Review of Communication

Human-Machine Communication: Perceiving and Interacting with Machine Agents

Human–machine communication (HMC) scholarship focuses on communication between humans and technologies that enact communicative agency, emphasizing how people perceive, interact, and make sense of machines as social actors. As intelligent technologies increasingly engage with people in relational, educational, and professional contexts, understanding machines as communicative agents has become a critical area of inquiry in communication research.

This themed issue of Review of Communication seeks to advance HMC scholarship by bringing together empirical research that investigates how people perceive and interact with machine agents across diverse communication contexts. Although we recognize that machines can function in multiple roles, this issue places particular emphasis on machines operating as agents rather than merely as tools.

We invite full-length empirical research grounded in social scientific approaches that advance HMC scholarship across diverse communication contexts. Example areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

·        AI companions and social robots

·        Virtual influencers and digital personas

·        Robot or AI teachers in educational settings

·        Robot or AI health professionals in healthcare contexts

Submissions may employ quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches and should offer theoretical, methodological, or empirical contributions to the study of human–machine communication.