International Journal of Communication Publishes a Special Section on Media and Ambivalence: The Value of a Quandary

Is ambivalence the best we can wish for in times of political extremism?

This Special Section on Media and Ambivalence, guest-edited by Barbie Zelizer and Nelson Ribeiro, argues that in its most promising form, ambivalence presents a quandary. It suggests that being torn can be better than being sure, that conflict can be resolved by straddling both of its sides or that trying on different faces offsets the discomfort of contradiction.

Often associated with indecision or ineptitude, capable of paralyzing our ability to make decisions and take sides, ambivalence is frequently portrayed as negative. For the media and academia that privilege messages projecting certainty, it can be a terrifying concept. Even so, it has been central to how media scholars have thought about messages, reception, effects, and technologies. While some see ambivalence undercutting and undermining the media environments it inhabits, others consider it a necessary complication of the overused binaries of late modernity.

The articles in this Special Section discuss how different media and technologies help create ambivalent meanings and complicate the debates taking place in the public realm across different social and political contexts. Each manuscript presents a case study that illustrates how ambivalence can be used as a frame for knowledge generation. Each also illustrates how getting rid of ambivalence can reduce what is most desirable and strived for into rigid and overly constrained modes of thought.

We invite you to read these articles that published in the International Journal of Communication on August 28, 2025. Please log into ijoc.org to read the papers of interest. We look forward to your feedback!

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Media and Ambivalence: The Value of a Quandary—Introduction
Barbie Zelizer, Nelson Ribeiro

Repetition and Ambivalence in COVID-19-Related Chinese Political Jokes
Ran Wang

“Destroyer of Worlds”: Individual Narratives, Mass Atrocity, and (Moral) Ambivalence
Liz Hallgren

Is It a Fit or Is She Just Skinny? A TikTok Hashtag as a Site of Ambiguity Around Fashion, Gender, and Women’s Bodies
Ira Solomatina

¡No Fue Suicidio, Fue Feminicidio!: Ambivalent Facts in the (Un)making of Feminicide in Mexico
Fernanda Soria-Cruz

The Ambivalences of Virtual Love: Conversational, Embodied, and Hyperreal Intimacy in the Social VR Platform VRChat
Jindong Leo-Liu

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Silvio Waisbord, Editor 
Kady Bell-Garcia, Managing Editor
Chi Zhang, Managing Editor, Special Sections
Andrew Taylor, Webmaster 
Barbie Zelizer and Nelson Ribeiro, Guest Editors

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