, Amorette Hinderaker
This study examines the identity performance of Baptist mothers during sex talks with children using a problematic integration and nested identities integrated framework. The findings of this study suggest that mothers experienced a tension between their Biblical ontologies of sex and secular treatments of sex, which informed the strategies they used to communicate with their children. Sex talks with
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“We Are Our History”: A Critical Reading of Personas in I Am Not Your Negro Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-29 Katrina N. Hanna
Based on the noted harms of a post-racial United States, this analysis offers a close reading of the documentary, I Am Not Your Negro (IANYN). The analysis explores how the vernacular, transcendent first persona constructs and speaks to a three-tiered, white second persona: (1) the essentialist or overt racist, (2) the colorblind, and (3) the race cognizant. The analysis is particularly interested
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Memory Bridges: Narrative Memories in Saved Objects Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-29 Roger C. Aden
Saved objects both contain and express stories. This study explores how saved objects can hold narrative memories and carry those memories into the present and future. In so doing, the objects—which this study defines as memory bridges—allow access to our memories and connections to other memories that contribute to our ongoing autobiography. These narrative memories provide us with a vivid presence
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Gender, Politeness, and the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Debates Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-14 Robert S. Hinck, Edward A. Hinck, Shelly S. Hinck, William O. Dailey
Using politeness theory as a framework, this study compared men and women presidential candidates’ argumentative discourse in the 2020 Democratic primary debates. Researchers conducted a content an...
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“You Think This is Hard? Just Wait…”: Memorable Messages in Motherhood Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-08 Jocelyn M. DeGroot
This study explores the hurtful and helpful memorable messages said to mothers. Ninety-seven mothers completed an open-ended questionnaire, providing examples of their most memorable hurtful and he...
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Factors Related to Compliance with CDC COVID-19 Guidelines: Media Use, Partisan Identity, Science Knowledge, and Risk Assessment Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-07 Yicheng Zhu, Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, Shannon A. Bowen
The present study surveyed 970 Americans during the first two weeks of May 2020 to explore the science communication environment and the factors related to COVID-19 risk assessment and compliance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) COVID-19 mitigation strategies. We asked respondents about the media sources used to seek information about the COVID-19 pandemic, their political identity, and general
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Examining Cultural Worldview and Social Media as Contributors to Reduced COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors in the U.S. and France Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-06 Christopher J McKinley, Fanny Lauby
This study examines how cultural worldview and social media use contribute to reduced COVID-19 prevention behaviors in the U.S. and France - two countries that face numerous pandemic-related public health challenges. Drawing from the comprehensive model of information seeking (CMIS) and a cultural cognition framework, we surveyed French and U.S. citizens prior to full vaccine rollout (2020/early 2021)
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The Effects of Mobile Device Use and Presence on Perceptions of a Conversation Partner Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-05-09 Scott E. Caplan, John A. Courtright
This study examined the effects of mobile device use, and its mere presence, on in-person conversations. The study utilized an experimental design to replicate and advance existing scholarship on t...
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Toward Rhetorical Harmony: Feminist Musical Rhetorical Criticism and Possibilities for Contesting Rape Logic Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-04-07 Kristen D. Herring
Music is a visceral experience. It allows audiences to feel its message in and through their bodies. In this essay, I bring together the rhetorical concepts of viscerality and harmony to offer a ne...
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An Analysis and Comparison of the Instructor-Student Relationship Using Relational Framing Theory Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-04-04 Brandi N. Frisby, Jessalyn I. Vallade, C. Joseph Huber, Adam Tristan, Alexis A. Murphy
This study extended previous research on interpersonal dynamics between instructors and students by applying relational framing theory to participants’ (N = 544) reports on instructor-student relat...
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The Genre of Deliberative Guidance: Rhetoric and Deliberation in Citizens’ Initiative Review Statements Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-24 Sara A. Mehltretter Drury, John Rountree
During the last decade, the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) has offered an innovative design to incorporate citizen deliberation into ballot initiative elections, using a citizens’ jury process t...
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Barbaric Bullies, Tormented Targets, and Muddled Managers: An Expectancy Violations Theory Framework for Predicting Managerial Intervention to Alleviate Workplace Bullying Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-14 Kylie Julius, Joan R. Rentsch, Quinten S. Bernhold
Bullying is a prevalent workplace problem that has received relatively little research attention addressing managerial intervention. We developed a framework and propositions based on the bullying ...
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More-Than-Human Ethics of Care in the Poetry of Mary Oliver Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-08 Kenneth Zagacki, Cynthia Rosenfeld
This essay examines how Mary Oliver’s poetry enacts an ethic of care that encourages the reconsideration of boundaries between human-nonhuman worlds and the intrinsically valuable nature of human-n...
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It’s not an abortion: Examining how individuals who end a wanted pregnancy discuss their experiences Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-05 Cimmiaron F. Alvarez
Various scholars have concluded that narratives of individuals who have ended wanted pregnancies restrict abortion to only acceptable cases. Through the analysis of 33 personal narratives posted on the website “Ending a Wanted Pregnancy,” this article argues, that these stories are polysemous, exhibiting hermeneutic depth. Women telling these stories construct reproductive justice and anti-abortion
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Virtual Balancing: How Digital Environments Influence the Participation and Efficiency of Cross-Sector Partnerships Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-05 Otto Hedenmo
Cross-sector partnerships (XSP) that address complex societal issues tend to struggle to achieve a substantial impact. To attain successful collaboration, the way in which these XSPs balance partic...
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The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum: Materiality, Trauma, and the Comfort of Catharsis Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-28 Cari Whittenburg
This essay analyzes the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, focusing on embodied material simulation. I argue that the museum constructs an idealized Oklahoman citizen who works to curb anxieties surrounding domestic threats. The museum mobilizes ideal citizenship through its affective storytelling that functions to traumatize visitors to establish catharsis, which
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Moving Forward in Compounded Grief: Communicated Resilience after COVID-19 Related Losses Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-26 Kendyl A. Barney, Emily Scheinfeld, Katlyn Gangi, Erin C. Nelson, Catherine C. Sinardi
Losses during the COVID-19 pandemic presented people with a unique type of compounded grief. This study explores how individuals foster resilience in coping with COVID-19-related losses by investigating two research questions. Open-ended survey responses were coded using the Communication Theory of Resilience (CTR) framework, revealing how individuals enact certain resilience processes and how interactions
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Embodied Trauma and Pastoral Relief: The Rhetoric of the Flight 93 National Memorial Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-22 Alina Haliliuc, Pamela Conners
Distinctive among memorials for its rurality and its integration of the natural landscape, the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania narrates the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 through an embodied experience of trauma and relief. In this article, we analyze the rhetorical interaction between the memorial’s pastoral setting and the Visitor Center’s traumatic and temporal reenactment
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Religious Masking and the Rhetorical Strategies of Digital Anti-Vaccination Churches Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-21 Emma Frances Bloomfield, Stephanie S. Willes
We analyze the rhetorical strategies of “digital anti-vaccination churches.” We argue that these groups adopt the appearance of a religious institution to gain access to vaccine exemptions, through a process we call “religious masking.” Religious masking involves the impersonation of religious style and substance to “pass” convincingly as a religious institution under legal requirements. Simultaneously
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Objectification and the Candidate: Examining the Effects of Objectification Paired with Candidate Coverage on Candidate Evaluations and Gender Bias Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-16 Deborah Schooler, Jennifer Stevens Aubrey
In an experiment conducted during the 2016 presidential primary season, participants viewed an article about a speech attributed to either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Men who read the Clinto...
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Mr. Flake Gets Out of Washington: The Jeremiadic Martyrdom of Jeff Flake Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-08 Wm. Bryan Paul, Joel Lansing Reed, Josh C. Bramlett
Donald Trump’s election in 2016 triggered an identity crisis for many Republican Party leaders. One such Republican – Sen. Jeff Flake – framed this crisis as a test of conservative principles and c...
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Frenemies: Acting like Friends but Feeling like Enemies Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-05 Carol Bishop Mills, Panfeng Yu, Paul A. Mongeau
Frenemies, partners who appear to be friends on the surface, yet purport to dislike one another, have received less attention in the scholarly literature than friends and enemies. To explore the di...
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Laugh the Problem Away? Outcomes of Group-Level Laughter within Black Women’s Homeplace Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-01 Shardé M. Davis
This study examined the role that laughter plays when Black women convey support to a target of racism. Fifty-two friendship groups were sampled. In each group one woman sought support from two friends after she experienced racial microaggression. Videotapes of the discussion were coded to determine the frequency and duration of each group’s laughter. Women who received support were able to cognitively
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“We’re all human/existential fish:” Fans Making Sense of Adore Leaving RuPaul’s Drag Race Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-01-31 Caroline Waldbuesser, John Marc Cuellar
Our essay explores sensemaking in a subreddit called “r/rupaulsdragrace.” Specifically, we analyzed how fans made sense through online discussions after a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars...
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Who Drives Disaster Communication? An Analysis of Twitter Network Structure and Influence during a Wildfire Crisis Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-01-24 Kristin Page Hocevar
Oregon’s Almeda Fire destroyed over 2,000 residences and displaced thousands of people who evacuated with little warning or guidance from official or traditional media sources. Results of this social network analysis of 12,193 tweets from the active stage of the crisis show a clear clustered network structure, with citizens playing a more influential role in crisis information diffusion than government
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Affectionate Communication Moderates the Effect of Adverse Childhood Experience on Mental Well-Being Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-01-22 Kory Floyd
Affectionate communication is a prosocial behavior that exhibits a stress-buffering effect, ameliorating the influence of stressors on stress reactivity. Whereas previous research has demonstrated such an effect on physiological and health-related reactions to acute stressors, the current study explores the ability of affectionate communication to moderate the influence of early childhood adversity
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Navigating Relational Escalation: Exploring the Associations among Dialectical Tensions, Relationship Stages, and Attachment Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-01-22 Chelsea Guest, Amanda Denes
This study explored the connections among relational dialectics, the relational stage model, and attachment by assessing how individuals with differing attachment tendencies navigate conflicting de...
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A Test of the Mobile Phone Appropriation Model Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-01-08 Sun Kyong Lee, Ioana A. Cionea
This study tested the generalizability of the mobile phone appropriation model to the United States with the aim of enhancing theorization about mobile communication. Associations between the theor...
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Subordinate or Entitled Partner? The Effects of Taxpayer News on Political Trust and Demands for Government Accountability Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-28 Volha Kananovich
This study explores the effects of tax-related news on government accountability in the United States. When exposed to news that framed the taxpayer as the ultimate sponsor of public spending to wh...
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Identifying Accessibility Improvement Opportunities for Global Environmental Communication Websites Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-28 Alicia M. Mason, Josh Compton, Sakshi Bhati
Digital environmental information presented with low web accessibility reduces participation in environmental advocacy and information seeking behaviors for many people with disabilities, creating ...
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Enforcing Unbreakable Laws: Detective Fiction and the Rhetoric of Economic Orthodoxy Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-28 Robert Olen McDonald
This essay studies the “Henry Spearman” detective novel series, wherein a fictional Harvard economist applies economic theory to solve murder cases. Written by professional economists under a pen n...
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Inoculation Theory as Rhetorical Strategy in The Evidence at Large (1805) Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-18 Josh Compton
The Evidence at Large, published in 1805, is a publication of transcripts of testimony offered before Parliament regarding Edward Jenner’s role and legal rights in developing vaccination protocol, with a preface penned by Rev. G. C. Jenner—Edward Jenner’s nephew. This current project engages in a rhetorical analysis of Jenner’s preface, using inoculation theory as an interpretative framework. Key features
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Examining the Dimensions of Malleable Racial Identification Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-18 Megan E. Cardwell
Because of the essentialist construction of race in the U.S. as discrete immutable categories, Multiethnic-racial (ME-R) persons, those with parents from two different ethnic-racial backgrounds, find themselves navigating many monoethnic-racial norms. When faced with these norms they must choose how they will express their ethnic-racial identities to others. One way they may shift their identity is
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Whiteness and Neoliberal Diversity: The (Re)production of Ideology through College Students’ Diversity Discourse Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-18 Drew T. Ashby-King
Diversity has become a proxy term used to talk about racism and other forms of systemic oppression on college campuses and in the classroom. Although scholars have suggested connecting diversity to...
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Development and Validation of a Family Member Marginalization Measure (FM3): Difference, Disapproval, and Exclusion Dimensions Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-18 Elizabeth Dorrance-Hall, Nicole Campbell, Molly Carlisle, Emily Lance, Mengyan Ma, Kristina Scharp
Despite burgeoning research about family distancing, researchers have yet to operationalize any family distancing construct. This paper describes the development and validation of a new measure operationalizing three components of family member marginalization (i.e., difference, disapproval, and exclusion). We evaluated the Family Member Marginalization Measure (FM3) using data from college students
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Surviving in Higher Education: How Communication Influences Tongan Students’ Assimilation in Higher Education Institutions Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-11 Aulola Amacher, Michael K. Ault, Bobbi Van Gilder
Despite the number of American students achieving bachelor’s degrees soaring, the gap between the most and least successful ethnic groups is becoming more pronounced. Among the lowest achieving gro...
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Integrative Complexity, COVID-19, and Political Ideology Western Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2022-12-04 Hayley McCullough
This study explores the relationship between political ideology and integrative complexity in terms of COVID-19 news coverage. Briefly, integrative complexity is a psycholinguistic construct that examines cognitive structure. Based on a sample of COVID-19 news articles sourced from liberal, moderate, and conservative news networks, the results show liberal and moderate networks displayed higher complexity