International Journal of Communication Publishes a Forum on Not Entirely Artificial, Not That Intelligent: AI and Communication Research
What happens to communication when AI machines join the conversation?
Artificial intelligence has become one of the most transformative forces shaping the study of communication today. This two-part Forum on Not Entirely Artificial, Not That Intelligent: AI and Communication Research, moderated by Roni Danziger and Hadar Levy-Landesberg, brings together experts from diverse subfields to ask how AI is reshaping the very foundations of our discipline.
The contributors discuss AI not only as a technological innovation but also as a conceptual force that unsettles long-standing assumptions about authorship, authenticity, and the production of knowledge. Across both conversations, they show how AI enters research in three ways: as an object we study, as a tool we use, and as the cultural environment that shapes how communication unfolds.
Part I, “A Conversation on Hype, Contexts, and Practices,” explores how AI transforms research agendas and methods— spanning journalism, visual communication, media histories, diplomacy, and voice technologies. Part II, “A Conversation on Trust, Authenticity, and (Emerging) Futures,” turns to the ethical, epistemological, and political stakes of studying and living with AI. The contributors probe issues of bias, gatekeeping, and the changing conditions of trust in mediated communication.
Together, these dialogues reveal that AI is not simply automating communication or its study—it is redefining what counts as evidence, credibility, and expertise. At a time when machines increasingly participate in communication processes once considered exclusively human, this Forum demonstrates how communication research offers essential tools for distinguishing genuine transformation from inflated hype, and for tracing how familiar concerns—power, representation, trust—take new forms in an AI-driven environment.
We invite readers to reflect on how meaning is made, contested, and continually reshaped in a rapidly changing media landscape where humans and machines communicate side by side.
We invite you to read these articles that published in the International Journal of Communication on January 5, 2026. Please log into ijoc.org to read the papers of interest. We look forward to your feedback!
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Not Entirely Artificial, Not That Intelligent| AI and Communication Research: A Conversation on Trust, Authenticity, and (Emerging) Futures (Part 1)
Roni Danziger, Hadar Levy-Landesberg, Aya Yadlin, Ido Ramati, Lidor Ivan, Ilan Manor
Not Entirely Artificial, Not That Intelligent| AI and Communication Research: A Conversation on Trust, Authenticity, and (Emerging) Futures (Part 2)
Roni Danziger, Hadar Levy-Landesberg, Aya Yadlin, Ido Ramati, Lidor Ivan, Ilan Manor
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Silvio Waisbord, Editor
Kady Bell-Garcia, Managing Editor
Chi Zhang, Managing Editor, Special Sections
Andrew Taylor, Webmaster
Roni Danziger and Hadar Levy-Landesberg, Guest Editors
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USC Annenberg Press 