Work

Theory of memorable messages

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This essay forward the theory of memorable messages (ToMM), a framework useful for examining the messages that individuals remember for long periods of time (i.e., memorable messages) and their influence on identities, beliefs, and behaviors. The ToMM empowers researchers to ask how messages deemed unhelpful, harmful, or incomplete (e.g., absent) can be disrupted, or meaningfully transformed, to make room for new messages and meanings. To this aim, we first overview 40 years of atheoretical memorable messages scholarship, before detailing recent advancements in the ToMM. Next, we offer warrants for five propositions of the ToMM, aligning with metatheoretical assumptions for an interpretive approach to memorable messages scholarship. Lastly, we discuss future directions for ToMM scholarship, including opportunities to advance qualitative approaches to communication research and approach the ToMM from alternative metatheoretical perspectives.

Source: Journal of Communication

DOI: 10.1093/joc/jqaf016

Authors: Angela Cooke-Jackson, Jacqueline N Gunning, Valerie Rubinsky

Institutions: California State University Los Angeles, University of Connecticut, University of Maine at Augusta

Language: English

Topic: Communication Studies and Media

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,235

OpenAlex ID: W4410188896