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This book explores the phenomenon of distortion of information through media via the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ways in which relevant information distortion and virality have occurred in regard to the disease and its risks. Positing that the interrelated processes of misinformation, disinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories are related forms of distortion of information through media (DIM) and can only be understood through a multilevel theoretical model that incorporates message-based, individual difference, social network-based, societal and geotechnical factors, Brian H. Spitzberg develops an integrative, well-argued, and well-evidenced framework within which these issues can and should be addressed. This book offers a model for further research across such disciplines as communication, journalism/media studies, political science, sociology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, evolutionary psychology, public health, big data analytics, social network analytics, computational linguistics and geographic information sciences, and will interest researchers and students in those areas.

AbstractThe study of personal relationships has traditionally relied on self‐reports or observations of face‐to‐face interaction. Digital media increasingly provide the ability to trace communication and relationships at scale. Such methods portend significant theoretical and methodological challenges, as well as potential. As a way of illustrating such potential, big data approaches to the select traditional relational concepts of routine relating, propinquity, homophily, small world, and reciprocity are reviewed. The fields of communication and personal relationships will need to inform such research by developing their own interdisciplinary relationships with geographic information sciences, computational linguistics, and computer sciences or cede a significant frontier of their field to these other disciplines.

Despite extensive popular press coverage of the dark side of the internet, apparently no social scientific research has yet been published on the topic of cyberstalking. This report summarizes three pilot studies conducted in the process of developing a satisfactory factorially complex measure of cyberstalking victimization, and then investigates the incidence of such victimization, and its interrelationships to obsessive relational intrusion. Findings indicate that cyberstalking is experienced by a nontrivial proportion of the sample, and that there are small but generally consistent relationships between facets of cyberstalking and spatially based stalking. In addition, the results suggested that only interactional forms of coping were related consistently with forms of cyberstalking.

Competence in communicating is vital to health, relationships, and all collective human endeavors. This volume brings together international scholars to examine the various facets of communication competence, including its history as an organizing concept, its essential components, and its application in interpersonal, group, institutional, and societal contexts. Annegret F. Hannawa,University of Lugano, Switzerland; Brian H. Spitzberg, San Diego State University, USA.

Awards and Praise for the first edition: Recipient of the 2006 International Association for Relationship Research (IARR) Book Award""This text, as it presently stands, is THE go-to text for stalking researchers. That is my opinion and the opinion of multiple fellow scholars I know in the field. It rarely sits on my shelf, but rather is a constant reference on my desk. I can always count on these authors to have done an extensive review of literature. I thought I was thorough, but they are always providing me with new references.""--Dr. H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Professor of Psycholog

Synthesizes knowledge about unwanted relationship pursuit and stalking, presenting a consideration of these behaviors. Their inclusive approach includes social, clinical and forensic psychology, psychiatry, counseling, communication, criminal justice, law enforcement, sociology, social work, threat assessment and management, and family studies

Loneliness might be ameliorated by the gratifications offered by the media. However, evidence in support of this assumption is mixed. Relying on an attributional view of loneliness, this study tested the proposition that people who are chronically lonely derive fewer gratifications from the media than do situationally lonely and nonlonely people. Two studies were conducted to assess the nature of the relationship between experienced loneliness and media gratifications. Results generally support the prediction that chronically lonely persons rely less on media for escape than do others. Moreover, chronically lonely persons reported the least motivation for watching their favorite soap opera.

A total of 168 naturally occurring dyadic conversations in and around a large Midwest metropolitan city were interrupted and the interactants were surveyed on their impressions of their partners' communicative skills. Given several extant, competing models for the factorial structure
of interpersonal behavior evaluation, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to ascertain the best fit of current theoretical models and the optimal model for social conversations among acquaintances. Results recommend either a four- or five-factor model, depending upon
one's preference for factor definition.

"The Communication Capstone: the Communications Inquiry and Theory Experience (CITE) is the first textbook explicitly designed for graduating seniors in a Communication Capstone course, whether taught in small or large sections, or taught as a conceptual review or as a project- or skill-based course."--