Participatory Journalism 2015 Abstracts

An examination of the sourcing behaviors of U.S. non-profit news and newspaper journalists • Serena Carpenter, MSU; Jan Hendrik Boehmer, University of Miami; Frederick Fico, Michigan State University • Sourcing practices cue readers to the extent that the organization and journalists are invested in their reporting. This research investigates how journalists represent an issue through source attribution diversity and source number measures. The results show that non-profit journalists were more likely to cite a greater number of sources in comparison to newspaper journalists. And reporters who enact the interpretative role included a greater number of sources and more diverse sources, whereas advocacy/adversarial journalists were not as likely to cite such sources. And an increase in reporter story number had a negative impact on journalists’ sourcing practices.

Predicting citizen journalism complexity: An analysis of U.S.-based editors’ definitions of citizen journalism • Deborah Chung, University of Kentucky; Seungahn Nah; Masahiro Yamamoto, University of Wisconsin-La crosse • Based on a national survey and a qualitative content analysis of responses offered by U.S. editors’ understanding of citizen journalism, we identify key ideas associated with the complexity of the concept and patterns associated with the dimensions in defining the phenomenon. Ten core citizen journalism ideas emerged in the aggregate discussion of citizen journalism. However, majority of the participants, from an individual perspective, defined the concept simplistically focusing on one-dimensional or two-dimensional definitions. Arguments based on traditional notions of journalistic professionalism and occupational values are represented alongside notions for audience collaboration and engagement. This study also uncovered variations in the extent to which citizen journalism is defined and guided by demographic variables, individual journalistic experience, and organizational characteristics.

Using Community Engagement Strategies to Assess Media Collaboration • John Hatcher; Dana Thayer, University of Minnesota Duluth • This case study uses community engagement strategies to explore how to strengthen relationships among news organizations in one media ecosystem. We employ a mixed methodological approach: We “mapped” the ecosystem, we held a community media forum, and we conducted in-depth interviews with journalists and community storytellers. Preliminary findings suggest a willingness to collaborate; however, legacy media may have more reservations about collaboration than journalists at community newspapers, public broadcasting stations and entrepreneurial startups.

“He’s a Lowlife: He Deserved to Die” vs. ##BlackLivesMatter: Citizen Framing on Twitter of African-American Males Killed by White Police Officers • Mia Moody-Ramirez, Baylor University; Hazel Cole • Using a critical race lens, this textual analysis explores user-generated content that emerged following the deaths of two African American males killed by police officers in 2014 and highlights social media’s role in contextualizing the documented “historical injustice” toward Black males in America. We argue that the “he deserved it” frame reinforced the lack of value media places on the lives of Black men, and thus leads to communities having less sympathy for them. Our findings indicate citizens marginalized Black males shot by police officers because of their race, physical size or alleged aggression. This study is significant because in each case, height, weight, the history of their drug use, performance in school and various other factors were used as a rationale for the appropriateness of killing them. Common themes were: 1) he’s a low-life who deserved to die, 2) he used drugs and is therefore guilty and 3) he was a giant, demon or criminal who could only be controlled by killing him. However, not all framing was negative, as other citizens used the platforms to respond accordingly. Findings are in line with scholarly articles on the use of social media in protests. In both cases, social media brought about an acceleration of activist communication, and greatly enhanced its visual presence.

#FergusonOctober: Gatekeeping and Civic Engagement in St. Louis News Media Tweets • Frank Michael Russell, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Anthony Roth, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Margaret Duffy, Missouri School of Journalism; Esther Thorson, Missouri School of Journalism; Heesook Choi • This quantitative content analysis explores how St. Louis news media used Twitter during a 16- day period that included #FergusonOctober protests and St. Louis Cardinals postseason baseball games. About 30% of the tweets were related to the Ferguson crisis. News organizations mostly adhered to traditional gatekeeping roles in Twitter posts (e.g., sharing links to news articles). However, some Ferguson-related posts showed media adopting Twitter practices that could advance stronger, reciprocal relationships with citizens.

Freedom from the Press? How Anonymous Gatekeepers on Reddit Covered the Boston Marathon Bombing • Melissa Suran, The University of Texas at Austin; Danielle Kilgo, The University of Texas at Austin • Social news sites are gaining prominence online. One such site – Reddit – has been recognized for effectively distributing information about current and critical events. Through examining a major incident where Reddit was acknowledged as an important informational entity, this study analyzed content posted on Reddit in order to determine whether the website, as it claims, has “freedom from the press,” or if it follows gatekeeping practices that are similar to those implemented by traditional media outlets.

Pursuing the Ideal: How news website commenting policies structure public discourse • David Wolfgang, University of Missouri • Many news organizations provide online readers an opportunity to comment on public issues in the news through a news-mediated forum for discourse. These discourse spaces are run by news organization as part of a mission to provide a public space for discourse, but are governed by a commenting policy that establishes the rules for discourse and the boundaries for acceptable behavior. These rules can help meet the ideals of public discourse or stand in the way of productive public deliberation. This study examines the commenting policies of 21 news corporations in the United States to see how the policies facilitate or inhibit the creation of a space for ideal public discourse. A constant comparative analysis of the text of the policies guided by the ideals of Habermas’ public sphere as well as the expectations of civility norms in public discourse, shows that news organizations establish rules to protect respectful and egalitarian spaces for the public, but fail to meet other critical needs of public discourse, including rationality, tolerance, reflexivity, and the pursuit of common understanding and solutions. The implications of these findings are further explored and possible objectives for news organizations are provided.

Positioning Journalism Within Networks: Conceptualizing and Operationalizing ‘Connective Journalism’ Through Syrian Citizen Journalists • Mohammad Yousuf, University of Oklahoma; Maureen Taylor • As the news industry changes, new models are emerging. This paper explores network journalism (connective journalism) and shows how citizen journalists in Syria are embodying the network journalism model. The paper identifies three major concepts of connective journalism: engagement with social networks, negotiation, and maintaining a connection with norms and values of journalism. Through a case study of Damascus Bureau.org, we show that connective journalism is a viable model for citizens to tell their community’s story to each other and the world. This paper contributes to both the scholarship and the practice of journalism by helping develop a theory of journalism for the era of new technology.

2015 Abstracts

Advertising 2015 Abstracts

Research Papers
On Facebook, sex does not sell! Effects of sex appeal and model gender on effectiveness of Facebook ads for healthy and unhealthy food products • Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Mengyan Ma, Michigan State University; Wan Wang, Michigan State University • The current study uses a 2 (sex appeal) x 2 (model gender) x 2 (product healthfulness) x 3 (message repetition) mixed factorial design to investigate the effects of sex appeal and model gender on attitudes toward the ads, attitudes toward the brand, viral behavioral intentions, and purchase intentions for healthy and unhealthy food products. Participants (N = 316) were randomly assigned to see Facebook ads for healthy and unhealthy products featuring male or female models with low or high sex appeal. Findings showed that ads and brands in ads with low sex appeal were rated more favorably than those with high sex appeal. Results also showed that the effects of two-way interaction between sex appeal and model gender on attitudes toward the ad and the brand were significant. Additionally, the study used Hayes (2013) PROCESS to test for a series of serial mediation models with regard to the effect of sex appeal on purchase intention through the serial ordering of attitudes toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, and viral behavioral intentions. Findings are discussed in relation to health-related policy, advertising effectiveness models, and persuasion models.

Opening the Advertising Crayon Box: Applying Kobayashi’s Color Theory to Advertising Effectiveness • Nasser Almutairi, Michigan State University; Carie Cunningham, Michigan State University; Kirstyn Shiner, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University • While advertising creativity remains largely a subjective practice of art directors and graphic designers, the current study systematically tested the effectiveness of different color combinations as they pertain to ad and brand evaluations, as well as online and offline behavioral intentions. Using a 13 (color combinations) x 3 (message repetition) mixed factorial design, participants (N = 322) were exposed to three ads that varied in the color combinations used in the ad design in accordance with Kobayashi’s (1990) color theory. Findings showed that the effect of color combinations was significant only for attitudes toward the ads and brands, yet did not affect viral behavioral intentions and purchase intentions. The study’s findings are discussed within the context of extending traditional advertising models to bring about a systematic understanding of the psychological effects of color in relation to attitude and behavior change.

Children’s Understanding of Social Media Advergames • Soontae An, Ewha Womans University • This study examined children’s understanding of social media advergames and the effects of cognitive and attitudinal advertising literacy on children’s susceptibility to advertising. Results of a survey of 556 children aged 7 to 11 showed that half of the children could correctly identify the social media advergame as a type of advertising, while the other half could not. Comparisons revealed that older students were more capable of identifying advertising. Regression results showed that grade, gender, and Internet usage were factors positively associated with children’s intention of visiting the site featured in the advergame. Students that were of a lower grade, female, or had high Internet usage were more likely to want to visit the store advertised. After controlling for demographics and media usage, children’s cognitive and attitudinal advertising literacy and the interaction term were all statistically significant. The significant interaction effect demonstrated that those who were able to identify advertising and possessed positive views towards ads showed the highest inclination of visiting the featured site, while those who identified advertising with negative views toward ads displayed the lowest intention. The moderating role of attitudinal literacy indicates the importance of combining both cognitive and attitudinal advertising literacy.

Effects of Various Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) Campaign Types on Consumers’ Visual Attention, Perceptions, and Purchase Intentions • Mikyeung Bae, Michigan State University; Patricia Huddleston, Michigan State University • The goal of this study was to identify whether types of cause-related marketing (CRM) campaign appeal (functional/ emotional/ a combination of the two) influenced consumer visual attention and perceptions of the campaign, thus leading to purchase intention. Guided by the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this study investigated which components of CRM campaign appeals contributed most to effectiveness in capturing consumers’ visual attention under high versus low involvement with a social cause. The results showed that participants who were more involved with social causes paid more attention to the body text that provided an overview of the company’s socially responsible behavior as demonstrated through total visit duration (TVD). The results of the partial least squares structural modeling analysis revealed that perceived corporate credibility played an important role in influencing attitude toward a CRM campaign regardless of the type of appeal. The findings demonstrated here allow marketers to evaluate which type of appeal is more appropriate for a given CRM campaign and product.

The Effect of Message Valence on Recall and Recognition of Prescription Drug Ad Information • Jennifer Ball, University of Minnesota; Taemin Kim, University of Minnesota • Consumer-directed prescription drug ads (DTCA) are required to present drug benefits and risks in a balanced manner. There is concern, though, that benefits are often conveyed through emotional appeals that interfere with comprehension of risk information in the message. However, there remains a lack of empirical work investigating this claim. Applying limited capacity theory, results of an experiment indicated recall and recognition of ad information was best for an ad with a neutral tone and weakest for a negative tone while the positive tone results differed between recognition and recall.

Advertising LGBT-themed films to mainstream and niche audiences: variations in portrayal of intimacy and stereotypes • Joseph Cabosky, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Research of LGBT-content in advertisements remains limited. While most products are not inherently queer in nature, this content analysis analyzed advertisements for LGBT-themed films to explore whether there was variation in the portrayal of LGBT-content in ads depending on the distribution width of the product and its date of release. Findings indicated that ad content varied greatly based on the width of release but not when measuring time, countering findings from other media forms.

Adolescents’ responses to food and beverage advertising in China • Kara Chan, Hong Kong Baptist University; Tommy Tse, University of Hong Kong; Daisy Tam, Hong Kong Baptist University; Anqi Huang, Hong Kong Baptist University • Both global and local food marketers have been marketing actively with children and youths in China. Adolescents are important targets for healthy eating as they are being more independent in making food decisions. Social marketers and health educators need to learn from food marketers effective strategies that can communicate creatively with this target segment. Four focus-group interviews were conducted with twenty-four grade 7 students aged 12 to 13 in Changsha, a second-tier city in China. Participants were asked to report their favorite food and beverage commercials, and explain why they liked the advertisements. Altogether 21 commercials were reported as favorite commercials. Results indicated that entertainment value, presenting food as tasty, adopting celebrities as endorsers, memorable jingles/slogans, as well as aesthetically pleasing were main attributes of the advertisements that won the participants’ hearts. Comparison of the results with attributes of likable commercials among Hong Kong adolescents was made.

Taste and Nutrition: The Uses and Effectiveness of Different Advertising Claims in Women’s Magazine Food Advertisements • Yang Feng, The University of Virginia’s College at Wise; Jiwoo Park, Northwood University • A multi-method study was conducted to examine the use of different advertising claims in current food advertising and then determine the effectiveness of different advertising claims on females’ evaluative judgments of food advertisement. Content analysis results of 678 women’s magazine food ads indicated a substantial use of taste and nutrient content claims paired with specific nutrition appeals. Functional food ads appeared to adopt nutrition appeals or a combined use of nutrition appeals and taste claims, whereas hedonic food ads tended to use taste claims without nutrition appeals. Nevertheless, these current practices of food advertising were called into question by the results of two experiments and one focus group, which showed the combined use of nutrition appeals and taste claims was the most effective strategy for both hedonic and functional foods. However, for hedonic foods, each single nutrition appeal should neither be extremely incongruent to the nature of hedonic food product nor extremely contradictory to the taste claims in the same ad.

A Content Analysis of Green Advertising: What Has Changed in Twenty Years • Sigal Segev, Florida International University; Juliana Fernandes, University of Miami; Cheng Hong, University of Miami • This paper reassesses the changes in green advertising since the first content analysis on the topic was conducted. A total of 433 unique ads from 18 magazines published in 2009 and 2010 was employed. Results show that greenwashing is still prevalent 20 years later compared to Carlson et al.’s (1993) study. However, the change lies on the type of claims: product-oriented claims were more misleading while image-enhancing claims were deemed more acceptable, opposite to previous findings.

Still funny? The effect of humor in ethically violating advertising • Kati Foerster, U of Vienna; Cornelia Brantner, U of Vienna • This study aims to better understand the masking effect of humor in advertising. The paper focuses on the question: Are ethically violating advertisements perceived as less unethically by advertising councilors if they contain humor? Our results indicate that humor and decision are only spuriously associated and that the masking effect disappears when depicted sexism is included. Moreover, gender affects the decisions, but does not moderate the effects of humor and sexism.

Factors Influencing Intention to Use Location-Based Mobile Advertising among Young Mobile User Segments • Jun Heo, Louisiana State University; Chen-Wei Chang, University of Southern Mississippi • The purpose of this study is twofold: 1) to examine determinants of intention to use location-based advertising (LBA) and 2) to explore possible mobile user segments among college students. The results suggest that the determinants may differently influence two mobile user segments: innovative believers and conventional skeptics and that marketers need to approach them differently in order to increase the opt-in intention of LBA. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

The activation of social identities through advertising: How brand loyalty is influenced by out-group perceptions related to political identity • Jennifer Hoewe, University of Alabama; Peter K. Hatemi, Penn State University • This study merges literatures utilizing social identity theory in reference to brand loyalty and political identity to determine how advertisements can activate these identities and influence product selection. Using an experimental design, it tests the inclusion of a perceived out-group in an advertisement for a well-established brand to determine if political identity interacts with the advertisement’s content to predict consumption of that product. The results indicate that an advertisement’s activation of one’s political identity can either change or reinforce brand loyalty. Specifically, more conservative individuals responded to the presence of Muslim and Arab individuals in a Coca-Cola advertisement by selecting Pepsi products; whereas, more liberal individuals responded to this advertisement by maintaining their initial brand loyalty for Coca-Cola products.

Skepticism toward Over-the-Counter Drug Advertising (OTCA): A Comparison of Older and Younger Consumers • Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota; Denise DeLorme, University of Central Florida; Leonard Reid, University of Georgia / Virginia Commonwealth University • This study examined age-related differences in consumers’ skepticism toward over-the-counter drug advertising (OTCA) as a type of consumer persuasion knowledge. The results from a U.S. nationally-representative survey indicate that older consumers are less skeptical of OTCA than are younger consumers. This study also shows some interesting differences between the two age groups in terms of predictors of ad skepticism and the relationship between ad skepticism and ad outcomes.

The Effects of Mixed Emotional Appeals: Construal Level Theory Perspective • Wonseok (Eric) Jang, University of Florida; Jon D. Morris, University of Florida; Yong Jae Ko, University of Florida; Robyn J Goodman, University of Florida • By using construal level theory as a theoretical framework, the current study proposes that the psychological distance that people create toward advertised products would determine the effectiveness of mixed emotional appeal. The results of experiment 1 indicated that, when people formed a close psychological distance toward an advertised product, the mixed emotion appeal decreased the effectiveness of the advertisements. Meanwhile, when people formed a far psychological distance toward an advertised product, the effect of mixed emotional appeal was significantly enhanced compared to a close psychological distance condition. Furthermore, the results of experiment 2 indicated that the effects of different sequences of mixed emotion appeals (improving vs. declining view) are also moderated by the psychological distance people formed with the advertised object. When people formed a close psychological distance, an improving sequence was more effective in creating overall perceptions than a declining sequence. In contrast, when people formed a far psychological distance, both improving and declining sequences were equally effective in creating overall positive perceptions of mixed emotional appeals and advertised events.

The Effectiveness of Warning Labels and Ecolabels in Different Contexts • YONGICK JEONG, Louisiana State University • This research conducted two studies to investigate the effectiveness of different label messages in different context formats (Ad/PSA, study 1) and in different context-induced moods (Positive/Negative, Study 2). The findings indicate that attitude toward labels and behavioral change intention are higher in PSAs than ads, and health warning labels are generally more effective than ecolabels. The interactions between label types and context formats as well as label types and context-induced moods are also discussed.

Factors Influencing OOH Advertising Effects: A Prediction Model for Billboard Advertising • Yong Seok CHEON; Jong Woo JUN, Dankook University; Hyun PARK, Dankook University • This study was conducted to develop indicators for out-of-home (OOH) fundraising advertising and establish a prediction model accordingly. Fundraising OOH advertising has a special purpose and is run by the government to support international events. These advertisements are installed around expressways in Korea in spots not legally available to other advertisements. The fact these are the only advertisements that can be legally installed and managed in these locations makes this advertising distinct. Moreover, this advertising has standardized specifications, format, installation spots, and methods, and thus the advertising effects are easier to measure compared to other OOH advertising. Variables that influenced these advertising effects included form, design, and text size among the visual characteristics, and driving speed, visual clutter, visibility range, separation distance, installation height, and installation position among physical characteristics. These results were used to present the attention rate prediction model. Moreover, this study verified variables that influenced the attention rate according to individuals in the vehicle. For drivers, the influential variables were the same as those affecting total attention rate, whereas for passengers, the influence of driving speed was not statistically significant; however, the amount of text turned out to influence the attention rate of passengers.

Differential Responses of Loyal versus Habitual Consumers Towards Mobile Site Personalization on Privacy Management • Hyunjin Kang, George Washington University; Wonsun Shin, Nanyang Technological University; Leona Tam, University of Wollongong • We examine how two different underlying mechanisms of behavioral loyalty to a brand—attitudinal loyalty and habit—impact smartphone users’ privacy management when they browse personalized vs. non-personalized mobile websites. The study finds different responses of attitudinal loyalty and habit towards personalization in significant three-way interactions between personalization, attitudinal loyalty, and habit on privacy disclosure and protection behaviors. When interacting with a personalized website, highly habitual consumers without high level of attitudinal loyalty disclosed the most personal information on a personalized mobile site, and displayed the least intention of protecting their privacy on their smartphones, whereas consumers with high levels of both habit and attitudinal loyalty reported the highest tendency of privacy protection behavior. However, habit and personalization do not have a significant effect on disclosure behaviors when users have high attitudinal loyalty to a brand. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

A Mutualist Theory of Processing PSAs and Ethically Problematic Commercials • Esther Thorson, Missouri School of Journalism; Margaret Duffy, Missouri School of Journalism; Eunjin (Anna) Kim, Southern Methodist University; Heesook Choi; Tatsiana Karaliova, Missouri School of Journalism; Eunseon (Penny) Kwon • The paper combines qualitative descriptions of people’s response to PSAs and ethically problematic commercials (dangerous and sexual appeals), with their quantitative scoring of attitudes toward the commercials, and their experience affect and arousal while watching. The qualitative responses are coded into five categories of dominant meaning: Descriptive/Neutral, Deconstructing/Rejecting, Positive/Connect, Positive/Aspiration/Identify, and Persuasion Identification. The dominant meanings predict the quantitative responses well. The perceived meanings demonstrate that some respondents are sensitive to the ethical problems in dangerous and sexual appeals.

Effects of Online Video Advertising Message and Placement Strategies on Ad Avoidance and Attitudinal Outcomes • Soojung Kim, University of Minnesota; Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota • This study examined effects of ad-video similarity and ad location on online video ad avoidance and attitudinal outcomes, and tested the mediating roles of perceived relevance and psychological reactance. Experimental results showed a similar (vs. dissimilar) ad was perceived more relevant and generated more positive attitudes and lower ad avoidance, while the effect of ad-location was more limited. Perceived relevance mediated the effects of ad-video similarity on attitudinal outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Effect of Time Restriction and Explicit Deadline on Purchase Intention: Moderating Role of Construal Level • Hyuksoo Kim, Ball State University; Jee Young Chung; Michael Lee • Applying construal level theory as a theoretical framework, this study investigated how consumers process the time restricted promotional offer. Also, the study employed the type of deadline of the promotional offer (explicit vs. implicit). The conditions include time restriction (Yes vs. No), construal level (high vs. low), and types of deadline (implicit vs. explicit). Online experimental data from 217 college students revealed that time restriction and explicit deadline influenced purchase intention positively. The findings also found the moderating effects of individual differences in construal level in explaining the effect of time restriction and types of deadline on purchase intention. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed for researchers and practitioners.

The Effect of Advertisement Customization on Internet Users’ Perceptions of Forced Exposure and Persuasion • Nam Young Kim, Sam Houston State University (SHSU); S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University • In the context of forced ad interruption during Internet use, this research tested how ad customization influences users’ perceptions of the ad as well as attitudes toward the ad and the website in different advertising loading sequences. A 2 (ad customization vs. non-ad customization) X 3 (pre-rolls vs. middle-rolls vs. post-rolls) factorial experiment revealed that offering ad self-selection through customization tends to induce users’ positive attitudes toward forced exposure to the ad as well as toward the website that hosts the ad. Moreover, users’ perceived control plays an important underlying mechanism in this relationship, particularly in regard to the impact of ad customization on persuasion. The findings have theoretical and practical implications on the use of online advertising interruptions.

Examining Gender Stereotypes in Advertisements Broadcast During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games • Lance Kinney, University of Alabama; Brittany Galloway; Sara Lavender; Se Na Lim, University of Alabama • Olympics telecasts are scrutinized for stereotypical portrayals of male and female competitors, but ads broadcast during the Olympics are seldom analyzed. This research details content analysis of 270 ads from NBC’s coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The ads were less stereotypical than ads in other types of programming. Primary characters are likely to be male or female, most of the advertised products are for suitable for use by males or females, and female athletes are frequently observed in the ads. Some stereotypes, including male voiceovers and males dominance of electronic/communication categories were observed.

Creating Brand Personality through Brand Placement and Media Characters –The Role of Parasocial Interaction and Brand Familiarity • Johannes Knoll; Holger Schramm; Christiana Schallhorn • Brand placements seem to be an especially effective way of communicating brand personality as they are frequently associated with media characters encouraging consumers to make direct connections between a brand and a character’s personality. Following theoretical developments in research on parasocial interactions (PSI), consumers are assumed to derive brand personalities from their PSI with associated media characters and not directly from the characters’ personalities themselves. In addition, brand familiarity is assumed to moderate this mediating influence of PSI since information pertaining to media characters can be connected more easily to preexisting brand schemas following schema theory. Testing this assumptions a 1 x 2 between-subject experiment was conducted. Results confirmed the mediating role of PSI and the moderating role of brand familiarity. Theoretical as well as practical implications for creating brand personality through brand placements are discussed.

Advertising in Social Media: A Review of Empirical Evidence • Johannes Knoll • This article presents an up-to-date review of academic and empirical research on advertising in social media. Two international databases from business and communication studies were searched, identifying 43 relevant studies. The findings of the identified studies were organized by seven emerging themes: advertising occurrence, attitudes about and exposure to advertising, targeting, user-generated content in advertising, electronic word-of-mouth in advertising, consumer-generated advertising, and further advertising effects. Although many studies have investigated attitudes toward advertising in social media and consumer-generated advertising, few have explored targeting and advertising effects in general. In addition, advertisers and researchers are missing a general overview of what is advertised in social media and how advertising is done in this context. Seven avenues for future research are discussed.

Do Ethnicity of Consumers and Featured Models Matter in CSR Messages? A Comparison of Asian and White Americans • Yoon-Joo Lee, Washington State University; Sora Kim • This study explains, based on motivated reasoning and self-referencing information processing mechanisms, why a mismatch between target consumers and featured model race might work better among some ethnic groups, especially Asian Americans, in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) ads. Through an experiment design, the study revealed that for both Asian and white Americans, perception toward money as status can have a significant effect on consumers’ perceptions toward an advertiser’s motive as genuine, purchase intention, and attitude toward the CSR ads through a moderated mediator, self-referencing. Further, Asian Americans who have a high level of perception toward money as status were more likely to evaluate corporate social responsibility ad messages featuring a white model positively than the ads with an Asian model. However, white Americans did not vary their perception of CSR ads based on model’s race. The managerial implications are discussed further.

The Effectiveness of Consumer Characteristics in Cause-related Marketing: The Role of Involvement in a Extended Theory of Planned Behavior Model • Jaejin Lee, Florida State University • The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of consumer characteristics (attitudes, social norms, perceived consumer characteristics, and cause involvement) in cause-related marketing by employing a Revised Theory of Planned Behavior Model. The results shows a statistically significant effect of attitude toward the cause-related product consumption, social norms (injunctive, descriptive, and moral norms), perceived consumer effectiveness on purchase intentions. Especially, moral norms shows a strongest effect among these variables while injunctive and descriptive norms were negatively affect. Also, there is an effectiveness of level of cause involvement in the extended TPB model. Implications and limitations are discussed.

The Effects of Message Framing and Reference Points of PSAs on Bystander Intervention in Binge-Drinking • Kang Li; Nora Rifon • This study investigates the effectiveness of anti-binge-drinking PSAs from the angle of encouraging bystander intervention behaviors among college students through an online experiment. The results indicate that loss framing is more effective than gain framing in leading to a stronger intervention intention in binge drinking; and self-other referencing is more effective than other referencing. Moreover, involvement with ads mediates the interaction effects between message framing and reference points on ad attitudes, which in turn influences intervention intentions. In addition, women have higher involvement with ads and stronger intention to intervene in binge drinking situations than men.

Following Brands on Social Media Apps: The Effect of Intent to Continue Receiving Branded Posts on Attitudes toward Brands that Post • Kelty Logan, University of Colorado Boulder • This study proposes a direct, causal relationship among beliefs, attitudes and satisfaction regarding receiving branded posts on mobile social media. Furthermore, in accordance with the expectation-confirmation theoretical framework, satisfaction with the experience of receiving branded posts is causally related to the decision to continue following brands on mobile social media. This study extends the ECT model to explain how continuance generates positive brand attitudes, providing a theoretically based rationale to support the notion that branded posts on mobile social media can, in fact, build brand equity.

How Product Type and Sexual Orientation Schema Affect Consumer Response to Gay and Lesbian Imagery • Kathrynn Pounders, The University of Texas at Austin; Amanda Mabry, The University of Texas at Austin • Gay and lesbian consumers are increasingly recognized as a lucrative target market. Advertisements more frequently incorporate images of people who are gay and lesbian; however, more research is needed to understand mainstream (heterosexual) consumer response to these ads. Two studies were conducted to explore how sexual orientation, product type, and model-product fit influence consumer reactions to ads with gay and lesbian imagery. Findings suggest product type moderates the effect of sexual orientation on attitude toward the ad and word-of-mouth and that positive evaluations of an ad may occur when gay and lesbian imagery “fits” within a consumers’ existing schemas. This work offers implications for advertisers and brand managers.

Tablets and TV advertising: Understanding the viewing experience • Stephen McCreery, Appalachian State University; Dean Krugman, University of Georgia, The Grady College • A paucity of work exists regarding how advertising fares on the growing technology of tablets. This study examines the processes and attitudes toward advertising while streaming TV and movie content on tablets, using the predictors of advertising avoidance, irritation, and skepticism. A survey of adult iPad users in the U.S. reveals that while ad avoidance did not differ between the iPad and television, ad irritation was significantly higher on the iPad. Further, whereas both ad skepticism and irritation were correlated with avoidance, it was irritation that was the predictor, not skepticism. Implications for the future of TV advertising on the iPad are discussed.

Personalized Advertising on Smartphones • Saraphine Pang, SK Planet; Sejung Marina Choi • Smartphones have changed our lifestyles in many ways, allowing us to live ‘smarter’ lives. Smart devices lead to smart content, through which, smart advertising – personalized ads that are tailored to the consumer – have also found their place in the ‘smart’ world. The main idea of smart ads is the ability to personalize advertising content to the consumer. In other words, smart ads are personalized ads on smartphones. Personalized ads make use of consumer data to target ads according to individual preferences. However, while personalization could lead to favorable responses due to its relevancy to the consumer, privacy issues may lead to avoidance as personal information is used to target specific ads to the consumer. Past studies on personalized ads have mostly been conducted in non-mobile environments and focused only on one type of personalization. The increasing reliance on smartphones calls for research on this highly personalized medium. Therefore, the aim of this study was to look at the three facets of personalization – time, location and identity – and their combined effects on perceived personalization. Implications and future studies are discussed.

Effects of Platform Credibility in Political Advertising • Chang Sup Park, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania • This research examined how partisan media as a campaign ad platform affect voters, focusing on the presence of partisanship and perceived platform credibility. In a 3 (conservative party supporters, liberal party supporters, nonpartisans) x 2 (contrasting platforms) x 2 (platform credibility) factorial design, participants saw a campaign ad surrounded by either a conserva-tive medium or a liberal medium. The results illustrate the contrasting ad platforms exerted different influence depending on the presence of partisanship. An additional analysis finds that nonpartisan voters’ perceived credibility for an ad platform makes a measurable differ-ence in the evaluation of the ad and the recall of the ad messages. The findings suggest that nonpartisans process political ad messages along the central route when they perceive the ad platform to be credible.

The Impact of Distraction on Spotting Deceptive Reviews • Sann Ryu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Patrick Vargas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • We investigated how individual differences, such as personality traits and media multitasking habits, interact with distraction to affect people’s ability to detect deceptive product (hotel) reviews. The results showed no main effect of musical distraction on people’s deception detection ability. However, we found interactive effects of musical distraction with personality traits on, and positive correlations of media multitasking level with the ability to spot fake reviews.

Gender and the effectiveness of using sexual appeals in advertising • Lelia Samson • This study empirically investigates the effectiveness of using sexual appeals in advertising on men and women. It examines memory for the commercials activated by sexual versus nonsexual appeals. A mixed-factorial experiment was conducted. Recognition and free recall measures were recorded in 151 participants. The results indicate that sexual appeals enhance memory for the ads themselves. But they distract from processing brand-related information. Male participants encoded and recalled less brand-related information from ads with sexual appeals.

#AirbrushingREJECTED: Testing millennials’ perceptions of retouched and unretouched images in advertising campaigns • Heather Shoenberger, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon • While digital retouching of images has become the relative norm in the context of advertising, we are beginning to see a shift in that trend. The millennial generation is calling for “truth” in images, and brands are taking note. This study uses a between subjects quasi experimental design with two levels of the manipulated independent variable to provide empirical evidence regarding the perceptions of image manipulation on perceptions of truth in advertising, the alignment with peer and self-ethical values, and social media and peer-to-peer engagement.

Narratives in Political Advertising: An Analysis of the Ads in the 2014 Midterm Elections • Michail Vafeiadis; Ruobing Li; Fuyuan Shen • This study examined the use of narratives in the political advertisements during the 2014 midterm American elections. A content analysis of 243 ads indicates that generally issue-related narratives are preferred to character ones. However, differences exist in relation to their use by party affiliation since Democrats prefer character testimonials, whereas Republicans issue testimonials. The results reveal that attack ads are mostly used by candidates who lost the election. Our findings also shed light on the nonverbal cues contained in narrative ads as winners more frequently employed autobiographical spots and had family members as primary speakers as opposed to losers who mostly relied on anonymous announcers. Overall, these findings suggest that narratives in political ads are playing an increasingly important role during elections. Implications for the effective use of narratives in political campaigns are discussed.

Information Source Evaluation Strategies that Individuals use in eWOM on Social Media • Veranika Varabyova; Michelle Nelson, UIUC • The abundance of information sources in the online environment forces individuals to choose sources they trust. Previously, researchers mostly examined sources of information separately in experimental settings. Using in-depth interviews, we examine how individuals gauge trustworthiness of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) information sources in social media. Findings show that individuals use five distinct strategies (popularity, source expertise on the subject, opinion multiplicity, likable group influence and unbiased opinion) to evaluate sources. Consequences for advertising are discussed.

Empowerment: The Overlooked Dimension of Emotional Response • Jing (Taylor) Wen, University of Florida; Jon D. Morris, University of Florida • Emotional responses toward advertising have substantial effects on consumers’ attitudinal evaluation and behavioral intentions. These responses were organized in three distinctive dimensions, Appeal, Engagement, and Empowerment. Previous research either failed to find the independent effect of Empowerment or only focused on the other two dimensions. This study manipulated the level of Empowerment (high vs. low) and controlled for Appeal and Engagement to examine the effects of Empowerment on behavioral intentions. Results showed that subjects perceived a significantly higher level Empowerment when exposed to anger appeals verses to fear appeals. Further, high Empowerment triggers stronger behavioral intentions to approach the issues than low Empowerment. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Emotional responses to cause-related advertisements • Jay Hyunjae Yu; Gapyeon Jeong • Purpose – This study aims to investigate consumers’ multi-level information processing of cause-related advertisements that are representative of corporate cause-related marketing. In particular, this study considers consumers’ information processing as a unidirectional linear process. It examines the course of the effects of consumers’ empathy and sympathy generated during the process on each step of the process, ranging from advertisement attitudes, corporate social responsibility activity, and corporate image, to brand attitude. Design/methodology/approach – The main survey was conducted with consumers who resided in Seoul between November 1 and 14, 2013. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed and 246 were collected. Following the exclusion of six incomplete or unanswered questionnaires, a total of 240 questionnaires were used in the final analysis. Data processing was performed using the SPSS ver. 15.0 and AMOS 7.0 programs. Findings – The results showed that there were positive relationships between all of the variables involved in the processing. Consumers’ emotional response to cause-related advertisement is the best starting point for consumers’ information processing regarding brand attitude. Research limitations/implications – The results of this study confirm that a positive relationship exists among every variable in consumers’ information processing. Originality/value – This study informs researchers and companies that caused-related advertisements can improve the consumer’s emotional response and can be an effective alternative to high cost, but low efficiency, brand advertisements.

Forget the brand mentioned by actor: The attention and memory effect of product placement in TV episodes. • Wan-Yun Yu, Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University; Jie-Li Tsai, Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University; Chen-Chao Tao, Department of Communication and Technology, National Chiao Tung University • There is no consensus regarding the effectiveness of product placement in TV episodes. Our study aims to reconcile this discrepancy by examining the audio utterance with the view of situated comprehension. An experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of utterance and plot on attention and memory. Results showed that mentioning the object of product placement within the scene attracted more attention while had worse memory after exposure. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Trumping Mood: Transportation and its Effects on Brand Outcomes • Lu Zheng, University of Florida; Shuhua Zhou, University of Alabama • This study examines narrative transportation effects in an adverting context by also considering mood and modality. A 2 (mood) X 2 (modality) experiment was conducted to isolate the effects of transportation on brand outcomes. Results indicate that transportation trumped mood to affect all outcome variables, regardless of modality, further confirming that transported individuals may not follow the scripted path of central/peripheral in ELM or the systematic/heuristic routes in HSM in persuasion. Implications are discussed.

Teaching Papers
The Effects of Integrating Advertising Ethics into Course Instruction • Michelle Amazeen, Rider University • Ambivalence toward incorporating ethics instruction into advertising curricula has been linked to concerns that ethical discussions will discourage student entry into the profession (Drumwright & Murphy, 2009). Contrary to this assertion, this study offers experimental evidence that students who received systematic ethics instruction were more likely to want to work in advertising than those who only received limited ethics instruction. Thus, failure to educate students in the ethical practice of advertising is not only a disservice to students, but a disservice to the profession overall.

An examination of the impact of faculty mentorship in a student-run advertising agency • Dustin Supa, Boston University; Tobe Berkovitz, Boston University • This study examines the impact of faculty adviser mentoring in a student-run advertising agency, and the long-term implications for that mentoring on student leaders as they enter the professional field. It finds that a high level of mentoring at the undergraduate level did lead to an increased likelihood of mentoring early in the alumni careers. The implications for faculty advisers of student agencies are discussed, as well as ideas for future research.

A systematic analysis of peer-reviewed research about advertising teaching effectiveness and pedagogy • John Wirtz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Thais Menezes Zimbres, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Eun Kyoung Lee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • This paper presents a systematic analysis of articles (N = 147) published in the Journal of Advertising Education between 2004 and 2014. Findings include that the most common study design was case study (39%). More than half of research articles (59%) did not provide a research question or hypothesis, and only 10% tested a hypothesis. The results indicate a range of topics were researched but also an over-reliance on small samples and case studies.

Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R) Papers
Seeing Unwanted Appetizers: The Impact of Long-term and Short-term Physiological States on Webpage Ads Processing • Shili Xiong, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jiachen Yao; Zongyuan Wang, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Brittany Duff, University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign • Many nutrition researchers believe that the flooding of food-related cues (e.g. food ads) in today’s food-rich environment is one of the origins of obesity issue. There have been calls for reducing the food ad exposure in the hope that it will help lower obesity rates. While it seems unlikely to completely stop food ad exposure, it is also in question whether the decrease of food ad exposure would truly work to successfully reduce obesity. The current study examines how physiological factors influenced affective and cognitive processing of food and nonfood webpage ads. In particular, we were interested in assessing how body weight (BMI) and hunger level interacts with motivational relevance (food vs. nonfood) and medium task-orientation (webpage task vs. browse). An experiment was conducted online via Amazon M-Turk. We found that individual body mass index (BMI) was negatively associated with food ad evaluation and positively associated with food ad recognition. Hunger level was positively associated with food ad recognition, and indirectly influenced non-food ad evaluation. Implications for researchers are also discussed.

Female Representation In The Communication Arts Advertising Annual • Karen Mallia, University of South Carolina; Kasey Windels, Louisiana State University • Females are underrepresented in advertising agencies by a ratio of 2.3 to 1. This study examined issues of the Communication Arts Advertising Annual in 1984, 1994, 2004 and 2014 to determine whether women have made increases in representation among the upper echelons of the field, award winners. Findings showed that while women have made some gains as creative directors since 1984, women represent only 9 percent of those credited for creative work, and their presence has declined since 1994. Overall, the results suggest women have not made much progress toward equity in the past 40 years. This has implications for the types of advertisements that get made, the culture of the agency creative department, and the career prospects of advertising students.

Advertising’s Responsibility to the Future: A proposal to address our role in climate change • Deborah Morrison, University of Oregon • This essay proposes that the advertising industry helped cause the tragedy of climate change, while also recognizing the industry’s creative leadership and ability to solve problems. Connections are suggested between increased advertising expenditures over the last fifty years and increased scientific findings that human behaviors such as consumption directly affect the rate of climate change the planet is experiencing. Six strategies to leverage the creative and innovative talents of the advertising industry and its ecosystem of educational programs, professional organizations, and trade publications are offered with the purpose of suggesting a professional movement to address and mitigate climate change realities.

Special Topics Papers
Would I go? US citizens react to a Cuban tourism campaign • Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist University; Sheri Broyles, University of North Texas; Jami Fullerton, Oklahoma State University • Before the announcement of the easing of a decades-long US embargo, this study captured US citizen interest in traveling to Cuba before and after exposure to a Cuban tourism television commercial. Online measures of attitudes toward travel to Cuba and toward the Cuban government and people were taken. Results showed Americans’ travel interest improved significantly and also showed improved attitudes toward both the Cuban government and its people, demonstrating the “bleedover effect” of tourism advertising.

The Effect of Ad Self-Selection on Different Levels of Forced Exposure to Advertising • Nam Young Kim, Sam Houston State University (SHSU) • What aspects of online advertising induce Internet users ad avoidance tendency? Is it because of a degree of forced exposure or because of users’ limited power to filter personally irrelevant content? With advances in new technology, various formats of online advertising (e.g., in-stream video advertising) often force Internet users to watch the advertisement before their choice of media content plays, and this often makes them feel intruded upon and irritated. To reduce such negative reactions toward involuntary advertising exposures, this study examines whether offering users the ability to select advertising content can influence their attitudes toward the ad as well as the website in the different degrees of forced exposure circumstance. A 2 (advertising–customization: customization option vs. non-customization option) X 2 (level of forced exposure–a pre-roll vs. a rich media banner) factorial experiment reveals that advertising choice features tend to induce users’ positive attitudes toward the advertising regardless of the degree of forced advertising exposure. Particularly, the findings show that the function of customization tends to generate a greater sense of relevance and increased advertising memory, which in turn lead to more positive attitudes toward the ads.

Fierce Competition While Playing Nice in the Sandbox: Trends in Advertising & Public Relations Agencies • Marlene Neill, Baylor University; Erin Schauster, University of Colorado Boulder • Advertising and public relations agencies have never been more in direct competition as public relations agencies begin offering paid media strategies and advertising agencies begin assuming roles in online community management and social listening. Through in-depth interviews with 28 advertising and public relations agency executives, this study provides new insights on the trends impacting both professions. Executives defined paid, earned, owned and social media strategies and discussed how these areas are blurring, how responsibilities are being mandated by clients, and how the associated financial challenges affect an agency’s ability to retain employees. Finally, the executives discussed how clients and agencies are pursuing collaborative work that draws from the strengths of both professions.

“Wow! I want to share this with my twitter followers”: Influencing Factors on Intention to Retweet of Branded Tweet • Nazmul Rony, University of Oklahoma; Doyle Yoon, University of Oklahoma; Seunghyun Kim, University of Oklahoma; Rahnuma Ahmed, University of Oklahoma • Currently, marketers are using Twitter as a strong advertising platform. Retweeting is a powerful method of spreading the brand message to a large group of potential customers with a minimum effort. However, brand followers’ underlying motivation for retweeting a brand message is still unclear to the advertisers. An experimental study revealed that brand familiarity has strong influence on users’ retweet motivation. It has been also found that intrinsic motivation has mediating effect on retweet intention.

Corporate advertising and crises: Understanding the effects of advertisements before and after crises on stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization • Benjamin Ho, Nanyang Technological University; Wonsun Shin, Nanyang Technological University; Augustine Pang • While corporate advertising has been widely studied as a promotional tool, few studies examine its effects in a corporate crisis. By integrating insights from both advertising and crisis management literature, this study develops a crisis corporate advertising (CCA) framework examining the comprehensive use of corporate advertising in crises. The CCA framework discusses inoculation, reactance, and halo effects of pre-crisis advertising and how post-crisis advertising can be evaluated based on the image repair theory.

A Large Scale Analysis of Primetime Diets in USA, China and Singapore • Su Lin Yeo, Singapore Management University; Wonsun Shin, Nanyang Technological University; May Lwin; Jerome Williams, Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick • Given the prevalence of obesity and chronic diseases in developed and developing countries, this study examined the types of food advertised on primetime television in the US, China and Singapore and their congruence with dietary guidelines offered by health authorities. Three popular television channels in each country were selected and four hours of primetime television per channel were recorded daily over 28 days, resulting in the collection of 1008 television hours. Findings from content analyses found that food promoted across the three countries do not correspond to the types recommended for a healthy diet. The majority of the food belonged to the unhealthy categories. The study also found that national development seems to negatively parallel the exposure to healthy food advertisements on television. Implications on government regulations and recommendations for communication initiatives to better balance the interests of commercial advertisers and at the same time, safeguard the health of the public are discussed.

Student Papers
Examining Receptiveness to Personalized Advertising Through Perceived Utility and Privacy Concerns • Nancy Brinson, University of Texas at Austin • As advertisers increasingly rely on “big data” to target their promotional messages to consumers, perceptions regarding the collection and use of such data becomes of great interest to scholars and practitioners. Consumers choosing to ignore or avoid messages intended to inform or persuade them could have potentially negative implications not only for marketers, but also for public policy, education, health care, and public safety advocates. Rooted in a cross-disciplinary theoretical approach of uses & gratifications and communication privacy management, the present study utilized a qualitative survey to examine the circumstances by which personalized advertising is perceived to be “helpful” or “uncomfortable” in a variety of contexts. Findings indicate that concerns about trust, perceived control and unauthorized access to personal information have a negative influence on consumers’ attitudes about personalized advertising. As such, the present study broadens understanding of the gratifications sought by today’s online media consumers as well as accounts for interpersonal considerations that drive users’ attitudes about information sharing and processing.

What’s in the Ad? A Content Analysis of Holistic-Analytic Cognitive Processes Found in Television Commercials • Christina Jimenez Najera • Culture has been studied to discover how its presence influences the realm of communications in countries around the world. This study focuses on exploring manifestations of cultural values and tendencies in the domain of advertising. Using Nisbett’s and Hall and Hall’s research as benchmark, the study hypothesized that advertisements would reflect Western and Eastern cultural manifestations respectively. The results showed evidence that point to manifestations of holistic-analytic cognitive orientation in television commercial advertisements.

Do Sex Appeals Matter on News Website? Effect of Sexual Web Advertisements on News Perception • Jinyoung Kim, Pennsylvania State University • We observe an increasing number of sexual web advertising on various web sites, including online news pages. However, little is known about how sexually suggestive web advertisements influence readers’ perception of serious social issues, such as sexual assault. This study examined whether sexual advertisements on news web site exerted any negative effects on perception of and attitudes toward rape. Results showed that sexual web advertising significantly perverted readers’ attitudes toward the sexual assault that excuses the actions of rapists and justify the plight upon victim.

Social Motives to Interact with a Brand on Social Networking sites: Focus on Social Identify and Network Externality • Okhyun Kim, University of Minnesota; Taemin Kim, University of Minnesota • This study investigated the effects of social motivations on brand engagement on social networking sites. Social motivations are based on social identity theory and network externality perspective. The method included two hierarchical levels: social identity as individual traits and perceived network externality as channel characteristics. The result showed the powerful impact of network externality. Social identity has explanatory power to predict behaviors following brand fan-pages on social media.

Friend’s Tagging You on Facebook: Examining How Individual Traits Affect Consumers’ Reaction to Electronic-Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Metrics • Wonkyung Kim; Chen Lou, Michigan State University • This paper investigates how consumers’ individual characteristics affect their evaluation of product reviews on social media. In particular, this experimental study explored the effects of the consumer’s ‘need for cognition’ and ‘need for belonging’ on their responses (i.e., attitude toward the review, attitude toward the product, and purchase intention) to product review posts on a Facebook review page. Results of two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that: 1) Subjects with low need for cognition showed more favorable attitude and purchase intention to a Facebook review post with high number of likes/comments than subject with high need for cognition and 2) Subjects with low need for belonging showed less favorable attitude and purchase intention to a Facebook review post which had commenters’ referral to their friends via tagging. On the managerial front, findings of this study explicated the mechanism of how consumer characteristics could play a role in electronic-Word-Of-Mouth (eWOM) contents’ effect on social media, which provided useful strategic insights to both marketers and researchers.

The Moderating Role of Sport Involvement between Sponsor-event Congruence and Consumer Responses • Jakeun Koo, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Soyoung Joo, University of Massachusetts, Amherst • The current study examines the moderating effect of sport involvement between sponsor-event congruence and consumer responses. The experiment results indicate sport involvement moderates the effectiveness of sponsor-event congruence on sponsor credibility, subsequently influencing sponsor attitudes and purchase intention. The moderating effects were supported in both functional- and image-based congruence settings. The research findings imply sponsor-event congruence may improve sponsorship campaigns’ abilities to deliver product-relevant messages to consumers highly involved in sports via a central cue.

Do you see what I see? Exploring the effects of sponsorship of a sporting event on the image of the sponsoring brand. • Eunseon (Penny) Kwon; Eunjin (Anna) Kim, Southern Methodist University • Does brand sponsorship of sporting events lead to congruence in consumers’ images of sponsoring brands and sponsored sporting events? If so, what factors affect the degree of image congruence? Statistics show that sponsorship of sporting events is one of the fastest growing business around the globe. However, the importance of this marketing strategy is not reflected in the amount attention it has received in the advertising literature. This study focuses on the effects of sponsorship of a sporting event on the image of the sponsoring brand. Specially, drawing on the literature on the match-up effects of celebrity endorsement, the results from a non-student population confirm that brand sponsorship leads to image congruence.

Advertising message strategies on automobile brands’ Facebook fan page • Joong Suk Lee, University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; Tie Nie • Recognizing the rising value that social media provides for consumer engagement on brand, this study specifically explored the advertising strategies employed among four car brands’ (i.e., Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota and Honda) Facebook fan pages to persuade consumers on social media networks. By applying Taylor’s (1999) six-segment message strategy wheel and combining the eWOM engagement of these advertisements, this study demonstrated that those ads with both informational and emotional appealing elements attracted the most attention, providing further evidence to better understand the marketing effectiveness adopted by these respective companies. Implications and future research suggestions are also offered, considering the wide range of content (e.g., photos, videos, anecdotes) produced on brand groups, which sheds light on the marketers’ efforts to heighten involvement between brands and customers.

Communicating ALS to the Public: The Message Effectiveness of Social-Media-Based Health Campaign • Jing (Taylor) Wen, University of Florida; Linwan Wu, University of Florida • Celebrity endorsement has been proved to be a very powerful tool in health campaigns. This study examined how celebrity-issue matchup presented in utilitarian and hedonic appeals influences evaluation of video, issue attitude and behavioral intentions in the context of ALS communication. The findings showed that celebrity-issue matchup condition outperformed non-matchup condition in generating positive issue attitude and behavioral intentions. The results also indicated that utilitarian appeal with matchup condition triggered significantly greater information sharing intention than that with non-matchup condition. However, no difference was found in hedonic appeal between matchup and non-matchup conditions. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

2015 Abstracts

Newspaper and Online News 2013 Abstracts

Open Competition

Political or Professional?: The Nineteenth Century National Editorial Association • Stephen Banning • In the nineteenth century the National Editorial Association grew from just over fifty editors to over 4,000 members representing 12,000 newspapers. This was a time when some state press associations were self identified as professionals. This research examines the National Editorial Association’s character and motivations to see if members were interested in professionalization as well. The National Editorial Association’s questionable connection with the 1992 World’s Fair is also examined.

It’s the leadership, stupid, not the economy: A framing study of newspaper endorsements of presidential candidates in the 2012 election • Kenneth Campbell, University of South Carolina; Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Wan Chi Leung, University of South Carolina; Maia Mikashavidze, University of South Carolina • Though framing research has been robust, but no study has examined press endorsements of presidential candidates with a framing perspective. To fill the void, we pursued a framing analysis of presidential endorsements in the 2012 election. Moreover, the present study aims at overcoming some of the limitations in the existing literature with a framing analysis of the candidates and issues used by the newspaper endorsements in the tightly contested presidential contest between incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney in 2012. To achieve the objectives, a quantitative content analysis and qualitative framing analysis of 75 newspaper endorsements were conducted. Findings show that newspapers that endorsed Obama framed him as a leader based on his performance on a variety of national issues whereas newspapers that endorsed Romney framed him as their choice based primarily on the economy.

Fuzzy, transparent, and fast: Journalists and public relations practitioners characterize social media interactions • Aaron Chimbel; Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas; Jacqueline Lambiase • This mixed-methods study, based on a survey including open-ended responses from 167 journalists and PR practitioners, examines views on interacting through social media. Grounded in journalism ethics and news production research, the study examines how professionals navigate rapidly changing social media. Results show journalists and PR practitioners see themselves working in the same digital space. Journalists and PR professionals thought it was ethical to become social media “friends” and followers. Still, these relationships are evolving.

Is Google “Stealing” your Content? Examining How the News Industry Framed Google in an Era of News Aggregation • H. Iris Chyi, University of Texas at Austin; Seth Lewis; Nan Zheng, James Madison University • As online news aggregators outperform most traditional media sites, some news executives accuse Google News of stealing their content, even as they rely on Google for exposure. This quantitative content analysis examines how the news industry, during the 2008–2010 financial shock for U.S. newspapers, covered its delicate relationship with Google. While Google was often portrayed as the enemy, most coverage suggested that newspapers should work with Google, indicating the challenge in assessing Google’s role in an era of news aggregation.

This Just In: Examining the Presence of Spot News in Print and Online News Organizations • Jennifer Cox, Salisbury University • Newspapers are competing with online-only upstarts to provide spot news coverage that drives local readership prompting questions regarding the ways in which news is defined by both types of organizations. This study examined print and online content in four pairs of daily newspapers and online-only news organizations sharing a common home city. A content analysis of 1,965 news items revealed spot news appeared more frequently online than in print, though there was no significant difference regarding the presence of spot news between newspapers and their online-only competitors. Online-only publications provided spot news most on crime items, while newspapers provide it most in accident/disaster/public safety items. The majority of spot news items contained the timeliness and proximity news values. The results of this study indicate both organization types understand readers’ hunger for spot news online, though the types of spot news stories they include in their products tend to vary. An online emphasis on spot news may be indicative of a shift in news definitions that could impact readers’ perceptions of personal safety in their own communities.

Deciphering ‘Digital First’ During Football Season: A Study of Blogging Routines of Newspaper Sports Reporters • George Daniels, The University of Alabama; Marc Torrence, The University of Alabama • To understand how the newspaper industry’s “digital first” philosophy works for local newspaper writers covering football, this study surveyed local newspaper blogs in all 14 Southeastern Conference markets and 10 markets of SEC non-conference opponents. A follow-up content analysis during Week 6 of the 2012 season revealed 80% of posts were not on GameDay and most focused on hard news. For these bloggers, “digital first” mandates speed and a heavy reliance on news conference content.

Newspaper Coverage of the BP Oil Spill: Framing by Distance and Ownership • Ryan Broussard; Robert T. Buckman, Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette; William R. Davie, Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette • This study analyzed how twelve newspapers framed the BP oil spill in terms of environmental, government, and industrial factors. The environmental frame eclipsed the industrial and government frames. In addition, the newspaper’s status in terms of its corporate ownership and national scope shaped the coverage. This study reinforced and refined the research of Molotch and Lester by showing how news frames are subject to variables of proximity and newspaper ownership in covering such an environmental hazard.

Building an Agenda for Regulatory Change: The New York Times Targets Drug Abuse in Horse Racing • Bryan Denham • This article addresses the manner in which a New York Times investigative series on drug use and catastrophic breakdowns in U.S. horse racing influenced policy initiatives across a six-month period. Beginning with the March 25, 2012 expose’ “Mangled Horses, Maimed Jockeys,” the article analyzes how the Times helped to define policy conversations at both the state and national levels. The article also addresses how the Interstate Horseracing Improvement Act of 2011, a fledgling piece of legislation, became what Kingdon (2003) described as a “solution in search of a problem” and thus a political lever in policy deliberations. Long recognized for its capacity to influence the content of other news outlets, the article concludes, the New York Times can also play an important role in legislative arenas, informing lawmakers of salient issues as well as opportunities for substantive and symbolic policy actions.

Unnamed Attribution: A Historical Analysis of the Journalism Norms Surrounding the Use of Anonymous Sources • Matt Duffy, Georgia State University • This paper offers a historical examination of the journalistic norms surrounding the practice of citing anonymous sources. The author examines a variety of textbooks, guidebooks, trade press coverage, and codes of ethics over the past century. The analysis reveals that unnamed attribution, once scorned as a journalistic practice, has gained acceptance over time. As journalistic norms have evolved, the acceptance of the practice has spread beyond national government and international reporting to local coverage. Despite the general acceptance of this practice, journalistic norms surrounding when and how to use anonymous sources remain unsettled. This analysis also finds that journalism textbooks more often describe common practices of journalists rather than provide normative directives as to how journalists should act. Importantly, this study reveals that a journalistic tradition of independently verifying information from unnamed sources has dramatically diminished.

Reading the Truth-O-Meter: The influence of partisanship in interpreting the fact-check • David Wise, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin; Thomas Jaime; David Coppini, University of Wisconsin Madison; Young Mie Kim, School of Journalism and Mass Communication • This study experimentally investigates the effects of fact-checking articles and partisanship in evaluating claims made in political attack ads and attitudes toward the targeted politician, the ad’s sponsor and the fact-checking organization. In a 2 (political party congruency) X 3 (fact-check rating) experiment, participants were randomly assigned to see one of two videos accusing a fictional politician of a financial scandal. The only difference between the two videos was the political party of the politician. After the video, participants read one of three randomly assigned fact-checks rating the ad either “true,” “half-true,” or “false.” In a post-test, participants answered questions about the ad, the targeted politician, the ad’s sponsor and the fact-checking organization. The results indicate that fact-check articles can affect evaluations of a political attack ad’s claims, as well as the targeted politician, ad sponsor, and the fact-checking organization’s adherence to traditional journalistic norms and standards. We also found that on some measures, partisans engage in motivated reasoning, which amplified party differences when the ad was ruled half-true, and in some cases, true. Our findings suggest that while fact checking can be effective at correcting misinformation, motivated reasoning among partisans plays a role in shaping the effects of fact-check rulings on attitudes toward the ad’s target, sponsor and the fact-checking organization.

If it bleeds, it leads: How cognition, motivation, and emotions influence our attention to the news • Margaret Flynn, University of Connecticut • The current study aims to provide a renewed examination of why certain news items are more attractive than others, or why the most “important” news is not always the most popular. Buck’s (1985) developmental interactionist theory provides a novel framework for examining this phenomenon of selective exposure. This perspective proposes that an individual’s emotions may direct their attention to a particular message, or in this case a news story. By employing an experimental methodology this paper demonstrates that complex combinations of emotions can influence what news information audiences select. Additionally, there is evidence here that suggests news information can alter mood and impact subsequent emotional states.

A ‘Sentimental’ Election: Emergent Framing and Public Sentiment in Social Media Content during the 2012 US Presidential Campaign • Jacob Groshek; Ahmed al-Rawi • By being embedded in everyday life, social networking sites (SNSs) have altered the way campaign politics are understood and engaged with by politicians and citizens alike. Somewhat paradoxically, though the features and influence of social media are regularly reported, the actual content of social media has remained a vast but somewhat amorphous and understudied entity. The study reported here thus examines public sentiment as it was expressed in just over 1.42 million social media units on Facebook and Twitter to provide broad insights into dominant topics and themes that were prevalent in the 2012 US election campaign online. Key findings include observed similarities and divergences across social networking sites and channels that cultivate a fuller understanding of what is being communicated in political social media content that is largely citizen and user-generated.

Who reads online news anyway? On and offline behaviors that predict reading of online newspapers. • Michael Horning, Bowling Green State University; SangHee Park, Bowling Green State University; Luyue Ma, Bowling Green State University; Fang Wang, Bowling Green State University • As newsrooms begin to develop content and user experiences designed for the Internet, new questions arise about the types of individuals reading online newspapers and the journalistic practices that might be appealing to online readers. This exploratory research assesses important predictors in online newspaper reading among college-aged students. Findings suggest that levels of civic engagement, public journalism interests, reading news on social media sites, and Internet use context are predictors of online newspaper use.

The “SomeTimes Picayune:” Comparing the online and print offerings of the New Orleans’ newspaper before and after the print reduction • Young Kim, Louisiana State University; Andrea Miller, LSU • This study compared the online and print news of New Orleans’ Times-Picayune before and after print publication moved from seven days a week to three. A content analysis found each venue offered different content, contradicting existing research touting news homogeneity. Print offered more public affairs and global news while online offered more local and entertainment news. Findings are discussed within the frameworks of social responsibility and local news value.

News Consumption in the Age of Content Aggregation: The Case of Yahoo, Google and Huffington Post • Angela Lee, University of Texas at Austin; H. Iris Chyi, University of Texas at Austin • In the pre-Internet era, the role of news providers in the media market was clearly defined. Media companies produced content as suppliers of news and information and competed with other media firms in their geographic market for audience and/or advertising share in either inter- or intra-competition scenarios. But the Internet has brought about revolutionary changes to this media landscape. One major change is the rise of content aggregators. While traditional news firms are still struggling with the economics of their online ventures, these news aggregators have become a major source of online news for American audiences. This exploratory study, through an online survey of 1,143 respondents, empirically examines the relationship between use of three major news aggregators—Yahoo, Google, and Huffington Post— and 13 major news media outlets operated by print, broadcast, cable and electronic news media. The goal is to offer an extensive overview of competition among key players in contemporary news ecology. Findings of this study suggest a symbiotic relationship between all three news aggregator sites and 13 major news outlets across different news industries. Such findings are at odds with industry sentiment, or hostility toward news aggregators, and news organizations are encouraged to reassess their relationship with news aggregators in the attempt to find better revenue models rather than casting blames that have no empirical basis.

How Journalists Value Positive News: The Influence of Professional Beliefs, Market Considerations, and Political Attitudes • Ka Kuen Leung, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Lap Fung Lee, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • While the negativity bias of the news media is generally recognized in many countries around the world, various types of positive news, ranging from touching human interests stories to news about national or community achievement, also feature regularly in the news media. Yet few scholarly analyses have examined whether and how professional journalists value positive news. This article examines Hong Kong journalists’ perceptions of the values of five types of positive news. It is hypothesized that professional beliefs about media roles in society, market considerations, and political attitudes would be related to perceived value of positive news. Analysis of data from a journalist survey shows that Hong Kong journalists do regard news stories that tell touching stories and promote social values and norms as important, but they do not see news stories that promote national development and achievement as important. Belief in the cultural role of the press, acknowledgement of market influence on the media, and national and local identification are significant predicts of perceived value of positive news. Implications of the findings are discussed.

The News Re-imagined: The Promise of Local Foundation-Funded Journalism • Suzanne Lysak, Syracuse University; Michael Cremedas, Syracuse University • This research surveyed 207 local newspaper and television news managers to measure reaction to a Federal Communications Commission proposal aimed at improving quality, in-depth reporting at the local level. In its landmark 2011 report, “Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age, the FCC called for a national program that would place reporters in local newsrooms, with the reporters’ salaries partially or fully paid by local community foundations.

Experimental Psychology Applied: Assessing NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof’s strategies to overcome psychic numbing • Scott Maier, University of Oregon • People relate to one death as a tragedy but tune out the loss of thousands as a statistic, a phenomenon documented by psychology experiments that suggest “the more who die, the less we care.” This sobering finding has influenced New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in his reporting on Darfur, human trafficking and other mass suffering. Drawing from behavioral research, Kristof says he now goes out of his way to find just the right person who illuminates the larger story. Reframing his journalistic approach, Kristof also seeks to move his readers by reporting on people who overcome adversity or offer real solutions. Content analysis and Internet metrics are used to assess whether Kristof adheres to these principles, and, more importantly, whether this kind of reporting engenders reader response. The findings offer guidance on how the media can overcome psychic numbing and compassion fatigue.

Online Story Commenting: An Experimental Test of Conversational Journalism and Trust • Doreen Marchionni, Pacific Lutheran University • Online story commenting offers a form of citizen engagement on news sites potentially important to democratic discourse. Yet few issues vex newsrooms more because of abusive rants, often from unnamed sources. This controlled experiment set out to test the “conversationalness” of commenting, using newly identified variables that theoretically measure the concept of journalism as a conversation. The study also tested whether commenting might help with reader trust. The data show that commenting’s best indicators of conversation are perceived friendliness and social presence. But comments do not appear to help with journalism’s most important values of perceived credibility and expertise.

Editorials, privilege and shield law Post-Branzburg: Forty years of newspaper narratives • Sandra Mardenfeld, Long Island University • As the prosecution against whistleblower Bradley Manning unfolds, the importance of confidential sources and their value to society once again is scrutinized. This study seeks to discover the discussions four major metro papers have within their commentary pages from 1972, the year of the pivotal Supreme Court case Branzburg v. Hayes, to 2012. What does the media say about issues such as reporter’s privilege and shield laws within their editorial section? A discussion of the three major themes uncovered leads to suggestions for future treatment.

Vicariously Rejected: Political-Sex-Scandal News Coverages Primes Negative Attitude Toward Sexual Betrayal • Gina Masullo Chen, The University of Southern Mississippi, School of Mass Communication and Journalism; Hinda Mandell, Rochester Institute of Technology, Department of Communication; John Wolf, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities • An online experiment (N = 231) reveals that reading news stories about political sex scandals prime negative attitudes toward sexual betrayal. Seeing sexual infidelity as humiliating is mediated through relationship satisfaction and attitudes toward sexual behavior. Results are discussed in relation to priming theory.

Breaking news and problems definitions from school shootings, 1996-2012 • Michael McCluskey • Problem definitions in the news provide explanations for tragic events like school shootings. This study examines nine problem definitions in the breaking news coverage (N = 311) of 11 school shootings between 1996 and 2012. Guns, teen life and school security were the most prominent problem definitions. Analysis shows differences by the audience orientation of the newspapers and by contextual factors in the shootings.

“Evil Visited this Community Today”: News Media Framing of the Sandy Hook School Shooting • Dylan McLemore, University of Alabama; Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama • A content analysis of seven newspapers’ coverage of the Sandy Hook school shooting in December 2012 assessed how news outlets contextualized the story for readers in the week following the event. The results revealed that the Sandy Hook shooting was most commonly framed in terms of the victims. Gun control became the central frame through which blame was attributed. A mental health frame was also evident, in line with prior shootings but despite a lack of evidence in this particular case. The findings suggest an enduring stigma surrounding mental health, and a continued association of mental illness with violent behavior. Findings are elaborated upon by considering frame valence, sourcing, and the passage of time.

Page One or Six: A proposition for a news type index • Patrick Merle, Florida State University; Clay Craig, Coastal Carolina University • This research proposes an updated instrument to measure news preferences. To date, the literature features two scales designed for a media landscape removed from today’s multi-screen environment. Beyond the obsolete nature of their scales, prior authors omitted the dimensions of style and timeliness, prevalent facets in today’s interactive context. Exploratory data from a survey (N = 317) reviewed through structural equation modeling start a scale developmental effort to discuss a valid measurement of news types.

Cranks or Community: Describing those who comment on news stories • Hans Meyer, Ohio University; Michael Clay Carey, Ohio University • By offering comments at the end of stories, news organizations are allowing readers to engage in the news. But few journalists say the read or appreciate the comments their stories receive because they say comments are, for the most part, junk. This study used a nationwide survey to describe the people who post comments at the end of new stories and suggests that news professionals may be the largest determinant in the quality of comments they receive. A hierarchical regression model predicting participation suggests that noticing moderation in forums and the importance readers place on moderation is the most important element that leads to participation. Noticing moderation and giving it high importance can also mediate the influence of other participation antecedents, such as the value of anonymity and the importance of civility. It also mediates the influence of most demographic variables besides age.

Nate Silver and the rise of the poll aggregators: How they proved their worth to news media in the 2012 election • Brad Scharlott, Northern Kentucky University; Nikhil Moro, University of North Texas • Prominent poll aggregators such as Nate Silver proved their worth in the 2012 election with forecasts that were far more accurate than the typical pollster’s. In future election cycles, cash-strapped newspapers that formerly commissioned pollsters may decide that their resources would be better spent licensing a poll aggregator, as The New York Times did with Silver, thereby also boosting traffic to their websites. They may also hire statisticians to start their own in-house poll-aggregation operations. The public interest in the work of poll aggregators seems certain to rise in coming election cycles as more and more people come to see in them a gold standard of election prognostication. But if there will be fewer pollsters out there generating data to analyze, then poll aggregators’ results may not be as robust in the future as they were in the 2012 election cycle.

Prescribing the News: Newsroom size and journalistic experience as key factors in the interaction between health journalists and public health organizations • Gregory Perreault; Shelly Rodgers; Jon Stemmle • A phone survey of 142 Midwestern journalists and editors was conducted to examine awareness and use of and knowledge about health literacy programs and initiatives in the State of Missouri. Journalists’ self-efficacy, reader-friendly writing behaviors on the topic of public health, and time spent and experience writing about health and science news were examined. We compared larger versus smaller newsrooms in terms of awareness and use of materials from health-related news services. Results suggest that two factors, newspaper size and experience, proved to be useful in making predictions about awareness and use of health-related news services and use of reader-friendly writing behaviors.

A slow response to Quick Response: Diffusion of QR technology on U.S. newspaper front pages • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama; Keith Saint, University of Alabama • A three-week constructed sample shows that few newspaper publish Quick Response (QR) codes on front pages, and many codes were beyond newsroom control. Content analysis describes QR use by papers in the context of diffusion of innovation and niche gratification theories, and compares published “deep” links to randomly selected pages. Interviews with newspaper executives reveal institutional isomorphism reasons for QR adoption and the belief that QR has little widespread acceptance by readers or the industry.

Anonymous User Comments and the Influence on Fan Identity and Sports Article Credibility • Sean Sadri, University of Florida • The present study examined how anonymous user comment tone can impact group identity, sports article credibility, and attitudes towards a sports news source. Participants were randomly assigned a sports article, where the article was indicated to have appeared on one of four sports sources with positive, negative, or no comments. Scores on a user identification scale were significantly higher for the positive comments than for negative comments. User comments were not shown to affect credibility.

Scanning and Sharing But Little Engagement: Newspaper Reporters’ Use Of Social Media • Arthur Santana, University of Houston • A national survey of newspaper reporters at large and mid-size U.S. newspapers reveals that the frequency with which they use Facebook and Twitter to supplement their reporting is minimal, especially among older, more experienced reporters at large dailies. Findings demonstrate that reporters are infrequently engaging the social networking sites to support some of their reporting duties and are instead more apt to scan the sites and use them as promotional tools.

A Predictive Model of Story Prominence in U.S. Daily Newspapers • Frederick Schiff, University of Houston; David Llanos, University of Houston • This study compares two exhaustive models of news content to predict story prominence. Both models were derived from eight leading theories of news play. Hierarchical Linear Modeling specified story-level, newspaper-level, ownership-level and cross-level variables. A Factor Analysis Model found five “common-sense” story types. Coders analyzed 6,090 stories, using a random stratified sample of 114 newspapers and 59 ownership groups. According to OLS, a combined model (HLM and FAM) yielded an Adjusted R2 of 19.5%.

The Power of the Impulse: The Flow of Content Communities and Online News Consumption • Amy Schmitz Weiss; Valerie Barker, Journalism & Media Studies SDSU; David Dozier; Diane Borden • This study examines how U.S. adults consume news content from various communities online (ranging from YouTube to news websites) and how they access this information from digital devices (e.g. laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets). Based on a national telephone survey conducted of U.S. adults, this study identifies that people are consuming different kinds of news content online and doing so in a state of Flow via their digital devices. Using the theory of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975), this study aims to see how an online user can engage in an impulse form of news consumption (through various content communities) via digital devices (e.g. laptops, smartphones, tablets and desktop computers). Implications of the findings are addressed and future research directions for examining online news consumption through this lens are discussed.

Generating “New” News or Recycling Old News?: News Diversity and the World Wide Web • Charlene Simmons, U of Tennessee at Chattanooga • The Web has been heralded as an alternative to traditional media, providing users with diverse information and perspectives not previously available. Web usage studies have demonstrated that users do not spend time on alternative sites, but rather they spend the majority of their time on just a handful of popular Web sites. This study explores whether popular news sites act as new sources of diverse information or whether they repurpose content available from other sources.

Journalism’s thin line: A case study of suburban news and the news divide • Edgar Simpson, Central Michigan University • This exploratory study examined the news environment in a county where a daily newspaper had closed. Using the theories of the public sphere and geographic-based public affairs journalism as a key structural element in invigorating the sphere, the study mapped out the public affairs news in an Ohio suburban county where a daily newspaper closed. Overall, this study, offered as a case to explore vexing national issues, found that regional and metro daily newspapers have largely retreated to their cores, despite having significant circulation in the county, and that commercial television rarely ventured into the area, even though the county is part of their Designated Market Areas. The study found weekly print operations provided the majority of public affairs journalism. Further, this study found Web-only start-ups were not a factor in public affairs news and that the weekly operations provided a higher quality of coverage, in terms of sourcing and depth, than all other media.

Making Change: Diffusion of Technological, Relational, and Cultural Innovation in the Newsroom • Jane B. Singer, University of Iowa; Melissa Tully, University of Iowa; Shawn Harmsen, University of Iowa; Brian Ekdale, University of Iowa • Diffusion of innovations theory typically has been applied to the spread of a particular technology or practice. This paper seeks to obtain a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted nature of upheaval in the news industry by considering the diffusion of three distinct but related changes: technological, relational, and cultural. It does so through a case study, based on quantitative and qualitative data, of a Midwestern news company undergoing successive waves of significant change.

Microblogging the News: Covering a Crisis When Twitter is the Only Option • Amanda Sturgill, Elon University; Rajat Agarwal, Elon University • As news media are evolving strategies for incorporating new technologies for gathering and disseminating the news, social media have become a part of the mix. Because the ability to tell stories over social media is not restricted to experts, scholars have suggested that social media are more useful for engaging users and for creating a sense of community around issues in a particular area. One aspect of news in the emerging social news environment that has not been as well studied is the coverage of breaking news. This paper examines the coverage of a shooting during a unique event in which a college newspaper was locked down and only able to communicate via Twitter. Content analysis of the newspaper’s tweet stream suggests that the coverage fits largely into patterns found in coverage of other breaking news, although a significant number of tweets were used to push users to the newspaper’s regular web presence, once it again became available.

Frames of Mental Illness in an Indian Daily Newspaper • Roma Subramanian, University of Missouri, School of Journalism • Through a framing analysis of news stories about mental illness in The Times of India, an elite daily newspaper in India, this study aimed to understand how the Indian news media influence the public’s perception of mental illness. The following themes were identified: crime, suicide, prevention/treatment/recovery, simplistic/inadequate explanations, stigma, and mental health care system issues. Overall, while some stories perpetuate mental illness stigma, there is an attempt to raise the public’s awareness about mental illness.

The “militant” Chicago Defender: A study of editorials and letters to the editor in 1968 • Brian Thornton, University of North Florida • The “radical” Chicago Defender: A study of the newspapers editorials and letters to the editor in 1968. There is almost a mythological narrative surrounding the Chicago Defender, one of the most influential black newspapers in the U.S. In its heyday the paper, hailed by Langston Hughes as “the journalistic voice of a largely voiceless people,” was a “must read” for many African-Americans, not just in the Midwest, but also throughout the country, especially in the Deep South. The Defender is credited with playing a major role in influencing the Great Migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North from 1915 to 1925. The paper was militant, if not radical, in its early days in demands for racial justice and social change. But what kind of editorial stance did the paper take in the late 1960s, at the height of the Black Power/Black Panther social phenomenon? Did the paper call for massive social change, or defend the status quo? It might surprise some readers to discover that the Defender called for the death penalty for black teens who committed murder in 1968. This research examined all the editorials and letters to the editor published in the Chicago Defender from Jan. 1, through Dec. 31 1968, with a view towards understanding what stances the paper and its readers took in discussions of such important topics as race, social change, Black pride, equal employment opportunities and black culture. A total of 395 editorials were published in the paper that year and all were closely read and analyzed along with 35 letters to the editor.

When Critical Voices Should Speak Up: Patterns in News Coverage of Unofficial Sources During the BP Oil Spill • Brendan Watson, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • Media routines suggest that journalists’ BP oil spill coverage would rely heavily on official sources. Yet, unofficial sources are most likely to offer critical perspectives that could help avoid similar accidents from occurring. Some deride the media’s initial crisis coverage as speculative and inaccurate. This study, however, found support for a positive effect of the disaster: it momentarily dislodged media routines, and prior to the emergence of an official narrative, news coverage was more inclusive of critical voices.

Examining the Behavioral Consequences of the First-person Effect of Newspaper Endorsements in the 2012 Presidential Election • Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Ven-Hwei Lo; Chingching Chang • Research examining the perceptions of media influences of political messages on the self relative to others (Davison, 1983) has documented both third-person (e.g., a greater perceived effect on others than self) and first-person perceptions (e.g., a greater perceived effect on self than others). As a new direction of research, increasing scholarly attention (Golan & Day, 2008) is being paid to investigating the antecedents of the first-person effect and its consequences on behavior. However, empirical research of the first-person effect is still limited; no study has examined the behavioral consequences of first-person perceptions on voter behavior. To fill the void, the present study examines the perceived influences of newspaper endorsements of presidential candidate in the 2012 election. Data collected from a random sample of 520 respondents supported third-person perception regarding the influence of newspaper endorsements of presidential candidate. However, findings also show that the more credible the newspaper endorsements, the greater the perceived influence on self. Furthermore, first-person perception was found as a positive predictor of the intention to boycott newspapers that endorsed the opposing candidate and the likelihood of voting for the candidate who received more newspaper endorsements.

MacDougall Student Paper Competition

The Social Mediation of News and Political Rumors • Soo Young Bae, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor • This study investigates the dynamics between news media use and political rumors in the current information environment on the Internet, with a particular focus on the implications of the newly emerged social networking sites. By examining survey data of online social media users, this study highlights the contrasting implications of the traditional news media and social media as news sources in shaping the users’ perceptions about political rumors, and reveals the significant consequences of the homogeneity of the users’ online social networks.

Three Days a Week: Has A New Production Cycle Altered The Times-Picayune’s News Coverage? • David Bockino, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill • This study explores the difference in print and online news coverage by the New Orleans-based newspaper The Times-Picayune before and after the implementation of a new production cycle. While print coverage has remained relatively static in terms of both topic and type category, there are differences between both the paper’s print and online coverage as well as its online coverage on days with a print edition and days without a print edition.

Generating Visits through Facebook: The Ambivalent Role of Engagement • Jan Boehmer, Michigan State University • In the present study, I investigate the effects of engagement with news content posted on Facebook. More specifically, I look at how different levels of engagement affect the number of individuals who click on the posted link, as well as the visits that are created on the website it refers to. I also look at the number of pages seen during visits, and the duration of the visits. I find that while the number of individuals who click on a link on Facebook does not increase due to higher levels of engagement, an increase in visits is evident. However, contradictory to common believe, higher levels of engagement affected the number of pages visited, and the time spent on the website, negatively. Finally, I discuss potential reasons for why the engagement created on Facebook can not be easily transferred to a website.

Capitalism, Crisis & Custom Content • Kyle Brown • This paper will offer a theoretical framework of the symbiotic relationship between newspapers and advertisers within a market journalism structure, and seek to identify and define standard journalistic ethics. It will then place custom content, a recent and emerging advertising endeavor that further blurs the lines between ad and editorial, within that theoretical discussion and offer discussion on the ethical dilemmas of the production of such disguised content, at both the institutional and individual levels.

Trust Me, I Am Your News: Media Credibility across News Platforms in U.S. & South Korea • Yunmi Choi, University of Florida; Daniel Axelrod, University of Florida; Jihyun Kim • International surveys measured American and Korean college students’ respective media usage habits, preferences and their views on the credibility of news offered by various media platforms. Specifically, this study examined the students’ habits with, and preferences for, news from the TV, radio, newspapers, the Internet, and mobile devices. Though Korean and American college students prefer either online or mobile news, Korean students assigned traditional media outlets much higher credibility ratings than those from U.S. students.

Human Trafficking in the Elite Press: A Content Analysis of Newspapers in the West • Irma Fisher, University of Oregon; Tobias Hopp, University of Oregon • This study analyzed the human trafficking coverage found in six elite newspapers in the U.S. UK, and Canada. Using a sample of 327 articles, we content analyzed the presentation of human trafficking as a domestic/national or international issue. The results indicated significant differences in the handling of the issue on the basis of article type, article focus, and press nationality. Furthermore, between-newspaper differences were identified.

Lifecycle of Obesity Coverage: Comparing Attributions of Child and Adult Obesity • Se Na Lim, University of Alabama; Virginia Johnson, The University of Alabama; Adam Sharples, The University of Alabama; Richard Rush, The University of Alabama; Rosanne Rumstay, The University of Alabama • This study examined how the media report on obesity and compared and contrasted frames of responsibility used in the reporting of child and non-child obesity. Using framing theory and looking specifically at individual health and public health frames, this study researched how newspapers represent the prevalence, causes, consequences, and solutions of child and non-child obesity. Two research questions were posed: First, what type of content (among prevalence, consequence, cause, and solution) most frequently appears in news articles and what frames are used for describing those contents? Second, what differences exist among child obesity, adult obesity, and obesity in general in regard to content types and frame level? A content analysis was conducted of six national newspapers reporting on obesity in the year 2011. A total of 382 mentions of obesity in 80 articles were coded and analyzed. Results indicated that prevalence and solution/prevention of obesity are mentioned most frequently. These two content types are also most frequently described in a public health frame, while consequence and cause are most frequently described in an individual health frame. Among mentions of childhood obesity, solution/prevention were the most frequent content types, while prevalence and content were most frequently mentioned for adult obesity. Mentions of child obesity were framed in public frames and individual health frames in the same proportion, but obesity in general was more frequently described using a public health frame. Limitations of this study and directions for future research in this area are discussed.

Technological and sociological motivations: Predictors of online content curation platform acceptance among journalists • Angela Lee, University of Texas at Austin; Vittoria Sacco; Marco Giardina • While the nature of social media encourages and facilitates real-time news distribution, information overload on social media sites is challenging journalists’ gatekeeping role in filtering out relevant news information for the public in an increasingly speed-driven online news cycle. Online media content curation platforms — based on principles of museum curation that knit technological and human skills for selecting, classifying, preserving, contextualizing and crafting content from various online sources in curated narratives — have been identified by mainstream news organizations such as Al Jazeera and freelance journalists as a solution to this problem. Applying an adapted version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) through survey research, this exploratory study examines Swiss journalists’ acceptance of media content curation platforms. The results suggest: (1) positive associations between motivations variables and attitudes; (2) positive associations between attitudes and intention to use media content curation and, contrasting previous findings, (3) no effect of perceived attractiveness on attitudes. This study’s findings suggest new ways to encourage acceptance and use of media content curation platforms among journalists. Professional and theoretical implications are also discussed.

Stay Tuned for More News from Your Friends • Seok Ho Lee, University of Texas at Austin • This study employs an attribute of social network, the strength of closeness, as a predictor for news consumption on Facebook. The evidence suggests that strength of closeness on Facebook contributes to positive attitude and behavioral change on news consumption on Facebook. And, individuals are found to rely on their social relations as news sources as the closeness of friendship grows. Meanwhile, the strength of closeness on Facebook has negative association with heterogeneous news consumption.

Journalism Endures: Has Twitter Changed the News Product? • Shin Haeng Lee • This study examines the effect of social media use by news agencies on their journalistic norms and practices: public service orientation, objectivity, and transparency or accountability. The data are 1,141 stories posted by six mainstream media organizations on Twitter over one constructed week in 2012. Findings show a tendency toward professional, hierarchical journalism; even blog posts have not led to innovative adoption of the horizontal communication patterns of social media. Traditional newsrooms rather co-opt the new technology to connect with digital media users. This study concludes that journalism as an institution normalizes rather than adjusts to the changing media landscape.

The Challenge of Interactive News for a Public Caught in an Online Identity Crisis • Megan Mallicoat, University of Florida • This study examines the effect of publicness on how people interact with online news. In this exploratory experimental study, participants in three conditions were asked to read 10 articles from a news website and write comments on five articles of their choosing. The findings show participants’ personal interests could significantly predict news selection. They also show attempts at self-presentation in comments most frequently utilized the strategies of ingratiation and competence, but intimidation was present also.

The Effect of Heuristic Processing of Online News Columns on Source Credibility and Message Believability Ratings • Amna Al-Abri; Alexandra Merceron, University of Connecticut • This paper draws on established theories of stereotyping to explore how heuristic processing of online news columns influences ratings of source credibility, likability, and dynamism as well as message believability through the activation of stereotypical perceptions.

What journalists retweet: Opinion, humor and brand development on Twitter • Logan Molyneux, University of Texas • Previous studies on Twitter have been quantitative and have found a loosening of traditional journalistic norms on social media. This qualitative study of journalists’ activity on Twitter takes an inductive approach to learn what new behaviors are present there. Findings include a prevalence of opinion and humor, contrary to the journalistic norm of objectivity, but also something new: personal brand development. The concept of brand development on social media is explicated and its implications explored.

Reshaping the journalists-audience relationship. National survey of journalists and their use of Twitter • Magdalena Saldaña, The University of Texas at Austin • Through a national on-line survey of journalists with Twitter accounts, this paper study how journalists use Twitter as a reporting tool, how likely they are to gather information from it, and how they see their followers. From the hierarchical model of influences’ perspective, results show journalists see Twitter as a valid source of ideas and news sources, and their audiences are becoming central to the way they report the news and produce news media content.

Whose public sphere? An analysis of the final comments on a community newspaper’s online forum • Shannon Sindorf, University of Colorado; Anthony Collebrusco, University of Colorado • This paper used content analysis and textual analysis to examine posts made to the online comments forum of a community newspaper after the board was shut down due to editors’ claims that its contents were too uncivil. Comments were analyzed for the amount of substance and civility present. The findings indicate that the majority of posts on the forum were both civil and substantive in nature. Only a handful of users posted most of the comments, indicating that the viewpoints expressed were limited to a very small group. Textual analysis found that discussion of local issues was conducted differently than that surrounding broader, national topics. Local discussion was more measured in tone and generated more civil discourse than did debates over national issues.

Whom do you trust? Comparing the credibility of citizen and traditional journalists • Alecia Swasy; Manu Bhandari, University of Missouri; Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; rachel davis, University of Missouri • Anybody with a video camera and Internet access can become a citizen journalist. But do readers trust untrained citizens to deliver credible news? Using the framework of the MAIN model, this study explored the effects of traditional journalism cues on how young news consumers evaluate online news. Participants rated traditional journalists to be more credible than citizen journalists. Participants also rated straight news articles to be more credible than opinion pieces.

Framing the Egyptian Revolution: An Analysis of the U.K. and U.S. Elite Press • Rodrigo Zamith, University of Minnesota; Stephen Bennett, University of Minnesota; Xiaofei He, University of Minnesota • This study seeks to analyze and compare the coverage of the Egyptian revolution by the elite press in the United Kingdom and the United States. Drawing from framing theory, the authors employ a manual holistic approach to content analysis to assess the salience of frames, the depiction of actors, and selection of sources. The findings reveal an appreciable level of congruence in the coverage, both in terms of the frames they used and the sources they turned to in shaping the coverage. However, significant differences were found for the depictions of the key actors in the revolution and the domestication of the issue.

American Copy Editors Society (ACES) Competition

Are Online Newspapers Inferior Goods or Public Goods? • Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; XIAOQUN ZHANG • This study of general population and college students in 2012 in a local newspaper market examines the use of online and print newspapers to determine the relationship between online and print newspaper readership and whether online newspapers are inferior goods or public goods. The data did not support the inferior good hypothesis in both samples, contradicting the findings of earlier research. Newspaper executives are recommended to set different expectations for their print products and online products.

<<2013 Abstracts

Communication Technology 2013 Abstracts

Faculty Papers

Are Alternative Farmers Yielding Success with Online Communication Tools for Their Social Capital and Business Viability • Katie Abrams; Abigail Sackmann • To foster direct-to-consumer marketing, some alternative farmers are shifting to online marketing tools like social media. What is unknown, however, is how they are using them and what impacts use has on their business. The purpose of this study was to characterize and determine influences and outcomes of alternative farmers’ use of various marketing and communication channels to better understand what they stand to gain (or lose) from participation in online media activities as it relates to their farm business viability and social capital. Through survey data of 82 alternative farmers, it was learned that their personal use of social media was highly correlated with their business use. Most of their time on the Internet was spent finding farming information and finding and interacting with customers; these activities (along with several others) were positively correlated with online bridging social capital. Personal uses of Facebook were indicative of greater social capital, whereas business uses of any social media were not. For business viability, the more Facebook Page likes their farm had, the more revenue they had, but no relationships were found between their business use of social media and customer loyalty or customer relationship. In sum, alternative farmers’ use of online communication tools was positively related to their social capital and their use of Facebook Pages was positively related to farm revenue. This study provides critical benchmark data to later determine the impact of effective use of these tools.

Tell Me Who You Are, I Tell How You Use Facebook: Exploring the Relationship Between Motivational Reactivity and Moral Foundations, and the U&G of Facebook • Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Elizabeth Taylor Quilliam, Michigan State University; Geri Alumit Zeldes, Michigan State University • A cross-sectional survey of 854 college students explored the relationship between motivational reactivity and moral foundations, as individual difference factors, and the motivations and uses of Facebook. Results indicated that risk avoiders scored highest on all moral foundations. Additionally, the moral values of harm/care and authority/respect significantly and positively predicted the intensity to use Facebook, yet the results varied among the different groups of respondents as a function of motivational reactivity. Seven motivations to use Facebook (information sharing, self-documentation, social interaction, entertainment, passing time, self expression, and medium appeal) showed different patterns of prediction as a function of moral foundations and motivational reactivity. Findings are discussed within the framework of extending the uses and gratifications theoretical approach to include both cognitive/biological and social differences as predictors of needs, gratifications, and media choices.

Implications of Content, Quantity, and Quality of Mobile Phone-Mediated Social Interactions for Life Satisfaction • Keunmin Bae • Wireless technology-enabled mobile phones these days are equipped with various interpersonal communication channels, such as voice calling, various SNS apps, texting, video calling, etc. Therefore, users are able to make the best use of it for social interactions via those channels, which provides better opportunities to overcome the communication barriers of time and space. Using an online survey technique, this study investigated the causal mechanisms involving individuals’ social interaction motives for mobile phone use, the quantity, the content, and the quality of mobile phone-mediated social interactions, and their implications for life satisfaction, based on the theoretical grounds of relationship theories, uses and gratifications theory and social capital. Results showed motives for contacting close friends were positively associated with mobile phone use and with mobile phone-mediated self-disclosure. Motives for contacting acquaintances were not related to mobile phone use but negatively related to mobile phone-mediated self-disclosure. Mobile phone use was directly, positively associated with perceived social support, but indirectly with life satisfaction via social support. Mobile phone-mediated self-disclosure was directly related to stronger life satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of the results were discussed.

Harnessing Peer Potency: Predicting Positive Outcomes from Social Capital Affinity and Engagement With Participatory Websites • Valerie Barker, Journalism & Media Studies SDSU; David Dozier; Amy Schmitz Weiss; Diane Borden • A survey of a representative sample of 1,417 U.S. Internet users investigating positive outcomes from three groups of participatory Internet sites: content communities, ecommerce and social networking, showed that flow (intense engagement in and enjoyment of an activity) promotes satisfaction, affirmation, focused and incidental-knowledge gain. Social capital affinity (the value placed on interaction and identification with online peers) was found to facilitate flow. Internet self-efficacy did not significantly moderate the experience of flow.

Posting About Politics: Media as Resources For Political Expression on Facebook • Stephanie Edgerly, Northwestern University; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Southern California; Leila Bighash, University of Southern California; Emily Gee, University of Southern California; Mark Hannah, University of Southern California, Annenberg School • This paper explores political expression on Facebook during, and immediately following, each of the three 2012 presidential debates. Our focus is specifically on the use of media resources (i.e., images, videos, links) and sharing practices in posts about the debates. Based on a hand-coded sample of 583 public Facebook posts, we find that media resources are commonly used in acts of political expression, and that posts with media resources receive fewer comments.

Modeling Reality: The connection between behavior on reality TV and Facebook • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri; Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Margaret Duffy, U of Missouri • This study investigates how reality television viewing is linked to Facebook. Utilizing a survey of 736 students, researchers examined whether viewers of different genres of reality television were more prone to problematic information sharing on Facebook. The study found that all viewers of reality were prone to problematic information sharing. However, viewers of drama-, competition- and crime-based shows were most likely to share problematic information. These results are interpreted using social cognitive theory.

Mobile phones and participation: An exploration of mobile social media versus mobile social networking • Jill Hopke, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Itay Gabay, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Sojung Kim, High Point University; Hernando Rojas, University of Wisconsin – Madison • Mobile communication technology is nearing one hundred percent adoption globally, with the majority of usage now taking place in developing countries. According to the International Telecommunications Union, mobile broadband in developing countries is cheaper than fixed-broadband services. With these trends, scores of people around the world are going online for the first time via mobile phones, with much of this use happening in a social media environment. In this study we test the relationships between political conversation with heterogeneous and homogeneous ties, political participation, and online expressive communication. Our findings show that using Twitter, a form of microblogging, on mobile phones among the urban adult population in Colombia is associated with a higher likelihood for both online and offline forms of political participation, as well as online expressive communication. Using Facebook, a form of social networking on the other hand, on mobile phones is associated with higher likelihood for online expressive communication only. Implications for future research are discussed.

Development and Initial Assessment of a Measure of General Technological Self-Efficacy • Tobias Hopp, University of Oregon; Harsha Gangadharbatla • The purpose of this study was to develop and assess a measure of technological self-efficacy (TSE). Three samples were collected for this purpose. Sample 1 was used to reduce an 18-item pool down to 12-item pool of potential TSE indicators. Sample 2 was used to reduce the measure to a 9-item scale. Sample 3 was used to test to the validity of the scale. Initial analyses indicated that TSE scale possesses good psychometric properties.

News Media Activity on Twitter as Social Networks • Jiran Hou, University of Georgia; Itai Himelboim • This study takes a social networks approach to examine traditional media use of Twitter. Specifically, it inquires to the extent to which news media organizations take advantage of this social media platform to break from the traditional one-to-many approach, reaching audiences that do not follow them directly. We found that overall national TV networks on twitter – organizational accounts and their affiliated journalist accounts – reached audiences indirectly more than national newspapers. Interestingly, networks created by individual journalists reached more direct audiences, while organizations reached beyond their immediate groups of followers. Examining the hubs that help reaching indirect audiences, TV networks on Twitter were more likely to have non-media hubs tweeting about them, than newspaper networks. We conclude, among others, that TV networks on Twitter taking better advantage of Twitter in terms of reaching audiences that do not follow them directly via non-traditional media actors.

Sex Role Stereotyping is Hard to Kill: A Field Experiment Measuring Social Responses to User Characteristics and Behavior in an Online Multiplayer First-Person Shooter Game • T. Franklin Waddell, Penn State; Jesse Fox; James Ivory, Virginia Tech; Adrienne Holz Ivory, Virginia Tech; Marcela Weber, The University of the South; Kwaku Akom, Virginia Tech; Desmond Hayspell, Southside Virginia Community College • Behaviors that are proscribed in face-to-face communication, such as sex role stereotyping, may be disinhibited in anonymous online environments. A virtual field experiment (N = 520) in an online game examined the effects of player sex and communication style on compliance with friend requests. As predicted by sex role stereotypes, women who communicated positively earned greater compliance than women who communicated negatively, whereas men who communicated negatively gained more compliance than men who communicated positively.

Psychological and Physiological Reponses to Stereoscopic 3D Gaming: Exploring How Experienced and Inexperienced Gamers React to Shifts in Gaming Features • Anthony Limperos, University of Kentucky; T. Franklin Waddell, Penn State; Adrienne Holz Ivory, Virginia Tech; James Ivory, Virginia Tech • Advances in gaming technology have been made over the past 5 years, including the introduction of stereoscopic 3D in commercial gaming. This research employed a mixed factorial design to explore the relationship between type of game played (2D; 3D), game player experience (experienced; inexperienced), and participant sex (male; female) on feelings of presence and arousal. Results show that positive responses to stereoscopic 3D are moderated by game player experience. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Some Like it Lots: The Influence of Interactivity and Reliance on Credibility • Tom Johnson; Barbara Kaye, University of Tennessee – Knoxville • This study examines how interactivity and reliance influence credibility perceptions of 16 sources after controlling for demographic and political variables. Reliance proved a much better predictor of credibility, impacting credibility in 15 of 16 instances as compared to 3 of 16 for interactivity. This study also examined credibility of sources that have received little attention in the credibility literature such as social network sites, Twitter and smartphone news applications.”

The Lure of Grandkids and the Desire for Online Privacy: Why Retirees Use (or Avoid) Facebook • Eun-Hwa Jung, Penn State University; Justin Walden; Ariel Johnson, The Pennsylvania State University; S. Shyam Sundar, The Pennsylvania State University • This study draws upon in-depth interviews (N=46) to evaluate retirees’ perceptions of social networking sites (SNSs). Interviews revealed six primary reasons for using Facebook (keeping in touch, sharing photos, social surveillance, responding to family member requests, convenient communication, curiosity) and six primary reasons for not using Facebook (privacy, need for media richness, preference for familiarity, triviality of communication, time commitment, frustration with site tools). Emergent findings hold implications for future research and SNS design.

Seriously Social: Young Adults, Social Media and News • Kelly Kaufhold, Texas Tech University • A survey of two large college populations found a stark, significant negative correlation between social media use, news use and being informed. Two scenarios were tested: A complementary-use hypothesis in which social media use aids news use; and a displacement hypothesis in which social media use impedes news use. Social media use was found to be significantly related to less news use and being less informed.

Opinion Leaders in Online Cancer Support Groups: An Investigation of Their Antecedents and Consequences • Eunkyung Kim, University of Georgia; Dietram Scheufele, Department of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jeong Yeob Han; Dhavan Shah • This study investigates the relationship between opinion leaders and psychosocial health outcomes in online cancer support group by considering two overarching questions: 1) Who are the opinion leaders? 2) What role do these opinion leaders play in explaining health outcomes? The findings suggest that opinion leaders had more psychosocial health benefits than non-leaders. There were different characteristics between opinion leaders and non-leaders in terms of race, personality traits, and psychosocial factors.

Advertising Structure and Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Memberships on Video Sharing Websites • Joonghwa Lee, Middle Tennessee State University; Vamsi Kanuri, University of Missouri; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Murali Mantrala • This paper introduces conjoint analysis to examine consumer preferences for how commercials are embedded in online video streaming sites like HuluPlus, Amazon Streaming, and Yahoo Streaming. The advantage of conjoint analysis is that it provides an analytical tool for optimizing the structure of whether consumers have a choice of which commercials they watch, the duration of the commercials, how many of them there are, and the trade-off between these variables and various levels of membership pricing for the video site. Using a novel one limit Tobit regression with repeated measures, we demonstrate that consumers’ willingness to pay, derived using the preferences obtained from conjoint analysis, is significantly affected by advertising structure on online stream sites. However, Ad Enjoyment, a psychological variable measured as a consumers’ general attitude toward advertising, which has been shown in the literature to have a significant effect on consumers’ purchase behavior, did not contribute to the prediction of consumer willingness to pay.

From Media Literacy (ML) to Meida and Information Literacy (MIL): Rationales and Practices • Alice Y. L. Lee, Hong Kong Baptist University • This paper proposes that media literacy should be integrated with information literacy and ICT skills to form a new literacy concept of “media and information literacy” (MIL). MIL is regarded as a set of essential millennial competencies that young people needed in order to operate well in the 21st century. By analyzing the technological revolution, the transition to knowledge society and the participatory culture of the Net Generation, this paper explains the necessity of cultivating young people’s MIL so that they can become competent knowledge workers and responsible citizens in the emerging knowledge society. The practice of MIL in the city of Hong Kong was examined as a case study to explore how the MIL movement can be better launched in the coming years.

Social Media and Strategic Communications: A three-year study of attitudes and perceptions about social media among college students • Bobbi Kay Lewis, Oklahoma State University; Cynthia Nichols, Oklahoma State University • In previous research of college students’ attitudes and perceptions of social media, Lewis (2010) found education and curriculum have a significant impact on college students’ attitudes and perceptions of social media. Through situated learning theory, the current study explores the importance of educating students on how to employ social media strategically in the construction of knowledge and reality. Similar to the first two studies, the findings suggest college students who are exposed to social media in their coursework, rated social media significantly more positively than those who are not educated on how to social media as a strategic tool. The findings have implications for both communications industry and education.

Perceived contextual characteristics of online social networks as predictors of openness, activeness and diversity of information exchange • Xigen Li; Mike Yao; Yang Liu; Heng Lu • This study investigates the effects of perceived network characteristics on information exchange of online social network users. The results revealed that perceived network characteristics partly explain the behavior of information exchange in online social networks. Perceived network density positively and heterogeneity negatively predict the openness of information exchange. Perceived network density and network openness positively predict the activeness of information exchange. Perceived network centrality and network openness positively predict the diversity of information exchange. The findings of this study highlight the importance of communication context and confirmed information exchange as a concept with multiple dimensions. The effects of perceived network characteristics of online social networks on information exchange varied by openness, activeness and diversity.

Exploring Podcast Use Intent: Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Network Communication • Yi Mou; Carolyn Lin • This study incorporated perceived descriptive norm and social-network communication to the framework of the theory of planned behavior to predict podcast-use intent. An online survey was conducted with 396 college students. Results show that social network communication, descriptive norm, injunctive norm and attitude-related-to-podcasting technology significantly predicted podcast-use intent. Perceived behavioral control over podcasting adoption was not a significant predictor of podcast-use intent. Implications for theory building and future research directions are discussed.

Conditional Effects of Digital Media on the Knowledge Gap in the 2010 U.S. Senate Election • Jason Martin, DePaul University • This study analyzed the conditional effects of digital media on political knowledge using a mail survey of a random sample of registered voters in a 2010 U.S. Senate election campaign. The goal was to determine whether six different digital media activities related to campaign news significantly affected voter learning, and whether interactions of digital news use and education privileged knowledge acquisition based on socioeconomic status. Analysis found that after robust controls, news media website use produced a significant positive association with political knowledge in regression estimation, and that education had a conditional diminishing effect on knowledge as news media website use increased. However, other digital news activities, including use of social networking sites, online expression, and blogs, did not produced any significant effects on knowledge. These results indicate that in a Congressional campaign context, digital news holds the potential for producing a more egalitarian distribution of political knowledge, while more socially focused digital media activities tend not to inform voters about candidates and key issues. The implications of these findings and avenues for further research investigating digital media and societal inequalities in a political engagement context are discussed.

Incidental Learning as a Function of Complementary Simultaneous Media Use: The Mediating Role of TV Engagement • Rebecca Nee, San Diego State University; David Dozier • Television audiences are increasingly using portable communication technologies to multitask, lookup information online, check social network sites, and comment on the programs being watched. Although multitasking can distract audiences away from the TV content, the use of a second screen in a manner that complements the mass communication content is a unique phenomenon that may lead to positive outcomes. This study, based upon survey data collected from a national stratified random sample (N = 1,417), supports a theoretical model linking frequency of complementary simultaneous media use to engagement, which mediates incidental learning. Findings may be useful for mass communication scholars and practitioners seeking to understand the effects of dual electronic media use.

Looking for Gendered Privacy: Do Men and Women Differ in Privacy Skill and Confidence? • Yong Jin Park, Howard University • This study investigates whether privacy skill and confidence differ by gender, focusing on data protection and release. Analyses of a national sample revealed that gender had a positive association with confidence and skill in protection; however, gender had no effect on the extent to which data release was managed. Implications are discussed in light of Internet skill required for building privacy, and the role played by gender in signaling the need for policy awareness.

Hyperpersonal recovery from alcoholism: Negotiating social support between online and face-to-face support group settings • David Jackiewicz, Kellogg Community College; Stephen Perry, Illinois State • Members of Alcoholics Anonymous have differing perceptions of the social support received through attending online vs. face-to-face (FtF) AA meetings? An online survey assessed social integration, nurturance, and informational social support. Results indicate that higher CMC meeting attendance provided lower levels of social integration and informational support. CMC meetings did, however, provide the same amount of nurturance support as FtF meetings. AA members who attended more CMC meetings valued transferring knowledge between contexts the most.

Community Characteristics Influencing Municipal Use of Social Media • John Remensperger, UNC; Daniel Riffe, UNC • This study examines community-level characteristics and use of social media by local governments to interact with citizens. A structural pluralism model, and a local media competition model, measuring quantity and diversity of media outlets, were examined in relation to local government’s use of social media to promote deliberative democracy. Local media competition, as well as lack of educational and industrial diversity, had a significant, positive influence on adoption of social media by city governments.

Emerging Mobile Media Platform: Exploring Consumer Perception and Use of Tablets for Media Content • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida; Ronen Shay, University of Florida • This exploratory study utilizes a self-recorded video diary methodology to assess actual tablet users’ entertainment or informational media consumption experiences. It seeks to address: how users use tablets to consume media content traditionally distributed on other platforms; users’ perceptions on tablets’ relative benefits, accessibility, compatibility, usefulness, ease of use, and fun; tablet substitutability and complementarity among other media devices; and what adoption factors are most important to tablet users.

Comparing relationships among self-disclosure, social attraction, predictability and trust in exclusive Facebook and exclusive face-to-face relationships • Pavica Sheldon, University of Alabama in Huntsville; Loretta Pecchioni • The aim of this study was to compare friendship qualities in two types of relationships: exclusive Facebook friendships and exclusive face-to-face friendships. The term exclusive was described as being a very close relationship that is carried out primarily through one means of interaction. Based on Altman and Taylor’s (1973) social penetration theory, Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) uncertainty reduction theory, and Parks and Floyd’s (1996) personal relationship scale, this study measured one participant’s self-disclosure to an exclusive Facebook friend and to an exclusive face-to-face friend, as well as his or her social attraction to each type of a friend, predictability of that friend’s behavior, and finally trust in them. Results show that trust and predictability have the most influence on how much we choose to disclose to both our Facebook and our face-to-face friends. In addition, we will also be more socially attracted to those friends to whom we self-disclose more. Facebook relationships, however, are not “pure” relationships, and individuals disclose more to and have more trust in their face-to-face friends.

“Candy Crush”: Understanding the relationship between sensation seeking, locus of control, life satisfaction, and motivations for playing Facebook games • Pavica Sheldon, University of Alabama in Huntsville • Despite online games’ constant evolvement, there has been relatively little research studying the positive aspects of game-playing. This article explores the motivations for playing Facebook games and individuals’ differences associated with it. Using data from a survey of adults 19-76 years old, results revealed that one-fifth of all participants played Facebook games. The main motive for playing games was the challenge of it. In addition, findings showed that those who spent more time playing Facebook games scored higher in external locus of control and were less satisfied with their lives. Women spent more time playing games than men. Individuals 35 years old and older spent more time than younger adults.

In Control of Enjoyment: Gameplay Difficulty, Performance Feedback, and the Mediating Effect of Presence on Video Game Enjoyment • Brett Sherrick, Pennsylvania State University; Mike Schmierbach, Pennsylvania State University; T. Franklin Waddell, Penn State; Keunyeong Kim, Penn State University; Frank Dardis, Penn State University • Difficulty of video games is often connected to enjoyment, as well as the concepts of competency and presence. This study attempts to extricate game difficulty from perceptions of player performance through separate manipulations of difficulty and performance feedback in the context of a casual puzzle-based game. Results suggest that game difficulty is more important than feedback on player performance in determining enjoyment. Further analysis shows that difficulty works through presence, not competency, in predicting enjoyment.

Coping with Information in Social Media: The Effects of Network Structure and Knowledge on Perception of Information Value • Dongyoung Sohn, Department of Media & Communication, Hanyang University • The explosive growth of social media has intrigued many scholars to inquire into why people willingly share information with others. However, relatively little attention has been devoted to how people determine which information they share in the networked environment. In this study, a 2 (network density – dense vs. sparse) x 2 (knowledge – expert vs. novice) x 3 (information valence – negative vs. neutral vs. positive) online experiment was performed to examine how the three factors interact and cross over in shaping individuals’ perceptions of the value of information for themselves and for others in the network. Results show that individuals’ perceptions of information value are influenced not just by the norms arising from group situations, but also by how the network environment is structured.

Facebook Use and Political Participation • Gary Tang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Lap Fung Lee, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Some recent studies have illustrated a positive relationship between social media use and political participation among young people. Researchers, however, have operationalized social media usage differently. This article adopts a multi-dimensional approach to the study of the impact of social media. Focusing on Facebook, the most prominent and widely utilized social networking site in Hong Kong, this study examines how time spent on Facebook, exposure to shared political information, network size, network heterogeneity, and direct connection with political opinion leaders relate to young people’s online and offline political participation. Analysis of a survey of university students (N=774) shows that participation is explained most prominently by direct connection with political opinion leaders, followed by network heterogeneity. These two variables also mediate the impact of network size on participation. The findings thus suggest that the political impact of social media is largely dependent on with whom people are connected via the platforms.

Self-Efficacy and Interactivity: A Content Analysis of Weight Watchers’ Online Discussion Board • Ye Wang, University of Missouri – Kansas City; Erin Willis, University of Memphis • Online discussion boards can facilitate interactive conversation related to self-efficacy within online weight-management communities because of its textual, asynchronic, and anonymous features. Conducting a content analysis of Weight Watchers’ online discussion board, this study examined the relationship between content that may influence self-efficacy and interactivity. Findings showed that discussion threads with stronger focus on self-efficacy were more interactive, suggesting that content related to self-efficacy contribute to a more engaging experience with online weight-management communities.

To Unfriend or Not: Exploring the Interplay of Traits, Self-Presentation, and Voyeurism for Keeping Facebook Friends • Shaojung Sharon Wang, Institute of Communications Management, National Sun Yat-sen University • The goal of this study was to explore the tendency for people to keep friends on Facebook whom they do not maintain frequent or regular contact with. Drawing upon theories on self-consciousness and self-presentation and individual differences, the paths from the Big Five personality traits and the tendency to keep friends through public self-consciousness and Facebook self-presentation were examined. The paths from Facebook voyeurism to keeping friends on the list through public self-consciousness and self-presentation were also assessed. The paths from Facebook voyeurism to public self-consciousness and Facebook self-presentation were particularly salient. The direct and indirect effects further provide empirical support for understanding the fluid and unsettling notion of mediated voyeurism.

The Effects of Game Controllers, 3D, and Dissociation on Presence and Enjoyment • Kevin Williams, Mississippi State University • One hundred and forty-six college undergraduates at a large Southeastern university played a racing video game and completed measures of spatial presence and enjoyment. Controller type (steering wheel and pedals versus traditional handheld controller) and dimension of the display (2D versus 3D) were manipulated. Measures of players’ dissociation experiences were taken prior to game play. Results indicated that controller type increased interaction with the game environment (a subscale of spatial presence) and enjoyment. Dimension significantly influenced neither presence nor enjoyment. Dissociation did positively predict presence but not enjoyment. No interaction effects of any of the independent variables were found.

Usability, Content, Connections: How County-level Alabama Emergency Management Agencies Communicate with their Online Public • Susan Youngblood, Auburn University; Norman Youngblood, Auburn University • Emergency Management Agencies (EMAs) in the U.S. operate at federal, state, and local levels with a common purpose (Homeland Security, 2008). Local EMAs (LEMAs)—which like federal and state EMAs work “to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents”—lay the groundwork for prevention and other activities; they coordinate with nearby LEMAs and local entities, including private and non-governmental organizations (Homeland Security, 2008). LEMAs have been studied little; most research on SEMAs and LEMAs has been limited to content-based research, providing an incomplete picture of how they serve their online publics. Functionality, usability, and accessibility are critical elements in evaluating e-government: if users cannot get to or find the content, the content becomes irrelevant (Bertot & Jager, 2006). This study addresses this gap by evaluating Alabama LEMA websites, based on a combination of existing EMA content rubrics and usability heuristics, factors that can affect user trust, and thus a site’s usefulness. It also looks at how Alabama LEMAs are using social networking on their websites. Among other findings, this study identifies common problems with logos, navigation, and accessibility. Furthermore, it highlights the surprisingly common problem of legacy sites and unofficial sites that seemingly represent LEMAs and compete for users’ attention. Problems within sites could make it more difficult for users to access information about their LEMA; competing sites also could cause problems for users, such as presenting users with inaccurate or out-dated information during an emergency.

The fandom publics: How social media mediate the formation of political collectivities • Weiyu Zhang • This paper investigates how publics are formed in the era of network society, specifically, how socially mediated fans become publics to challenge the power balance. A longitudinal ethnographic work over ten years, supported by online surveys and in-depth interviews, provides a rich description of the process of constructing publics in contemporary China, where a state-initiated marketisation shapes the development of both new and traditional media. This paper tries to empirically examine how a fan object, movies, turns into a public issue and how the fandom around movies becomes activism against censorship and commercial exploitation, through the mediation of social media.

Student Papers

Factors Affecting College Students’ Disclosure Intention Of Location-related Information On Facebook: Comparing Three Behavioral Intention Models • Chen-wei Chang, The University of Southern Mississippi • The present study tested three existing behavioral intention models (Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)) to explore which model better explains college students’ disclosure intention of location-based information on Facebook. The findings suggested all three models achieved satisfactory predictions for college students’ behavioral intention, with the constructs of “attitude” and “subjective norms” from TRA & TPB models and “perceived usefulness” from TAM being considered significant factors. On the contrary, “perceived behavior control” from TPB and “perceived-ease-of-use” from TAM did not influence their behavioral intentions. Regarding the explanatory abilities from different models, TPB (R-squared=.536) and TRA (R-squared=.535) predicted students’ intentions to disclose geographic locations on Facebook better than TAM (R-squared=.246). Theoretical and practical implications for social media companies were discussed.

Technology use and interaction: A case study of a coffee shop • Erin Christie, Rutgers University • This study focuses on 3 different locations of a major coffee shop chain in order to investigate the interaction, the work-like activities performed, and the technological tools used by social actors. This study also extends our understanding of how work is conceptualized by accounting for face-work. By observing and interviewing those who work in this space, how technology is used for work-like tasks and the erosion of the boundaries between public and private are explored.

The New Face of Political Engagement? : Factors influencing political activity of users on social networking sites • Priyanka Dasgupta, Nanyang Technological University; Jianxing Chi, Nanyang Technological University; Jinhui Li, Nanyang Technological University • This paper examines the factors that influence political activity of individuals on social networking sites (SNS). Political activity is defined as ‘liking’ a political comment or post of another user, posting a political update or status, responding to another user’s post or comment and ‘friending’ or following individuals with similar political views. Data from a subsample of a 2012 Pew survey about Americans’ Internet use is analyzed. The analysis shows that frequency of use, perceptions of importance of SNS in politics, ideological extremity and offline discussions positively influence political activity on these sites. On the other hand, exposure to dissimilar views has a negative effect. The regression model consisting of the above mentioned variables explain a total of 45.2% of the variance in political activity on SNS. The implications of this study are discussed and future research directions are suggested.

A Tale of Many Tweets: How Stakeholders Respond to Nonprofit Organizations’ Tweets • Jeanine Guidry • While the characteristics of nonprofits’ Twitter use are relatively well documented, researchers have confirmed a lack of academic study into types of Twitter practices that are most effective for nonprofits. Existing studies focus on how organizations use Twitter, not on how publics respond. As a result, it is not known which types of tweets elicit greater engagement from stakeholders. In this paper I examine what types of tweets produce more engagement by nonprofits’ publics.

It was a Facebook revolution: Exploring the meme-like spread of narratives during the Egyptian protests • Summer Harlow, University of Texas at Austin • Considering online social media’s importance in the Arab Spring, this study explores the role of narratives and new technologies in activism. Via a qualitative analysis of Facebook comments and traditional news media stories during the 2011 Egyptian uprisings, this study uses the concept of “memes” to move beyond dominant social movement paradigms and suggest that the telling and re-telling, both online and offline, of the narrative of a “Facebook revolution” helped entice people to protest.

Can Extroversion and Gender Make a Difference? The Effects of HCI and CMC Interactivity • Yan Huang; Zhiyao Ye; Ariel Johnson, The Pennsylvania State University • Based on the difference in interactants, interactivity is broken down into two types: human computer interaction (HCI) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) interactivity. We tested HCI and CMC Interactivity effects with extroversion and gender as two moderators in the context of a movie site. A four-condition (i.e., HCI, CMC, HCI+CMC, and control condition), between-subjects experiment (N = 99) was conducted. HCI interactivity was operationalized by offering hyperlinks on the interface, whereas CMC interactivity was operationalized by providing comment function. Results showed that extroversion significantly influenced the effects of interactivity on web attitude. Gender was also found to moderate the effects of interactivity on user engagement. Moreover, the analysis yielded a three-way interaction between gender, extroversion, and interactivity on perceived interactivity. For example, when comment function was offered, for female users, the more extroverted they are, the higher level of interactivity they will perceive; yet for male users, the more extroverted they are, the lower level of interactivity they will perceive. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Factors Influencing Media Choices for Interpersonal Communication : Comparing Cell Phones, Instant Messaging, and Social Networking Sites • Eun-Hwa Jung, Penn State University • The purpose of this study is to explain how people communicate with each other via different media (i.e., voice call on cell phone, SMS on cell phone, instant messaging, and social networking sites). To explain the communication phenomenon, this study employed the theories of media richness and uses and gratification approach. Based on the concept of these theories, this study primarily discussed the selection of communication media in different motivations through the attributes of a given medium. Additionally, the moderating role of self-monitoring in the relationship between motivations and attitude toward each medium was examined. The findings of this study contribute to understanding the interpersonal communication in the media convergence environment.

The Medium is the Mind: Personalized Algorithms, Habit and the Self-Confirming Cyborg • Amanda Kehrberg, The University of Oklahoma • In 2009, Google effectively universalized search personalization, a trend that many online services were soon to follow. In order to personalize search results to each individual user, Google analyzes data from a number of cues and past selections, including: search history, web history, use of other Google services, previous search and click behavior, location, and language and country restriction (Fox, 2007). Personalization has profound effects on both information access and identity formation in the networked age, suggesting an upheaval of the traditions of technological determinism as explicated by McLuhan (1964) and Postman (1985). Indeed, in an era of algorithms increasingly designed to mirror human neural pathways, it is instead the mind that is the metaphor for the medium. A theoretical framework is proposed for understanding the vast implications of the mind as medium, including key concepts such as: plasticity, memory, the cyborg, artificial intelligence, and Mead’s conception of the self. Potential for future research is suggested on the continued structuring of technology to replicate the mind’s natural tendency toward an epistemology of habit.

Advocacy, Entertainment and News—An Analysis of User Participation on YouTube • M. Laeeq Khan, Michigan State University; Jacob Solomon, Michigan State University • YouTube videos falling in three major classifications—advocacy, entertainment and news were analyzed. This paper studies the role of anonymity in commenting behavior on YouTube videos. Comments were categorized as being appreciative, criticisms, flames and spam. Contrary to the common belief that YouTube videos are characterized by widespread flaming, it was found that even with anonymous user names, a majority of comments posted were appreciative as compared to derisive. Analysis also revealed that anonymity played a key role in the overall frequency of comments. The ratio of comments type varies by video type; whereby criticism is most prevalent in news/politics videos, appreciation is most common in advocacy videos, while flaming is most prevalent in entertainment videos.

Silencing the Mainstream: The Online Public Discourse Constructed by Social Auto-sharing, the Long Tail and the Spiral of Silence • Minjie Li, Louisiana State University • Characteristics of media contribute to the form and direction of public discourse and influence people’s ways of thinking and behaviors. Auto-sharing, as a fundamental opinion expression mechanism of social media, reforms public discourse through transforming previously private activities into a new form of public message. With people’s fear of negative evaluation, the Spiral of Silence offline might be duplicated and strengthened online, which might weaken the Long Tail—the Internet’s ability to bridge non-mainstream products to target audiences—through reducing people’s willingness to share what they really like. The present study examined the existence and relationship of the Long Tail and the Spiral of Silence on the social music platform Spotify to see whether auto-sharing made the Internet more heterogeneous or homogeneous. The findings demonstrate that Spotify’s auto-sharing facilitates the discovery of and revenue from non-mainstream music. Also, the Spiral of Silence only exists when people listen to mainstream music.

Social Media and Civic Engagement in China: Microblogging Revolution and Policy Change • Yang Liu; Dongya Wang • While increased research attention has been given to the rise of the Internet in the context of China, the role played by social media and how it is enhancing the development of civic engagement have been less explored. Intending to fill this gap, this research examines how social media has promoted civic engagement in China and to what extent this new technology can bring changes to policies in this country. Based on first-hand information collected from tweets, the authors applied a qualitative research method to study how civic engagement focusing on the Wenzhou high-speed train collision was initiated and aggregated on Sina Weibo, the leading microblog service provider in China. The study elaborates about how Weibo users in China joined hands with mass media to exert influence policy changes.

Homophily and Proximity of Network Links of Chinese Journalists’ Online Professional Group in the Micro-blogosphere • Yusi Liu, Tsinghua University • The paper focused on the homophily and the proximity of linking patterns in the Chinese journalists’ online professional network in micro-blogosphere. Using the relational and attribute data mining from all 295 journalists in Sina Weibo to examine how the homophily factors, including the same gender, working media type and online discussion interest, and the proximity mechanism in terms of the same geographic location and work unit affected them to connect with each other in three situations of (1) linked network, (2) mutual network, and (3) cohesive network. Results showed that homophily and proximity linking had positive impact on the journalists’ online professional group network significantly. In the linked network, journalists from the same work unit, as well as whom shared the same topic, were the strongest two predicators, while the former one was outstandingly influential to build double-sided connections, the latter predictor became stronger for the journalists to consociate in the same cohesive subgroup, showing the potential of micro-blogosphere for the self-organization based on the same interests among professional group members of the Chinese journalists.

A Floor Analysis of Online News Discussion on Facebook and the New York Times Website • Shuo Tang, Indiana University • Using computer-mediated discourse analysis, this study focuses on how Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 media differ in the floor-taking pattern, especially in user participation and interaction, in news discussion CMC. Four threads of commentary on a news story from the New York Times website and its Facebook page were analyzed and compared. The results suggest that the difference between traditional online media and social media could not fully account for the variance in the floor-taking behavior. The form of CMC, synchronicity, and the format of thread interface also affect how participants take and control the floor. Therefore, social media platform might not necessarily creates more participatory democracy and reduces hierarchy in CMC.

Open Competition

Do You See What I See? Partisan Perceptions of Online News • Pamela Brubaker, Brigham Young University • This study explores how hostile media perceptions are influenced by online news sources (blogs and online news sites) with and without source biases aligning with or opposing partisans’ issue positions. Partisans (N = 760) who strongly supported and opposed the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage participated in an online experiment, which was made available to blog readers. The news source’s bias and partisans’ political characteristics played distinct roles in shaping judgments of online media messages.

An Examination of Personality Factors, Motivations, and Outcomes associated with Smartphone Gaming • Hark-Shin Kim; Juliann Cortese • This study explores how motivations for playing smartphone games related to gamers’ psychological antecedents and outcomes of smartphone gaming (playing time and game genre preference). The regression analyses suggested that each motivation was predicted by a different subset of personalities and smartphone gaming behaviors were predicted by instability traits. Different motivations predict inconsistent smartphone gaming patterns between in a typical weekday and weekend. Each genre preference for smartphone games was predicted by different motivations.

Mobile Phone Interference with Life: Texting and Social Media Interruption during Studying • Junghyun Kim, Washington State University; Prabu David, Washington State University; Jared Brickman; Weina Ran; Christine Curtis • The smart phone offers an array of features that make multitasking and task-switching very easy. Though these features could enhance productivity in many ways, excessive task switching can interfere with work and efficiency. In this study we examined the effects of task-switching while studying among 1,053 college students. Specifically, we examined mobile phone interference in daily life (MPIL), which was operationalized as deprived self-control in regulating media use when trying to focus on a required primary task, such as studying or doing homework. Findings indicate that texting, social media, and music are the main activities that students switch to and from when studying. Active listening to music and participation in texting or social media while doing homework were predictive of mobile phone interference. Further, women and owners of smart phones reported higher mobile phone interference as did those with more Facebook friends. Given the lack of consensus measures of task switching of media multitasking, bundles of common multitasking activities, frequency of engagement in specific activities within a bundle, and the allocation of attention to specific activities within a bundle examined as separate measures. While these measures were significantly correlated, the correlation coefficients did not exceed .3, suggesting that these measures capture different aspects of the complex media multitasking experience. The findings underscore the importance of measuring both frequency and attention allocation in tandem for multitasking experiences. The results also raise the possibility that compulsive task switching may be symptomatic of dysfunctional use of technology.

Searching for sickness online: The new world of cyberchondriacs • Carolyn Lagoe; David Atkin, University of Connecticut • This study examined factors which may influence health information seeking intentions among adults. A sample of 245 American adults participated in the study. Most participants reportedly sought information from non-government health websites, online forums, government health websites and/or health professionals online. Results show that information seeking was positively predicted by health anxiety and Internet self-efficacy. By contrast, gender, neuroticism and Internet use were not found to be predictors of online health information seeking.

Using the Technological Acceptance Model to Examine iPad/Tablet Computing Adoption Intentions of K–12 Educators • Ed Madison, University of Oregon; Tobias Hopp, University of Oregon • This study used the technological acceptance model and partial least squares modeling to examine the adoption intentions and investment beliefs of K-12 teachers as they relate to use of iPads/tablet computing devices in the classroom. The results of the study indicated that perceived usefulness played a substantive, direct role on behavioral intentions to adopt iPads/tablet computing devices. Moreover, a mediation analysis indicated that perceived usefulness mediated the relationship between perceived ease of use and behavioral intentions. Finally, behavioral intentions were a significant and substantive predictor of teacher support for district investment in iPads/tablet computing devices.

Is Internet accessibility a complement or a substitute for other forms of communication in rural America? • Adam Maksl, Indiana University Southeast; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Seoyeon Kim; Alecia Swasy • This study tests complementarity, substitutability, and enhancement theories of new media use. We discuss how people in small-towns use the Internet, and what effect years of Internet use has on other communication behavior. We found those with more years of Internet experience showed increases in entertainment-based TV viewing, interest in news, interactive participation with news media, and several indicators of social capital. However, there was no change – particularly no decrease – in traditional news media use.

Heavy and Light Tweeters and Non-Tweeters Watch the Presidential Debates • Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Eunjin Kim; Alecia Swasy; Joshua Hawthorne, University of Missouri; Mitchell McKinney, University of Missouri • This paper asks about the demographics and political orientations of those who tweeted during the 2012 Presidential debates. It also investigates their motivations for tweeting. Finally, it tests whether tweeters watch more of the debates, and whether they engage in other “social watching” behaviors in addition to tweeting. These questions are asked in the context of a developing theory of television consumption that involves “social watching,” that is, communicating with others either in person or digitally while engaging with television programming (Authors, 2013).

Social Media and Mobiles: Examining the Moderating Role of Online Political Expression in Political Participation • Masahiro Yamamoto, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; Matthew Kushin, Shepherd University; Francis Dalisay, University of Hawaii-Manoa • Results from a web survey conducted during the 2012 U.S. presidential election indicate that the effects of using mobile apps and traditional online media for political information on online political participation were stronger among those who express political opinions online more frequently than those who do not. Also, online political expression enhances the effects of using mobile apps, traditional offline and online media, and social media for political information on offline political participation.

<< 2013 Abstracts

Author Index D, 71-80

J&MC Quarterly Index Vol. 71-80 • 1994 to 2003

DAILY, KATIE (See McLeod).

D’ALESSIO, DAVE, An Experimental Examination of Readers’ Perceptions of Media Bias, 80:2, 282-294.

DANIEL, DOUGLASS K., They Liked Ike: Pro-Eisenhower Publishers and His Decision to Run for President, 77:2, 393-404.

DANIELS, GEORGE L. and C. ANN HOLLIFIELD, Times of Turmoil: Short- and Long-Term Effects of Organizational Change on Newsroom Employees, 79:3, 661-680.

DANIELSON, WAYNE, Talking with a Dinosaur, 75:4, 689-691.

DASCHMANN, GREGOR and HANS-BERND BROSIUS, Can a Single Incident Create an Issue? Exemplars in German Television Magazine Shows, 76:1, 35-51.

DAVID, PRABU, Role of Imagery in Recall of Deviant News, 73:4, 804-820.

DAVID, PRABU and MICHAEL M. PIERSON, Public Affairs Decision Making in the U.S. Air Force: An Application of Multiattribute Utility Theory, 75:3, 606-626.

DAVID, PRABU (See Fredin).

DAVIE, WILLIAM R. and JUNG-SOOK LEE, Sex, Violence, and Consonance/Differentiation: An Analysis of Local TV News Values, 72:1, 128-138.

DAVIE, WILLIAM R. (See Lee).

DAVIE, WILLIAM R. (See Taylor).

DAVIS, CHARLES N. (See Bunker).

DAVIS, JOEL J., Environmental Advertising: Norms and Levels of Advertiser Trust, 71:2, 330-345.

DAVIS, JOEL J., The Effects of Message Framing on Response to Environmental Communications, 72:2, 285-299.

DELAURELL, RICHARD (See Rothenbuhler).

DEMERS, DAVID, Corporate Newspaper Structure, Editorial Page Vigor, and Social Change, 73:4, 857-877.

DEMERS, DAVID K., Structural Pluralism, Corporate Newspaper Structure, and News Source Perceptions: Another Test of the Editorial Vigor Hypothesis, 75:3, 572-592.

DEMERS, DAVID PEARCE, Effect of Organizational Size on Job Satisfaction of Top Editors at U.S. Dailies, 71:4, 914-925.

DEMERS, DAVID PEARCE, Does Personal Experience in a Community Increase or Decrease Newspaper Reading?. 73:2, 304-318.

DENHAM, BRYAN E., Anonymous Attribution during Two Periods of Military Conflict: Using Logistic Regression to Study Veiled Sources in American Newspapers, 74:3, 565-578.

DESHPANDE, SAMEER and JACQUELINE C. HITCHON, Cause-Related Marketing Ads in the Light of Negative News, 79:4, 905-926.

DEUZE, MARK, National News Cultures: A Comparison of Dutch, German, British, Australian, and U.S. Journalists, 79:1, 134-149.

DEVITT, JAMES, Framing Gender on the Campaign Trail: Female Gubernatorial Candidates and the Press, 79:2, 445-463.

DEVITT, JAMES (See Waldman).

DICK, STEVEN J. (See Ellis).

DICKEN-GARCIA, HAZEL, The Internet and Continuing Historical Discourse, 75:1, 19-27.

DICKSON, SANDRA H., Understanding Media Bias: The Press and the U.S. Invasion of Panama, 71:4, 809-819.

DILLON, JOHN F. (See White).

DIMMICK, JOHN (See Gant).

DOMENECH-RODRIGUEZ, MELANIE (See Slater).

DOMINICK, JOSEPH R., Who Do You Think You Are? Personal Home Pages and Self-Presentation on the World Wide Web, 76:4, 646-658.

DOMINICK, JOSEPH R. (See Woo).

DOMKE, DAVID and DHAVAN V. SHAH, Interpretation of Issues and Voter Decision-Making Strategies: A New Perspective on “Issue-Oriented” Election Coverage, 72:1, 45-71.

DOMKE, DAVID, DAVID P. FAN, MICHAEL FIBISON, DHAVAN V. SHAH, STEVEN S. SMITH, and MARK D. WATTS, News Media, Candidates and Issues, and Public Opinion in the 1996 Presidential Campaign, 74:4, 718-737.

DOMKE, DAVID (See Moy).

DOMKE, DAVID (See Shah).

DONAVAN, JANET (See Shah).

DONG, QINGWEN (See Weintraub).

DOOLEY, PATRICIA L., Minnesota Publishers and Editors As Elected Officials, 1923-1938: A Comparison of Journalistic Rhetoric and Conduct, 71:1, 64-75.

DRAGER, MICHAEL W. (See Riffe).

DRECHSEL, ROBERT (See Grimes).

DRESS, ABBY, Running Out of Time: An Analysis of Shutting Down New York Newsday by Times Mirror, 76:4, 745-755.

DREW, DAN (See Weaver, David).

DREW, DAN and DAVID WEAVER, Voter Learning in the 1996 Presidential Election: Did the Media Matter?, 75:2, 292-301.

DRISCOLL, PAUL D. and MICHAEL B. SALWEN, Self-Perceived Knowledge of the O.J. Simpson Trial: Third-Person Perception and Perceptions of Guilt, 74:3, 541-556.

DUFFY, MARGARET (See Lafky).

DUKE, LISA, Black in a Blonde World: Race and Girls’ Interpretations of the Feminine Ideal in Teen Magazines, 77:2, 367-392.

DUKE, LISA L. (See Goodman).

DUNWOODY, SHARON (See Griffin).

DUPAGNE, MICHEL, Regulation of Sexually Explicit Videotex Services in France, 71:1, 121-134.

DURHAM, MEENAKSHI GIGI, Girls, Media, and the Negotiation of Sexuality: A Study of Race, Class, and Gender in Adolescent Peer Groups, 76:2, 193-216.

DYER, CAROLYN STEWART and DOUGLAS B. ADAMS, The Financial Affairs of Wisconsin and Iowa Weekly Newspapers in 1860: An Analysis of Products of Industry Census Data, 71:2, 370-379.

<< Back

Newspaper 2011 Abstracts

Open Competition

Mainstream Newspaper Coverage of Native Americans: A content analysis of newspaper coverage of Native American issues in circulation areas with high concentrations of Native Americans • Cristina Azocar • A content analysis examined coverage of Native Americans in newspapers in circulation areas that have the highest percent of Native Americans. The three most common topics were Arts/Entertainment, Casinos/Gaming and Tribal Politics. The majority of the stories were neutral in tone, however most stories used non-Native sources. The theory of in-group bias is posited as a possible explanation to the findings.

Bias, Slant and Frame Selection in Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal • Sid Bedingfield, University of South Carolina • When Rupert Murdoch purchased the Wall Street Journal, critics feared he would slant the news to fit his political views. This study used content analysis to compare coverage in Murdoch’s Journal with New York Times coverage of President Obama’s health care plan. It then compared coverage in Murdoch’s Journal with Wall Street Journal coverage of the Clinton health care plan in 1994, when the Bancroft family owed the paper. Findings suggest Murdoch’s Journal was no more negative in its coverage than either the Times or the Bancroft family’s Journal.

Reputation Cycles: the Value of Accreditation for Undergraduate Journalism Programs • Robin Blom, Michigan State University; Lucinda Davenport; Brian J. Bowe, Michigan State University • Many faculty members feel constrained by various outside influences when developing an ideal journalism curriculum. Accreditation is one of these. The value of journalism accreditation standards for undergraduate programs has been the focus of prior studies and continues to be debated among educators. This study adds to discussion by finding out the views of opinion leaders in journalism programs across the country. Almost 130 administrators responded to a survey on the reasons for being accredited or not being accredited. Results show that for schools with accreditation, or those in the certification process, the most important reason is reputation enhancement. However, many directors question the value of accreditation. In particular, some perceive the cap on the number of journalism credits a student can take as a limitation of student development and a hindrance of the ability to respond to the growing convergence in the professional marketplace.

Morality of News Issues and Public Contributions in Comment Forums on U.S. Daily Newspaper Websites • Serena Carpenter, Arizona State University; Robin Blom, Michigan State University; Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University; Ryan Lange • The media shapes individual attitudes and beliefs. Communication research has found the morality of an issue can affect human behavior in experimental and survey settings. Comment forums present an opportunity for researchers to examine behavior in naturally occurring settings. Through a quantitative content analysis of individual comments (n=2,103), this research examines human behavior in comment forums to determine whether there are significant differences between morally laden and nonmoral articles in adjacent forums on 14 U.S. newspaper websites. The results show that morally laden articles do have a greater proportion of negative emotional responses from participants.

Consumer Adoption of Mobile News: An Examination of Motivation Predictors • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted; Hyejoon Rim, University of Florida; Amy Zerba • Applying the uses and gratification approach, this study identifies the motivation predictors of mobile news adoption among young adults. The survey findings suggest that content related motives, in particular surveillance, are significant in predicting most adoption behaviors for mobile news. This finding suggests informational needs continue to be important with this emerging medium. From the perspective of platform related and integrated motives, this study found instrumentality to be the most significant predictor for adoption.

A Matter of Life and Death? Examining the Quality of Newspaper Coverage on the Newspaper Crisis • H. Iris Chyi, University of Texas at Austin; Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota; Nan Zheng, University of Texas at Austin • During 2008-2010, U.S. newspapers covered the crisis of their own industry extensively. Such coverage raised questions about whether journalists misunderstood or over-reacted to this newspaper crisis. This study examines how the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the New York Times framed the crisis. Results showed that the coverage focused on short-term drama, lacked sufficient context, shifted blame away from newspapers themselves, invoked “death” imagery, and altogether struggled to capture a holistic portrayal of newspapers’ troubles.

Framing Airline Mergers in Newspapers: A Crash Course • Clay Craig, Texas Tech University; Shannon Bichard, Texas Tech • The merger and acquisition (M&A) process tends to be examined through the lens of those directly involved in the merger (employees or shareholders), with little attention paid to how the media portrays the situation. The blending of organizational and communication theories provides the theoretical background for examining the newspapers’ coverage of M&A. This study evaluates the application of a subset of social identity theory (SIT) and tenor framing in local newspapers either directly or indirectly affected by the 2008 Delta and NWA merger. A content analysis of 614 articles pertaining to the Delta Airlines and NWA merger from four local newspapers over two 10-month periods was utilized in order to examine the variation of tone, space, and prominence framing between the newspapers. The findings indicate a significant difference between tone, space, and prominence used by directly and indirectly affected local newspapers over the time frame investigated.

Contrary to Scholarly Opinion: Sourcing Trends in New York Times Drug-War Reports Before and After 9/11 • Bryan Denham, Clemson University • Extending the analytic approach used in previous research on anonymous attribution, the current study focused on how the New York Times, through its sourcing, covered the US war on drugs before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Data were gathered from 135 news reports and 3,541 news paragraphs published across an eight-year period, September 1997 to September 2005. Results revealed that while anonymous sources and public officials from certain agencies were plentiful in drug-war coverage, especially following the terrorist attacks, person-on-the-street sources were not as rare as journalism scholars may have assumed and in fact appeared in higher numbers than did many in the 21-source coding scheme. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are offered.

Traditional Newspapers and Their Web-based Counterparts: A Longitudinal Analysis of Relative Credibility • Gregg Payne; David Dozier, San Diego State University • This study provides a longitudinal extension of a 2001 study of newspaper credibility. That study showed that familiarity with a media type enhances perceived credibility. Subjects rated conventional (paper) newspapers as more credible than web-based counterparts. This study, sampling from the same population, shows that statistically significant differences in channel credibility have disappeared. This change is attributed to growing familiarity with web-based newspapers, due to passage of time and increased exposure to web-based newspapers.

Longitudinal review finds decline in unnamed source use, rise in transparency • Matt Duffy, Zayed University; Ann Williams, Georgia State University • Some have argued that the use of unnamed sourcing has increased in recent years. This longitudinal content analysis finds that anonymous sourcing peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, an era some call journalism’s “Golden Age.” The analysis also finds that contemporary journalists are more likely to explain the reason for anonymity and offer details about the identity of the source. No change was detected in the use of information from a single, unnamed source. &#8195;”

Use of print & online news media for local news: A uses & dependency perspective • Kenneth Fleming, University of Missouri-Columbia • This study examines the effects of uses and dependency model of mass communication on use of both print and online news media for local news. The data of the study came from a telephone survey of 605 residents of a college town in the Midwest of the United States in 2010. Results show that print media dependency was significantly and positively associated with readership of the print community newspaper; online media dependency was significantly and positively associated with use of the newspaper’s website, and with use of the Internet for local news, after demographics were statistically controlled. In addition, age was significantly and negatively associated with online media dependency, and positively associated with legacy media dependency.

Game Over? Male and female sportswriters’ attitudes toward their jobs and plans to leave journalism • Jessie Jones; Jennifer Greer, University of Alabama • Through a survey of 200 sports journalists at the 100 largest U.S. newspapers, this study examined gender differences in demographics, job characteristics, job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment, and outlook toward the profession. Male and female sportswriters were fairly satisfied with their jobs and did not differ on any attitudinal measure. However, controlling for all factors, female sportswriters were still significantly more likely than men to say they planned to leave the field before retirement.

National Unity and Memory: Discursive Construction of War Memories • Choonghee Han, Hope College • Presentations of collective and cultural memory in newspapers are based upon the construction of the past, which enables nation states to remind the public of national unity. This paper explores the discursive constructions of the past and collective/cultural memories of the Asia-Pacific War that appeared in three East Asian newspapers from China, South Korea, and Japan. A critical discourse analysis was employed to examine the ways in which national unity was constructed through war memories.

Follow the Leaders: Newspaper Journalists’ Networks of Association on Twitter • Kyle Heim, Seton Hall University • This study examined newspaper journalists’ patterns of following users on Twitter. Results showed that the distribution of users conformed to a power-law relationship, although the distribution did not display as much concentration or inequality as has been found in other online contexts. The Twitter user followed most frequently by journalists was Poynter Institute blogger Jim Romenesko. Generally, the users followed most frequently tended to be other journalists from elite news organizations, particularly The New York Times.

Missing the Metro: Can an E-Reader Replace the Print Newspaper? • Barry Hollander, University of Georgia; Dean Krugman, University of Georgia; Tom Reichert, University of Georgia; J. Adam Avant, University of Georgia • As major metropolitan newspapers have withdrawn from outer circulation areas, many are left without access to a primary source of state news. In just such a real-world situation, we explore whether an e-reader (Kindle DX) preoloaded with a digital subscription to a major metro paper was seen by former readers of the print edition as an adequate substitute. While most liked the Kindle, reviews of the e-reader as a replacement were mixed.

Covering a world in conflict: The New York Times and peace journalism • Elizabeth Lance, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri; Amy Youngblood, Texas Christian University • This study examines New York Times coverage of four conflicts for the characteristics of peace journalism advocated by Galtung. A content analysis of stories about Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia-Ethiopia and Chad-Sudan finds the majority were framed as peace journalism. This study contradicts findings that Western news organizations primarily report from a war journalism perspective. More than half the stories explained the causes and consequences of conflict and were careful to avoid victimizing, demonizing and emotive language.

The Diffusion of an Online Community Newspaper Among College Students • Daniel Hunt; David Atkin; Chris Kowal • As more news consumers are turning to online news instead of traditional news sources, the diffusion of online newspapers within communities needs further empirical investigation. This study tested a diffusion model for an online newspaper among a community of college students (N = 428). Community attachment was shown to be a predictor of one’s level of interactive feature use and ratings of credibility for an online newspaper. An individual’s level of use for interactive features on the online community newspaper website was shown to predict satisfaction with the online newspaper. Higher credibility ratings positively predicted satisfaction with the online newspaper, although there were gender differences in ratings of credibility. The application of this research to future studies is also addressed.

Turning a Blind Eye: Why Reporters Ignore Third-Party Candidates • John Kirch, Towson University • This paper examines why political reporters ignore third-party gubernatorial candidates. Using in-depth interviews with eight reporters in California and Wisconsin, this study identified five criteria journalists use to determine when to provide a minor-party candidate with substantial coverage. In addition, this paper found both practical and ideological reasons to explain why candidates who challenge the establishment are often relegated to the sidelines, where their voices are rarely heard.

Sources of Evaluative Information in Election News: The Role of Reporters                  Dominic Lasorsa • This study tested and found lacking long-held assumptions about the use of sources in news coverage. It examined evaluative information (either positive or negative themes toward a candidate) included in the news pages of the New York Times in the final weeks of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, focusing upon the sources of that information, including the candidates, their spokespersons, other supporters, those unaffiliated with the campaigns, and reporters themselves. Surprisingly, the reporters accounted for most of the evaluative coverage, followed by the unaffiliated sources. While the partisan sources tended to talk more about the opponent than about their own candidate, the two ostensibly nonpartisan sources (reporters and unaffiliated) shared their coverage more equitably between the two major candidates. Although the overall evaluative coverage was more negative than positive, the reporters’ evaluations surprisingly were more positive than negative, and more positive than any of the other sources. Compared to the partisan sources, which predictably gave mostly positive coverage to their own candidate and negative coverage to opponents, the reporters were more equitable in their coverage. Still, the reporters gave more positive coverage to Obama and more negative coverage to McCain, and were less equitable in their coverage than the unaffiliated sources. Thus, while reporters were more impartial than the partisan sources, they appeared to be less impartial than the other ostensibly nonpartisan sources, those not affiliated with either campaign. Implications of these surprising findings are discussed.

Distinctions in Covering BP Oil Spill Suggest a Maturing Press • Norman Lewis, University of Florida; Walter Starr, University of Florida; Yukari Takata, University of Florida; Qinwei (Vivi) Xie, University of Florida • Newspapers in the five Gulf states (n = 777) covered the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill as an environmental story that morphed into an economic one while the three national dailies (n = 238) treated it as an event story. Each state treated the story differently, affirming Bennett’s indexing hypothesis. Overall, nuances in how the story was covered suggest the press has matured in its handling of environmental disaster stories.

Newspaper Financial Performance: Content Really Does Make a Difference • You Li, University of Missouri; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Shrihari Sridhar • This study explores the relationship between newspaper content and financial performance using a rare monthly data spanning10 years. The study assesses amount and type of newspaper content by measuring the number of words produced along three dimensions: topic category, geographic focus, and origin of contents (wire or staff-produced). Each dimension is regressed upon the newspaper financial indicators, which include online and print revenues, advertising revenue, and circulation. The study finds that the content measures, especially the topic categories of contents, significantly predict newspaper financial performance. Both linear and nonlinear relationships between newspaper content quality and financial performance appear to be present, indicating diminishing returns to content. The three types of content have varying patterns and magnitudes of influence, suggesting implications for newspaper theory and management.

Online Disagreement Expression and Reasoned Opinions: An Exploratory Study of Political Discussion Threads on Online Newspapers • xudong liu, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Xigen Li • This study content analyzes the comments posted immediately after the stories published on two online newspapers and investigates political discussion involvement reflected in the comments posted in online newspaper forums. More than one-third of the comments on the online newspapers involve disagreement expressions towards others’ opinions, and the comments provide fewer reasons for others’ opinions than for one’s own opinions. Online disagreement expression is positively related to opinion reasoning and discussion involvement. The finding’s implication for online newspaper’s role in deliberative democracy is discussed.

News Framing of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Leak and the 2010 BP Oil Spill • Chen Lou, Ohio University; Hong Cheng, Ohio University; Carson Wagner, Ohio University • Focusing on news framing and nationalism, this study examines how The New York Times and The Washington Post framed the Bhopal gas leak in India in 1984 and the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The findings show that the frame for the Bhopal incident-caused by Union Carbide, de-emphasized the U.S. corporation’s role. Conversely, the framing of the BP spill focused on the faults of the BP.

Constructing an Image of the U.S.: An Analysis of British and French WikiLeaks News Coverage • Ivanka Radovic, University of Tennessee; Catherine Luther; Iveta Imre • The main objective of this study was to explore how newspapers can convey images of nations through news framing. With a focus on the image of the United States in Britain and France, coverage of the WikiLeaks disclosure of classified U.S. diplomatic cables by Britain’s The Guardian and France’s Le Monde was analyzed. Remarkably similar news frames were revealed from these newspapers. As a result, an analogous image of the United States came to light.

Local News Coverage in the Digital Age: Comparing Online News with Newspapers in Two Metropolitan Markets • Scott Maier, University of Oregon; Staci Tucker • A content analysis of digital and print newspapers in Seattle and Minneapolis indicates that a fundamentally different mix of top news stories is provided online than in print. Online newspapers focused on old-style news – crime, disaster and sports – while print offered more on politics, environment and education. But the digital divide all but disappeared when major news occurred. Applying news consonance as a theoretical framework, the study explores the implications for the newspaper industry and the reading public.

Conflict in the news: Influences of proximity, importance and newspaper size • Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University; Young Mie Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison • News values help explain why newspaper stories are published and the way stories were written. Few studies, however, evaluate the way values and other characteristics interact in news decisions. This study examined 952 non-opinion stories about advocacy organizations to examine how conflict with government was portrayed, considering proximity, story location and newspaper size. Proximity (with federal government) and story location (with state and local government) were important factors both in group-government engagement and the tone of conflict. Analysis suggests that interaction of values and context are important factors in understanding how conflict and other values are portrayed”

The Engagement Effect: The Relationships Among Engagement, Satisfaction, and Readership and What Can be Done to Stop the Death of the Print Newspaper • Rachel Davis Mersey, Northwestern University; Edward Malthouse, Northwestern University • Satisfaction is commonly measured by newspapers to monitor consumer responses because satisfaction is an antecedent to readership. In fact, countless studies have shown that satisfaction is associated with usage. Still an essential, open question remains: How do you get to satisfaction? This paper explores how to produce satisfaction that newspapers so desperately want by focusing on readers’ experiences with newspapers.

Newspaper Headlines on Human Trafficking in the United States from 2000 to 2010 • Brandon Burnette; Lyle Olson • Human trafficking has spurred increasing international media attention. Previous research, limited to two United States newspapers, focused on the framing of stories and differing opinions on the issue. This investigation randomly sampled 54 U.S. newspapers, examining the extent and frequency of human trafficking headlines. It concluded that higher circulation newspapers had statistically significant heavier coverage, accounting for three-fourths of the total number of headlines found. This study also examined how regions of the country, border versus non-border states, and type of ownership affected coverage of human trafficking. Data from this study is useful to organizations attempting to increase public awareness of human trafficking, a first step toward prevention. The results also revealed that continued media research on this socially important topic is needed.

Hard News Still Attracts Readers: A comparison of online and pre-Internet community newspaper readership • Carol Schlagheck, Eastern Michigan University • This study looks at readership of a 20,000-circulation Midwest community daily newspaper, comparing online page views throughout 2010 with reader choices reported in an unpublished 1992 survey of print subscribers of the same newspaper. The original study, conducted before the Internet was widely available and years before this newspaper had an online presence, asked 400 print newspaper subscribers about their readership choices. It identified several types of traditionally “hard” news among the top news sought. The current investigation identified specific stories that received the most page views during 2010. Again, hard news articles emerged as the most-read stories.

Social Construction, Influence, and News Work: A Study of the ‘Reality’ of Newspaper Journalism Today • Bill Schulte, Ohio University; Joseph Bernt • Informed by the social construction of reality and the hierarchy of influence model, this exploratory study examined 25 interviews with newspaper journalists to study the culture of the modern newsroom as newsworkers adjust to the paradigm shift between digital and traditional news platforms. The analysis revealed that many newsworkers are struggling with digital tasks which were not prevalent when the entered the workforce, and concern with ever downsizing organizations which can not seem to find a business model that will keep them employed in the future. It also finds that with management constantly looking upward for answers, newworkers are finding new opportunities to exert autonomy.

Blogging Wall Street on DealBook: A Content Analysis (2006-2010) • Michael Sheehy, University of Cincinnati; Hong Ji, The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism • Examining the content of DealBook, a business and finance news blog on nytimes.com, this study found that from 2006 through 2010, DealBook produced an increasing amount of original content over time and began to rely less on reprocessed news from other information sources; that coverage topics changed over time; that most content contained named sources; that linkage to New York Times content increased over time; and that most content was oriented to fact reporting.

Crowd Control: Collaborative Gatekeeping in a Shared Media Space • Jane Singer, University of Iowa • This paper explores the implications of a significant but generally unheralded transition to an environment in which users have become gatekeepers of the content published on media websites. This expanded user role involves assessment of contributions by other users; assessment and communication of the perceived value or quality of user- and journalist-produced content; and selective re-dissemination of that content. Preliminary empirical evidence indicates these user gatekeeping capabilities have become pervasive on U.S. newspaper sites.

Redefining 21st Century Partnerships: Who’s Sharing What With Whom and Why? • Larry Dailey; Mary Spillman, Ball State University • This exploratory study, based on data from a 2010 national survey of editors at daily newspapers in the United States, examines the types of partnerships that exist between newspapers and both traditional (newspapers, radio, television) and non-traditional (web sites, blogs, universities) news organizations. Results suggest that newspapers are open to partnerships, but that organizational culture affects their propensity to innovate and successfully develop new routines and storytelling models.

Framing Capital Crimes in Two Newspapers • Jakob Berr, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Tim Vos, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This study examines how two newspapers framed capital punishment in two different parts of the U.S. – an area with high public support and an area with low public support for the death penalty. The framing analysis uses Bandura’s mechanisms of moral disengagement to explore how stories are framed. The analysis shows distinct differences in framing in the two locations, with a morally engaged frame in Maryland and a morally disengaged frame in Texas.

Audience perceptions of editing quality: An experimental study of the effects of news processing • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This study uses a controlled experiment to begin addressing whether and how much traditional markers of editing quality affect audience perceptions of the quality and professionalism of news articles. Articles were presented in a mixed design in which participants saw four articles in the edited condition and four in the unedited condition. Results indicate that standard newsroom editing practices have a significant positive effect on a diverse audience’s perception of news quality.

Local Newspaper Coverage Influences Support of the U.S. Military Buildup on Guam • Francis Dalisay, Cleveland State University; Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State University • Roughly 8,600 U.S. Marines and about 10,000 of their dependents will be relocated to Guam. A content analysis revealed that the Pacific Daily News (PDN), a newspaper on Guam, reported more frequently on this military buildup’s economic benefits, and less on its environmental risks. A community survey showed that reading the PDN influenced residents’ endorsement of the buildup’s economic benefits, but not endorsement of its environmental risks. Findings support the system-maintenance role of local newspapers.

Changing News Frames as a Pandemic Develops: Coverage of the 2009 H1N1 Flu in the Washington Post • Lily Zeng, Arkansas State Univ.; Zhiwen Xiao, University of Houston • This study examines the coverage of the H1N1 flu pandemic in the Washington Post from a dynamic perspective. According to the CDC definition of two peaks of flu activity in the U.S. (May and October 2009), this study identifies four stages of the crisis: Peak I, Valley, Peak II, and Post-Peak II. The findings reveal that the amount of media attention across time reflected the dynamics of flu activity. During the lifespan of the pandemic (April 2009 to February 2010), the capital-based newspaper maintained a consistent emphasis on the event as a “nationwide health emergency” as announced by the government, with an apparent focus on current updates of the situation of the disease, especially during the two peak stages of the pandemic. When the crisis entered a new stage, however, the frame-changing strategy was usually employed to maintain the salience of the event on the news agenda.

Man, woman, or child: The portrayal of young adults in the news media • Amy Zerba; Cory Armstrong, University of Florida • The term “young adults” is often used loosely in conversation and research. This can leave audiences to interpret whom young adults are, possibly reinforcing stereotypes. Using the theoretical framework of social construction of reality, this content analysis study examines how media describe young adults and related terms in news stories. The findings showed few definitions and use of young adults as sources; and negative portrayals by city officials and of young adults’ behavior and health.

MacDougall Student Paper Competition

Analyzing News about the Veil: Examining Racist Discourses in Europe • Katie Blevins, The Pennsylvania State University • This paper examines newspaper coverage concerning the 2010 legislation in France that bans the wearing of the full-face Muslim veil, or niqab, in public places. This paper is concerned with the representation of French-Muslim women who lie at the intersection of competing interests in this: media, political, and individual. Methodologically, this paper employs a feminist critical discourse analysis of the newspaper coverage and Joan Wallach Scott’s four categories of discourse from The Politics of the Veil (racism, secularism, sexuality, and individualism) to frame the discourse.

A Study of the Urbanization of News Content • Michael Clay Carey, Ohio University • This research analyzes geographic coverage trends in two American metropolitan newspapers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Columbus Dispatch, to understand how frequently those newspapers included news about places and people far from their urban coverage areas. A content analysis found a trend away from rural coverage and an increase in coverage in and around urban cores during the five-year time period studies.

Deceptive Reality: Using Media to Implant False Memories and Internet Source Credibility • Jenna Carolan, Iowa State University; Faye Gilbert , Iowa State University• People are constantly bombarded with media messages that affect the way they think, but can it also affect their memories? This study measures the extent to which false memories can be implanted using media. It also looks at the effect of perceived source credibility in false memory formation. Surveys were used to compare memories before and after stimuli exposure and showed that a large number of participants had, in fact, created false memories regarding the news events. The perceived credibility of all four sources was nearly identical, although some sources were fabricated.

Witnessing Executions: How Journalists Prepare for and Respond to Planned Trauma Exposure • Kenna Griffin • This series of interviews with journalists who witnessed executions explains how these journalists prepared for and emotionally responded to witnessing the traumatic events. The journalists fulfilled their professional obligation to report the newsworthy happenings to the public, while putting themselves at risk of suffering emotional trauma. The emotional impact can be mediated if addressed through organizational support and training. The journalists who were interviewed, however, rarely were offered support and denied experiencing negative emotions.

Press Independence in the Guantanamo Controversy: Effects of The New York Times’ Coverage on Public Opinion During the Bush and Obama Administrations • Jaesik Ha, Indiana University • This study analyzes the relationship between the U.S. government and the media after the events of 9/11. It investigates two aspects of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: (1) How The New York Times covered the controversy over the closing of the Guantanamo prison during the Bush and the Obama administrations; and (2) How The New York Times’ choice of frames affected public opinion. This study analyzed the content of 2,216 news paragraphs which dealt with the Guantanamo prison issue between 2004 and 2010. One of the issues that this study explores is whether the American news media played an independent role as a watchdog of the government’s issue-framing by challenging the Bush government’s anti-terrorism frame or if it acted as the government’s guard dog and consistently reinforced its frames. 57.4% of the content-analyzed news stories published during the Bush administration used a “torture frame” which described the Guantanamo prison as violating the human rights of prisoners and lacking due process. On the other hand, the “anti-terrorism frame,” which emphasized the positive aspects of the Guantanamo prison – such as its role in reinforcing national security and protecting Americans from possible future terrorist attacks – was found in 21.3% of the news stories published during the period of the Bush presidency. By contrast, during the Obama administration, 40.3% of news reports used the torture frame, while 28.3% used the anti-terrorism frame. The New York Times showed itself to be a powerful and consistent challenger to the Bush administration on the Guantanamo issue. However, the findings also show that The New York Times’ coverage did not have a significant impact on public support for the closing of the Guantanamo prison.

Experiencing error: How journalists describe what it’s like when the press fails • Kirstie Hettinga, Penn State • Corrections are a way for newspapers to amend the record when errors occur. However, while the process of correcting a mistake is dealt with through industry norms, how error is experienced is personal to each journalist who makes an error that gets printed. This research, which borrows ethnographic techniques and draws upon gatekeeping theory, explores how journalists in one newsroom experience error and their recommendations for how errors and their corrections should be handled.

Typing corrections: Examining corrections and their role in democratic theory • Kirstie Hettinga, Penn State • Newspaper errors typically fall in subjective and objective categories. In this qualitative content analysis of corrections from The New York Times in 2010, the kinds of articles that typically yielded errors are documented. Other themes including attribution of error are also noted. The author suggests that in terms of democratic theory, corrections fall along a continuum of significance, where not all corrections are necessary for people to function within society.

Media Agenda Setting Concerning the 2009 Health Care Reform Debate • Jihye Kim, Univ. of Florida • The purpose of this study is to evaluate the newspapers agendas concerning the United States healthcare program by applying the agenda-setting process to identify varying agendas. The study also applied intermedia agenda-setting in order to correlate the relationship between the newspaper media and the press releases. The results expressed unidirectional and directional trends paired with interesting results of the relationship between the two agendas, while attempting to identify an “elite” newspaper source.

Examining the Local Sections of Three South Florida Newspapers Before and After a Content-Sharing Agreement. • Jeffrey Riley, Ohio University • This study examined the effects of a content-sharing agreement on the local news sections of three South Florida metropolitan newspapers: The Miami Herald, the Sun Sentinel, and The Palm Beach Post. The content analysis found that only nine articles out of 971 examined were borrowed through the sharing agreement. Additionally, the study found that the number of published local articles per year dropped 28.95% from 2006 to 2009.

Medium Matters: Newsreaders’ Recall and Engagement with Online and Print Newspapers • Arthur Santana, University of Oregon; Randall Livingstone, University of Oregon; Yoon Yong Cho, University of Oregon • Increasingly, newsreaders are abandoning the print newspaper in favor of online news. This experimental research asks: Do reader engagements towards news stories vary by media? Half of a subject pool (N = 45) perused The New York Times and half browsed its accompanying Web site. Both groups answered questions on the extent to which the news stories made an impression. The results reflect prior research that shows print subjects remembered more news stories than online subjects and suggest that the development of dynamic online story forms in the past decade have had little effect toward making them more impressionable than print stories.

Does competition make a difference? An examination of the impact of the Apple Daily on three major newspapers in Taiwan • Chien-Yun Song, University of Kansas; Jia-Wei Tu, University of Kansas • This content analysis study examined the effects of the Apply Daily on three leading Taiwanese newspapers after its publication in 2003. Findings show that these newspapers have added more “soft news” on their front pages in 2004 in order to compete. It can be argued that the Apple Daily has forced its rivals to become more sensational. Competition does not improve news quality in this case.

Bloggers’ Reliance on Newspaper, Online, and Original Sources in Reporting on Local Subjects Ignored by the Press • Brendan Watson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism & Mass Communication • This study of 100 blogs found that contrary to media assertions and prior research, local public affairs bloggers do not rely on newspapers for a majority of their sources. Bloggers in this study were more likely to use original sources and original reporting than rely on media sources, particularly when writing about local topics (e.g. historic preservation) the news media frequently ignore.

<< 2011 Abstracts

Media Ethics 2011 Abstracts

Open Competition

Role perceptions and ethical orientations: An analysis of individual-level influences on ethical aggressiveness of journalists • Sheetal Agarwal • Using the 2007 American Journalist panel survey this study examines how role perceptions influence journalists’ ethical aggressiveness. Factor analyses and scale reliability tests find that the long-standing “ethical aggressiveness” index and the “disseminator” role may need re-evaluation. Using regression analysis and a newly constructed ethical orientation scale I find that journalists with affinity to adversarial and interpreter functions have higher levels of ethical aggressiveness. However, populist mobilizers are less likely to justify ethically questionable practices.

“A Watchdog of Democracy”: State of Media Ethics in Bangladesh • Md. Abu Naser, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Debashis Aikat • By situating journalism ethics within a larger intellectual context of global communication and social change, this study explores and documents the state of media ethics and journalistic standards in Bangladesh, the theoretical and conceptual development of Bangladeshi media ethics in its many forms. Drawing upon recent studies, meta-analyses of ethical issues and reviews of ethical lapses in Bangladeshi journalism, this study covers three aspects. First, it explicates the media practices and journalism ethics theories as they relate to Bangladeshi media. Second, it provides a thorough assessment of journalism ethics through a comprehensive review of a Jatri (2009) survey of Bangladeshi journalists. Third, it identifies theoretically-grounded approaches to unethical practices in Bangladeshi journalism by exploring a seven-point categorized listing of various instances of ethical lapses in Bangladeshi journalism. In conclusion, this study also identifies the need for a comprehensive code of ethics for Bangladeshi media. In its mission to advance its watchdog role, the Bangladeshi code of ethics should draw upon the evolution of its media ethics as a 20th century phenomenon and seek a sustaining significance in the 21st century digital age that is transforming Bangladesh’s contribution to global communication and social change.

The Ethics of Pinkwashing: Applying Baker and Martinson’s TARES Test to Breast Cancer Cause-Related Marketing Campaigns • Kati Berg, Marquette University; Shannon Walsh • From cars and cosmetics to fast food and toasters, everything seems to be turning up pink lately. But not all pink products benefit breast cancer equally. Some companies take advantage of consumers’ concern about breast cancer and in reality profit from marketing pink products while donating little or nothing to the cause. It’s a process known as pinkwashing. As cause-related marketing (CRM) efforts for breast cancer have risen dramatically in the last decade so has media criticism and consumer backlash. Yet, the ethics of pinkwashing have not yet been examined from a theoretical perspective. Thus, this paper critically analyzes the ethics of such campaigns by applying Baker and Martinson’s (2001) TARES test for ethical persuasion to two CRM campaigns: Mike’s Hard Pink Lemonade and KitchenAid Cook for the Cure. Specifically, we argue that consumers are particularly vulnerable because the persuasive communication used in these CRM campaigns fail to meet the five principles of the TARES test: truthfulness, authenticity, respect, equity, and social responsibility.

Unnamed Sources: A utilitarian exploration of their justification and guidelines for limited use • Matt Duffy, Zayed University; Carrie Freeman, Georgia State University • This article critically examines the practice of unnamed sourcing in journalism. A literature review highlights arguments in favor of and against their use. Then, the authors examine some common examples of anonymous sourcing using the lens of utilitarianism, the ethical model commonly used to justify the practice. We find that few uses of unnamed sourcing can be justified when weighed against diminished credibility and threats to fair, transparent reporting. The authors then suggest specific guidelines for journalists that, if followed, would curb many of the pedestrian uses of unnamed sourcing but still allow for the practice in specific circumstances.

Media Responsibility in a Public Health Crisis: An Analysis of News Coverage of H1N1 “Swine Flu” in One Community • Elizabeth Hindman, Washington State University; Ryan Thomas, Washington State University • This qualitative analysis of news reports regarding the H1N1 virus’ impact on a particular community provides insight into the responsibilities of the media within the realm of health communication. Generally, news media did a poor job presenting accurate, timely and useful information, both to local residents who needed specific information, and to the broader public, which needed a context to interpret events on the forefront of what could have been a national health care disaster.

Journalism’s “Crazy Old Aunt”: Helen Thomas and Paradigm Repair • Elizabeth Hindman, Washington State University; Ryan Thomas, Washington State University • Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas abruptly retired in summer 2010 after she gave unscripted remarks widely perceived to be anti-Semitic.  This case study applies paradigm repair and attribution theories to explore how mainstream journalists repaired the damage to their profession’s reputation. It concludes, among other things, that they suggested her remarks were caused by senility and that she failed in her obligation to objectivity.

Ethical Pitfalls of Data Digging in Journalism • Jan Leach, Kent State University; Jeremy Gilbert, Medill, Northwestern University • Journalists have been mining publicly available data for decades, but significant changes in presentation means that data journalism is common and this increased use raises new ethical issues. This paper examines the potential for harm when journalists use data mining in reporting. Ethics questions surface about truthfulness, interpretation and potential privacy issues. Authors interview five journalists who frequently use data for journalistic purposes and discuss how they evaluate potential harm when working with data sets.

Agapeistic Ethics and News Coverage of Secular/Religious Conflict • Rick Moore, Boise State University • Agapeistic ethics has received a small amount of attention from scholars interested in how it might be applied to the journalistic profession. This investigation continues that discussion but specifically in regard to how journalists might cover stories that entail religious dimensions. In analyzing the particular case of reporting on legal disputes related to teaching of intelligent design in schools, the paper hopes to shed light on the unique contributions agape can make to media ethics.

Social Responsibility and Tomorrow’s Gatekeepers: How Student Journalists Prioritize News Topics • Sara Netzley, Bradley University • This study examines whether student journalists prioritize news topics that serve social concerns or economic concerns. A nationwide survey asked student journalists to identify which topics they personally preferred as well as which topics they believed were most important for the media to cover. The data suggest that tomorrow’s journalists may have embraced a new theory of the press: the dual responsibility model, in which social and fiscal responsibilities are equally weighed when making editorial decisions. These findings have key implications for the gatekeeping decisions the journalists will make on the job and the type of agenda they might set for the public.

Naming Names: Crime Coverage Rituals in North America, Sweden, and the Neterhlands • Maggie Jones Patterson, Duquesne University; Romayne Smith Fullerton, University of Western Ontario • When a Dutch man killed seven people and injured ten more in an attempt to assassinate the Queen Beatrix, the Dutch Press Agency ANP did not use his name in their stories. This paper examines the ethical practices of journalists in the Netherlands and Sweden, specifically in regard to withholding the names of those accused or convicted of crime, in order to tease out the cultural values these practices reflect. National news stories of great public interest were used as starting points in interviews with Swedish and Dutch journalists and academics. By analyzing these interviews, national codes of ethics, and specific news coverage, the paper examines the reasons behind this respect for criminals’ privacy. The paper argues that the European practices reflect a greater ethic of care than those found in North American journalism. However, these practices are under threat both from the internationalization of news on the Internet and a backlash against immigration in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Ethics and Wartime Self-Censorship: Precedents for a Utilitarian Model in the Digital Age • Michael Sweeney, Ohio University • This paper argues that official government and military censorship have become impossible in the digital age. It offers the World War II model of effective self-censorship by the press, including legal and ethical issues constraining publication decisions, as an example of how cooperation and trust can make the alternative of self-censorship possible. It also addresses the complications posed by the relatively new phenomenon of citizen journalists and the challenges they pose to would-be censors. Finally, it frames the discussion of self-censorship in wartime using a utilitarian model of journalism ethics.

Walter Lippmann’s ethical challenge to the individual • Steve Urbanski, West Virginia University • This paper analyzes in hermeneutic fashion random concepts of the individual from three of philosopher Walter Lippmann’s major works, Liberty and The News, Public Opinion and The Phantom Public. The paper addresses the following: By considering Lippmann’s multi-leveled representation of the individual, 21st century media professionals can become empowered to avoid emotivism and strive toward a more narrative-based form of ethics. The paper compares and contrasts Lippmann’s representation of the individual with John Dewey’s Great Community and Daniel Boorstin’s notion of the pseudo-event.

Teaching Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development Through the Movie NETWORK • John Williams, Principia College • Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of six stages of moral development has been significant to thinking about moral education for half a century and is viewed by many as the definitive description of moral development. Moral development theories describe moral maturity and the steps or stages that one follows to reach this maturity. Contemporary films and literature have been used as mechanisms for stimulating moral development in students. It would make sense that contemporary film could be used to introduce and teaching Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. This paper is a description and assessment of the use of the feature film Network as a vehicle for engaging undergraduate mass communication students with Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. The activity allows students to engage with the theory, attempt to apply it to a fictional situation, offer critiques to the theory, and suggest alternative perspectives.

Identifying Ethical Challenges and Solutions in the Online Coverage of Recruiting High School Athletes • Molly Yanity, Ohio University • The coverage of the recruitment of high school athletes has exploded into a multimillion-dollar industry. That demand has led to a wave of ethical challenges for the web-based publications providing the coverage. This study will reveal ethical challenges in the coverage and solutions for the publications. This multi-method study should help web-based publications draft of a code of ethics. Media covering high school recruiting can use those guidelines to gain and maintain credibility, uphold a high level of ethics, and protect themselves from rules instituted by outside interests.

Carol Burnett Award

Unprofessional, ineffective, and weak: A textual analysis of the portrayal of female journalists on Sports Night • Chad Painter, University of Missouri; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri • This study investigates the portrayal of five female journalists on the Aaron Sorkin television show Sports Night. The women were depicted as acting unprofessionally, displaying motherly qualities, choosing their personal lives over work, being deferential to men for ethical decisions, and showing a lack of sports knowledge compared to the male characters. The researchers use social responsibility theory to suggest why these portrayals were ethically problematic.

Ethical Attitudes of Male and Female Students Concerning Academics and Journalism • Bill Hornaday, Indiana University • Survey data on plagiarism and fabrication – and perceptions about both among journalism students [n=6873] – indicate females harbor more concern about such activity than males. The findings are consistent for academic settings involving student journalists and scenarios involving professional journalists. Regardless of gender, students were more concerned about fabrication and believed professional breaches merit more concern than academic ones. This study draws from an ongoing, longitudinal project launched in 2004 at a large Midwestern university.

Correcting the record: The impact of the digital news age on press accountability • Nicole Joseph, Northwestern University • This study examines changing news practices to determine if, and how, they have been accompanied by changes in journalists’ abilities to enact traditional ethical standards in the newsroom. To illustrate these changes, I explore the use of news corrections as a means for maintaining journalistic accountability in the digital news age. The findings suggest that key attributes of the contemporary news environment can help journalists in their quests for accountability.

Conflicting Agendas: Economics and Social Responsibility in the Press • Jason Laenen, Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU • Many scholars have argued the economic responsibilities of the American (capitalist) press ultimately undermine its social responsibilities. Little attention has been paid, however, to how the press has successfully neglected these duties–while maintaining its special “inviolable” rights provided by the Constitution. This article argues the press has used the tenets of the dominant economic models (liberalism, Keynesianism, and neoliberalism) in three periods of American history to influence and justify its behavior. Implications are discussed.

Is Ideological Coverage On Cable Television an Ethical Journalistic Practice? Duty, Responsibility, and Consequence • Aimee Meader, University of Texas at Austin • Ideological coverage is a journalistic practice that abandons objective ideals in favor of opinionated analysis. Although editorialism has always been evident in American journalism, this practice is becoming more frequent among cable broadcasters as the industry responds to growing economic pressures. This essay examines ideological coverage to determine whether it meets journalistic duties, such as veracity, and if it can facilitate a deliberative democracy. Additionally, the essay outlines guidelines that allow for ethical, ideological reporting.

The real skinny on food in the media: Ethical shortfalls of covering and marketing food to an ever expanding nation • Temple Northup, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Meghan Sherrill, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • Consumers deciding what food to purchase are faced with thousands of options at the typical grocery store. In order to help make decisions, the media can be used as a source of information: from advertisers, marketers, and journalists. Through a series of cases studies, this paper critically analyzes the role of the media in misinforming the public about the healthfulness of certain food, thereby playing a contributing role in the growing obesity epidemic.

“Can We Be Funny?”: The Social Responsibility of Political Humor • Jason Peifer, Saint Louis University • Probing the vague boundaries and constraints commonly placed on humor, this essay considers the responsibilities and duties that can guide political humor. Working within a deontological paradigm, this essay establishes the relevance of ethics within society’s political humor and considers the importance of ethical humor. Moreover, this study points to Christians and Nordenstreng’s model of global social responsibility theory as providing a promising framework for orienting ethical political humor.

The Ethics of the ESRB: Social Responsibility Theory and Video Games • Severin Poirot, University of Oklahoma • The video game industry is a multimillion-dollar industry, which reaches millions of customers a day. While there is a variety of research available on the subject, there is little dealing with the ethics of video game content. Using the social responsibility theory of the press, this paper conducts an ethical analysis of the video game industry. Specifically the history and purpose of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a self-imposed video game rating system, is discussed. Using the principles of the theory the ESRB appears to meet the requirements of social responsibility. Future research is suggested to further explore the ethical implications of video game content.

Neuroethics, Moral Development and Media: An Emotional War Over Reason • Rhema Zlaten • Neurobiology provides a unique perspective to the moral development process of media professionals and challenges current prevalent theories of ethical evolution. Neurological firings initiate an ethical response, which is then carried out and fostered by character development and experience. Several fields, namely psychology and sociology, have utilized this brain data to consider a full range of human behaviors from the inside out. There is a shortage of similar applications to the media and communication fields, and the viewpoint of neuroscience creates a theoretical challenge to the cognitive level theories that drive current media research, particularly to the areas of moral development and normative theory.

Special Call: Methods for Media Ethics Research

Press Apologias: A New Paradigm for the New Transparency? • Sandra Borden, Western Michigan University • This paper examines the requirements for ethical press apologias, defined as attempts to defend credibility when accused of ethical failure. Facing changing transparency expectations, apologists may fail to fully respond to injured stakeholders. Criticisms of CBS News’ flawed report on President Bush’s National Guard service illustrated this problem. Hearit and Borden’s (2005) paradigm for ethical apologia is applied to “RatherGate” to see if and where the paradigmatic criteria fell short. A revised paradigm is proposed.

The Psychology of Plagiarism • Norman Lewis, University of Florida; Bu Zhong, Penn State University • Journalists and writers have often wondered if plagiarism, an ethical taboo, has a psychological element. Two studies to test that informal hypothesis revealed that plagiarists are remarkably similar to their non-copying peers in Big Five personality traits. However, the two groups differ in a scale that measures integrity on a continuum between principles and expediency. The results show that journalistic plagiarism has more in common with a “normal” accident than with a troubled mind.

Dissecting Press Ethics: A Methodological Evaluation of the Discipline • Jenn Burleson Mackay, Virginia Tech • This paper explores trends in journalistic ethics research. The researcher shows areas where additional research is warranted. Most scholars have relied on essays or surveys to study journalistic ethics. While researchers frequently have analyzed newspaper ethics, scholars have failed to thoroughly study broadcast journalism or new media ethics. Researchers have placed little emphasis on studying audience perceptions of journalistic ethics. The author suggests that triangulation would improve the literature in this discipline.

<< 2011 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society 2011 Abstracts

Media of the People, by the People, for the People: Redefining Public Service Broadcasting in Emerging Democracies • Md. Abu Naser, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Debashis Aikat • Public service broadcasting has faced many challenges during a decline in the last 20 years. Although the crisis of public service broadcasting is global in nature, the problems the PSB institutions face in developing countries and in emerging democracies differ fundamentally from the challenges that the PSB outlets encounter in the Western world. Public service broadcasting in many developing countries remains a government monopoly where the public has no role in the process. In authoritarian political systems, public broadcasting becomes state propaganda that corrupts the whole broadcasting system. Because of the varied nature of the problems facing PSB institutions in developing countries, there is an emerging need for a variety of solutions. In this context, a plan to make public service television in Bangladesh more effective is proposed. This model may be applied to many other emerging democracies in Asia, Africa, East Europe, and Latin America since PSBs of those countries face similar problems.

Is Family Guy E/I Programming? An Analysis of Adult Primetime Animations for Educational Messages. • Mary Katherine Alsip, University of Alabama; Wyley Shreves • Many studies have found that E/I programming may be falling short of the FCC guidelines prompted by the Children’s Television Act of 1990.  Adult primetime animations have gained popularity in recent years, especially with adolescent and teen viewers.  An analysis of the availability and educational quality of adult animation is made and compared to previous data on E/I programming.  Recommendations for the adjustment of FCC guidelines based on this analysis are made.

Digital media, citizenship orientation, and youth political consumerism • German Alvarez, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Matthew Barnidge, University of Wisconsin – Madison; ByungGu Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study aims to explore how youth online usage patterns and notions of citizenship foster certain forms of political participation – namely political consumerism. Using cross-sectional survey data from a national representative sample of youth, this study offers a unique attempt to uncover the social-psychological predispositions that make up and define citizenship orientation. Specifically, this paper argues that a typology of trust in political institutions and political efficacy are important factors that contribute to citizenship orientation. Placing these social-psychological predispositions within the analytical framework of the communication mediation model, this paper also examines the mediating role of citizenship orientation between online communication and political participation. This study presents evidence that citizenship is evolving, and that new forms are emerging that place emphasis not on institutional politics, but rather on personally meaningful behaviors such as political consumerism. The results generally support the conclusion that citizenship orientation, as defined by the typology of trust and efficacy, is a significant factor mediating the effects of online media on political participation. The findings also highlight the role of online media in the development of citizenship orientation, indicating differential paths of communicative development that lead to different orientations toward citizenship.

Why your grandparents are on Facebook:  A survey of uses and gratifications of Facebook by older adults • monica ancu, Univ. of South Florida St. Petersburg • This is a uses and gratifications study looking at why older adults, people aged 45 and older, use Facebook. A survey of 225 respondents reveals that older adults are drawn to Facebook by two primary factors, Mood Management (entertainment and emotional connectivity) and Social Action (express opinions and news, and establish relationships). The most popular activity among our sample was playing games and using other entertainment Facebook apps, followed by browsing friends profiles and photos. Content creation and communication through status updates, wall comments, messages and other types of expression were less popular among this age group, with only a third (roughly 30% of respondents) engaged in such activities. The study discusses additional findings and their implications, and it is one of the very few studies looking at the social networking uses and gratifications of older adults.

The new communication environment and its influence on media credibility • Ashley Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Peter Ladwig; Dominique BROSSARD, LSC, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dietram Scheufele; Michael Xenos • How exposure to uncivil discussion in online comments alongside two controversial issues—nuclear energy and nanotechnology—influences media credibility is the focus of this study. Using an experimental design with a representative sample of the American population, we find exposure to uncivil discussion increases perceptions of blog post bias and trust in news media for information on science. Exposure to incivility in blog comments increases trust in online sources for the issue of nuclear energy.

Overweight and unworthy? The role of priming in attractiveness, gender, and credibility • Julie Andsager, University of Iowa; Erin O’Gara; Robert Gutsche Jr, The University of Iowa; James Carviou; Nicholas Yanes, University of Iowa • Obesity is a prevalent health concern in the U.S. Guided by attribution theory and priming, an experiment was conducted to assess attitudes toward attribution of responsibility, attractiveness, and credibility in thin versus overweight individuals. Subjects considered thin individuals more attractive than their overweight counterparts, and reader gender was significantly related to evaluations of attractiveness, particularly when weight was primed with an opinion column.  Weight and gender of columnists interacted in perceived credibility.  Implications are discussed.

The Effects of Gain and Loss Frames on Perceptions of Racial Inequality • Erin Ash, Penn State University; Mike Schmierbach, Penn State University • Previous content analytic research has examined the extent to which the media frame racial disadvantage in terms of black losses and gains and white losses and gains, finding that news reports are by far most likely to frame disadvantage in terms of what blacks are more likely (than whites) to lose. This study is an empirical test of the effects of racial gain and loss framing. Results reveal loss frames amplified perceptions that the issue was important and due to systematic, institutional causes. No main effects of race were found, but race did interact with the frame manipulation to influence perceived importance and symbolic racism. Further, regression models showed the influence of perceptions of importance, causal attributions, and symbolic racism in predicting support for two proposed remedies to alleviate the inequality.

Exploring News Media Literacy: Developing New Measures of Literacy and Knowledge • Seth Ashley, University of Missouri; Adam Maksl, University of Missouri; Stephanie Craft, University of Missouri • Using a framework previously applied to other areas of media literacy, we developed an attitudinal scale focused specifically on news media literacy and compared that to a knowledge-based index including items about the structure of the U.S. news media system. Among our college student sample, the knowledge-based index was a significant predictor of knowledge about topics in the news, while the attitudinal scale was not. Implications for future work in assessing news literacy are discussed.

Social Media Consumption, Interpersonal Relationship and Issue Awareness • Sungsoo Bang, University of Texas, Austin • This study examines the relationship between social media consumption and issue awareness using South Korea’s 2007 national survey dataset. This study finds that there is a significant and positive relationship between consuming social media, such as Internet community sites, and issue awareness. The findings indicate that frequency of using social media significantly and positively increases issue awareness such as public policy.  The finding also indicates using social media for socilability is positively related to issue awareness, which is essential for democracy in terms of political knowledge. Furthermore, the finding shows social media uses mediate the relationship between issue awareness and interpersonal relationship such as political discussion, which demonstrates consuming social media decrease the information gap caused by interpersonal relationship.

The Third-Person Effect Among Mormon College Students: An Examination of Social Distance and Behavioral Outcomes • Stephen Banning, Bradley University; Guy J. Golan, Syracuse University; Sherry Baker, Brigham Young University • This study examines perceived media influence amongst a highly religious sample of Mormon college students and investigates the potential behavioral consequences of these perceptions. While Golan (2002) tested the relationship between religiosity and the third-person effect, no study to date has examined third person perceptions and their behavioral consequences amongst religious adherents. Consistent with previous research, our study found robust support for the perceptual hypothesis of the third-person effect and support for third-person perceptions as key predictors of censorship and government regulation of the mainstream news media.

The Impact of the BP Oil Spill on Views about Nuclear Energy: A Natural Experiment • John Besley, University of South Carolina; Sang Hwa Oh, University of South Carolina • A natural experiment involving a survey about nuclear energy conducted just before the BP oil spill and followed-up after the oil spill showed that self-reported attention to the oil spill interacted with environmental attitudes to produce higher perceived risks and less overall support for nuclear risk management policies. An experimental manipulation that involved asking half of the respondents about the oil spill, prior to asking about nuclear energy, resulted in more negative views about nuclear energy. The research speaks to climate-change-related debate about the value of arguing in favor of one energy technology through the critique of another.

What Viewers Want:  Assessing the impact of host bias on perceptions of credibility in political talk shows • Leticia Bode; Emily Vraga, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Magda Konieczna; Michael Mirer; German Alvarez, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Courtney Johnson • The new media environment, and particularly cable news, has recently embraced a partisan style of journalism. It is unclear how subtle changes in the way this style is adopted affect how viewers perceive and evaluate the journalists and programs in question. To consider this question, we employ a 3×3 experimental design. Using professional actors and experienced producers and editors, we imitated a pundit-based political talk show, altering whether the host was neutral, conservative, or liberal, and whether he gave equal time to both sides of the argument, or unevenly distributed time either in favor of the liberal or the conservative guest. We expected that both overt bias and the more subtle bias of allowing one side more time would both factor into evaluations of the host and the program’s credibility, and this expectation is supported by the data. Moreover, their effects are contingent upon the partisan identity of the viewer, and there is an important interaction between the two types of bias. Our findings have significant implications for models of journalism in the cable news era.

Factors Affecting Journalistic Adherence to the Protest Paradigm: The Influence of Protest Goals and Tactics • Michael Boyle, West Chester University; Cory Armstrong, University of Florida; Doug McLeod • A recent spate of protest activity across the globe has reinforced the important role that news media play in covering protesters. Research under the protest paradigm has shown that not all protest groups are treated equally and has consistently found that more deviant protest groups receive more critical coverage. However, our understanding of what factors predict when the protest paradigm will be enacted and when it will not needs further exploration and clarification. This study considers this issue using a geographically diverse set of newspapers  to consider the distinct role of a protest group goals and their tactics as well as the location and issue being protested. The findings indicate that the tactics employed by protest groups have a significant bearing on how they are treated trumping the influence of goals. Further, it is clear that location and issue indirectly influence coverage by influencing group tactics.

Mirror, Mirror on the Screen…The Facebook-Narcissism Connection • Jennifer Braddock, University of Florida • Narcissism is an issue of increasing concern among current generations in the United States.  Young individuals are also more connected than ever, particularly via the social networking site Facebook.  This study uncovers several relationships between narcissism as determined by responses to the NPI-16 and Facebook use based on Uses and Gratifications Theory.  The data suggest that narcissistic individuals look to Facebook to support their self-promoting tendencies.

Everything is Not What It Seems: An Examination of Sitcom Sibling Interactions • Nancy Bressler • Real-life sibling interactions may not be as simplistic as the portrayals on television sitcoms.  Yet, real-life siblings may still identify with these characters.  This study examined popular family sitcoms during the 2009-2010 television season using a quantitative content analysis.  The valence of interactions, types of interactions, sources of conflict, and overall outcomes were all investigated.  These results were further correlated with each sitcom to determine if there was a pattern of sibling interactions.

The pregnancy of “”Skinny Moms”” for Sale!: Representations of Celebrity Moms’ Pregnancies in Korean Online Media”            Jiyoung Chae • This paper explores the representations of celebrity mothers’ pregnancies in Korean online media. An analysis of articles dealing with ten Korean female celebrities’ pregnancies revealed that the celebrities’ thinness during and just after pregnancy are highly emphasized by the media and those celebrities are called “”skinny moms.” In skinny mom discourses, celebrity moms are portrayed as a woman who has both ideal beauty and motherhood. These representations imply that women should be thin and beautiful even during their pregnancies. Also, what the celebrities consume to maintain the skinny body is the center of attention. As a result, the celebrities’ bodies are commodified and objectified by the media representations, which is for women who aspire to have a thin and beautiful pregnancy as they do.

Third-person perception and health beliefs • John Chapin, Penn State • Purpose: To study third-person perception (TPP) within the context of a public health issue (intimate partner violence) and to explore theoretical linkage between TPP and the health belief model.  Methods: Survey of 316 medical professionals  Results: Medical professionals exhibit TPP, believing they are less influenced than patients by media depictions of IPV. In terms of the Health Belief Model, one element, perceived susceptibility, emerged as a predictor of TPP.  Conclusions: There is a rich area of health-related messages yet to be explored in future research.

Adolescents’ Varying Responses to Pro-Health Messages After Media Literacy Training • Yi-Chun Chen • With an increasing attention to entertainment-education (EE) as an integral part of health campaigns, children cultivated in more than two decades of media literacy (ML) movements might view EE differently. This paper thus asks: Will different approaches to media literacy impede the effectiveness of entertainment-education?  A total of 105 adolescents participated in a 2 (sex: female and male) X 3 (ML approaches: negative mediation, positive mediation and control) posttest only with a control group quasi-experimental design. Results showed that a positive evaluative not only had positive influences on key decision-making process concerning alcohol use but also heightened the effectiveness of pro-health entertainment.  Significant sex effects also indicated that female adolescents may be more receptive to the educational aspect of health-focused entertainment-education than their counterparts. Findings suggest that media literacy could enhance pro-health entertainment and has the potential to be employed simultaneously in health campaigns to improve adolescents’ health.

Examining the Conjoint Influence of Parental Mediation and Media Literacy in Substance Use • Yi-Chun Chen; Erica Austin • Prior research has established significant factors that impact individuals’ substance use behavior, including parental communication strategies and their level of media literacy. This study bridges the gap between parental mediation and media literacy in relation to substance use.  Two separate cross-sectional Internet studies with each survey focusing on either alcohol (n=347) or tobacco use behavior (n=291) were conducted at a large mid-Atlantic university (N=638).  Mediation and coviewing had distinctive relationships with media literacy, such that coviewing predicted less advertising skepticism but more critical thinking, negative mediation consistently associated with higher levels of media literacy, rulemaking associated with lower levels of critical thinking, and positive mediation associated with lower levels of advertising skepticism but was unrelated to critical thinking. The results show that parental communication influences can be traced into early adulthood and that strategies which cultivate independent, analytical message processing have indirect protective effects but passive strategies can increase risk.

The Indirect Effect of Media on Political Participation: How Media Promote Political Participation • Doo-Hun Choi, University of Wisconsin – Madison • Analyzing data from the 2008 ANES, the study explored the role of media use in influencing political participation. Particularly, the research examined (a) the relationship between media use and interpersonal trust and (b) the connection between interpersonal trust and political participation. The findings support the thesis that interpersonal trust was positively related to political participation. Moreover, Internet use promoted interpersonal trust, whereas national television viewing was negatively associated with interpersonal trust. Taken together, the findings suggest that the Internet may enhance political participation at least indirectly, an effect mediated by interpersonal trust. Results and implications are discussed in greater detail.

The effect of geographical distance and intensity of online news on user emotion, personal relevance, and perceived intensity • EunRyung Chong, University of Maryland; Ronald Yaros, University of Maryland; John Newhagen • More than two decades of online news environment invited reconsideration of the traditional journalistic definition of “”proximity.” Emotional or virtual proximity of users was examined by 2 (geographical distance) X 2(news story intensity) within subject factorial design online survey experiment. Perceived news intensity and perceived personal relevance to the online news were measured.  Findings indicate that emotional proximity is independent from geographical proximity. Virtual proximity, however, illustrates strong association with the geographical proximity. In “”near”” story, users appeared more strongly to be involved in low intensive story than high intensive story, while in “”far”” story, high intensive story more affected users than low intensive story. The implication of findings for editorial direction of online news is suggested.

Packaging Inspiration: Al Qaeda’s Digital Magazine Strategy and Popular Culture Resonance • Susan Currie Sivek, Mass Communication, Linfield College • This study examines the function and content of Inspire magazine, an English-language digital publication created by Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula with the goal of recruiting Western Muslims to participate in jihad. The selection of the digital magazine medium, as well as the resonance of the content with Western popular culture narratives and tropes, are considered in light of existing research on magazines, social movements, and Islamic terrorism.

The effect of narrative messages on young adults’ response to a health message about Hepatitis C • Michelle Dangiuro-Baker, Penn State University; Fuyuan Shen, Ad Division • Designing health messages for young adults can be challenging, both in getting the attention of young adults and persuading them to adopt safe health behaviors. This study, guided by narrative transportation theory, explored the role that story formats play in immersing young adults into a health message and persuading them to adopt a specific health behavior. An experiment (N=125) was conducted featuring public service announcements (PSAs) regarding the dangers of the Hepatitis C Virus that utilized a 2 (message format: factual vs. narrative) X 2 (message valence: positive vs. negative) factorial design. Results indicated an interaction between valence and message format, with negatively valenced narratives leading to greater persuasion and transportation than positively valenced messages and factual messages when controlling for perceived susceptibility to Hepatitis C. Transportation was shown to fully mediate the relationship between the negative-narrative message and persuasion. However, neither message format nor valence significantly impacted behavior intention, a possible effect of participants’ low perceived susceptibility to contracting the Hepatitis C Virus.

Adding Depth to the Relationship Between Reading Skills and Television Viewing • Steven Dick, Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning; William Davie; Betsy Bryan Miguez • It has been long accepted that there is a negative correlation between excessive television and academic performance, however, with so many children watching at least some television each day, it is worth considering the effects of more limited viewing.  This project performs a secondary analysis on a nationally representative (NAEP) dataset of more than 26,000 students to evaluate the relationship between television viewing and academic achievement.  Findings include support for the positive effect of moderate viewing among certain young demographic groups (males, students in poverty, Hispanics, and English language learners), which in this study contrasts with the diminishing return of the viewing benefit as students matured.

Partisan Balance and Bias in TV Network Coverage of the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections • Arvind Diddi, State University of New York at Oswego; Frederick Fico; Geri Alumit Zeldes, Michigan State University • This study did a content analysis of television broadcast network news in the 2008 presidential election to examine the partisan balance and bias and compared it with the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. The study replicated the partisan balance and bias measures used in similar studies in 2000 and 2004 elections. The study findings were comparable to the general conclusions of the earlier research. However, the 2008 data indicated that though the broadcast news networks were largely balanced in their coverage they showed a slight Republican tilt in their coverage.

Money Mothers and Mediators: A Thematic Analysis of Say Yes to the Dress • Katherine Eaves, University of Oklahoma • The explosive growth of the now multi-billion dollar a year wedding industry has been fueled in part by a dramatic increase in the number of wedding-focused television programs. These programs, much like other forms of bridal-focused media, present women with images, ideas and fantasies about what their weddings should be like, look like and feel like.  Using a thematic analysis method and social constructionist theoretical perspective, this study identifies three primary thematic elements in the wedding-focused program Say Yes to the Dress; the role of the mother, financial considerations (or lack thereof), and the positioning of the bridal consultant as a mediator.

Understanding News Preferences in a “Post-Broadcast Democracy”: A Content-by-Style Typology for the Contemporary News Environment • Stephanie Edgerly, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Southern California; Emily Vraga, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dhavan Shah • This study develops a 2×2 news typology accounting for an individual’s orientation toward content (news vs. entertainment) and style (factual reports vs. pundit opinions). Findings from cross-sectional and panel data reveal that our typology predicts distinct patterns of news consumption during the 2008 election. Specifically, we predict selection of cable news outlets, soft news programs, and late-night talk shows. Our results also shed light on knowledge change during the 2008 election season.

In Deepwater: A comparative analysis of The New York Times and The Guardian’s coverage of the BP oil spill • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri • This paper offers a comparative analysis of news coverage by The New York Times and The Guardian during the ten days following the BP oil spill of April 20, 2010. Ethnographic content analysis examines the coverage, and institutional analysis examines the outlets in broader cultural and economic contexts. The paper concludes that despite what existing literature would suggest, The New York Times better embodied the spirit of journalism through a diversity of sources and ideas.

The green editorial debate: A comparison of the framing of environmental issues in the Columbia Daily Tribune and St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Maria Garcia, University of Missouri-Columbia; Guy J. Golan, Syracuse University; Jeffrey Joe Pe-Aguirre, University of Central Arkansas • The current study compares how environmental issues were framed in the editorial section of a small community newspaper, Columbia Daily Tribune, and metropolitan newspaper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The results of a content analysis point to significant differences in the framing strategies, news values and overall valence in coverage between the two newspapers. The central function of community journalism in relationship to the formation of civic participation and public opinion are discussed.

Expressing opinions on GLBT tolerance using Facebook:  A modern application of the spiral of silence • Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Weiwu Zhang, Texas Tech University • The present study examined the role of the spiral of silence, in the online environment of the social network site (SNS) Facebook as it is used to express opinions on tolerance for gays and lesbians. Using an experimental manipulation, respondents were presented with either a friendly or hostile hypothetical scenario concerning gay-bullying, a social issue has recently garnered increased media attention and impacts the lives of people across the country. Issue importance and willingness to self-censor indicated the presence of the spiral of silence, so did other individual level variables such as age, gender, media and level of social tolerance. However, perceived climates of opinion and attitude certainty were not found to have any significant impact.  Findings suggest that the spiral of silence does, in fact, exist in the online context of Facebook, an SNS based upon relationships anchored to offline others. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

Prevalence and Context of Verbal Aggression  in Children’s Television Programming • jack glascock, Illinois State University • This study examines the prevalence and context of verbal aggression in children’s television programming. In all 256 episodes of children’s programming from cable and broadcast television were examined. About 18 acts of verbal aggression were found, most of which were insults (49.2%) and name calling (24%). A majority of the acts were depicted as externally motivated, justified and followed by either positive or neutral reinforcement. Proportionately, male and female characters were equally verbally aggressive however female characters were more likely than expected to be victims. Social learning implications are discussed.

Perceived H1N1 flu vaccine efficacy and likelihood of vaccine uptake: Assessing the influences of mass media and risk perception • Gang (Kevin) Han, Iowa State University; Kejun Chu; Guolin Shen • This study examines the influences on college students’ perceived efficacy of H1N1 flu vaccine that are exerted by mass media and risk perception, along with personal experience, interpersonal communication and self-efficacy. Respondents’ perceived likelihood of receiving flu shot is also assessed at personal, group, societal and global levels. An online survey was conducted and 1321 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Findings suggest that mass media and risk perception significantly affect respondents’ perceptions of H1N1 flu shot effectiveness, where exposure to both traditional and new media also moderates the influence of risk judgment. In addition, findings reveal an “”mounting pattern”” of perceived likelihood of flu vaccine reception across these levels, wherein respondents perceive that taking H1N1 flu vaccine is more likely for mass collectives than for themselves or family.

Knowledge Gaps, Belief Gaps, and Public Opinion about Health Care Reform • Doug Hindman, Washington State University • Partisanship and political polarization has become the norm in national, and increasingly, local politics. The passage of the health care overhaul legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March 2010, was no exception to the trend towards greater levels of partisanship; the legislation passed without a single Republican vote. This study raises an additional issue thought to be associated with polarization and partisanship: the distribution among the public of beliefs regarding heavily covered political controversies. Specifically, this study tests hypotheses regarding the distribution of beliefs and knowledge about health care reform. Hypotheses are formulated that seek to extend the knowledge gap to account for the partisan environment.  The belief gap hypothesis suggests that in an era of political polarization, self identification along ideological or political party dimensions would be the better predictor of knowledge and beliefs about politically contested issues than would one’s educational level.  Findings showed that gaps in beliefs and knowledge regarding health care reform between Republicans and Democrats grew, and traditional knowledge gaps, based on educational level, disappeared. Attention to cable TV news narrowed gaps in knowledge among party identifiers. Findings are discussed in terms of improving news coverage of partisan debates.

Clash of coverage: An analysis of the cultural framing components of U.S. newspaper reporting on the 2011 protests in Bahrain • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University; Brian J. Bowe, Michigan State University • Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations paradigm was established after the Cold War to explain an emerging new world order and was utilized in the cultural framing hypothesis’ explanation of U.S. news coverage of conflicts. Through content analysis of three major U.S. newspapers’ coverage of the 2011 protests in Bahrain, this study uses the cultural framing hypothesis to determine if a clash of civilizations shaped news stories. The results largely support the hypothesis and Huntington’s paradigm.

Information Surplus, Information Overload, and Multiplatform News Consumption: Updating Considerations of Influential Factors • Avery Holton, University of Texas-Austin; H. Iris Chyi, University of Texas at Austin • Information surplus tends to trigger psychological effects on news and information consumers, causing information overload. This study explored novel areas of information overload, specifically with regards to news and information, and empirically examined factors associated with the degree of information overload as well as how people perceive the amount of time required to consume information across a broad spectrum of news and information platforms. The findings revealed that the majority of news and information consumers today feel overloaded with the amount of news they are confronted with. Gender, news interest, and the use of specific news platforms and outlets predict the degree of information overload. Additionally, consumers distinguish multiple news platforms by the perceived time required to consume news items on those platforms – older platforms are perceived as more time-consuming than newer platforms. Implications for media psychology, news consumption, and evolving production models are discussed.

Great Planes: National Media’s Understanding of America’s “”Flyover Country”” • Brian Hough, Ohio University • This content analysis investigates topical and spatial understandings of the American Great Plains by national media—specifically USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. The study finds (1) the Plains are sparsely mentioned in these media,; (2) stories involving economics and politics are the most common topics; (3) North Dakota and South Dakota are the most frequently mentioned states; (4) a high occurrence of depopulation articles in The New York Times.

The Rise of Specialists, the Fall of Generalists • S. Mo Jang • The present study revisits the question as to whether U.S. citizens are information specialists or information generalists.  Although the literature has presented mixed views, the study provides evidence that the changing information environment facilitates the growth of specialists.  Using a national survey (n=1208), the study found that individuals seek issue-specific knowledge driven by their perceived issue importance rather than by general education, and that this trend was saliently observed among those who relied on the Internet.

Framing National and International Disasters: An Analysis of Media and Actor Frames of Hurricane Katrina and Haiti Earthquake • Sun Ho Jeong, University of Texas at Austin • Using frames as organizing principles to construct meanings of an abstract concept of disaster, media and actor frames of Hurricane Katrina and Haiti Earthquake were examined in three stages upon development of the post-disaster relief: (a) Call for humanitarian assistance; (b) New Orleans under anarchy and hopelessness versus Haiti under scrutiny and hope; and (c) Katrina effects. Considering frames as cultural structures involving different social actors, newspapers, press releases and statements were analyzed.

Conflict Frames, Media Bias, and Power Distribution: Title IX as a Longitudinal Social-Movement Case • Kent Kaiser, Northwestern College • Through examination of Title IX as a social-movement case, this paper identified frames advocating for and against Title IX and used content analyses to discover the faithfulness with which conflict frames were transferred from the legal and legislative debate into newspapers.  The study finds that the newspapers were generally faithful to the legal and legislative debate but demonstrated some bias in favor of social reform, thereby challenging hegemonic ideas and empowering the women’s rights movement.

Does Online News Reading and Sharing Shape Perceptions of Online Deliberation?: Exploring the Structural Relationships among Motives and Behaviors of Online News Consumption and Online Deliberation Perceptions • Hyunjin Kang, The Pennsylvania State University; Jeong Kyu Lee, ClearWay Minnesota; Kyung Han You, The Pennsylvania State University; Seoyeon Lee • With the rapid development of interactive communication technology, the Internet is a major source of news and also plays an important role in connecting individual members of society. However, Internet users may have different perspectives on whether or not the Internet positively functions as a medium for civic deliberation. Because being exposed to information on public affairs is a crucial step for one’s civic engagement, this study focuses on the effects of online news consumption motives and behaviors on one’s perceptions of online deliberation. The study (N = 998) explores structural relationships between online news consumption motives, behaviors—elaborative reading and sharing—and perceptions of online deliberation. The study finds significant relationships between online news consumption motives and elaborative news reading and sharing behaviors, but only elaborative reading behavior had a significant effect on one’s perceptions of online deliberation. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The Digital Age, Future of News and Implications for the MDM • Andrew Kennis • This paper is an attempt to make sense out of the many questions surrounding news media performance and its inadequacies. It does this by first synthesizing two critical models of news analysis and applying their respective strengths toward the other’s weaknesses. The synthesis is based on the propaganda (Herman and Chomsky 1988, 2002, 2008) and indexing models (Bennett 1990; Bennett, Livingston and Lawrence 2007). The new digital era of journalism, conventional wisdom on the topic asserts, has significantly usurped prior tendencies in terms of the domination of news themes and sources by government and corporate officials. Scholarly inquiries and findings into the matter, however, have showed that this is simply not the case (Livingston and Bennett 2003; Livingston and Van Belle 2005) and that an era of hyper-commercialism is mostly to blame for a lack of news media independence (McChesney 2000, 2004, 2008). While it cannot be denied that new media and online-based news outlets are increasingly producing exceptional content, the fact remains that the reach of this content is widely dispersed and its subsequent influence is also dispersed, disparate and lacking in comparison to the traditional outlets. Most importantly, it is widely acknowledged that the leading agenda-setting and U.S.-based print sources – the New York Times and Washington Post – are by-and-large responsible for an overwhelming amount of news content, which are in turn re-sourced by alternative news sources in broadcast and online-based media.

How Scholars Have Responded to Social Media Phenomena in Advertising, Communication, Marketing and Public Relations Research From 1997-2010 • Hyoungkoo Khang, University of Alabama; Eyun-Jung Ki, The University of Alabama; Lan Ye, The University of Alabama • Drawing upon the social media phenomena in both practical and academic arenas, this study explored patterns and trends of social media research over the past 14 years across the four disciplines of advertising, communication, marketing, and public relations. As a whole, these findings exhibit a definite increasing trend in terms of the number of social media-related studies published in the four disciplines. This indicates that social media has gained incremental attention among scholars, and in turn, they have been responding and keeping pace well with the increased usage and impact of this new medium. In addition, we suggest that future scholarly endeavors emphasize the prospective aspects of social media, foreseeing applications and technological progress, and elaborating theories.

Attention, Explicated: A Psychological Approach to Mass Communication”            Gyoung Kim • In academia, the term “”attention”” has been defined, explicated, and studied intensively in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.  However, this term is also an important factor to analyze and explain mass communication effects.  This study explains and explores the mass communication theories, mass media effects, and types of a media audience in terms of media audience’s psychological cognitive process of attention and suggests a new definition of attention for studying mass communication effects.

Does Disagreement Mitigate Polarization? How Partisan Media Use and Disagreement Affect Political Polarization • Yonghwan Kim; Hsuan-Ting Chen • This study examines how partisan selective exposure and interpersonal political disagreement influence political polarization. Using data from the 2008 National Annenberg Election Study, this study first investigates the association between individuals’ selective partisan media use and attitude polarization. This study also examines whether disagreement in political discussion networks moderate the association between partisan selective exposure and polarization. As expected, individuals’ partisan selective media use leads to political polarization. Results further show that exposure to disagreement attenuates the association between partisan media use and polarization.

How Self-Other Perceptions and Media Affordances Are Related to News Use by College Students • Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Eunjin (Anna) Kim, University of Missouri; Margaret Duffy, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This study examines how the Self-Other variables and preferences for certain kinds of Media Affordances affect college students’ news use and importance. Guided by the Media Choice Model (Thorson & Duffy, 2005) we suspected that three Self-Other variables fundamental to how people process information about themselves, others, and the relationship between the two would prove to be individual differences important to media choice.  We also expected that four Media Affordances that we found college students value would predict their news use and importance. Finally, we suspected that the media features would mediate the effects of the self-other variables on news use and importance. This study discovered that the sSelf-Other variables and Media Affordances significantly predicted news use and News Importance. Also, it is revealed that Media AffordanceS successfully mediated the effect of the Self-Other variables on news use and News Importance.

Local 2.0: New Media, Advertising and the Emerging Local Web • Kathleen Kuehn • This paper offers an exploration of the local 2.0 technologies which are leading to the popularity of a “”local web”” in which place-based communities are being harnessed by start-ups and advertisers alike in order to capitalize on the untapped markets of local communities. However, new media research needs to consider this shift, as well as the implications resulting from it in regards to how it will impact social, cultural and political economic relationships. While there is much potential for the local web, there is equally many potential problems. Future media research must account for both.

Investigative Reporting and Local Power • Gerry Lanosga • This analysis of Pulitzer Prize nominations reveals a complex and varied relationship between investigative reporters and contingent groups of elites in which both sides have substantive roles to play as catalysts for societal change.  Investigative journalism, though entangled with power in strikingly intimate ways, plays a role as referee among competing power groups, periodically challenging components of the social system, if only in the interest of keeping the system operating by its own rules.

Female Journalists Contribute to Greater Transparency and Accountability on Twitter • Dominic Lasorsa • Female and male journalists were found to differ little in their use of the microblog medium Twitter, including their general presence on Twitter and the topics about which they tweeted. Furthermore, female and male j-tweeters were no different in the extent to which they engaged in two characteristic microblogging activities that contest major journalistic norms, expressing opinions and admitting nonprofessionals to participate in the news production process. However, regarding a third journalistic norm—transparency—female journalists provided significantly more openness and accountability in their tweets than did male journalists. Supporting a socialization perspective, it was found that female journalists working for larger, national, prestigious news media were less likely than those working for other less “”elite”” news media to express opinions in their tweets, to allow nonprofessional participation in the news they produce on Twitter, and to provide evidence of transparency and accountability in their tweeting. The implications of these findings are considered.

Persuasive Appeals in Television Food Advertising for Children: A Comparative Analysis of Low-Nutrition vs. General-Nutrition Food Advertisements in the U.S • Hyuk Soo Kim, The University of Alabama; Doohwang Lee, University of Alabama; Yangsun Hong • Television food advertisements targeted to children were content analyzed. Using Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion, the study identified the various advertising appeals and conceptualized as central and peripheral cues. Further, it investigated how advertising appeals of central and peripheral cues were differently associated with low-nutrition food and general-nutrition food commercials. Overall, the findings suggest that general-nutrition food commercials employed persuasive appeals of central cues more frequently than low-nutrition food commercials. Theoretical, practical and regulatory implications are discussed in the discussion section.

The Impact of Contradicting Media Messages on Political Perceptions:  The Case of a Partisan Dispute in Korea over Lifting Ban on U.S. Beef Imports • ByungGu Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Since mass media is the primary channel through which average citizens are informed of political issues, the way a political affair is described by the media plays an important role in shaping people’s political attitudes. Although its impact has largely been supported by many experimental results, not many studies have tapped into real world issues and very few have tried to answer the question of whether a frame can survive in a competitive environment. By utilizing a natural experiment setting where news frames from different types of media outlets contradicted each other, this study examined whether the impact of countervailing frames can persist in competitive environments to affect citizens’ political evaluations. Along with the impact of news media frames, the influence of perceived responsibility on political judgments (Iyengar, 1989, 1990; Iyengar & Kinder, 1987) was taken into account as well. The results show that media messages with conflicting frames failed to influence citizens’ political evaluations, cancelling out each other’s effect. Instead, the evidence suggests that political perceptions were largely shaped by such factors as the locus of causal responsibility and policy evaluations, which, in turn, were affected by one’s political ideology. Implications for framing research and suggestions for future research were discussed.

Portrayals of Eating and Drinking in Popular American TV Programs: Comparison between Scripted and Non-scripted Shows • Moon Lee, University of Florida; Lauren Gispanski • The purpose of this study was to investigate the portrayals of eating behaviors in popular American TV programs as they pertain to popular scripted television programs as well as non-scripted or “”reality”” television shows. Through a content analysis of 95 episodes, we also measured the prevalence and nature of alcohol consumption that accompanied depictions of eating behaviors in 461 scenes. Regarding the type of food, various foods were portrayed in popular American TV programs of which only 6% of foods portrayed were healthy (e.g. low in calories and fat content such as fruits, vegetables, protein bars, etc.). In addition to food consumption, approximately half of eating scenes were either accompanied by alcohol or solely contained alcoholic beverages, suggesting that popular American TV programs portray alcohol and drinking as a predominant feature of society.  Implications as well as limitations of the study are also discussed in the paper.

The Effect of Editorials on Perceptions of Adolescent Marijuana Use as a Societal Problem • Stacey Hust, Washington State University; Ming Lei • News reports have influenced adolescents’ perceptions of the risks of marijuana use, so media advocacy could be a useful strategy to bring awareness to this public health issue. The current study informs our understanding of the media advocacy strategy by experimentally testing the effectiveness of editorials aimed at framing adolescent marijuana use as a societal problem.  The results indicate the effects of editorials with a societal frame differed based on participants’ decision to use marijuana.

The Influence of News Media on Optimism about Retrospective and Prospective Economic Issues as Sources of Social Capital: Tracing the Effects by A Path Model • Yung-I Liu • This study helps understand media’s conditional effects by investigating the role of mediating attitudinal factors in explaining the relationships between media, and civic attitudes and behaviors. This study attempts to understand the mechanism by which media could influence how much optimism people have in perceiving economic issues, which accordingly could influence people’s possession of social capital. Analyzing the 2004 ANES data by using the structural equation modeling approach, this study finds a path model that links news media to various dimensions of social capital through people’s optimism about economic issues. The findings suggest that news media could influence people’s possession of social capital indirectly through influencing people’s optimism about issues that are highly important and relevant to their lives.

What motivates online disagreement expression?: Examining the influence  of verbal persuasion, vicarious experience, mastery experience and self-efficacy • xudong liu, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Aaron Veenstra, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • A 2_2 experimental design explored factors influencing self-efficacy and the willingness to express disagreement online. The study found that self-efficacy is a salient factor in predicting whether people will choose to present different opinions on the online forum where the majority discussants opposes to their opinions. Mastery experience and verbal persuasion positively predict self-efficacy, while vicarious experience has no effects on self-efficacy concerning online disagreement expression. Overall, this study responded to the call to explore the reference group’s influence on online discussion and partially confirmed online peer discussants’ motivation role in discussion involvement.

When Undesirable Media Message Looms:  Possibility of Event Occurrence, General Self-efficacy, and Third Person Perception • xudong liu, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • This paper examines the influence of perceived possibility of event occurrence, self-efficacy, and general self-efficacy on third person perception concerning exposure to media coverage of H1N1 swine flu pandemic. Social cognitive theory and construal level theory guided the rationale. Results from a survey showed that people’s concern of disease spreading likelihood in the local community positively predicts perceived media effects on self and on others, but its impact on self-evaluation of media effect is more salient, and thus negatively influence third person perception. People confident in pretending oneself tend to be less affected by media coverage of the pandemic and demonstrate more third person perception. General self-efficacy also positively influences third person perception.

Who in the World? People, Content, and Systemic Bias on Wikipedia • Randall Livingstone, University of Oregon • This research investigates systemic bias on the English-language Wikipedia by focusing in on the representation of persons and people. The work of a particular group of editors devoted to combating bias, WikiProject:Countering System Bias, over a bounded number of edits (n = 2,204) is considered and compared to a sample (n = 2,588) drawn from the general population of editors. Statistical analysis and geographic mapping reveal successes and shortcomings of this group’s work.

So, Who’s an American Now? A Discourse Analysis of CNN.com’s Readers’ Comments on the Fort Hood Shooting and “”Jihad Jane”” Indictment • Jaime Loke, University of Oklahoma; Tania Cantrell Rosas-Moreno, Loyola University • This study discursively analyzes 2,782 readers’ comments from CNN.com’s stories of the Food Hood shooting and the indictment of “”Jihad Jane.”  The analysis illuminates society’s perceptions of what it means to be American. It also helps make sense of how criminals sharing similar religious background but different race and gender are discussed. Additional research on the complex relationship among religion, race and gender within the private-public space of online news readers’ comments is called for.

The ecology of news: Tracking emerging media forms • Wilson Lowrey • Low barriers to entry, failed business models, and a cultural decentering of mainstream journalism have sparked unprecedented variation in news forms and practices, and yet relatively little attention has been paid to the ongoing processes by which such innovations emerge, develop, persist, change and fade. These complex dynamics need more systematic study. This paper proposes a model that offers explanation for the evolution of news forms. The model is informed by sociological scholarship on organization ecology and by concepts from media sociology and media economics. The paper reports findings on an empirical test of aspects of the model, examining the case of “”health blogs”” – blogs that focus on health, medicine and fitness. Support for aspects of the model was found: overall, the health blog population is becoming more institutionalized and formalized, more specialized, and the growth rate more slow and stable.

Why Politics?: Young People’s Motivations for Facebook Political Engagement • Timothy Macafee; Karyn Riddle, University of Wisconsin – Madison • This study uses a convenience sample of undergraduate students to explore the motivations for engaging in three Facebook political activities and probes the extent to which political predispositions predict the motivations for engaging in these political activities. Results reveal that motivations for Facebook political activity vary by activity; the extent to which political predispositions influence motivations to participate politically reveal few patterns, suggesting young people’s political tendencies influence motivations for Facebook political engagement differently.

Less Objectivity Please: Teen preferences for news information • Regina Marchi, Rutgers University • This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion about news consumption among young people, examining news behaviors and attitudes of teenagers. Based on one-on-one interviews and focus group discussions with 61 racially diverse high school students, this paper examines how adolescents become informed about current events and why they prefer certain news media formats to others. The results reveal not only changing ways that news information is being accessed and new attitudes regarding what it means to be informed, but also a preference among youth for opinionated rather than objective news.

Understanding the Internet’s Impact on International Knowledge and Engagement: News Attention, Social Media Use, and the 2010 Haitian Earthquake • Jason A. Martin, Indiana University School of Journalism • Relatively little is known about how Internet media use and other motivational factors are associated with outcomes such as knowledge of international news and involvement. Recent research suggests that attention and interaction with foreign affairs news is one path to closing the knowledge gap in this context. The acquisition of foreign affairs knowledge also has implications for individuals’ abilities to have a broader worldview, to hold accurate public opinions about foreign nations, to facilitate a greater since of global belonging, and to get involved with international events.  This paper examines the relationship of media use, foreign affairs political knowledge, and international involvement. A nationally representative survey conducted shortly after the 2010 Haitian earthquake produced measures of demographics, news media use, social media use, international engagement, general political knowledge, and foreign affairs knowledge.  Statistical analysis found that news exposure, news attention and various types of social media use produced significant independent positive associations with international news knowledge and international involvement after demographic controls. Hierarchical regression also found that domestic political knowledge, cable TV exposure, Internet news exposure, and radio exposure were the most important predictors of international knowledge. Another regression found that news attention, e-mail use, social media use, and texting about the Haitian earthquake were the three strongest predictors of international involvement.  These findings support related research that has found a positive association among Internet news use, international knowledge, and international engagement while also making new contributions regarding the importance of mediated interpersonal discussion for predicting international involvement.

Media Multitasking and Narrative Engagement: Multitasking as a Moderator of Transportation • Rachel Ross; Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University • This study investigates the role of multitasking as a moderator of narrative engagement. A sample of 201 undergraduates was exposed to either a film-only condition or a film coupled with a task to be completed on a computer, and responded to items measuring empathy, transportation, perceived realism and enjoyment. Media multitasking was found to moderate transportation, negatively impacting absorption. Evidence also showed that transportation led to perceived realism and enjoyment. Implications and potential avenues for future research are discussed.

Wikipedia vs. Encyclopedia Britannica: A Longitudinal Analysis to Identify the Impact of Social Media on the Standards of Knowledge • Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University; Marcia DiStaso, Pennsylvania State University • The collaboratively edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia is among the most popular Web sites in the world. Subsequently, it poses a great challenge to traditional encyclopedias, which for centuries have set the standards of society’s knowledge. It is, therefore, important to study the impact of social media on the standards of our knowledge. This longitudinal panel study analyzed the framing of content in entries of Fortune 500 companies in Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica between 2006 and 2010. Content analyses of the length, tonality and topics of 3,985 sentences showed that Wikipedia entries are significantly longer, more positively and negatively framed, and focus more on corporate social responsibilities and legal and ethical issues than in Britannica, which is predominantly neutral. The findings stress that the knowledge-generation processes in society appear to be shifting because of social media. These changes significantly impact which information becomes available to society and how it is framed.

Conceptualizing Beauty and Culture:  A Quantitative Analysis of U.S. and French Women’s Fashion Magazine Advertisements • Pamela Morris, Loyola University Chicago; Katharine Nichols • This study investigates differences in the concept of beauty between France and the United States based on magazine advertisements found in each country.  As beauty is implicated in culture, culture is also explored.  Beauty is not only a mammoth idea; but looking beautiful is a major industry.  The difficulty with researching beauty is that it is elusive and varies with society.  Over 570 ads from ten women’s fashion magazines are reviewed.  Among the major findings is that American publications consist of more ads as a percentage of total pages.  American magazines also include more ad copy.  French advertisements employ more English words as opposed to the number of French words found in American publications.  In addition, ads for hair care products and makeup are more prevalent in the U.S. than in France.  In contrast, French magazines include more ads for lotions and perfumes.  Differences illustrate cultural priorities. In terms of tone, people in American publications show more smiles, while people in France are more bizarre and sexy.  American advertisements present more women, non-working women, and women as decoration than their French counterparts.  This may indicate that the United States is more traditional.  French publications show more men with family, which may imply more contemporary gender roles.  People in French publications also demonstrate more endorsements. Even though Americans and French have many similarities, subtle differences in advertising reveal cultural variations in beauty between the two nations.  This paper provides a framework for further study on advertising, culture, and beauty.

Paging Dora: Examining the impact of recognition of children’s television characters through the capacity model • Cynthia Nichols, Oklahoma State University • The purpose of this study was to examine how liking and recognition influence the processing of educational and narrative content through the constructs of the capacity model. The quasi-experimental portion of this study used 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 135) in a 3 (pace) x 2 (distance) factorial, within-subject design to measure the acquisition of educational content and narrative content. Pace, distance, and children’s cognitive maturity played a significant role in the acquisition of information, as well as liking and recognition. However, the sensitivity of these variables varied. Additionally, the results revealed that the degree of semantic distance and children’s cognitive maturity played a significant role in their ability to acquire information from educational and narrative content.

The Influence of Knowledge Gap on Personal and Attributed HIV/AIDS Stigma in Korea • Byoungkwan Lee; Hyun Jung Oh; Seyeon Keum; Younjae Lee, Hanyang University • This study tests a comprehensive model that explicates the influence of AIDS knowledge gap on personal and attributed stigma. Fear of contagion serves as a mediator between AIDS knowledge gap and AIDS stigma. An analysis of the survey data collected to evaluate the impact of 2008 AIDS campaign in Korea reveals that AIDS knowledge was significantly associated with personal stigma both directly and indirectly but only indirectly associated with attributed stigma through fear of contagion.

Cultural Influence in Differential Normative Mechanisms: A Cross-National Study of Antismoking PSA Effectiveness • Hye-Jin Paek, Michigan State University; Hyegyu Lee; Thomas Hove, Michigan State University • This study explores the detailed mechanisms of norm message effectiveness and cross-national differences in normative mechanisms. Online experiment data from 464 U.S. and Korean participants reveal three findings: (1) collectivism played a significant role in audience receptivity to norm messages, but the role varied by norm type and by country; (2) descriptive and injunctive norm perceptions affected behavioral intention through different mechanisms; (3) the normative mechanism was more rigorous and consistent among Koreans than Americans.

Does Prior Message Work to Promote Motivation for Serious Game Playing? • Eun Hae Park; An Soontae • This study aims to test effects of external aid that can enhance motivation and performance of serious game playing to maximize learning effects. Based on self-determination theory, two types of rationales were examined. Also, individual’s level of issue involvement was tested as a moderating variable. Overall, providing intrinsic goal was effective to increase both motivation and performance but there was no main effects and interaction effect in terms of issue involvement.

Reality TV Subgenres and Cultural Orientations: Individualistic vs. Collectivistic Values among a Multiethnic Sample of Viewers • David Park; Maria Elana Villar • This study tested uniformity of cultural orientations and reality TV subgenre preferences through gender and across a variety of ethnic groups. The results established correlations between collectivism and two reality TV subgenres, crime/police and informational reality programming, among an ethnically diverse group of participants. There were no significant correlations between individualism and any of the reality TV subgenres. Gender and ethnic differences existed in frequency of reality TV subgenre viewing, but not in orientations.

The rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated: What the data say about the future of television • Jack Powers, Ithaca College • There has been a great deal of controversy and speculation about the impact of the Internet and related digital media on traditional media, particularly television. Some have predicted—and sometimes purport to have discovered—a sharp decline in use of traditional media in general and television viewing in particular. Obviously, confirmation of the future awaits the passage of time. However, data of excellent quality and undeniable pertinence exist that identify the likely future pattern. Three representative national surveys of 8-18 year olds– each about five years apart– report on comprehensive media use in the United States. At the time of the first (1999), Internet use was well underway. By the time of the second (2004), Internet use had reached a high state of development, and by the time of the third (2009), wireless broadband was widely available for use in handheld devices, tablet computers, and portable laptops.  Between 1999 and 2009, time spent on the Internet more than tripled (3.6x) and new uses, not significant at the time of the first survey, appeared by the second and third surveys. However, traditional media—screen, audio, print—did not see the drastic decreases many had expected. Instead, total time devoted to television content increased considerably, but real differences in how that content is being accessed have emerged.

Breaking the News: Advertising Embedded in Local Television Broadcasts & Journalist Alienation • Andrea Prewitt, Portland State University • Advertisements have become an increasingly dominant part of daily life and television news is no exception. Market-driven journalism has impacted the way outlets choose stories as well as how they get covered. However, there is still work to be done on the overlooked issue of advertising embedded in news content and the effect it has on both viewer and newsroom values. This study aims to reveal how one station features promotional pieces about businesses and organizations that also pay to have commercials run on that channel. These stories are not clearly labeled as advertisements or sponsored spots and instead blend in with pieces on other topics and events. The practice is an abuse of the public airwaves and forces journalists to struggle with their own professional identity. However, these effects are part of a larger movement that will also be addressed: the implication of market-driven journalism. This study includes a textual analysis of stories the station aired during one program over four months in 2008 to understand the scope of embedded advertising. Additionally, the paper analyzes qualitative interviews with station employees through Karl Marx’s concept of alienation. Journalists come to realize that their work is slowly severed from its definition as a personal contribution to society and any sense of self that is tied to professional identity fails to coincide with roles assumed on the job.

Seeing what you get: A comparison of newspapers’ visual brand personalities and consumer perceptions • Adriane Jewett, University of Kansas; Scott Reinardy, University of Kansas • A visual brand analysis identifies distinctive characteristics and current branding trends in the eight largest newspapers in the U.S., including USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post.  Additionally, A survey of college students (n = 608) utilizes J. Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality Scale to examine the visual brand personality of top-circulating U.S. newspapers.  The theory of semiotics classifies newspaper brands as symbols, allowing the researcher to study their signified meanings and associations. Unaided versus aided personality rankings indicate that students with no visual brand aids rank newspapers as more personality filled than those face-to-face with the visual brand.  An analysis of current branding strategies concludes that most of the sample newspapers (7) portray an exciting or competent brand personality and suggests that newspapers are failing to realize the full potential of their visual brands.

Perceived Threat, Immigration Policy Support, and Media Coverage: Hostile Media and Presumed Effects in North Carolina • Brendan Watson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism & Mass Communication; Daniel Riffe, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • This study, using survey data (N=529), examined perceived “”threat,”” subjective knowledge about immigration, support for punitive and assimilative policies, and opinions about media coverage effects. Perceived threat was related to support for punitive policies, and “”hostile media perception”” was confirmed.  However, perceived threat was not related to presumed influence of coverage. Internet use, age, race, and education predicted threat perception; perceived threat, perceived favorableness of coverage, and daily newspaper reading predicted presumed influence of coverage.

Stereotypical Beauty Norms in Advertisements in Fashion Magazines • Sara Roedl, Southern Illinois University • This study examined models in advertisements in fashion magazines to determine whether portrayals conforming to the stereotypical beauty ideal decreased during a 5 year period. Fifteen codes were used to examine women in ads in Cosmopolitan and Glamour.  While some characteristics were shown with equal frequency, significant changes occurred in ethnicity, skin tone, hair length, and age, indicating an increase in the portrayal of multi-ethnic women and women over the age of 30.

What Makes Young Adults Care to Read Online Health Messages?  Efficacy and Exemplar Impacts on Message Perceptions and Selective Exposure • Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick; Melanie Sarge, The Ohio State University • Avoidance of health information presents a paramount challenge to health communication campaigns. Drawing on social-cognitive theory and exemplification theory, two studies examined how efficacy and exemplification as message characteristics influence young adults’ selective exposure and perceptions of health messages. Participants (n = 258) browsed an online magazine, with news leads varying by efficacy and exemplification, while selective exposure was unobtrusively logged. Participants generally preferred exemplar information. Men favored ‘low efficacy, exemplar’ messages; women avoided ‘high efficacy, base-rate’ messages. A second experiment (n = 111) examined how efficacy and exemplification affected message perceptions and found neither influenced relevance perceptions but both affected perceived message intent. Results suggest a trade-off of using persuasive elements in health campaigns, as they may reduce exposure.

The Ku Klux Klan’s right-wing appeal: An examination of today’s more mainstream KKK • Andrew Selepak, The University of Florida; john SUTHERLAND, uf dept of adv • The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among political orientation and fundamental Christian beliefs and agreement with Ku Klux Klan ideology. Results suggest political orientation and Christian fundamental beliefs are significantly related, but not as strong as expected, to agreement with Klan values. These findings support the notion the Klan is taking steps to rebrand its image into a more mainstream organization with an ideology similar to white, religious and political conservatives.

Examining Persuasion Appeals and Substance Featured in Antismoking and Antidrug Advertisements in Social Marketing Campaigns • Drew Shade, Penn State University; Robert Magee, Virginia Tech; Erin Cooper, The Johns Hopkins Institutions; Sarah Long, O’Keeffe & Company • Due to continuing debate regarding the best ways to use mass media to discourage youth marijuana and tobacco use, social marketing campaigns must examine which persuasion appeals will be most effective in changing young adults’ attitudes and behavior. Although the effects of fear appeals have been well documented, much less is known about the impact of humor and shock appeals. The effectiveness of these appeals was tested in a factorial experiment (N = 209) with persuasion appeal (fear vs. shock vs. humor) and substance featured (tobacco vs. marijuana) as factors. Findings revealed that the appeals had differing effects and that the success of any given appeal also depended on the substance with which the appeal was used.

The Use of Blogging as Online Grassroots Activism: Analysis of Blogs in the Scott Sisters Case • Thomas Broadus, University of Southern Mississippi; Melody Fisher, University of Southern Mississippi; Riva Teague, University of Southern Mississippi; Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Southern Mississippi • This study uses content analysis to examine the presence, involvement and mobilization of blogs in the case of Gladys and Jamie Scott, two sisters from Mississippi who received double life sentences for an armed robbery they say they did not commit. This study is significant because it examines how activists used blogs to publicize the Scott sisters&#8223; case to push for their early release from prison, which the governor granted after nearly 17 years. Blog posts and comments are analyzed and compared in terms of theme, frame, emotion, language and message. Results show that about half the blogs were administered by African Americans. Blog posts primarily provided case background and were predominantly oriented in the direction of personal and political content. The dominant theme was fact-based for blog posts and value-based for comments. The blog posts and comments both employed an episodic dominant frame, diagnostic language and neutral emotions. The findings support similar research that shows most bloggers tend to provide information rather than push their readers to take action.

Teaching Millennials to Engage THE Environment instead of THEIR Environment: A Pedagogical Analysis • Rick Stevens, University of Colorado Boulder; Deserai Crow, University of Colorado Boulder • This paper examines the difficulty in teaching contemporary students of journalism (those in the much-discussed Millennial Generation) to cover complex topics like science and environmental reporting. After examining contemporary literature, the authors subjected 120 undergraduate students to a strategy that combined visual representations of abstract concepts, media texts and experiential peer interactions with positive outcomes on comprehension and demonstrations of critical analysis.

Evolutionary Psychology, Social Emotions and Social Networking Sites — An Integrative Model • Sandra Suran; Gary Pettey; Cheryl Bracken; Robert Whitbred • This exploratory research employed an Evolutionary Psychology (EP) perspective whereby the human mind is viewed through the lens of the physiological and psychological mechanisms that created the developmental programs we use today (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992). This theoretical framework was used to study the relationship between human behavior, the state of alienation, and Social Networking Sites  (SNS). Based on survey data from college students, there seemed to be a relationship between alienation and SNS. Alienation dimensions were highest among those who had the lowest amount of contacts on SNS.  The findings from this study will add to the body of knowledge on Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) as well as afford an opportunity for further research in understanding human behavior engaged in SNS through the viewpoint of Evolutionary Psychology.

The Concept Of Online Image Of A Brand And Its Application To Nation Brands • Giorgi Topouria, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism • Unlike traditional media, Internet, which is a dynamic global information system, is no longer just communication channel, but environment into which human communication and interactions are moving, and where these interactions leave tangible trace, forever changing the environment itself and parties involved.  Under these circumstances, the concept of brand acquires new momentum and special importance, especially for nations. With globalization and IT revolution, countries have become increasingly aware of their image internally and internationally. The concept of brand has strong connection to reputation and image of a country which is becoming increasingly important in world where everything is interconnected. Many countries adopted approach that looks at nations as brands and started managing their country’s image based on branding methods and practices developed within advertising, marketing and PR fields. This approach has become known as nation branding.  Based on Chaffee’s blueprint, the paper provides detailed explication of concept of online brand image conceptualized as dynamic sum of all available online information related to brand. Explication includes: justification, empirical description, primitive terms, underlying assumptions, variables, unit definition, operationalization and measurement. Further, the concept is applied to nation-brands, integrated into framework of conceptual model of nation image formation and is used as foundation for expansion of conceptual model of key perspectives in nation image.  Paper suggests an expanded model of image of nation-brand and defines directions of future study of how online brand image of nation affects countries’/nations’ reputation and global competitiveness.

Twitter As Public Salience: An Agenda-Setting Analysis • Christopher Vargo, Fall 2011: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Twitter provides an opportunity as a source of public opinion. Therefore, this paper argued Twitter as an indirect measurement of public salience. The issues of BP Oil and The Mortgage and Housing Crisis were given a time series analysis. First and second-level agenda setting variables were coded for television newscasts and newspapers and interpreted as measurements of media salience. Tweets were labeled public salience. A mild relationship between media salience and public salience was shown.

Are you for real? Communication Professionals, Virtual Identity Deception, and Consumer Backlash • Anastasia Pronin; Carson Wagner, Ohio University • Promoters have recognized electronic word-of-mouth can boost message effectiveness. Using anonymous identities, they’ve acted as “”everyday people”” to gain credibility but risk exposure, begging the question whether it causes more harm than good. A two- condition experiment (N= 59) examines source deception exposure effects on credibility and attitudes. In one condition, participants read eWOM by a professional who self- disclosed. In another, participants read the same message — by a product “”enthusiast.” Results show deception exposure backlash effects.

Re-Enlightenment: How Contemporary Dissenters in Pop Culture are Cultivating a New Age of Reason • Sheliea Walker • This essay seeks to explore the similarities between 18th century literature during The Enlightenment and 21st century discourse in the media. I propose that our society is entering a new age of enlightenment based on contemporary expression of dissent in popular culture. Just as in the age of The Enlightenment, dissenting opinions push our society toward increased progress, equality, and tolerance.

Are We Signing In or Logging Off?: The Effect of Information and Entertainment-seeking Internet use on Civic Engagement and the Role of Psychological Well Being and Political Talk • JungHwan Yang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nathan Hebert, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Chia-chen Yang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; MinWoo Kwon, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Stephanie Hartwig, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This article examines how two distinctive patterns of Internet use are associated with civic engagement, how four age cohorts might moderate these relationships, and how psychological well-being and political talk might mediate them. The data, drawn from the 2006 DDB Life Style Survey, indicate a positive effect for information-seeking use of the Internet on civic engagement, and a negative effect for entertainment-seeking use.  For both types of use, the effects of the Internet on engagement were largest for the youngest cohort and grew weaker, sometimes to insignificance, as age increased. A mediating role for political talk was not found. A mediating role for psychological well-being was found, but only for the youngest age cohort, “”Net Generation””.  For Net Generation, both types of Internet use were negatively associated with well-being, and lower well-being scores were associated with higher civic engagement. Though no mediation effect of well-being was found for the two oldest age cohorts, for them higher well-being was associated with higher civic engagement. Our findings suggest that Internet effects on civic engagement are changing and may be growing more influential on the young. The results underscore the need to continually track these relationships in rapidly changing democratic information societies.

Exploring Political Polarization: Polarized Attitudes or Polarized Perceptions? • JungHwan Yang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Hernando Rojas, University of Wisconsin – Madison • This study first examined multiple dimensions of political polarization by differentiating between the affective and cognitive components of attitude polarization and by introducing new concept of issue perception polarization. Then we identified factors that predict each aspect of polarization. In doing this, we constructed several measures that capture polarization at the group and individual level. Based on national survey data that conducted in Colombia in 2010, we found that the affective and cognitive attitude polarization and issue perception polarization showed different patterns: issue perception and cognitive attitude are highly polarized, whereas affective attitude polarization is not that severe. Also the predictors of each dimension of the polarization were different: the impact of media use was found only for affective attitude polarization; the extreme political ideology affects affective attitude polarization; and the extreme issue perception affects cognitive attitude polarization and issue perception polarization. The findings suggest that political polarization is consisted of multiple distinctive dimensions, which are differently influenced by diverse predictors. Further implications in polarization research were discussed.

Conflict Thesis or the Reverse?: Testing the Relationships among Religiosity, Attitude toward Science and Technology, Media Use, and Subjective Health Status among 56 Societies • Qingjiang (Q. J.) Yao, Fort Hays State University • Does religiosity harms supports to science and technology advancements? Does news media use mediate the relationship? With data drawn from the recent wave of world value survey that covers 56 societies, this study finds that religiosity neither increases nor decreases supports toward science and technology but enhances self-rated health status. Religiosity reduces news media use, but consuming news media does not improve health status and it lowers supports toward science and technology advancements.

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