JSMS rides into the archival sunset

Cover of the first issue. 

From 2012 to 2025, the Journal of Social Media in Society has been home to social media research. When we started the journal, finding a home for a project focused on social media and specific platforms was a tougher search. With social media entering its 20s, journals are receptive to articles and scholarship in this area. As such, we have decided to shutter the journal.

So, so, so many people were involved in the creation and continuation of JSMS. Some of our reviewers have been with us since the beginning. That is an amazing service lift, and we are ever grateful for all of our reviewers. Associate editors were added as we plodded along, and they were instrumental in our forward momentum. We have had wonderful editorial assistants, both doctoral and master's students. Our authors always impressed me with their work, but also their kindness. Founding a journal has been a ride, and I am filled with gratitude for the journey. The masthead for the journal is now located in our archived site: https://thejsms.blogspot.com.

ARCHIVE

You can still access all of the fantastic research published in the journal in our online archive. We are also in the process of archiving it with the Public Knowledge Project. OJS/PKP has been a wonderful partner in the publishing process.

TOP TEN

JSMS had 1.1 million abstract views and 893,000 article downloads. To celebrate the 13-year run, we have tallied the most PDFs downloaded and created our Top 10 list. 

1. Parasocial Interaction in the Digital Age:  An Examination of Relationship Building and the Effectiveness of YouTube Celebrities Vol. 7 No. 1 (2018)
2. Scrolling, Simping, and Mobilizing Vol. 12 No. 1 (2023)
3. The Evolution of Social Media from 1969 to 2013: A Change in Competition and a Trend Toward Complementary, Niche Sites Vol. 3 No. 2 (2014)
4. Internet Dependency and Academic Performance Vol. 4 No. 1 (2015)
5. The Development of Parasocial Interaction Relationships on YouTube Vol. 7 No. 1 (2018)
6. Using the PAD (Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance) Model to Explain Facebook Attitudes and Use Intentions Vol. 6 No. 1 (2017)
7. An Analysis of George Floyd-themed Memes Vol. 10 No. 2 (2021)
8. Twitter, Social Support Messages, and the #MeToo Movement Vol. 7 No. 2 (2018)
9. Effects of Parasocial Interaction with an Instafamous Influencer on Brand Attitudes and Purchase Intentions Vol. 10 No. 1 (2021)
10. The Looking Glass Lens: Self-concept Changes Due to Social Media Practices Vol. 4 No. 1 (2015)

Research Extravaganza

One article to proof. Then another. And a third. It was a busy winter break checking page proofs for research articles, but I am ever thankful for published scholarly work! My research focuses on helping public relations practitioners and educators navigate digital spaces, concerning technology developments (such as generative AI), organizational listening, and ethical concerns. 

GenAI in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
Jacqueline Lambiase, Rosalynn Vasquez, and I asked nonprofit and public sector communicators about their planning, training and policies related to GenAI use. The TL;DR version is that 85% were using GenAI in their professional work, but very few had training, discussions, or ethical guidelines. There was a disconnect between what they thought was most important related to AI ethics and what they believed their bosses' main concerns were. We developed a 10-point model for the ethical adoption of new tech for public relations practitioners, as well as adapted an ethical sensitivity scale for public relations.

Maben, S. K., Lambiase, J., & Vasquez, R. A. (2026). Self-starters and lone rangers: Municipal government and nonprofit PR practitioners’ approaches to AI training, ethics, and policy-making. Public Relations Review, 52(1), Article 102664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2025.102664

Early Coverage of ChatGPT
Lora Helvie-Mason, Prairie Parnell, and I wanted to document how the advent of ChatGPT was covered in the higher education press, specifically The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Using qualitative analysis, we reviewed the initial articles, letters, and briefs written by staff and guest writers for agenda-setting on the technological advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT. Primary themes identified in the articles included AI as a tool, AI’s interplay with education, faculty agency and implications, and surveilling students and examining academic integrity. The tone was categorized as informational, instructive, and cautionary. 

Maben, S. K., Helvie-Mason, L. B., & Endres-Parnell, P. (2025). The Chronicle of Higher Education’s initial coverage of the advent of ChatGPT: Navigating generative artificial intelligence. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.58997/vsk7tp50

Emojis in Organizational Social Media Messaging
In a quasi-experimental study with Chris Gearhart, we found that messages with emojis were considered more competent, attention-getting, and engaging than messages without. Emoji sequences also tested well. 🐸💜💥Context matters, and serious messages should proceed with ⚠️ caution. We didn't find much difference between perceptions based on age, gender, education, etc. 

Gearhart, C. C., & Maben, S. K. (2026). Stakeholder Perceptions of Emoji Appropriateness in Organizational Social Media Messages. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2025.2596006

Lead On: Values in Action Week Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities Showcase

 A room full of research! Swoon! That's the benefit of a research showcase -- you are surrounded by inquisitive minds ready to share their findings.

I'm proud to say that my TA, Caroline Conkle, participated in the Lead On: Values in Action Week Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities Showcase. She presented our work with Kay Colley, APR, SCMP, on Accredited Public Relations (APR) professionals who also have doctorates.

Dr. Ashley E. English and I showcased our research investigating the barriers that public sector communicators face when they attempt two-way communication. A special thank you to our Certified Public Communicator® contacts who participated.

My Kid Asked Me for a Royal Decree … Enter GenAI

Image created with ChatGPT.

Intentionality and GenAI

My recent research has focused on GenAI ethics—particularly transparency, disclosure, and policy. Alongside that, I’ve begun to ask GenAI to assist with more day-to-day tasks. One such moment happened when my daughter asked me to type up a document transferring her queen title to her best friend, making her the head of a council in Legoville.

At first, I thought, Wow, they’re deeply invested in this imaginative world. My next thought: Where do I even start with a royal decree?

We saddled up to the computer, and I opened ChatGPT.

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A Royal Request in Legoville

Then I paused—should I model going straight to GenAI for a document? What best practices could I demonstrate here?

We prompted together and then began editing the output. She had many changes to suggest, and our usage of GenAI fell into the category of “getting us started with a template.” The final print out was a modified version of the initial GenAI draft.

I explained to her why I allowed GenAI usaged for this task:

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Why I Chose GenAI

1) The usage was for play.
This was a playful exercise. For more serious applications, I might use GenAI to generate a few examples to get me started or produce a fill-in-the-blank worksheet to help gather relevant content. Still, we discussed how using someone else’s words isn’t the same as writing your own. Also, hallucinations were not going to be a deal-breaker for the queen and her head of council. 

2) I had no idea where to begin with royal decrees.
Before GenAI, where would I have gone for inspiration? Microsoft Word templates? A Google search? An encyclopedia? (Yes, we had World Books in our house—sold by a door-to-door salesperson!). Reflecting on those past options helps me better contextualize my usage today and decide how to proceed. If I had modeled a template from one of those outlets, I feel fine modeling a template from GenAI (and thinking through its accuracy).

3) This was not meant to exercise my brain.
If an activity is designed to challenge my thinking, I engage with it directly before turning to GenAI. For me, writing is thinking. I need that cognitive heavy lifting to organize my thoughts. I acknowledge that this could become a shortcut too easily, where we focus on the output instead of the process.

That’s why I’m teaching my daughter to pause and reflect on her use of GenAI. What thinking might she be bypassing? That pause—that reflective moment—is what I want her (and myself) to remember. Outsourcing is a choice, and one we should make thoughtfully.

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Reflecting on My Own Usage

As part of this reflective practice, I asked ChatGPT to create an audit of my own usage. In one response, I received a paragraph-style summary of themes and categories. In another, it returned a table with star ratings showing frequency and even trends over time.

One of my favorite uses of “Chatty” (as I sometimes call it) is turning metadata into APA 7 citations. Formatting citations is not where I want or need to spend my mental energy—it’s not a flex I need right now. But I recognize that beginning graduate students do need to spend some brain time here to learn citation mechanics and accuracy. Once they’ve learned the rules, they’ll be better able to spot-check GenAI’s output. I’ve done that work, and I now use GenAI as a citation generator.

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The Final Decree

We printed her royal succession and abdication decree and prepared it for ceremonial signing with her best friend. It was only afterward that I said, “Wait—we forgot to disclose our GenAI usage!”

We’ll let it slide this time, as I’m disclosing it here in this broader reflection.

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Final Thoughts: Practicing Intentionality

Whether it’s for a queenly transfer of power in Legoville or a professional writing task, I’m trying to model intentionality in GenAI use. I want to emphasize the importance of asking: Why am I using this tool? What am I gaining—and what might I be giving up?

These small pauses are the key to ethical and thoughtful GenAI use.

How do you think about and maintain intentionality in your own GenAI usage?

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GenAI Usage Disclosure: After writing a rough draft of this post, I asked ChatGPT to create a list of suggested edits. I then decided which edits to implement. This is another way for me to be intentional in my usage. 

More about my research

 

OER as a way to share student case studies

In my graduate communication ethics course, students consume a lot of case studies and then write one of their own. So many interested cases began to pile up with no reader beyond me. I am a big fan of using OER -- Open Education Resources -- for my courses, and thought why not help our students create one showcasing their ethics case studies. Now into our second volume, I present What If: Ethics Case Studies.

Cases use various philosophies to illustrate how a case can be analyzed weighing principles/values, stakeholders, and facts. Here's a peek at the table of contents:

The OER begins with a short introduction and then case links below are organized by the philosophy used for analysis. 

Introduction

Communitarianism

Your New Backseat Driver: A Communitarianism Approach to the Government’s Implementation of Advanced Drunk and Impaired Driving Technology

Celebrity Influence and Medication Scarcity: An Ethical Examination through a Communitarian Lens

Towards Ethical and Effective Emergency Response: A Cosmopolitan Perspective on the Tragic Case of Debra Stevens in Arkansas

Dialogic Ethics

From Bamboo Bliss to Social Media Crisis: The Kyte Baby Maternity Leave Debacle

She’s Drunk, But Should She Go Home? A Case Study Using Dialogic Ethics

Ethics of Care

The Case Study of the Withheld Sales

Ethics of Trust

Fallout of Alabama Baseball Coach Brian Bohannon's Gambling Scandal Using Ethics of Trust

Unauthorized Use of Shubnum Khan's Headshots and Watsuji’s Ethics of Trust Analysis

Rawl's Theory of Justice

A Case Study of the Princess of Wales' Photoshop Manipulation Incident 

Ubuntu

Canadian government decision to not search landfill for the bodies of three murdered Indigenous Women

From Disappointment to Discovery: Ubuntu Ethics and the Rebirth of No Man's Sky

Virtue Ethics

Alyssa Milano’s GoFundMe Baseball Fundraiser

A Case Study of a Mississippi Daycare Nightmare

I am extremely proud of my students for their willingness to share their work with others in the OER format. We have it set up where other instructors can remix cases for their own courses. 

APR: A Journey Toward Accreditation in Public Relations

After earning tenure, I felt like it was time for more professional development. Public relations (PR) practitioner-scholars whom I admire have earned their APRs (accreditation in public relations) and I want to remain competitive in my field. An APR designation signifies an investment and belief in our profession as a profession. Additionally, I want to model lifelong learning and industry commitment to my students. 

As part of the process, you present a campaign you have implemented. Timing worked out perfectly because I was launching a Women's History Month campaign for Tarleton's Women's Mentoring Network. Members’ research efforts were the focus, as this fulfilled the university’s mission to increase our research profile and institutional prominence. We celebrated a Month of Research on LinkedIn. The campaign was a success and provided an campaign for my panel presentation.

After many hours of preparations and studying, I sat for my panel presentation (think dissertation defense). I truly learned a few things along the way. For example, my objectives needed to be pushed beyond output measures. 

After passing the panel presentation (thank you to the APRs who gave their time for the evaluation and feedback), I prepared for the written exam. The PRSA-provided study guide is a great starting point. Many of the suggested textbooks are ones I've used as a teacher over the past 20 years. Nonetheless, I studied and studied. 

Next, it was test time. I spent hours glued to my chair taking an online exam while a proctor watched over my webcam and screenshare. It was a beast. The moment I hit submit, I held my breath and hoped for the PASS notification. I had to re-read it several times before my brain would believe that I had passed. 

I have many thank you notes to issue. To my APR mentor Dr. Kay Colley, APR, you are the best! Last year, she presented at a monthly PRSA meeting and forced us to consider one-year and five-year goals. I put APR on the notecard she handed me for my one-year goal. To Dr. Julie O'Neil, APR, who shared about her experience that same day and helped me make the leap. To Jeremy Agor, APR, our APR chair, who shepherded the process. To Jessamy Brown, APR, for her expertise on my panel. To all the APRs who came before and may not even know that they influenced my decision -- Kim Brown, APR, our PRSA chapter president, Dr. Amiso George, APR, Dr. Katie Place, APR, Dr. LaShonda Eaddy, APR, Jeff Wilson, APR, and many more -- thank you!

If you are thinking about pursuing your APR, I'm happy to share my experiences. 

Public and nonprofit sector communications: AI in your roles

AI-generated art.

Dr. Jacqueline Lambiase, TCU, Dr. Rosalynn Vasquez, Baylor, and I are looking at GenAI and communicators in the public and nonprofit sectors. If you're a communicator in these sectors, we would love your input. 

Survey link

IRB on file at the university.