Communication Theory and Methodology 2003 Abstracts
Communication Theory and Methodology Divisions
Similarities and Differences in College-Age Men’s and Women’s Responses to Alcohol Advertisements in Men’s and Women’s Magazines • Erica Weintraub Austin, Autumn Miller, Ryan Sain, Kenneth Andersen, Alina Ryabovolova, Lynne Barber, Angela Johnson, Katie Severance, Toby Beal and Cicely Clinkenbeard, Washington State • A receiver-oriented content analysis (N=321) explored the perceptions of men and women regarding advertisements for alcohol contained in the most popular men’s and women’s magazines. Each individual rated four randomly selected ads (2 from men’s magazines and 2 from women’s magazines), with a total of 32 ads rated by participants. Men found the ads targeting them more appealing while women reported the ads in men’s magazines as more offensive.
Criticism or Praise? The Impact Of Verbal Versus Text-Only Computer Feedback On Social Presence, Intrinsic Motivation, And Recall • Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Leo W. Jeffres, and Kimberly A. Neuendorf, Cleveland State • The Computers are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm asserts that human computer users interact socially with computers, and has provided extensive evidence that this is the case. In this experiment, (N= 134) participants received either praise or criticism from a computer. Independent variables were the feedback (praise or criticism), and voice (verbal or text-only). Dependent variables measured via a computer-based questionnaire were recall, perceived ability, intrinsic motivation, and perceptions of the computer as a social entity.
Processing AIDS/HIV Prevention Messages: Arousing Content, Production Pacing, and Sexual Experience • Samuel D. Bradley, James R. Angelini, Zheng Wang, and Annie Lang, Indiana • Designing effective public service announcements promoting safe-sex behavior is a challenging task. Due to the arousing, risky nature of sex, research suggests that viewers are likely to process these messages differently than other messages. An experiment was conducted wherein 75 college students were shown AIDS/HIV prevention messages. Results suggest that, as with other messages, fast production pacing increased valence. Rather than increasing self-reported arousal, however, pacing decreased the self-reported arousal.
Democratic Realism, Neoconservativism, and the Normative Underpinnings of Political Communication Research • Erik P. Bucy, Indiana and Paul D’Angelo, Albany • This paper traces the development and diffusion of four basic, normative assumptions in the political communication literature identified by Chaffee and Hochheimer (1985). We first examine how these assumptions were brought into the field by Paul Lazarsfeld and his Columbia school colleagues under the guiding principles of democratic realism, and then analyze how they continue to operate in the literature today.
Coefficient of Co-Termination • Li Cai, Ohio State • The assessment of intercoder agreement in the unitizing phase of content analyses has long been overlooked. In particular, little attention has been paid to the issue of co-termination. Although multiple-coder kappa can be used for the purpose of summarizing the agreement of co-termination, its conservativeness often results in gross underestimates. A new family of coefficients based on Multi-response Randomized Blocks Permutation procedure is presented here and numerical examples are given.
Community Level Determinants of Knowledge and Participation: Extending Knowledge Gap to Participation Gap • Jaeho Cho and Douglas M. McLeod, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper investigates the relationships between community characteristics and knowledge and participation levels examined at both the individual and community levels. This research extends knowledge gap to a parallel phenomenon, participation gag. Results from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey 2000 showed that community density, education, and cohesion were significant positive predictors of knowledge but less consistent predictors of participation at the individual level. At the community level, relationships were even stronger, though inconsistent in direction.
Pacing and Arousing Content Effects on Personal Impact, Third Person Effects and Reverse Third Person Effects of Anti-Smoking PSAs for Smokers and Non-Smokers • T. Makana Chock, Julia R. Fox, James R. Angelini, Seungjo Lee and Annie Lang, Indiana • This study found third-person effects of anti-smoking radio PSAs for smokers but reverse third-person effects for non-smokers. For smokers and non-smokers, these effects diminished with increased message pacing, as both rated others more similar to themselves in response to fast-paced PSAs compared to slow-paced PSAs. Increased message pacing resulted in greater perceived effects on self for smokers and non-smokers, although this effect was more pronounced for smokers. Fast-paced, arousing messages had the greatest personal impact.
News Values of Sports Coverage: A test of the Newsworthiness Model on the World Cup Coverage • Yun Jung Choi, Jong Hyuk Lee and Cheolhan Lee, Missouri at Columbia • The purpose of this study is to test the international newsworthiness model of Shoemaker, Danielian, and Brendlinger (1991) in sports coverage. The World Cup held in Korea and Japan was selected as the topic. To test the hypothesis, significance and deviance points of the World Cup matches were operationally defined based on the FIFA ranking points, William Hill betting points, and CNN power ranking, and then these statistics were compared with the coverage.
Using Computerized Content Analysis to Measure Affective Tone: An Amplification of “Sensationalism” by Comparing the Tonal Values of the New York Times to the New York Post Using Whissell’s Dictionary of Affect in Language • Paul Crandon and John Lombardi, North Alabama • This study introduces an innovation content analysis method that incorporates both computerized database processing and traditional semantic differential scaling. The researchers looked for evidence of sensationalism by examining headlines and leads from the New York Times and the New York Post. The two newspapers were compared using Whissell’s Dictionary of Affect in Language and an accompanying software system. Results found significant differences between the two sources, establishing further validation of the instrument itself.
Completeness, Web Use Motivation, and Credibility • Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman, Purdue • Recent articles on the quality of health information on the Internet reveal two critical criteria: completeness and credibility. This paper investigates the effect of web use motivation on the relationship between completeness and credibility. Based on a 2×3 experiment conducted with 246 respondents, the paper demonstrates that the extent of completeness of health information on the Internet impacts consumer assessment of source and website credibility.
Understanding the Relationship Between News Use and Political Knowledge: A Model-Comparison Approach Using Panel Data • William P. Eveland, Jr., Ohio State; Andrew F. Hayes; Dhavan V. Shah, Wisconsin-Madison and Nojin Kwak, Michigan • The purpose of this study was to examine more closely the assumptions of causality in research on learning from news. We collected panel data on a national sample in June and November 2000. We employed a model comparison approach to identify the best fitting model among alternatives that included models of unidirectional and reciprocal causality. The data are most consistent with a model of causality that is unidirectional running from T2 news use to T2 political knowledge.
Minority TV Portrayals, Regional Factors & Opinions on Affirmative Actions: An Affective Model of Policy Reasoning • Yuki Fujioka, Georgia State and Alexis S. Tan, Washington State • The self-administered survey of 360 white respondents in South East (n=360) and 237 white respondents in North West examined (a) regional differences in racial attitudes; and (b) influence of news media on African American stereotypes and opinions on affirmative action. Based upon the power-threat hypothesis and contact hypothesis, the study hypothesized and found that whites in South had more negative racial attitudes than whites in North West.
Cognitive Access to New and Traditional Media: Evidence from Different Strata or the Social Order • Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Indiana • The study reported here experimentally investigated the cognitive access and emotional responses of news consumers across demographic (low and high education groups) and media channel (newspaper, television, and the Web) variables. Contrary to what most channel studies have reported, television, not newspapers, emerged as the most user-friendly medium with the highest probability of providing cognitive access to news information, particularly to subjects in the lower education group.
Responding to Banner Animation: An Application of the Visual Search Paradigm • Nokon Heo, Central Arkansas • This study investigates the effect of banner animation on search-reaction time. All subjects (N = 29) in a 2 (Animation Type) x 3 (Banner Type) x 4 (Distractor Number) within-subjects factorial experiment were participated in a Web banner search task. Each subject completed a total of 72 trials. In each trial, the subject was shown a target banner and asked to search the target in the mist of distractors that were arrayed in a subsequent display.
Inside or Outside of Democracy? Political Socialization of Adolescents Within The Culture of Poverty • Edward M. Horowitz, Johan Wanstrom and Kimberly Parker, Oklahoma • This study investigates political socialization among adolescents in poor inner city communities. These adolescents live in a distinct culture different from the politically dominant upper and middle class cultures. Results indicate that these adolescents are dependent on the educational level of their parents (which often is low) and what they learn from the official school curriculum. The specific environment gives these adolescents few opportunities to learn the cultural capital necessary to understand and function in the political process.
Community and Civic Values, Communication, and Social Capital “Bowling Alone” as a Product of Values and Communication • Leo W. Jeffres, Jae-won Lee, Kimberly Neuendorf and David Atkin, Cleveland State • When Putman (1995) focused attention on a decline in organizational involvement, he renewed interest in community activities and their consequences for civic life. Since civic involvement occurs at the most “local” level, the community and neighborhood have emerged as contexts for examining “social capita” and processes involved in its decline or direction. This paper examines relationships between civic and community values, communication variables and community variable that include social capital, community attachment and identity, using data from a survey conducted in a Midwest metro area in the summer of 2001.
Perceived Interactivity and Cognitive Involvement: A Protocol Analysis of User Experience on A Web Portal with Multimedia Features • Yan Jin and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri-Columbia • This protocol analysis investigates how the most recent developed conceptualization and dimensional definition of perceived interactivity may move beyond advertising effectiveness and fit into Web portal with multimedia features. Portal users’ thoughts on active control, two-way communication, synchronicity as well as vividness were observed and categorized into different cognitive involvement levels. As a result, synchronicity turned out to be the most weighted dimensions, followed by vividness and active control. Two-way communication seemed not a strong indicator of portal interactivity.
The World Wide Web of Sports: A Path Model Examining How Online Gratifications and Reliance Predict Credibility of Online Sports Information • Thomas J. Johnson, Southern Illinois and Barbara K. Kaye, Tennessee • This study surveyed sports enthusiasts online to examine the impact of Internet gratifications and other factors on judgments of online credibility. Being motivated to go online for information and for entertainment were the strongest predictors of credibility of online sports sources. Reliance on traditional media and age were the only other consistent predictors of online credibility, with young, heavy media users rating the Internet as a credible source of sports information.
Gateways, Billboards, Communities, Niches, or Brands: A Concept Explication of Web Portals for Communication Research • Sriram Kalyanaraman and S.Shyam Sundar, Penn State • Web portals are increasing in their presence as well as importance, yet suffer from lack of conceptual clarity. In explicating the concept of portals from a number of disciplinary frameworks, this paper discovers five different, but inter-related, metaphorical conceptions—gateways, billboards, communities, niches, and brands—which, in turn, suggest five dominant features of portal sites — customization, content, control, community, and commerce—for empirical examination as variables in future research on uses and effects of portals.
News Framing of Civic Liberties Restrictions: Conditional Effects on Security Concerns and Tolerance Judgments • Heejo Keum, Elliott Hillback, Hernando Rojas, Tom Hove, Homero Gil de Zuniga, Abhiyan Humane, Mark Heather, Dhavan V. Shah and Douglas M. McLeod, Wisconsin-Madison • We examine framing effects on political tolerance. Using an online survey experiment, we presented alternative versions of a news story concerning government restrictions on an activist group. We manipulated whether the activists backed a cause supported or opposed by the respondent and whether the story framed civil liberties restrictions at the individual or group level. We find individual story frames polarize responses, leading to less support for least-liked groups and more support for most-liked groups.
Deindividuated Individuals?: Ethnographic Study of A Virtual Community • Junghyun Kim, Michigan State • This is a study about how two unique characteristics of virtual communities – the lack of social context cues and group environments – may affect the individuals’ interpersonal interaction as well as collective behaviors in virtual communities. From an ethnographic study, this paper found out that individuals in virtual communities behaved in congruent with their unique community norms with extreme loyalty toward their communities, and that they had hyperpersonal interactions with ingroup members.
Thrilling News, Factors Generating Suspense During News Exposure • Silvia Knobloch, Dmitri Williams, Michigan and Caterina Keplinger, Dresden University of Technology • Hypotheses on reactions to news were derived from Zillmann’s model of fictional drama. German participants read news stories manipulated for affective disposition toward actors and likelihood of negative outcome. Measures of suspense, reading appreciation, lingering interest, information evaluation, and mood were collected. A positive disposition toward protagonists and a perceived high likelihood of a negative outcome increased suspense while attending to news. A positive disposition led to higher reading appreciation, more interest, and better information evaluations.
Talking Politics and Engaging Politics: An Examination of The Interactive Relationships Between Structural Features of Political Talk and Discussion Engagement • Nojin Kwak, Ann Williams, Xiaoru Wang, Hoon Lee, Michigan • This study takes a process-oriented approach to understand the current status of political discussion research and identifies discussion engagement-discussion attention and integrative discussion-as an unexplored, but important, facet of political discussion. We find that discussion engagement enhances the impact that interpersonal talk has on politics, beyond what frequently employed measures of structural features of discussion network-size, frequency, and heterogeneity-yield.
Relationship between Sensation Seeking Tendency and Substance Use: Refining the Measure of Rebelliousness for Substance Use Research • Moon J. Lee, Washington State • This study reviewed a history of developing a theoretical framework of sensation-seeking tendency and addressed the critical issues involved in substance use research in regard to the sensation-seeking scale (SSS). An attempt was made to examine the existing sensation-seeking scale to better capture Disinhibition, one of the four factors in SSS that exhibit a high correlation with substance use. An exploratory factor analysis of the existing items with newly added items indicates one factor solution.
Interaction As A Unit Of Analysis For Interactive Media Research: A Conceptualization • Joo-Hyun Lee and Hairong Li, Michigan State • This conceptual paper proposes interaction as a unit of analysis in interactive media research. Ambiguity of interactivity as a core concept has been identified. With a delineation of the similarities and differences among interactivity, reaction, and interaction, this paper presents a new definition of interaction. The superiority of the interaction concept over interactivity is explained, along with the antecedents and consequences. Research propositions and hypotheses are proposed for use of interaction in future interactive media research.
Population Validity and Subject Selection Bias in Eight Marketing and Mass Communication Journals: A Critical Review • Dennis T. Lowry and Katherine H. Sundararaman, Southern Illinois Carbondale • A probability sample of 508 empirical articles from four prestigious marketing journals and four prestigious mass communication journals from 1991 through 2000 were evaluated to determine the population validity and subject selection bias of the studies. Both disciplines used a preponderance (59.3%) of non-probability samples, and one-third of the articles did not report sufficient sampling procedures to permit replication. A majority of studies did not report sampling completion rates; only 3.4% of the studies reported margin of error information.
How General Principles of Organization Theory Explain Gatekeeping Decisions About News: A Revised View of the Field• Hugh J. Martin, Georgia • Mass communication hypotheses about gatekeeping do not provide a coherent explanation of organizational influences. General theories define organizations as collections of individuals working toward a common goal. This view focuses on the processes that organizations develop, and the internal and external variables that influence the outcome of those processes. These principles are used to develop alternative models of news selection. New propositions about news selection are derived from these models.
Self-Esteem, Self-Affirmation And Threats To Self-Worth: Testing A Motivational Explanation For The Third-Person Effect • Patrick C. Meirick, Oklahoma • The self-enhancement explanation for third-person effects argues that perceiving oneself as resistant to media messages enhances one’s self-esteem. The need to self-enhance can be increased by threats to self-worth or reduced by self-affirmation (Steele, 1988). In Study One, third-person effects did not vary by threat condition or by self-esteem, although those high in self-esteem perceived smaller effects on themselves and others. In Study Two, third-person effects were smaller among those whose self-worth was affirmed.
Understanding Consumer Intention to Shop Online: A Comparison of Three Intention-Based Models • Jae-Jin Park and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri-Columbia • By using a sample of 733 consumers, this study employed path analysis to compare three intention-based models (i.e., the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behavior, and the technology acceptance model) in terms of the extent to which each can be used to predict and understand the consumer’s online-shopping intention. This study found that the theory of planned behavior provides a more robust theoretical basis for the study of online shopping than does the theory of reasoned action.
A Cross-Nationally Comparative Look At Agenda-Setting-The Occurrence Of Agenda-Setting Depends On The Nature Of Elite Opinion • Jochen Peter, Amsterdam • Agenda-setting research has rarely studied less frequently covered issues and seldom taken a cross-nationally comparative perspective. Focusing on the issue of European integration, this study investigated whether the amount of EU coverage in television news affected the extent to which EU citizens perceived European integration to be important. More importantly, it was studied whether the nature of elite opinion about European integration moderated the occurrence of agenda-setting effects.
None of the Above: Creating Mass Deliberation Without Discussion • Ray Pingree, Wisconsin-Madison • Deliberative democracy has been plagued by questions of implementation, due to a failure to distinguish between discussion and the more general concept of many-to-many communication. To demonstrate that this theoretical distinction is both possible and important, this paper introduces an example of an Internet-based many-to-many communication system designed to achieve deliberation’s outcomes without discussion. A broader deliberative theory is proposed, to encompass the concept of non-conversational deliberation as part of a more attainable public sphere.
Towards a Network Approach of Human Action, Theoretical concepts and empirical observations in media organizations • Thorsten Quandt, Technical University Ilmenau, Germany • This paper argues that network approaches can be helpful in describing phenomena in the media. It presents data from an empirical observation study in the newsrooms of German online media. We found surprising similarities in the coded material from this observation. This leads us to the conclusion that there are associations and sequences in human action which can be analyzed on the basis of network theory. We therefore develop a relational theory of human action.
Two Suggestions for Better Mass Communication Measurement: Remember Unidimensionality, Forget Little Jiffy • John D. Richardson and Frederick Fico, Michigan State • A review of leading mass communication journals indicates that studies introducing measures of latent constructs rarely considered unidimensionality, a critical element of construct validity. Drawing on psychometric literature, it is demonstrated that procedures commonly used to assess/develop mass communication measures, particularly Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis, do not examine whether a measure is unidimensional. Moreover, the review of prior studies also suggests widespread use of Kaiser’s “Little Jiffy,” a contraindicated combination of exploratory factor analytic techniques.
Are People Still Learning from the Media? A Review of Social Learning Theory in Mass Communication Research, 1990-2001 • Jennifer A. Robinson, Alabama • This state of the art review analyzed mass media research which utilized social learning concepts for a theoretical base. Four major research categories were revealed: direct media effects, mediators of vicarious learning, social diffusion (indirect effects), and media oriented theoretical developments. Although health campaigns and media portrayals dominate the research, there are relatively unexplored opportunities for mass media researchers to investigate mediating variables and develop new models utilizing key social cognitive theory concepts.
Emotional Intelligence, Communication, and Civic Engagement: Exploring Possibilities for Civic Renewal • Hernando Rojas, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper integrates emotional intelligence (EI), an ability to recognize and regulate emotions, in a model that predicts civic engagement, both directly and indirectly through various communication variables. In particular, the relationship of EI with media use, interpersonal discussion, and political efficacy are explored. Hypotheses where examined across two studies. Findings suggest that EI is positively related with civic engagement, news use, discussion network size, and political efficacy.
Is Herpes Entertaining? An Application Of Entertainment-Education To Text Information Processing Concerning STDs Among Adolescents • Donna Rouner and Ralf Kracke-Berndorff, Colorado State • This study examined the impact of entertainment-education strategies on audience’s (N=137) information processing regarding sexual health. The hypothesis, that higher involved audience members exposed to a statistical message would show a higher message evaluation than those exposed to an anecdotal message, was partially supported. Also, “framing” the same anecdotal message as either intended for promotion or entertainment purposes, controlling for involvement, found higher message evaluation by respondents exposed to the entertainment message.
Comparison of Computerized and Traditional Content Analysis Techniques: A Case Study of the Texas Democratic Gubernatorial Primary • Cindy Royal, Texas at Austin • In Spring 2002, a graduate seminar at a large southwestern university embarked on a project to analyze the images of political candidates in the Texas Democratic Gubernatorial Primary as found in the Austin American-Statesman. While part of the class used traditional coding techniques, other students utilized the computerized content analysis tool VBPro to analyze the same series of data. This provided a unique opportunity to compare and contrast strategies and results.
News framing of Arctic drilling and its impact on attributes salience and issue attitudes • Fuyuan Shen, Penn State • This paper explores whether news framing can alter the salience of issue attributes, and opinions. Participants were exposed to newspaper articles framing the issue of oil drilling by emphasizing its environmental consequences or economic benefits. Results indicated that news frames had a significant impact on the perceived salience of frame relevant issue attributes. Subjects reported more frame relevant thoughts and perceived frame relevant issue attributes more important.
Modeling Micro And Macro: A Multilevel Model To Predict Memory For Television Content • Brian G. Southwell, Minnesota • Whenever a study engages an array of variables that should involve different units of analysis, the risk of misleading results lurks. Questions about memory for media content, for example, invite investigation of not only variables describing individuals, but also (relatively speaking) macro-level constructs concerning content. This paper uses multilevel modeling techniques to avoid basic pitfalls and predict memory for electronic media content using data from U.S. adolescents and data regarding nationally available health campaign advertisements.
The Need For Cognition As A Moderator In The Association Between News Media Skepticism • Yariv Tsfati, University of Haifa, Israel and Joseph N. Cappella, Pennsylvania • Prior research has found only modest associations between news media trust and exposure. Many news skeptics report moderate to high levels of mainstream news exposure, despite their mistrust of mainstream news. Why do people watch news they do not trust? This study investigates the moderating role played by the psychological construct of “the need for cognition” in this association. A need for cognition by media skepticism interaction is hypothesized and tested on survey data (n = 424).
Attributions of Advertising Influence and Negative Stereotypes Among First-and Third –Person Perceptions • Don Umphery and Tom Robinson, Southern Methodist • Recent high school graduates and university seniors both judged the influence of four magazine advertisements aimed at different age groups on each other, on people in their mid-40s, and on people in their 70s. Both samples demonstrated first-person findings with advertisements for products aimed at younger people and third-person perceptions for people in their mid-40s and 70s with advertisements for products aimed at older individuals.
The Automatic Activation of Drug Attitudes: Anti-Drug Ad Viewing Styles and Strength of Association • Carson B Wagner, Texas at Austin and S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State • Strength of association (SOA) measures convey the likelihood that attitudes will activate automatically to guide behavior. Prior anti-drug ad research has shown the difficulty in demonstrating effects on SOA, but theory suggests consuming drug ads passively as opposed to scrutinizing them may result in stronger negative associations. Herein, a between-participants experiment (N = 57) explores this possibility and indicates that viewing ads less actively yields significantly more negative SOA as compared to watching effortfully.
Message Framing and Measuring Emotional Response to Islam and Terrorism: A Comparison Between Christians, Jews and Muslims • Robert H. Wicks, Arkansas • Religion, like politics and economics, has an enormous impact on the evolution of peoples, societies and nations. This study considers how members of different religions perceive and respond emotionally to televised news reports about Islam and terrorism that the media frame in various ways. The study employs emotional response procedures that are similar to Mehrabian scaling techniques. The results indicate news reports with high relevancy to members of various faiths produce feelings of hostility, anger and outrage.
Agenda-Setting Effects in the Digital Age- Refining “Need for Orientation” with “Effort Required to Attend to the Message” • Chan Yun Yoo and Gunho Lee, Texas at Austin • This study attempted (1) to examine the agenda-setting function in the new media environment, (2) to redefine the concept of need for orientation, and (3) to empirically investigate the effects of need for orientation in the agenda-setting process. By conducting an experimental study, the authors revealed that all three new sub-dimensions of need for orientation – personal involvement, knowledge, and effort required to attend to the message – played a significant role in the agenda-setting process, and especially, individual’s effort required to attend to the message moderated the agenda-setting effects.
Print friendly
