Communication Technology Division

Faculty Paper Competition
Motivations to Use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok Predicting Problematic Use and Continuance Intentions • Anvita Suneja, Michigan State University; Anish Nimmagadda, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University • While much of the studies within the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) tradition were set to predict facets of media use, the current examines how use motivations, nature of platform use, and privacy-related perceptions predict users’ use continuance intentions for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok and their problematic use of that platform (i.e., addition), simultaneously. The study uses a cross-sectional survey of undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university (N = 373), where participants answered questions related to their motivations to use each of the four platforms (depending on their active use of the platform), platform affinity and other usage factors, their intentions to continue using the platform and their problematic of the platform. Findings showed superiority of Instagram in terms of U&G. Regression models highlighted differences in the four platforms’ problematic use and continuance intentions. Findings are discussed within the framework of reconceptualizing U&G outcomes within the evolving environment of social media use.

Assessing Routes to the Proteus Effect: Testing Self-Perception and Priming Hypotheses • Jose Aviles, Albright College • This study examines the Proteus effect and the potential mechanisms to its success. The Proteus effect suggests that user’s avatars influence individual behavior. However, mechanisms of the Proteus effect remain unclear. Research on the Proteus effect has put forth evidence that self-perception and priming both function as routes to the Proteus effect. This study tests each route in a desktop game experience. The study indicates no support for either route to the Proteus effect in the conditions that it was tested. Implications of testing environment and stimuli are discussed, indicating that specific thresholds may be needed to activate the Proteus effect.

“I probably just skipped over it:” Using eye tracking to examine political Facebook advertising effectiveness –and avoidance • Matthew Binford, University of Georgia; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georgia • Social media political advertising has, in recent years, been the target of a lot of interest and scrutiny from the public, scholars, and even the social media platforms themselves. While there is still some debate as to the overall effectiveness of social media political advertising there is compelling evidence to show that a number of social media users seek to avoid content that is political in nature. Those users tend to simply skip over the content once they have identified it as being political in nature (Bode, Vraga & Troller-Renfree, 2017). However it is less clear whether the same pattern holds for political candidate advertising which is typically easily identifiable as political, but designed to catch attention with images and text. The present study sought to shed light on the understanding of how consumers actually view or avoid political advertising on social media by using eye-tracking equipment to map users eye scanpaths as they viewed a constructed social media news feed. It was found that users with high levels of political interest fundamentally view political advertising differently with different scanpaths than those who have low political interest levels.

I’d Rather Hear it from a Robot: How Audio Voice Drives Preferences in AI-Powered Audio Messages • Jackson Carter, University of South Carolina; Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina • AI-powered audio has become increasingly popular and increasingly lifelike. However, is there a problem with being too lifelike? This paper examines the effectiveness of AI-powered audio through the framework of HAII (human-AI interaction) by exploring how the type of audio voice affects user preferences in AI-powered audio messages. Theoretical and practical applications are discussed, as results offer connections between areas of social science literature while providing insights for strategically using voice in programming.

The reviews of human-computer interaction and online relationship in new media: the evidences from live video streaming services • Po-Chien Chang, Shih Hsin University; Cheng-Yu Lin, Shih Hsin University • Comparing to live broadcasting in mass media, live video streaming is relying on broadband and digitalized content distribution over the Internet. Audiences are no longer constrained by linear schedule and empowered by social presence and co-experience of viewing. This study develops an empirical model by expanding the motivational factors in Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT) and associated with various user engagement and media consumption behaviors. The implications are discussed.

The Warranting Value of Information from Machines and Humans Different Information Types • Mo Chen; Yu-Hao Lee • It is increasingly common for students to acquire information online using intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant, but few studies have examined how students assess the quality and credibility of information provided by an IVA. Informed by the warranting theory, a 2 (source: human vs. IVAs) × 3 (information type: fact, aggregated opinion, individual opinion) experiment was conducted with 192 participants. Results revealed that the type of information affected the warranting value of the information. Aggregated opinions were perceived to be most warranted, credible, and of higher quality, followed by facts, and then individual opinions. Machine heuristic was a significant moderator between the information source and credibility judgments. The current study extends the warranting theory to examine AI-generated information and also suggests that different information types are associated with higher or lower warranting values.

An Experiment on the Sequential Mediation Effects of PDAs on Subjective Well-being • Ye Chen, University of Connecticut; Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, University of Connecticut • “Likes” seem indispensable on social media platforms today, and research across communication domains has investigated their meanings, functions, and potential impacts. Yet a causal relationship between PDAs (paralinguistic digital affordances, such as “likes”) and subjective well-being is unclear. This study utilized an experimental method and demonstrated the causal link between PDAs and subjective well-being. Potential mediating and moderating mechanisms were further explored. Our experiment also found that psychological factors such as self-esteem, pleasure, anxiety and depression were significant indicators of perceived life satisfaction, through sequential mediating processes. Moreover, satisfaction with the expected “likes” did not play a moderated mediating role in these processes. Instead, it also mediated the link between PDAs and life happiness. The findings add evidence to the ongoing debate about the good or bad of social media “likes” and contribute to unpacking the myth of social media impacts.

Do Opinions Change from Information or Experience? Attitudes toward Algorithmic Systems Depend on Transparency of Design and Power Usage • Chan Chen, Washington State University; David Silva, Kent State University; Ying Zhu • Algorithmic decision-making systems are ubiquitous in digital media, but the public holds largely negative attitudes towards them. This study investigates two approaches of improving opinions towards algorithms. The first approach provided information about how algorithms work. The second approach used respondent’s Instagram profile data to show algorithmic categorization in action, that is experiencing algorithms in action. Both methods increased positive opinions, but attitude change was also dependent on the individual-level trait of power usage.

The situated influence of individual cultural orientation on online political expression through self-presentational concern • Xi Cui, College of Charleston; Jian Rui; Yu Liu, Florida International University • This study examines political expressions on social network sites (SNSs) from a self-presentation perspective. Through an online experiment (N = 360), we found that users’ cultural orientations toward power and social inequality influenced political self-presentation through self-presentation concern. Furthermore, a three-way interaction between social inequality, audience, and issue controversialness was found on self-presentational concern. This study suggests that political expressions via SNSs can be a function of cultural orientation, SNS audience, and issue through self-presentation.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: The Effects of Victim Response to Direct and Indirect Digital Aggression • Yao Dong, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University • The frequent use of digital media increased the rate of cyberbullying victimization, and the sociotechnical affordances of social media have made them hotbeds for digital aggression. In this study, we examined the effects of victim response to direct and indirect (subtweeting) aggression, and found the effects of victim response and its interaction with message directness on participations’ perceptions of aggressive messages, their sympathy toward the aggression victims, as well as their intervention likelihood.

Playable News Technologies: Journalism and the Rise of Mobile Gaming • David Dowling • The stratospheric rise of mobile games to the top of the global games industry is attributable to synergies between mobile devices and social media platforms, particularly through the increasing use of Facebook on the iPhone and other smartphones. Phones and tablets are now where the majority of people play games and consume news. This shared digital space has given rise to mobile newsgames, a hybridization of gameplay and journalistic content allowing users to play the news, shattering the divide between entertainment and civic engagement. Among adult players, the smartphone is the most common device used for playing video games, followed by PC and consoles. Through smartphone apps, games now reach users in some of the most popular spaces in the digital ecosystem and on devices that have become ubiquitous in twenty-first century networked culture. News organizations and commercial game developers alike have responded to the simultaneous rise in mobile news consumption and skyrocketing popularity of mobile games by producing games that engage current events and issues of political and social significance. The journalistic consequences of the technological convergence of news and gaming industries constitutes the focus of this study. Critical analysis treats five case studies of the most influential mobile newsgames since 2016 by commercial game developers and legacy media. Can mobile newsgames provide civic engagement and a journalistic check on power? By directing data flows on social media, mobile games occupy a powerful role in the digital ecosystem.

SoundCloud Rap: An Investigation of Community and Consumption Models of Internet Practices • Ian Dunham • Andrew Feenberg states that “the social role and significance of the internet is in suspense today” (Feenberg, 2019), suggesting that its technosocial impacts are the result of a dynamic exchange in which multiple agents compete, cooperate, and coexist for a variety of reasons that stem from just as many motivations. On SoundCloud, a popular music-based social networking platform, the suspense Feenberg references is in full tilt–a few short years ago, it was on the brink of shutdown because of cash shortages, forcing mass layoffs and the closure of San Francisco and London offices (Satariano, 2017), only to become the site of a burgeoning hip hop community in 2017 and 2018. What has been labeled “SoundCloud Rap” represents a unique social phenomenon that is simultaneously a community, a particular approach to governance, and a network that relies on the symmetrical interplay of humans and machines. Using Feenberg’s recent discussion of the diversity of the internet’s formulations, this paper analyzes SoundCloud Rap, concluding that artists and listeners operate under both a community model and a consumption model. An empirical study of data collected from SoundCloud supports this discussion. Lastly, I consider the wave of SoundCloud Rap artists and the novel place within the industry they currently occupy, and whether the subgenre can leave any lasting marks on musical technoculture.

From passive to purposeful: Can Apple’s Screen Time realign users’ relationships with their devices? • Ebubechukwu Ubochi, Florida Institute of Technology; Heidi Hatfield Edwards, Florida Institute of Technology • This qualitative phenomenological study investigated smartphone users’ relationships with their devices and digital wellness software. It involved following the activities of eight iPhone users who were encouraged to use and pay attention to Screen Time over the course of a week. They were interviewed at the start of the process to learn about how they use their phones as well as what knowledge they had about Screen Time, and then at the end of the process to measure any changes that might have emerged. Each participant’s Screen Time data was also recorded with screenshots and used in the analysis. The findings showed overall that focused attention to Screen Time is capable of affecting smartphone usage patterns and helping iPhone users take control of the way and extent to which they use their devices.

Assumption of consensus: A path model predicting political participation among instant messaging app users • HyungJin Gill, University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication; Hernando Rojas, University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication • This study uses a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults to test a path model that examines potential influence of instant messenger (IM) apps on cognitive bias and political participation among users. The findings provide insights into how “false consensus,” or egocentric assumption in public opinion perception, that may stem from mobile echo chamber can contribute to a user’s participatory behaviors, which further highlights IM as a private, closed mode of political communication.

How much immersion is enough? Exploring the use of 360 video on social networks to influence user reflections on important issues • Michael Horning, Virginia Tech; Emily McCaul, Virginia Tech • 360-degree video is an emerging video technology that is popular on social networks and is used to immerse users in a virtual reality experience. Some argue that this technology enables individuals to process visual, verbal and spatial information together in one space in order to engage users more deeply with the information than standardized video. In this study, we create a news story using 360 video to test this assumption and to explore users’ experience with 360 news content delivered on three different displays: desktop computer, mobile tablet and head-mounted display. Our results show that individuals who engage with 360 narratives using head-mounted displays are more likely to reflect on the issues in the narrative than other mediums. Our findings also suggest that using iPads to experience 360 narratives can be more engaging but also decrease reflection on the main themes in a 360 story. Implications for use of 360 on social media are discussed.

Exploring Multiple-level Predictors Contributed to the Credibility of Smartphone Information • Bing Hu, South China University of Technology; Bu Zhong, Pennsylvania State University; Tao Sun, University of Vermont • This study proposes a hierarchical model to explore information processing on the smartphone, in which need for cognition is the independent variable and perceived credibility of smartphone information the dependent variable, with smartphone power use and information verification as the mediators, while controlling for such demographic characteristics as age, gender, education and area of residence. Our findings suggested a significant indirect path from the need for cognition to smartphone use and smartphone information credibility.

Misinformation Corrective Action when Exposed to Fake News: The Role of Media Locus of Control, Need for Cognition and Fake News Literacy • Brigitte Huber; Porismita Borah; Homero Gil de Zúñiga • Fake news is increasingly becoming a problem for democracy and questions arise on how to combat misinformation. This study investigates whether news media literacy helps taking corrective action when encountering misinformation. By relying on survey data from the U.S. (N = 1337), we show that news media literacy in terms of media locus of control and need for cognition is not sufficient to take corrective actions; people rather need to develop specific fake news literacy.

Neither by design nor intention: The creative uses of a gay dating app by HIV-positive clients • Robert Huesca, Trinity University • The geosocial networking mobile application Grindr has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in the past decade because of its diverse uses and widespread adoption. Yet no study has identified Grindr as a platform whereby HIV-positive users have sought and provided emotional support and medical guidance regarding their diagnoses. Findings from 21 in-depth interviews shed light on this potentially important use of Grindr to contribute to the well-being of people living with HIV. The findings of this study hold valuable contributions to communication theory, public health practice, and mobile phone app development.

Hello, I am a Humanized Robot Reporter: Anthropomorphism in Robot Journalism • Wonseok (Eric) Jang, Sungkyunkwan University; Soojin Kim, Louisiana State University; Jung Won Chun, Sejong University; Young Woo Kang, Sungkyunkwan University • This study examines the effects of humanized robot reporters and the role played by humanized- and non-humanized robot reporters with human reporters in writing the story to determine the persuasiveness of news. Participants displayed greater emotional involvement and evaluated the news more positively when humanized robot reporters write the story compared to non-humanized robot reporters. Such positive effect was magnified when humanized robot reporters formed a partner-to-friend-relationship with human reporters rather than a servant-to-master-relationship.

Capturing Injustice: Using the Screenshot as a Tool for Sousveillance • Bryan Jenkins, Howard University; Emily Cramer, Howard University • “The purpose of this study is to ascertain the role of screenshots in online social justice movements, specifically as it relates to the concept of sousveillance. Screenshots primarily allow for users to call attention to injustices in online spaces. They also allow users to emphasize portions of racist comments, incorporate information used to support a user’s argument, and occasionally bring levity to those engaged in online activism.

Dislike and warn: Different levels of corrective actions on social media • Liefu Jiang, Chicago State University • Through a survey with 193 participants, this paper investigates individuals’ frequencies of taking corrective actions when exposed to unfavorable information on social media. Examining through four perspectives, including cognitive effort, expected influence, creativity, and engagement levels, 11 forms of corrective actions were ranked in three ordered levels. This paper contributes to corrective action studies by providing a new approach to investigate corrective actions, which helps researchers measure corrective actions more accurately.

Ways to Relieve Anxiety: Chinese Consumers’ Perceptions of Paid Digital Knowledge Products • Jie Jin, University of Florida; Huan Chen, University of Florida • This study interviewed 19 Chinese paid digital knowledge products consumers to explore what’s the essence of Chinese consumers’ experience with paid digital knowledge products in the first- and second-tier cities. Findings revealed Chinese consumers use these products to relieve stress and anxiety from real-life competition and the insecurity of falling behind. Although consumers realize the limited assistance that paid knowledge products can offer, their acceptance and expectation of paid digital knowledge products are positive.

Measuring Consumer-Perceived Humanness of Organizational Agents in CMC • Lincoln Lu, University of Florida; Casey McDonald, University of Florida; Tom Kelleher, University of Florida; Susanna Lee; Yoo Jin Chung, University of Florida; Sophia Mueller, University of Florida; Marc Vielledent; April Yue • A broad sample (N=172) of participants interacted with either virtual or human agents representing organizations online and completed a survey including items derived from constructs of conversational human voice, anthropomorphism, and social presence. An exploratory factor analysis yielded a central factor indicating consumer-perceived humanness. The new measure was found to be reliable and valid—working as predicted to assess both virtual and human agents and explain significant variance in perceived relational investment and trust.

The Mere Exposure Effect of Tweets on Vote Choice • Hyunjung Kim • This study investigates the effects of exposure to political candidates’ tweets on vote choice in the context of the 2018 local election in South Korea. A field experiment was conducted among Twitter users in two constituencies. Participants in the experimental group were guided on Twitter to follow a leading candidate in their electoral district, whereas those in the control group were not guided to follow the candidate. The results of the experiment indicate that following a candidate on Twitter was positively linked to voting for the candidate through candidate likability particularly when the candidate’s tweets were personalized. On the other hand, following a candidate on Twitter was negatively linked to voting for the candidate when voters had a low level of involvement with the election and the candidate’s tweets were not personalized. Implications of the findings and limitations of the study are discussed.

Predicting the adoption of AI-based healthcare technology: Theory of planned behavior, self-efficacy and controllability • Joon Kyoung Kim; Mo Jones-Jang, Boston college; Yong Jin Park, Howard University • Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly prevalent in various industries. Despite increasing attention to AI, little is known about what motivates individuals to adopt AI use in health care. Using the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the determinants of individuals’ intentions to use AI for health monitoring and diagnosis. The results of a survey (N = 1,162) indicated that attitude and perceived behavioral control predicted intention, but not subjective norms.

The Effect of Advanced Technology on Jobs: Attention, Income, Worry, and Support for a Basic Income • Alex W. Kirkpatrick, Washington State University; Jay Hmielowski, University of Florida • Understanding how media use influences public perceptions of advanced technologies is important, particularly in light of recent advances in Artificial Intelligence and robotics. In this paper, we examine whether awareness of computers and robots changing the nature of US jobs is associated with worry over the issue. We then assess whether worry is associated with support for a universal basic income policy, and if worry mediates the relationship between attention and policy support. Lastly, we assess whether this indirect relationship varies by household income. Findings suggest that lower income workers who have thought about the issue of workplace technology are more worried about the issue than higher paid workers. This increased worry is associated with support for a federal policy guaranteeing a living wage for Americans. Results are discussed under the lens of Agenda-Setting Theory. Avenues of future research are suggested.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: Are You Engaging the Game? Effect of the Challenge and the Interaction toward Game Engagement in Mobile FPS Game • Heejae Lee; Se Jung Kim, Syracuse University; Shengjie Yao; Yoon (Seo Yoon) Lee; Makana Chock • “Drawing on the relationship between social presence and related works on mobile game engagement, this study investigates the effects of the perceived risk of player-death on player communication, which elicited by the challenges of the game. Specifically, the current study examines whether 1) the higher level of challenge will induce a feeling of the perceived risk of player-death; 2) the level of challenge will serve as a trigger for communication; 3) the degree to which player-death perceivers experience a feeling of interaction; 4) the perceived risk of player-death will positively influence social presence and engagement; 5) the amount of communication will positively affect social presence and engagement.

Information Inequality: The Information Demand and Supply Factors that Shape the Digital Engagements of Low-income and High-income Individuals in the United States • Jihye Lee, Stanford University; James Hamilton; Nilam Ram, Pennsylvania State University; Thomas Robinson; Byron Reeves • This study explores how individuals of different income levels navigate digital spaces by observing more than 13 million screenshots collected from the smartphones of low-income (N = 33) and high-income (N = 35) individuals in U.S. major metropolitan areas. Our findings suggest that income is significantly associated with various aspects of individuals’ digital engagements, including temporal patterns of their smartphone engagements, level of news consumption, and types of information supply factors.

Self-disclosure on Facebook: “Self” and “Others” from social penetration perspective • Danielle Ka Lai Lee, Washington State University; Xizhu Xiao; Porismita Borah • “The study examined the influences of “self” and “others” in self-disclosure on Facebook. Based on social penetration theory, we conducted an experiment and 241 young adults participated. Results suggest that highly relevant information triggered thought elaborations in deciding self-disclosure. Surprisingly, influence from audience was revealed to be minimal. The study underscored the self-serving purpose of disclosure, such that users would chiefly think about themselves instead of audience. Future directions are discussed.

Alexa as a Shopping Assistant: The Effects of Message Interactivity and the Mediating Role of Social Presence • Sangwook Lee, University of Texas at Austin; Jeeyun Oh; Won-Ki Moon, The University of Texas at Austin • This study explores the key factors that influence consumer intention to use virtual assistants for online shopping. It examines (a) whether existing concepts in communication technology literature (particularly message interactivity and social presence) are applicable to understanding consumer responses to virtual assistants and (b) the mediating role of social presence which influences intention to use virtual assistant technology for online shopping. Result from a lab experiment showed that individuals who had more back-and-forth conversations with Alexa reported higher perceptions of message interactivity and greater feelings of social presence. Feelings of social presence mediated the effect of message interactivity on intention to use. The current study provides theoretical and practical implications to communication technology and consumer research and leaves suggestions for future study of artificial intelligence.

Connect or Contrast: Public Self-Awareness and Social Cues Impacts on Selective Exposure to Political Content • Wenbo Li, The Ohio State University; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick • The study investigates the impacts of public self-awareness on selective exposure to political messages with social recommendation cues. A 2 (high vs. low public self-awareness) × 2 (likes vs. comments) between-subject selective exposure experiment was conducted, while partisan stance and social-cues level served as two within-subject message factors. Participants’ selective exposure was unobtrusively recorded. The results show that public self-awareness interacted with the level of social cues in affecting selective exposure. Specifically, participants high in public self-awareness spent more time reading messages with low social cues while those low in public self-awareness spent more time reading messages with high social cues. Partisanship impacted the interaction between public self-awareness and social cues. Republican’s selective exposure to pro- and counter-attitudinal messages varied between cue types (comments versus views).

Silence mobile phone notifications can be more Distracting than receiving notifications with Sounds and Vibrations • Mengqi Liao, Penn State University; S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University • Smartphone users often turn off notifications on their smartphones to avoid distractions, but our analysis of behavioral data from the Screen Time tool of 138 iPhone users suggests that users tend to pick up their phones and check for messages more often when it is in silent mode than when it is on audio-alert or vibrate modes. This is especially true for individuals who have high Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and Need to Belong.

Understanding the Interplay of Personality Traits and Social Comparison in Selfie Editing and Posting Behavior • Yu Liu, Florida International University; Weirui Wang, Florida International University • Selfies have been an omnipresent phenomenon across the world. By conducting a survey (N=528), this study examines how personality traits interact with social comparison process (i.e., downward identification, downward contrast, upward identification, and upward contrast) to influence photo editing and selfie posting behavior. The findings suggest being subject to different types of social comparison process, individuals with low self-esteem, high public self-consciousness, and high narcissism more frequently engage in photo editing and selfie posting.

Mimicry Decreases Resistance Towards a VR Interaction Partner – A Pilot Study. • Barbara Müller, Radboud University Nijmegen; Weronika Trzmielewska; Wolf-Gero Lange; Tibor Bosse • Interacting with virtual reality agents (VR agents) becomes more and more common in the future. The present study investigated whether non-verbal mimicry leads to less resistance, and a more positive evaluation of the VR agent. Before evaluation of the VR agent, participants interacted with a VR agent which either mimicked or anti-mimicked their non-verbal behavior. Results showed that a mimicking VR agent was perceived as more convincing, and elicited less resistance. Possible explanations are discussed.

The Target of Incivility: Examining the Uncivil Discourse on Social Media Platforms • Mustafa Oz, The University of Tennessee Knoxville; Bahtiyar Nurumov, Suleyman Demiral University • This study focused on the uncivil discourse on social media platforms. The main purpose of this study was to understand whether uncivil comments target discussion participants and specific groups on Facebook and on Twitter. Also, this study was an attempt to see if there are any differences between Facebook and Twitter in terms of uncivil discussions. Systematic content analysis was conducted and 1485 Facebook comments and Tweets were analyzed. The results suggested that there were more frequent uncivil comments on Twitter versus Facebook. Also, the results indicated that users were more likely to target discussion participants on Twitter than on Facebook.

* Extended Abstract * Yelp!ful or not? A Heuristic-Systematic Model Approach to Online Reviews on Yelp! • Bhakti Sharma; T. Franklin Waddell • Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) has become a primary source for users to seek recommendations and gather information to make purchase decisions. Applying the Hueristic Systematic Model (Chaiken, 1980), this study tested the impact of online reviews presented in the form of both heuristic cues (star ratings) and systematic information (written reviews) on restaurant appeal and behavioral intentions. Results reveal the importance of heuristic cues in new light and add to the existing eWOM literature

Can Social Media Engender Resilience in a Crisis? A Semantic Network Analysis • Staci Smith, Brigham Young University; Brian Smith, Brigham Young University • Social media engagement following a crisis raises the question about the influence of social media on crisis coping and resilience. This study examined Twitter responses to terror attacks in Paris (2015) and Barcelona (2017). Semantic network analysis of 24,728 #Paris tweets and 27,338 #Barcelona tweets showed that social media are for more than just information curation—they may facilitate crisis coping and resilience, including expressing emotion, building community, and creating new normalcy following a crisis.

“We think you may like”: An investigation of e-commerce personalization for privacy-conscious consumers • Yong Whi Greg Song, The University of Texas at Austin; Hayoung Sally Lim, the University of Texas at Austin; Jeeyun Oh • This study examines and proposes an electronic commerce (e-commerce) personalization technology acceptance model. A 2 (Privacy concerns priming vs. Control condition) × 2 (Personalization vs. Non-personalization) factorial, between-subjects experiment was conducted (N = 205). The findings indicate consumers’ perceived usefulness of personalization technology is positively related to their behavioral intentions to use an e-commerce mobile app, supporting Davis (1989)’s Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data further demonstrate that consumers’ privacy concerns moderate the personalization–behavioral intention relationship.

Fighting Over Smartphones? Parents’ Excessive Smartphone Use, Lack of Control Over Children’s Use, and Conflict • Jörg Matthes; Marina Thomas; Anja Stevic; Desirée Schmuck • Parental regulation of children’s smartphone use is typically associated with conflict. To explain conflict, this paper focused on parents’ own smartphone use. A panel survey among parent-child pairs (NT2=384) revealed that parents’ excessive smartphone use increased lack of control over children’s smartphone use, which, in turn, increased conflict about the smartphone from children’s and parents’ perspectives. The relations with conflict were independent of whether parents thought that smartphones have negative effects on children.

Seeing is Believing: Is Video Modality More Powerful in Spreading Fake News via Online Messaging Apps? • S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University; Maria D. Molina; Eugene Cho • Doctored videos sent over private messaging platforms like WhatsApp have elicited visceral responses, resulting in the wrongful death of innocent people. Would the responses have been so strong if such fake news was circulated in the form of text or audio? We explored this question by experimentally comparing reactions to three false news stories (N=180) in India. Our findings reveal that users process video more superficially, readily believing its content and sharing it with others.

“Chameleons” Make us More Other-Oriented – a Virtual Reality Study. • Weronika Trzmielewska, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities; Barbara Müller, Radboud University Nijmegen; Wojciech Kulesza, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities; Wolf-Gero Lange • Mimicry is often labelled a ‘social glue’ between people. In this study, we explored if this notion is also true in human/non-human interactions. We tested if mimicry by a virtual agent leads to more concern about others, and changes concern about the self. Participants performed a photograph description task and were either mimicked or not. The results showed that being mimicked increased participants’ orientation toward others but did not change their orientation toward self.

* Extended Abstract * Vicarious Learning of Social Media Political Expression: The Role of Expected Outcomes and Appropriate Communication Competence • Alcides Velasquez, University of Kansas; Dam Hee Kim; Andrea Quenette • Based on Social Learning and Social Cognitive Theories, this study examines how observing others successfully use social media for political expression increases one’s social media political expression. Results support a parallel mediation model where social media political expression observational learning simultaneously leads to social media political expression expected outcomes, and to appropriate social media communication competence. Expected outcomes increase social media political expression whereas appropriate social media communication competence decreases individual’s social media political expression.

* Extended Abstract * Media Use and Attitudes Toward Social Media Bots • Ming Wang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • Using the O-S-O-R framework, this study examines whether orientational variables mediate the impact of various media use on attitudes toward social media bots. Analysis of a nationally representative survey reveals that the effects of social media use on bot attitudes were partially mediated through bot detection self-efficacy and perceived influence on others. Interestingly, some paths were opposite to what hypotheses predicted. This study enhances our understanding of individual antecedents to social media bots attitudes.

Understanding AI Advertising from the Consumer Perspective: What Factors Determine Consumers’ Appreciation of AI-created Advertisements? • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina; Taylor Wen, University of South Carolina • This study tested a conceptual model that examined some influential factors of consumers’ overall appreciation of AI-created advertisements. The findings indicated that consumers’ perceived objectivity of the process of advertising creation positively influenced machine heuristics which benefited their appreciation of AI-created advertisements, but negatively influenced perceived eeriness which jeopardized that appreciation. Consumers’ feelings of uneasiness with robots were found to positively influence both machine heuristic and perceived eeriness of AI advertising.

Multiple Selves and Multitasking: A Dynamic Longitudinal Study • Shan Xu, Texas Tech University • This study integrates the theory of multiple selves within the theoretical framework of dynamic motivation activation (DMA) to identify the dynamic patterns of multiple self-concepts (i.e., the potential self, the actual self) in multitasking (e.g., primary activities, secondary activities) in daily life. Experience sampling data over three weeks showed that the potential self was more dominant in primary activities, whereas the actual self was more dominant in secondary activities. Dynamic panel modeling results confirmed that these self-concepts reinforced themselves in primary and secondary activities. They also shifted from one to another to achieve a balance in primary activities. Interestingly, secondary activities were not driven by the alternative self-concept in primary activities, but instead by the emotional experiences of primary activities. Furthermore, multitasking to fulfill the actual self did not motivate people to re-prioritize their potential self later.

Adoption of AI-powered news: Integration of technology acceptance and perceived contingency • Jun Zhang, Newhouse School of Syracuse University; Joon Soo Lim, Syracuse University • In the AI era, news audiences’ interaction with news systems brings highly personalized news experience. This study integrates the TAM and perceived contingency model to investigate the adoption of AI-powered news. With a representative survey of 1,369 respondents, the study finds that perceived contingency becomes a critical supplement to perceived usefulness and ease of use to yield favorable attitude and engagement with AI-powered news, thereby lead to the actual use of AI-powered news.

Impact of Interactivity on Satisfaction in Digital Social Reading − Social Presence as a Mediator • Wu Li; Yuanyi Mao; LIUNING ZHOU, University of Southern California • Digital social reading is characterized by interactivity and social presence. We conducted empirical research to better understand the effect of interactivity on users’ reading satisfaction through the mediating effect of social presence. Research findings show that human-to-human interactivity was affected by human-to-text interactivity, and both types of interactivity significantly predicted social presence. Social presence fully mediated human-to-human interactivity and satisfaction, while partially mediating human-to-text interactivity and satisfaction.

Student Paper Competition
“Should I Use Emoticon and GIF?”: The Effect of Emoticon and GIF in Human-Chatbot Interaction • Jin Kang, The Pennsylvania State University; Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University • Would human users react favorably after seeing chatbots that use emoticons and GIFs? To address this question, we conducted a 2 (Source: Human vs. Chatbot) x 3 (Cues: GIF vs. Emoticon vs. Text) between-subjects online experiment. We found the important role of machine heuristic, such that those with greater belief in machine heuristic showed favorable outcomes, regardless of a source. Theoretical and design Implications are discussed.

Unpacking the Effects of Social Media Comments on Young Adults’ Body Image Perception • Hye Min Kim, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California • Studies have highlighted the influence of social media comments on users’ perceptual consequences, but if this holds true in body image context is still largely unknown. To investigate the effect of social media comments on young adults’ ideal body perceptions and one’s own body satisfaction, participants (N = 330) were randomly exposed to Instagram body posting with favorable- vs. unfavorable- (to the depicted body) vs. no-comments. Results indicated that social media comments guided the viewers’ perceptions of what is considered as ‘ideal’ body. Viewers of favorable comments to body posting reported greater idealization of the body imagery (i.e., ideal-enhancing effects) whereas viewers of unfavorable comments showed a lower level of idealization (i.e., ideal-derogating effects). Interestingly, the more ideal the body imagery was perceived, the greater the body satisfaction was reported among participants with little self-discrepancy (i.e., perceptual gap between one’s actual- and ideal- selves).

Internet as a context: Exploring its impacts on scientific optimism in China • Chen Luo, Tsinghua University; Yuchun Zhu; Jia Shang • Internet brings new opportunities and challenges to scientific development and science communication, but how the Internet affects public scientific attitudes remains underexplored. Conceptualizing the Internet as a context, this paper examines the Internet’s impacts on the scientific optimism of Chinese people. By combining China’s survey data (n = 2,300) from the sixth round of the World Values Survey and provincial data (24 provinces), multilevel analysis suggests that: 1) Internet as a context weakens scientific optimism of the Chinese public, at the same time, the Internet as a medium has no significant effect. 2) As a quantitative indicator of Internet development, Internet penetration at the provincial level promotes the positive relationship between individual traditional media exposure and scientific optimism. In contrast, the qualitative indicator has no evident moderating effect. This research reveals unique characteristics of Chinese society, provides a piece of empirical evidence on Internet technology’s shaping effects on scientific attitudes in the non-western environment. Explanations of the findings and implications are further discussed.

Exploring Twitter Conversations around Four Brand Categories: A Computational Approach to Identify Dominant Topics and Content Characteristics • Haseon Park, University of Alabama • Extant research on social media advertising suggests that reaching consumers via social media enhances engagement, leading to positive outcomes. In line with previous research, this study identifies dominant topics discussed in different brand networks as well as content characteristics within the theoretical background of Elaboration Likelihood Model and FCB grid model. By incorporating a computational approach, this study contributes to revisiting the application of ELM and FCB grid model in the context of social media advertising.

Flow = Optimal? How Flow Diverts Media Users’ Performance, Enjoyment, and Evaluation in Multiple-Goal Pursuit • Giang V. Pham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Minh V. Pham • This study conceptualized and tested the diversion effects of flow experiences in media use. Results from an experiment (N = 84) showed that when people have multiple goals, the flow state experienced during video gaming significantly lowered their performance on the subsequent goal and decreased their game enjoyment and evaluation. These findings suggest that in multiple-goal pursuit, media flow could divert people’s resources away from their tasks, causing goal disruption and reduced media enjoyment.

Alexa, What Do You Know: An Investigation of Smart Speakers and Privacy Perceptions • Nicholas Sarafolean, University of Tennessee; Courtney Carpenter Childers • The modern smart home is increasingly connected, and at the center of most smart homes is the smart speaker. These devices produce a rich flood of new data points, offering advertisers an opportunity to gather more detailed data about consumers than ever before. However, with Big Data collection, there are challenges associated with the constant “listening” of smart speakers and privacy threats to children. Smart speakers’ “listening” of young children raises red flags around the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as COPPA allows for data collection but it does not allow the use of such data for advertising purposes. This exploratory study used the qualitative paradigmatic perspective to address experiences with and perceptions of smart speakers in the household with 10 mothers with children under 12 years (n=10). Results highlight that mothers are often struggling with how to best manage household smart speaker use with their kids, privacy and listening concerns are “real,” and smart speaker technologies for kids, such as the Amazon Echo Kids Edition, are blurring the lines between big tech and targeted advertising efforts. Implications for advertisers are discussed.

“There’s a Camera Everywhere”: How Citizen Journalists, Cell Phones, and Technology Shape News Coverage of Police Shootings • Denetra Walker • This study examines how an evolving technological landscape influences how television news journalists cover the issue of deadly, highly-publicized police shootings in the United States. Through 10 in-depth interviews, the author analyzes how social media, cell phones, as well as citizen journalists shape this narrative. Themes include a change in speed and accessibility, accuracy, and a multi-layered challenge to police authority. Practical and theoretical implications on the future digital landscape covering this topic is discussed.

* Extended Abstract * Friendly mistakes: Investigating the relationship between AI error, social cues, and trust in gameplay • Ryan Tan, Penn State University; Mengqi Liao, Penn State University; Ryan Wang, Penn State University • People often interact with technological agents as though they are social actors despite relying on them being free from ‘human error’. Would an artificial intelligence agent that reinforces these expectations by exhibiting social cues then be more/less likely to lose user trust? This study utilizes Structural Equation Modelling to analyze the results of an online game-based experiment to investigate the process by which heuristics potentially mediates the effects interactions of social cues and error.

All About Words: Linguistic Profile of Twitter Users Who Tweet and Retweet About Face-swapping Posts • Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Jin Kang, The Pennsylvania State University • Through a social network formulated over three months, we examined the relationship between key characteristics of Twitter users and their primary versus secondary self-presentation via face-swapping activities. We found that users who valued friends, showed female preferences, actively engaged with cognitive reappraisals, or were more honest with their self tended to post their own face-swap rather than sharing others’ face-swap on Twitter. Implications for self-identity and self-presentation are discussed.

The Picture of Health on Instagram: Congruent vs. Incongruent Emotion in Predicting the Sentiment of Comments • Jiaxi Wu; Traci Hong • This study aims to explore the effects of congruent and incongruent emotions in Instagram images and captions on the sentiment of comments. A content analysis of Instagram posts (N=7,078) with the hashtag “#mentalhealth” on World Mental Health Day found emotionally congruent posts received more positive comments than incongruent ones. Posts with both positive captions and images attracted the most positive comments compared with other posts. While emotions in captions significantly predicted the sentiment in comments, emotions in images had no effects on the outcome variables. This study also found images containing faces attracted more likes, comments, and positive comments. Images with intimate gaze also led to more positive feedback from users. Theoretical implications of emotional contagion as elicited from images are discussed.

<2020 Abstracts

Communication Technology 2015 Abstracts

Open Competition
The Social Correlates of Attitudes toward Online Emotional and Sexual Satisfaction • Cassandra Alexopoulos, University of California Davis; Bernard Schissel • This study examines gender, age, and relationship-status differences in online infidelity within romantic relationships. Previous research of this nature has rather narrowly focused on jealousy, particularly of offline behaviors. Online infidelity deserves more research attention because of the ubiquity of online interaction, because Internet dating has become so popular, and because cultural conceptions of infidelity in relation to online communication are largely unexplored. The study uses Young et al.’s (2000) ACE Model of anonymity, convenience, and escape to determine which aspects of online relationships are most appealing to men and women and the degree to which such acts are considered acceptable. Three hundred and ninety-eight students completed an online survey to define cheating behaviors and reasons for seeking an online partner. The results indicate that there is a significant difference between how men and women define cheating and how they evaluate the morality of online infidelity although there is a general appreciation for the Internet as a vehicle for developing a relationship.

How much is your Facebook account worth? The monetary value of Facebook as a function of its uses and gratifications using the second-price auction technique • Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Sean Cash; Carie Cunningham, Michigan State University; Chen Lou, Michigan State University • With 1.32 billion users, Facebook is the most popular social networking site (SNS, Facebook.com, 2014). The exponential growth in the number of users, time spent on the site, and functionality make it important to investigate its value to its users. This is also important in light of Facebook’s holding of its initial public offering (IPO) in mid 2012. The current study applies the second-price auction approach to determine the monetary value of Facebook. Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted using a student sample, a community sample, and a sample of U.S.-based Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers was conducted to explore the way individuals attach monetary value to non-materialistic telecommunication goods; namely their Facebook account. The study also explored the ways in which the motivations to use Facebook and its uses can predict the monetary value respondents attached to their Facebook accounts. Results showed that none of the Facebook motivations predicted Facebook monetary value, while information sharing, self-expression, medium appeal, and convenience predicted the value of Facebook for the community sample, and entertainment and passing time significantly predicted the Facebook value for the MTurk sample. As for the Facebook use measures, Findings showed that for students, the number of actual friends that they have on Facebook mattered in terms of predicting the value of Facebook, while the intensity of using Facebook was a significant predictor of Facebook’s value for the MTurk sample respondents.

Private Searchers: Factors that Affect Search Engine Privacy Concerns • Nicole Schwegman; Valerie Barker, SDSU; David Dozier • An online survey (N = 816) investigated antecedents to privacy concerns among search engine users: search engine credibility, search engine self-efficacy, and key demographics. Findings indicated that search engine credibility negatively predicted privacy concerns. Search engine credibility also acted as a moderator — when perceived credibility is low, self-efficacy predicts higher privacy concerns. These findings are discussed in light of other research that emphasizes users’ privacy concerns, but also simultaneous acceptance of endemic privacy invasions.

Increasing Individualism in Youth Created Music Videos on YouTube (2007-2013) • Steven Kendrat; Charisse L’Pree Corsbie-Massay, Syracuse University • Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has provided a unique venue for anyone to share content and comment on the content of others, resulting in more user generated content (UGC), especially among teens. The current longitudinal trend study analyzes demographic, production, and narrative trends in the emerging genre of youth created music videos using a sample of 100 videos uploaded to YouTube in 2007 and 2013. Compared to videos posted in 2007, youth created music videos posted in 2013 featured younger and less diverse casts, and more complicated editing techniques; they were also more likely to feature single actors and celebrate the self, mimicking the recent emergence of selfie culture. These findings are discussed with respect to YouTube’s role in reducing barriers to entry and providing a virtual space for youth oriented content communities that thrive on engagement and social networking as strategies of identity development.

Big Data and Political Social Networks: Introducing Audience Diversity and Communication Connector Bridging Measures in Social Network Theory • Axel Maireder; Brian Weeks, University of Vienna, Department of Communication; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna; Stephan Schlögl • Social media have changed the way citizens, journalists, institutions, and activists communicate about social and political issues. However, questions remain about how information is diffused through these networks and the degree to which each of these actors are influential in communicating information. In this study we introduce two novel social network measures of connection and information diffusion that help shed light on patterns of political communication online. The Audience Diversity Score assesses the diversity of a particular actor’s followers and identifies which actors reach different publics with their messages. The Communication Connector Bridging Score highlights the most influential actors in the network who are potentially able to connect different spheres of communication through their information diffusion. We apply and discuss these measures using Twitter data from the discussion regarding The Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) in Europe. Our results provide unique insights into the role various actors play in diffusing political information in online social networks.

Reliable Recommenders and Untrustworthy Authors? The Varying Effects of Crowd as Source on Perceptions of Online Health Information • Yan Huang, The Pennsylvania State University; Haiyan Jia, The Pennsylvania State University • Users may play two distinct roles as the source of a crowdsourcing website: recommenders and authors. Correspondingly, number of voters and co-authors as two interface cues highlight the different ways and levels of user participation in content generation. In a health context, this study aims to understand the varying effects of the two interface cues on users’ content and website perceptions. Findings from a 2 (Number of voters: low vs. high) × 2 (Number of co- authors: low vs. high) × 2 (scientific vs. non-scientific message) between-subjects online experiment (N = 177) showed that while number of voters elicited perception of content credibility and behavioral intentions toward the message, the effect of number of co-authors was moderated by message style. Moreover, while the effect of number of voters was explained by bandwagon perception, the interaction effect between number of co-authors and message style was mediated by perceived controversy. In addition, number of voters predicted website perceptions, whereas number of co-authors did not.

Digital Subscribers’ Engagement with a Legacy Newspaper Company’s Mobile Content • Jacqueline Incollingo, Rider University • Online survey results (n=632) demonstrate a critical nexus between mobility and enhanced user engagement and enjoyment: digital news subscribers who rely on tablets or smartphones for news had statistically significant higher levels of both engagement and enjoyment, in comparison to digital subscribers who primarily use desktop or laptops computers for news. In addition, participants most at ease with technology tended to prefer mobile devices for news, and reported statistically significant higher levels of both engagement and enjoyment. Opportunities for interactivity, on the other hand, did not increase engagement with the digital news content offered by a metropolitan, legacy media organization.

Generational Differences in Online Safety Perceptions, Knowledge and Practices • Mengtian Jiang, Michigan State University; Hsin-yi Sandy Tsai; Shelia R. Cotten, Michigan State University; Nora Rifon; Robert LaRose, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University • The percentage of adults going online has stabilized around 87%. Greater attention is needed as to how different generational groups perceive and maintain their online safety and privacy. Using data from generation specific focus groups, we compare and contrast how three generational groups perceive and practice online safety and privacy protections: SGI (born 1945 or earlier), older baby boomers (1946 – 1954), and Millennials (1977 – 1992). Results and tailored approaches are discussed to reach different generations.

It’s all about Relatedness: Social Media Engagement— A Self Determination Framework • M. Laeeq Khan, American University of Ras al Khaimah • Individuals are likely to engage on social media when they feel self-determined to do so based on three key factors: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Through a survey of students at a large Midwestern university (n=745) this study found that: social media self-efficacy positively predicts customer engagement in the form of sharing on Facebook brand pages, and customer relationship with the brand and community predict symbolic customer engagement in terms of liking, commenting and sharing.

Editing the self on Facebook: Relationship motivation, network characteristics, and perception of others’ self-presentations • Cheonsoo Kim; Emily Metzgar • Although many people use social networking services (SNS) for relationship management, little is known about the role of user’s relationship motivation in self-presentation on SNS. This study aims to fill the gap in our knowledge about online self-presentation with particular attention to relationship motivation for SNS use. Drawing on original national survey data from the United States, this study investigated reasons for the difference between online and offline self on Facebook, using relationship motivation, network characteristics, and perception of others’ self-presentations as predictors. Findings showed that the larger the size of a Facebook user’s network, the less difference there was between online and offline self. The number of close friends in users’ networks was positively, albeit marginally, related to the difference between selves. The stronger one’s belief in the honesty of others’ self-presentations, the greater the difference between one’s online and offline self. Interestingly, users’ belief in the honesty of others’ self-presentations led to a greater difference between selves for Facebook users without relationship motivation, but it had almost no effects for those with relationship motivation. The implications of the study are discussed.

Engaging users in online news participation: The role of normative social cues in social media • Jiyoun Kim • Using the controversial issue of nuclear energy as a case study, this study demonstrates what motivates media users to participate in the process of engagement with news content (i.e., sharing and endorsing online news about a specific issue) in online space. Based on my findings, normative social cues play a significant role in online news content engagement intention, but that this influence can differ depending on personal traits.

Media Substitution or Complementarity between TV and the Internet: A Comparison of Niche Breadth, Overlap, and Superiority Using Metered Data • Su Jung Kim, Iowa State University; Lijing Gao; Jay Newell, Iowa State University • Previous research on media substitution between television and the Internet has produced inconsistent results. This study examines this topic from the functional displacement approach and the niche theory. Using Nielsen Korea’s TV-Internet Convergence Panel data that provide electronically recorded media use measures and the same respondents’ information from a survey, this study analyzes the perceptions of niche breadth, niche overlap, and superiority between television and the Internet and their influence on Internet’s substation of television. The findings reveal that television and the Internet are seen as a functional equivalent, but the Internet has not become a complete substitute of television. This study also touches upon the issue of simultaneous media use, which provides an alternative explanation to media substitution.

Facebook Paradox: A Social Network Service That Reduces Perceived Social Support? • Eun-Ju Lee, Seoul National University; Eugene Cho • A web-based survey (N = 316) examined how other-directed Facebook use, characterized by the sensitivity to external evaluations as well as the desire for social validation, affects users’ perceived social support. As predicted, those with higher fear of isolation were more likely to engage in other-directed Facebook use, regulating their self-expression to garner social approval (i.e., impression management) and closely monitoring others’ activities for self-evaluation (i.e., social comparison). Impression management, in turn, lowered perceived social support among heavy Facebook users, with no corresponding effect for light users. By contrast, social comparison had no significant effect on social support, highlighting the difference between message construction and message consumption. Results suggest that other-centered self-presentation on a friend-making site driven by the desire for social connection may paradoxically diminish perceived social support among intense Facebook users.

@JunckerEU vs. @MartinSchulz: How leading candidates in the 2014 European Parliament Elections campaigned on Twitter • Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University; Jeanine Guidry, Virginia Commonwealth University; Shana Meganck; Vivian Medina-Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University • Twitter has become a valuable tool both for politicians trying to monitor conversations and communicate with constituents as well as for publics interested in discussing and engaging on political matters. This is the first study to research Twitter use during the 2014 European Parliament Elections. Twitter posts by the two main candidates in the elections, Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, were comparatively analyzed with specific emphasis on frequency of Twitter use, content of tweets and interaction levels. Results showed that unlike previous research studies on Twitter use by politicians, the candidate that used Twitter less often and used the interactive characteristics of Twitter less frequently won the election. However, the winning candidate focused significantly more on specific topics and functions of relevance to European voters, such as immigration and the targeting of specific EU countries.

User Ratings of Yelp Reviews: A Big Data Analysis Approach • Hyunjin Seo, University of Kansas; Fengjun Li; Jeongsub Lim; Roseann Pluretti, The University of Kansas; Sreenivas Vekapu; Hao Xue • Online customer review platforms are among the most significant examples illustrating how peer-to-peer generated online information affects consumer behaviors and purchasing decisions in this networked information age. To examine effects of review content and reviewer characteristics on consumer evaluations of online reviews, this study analyzed 29,199 reviews of restaurants on Yelp.com collected through our specialized web crawler. Theories of information processing and attribution provided conceptual frameworks for our analysis. Results show that content specificity and content engagement influence consumer assessment of reviews even after controlling for measured reviewer characteristics. In addition, reviewer activeness was strongly associated with content specificity, content engagement, and consumer evaluation of the review. Our findings suggest that consumers may focus more on peripheral cues than central cues in assessing usefulness of online reviews. The current study suggests scholarly and policy implications related to social review systems by providing theoretically informed empirical analyses of consumer perceptions of online reviews.

Understanding Online Safety Behavior: The Influence of Prior Experience on Online Safety Motivation • Ruth Shillair, Michigan State University; Robert LaRose, Michigan State University; Mengtian Jiang, Michigan State University; Nora Rifon; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Shelia R. Cotten, Michigan State University • Protecting computers and their users from attack is a growing problem that requires action on the part of the average user. Extending Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), the effects of previous experience with online security threats and the role of habitual protections were incorporated into a causal model that included both protection motivation intentions and current safety behaviors. A survey of 988 MTurk workers found that previous experience with moderate security threats increased threat vulnerability and response efficacy but reduced threat severity. Habits were stronger predictors of both intentions and protective behaviors than conventional PMT variables. These findings contribute to an understanding of the motivations of average users to protect themselves online as well as communication principles for PMT based solutions in the computer safety domain.

Drawing the Line: Effects Theories and Journalism Studies in a Digital Era • Jane B. Singer, City University London • In a digital age, the nature of mediated communication challenges the explanatory power of media effects theories. As essentially linear conceptualizations that rely on identification and measurement of discrete communication components, these 20th century theories are not inherently well-suited to contemporary journalistic structures and forms. This essay adds to a growing call for a more richly theorized concept of relationship effects suitable to an immersive, iterative, and interconnected environment of news producers and products.

Hashtags and Information Virality in Networked Social Movement: Examining Hashtag Co-Occurrence Patterns during the OWS • Rong Wang, University of Southern California; Wenlin Liu, University of Southern California; Shuyang Gao • The ability to disseminate information through networked social media platforms has become increasingly central as evidenced by recent social movements. Using the virality framework, this paper conceptualizes Twitter hashtags as a mechanism to enhance the visibility and symbolic power of a social movement and analyzes hashtag use patterns based on data from the Occupy Wall Street Movement. By identifying popular hashtag types and examining the hashtag co-occurrence networks during two movement days (a regular day versus a day with the outbreak of the UC Davis Pepper Spray event), this study examines how characteristics of hashtag drive information virality during OWS. It also provides a comparative analysis of how major types of viral hashtags may play different roles in influencing the structure of the movement across different movement cycles. Implications on how event dynamics may shape hashtags’ co-occurrence patterns were provided (words: 140).

Privacy Concerns and Impacts on Collegiate Student-Athletes’ Usage Behaviors on Twitter: A Communication Privacy Management Perspective • Amanda Jo Pulido, NCAA; KENNETH C.C. YANG, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO; YOWEI KANG, KAINAN UNIVERISITY • This study examined collegiate student-athletes’ privacy concerns and impacts on their Twitter usage. The study empirically tested the predictive power of privacy management variables on Twitter usage behaviors. This study employed an online questionnaire method to survey student-athletes from a large public university in the U.S. Regression analyses concluded that perceived control, permeability rules, and linkage rules of private information on Twitter significantly predict the frequency of checking Twitter accounts. However, only perceived control of privacy information on Twitter was found to predict student-athletes’ daily usage. This study expands Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to the collegiate sports context.

Faculty Papers
Sexual Intensity of Adolescents’ Online Self-Presentations: Joint Contribution of Identity and Media Consumption • Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; Autumn Shafer, Texas Tech University; Rebecca Ortiz, Texas Tech University • Adolescents produce and distribute a vast quantity of digital media content, and some of this content is sexual. Within the context of a fictitious social media platform, an online survey (N = 265) of 13- to 15-year-olds found that the sexual intensity of self-presentation is a product sexual self-concept, partially mediated by sexual media diet, and moderated by extraversion. This study bridges emerging research on sexual self-presentation with established literature on adolescents’ sexual media uses and effects.

Social Television Engagement: An Integrated Model of Social-Relational and Content-Relational Factors • Jiyoung Cha, San Francisco State University • This study aims to understand how to boost viewers’ intention to engage in social TV by detecting antecedents influencing social TV engagement. Thus, this study develops a conceptual model that integrates social-relational factors and content-relational factors to predict intention to engage in social TV. Results suggest that individuals’ relations with the contacts on a SNS, relations with the SNS, and relations with television programs predict engagement in social TV.

Effects of content type in a company’s Social Networking Site on users’ willingness to subscribe the page and Word-of-Mouth intentions • Jung Won Chun, University of Florida; Moon Lee • In this study, we explored the effect of content type (utilitarian vs. hedonic) in SNSs on situational involvement with a company’s Facebook page and intentions to subscribe and promote the Facebook page in accordance with enduring involvement with a company. For highly involved people, the effect of utilitarian content is greater than hedonic content, as expected. Hedonic content increased individuals’ situational involvement with a company’s Facebook page more than utilitarian content among low-involved people. Both situational and enduring involvements influenced intention to subscribe to and continuously promote the company’s Facebook page.

Show Me the Money!: Importance of Crowdfunding Factors on Decisions to Financially Support Kickstarter Campaigns • Kevin Duvall; Rita Colistra • This research explores which factors are most influential in backers’ decisions to financially support Kickstarter projects, using an online survey. Findings suggest that Kickstarter has several distinct benefits for those who support its projects and offers them an experience that traditional production channels cannot. This study improves our understanding of the attitudes that drive Kickstarter, and it helps project creators know what aspects of their campaigns prospective supporters find most important.

Gamification of Rock the Vote: Effects on Perceived Modality, Agency, Interactivity, Navigability, And Political Participation • Francis Dalisay, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Patricia Buskirk, University of Hawaii-Manoa; Chamil Rathnayake, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Joanne Loos; Wayne Buente, University of Hawaii-Manoa • This experiment analyzed the effects of the gamification of a Rock the Vote PSA. Results revealed a gamified video version of the PSA triggered higher perceived modality, agency, interactivity, and navigability than a text version. While the gamified video’s perceived coolness, novelty, and enhancement did not differ from those of the non-gamified video, the game was perceived as more active and playful/fun than the non-gamified video. The three versions’ effects on political participation did not differ.

Exploring the uses and gratifications of Hispanic and White Facebook and Twitter users • Michael Radlick, American University; Joseph Erba, University of Kansas • Very little is known about the uses and gratifications of Hispanic Facebook and Twitter users. This manuscript presents the results of a pilot cross-sectional survey of Hispanic and White participants (N = 255). Findings address the different gratifications Hispanic and White users seek from Facebook and Twitter, and explore two types of gratifications that have been overlooked in previous studies, advocacy and identity exploration. Implications for communicating to Hispanic audiences and future research are discussed.

The role of cues in perceptions of online discussion • Joseph Erba, University of Kansas; Joseph Graf, American University; Ren-Whei Harn • An experiment was conducted (N = 528) to determine the role of a variety of cues on participants’ perceptions of online comments and commenters, and their interest in the online discussion. The experiment relied on theories of social presence, social information processing, and social identity. Findings revealed that politeness of comments, participants’ ethnicity and, to a lesser extent, gender and ethnicity of commenters, affected participants’ overall perceptions of the content of the online discussion.

Perpetuating Online Sexism Offline: Anonymity, Interactivity, and the Effects of Sexist Hashtags on Social Media • Jesse Fox, The Ohio State University; Carlos Cruz, The Ohio State University; Ji Young Lee, The Ohio State University • This study examined effects of online sexism. In this experiment, participants (N = 172) used an anonymous or personally identifying Twitter account. They shared (i.e., retweeted) or wrote posts incorporating a sexist hashtag and then evaluated male and female job candidates. Anonymous participants reported more sexism after tweeting than identified participants. Participants who composed sexist tweets reported more hostile sexism and ranked female candidates as less competent than those who retweeted.

Social Media, Selective Exposure & the Spiral of Silence, Oh my! • Sherice Gearhart, UNO; Weiwu Zhang, Texas Tech University • Social media and selective exposure brought forth fundamental challenges to mass communication theories such as the spiral of silence. Despite these changes it has been theorized that the spiral of silence theory may still be alive and well in the social media environment. An Internet survey using a nationwide sample tests Facebook users’ willingness to opine. Results support the influence of online selective exposure and psychological factors on speaking out.

Classifying Twitter Topic-Networks Using Social Network Analysis • Itai Himelboim, University of Georgia; Marc Smith, Connected Action Consulting Group; Lee Rainie, Pew Internet and American Life; Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland; Camila Espina, University of Georgia • As users interact in social media systems like Twitter they form connections that emerge into complex social network structures, forming channels of information flow. Social media networks can be characterized by metrics including density, modularity, centralization and the fraction of isolated users. These network measures can usefully categorize social media networks based on their pattern of connections, revealing six distinct structures of information flow. Divided, unified, fragmented, clustered, in and out hub-and-spoke networks are common structures in these social media networks. We demonstrate the value of these network structures by segmenting Twitter social media network datasets to illustrate six distinct patterns of collective connections. We discuss conceptual and practical implications for each structure in terms of patterns of information flow.

A Social Networks Approach to Political Discourse • Taisik Hwang, University of Georgia; Itai Himelboim, University of Georgia; Soo Young Shin • This study examined how Twitter users engaged in the political discourse on the Sewol ferry accident that took place in April 2014 in South Korea by combining a social networks approach with content analysis. A comparison of the number of links across politically homogeneous clusters with the number of links across heterogeneous clusters revealed that selective exposure occurred on the Twitter topic network. Findings also showed the influence of independent journalists in disseminating information on the social network site as well as the dependence of public sentiment on political orientations. The implications of these findings for the relevant research communities were discussed.

Predictors of Smartphone Addiction • Se-Hoon Jeong, Korea University; Yoori Hwang, Myongji University • This research examined the user characteristics and media content types that can lead to addiction to smartphones. With regard to user characteristics, results showed that self-control was a negative predictor, whereas stress was a positive predictor of smartphone addiction. For media content types, SNS use, game use, and entertainment-related use were positive predictors of smartphone addiction, whereas study-related use was not. More importantly, SNS use was a stronger predictor of smartphone addiction than game use.

Conceptualizing private governance in a networked society: An analysis of scholarship on content governance • Brett Johnson, University of Missouri • This paper reviews scholarship on the ability of digital intermediaries (such as Facebook and Twitter) to enhance individual communicative agency, as well as the power of those intermediaries to control individuals’ speech. The paper incorporates so-called affirmative theories of the First Amendment into the analysis to connect the concepts discussed in this paper to a major scholarly tradition that addresses the implications of private institutions controlling public discourse through their control over communication technologies.

Do smartphone ‘power users’ protect mobile privacy better than non-power users? Exploring power usage as a factor in mobile privacy protection • Hyunjin Kang, George Washington University; Wonsun Shin, Nanyang Technological University • This study examines how smartphone users’ competency of usage (i.e., power usage) impacts their privacy protection behaviors. An online survey of 1,133 smartphone users in Singapore finds that both privacy concerns and trust in mobile marketers mediate the relationship between power usage and privacy protection. When privacy concerns are included, power usage has a positive indirect effect on protection behaviors, yet when trust is included, power usage has an adverse effect on efforts to protect one’s online privacy.

An APPetite for Political Information? Characteristics and Media Habits of Mobile News App Users • Barbara Kaye, University of Tennessee – Knoxville; Tom Johnson • The ubiquity of mobile devices has triggered questions about who uses them, and whether their presence affects political participation and time spent with traditional media. Individuals who rely heavily on mobile news apps for political information are more politically active and heavier users of broadcast and cable television, newspapers, news magazines and radio news than those who rarely/never rely on apps. Moreover, reliance on news apps complements the amount of time spent using traditional media.

College Students’ Digital Media Use and Social Engagement: How Social Media Use and Smartphone Use Influence College Students’ Social Activities • Yonghwan Kim, University of Alabama; Yuan Wang, University of Alabama; Jeyoung Oh • Social media and mobile phones have emerged as important platforms for college students’ social engagement. This study examined whether and how college students’ use of social media and smartphones influence their social engagement motivated by need to belong. A survey was administered to 446 college students. Findings revealed that students’ need to belong was positively related with their use of social media and smartphones, which could further facilitate their social engagement. Moreover, the relationship between the need to belong and social engagement was mediated by college students’ digital media use. This study offers empirical evidence of the positive effects of digital media on social behaviors and contributed to further understanding about the mechanisms by which need to belong leads to social engagement through digital media use.

Why Do People Post Selfies? Investigating Psychological Predictors of Selfie Behaviors • Ji Won Kim; Tamara Makana Chock • This study examined the psychological predictors of selfie behaviors. An online survey (N = 260) explored the associations between personality traits and needs and selfie posting and editing. Results showed that extraversion, narcissism, and need for popularity were positively correlated with selfie posting and editing. Controlling for age and social media use, narcissism and need for popularity predicted selfie posting, but not editing behavior.

A Functional and Structural Diagnosis of Online Health Communities for Sustainability with a Focus on Resource Richness and Site Design Features • Hyang-Sook Kim, Towson University; Amy Mrotek, St. Norbert College; Quincy Kissack • The reality of online communities’ under-contribution issues has often been clouded with theoretical rather than real-world insight. The present study aims to neutralize this disparity, focusing through content analysis on 196 health websites and communities to systematically evaluate their functional and structural interfaces–the ingredients for a thriving online environment. Particularly attention will be paid to what variables equate to successful site traffic and impressions, ultimately providing suggestions to facilitate and optimize user contribution.

The effects of argument quality, multitasking with Facebook, and polychronicity on health-protective behavioral intentions • Anastasia Kononova; Shupei Yuan, Michigan State University; Eunsin Joo; Sangji Rhee • As people increasingly seek medical information and advice online, studying factors that affect health information processing and health-protective behaviors becomes especially important. The present research explored the effects of argument quality, media multitasking, and polychronicity on health-protective behavioral intentions. Participants (N=121) read an online article about influenza that included suggestions to engage in flu-preventive behaviors in the form of strong and weak arguments. In one condition, participants read the article and checked Facebook, while in another condition they were only exposed to the article. Polychronicity, or preference for multitasking, was included in the study as a moderator. Strong arguments were found to elicit more positive behavioral intentions than weak arguments. Participants also expressed greater health-protective behavioral intentions in the media multitasking condition compared with the control condition. Compared with low polychronics, moderate and high polychronics showed greater behavioral intentions when they read the article in the multitasking condition. The difference in intentions to follow suggestions presented as strong and weak arguments decreased for moderate and high polychronics. The results are discussed with the application of Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion.

Swearing Effects on Audience Comments Online: A Large-Scale Comparison of Political vs. Non-Political News Topics • K. Hazel Kwon, Arizona State University; Daegon Cho, POSTECH – South Korea • Swearing, the use of taboo languages tagged with a high level of emotional arousal, has become commonplace in contemporary media culture. The current study attempts to understand the ways in which swearing influences news audience commenting culture online. Based on a large corpus of the two-month audience comments from 26 news websites in South Korea, the study examines swearing effects as well as its interplay with anonymity on garnering public attention and shaping other audiences’ perceptions of the comments. Findings suggest that swearing generally has a positive effect on increasing public attention to the comments as well as gaining other audiences’ approvals. Comparisons between political and non-political news topics further suggest that swearing effect on gaining public attention is particularly prominent for political news comments. In contrast, the magnitude of change towards positive valence in public perception to comments is much greater for non-political topics than for politics. From the findings, we conclude that an acceptable degree of swearing norms in news audiences’ commenting culture online vary across news topical arenas. The results also lead to discussions about the possibility of likeminded exposure to political comments as a default condition for online news discussions. Finally, the study highlights the role of high-arousal emotions in shaping audience participation in contemporary networked socio-digital environment.

Online collective action as group identity performance: Extending the strategic side of SIDE • Yu-Hao Lee, University of Florida; Robert Wells, University of Florida • Low-cost online collective action facilitated by social media has been both praised as empowering to groups with less power to mobilize, but also criticized as feel-good slacktivism that has no actual impact. Based on the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE), we examined online collective action as a group identity performance to one’s in-group and towards the target out-group. A 2 (visibility) x 2 (out-group strength) experiment was conducted to investigate when people will strategically partake in an initial online action and a subsequent action. The findings indicated that group identity predicted participating in online collective action. While the actual cost of performing the initial action was low. Visibility and out-group strength communicated different symbolic weight and affected people’s efforts in a subsequent action. The findings has theoretical implication by expanding the strategic side of SIDE. The study also has practical implications for organizations or campaigns that seek to take advantage of social media platforms.

Hooked on Facebook: The Role of Social Anxiety and Need for Social Assurance in Facebook Addiction • Roselyn J. Lee-Won, The Ohio State University; Sung Gwan Park, Seoul National University • Building on the social skill deficits model of problematic Internet use, this research examined the role of need for social assurance as a possible moderator for the relationship between social anxiety and Facebook addiction. A cross-sectional online survey, conducted with a college-student Facebook users in the United States (N=243), showed that the positive association between social anxiety and Facebook addiction was significant only among those with high levels of need for social assurance.

Contextual and Normative Influence on Willingness to Express Minority Views Online and in Offline Settings • Xigen Li, City University of Hong Kong • This study explores contextual and normative factors influencing willingness to express minority views on the Internet and in offline settings. The findings show that perceived receptiveness to diverse opinions positively predicts the willingness to express minority views both online and offline. The effect of fear of isolation on willingness to express minority views do not differ significantly from that of perceived risk of expressing minority views. Perceived social norm has no effect on the willingness to express minority views on the Internet and in offline settings, while deviance to social norm positively predicts the willingness to express minority views in both settings. Belief strength is found to be a positive predictor of the willingness to express minority views on the Internet, but not in offline settings.

Backchannel Communication Motives for Viewing Televised Olympic Games: Implications for the Future of Sports Broadcasting • Joon Soo Lim, Syracuse University; YoungChan Hwang • We conducted an online survey with 500 randomly selected social TV users in South Korea right after the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Employing structural equation modeling, each motivational factor of backchannel communication was used to predict respondents’ social presence and sports channel commitment. The results showed that social interaction, information and excitement motives of social TV positively related to social presence, while it was convenience and information motives that predicted sports channel commitment.

Determinants of SNS discussion disagreement: The effects of political interest, SNS news use, and weak ties • Yanqin Lu, Indiana University; Jae Kook Lee • Drawing on a national probability survey, this study explores the predictors of discussion disagreement on SNSs. The results reveal that both political interest and news-related activities on SNSs are negatively associated with discussion disagreement. Both of these two negative relationships are particularly stronger among those who have a small proportion of weak ties in their social media networks. Implications are discussed for the impacts of SNS use on deliberative democracy.

A study of audience reactions to a celebrity’s announcement of cancer via social media: The roles of audience involvement, emotion, and gender • Jessica Myrick, Indiana University; Rachelle Pavelko, Indiana University; Roshni Verghese, Indiana University; Joe Bob Hester • The present study employed a content analysis of users’ Facebook responses (N = 3,953) to actor Hugh Jackman’s 2013 post announcing his skin cancer diagnosis. The aim of the study was to explore connections between audience involvement, emotional reactions to cancer news, gender of social media users, and the resulting social-media based public discussions of cancer-related prevention and detection. Findings highlight how the affordances of social media can foster close mediated relationships with public figures.

Upvotes Guarding the Gate: Analyzing thematic clues and news element in Reddit’s role as a social link aggregation site • Jeffrey Riley, Florida Gulf Coast University • This study was a quantitative content analysis looking at Reddit, a popular social link sharing website. Specifically, it looked at the /r/news subpage, which boasts 4 million subscribers. Reddit allows all users to submit links to content and then democratically vote up or down on the content. The order content appears in on the page itself is determined partially by that democratic voting process. The study, using gatekeeping theory, examines ownership, topic, theme, and elements of newsworthiness in the top submissions to /r/news over a 20-day period. The study found that Reddit, despite being an open-ended system that allows submissions from all types content, relies heavily on both legacy media and traditional media frames. The results of the study suggests that Reddit acts almost more as a perpetuation of legacy ideals within the news media as opposed to a revolutionary force in and of itself.

Always Connected or Always Distracted? ADHD and Social Assurance Explain Problematic Use of Mobile Phone and Multicommunicating • mihye seo; Junghyun Kim; Prabu David • Multicommunicating with mobile phone during face-to-face encounters with family and friends was examined with data from an online survey of 432 adults in the U.S. Multicommunicating was positively associated with problematic use of mobile phone (PUMP) and explained by two different processes, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a social need to belong. We found that those with ADHD symptoms were more likely to engage in PUMP and frequent multicommunicating. In addition, strong need for social assurance, which involves an always-on and connected lifestyle, explained PUMP and multicommunicating. Further, the role of social connectedness was more salient in females than males. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

TV Becomes Social Again : An Analysis of Motivations, Psychological Traits and Social-Interaction Behaviors of Two-screen Viewing • Hongjin Shim; Euikyung Shin; Sohei Lim • This study investigates the moderation effect of peer-group pressure in the context of groups chat on mobile instant messengers (MIMs). Why do adolescents engage in bullying behaviors on MIMs in opposition to their attitude toward bullying? Generally, previous research has explored modest associations between attitude toward cyberbullying and cyberbullying behaviors. However, this study focuses on the moderating role played by peer-group pressure in MIM group chats. An interaction effect between peer-group pressure and negative attitude toward MIM bullying is hypothesized and demonstrated based on data (N = 424) gathered via a survey conducted in July 2014 of randomly selected students from South Korean high schools and junior high schools in South Korea. The findings support the effect of interaction between the attitude and peer-group pressure. Adolescents with a highly negative attitude toward MIM bullying tended not to engage in MIM bullying regardless of the level of peer-group pressure to which they perceived themselves to be subject. However, adolescents with a neutral or positive attitude toward MIM bullying who perceived a high level of peer-group pressure engaged more in MIM bulling behaviors than did those with a similarly neutral or positive attitude who perceived a low level of PGP. It was concluded that self-justification or self-persuasion on the part of adolescents possibly resulting from the logic of cognitive dissonance can bring about engagement in MIM bullying behaviors even against adolescents’ attitudes toward MIM bullying.

Up, Periscope: Live streaming apps, the right to record, and the gaps in privacy law • Daxton Stewart, TCU; Jeremy Littau, Lehigh University • Meerkat and Periscope, mobile applications that allow users to provide live streaming video to their followers, quickly became popular among citizens and journalists upon their launch earlier this year. As the next wave of communication technologies permitting the instantaneous sharing of information, these live-streaming apps have the potential to reshape the way people think about any right to privacy they may have in public places, as well as the rights of people to record in public places under the First Amendment. Additionally, journalists are already using these tools in ways that may have a significant impact on coverage of politics and culture in the very near future. Using legal research methodology, this article examines the privacy law implications of mobile, live-streaming apps, uncovering a gap in traditional conceptualizations of privacy law that may need to be resolved to ensure a balance between a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy and a person’s right to record in public.

Social Media Brands: Toward a More Generalizable Field • Elizabeth Stoycheff; Juan Liu; Kunto Wibowo; Dominic Nanni • Social media are evolving pervasively. And scholars have noticed. This study explores interdisciplinary social media research over the past decade and identifies trends in language, types of social media sites, thematic content areas, and geographic contexts in which this research is situated. Gaps in the literature and areas of study worthy of future examination are discussed.

This News is brought to you by a Drone: User Reactions to Machine Agency in News Gathering • Akshaya Sreenivasan, The Pennsylvania State University; S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University • A seven-condition, between-subjects experiment (N=274) was conducted to explore the relative effects of three human (reporter, citizen journalist, crowd) and three machine sources (drone, robot, webcam) used in newsgathering, against a control. While viewers perceive news attributed to machines like drones and robots as entertaining and enjoyable, machine sources tended to undermine the perceived credibility of the story. Traditional sources scored highest on trust, a critical mediator of credibility. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Using an Eye Tracker to Investigate Attentional Capture of Animated Display Advertisements: A Cognitive Control Account • Chen-Chao Tao, Department of Communication and Technology, National Chiao Tung University • Whether animated display ads can capture attention and enhance memory are still contentious. This study redefines animation in terms of dynamic structural features and argues that animation appearing as a unique event will capture attention (unique event hypothesis). An eye-tracking experiment using authentic news webpages with one ad on the right was conducted to compare the effects of 2D animated ads (oscillation, movement, or flash) and static ads. Generalized estimating equations showed that animation grabbed the eyes, suggesting the occurrence of implicit attentional capture. Memory for ads is determined by the joint influence of the amount of attention allocated to ads and the structural complexity of ads. Oscillation ads had the highest score, followed by movement ads. It is concluded that animation as a unique event in the visual field will capture attention, and banner blindness is a phenomenon of inattentional blindness.

Feeling Happy or Being Immersed? Advertising Effects of Game-Product Congruity in Different Game App Environments • Shaojung Sharon Wang, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan; Hsuan-Yi Chou, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan • Mobile games have become one of the most profitable digital platforms for game publishers and developers alike, driven by the widespread adoption of smart devices. Among three important sources of mobile game revenues (downloads of games, in-game purchases, and advertising), ad revenues have experienced the fastest growth. This study explored the effects of congruity between the products in the interstitial ads and game app environment on consumers’ responses to the ads. The moderation of happiness types experienced during gameplay and game immersion of the consumers on advertising effects of game-product congruity was also examined. Experimental results revealed that (1) as game-product congruity increased, advertising effects were improved; (2) happiness types of gameplay environments had a direct impact on consumers’ responses toward embedded ads. When playing the calm-happiness game (vs. excited-happiness), consumers were more favorable toward embedded ads and had higher click and purchase intentions; (3) game happiness types moderated the effects of game-product congruity. When consumers played the calm-happiness game, game-product congruity positively affected advertising effects. However, when consumers played the excited-happiness game, moderate congruity generated higher purchase intention than high and low congruity; (4) the positive advertising effects resulting from game-product congruity were more salient when consumers were less immersed in the game. Theoretical implications on app advertising research, schema theory, happiness, and immersion, as well as practical suggestions are discussed.

How does Parallax Scrolling influence User Experience? A Test of TIME (Theory of Interactive Media Effects) • Ruoxu Wang, Penn State University; S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University • Parallax scrolling is a popular technique used widely in website design. Depth (or dimension) and scrolling come together to create a 3D effect, but it is unclear how this technique affects user experience. A controlled experiment (N = 133) deploying parallax scrolling in the context of product presentation reveals that perceived vividness and perceived coolness of this technique serve to engage users, with positive effects on attitude and behavior toward the website as well as the featured product. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Effects of Online Consumer Reviews on Brand Evaluation, Attitude and Purchase Intent • Tai-Yee Wu, University of Connecticut; Carolyn Lin, University of Connecticut • This study proposes an integrated conceptual model to investigate how user-generated online consumer product reviews (or eWOM) influence reader attitude and purchase intent toward an electronic product. The results generated by 508 participants suggest that perceived trustworthiness, usefulness and message valence of online product reviews as well as user experience with eWOM and gender play either a direct or indirect role in influencing reader attitude toward the product and product purchase intent.

Skepticism as a Political Orientation Factor: A Moderated Mediation Model of Online Opinion Expression • Masahiro Yamamoto, University of Wisconsin-La crosse; Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University; Michael Beam, Kent State University; Myiah Hutchens, Washington State University • This study examines skepticism as an orienting factor that fosters active news media use and online opinion expression. Data from a national online panel of participants matching national population characteristics show that skepticism is related to increases in news media use, which in turn positively predicts online opinion expression. Data further indicate that this indirect link between skepticism and online opinion expression via news media use differed by age, such that this mediation effect is stronger for younger respondents in the current sample. Implications are discussed for the role of skepticism in producing an engaged citizen.

Student Papers
Examining Users’ Continued Intention Toward Facebook Use: An Integrated Model • Chen-Wei Chang, University of Southern Mississippi • This study applies three theories (i.e., the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2, social contract theory, and technology continuance theory) to develop a new model for users’ continued intention toward Facebook use. An online survey based on random sampling (N = 450) was conducted in 2014. Data analysis employing structural equation modeling shows that the proposed model explains 65% of the variance for users’ continued intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Influence of News Overload on News Consumption • Victoria Chen, University of Texas at Austin • This exploratory study examined how news overload influences news consumption behavior and how news consumption behavior influences news overload. The results revealed that the more people felt news overloaded by the news, the less likely they were to watch TV. In contrast, the more people experience news overloaded, the more likely they were to use a search engine for news. The results also reveal that online news consumption does not contribute to a feeling of news overload.

Wikipedia: Remembering in the digital age • Michelle Chen • Collective memories are usually sanctioned by ruling elites, who determine the types of memory that should be remembered along with how they should be remembered. As an open-source website, Wikipedia has the potential to broaden the range of memories accessible on a global platform, memories that may or may not be sanctioned by elites. This paper examined the ways Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 was remembered on a global platform such as Wikipedia, and the implications of having that borderless public space for the representation and remembrance of events. Using textual analysis, this paper first examined the ways in which the New York Times and Xinhua News Agency reported on and interpreted the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, and how the protests were subsequently remembered in both presses in the 21st century. This paper then compared the official memory of the protests in the two presses with its public memory, as represented by the ways in which contributors on Wikipedia remembered the protests. Findings point to Wikipedia as a site of struggle over the hierarchy of memories. The dynamics between alternative and opposing memories on Wikipedia both reveal and are affected by the differences in how the protests were framed and made meaningful only to those who belong to certain cultural groups. Findings call into question the possibility of having a wider range of memories that encompasses the un-reported and under-reported collective memory of an iconic event in the digital age.

Who do you trust? Social endorsements effects on news evaluation • Myojung Chung, Syracuse University • Using a 2 x 3 between-subjects experiment (N = 297), this study examines how media source credibility and the level of social endorsements affect news evaluation. Results suggest that (a) there are main effects of media source credibility and social endorsements level on the way people perceive and evaluate online news content, and (b) other readers’ endorsements moderates the impact of media source credibility on news evaluation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Does Social Media Usage Reduce Information Asymmetry Among Investors? Evidence From Consumer Product Recall • Soo Jeong Hong, Michigan State University; Kwangjin Lee, Michigan State University; Hyunsang Son, The University of Texas at Austin • This study examines the impact of social media usage on the capital market consequences of firms’ disclosure. The study has the following findings: (a) the additional dissemination of recall information via social media is associated with more negative abnormal stock return; (b) social media usage tend to exacerbate negative market reactions only in the case of passive recall announcements; and (c) comprehensive social media usage data may provide more accurate results.

Do We Trust Crowd or System? Effects of Personalization and Bandwagon Cues on User Perception • Jinyoung Kim, Pennsylvania State University; Andrew Gambino; Xiaoye Zhou • This study examined the effects of personalization and bandwagon cues (e.g., star ratings, reviews) in a restaurant recommendation web site. An online experiment was conducted measuring participants’ perceptions and intentions towards the restaurants and the web site. Results showed that personalization and bandwagon cues increased positive perceptions and intentions toward both restaurant and web site. Theoretical and practical implications for future research on the effect of web site interface cues on user’ perceptions are provided.

Elderly’s uses and gratifications of social media: Key to improving social support and social involvement • Gordon Lee, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Jessica Fuk Yin KONG • This study attempts to build a bridge between the existing factor and impact research on senior citizens’ use of social media. A random sample of 392 senior citizens was surveyed to understanding their reasons for and the potential effects of using social media on one’s perceived social support and social involvement. The result demonstrates that social media help senior citizens gain more social support and social involvement.

Seen but No Reply. Hmmm? Messaging Platforms’ Message Read Receipts and their Psychological Impact on Users • Yee Man (Margaret) Ng, The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism • Message read receipts have become a common feature on messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, but they are not always welcome. In many instances, these receipts create social pressure. This study explores negative psychosocial impacts of message read receipts on users. Results of a national online survey (N = 247) reveal a discrepancy between senders’ and receivers’ perceptions towards message read receipts. In addition, the responsiveness to reply messages and the level of negative emotions of not replying depend on (1) receivers’ social distance with senders, and (2) whether the message is sent to an individual or a group of receivers. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on the use and psychological effects of instant messaging platforms.

The Allure of Self-Expression or the Desire for Privacy? Exploring Users’ Motivations for Temporary, Photograph-Based Communication • T. Franklin Waddell, Penn State University • Although visually-mediated short message applications are increasingly popular, the gratifications that users obtain from the visual affordances these services provide has been relatively underexplored. Informed by the MAIN model, the current study conducted interviews with 21 young adults to explore the motivations associated with the visually-mediated mobile application, Snapchat. Findings reveal that privacy maintenance and enhanced self-expression are common gratifications that users derive from temporary, photograph-based communication services. The implications of these results for theory and practice are discussed.

Smartphones as Social Actors? Dispositional factors that make anthropomorphism in communication technology different • Wenhuan Wang, University of Oregon • Smartphones are the most personalized communication technology and in the meantime the most personified in our society. Existing studies on anthropomorphism in computing technology focus on how to implement and elicit positive anthropomorphic effects but fail to address the motivations and dispositional factors. Through an online survey that incorporates well-tested psychological scales, this study provides empirical evidences that smartphone users’ social dispositions including chronic loneliness and attachment style are associated with their acceptance and awareness of anthropomorphism. Findings in this study suggest that Computers as Social Actors studies are limited to method of choice and overlooked how people adapt to communication technologies differently in real life settings. Anthropomorphic design in communication technology and anthropomorphized message in advertising strategies need further examination when targeting a diversified or specified demographic.

Understanding the Appeal of Social Q&A Sites: Gratifications, Personality Traits, and Quality Judgment as Predictors • Renwen Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Chen Gan • This study examines the roles of gratifications, personalities, and quality judgment in predicting social Q&A sites use. Results from a sample of 426 college students indicate that gratifications, including social/affection needs, cognitive needs, fashion-status, and entertainment, were the most salient predictors of social Q&A sites use. However, although personalities and quality judgment were strong predictors of gratifications, they had no direct predictive power toward social Q&A sites use.

Patients like me: Exploring Empathetic Interactions about Pain in an Online Health Community • Xuan Zhu • This study explored empathetic interactions within an online health community PatientsLikeMe. Texture analysis of 200 discussion postings from group forums related to chronic pain was used to determine how empathetic interactions are constructed in a virtual social setting through textual communication. The results revealed six components of online empathy concerning two roles within empathetic communication: the empathizer and the empathy receiver. Commonalities and differences between components of online and offline empathy were discussed.

2015 Abstracts

Communication Technology 2012 Abstracts

Open Papers

A Wii, a Mii, and a New Me? Testing the Effectiveness of Wii Exergames in Increasing Children’s Enjoyment, Engagement, and Exertion in Physical Activity • Cui Zhang; Charles Meadows; Kimberly Bissell • Although previous studies have noted that exergames increase physical activity and physical exertion compared to sedentary videogames, no empirical studies have compared the differences between types of exergames in relation to physical exertion and perceived enjoyment. This pilot study investigated the perceived enjoyment, engagement, and overall exertion of children and adolescents while playing Wii exergames through an experimental design.

Cancer Talk on Twitter: Community Structure and Information Sources in Breast and Prostate Cancer Social Networks • Itai Himelboim, University of Goergia, Telecommunications; Jeong Yeob Han • This study suggests taking a social networks theoretical approach to predict and explain patterns of information seeking among Twitter prostate and breast cancer communities.  We collected profiles and following relationships data about users who posted messages about either cancer over one composite week.  Using social network analysis, we identified the main clusters of interconnected users and their most followed hubs (i.e.: information sources sought).

Doing it all: an exploratory study of personality predictors of media multitasking • Gunwoo Yoon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Chapmaign; Zongyuan Wang, Department of Advertising, College of Media, UIUC; Jun Ha Lee, University of Illinois; Jen Moss, University of Illinois; Brittany Duff, University of Illinois; Gunwoo Yoon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Chapmaign; Zongyuan Wang, Department of Advertising, College of Media, UIUC; Jun Ha Lee, University of Illinois; Jen Moss, University of Illinois; Brittany Duff, University of Illinois • Media multitasking is increasing among media consumers.  This is thought to be due to increase in media content options and the availability of those options on multiple mediums due to rapid technological advancements.  While there has been initial research in other areas such as computer science or cognitive psychology on multitasking as a general behavior, there has been less work on media multitasking.

Engagement with News Content in Online Social Networks • Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch; S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State University • This study explores how sharing and discussing news stories through social networking sites may engage readers. 333 participants were randomly assigned to use Facebook to share a news story using the site’s various features or respond to a friend’s shared news story. Results show that the effects of sharing news content depend heavily on network feedback. Social features, such as posting on another friend’s wall and tagging friends, are key to engaging with news content.

Exploring the Elaboration Likelihood Model in Cancer Communication: Extending Experimental Testing of Attitudes to Organizations and Blogs • Paula Rausch, National Cancer Institute • Using Elaboration Likelihood Model as a framework, this 2x2x2 experiment investigated the message processing that occurred among consumers of novel cancer treatment messages disseminated through a health organization-sponsored blog and their effects on previously untested attitudes toward the organization and the treatment blog. To some extent, involvement, source credibility and argument strength each influenced these attitudes, showing some support for ELM’s central and peripheral processing hypotheses in this context. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Exploring the Knowledge Production Gap in the Chinese Micro Blogosphere • Lu Wei, Zhejiang University; Mengdi Wang • Lu Wei, Zhejiang University; Mengdi Wang • Microblog sites provide the users with an unprecedented platform of knowledge production, and offer social researchers a great opportunity to investigate this new phenomenon. Taking the microblog discussion about nuclear power after Japan’s tsunami in 2011 as an example, this study seeks to explore the knowledge production in the Chinese microblogosphere from the following aspects. First, what are the forms and content of knowledge produced by Chinese microbloggers? Second, are there any differences in the knowledge production and how to explain these differences? Third, do knowledge producers have different social influences in the microblogosphere?

Patterns of participation in new media in China: Analysis from a public health crisis • Fangfang Gao, Zhejiang University  • The rise of citizen engagement in information production and dissemination creates a new realm for grassroots public discourse, providing broader implications for the flow of information in China’s traditionally controlled media environment. This study examines the Chinese Internet users’ patterns of participation in new media such as blogs and discussion forums during a public health crisis, the tainted milk formula scandal in China from 2008 to 2011, showing the growing influence of new media in China. The implications of the findings were discussed.

Pills and Power-Ups: Substance Use in Video Games • Ryan Rogers; Jessica Myrick, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Sri Kalyanaraman; Eric White • In contemporary video games, it is not uncommon for a player’s avatar to take painkillers, get drunk on virtual alcohol, or chug an energy drink. The presence of substance use in video games has been studied to some degree. Yet, noticeably absent are analyses of fantasy substance use, despite its ubiquity in modern video games.  The valence of substance use consequences is similarly ignored in analyses, despite substance use being a common mechanism in video games to enhance the players’ ability to reach in-game goals and objectives.

Predicting Communal and Connective Public Goods Contribution in SNS: Network Incentives and Social Value Orientations • Wang Liao, Tsinghua University; Yusi Liu, Tsinghua University; Jianbin Jin, Tsinghua University • As benefit to the public, the public goods were easily damaged by free ridings. Thus it was crucial to encourage the user-generated content (UGC) contribution, especially on the social networking sites (SNSs). Drawn upon the communication public goods theory, based on a combination of the online questionnaire and mined data (N = 728) from a Chinese social networking site, this paper explored how the prestige and the social embeddedness had become network incentives to encourage the SNS users with three categories of social value orientations to contribute to both communal and connective public goods.

Rethinking the dynamics of new media adoption: The case of smart TV • Sungjoon Lee, Department of Journalism and Communication Studies, Cheongju University • The purpose of this study is to build a more effective integrated adoption model for new media technologies than the existing frameworks, and to test its usefulness. The newly proposed model consists of six major constructs drawn from the diffusion of innovation theory (DIT), the technology acceptance model (TAM), and the model of innovation resistance (MIR), as applied to the context of smart TV adoption in South Korea.

Some effects of Internet access among rural and small-town respondents • Adam Maksl, University of Missouri; Alecia Swasy, University of Missouri; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri-Columbia • The purpose of this study is to build a more effective integrated adoption model for new media technologies than the existing frameworks, and to test its usefulness. The newly proposed model consists of six major constructs drawn from the diffusion of innovation theory (DIT), the technology acceptance model (TAM), and the model of innovation resistance (MIR), as applied to the context of smart TV adoption in South Korea. To collect data, an online survey was used.

Tagging and Identity Construction Online: Taking Tag Usage on Sina Weibo Microblog for Example • Xuan Xie, Hong Kong Baptist University • Microblogging sites have been one of the main online spaces for individuals in Chinese society. Users perform multiple aspects of themselves through static elements and dynamic activities and construct multiple identities. With the reference to identity theories, this study took tag usage on microblogging site Weibo for example to discuss identity construction by identity markers online. With a content analysis on self-imposed tags in selected profiles, it was found that personal identity was more salient than social identity in general.

The Effects of Internet Use and Internet Efficacy on Offline and Online Engagement • Weiwu Zhang, Texas Tech University; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University • This paper examines the effects of Internet use, social network site use and Internet efficacy on online and offline participation using the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project ‘Social side of the Internet’ survey (N = 2,303). Results show that general Internet use and social network site use enhance online participation. However, neither of them increases offline participation. Individual Internet efficacy enhances online and offline participation, but group Internet efficacy decreases offline participation. Implications of the findings of this study for democratic engagement are discussed.

The Efficacy of State Health Departments to Promote Public Health Messages: The Case of Twitter • Bobby DeMuro, University of Memphis; Erin Willis, University of Memphis; Courtney Meeks, University of Memphis • The proliferation of social media websites provides opportunities for health information to be easily and inexpensively disseminated, especially Twitter – the fastest-growing social media site with more than 175 million users. Online communication has proven successful in supporting public health intervention efforts. This study applied textual analysis (N=1,245) to examine how state health departments use Twitter to communicate with their publics. Practical implications are discussed for health promotion and education.

The Political Implications of Media Repertoires • Su Jung Kim, Northwestern University • This study investigates media use patterns across platforms (i.e., media repertoires) and the differences in user background characteristics, total news consumption, political interest, political knowledge, and voter turnout among representative users of each media repertoire group. This study identified five distinctive media repertoires (TV-oriented Entertainment Fans, Internet Maniacs, Traditional News Seekers, Tabloid Newspaper Readers, and Cable Junkies) and found significant differences in age, gender, education, and political variables associated with each media repertoire group.

Understanding User Adoption and Behavior of Smartphone: An Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model • Sangwon Lee, Central Michigan University; Moonhee Cho, University of South Florida; Euna Park, University of New Haven • This study examines the behavior of South Korean smartphone users based on an integrated theoretical model, which employs the extended technology acceptance model, uses and gratification theory, theory of reasoned actions, and diffusion of innovations. A national smartphone user survey conducted in South Korea found that perceived usefulness affects the formation of attitude toward smartphone use and actual smartphone use. The results of the structural equation modeling analyses also suggest that perceived ease of use had a significant impact on perceived usefulness.

Young Journalists Today: Journalism Students’ Perceptions of the Ever-Evolving Industry • Stephanie Daniels • Today’s journalism students are learning in a time in which new technology innovations, including online news sites, blogs, and social media, have become a prominent part of the journalism industry. Whether it’s newspapers, public relations, or broadcast, technology has become a part of every area of journalism. While several studies have focused on how journalism classes should be taught in lieu of this change, how students are learning and how they feel about this changing industry has yet to be shared.

Faculty Papers

Like me plz: Examining influence and social capital within the Knight News Twitter discourse • Julie Jones, Gaylord College of Journalism; Aimei Yang, Gaylord College of Journalism & Mass Communication; Adam Saffer; Jared Schroeder, University of Oklahoma • Influence within social groups is often conceptualized as information flow through key actors to a larger collective (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1948; Merton, 1949) or, similar to finding value in real estate ventures, dependent on location (Barabási, 2001; Burt, 1992; 1999). Both approaches, though, value the role of bridging actors as a means of connection between core groups. In social network terminology, bridging actors fill structural holes. This study examined how structural holes were associated with social capital, namely endorsement of grant proposals.

Alternative Media in a Digital Era: Comparing Information Use Among U.S. and Latin American Activists • Summer Harlow, University of Texas at Austin; Dustin Harp, University of Texas at Arlington • As activists use the Internet to bypass traditional media gatekeepers, disseminate their own messages, and mobilize protests, this study explores how activists in the U.S. and Latin America view activism in relation to mainstream and alternative media, particularly online media. Survey results show activists distrust corporate media and most frequently get their news online. Also, despite the digital divide, they view the Internet as an alternative public space for staying informed and for waging activism.”

Ban it or Use it? The Impact of Smartphone on Student Connectedness and Out-of-class Involvement • Xun “Sunny” Liu; Nancy Burroughs, California State Univeristy, Stanislaus; VIckie Harvey, California State University, Stanislaus; Qing Tian • In the current study, we investigate the roles of smartphones on student connectedness and out of-class involvement. Based on the technological acceptance model and the involvement theory, this study examines factors that will impact educational smartphone use, and how this specific type of smartphone usage, will determine student connectedness in the class and their out-of-class involvement. 267 college students were surveyed and a structural equation model was developed to explain out-of-class involvement.

Blinded by the Spite? A Path Model Exploring the Relationships among Partisanship, Polarization, Reliance, Selective Exposure and Selective Avoidance of Blogs, Social Network Sites and Twitter on Democratic Measures • Thomas J. Johnson, University of Texas at Austin; Barbara Kaye, University of Tennessee at Knoxville • Despite fears that selective exposure and selective avoidance could deepen polarization and negatively affect the democratic process, few studies have directly studied this phenomenon. This study explore whether selective exposure and avoidance to blogs, social network sites and Twitter directly influence confidence in government, political interest and political knowledge or more indirectly through polarization. Selective exposure and avoidance proved weak indicators of polarization. Instead, partisanship is the stronger predictor of confidence, knowledge and interest.

Blog credibility: examining the influence of author information and blog “reach” • Porismita Borah • By using two experiments, the present study examines the influence of two factors: identity of the blogger (ordinary blogger vs. journalist blogger) and reach of the blog (low vs. high) on blog credibility. Findings show that in case of the general audience the journalist blogger was perceived as more credible. Results also show that reach of the blog influenced blog credibility only in the case of the ordinary citizen blogger. Implications are discussed.

Bridging People, Building Knowledge: An Examination of Chinese Web Users’ Adoption of Social Media for Knowledge Sharing • Yu Liu; Cong Li • A large number of Web users today are using social media platforms (e.g., Wikipedia) to share knowledge online. To further advance theoretical understandings of such a phenomenon, this study examines why certain Chinese Web users “accept” Wikipedia for knowledge sharing based on the Technology Acceptance Model. A total of 248 Chinese consumers are surveyed. It is found that when people perceive using Wikipedia to share knowledge is useful and easy, they tend to form a favorable attitude towards it, which in turn leads to actual usage behavior.

Diffusion of news services and political news in mobile media: A time budget perspective • Xiaoqun Zhang, Bowling Green State University; Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; Sung-Yeon Park, School of Media & Communication, Bowling Green State University; Korea University, Seoul, ROK • This study applied the time budget perspective to explore the diffusion of mobile news services and political news. It highlighted the uniqueness of mobile media in terms of enhancing the time availability for news usage. The findings showed that people with tight time budget get more mobile news services than people with loose time budget, and people who are interested in political news spend more time on mobile news than people who are not.

Digital Conversion: Social Media, Engagement, and the “I am a Mormon” Campaign • Brian Smith • Religion and social media represent a unique context for exploring communication and relationship cultivation. The relationship between religious organizations and their publics (i.e. members, converts) is arguably deeper than other organization-public relationships, and social media facilitates communication towards relationship cultivation through real-time response and digital interactivity. This study, an analysis of social media efforts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) via its social platform www.Mormon.org, explores the ways in which members use communication technology to represent their beliefs and values online.

Does Twitter Make Us More Knowledgeable? The Moderating Role of Need for Orientation • Eun-Ju Lee, Seoul National U; Soo Youn Oh, Seoul National University • A web-based survey (N=306) examined how Twitter use affects individuals’ news knowledge, in conjunction with the need for orientation.  The longer high NFOs had used Twitter, the better informed they were of hard news, but the time spent on Twitter daily was negatively associated with their soft news knowledge.  Additional analyses suggested that the ability to process public affairs information, rather than the information-seeking motivation, accounts for the widening gap in hard news knowledge.

Effects of Three Dimensions of Web Navigability on Attitudes and Perceptions of an Organizational Site • Bartosz Wojdynski, Virginia Tech • This study examines the differential effects of three distinct dimensions of Web site navigability (logic of structure, clarity of structure, and clarity of target) on perceptions of a non-profit organization’s Web site. A 2 x 2 x2 factorial between-subjects experiment (N=128) examining the distinct contributions of these dimensions showed that logic of structure and clarity of structure influenced perceived navigability, while logic of structure and content domain involvement affected attitudes toward the Web site.

Fighting death: The effects of punitive difficulty on video game enjoyment, immersion and need satisfaction • Mike Schmierbach; Brett Sherrick, The Pennsylvania State University; Mu Wu, Pennsylvania State University • Although many theoretical accounts focus on the importance of properly balanced challenges for video game enjoyment, little empirical scholarship tests the effects of difficulty. Using an experiment, this study demonstrates the consequences of player death and remaining challenge on feelings of competency and flow. Results show death inhibits both, while less skilled players enjoyed a challenging game more after accounting for number of deaths.

Get in the Game: Customization, Immersion, Autonomy and Enjoyment • Keunyeong Kim, Pennsylvania State University; Julia Woolly, The Pennsylvania State University; Mike Schmierbach; Julia Daisy Fraustino, The Pennsylvania State University; Mun-Young Chung • Games increasingly allow players to adjust their experience, whether through modifying settings, changing their appearance, or selecting ways to advance their character. We present the results of an experiment in which players could customize their spaceship avatar between levels, demonstrating that this enhanced enjoyment in several ways. Players felt more autonomous, had greater feelings of control, and were more immersed when able to customize, compared with a control condition.

Imagining the Future of Journalism Through Open-Source Technology: A Qualitative Study of the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership • Nikki Usher; Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities; Todd Kominak, George Washington University • This paper examines how journalists and technologists engaged in a high-profile partnership to re-imagine news for the digital age. We qualitatively analyzed a series of online videos (N=49) pitching group members’ open-source solutions for news. In light of the literature on journalism innovation and open-source technology and culture, and in the context of this connection between “hacks” and “hackers,” we identify key themes that articulate the future of news as process, participation, and social curation.

Influencing public opinion from corn syrup to obesity: A longitudinal analysis of the references for nutritional entries on Wikipedia • Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University; Marcia DiStaso; Yan Jin, Virginia Commonwealth University; Shana Meganck, Virginia Commonwealth University; Scott Sherman, Virginia Commonwealth University; Sally Norton, Virginia Commonwealth University • The collaboratively edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia has continuously increased its reliability through a revised editing and referencing process. As the public increasingly turns to online resources for health information, this study analyzed the potential impact and the development of the referencing as the basis for Wikipedia content on nutritional health topics between 2007 and 2011.

It’s Not Easy Trying to Be One of the Guys: The Effects of Avatar Attractiveness, Avatar Gender, and Purported User Gender on the Success of Help-Seeking Requests in an Online Game • T. Franklin Waddell, Pennsylvania State University; James Ivory, Virginia Tech • Although research suggests that offline stereotypes guide online interactions, fewer studies have examined whether users’ responses to avatar traits differ depending on avatar owners’ gender. This experiment measured effects of avatar attractiveness, avatar gender, and purported user gender on the assistance users received during 2,300 interactions. The most attractive avatars received more assistance, and female users were assisted less if their avatar was male or unattractive. Implications for sex roles in virtual environments are discussed.

Making a Kinection: Competitive and Collaborative Multiplayer Gameplay in Exergames • Wei Peng, Michigan State University; Julia Crouse, Michigan State University • Although multiplayer mode is common among contemporary video games, the bulk of exergaming research looks at participants on an individual basis. Additionally, the play space is virtually an unstudied area. To fill the gap in the literature, the current study investigated different modes of multiplayer features and the play space in exergames and their effects on enjoyment, future play motivation and actual physical activity intensity.

Mobile Communication Competence and Mobile Communication usage: Based on College Students’ Analysis • Fan-Bin Zeng, Jinan University; Zhang Rong • Based on a survey on college students in XX University (N=1218) using mobile communication at present, this study develops a measure of college students’ mobile communication competence and mobile communication usage. By conducting an exploratory factor analysis on mobile communication competence, this study identifies three latent constructs: technique -efficacy factor, preference-affection factor and communication-appropriateness factor; along with conducting an exploratory factor analysis on mobile communication usage, this study identifies two latent constructs: leisure-entertainment factor and communication – interaction factor.

Mortality salience effects on selective exposure and cognitive processing on the Web • Robert Magee, Virginia Tech; Bartosz Wojdynski, Virginia Tech • A factorial experiment (N = 215) produced patterns of interactions that illustrate the relationship between dispositional and situational factors that drive selective exposure. Individual’s issue-related attitudes appeared to drive their Web site browsing behavior, as a match between an individual’s issue-related attitudes and the content of the Web site resulted in a greater number of page views. However, this relationship between content domain involvement and selective exposure appeared to occur only when individuals were not primed to reflect on their own mortality.

Motivations to contribute to commons-based peer production: A survey of top English-language Wikipedia contributors • Yoshikazu Suzuki, University of Minnesota; Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota • This study examined the motivations of functional peer production, and tested the relationship between different motivation dimensions and satisfaction. Results from a survey of the top Wikipedia contributors identified eight distinctive motivational factors, and suggest that contributing to Wikipedia is driven by both individual and social motivations focused on benefitting both the self and the others. The creative stimulation factor was significantly and positively correlated with satisfaction gained from contributing to Wikipedia.

Multitasking and Social Television: Use of Television and Social Media in a Multi-Platform Environment • Jiyoung Cha • Recognizing the multi-video platform and individualized video viewing environment, this study examines why people watch television, how people consume social television, and why people seek social television. Results suggest that people feel affection for television as a medium itself—a feeling that is independent of the content available on television. The motives for seeking social television include sense of community, social bonding with existing networks, reinforcement of online persona, entertainment, information sharing, social movement, self-documentation, and incentives.

My Whole World’s in My Palm!: Teenagers’ Mobile Use and Skill • Yong Jin Park, Howard University • Mobile communication has emerged as a new channel for increasingly networked teenagers. While some celebrate new possibilities for autonomy, others are concerned that the increased use of mobile-based communication can lead to social disparities in digital skill and status replication. Using a national survey dataset (n = 552), we examined how mobile-mediated behavior among teens (12-17) interacts with the characteristics of socio-demographics and mobile access to predict levels of diverse mobile use and skill and consequences of skill-use differences.

Networking for Philanthropy in Social Network Sites • Yoojung Kim, City University of Hong Kong; Wei-Na Lee • Social Network Sites (SNSs) provide a unique social venue to engage a large young generation in philanthropy through their networking capabilities. This study attempted to develop an integrated model that incorporates social capital into the Theory of Reasoned Action. Consistent with the theory’s predictions, volunteer behavior was predicted by volunteer intention which was influenced by attitudes and subjective norms. In addition, social capital, produced by the extensive use of SNS, was as an important driver of users’ attitude and subjective norms toward volunteering via SNSs.

Online Health Communities and Chronic Disease Self-Management • Erin Willis, University of Memphis • This research used content analysis (N=1,960) to examine the computer-mediated communication within online health communities for evidence of chronic disease self-management behaviors, including the perceived benefits and perceived barriers to participating in such behaviors. Online health communities act as informal self-management programs led by peers with the same chronic disease through the exchange of health information. Online health communities provide opportunities for health behavior change messages to educate and persuade regarding arthritis self-management behaviors.

Personalized News: How Filtering Shapes News Exposure • Michael Beam, Washington State University; Gerald Kosicki, The Ohio State University • This study is designed to contribute to understanding the impact of technologies that facilitate selective exposure on news reading and public opinion. Specifically, this study investigates attitudinal and behavioral differences between users and non-users of personalized news filtering systems. Results from a series of regression analyses of secondary survey data collected from national random samples of U.S. adults show a positive relationship between using personalized news systems and increased exposure to offline news.

Political Television Hosts on Twitter: Examining patterns of interconnectivity and self-exposure in Twitter Political Talk Networks • Itai Himelboim, University of Goergia, Telecommunications • This study takes a social networks approach to studying the Twitter talk of users and media evoked by politically oriented cable television hosts.  Two potentially socially beneficial implications of these user interactions are examined: the interconnectedness of users as an indication for an exchange of opinions and information, and exposure to a political diversity of information sources.  Twitter data was captured for four hosts, the conservatives Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, and the liberals, Rachel Meadow and Keith Olbermann.

Predicting Internet Risks: A Longitudinal Panel Study of Gratifications-sought, Internet Addiction Symptoms and Social Media Use • Louis Leung, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This study used longitudinal panel survey data collected from 417 adolescents at two points in time one year apart. It examined relationships between social media gratifications-sought and social media use measured at Wave 1 and Internet addiction changes in Wave 2. In addition, we also explored relationships between social media gratifications-sought, Internet addiction symptoms, and social media use measured at Wave 1 and Internet risks changes in Wave 2.

Psychological Individual Differences and the U&G of Facebook: The relationship between personality traits and motivational reactivity and the motivations and intensity to use Facebook in Taiwan • Kanni Huang, Michigan State University; Anastasia Kononova, American University of Kuwait; Yi-hsuan Chiang, Shih Hsin University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University • A cross-sectional survey from Taiwan (N = 3,172) explored the relationship among psychological individual different factors, the motivations to use Facebook, and the intensity to use Facebook. Our findings indicated extraversion, resiliency, and originality/talent were the strongest predictors of the motivations to use Facebook. Aversive system activation (DSA) significantly predicted information sharing, entertainment, passing time, and medium appeal. All motivations to use Facebook significantly predicted the intensity of its use.

Should I Trust Him? Effects of Profile Cues on eWOM Credibility • Qian Xu, Elon University • A 2 (number of trusted members: small, large) x 2 (profile picture:  without, with) x 2(review valence: negative, positive) between-participants experiment was conducted to explore how two profile cues, i.e. the reputation cue and the picture cue, on a consumer review website individually and interactively affected consumers’ cognitive trust and affect trust in the product reviewer. The psychological mechanisms for the cues’ influence on perception of review credibility were also examined.

Showing off Where I am? The Interplay of Personality Traits, Self-disclosure, and Motivation on Facebook Check-ins • Shaojung Sharon Wang, Institute of Communications Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan • This study explored how personality traits, extraversion, and narcissism function to influence self-disclosure, which in turn, impacts intensity of check-in on Facebook.  Moreover, exhibitionism as a motivation that might mediate the relationship between self-disclosure and the intensity of check-in behavior on Facebook was also investigated.  Using survey data collected through Facebook check-in users in Taiwan (N=523), the results demonstrated that although extraversion and narcissism might not directly impact check-in intensity on Facebook, the mediation effects of self-disclosure and exhibitionistic motivation were particularly salient.

Smartphone News Consumption: The Absence of Location-Based Services within Today’s Mobile News Apps • Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State University • As media organizations grow their social media strategies, skills in using these platforms have become increasingly important for aspiring mass communication professionals. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how students are already using social media and what benefits they perceive from incorporating Twitter as a required course assignment in college mass communication classes. Findings show students are positive and enthusiastic about the assignment; gender was significant in two areas.

Technology Disruption Theory and Middle East Media • Ralph Berenger, American University of Sharjah; Mustafa Taha, American University of Sharjah • This paper examines media technology disruption theory and its affect on Middle East mass media and audiences. Every major information technology innovation throughout history has caused some form of social disruption, from fears that telephones would electrocute the users in a thunderstorm, to moral or media panics like the War of the Worlds broadcast in the 1930’s, to current attempts to manipulate digital images for political reasons.

The Active Citizen’s Information Media Repertoire: An exploration of local-community news habits in Madison, WI, during the digital age • Sue Robinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Active community members such as school officials, police officers, nonprofit directors and librarians approach information about their city as a way to stay involved and improve the community. Digital technologies have reconfigured how people know about their cities, specifically what news sources they might go to. Sampling from one Midwest community’s most engaged citizens, this research details and formalizes the emerging media-information repertoires built on local news sources, including: their motivations for seeking news, the structuring conditions for particular media usage, the norms of usage they are developing, and the perceived consequences for that use.

The influence of video game controllers on game-player’s self-awareness, sense of control and enjoyment • Jeeyun Oh, Penn State University; Mun-Young Chung; Mike Schmierbach • This study investigates the impact of a motion controller upon players’ level of enjoyment and related variables. A 2 (Motion controller vs. Control) X 2 (Mirroring vs. Control) between-subject experiment has been performed with Tiger Woods PGA Tour in Nintendo Wii console. A mirror image of self inhibited the sense of control over gameplay only when it was combined with a motion controller, which was the strongest, positive predictor for both players’ feeling of presence and enjoyment.

Transported into the Twitter World: When Politicians’ Twitter Communication Affects Public Evaluations of Them • Eun-Ju Lee, Seoul National U; Soo Yun Shin, Seoul National University • In a web-based experiment, participants (N = 217) viewed either a politician’s Twitter page or his newspaper interview with identical content.  Exposure to the Twitter page heightened the sense of direct interaction (social presence), which induced more favorable impressions of and a stronger intention to vote for him, only among those more prone to get “transported” into a narrative.  Reading the newspaper interview, however, significantly enhanced issue recognition and facilitated issue-centered (vs. person-centered) message processing.

User Behaviors in Social Commerce • Don Shin • Social commerce, a new form of commerce that involves using social media, has been rapidly developing. This study analyzes consumer behaviors in social commerce, focusing on the role of social influence in social commerce. A model is created to validate the relationship between the subjective norm and trust, social support, attitude, and intention. The results of the model show that the subjective norm is a key behavioral antecedent to use social commerce.

Using a constructivist approach to teach SEO tactics to PR students • Mia Moody; Elizabeth Bates • Enough evidence is available to support the idea that students need to be equipped with search engine optimization (SEO) skills to succeed in the public relations field; however little has been written on what they actually know. Furthermore, much of what has been published on the topic has been in trade publications rather than scholarly journals. To fill this void, this paper discusses the intricacies of SEO and offers a skills assessment tool and tips for integrating the technique into PR courses.

What Are You Worrying about on Social Networking Sites? Empirical Investigation of Young Social Networking Site Users’ Perceived Privacy • Yongick Jeong; Erin Coyle • Privacy is an important issue because it shields personal information from unwanted exposure. This study examines various aspects of privacy on social networking sites (SNSs). The findings indicate that young users generally are more concerned about the information they provide to traditional SNSs (Facebook) than microblogging sites (Twitter) and worry more about people with authoritative roles (authoritarian privacy) than those they know less about (distant relations).

What Motivates Consumers to Accept User-Generated Contents on Product Review Websites? • Yunjae Cheong, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies; Kihan Kim, Seoul National University; Hyuksoo Kim, The University of Alabama • This study was designed to provide insights into why people accept user generated contents on product review (UGPR) websites. Recently, UGPR has significantly transformed consumers’ purchase process in various product categories, becoming an indispensable tool for consumers and practitioners. Accordingly, this study builds a comprehensive theoretical model to explain factors that drive acceptance of UGPR websites. We examined four latent variables of UGPR message acceptance, which are perceived source expertise, message objectivity, media credibility, and self-source similarity.

When Old and New Media Collide: The Case of WikiLeaks • Elizabeth Hindman, Washington State University; Ryan Thomas • The emergence of WikiLeaks and other non-journalist information providers as major players on the political landscape raises a number of important issues for media scholars and practitioners. Among them is the advent of organizations harnessing new communication technologies to keep a watchful eye on powerful interests, a monitorial role traditionally occupied by “old media” outlets like newspapers.  This qualitative study examines U.S. newspaper editorial responses to WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of U.S. State Department diplomatic cables.

Student Papers

A Comparative Content Analysis of Dialogic Theory on Fortune 1000 Facebook and Twitter Pages • Christopher Wilson, University of Florida; Weiting Tao, University of Florida • Social media sites (i.e., SMSs) like Facebook and Twitter are more important for public relations than ever before. Many of the academic studies in public relations on the relationship-building potential of SMSs are based on Kent and Tayor’s (1998, 2002) dialogic theory for websites. However, the measures used to test the dialogic principles on SMSs have been inconsistent even on similar social media platforms, making it difficult to compare results and replicate findings.

Agenda Setting in the Internet Age: The Reciprocity Between Using Internet Search Engines and Issue Salience • ByungGu Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jinha Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study investigates the relationships between information-seeking activities on the Internet and public perceptions of issue importance. Previous research suggests that information seeking can precede perceptual decisions such as judgment about national importance of an issue. Also, evidence indicates that such judgment can lead to subsequent information-seeking activities. Simply put, a reciprocal relationship can be established between information seeking and issue salience.

Are Wikimedia Less Susceptible to Censorship than Mainstream Media? • Jim DeBrosse, Ohio University • In a case study of Wikipedia and Wikinews coverage of Project Censored’s Top 10 Censored Stories of 2010-2010, this paper found that Wikinews failed to cover any of the 10 censored stories while Wikipedia covered one story and provided partial matches for five others. Wikinews’ total failure may be attributed primarily to its lack of reporting resources and its emphasis on breaking news.

Comments on YouTube Videos: Understanding the Role of Anonymity • M Laeeq Khan, Michigan State University • In this paper, in addition to understanding the commenting behavior on YouTube videos, the role of anonymity is discussed in light of SIDE theory. Comments were categorized in four major categories—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.

Democracy, Press Freedom, and Facebook: Identifying Conditional Diffusion of Technology • Shin Lee, University of Washington • Given the global diffusion of Facebook, this study predicts democracy and press freedom to serve as its determinants beyond Internet use. Using a sample of 107 countries, this study finds support for each of proposed hypotheses: 1) Internet diffusion does not necessarily increase Facebook penetration; 2) Facebook diffusion diminishes in countries with higher levels of ICT development; 3) democratic growth corresponds to Facebook diffusion; and 4) less press freedom increases Facebook diffusion in autocratic countries.

Educating the New Media Professional: Using the Technology Acceptance Model to Investigate Professional Media Students’ Technological Adoption • Tobias Hopp, University of Oregon • Despite the fact that post-secondary departments offering instruction in the fields of journalism, communication, advertising, and public relations have increasingly emphasized the use of new media production technologies, universities across the country have generally failed to investigate the factors that impact technological adoption on the part of students.

Examining Gender Differences in Using Facebook for Social Connections: An Application of Uses and Gratifications Theory • Chen-wei Chang, University of Southern Mississippi • This study applied Uses and Gratifications theory to investigate how men and women used Facebook to interact with others in different ways and further explored the similarities and contradictions regarding their “gratifications sought” (motivations) and “gratifications obtained” from the social activities on Facebook. A paper-based survey was administered in a public southern university in March 2012.

Exploration of Online Support Community for Excessive Gamers • Seol Ki, Rutgers University • This exploratory study examined the structure of OGANON community and the emerging pattern of social support exchange among community members- excessive gamers and their close people such as friends and family. Through ethnographic observation based on grounded theory approach, communication differences between daily online chat meeting and message boards are found and discussed. Online chat meeting is a source of confession and self-help through ritualized monologues whereas message boards are main sources of exchanging mutual help with other members.

Old Dogs & New Media: Examining Age and Teaching Focus in the Debate Between Technology and Tradition in the Journalism Classroom • Jeffrey Riley, University of Florida • In this study, journalism educators at AEJMC-accredited universities were surveyed to find their opinion about the importance of traditional skills and theories versus technologically based skills and theories in the modern journalism classroom. The journalism educators were also asked to fill out demographic and characteristic information, including age and teaching focus. This study drew from in-group out-group biases, selective perception, and diffusion of innovations for the theoretical basis. A total of 652 participants completed the survey.

SNS use on mobile devices: An examination of gratifications, civic attitudes and engagement in China • Yang Cheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Jingwen Liang • This study, based on the Mainland China context, explores the relationships between gratifications-sought, social network sites (SNSs) uses on mobile devices, civic attitudes and civic engagement in a charity credibility crisis. Through a survey research of 760 university students from the Southeast China, results show gratifications sought and civic attitudes can significantly predict SNS use on mobile devices and civic engagement. It argues that mobile-based communication plays an important role in encouraging individuals’ civic engagement.

Technostalgic Photography and Damon Winter’s “A Grunt’s Life” • Heidi Mau, Temple University • This research is a discourse analysis of Damon Winter’s 2010 publication in The New York Times of iPhone/Hipstamatic app photographs of soldiers in Afghanistan, and the subsequent disruption in the online mediasphere when this work was acknowledged by the 2011 POYi photography competition. This paper contributes to scholarly discussions concerning the evolution of photography – its tools, images and interactions with a public – with a particular focus in scholarship addressing how technological changes might affect visual meaning in photojournalism.

The Effects of Ambient Media: What unplugging reveals about being plugged in • Jessica Roberts, University of Maryland; Michael Koliska, University of Maryland • Ambient media is a way to conceptualize the information environment in which so many of us live. It is no secret that we increasingly live in a world rich in information and communication technology and media that bring us that information. Besides television, radio, newspapers and computers, we now carry devices with us — mobile devices with digital content, such as phones, iPods, and PDAs, which have become ubiquitous around the world, and provide constant access to a world of information.

The Role of Motivations and Anonymity on Self-disclosure in SNSs: A Comparison of Facebook and Formspring • Hyunsook Youn, Rutgers • Individuals have motivations when searching for platforms to fulfill their needs. Especially, advance of communication technologies offers individuals with a variety of ways they can express. This study explores individual motivations behind using different social network sites to fulfill their various needs. Also, one of the benefits online platform provides is to hide oneself behind screen although it can be considered either positive or negative. Different levels of anonymity each site offers may result in unusual degree or amount of one’s self-disclosure.

The smartphone: Next digital divide? • Joseph Jai-sung Yoo, The University of Texas at Austin • The objective of this study is to determine whether socioeconomic status influences the ownership of smartphones and compare the use patterns between smartphone users and non-users. Results indicate that SES is not a deciding factor and functions not provided in traditional mobile phone can explain the use associated with smartphones. This study examines differences in feeling life satisfaction between smartphone users and non-users. Due to wide distribution of smartphone, there were no differences.

The YouTube Platform: The Nomad in Participatory Culture • Mark Lashley, University of Georgia • This paper argues that discussions of user interactions with YouTube can be framed around theories of participatory culture, and brings to light how Montfort & Bogost’s (2009) work in “platform studies” might be applicable to explain how YouTube operates as a space where computing is enabled. To tie together these two conceptual frames, a number of postmodern precepts from Deleuze & Guattari (1987) are applied, most notably the concept of “nomadology” as it applies to users of the video sharing site. It is hoped that, in the future, this theoretical language can be used in analysis of YouTube content in order to better understand the interactions between space and user.

Tweeting Every Touchdown: Analyzing the Twitter Use of Sports Fans through the Uses and Gratifications Theory • Natalie Brown, University of Alabama • This study surveyed 217 sports fans to define which sports fans use Twitter, and how their satisfaction with social media use is impacted by their motivations for tweeting. This study adds to both social media and uses and gratifications literature by identifying the motivations for social media use that are unique to sports fans.  Results showed that sports fans primarily use Twitter for surveillance and information gathering rather than for social reasons, calling into question whether Twitter should continue to be referred to as a “social media” Web site, or whether it has evolved to bridge traditional and new media.

Tweeting Life-casting or Public Affairs?: Journalists’ Tweets, Interactivity, and Ideology • Na Yeon Lee, University of Texas – Austin; Yonghwan Kim; Ji won Kim, The university of Texas at Austin • This study examines how Korean journalists use Twitter by analyzing what topics they talk about and with whom they interact on Twitter, and investigates whether these usage patterns vary according to newspapers’ ideology. A content analysis of 494 tweets by 52 randomly selected Korean journalists showed that more than half the tweets were topics related to public affairs, such as politics and social issues, and 56% of the tweets were “in reply to” or “re-tweet” responses.

Understanding the Technological Advantages of Web Surveys: Can Response Formats Impact Data Quality? • Clay Craig; Patrick Merle • The utilization of technologically advanced web-based survey software is becoming prevalent. Along with this proliferation, advancements in survey customizations provide researchers with a plethora of visual and structural elements to compose appropriate designs, yet pose the question of the impact such technological possibilities have on data quality. This study, (N  = 188) an embedded experiment in a web survey, examines three response formats (radio button, slider scale, and text entry) to determine their influence on participants’ decisions.

What has Social Networking Service (SNS) research done for the half decade? Review, critiques, and discussion of the studies from 2006 to 2011 • Yin ZHANG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • This study presents an extensive review of the scholarship on social networking service (SNS) from 2006 to 2011. Through a full scan and content analysis of the academic publications in six high ranking SSCI journals, seventy-four articles were identified for review. The topical, theoretical and methodological trends of current studies are summarized and discussed.

What’s on Your Mind? What Facebook Users Disclose in their Status Updates and Why • Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Heather Shoenberger, University of Missouri • Studies have explored what people disclose on Facebook but not specifically what people say in their status updates, a feature that allows users to express their thoughts, opinions and feelings to their network in real time. Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study uncovers the themes that users divulge on their status updates on Facebook and the factors that drive these sometimes very intimate disclosures.

Who says what about whom: Cue-taking dynamics in the impression formation processes on Facebook • Jayeon Lee; Young Shin Lim, Ohio State University • Social information processing theory claims that computer-mediated communication users form impressions of others they encounter on the Web by taking heuristic cues available in the environment. As social media offer various cues from the sides of both the target and unknown others, however, the way people utilize cues on the Web also has become more complex.

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Communication Technology 2006 Abstracts

Communication Technology Division (CTEC)

Municipal Broadband Services: Government Supply as Panacea to Market Failure in the Provision of High Speed Internet service to Underserved and Unserved Communities • Abubakar Alhassan, Florida • Broadband’s higher speed and greater bandwidth distinguishes it from the hitherto slow, limited bandwidth dial-up service. Although the US is the cradle of the Internet, but OECD reports show that it now lacks behind other nations in broadband deployment, a development blamed on market failure characterized by the commercial ISPs’ refusal to deploy broadband to certain communities. This paper examines the provision of broadband by municipalities as the policy panacea for the market failure.

Utility vs. Commodity: Framing the Provision of Broadband • John Anderson, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • The importance of broadband connectivity is growing, and while universal service is a national priority incumbent telecommunications service providers are not moving in this direction. This leads to public and non-profit entities working to correct this market failure. Incumbents have responded with a political offensive swiped largely from the playbook of the electric power industry some 100 years ago. Ultimately, the question of broadband provision may be settled at the national level.

Revisiting the Issue of Blog Credibility: A National Survey • Stephen Banning, Bradley and Kaye Trammell, Louisiana State • This study investigated the relationship between credibility, third-person effect, and blog use. Through a national phone survey (N = 575), researchers found support for all hypotheses. While credibility was neutral overall, blog authors assessed blogs as being more credible than non-bloggers, and credibility correlated with likelihood to act (behavior). Third-person effect was found in reference to blogs and it correlated with blog credibility and likelihood to act. Findings and future research are discussed.

Value and Digital Rights Management: A Social Economics Approach • Benjamin Bates, Tennessee-Knoxville • Current copyright overemphasizes financial return compared to alternative sources of value (both social and private) deriving from information use. I use an approach designed to emphasize those other aspects of value and consider the implications of current and proposed Digital Rights Management (DRM) approaches for the creation of social value. I conclude that while most DRM approaches actually exacerbate conditions, DRM also offers the potential for an irights system that more fully incorporates social value.

Generation iPod: An Exploratory Study of Podcasting’s ‘Innovators’ • David Brown, Texas at Austin • Podcasting has become one of the most heavily hyped media concepts in recent years, billed as the latest digital-age threat to “old-media”. Yet almost nothing is known about listeners, their habits, or podcast demand. This exploratory study offers one of the first snapshots of real-world podcast use among its earliest adopters. The results suggest surprising gender and other distinctions between listeners and non-listeners, barriers to experimentation, and fading interest after initial podcast use.

Pioneers in the Blogosphere: Profiling the Early Adopters of Weblogs • Byeng-Hee Chang and Trent Seltzer, Florida • Weblogs, or “blogs,” are increasing in their use, visibility, and impact. Using the Innovation Diffusion Theory literature as a theoretical framework, a secondary analysis of data gathered by the Pew Internet and American Life Project indicated that there are significant differences between adopters and non-adopters of weblogs in terms of demographic profile, innovativeness, use of other new communication technologies, and Internet use.

A Multinational Study on Online Privacy: Global Concerns and Local Responses • Hichang Cho, Rivera Milagros and Sun Sun Lim, National University of Singapore • Using a survey on 1261 Internet users from five international cities—Bangalore, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, and New York, we examined international Internet users’ perception and behavioral responses concerning online privacy. We found that online privacy was a “global human rights issue” affecting almost all Internet users worldwide, but the way individuals perceived and coped with it varied across a host of micro-macro level factors such as demographics, Internet expertise, nationality, and cultural values.

Extending Technology Acceptance Model With Social And Organizational Variables • Siyoung Chung, National University of Singapore • The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the differential influences of a comprehensive set of technology acceptance attributes on both adoption and usage behavior. A mail survey was conducted with the employees (n = 108) who were the active sales of a large corporation in the U.S, which recently introduced a web-based sales system. The findings demonstrated that attitudinal, social, and organizational variables selectively influenced technology adoption and usage behavior.

News as a Process: A New Approach to the Political Economy of Communication • Lori Cooke-Scott, Ryerson • This paper proposes a unified theory of the political economy of news communication, encompassing changing realities in technology, market capitalism and everyday life. A central feature is its treatment of news as a process of exchange rather than a product to be exchanged. A processive approach is needed to understand the structural transformation of the news industry, the shift in power relations among producers and consumers, and the revolution in audience agency and community formation.

Is Seeing–or Hearing–Believing?: Reactions to Listening to the 2004 Presidential Debates With and Without Video • Mike Dorsher, Wisconsin-Eau Claire • In a quasi-experimental study inspired by the Kennedy-Nixon “Great Debate,” 175 participants from a mid-size Midwestern university either watched the 2004 presidential debates on TV or listened to them without the video. The data yielded few significant differences between debate viewers and listeners. Candidate debate performances rated high on “presidential” qualities and eloquence best predicted the debate winner.

Can Billie-Jo sell wine? The Effects of Social Category Cues and Rich Media in E-commerce Websites • Edward Downs, Sampada Marathe, Bimal Balakrishnan and Suellen Hopfer, Penn State • Do social category cues and richness of media affect website perceptions and memory in E-commerce? If so, how do these variables relate to product price sensitivity? An eight-condition mixed-model experiment was designed to test these questions. A significant three-way interaction effect was detected, driven by a rich media by product interaction effect when holding source constant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as limitations and directions for future research.

Sociology of News and New Media: How the Blogosphere Transforms Journalism and Changes News • Ivan Dylko and Gerald Kosicki, Ohio State • Political blogs have recently demonstrated an ability to affect public discourse, especially during the 2004 presidential election. In this paper we examined implications of the blogosphere for the sociology of news. A case study of the CBS’ 60 Minutes segment about George W. Bush was used to demonstrate that journalists used information from blogosphere and that blogs could break stories faster than traditional media and successfully push them onto media’s agenda.

Is the Internet an Agent of Empowerment in News Making? A Case Study of Chinese Journalists • Li Fu, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This study adopts the mediationist perspective to explore the impact of the Internet on Chinese journalists. It finds that, the Internet has made an impact on news making, however, its power is limited, affected by constraining and facilitating factors at the individual, organization, and institutional levels; the Internet therefore empowers journalists in a situational way, characterized as time-specific, genre-specific, media status-specific, and location-specific. Such situational empowerment is mainly driven by commercialization and propaganda reforms.

A Ten-Year Profile of the Democratic Agency of the Internet in 152 Countries • Jacob Groshek, Indiana • Since its inception, the internet has been lauded as a potent democratizing agent. Using macro-level data from 1994 to 2003, this study examined the extent to which the internet has fulfilled this promise. In the 152 countries included in this study, increased internet diffusion was not shown to be a meaningful predictor of more democratic regimes or diminished government control of the press. It did, however, show strong, positive relationships with economic growth.

Unraveling Uses And Effects Of An Interactive Cancer Communication System • Jeong-Yeob Han, Robert Hawkins, Bret Shaw, Suzanne Pingree, Fiona McTavish and David Gustafson, Wisconsin • As part of an effort to understand uses and effects of an Interactive Cancer Communication System (ICCS), the purpose of current study is to explore the relationships between different use patterns and subsequent changes in patients’ health outcomes. By examining different use patterns, this study revealed effective styles of use that are associated with benefits. Both theoretical and practical implications for eHealth research and evaluation are discussed.

Blogs in the Media Conversation: The Knowledge Factor in the Diffusion Process • Nanette Hogg, Carol Lomicky, Ruth Brown and Syed Hossain, Nebraska-Kearney • A content analysis of 1,168 stories in seven media outlets found blogs first mentioned in 2000. The number of stories mentioning blogs tripled every year until 2004 when the rate of increase slowed. Researchers concluded media provided knowledge about blogs as an innovation, consistent with the first step identified by Rogers in the innovation-decision process. Qualitative analysis revealed media generally discussed blogging in positive terms.

Exploring E-gov Online Structures for Citizen Participation • Min Jiang, Purdue • Acknowledging that Internet architecture, far from being value free, are results of deliberate choices, the paper utilizes website content analysis to examine the online structures for citizen participation on 30 Chinese provincial government websites. Their potentials and limits for democratic practices in the neo-authoritarian state are evaluated through a revised UN e-participation framework. Although not implemented to promote democracy, some features of the websites online structures grant cautious optimism for more open and responsible governance.

Creating a Web of Trust and Change: Testing the Gamson Hypothesis on Politically Interested Internet Users • Tom Johnson, Southern Illinois and Barbara Kaye, Tennessee-Knoxville and Daekyung Kim, Southern Illinois • Creating a Web of Trust and Change This study used an online survey of politically interested Internet users to examine the Gamson hypothesis that those who are low in political trust and high in political self-efficacy can be most easily mobilized into political action. Internet users in general were almost equally divided between being an Assured (high in trust and efficacy) and a Dissident (low in trust and efficacy).

Posting and Reading Personal Messages: The Motivation of Personal Blog Use and The Effects of Personal Blog Use on Users’ Loneliness, Belonging and Well-Being in Real Life • Younbo Jung, Hayeon Song and Peter Vorderer, Southern California • The purpose of the current paper is to develop a theoretical model that explains the motivation of personal Blog use (Impression Management, Voyeuristic Surveillance, and Social Comparison) and the effects of personal Blog use on offline life (loneliness, belonging, and psychological well-being). The proposed model for Study 1 (N=73) and Study 2 (N=531) were tested via an online survey of Blog users in Cyworld. Implications based on the findings are discussed.

Influences of Online Chat Use on Social Support and Psychosocial Well-Being • Seok Kang, Arkansas Tech • This study explores the role of disembodiment—telepresence in cyberspace—in online chat use and its effects on social psychosocial well-being. Results suggest that disembodiment in online interaction is a compelling contributor to increased loneliness and depression and decreased social support.

Abandoning Traditional News Media?: Factors Influencing the Time Displacement Effects of Online News • Daekyung Kim and Tom Johnson, Southern Illinois • This study surveys 266 college students to examine which factors, such as reliance, interactive use, motivations, and credibility of online news, predict perceived displacement effects of mainstream, portal news sites, and blogs on traditional news media. The study shows mixed findings and suggests that displacement effects vary by reliance, motivations, and credibility of each online news sites. Discussions about the relationship between online news sites and traditional media are followed.

When the Public Has the Press: An Analysis of Bloggers and Their Blogging Activities in the 2004 U.S • Eunseong Kim, Indiana • This study examines bloggers and their blogging activities during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. The analysis of an online survey of 270 bloggers provides valuable information about bloggers’ weblog activities, their motivations for blogging, political orientation, and the pattern of media use. The findings indicate that bloggers played active roles as information providers (or communicators in the participatory media) and as contributors of civic discourse.

Effects of Cognitive Busyness and Computer Modality on Gender Stereotyping of Computers • Eun-Ju Lee, California-Davis • Two experiments tested the mindlessness explanation for the Computers Are Social Actors paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants played a trivia game with a computer, which they thought generated random answers. They attributed greater competence and conformed more to the male than the female computers, but only when cognitively busy with a secondary task. However, when the computer produced its output in synthesized speech, as opposed to written text, such advantages of the male computer dissipated.

Philosophy and Network Structure: A Case Study of Japan’s i-Mode and Wi-Fi in the U.S. • Hoon Lee and Yong Jin Park, Michigan • This study examines how philosophical outlooks of societies influence the development of network systems. A comparison between i-Mode and Wi-Fi demonstrates that culture, which conspired to either hamper or accelerate the Internet diffusion, influences the configuration of wireless networks in each country. Hierarchical Japanese culture transformed the architecture of the Internet. In the US, the legacy of hacker reanimated grassroots movements toward free Wi-Fi network. Policy implications of technological designs are discussed.

Blog agenda: What did they blog about in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election? • Jae Kook Lee, Texas at Austin • This study investigates the way that political blogs prioritize a variety of public issues in comparison with mainstream media. With an analysis of news coverage of blogs and mainstream media in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, the study found that the priority, or the agenda, of blogs are similar to that of mainstream media. Furthermore, the study found that political blogs cover the election with virtually the same agenda, regardless of their political leaning.

Viewer Privacy over Cable, Satellite, the Internet, and other MVPDs: The Need for Uniform Regulator • Laurie Lee, Nebraska-Lincoln • Television viewers can now watch shows over a variety of distribution formats, including telephone, broadband Internet, and cellular phone, from many multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs). Unfortunately, subscribers also risk their privacy to MVPDs capable of collecting vast amounts of viewing data. Federal laws protect cable and satellite subscribers, but do not necessarily extend to all MVPDs. This paper examines these laws and proposes uniform federal legislation protecting all video consumers regardless of transmission medium.

The Effects of 3G License Fees on the Mobile Markets in OECD Countries • Sangwon Lee, Florida • Over the last several years, a large number of licenses for 3G services have been awarded through various approaches. This article presents an empirical analysis of the potential effects of 3G license fees on mobile markets in OECD countries. The findings herein reveal that 3G license fees have affected mobile prices in OECD countries, which may imply that large initial down-payments have an adverse effect on the growth of 3G services.

The Development of Mobile Television: Examining the Convergence of Mobile and Broadcasting Services • Sangwon Lee and Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, Florida • The convergence of mobile and broadcasting services may deliver a driver for dramatic growth in the telecommunications sector. It is said that Korean DMB system is the most commercially successful mobile television services worldwide today. We explore the factors that influence the development of the Korean DMB market and their implications. It was found that the combination of broadcasting and mobile telephone in the context of mobile television presents a classic case of “complementary convergence.”

Mobile Phone Diffusion in Developed and Developing Countries: Digital Divide, Factor, and Difference • Yang-Hwan Lee, South Carolina • This study identified the exist of digital divide between 23 developed and 54 developing countries in mobile phone diffusion during 1996-2002. In addition, factors that known to the influential affecting ICT diffusion were tested. According to the empirical test, the digital divide in mobile phone diffusion still existed and had been widen. Based on the panel regression, it was found that economy, technology, and regulation factors affected mobile diffusion. Time effect existed, but was minimal.

Predictors of Cell Phone Use as a News Device • Xigen Li, Southern Illinois • Building on the theoretical framework drawn from diffusion of innovation, technology acceptance model and expectancy-value model, this study proposed and tested a model of cell phone use as a news device. Technology functionality, information accessibility and user technology initiative were found to be significant predictors of cell phone use as a news device. Perceived value of information, news reliance and news consumption were not significant predictors of cell phone use as a news device.

College Students’ Use of iPods: Connecting iConsumption to iPiracy • Lisa Marshall, Bowling Green State • The purpose of this paper is to analyze the iPod as a tool of communication for college students and explore connections it has to the Diffusion of Innovations Theory. This paper provides an iPod overview, shows connections to piracy and the theory, and presents findings to a survey completed by 100 college students. Seventy-three percent of students reported they never pay music used on the iPod, seeking ways other than purchase to obtain iPod media.

The Source Cycle: Intermedia Agenda-Setting Between the Traditional Media and Weblogs • Marcus Messner and Marcia Watson, Miami • This study examined the intermedia agenda-setting effects between the traditional media and weblogs based on the use of one as a source by the other. A content analysis of 2,059 newspaper articles was combined with a separate content analysis of 120 weblogs. It was found that the newspapers increasingly use weblogs as sources and that weblogs heavily rely on the traditional media as sources. Thereby, traditional media and weblogs engage in a source cycle.

Online Journalism and the War in Cyberspace: A Comparison between U.S. and International Newspapers • Matt Neznanski and Daniela Dimitrova, Iowa State • The 2003 Iraq War was the first military conflict in which online media played a significant role. This study explores how the Internet was used to disseminate war news and information by comparing a number of international newspaper Web sites (N=791). Through a content analysis, the study shows some differences in the use of Web-specific features such as hyperlinks, animations, multimedia content, and interactive elements. Differences between U.S. and international Web sites are also discussed.

Uses of the Internet by College Students: Implications for Political Involvement • Kristine Nowak, David Atkin, Christian Rauh and Mark Hamilton, Cleveland State • In this emerging online environment, an intriguing avenue for research involves the relationship between Internet use and political involvement. In an effort to fill that void, the present study explores the extent to which college students rely on the Internet as a channel for political information and the influence that such uses have on their levels of political involvement.

Ruling the Cyber-Cities: When the West and the East Walk Together • Yong Jin Park, Michigan • This study examines the moderating role of culture in promoting or curtailing the convergence of online marketplaces. Drawing upon international regime theory, this study challenges the viability of ‘industry self-regulation’ regime that neglects cultural differences in privacy. A survey compared regulatory perceptions of the US and Korean participants. The aim is to explore the nature of a consensus among policymakers and to measure the effectiveness of the policy in its operation.

The Political Shaping of Municipal Wi-Fi Networks: A Case Study of Hermosa Beach • Namkee Park, Southern California • This study examines the role of local government and its impacts on the municipal Wi-Fi networks’ deployment and operation from the perspectives of social/political shaping of technology and path dependency. By employing a case study method, the study investigates the ways in which the network in Hermosa Beach, CA, has been implemented. It uncovers that the role played by local government still matters even in the era of deregulation and privatization in communication technologies.

Information Technology and Information Literacy in Journalism-Mass Communication Libraries: • Patrick Reakes, Barbara Semonche and Fred Thomsen, Florida • The last decade has been a time of sweeping change in journalism education as well as in the research facilities that support it. The management and use of information technology are critical factors in the promotion and development of information literacy within the journalism-mass communication curriculum. This research was undertaken in an effort to investigate information technology use and information literacy programs in Journalism/Mass Communications libraries and to establish a “baseline” for future research.

The Internet Immersion Divide: A Barrier to Inclusive Online Communities • Louis Rutigliano, Texas at Austin • The concept of Internet immersion looks at the relationship between online access and online activities. It considers Internet immersion as a continuum from passivity to interactivity. This paper finds that people who go online more frequently are more likely to use the Internet for interaction and after comparing offline factors such as income to this continuum, this paper presents a new form of digital divide.

Is it More Fun to Kill Other People? Exploring Video Game Enjoyment in a Variety of Game Modes • Mike Schmierbach and Thomas Butler, College of Charleston • Video games exist to provide players with enjoyment, yet little research has explored what makes a game enjoyable. In this study, we consider how college students (N = 102) respond to one of three play modes in a first-person shooter. Enjoyment is fostered by greater excitement and attachment to avatar and lower frustration, all of which points to the importance of engagement or flow. Gaming experience shapes some responses, but game mode has minimal effects.

Online Citizens and Consequences of Internet Use for Political Participation • Daniel Schneider, Stanford • The Internet offers new opportunities for political dialogue and communication with possible implications for political participation. Using data from General Social Survey of 2000, 2002 and 2004 characteristics of Internet users with and without interest in political online content are investigated and the consequences of Internet use for political participation are examined. Results suggest a selection process for use of the Internet and political online content and that Internet use can increase political participation.

Frame-up: An Analysis of Arguments Both For and Against Municipal Wi-Fi Initiatives • Gwen Shaffer, Temple • Dozens of cities plan to build wireless broadband networks. This textual analysis compares documents used to bolster and break down the case for municipal Wi-Fi. It examines how Wireless Philadelphia uses “public good” principles to frame its argument for a potentially massive taxpayer investment, while the telecommunications industry frames city-run wireless networks as “risky” and unnecessary. Contradictions and inconsistencies in these documents highlight how information is manipulated to influence the debate over Wi-Fi policy.

Dear Radio Broadcaster: Fan Mail as a Form of Perceived Interactivity • Charlene Simmons, Tennessee-Chattanooga • In an attempt to learn more about perceived interactivity this study explores the perceptions of broadcast radio listeners. Early broadcast radio provides an interesting example for exploring interactivity because although the medium lacked interactive features millions of listeners perceived that the opportunity to ‘interact’ with radio personalities existed through fan mail. This study examines listener fan mail as well as radio programs to determine whether radio encouraged a level of perceived interactivity.

Political Web sites: An Equalizer for Candidate Gender and Race Disparities? • Melissa Smith, Mississippi State and Barry Smith, Alabama • This study examines the roles candidate race and gender may play in the evaluation of candidates presented via campaign Web sites. Apparent race and gender of a candidate were manipulated while issue information was held constant on a campaign Web site. The candidate’s gender was shown to affect evaluations of the candidate (positively for female candidates). The candidate’s race did not affect evaluations of the candidate.

Blogging for Better Health: Putting the “Public” Back in Public Health • S. Shyam Sundar, Heidi Hatfield Edwards, Yifeng Hu and Carmen Stavrositu, Penn State • Weblogs are a relatively new and unique online communication tool. This paper examines blogs that focus on mental health issues to better understand the function and content of these particular types of blogs. The researchers discuss theoretical issues surrounding technological and psychological aspects of health blogs and employ quantitative content analysis as well as qualitative textual analysis to determine who mental health bloggers are, why they blog, and the nature of mental health blogs.

Framing of Tsunami Bloggers: A Study of Print Newspapers from Four Countries • Renuka Suryanarayan, Ohio • The purpose was to see if blogs had become important journalistic sources in newspaper reporting of the tsunami, 2004. The coverage by the New York Times, the Daily Mail, London, the Times of India, and the Daily News, Sri Lanka, was content analyzed. Two findings were 1) that technology does not change journalists’ routine in Eastern and in Western countries; and 2) that the number of tsunami deaths in a country had no correlation to media salience.

An Experiment Testing the Agenda-Setting Effect of Blogs • Kaye Trammell, Louisiana State • This study explored the agenda-setting effect of communication style and interactivity on blogs among young people. As a multi-cell experiment on undergraduate students, this study exposed participants to blog posts that discuss an issue in 1). an anecdotal manner told from a first-person perspective or 2). report-like manner discussing facts and statistics about an issue. Results confirm the agenda-setting power of blogs, but find mixed results regarding the hypothesized impact of communication style and interactivity.

Credibility and the Uses of Blogs Among Professionals in the Communication Industry • Kaye Trammell, Lance Porter, Deborah Chung and Eunseong Kim, Louisiana State • Communication professionals are beginning to take note of blogs as more turn to them for information and deem blogs “credible.” Using an online survey of professionals in journalism and public relations, this study investigated the use of blogs within the communication industry. Factor analysis revealed simplistic blog use categorizations as being either passive or active. Results also indicate that those who are labeled “high users” in both factors assign more credibility to the medium.

From Yahoo! to AAARGH: Developments in the French Approach Towards Blocking Hate Speech • Bastiaan Vanacker, Minnesota • This paper discusses a recent case in which a French court ordered local ISPs to block certain American Web sites because they violate French hate speech law. It discusses how French courts have dealt with similar issues in the past and compares these approaches with the recent one. It also discusses the technological issues relating to destination ISP blocking brought up by such blocking orders.

Ethical and Strategic Messages: Frames and Learning in a Mixed Media Context • Aaron Veenstra, Ben Sayre, Dhavan Shah and Doug McLeod, Wisconsin • Many people consider strategic framing harmful to democracy because it erodes citizen interest in the democratic process. Our results demonstrate that this is not always the case. Testing the effects of textual strategic frames and video processing in a digital environment, we show that strategic frames may also provide a context that is more conducive to learning in mixed media news environments than that provided by ethical or value frames.

The Diffusion of GIS in Journalism • Ben Wasike, Texas at Brownsville • This study looked at the likelihood of journalists to adopt GIS and the future of the technology’s diffusion in journalism. In-depth interviews and a Web survey were used. Sixty-three percent of reporters were aware of GIS but only 11% use GIS. OLS regression showed that gender, age, and the use of other technologies affect the likelihood to adopt GIS. The availability of map data, competition, and use of secondary GIS products will affect diffusion.

Internet Gratifications, Media Use and Technology Cluster as Predictors of Wi-Fi Adoption • Ran Wei, South Carolina • The Internet becomes portable thanks to Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. However, existing research shows use of wireless Internet was low. This study explores factors predicting adoption of Wi-Fi powered WLAN. Findings show that low level of Wi-Fi awareness is a hurdle to adoption. Results of multivariate analyses indicate that newspaper reading is a predictor of Wi-Fi awareness. The motivations of information learning and social escapism are the strongest predictors of Wi-Fi interest and adoption likelihood.

The Adoption and Use of Mobile Phone in Rural China: Behavioral and Psychological Factors • Lu Wei, Washington State and Mingxin Zhang, Hubei University • Based on a theoretical model adapted from perceived need theory and original diffusion theory, this study demonstrated that both behavioral and psychological factors may significantly predict Chinese rural resident’s adoption and use of mobile phone. The effect of psychological factors, however, is very limited in the prediction of adoption and use of new media technologies, especially in the context of rural society. The relationships among demographic, behavioral, and psychological factors were discussed.

The Big Three’s Prime Time Decline: The Technological and Social Context • Kenneth Wiegand and Douglas Hindman, Washington State • This paper is an analysis of factors associated with the 25 year decline in the prime time shares of the top three television networks. Time series analysis revealed that share decline was associated with multiple video programming distribution (MVPD) penetration. MVPD penetration and network profits were associated with social differentiation, indicating organizational adjustment to the social environment. Findings were discussed in terms of the principle of relative constancy and open systems models of organizational change.

Perception Gaps of Cyber Public Sphere • Xu Wu, Arizona State • The focus of this research is to explore and compare people’s perception of online sphere as opposed to print media sphere and broadcasting media sphere. Nine attributes were summarized from Jürgen Habermas’s original discussions. A comparative survey study was conducted among some 150 undergraduate journalism students in China and in the United States, respectively. Findings exposed significant perception gaps on cyber sphere’s capacity and performance as a genuine public sphere.

Weblogs as Agents of Political Participation: Mobilizing Information in Weblogs and Print Newspapers • Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State • Considering the growing popularity of Weblogs for journalistic use, the present study investigated the possibility that Weblogs could become a catalyst for political participation. Examining Weblogs and print newspapers, this content analysis study found more tactical mobilizing information in Weblogs than in print newspapers. This result suggests that Weblogs can potentially function as an alternative information source that encourages citizens to engage in political activities.

Perceived Anonymity and Online Public Disclosure • Haejin Yun and Robert LaRose, Michigan State • This study redefined anonymity as perceived anonymity based on a critique of previous, pertinent empirical studies. The redefined construct of perceived anonymity adopted the Social Information Processing (SIP) model’s approach to computer-mediated communication (CMC). Two competing models of perceived anonymity affecting online public disclosure – a deindividuation model and a SIP-based model – were built and tested with real online social support community data. The SIP-based model was supported with perceived anonymity negatively affecting public disclosure.

<< 2006 Abstracts