Communication Theory and Gen Z Popular Culture

Kathleen Glenister Roberts (Ph.D., Indiana University-Bloomington) is Professor and Executive Director of the Honors College at Duquesne University, where she taught in Communication & Rhetorical Studies for 20 years. She is the author of numerous essays and monographs including the national award-winning Alterity and Narrative (SUNY Press, 2007). Jonathan Nichols-Pethick (Ph.D. Indiana University-Bloomington) is Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University. He is the author of TV Cops: The Contemporary American Television Police Drama (Routledge, 2012). His work has appeared in several anthologies and journals, including Cinema Journal and The Velvet Light Trap.

• Kathleen Glenister Roberts: Introduction: Gen Z and Communication Theory – Amy A. Williams: Opposites Attract: Relational Dialectics in Wednesday – Adriane Stoner & Lynn Cockett: “Playing” with self-disclosure: Reality TV Dating Contestants’ Romantic Relationship Escalation – Nancy Bressler: “It’s a Warm Summer Evening in Ancient Greece”: Recognizing Strategies for Effective Listening in The Big Bang Theory – Andrea L. Meluch: “Are you in some kind of trouble?”: Uncertainty Reduction Theory in Stranger Things – Heather Hether: Not just Fun and Games: Memes as Strategic Self-presentation and Relational Maintenance – Emily Leigh Jones: Relationship Management Theory and the Crime Junkie Podcast – Kelly M. Weikle: Understanding “Swiftie” Identity and Behavior through the Social Identity Approach to Communication – Hayley Hoffman: “Do you want to call your dad?”: Understanding Family Communication Patterns through Succession – Anthony Esposito & Ronald K. Raymond: Symbolic Convergence in Netflix’s Beef – Paul A. Lucas: The Hunger Games Hierarchy – Laura Brown: Expectancy Violations in The Office: Overlooking the Pervasive Inappropriateness of Your Boss … Because, Well, He’s your Boss – Garrett Castleberry: The Resonant Violation of Logan Paul’s Unconventional Success – Brent Kice: Identification, Division, and Consubstantiality in Cobra Kai – Brett Boessen: Curiosity in Action: Procedural Rhetoric in Interactive Systems – Gretta Blackwell & Derek Blackwell: Media, Representation, Meaning, and the “Old Town Road” – Derek Blackwell & Gretta Blackwell: The Battle of “Old Town Road”: (Mis)Representation and the Struggle to Combat Media Stereotypes – Lori Bindig Yousman: “Can’t we be all things at once?”: Exploring Genre Theory through Riverdale – Zari Taylor & Kumarini Silva: Encoding/Decoding: Truths, Lies, and Reconciliations in Bridgerton – Ryan P. McCullough & Brooke Anderson: Cultivation Theory in the Streaming Age: 13 Reasons Why – Sharon L. Storch & Cecily Jones: What's the Use?: Exploring the Cultural Significance and Gratifications of TikTok – Elizabeth Stoycheff & Farah Harb: Social Media Feeds and Agenda Setting – Carolyn M. Cunningham & Heather M. Crandall: There is No Planet B (blah, blah, blah): Networked Counterpublics and Gen Z Activism – Julie D. O'Reilly: Double Vision: Netflix’s Maid and Feminist Standpoint Theory – Mark P. Orbe: Using a Co-Cultural Theoretical Lens to Understand the Nuances of BIPOC Professional Communication: Focusing on Issa Rae’s Insecure – Rachel E. Silverman: Hey Siri! Spill the Tea: Using AI to Understand Intersectionality – Corey Jay Liberman: Concord Through Discord: Understanding the Fortnite Online Gaming Community Through the Lens of Hecht’s Communication Theory of Identity – Jonathan Nichols-Pethick: “I’m a man with no power. Does that make me a woman?”: Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie – Kasey Clawson Hudak: Sidekicks and Signifiers: A Semiotic Analysis of Minions and the Despicable Me Franchise – Hunter Fine: The Remix, Hip-Hop, Postmodern Theory, and Generation Z Popular Culture.

Communication Theory and Gen Z Popular Culture: Essays and Applications, edited by Kathleen Glenister Roberts and Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, meets today’s students where they are, using relevant and meaningful popular culture examples to bring communication theory to life. Whether it’s an understanding of social identity theory through the popularity of Taylor Swift or a discussion of hegemony in Barbie, this foundational text engages Gen Z readers in ways that begin to tackle complex questions in contemporary culture. The text explores communication theory while relying on film, music, race, gender, advocacy, artificial intelligence, and social media examples, among others, in an approachable format that primes discussion and nurtures further critical inquiry.