New year, who 'dis? Celebrate 2026 with the first issue of Vol. 38 of Journal of Media Psychology! Newly-published articles explore #ASMR videos, eye-tracking in microtargeting, measurement of food content gratification, and #MoodEnhancement via media. econtent.hogrefe.com/toc/zmp/38/1

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Freya Sukalla 1/2: Finally, Dr. Sukalla is a dual-threat, bringing both qualitative and quantitative insights into the review process. Her own research on entertainment and engagement is so thoughtful; and she brings the same to bear when reviewing.

The JMP Home office will be closed from 24 Dec - 1 Jan (inclusive). Submissions are *always* welcomed at JMP; but during this time they may not be processed as quickly as usual. We'll work to get through our backlog in the new year, and get manuscripts processed quickly as possible.

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Gayle Stever Dr. Stever's research explores parasocial interaction, and continues to be timely and at the forefront of this increasingly-addressed phenomena. Her reviews have been essential to so many submissions, providing thoughtful insights & suggestions!

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Christine Meltzer Dr. Meltzer's work into representation in media (of politics, women, refugees, etc.) is timely and thoughtful. That keen scholarly brings important insights into how messages are structured & influence when reviewing for JMP.

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Ulrike Schwertberger Dr. Schwertberger regualrly demonstrates her astute and scholarly view and support of manuscripts. Providing astute insights thanks to her own work in linguistics and activism & hate speech, we're grateful for her expertise. Thank you!

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Melanie C. Green Dr. Green 's is a paragon of media psychology; and as such we at JMP are always honored to have her insights as a reviewer. She always provides insightful theoretical and methodological reflections on works, being a critical-yet-collegial reviewer.

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Rebecca Frazer Dr. Frazer's work looks at narratives: How people process stories. But her reviews go so far beyond the narrative of a manuscript, carefully considering the theoretical and empirical underpinnings and contributions. From JMP, thank you!

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Morgan Ellithorpe Dr. Ellithorpe's own excellent scholarship into the use and effects of media technologies on/for social support and problematic effects is recognized global. As a reviewer, she offers deep and nuanced insights into submissions. Thank you!

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Tobias Dienlin Dr. Dienlin has one of the most amazingly deep understandings of statistical analyses and reporting on JMP's impressive roster of reviewers. Combine that with his own stellar work on privacy and well-being, and his excellent reviews are unsurprising.

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Kevin Koban With deep probes into the theoretical mechanisms underlying many media psychology phenomena--especially in HMC and algorithmic curation--Dr. Koban's the reviewer you want considering your piece: Thoughtful, astute, and precise comments. Thank you!

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Elizabeth Cohen Dr. Cohen was an indispensable reviewer this year. Parasocial communication and studies of fandom have been increasingly focal in JMP submissions; and at the forefront of both of these areas, her reviews have been indispensable. Thank you!

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Johanna Börsting Dr. Börsting was one of the backbones of JMP reviewing in 2025. Her expertise in privacy and privacy management online was essential to so many submissions. Thank you for being such an asset and contributor to JMP--especially in 2025!

Distinguished Reviewer of 2025 - Nicola Döring Dr. Döring provided so many high-quality reviews this past year. A powerhouse in media psychology, Dr. Döring studies gender & sexuality and health & well-being, particularly within digital and mobile technologies. Thank you for being such an asset!

Each year, JMP relies on hundreds of reviewers to share of their time and expertise to facilitate the peer review process. At the end the year, JMP editors review the years' reviewers and vote on Distinguished Reviewers, based on the rigor, timeliness , and collegial nature of the reviews provided.

As 2025 draws to a close, so too does our new Editor's (@CalebTCarrPhD) first quarter. Here are the metrics for submissions and average timelines for JMP in Q4 2025. Numbers are still looking good; and we continue to want to see *your* great work at JMP in 2026 and beyond!

Volume 37, Issue 6 is now out! Included in our latest is a special section including articles from the 2025 Moral Media Conference. Articles address ChatGPT-generated stories, smoking campaign messaging, and language driving USA tensions toward China. econtent.hogrefe.com/toc/zmp/37/6

Now that your #ICA26 submissions are in, what do you do with them? JMP is always looking for submissions that advance our understanding of "how human beings select, use, and experience various media..and...can affect their cognitions, emotions, and behaviors." www.hogrefe.com/us/journal/j...

Meet our new Editorial Assistant, Ellanore Foltz! Ellanore is a second-year graduate student in the school of communication master’s program at Illinois State U, and they started working as JMP's editorial assistant in September. Submitters will encounter Ellanore for intial manuscript processing.

An enthusiastic welcome to JMP's newest Associate Editor, Dr. Rachel Bailey! The James E. Kirk Professor of Communication at Florida State University, Dr. Bailey's research is "rooted in biological and evolutionary perspectives," typically focusing on media in the health context.

One of JMP's Associate Editors, Dr. @bradleyjbond.bsky.social, was recently interviewed about his work in parasocial mediated relationships for a new article in The Atlantic. Check it out via the link below! www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/...

We're back, baby! After an editorial handoff, JMP is now back at full strength; and eager for *YOUR* submission. We'll be posting more shortly; but in the meantime, our great appreciation to Nick Bowman for situating JMP so wonderfully during his tenure.

From Monday 21 July to Friday 16 August, Journal of Media Psychology will be taking our annual Summer Pause while we shift towards the upcoming academic year, as well as transition the journal's editorship from @bowmanspartan.bsky.social to @calebtcarrphd.bsky.social.

Peer review stats, from May-June 2025. Holding stead with just under 30 days for initial reviews. Desk rejects are still quite high (around 66%). Other questions? Reach us at our new address: [email protected]. We're moving our Editorship to @calebtcarrphd.bsky.social. WOO!

We're thrilled to announce that for 2024, @jmp-hogrefe.bsky.social saw more than a 33% increase in citations to published manuscripts. Accordingly, our updated Impact Factor is 2.4 (5-year 2.3). Thanks to our readers, editors, and the many scholars who call JMP home. =)

Hello, folks! A quick note that we're out at #ICA25 in Denver next week, so we'll not be processing manuscripts during that time. If you're feeling a bit anxious, feel free to reach out to EiC @bowmanspartan.bsky.social - or enjoy one of our favorite songs this week: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOS5...

Heading to #ICA25 in a few weeks? Check out one of the many panel discussions and research presentations from our team of JMP editors, all scheduled for the conference: docs.google.com/document/d/1.... Very eager to join yet another @icahdq.bsky.social in Denver. =)

Amidst all of this, @jacobtfisher.online & I have a new paper in @jmp-hogrefe.bsky.social! We discuss theoretical, methodological, & practical concerns with the media multitasking (MMT) index & lay out an agenda for better research on MMT 📄 doi.org/10.1027/1864... 📝 OA osf.io/preprints/ps...

We're about one month out #ICA25, and we're proud to share that our JMP editorial team will have several different presentations - over 20, in total! Check out this interactive schedule, and if you're attending ICA, pop by to see their work-in-progress. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Our latestly bimonthly Journal Accountability Report is up! We're slightly quicker these last two months, but some of that is due to a much higher desk-reject rate of nearly 73%. What's leading to desk rejects? A mix of lack-of-fit with a lot of causal analyses (i.e., SEM) or correlational data.

Folks often ask, "is it okay to ask the editors a question?" The answer is YES. Yes it is. If you're unsure, reach out at [email protected]. This even goes for editorial decisions. We get it: we reject 90% of manuscripts. If you'd like more information - or maybe you just want to vent - it's okay. =)

Soon? We'll be transitioning our editorship and thus, our editorial offices to a new Editor-in-Chief. It's been announced in passing elsewhere, but we're thrilled to note that as of Fall 2025, Dr. Caleb Carr (Illinois State U, USA) is our new editor. =)

The last category of reviewers we would like to recognize is “Editor’s Choice of the Year.”

Last but certainly not least...our final "Reviewer of the Year" is Douglas Parry (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)!

Continuing one with our “Reviewers of the Year,”... @anneo.bsky.social (University of Connecticut, USA) is next!

Moving right along with our next "Reviewer of the Year", Freya Sukalla (Leipzig University, Germany). She’s been one of our most reliable and robust peer commentators, who is especially keen to catching the “small-yet-critical” details of a theoretical argument or study design.

Next up, @tobiasdienlin.com (University of Zurich, Switzerland). #JMP wants to thank him for “pushing the boundaries of open science and advocate for greater transparency and openness.” We believe the authors are appreciative of making the peer review process more of an open dialogue.

Morning, folks! Check out our new open science badging format, which you'll start seeing on manuscripts in the coming weeks. It's a bit more "clean" of a design, placing the badges along with other disclosures in the manuscript. Sneak peek, below!

#JMP highlighted outstanding reviewers last week... we still have more to highlight! We will spotlight five "Reviewers of the Year" below, all were nominated by more than one of our editors.

#JMP would like to give a big congratulations to our “Outstanding Reviewers” of 2024. Our editors hand-selected these reviewers based on their quality and utility for our editors and our authors. For 2024, eighteen people were selected, below!

And our final competitively selected paper? “The Ecology Determinants of Morality: A Global Analysis of News Media Content” by Musa Malik, Kylie Falcione, Brittany Wheeler, & Rene Weber (all based at UC Santa-Barbara). #JMPxMMC

Hello, folks! Now that several major academic conference deadlines have passed, #JMP is receiving a large uptick in submissions. This means that our processing times might be a bit slower over the next few weeks.

Next up? “The Effectiveness of Moral Appeals within Pictorial Tobacco Control Messages: Comparing American and Chinese Smokers” by Thomas H. Zhang, Xiaohui Cao, Yidi Wang, Jiaying Liu, Shiwen Wu, & Sijia Yang .#JMPxMMC

Next up? “Rival as Villain: How Moral and Threat Language in American News Coverage Influences Public Opinion about China” #JMPxMMC

First up? A study by Joshua Baldwin, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Georgia Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE), in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia. The study? “Moral Intuition and ChatGPT.” #JMPxMMC

Soon, the 8th Moral Media conference is coming up at the University at Buffalo. It's sponsored by UB’s Office of International Education, Department of Communication, and the Media Psychology & Morality Lab: moralmedia.org/annual-meeting And ... @jmp-hogrefe.bsky.social is gonna be there! #JMPxMMC

Professor Helena Bilandzic will be a keynote speaker for the Moral Media conference held in Buffalo next month (April 11-13). She is a professor of communication research at Universitat Augsburg University.

Our editorial team is based in the U.S. and will be closed for spring break from March 7, 2025 until March 14, 2025. Initial manuscript review will be delayed during this time. We will see you back in one week!

Last but certainly not least, #JMP is excited to introduce Dr. Caleb Carr, who is not only an Associate Editor, but will be #JMP's new Editor-in-Chief later this year! (@calebtcarrphd.bsky.social)

The next Associate Editor #JMP would like to introduce is Dr. Matthew Grizzard! Dr. Grizzard is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. He received his PhD in Communication with a specialization in cognitive science from Michigan State University.