Trust
Choose Your Words Wisely: The Role of Language in Media Trust
New research is identifying patterns of common language usage in coverage of potentially divisive subjects that could further damage trust. Recoding words away from inherent biases and toward authentic language may be a pathway that engenders trust.
How to Build a Trustworthy Robot
Robot narratives have been with us for a long time and humans have fantasized, advised and prophesized about robots existing among us. But would people actually trust these fictional robots if they were real?
Exploring Trust in Media Brands Today: Definition, Dimensions and Cross-National Differences
Today’s abundant content from linear media, tech companies, influencers and others presents a growing challenge in measuring the trust consumers place on these different media platforms/outlets. Researchers sought to define a media brand and its trust elements.
Chatbots
How Chatbots Can Effectively Communicate Science Information
Chatbots are here to stay. But are they effective communicators, particularly when it comes to dispensing scientific advice? New research explores how persuasive chatbots can be in engaging audiences when discussing important scientific topics.
Perceived Humanness of Online Chat Agents
Organizations are adopting live-chat systems that employ either human agents or AI-driven conversational agents. How consumers perceive these live-chat conversations is important in understanding how organizations build strong relationships with them.
Political Communication
Looking Beyond the Punchline: The Effect of Political Entertainment on Evaluations of Political Candidates
This research looks at how perceptions of candidates are affected when they appear on or are parodied in comedy shows vs. traditional news.
High Anxiety—The Role of Emotion in Political Decision-Making
Years of research show that people are swayed more by emotion than by reason when it comes to participating in the democratic process. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing because emotion, particularly anxiety, can motivate us to action.
Misinformation
Twitter Users Engage More with Factual Discourse than Misinformation
The problem of misinformation or disinformation being disseminated on social media has been well established and documented. But a new study suggests that users actually find factual posts more engaging than posts with misinformation.
AI
Do Consumers Trust AI in the News-Production Process?
Researchers conducted a study asking participants to assess their preferred level of AI integration in the discovery and information-gathering phase and the writing and editing phase of news production.
AI- or Human-Written Scripts? It May Not Make a Difference to Viewers
As screenwriters strike to ensure job security in the face of generative AI, researchers set out to gauge audience reactions to works of short fiction written by ChatGPT and a version of the ChatGPT story edited by the researchers themselves.
Social Change
When It Comes to Communicating Sea-Level Rise, Hope Wins
Scholars who study ecocriticism and environmental communication are realizing how important it is to get the messaging about the climate crisis right. This research discovered that hopeful videos were overall the most compelling and the ones that the participants are most likely to share with family and friends.
Cultural
We Can’t Overestimate the Power of Representation in Reboots
“Reboots are a part of our nostalgia culture; they allow us to reimagine that time period we loved, but with more complete or complex content. And representation really does matter in mainstream media, especially for children at early ages.”
Why Taylor Swift’s Breakup Feels Like our Breakup Too
The news that Taylor Swift had broken up with her boyfriend after six years caused a such a volcanic public response, replete with viral rumors and conspiracy theories. The response is rooted in the ever-growing parasocial relationships phenomenon—one-sided celebrity fascinations that lead fans to vicariously invest in stars’ lives.
Internal Communication
Communicating the Big Picture With Employees: The Impacts of CEO Vision Communication on Employee Engagement
Organizational leadership requires much more than a good head for business, knowledge of market trends or analyzing accounting spreadsheets. Important as those things may be to understanding your business, understanding employees, and how to get them to understand your business, is critical for success.
