Wiley: Communication Theory: Table of Contents

Theorizing the Relationship Between Gender and Health Through a Case Study of Nepalese Street‐Based Female Sex Workers

Iccha Basnyat — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

The environmental-structural communication approach attempts to reduce the prevalence of individual health risks to female sex workers' (FSW) through community-level interventions. However, I argue that this approach narrowly defines health and such communication efforts are focused on changing the work environment to facilitate the reduction of individual risk prevalence. Based on 35 in-depth interviews, I use lived experiences of FSWs as a case study to discuss the relationships between gender and health. The intersectionality framework allows health communication efforts to incorporate analysis of multiple and simultaneous influences of gender relations, gender identities, and class on the transmission of health risks. These intersections draw our attention to think differently about inequalities and vulnerabilities that shape health and health behaviors of FSWs.

Language Mediation as Communication System

Claudio Baraldi — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Abstract

Language mediation is employed as a possible solution for problems of migrants' inclusion in institutional services, within multilingual and multicultural societies. Interpreting Studies has highlighted that language mediation is coordination of social interactions and social construction of narratives. This paper explains language mediation using Luhmann's theory of communication systems, in particular the concepts of self-reference, reflexivity, function, structure, and structural coupling. Language mediation is observed as a self-referential communication system fulfilling the function of promoting participation and new narratives through reflexive coordination. In particular, the concept of structural coupling explains how language mediation can enhance change within other communication systems, promoting dialogue across difference. Language mediation, however, can also assume a hierarchical structure, which creates marginalization and ethnocentrism.

Theorizing Provocation Narratives as Communication Strategies

Sandrine Boudana, Elad Segev — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Despite multiple uses, the concept of provocation is undertheorized and underinvestigated. Theorizing provocation narratives as communication strategies, this article shows that what is at stake in provocations are crucial issues of intentionality, accountability, and blame. While some provocations elicit reactions that are beneficial to the parties involved, others may incite violence. The second part of our study focuses on the latter because of their potential for shifting blame to victims. To deconstruct the mechanism by which provocation introduces this type of bias, we use Labov's method of narrative analysis and apply it to two news items. We conclude on how provocation can serve as a theoretical framework and methodological tool for narrative analysis in many communication contexts and fields.

Breaking Away From Charisma? The Celebrity Industry's Contradictory Connection to Charismatic Authority

Eric Cornelis Hendriks — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Some scholars label celebrities as “charismatic,” while others avoid that Weberian term, deeming it inappropriate in the context of celebrity culture. None, however, offers a systematic account of the relationship between Weberian charisma and celebrity. To this task, this article moves beyond the semantics toward a systematic analysis and comparison of the logics guiding charismatic and celebrity dynamics. I argue that charisma and celebrity represent distinct and even partly contradictory logics of social distinction, but that they nonetheless substantially intertwine and coextend in society, which renders their interaction ambiguous, conflictual, and creative of new social forms. This social-ontological conceptualization provides the now-lacking theoretical foundation for empirical studies into the many complex interactions between charismatic and celebrity dynamics throughout society.

Critiquing Utopia, Ubiquity, and Pressure in Fossil Fuel(ed) Rhetoric

Catalina M. de Onís — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Communication Theory, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 409-410, November 2017.

French Perspectives on International Language Primacy: The Shifting Prestige and Weight of a Language

Paolo Sigismondi — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Communication Theory, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 407-408, November 2017.

The Subject of Slavery in Translation: Between Jack Qiu and Simone Browne

Victoria Netanus Grubbs — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Communication Theory, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 411-413, November 2017.

The Value of Questions in Organizing: Reconceptualizing Contributions to Online Public Information Goods

Leila Bighash, Poong Oh, Janet Fulk, Peter Monge — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 -0700

In contrast to previous research that treats question-askers as free-riders, this article conceptualizes questions and information requests as important forms of contribution to generating online public information goods. By requesting information, individuals make visible an informational need, calling for attention from those who may be able to fulfill that need and alerting those who share that need. Communicating questions can result in groups forming around particular shared interests, giving rise to permeable group boundaries that distinguish the interested from others. Such groups continue or even grow if new information needs are introduced. Once all information needs are fulfilled, the group will eventually dissolve, leaving their informational assets as public goods for the whole community.