Call for Papers - Human Communication Research
We're now accepting submissions for a special issue: "Who Are We Studying in Communication Research? Revisiting Audience in a Transforming Media Environment"
Extended abstract deadline: August 31, 2026
Full details: academic.oup.com/hcr/pages/sp...
New HCR issue out now! Vol. 52(2), April 2026.
Dive into cutting-edge research on interparental conflict and parent-child triangulation, body-positive and fitspirational influencers, communicated sense-making in social groups, and digital panopticon/dataveillance.
academic.oup.com/hcr/issue/52/2
Great work by Priska L. Breves, Sophie C. Boerman, Jan-Philipp Stein, Carolin Ischen, and @zmcvanberlo.bsky.social on this study!
We’re excited to announce that HCR is now on LinkedIn!
Stay connected with us: www.linkedin.com/company/huma...
New in HCR: Wicke et al. (2026) find that targeted universalist messaging about Child Tax Credit expansion did not reduce policy support among White Americans, but it increased anger, responsibility stereotyping, and lowered perceived government responsibility.
Read more: doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...
New in HCR: In a 3-week longitudinal study, Breves et al. (2025) find that body-positive influencer content, compared with fitspirational content, fostered stronger parasocial relationships and increased wishful identification and body satisfaction over time.
doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...
New in HCR: @markusappel.bsky.social et al. (2025) show that congeniality bias persisted regardless of fiction vs. non-fiction labeling, emerging for positive portrayals but not for negative ones, with non-fiction slightly preferred overall.
Read the full article: doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...
New in HCR: Zhu et al. (2026) find that larger choice sets increased overall and cross-cutting news selection. Choice set composition shaped cross-cutting exposure, but attitudes and behavioral intentions did not significantly change in the short term.
Read: doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...
New in HCR: What makes a television show feel like “a show for us”?
@stewartcoles.bsky.social (2026) finds that co-partisan endorsement increased exposure intentions for a fictitious television program, while racial ingroup endorsement alone did not.
Read more: doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...
New in HCR: @wliao229.bsky.social, Ya-Ching Lee, @hnxue.bsky.social and @ekmckinley.bsky.social find that AI use (N = 2,187) is driven by self-agency and machine-communion, highlighting how trait perceptions operate within relational schemas and are shaped by trust over time. doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...
