【出版】Communication and the Public：2022年1期

Communication and the Public

《传播与公共》

Volume 7 Issue 1

Editorial

Yi-Hui Christine Huang, Yu Hong, Fen Lin, Zhao Alexandre Huang, Jian Lin

The year 2022 marks the publication of the seventh volume of Communication and the Public (CAP). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the context for our reflections on communication has become more sophisticated and contradictory than ever. Over the past 2 years, we have had to understand anew the importance of communication as a fundamental social process and its institutional significance in coordinating social relations. In the face of such ongoing change, our academic journal will continue to enrich communication scholarship with meaningful research. This is made possible by the contributions and support of our authors, reviewers, editorial members, and readers, to whom we would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation.

In this editorial, we first introduce our new editorial leadership team, whose appointment marks a new start for CAP. Second, we provide an overview of the journal statistics for the past journal year (April 2020–March 2021). Third, we introduce the new journal initiatives, Academic Dialogue and Call for Special Issue Proposals. Finally, we summarize the articles published in the current issue.

Academic Dialogue

01

Revisiting public diplomacy in a postpandemic world: The need for a humanity-centered communication logic

—— R S Zaharna, Zhao Alexandre Huang

Abstract

Professor R. S. Zaharna is a leading scholar in international communication and public diplomacy. She has witnessed the rapid development of public diplomacy since 2001 and has been committed to researching different communication logics in public diplomacy. In recent years, she has begun to explore the boundaries of public diplomacy theory, aiming to expand the conceptual scope of public diplomacy, advocating a relational shift in conventional public diplomacy studies, and reflecting on the limitations of the actor-centered approach in international communication. In this interview, Professor Zaharna shared her definition of public diplomacy and discussed how relations, connectivity, and interactivity will be indispensable in public diplomacy research and practice. She also analyzed the limitations of the actor-centered public diplomacy research and explained three communication logics in humanity-centered diplomacy. For her, humanity-centered public diplomacy responds to the needs of human societies, harnessing our capacity to collaborate in collective decision-making and problem-solving. In this case, communication is not about agency or control but about navigating the connectivity and interactivity made possible by digitalization, emphasizing horizontal social collaboration, and observing relational constellations and dynamics.

原文链接：

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20570473221078619

Original Research Articles

01

Making neo-nationalist subject in Japan: The intersection of nationalism, jingoism, and populism in the digital age

—— Satofumi Kawamura，Koichi Iwabuchi

Abstract

This article considers how digital media communication reconfigures a “neo-nationalist subject” in the Japanese context. A neo-nationalist subject is not the so-called modern national subject that maintains a shared, collective identity as the rationale regulating his or her decisions and behavior, but rather is a fragmented subject that, in view of “the decline of symbolic efficiency,” is open to discourses that others are in effect stealing his or her “enjoyment” (jouissance). Starting from an overview of the rise of cyber-nationalism and the popularity of neoliberal authoritarian governance in Japan since the 1990s, we explore how affect-driven digital media environments promoted by a neoliberal economy produce neo-nationalist subjects who attribute responsibility for their dissatisfaction with life to others, and whose self-defensive “drive” functions as the primary support of the culture of hate and modern racism. In this way, we offer an account for the intersection of nationalism, jingoism, and populism in the digital age.

原文链接：

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20570473211073932

02

Oscillating scale and articulating regions: Power geometries and multi-scalar publics in People’s Tribune’s coverage of Benton Harbor, Michigan

—— Joshua P Ewalt

Abstract

This essay explores the mapping of power geometries as public rhetoric within People’s Tribune’s coverage of Benton Harbor, Michigan. In doing so, the essay demonstrates three techniques for mapping power geometries: that they (a) oscillate between spatial scales, thereby managing a tension between framing place as unique and common to a broader geography; (b) articulate regions so as to locate the power dynamics of the nation; and (c) connect the place to a power geometry of resistance. Mapping power geometries also enables the production of a multi-scalar public: a set of strangers who understand their relationship to each other through a shared, yet differentiated, connection to variously scaled issues. The analysis consequently contributes to existing literature regarding spatial scale, the use of place-based argument in social movement rhetoric, and the formation of multi-scalar publics.

原文链接：

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20570473221074814

03

The more you know, the less you like: A comparative study of how news and political conversation shape political knowledge and affective polarization

—— Jiyoun Suk

University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA, David Coppini, Carlos Muñiz, Hernando Rojas

Abstract

The contemporary communication ecology contributes to affective polarization by presenting us with extreme exemplars of disliked groups. News exposure that is associated with political discussion networks is related to greater political knowledge, yet unlike previous eras where political knowledge and tolerance went hand in hand, this is no longer the case. We employ a comparative design to examine this idea among two democracies with differing levels of journalistic professionalism and political system: Mexico and the United States. Results show that greater political knowledge is associated with affective polarization, especially for the United States. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect path between media use and affective polarization, mediated through homogeneous political talk and political knowledge, but not in Mexico.

原文链接：

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20570473211063237

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