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Free AccessEditorial

Innovating the Media Psychology of Interpretation, Identity, Interactivity, and Intersectionality

Published Online:March 31, 2022https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000345

In mid-2020, Journal of Media Psychology (JMP) announced an open call for manuscripts focused on theoretical innovations – challenging scholars to reconsider the scholarly record to consolidate, innovate, or propose novel approaches to studying the uses, processes, and effects of media (Bowman et al., 2020). This call led to several submissions and from there, our editorial staff selected 12 total manuscripts for further development and publication. Six of those manuscripts were presented in late 2021 (Klimmt & Bowman, 2021) – manuscripts that focused on identity shift (Carr et al., 2021), formal modeling and media selection (Fisher & Hamilton, 2021), inspirational media (Oliver et al., 2021), self-regulation and online engagement (Ozimek & Förster, 2021), and media multitasking (Wiradhany et al., 2021; Zamanzadeh & Rice, 2021). Although it is too soon to see the impact of those manuscripts in our system via downloads and citation metrics, papers under review with JMP have already begun working these ideas into theorizing and discussion sections. Moreover, early social media chatter (and a few emails to the editor) suggest that these papers have struck a chord with our colleagues, and we are eager to see those provocations and innovations make their way into future theoretical and empirical work.

The five papers in this second issue represent innovations on several dimensions of scholarship1. Ewoldsen et al. (2022) propose the role that so-called connectionist models of memory construction could play in helping us further understand a long-standing presumption of media scholars – audiences and users process the same on-screen/in-device content quite differently. Frener and Trepte (2022) present a content analysis of more than 100 studies focused on gender and online privacy, noting that many of these studies fail to sufficiently engage with gender theory, with a long-term risk of propagating flawed gender essentialism perspectives. Wong et al. (2022) update intergroup contact approaches and propose for the dual roles of parasocial contact (e.g., viewers engage with outgroup members) and vicarious contact (e.g., viewers identify with ingroup characters who interact with outgroup characters) in using media to reduce outgroup prejudices. Riles and colleagues (2022) apply advances in critical media effects to propose a more nuanced consideration of intersectionality in the study of media selection, media uses, and media effects. Finally, Poels et al. (2022) provide an exciting update (pun and valence, intended) into the role that boredom plays in understanding engagement with mobile media – owning to the fact that boredom is a common mood state that can likely be well-regulated by increasingly ever-present mobile media access.

In this special collection, we hope that the 11 papers eventually presented will inspire innovations in our readers’ own scholarship. We invite all readers to take up and take on the innovations and provocations offered in these manuscripts, be it as the foundation for future empirical work or as platforms for future debate and discussion – all of which, we welcome in future issues of JMP.

Nick Bowman (PhD, Michigan State University) is Associate Professor of Journalism and Creative Media Industries at Texas Tech University, USA. His research examines the cognitive, emotional, social, and physical demands of interactive media. He was recently named Fulbright Wu Jing-Jyi Arts and Culture Fellow at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

Emily Bohaty is MA student at the College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University, USA. Her research focuses on cognitive processing and emotion in relation to narrative.

1A 12th paper was invited for publication, but after conference with those authors we decided to instead move forward with the special issue collection and invite that manuscript to a later issue of JMP. The effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on our colleagues are not lost on us, and we wish them the very best.

References

  • Bowman, N. D., Eden, A., Fox, J., Klimmt, C., Odağ, O., Vermeulen, I., & Toma, C. (2020). Call for papers: “Theoretical considerations and innovation in media psychology”. Journal of Media Psychology, 32(1), 46–47. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000277 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Carr, C. T., Kim, Y., Valov, J. J., Rosenbaum, J. E., Johnson, B. K., Hancock, J. T., & Gonzales, A. L. (2021). An explication of identity shift theory: Getting our shift together. Journal of Media Psychology, 33(4), 202–214. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000314 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Ewoldsen, D., Hoewe, J., & Grady, S. (2022). A cognitive processing framework for media interpretation. Journal of Media Psychology, 34(2), 65–76. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000326 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

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  • Riles, J. M., Ramasubramanian, S., & Behm-Morawitz, E. (2022). Theory development and evaluation within a critical media effects framework: An intersectional identity approach to media psychology. Journal of Media Psychology, 34(2), 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000339 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

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  • Wong, N., Massey, Z., Barbati, J., Bessarabova, E., & Banas, J. (2022). Theorizing prejudice reduction via mediated intergroup contact: Extending the intergroup contact theory to media contexts. Journal of Media Psychology, 34(2), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000338 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

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