The plausible deniability playbook: How white victimhood narratives evade moderation
New Series, Vol. 2, No. 23 This study investigates the rhetorical strategy of white victimhood and how such rhetoric evades moderation on social media (i.e., X, formerly Twitter) to spread bigoted, white nationalist content. The authors focus on everyday social media activity and explore how individuals posting engage in “white…
Navigating immigrant identity in community resistance efforts through sensegiving and sensebreaking
New Series, Vol. 2, No. 21 Community participation is an essential component of democracy, yet gaps in participation persist due to unequal distribution of resources that disenfranchise historically marginalized groups and in turn weaken the community’s overall representativeness. This study applied sensemaking, specifically constructs of sensegiving and sensebreaking to understand…
Engaged: Stories of Research that Serves
By Rachael E. Purtell Dr. Sonia Ivancic, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida (USF) after a Visiting Assistant Professorship at the University of Puget Sound, is a critical organizational and health communication scholar who is almost always conducting…
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S ACTIONS ON HIGHER EDUCATION
(This letter (from Jeffrey R. Andrade, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education for Policy, Planning, and Innovation) provides information about the immediate implementation of certain provisions impacting Federal Student Aid Title IV programs under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.) On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful…
Denise Bostdorff Teachers on Teaching 2024 Essay
(Editor’s Note: NCA asked Prof. Bostdorff if we could share her remarks from the 2024 NCA convention’s “Teachers on Teaching” session at which she received the Ecroyd Award. They are below. Future Spectra issues will include others’ talks.) I grew up on a farm in northwest Ohio. When I was…
The 2025 TikTok Moment: Possibilities and Perils
TikTok is indeed everywhere— on our phones, in the news, even in our classrooms. Just the other day in my class on global digital cultures, an undergraduate student presented a case for TikTok as a “cultural infrastructure,” a day-to-day, routine app for the younger demographics that surround our scholarly endeavors….
From the Executive Director: Excited for the fall and what change will bring
I want to take a moment to highlight two seminal sessions: Thursday, November 20 from 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. in Colorado Ballroom A – Level 3 This uplifting, multigenerational opening session will explore the transformative power of mentoring within communication studies, spotlighting a national Ph.D. pipeline initiative designed to…
From the President: The Communicative Nature of Growth
In the spirit of 2025, as a Year of L.I.F.T. (Leading with Imagination and Forward-Thinking), this year’s Presidential Spectra columns have discussed strengths, the calm-chaos dynamic, and now growth—an ideal output and perhaps culmination of our prior conversations. We have engaged in L.I.F.T.-focused discussion that will continue into this year’s…