Research You Can Use

Research You Can Use highlights research from AEJMC refereed journals that may interest journalists and others for use in continuing education. Articles are contributed by the editors of AEJMC refereed journals.

Journal of Advertising Education

The Journal of Advertising Education is devoted to research and commentary on instruction, curriculum and leadership in advertising education.

• Enhancing Student Segmentation Skills and Targeting Knowledge

Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs

Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs presents in-depth research on specific topics within journalism and mass communication on subjects ranging from journalism history and personalities to international mass communication.

• Monograph Explores Cultural Politics of Colorism in India
• New study shows how journalism ethics developed

Journal of Public Relations Research

Journal of Public Relations Research provides scholarly criticism of public relations practice, and helps to develop the history, ethics, and philosophy of public relations.

• Partisanship Influences Perceptions of Communications from Government Agencies

Newspaper Research Journal

Newspaper Research Journal comprehensively answers questions about U.S. newspaper performance and related topics of interest, ranging from balance and fairness to the use of computer analysis in newspaper reporting.

• Study Shows the Rise in Use of Online Forums
• Study ranks blogs’ use of traditional media as sources in 2006 election
• The larger a newspaper’s local population, the broader its online market
• Marijuana coverage framed differently in editorials, op-eds
• President had limited framing power in stem cell debate
• Meeting coverage changes with newsroom cutbacks
• Citizen Journalism Sites Complement Newspapers
• Study: Values, Ethics of Sports Reporters Vary by Beat

Journal of Communication Inquiry

The Journal of Communication Inquiry (JCI) focuses on research that examines media and communication from a critical, cultural, and historical perspective.

• Hardt And Negri’s “Empire” Foreshadows Wall Street Protests

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator focuses on learning and teaching, curriculum, educational leadership, and related exploration of higher education within a context of journalism and mass communication.

• No Evidence that Accredited Journalism Schools are Better than Unaccredited Ones
• Nontraditional Online News Media Seek Employees with Adaptive Expertise

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly focuses on research in journalism and mass communication, developments in theory and methodology of communication, international communication, journalism history, and social and legal problems.

• News Paywalls – Should They Cost Less in Poorer Countries?
• Should News Organizations Be in the “Reunion” Business?
• The push for paywalls mischaracterizes the nature of online newspaper readership
• Dimensions of News Media Brand Personality
• Users say participation in news sites’ online forums helps them understand their communities better
• Climate Change and the Belief Gap Hypothesis
• Citizens’ Local Political Knowledge Threatened By New Media
• Viewing Media Coverage of Terrorism Related to Posttraumatic Stress Reactions; Youth Particularly Susceptible
• Science and media disconnect? Maybe not, says a new study

Mass Communication and Society

Mass Communication and Society publishes articles from a wide variety of perspectives and approaches that advance mass communication theory, especially at the societal or macrosocial level.

• Hispanics in Politics
• Why conservatives are a political force in America
• New research finds Fox News exhibited a Kerry bias in 2004 election
• Retaliatory aggression and the effects of point of view blood in violent video games

AEJMC Rescinds 2019 Presidential Award

August 31, 2020

The following statement has been issued by the Board of Directors of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

Recently published information resulting from a journalist’s FOIA request suggests that AEJMC’s 2019 Presidential Award designee Will Norton engaged in communication, including responding to highly questionable communication from a third party, that does not align with AEJMC’s Code of Ethics, particularly two core values:

• Justice: AEJMC members strive for fairness, impartiality, and distributive justice in our relationships with peers, students, and other stakeholders. We celebrate and promote diversity.”
• Caring: AEJMC members act with respect, sensitivity, consideration of others, compassion, and mercy. We try to protect others from abuse and coercion.

In a duly called meeting, a quorum of the AEJMC Board of Directors met with some members of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) Board and, after discussion, the AEJMC board voted to rescind the award.

The AEJMC Code of Ethics is available here: http://www.aejmc.com/home/2011/03/ethics-preamble/

Ways to Get Involved in AEJMC

You are part of a special community!

Make the most of your AEJMC membership using this helpful information.

Presenting research
·        Proposal a panel to a division or interest group (deadline is Sept. 15^th)
·        Submit an individual or coauthored paper to the refereed paper competition (deadline is April 1^st). If accepted, you will present your paper alongside others with similar topics or present in a poster-format at the scholar-to-scholar session.

Attending the conference
·        Refereed research paper sessions (traditional, scholar-to-scholar, high density)
·        Panel sessions
·        Spotlight sessions
·        The exhibit hall
·        The keynote and opening reception
·        Off-site trips
·        Socials
·        Meetings

Serving AEJMC for the conference
·        Reviewing papers for a division or interest group (month of April)
·        Serving as a discussant at the conference (usually one per session, 4-8 papers)
·        Moderating a session at the conference

Serving in longer-term positions
·        As an officer in a division or interest group (usually one year per role)
·        In an elected position

Best Practices by Role for AEJMC Virtual Conference

Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee

Media Literacy as a Way of Living

By Ralph Beliveau
AEJMC Standing Committee
on Teaching
University of Oklahoma

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, July 2020 issue)

We are experiencing difficult challenges as teachers and educators. The pandemic undermines the structure of higher education and demands instantaneous changes to our practices and the time and space relationships of teaching and learning. Secondly, the social tensions connected to race and justice have called on us to rethink how students, staff and colleagues of color have different experiences than white people who have positions of privilege, regardless of any intersectional configuration we may have. Finally, the positions of knowledge, information and media may create less clarity and increase confusion in our culture.

As an advocate for the transformational power of media literacy, I find that the work that I have done with students, colleagues and fellow media literacy scholars is ongoing, immediately vital, and in need of constant care and attention. Media literacy is not something achieved in the rear view mirror. In fact, McLuhan suggested that the rear view mirror is not the best way to move into the future: “When faced with a totally new situation, we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past. We look at the present through a rear‐view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” (McLuhan, Medium is the Massage, 1967).

This will not serve us well as a strategy to think about our present challenges, any more than a completely textual literacy, or a televisual literacy, is a good enough accomplishment (in the rear‐view mirror) to negotiate the present challenges in all their digital splendor.

Media literacy offers a corrective to the distortions that the past imposes on the present. But it only works through a constant state of interrogation and re‐interrogation. The questions we ask (and re‐ask) can be thought of in different ways. Typically, media literacy at any moment adopts a clear‐eyed posture and asks of a media experience:

• Who created this message?
• Which techniques are used to attract attention?
• How might different people interpret this message?
• Which values, lifestyles and points of view are represented… or are absent?
• Why is this message being sent?

We may have asked these questions in the past, about a particular mediated moment, but those answers may not be enough to work in the present. More important, asking these questions needs to be a habit, a way of interacting with the media world of the present moment to gain answers to the questions we face in these recent challenges.

This set of questions represents the deep dive approach. A different approach that comes out of an emphasis on information literacy is less invested in the deep dive, taking a faster strategy that seeks to verify the validity of what we might see or hear —especially before we go about repeating it (reposting, memeing, retweeting, etc.), and even before we consider how we feel about it. This quicker approach suggests you don’t think too hard about the claims you see and hear till you determine its value — is it true, or misinformation, or disinformation? This approach, “The Four Moves,” suggests:

• Check for previous work. (See if someone else has already fact‐checked the claim or provided a synthesis of research.)
• Go upstream to the source (…of the claim. Most web content is not original.).
• Read laterally. (Read what other people say about the source [publication, author, etc.]. The truth is in the network.)
• Circle back. (If you get lost, or hit dead ends, or find yourself going down an increasingly confusing rabbit hole, back up and start over knowing what you know now. You’re likely to take a more informed path with different search terms and better decisions.)

(For more, see Mike Caufield’s free pub Web Literacy for Student fact Checkers, https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/front‐matter/web‐strategies‐for‐student‐fact‐checkers/)

The result is a digitally oriented fact‐checking process that uses the tools available to us individually and collectively to get to that clear‐eyed perspective before we have invested too much time in it.

Either approach brings to our attention and the attention of our students how what we are learning is fundamentally tied to how we are learning. And, again, the process is not once‐and‐done.

For example, one thing we have learned in the recent educational environment is that online is different from face‐2‐face teaching and learning. The change sets up an interesting opportunity for either approach to the higher education experience. How does a program like Zoom, or our Learning Management System design, or our choices about synchronous vs. asynchronous change the teaching and learning experience? And what would students learn from considering such questions?

These are medium choices, and we should subject them to the same kind of critical interrogation that we would use to become, say, media literate about Zoom, or Canvas, etc. Our students are certainly aware, but do they consciously know and talk about that awareness? For example, how does it affect learning to be facing the “Brady Bunch” grid for a class that includes an image of you, the viewer? You can see what you look like while you are trying to learn. What effect is that having?

Now, back to the current challenges. How have we addressed the social world differently in an institution of shared isolation? In the transition, the digital world was full of suggestions from teachers, technologists and even students; don’t do synchronous, don’t make students turn their cameras on, dress professionally for Zoom appearances, don’t use weird backgrounds (which I completely ignore), try not to appear like you are being held hostage, or asleep, or more interested in your cat than you should, etc. But perhaps at some point we can subject the characteristics of the new environment to both types of interrogation suggested above. Learning that understands the health and social consequences of our actions, that takes the deep dive, may prepare us to recognize good and bad scientific or statistical information, perhaps even save lives. Even going through four moves would indicate that sources that blamed 5G networks for Corona virus were sketchy. But then we can interrogate the conspiracy theories, both to see their fact‐free‐ness, and to perhaps consider who gains power when another group feels lost, confused and disillusioned. And what are the characteristics of the social, digital and traditional media that spread the confusion?

We face a different challenge in our classrooms when it comes to racial justice. The murder of George Floyd was the immediate cause for a broad‐based protest movement. As we watch the coverage – mixed between local, national and international mainstream media, as well as live streams on social media of protest activities and police responses – our immediate reactions need to be informed by the history (the rear‐view, if you will). I am finishing these thoughts on the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Our digital environment gives us access to the history that includes that moment, as well as the numerous other incidents of violence against people of color, at a moment where evidence in the digital world is having a new and profound influence. Tulsa 1921 was brushed over and ignored for decades (see https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/5/31/21276084/tulsa‐race‐massacre‐black‐wall‐street‐protests‐george‐floyd, and read Rilla Askew’s novel Fire In Beulah [2001]). We ought to talk to our students about what these videos — this evidence — means, so that mobile phone, body cam, and other witness footage is understood for all of its ethical complication, and its meaning to complex issues of justice.

The world of video evidence is a new and pervasive reality. We need to work hard as educators in real and virtual classrooms to give students the tools to understand the complexities of this environment. Using media literacy practices and habits to empower our students is our calling, because otherwise the advances in technology, the complexity of media economics and the churn of media regulation will be foreign and alienating to them. On the other hand, having different sets of skills to critically interrogate whatever is ahead for us and them may get us in the habit of realizing that media literacy is not a fait accompli but a discipline that we ought to instill in ourselves and our students.

<Teaching Corner

Visual Communication Division

Extended Abstract • Cultural mediation through travel photography in news media • Ivy Ashe, The University of Texas at Austin • This study develops two new conceptual forms of cultural mediation, cultural reassurance and novelty presentation, in order to better explicate the means by which travel media images help shape perception of frequently-visited destinations. Findings show that novelty presentation was far more common than cultural reassurance, standing in contrast to how destinations are written about.

The Myth of American Exceptionalism Yesterday and Today: Robert Frank’s “Fourth of July ” • Christopher T. Assaf, University of Texas At Austin • This paper will examine and analyze Robert Frank’s photograph “Fourth of July – Jay, New York, 1954” through the critical framework of historical close reading as devised and used by Paul Hariman and John Louis Lucaites in No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. The critical framework is grounded in a close rhetorical analysis and compositional interpretation of the photograph included in Frank’s foundational work The Americans in light of the backdrop of the myth of American exceptionalism.

Extended Abstract • Visualizing Citizenry-in-the-Making: Representations of youth protest in Reuters news photography • Elizabeth Bent; Shane Epping • Representations of youth in news media are one of a number of elements contributing to the wider discursive social construction of youth. While current research in journalism studies has explored images of protest and critically explored representations of other socially constructed categories, representations of youth within news discourses remains underexplored. This study applies a youth lens to a qualitative visual analysis of news photographs of worldwide youth protests. Findings suggest that representations of youth protesting future-oriented topics such as climate change are framed more positively and with more adherence to presumptions of “normal youth” activities. Youth are shown to practice their citizenship, rather than actively engage as real citizens in these contexts. The researchers suggest future inquiries into how youth as individuals and as a social category can provide useful insights in journalism studies.

Extended Abstract • Fun in the sun or something more serious?: An analysis of news story visuals about heat waves • Matthew Binford, University of Georgia; Laura Hudgens • While heat waves can be a potentially dangerous weather phenomenon they are often not depicted as such in the images chosen for news stories about periods of extreme heat. The present study used a content analysis to determine the prevalence of varying visual frames associated with news stories about heat waves. It was found that the most prevalent visual frame consisted of people engaging in some type of recreational activity.

Self-Disclosure and Intimacy in Computer-Mediated Communication Differentiating Emojis, Stickers and GIFs • Zhe Cui • This study investigated the differences between emojis, stickers, and GIFs regarding the different levels of intimacy they rose. A between-subject experiment (N = 317) with 4 conditions (text-only, text-emoji, text-sticker, and text-GIF) was conducted on WeChat. Results indicated that using pictorial expressions in computer-mediated communication (CMC) generate a more intimate experience than text-only communication. Moreover, using GIFs rose the highest level of intimacy due to the highest level of self-disclosure in certain situations.

Using subtitles to increase attention to pro-environmental videos on Facebook • Breanna Daugherty; Robin Blom, Ball State University • This eye-tracking study examined the extent to which the presence of a person and subtitles led to more attention to a pro-environmental video on a Facebook newsfeed as well as whether those visual elements were more or less important when study participants were exposed to the newsfeed in noisy conditions. Measuring total fixation duration for the video and total fixation duration specifically for the area of the video depicting subtitles, the results indicated that there was a higher attention to video conditions with subtitles, regardless of noisy or quiet circumstances. Presence of a spokesperson in the video did not lead to differences in visual attention. Overall, this warrants additional research to better understand how visual elements, in particular subtitles, in videos with pro-environmental messages affect visual attention.

Extended Abstract • Identifying Through Visuals: An Analysis of How Social Movements Use Facebook Photos. • Candice Edrington, North Carolina State University • The affordances of technology have changed the way we as individuals and organizations share information, create identification, and build relationships with others. In particular, social movements have used these affordances to their advantages by creating both social media pages to widely disseminate visual information regarding their advocacy and activist agendas. Black Lives Matter and March For Our Lives are two such movements. In consulting the Facebook pages of these movements, it was discovered that BLM uses their Timeline Photos album as a promotional tool while MFOL uses theirs as an informative tool. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications for visual communication and social movement scholars, particularly those interested in digital spaces. These implications provide insight into how visual communicators and other social movements can use different communication channels in ways other than to simply disseminate information, and how visual interactions can engage audiences.

Extended Abstract • Effects of facial recognition technology on perceptions of privacy • Muize Lemboye; Chris Etheridge, University of Arkansas at Little Rock • As facial recognition technologies (FRTs) have become increasingly popular components in today’s globalized society, this project aims to discover people’s perception on its effect on privacy. In-depth interviews were conducted with students and staff at a mid-sized Southern university to explore these perceptions. Findings indicate people typically do not know how their faces and information are used before signing up for online services but are aware that this information is available. The study also showed the privacy concerns people have about using FRTs on social media, applications, and online, the threats FRTs may invoke and the recommendations to protect one’s privacy from FRTs threats. Communication Privacy Management Theory is used to consider how facial recognition technology may impact individual perceptions of privacy.

Extended Abstract • The narrow-minded world in the free atmosphere of Twitter: Exploring the visual narratives and patterns of Personalized Journalism in the Yemen Civil War • Hasan Karademir; Shahira S Fahmy, The American University in Cairo • This preliminary analysis of Yemen war images shared in personal Twitter accounts of Western, Saudi, Yemeni and Iranian journalists, suggest the presence of different narratives and patterns of visual framing by journalists from different backgrounds. Our study here, therefore will contribute to the growing literature on journalistic practices on social media. It will allow for a deeper understanding of the extent and role of Personalized Journalism, specifically in the context of visual reporting on Twitter.

Extended Abstract • Discovering the secrets of successful photojournalism programs during industry decline • Sarah Fisher, University of Florida; John Freeman • When the news industry converted to online news, primarily between 2005 and 2010, major layoffs resulted in fewer positions for photojournalists. Typically, changes in any industry directly influence the demand for higher education programs that prepare students for that profession. Despite the major industry cutbacks, some photojournalism programs are not only managing to retain enrollment and stay afloat but are thriving. This study examines six thriving programs to discover their secrets of success.

Extended Abstract • ‘How the other half lives’ in Chicago: How Jane Addams’ Hull House used photography for reform • Robin Hoecker, DePaul University • This study examines how Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and her Hull House settlement used photography in their advocacy work in Chicago in the late 1800s. It specifically looks at the book Tenement Conditions in Chicago, published in 1901, and compares it to Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives. Hull House largely followed a similar blueprint to Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives. Both projects documented cramped and dirty living conditions, and showed people working from their homes. They also emphasized the architecture of tenement buildings that left residents with little natural light or air flow. Besides showing children and families in squalor, Tenement Conditions in Chicago ends on a positive note by showing clean streets, clean children playing on playgrounds and planted trees on wide streets lined with sidewalks. One possible way to interpret this is through the horizontal leadership structure of Addams’ Hull House settlement, where reformers lived among the poor rather than parachuting in to document them, resulting in a more asset-based approach. Overall, this project expands the traditional canon in progressive-era photography beyond Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine, connecting Addams and Hull House to the history of photography and reform.

Extended Abstract • The Influence of Minimalist Package Design on Beauty Consumers’ Attitudes and Behavior Toward Cosmetic Products • Rachel Matthews; Toby Hopp, University of Colorado Boulder • “This study explored the degree to which various package design schemas influence people’s perception of cosmetic products. We predicted that despite the cosmetic industry’s wholesale adoption of “less-is-more” package design principles, people actually prefer elaborate package designs. The results of an experiment suggested that participants found complex package designs more visually pleasing than minimalistic package designs. Visual attractiveness was subsequently shown to have important implications for factors such as product quality perceptions and purchase intentions.”

Extended Abstract • Appealing to Brand Personification on Social Media: How Do Humanized Graphics and Texts Lead to Consumer Engagement in Brand Communications? • Hyun Ju Jeong; Jihye Kim, University of Kentucky • Brands are increasingly personifying themselves, particularly when they communicate with consumers on social media. Responding to this trend, this study aims to investigate whether and how personified brand visuals on social media fuel consumer engagement in brand communications. Using two online experiments, we examine two major visual strategies for brand personalization: brand graphics (anthropomorphic vs non-anthropomorphic) in a brand post (Study 1) and brand texts (human tone vs corporate tone) in a brand reply to a consumer post (Study 2). In Study 1, we find that the brand post with anthropomorphized brand graphics is more effective in generating the willingness of consumers to engage in brand communications than the brand post without any anthropomorphized brand graphics. Further, this effect is psychologically mediated by a sequence of two social perceptions consumers feel toward brands – perceived brand presence first, then perceived quality of consumer-brand relationships. In Study 2, we find the brand reply using a human tone is more effective in generating consumer willingness of engagement than the brand reply with a corporate tone. This effect is mediated by both a perceived brand presence and a perceived quality of consumer-brand relationships, as well as sorely by a perceived brand presence. While anthropomorphized brand graphics (Study 1) also directly influence consumer willingness of engagement, the human tone in brand texts (Study 2) has no direct impact on consumer willingness of engagement except through mediators. These findings highlight that both visual strategies for brand personification lead to persuasion in favor of brands indirectly through the core psychology of consumers that brands are socially present with them on social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed with specific reference to the strategic use of visual communication for brand personification to foster consumer engagement on social media.

Extended Abstract • It’s so meta: Metacommunicative storytelling on news organizations’ Instagram accounts • Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Dustin Wilson, Creighton University; Emily Gamel, Creighton University; Molly Bohannon, Creighton University • Humans use visual narratives as a primary form of communication. Social media offers new narrative forms, as users add text or filters to photos. Such metacommunication can often alter the intrinsic narratives of a photograph but also result in increased audience engagement. Traditional photojournalism norms state that images should not be altered. This study examines whether metacommunicative news images receive more engagement and whether some outlets are more likely than others to share metacommunicative images.

Extended Abstract • CSR Advertising in Social Media: A Content Analysis of the Fashion Industry’s CSR Advertising on Instagram • Kyeongwon Kwon, Florida State University; Jaejin Lee, Florida State University • This study analyzes how the fashion industry responds to public pressure in terms of sustainability through CSR advertising in social media. The findings from the study indicate that the fashion industry uses strategic framing practices in CSR advertising to highlight their ethical practices to the public. In addition, fashion brands focus on sustainability efforts for the environment and visually communicate their CSR practices through a framework that highlights environmentally friendly messages in CSR advertising.

Extended Abstract • Judging photojournalism: The metajournalistic discourse of judges in two photojournalism competitions • Kyser Lough, University of Georgia • This study investigates how discussions during photojournalism award judging can be used as metajournalistic discourse to gain insight about the definition, boundaries and legitimization of the field. Photojournalism awards shape the field by showing what is valued, but the process of judging can also provide insight. The author carries this out through discourse analysis of publicly-available video of judging rounds from two photojournalism competitions, Best of Photojournalism (BOP) and Pictures of the Year International (POYi).

Extended Abstract • A Critical Race-Visual Communication Analysis of Immigration-Themed Memes • Mia Moody-Ramirez, Title; Emily Guajardo, 2006 • This study employs visual communication and Critical Race Theory (CRT) to study the public conversations that emerged in 2019 in light of the political focus on immigration and the rhetoric surrounding President Donald Trump’s emphasis on building a wall to deter Mexicans from immigrating to the United States. Specifically, it analyzes how individuals used memetic texts to virally spread cultural narratives about Mexicans and immigration. The most popular memes referred to pop culture icons, racial stereotypes and politicians. Findings indicate the most salient themes were primarily political in nature most often referring to Trump either to praise or criticize his administration for its efforts to deter immigration. Memes also included narratives of nativism to indicate Whites were not the first inhabitants of the United States. Study findings are important, as they extend CRT and document how memes are used to promote and counteract messages of hate.

Extended Abstract • A (meta) picture is worth a thousand “clicks”: a biometric analysis of images on Instagram • Lindsay Taele Mariner; Aaron Fitzner, Brigham Young University; Audrey Halversen; Jacob Gibb; Michael Shreeve; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kevin John, Brigham Young University; Rich Johnson, Creighton University • This purpose of this study seeks to explore the types of images that generate key social media engagement metrics. Researchers conducted a biometric analysis of 21 randomly sampled Instagram images. Results indicate that social media images containing metacommunicative elements, as well as narrative themes, increase audience engagement. These findings offer insights into improving social media interactivity.

Extended Abstract • Peering Down at the Junkie: Authority and the Visual Construction in TIME’s Opioid Diaries • Alex Scott, University of Texas at Austin • Focusing on the special issue of TIME entitled “The Opioid Diaries,” this study examines the way drug users are visually framed through both an embodied image making process and a constructed end product. Using a multi-modal analysis, it argues that James Nachtwey’s images created a simplified view of addiction while inserting an asymmetrical power dynamic between the depicted subject and viewer. This study also examines how images can carry and construct discourses of drug use.

Extended Abstract • Ten years of longitudinal research of airliner disaster news photography: The case of The New York Times • Richard Lewis, University of Southern Mississippi; Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Southern Mississippi; Shahira S Fahmy, The American University in Cairo • This study bridges a gap in communication research by conducting a longitudinal visual framing analysis of airliner disaster news photographs. It extends past visual communication research on airliner crashes and other topics involving catastrophe that have attracted the attention of media scholars. We examine how photographs of crashes appearing in the New York Times between 2006 and 2016 were depicted by assessing frequencies of several variables, including subject, region, cause, tone, injury, and damage. We find human interest frames and negative emotion were most prevalent, indicating that empathy is the normal and appropriate viewer response.

Extended Abstract • Comics/graphic news: A spectrum of visual storytelling narratives from realistic to imaginative • Roma Subramanian • Through semi-structured interviews, this study investigated how creator of comics news define their craft and conceptualize their role. Findings revealed that comics journalism exists on a spectrum of visual storytelling practices that vary in their degree of realism. In terms of their professional identify, some participants were hesitant to identify themselves as journalists and used other terms to conceptualize their role, including, cartoonist and documentarian.

Picturing Presidential Power: Gender differences in photographic coverage of the 2019 Slovakian presidential election • Simona Mikušová, Comenius University, Department of Journalism; Wayne Wanta, University of Florida • Photographs published in two Slovakian newspaper were analyzed for gender differences in the country’s 2019 election. Overall, the two main candidates were depicted similarly. The female candidate and eventual winner, Zuzana Čaputová, however, tended to be depicted in more formal poses and with less emotion than her male rival. Thus, while the two candidates were similar on photographic techniques suggesting power, such as camera angles and prominent depictions of faces, the election winner was portrayed as more presidential.

<2020 Abstracts

Participitory Journalism Interest Group

Extended Abstract • A multi-level analysis of commenting’s effects on journalism practice • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; David Wolfgang, Colorado State University • This study examines how allowing reader comments on news stories influences journalism practice. Through in-depth interviews with journalists working at both organizations that perform in-house comment moderation and organizations that employ outside organizations such as Facebook to do moderation, the study aims to illuminate how comments can influence newswork on multiple levels of analysis, all the while decreasing journalistic autonomy. The paper concludes by theorizing how to both protect autonomy while still prioritizing community participation.

Extended Abstract • Citizen News Content Creation: Perceptions on Professional Journalists and the Additive Double Moderating Role of Social Media and Traditional News Use • Manuel Goyanes, Carlos III University; Homero Gil de Zúñiga • Since the emergence and growing popularity of digital technologies and social media platforms, the relationship between professional and citizen journalism has been challenging. In recent years, however, this critical relationship has de-escalated due to a growing collaboration in shaping a complemental news repertoire. This study examines how social and traditional news use and users’ perceptions on professional journalism affect citizens’ news content creation. Based on survey data from Spain, we first find that social media use for news and users’ positive perceptions on professional journalism predict citizens’ news production behavior. Second, social media use for news and traditional media consumption are explored as additive moderators over the relationship of users’ perceptions on professional journalism on citizens’ news content creation, showing a positive significant effect. This study contributes to current conversations on the potential symbiotic association between professional and citizens journalism, arguing that citizens’ perceptual appraisals on professional journalism are key in fostering public’s participation through news content creation.

Extended Abstract • Audience as Boundary Worker: Deconstructing the CNN Live Broadcast from the San Bernardino Shooters’ Apartment • Volha Kananovich, Appalachian State University; Gregory Perreault • Through a textual analysis of online comments in response to live broadcast from the San Bernardino shooters’ apartment, we explore the rhetorical strategies the audience used to assert themselves as legitimate agents of boundary work. Although commenters did rely on established legitimating strategies (e.g., acting as proto-professionals), they appropriated them in distinctive new ways (e.g., by parodying, rather than authentically emulating, the journalistic style), as well as used novel tactics: direct address and rhetorical questions.

Extended Abstract • Ventriloquism as a Communicative Strategy of Journalists on Twitter • Erin Perry, Wayne State University; Ashley Teffer; Crystal Coleman; Subhashini Pandey • This study is a qualitative textual analysis of journalists’ social media engagement regarding a 2019 Lifetime docuseries about R&B singer R. Kelly, who has spent years entangled in allegations of sexual crimes against women and girls. The study analyzes Twitter activity of 401 journalists, news organizations and other profiles affiliated with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution to reveal the six strategies journalists employ during participatory communication on Twitter about a social issue.

Extended Abstract • Comments that hurt. Incivility and offensive speech in online discussion of minority-related news • Magdalena Saldana, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Valentina Proust • This study relies on a content analysis of 1,176 news articles and 4,225 user-generated comments to explore the extent to which news coverage of minority groups fosters deliberative or negatively passionate discussions in online contexts. We found high levels of incivility traits in the public conversation posted to several news topics. Findings indicate marginalized groups are the target of offensive speech at higher rates than other groups. Implications for the discipline are discussed.

Extended Abstract • Seeing 360-Degree: Toward a Framework of Authentic Representation of Indigenous Communities Through Citizen-driven Reporting • Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University; Rian Bosse, Arizona State University; Nisha Sridharan, Arizona State University; Monica Chadha, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University • Literature on how journalism practices attend to Native people’s needs for accurate representation is scarce. Qualitative analysis of 15 in-depth interviews with tribal members illuminates the agentic processes for Indigenous citizen journalists to offer 360-degree authentic representation, empowering indigenous people of various tribal affiliations. 360-degree reporting encourages meaningful interpretations of humanizing Native people, engenders media trust through evoking feelings of relatability and belonging, and strengthens Indigenous identity by foregrounding the focus on peoplehood. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

<2020 Abstracts

Graduate Student Interest Group

The Power of Technology: How Do International Graduate Students at a U.S. University Use Social Networking Sites to Seek Social Support? • Annalise Baines, University of Kansas; Muhammad Ittefaq, University of Kansas; Mauryne Abwao, University of Kansas • College graduate students face new challenges when starting a graduate degree. Besides adjusting to their environment, they cope with financial and academic stress. While previous research has mainly focused on the undergraduate and international undergraduate student population, this study explores how and why international graduate students seek social support using social networking sites. Based on in-depth interviews (N=15) with international graduate students from a large, public U.S. Midwestern university, four major themes were identified from the data: challenges during graduate school, adjusting to a new culture, type of social support depends on identifying with a community, and use of social networking sites for social support. The type of social support (emotional, instrumental, and informational) depends on the affordances of social networking sites and the people who share similar interests join online communities to seek the type of social support they need. More research is needed to help academics and administrators understand and offer online support to this population and alleviate some of the challenges they experience while working toward their graduate degree.

It’s Not Me, It’s You. And That Is OK: Perceptions of Mental Health and Self-Efficacy • Sharon Baldinelli, University of Alabama • Using two common health communication scales, this study provides information about how individuals perceive their own abilities to assist in seeking assistance for mental health care. Participants answered survey questions about their self-efficacy and perceptions of mental health, after watching television clips depicting potential strong mental health image scenes. This study provides a foundation to further research of self-efficacy and potential priming for understanding how these population views their own negotiations regarding mental health.

Extended Abstract • The Impact of Perceived Social Media Body Ideals on Self-Image Fixation and Exercise Tendencies • Max Bretscher, University of South Carolina • This study intends to add to existing research on social comparison, which has primarily focused on movies, television and beauty and thin ideals, by focusing on social media and the growing “muscular” ideal. Findings thus far indicate a motivating factor to engage in exercise when internalizing this body ideal through social media.

Extended Abstract • It’s All About The Money: Commercial Influences in Women’s Lifestyle Magazines • Lydia Cheng • This study examines the extent to which lifestyle journalists from women’s magazines experience commercial pressures, how they handle such pressures, and how economic influences is reflected in the content they produce. Based on interviews with journalists from Singaporean women’s magazines and the textual analysis of the content of these magazines, the results show that commercial influences have increased drastically and has led to changes in the conceptualisation of professional identity and editorial outputs.

Extended Abstract • The Effects of Narrative and Ethnicity on Public Attitudes on Instagram • Sera Choi; Joy Enyinnaya, Colorado State University; Di Lan • This study investigates the impact of narrative message and influencer-audience ethnicity match on message and brand attitude. Two (narrative: non- vs. narrative) x 2 (ethnicity: match vs. mismatch) between-subjects factorial design was employed (N=204). There were main and interaction effects between the variables. A matched ethnicity between influencer and audience was more effective under narrative message, but there was no such interaction effect under non-narrative message on message attitude. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Matters of Partisanship: Perception, Online News, and the U.S.- China Trade War • Shimeng Dai • “A 2 (pro-tariff, anti-tariff) by 3 (The New York Times, China Daily, The Guardian) experimental design was conducted to investigate Americans’ perceptions of the media coverage of the U.S.-China trade war. This study found that left-leaning subjects were typically more anti- tariff and tended to rate the balanced news story to be more credible, while right-leaning subjects were more likely to be support tariffs and tended to determine the same story to be less credible.”

Misinformation Correction and Its Effects: A Systematic Literature Review • QINYU E, University of Tokyo • This study aims to consolidate existing knowledge by systematically mapping and reviewing the four-decade research on misinformation correction and its effects. Through searching topic-relevant bibliographic databases and online resources, we assembled 89 published articles fitting exclusion and inclusion criteria of our review. We analyzed these studies and summarized key trends in this body of research. We found the landscape of relevant research is complex as diverse disciplinary frameworks, theoretical principles, and methodological approaches have been employed. Nevertheless, most of these studies are built upon psychological inquiries and quantitative methodologies. Although this approach presents opportunities to advance relevant practice and research, our receive has identified several theoretical and methodological gaps of current literature. Especially prominent are the lack of investigations on social dimensions of debunking effects, the absence of theoretical insights from qualitative data collection and analysis, as well as the dearth of empirical studies in non-Western societies. Based on these results, we recommend several worthwhile focuses for further exploration.

Extended Abstract • Plagues, Cults, Wars & Apocalypses: Difficult heritage rhetoric and popular culture in COVID-19 memes • Bobbie Foster, University of Maryland Phillip Merrill College of Journalism • A collection of 325 COVID-19 memes were qualitatively coded for the use of difficult heritage as a framing tool for news coverage of the virus pandemic. Difficult heritage is a concept from cultural heritage studies that refers to the preservation or remembrance of difficult events, such as wars, pandemics, and other social struggles. Cultural heritage scholars argue the past is debatable, and is never really the past — this paper explores the use of cultural heritage rhetoric as a framework to understand how individuals use cultural heritage to both frame and create action in the present. Findings suggest war, especially WWII is the most dominate heritage frame used, but that a new emergent category of imagined future heritage is also present – in which individuals discuss how they might frame the current event for future generations.

My country is boycotting NBA, but I don’t care: Effects of brand loyalty, issue involvement, information undesirability and third – person effect on Chinese NBA fans’ boycotting behavior • An Hu, University Of Texas at Austin • Using the Daryl Morey’s tweet, which read “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong,” as a context, this study aims to examine the interplay between the third-person effect – people tend to perceive that media influence others more than themselves – and brand loyalty. Results of an online survey (N = 455) show that Chinese NBA fans perceived that Morey’s tweet news influences those who do not watch the NBA more than themselves. Besides, the brand loyalty toward the NBA is positively related to perceived issued involvement and information undesirability, which are key antecedents of the third-person effect. Moreover, although Chinese NBA fans acknowledged that Morey’s tweet will make others perceive the NBA negatively, they reported to watch more NBA games and are more willing to reveal their NBA fans’ identities in front of others. This study contributes to the third-person effect research by examining whether different levels of brand loyalty can be viewed as social distance, and further can influence the third-person effect. Furthermore, this study also tests whether people will accommodate their own behavior due to third-person effect. More importantly, since an increasing number of foreign brands has been boycotted by Chinese consumers, this research suggests that there is a possibility of keeping both profit and integrity when facing such a crisis. Comparing with seeking forgiveness from the Chinese Communist Party, keeping a good relationship with their consumers and increasing their brand loyalty can help international corporations when facing boycotting crisis in China.

Blue wave as a strategic game frame? • Sang Jung Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Heysung Lee; RAN TAO, UW-Madison; Shreenita Ghosh, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Yibing Sun • This study examines the use of the term blue wave during the 2018 midterm elections. This study confirms that both mainstream and partisan news outlets utilize the term blue wave as a strategic game frame. Partisan news outlets used the blue wave to favor their in-party candidates. This study contributes to journalism studies by illustrating the use of a specific term as a strategic game frame and extending the understanding of the strategic game frame.

Extended Abstract • Oral Health Messages among College-aged Populations • Euirang Lee, Ohio University • This study examined how different types of message appeals (i.e., social- and health-focused) and efficacy beliefs (i.e., self-, collective-, and no efficacy) influenced perceived effectiveness of oral health messages among college-aged populations. The study found that health-focused messages had significantly less psychological reactance, more positive evaluation, higher perceived self-efficacy, and more favorable attitude than social-focused messages. Also, messages with collective-efficacy information showed significantly higher perceived self-efficacy, and more favorable attitude than those with self-efficacy information.

Extended Abstract • Reflecting on Their Role: Former members of Fashion Editors and Reporters Association (FERA) Deconstruct Normative Practices in the Newsroom • Lisa Lenoir, University of Missouri-Columbia • Little research explores the role of fashion editors and reporters and their collective identity. This semi-structured, interview-based study provides insight into the normative practice and roles of these lifestyle journalists, who used to belong to the Fashion Editors and Reporters Association (FERA), an organization founded in the 1970s and disbanded in the 2000s. This examination aims to expand journalism studies scholarship on lifestyle journalism and helpfulness.

Construction of blurred social boundaries on Twitter: Discourse analysis of #JusticeForNimrita movement in Pakistan • Muhammad Masood, City University of Hong Kong • A Hindu girl, Nimrita, was found dead in her hostel room on 16th September 2019 in Pakistan. The incident triggered a deluge of online discussion, trending #JusticeForNimrita on Twitter. Allowing to examine Twitter discourse related to one of the critical social phenomena of Pakistani society, construction of social boundaries for the religious minorities. Discourse analysis of tweets containing #JusticeForNimrita found that using hashtag communication strategy tweeters constructed blurred boundaries for the Hindu community in Pakistan.

Extended Abstract • Factors enhancing interpersonal communication in cross-cultural marriage: A survey studying South Asian-Chinese and Afro-Chinese couples in Hong Kong • Muhammad Masood, City University of Hong Kong; Eugene Yat-him Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Zelalem Jabessa Gabul, Chinese University of Hong Kong • The advancement of communication and transportation technologies offer various means of mobilities and migration opportunities. The mobilities facilitate intercultural marriage among people of diverse cultures, traditions, and values to live under the same shade endeavoring to respond to their socio-economic and other needs. As couples from various backgrounds live together, they likely face challenges in their daily interpersonal communication. This study examines factors enhancing interpersonal communication of South Asian-Chinese and Afro-Chinese couples in Hong Kong.

Masking Justice: Immunity or Impunity? • Michelle Michael • As the world becomes increasingly more dangerous for journalists, many suffer human rights violations and ultimately death. However, the perpetrators evade domestic courts and cover under the umbrella of immunity in foreign courts. This paper explores how foreign official immunity claims are used as impunity to escape jus cogens violations against journalists. It then emphasizes the importance of exercising jurisdiction in such cases to bring justice to those who are killed for exposing the truth.

Lure of the Rural: Urban Audiences’ Consumption of Rural Self-Media in China • Yu Mu, University of Florida • China’s urbanization is not only transforming the physical environment and living conditions for a large population, but it also affects the psychological state and media consumption behaviors. Rural self-media (social media accounts operated by rural users that produce rural-theme content in rural settings) has gained great popularity among Chinese urban audiences. This study proposes a conceptual model that offers a theory-driven explanation for urban audiences’ consumption of rural self-media to facilitate further data testing.

Extended Abstract • Making health social: Effects of health PSA videos on social media • Adriana Mucedola, Syracuse University • In the digital age, social networking sites are an essential tool for health educators to promote and spread awareness about health issues that may be plaguing society. Internet and mobile media, such as social media, offer tremendous opportunities for modifying health because it allows people of all demographics to access health information. The current study examined the effectiveness of health public service announcement (PSA) videos on social media and examined how the heuristics of social media “likes” may play a role in how social media users perceive health messages. To assess how messages on social media are perceived, the present study used an experimental design (N = 272). This study could not find statistical support for the hypotheses that subjects were likely to show more favorable attitudes, self-efficacious behaviors, perceived norms, or intentions when exposed to health messages containing a high amount of social media “likes.” Results indicated, however, that attitudes (F(1, 270) = 162.38, p < .001), perceptions of self-efficacy (F(1, 270) = 347.69, p < .001), and perceived social norms (F(1, 270) = 139.25, p < .001) were related to intentions to exercise, as predicted by the Theory of Planned Behavior. The results of this study indicate that health messages on social media are extremely complex, and deserve future attention in literature.

Extended Abstract • Battling the invisible: Migrant domestic workers’ connections to storytelling networks during public health crises • Jeffry OKTAVIANUS • Guided by the communication infrastructure theory, this study scrutinizes the role of various actors in a vulnerable community’s storytelling network amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Situated against the Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, the interview data with 31 participants revealed that the connections to interpersonal communication, community organizations, and local media offered necessary social supports to cope with the health crisis. However, these relationships also yielded several negative consequences.

Fostering mediated community resilience: An analysis of recovery after the 2019 Jefferson City Tornado • Erika Schneider, University of Missouri • In the aftermath of disasters, communities engage in a state of communal functioning to adapt to a post-event reality. During the 2019 Jefferson City Tornado, the community united in a Facebook group to collectively share information, experiences, and resources. A content analysis of 1,963 posts and comments examined the emergence of community resilience, or the ability to bounce forward, through social media interactions. Implications extend to research in disaster recovery through the social-mediated disaster experience.

Extended Abstract • A Content Analysis of Causal Sex, Social Status, and Substance Use in Teen-Based Netflix Shows • Andrea Smith; Adriana Mucedola, Syracuse University; Sierra Holland, Syracuse University; Kyle Webster • This study examined how causal sexual activity is portrayed in teen-based Netflix original shows, depending on substance use and social status. Analyses revealed frequent problematic depictions of sexual activity, such as coercion and sexual assault. Characters under the influence of alcohol were more likely to have casual sex, while high school social status did not determine whether or not characters engaged in problematic sexual behaviors. The results of this study suggest that teen shows on Netflix can normalize harmful sexual practices.

Within- and Between-Person(s) Emotional Reactions toward Crisis Communication • Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Nahyun Kim, Pennsylvania State University • Adopting both within-person and between-persons approach, the study explored people’s affective dynamics in response to corporate crisis communication. A 2 x 2 x 3 online experiment (N = 381) was conducted using Qualtrics panel. The results showed people felt angrier when the cause of crisis was attributed to an organization compared to individual. In addition, negative emotions appeared to diminish to a greater extent when people read a high-fit post crisis CSR.

Goal disruption and psychological disequilibrium during the outbreak of COVID-19 • Qiyue ZHANG; Jichen FAN • Using panel data from mainland China, this study incorporates uncertainty, information seeking, and social support into the goal disruption theoretical model to examine the indirect influence of goal disruption on psychological disequilibrium through uncertainty and the moderating role of information seeking and social support in this relationship. The results demonstrate that goal disruption causes uncertainty and then leads to psychological disequilibrium. Information seeking can reduce uncertainty and social support can attenuate psychological disequilibrium as well.

Reimagining Networked Authoritarianism: A Techno-cultural Perspective on Citizens’ Co-option in the Chinese Internet Police Reporting System • Lynette Jingyi Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Haibin ZHANG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • “This study proposes a new techno-cultural intertwined perspective to enrich the current theoretical framework of networked authoritarianism and examines Chinese citizens’ new-emerging Internet police reporting practices on China’s biggest microblogging platform Weibo. Findings from content analysis and digital ethnography demonstrate a multidirectional Chinese networked authoritarianism model, where citizens, empowered by digital technologies but disciplined by socio-cultural ideologies, can connectively initiate bottom-up nationalist activism to consolidate regime control via co-option. Implications of the results are discussed.

Extended Abstract • Visual Cues and The Bandwagon Effect: Do Images and Review Votes Make Online Reviews More Credible? • Lina Zhu, Colorado State University • Today, reading online reviews is an important part of consumers’ decision making, whether buying a product at Amazon or going to a new restaurant. Consumers use reviews from other consumers to evaluate products and services before making purchasing decisions. Before online reviews were possible (pre-Internet), customer-to-customer information exchanges regarding products and services solely relied on the Word-of-Mouth (WOM). However, as social media has become more expansive, WOM conversations began shifting to digital space. These digital exchanges are referred to as electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM). eWOM has been criticized for providing fewer social interactions and cues when compared to interpersonal communication. With the goal to create a better user-friendly platform and help users’ decision makings become easier, online review sites have developed a variety of features to overcome the lack of social cues compared to interpersonal communication WOM. This study uses an experimental design to examine the impact of heuristic cue-based features on online review sites. Specifically, this study looks at the impact of images reviewers upload and the number of the review votes on consumers’ perceived credibility of the review, and how perceived credibility affects users’ attitudes and purchase intention towards the reviewed product.

<2020 Abstracts

Sports Communication Interest Group

* Extended Abstract * “Extended Abstract: [Framing COVID-19 in sport: A content analysis of ESPN’s SportsCenter as a first draft of history]” • Travis Bell, University of South Florida; Lauren Smith, Indiana University • An unexpected intersection between health and sport was cemented on March 11, as the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive. This moment was dubbed “the day the sports world stopped.” A content analysis was used to examine how the emergence of and identification of COVID-19 as a global pandemic changed how ESPN’s flagship news program SportsCenter covered and discussed sport over a one-month period.

Parasocial grieving in sports: Examining the online response to the death of Kobe Bryant • James Bingaman, University of Delaware • Although there is a bevy of research acknowledging the existence of parasocial relationships with athletes, it stands to reason that if these relationships are possible then, inevitably, the relationship will dissolve. The emotions associated with parasocial dissolution – especially that of grieving – are integral to understanding the totality of relationships between spectators and athletes. After the devastating death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, a longitudinal content analysis was used to explore the response of fans on Reddit using existing parasocial grieving measures. Results from the study suggest that sadness, memorializing, shock, and reminiscing are the most common emotional expressions of grief. Furthermore, this study suggests that like real relationships, emotional expressions dissipate over time and coping mechanisms like religion increase. Therefore, any study that examines parasocial grieving must do so longitudinally as parasocial grief, like real grief, is a process, not a momentary feeling.

Joining the Athletic: Paradigm repair, metajournalistic discourse and the boundaries of sports journalism practice • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder • Utilizing textual analysis, this article examines the metajournalistic discourse inherent in The Athletic’s “why I enlisted” columns. Through this type of study, it is possible to begin to understand how actors within the field of sports journalism delineate and navigate the boundaries of the profession. This study found that providing time for stories, valuing experience and conducting focused audience engagement are inside the boundaries, while rushed stories, a subpar user experience and overall market-driven practices should sit outside – though they do not at most organization. These findings are then discussed with an eye toward understanding the future of normative journalism.

* Extended Abstract * I hate that F**king School: A Case Study of Fan Behavior on Twitter Among College Football Rivalries • Cody Friesen, Kansas State University • The study examines multiple college sports rivalries and fan interaction on Twitter. Specifically, this study examines the level of civility towards rivals and the concept of glory out of reflected failure using the Barstool Sports student-run affiliates. Preliminary findings identify a significant number of incivility and glory out of reflected failure instances across all accounts, which can inform future studies of individual fan behavior on social media.

Devising a Historical Political Economic Narrative Method: A Feminist Materialist Critique of WNBA Pay Inequity • Christopher Garcia, Florida State University • By using a critical, feminist political economic approach informed by new materialist methodology, this analysis seeks to enrich previous research conducted on representational aspects of sports media coverage of women’s basketball (Banet-Weiser, 1999; Lisec & McDonald, 2012; McDonald, 2012; Messner, 1988; Messner et al., 1993). In particular, this examination seeks to contribute toward building a feminist epistemology that can perceive the intersectional, material experiences generated by the oppressive working conditions faced by WNBA players. Prioritizing the narrative data provided by those who live through the embodied results of the NBA’s inequal treatment of its women’s league within the historical context of the establishment of what was deemed “market rate” for such a product allows one to further deconstruct the naturalized notion of the secondary status of women’s sports. Influenced by Hemmings’ (2005) historiographic approach to feminist storytelling, narratives can be central to critical political economic analysis through historiography’s concern “with the contested politics of the present over the ‘truth of the past’” (p. 118). By expanding the focus of political economic analysis into realms of subjectivity and material experience, this approach seeks to empower counter-resistance narratives created by professional WNBA players while also acknowledging the structural barriers limiting the meso- and micro-level agency of such athletes.

Assumption of Active Audience Assumptions and New Needs: Comparing Consumption Motivations of Esport and Traditional Sport Spectatorship. • Jue Hou, The University of Alabama; Andrew C. Billings, The University of Alabama • In two short decades, the esport industry grew exponentially from small-scale group competitions to billion-dollar competitive spectator events. The resemblance between esport and traditional sport can be observed in multiple aspects, including tournaments, live streaming, corporate sponsorship and more. Using uses and gratifications approaches for theoretical guidance, the present study examines the field of esport in terms of consumption motivation factors and the degree to which esport is similar to or different from traditional sport. Results indicate that communication between fans, the information-seeking need, and intentions to support the industry positively predict esport consumption while family-bonding and informational superiority were negatively associated with esport consumption. Meanwhile, young male fans generally consume more esport contents than others. Applications of uses and gratification approaches in esport are offered, as well as suggestions for esport media coverage and postulates for further development of general consumption measurements.

“It’s Impossible”: Local Sports Broadcasters and the Prospect of Motherhood • Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kirstin Pellizzaro, University of South Carolina; Denetra Walker • Local sports broadcasters work long hours, make little money, and often perform a host of different tasks in the newsroom and out in the field. Add the prospect of also being a mother, the job can seem impossible. A survey of local female sports broadcasters throughout the United States found that the majority of them have delayed starting a family due to their perceptions of work requirements and worry about their employment if they became pregnant.

#Gramming gender: The cognizance of equality on Instagram accounts of prominent NCAA athletic departments • Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Benjamin Burroughs, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • Under the federally mandated Title IX, NCAA athletic departments are directed to strike a balance between gendered sports. This study examines how gender is represented on the Instagram accounts of prominent NCAA athletic departments. Findings indicate mixed results: female athletes, when showcased, receive similar promotional efforts as their male peers; their athleticism is highlighted; and fan engagement metrics are as high as male sports. However, female athletic achievements are overwhelmingly underrepresented, suggesting equality is still deficient.

Occupational and job sex segregation in sports information: A 10-year Update • Charli Kerns, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee, Knoxville • Findings from this study, a 10-year update to work done by Whiteside & Hardin (2010), show some improvement in sex segregation at both the occupational and job level in sports information, but reveal a profession that still appears to be highly organized around gender lines in ways that may contribute to women’s comparatively low career longevity and salary compared with men. The authors situate the findings in the context of contemporary gender narratives, and offer suggestions for change in the conclusion.

From #EndtheStigma to #RealMan: Responding to Athlete Mental Health Disclosures • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Andrew C. Billings, The University of Alabama; Samuel Hakim; Patrick Gentile • A number of professional athletes have used social media to disclose personal experience with mental illness, including NBA All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love in 2018. The disclosures could serve to challenge the stigmatization of mental illness, given the positive social standing of professional athletes and the potential power of parasocial relationships in health promotion and behavior. The present study quantitatively examined 3,366 fan responses to the mental health disclosures of both athletes, unpacking the extent to which fan commentary perpetuated or challenged the stigmatization of depression and anxiety. Fans provided overwhelmingly positive response to the athletes’ mental health disclosures, creating a normative environment in which disclosure translated into acceptance rather than rejection. While more frequently offering messages of advice and strength to DeRozan, fans were more likely to offer messages of encouragement and personal experiences with mental illness to Love.

Journalism from a Sports Perspective: Field Theory and the re-defining of digital practices of sports journalists • Gregory Perreault; Travis Bell, University of South Florida • As with many niches of journalism, sports journalism has needed to adjust to changes within the technology of the field. Through the lens of field theory, the present study reports on long-form interviews with 46 sports journalists who self-defined their work as digital journalism. This study argues that the digital turn in the industry, and the resulting adjacent fields represented in team and player media, has caused division on the very definition of the field.

* Extended Abstract * Game Time or Not? Behavioral Predictors of Sports Brand Engagement on Social Media • Matthew Pittman, University of Tennessee; Brandon Boatwright • The following survey (N = 450) takes a modified uses and gratification approach to explore the nexus of sports fandom, social media use, and advertising engagement. We assess how sports fans use social media to follow their favorite teams. Next, we use regression analyses to determine the extent to which these behaviors predict ad preference. Initial results indicate checking scores during the game and reading commentary generally predict a willingness to engage sports ads on a platform.

Conquering Boys’ Clubs Using Issues Management: How Women’s Soccer May Pioneer Paths to Pay Equity • Terry Rentner, Bowling Green State University; David Burns, Salisbury University • The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, 2019 Women’s World Cup champions, recently challenged their management power structure for equal rights by suing their governing body for gender discrimination. This classic labor vs. management dispute created a case study that will be studied for decades. Using Issues Management as its foundation, this paper analyzes the case and then recommends how organizations can apply strategic communication strategies to all stakeholders to address controversial issues like pay inequity.

* Extended Abstract * Celebration or Something More?: Press Coverage of the 1992 Chicago Bulls Riot • Brandon Storlie, University of Wisconsin-Madison • June 14, 1992, brought the Chicago Bulls their second consecutive National Basketball Association championship. It also sparked one of the most infamous episodes of sports-related violence in American history. Yet for all its newsworthiness, the riot presented a problem for journalists, who struggled to find a clear-cut way to frame the event. While reporters failed to construct a single, dominant narrative, the varied approaches to coverage reflected the event’s complexity, intertwining celebration with racial tension.

* Extended Abstract * Players as Public Health Prompts: Celebrity Athlete Influence During the COVID-19 Pandemic • Nathan Towery, The University of Alabama; Andrew C. Billings, The University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama • Celebrity athletes played an important role in public health promotion as the COVID-19 pandemic struck the U.S. People affiliated with sport shared information with social media followers, interviewed public health officials, solicited donations, and helped amplify the work of medical professionals. Simultaneously, other athletes belittled public health efforts by sharing misinformation and trivializing the gravity of the illness. In this project, we examine how athletes and coaches helped and hindered public health attitudes and behavior.

Framing the Changemakers • Eryn Travis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania • In 2019, the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) won a historic fourth FIFA World Cup Championship and global attention for its players efforts to change soccer’s status quo by fighting for equal treatment of female athletes. Yet, the USWNT was not the only organization calling for or impacted by change. Changes in the amount of global viewership for the Women’s World Cup and the level of international play were also hot topics in popular media during this time. This study employed a thematic analysis to examine how U.S. journalists framed topics related to change during the weekend of July 5, 2019, to July 8, 2019, a time period that included the final FIFA World Cup match on July 7, 2019 between the United States and The Netherlands. The study yielded three distinct coverage themes related to change: 1) winning the “American Way”; 2) the evolution of the team’s personality; and 3) the team’s impact on perceptions of women’s soccer.

<2020 Abstracts

Small Programs Interest Group

State of DataViz and Data Storytelling Education in Journalism and Communication Programs: An Exploratory Study • Masudul Biswas; Carrie Sipes • Utilizing multiple methods – survey, document analysis and email interviews – this exploratory study has assessed the state of data visualization and data storytelling education in 27 U.S. communication and journalism programs. The findings of this study reflect how these courses are offered by various types of programs, i.e. accredited vs. non-accredited programs, large vs. small programs, what topics and tools are taught in these courses, how students’ learning outcomes are assessed, what challenges the course instructors encounter, and what teaching strategies they find effective.

Mindfully Preparing Generation Z Undergraduates for Communication Workplace Realities • Doug Swanson, California State University, Fullerton • The communication professions offer today’s college students a future with many potentially rewarding career opportunities. At the same time, employers continue to express concern about college graduates’ preparation for the realities of entry-work. This is particularly true for Generation Z, a demographic group noted for vastly different values and soft skill deficiencies as compared to college students of the recent past. This paper takes the position that much of what appears as poor conceptual preparation may actually be a lack of mindful awareness by students. Seven best practices recommendations are presented that faculty could use to integrate secular mindfulness concepts within higher education instruction. The recommendations, especially relevant for small enrollment programs, could help educators enhance communication students’ career preparation so students can enter the professional world not only knowing what to do but how to think about the doing.

<2020 Abstracts