ABSTRACT

The coronavirus pandemic is a unique context that can allow researchers to address boundary conditions. This essay details four different types of boundary conditions and emphasizes they are not created equal. A review of pandemic-related research published in nine communication journals reveals a relative dearth of studies exploring moderation-based effects, with even fewer of the proposed conditional relationships stemming from pandemic-driven rationales. A series of pandemic-as-boundary condition arguments are offered for three theories or models used within the field’s extant pandemic-related research. The proposed insights offered by a pandemic-as-boundary-condition approach are shown to be unique accompaniments to the field’s dominant research agendas. The essay closes with a call for a more systematic approach to identifying, testing, and assessing boundary conditions .

摘要

冠状病毒大流行是一个独特的背景，可以让研究人员解决边界条件。本文详细介绍了四种不同类型的边界条件，并强调它们并非生来平等。对发表在 9 种传播期刊上的与流行病相关的研究的回顾表明，探索基于缓和效应的研究相对缺乏，而基于流行病驱动的理论提出的条件关系则更少。为该领域现有的大流行相关研究中使用的三种理论或模型提供了一系列以大流行为边界条件的论据。以流行病为边界条件的方法所提出的见解被证明是该领域主要研究议程的独特伴奏。这篇文章最后呼吁采用更系统的方法来识别、测试、