The Journal of Applied Communication Research (JACR)

Journal of Applied Communication Research Volume 53, Issue 5 of Journal of Applied Communication Research

🚨 Issue 5 of the Journal of Applied Communication Research is now live on Taylor & Francis Online! Print copies will be mailed soon. Explore the latest studies bridging communication theory and practice: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjac20/c...

📰 The new JACR Newsletter is out! Check your inbox for the latest issue highlights, author features, and updates from the Journal of Applied Communication Research. Didn’t get it? Send us a message to make sure you’re on the list. #JACR #CommResearch

Journal of Applied Communication Research Volume 53, Issue 4 of Journal of Applied Communication Research

📢 Volume 53, Issue 4 of the Journal of Applied Communication Research is now live on Taylor & Francis! Explore the latest applied communication scholarship here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjac20/c...
📬 Print copies coming soon!

🌟 Editorial Board Spotlight: Dr. Karma Chávez (UT Austin) 🌟
“Applied scholarship is praxis—where theory + practice converge… a way to build trust with communities in a ‘post truth’ era.”
Learn more: liberalarts.utexas.edu/ams/faculty/...

🗳️ The Citizen Questions Model reimagines debates by centering voter priorities, not media agendas. Community-driven questions make debates more transparent, accountable & legitimate. Read in Journal of Applied Communication Research: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

‘For future gains’: examining the effectiveness of combined messaging techniques on PrEP uptake and sexual risk compensation among Chinese men who have sex with men This study examined how gain-loss framing, temporal framing, and narrative/non-narrative format influence pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake among Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM). Utili...

New in JACR: Gain-framed, future-oriented messages boost PrEP uptake among Chinese MSM—without raising sexual risk intentions.

Study by Yu Guo, Yiwei Li, Yuxuan Wang, Yongkang Hou & Hongzhe Xiang.

Read: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#PrEP #HIVPrevention

🌟 Welcome Shobha Pai to JACR as our new Editorial & Social Media Assistant! Excited to have them on board helping share stories, updates, and connect with our community. 💙

Shobha is a second year masters student at the University of Cincinnati.

#communicationresearch

📢 New in JACR: Kim, Overton, Wu, Noland & Moon show that support for corporate social advocacy (CSA) depends on efficacy people back companies more when they believe their support can make a difference.

🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#CSA #JACR

Knowing the street: on the production of knowledge between homeless civic actors and their allies in the U.S. Focusing on a case study of homeless civic actors and their allies in the U.S., this ethnographic study unpacks allyship as a communicative dynamic, exploring how it both facilitates and constrains...

New in JACR: @inbal-leibovits.bsky.social examines how homeless civic actors & allies co-produce knowledge for policy + social change—and how allyship can both open space and unintentionally reinforce exclusion.

🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#Allyship #JACR

Applied communication scholarship bridges research + real-world impact. 🌍✨

We’re curious: What does applied scholarship mean to you?

Reply and share your perspective—we’d love to hear from our community.

#AppliedCommunication #JACR

SSCA Applied Communication Division VOLUNTEER SIGN UP SSCA 96th Annual Convention “Comm - AI - nity: Conversations in the Age of Intelligence” April 8-12, 2026 in Birmingham, Alabama

The SSCA Applied Communication Division seeks volunteers (reviewers, chairs, respondents, mentors) for the Birmingham convention.

Support applied communication scholarship! Sign up: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Culture-centered narratives of support and stigma: intergenerational tensions in the mental illness experiences of Vietnamese American youth This study explores how second-generation Vietnamese American youth in the US Northeast make meaning of mental illness amid intergenerational stigma and structural marginalization. Drawing on the c...

How do Vietnamese American youth navigate #mentalhealth stigma across generations?

A new JACR article shows how “honor” & “silence” collide with youth voices for change.

Read here - > www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#CultureCenteredApproach #ImmigrantHealth

Share your thoughts on this article with us in the comment section. We encourage you to consider submitting your work for publication with JACR. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for JACR, reach out to us on zoller.jacr@ucmail.uc.edu.

“Our case study of a statewide homelessness initiative shows how "vertical resource dependency" can stall shared leadership, limit collective action, & trap groups in a vicious cycle,” Dr. Woo noted. The article describes how leaders can support more balanced partnerships to avoid these dynamics.

As tackling big social problems often requires multiple organizations to work together, sometimes with government funding, the authors provide practical ways leaders can communicate more effectively to support stronger, more balanced partnerships in resource-limited settings.

What happens when government funding dominates interorganizational collaboration? Read D piece “When resource dependency discourse dominates interorganizational collaboration: a case study of a statewide effort to end homelessness” by DaJung Woo & Tsu-Yi Chien at www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Share your thoughts on this field report or a similar field work you are engaged in with us in the comment section. You are welcome to submit your fieldwork to JACR for publication. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for JACR, reach out to us on zoller.jacr@ucmail.uc.edu.

They explore how the 2024 Earth Connection Film Festival that screened 24 international films covering climate change through the lens of hope, connection, and responsibility. The report shares how the program was scientifically justified to achieve funding and the dev. of the festival…its outcome.

Mental models and enduring climate action: the Earth Connection Film Festival Climate change is one of the major interconnected social crises related to human health and the environment we face today, and motivating public action is a pressing challenge within that. The 2024...

Interested in using film & media narratives as a vehicle for understanding and supporting social and behavioral change? See report “Mental models and enduring climate action: the Earth Connection Film Festival” by Jessica Eise, Amanda Camarillo & Sarah Lasley at www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1....

Share with us and the public research you have done on communication in disaster and emergency preparedness and responses in the comment section. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for JACR, reach out to us on zoller.jacr@ucmail.uc.edu

From recovery to preparedness: an examination of resources, individual disaster communication, and anticipatory resilience capacity during the 2023 U.S. tornado season Multi-phase research is needed to understand how disaster-impacted residents maintain and adapt individual disaster communication (IDC; Spialek & Houston, 2018; Spialek et al., 2021). Residents eng...

5. From recovery to preparedness: an examination of resources, individual disaster communication, and anticipatory resilience capacity during the 2023 U.S. #tornado season by Matthew L. Spialek & Scott E. Branton at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Facilitating social media engagement of missing persons posts: an application of the crisis and emergency risk communication model Guided by the crisis and emergency risk communication model (CERC), this two-part study identifies strategies law enforcement currently use to crowdsource missing person (MP) information, and exper...

4. Facilitating social media engagement of missing persons posts: an application of the crisis and emergency risk communication model by Cailin M. Kuchenbecker & Hannah Ball at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Why it can be hard to warn people about dangers like floods – communication researchers explain the role of human behavior As flash floods ravage areas like the Texas Hill Country, research shows that technology alone cannot save lives during flooding emergencies.

3. Intercultural disaster communication and community #resilience: examining post-#hurricane communication in communities with limited English-speaking proficiency by Yaguang Zhu, Janet Yang, Keri Stephens & Lucinda Austin at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Rectifying a flood data desert one step at a time: a co-created, engaged scholarship approach Attention to public problems is increasingly being driven by data. Given that data is used as a communication tool, a lack of data may further exacerbate existing inequities when allocating public ...

2. Rectifying a #flood data desert one step at a time: a co-created, engaged scholarship approach by Keri K. Stephens, Samanta Varela Castro, Yifan Xu, Andrew Juan, Nicholas Diaz, Russell Blessing & Samuel D. Brody at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Community resilience in a cascading disaster: enacting a hybrid hyperlocal community of practices (HCoPs) through online/offline communication When multiple types of disasters occur sequentially – a cascading disaster – certain adaptive capacities might become temporarily ineffective or invalid. Advancing an understanding of community res...

See recent research on communication in #disaster and #emergency preparedness and responses at JACR:
1. Community resilience in a cascading disaster: enacting a hybrid hyperlocal community of practices (HCoPs) through online/offline communication by… at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Communicating #Weather Warnings
Demonstrating the importance of public scholarship, scholars @kerikstephens.bsky.social and Hamilton Bean are sharing their crucial insights about communicating weather #warnings. Check out their article at The Conversation: theconversation.com/why-it-can-b...

Additionally, Dr. Riles is collaborating with Drs. Elizabeth (Lissa) Behm-Morawitz and Jesse Fox on an NCA Advancing the Discipline grant to host a series of mentoring workshops for early career scholars focused on emerging technology and equity. The workshops will be held in September.

Morrow, E., & Riles, J. M. (2025) explored how news coverage of police brutality can shape attributions based on victim race in Communication Quarterly. Read the article at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Disparate Prosocial Implications of Ongoing Entertainment Health Media Exposure: A Multi-Malady Stigma Communication Comparison Entertainment media is observed to influence perceptions toward those managing major health conditions. In this study, a U.S. representative sample Qualtrics survey (N = 599) is conducted to how ro...

Riles, J. M., Davis, W. M., & Cen, X. (2024) examined how entertainment health media exposure influences stigma perceptions across various health conditions in Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Read the article at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Update from the JACR Team

Associate Editor Julius Matthew Riles continues to make impactful scholarly contributions to the field of communication research. He recently co-authored three publications exploring #Media effects and #communication in #health and #justice contexts: