Four decades of biological measurement advancing mediated communication theory: a review of literature from 1980–2020.

This article reviews 135 peer-reviewed studies from 1980 to 2020 published in six major communication journals that employed biological measures—such as EEG, fMRI, heart rate, electrodermal activity, and facial electromyography—to advance theories about mediated communication. Through qualitative analysis, seven key theoretical frameworks were identified: desensitization, selective exposure and mood management, the General Aggression Model (GAM), excitation transfer theory (ETT), theories of absorption (including flow, presence, and narrative engagement), limited capacity models of motivated mediated message processing (LC3MP and LC4MP), and theories of virality and message effectiveness. The review highlights how these biological measures have contributed to understanding cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to media content, illustrating the integration of psychophysiological and neuroscientific methods as established tools in media psychology research. The authors provide an open-access corpus and encourage further systematic analyses while acknowledging limitations related to journal selection and theoretical categorization.