Communication and the Future Division
article type:
Interest Group Awards
2025
Listed here are awards given by the Interest Group to its members. Interests Groups are smaller communities within NCA’s large membership that provide a range of resources including networking opportunities, Annual Convention programming, leadership opportunities, awards, and specialized information dissemination channels, among others.
Read more about this Interest Group.
Top Paper Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Aolin Lin, Feiyang Li, Zijun Liu, Bingcan Li, Xiaoying Su, Jiaheng Li, Danqing Feng, “Who Initiates the Next Dialogue? How a Novel AI Shopping Assistant Shapes Consumers’ Behavioral Intentions” |
| 2023 | Andrew Gambino & Michael Schmierbach, “Great “Minds” Think Alike?: Examining Opinion Conformity in HCI and CMC” |
| 2023 | Qian Huang, Tyler R. Harrison, & Susan E. Morgan, “Representation and visibility of people of color in pro-HPV vaccination videos on social media” |
| 2023 | Sarah Katherine Lingo, “Simulation, Affect, and Embodiment at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center” |
| 2023 | Slavica Kodish, “The illusion of Freedom: Scientific and Technological Transformation of Humans” |
| 2023 | Myojung Chung, “What’s in the Black Box? How Algorithmic knowledge Predicts Corrective and Restrictive Actions to Counter Misinformation in the U.S., U.K., South Korea, and Mexico” |
| 2022 | Erik Holland, “Afrofuturist Film and the Re-presenting of Racial Time” |
| 2022 | Jihyun Kim, Kelly R. Merrill Jr., Xianlin Jin, Chad Christopher Collins, & Kun Xu, “I Trust My Robotic Health Advisor: Understanding People’s Trust and Intentions” |
| 2022 | L. Yong Jin Park, Jae Eun Chung, & Jeong Nam Kim, “Social media, misinformation future, and cultivating Covid-19 mistrust” |
| 2022 | Joshua Anderson & Natalie Brown Devlin, “The Shifting Foundations of Current Social Media Research and Systems Thinking as a Remedy: A Proposal for a New Research Agenda” |
| 2021 | Jihyun Kim, Kelly R. Merrill Jr., Kun Xu, & Stephanie Kelly, “Perceived Credibility of an AI Instructor in Online Education: The Role of Social Presence and Voice Features” |
| 2021 | Jihyun Kim, Kelly R. Merrill Jr. & Chad Christopher Collins, “Meet My AI Romantic Partner: The Role of Loneliness and Social Presence” |
| 2021 | L. Yong Jin Park, “Heuristics of Privacy Concern: Personal Data, Paradox, and Uncertainties in the Age of Digital Surveillance” |
| 2021 | Erik Gustafson & Robert Mejia, “A New Materialist and Media Ecological Analysis of the Entanglement of Voters and Voting Systems in Democratic Functions During the 2000 and 2020 U.S. Presidential Elections” |
| 2020 | Megan O’Byrne and Paulina Swiatkowski, “Bridging the Divide: Advancing a Social Work Theory in Communication Studies” |
| 2020 | Alessandra Von Burg, “Forced Mobility: Digital Nomads in Citizenship Deserts” |
| 2020 | Kelly Merrill Jr., Jihyun Kim, and Chad Collins, “Machines as Friends: The Role of Embodiment and Perceived Anthropomorphism of AI as a Companion” |
| 2019 | Renan Adachi, Gachon University, Hayeon Song, Gachon University, Emily M. Cramer, Howard University, “Using Virtual Reality for Travel Marketing: A Mediating Role of Self-Presence” |
| 2019 | Jing Wang, Tulane University, “Chinese Fin-techs in the Making: Apps, Product Managers, and the Platforms” |
| 2019 | Yong Jin Park, Howard University, Yoonmo Sang, University of Canberra, Hoon Lee, Kyunghee University, Mo Jones (Jang), Boston College, “Ontology of Digital Asset After Death: Policy Complexities, Suggestions, and Critique of Digital Platforms” |
| 2019 | Grant Kien, California State University East Bay, “Surviving Post-Truth Narrative and a Future Without Facts: The Unfortunate Triumph of Post-modernism” |
| 2018 | Rebecca K. Britt and Andrew Englebert, “Building and testing an mHealth application from a pilot study in a campus-community initiative” |
| 2018 | Robert Mejia, Brianna L. Lane, Abigail Mott, and Kelsey Earle, “Netflix and Chill or Looking for a Soulmate? The Effect of Online Dating Website and Profile Deisgn on Attraction” |
| 2018 | Jihyun Kim, Kelly Merrill, Jr., and Hayeon Song, “Probing with Pokemon: Feeling of Presence and Sense of Community Belonging” |
| 2018 | Jonathan Matusitz and John McCormick, “The Effects of Internet Use on Human Obesity in the U.S.” |
| 2016 | Kenneth A. Lachlan, Patric R. Spence, Adam Michael Rainear, Joshua Fishlock, Zhan Xu, and Bryan Michael Vanco, “Exploring the Effectiveness of Robotic Platforms in Engendering Learning: Implications for the Future of Crisis and Risk Communication” |
| 2016 | Veronica Hefner, Sam Dorros, Nicole Jourdain, Christine Liu, Arianna Tortomasi, Maria Paulina Greene, Chelsea Brandom, Mary Ellet, and Natalie Bowles, “Mobile Exercising and Tweeting the Pounds Away: The Use of Digital Applications and Microblogging and Their Association with Disordered Eating and Compulsive Exercise” |
| 2016 | Yu Won Oh, “Online Talk as Civic Engagement and Online Forums as Digital Public Sphere” |
| 2016 | Chris Gurrie, “The Future of Mediated Software Technology in the Communication Classroom: An Analysis” |
| 2016 | Jennifer Young Abbott, “The Lessons of Yesterday’s Public Journalism for Tomorrow’s Citizen-Engaged Journalism” |
| 2015 | Bree McEwan, “Communication competence is the future of digital literacy” |
| 2015 | Tony Liao, “Embracing Opportunities: Studying the Shift from Consumer Augmented Reality to Industrial/Enterprise Augmented Reality” |
| 2015 | Rebecca K. Britt, “Participation on celebrity gossip blogs: A study of celebrity attitudes and gratifications” |
| 2015 | Alison Nicole Novak, “Smartest Guys in the Room: Framing the Future of Media Regulation through Netflix” |
| 2015 | Young Jin Park and S. Mo Jang, “Will Anyone Talk about Edward Snowden Again? Twitter Conversation, Herd and Issue Attention” |
| 2014 | Jonathan Matusitz and Ann Davidson, “Race of the Future: Mixing of Colors in the U.S. Leading to One Race?” |
| 2014 | CarrieLynn Reinhard, and Pooky Amsterdam, “Avatars, Audiences and Interactive Television: Television productions in Second Life exemplifying the possibilities of interactive television” |
| 2014 | Aimee Lau, “Facebook as a Facilitator of Organizational Identification inColleges and Universities and with Multiple Organizational Targets” |
| 2014 | Jaime Banks, “Multimodal, multiplex, multispatial: A network model of the Self” |
| 2014 | Rebecca K. Britt and Andrew Mark Englebert, “Building on a Legacy in Researchers’ Understanding of Spatial Cognition: A Qualitative Investigation on Spatial Awareness and Mental Map Construction in Mobile Tours” |
| 2013 | Tony Liao, “Mobile or Headworn Augmented Reality? Analyzing the Contestation Over the Form of Augmented Reality through Future Discourse and Technological Frames” |
| 2013 | Rebecca Britt and Brian Britt, “Narrative Believability in Mobile Tour Guides: A Mixed Methods Study” |
| 2013 | Cui Zhang and Charles Meadows, “The Future of Internet-Related Research in Health Communication Scholarship: Based on an Analysis of Published Articles between 1997 and 2011” |
| 2013 | Lorraine G. Kisselburgh, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Jeremy Foote, Patricia Gettings, Teis Moeller Kristensen, Karthik Ramani, “The social ecologies of collaborative design in Visually Integrated Cyber-enabled Design (V-ICED) Environments” |
| 2012 | Jeremy Adolphson, “Artificial Intelligence: The Problem within Discourse Analysis” |
| 2012 | Aubrie Serena Adams, “The Nature of Gameplay within the Academic Environment” |
| 2012 | Tony Liao, “Augmented Futures: A Classification of Augmented Reality Promise(s) and Ideographes” |
| 2012 | Jonathan Matusitz, “Benefits of Google Technologies for Organizations” |
Top Student Paper Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Juven Nino Villacastin & Chaerin Song, “Does AI Consider the User’s Face?: Conceptual and Empirical Notes on AI Facework in Human-AI Interpersonal Communication” |
| 2023 | Vishala J Persad, “A Post-modern Surveillance Culture: A Simulacra of Self-Importance” |
| 2023 | Joshua Anderson, “A Proposal of a Theory to Study the Dynamics of Situated Communication Phenomena for Social Change” |
| 2023 | Jiaqi Liu, “To be Free or Kidnapped? Understanding the Dark Side of Quantified-Self from a Perspective of Dependence” |
| 2023 | Chelsea Lynn Roe, “Are we human?” Artificial Intelligence, postcolonialism, and what it means to be human” |
| 2022 | Annette Masterson & Andrew Iliadis, “Inviting sex robots into the bedroom: An institutional analysis of a changing industry” |
| 2022 | Chelsea P. Butkowski & Lee Humphreys, “IoT as Mobile Infrastructure: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities” |
| 2022 | John M. Wise, “Omnimaginary: Mapping the Future of Science, Technology, and Human Potential in Early Omni Magazines” |
| 2022 | Alex W. Kirkpatrick, Amanda Boyd, & Jay Hmielowski, “Who Shares about AI? Media-system dependency, online information sharing and the public understanding of artificial intelligence” |
| 2021 | Matthew Vollmer, “Autonomous Vehicles in the News After the Death of Elaine Herzberg” |
| 2021 | Brandon Shanks, “Live Social Interaction on Twitch.tv: An Analysis of Twitch.tv as a Shift in Media Industries” |
| 2021 | Akie Fukushige Wenk, “In Rhetorical Sense(s): Exploration of Difference Reflected through Black Mirror Autonomous Vehicles in the News After the Death of Elaine Herzberg” |
| 2021 | Joo-Wha Hong, “Validation of the new scale for measuring perceptions of machines as society members: Machines As Social Entities Scale (MASES)” |
| 2020 | Lindsay Thompson, “Augmenting Human: Artificial Intelligence as a Second Self through AlterEgo Technology” |
| 2020 | Andrea Schaaf, “Tilt Brush: The Utilization of a Virtual Reality Intervention for Self-Reported Anxiety, Depression, and Stress” |
| 2020 | Lakelyn Taylor, “We’re Expecting Some Turbulence: Extending Communication Privacy Management Theory to the Crossroads of Turbulence and Crisis” |
| 2020 | Joo- Wha Hong, “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Inquiry into the Social Roles and the Power Dynamics in Human-AI Interactions” |
| 2019 | Curry Chandler, University of Pittsburgh, Driving into the Future while Looking in the Rearview Mirror: Innovation Communication, Transportation Policy Mobilities, and Uber Urbanism |
| 2019 | Rian E. Wanstreet, University of Washington, A World Without Farmers: Surviving the Big Data Agricultural Revolution |
| 2019 | Joe E. Hatfield, University of Colorado, Boulder, The Digital Rhetorical Field: Methodological Possibilities for the Future of Communication |
| 2019 | Julia M. Hildebrand, Eckerd College, Dancing with My Drone: Affective Entanglements and Mobile Companionship |
| 2018 | Beatriz Nieto Fernandez, “El Chiguire Bipolar as a Tool for Resistance: Humor and Play in the times of Crisis” |
| 2018 | Maxim V. Baryshevtsev, “Automated Thematic Analysis of Online Sexual Predator Chat Transcripts” |
| 2018 | Samantha Dols, “An Alternative Paradigm for Integration: Imagination, Immersion, and Intergroup Understanding |
| 2018 | Adam Michael Rainear, “All the Media are Rich: Exploring the Lacking Human Element in Media Richness Theory” |
| 2016 | Kelsey Waninger, “Creating a New World: Woman on the Edge of Time and the Use of Technē in Feminist Speculative Fiction” |
| 2016 | Amin Makkawy, “Disability as Critical Sociomaterial Praxis, Providing a Novel Theoretical Space to Understand Disability: The Collision of Body, Communication, and Technology” |
| 2016 | Jennifer Kang, “Parainteractivity Strategies in My Little Television: The Convergence of Internet Broadcasting and Television in South Korea” |
| 2016 | Brad A. Haggadone, “Sex, Fear, and Robots: Does the Uncanny Valley extend beyond appearance?” |
| 2016 | Sean P. Gleason, “Technology and the Not-so-Stable Body: “Being There” in the Cyborg’s Dilemma” |
| 2015 | T. Kody Frey, “#BlackTwitter: An Analysis of Social Sentiment in Temporarily Imagined Online Communities” |
| 2015 | Brad A. Haggadone, “Sharing is Caring: Motivations for knowledge sharing in digital communities of emergent technology” |
| 2015 | Nazmul K. Rony and Rahnuma Ahmed “Sharing Viral Video Advertising: Building Theoretical Framework for the New Media Communication” |
| 2015 | Alane L. Presswood “Simulation in the 21st Century: Putting Facebook and Hyperreality in Conversation” |
| 2015 | Darren M. Stevenson, “Surveillance and Persuasion as Emerging Co-Benefactors of Communication Studies” |
| 2014 | Minhee Son, “Migration and Mobile Communication Research: A Review of the Current Literature and Suggested Direction for the Future” |
| 2014 | Indira Neill Hoch, “‘Hide all the things’: Content and conduct control in Tumblr fandom tags” |
| 2014 | Meagan Foley, “Kickstarter and Fan Participation” |
| 2014 | Mary Grace Hebert, “The Rebirth of Democratic Knowledge: Digitization, the Postal Service, and the newspaper industry” |
| 2014 | Robb Conrad Lauzon, “’Good night, planet Earth. Good night, humanity’: A Eulogy for a Lunar Rover” |