AI-Mediated Communication: Emotion, Interaction, and Public Meaning

This thematic issue examines how AI systems transform human communication and public meaning. Generative models, conversational agents, and emotional AI now mediate interactions across personal and public spheres, influencing interpretation, emotional judgment, and discourse. AI functions not only as a tool but as an active participant in meaning-making, reshaping norms, expectations, and the emotional tone of communication.

Key interests include emotional and relational communication with AI companions that simulate empathy and care, raising questions about authenticity, intimacy, and vulnerability. These systems offer comfort yet redefine relational meaning. Another focus is AI’s role in public communication, where generative tools create news, narratives, and personalized content, challenging norms in journalism and media ethics through automation and emotional framing.

We invite interdisciplinary research on topics such as trust, affect in AI content, audience interpretation, governance, and cultural narratives to map the evolving landscape of AI-mediated communication.

We welcome original research articles, conceptual essays, comparative studies, and systematic reviews on topics including but not limited to:

• AI-mediated interpersonal communication and changing interaction patterns;
• Human–AI relational communication and emerging forms of hybrid interaction;
• Emotional AI in interpersonal and mediated communication;
• User agency, autonomy, and resistance within AI-mediated environments;
• AI companions and the transformation of relational and social life;
• Generative AI and its role in shaping meaning-making and interpretation;
• AI-driven production, curation, and amplification of news and public information;
• Algorithmic gatekeeping, agenda-setting, and personalization in media systems;
• Trust formation, credibility assessment, and public understanding of AI-mediated content;
• AI-generated narratives, storytelling formats, and transformations in journalistic practice;
• Audience interpretation, engagement, and participation in AI-enriched media environments;
• Human agency, co-creation, and collaborative meaning-making in AI-supported communication;
• Cultural narratives, media representations, and social imaginaries of AI;
• Psychological responses to AI-mediated communication, including attachment and dependency;
• Ethical design, governance frameworks, and accountability in AI-mediated communication;
• AI-mediated identity formation, social categorization, and the shaping of norms;
• Political communication, persuasion, and influence through generative and algorithmic systems;
• Cross-cultural and global perspectives on AI-mediated communication and media use;
• AI-assisted content moderation, platform-governed communication, and communicative rights;
• Transparency, interpretability, and communicative expectations in AI-driven systems;
• Educational, therapeutic, and community-based uses of AI-mediated communication;
• The impact of AI on creativity, authorship, collaboration, and media-production practices.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.