Beyond the Laboratory: Introducing High-Throughput Communication Science

To examine causal mechanisms specified by theory, communication researchers draw on a diverse methodological toolkit (e.g., surveys, experiments, computational methods). These tools, however, are often implemented in isolation and yield results that are difficult to integrate. Here we propose high-throughput communication science, an integrative agenda that combines rich, temporally sensitive, and ecologically valid multimodal data streams with Marr’s tri-level framework to reveal multilevel and reciprocal causal dynamics inherent to communication theories. Accordingly, we offer a roadmap for empirically implementing high-throughput communication science and highlight the broad utility of this approach across multiple communication subfields. In doing so, we map a path forward that better captures the complex, multilevel, and reciprocal causal mechanisms inherent to human communication.

Kee, R., & Huskey, R. (2026). Beyond the Laboratory: Introducing High-Throughput Communication Science. MediArXiv. https://doi.org/10.33767/osf.io/gtqw2_v1
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