Recent advances in AI, particularly generative large language models, enhance research efficiency through AI-augmented annotations, assisted programming, content-based file management, grammar correction, and idea generation, offering tools like Label Studio, GitHub Copilot, and BotAI for improved workflows.

Causal inference is gaining traction in communication studies, with recent studies employing methods like Difference-in-Difference, Regression Discontinuity Design, Synthetic Control Method, and Instrumental Variable to analyze communication phenomena.

Discussion on media studies theory highlights the relationship between modernity and medium, exploring perspectives from theorists like Innis, McLuhan, and Benjamin, while addressing cultural debates on high and low culture and the impact of media on society.

The concept of social capital describes the benefits individuals derive from their social relationships and interactions: resources such as emotional support, exposure to diverse ideas, and access to non-redundant information. Social capital is embedded in the structure of social networks and the location of individuals within these structures (Burt, 2005). Because social network sites (SNSs) have the potential to reshape social networks and lower the costs of communicating with (and thus contributing to and extracting benefits from) this social network, SNS use may have social capital implications. This study is among the first to explore the relationship between social capital and specific communication practices on the most popular SNS among US undergraduates, Facebook.