Wei Sun, Editor, Communication Reports

Wei.sun@howard.edu Howard University

Communication Reports (CR), published quarterly, is one of two scholarly journals of the Western States Communication Association (WSCA). The journal publishes original manuscripts that are short, data/text-based, and related to the broadly defined field of human communication. The mission of the journal is to showcase exemplary scholarship without censorship based on topics, methods, or analytical tools. Articles that are purely speculative or theoretical, and not data analytic, are not appropriate for this journal. Authors are expected to devote a substantial portion of the manuscript to analyzing and reporting research data.

Communication Reports is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to publishing scholarship that represents our global scholarly community. We understand that achieving these aims is an ongoing process that requires both commitment and proactive work. Toward these ends, we recognize the historical, social, cultural, economic, and disciplinary forces that shape our scholarship, and are committed to actively identifying and rejecting any racist or otherwise exclusionary practices, presumptions, perspectives, and language, regardless of intention. We also recognize the strength that diverse perspectives and experiences bring to our field, and are committed to ensuring that all individuals, regardless of ability, age, ethnicity, gender, national origin, race, sexual orientation, or other identities, are included, respected, and valued.

For more information, please click: 

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rcrs20/about-this-journal#aims-and-scope

Instructions to authors

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=rcrs20&page=instructions#about-the-journal

Call for Reviewers for Communication Reports

If you are willing to serve as a reviewer for Communication Reports, please sign up here:

https://forms.gle/qQiJZnXDAUKAMbkZA

The Western States Communication Association is seeking applications and/or nominations for its News and Social Media Editor. Self-nominations are welcome and highly encouraged!

The WSCA News and Social Media Editor helps promote WSCA as an organization through its newsletter and social media outreach.  The position is a three-year term. The editor reports to the Chair of the Publications Committee, who reports to the Executive Council.  The position duties are to:

- Solicit, accept, edit, and post newsletter articles (following the scope for content set forth in the WSCA Policies and Procedures manual) on an ongoing, rolling basis.  Also, the editor should contact all elected officers, appointed officers, and officers of Interest Groups to solicit materials for WSCA News and social media.

- Create newsletter digests to be emailed on a bimonthly schedule to the entire membership, highlighting timely newsletter pieces and including links back to the newsletter website for full content.

- Maintain active WSCA membership throughout term and attend meetings at the National Communication Association (NCA) and WSCA conferences.

- Submit monthly articles to NCA’s Spectra on behalf of WSCA.

- Create a digital archive of newsletter posts for each year.  Post the digital content to the News and Social Media archive tab.  Print the yearly archive and send to the University of Utah as part of our permanent, paper archive for the association.

- Post to social media (currently LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Facebook) when a particularly timely or high-impact newsletter article is posted to the newsletter website, directing readers to the full article.

- Consider running social media campaigns to increase interaction with WSCA posts, to increase affiliation with the organization, and to highlight association news. 
 

- Example: Countdown to #WSCA2018 Giveaway, which introduced a hashtag for people to use in posting about the association, offered a way to highlight conference events or deadlines, increased followers on Facebook and Twitter, and increased affiliation/connection to the conference.  For campaigns like this, trade and popular press books written by WSCA authors were solicited in the past from members, and raffles were created on Facebook with Rafflecopter.  Infographics for social media were created and posted, and entry to the raffle involved interacting (sharing, responding, etc.) with these graphics. 
 

- Future editors may consider other social media platforms or other uses of social media to further support WSCA.

- Respond in a timely, professional way to unsolicited association emails (particularly emails regarding the digest) and engage in the role of a point-person for the organization in assisting interested parties in connecting with people within WSCA who can help them further.

- Serve as non-voting member of the Executive Council and the Publications Committee.

- Attend the Publications Committee meeting the day before the WSCA conference begins and both Executive Council meetings (usually in February) as well as the WSCA Publications Committee and Executive Council meetings at the National Communication Association conference in November.

Nominations and self-nominations should be directed to the chair of the WSCA Publications Committee Santhosh Chandrashekar at Santhosh.Chandrashekar@du.edu by April 15^th, 2025.  

All nominations and self-nominations must be supported by the following:

1. a letter indicating willingness to serve from the nominee, including a statement of proposed plans and editorial vision 
 

2. a current vita
 

3. a letter from the nominee’s departmental chair or other administrator describing adequate institutional support
 

4. names and email addresses of three references who could speak to the nominee’s qualifications as an editor

Applications and questions can be sent to: Dr. Santhosh Chandrashekar at Santhosh.Chandrashekar@du.edu. 

The Western States Communication Association’s Publications Committee invites nominations for the position of the Editor-Select for the Western Journal of Communication (WJC). 

Published since 1937, WJC is one of two scholarly journals of the Western States Communication Association. The journal is dedicated to the publication of original scholarship that enhances our understanding of human communication. Diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives are welcome. WJC publishes 5 times per year. 

The incoming editor will be responsible for volumes 91-93 to be published in print in 2027, 2028, and 2029. (Online versions will be published earlier.) The transition period begins in Fall 2025 so that the incoming editor can familiarize themselves with the editorial process and accept submissions for the articles to be published in their first official volume. The Western States Communication Association provides monetary support for this position. 

Nominations should be directed to the Chair of the WSCA Publications Committee, Heewon Kim at Heewon.Kim@asu.edu. The extended deadline is November 4th, 11:59PM PST. 

All nominations must include the following: 

1. A letter indicating willingness to serve from the nominee, including a statement of proposed plans, editorial visions and philosophies, relevant experiences, and time/resource commitments such as institutional support
2. A current copy of curriculum vitae of the nominee
3. A letter from the nominee’s departmental chair or other administrators describing adequate institutional support
4. The contact information of two references who could speak to the nominee’s qualifications as an editor

For more details, please contact the Chair of the Publications Committee. You can also find more information on WJC at https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rwjc20. If you would like to learn more about the WSCA, please visit https://www.westcomm.org/. 

Wei Sun (Ph.D., Howard University) is a Fulbright Specialist in Communications/Journalism. She is Vice-Chair for the International and Intercultural Communication Division (IICD) of the National Communication Association (NCA) and serves on multiple years’ term at NCA's Legislative Assembly. She was the Chair of NCA's Doctoral Education Committee in 2022 and chaired NCA's Miller Dissertation Committee in 2021. Dr. Sun's research interests include intercultural communication, new media studies, international communication, and health communication. 

Dr. Sun is currently serving as Associate Dean for Research and Academic Affairs at the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, Howard University. She is a graduate faculty member in the Department of Communication, Culture, and Media Studies. Recently Dr. Sun received two grants from FDA to conduct research on Black and Asian Americans' hesitancy in participating in clinical trials studies, and to investigate the health risks of Black and Asian women's use of over-the-counter skin-lightening products. She has served on editorial board on the Howard Journal of Communications, and guest edited “Media and Communication during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic,” a special issue of the Howard Journal of Communications.

If you haven’t already read these articles online, Communication Reports Volume 34 (2021) is in press and will be available soon in the published volume.

Storytelling in the classroom: Facilitating cognitive interest by promoting attention structure and meaningfulness by S. Bolkan. Using cognitive theory of multimedia learning as a guide, the study examined data from 231 students to determine how instructional storytelling associated with students’ perceived cognitive learning operationalized as students’ cognitive interest.

Young adults shared family identity with parents as a function of family communication patterns by P. Schrodt & X. Scruggs. This study examined 235 young adults’ shared family identity with parents as correlates of family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) finding that conversation orientation is positively associated with SFI with both mother and father.

Behavioral responses to phone snubbing by J. A. Courtright & S. E. Caplan. This manuscript reports an experiment in which undergraduate confederates (who manipulated their cell phone: (1) phone rings, confederate ignores; (2) phone rings, confederate picks up; or (3) confederate proactively checks cell phone) interacted with naïve participants to understand the effects of cellphone use on evaluations of interaction partners.

The influence of prevailing regional political narratives on intuitions featured in religious messages by B. Klebig, L. Hahn, T. Tamborini, M. Aley, H. Goble, & J. Baldwin. Guided by moral foundations theory, this study compared moral intuitions represented in church sermons in counties with liberal versus conservative voting records to learn whether local political leanings was related to the types of moral intuitions in the sermons.

Effects of news and threat perceptions on Americans' COVID-19 precautionary behaviors by R. Tukachinsky Foster & M. A. Vendemia. The study examines the relationship between news exposure at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, personal threat beliefs, beliefs about others’ threat perceptions, and participation in precautionary actions.

The impact of source and message relevance on audience responses to health podcasts by C. E. Kirkpatrick & S. Lee. This study explores the impact of source type (expert, experienced, and layperson) and message relevance (high versus low relevance) on message processing and persuasion in the context of health podcasts as a health promotion tool.

The world belongs to the young: Representation of socialization agents in early childhood television content by K. Eyal, Te’Eni-Harari, T., & Aharoni, M. Based on cultivation theory, this study addresses television content to reveal how young viewers are presented with a world saturated by supportive friendships but few and weak representations of adults.

Social presence in computer-based receptionists: Experimental study towards organizational automation by K. Ishii, P. R. Spence, & W. R. Hodges. This study investigated how computer-based receptionists were perceived by visitors finding that the highest social presence was perceived in a text-based check-in systems (compared to (a) human receptionist on a monitor, (b) avatar, and (c) holographic receptionist).

What does television teach children? Examining the altruistic and egoistic lessons in children's educational television by M. Aley, L. Hahn, R. Tamborini, H. Goble, L. Zhang, S. M. Grady, & J. Baldwin. The study applied a coding scheme based on the model of intuitive motivation and exemplars to identify the values emphasized in different types of children’s educational television.

The indirect effect of family communication patterns on young adults health self-disclosure understanding the role of descriptive and injunctive by S. N. Thomas and S. R. Hovick. Young adults’ (N = 504) conversation (but not conformity) orientation was found to influence young adults’ health self-disclosures to parents while norms and efficacy act as predominant drivers of disclosure behavior.

Love me love my class instructor perceptions of rapport building with students across cultures by B. N. Firsby and B. Munoz. Open-ended survey data from 35 faculty, representing 14 countries, indicated that instructors perceived rapport with students as important, and building rapport is motivated by rhetorical, relational, and motivational needs of students.

Contribution of verbally aggressive tv exposure and perceived reality to trait verbal aggression by J. Glascock. This study examined the contributions of verbally aggressive TV exposure and perceived reality to trait verbal aggression.

The amplified crisis assessing negative social amplification and source of a crisis response by E. J. Schneider, C. D. Boman, & H. Akin. Extending the situational crisis communication theory, this research assessed the link between organizational reputation and the negative amplification of a message on social media.

Linguistic cues to misrepresentation in online employer reviews by C. T. Carr & C. W. Piercy. This research explores how linguistic features of employee-generated reviews (N = 204) might serve as a means of detecting misrepresentation, presentations of the organization that depart from one’s personal beliefs, in employer reviews.

User feedback during the pilot was positive.  Benefits of the new format are:

• During trials last year, only 20% of readers opted to download the PDF version the article once they had opened the EPUB version within the TFO eReader. 
• The eReader is mobile friendly: 25% of Taylor & Francis Online visitors are using a mobile device and this number is increasing year-on-year. 
• Articles opened within the eReader use less data and are easier to read compared to opening an article PDF on mobile.
• The eReader is accessible: Taylor & Francis is committed to ensuring that its digital products are accessible to all users, regardless of their ability or the technology they're using. This includes people with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments. The EPUB format is more accessible than PDF or HTML: the font size can be easily increased and the content itself is optimised for users of screen-reading devices.

Taylor and Frances are anticipating to the Western Journal of Communication and Communication Reports will be available as eReaders September onwards.

Follow the links below to view some recently published articles within the TFO eReader.

https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0142159X.2020.1854705

https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207543.2021.1897174

https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08870446.2021.1916493

Casey R. Schmitt (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Gonzaga University. His research explores environmental narrative and embodied action, especially in constructions of wilderness and natural spaces. His secondary research examines the social import of folk narrative, representations of indigenous Americans, and popular culture. He is author of over two dozen peer-reviewed articles and chapters, including essays in the Western Journal of Communication, Environmental Communication, and Cultural Analysis. He is co-editor of Standing Up, Speaking Out: Stand-Up Comedy and the Rhetoric of Social Change (Routledge, 2017) and Water, Rhetoric, and Social Justice: A Critical Confluence (Lexington, 2020). He has served on the editorial staff of multiple journals, including New Directions in Folklore, the Oral History Review, and Western Folklore. 

Lisa Ellen Silvestri (Ph.D., University of Iowa) is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Gonzaga University. Her work bridges boundaries between rhetoric, media, and cultural studies. Her first book, Friended at the Front, won the 2016 James W. Carey Media Research Award for pioneering cultural approaches to the study of social media. She has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in outlets spanning the discipline. In 2017 she received a $100,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for her community-based initiative, Telling War, with the goal of exposing, inspiring, and engaging the Veteran voice through a variety of story forms. Her editorial work includes serving as guest editor for Visual Communication Quarterly and the Journal of Hate Studies.  

We want you to know what to expect as she assumes leadership of the journal. And, in true 2020 fashion, we had a very socially distant Q&A via email, which is a pretty familiar format for editors – email is the most common way editors talk with authors and reviewers. We first discussed issues surrounding the journal and her role as editor.

Tell WSCA a little about yourself and your research. 

Hi everyone! I’m honored to be selected as the incoming editor for Communication Reports. I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. Even though I’m currently located in the East, I’ve always considered the Western States Communication Association to be one of my academic homes, as I completed my Master’s and PhD in Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara and WSCA was (and continues to be!) such an important part of shaping my scholarly development.

In terms of my own research, my primary area of specialization is interpersonal communication, with emphases in biosocial models of communication, sexual communication, and communication processes related to maintaining successful relationships. In general, my research aims to identify communication practices and processes in close relationships that contribute to people’s physical, psychological, and relational health. 

What made you want to be the editor of Communication Reports? 

I wanted to be the editor of Communication Reports for a few reasons. First, I love research. I’ve always enjoyed the research process, from coming up with the research idea, to designing the study, collecting and analyzing data, writing up the findings and, finally, submitting the paper for publication. I consider it a huge privilege to be able to do research and contribute to knowledge-generation, so being such a key part of that process (as an editor) is so exciting to me!

Second, I see Communication Reports as a unique and special journal in our field. The shorter article format allows for important and pointed findings to be disseminated in a timely fashion. Because the journal aims for quicker decision times given the shorter length of the articles, it means that cutting edge research can get reviewed and shared at a faster pace. This is also an invaluable resource for graduate students and emerging scholars who are just beginning to make their mark on the field, as well as for seasoned scholars who have data-driven findings to share.

Lastly, I’ve always admired the scholarship featured in the WSCA’s journals. Some of my all-time favorite articles are ones published in Communication Reports and Western Journal of Communication, so the opportunity to serve the WSCA journals and be part of the legacy of top-notch scholarship coming from the western publications is an honor!  

What should potential authors expect from you as editor?

I am encouraged to see issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion being addressed across the field, and I see the discipline’s journals as being an important part of contributing to needed change. As an editor, I want to ensure that scholarship dedicated to understanding the experiences of underserved and underrepresented populations is welcomed and embraced. I look forward to establishing an editorial board that represents and shares these goals, as well as working with editorial board members and reviewers to ensure these values are realized and put into action. I hope that scholars who are doing research that prioritizes social change and embraces transformation in the field see Communication Reports as a welcoming space for their work.  

What should potential editorial board members and reviewers expect from you as editor? 

I consider myself an organized, efficient, and responsive person, so editorial board members and reviewers can expect clear communication and timely decisions. I also realize that, especially during this past year, everyone is facing unique obstacles. With that in mind, I will do my best as an editor to infuse the review process with compassion and understanding when it comes to meeting deadlines and availability to serve as a reviewer. As noted in my previous response, I also look forward to working with the editorial board, reviewers, guest editors, and authors to ensure that the journal is embracing a diversity of scholarship and together devising new ways to include and uplift voices throughout the discipline. 

What are you looking forward to as you complete your 3 volumes as editor? 

I am eager to promote scholarship that has social and practical value. This could mean scholarship that critiques and challenges taken-for-granted assumptions, that recognizes marginalized groups and experiences, that has practical implications for underserved populations, or that serves as a stepping stone toward building interventions or educational programs. It might also include work that has practical implications for enriching people’s lives, or research that builds towards theories and frameworks that can help us better understand communication in a range of contexts. Overall, I’m excited to support scholarship that represents the diversity of the field. 

What can WSCA members, potential authors, reviewers do to help you be the best editor possible? 

Primarily, submit your scholarship for review at Communication Reports! I’m looking forward to reviewing submissions, and I encourage anyone who has questions about the submission process or fit with the journal goals to contact me. I’m here to answer any questions or concerns you might have.

Second, I encourage WSCA members, potential authors, the editorial board, and reviewers to hold me (and all of us in leadership positions in the field) accountable. As I’ve noted throughout these responses, I am hopeful that changes are happening to make Communication an increasingly inclusive field, but if there are areas where I can do better or do more to realize these goals and put them into action, please tell me. I believe we are all works in progress and, for me, a huge part of learning and growing is by engaging in [sometimes difficult and challenging] conversations. So, I am here to listen and engage with all of you.

In addition to discussing her aims and hopes for her time as editor of Communication Reports, Dr. Denes was willing to reveal some more personal information that might provide some insight to her as an individual (and to show that editors can have fun sometimes).

You went to UCSB for your PhD. You now work at UConn. Which is better: West coast or East coast?

This is the toughest question! I was born and raised on the East coast and did my undergraduate degree in the East. But I absolutely loved my time on the West coast and definitely would give up Northeast winters. Some of my favorite people are located on each coast, so there is no way I can choose one over the other. 

Reveal your academic personality: Coffee or Tea? 

Coffee! Well, really espresso (I love an Americano!), but I’ll settle for coffee if there is no espresso available J 

I have two dogs at home with me helping me edit Communication Reports, and the prior editor also had two dogs. I have to ask: cats or dogs?

I love ALL animals, but dogs take the cake for me. I am that person who stops to pet every dog and will be hanging out with the host’s dog during social gatherings. I’ve actually considered doing research on the role of dogs in relationships because I love dogs that much. One of my proudest accomplishments is that one of my [non-dog-focused] studies exploring the oxytocin receptor gene is cited in multiple papers examining dogs’ social interaction with humans. 

Academics are known to read a lot, but we often miss a lot of nonacademic books or can’t seem to find the time to read them. So, when a book is turned into a movie (or TV show), do you read the book or watch the movie? 

I tell myself I’ll read the book, but then the movie comes out before I get around to it, so I end up watching the movie. 

How do you spend your free time away from work? 

My favorite thing to do with my time away from work is to travel. I love exploring new places and experiencing new cultures whenever I can. On a day-to-day basis, though, my downtime is usually spent hanging out with my dog and spouse, catching up with friends, unwinding with a good movie or TV show, going on long walks and hikes, and playing cards and board games. 

And finally, when folks see you at WSCA’s annual conference in 2022 (hopefully), what will we likely see you doing? 

Laughing with friends! I love reuniting with colleagues from across the country (and globe) at the WSCA annual conference. There are so many amazing people in our field, and getting to see them at conferences is the highlight of my year. I am so grateful for colleagues who not only challenge me to be a better scholar, teacher, and activist, but who also make me laugh and smile. 

Communication Reports will be on hiatus for about two weeks in December (December 18-31, 2020) as we begin our editorial transition. You are welcome to submit your manuscripts during this time. But, they will not be considered for review until January 1, 2021 when Dr. Denes begins her tenure as editor-select.

Results from an online survey (N = 498) indicated that cell phone addiction was positively associated with experiences of anxiety, which in turn, was negatively associated with willingness to engage in face-to-face communication. These findings suggest cell phones may improve communication with distant others while also posing a potential threat to the quality of communication with co-present others.

The use of stigmatizing messaging in anti-obesity communications campaigns: Quantification of obesity stigmatization by Monique Mitchell Turner, Lindsay Ford, Victoria Somerville, Donna Javellana, Kelsey Rothera Day, & Maria Knight Lapinski

A content analysis of print advertisements (N = 182 posters) derived from 25 U.S.-based obesity-prevention campaigns showed 13.2% included stigmatizing elements. These stigmatizing advertisements were found in almost half (44%) of the 25 obesity-prevention campaigns analyzed. This implies a need for greater sensitivity training in the field to recognize obesity stigmatization, reduce usage of stigmatizing messaging, and consider the unintended consequences of communication campaigns.

Personal stories can shift climate change beliefs and risk perceptions: The mediating role of emotion by Abel Gustafson, Matthew T. Ballew, Matthew H. Goldberg, Matthew J. Cutler, Seth A. Rosenthal, & Anthony Leiserowitz

Two experiments tested the effects of a radio story on the climate change beliefs and risk perceptions of political moderates and conservatives. Both experiments found positive effects on global warming beliefs and risk perceptions, and Study 2 found these effects were mediated by emotional reactions of worry and compassion. These studies suggest personal stories can be a persuasive communication strategy.

Defining the relationship: An examination of sexual behaviors and relational contexts across tween, teen, and young adult US televisionby Leah Dajches & Jennifer Stevens Aubrey

A content analysis of a sample of U.S. tween, teen, and young-adult television programing in 2016 finds that sexual intercourse is most frequently depicted outside the context of committed relationships, suggesting television may help perpetuate hook-up culture through the frequent depiction of impersonal sexual encounters in shows targeting teens and young adults.

From #EndtheStigma to #RealMan: Stigma-Challenging Social Media Responses to NBA Players' Mental Health Disclosures(in press) by Scott Parrot, Andrew C. Billings, Samuel D. Hakim, & Patrick Gentile

The study examined 3,366 fan responses to the mental health disclosures of NBA All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love in 2018 to unpack the extent to which fan commentary perpetuated or challenged the stigmatization of depression and anxiety. Fans provided overwhelmingly positive response to the athletes’ mental health disclosures, creating a normative environment in which disclosure translated into acceptance rather than rejection.

A closer look at young adult-parent relationships: Examining the demand/withdraw patterns and communication competence (in press) by Jenna LaFreniere

Playing a bad character but endorsing a good cause: Actor-character fundamental attribution error and persuasion by Riva Tukachinsky

The effects of anger appeals on systematic processing and intentions: The moderating role of efficacy by Monique M. Turner, Adam S. Richards, Elena Bessarabova, & Yoav Magid

Instructor misbehaviors and math anxietyby Stephanie Kelly, Alfredo Romero, Jennifer Ann Morrow, Zachary Denton & Johnny Ducking

Communication accommodation and identity gaps as predictors of relational solidarity in interfaith relationships by Toni Morgan, Jordan Soliz, Mackensie Minniear & Gretchen Bergquist

Issue 2

Ameliorating the adverse consequences of verbal aggression: The buffering effects of esteem support on personal and relational outcomes by Lindsey S. Aloia & Andrew C. High

Metacognitive inoculation reduces the persuasiveness of sarcastic attack messagesby Lauren Clyne, Michael Fellers & Adam S. Richards

Exploring the impacts of leader integrity and ethics on upward dissent and whistleblowing intentionsby Cheng Zeng, Stephanie Kelly & Ryan Goke

Issue 3

Cell phone addition, anxiety, and willingness to communicate in face-to-face encountersby Ryan Allred & David Atkin

The use of stigmatizing messaging in anti-obesity communications campaigns: Quantification of obesity stigmatization by Monique Mitchell Turner, Lindsay Ford, Victoria Somerville, Donna Javellana, Kelsey Rothera Day, & Maria Knight Lapinski

Personal stories can shift climate change beliefs and risk perceptions: The mediating role of emotion by Abel Gustafson, Matthew T. Ballew, Matthew H. Goldberg, Matthew J. Cutler, Seth A. Rosenthal, & Anthony Leiserowitz

Defining the relationship: An examination of sexual behaviors and relational contexts across tween, teen, and young adult US television by Leah Dajches & Jennifer Stevens Aubrey

From #EndtheStigma to #RealMan: Stigma-Challenging Social Media Responses to NBA Players' Mental Health Disclosures(in press) by Scott Parrot, Andrew C. Billings, Samuel D. Hakim, & Patrick Gentile

A closer look at young adult-parent relationships: Examining the demand/withdraw patterns and communication competence (in press) by Jenna LaFreniere

The Western States Communication Association Publications Committee is searching for candidates for the position of Editor-Select for the Western Journal of Communication (WJOC). As indicated on the WJOC website, “The journal is dedicated to the publication of original scholarship that enhances our understanding of human communication. Diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives are welcome.”

The incoming editor will be responsible for WJOC volumes 88 - 90 in 2024 - 2026, but will likely begin processing manuscripts near the end of 2022/beginning of 2023. WJOC publishes 5 times per year. WSCA provides monetary support for this position. Please contact the WSCA publications committee chair to discuss WSCA support in more detail.

Nominations should be directed to the chair of the WSCA Publications Committee, LeiLani Nishime, at nishime@uw.edu by October 15th, 2020. All nominations must be supported by the following:

1.        a letter indicating willingness to serve from the nominee, including a statement of proposed plans and editorial vision

2.         a current vita

3.        a letter from the nominee’s departmental chair or other administrator describing adequate institutional support

4.        names and email addresses of references who could speak to the nominees qualifications as an editor

We hope that you, your family and friends are safe and well.

Due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we want to share an important update with our society partners, on decisions we’ve made to manage publishing operations during the pandemic.

With great reluctance we have decided to stop printing journals from 10 April until further notice.

We are seeing disruption to the distribution supply chain for printed journals: as of the first week of April the postal services of 42 countries have stopped accepting inward deliveries. In addition, many air mail services in and out of our major print hubs in the UK, US and Singapore are no longer operating due to reduced air freight capacity. Finally, a significant number of institutions we mail journals to are closed for business and are no longer accepting post.

We apologize for how this will have affected you and your members, and want to reassure you that online access to our journal content is not affected. Your journal(s) will continue to publish online according to their usual schedules on our journal platform, Taylor & Francis Online.

We plan to resume printing in May and, at the point we do start to print again, your members will receive the print issues that would have been dispatched during the period in which printing ceased. We will keep the situation under close review, especially with regard to public health concerns, and keep you updated with any changes.

For further information, please view FAQs.

Please share the information with your association members so they are all aware of this change.

If you have any questions about this or anything else, please do not hesitate to reach out.

With gratitude,

Jillian O’Hara | Portfolio Manager

Communication and Media Studies

Taylor & Francis Group

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The Western States Communication Association and its Publication Committee would like to extend deepest gratitude to Dr. Jennifer Bevan for her service as editor for Communication Reports.  She is currently a professor at Chapman University, with research interests in health communication.  She served as editor from 2016-2018, a three year term, but also shadowed the outgoing editor and mentored the incoming editor for a total of five years of service to the journal and WSCA.  Dr. Bevan put in an incredible amount of work to ensure the success of Communication Reports during her tenure as editor.

Dr. Rodney Reynolds, her predecessor, observed that Dr. Bevan brought new enthusiasm and energy into her editorship, and was able to bring the journal to a new level and raise the bar for the journal.  Dr. Tara McManus, the incoming and current editor, noted that Dr. Bevan was instrumental in her transition period and is deeply grateful for her mentorship.

Dr. Bevan's outstanding work is greatly appreciated by the students, professors, submitters, and reviewers who have worked with her, as well as WSCA.  We are grateful for the hard work she put into the journal and for its continued success.

Aloia and Strutzenberg’s study, entitled “Parent-child communication apprehension: The role of parental alienation and self-esteem” surveyed 211 college students to explore how parental alienation (i.e., a “process of psychological manipulation of a child by a parent intended to exclude, isolate, and ostracize the other parent” Warshak, 2001) in childhood influenced communication apprehension when communicating with caregivers as adults and whether self-esteem might buffer the effects of parental alienation. They found that the interaction between self-esteem and recalled parental alienation was associated with communication apprehension, but the sex of the caregivers mattered. Communicative parental alienation from female caregivers was associated with communication apprehension with male caregivers while communicative parental alienation from male caregivers was associated with communication apprehension with a female caregiver. Their breakdown of the statistical interactions suggests a strong, positive view of self may increase resiliency to the experience of parental alienation.

Internalized homophobia is a stigma unique to LGB individuals and has adverse relational outcomes. Li and Samp’s study “Internalized homophobia, language use, and relationship quality in same-sex romantic relationships” explores whether couple’s language features (clout, authenticity, and emotional tone) accounted for how internalized homophobia affects same-sex relationship quality. Recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, 166 gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals in same-sex relationships responded to several closed-ended questions and also described how they and their romantic partners revealed their relationships to third parties, which were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program. Clout and emotional tone mediated the relationship between internalized homophobia and relationship satisfaction, and authenticity mediated the association between internalized homophobia and relationship length. Results emphasize the importance of couple communication and suggest effective communication skills may be essential for LGB couples’ resiliency to minority stress.

Henningsen, Balde, Entzminger, Dick, and Wilcher’s study, “Student disclosures about academic information: Student privacy rules and boundaries,” builds on existing knowledge of students’ motivations for sharing academic private information by examining what Communication Privacy Management theory refers to as privacy rule foundations. Their inductive analysis of 168 students’ open-ended survey responses revealed nine privacy rules students used for managing their academic private information. Regression analyses showed that privacy rules about grades, absences, never sharing private information with faculty members, and personal reasons were related to decreased private information-sharing with faculty members. The context of information sharing (e.g., email, office hours) was unrelated to how much academic private information students shared with their instructors. Their results show that college students’ privacy rule foundations reflect some motivations students have for disclosing to faculty, but motivations are not sine qua non of students’ privacy rules.

I encourage you to consider The Northwest Journal of Communication as a publication outlet for your scholarship. I've included journal information in the call details below. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any question you have and I look forward to your submissions.

Call for Submissions

The Northwest Journal of Communication welcomes original, full-length article submissions for its upcoming issues.

The Northwest Journal of Communication (NWJC) is a peer-reviewed, EBSCO listed journal, publishing one issue per year of quality scholarship on a variety of communication topics. Articles published in NWJC represents the diversity of the discipline, thus all theoretical approaches and methods of scholarly inquiry are welcome. Submissions are expected to make original contributions to academic research in communication studies and should be theoretically sophisticated, methodologically sound, and make important advancements to human or mass communication scholarship. 

Please visit our website at: http://www.northwestcomm.org/?page_id=14 for more information.

Andrea A. McCracken, Ph.D.

Editor, Northwest Journal of Communication

nwjcomm@gmail.com

By Stacey Sowards, Publication Board Chair

The Western States Communication Association is seeking applications and/or nominations for its News and Social Media Editor.

The WSCA News and Social Media Editor helps promote WSCA as an organization through its newsletter and social media outreach.  The position is a three year term. The editor reports to the Chair of the Publications Committee, who reports to the Executive Council.  The position duties are to:

·      Solicit, accept, edit, and post newsletter articles (following the scope for content set forth in the WSCA Policies and Procedures manual) on an ongoing, rolling basis.  Also, the editor should contact all elected officers, appointed officers, and officers of Interest Groups to solicit materials for the WSCA News.

·      Create newsletter digests to be emailed on a bimonthly schedule to the entire membership, highlighting timely newsletter pieces and including links back to the newsletter website for full content.

·      Submit monthly articles to NCA’s Inside and Out on behalf of WSCA.

·      Create a digital archive of newsletter posts for each year.  Post the digital content to the WSCA News archive tab.  Print the yearly archive and send to the University of Utah as part of our permanent, paper archive for the association.

·      Post to social media (currently Twitter and Facebook) when a particularly timely or high-impact newsletter article is posted to the newsletter website, directing readers to the full article.

·      Consider running social media campaigns to increase interaction with WSCA posts, to increase affiliation with the organization, and to highlight association news.

o   Example: Countdown to  #WSCA2017 and #WSCA2018 Giveaways, which introduces a hashtag for people to use in posting about the association, offers a way to highlight conference events or deadlines, increases followers on Facebook and Twitter, and increases affiliation/connection to the conference.  For these campaigns, trade and popular press books written by WSCA authors were solicited in the past from members, and raffles were created on Facebook with Rafflecopter.  Infographics for social media were created and posted, and entry to the raffle involved interacting (sharing, responding, etc.) with these graphics.

o   Future editors may consider other social media platforms or other uses of social media to further support WSCA.

·      Respond in a timely, professional way to unsolicited association emails (particularly emails regarding the digest) and engage the role of a point-person for the organization in assisting interested parties in connecting with people within WSCA who can help them further.

·      Serve as non-voting member of the Executive Council and the Publications Committee.

·      Attend the Publications Committee meeting the day before the WSCA conference begins and both Executive Council meetings (usually in February) as well as the WSCA Publications Committee and Executive Council meetings at the National Communication Association conference in November.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, CV, statement of support from chair or dean, and names of three references.  Applications and questions can be sent to:

Stacey K. Sowards, Ph.D.

Chair, Publications Committee

Western States Communication Association

At:

Dept. of Communication

Cotton Memorial, 202

The University of Texas at El Paso

El Paso, TX  79968

(915) 747-8854

ssowards@utep.edu

The editor, the editor-select of the journal, and the publications committee are concerned about the historic underrepresentation of scholars of color and minoritized/marginalized scholars in communication journals (as argued recently in #CommunicationSoWhite), a problem that goes far beyond the Western Journal of Communication.  We welcome submissions on these topics or any others that concern ongoing racism and discrimination in society as it relates to communication practices.  As with all submissions, manuscripts will be reviewed by scholars with particular relevant expertise in the content, method, and/or theory used in the research.  If sufficient manuscripts are accepted on this topic, they may be grouped together in a special section or special issue of the journal.  

Amy Johnson, Editor-select, Western Journal of Communication

Robert C. Rowland, Editor, Western Journal of Communication

Stacey Sowards, Chair, Publications Committee, Western States Communication Association

By Christina G. Yoshimura, WSCA News and Social Media Editor

We are ready to try something new in our efforts to build communication and engagement within our WSCA family.  If you’ve published a scholarly or trade book (or really, any book other than a textbook) that you’re willing to donate to the association you can help!

As we draw closer to our February convention we’re planning to begin a countdown to #WSCA2017 and we’d love to have you take part.  Starting in mid-January we will begin a campaign of posting facts, figures, and tidbits about the conference and the association to our social media platforms.  We’d like to have anyone who shares our posts or tweets eligible to win books written by fellow WSCA members.  To do this, we’re asking for your generosity in sharing a copy of your work.  Your contribution could hook one of the new scholars in our field, or create connections across areas in the discipline.  With your book as an incentive who wouldn’t join in our campaign and help spread the word about WSCA across social media?

Please consider donating a book for our social media giveaway by January 6th.  It truly would be a meaningful gift, and a tangible way that you can help support and grow our association. 

All books can be mailed to: Christina Yoshimura, University of Montana, Department of Communication Studies, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula MT, 59812.

The Western States Communication Association Publications Committee is searching for candidates for the position of editor-elect for Communication Reports. The incoming editor will be responsible for CR volumes in 2019-2021, but will likely begin processing manuscripts in early 2018 for volumes 32-34. Communication Reports now publishes 3 times per year. WSCA provides monetary support for this position.

Nominations should be directed to the chair of the WSCA Publications Committee, Kurt Lindemann, at klindema@mail.sdsu.edu by October 15th, 2016. All nominations must be supported by the following:

1. a letter indicating willingness to serve from the nominee, including a statement of proposed plans and editorial vision
2. a current vita
3. a letter from the nominee’s departmental chair or other administrator describing adequate institutional support
4. names and email addresses of references who could speak to the nominee’s qualifications as an editor

It is my great pleasure to publicly thank Rodney Reynolds for his service to WSCA as Editor of Communication Reports from 2013-2015.  Rodney was exemplary in this role, performing his editorial duties with wisdom and grace. 

I had the pleasure of working with Rodney during his editorship in several roles.  Rodney demonstrated that he was detail-oriented as well as patient.  He was efficient in processing manuscripts, but more importantly, he worked diligently to publish high quality research reports in the journal by engaging with reviewers and authors in a mutually respectful manner.

In addition to the nuts and bolts of editorial duties, Rodney took time during his tenure as Editor to think out loud about ways to better serve people involved in the publications process.  For example, Rodney’s last Editor’s Report noted that the automated system for reminding reviewers to submit their reviews TODAY doesn’t know that the notice is being sent out on Thanksgiving Day or in the middle of the WSCA Convention.

 His wisdom and grace are also evident in how he engages with people as individuals, not simply as “the author” or “Reviewer 1.” Jennifer Bevan, current Editor of CR, recounted how Rodney was an invaluable resource as she transitioned into the position.  They collaboratively edited two manuscripts, serving the authors well and also providing a training opportunity for Jennifer.

Finally, Rodney recognized the importance of quality manuscript reviewing.  Too few people get much recognition for providing such valuable service.  So at the end of his term, Rodney proposed that we begin a new formal recognition award for reviewers.  He continued to work with us on the form and function of this recognition even after his editorial term.  We are putting forth that award to be approved by Legislative Assembly tonight, a legacy to Rodney’s grace and wisdom as Editor.

For all of these reasons, and many more I do not have time to elaborate, please join me in recognizing Professor Rodney Reynolds for his valuable service as past Editor of Communication Reports.