What shapes what we know about emoji communication? A structural topic model of thematic evolution and institutional forces

Emoji are a central resource for nonverbal expression in digital communication, yet the research landscape remains fragmented and has never been computationally mapped. This study applies structural topic modeling to 937 emoji articles indexed in Web of Science, identifying latent topics and modeling the effects of publication year, region, funding, and collaboration type on topic prevalence. Twelve distinct topics emerged spanning communicative functions, cognitive processing, social media discourse, and health communication. Covariate analyses revealed that institutional forces systematically shape the field: marketing and education topics are rising while food and sensory science is declining; funded research is associated with applied rather than humanistic topics; and single-authored work concentrates on theoretical analysis. We propose the Encoding–Decoding–Impact framework, organizing the literature along the communicative arc from cue production through interpretation to downstream effects. This framework exposes how the field’s trajectory is shaped not only by intellectual priorities but by the political economy of knowledge production.