As the incoming editor of The Amplifier Magazine, I sincerely hope you enjoy our Spring/Summer 2024 issue. I am indebted to the leadership and stewardship of Kathryn Stamoulis, Krishna Kumar, and all other past Amplifier editors and contributors: Thank you for more than a decade of outstanding Division 46 publications.

You are in for a treat in this timely issue. In February, Apple made headlines when it released the Vision Pro, its next-gen mixed-reality headset. If you haven’t had a chance to try it for yourself, our President-Elect, Kristian A. Alomá, provides an insightful review through the lenses of narrative psychology and consumer behavior. Then in April, many of us were traveling state lines and making glasses, cereal box viewers, or pinhole cameras to view the solar eclipse. Our Division 46 President, Grant J. Rich, gives a fascinating, sweeping history of technology as it relates to viewing the solar eclipse and its implications for humanity. Most recently, in May, OpenAI released ChatGPT 4o with improved speeds, longer text abilities, conversational speech, and support for images/video. I explore the psychology of how we interact with generative artificial intelligence in my own article. In the background of all of this, as we brace for a polarizing 2024 election, the fight against disinformation has continued. Past President Susan J. Eddington addresses this in her fantastic article on information pollution and the growing political divide.

Michael Broder, one of our 2023 award winners for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Media Psychology and Technology, provides great insight into success as a media psychologist in his cheekily titled article “Who Cares?”. Linda Sapadin provides a wonderful book review of Danny Wedding’s (another 2023 Distinguished Lifetime Contributions winner) recent 5th edition of Movies and Mental Illness.

This issue also features several critical examinations of how media and technology can be leveraged in negative ways. Chrysalis L. Wright, Salma Houlli, and Gabriela Tramonte share a compelling piece on the evolution of online hate speech. Holly Beavon dives deep into source credibility and “PSYOPS”, a US military term for psychological operations. We also have Isabelle Morley’s pointed ethical discussion of psychologists’ involvement in reality television, as well as Casie Morgan (our 2023 Student Dissertation award winner) and Lindsay Stager’s insightful article on “family influencers” on social media.

Finally, we also hear from Brian Conlan, the incoming chair of our Division’s student committee, as well as recent member news.

Enjoy!