Empirical Communication Research Research Articles

Thirty years since Kunda: addressing critiques to reimagine a model of motivated reasoning

Abstract Following Kunda’s (1990) defense of the influence of motivations on reasoning, a growing body of communication research has coalesced around the idea that specific motivations can influence decision-making. At the same time, this body of research has been subjected to criticisms highlighting alternative explanations that do not involve motivated processes. The present study contributes to this conversation by reviewing the evidence around motivated reasoning as reflected in empirical communication research over the past 30 years (k = 143), focusing on the framework’s key components: motivation, reasoning, and responses. The findings identify considerable gaps, including a limited focus on distinct motivations, an underemphasis on reasoning, and a concentration on a narrow set of responses. This article concludes by proposing the Motivation-Reasoning-Response Model, which visually summarizes the findings of this review and indicates possible opportunities for future research.

Replicating and Extending Soroka, Fournier, and Nir: Negative News Increases Arousal and Negative Affect

The negativity bias hypothesis in political communication contends that people are more aroused by negative vs. positive news. Soroka et al. (2019) provide evidence for this negativity bias in a study in 17 countries across six continents. We find suggestive evidence for Soroka et al.’s (2019) central finding that negativity causes an increase in skin conductance levels in a conceptually close, well-powered, and preregistered replication. We extend Soroka et al. (2019) in three ways. First, we theorise, test, and confirm that negative (vs. positive) news causes an increase in activity of the corrugator major muscle above the eyebrow (using facial electromyography activity) and is associated with a negative affect. Second, we find people self-reporting negative news causes negative affect but that positive (instead of negative) news increases self-reported arousal. Third, we test Soroka et al.’s (2019) argument in another context, the Netherlands. Our article suggests that negative news is, especially, causing negative affect. Doing so, we contribute to the negativity bias argument in political communication research and, at the same time, show the importance of replication in empirical communication research.

Against dullness: on what it means to be interesting in communication research

ABSTRACTThis research-based essay presents evidence concerning the leading dimensions that make an empirical communication research article interesting. Based on a survey to editorial boards (EBs) of 16 communication journals, five different categories of interest were found: counterintuitive, foundational, new approach, quality and exemplarity, and insightful and practical. By outlining these categories, the article provides illustrative examples of interesting studies, aiming to stimulate the research community to better assess the potentiality of their contributions, and thus elevating the likelihood of being influential and appealing. To contextualize these findings, the study also provides evidence from EBs regarding the research system itself, arguing that there is a gap between the current robustness of empirical developments and the apathy about them showed by some field’s forefathers. The article finally reflects on the social division of academics based on the research nature of their studies, suggesting that the ‘empirical’ term has lost its original meaning of evidenced-based research and became shorthand for most quantitative work, made by ‘social scientists’.

The Effectiveness of Online Versus In-person Library Instruction on Finding Empirical Communication Research

The Effectiveness of Online Versus In-person Library Instruction on Finding Empirical Communication Research

Message Variability and Heterogeneity: A Core Challenge for Communication Research

Messages pose fundamental challenges and opportunities for empirical communication research. To address these challenges and opportunities, we distinguish between message variability (the defined and operationalized features of messages in a given study) and message heterogeneity (all message features that are undefined and unmeasured in a given study), and suggest approaches to defining and operationalizing message variability. We also identify alternative message sampling, selection, and research design and analysis strategies responsive to issues of message variability and heterogeneity in experimental and survey research. We conclude with recommendations intended to advance the study of messages in communication research.

Fostering Civic Engagement in the Communication Research Methods Course

Courses: Communication Research Methods, Senior Capstone. Objectives: After completing this course, students will be able to: • appreciate the role of empirical communication research in solving social and organizational problems; • identify issues and needs in the community that can be addressed with empirical communication research; • choose appropriate research methods for addressing different issues and needs; • use various communication research methods to address community issues and needs; • present research findings and recommendations to community organizations; • demonstrate an increased commitment to active citizenship.

Communication and Community: Clarifying the Connection Across the Communication Community

Community is a compelling, but elusive, concept that spans many areas of the communication discipline and methodologies employed by communication scholars. However, no systematic attempt has been made to synthesize studies of community across the communication discipline. This state-of-the-discipline review examines contemporary empirical communication research studies to reveal ways in which community, and its relationship to communication, have been conceived and operational-ized. Examining this literature clarifies the concept of community and its connection to communication and suggests profitable directions for future research.

Common flaws in contemporary empirical communication research: A research editorial

Common flaws in contemporary empirical communication research: A research editorial

The use of imaginative literature for communication theory construction: Some precautions

This essay argues against an easy logic that views imaginative literature as empirical data for the construction, proof, or refutation of communication theories. In support of this position, the essay examines the theoretical justification underlying “Soliloquy as Self‐Disclosure” by Lawrence W. Hugenberg, Sr. and Mark J. Schaefermeyer, analyzes the methodological problems of reversibility and verisimilitude, considers the theoretical problem of abstraction from aesthetic structures, and offers four position statements prescribing the use of literature in empirical communication research.

The critical functions of empirical communication research: observations on German-American influences

The critical functions of empirical communication research: observations on German-American influences

Empirical or critical Communication research?

This article reviews, in the form of a literature survey, the two dominant approaches to communications research: Empirical communication research, which originated in the U.S.A., has a quantitativ...