Autumn Edwards
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3844202 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Autumn Edwards |
| NOMBRES | Autumn |
| APELLIDO | Edwards |
| FIRMA | EDWARDS A |
| AFILIACIONES | Western Michigan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5963-197X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 38 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 69 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 38 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2004 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Social Robots and the Dialectics of Presence and Absence
Social robots function as embodied social media, structuring interaction by simultaneously acting as social agents and mediating technologies. This study examines how 103 young adult participants engaged with zoomorphic social robots in initial encounters, revealing dialectical tensions between presence and absence, connection and disconnection, and realism and artificiality. Drawing from relational dialectics theory (RDT) and semiotics, we frame…
How scientists study innovations on the background of a systematic review in an emerging field of research
This study investigates the interdisciplinary approach scientists took to study Amazon’s Alexa in the initial phase of its diffusion, based on a systematic review of research spanning six years (2017–2022). We examined the scope and diversity of the first authors and their methodological strategies across 180 selected studies from fields like communication, information science, health, and engineering. The findings reveal a robust interdisciplina…
The Epistemic Power of Human-Machine Communication
This editorial introduces Volume 12 of Human–Machine Communication by positioning communicative machines as epistemic provocateurs that unsettle inherited distinctions among agency, meaning, and relation. Rather than treating these disruptions as anomalies to be resolved, the editorial argues that Human–Machine Communication (HMC) is distinctively equipped to register, analyze, and sustain such epistemological tensions. Drawing on philosophical t…
Technological affordances, low-power AI, and climate justice among the Ogiek in Kenya’s Mau forest
In regions with unreliable electricity and limited Internet access, low- power AI tools offer scalable solutions for low-bandwidth environments. In Kenya’s Mau Forest, AI-generated SMS messages on low-power feature phones offer possibilities for advancing climate justice for Ogiek Indigenous people. Through interviews, focus group discussions, and direct observation, the study examined how low-power AI SMS systems can be integrated with Indigenou…
Being and Becoming in Human-Machine Communication
This introduction traces the emergence of Human-Machine Communication (HMC) as a distinct field centered on communication across ontological boundaries. Arguing that HMC is not merely about interacting with machines but about how communicative presence and legitimacy are constituted, the authors introduce the Act–Mean–Relate (AMR) paradigm to conceptualize how machines’ capacity for action, signification, and relation enable communication. HMC ch…
Making sense of the role of ChatGPT in education
This article investigates the diffusion and adoption of ChatGPT among college students from a multinational convenience sample, informed by the scholarly literature on the diffusion and progressive appropriation of ChatGPT by students and teachers within the education sector and the strategies adopted by academic institutions. We applied a figurational approach to this study, offering two theses that try to understand the societal meaning of Chat…
AI and human generation of classroom content
When it comes to controversial topics in higher education, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the spotlight lately. Discourse among faculty and students can be found in no shortage, but rarely is anyone focused on how it may impact how we perceive those who employ it rather than how it will change the system as we know it. This study examined adult learners’ perceptions of class instructors who incorporate AI-generated content within lectures…
Introduction
This special issue aims to illuminate women’s contributions throughout history by using gender as a critical lens in internet historiography and challenging the dominance of male-centered narratives. In the introduction, we contextualize the socio-cultural moment in which this issue was conceived and outline its dual focus. First, we reconstruct women’s contributions to the history of the Internet. Second, we examine gender identity and the role …
Grooming an ideal chatbot by training the algorithm
Replika, a social chatbot advertised as a continually evolving AI companion, has sparked debates on its potential effects. To understand users’ attitudes and behavior, we conducted a digital ethnography on a pioneer online community related to Replika, through the lens of immaterial labor and AI imaginary. Our analysis revealed that Replika users invest a significant amount of intellectual and affective resources into the chatbot through algorith…
The Perturbing Mediatization of Voice-based Virtual Assistants
This study examines the role of voice-based assistants (VBAs), specifically Alexa, in the mediatization paradigm framework. The authors hypothesize that emerging technologies such as chatbots and VBAs intensify the process of online meta-reintermediation of news. Three research questions were investigated through a questionnaire administered to 655 university students in the US and Italy: Do participants try to get news from Alexa? Are participan…
Credibility and altered communication styles of AI graders in the classroom
Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web. A roundtable at the SHOT 2023 conference
The co-editors of this special issue—Janet Abbate, Autumn Edwards, Leopoldina Fortunati, along with Valérie Schafer, a co-editor of the journal—launched an open call for organizing a roundtable during the SHOT 2023 conference, in which they invited scholars to delve deeper into the multifaceted sources, approaches, and methodologies related to Gender in the history of the Internet and the Web. This edited transcription of the roundtable presents …
Defining Dialogues
This introduction to the volume discusses the evolving field of Human-Machine Communication (HMC), drawing on insights from the philosophy of science. We explore critical debates in the field, underscoring the importance of challenging assumptions, embracing interfield work, and fostering dialogue in shaping our understanding of HMC. Moreover, we celebrate the vibrant collaboration between disciplines that drives progress in HMC. This piece serve…
When in doubt, lay it out
Framing the Psycho-Social and Cultural Aspects of Human-Machine Communication
In this introduction to the fourth volume of the journal Human-Machine Communication, we present and discuss the nine articles selected for inclusion. In this essay, we aim to frame some crucial psychological, sociological, and cultural aspects of this field of research. In particular, we situate the current scholarship from a historical perspective by (a) discussing humanity’s long walk with hybridity and otherness, at both the cultural and indi…
Gender and Human-Machine Communication
In this introduction to the fifth volume of the journal Human-Machine Communication, we present and discuss the five articles focusing on gender and human-machine communication. In this essay, we will analyze the theme of gender, including how this notion has historically and politically been set up, and for what reasons. We will start by considering gender in in-person communication, then we will progress to consider what happens to gender when …
Do People Perceive Alexa as Gendered? A Cross-Cultural Study of People’s Perceptions, Expectations, and Desires of Alexa
Mainly, the scholarly debate on Alexa has focused on sexist/anti-woman gender representations in the everyday life of many families, on a cluster of themes such as privacy, insecurity, and trust, and on the world of education and health. This paper takes another stance and explores via online survey methodology how university student respondents in two countries (the United States, n = 333; and Italy, n = 322) perceive Alexa’s image and gender, w…
Is Alexa female, male, or neutral? A cross-national and cross-gender comparison of perceptions of Alexa's gender and status as a communicator
Moving Ahead With Human-Machine Communication
In this essay, we introduce the 10 articles comprising Volume 2 (2021) of Human-Machine Communication, each of which is innovative and offers a substantial contribution to the field of human-machine communication (HMC). As a collection, these articles move forward the HMC project by touching on four layers of important discourse: (1) updates to theoretical frameworks and paradigms, including Computers as Social Actors (CASA; Nass et al., 1996), (…
The Space Between
Cues delivered by agents are known to trigger mental shortcuts associated with ontological category or the kind of thing an agent is. Two such heuristics are key to considering organic and machine agents, and result in biased evaluations: the machine heuristic (MH) (if machine, then systematic/unbiased, therefore its products are good) and the nature heuristic (NH) (if natural, then pure/innate, therefore good). As machine agents such as robots a…
A Robot, Meteorologist, and Amateur Forecaster Walk into A Bar
The current study examines qualitative responses from participants about their opinions on a weather forecast delivered by a professional meteorologist, an amateur meteorologist, and a social robot standing in for a meteorologist. Through thematic analyses, this study identified that people evaluated each weather forecast agent’s performance based on two major criteria: message factors and messenger factors. Two themes emerged from the category o…
The influence of agent and message type on perceptions of social support in human-machine communication
In this study, we investigated the differences in perceived competence, credibility, and social presence within socially supportive interactions (emotional or instrumental) using human, AI, and social robot actors. We further differentiated our findings by actor and type of support and found that participants thought the human and social robot differed in terms of competence but did not rate them differently on impressions of support. Our finding…
Interpersonal impressions of a social robot versus human in the context of performance evaluations
Extending previous research on the Computers Are Social Actors paradigm and the human-to-human interaction script, this study examines the interpersonal impressions of a social robot evaluator versus a human evaluator in a performance evaluation context. A between-subjects experiment was conducted to measure participants’ impressions of the credibility, task and social attractiveness, and social presence of a social robot or a human evaluator of …
“They’re always wrong anyway”
Weather-related communication lends itself well to various styles of delivery and medium. Yet, new communication technologies have changed information consumption in this domain and created changes for broadcast media. Some new media platforms allow the participation of nonprofessional (amateur) agents, whereas others, such as social robotics or chatbots, allow for the removal of a human-element entirely. As these platforms further proliferate in…
Opening Space for Theoretical, Methodological, and Empirical Issues in Human-Machine Communication
This journal offers a space dedicated to theorizing, researching empirically, and discussing human-machine communication (HMC), a new form of communication with digital interlocutors that has recently developed and has imposed the urgency to be analyzed and understood. There is the need to properly address the model of this specific communication as well as the roles, objectives, functions, experiences, practices, and identities of the interlocut…
Initial Interaction Expectations with Robots
As social robotics becomes more utilized and routine in everyday situations, individuals will be interacting with social robots in a variety of contexts. Centered on the use of human-to-human interaction scripts, the current study hypothesized that individuals would be more uncertain, have less liking and anticipate less social presence when they are told that they will be interacting with a social robot as opposed to another person. Additionally…
Initial expectations, interactions, and beyond with social robots
"Enacting "Health Communication
Based on an analysis of articles in health communication journals and in regional, national, and international communication journals, this study identifies publication trends and research priorities for health communication articles in the 1990s and the year 2000. Based on a content analysis of article abstracts, researchers determined the extent to which health communication articles appeared in various journals as well as the emphasis on speci…
The Relationship Between Individuals' Definitions of Family and Implicit Personal Theories of Communication
There is robust agreement that family is central to human experience and that communication plays a central role in family life. However, there is little lay or scholarly agreement regarding appropriate conceptualizations of “the family” or “communication.” The current study examined the relationship between individuals' definitions of family and personally held theories of communication (message design logics). Participant responses were coded i…
Computer-Mediated Word-of-Mouth Communication on RateMyProfessors.com
The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the influence of expectancies formed through computer-mediated word-of-mouth communication (WOM) on student learning. Increasingly, students rely on computer-mediated WOM through sites such as RateMyProfessors.com to aid in the process of information-gathering and course selection. It was hypothesized that students who received positive computer-mediated WOM about a course would demonstrate gre…
Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web. A roundtable at the SHOT 2023 conference
The co-editors of this special issue—Janet Abbate, Autumn Edwards, Leopoldina Fortunati, along with Valérie Schafer, a co-editor of the journal—launched an open call for organizing a roundtable during the SHOT 2023 conference, in which they invited scholars to delve deeper into the multifaceted sources, approaches, and methodologies related to Gender in the history of the Internet and the Web. This edited transcription of the roundtable presents …
"Enacting "Health Communication
Based on an analysis of articles in health communication journals and in regional, national, and international communication journals, this study identifies publication trends and research priorities for health communication articles in the 1990s and the year 2000. Based on a content analysis of article abstracts, researchers determined the extent to which health communication articles appeared in various journals as well as the emphasis on speci…
The Relationship Between Individuals' Definitions of Family and Implicit Personal Theories of Communication
There is robust agreement that family is central to human experience and that communication plays a central role in family life. However, there is little lay or scholarly agreement regarding appropriate conceptualizations of “the family” or “communication.” The current study examined the relationship between individuals' definitions of family and personally held theories of communication (message design logics). Participant responses were coded i…
Computer-Mediated Word-of-Mouth Communication on RateMyProfessors.com
The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the influence of expectancies formed through computer-mediated word-of-mouth communication (WOM) on student learning. Increasingly, students rely on computer-mediated WOM through sites such as RateMyProfessors.com to aid in the process of information-gathering and course selection. It was hypothesized that students who received positive computer-mediated WOM about a course would demonstrate gre…
Confirmation and Community The Relationships between Teacher Confirmation, Classroom Community, Student Motivation, and Learning
The purpose of this study is to examine sense of classroom community as a potential mediating variable in the model of teacher communicative behaviors (teacher confirmation) to the positive student outcomes of student motivation and affective learning. Two competing models were tested for model fit: the linear-sequential model and the partial-mediator model. Results indicated that while both models achieved adequate fit, the linear-sequential mod…
Is that a bot running the social media feed? Testing the differences in perceptions of communication quality for a human agent and a bot agent on Twitter
Welcoming Our Robot Overlords
Because robots and other electronic agents perform increasingly social functions, people will soon face the possibility of more frequent human–robot interactions. But what kinds of expectations do people bring with them into these potential interactions? Based on the possibility of a human-to-human interaction script, the current research hypothesized that people will be more uncertain about, anticipate less social attraction to, and expect less …
Initial Interaction Expectations with Robots
As social robotics becomes more utilized and routine in everyday situations, individuals will be interacting with social robots in a variety of contexts. Centered on the use of human-to-human interaction scripts, the current study hypothesized that individuals would be more uncertain, have less liking and anticipate less social presence when they are told that they will be interacting with a social robot as opposed to another person. Additionally…
Initial expectations, interactions, and beyond with social robots
Evaluations of an artificial intelligence instructor's voice
Opening Space for Theoretical, Methodological, and Empirical Issues in Human-Machine Communication
This journal offers a space dedicated to theorizing, researching empirically, and discussing human-machine communication (HMC), a new form of communication with digital interlocutors that has recently developed and has imposed the urgency to be analyzed and understood. There is the need to properly address the model of this specific communication as well as the roles, objectives, functions, experiences, practices, and identities of the interlocut…
A Bot and a Smile
Artificially intelligent (AI) agents increasingly occupy roles once served by humans in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Technological affordances like emoji give interactants (humans or bots) the ability to partially overcome the limited nonverbal information in CMC. However, despite the growth of chatbots as conversational partners, few CMC and human-machine communication (HMC) studies have explored how bots’ use of emoji impact perceptio…
I-It, I-Thou, I-Robot
As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become more common and capable interaction partners (human-machine communication; HMC), understanding how people perceive and interact with them becomes increasingly important to study. This essay argues that one important avenue for this study is the application of relevant interpersonal and computer-mediated communication (CMC) theories. The paper suggests that these theories are relevant because the…
The Social Pragmatics of Communication with Social Robots
I-It, I-Thou, I-Robot
Moving Ahead With Human-Machine Communication
In this essay, we introduce the 10 articles comprising Volume 2 (2021) of Human-Machine Communication, each of which is innovative and offers a substantial contribution to the field of human-machine communication (HMC). As a collection, these articles move forward the HMC project by touching on four layers of important discourse: (1) updates to theoretical frameworks and paradigms, including Computers as Social Actors (CASA; Nass et al., 1996), (…
The Space Between
Cues delivered by agents are known to trigger mental shortcuts associated with ontological category or the kind of thing an agent is. Two such heuristics are key to considering organic and machine agents, and result in biased evaluations: the machine heuristic (MH) (if machine, then systematic/unbiased, therefore its products are good) and the nature heuristic (NH) (if natural, then pure/innate, therefore good). As machine agents such as robots a…
A Robot, Meteorologist, and Amateur Forecaster Walk into A Bar
The current study examines qualitative responses from participants about their opinions on a weather forecast delivered by a professional meteorologist, an amateur meteorologist, and a social robot standing in for a meteorologist. Through thematic analyses, this study identified that people evaluated each weather forecast agent’s performance based on two major criteria: message factors and messenger factors. Two themes emerged from the category o…
The influence of agent and message type on perceptions of social support in human-machine communication
In this study, we investigated the differences in perceived competence, credibility, and social presence within socially supportive interactions (emotional or instrumental) using human, AI, and social robot actors. We further differentiated our findings by actor and type of support and found that participants thought the human and social robot differed in terms of competence but did not rate them differently on impressions of support. Our finding…
Interpersonal impressions of a social robot versus human in the context of performance evaluations
Extending previous research on the Computers Are Social Actors paradigm and the human-to-human interaction script, this study examines the interpersonal impressions of a social robot evaluator versus a human evaluator in a performance evaluation context. A between-subjects experiment was conducted to measure participants’ impressions of the credibility, task and social attractiveness, and social presence of a social robot or a human evaluator of …
“They’re always wrong anyway”
Weather-related communication lends itself well to various styles of delivery and medium. Yet, new communication technologies have changed information consumption in this domain and created changes for broadcast media. Some new media platforms allow the participation of nonprofessional (amateur) agents, whereas others, such as social robotics or chatbots, allow for the removal of a human-element entirely. As these platforms further proliferate in…
Framing the Psycho-Social and Cultural Aspects of Human-Machine Communication
In this introduction to the fourth volume of the journal Human-Machine Communication, we present and discuss the nine articles selected for inclusion. In this essay, we aim to frame some crucial psychological, sociological, and cultural aspects of this field of research. In particular, we situate the current scholarship from a historical perspective by (a) discussing humanity’s long walk with hybridity and otherness, at both the cultural and indi…
Gender and Human-Machine Communication
In this introduction to the fifth volume of the journal Human-Machine Communication, we present and discuss the five articles focusing on gender and human-machine communication. In this essay, we will analyze the theme of gender, including how this notion has historically and politically been set up, and for what reasons. We will start by considering gender in in-person communication, then we will progress to consider what happens to gender when …
Do People Perceive Alexa as Gendered? A Cross-Cultural Study of People’s Perceptions, Expectations, and Desires of Alexa
Mainly, the scholarly debate on Alexa has focused on sexist/anti-woman gender representations in the everyday life of many families, on a cluster of themes such as privacy, insecurity, and trust, and on the world of education and health. This paper takes another stance and explores via online survey methodology how university student respondents in two countries (the United States, n = 333; and Italy, n = 322) perceive Alexa’s image and gender, w…
Is Alexa female, male, or neutral? A cross-national and cross-gender comparison of perceptions of Alexa's gender and status as a communicator
Defining Dialogues
This introduction to the volume discusses the evolving field of Human-Machine Communication (HMC), drawing on insights from the philosophy of science. We explore critical debates in the field, underscoring the importance of challenging assumptions, embracing interfield work, and fostering dialogue in shaping our understanding of HMC. Moreover, we celebrate the vibrant collaboration between disciplines that drives progress in HMC. This piece serve…
Psychology (28 obras) · Computer Science (24 obras) · AI in Service Interactions (18 obras) · Social Psychology (15 obras) · Social Robot Interaction and HRI (14 obras) · Political science (12 obras) · Robot (12 obras) · Artificial Intelligence (11 obras) · Sociology (11 obras) · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI (9 obras)