Newspaper and Online 2017 Abstracts

OPEN COMPETITION
News Dynamics, Frame Expansion and Salience: Boko Haram and the War against Terrorism • Ngozi Akinro, Texas Wesleyan University • This study considers frame salience and frame change in relation to terrorism coverage. Through content analysis of 807 news articles by Nigeria Vanguard and Punch and two US newspapers; New York Times and Washington Post on the coverage of the Boko Haram crisis over 16-month period, this study examines change patterns in the coverage of the Boko Haram crisis. The Boko Haram group is an Islamic fundamentalist group operating out of north-eastern Nigeria since 2002. The group claims international ties with other terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda and ISIS (Alkhshali & Almasy, 2015). The group is responsible for nearly half of all civilian deaths in African war zones in 2014. This study considers episodic and thematic framing through a two dimensional frame changing pattern and found frame movement from issue specific framing to thematic suggesting humanitarian and emotional appeal, to global perspective focused on the war on terrorism.

Mediated Policy Effects of Foreign Governments on Iraqi Independent Media During Elections • Mohammed Al-Azdee, University of Bridgeport (UB) • I use the term, mediated policy, to refer to messages sent to Iraq by foreign governments through their international news media during the 2010 Iraqi elections. I hypothesize that US Mediated Policy, Iranian Mediated Policy, and Saudi Mediated Policy are latent constructs interacting in a structural model, affecting a fourth latent variable, Iraqi Independent Media. The analysis shows in 2010 English was barrier to Iraqi independent media, and significant mediated policies influenced Iraqi independent media.

The Effects of Disclosure Format on Native Advertising Recognition and Audience Perceptions of Legacy and Online News Publishers • Michelle Amazeen, Boston University; Bartosz Wojdynski • This experimental study examines elements of native advertising disclosures that influence consumers’ ability to recognize content as paid advertising and contrasts subsequent evaluations of legacy and digital-first publishers with those exposed to online display advertising. Although fewer than 1 in 10 participants were able to recognize native advertising, our study shows that effectively designed disclosure labels facilitate recognition. However, participants who did recognize native advertising had lessened opinions of the publisher and the institution of advertising, overall.

“Alphabet soup”: Examining acronyms in newspaper headlines • Alyssa Appelman, Northern Kentucky University • American journalism is facing an uphill battle for respect and trust. Through a content analysis and survey, this project suggests acronyms as a potential explanation. Acronyms in a local newspaper were largely unknown to a sample of target readers, and one-third of participants specifically expressed negative emotions, including frustration and annoyance, when news outlets publish unknown acronyms. These findings suggest that focusing on reader comprehension over brevity can help journalists repair their public image.

Who Gets Vocal about Hyperlocal: The Role of Neighborhood Involvement and Status in the Sharing of Hyperlocal Website News • Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; Liefu Jiang, University of Kansas; Laveda Peterlin, University of Kansas; Nathan Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point • To examine who shares hyperlocal news in person, over email, and through social media, a reader survey of seven hyperlocal news websites was conducted (n = 1,880). More readers share hyperlocal news in person than through email or social media. Higher neighborhood involvement and education tend to characterize readers who share hyperlocal news. Education moderates the relationship between neighborhood involvement and social media sharing. The study extends precepts of channel complementarity and communication infrastructure theories.

An Investigative Journalist and a Stand-Up Comic Walk Into a Bar: The Role of Comedy in Public Engagement with Environmental Journalism • Caty Borum Chattoo, American University School of Communication; Lindsay Green-Barber, The Impact Architects • An investigative journalism project focused on environmental contamination in New Jersey, Dirty Little Secrets, worked with stand-up comics to translate investigative content into stand-up comedy routines performed in front of a live audience. Through a quantitative survey administered after two live comedy shows, this study finds that the public learned factual information, perceived comedians as credible, and expressed willingness to get involved in the core issue. Implications for public engagement with investigative journalism are discussed.

Service at the intersection of journalism, language, and the global imaginary: Indonesia’s English language press • John Carpenter, University of Iowa; Brian Ekdale, University of Iowa • Drawing on interviews with journalists who work in Indonesia’s locally owned and operated English-language press (ELP), we argue English’s status as the language of global and regional imaginaries informs how ELP journalists negotiate their understandings of public service. This study contributes to research on the contextual negotiation of professional ideologies of journalism by considering how publication language—here, English in a country where it is a foreign language—shapes the ways journalists conceive service to their various publics.

Framing Drunken Driving as a Social Problem • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Shih Hsin University • This study content analyzed how drunken driving was framed in Taiwan’s local press in terms of the social determinants. Findings suggest that the coverage was highly negative and episodic substantiated largely by the predominant uses of convenient social actors. In contrast, public health advocates, academics and interest groups that can guide the reporting toward more thematic were barely used to present the causal factors and public policy as health determinants. Implications from the finding are elaborated.

Gaming the News: Examining the Effects of Online Political Quizzes on Interest in News and Politics • Gina Chen; Yee Man Margaret Ng, The University of Texas at Austin; Victoria Chen, The University of Texas at Austin; Martin J. Riedl, The University of Texas at Austin • This study sought to understand whether people’s exposure to online quizzes about politics could pique people’s interest in news and politics. An online experiment (N = 585) showed that exposure to quiz questions about politics directly increased people’s perception of their own political knowledge. In addition, exposure to political quizzes indirectly lead to increased interest in politics and intention to get politically involved as well as boosted interest in political news.

Connectivity with a Newspaper and Knowledge of Its Investigatory Work Influence Civic Engagement • Esther Thorson, Michigan State University; Weiyue Chen, Michigan State University; Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University • A survey of residents in the Florida Times-Union (T-U) market showed that both digital and print exposure to the newspaper’s content predicted positive attitudes about civic engagement, as mediated through news interest and perceptions of personal connectivity with the T-U. These attitudes predicted civic engagement behaviors such as volunteering and talking to others about community issues. T-U readers showed higher knowledge of major investigative projects the newspaper had done than those exposed to television news.

Tripling the Price and Wondering Why Readership Declined? A Longitudinal Study of U.S. Newspapers’ Price Hikes, 2008-2016 • Iris Chyi, University of Texas at Austin; Ori Tenenboim, The University of Texas at Austin • Since the recession U.S. newspapers have increased the price of their print product substantially. While price is a major determinant of consumer demand, circulation trends are often reported out of context, leading to misinterpretations of reader preference. This longitudinal study examines 25 major newspapers’ print price and reveals that subscription rates nearly tripled since 2008, indicating readership declines are partly self-inflicted. Analysis of readership data suggests stronger-than-expected attachment to print. Managerial implications are discussed.

PolitiFact Coverage of Candidates for U.S. Senate and Governor 2010-2016 • Joan Conners, Randolph-Macon College • This study explores PolitiFact fact-checking coverage for potential patterns of ideological bias, the types of claims being examined, as well as where such claims originate in claims about political candidates for the U.S. Senate or Governor in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. Republican candidate claims were judged to be less accurate than claims by Democratic candidates. Candidate claims that attacked one’s opponent were found to dominate PolitiFact coverage, and were frequently found to be inaccurate.

A movement of varying faces: How “Occupy Central” was framed in the news in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, the U.K., and the U.S. • Y. Roselyn Du, Hong Kong Baptist U; Fan Yang, UW – Madison; Lingzi Zhu, Hong Kong Baptist U • News stories concerning the “Hong Kong Occupy Central” crisis were analyzed to define how the events were framed in the U.K., the U.S., mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Framing was analyzed in terms of selection and description biases, including news perspective, favorability toward the protesters or the government, sourcing pattern, and attribution of responsibility. The results show significant differences among the five markets, not only between contrasting media systems, but also between comparable ones.

Fighting Facebook: Journalism’s discursive boundary work with the “trending,” “napalm girl,” and “fake news” stories of 2016 • Brett Johnson, University of Missouri; Kimberly Kelling • “Facebook is challenging professional journalism. These challenges were evident in three incidents from 2016: the allegation that Facebook privileged progressive-leaning news on its Trending feature; Facebook’s removal of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Napalm Girl” photo from the pages of prominent users; and the proliferation of fake news during the U.S. presidential election. Blending theoretical concepts from the field of boundary work and platform ethics, this paper examines how the Guardian, New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter editorialized Facebook’s role in these three incidents to discursively construct the boundary between the value of professional journalism to democracy and Facebook’s ascendant role in facilitating essential democratic functions. Findings reveal that with all three stories, these publications attempted to define Facebook as a news organization (i.e. include it within the boundaries of journalism) so that they could then criticize the company for not following duties traditionally incumbent upon news organizations (i.e. place it outside the boundaries of journalism).

Misconception of Barack Obama’s religion: A content analysis of print news coverage of the president • Joseph Kasko, SUNY Buffalo State • This study examines the interaction between public opinion and media treatment of Barack Obama’s religious beliefs, which he is Christian. Yet, only 34 percent of Americans said that they believed Obama was a Christian in an August 2010 Pew Research poll. That was a 14 percent decline from a Pew poll the previous year. This study uses second-level agenda setting to explore if the media contributed to the misconception about his religion.

Fake News, Real Cues: Cues and Heuristics in Users’ Online News Credibility Judgments • Kate Keib, Oglethorpe University; Bartosz Wojdynski • Two experimental studies sought to identify cues and heuristics used by consumers to assess online news content from an unknown source, and what influence these factors have on credibility assessments. Results show that on-page design cues including writing style, pictures and advertisements influence credibility assessments, and these cues do garner attention and influence such assessments. Practitioners can use on-page cues to build credibility among customers. The cues and heuristics identified warrant future research by scholars.

Differences in the Network Agendas of #Immigration in the 2016 Election • Jisu Kim, University of Minnesota -Twin Cities; Mo Jang, University of South Carolina, Columbia • “As an application study of the network agenda-setting model, this study examines how the media and public network agendas can differ, based on which political candidate was mentioned along with with the immigration issue in news coverage and in public tweets. Through network analyses, this study shows that there were differences in the salient attributes of the immigration issue, and that the dominant narrative structure of the issue depended on which political candidate was mentioned.

The Imagined Audience for and Perceived Quality of News Comments • Jisu Kim, University of Minnesota -Twin Cities; Seth Lewis, University of Oregon; Brendan Watson, Michigan State University • “A survey of news commenters’ perceptions of the quality and potential audiences for comments on news websites and Facebook found similar perceptions of quality and civility across platforms. But Facebook commenters were more likely to imagine friends among their audience, compared to politicians and journalists on news websites. Based on the imagined audience for comments, Facebook is not an equivalent substitute for commenting on news websites. Implications for journalism and future research are discussed.

Does Working Memory Capacity Moderate the Effects of Regulatory Focus on News Headline Appraisal and Processing Speed? • Yu-Hao Lee, University of Florida • News consumers regularly scan news headlines before devoting more efforts to reading the content. During this stage, news consumers may use their intuitive responses to the headlines to determine if the news sounds interesting and is worth reading. This study examines how individuals’ regulatory focus orientations affect their appraisal of news headlines and the moderating role of working memory capacity on appraisal score and speed. One hundred and two undergraduate participants performed a news appraisal task in which they gave a score to headlines that used either a gain-frame or a loss-frame. The results showed that promotion-focused individuals gave higher scores to gain-framed headlines, and individuals with lower working memory capacity relied on their regulatory focus more during headline appraisal. However, there was no significant effect on loss-framed headlines. The study has theoretical contributions to understanding the psychological mechanism behind headline scanning and cognitive processing. It also has some practical implications for news editors on how to tailor headlines to individuals’ regulatory focus.

Contest over Authority: Navigating Native Advertising’s Impacts on Journalism Autonomy • You Li • This study analyzes the discourses of 10 U.S. news organizations’ integration of native advertising across five years. The findings map three stages of integration ranging from sharing editorial space, editorial resource to editorial staff, exemplifying the renegotiation of the business-journalism boundary at the structural, procedural and cultural levels. The pro-native advertising discourse legitimizes the integration as extending journalistic quality to advertising, while in fact impedes journalistic autonomy both internally and externally.

All Forest, No Trees? Data Journalism and the Construction of Abstract Categories • Wilson Lowrey; Jue Hou, Universtiy of Alabama • This study takes a sociology of quantification approach in exploring the impact of “commensurative” processes in data journalism, in which distinct incidents and events are aggregated into oversimplified abstract categories. This literature predicts heavy reliance on government data, use of national over local data, and a tendency to take data categories at face value, without scrutiny. Findings from a content analysis of data journalism projects at legacy and non-legacy outlets over time, reveals some support for predictions.

Picturing the solution? An analysis of visuals in solutions journalism • Jennifer Midberry; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon • Solutions journalism, rigorous and fact-driven news stories of credible solutions to societal problems, is gaining a great deal of momentum. To date, research on this journalistic practice is scant and what little research there is has generally focused on text. Given the growing practice of solutions journalism and the dominant role of photographs in the news media, this research used content analysis and semiotic analysis to examine the use of visual reporting in solutions stories.

Looking at past and present Intermedia agenda-setting: A meta analysis • Alexander Moe, Texas Tech University; Yunjuan Luo, South China University of Technology • The purpose of this study was to explore one important phase of agenda-setting research that looks at who sets the media agenda using rigorous meta-analysis approaches. The researchers drew upon empirical intermedia agenda-setting studies from 1990 to 2015. A total of 17 qualified studies included in the final analysis produced homogeneity, and the weighted grand mean effect size for those studies was .713, indicating consistent and strong intermedia agenda-setting effects in the findings across a range of studies. The results also suggest a convergence of media agendas despite an increasing number of different media outlets with the development of new media technologies.

Social media echo chambers: Political journalists’ normalization of Twitter affordances • Logan Molyneux, Temple University; Rachel Mourao, Michigan State University • This study analyzes the content of tweets sent by 784 political journalists during the first 2016 U.S. presidential debate. It finds that journalists most often interacted with each other, almost to the exclusion of audience members. Newer affordances of Twitter including quote tweets and reply threading are not as normalized as older affordances, and journalists used them in differing ways. Also, journalists’s tweets mentioning policy issues tended to be retweeted, whereas those containing humor did not.

Disrupting traditional news routines through community engagement: Analysis of a media collaboration project • Jennifer Moore, University of Minnesota Duluth; John Hatcher, University of Minnesota Duluth • This research examines the impact of a community storytelling project designed to disrupt relationships between news organizations and their audiences. Informed by scholarship on the changing role of journalists as facilitators rather than gatekeepers of public discourse, community engagement methods were used to study this two-year storytelling project. Ripple Effect Mapping (REM) methods measured its impact. Findings reveal that traditional news media deviated little from established journalism routines while citizens participation was diverse and expansive.

The Small, Disloyal Fake News Audience: The Role of Audience Availability in Fake News Consumption • Jacob Nelson, Northwestern University; Harsh Taneja, University of Missouri • Fears of fake news stem from two assumptions: that fake news consumption has grown widespread, and that it reaches an audience that spends little time with news and is thus more susceptible to false claims. However, prior audience behavior research suggests that light media users disproportionately gravitate towards established, popular brands, while heavy users visit both familiar and obscure fare. This paper examines online audience data in the months leading up to and following the 2016 presidential election to empirically analyze whether or not these long-observed patterns of audience behavior play out when it comes to fake news. We find a positive relationship between time spent online and fake news exposure, indicating that the fake news audience comprises a small group of heavy internet users. In doing so, we offer a more accurate portrait of the fake news audience, and contribute to the ongoing conversation about fake news’ reach, and its consequences.

Covering Pulse: Understanding the lived experience of journalists who covered a mass shooting • Theodore Petersen, Florida Institute of Technology; Shyla Soundararajan, Florida Institute of Technology • “The June 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub near downtown Orlando, Florida, provided a real challenge to local media. This qualitative study includes in-depth interviews with Central Florida print, television, and radio journalists to understand what it was like to cover such a tragedy. These journalists talk about ethics, sourcing, violence, and mental health.

Gender Profiling in Local News • David Pritchard, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Emily Wright, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • A content analysis of five weeks of staff-written stories in all sections of a large daily newspaper in the American Midwest (n=954 stories) tested a variety of hypotheses relating to patriarchal practices in journalism. The empirical results supported all hypotheses, documenting gendered practices both at the level of the individual journalist and at the level of the organization. Although gender profiling of the kind the research demonstrates are widely considered to be normal and natural in American journalism, the authors argue that such profiling not only reflects patriarchy, but reinforces it. By downplaying women’s contributions in social, economic, political, and cultural realms, patriarchal journalism diminishes democracy.

When journalists think colorful but their news coverage stays grey. Exploring the gap between journalists’ professional identity, their role enactment and output in newspapers. • Patric Raemy, University of Fribourg, Switzerland; Daniel Beck • The aim of this study is to explore the connection between professional identity of newspaper journalists, their perceived freedom of reporting and their role performance in a multi-language country and a Western European context. We combine a content analysis of news coverage with an online survey among the authors of these articles. It is an exploration of the gap between journalistic role perception, enactment and performance as well as of the methodology of analysis.

Whose tweets do you trust? Message and messenger credibility among mainstream and new media news organizations on Twitter • Anna Waters, University of Alabama; Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • Gauging message and messenger credibility has become even more complicated as more people consume media from social media instead of traditional channels. This experimental survey of young adults compared credibility of mainstream and new media, using the same messages on Twitter. Mainstream sources and their messages were considered more credible than new media sources. Media skepticism had a significant effect on perceived message and messenger credibility; political cynicism did not.

Listicles and the BuzzFeed Generation: Examining the Perceived Credibility of Listicles Among Millennials • Sean Sadri, Old Dominion University • Listicles are a new media phenomenon that have become a staple of virtually every news organization (articles that are simply lists or rankings and offer arguably less substance than a traditional article). This study sought to determine the perceived credibility of listicles among the age group most inclined to read them (millennials). Examining the appeal of listicles can provide insight into the direction that news may be going for the next generation of news readers. Using a sample population of millennials (N = 363), participants were randomly assigned to read an article in one of two formats: a listicle or a traditional article. Following the article, participants were given a questionnaire rating the credibility of the article and another asking participants to recall facts from the story. The experiment found that millennials rated the listicle as significantly more credible than the traditional article. The study also hypothesized that millennials may retain more information from a well-constructed listicle than a traditional article containing the same information, but this hypothesis was not supported. The study results and the implications of these findings are discussed.

Exploring the “wall,” Bible and Baphomet: Media coverage of church-state conflicts • Erica Salkin; Elizabeth Jacobs • This study seeks to build upon previous research on media coverage of law and faith by exploring newswork related specifically to church-state conflicts. Qualitative content analysis of coverage around two case studies reveals a broad assumption of audience familiarity with key constitutional and religious ideas. When scenarios venture into the unique, however, explication does emerge, suggesting that some lack of legal or religious depth may be attributed to a belief that audiences don’t need it.

Alienating Audiences: The Effect of Uncivil Online Discourse on Media Perceptions • Natalee Seely, UNC-Chapel Hill • Online discussion forums offer news consumers venues for expression and participation, but these forums have also been condemned for offensive and uncivil language. Some news outlets have required users to register with identifying information before commenting in an effort to keep conversation civil. Others have discontinued discussion forums altogether for fear of losing credibility or turning off readers. Previous literature has identified several forms of incivility within comment forums, including insulting language, stereotyping, and vulgar speech. This study used a one-way experimental design to determine the effects of uncivil language within online news comment forums on participants’ (n=198) perceptions of news credibility, their willingness to participate in the discussion, and their levels of media trust. Results indicate that those who read a news article accompanied by uncivil comments—which contained insulting language and stereotypes about various groups—were significantly less willing to participate in the discussion compared to those who viewed neutral comments. No significant differences in credibility perceptions or media trust were found. Findings demonstrate that offensive speech in online forums may have a chilling effect on participation in news discussion.

Anonymous Journalists: Bylines and Immigration Coverage in the Italian Press • Francesco Somaini, Central Washington University • This study investigated the relationship between news coverage of immigrants and refugees and identifiability of stories’ authors in the two daily newspapers with the largest circulation in Italy: Corriere della Sera and la Repubblica. The content of 400 news stories published in 2013 was examined. The data showed that the outlets produced comparable shares of “anonymous” and “signed” stories. Corriere della Sera, the more conservative outlet, provided consistently more negative representations of immigrants than la Repubblica, more liberal, did. However, in the left-leaning daily, articles that carried no byline—i.e., whose author was identifiable neither as a journalist nor as a wire service—tended to portray immigrants and refugees more negatively than stories carrying a byline did. Conversely, degree of antipathy for migrants expressed in online comments did not vary in relation to byline. However, readers of Corriere expressed more antipathy for immigrants than those of la Repubblica did. The findings suggest that anonymity might be associated with more frequent stereotypical representations of immigrants even in news outlets that are considered more liberal.

Knowledge-based Journalism in Science and Environmental Reporting: Opportunities and Obstacles • Anthony Van Witsen, Michigan State University; Bruno Takahashi, Department of Journalism, Michigan State University • Recent calls for knowledge-based journalism advocate a new level of scientific knowledge in news reporting as a way of meeting the professional challenges caused by rapid technological change in the news industry. Scientifically knowledgeable journalism has the potential to redefine the existing science-media relationship; however early criticisms called it naïve and unworkable in existing, rapidly changing newsroom practices. This study attempts to go beyond the initial enthusiasm and the skepticism to develop a better theoretical basis by which knowledge-based journalism could function, how reporters and editors could learn it, and what audience might exist for it. It examines the history of earlier professional reform efforts in journalism to discover why new practices have sometimes been adopted or abandoned. It finds that implementing knowledge based journalism requires knowing the actual benefits of improved scientific understanding for news consumers and poses research questions designed to lead to testable hypotheses for developing it and measuring its impact on audiences. Among its conclusions: that increased scientific training by reporters might increase journalists’ grasp of the traditional problem of managing scientific uncertainty, changing the information asymmetry between journalists and their scientist sources and altering the balance of power between them. Over time, this could affect the audience’s tolerance for uncertainty as well.

Coding the News: The Role of Computer Code in the Distribution of News Media • Matthew Weber, Rutgers University; Allie Kosterich, Rutgers University; Rohit Tikyani, Rutgers University • This article examines the role of code in the process of news distribution, and interrogates the degree to which code and algorithms are imbued with the ability to make decisions regarding the filtering and prioritizing of news, much as an editor would. Emphasis is placed specifically on the context of mobile news applications that filter news for consumers. In addressing calls to attend to the intersection of computer science and journalism, an additional goal of this article is to move the analytic lens away from the notion that code is replacing humans as producers of news and to shift towards an understanding of how code orders and communicates the news. Thus, the focus of this research is on algorithms as technological actants, filtering news based on decisions imbued into the code by human actors. An investigation of code contained in 64 open source mobile news apps is presented and the content of the code is analyzed. Findings highlight the journalistic decisions made in code and contribute to discussion surrounding the relationship between algorithmic and traditional news values.

Examining the Relationship Between Trust and Online Usage • Katie Yaeger, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Harsh Taneja, University of Missouri • This study tests the relationship between trust and online usage of 35 popular United States news sources. A series of regression models using pooled cross-sectional data of trust measures and usage measures from three months found a positive, statistically significant relationship between trust and direct traffic, but it found no association between trust and frequent usage. It also found overall that additional variables did not significantly impact the relationship between trust and direct traffic.

STUDENT PAPERS
The Least Trusted Name in News: Exploring Why News Users Distrust BuzzFeed News • Jordon Brown, The University of Texas at Austin • “This experiment measured readers’ perceived sense of credibility when presented with three different news stories. Although all three news stories were actually from BuzzFeed, they were presented as though only one was, and one from Yahoo News, and one from The Wall Street Journal. This study found the perceived credibility was impacted by the news source, but not always by the individual article.

Framing EU borders in live-blogs: A multimodal approach • Ivana Cvetkovic, University of New Mexico; Mirjana Pantic, University of Tennessee • New media and 2.0 Web technologies affected the breaking news reporting forcing traditional media to embrace a new multimodal format of live-blogs. By acknowledging the importance of multiple modes in meaning making, this paper employs multimodal method to examine the similarities and differences in framing the European Union borders in live blogs in European media. Three frames emerged from the analysis: border management, borders as lived spaces, and borders as politically constructed spaces.

The mobile community: College students and the hometown sense of community through mobile news app use • Chris Etheridge, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • “This project explores how mobile technology can impact the relationship between geography and news consumption. Findings indicate that college students who have installed a mobile news app focused on their hometown have a higher connection to that community than those who do not have apps and those who have apps with a national or global focus. In this case, this connection exists even when circumstances remove the person from that community.

Vapor and Mirrors: A Qualitative Framing Analysis of E-Cigarette Reporting in High-Circulation U.S. Newspapers • Vaughan James, University of Florida; Paul Simpson • Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been gaining popularity in the United States since their introduction into the market in 2008. Use among teenagers and young adults has recently skyrocketed, tripling between 2013 and 2014. Given that these products are still unregulated at the federal level, they represent a major public health concern. News media can have substantial effects on public perception of technology and health issues, and so it is important to understand the ways that the U.S. media present e-cigarettes. This study examined the framing of e-cigarettes in three major high-circulation U.S. newspapers. A qualitative content analysis was performed on 92 e-cigarette-related news articles published between January 2008 and October 2014. Three major frames arose in newspaper reporting: Comparison/Contrast, Regulation, and Uncertainty. Understanding the frames presented in the media can help to both explain e-cigarettes’ rising popularity and highlight potential regulatory issues that will require attention from public health officials.

‘Engaging’ the Audience: Journalism in the Next Media Regime • Jacob Nelson, Northwestern University • As the journalism industry loses revenues and relevance, academics and professionals have pinned their hopes for salvation on increasing “audience engagement.” Yet few agree on what audience engagement means, why it will make journalism more successful, or what “success” in journalism should even look like. This paper uses Williams and Delli Carpini’s “media regimes” as a theoretical framework to argue that studying the current open-arms approach to the news audience – and the ambiguity surrounding it – is vital to understanding journalism’s transition from one rapidly disappearing model to one that is yet to fully emerge. In doing so, it offers a definition of audience engagement that synthesizes prior literature and contributes an important distinction between reception-oriented and production-oriented engagement. It concludes with a call for more research into audience engagement efforts to better understand what journalism is, and what it might become.

News Organizations’ Link Sharing on Twitter: Computational Text Analysis Approach • Chankyung Pak, Michigan State University • This study aims to analyze news organizations’ news link sharing on social media. Computational data collection and text analysis techniques in this study allow for a large scale comparison between shared and unshared news. I found that news organizations are more likely to share hard news than soft news on social media while the latter is more published on their websites. News organizations’ decision on what to share constrains news diversity available to news readers.

Way-finding and source blindness: How the loss of gatekeepers spread fake news in the 2016 Presidential election • George Pearson, The Ohio State University; Simon Lavis, The Ohio State University • Changing news patterns allows users to consume stories from multiple sources. This was hypothesized to lead to a disinterest in sources (source blindness) and reliance on curators for news. Additionally both variables were expected to lead to increased misinformation acceptance. A parallel mediation model on national survey data revealed that reliance on curators was not significant, however consuming news from multiple sources did increase source blindness which in turn increased misinformation acceptance.

Is the Robot Biased Against Me? An Investigation of Boundary Conditions for Reception of Robot as News Writer • Bingjie Liu; Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University • This study tested effects of robot as news writer on reducing hostile media effect. In a 2 (robot vs. human news writer) X 2 (hard news vs. feature story) online experiment, 212 participants read news representing one of the four conditions randomly and evaluated its quality. We found for feature story, only believers of machine intelligence evaluated that by robot as positive whereas hard news by robot was well received regardless of one’s belief.

Trustee Versus Market Model: A Journalistic Field Experiment • Douglas Wilbur, The University of Missouri at Columbia • This field experiment examines data gathered through a competition hosted by the Austin-American Statesman, the test their daily news via email delivery service the Midday Break, and a news aggregation service called the Statesman’s News For You, managed by the Reportory Company. The Midday Break represents the trustee model of journalism since stories are chosen by editors in a traditional manner. The Statesman’s News For You represents that market model of journalism since users select story preferences through a personalization function. Results of aggregate user data revealed that the Statesman’s News For You subscribers opened more of their services email and read more of their delivered news stories than those of Midday Break. A survey of both groups revealed that Statesman’s News For You subscribers gave their services higher ratings for crebibility, likelihood of recommending to a friend and perceived control than Midday Break subscribers. This field experiment lends some evidence that the market model of journalism might offer a better route for newspaper survivability and economic success.

Young vs Old: How Age Impacts Journalists’ Boundary Work Shift in Social Media Innovation (ACES and MacDougall awards) • Yanfang Wu • A cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire online national survey (N=1063) was administered to examine how older and younger newspaper journalists differ in adopting social media as an innovation. The study found no significant difference exists between younger journalists and older journalists’ rating of social media innovation friendly culture in their news organizations. However, younger journalists tend to view innovative instructions on using social media as more frequent, useful, and effective than older journalists. The more effective younger journalists rated their news organizations’ innovative instructions on social media, the less younger journalists interact with audiences on social than older journalists, which reflects a higher social media instructions expectation from younger journalists for journalistic work boundary shift.

The Syrian exodus: How The Globe and Mail, The New York Times and The Sun framed the crisis? • Zulfia Zaher, Ohio University • This study examined the cross-national coverage of the Syrian refugee crises in The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, and The Sun newspapers. The study employed a quantitative content analysis to measure the attention paid to the Syrian refugee crisis and investigated the prevalence of the five generic frames (economic consequences, human interest, responsibility, conflict, and morality) (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). This study analyzed 204 articles from these three newspapers published between February 1st, 2015 to February 28th, 2016. This study found that The New York Times attached more importance measured by the length and the page position while The Sun attached the least importance to the coverage of Syrian refugee crisis. The result also demonstrated that the most salient generic frames were human-interest. This study found that three out of five generic frames — economic consequences, responsibility, and conflict — are significantly different across these newspapers. The results further revealed that various events influenced the way frames were presented in these three newspapers.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Media Management, Economics, and Entrepreneurship 2017 Abstracts

Do Similar Brands ‘Like’ Each Other? An Investigation of Homophily Among Brands’ Social Networks on Facebook • Mohammad Abuljadail, Bowling Green State University; Gi Woong Yun, University of Nevada, Reno • The advent of internet and communication technologies enabled marketers of brands to have more ways to communicate with their audience; one of which is connecting with other brands. One of the most popular outlets that allows brands to connect with other brands online is Facebook. Brands on Facebook can establish an official fan page where they can interact with their fans as well as network with other brands’ official Facebook pages through “liking” them. This paper seeks to investigate the “liking” behavior among local and global brands (brand to brand) on Facebook in Saudi Arabia and whether these brands’ “liking” network is based on homophilous relationships. The results showed that both status, (e.g., geography and gender), and value (e.g., family ties and religion) homophilous relationships are in play. However, value homophily was a strong factor in brands’ network in Saudi Arabia for some brands in the absence of status homophily network. Although status homophily in general played a role, geographical proximity was not a strong factor compared to previous reports on social network analysis. The data for this study was obtained from 40 brands marketed in Saudi Arabia. Using Netvizz and Gephi, network structures were mapped to explore the relationships among the brand’s’ Facebook pages.

Predictors of Success in Entering The Journalism And Mass Communication Labor Market • Lee Becker, University of Georgia; Tudor Vlad, University of Georgia; C. Ann Hollifield, University of Georgia • As a talent industry, media industries are highly dependent on the quality of the labor force available to be hired. The entry-level journalism and mass communication labor market has been the subject of analysis over the years, leading to the general conclusion that the characteristics of the students who graduates as well as what they did while at the university help to predict success in the media labor market. The research has been based on limited measures of job market success and small samples, sometimes of students only at one point in time. This study revisits the question of what predicts success in the media labor market with a data set spanning 27 years and with multiple measures of job market success. The findings indicate that what the students bring to the educational environment influences what they do while at the university but also continues to have impact after graduation. The decisions students make at the university also matter. Specifically, women have more success in the media labor market than men, but they get paid less. Minorities have more difficulty in the market than nonminorities, but they get paid better if they find work. Selecting public relations as a major is an advantage, as is completing an internship. These relationships hold even after controlling for other factors, including the performance of the labor market for all persons 20 to 24 years old. The findings suggest that media industries still have critical labor management issues to address.

Facebook and newspapers online: Competing beings or complimentary entities? • Victoria Chen, The University of Texas at Austin; Paromita Pain, The University of Texas at Austin • In an attempt to engage more readers online, newspapers, today are adopting Facebook as a distribution platform. Focused on understanding the value of Facebook as a distribution platform for newspapers, this study shows that news engagement, where news that attracts and holds readers’ attention, on Facebook, increases the brand loyalty of newspapers and Faebook. Brand wise both Facebook and newspapers benefit when news is distributed through Facebook. The study challenges popular beliefs about the influence of Facebook on the business of journalism and shows that Facebook and newspapers are mutually beneficial in helping build the brand loyalty of both. It also shows that tie strength and not homophily encourages the sharing of news on Facebook. While these results may seem optimistic, the study further suggests that leveraging Facebook as a news distribution platform to engage audiences should be treated more cautiously.

Management of Journalism Transparency: Journalists’ perceptions of organizational leaders’ management of an emerging professional norm • Peter Gade; Shugofa Dastgeer; Christina Childs DeWalt; Emmanuel-Lugard Nduka; Seunghyun Kim; Desiree Hill; Kevin Curran • This national survey of 524 journalists explores how journalists perceive transparency, a recent addition to the ethics codes of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association, has been managed as a normative innovation, and the impact of management on its adoption in journalism practices. Results indicate journalists perceive transparency as not been well managed, and that how it is managed has a significant effect on the extent it is practiced.

Brand Extension Strategies in the Film Industry: Factors behind Financial Performance of Adaptations and Sequels • Dam Hee Kim • In the film industry, which is notoriously high risk, sequels and adaptations stand out as successful films. Focusing on adaptations and sequels as extended brands, this paper analyzed 2,488 films released from 2010 to 2013 in the U.S. to investigate films’ box office performance. Results suggested that adaptations from comic books and toy lines were successful, and those produced in sequels were even more successful. Industry factors behind brand extension strategies are also examined.

Rapid Organizational Legitimacy: The Case of Mobile News Apps • Allie Kosterich, Rutgers University; Matthew Weber, Rutgers University • This article examines the importance of legitimacy for the performance of new ventures in the emerging space of mobile news apps, which consists of players from both traditional news and technology. This creates a distinct challenge for survival and performance, further compounded by the short timeframe deemed acceptable for apps to succeed. A multi-faceted model of legitimacy is proposed and tested; findings underscore the vital role of communication-based legitimacy in the struggle for rapid success.

Transformation of the Professional Newsroom Workforce: An Analysis of Newsworker Roles and Skill Sets, 2010-2015 • Allie Kosterich, Rutgers University; Matthew Weber, Rutgers University • Transformation continues to impact news media; news organizations are adapting accordingly through shifts in required skills and prescribed roles of newsworkers. This research uses online public databases to trace employment histories of NYC-area newsworkers and explore processes of institutional change related to the professional newsworker. This case study highlights the applicability of quantitative research methods in furthering understanding of professional media dynamics and management challenges related to the emergence of new job roles and skills.

The effects of a TV network strike on channel brand equity • Shin-Hye Kwon, Sungkyunkwan University; Lu Li, Sungkyunkwan University; Byeng Hee Chang, Sungkyunkwan University • This article has attempted to outline the effects of a television channel strike from both the user and the company sides. In the direct effect of strike analysis, viewer ratings(MBC) were higher before the strike than during it. In the indirect effect of strike analysis, strike awareness had a negative influence on brand image for news, entertainment, and information, with especially high influence for information and news. Brand image also had a meaningful influence of brand loyalty mediated by brand satisfaction and awareness of brand quality. Thus, loyalty to MBC decreased as viewers learned about the strike. This study has several implications that a specific channel’s brand equity does not decrease until viewers become aware of a strike at the channel. In addition, we suggest different possible effects of a media strike on the brand image of a channel or network. Third, we infer the changes in viewer ratings to be a direct effect of media strikes. Another theoretical implication of this study is its explanation of how a strike at a specific company strike can affect competing companies using the concept of media deprivation and dependency theory. Lastly, This study’s results offer practical information for media companies’ strike management.

Consumer choice of mobile service bundles: An application of the Technological Readiness Index • Miao Miao; Xi Zhu; Krishna Jayakar • This paper asks whether consumers are rational in choosing the most appropriate mobile service bundle (combining voice, text and data), given their actual levels of usage. It also investigates whether psychological or demographic factors can predict the likelihood that a user will choose optimally. Using the Technological Readiness Index as a theoretical framework, this study finds that customers who are optimistic about technology are more likely to choose the optimum bundle, while those who are insecure about technology are significantly less likely.

Assessing News Media Infrastructure: A State-Level Analysis • Philip Napoli; Ian Dunham; Jessica Mahone, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University • This paper develops and applies an approach to evaluating the robustness of the news media infrastructure of individual states. Drawing upon the Cision Media Database, and employing a detailed filtering methodology, this analysis provides indicators that facilitate comparative analysis across states, and that could be employed to facilitate analyses over time within and across individual states. This assessment approach is derived from multivariate analyses of the key geographic and demographic determinants of the robustness of the news media infrastructure in individual states.

High Brand Loyalty Video Game Play and Achieving Relationships with Virtual Worlds and Its Elements Through Presence • Anthony Palomba • Based on a uses and gratifications and presence conceptual framework, this study considers high brand loyalty video game players’ levels of presence, and evaluates how virtual relationships and perceptions of brand personalities may moderate the relationship between high brand loyalty video game players’ gratifications sought and media consumption experiences. A national survey of 25-year-old to 35-year-old high brand loyalty video game players (N=902)was conducted. Theoretical contributions surrounding the importance of presence during video game play to reach desired gratifications as well as industry implications are discussed.

Content Marketing Strategy on Branded YouTube Channels • Rang Wang, University of Florida; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • As YouTube becomes a viable competitor in the media ecosystem, this study assessed top brands’ content marketing strategy on branded YouTube channels via content analysis. Using a consumer engagement conceptual framework, the study examined brand strategies addressing the interactivity, attention, emotion, and cognition aspects of engagement and explored the role of firm characteristics, including YouTube capability, financial resources, ownership, and product category, in strategy differentiation. Implications of utilizing YouTube in branding and engaging were provided.

Exploring Cross-Platform Engagement in an Online-Offline Video Market • Lisa-Charlotte Wolter, Hamburg Media School; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • In an ever-increasing fragmented media environment, the need for comparable metrics across online and offline platforms is intensifying. This study introduces the concept of engagement in an audience setting; discusses its role in today’s video consumption process, and elaborates on the rationale and approach of assessing engagement in online-offline environments. We will present results from a qualitative study of globally conducted in-depth interviews with 73 experts. Research implications and a cross-platform engagement framework are presented.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Mass Communication and Society 2017 Abstracts

OPEN COMPETITION
Beauty ideals and the media: Constructing the ideal beauty for Nigerian women through music videos • Aje-Ori Agbese • The research examined how Nigerian music videos objectify and define beauty for Nigerian women. The contents of 100 music videos with a love/romance theme were analyzed. The study found that Nigerian music videos defined beautiful women as thin/skinny, light-skinned and smiling. Several videos also featured white women as the ideal. The paper also discusses the impact of such messages on a country where women had the world’s highest rates for skin bleaching in 2012.

Framing Blame in Sexual Assault: An Analysis of Attribution in News Stories about Sexual Assault on College Campuses • Ashlie Andrew; Cassandra Alexopoulos • The current study is a quantitative content analysis examining media coverage of sexual assault on US college campuses. In particular, we focus on the language that journalists employ to tell these stories and assign attribution of sexual assault to the people involved. Drawing on two different theoretical perspectives, Attribution Theory and Media Framing, we analyze how frequently the language in news stories on sexual assault implicitly assign attribution (or minimize attribution) to either the victim or perpetrator in sexual assault cases.

The Social Dimensions of Political Participation • Soo Young Bae • This study investigates the social dimensions of political engagement, and explores the underlying mechanism of the relationship between social media use and political participation. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, this study reveals the growing significance of the source factor in the online information environment, and tests whether varying levels of trust that individuals have toward the information source can meaningfully relate to their engagement in politics.

The Role of Media Use and Family Media Use in Children’s Eating Behaviors, Food Preferences, and Health Literacy • Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama; Kim Baker, University of Alabama; Xueying Zhang; Kailey E. Bissell, The University of the South (Sewanee); Sarah Pember, University of Alabama; Yiyi Yang, University of Alabama; Samantha Phillips, University of Alabama • The relationship between the individual and social factors that might predict a child’s health behaviors specific to food consumption and eating is quite complex. A growing body of literature suggests that external factors such as media use, use of media while eating, and the home eating environment certainly could predict factors such as a child’s preference for specific food, nutritional knowledge, and even the ability to identify food products in food advertisements. Using a survey of children in 2nd and 3rd grade, this study examined questions about how much or if general media use, media use while eating, and familial media use during mealtimes related to a child’s general understanding of health specific to nutritional knowledge, food preferences, understanding of food advertising, and self-perception. Results indicate that media use by each child and by the parent—in general and in the context of eating—were related to lower scores on the nutritional knowledge scale, a stronger preference for unhealthy foods, an inability to correctly identify food products in food advertisements, and self-perceptions. Further results indicate that children’s ability to correctly identify food products in food advertisements was especially low, especially in children who reported spending more time with different types of media. These and other findings are discussed.

Assimilation or Consternation? U.S. Latinos’ Perceptions of Trust in Relation to Media and Other Factors • Ginger Blackstone, Harding University; Amy Jo Coffey, University of Florida • Among the U.S. Latino community, even documented workers are nervous about the future. What role might Internet news exposure, television news exposure, newspaper exposure, radio news exposure, age, whether one was born in the U.S., or–if not—length of time spent in the U.S. be relevant to feelings of trust in the government, trust in others, and U.S. immigration policies? How do Latinos’ feelings in these areas compare to non-Latinos? Using the most recent American National Election Survey data available, the authors conducted a series of regressions and other statistical tests in search of answers. It was found that Latino respondents were more likely than non-Latinos to trust that the U.S. government will do the right thing. Television news exposure was a positive factor. Non-Latino respondents were more likely than Latino respondents to trust others. Internet news exposure, radio news exposure, and newspaper exposure were positive factors, while television news exposure was a negative factor. Trust in the government did not correlate with trust in others for Latino respondents; however, it did for non-Latinos but the effect was weak. Regarding U.S. immigration policy, difference between Latino respondents and non-Latinos were significant; however, a majority of both groups indicated support for an immigration policy that allowed undocumented workers to remain in the U.S. under certain (non-specified) conditions. Internet news exposure and radio news exposure were factors in some comparisons. Overall, no clear patterns were found; however, the findings correspond to the literature and provide an opportunity for future research.

Toxic Peers in Online Support Groups for Suicidal Teens: Moderators Reducing Toxic Disinhibition Effects • Nicholas Boehm, Colorado State University; Jamie Switzer, Colorado State University • This paper describes the results of a study that examined if moderated online peer support groups for suicidal teens differ compared to non-moderated online peer support groups for suicidal teens in terms of the frequency of pro-suicide response and the frequency of uncivil and impolite response given by peers. Findings suggest pro-suicide, uncivil, and impolite responses are significantly more likely to occur in the non-moderated peer support group, as explained by the online disinhibition effect.

Exploring Third-Person Perception and Social Media • John Chapin, Penn State • Findings from a study of middle school and high school students (N = 1604) suggest most adolescents are using some form of social media, with texting, Instagram, and Snapchat currently the most popular. Most (67%) have some experience with cyberbullying, with 23% saying they have been victims of cyberbullying and 7% acknowledging they have cyberbullied others. Despite the heavy use of social media and experiences with cyberbullying, participants exhibited third-person perception, believing others are more influenced than they are by negative posts on social media. Third-person perception was predicted by optimistic bias, social media use, age, and experience with various forms of bullying. Third-person perception may provide a useful framework for understanding how adolescents use social media and how they are affected by it.

“Defensive Effect”: Uncivil Disagreement Upsets Me, So I Want to Speak Out Politically • Gina Chen • This study proposed and tested a mediation model called the “defensive effect” to explain the influence of uncivil disagreement online comments on emotions and intention to participate politically. An experiment (N = 953) showed uncivil disagreement – but not civil disagreement – triggered a chain reaction of first boosting negative emotion and then indirectly increasing intention to participate politically, mediated through that emotion burst. Findings are discussed in relation to affective intelligence theory.

Facts, Alternative Facts, and Politics: A Case Study of How a Concept Entered Mainstream and Social Media Discourse • Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Giselle Auger, Rhode Island College; Sally McMillan, University of Tennessee • Adopting agenda setting as a theoretical framework, this study explored how the term ‘alternative facts’ was covered by both mainstream and social media. The authors used Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio and WordStat to analyze 58,383 total posts. The study follows the development of news story and examines some similarities and differences in top words and phrases used by mainstream and social media. The term ‘alternative facts’ had negative valence in both media types.

Television, emotion, and social integration: Testing the effect of media event with the 2017 US Presidential Inauguration • Xi Cui, College of Charleston; Qian Xu, Elon University • This study empirically tests the social integration effect of media event and its psychological mechanism in the context of the live broadcast of the 2017 US Presidential Inauguration. A national sample (N=420) was drawn to investigate the relationships among television viewing of the live broadcast, viewers’ emotion, and their perceived social solidarity measured by perceived entitativity. In general, viewing the inauguration live on television positively predicted viewers’ emotion. Emotion also interacted with viewers’ national identity fusion to influence perceived entitativity. A significant indirect effect of television viewing on perceived entitativity through emotion was discovered. The same effects were found among non-Trump voters. For Trump voters, television viewing did not have any significant influence on any variable. Through these findings, this study shed light on the psychological mechanisms of media event’s social integration effect at the individual level, explicated the visceral nature of social identification related to media event, and argued for the relevance of this mass media genre in contemporary media environment and social zeitgeist.

New media, new ways of getting informed? Examining public affairs knowledge acquisition by young people in China • Di Cui; Fang Wu • This study examined acquisition of public affairs knowledge as an effect of media use and interpersonal discussion in China, where there is a fast transforming media environment. This study examined public affairs knowledge in both mainstream and alternative forms. Findings showed that attention to traditional sources, exposure to new media sources and face-to-face discussion were correlated with public affairs knowledge. Use of new media sources was correlated with alternative public affairs knowledge. Implications were discussed.

Multi-Platform News Use and Political Participation across Age Groups • Trevor Diehl, University of Vienna; Matthew Barnidge, University of Vienna; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna • News consumption in today’s media environment is increasingly characterized by multi-platform news; people now consume news across several multi-media devices. Relying on a nationally representative survey from the U.S., this study develops an index of multi-platform news use, and tests its effects on age-group differences in the way people participate in politics. Results show that Millennials are more likely to rely on multi-platforms for news, which is positively related to alternative modes of public engagement.

Read All About It: The Politicization of “Fake News” on Twitter • John Brummette; Marcia DiStaso, University of Florida; MICHAIL VAFEIADIS, Auburn University; Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University; Terry Flynn, McMaster University • This study explored the use of the term “fake news” in one of the top news sharing tools, Twitter. Using a social network analysis, characteristics of online networks that formed around discussions of “fake news” was examined. Through a systematic analysis of the members of those networks and their messages, this study found that “fake news” is a very politicized term where current conversations are overshadowing logical and important discussions of the term.

News, Entertainment, or Both? Exploring Audience Perceptions of Media Genre in a Hybrid Media Environment • Stephanie Edgerly, Northwestern; Emily Vraga, George Mason University • This study uses two experimental designs to examine how audiences make genre assessments when encountering media content that blends elements of news and entertainment. In Study 1, we explore how audiences characterize three different versions of a fictitious political talk show program. In Study 2, we consider whether audience perceptions of ‘news-ness’ are influenced by shifts in headline angle and source attribution. The implications of audience definitions of news and its social function are discussed.

A new generation of satire consumers? A socialization approach to youth exposure to news satire • Stephanie Edgerly, Northwestern • This study explores how adolescents—at the doorstep of adulthood—are developing the exposure habit of news satire exposure. Using national survey data consisting of U.S. youth and one associated parent, the paper specifically examines: 1) the prevalence of youth exposure to news satire across a range of media devices and compared to other forms of news, and 2) the socialization factors—parents, school curriculum, and peers—that predict news satire use among today’s youth.

Socially-shared children coming of age: Third-person effect, parental privacy stewardship, and parent monitoring • Betsy Emmons, Samford University; Nia Johnson, Samford University; Lee Farquhar, Samford University • There have been multiple discussions about Facebook’s privacy policies; discourse about parental privacy stewardship has been minimal. As the first generation of socially-shared children become social media users, the collision of privacy with what has already been shared by parents occurs. This study, grounded in third-person effect, asked parents about stewardship of their children’s privacy, and whether other parents were observant. Results affirmed third-person effect for both social media monitoring and privacy among parents.

Journalists primed: How professional identity affects moral decision making • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University; Erin Schauster • Utilizing identity priming, this study examines whether professional journalists apply ethics differently when primed with occupationally identity. This between-subjects experiment (N=171) administered both conditions the Defining Issues Test, a much-used instrument that measures moral development. The results show identity priming does not affect how journalists apply ethics. The study also found that journalists are potentially far less ethical than they were 13 years ago. These results are interpreted through the lens of social identity theory.

Hydraulic Fracturing on U.S. Cable News • Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Oluseyi Adegbola, Mr.; Jennifer Huemmer • Hydraulic fracturing, called fracking, is a drilling technique that accesses previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves. Although the process could aid U.S. energy independence, it is controversial and public opinion is divided. Guided by agenda-setting and framing, this study content analyses news coverage of fracking (N = 461) across cable networks (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC). Results show issues discussed and sources used vary ideologically, but all networks failed to provide factual information about the process.

Self-Presentation Strategies’ Effect on Facebook Users’ Subjective Well-being Depending on Self-Esteem Level • Wonseok (Eric) Jang, Texas Tech University; Erik Bucy, Texas Tech University; Janice Cho, Texas Tech University • The current study examined the consequences of different types of self-presentation strategies on Facebook users’ subjective well-being, depending on their level of self-esteem. The results indicated that people with low self-esteem became happier after updating their Facebook status using strategic self-presentation rather than true self-presentation. Meanwhile, people with high self-esteem exhibited similar levels of happiness after updating Facebook using both strategic and true self-presentation.

“Aging…The Great Challenge of This Century”: A Theory-Based Analysis of Retirement Communities’ Websites • Hong Ji; Anne Cooper • By 2040, the large over-65 population will change “religion…work…everything” according to an expert on aging. CCRCs are one health care/housing option for the final years of life. This study of 108 CCRC websites found a self-actualized photo population –smiling, wining/dining, and engaged in various fulfilling pursuits. The disconnect with reality — more males, minorities and healthy people than actually live at CCRCs — has implications for source credibility and the image of ideal aging.

The Role of Social Capital in the United States’s Country Brand • Jong Woo Jun, Dankook University; Jung Ryum Kim, City of Busan; Dong Whan Lee, Dankook University • This study explores antecedents and consequences of social capital. Using Korean college students as research samples, survey research was implemented measuring U.S. media consumptions such as TV drama, Hollywood movies, POP music, advertising, and magazine. As results, American media consumptions influenced social capital elements such as interpersonal trust, institutional trust, network, and norms. Also, interpersonal trust, network, and norms influenced attitudes toward the United States which in turn lead to strong beliefs about the United States. This study extended the usability of social capital to country branding settings, and could provide significant managerial implications to academicians and practitioners.

In the Crosshairs: The Tucson Shooting and the News Framing of Responsibility • Matthew Telleen, Elizabethtown College; Jack Karlis, Georgia College; Sei-Hill Kim • This research adds to the framing literature with a content analysis of media coverage following the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Analyzing 535 items from the month after the shooting, it was determined that coverage of the Tucson shooting focused more heavily on societal issues like political rhetoric than on individual issues like mental illness It was also discovered that coverage varied from medium to medium and along political associations.

Tweeting the Election: Comparative Uses of Twitter by Trump and Clinton in the 2016 Election • Flora Khoo, Regent University; William Brown, Regent University • “Social media are increasingly becoming important means of political communication and essential to implementing an effective national election campaign. The present study evaluates the use of Twitter by presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Results indicate substantial framing differences in the tweets released by the two candidates. These differences are discussed along with implications for future research on the use of Twitter for political campaigns.

The Role of Reanctance Proneness in the Manifestation of Psychological Reactance against Newspaper Editorial • HYUNJUNG KIM • This study investigated the role of trait reactance proneness in the affective and cognitive reactance processes in the context of organ donation in South Korea. A web-based survey experiment using a sample of South Korean residents was conducted. Findings demonstrate that an editorial advocating organ donation from ideologically incongruent media is perceived as more biased than the same editorial from other media. The perceived bias is linked to perceived threat to freedom, which, in turn, is related to affective reactance, leading to unfavorable attitudes toward organ donation, particularly for high trait-reactant individuals. These findings suggest that trait reactance proneness may moderate a psychological reactance process in which affective and cognitive processes of reactance operate separately.

Pride versus Guilt: The Interplay between Emotional Appeals and Self-Construal Levels in Organ Donation Messages • Sining Kong; Jung Won Chun; Sriram Kalyanaraman • Existing research on organ donation has generally focused on message types but ignored how individual differences—and possible underlying mechanisms—affect the effectiveness of organ donation messages. To explore these issues, we conducted a 2 (type of appeal: pride vs guilt) X 2 (self construal: independent vs interdependent) between-subjects factorial experiment to examine how different self-construal levels affect emotional appeals in organ donation messages. The results revealed that regardless of self-construal levels, autonomy mediated the relationship between emotion and attitudes toward organ donation. Also, pride appeal messages generated more autonomy than guilt appeal messages, leading to more positive attitude toward organ donation. Furthermore, after controlling for autonomy, those participants primed with an independent self-construal preferred pride appeal messages more than they did guilt appeal messages. These findings offer important theoretical and applied implications and provide a robust avenue for future research.

“Feminazis,” “libtards,” “snowflakes,” and “racists”: Trolling and the Spiral of Silence • Victoria LaPoe; Candi Carter Olson, Utah State University • Using a mixed methods Qualtrics survey of 338 Twitter and Facebook users, the authors explore the impact that the 2016 election had on people’s political posts both before and after the election and whether or not people actually experienced harassment and threats during the election cycle. This article argues that the internet constitutes a digital public sphere. If trolling causes people—particularly women, LGBTQIA community members, and people who identify with a disability—to censor themselves because they feel their opinion is in the minority or that they will be attacked for stating their ideas, then it would follow that trolling is changing our public sphere, which is affecting our political conversations in a profound way.

Coverage of Physician-Assisted Death: Framing of Brittany Maynard • Sean Baker; Kimberly Lauffer • In 2014, Brittany Maynard, 29, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, moved from California to Oregon, one of only three U.S. states with legal physician-assisted death, so she could determine when she would die. This paper examines how mainstream U.S. media framed Brittany Maynard’s choice to use physician aid in dying, arguing that although frames initially focused on the event, they transformed into thematic coverage of issues underlying her choice.

Do Political Participation and Use of Information Sources Differ by Age? • Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; An-Pang Lu; Yitsen Chiu, National Chengchi University • Most studies on the connection between offline and online political participation either focused on young citizens or treated age as a continuous variable. Many of them also used a limited local sample. This survey study employed a national sample to examine the effects of age and information sources on offline and online political participation. The relationship between age and offline/online participation does not appear to be linear, which has important implications for future studies.

Discussing HPV Vaccination: Ego-centric social networks and perceived norms among young men • Wan Chi Leung, University of Canterbury • This study examined the role of social norms in influencing young men’s support for the HPV vaccination. A survey of 656 young adult males in the United States indicated that the perceived injunctive norm was more powerful in predicting support for the HPV vaccination for males than the perceived descriptive norm. The average tie strength in their ego-centric discussion networks for sexual matters, and the heterogeneity of the discussants significantly predict the injunctive norm.

The effects of message desirability and first-person perception of anti-panhandling campaigns on prosocial behaviors • Joon Soo Lim, Syracuse University; Jiyoung Lee • The current research examined the third-person effect (TPE) of anti-panhandling campaign messages. It tested both perceptual and behavioral hypotheses of the TPE. A survey was administered to 660 participants recruited from Mechanical Turk’s Master Workers. The results demonstrate the robustness of third-person perceptions for persuasive campaign messages. We also learned that the magnitudes of TPP for anti-panhandling campaign messages could be moderated by message desirability. Analyzing the behavioral component of TPE, the current study adds empirical evidence that presumed influence of positive social campaign on oneself can make the audience engage in prosocial behaviors as well as promotional behaviors.

The third person effect on Twitter: How partisans view Donald Trump’s campaign messages • Aimee Meader, Winthrop University; Matthew Hayes, Winthrop University; Scott Huffmon, Winthrop University • A telephone poll of Southern respondents in the United States tested the third person effect by comparing partisan perceptions about Donald Trump’s tweets during the 2016 presidential election. Results show that the third person effect was strong for Democrats who viewed the tweets as unfavorable, but diminished for Republicans who viewed the tweets as favorable. Additionally, Republicans’ estimation of media influence on themselves was comparable to Democrats’ perceptions, but estimations of Democrats varied by Party.

‘Where are the children?’: The framing of adoption in national news coverage from 2014 through 2016 • Cynthia Morton; Summer Shelton, University of Florida • Pilot research explored three specific questions: 1) what frames are represented in print news stories about adoption?; 2) which frames are most prevalent in their representation?; and, 3) what implications can be made about the effect of combination of the news frames and their frequency on audience perceptions? A qualitative content analysis was conducted. The findings suggest that print news’s coverage of the child adoption issue leans toward legal/legality and child welfare/work frames. Implications on adoption perceptions and the potential impact on individuals influenced by adoption are discussed.

Exemplification of Child Abduction in U.S. News Media: Testing Media Effects on Parental Perceptions and Assessment of Risk • Jane Weatherred, University of South Carolina; Leigh Moscowitz, University of South Carolina • Despite decades of research, public misperceptions persist about the threat of child abductions in the U.S. Because prior research reveals that parental perceptions of child abduction are mediated by news coverage, this study offers one of the only experimental designs that found links between media coverage and parental perceptions of child abductions, advancing the literature on exemplification theory. This study advances our understanding of how media coverage can impact public perceptions of crime.

Sharing Values vs. Valuing Shares: A Communication Model a Social-Financial Capital • Paige Odegard; Thomas Gallegos; Chris DeRosier, Colorado State University; Jennifer Folsom, Colorado State University; Elizabeth Tilak, Colorado State University; Nicholas Boehm, Colorado State University; Chelsea Eddington, Colorado State University; Cindy Christen, Colorado State University • Emphasizing the shift in priority placed on social, financial, and professional capital in an era of technological growth, this paper proposes the Communication Model of Social-Financial Capital (CMSFC). The paper discusses the effects of innate and acquired identities, and values on preference for social, financial, and professional capital, which in turn affect preference for social media platforms. Finally, the paper discusses how the model is applicable in realistic settings and suggests next steps for empirical validation.

Understanding antecedents of civic engagement in the age of social media: from the perspective of efficacy beliefs • Siyoung Chung; KyuJin Shim; Soojin Kim, Singapore Management University • This study examines three efficacy beliefs— political self-efficacy, political collective efficacy and knowledge sharing efficacy—as antecedents of social media use and civic engagement. Employing more than one thousand samples in Singapore, we empirically test (a) a conceptual framework that can provide an understanding of the relationship between the three types of efficacy and civic engagement and (b) the underlying mechanism through which the three types of efficacy beliefs affect civic engagement via social media. The findings suggest that the current civic engagement is characterized by excessive use of social media. Also, the study implicates knowledge sharing efficacy was found to play an important role in mediating the relationships between social media and political self-efficacy, political collective efficacy, respectively.

Online Surveillance’s Effect on Support for Other Extraordinary Measures to Prevent Terrorism • Elizabeth Stoycheff; Kunto Wibowo, Wayne State University; Juan Liu, Wayne State University; Kai Xu, Wayne State University • The U.S. National Security Agency argues that online mass surveillance has played a pivotal role in preventing acts of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. But journalists and academics have decried the practice, arguing that the implementation of such extraordinary provisions may lead to a slippery slope. As the first study to investigate empirically the relationship between online surveillance and support for other extraordinary measures to prevent terrorism, we find that perceptions of government monitoring lead to increased support for hawkish foreign policy through value-conflict associations in memory that prompt a suppression of others’ online and offline civil liberties, including rights to free speech and a fair trial. Implications for the privacy-security debate are discussed.

Audiences’ Acts of Authentication: A Conceptual Framework • Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University; Richard Ling, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Oscar Westlund; Andrew Duffy, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Debbie Goh, Nanyang Technological University Singapore • Through an analysis of relevant literature and open-ended survey responses from 2,501 Singaporeans, this paper proposes a conceptual framework to understand how individuals authenticate the information they encounter on social media. In broad strokes, we find that individuals rely on both their own judgment of the source and the message, and when this does not adequately provide a definitive answer, they turn to external resources to authenticate news items.

Committed participation or flashes of action? Bursts of attention to climate change on Twitter • Kjerstin Thorson, Michigan State University; Luping Wang, Cornell University • We explore participation in bursts of attention to the climate issue on Twitter over a period of five years. Climate advocacy organizations are increasingly focused on mobilizations of issue publics as a route to pressure policy makers. A large Twitter data set shows that attention to climate on Twitter has been growing over time. However, we find little evidence of a “movement” on Twitter: there are few users who participate in online mobilizations over time.

Is the Tweet Mightier than the Quote? Testing the Relative Contribution of Crowd and Journalist Produced Exemplars on Exemplification Effects • Frank Waddell, University of Florida • What happens when journalist selected quotes conflict with the sentiment of online comments? An experiment (N = 276) was conducted to answer this question using a 3 (quote valence: positive vs. negative vs. no quote control) x 3 (comment valence: positive vs. negative vs. no comment control) design. Results revealed that online comments only affect news evaluations in the presence of positive rather than negative quotes. Implications for exemplification theory and online news are discussed.

Ideological Objectivity or Violated Expectations? Testing the Effects of Machine Attribution on News Evaluation • Frank Waddell, University of Florida • Automation now serves an unprecedented role in the production of news. Many readers possess high expectations of these “robot journalists” as objective and error free. However, does news attributed to machines actually meet these expectations? A one-factor experiment (human source vs. machine source) was conducted to answer this question. News attributed to robots was evaluated less positively than news attributed to humans. Attribution effects were invariant between individuals scoring low and high in anthropomorphic tendency.

Express Yourself during the Election Season: Study on Effects of Seeing Disagreement in Facebook News Feeds • Meredith Wang, Washington State University; Porismita Borah; Samuel Rhodes • The 2016 election was characterized by intense polarization and acrimony not only on the debate stage and television airwaves, but also on social media. Using panel data collected during 2016 U.S. Presidential election from a national sample of young adults, current study tests how opinion climate on social media affect ones’ political expression and participation. Result shows disagreement on Facebook encourages young adults to express themselves and further participate in politics. Implications are discussed.

Won’t you be my (Facebook) neighbor? Community communication effects and neighborhood social networks • Brendan Watson, Michigan State University • This paper examines the effect of neighborhood social context, specifically the degree of racial pluralism, on the number of residents who use Facebook to connect with their local neighborhood association to follow issues affecting their community. Analysis is based on a new “community communication effects” approach, replacing the city-wide analysis of prior studies with an analysis of neighborhood data more likely to influence users of newer, participatory communication platforms. Results suggest more complicated, non-linear effects than theorized by the existing literature. Some degree of neighborhood heterogeneity is necessary to create interest in neighborhood issues and spur mediated as opposed to interpersonal communication among neighbors. But too much heterogeneity is associated with a decline in following neighborhood associations on Facebook. The paper identifies where that tipping point occurs and discusses practical and theoretical implications.

The needle and the damage done: Framing the heroin epidemic in the Cincinnati Enquirer • Erin Willis, University of Colorado – Boulder; Chad Painter, University of Dayton • This case study focuses on the Cincinnati Enquirer’s coverage of the heroin epidemic. The Enquirer started the first heroin beat in 2015, and it could serve as a model for other news organizations. Reporters used combinations of episodic, thematic, public health, and crime and law enforcement frames in their coverage. These news frames are discussed in terms of how individualism-collectivism, geographic location, available resources, and social determinants inform journalistic and societal discussions of the heroin epidemic in terms of solutions instead of responsibility or blame.

Suicide and the Media: How Depictions Shape our Understanding of Why People Die by Suicide • Joyce Wolburg, Marquette University; Shiyu Yang; Daniel Erickson; Allysa Michaelsen • The contagion effect of the media upon suicide is well documented, given that suicide rates tend to increase following heavy news coverage of a death by suicide. However, much less is known about the influence that the media has upon attitudes and beliefs about suicide, particularly our understanding of why people choose to die by suicide and our tendency to lay blame for suicidal acts. Using text analysis, this study identifies and describes seven reoccurring themes across the entertainment media—in both drama and comedy—that address the reasons people die by suicide. Further analysis demonstrates how blame is assigned. Conclusions are drawn regarding the overall social impact, especially on the surviving friends, family, therapists, etc.

MOELLER STUDENT COMPETITION
How U.S. Newspapers Frame Animal Rights Issue: A Content Analysis of News Coverage in U.S. • Minhee Choi; Nanlan Zhang • Analyzing newspaper articles, this study explores how American newspapers have framed the issue of animal rights. Results indicate that news stories were more likely to present animal rights as a legal and policy issue, rather than a political and an economic issue, talking primarily about illegality of animal mistreatment and radicalized animal rights activists. Based upon the notion of frame building, this study also examines some factors that may influence the media’s selective use of frames.

Moeller Student Competition • Framing the Taxpaying-Democratization Link: Evidence from Cross-National Newspaper Data • Volha Kananovich • This study explores the relationship between the nature of the political regime and the framing of the construct of a taxpayer in the national press. Based on a computer-assisted analysis of articles from 87 newspapers in 51 countries, it demonstrates that the less democratic a country is, the more likely it is for the press to frame a taxpayer as a subordinate to the state, by discussing taxpaying in enforcement rather than public spending terms.

Moeller Student Competition • Who is Responsible for Low-Fertility in South Korea? • Won-ki Moon, University of South Carolina; Joon Kim, University of South Carolina, Columbia • This study investigated how South Korean newspapers have presented low fertility, specifically focusing on how newspapers attribute responsibility to society or individuals. Through a content analysis of South Korean newspapers (N = 499), we found that the newspapers were focusing heavily on societal-level causes and solutions when talking about low fertility. Among potential causes of and solutions for low fertility, insufficient government aids and financial incentives were mentioned most often.

STUDENT COMPETITION
Online Conversations during an Emergent Health Threat: A Thematic Analysis of Tweets during Zika Virus Outbreak • Alexander Moe, Texas Tech University; Julie Gerdes, Texas Tech University; Joseph Provencher, Texas Tech University; Efren Gomez, Texas Tech University • “Days after the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of Zika in Brazil a global emergency on February 2, 2016, United States President Barack Obama responded by requesting over $1.8 billion in Zika research and prevention funds from Congress. This event put the under-researched disease on the radar of American citizens. The present study examines a set of over 70,000 public Tweets during the days surrounding Obama’s request to understand how Twitter users in the States made sense of the emerging infectious disease.

Understanding why American Christians are intolerant toward Muslims: Christian nationalism and partisan media selection • Kwansik Mun • This paper seeks to explain the formation of political intolerance by reviewing theoretical arguments on Christian nationalism and selective exposure theories. Our analysis confirms the significant relationship between Christian nationalism and ideological news selection, and the mediated effect of ideological news media on both perceived threats and political intolerance toward Muslims.

The “Primed” Third-Person Effect of Racial Minority Portrayals in Media • Jiyoun Suk, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study explores how priming of different levels of media effects (either strong or weak) influences the third-person effect of media portrayals of African Americans. Through an online posttest-only control group experiment, results show that priming strong media effects heightened perceived media effects on in-group and out-group others, but not on the self. Also, it was the perceptions of in-group others, after reading the strong media effects message, that led support for media literacy education.

Beyond Passive Audience Members: Online Public Opinions in Transitional Society • yafei Zhang, The University of Iowa; Chuqing Dong • This study examined audience members’ online comments of a popular TV news program featuring controversial social issues in the contemporary Chinese society. Findings suggested that audience members expressed more negative comments, substantial cognitive recognition, and constructive suggestions towards the government, elite class, and media. The pluralistic and legitimate public opinions expanded the literature on online public discourse in transitional societies. Audience members as citizens in the formation of public spheres were also discussed.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Law and Policy 2017 Abstracts

OPEN COMPETITION
‘Famous in a Small Town’: Indeterminacy and Doctrinal Confusion in Micro Public Figure Doctrine • Matthew Bunker, University of Alabama • The determination of which defamation plaintiffs are public figures is frequently outcome-determinative in libel litigation. Yet courts are wildly inconsistent in their rulings on what this paper refers to as micro public figures – individuals who have achieved notoriety within a small geographic area or within a particular cultural niche. Should such plaintiffs be characterized as all-purpose public figures? This paper analyzes the case law and offers a more precise approach to this problem.

Gag Clauses and the Right to Gripe: The Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016 • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • This paper examines new legislation, including the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act signed into law in December 2016, targeting non-disparagement clauses in consumer contracts. Such “gag clauses” typically either prohibit or punish the posting of negative reviews of businesses on websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. The paper asserts that state and federal statutes provide the best means, from a pro-free expression perspective, of attacking such clauses, given the disturbingly real possibility that the First Amendment has no bearing on contractual obligations between private parties.

Social Media Under Watch: Privacy, Free Speech, and Self-Censorship in Public Universities • Shao Chengyuan • This study examines social media monitoring in the case of two large Southeast public universities. One university has been using a social media monitoring program for years; the other has not adopted this new form of monitoring technology. In this survey, students were asked about their perception and acceptance of monitoring from the university, their concern for online privacy, support for online free speech, and experience with cyberbullying. This study explores the relationships among attitude toward online privacy and online free speech, perception and acceptance of monitoring, and willingness to self-censor when speaking on social media. The correlation analysis showed that the more one is concerned about online privacy and supports online free speech, the less likely that person would regard social media monitoring as acceptable. While those who were more concerned about online privacy were more likely to self-censor, those who were more supportive of online free speech were less likely to self-censor. Most important, this survey found that perception of monitoring was not positively correlated with self-censorship, which goes against the assumption that awareness of surveillance from an authority would cause self-censorship. In addition, this study found that, while 85 percent of the surveyed students use social media on daily basis, more than 60 percent were not greatly concerned about social media monitoring from the university and the government. Implications for studies on social media monitoring and direction for future research are discussed.

Don’t Bother: How Exemption 3 of the Freedom of Information Act Enables an Irrebuttable Presumption of Surveillance Secrecy • Benjamin W. Cramer, Pennsylvania State University • The Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA) gives American citizens a legally-protected procedure to request documents from federal agencies in the Executive Branch and to appeal denied requests. However, the Act acknowledges that some government-held information should remain undisclosed for purposes of safety or security, so the act has exemptions mandating that certain categories of information can be withheld. Exemption 3 states that a federal agency can withhold a document that has already been deemed non-disclosable in a different statute. Exemption 3 is often used by agencies that are involved in traditional national security practices and the controversial modern techniques of pervasive electronic surveillance, as justification for keeping information on those practices secret. This is possible because there are many other statutes in the security field that already allow those types of documents to be withheld in the event of a citizen request, and FOIA Exemption 3 does not allow flexibility in how those statutes are interpreted. This has allowed agencies to exercise greater discretion toward information that they do not wish to disclose to citizens, while the judiciary has almost uniformly deferred to agency discretion. This article will argue that Exemption 3 has inadvertently made the security and surveillance establishment more secretive, creating a nearly irrebuttable presumption that documents must not be disclosed to citizens or journalists.

Who Should Regulate? Testing the Influence of Policy Sources on Support for Regulations on Controversial Media • Kyla Garrett Wagner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Allison Lazard, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Policy research has explored the relationship between perceived effects of controversial media exposure and support for regulations on controversial media, but it has yet to examine how the source of these regulations impacts support. Therefore, this study used a between-subjects experiment to explore how sources of media policies (government vs. industry) influence support for a media policy. Two policy were used: one on pornography and one on violent video games. Other potential predictors of policy support (source credibility, attitudes, and beliefs) were also assessed. We found that while the source of a media policy did not influence support for a media policy, perceived credibility of the policy source and personal beliefs and attitudes about the controversial media were significant predictors of support for a media policy. However, these variables influenced support for the two media policies differently. This study suggests 1) policymakers should assess regulations on controversial media individually to understand what will gain social support for a policy, and 2) future research is needed to explain the differences in these variables across media policies.

Depictions of Obscene Content: How Internet Culture and Art Communities Can Influence Federal Obscenity Law • Austin Linfante, Ohio University • A recent decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, United States v. Handley (S.D. Iowa 2008), complicates how current obscenity law (notably the PROTECT Act of 2003) can prosecute depictions of obscene content. These would include any sort of artwork or simulation that simulates or uses fictional characters to depict otherwise obscene material without using or harming any real-life living beings. This paper will first look at previous court cases, laws and academic literature to determine how obscene content as well as depictions of obscene content have been ruled in the past in terms of whether or not they are protected speech. This will also include examining how online art communities such as DeviantArt and FurAffinity police themselves when it comes to this type of content. There will also be a discussion about how specific types of obscene content like child pornography and bestiality affect a viewer’s likelihood to commit sex crimes themselves. Afterwards, this paper will present the case behind expanding current federal law on obscene content to include depictions of this type of obscene behavior. These model laws will all be based on how large art communities currently police this kind of content. This should ultimately lead to preventing future sex crimes against children and animals as well as provide effective obscenity law.

A Gap in the Shield? Reporter’s Privilege in Civil Defamation Lawsuits 2005-2016 • Meghan Menard-McCune, LSU • The purpose of this study is to determine how state courts and legislatures have addressed reporter’s privilege in civil defamation cases. After an analysis of court cases in six states, the study found three issues relating to reporter’s privilege that the courts addressed: 1) The state shield law’s definitions of news and news media 2) The waiver of the shield law and the protection of unpublished material 3) The shield law’s defamation exception.

“Oligopoly of the Facts”? Media Ownership of News Images • Kathleen Olson, Lehigh University • This paper examines the use of the idea/expression dichotomy, the fair use doctrine and the First Amendment in cases involving news organizations suing for copyright infringement over the use of their news images, including photographs, film and video footage.

Voting Booth or Photo Booth?: Ballot Selfies and Newsgathering Protection for User-Generated Content • Kristen Patrow • This paper addresses whether ballot selfies qualify for First Amendment protection. The analysis includes both newsgathering and speech claims. Snapchat filed an amicus brief in the First Circuit case, Rideout v. Gardner. The work concentrates on Snapchat’s contention that user-generated work is newsgathering activity. The paper reviews cases on newsgathering during elections and the voting process. The analysis shows that ballot selfies are best understood as a hybrid of speech and access rights.

Say this, not that: government regulation and control of social media • Nina Brown, Syracuse University/Newhouse; jon peters • Internet law and policy discussions are converging on the problem of fake news and the idea that “the private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free expression.” They have also raised the possibility of federal government intervention. This article advances those discussions by exploring what Congress could do to enact legislation requiring social media platforms to remove fake news—and whether that would be prudent. It also explores the First Amendment’s role in the private sector.

The Heat is On: Thermal Sensing and Newsgathering – A Look at the Legal Implications of Modern Newsgathering • Roy Gutterman, Syracuse University; Angela Rulffes, Syracuse University • Thermal imaging technology, which was once used primarily by the military, has made its way into the civilian world. Journalists have already begun making use of the technology, and as that use becomes more prevalent concerns about legal issues also arise. This paper, relying on tort privacy cases, Fourth Amendment case law, and theoretical conceptualizations of privacy, provides an in-depth examination of the legal implications surrounding the use of thermal imaging devices for newsgathering.

Lock or Key: Does FOIA Sufficiently Open the Right to Information? • Tyler Prime, Arizona State University; Joseph Russomanno, Arizona State University • A year after the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Freedom of Information Act was observed, criticism of – and disappointment in – the law is significant. Though written with the strong guidance of journalists, FOIA, according to many, has failed to live up to its initial promise of peeling back the layers that too often shroud the federal government in secrecy, and allowing the news media and other citizens to contribute first-hand to the democracy. The United States was only the third nation to pass such a law, but during the half-century since then, the nation has slipped to 51st among world nations by one measure in right to information. FOIA is much to blame. Issues with response rates, unorganized systems and subjective interpretations of the act and its exemptions have combined to lock information from public access rather than acting as the key it was intended to be. This paper utilizes data from annual federal agency FOIA reports to the attorney general from 2008 to 2015. This information indicates that across multiple metrics, FOIA has increasingly struggled to fulfill and often failed to provide records to requesting parties. The trends revealed suggest that significant overhaul is necessary. Rather than prescribing another round of amendments that are little more than Band-Aids on a withering dinosaur, this paper concludes with a detailed set of recommendations – highlighted by a crowd-sourced request database – that move far from FOIA’s original paper-based model that still rests at its analog core.

The Protection of Privacy in the Middle East – A Complicated Landscape • Amy Kristin Sanders, Northwestern University in Qatar • “throughout the Middle East – erroneously viewed by many outsiders as a homogenous region steeped in conservative Islamic culture – the legal landscape varies dramatically with regard to privacy. This article discusses the many influences that have shaped the legal culture throughout the region, which has drawn inspiration from the British Common Law approach, the European Civil Law heritage and centuries of Islamic thought. The result is unique legal environment that blends together traditional religious values, the impact of decades of colonialism and the recent effects of global interconnectedness as a result of the Internet and social media. Not surprisingly then, the legal framework surrounding the protection of privacy is intricate. It would be much easier to allude to the Middle East in sweeping generalizations, dividing it simply into the Levant countries on the western side and the Gulf countries on the eastern shore. But, that approach fails to address the peculiarities that exist from country to country. Although space constraints require painting with a broad brush, this article endeavors to shed light whenever possible on the region’s similarities and differences by using specific examples from countries. Recognizing the enormous undertaking that would be necessary to catalog each and every law pertaining to privacy across 14 nations, this article instead lays out a comparative framework – highlighting the influences of the common law and civil law traditions on the legal framework throughout the Middle East. It provides a high-level overview of privacy law as it exists throughout the Middle East – comparing various sources of law from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In addition, a substantive case study highlights important recent developments and helps foreshadow coming trends in the region.”

Killer Apps: Vanishing messages, encrypted communications, and the challenges to freedom of information laws • Daxton Stewart, TCU • In the early weeks of the new presidential administration, White House staffers were communicating among themselves and leaking to journalists using apps such as Signal and Confide, which allow users to encrypt messages or to make them vanish after being received. By using these apps, government officials are “going dark” by avoiding detection of their communications in a way that undercuts freedom of information laws. In this paper, the author explores the challenges presented by encrypted and ephemeral messaging apps when used by government employees, examining three policy approaches — banning use of the apps, enhancing existing archiving and record-keeping practices, or legislatively expanding quasi-government body definitions — as potential ways to manage the threat to open records laws these “killer apps” present.

Knowledge Will Set You Free (from Censorship): Examining the Effects of Legal Knowledge and Other Editor Characteristics on Censorship and Compliance in College Media • Lindsie Trego, UNC-Chapel HIll • Issues of censorship in higher education have lately been common in the news, however it is unclear to what degree college newspapers experience external influences. This study uses an online survey of public college newspaper editors to examine specific censorship practices experienced by newspaper editors at public colleges, as well as editor compliance with these practices. Further, this study explores how personal characteristics of editors might influence perceptions of and compliance with censorship practices.

First Amendment Metaphors: From “Marketplace” to “Free Flow of Information” • Morgan Weiland, Stanford University • As cognitive linguist George Lakoff has shown, metaphors play a central role in structuring what humans understand as possible. In the First Amendment context, the central organizing metaphor for how judges, scholars, and the public understand the freedom of expression is as a “marketplace.” But little scholarly attention has been paid to a second metaphor that animates the Supreme Court’s thinking about expressive freedoms: the “free flow of information.” This paper’s project and contribution is to recover the free flow metaphor in the Court’s First Amendment doctrine, spanning over 40 opinions dating to the 1940s. This paper reviews every First Amendment opinion in which the Court used the metaphor, finding that the metaphor, by providing a new architecture that structures—and limits—how it is possible to think about who or what counts as a speaker, what qualifies as speech, what the proper role for the press is, and what role the state can play in the expressive environment, undergirds the Court’s development of libertarian theories of speech and the press. Understanding the free flow metaphor’s conceptual structure matters not only because it reveals a shift in the deeper logic of rights and responsibility undergirding the freedoms of expression, a perspective unavailable when looking at the doctrine through the marketplace metaphor’s lens. It also provides a better framework for understanding and fixing the contemporary expressive environment online because some of the most pressing social problems—cyberbullying and fake news—make more sense when assessed through the free flow metaphor’s framework.

Fake News and the First Amendment: Reconciling a Disconnect Between Theory and Doctrine • Sebastian Zarate, University of Florida; Austin Vining, University of Florida; Stephanie McNeff, University of Florida • This paper analyzes calls for regulating so-called “fake news” through the lens of both traditional theories of free expression – namely, the marketplace of ideas and democratic self-governance – and two well-established First Amendment doctrines, strict scrutiny and underinclusivity. The paper argues there is, at first glance, a seeming disconnect between theory and doctrine when it comes to either censoring or safeguarding fake news. The paper contends, however, that a structural-rights interpretation of the First Amendment offers a viable means of reconciling theory and doctrine. A structural-rights approach focuses on the dangers of collective power in defining the truth, rather than on the benefits that messages provide to society or individuals. Ultimately, a structural-rights interpretation illustrates why, at the level of free-speech theory, the government must not censor fake news.

DEBUT FACULTY PAPER COMPETITION
Half the Spectrum: A Title IX Approach to Broadcast Ownership Regulation • Caitlin Carlson, Seattle University • Women make up half of the U.S. population yet own less than eight percent of commercial television and radio broadcast licenses. This is incredibly problematic given the important role women’s media production and ownership plays in the feminist movement. Mass media set the agenda for public debate, frames issues, and primes viewers with the frameworks they should use to evaluate those issues. Women’s greater participation at ownership levels would enable women to speak publicly about their experience, which could substantially alter the agenda set by mass media or shift the frames used to interpret current events. For its part, the FCC has been trying for the past 40 years to address the absence of women and people of color from media ownership. However, in 2016 the Commission rejected race- or gender-based considerations in favor of privileging independent media organizations as the most effective way to achieve viewpoint diversity. Given the failure of the FCC to fix the problem, I argue here that a radical new approach is needed. Using Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 a guide, I propose that legislation be developed that prohibits denying members of either sex the chance to participate in broadcast media organizations, which like educational institutions, receive financial benefits from the federal government. Here, I liken broadcast licenses to federal funds and propose that failure to comply with this anti-discrimination policy could result in license removal.

China’s personal information protection in a data-driven economy: A privacy policy study of Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent • Tao Fu • China’s Internet companies are expanding their businesses at home and abroad with huge consumer data at hand. However, in the global data-driven economic and technological competition, China’s personal information protection is behind that of the West. By content analyzing the online privacy policies of leading Chinese Internet and information service providers (IISPs) – Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, this study found their privacy policies to be generally compliant with China’s personal information protection provisions. The three IISPs used proper mechanisms showing their commitment, measures, and enforcement to data security but their Fair Information Practices need further improvement. The ecosystem of personal information protection in China is severe and users need privacy literacy. Privacy policies in this study offer more about ‘notice’ than they do ‘choice’. Chinese IISPs collect and use information extensively in the guise of providing value to the user. Societal mechanisms such as joining a third-party, seal-of-approval program and technological mechanisms such as using a standardized format for privacy policies have not been widely sought by Chinese IISPs. Lagging behind their global acquisition and operation, Chinese IISPs’ efforts in personal information protection have given insufficient consideration to transborder data flow, and to change of ownership. Recommendations were offered.

Reforming the Lifeline Program: Regulatory Federalism in Action? • Krishna Jayakar; EUN-A PARK, Institute for Information Policy at Pennsylvania State University • This paper considers whether common national standards for determining participants’ eligibility and designating service providers in the Lifeline program are preferable to a decentralized system where state utility commissions have greater influence over these program parameters. Two recent decisions of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a 2016 Order and its reversal in March 2017, on the designation of Eligible Telecommunications Carriers to provide broadband Lifeline service, centered on this question. Statistical analysis of program data demonstrates that state-by-state variations in enrollment may be attributed to state-level policy actions, after controlling for alternative demographic and economic explanations. On the premise that state-by-state variations in participation rates in a federal program are unfair because they burden consumers solely based on their location, this paper concludes in favor of national standards.

The Medium is the Message: Digital Aesthetics and Publicity Interests in Interactive Media • Michael Park, Syracuse University • Recent application of the right of the publicity doctrine to interactive media has led to inconsistent rulings and uncertainty to the doctrine’s scope, when pitted against First Amendment considerations. These recent court decisions have inadequately explained the disparate application, and this uneven application of legal principles raises serious free speech concerns for expressive activities with other emerging interactive media platforms such as virtual reality. However, these recent decisions have unveiled discernible principles that help explain the disparate approach of the right of publicity doctrine to new interactive media. This article articulates the assumptions guiding the disparate application of the doctrine. This article begins with a historical overview of the right of publicity doctrine and the various approaches adopted by the courts. It will then focus its attention on the transformative work test and address the recent analytical pivot—from a holistic examination of the work to a myopic focus on the individual avatar—by employing a natural rights theory argument to explain the courts’ narrow approach to transformativity. Furthermore, this paper makes the case that the courts’ discordant doctrinal treatment of interactive games is premised in the misplaced notion that the medium lacks artistry and authorial signature (i.e. interactive games are not art, but rather craft). Finally, this work advances the argument that while today’s interactive games present rich historical and pedagogical content, courts have failed to adequately apply common law and statutory exemptions that include not only news, but works of fiction, entertainment, public affairs and sports accounts.

The Privilege That Never Was: The Curious Case of Texas’ Third-Party Allegation Rule • Kenneth Pybus, Abilene Christian University; Allison Brown, Abilene Christian University • Beginning in 1990, the year the Supreme Court of Texas decided McIlvain v. Jacobs, journalists and media lawyers alike operated under the belief that news outlets in Texas had a powerful protection against libel lawsuits when reporting third-party allegations about matters of public concern. Relying on McIlvain, appeals courts cited the “third-party allegation rule” time and again when finding in favor of media defendants. But, after more than two decades, the Supreme Court threw the state’s libel jurisprudence into discord by ruling in 2013 that the third-party allegation rule didn’t exist in common law and, in fact, never had existed. A corrected opinion withdrew some repudiatory language but introduced more ambiguity. The Texas Legislature responded to this abrupt about-face in the summer of 2015 by crafting and passing an apparently sweeping statutory third-party allegation privilege that restores the protections journalists believed they had in such cases. Little legal scholarship has examined the circuitous history of this privilege and its powerful potential for limiting libel claims against media.

Beyond “I Agree:” Users’ Understanding of Web Site Terms of Service • Eric Robinson, University of South Carolina; Yicheng Zhu, University of South Carolina • With the ubiquitous use of websites and social media, the terms of service of these sites have increasing influence on users’ legal rights and responsilibities when using these sites. But various studies have shown that users rarely review these terms of service, usually because they are too much trouble and are often are too complex for most users to understand; one proposed solution is simplification of the language of these documents. Our experiment took advantage of a major website’s revision of its terms of service to reduce legal jargon and make them more understandable to determine whether the changes resulted in language that more effectively conveyed the intended meanings. But our results show that such changes are likely to have minimal effect, and that users generally based on understanding of what is permitted and not permitted on websites with their preconceived notions. Based on this finding, we present some proposals to address this issue.

Revisiting copyright theories: Democratic culture and the resale of digital goods • Yoonmo Sang, Howard University • This study surveys theoretical justifications for copyright and considers the implications of the notion of cultural democracy for copyright law and policy. In doing so, the study focuses on the first sale doctrine and advocates the doctrine’s expansion to digital goods after discussing policy implications of the first sale doctrine. Arguments for and against a digital first sale doctrine are followed. The study argues that democratic copyright theories, in general, and the notion of cultural democracy, in particular, can and should guide copyright reforms in conjunction with a digital first sale doctrine. This study contributes to the growing discussion of democratic theories of copyright by demonstrating their applicability to copyright policy and doctrine.

A Secret Police: The Lasting Impact of the 1986 FOIA Amendments • A.Jay Wagner, Bradley University • The 1986 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act were a passed as a last-minute rider to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the Reagan era legislative contribution to the War on Drugs policies. The amendments though small in number and limited in congressional discussion have made a lasting impact on FOIA implementation. The three pieces – a broad restructuring of Exemption 7, the law enforcement exemption; the addition of exclusions for law enforcement and intelligence requests; and introduction of a new fee structure – were aimed at addressing concerns from the law enforcement and intelligence communities and in-line with the general aims of the Anti-Drug Abuse in providing law enforcement more tools and less scrutiny in combating illicit drug production, sale and use. The paper looks to consider the amendment along two tracks. In the tradition of legal scholarship, preceding legislative efforts, judicial decision and executive messaging are pursued in an effort to understand motives and purpose of the amendment. The second track uses a dataset of cabinet-level department FOIA annual reports figures from 1975 until 2016 in exploring the ways the FOIA has been used and administered. The dataset gleaned from more than 550 annual reports traces the ways the 1986 amendment altered civic access to information on policing and national security. Presently, Exemption 7 accounts for 57 percent of all exemption claims and “no records” responses – a direct outcome of exclusions – account for the closure of 15 percent of all records processed and demonstrate massive growth after the amendment. The study demonstrates how the 1986 FOIA Reform Act has undermined the public’s ability to provide oversight of law enforcement.

Essential or Extravagant: Considering FOIA Budgets, Costs & Fees • A.Jay Wagner, Bradley University • The budgets, costs and fees of the Freedom of Information Act represent the financial lifeblood of the access mechanism but are rarely considered in scholarship. This study considers these elements of FOIA administration through a combination of traditional legal scholarship and a database composed of more than 500 FOIA annual reports, compiling 93 percent of all cabinet-level department annual reports from 1975 until present. In exploring the legislative and judicial trajectory of the costs and fees of FOIA implementation, including the illustrative Open America decision and its recognition of a lack of resources as an acceptable rationale for delay, the study questions the sincerity of FOIA administration. Lack of resources has existed as a legal claim for delay since the 1976 Open America decision, yet no statutory progress has been made since. FOIA – a galling obligation for most federal agencies – is required to compete for funding with other agency priorities among the general agency budget. There is no legislative requirement nor guideline in how FOIA is funded, and as a result, FOIA funding is remarkably low (all while the federal government countenances resource excuses). Analysis of FOIA annual report data uncovers little in the way of consistent or coherent system in costs accrued, fees collected, staffing measures and general usage data. The study aims to take a small step in asking big questions about how and why FOIA is financed in the manner it is, and, further, whether such lack of funding and oversight demonstrates insincerity on the government’s part.

State-level Policies for Personal Financial Disclosure: Exploring the Potential for Public Engagement on Conflict-of-Interest Issues • John Wihbey, Northeastern University; Mike Beaudet, Northeastern University • This paper examines personal financial disclosure practices required for public officials across U.S. states and finds that more than 80 percent of states rate poorly when evaluated on a set of objective criteria. A “disclosure degree” score is calculated for each state; these scores are then brought together with a related set of measures to evaluate transparency more broadly for public officials in each state. Levels of public corruption in each state are also considered. For financial disclosure to be meaningful, we argue, three interconnected areas must be evaluated: First, the precision of the information required by law to be disclosed; second, the degree of openness and relevance of information toward the detection of conflicts of interest; third, the degree to which institutional monitors – prosecutors, news media, ethics commissions – can generate public knowledge.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Graduate Student 2017 Abstracts

Twitter Building the Agenda: How Journalists Use Twitter as a Source While Reporting • Kaitlin Bane, University of Oregon • With a U.S. president infamous for tweeting, it is becoming exceedingly important for scholars to study and understand how the medium is influencing news reporting. Using quantitative content analysis this paper examines the use of tweets as quotes in web-only news organizations compared to traditional print organizations. Findings show that while print outlets most often use Twitter to quote official sources and for opinion comments, web-only news organizations use the medium differently.

Yoga in Media! Using Theory of Planned Behavior to Examine Media Influences on Intention to Practice Yoga • Nandini Bhalla, University of South Carolina • Using theory of planned behavior as a conceptual framework, this paper analyzes the association between the portrayal of yoga in media with the intention to practice yoga, for both yoga practitioners and non-practitioners. A t-test showed that yoga practitioners have a more positive attitude towards yoga media content than non-yoga practitioners and that they internalize media content more strongly than non-practitioners. Hierarchal multiple regression was used to analyze the results. Implications are discussed.

How Activism and Ethics Intersect in Public Relations: A Pilot Study • Minhee Choi • This pilot study explored how public relations practitioners’ activism is associated with their ethics in the context of corporate social responsibility and communication. Although no correlation was found between activism and ethics, results showed that practitioners with high levels of relativist ethics are less likely to be ethical in their communication. Practitioners with more than 20 years of work experience have higher levels of ethics, and practitioners in PR agencies have the lowest ethical levels compared to other sectors. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Tie Strength and Privacy Concern in Social Context Advertising • Chuqing Dong; Alexander Pfeuffer • Social context advertising is a targeting approach using social relationships to promote brands on social media. Drawing upon the concept of social influence, this study examined how social context ads displaying contacts with varying tie strengths affected brand attitude and purchase intent of consumers with differing levels of privacy concern. Regardless of consumers’ privacy concern, social context ads displaying strong ties increased purchase intent while brand attitudes remained unaffected. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

“Sources Say … He May Have Been Depressed and Angry” • Jacqueline Fellows • An increase in mass shootings in the U.S. has amplified the reporting on mental illness despite weak evidence that links the two issues. A qualitative content analysis of local newspaper coverage of five mass shootings in 2015 shows that journalists ignore professional standards and rely on nonqualified sources in stories that include mental illness as a component of mass shooting coverage. Additionally, sources frame mental illness as dangerous and/or undesirable.

What’s in your school? A content analysis of school persona creation using online messages • Dakota Horn, Illinois State University • Message framing is a key part of designing a message to influence a potential buyer or even a potential citizen within a community system. This study examines “about us” pages on school district websites within the state of Illinois to gain incite as to how and why school districts craft messages to create a persona. The examinations will breakdown goal creation of the district and execution through message features: structure, content, style, as well as the potential efficacy of the audience member. A content analysis was performed to show a common theme of message design in comparison of several school districts. The content analysis developed a theme among content creation in online messages.

Why Social Media? Examining the Motivations of Chinese University Students to Gather Public Affairs News on Social Media Platforms • Liefu Jiang, University of Kansas • Through a survey with 568 participants, this paper employs uses-and-gratifications theory to investigate Chinese university students’ public affairs news consumption on WeChat and Sina Weibo, the two most popular Chinese social media platforms. The findings suggest that students’ news reading is driven by different motivations on the two platforms. Socializing and technological-convenience positively relate to WeChat users’ news reading, while information seeking negatively relates. For Sina Weibo users, only technological-convenience positively relates to news reading.

What Drives Facebook and Instagram Users’ Emotional Attachment and Continuing Use? A Comparative Analysis of Internal and Socio-Cultural Factors • Bumsoo Kim, University of Alabama • This study investigated whether and how the internal and socio-cultural factors that differently enhance the level of intensity toward Facebook or Instagram activities and intention to continue to use the platforms. In this study, I propose individual motivations and gratifications (social interaction, entertainment, passing time, peeking, and need for recognition) and socio-cultural factors (subjective norms and SNS culture), and an online survey with 606 adults was conducted. The results showed significant differences between motivations/gratifications for intention to continue to further use Facebook compared to Instagram. The degree to which individuals have willingness to continue to use both platforms can be different depending upon what motivations they have. Individuals’ perceptual level of differences between Facebook and Instagram are important assets for SNS practitioners in developing better SNS technologies as well as for scholars in developing theories about social media use.

Asian Television and Cultural Globalization: A Critical Analysis from 2000–2015 • Dieer Liao, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University; Yueyue Liang, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University • This study examines 96 articles about Asian television and cultural globalization published in 19 major SSCI journals of communication studies from 2000–15, aiming to present a meta-analysis of relevant research in the context of international communications. It demonstrates the patterns and distribution of theoretical paradigms, flow trends, issues of concern, territory of focus, methodology, and authorship reflected in the studies surveyed through content analysis. The primary findings of this research are that the political economic framework remains the prevailing critical paradigm in this field; that the most-studied issue is structural control of the media sphere; that China-related studies amount to the largest proportion; and that the qualitative method is adopted most frequently. The highlight is that a gradual shift from in-flow to contra-flow and inter-Asia flow has been noticed, and that South Korea is found to have become the focal center of transnational studies in Asian television and cultural globalization.

Mobilizing the Umbrella Movement: An Alternative Framework of Protest in an Information Society • Zhongxuan LIN • This study takes the Umbrella Movement as a case study to investigate the media mobilizing structures of the protest in an information society. It proposes an alternative framework of “contextualized transmedia mobilization” to explore how protestors situated in a specific context employ, create, circulate, amplify, and converge various forms of media to continually mobilize themselves and the public, and, thus heighten participation levels, innovate contentious repertoires, and experiment with organizational transformation.

The Impact of Social Amplification and Attenuation of Risk: A national survey of Chinese Public Reactions Toward Middle East Respiratory Syndrome • Jiawei Liu; Zhaomeng Niu • Human beings are evolved to avoid threats to protect themselves. Threat caused by risk is a primary biological motivator in our environment and elicit automatic aversive responses. In general, people feel more aroused and pay more attention to the potential threat. Recent research studies call attention to how the public perceive the risk under the influences of multiple factors in individual and social amplification stations. This study developed a conceptual model and examined how media exposure, knowledge, as well as information seeking behavior affected lay understanding and risk perceptions toward MERS in China. In general, the results demonstrated that greater information seeking behavior could predict: 1) higher frequency of media exposure; 2) higher level of individual knowledge of MERS; 3) higher likelihood of amplifying the perceived threat of MERS.

Newspaper Coverage of Mars in the United States and the United Kingdom 2011-2016 • Mikayla Mace • A content analysis of three elite print newspapers in the United States and three in the United Kingdom found that the framing and tone of articles about Mars were deployed similarly despite the different objectives of each country’s space program. From the Apollo moon shots to human exploration of Mars, each successive era of spaceflight has been framed in a logical progression from concept to completion that resonates with the values of the times.

First Ladies: Policy Involvement, Public Approval Ratings, and Women in the Workforce • Nia Mason, Louisiana State University • Based on the theory of social influence, a mixed methods approach was used to understand the relationship between First Ladies’ policy involvement and their approval ratings, and between approval ratings and the number of women in the workforce. A textual analysis examined the first research question. A simple linear regression tested the second research question, showing a significant relationship. A Pearson correlation tested the third research question and showed a relationship of no significance.

Real or Ideal: Millennial Perceptions of Pornographic Media Realism and Influence on Relationship Assessments • Farnosh Mazandarani, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study examines pornography and whether content idealism, realism, or sexual explicitness of media genres may affect relationship assessments. Findings indicated greater consumption of pornography predicted lower sex satisfaction, perceived realism indicated higher content identification, and higher identification with pornography lead to greater pornography consumption. Participants who identified more with pornography reported higher sexual expectations. Idealization had no direct effect on relationship assessments yet showed a negative relationship on idealized media consumption on sexual expectations.

Debating What’s Natural: A Qualitative Framing Analysis of “Natural” Food Label News Coverage • Melissa McGinnis, University of Florida • The use of “natural” on food labels is a growing concern for the food industry and consumers. This qualitative framing study uses a literary approach analyzing 51 articles covering the “natural” food label debate in four U.S. nationally recognized newspapers. This study identifies stakeholders most frequently in conflict and the areas of contention in the “natural” food label debate. In addition, this study identifies the terms used to define “natural” foods.

“20 Years is Just the Other Day”: The role of genesis narrative in constructing journalism culture • Ruth Moon, University of Washington • There is evidence that political influences shape professional views, but that the specifics of local culture impact journalists’ actual practices. However, there is little research unpacking the particular ways culture impacts journalism. Using theoretical perspectives from journalism studies and organizational sociology and newsroom ethnographic data gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, I show how narratives constructed from elements of local culture and shared history function as myths that impact journalism culture on both ideological and practical levels.

Visual Framing of Dieselgate: A Content Analysis of Global News Coverage • David Morris II, University of Oregon • News coverage of an event traditionally attempts to provide the largest audience with the greatest information that would impact that audience. In their visual coverage of Volkswagen’s emission scandal commonly referred to as “Dieselgate,” newspapers from around the world seemed to fall short of this practice. This study investigates the type of visuals and themes used by more than 6,000 newspapers from news outlets across the globe in their coverage of Dieselgate. In a content analysis of newspapers’ front pages for one week following Volkswagen’s Clean Air Act of 1963 Notice of Violation, this study reveals that the dominate visual deployed by newspapers from around the world is a single photograph. The research also finds that a dominant visual theme in the newspaper coverage of Dieselgate around the world is financial in nature. Perhaps more concerning is the absence of visual representation of Dieselgate as a global environmental issue.

Effects of Brand Placement in Mobile Applications on Consumer Responses • Haseon Park, University of North Dakota • This study examined the effects of individual thinking style and ad congruency to explore the effects of native advertising on consumer responses in mobile applications. The experimental results revealed the interaction effects of nativity and thinking styles, nativity and congruency. This study findings contribute not only to the understanding of the effects of thinking styles and ad congruency in native advertising, but also to extending the scope of mobile native advertising research.

The UNC Academic Scandal: A Framing Analysis of Local Media Coverage • Matthew Stilwell, University of South Carolina • The purpose of this study is to examine how a local media outlet, The News & Observer, reported the University of North Carolina (UNC) academic scandal. This study used a framing analysis and constant-comparative methodology to analyze the dominant frames that were emphasized or resistant in local media coverage. Results indicated that multiple parties and players were the focus of the news stories. Factors including blame and athletics in higher education are discussed.

Sharing Cultural Goods on Facebook: Social Capital, Opinion Leadership, and Electronic Word-of-Mouth • Alec Tefertiller, University of Oregon • While the role of paid advertising in online environments has diminished, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become increasingly valuable. This study sought to determine if consumers’ trust in their social media network, defined as social capital, or identification as an opinion leader better predicted social media eWOM related to cultural goods. The key finding was that perceived opinion leadership consistently best predicted Facebook eWOM.

Chinese Watchdogs: Journalistic Role Performance in Chinese Media • Emeka Umejei, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa • This paper examines the relationship between journalistic role conception and role performance within Chinese media organisations based in Africa (Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television and China Daily newspaper). It contributes a non-western perspective to the debate on the relationship between role conception and role performance. The paper demonstrates the ways in which the relationship between role conception and role performance within Chinese media is hinged upon conditional autonomy in relation to the typology of stories. Furthermore, it argues the dominant practice of using survey methods in examining the relationship between journalistic role conception and role performance is not suited to contexts outside Anglo-American sphere. It therefore proposes a qualitative approach that combines semi-structured interview and qualitative content analysis in examining this relationship within contexts of limited journalistic autonomy.

Twitter as a digital union: Exploring blogger reactions to corporate collapse • Mariah Wellman, The University of Iowa • This paper asks whether Twitter can afford the formation of digital unions during labor crises using a cast study of Mode Media, a lifestyle publishing and ad network that shut down without compensating its bloggers. Through a textual analysis of tweets containing the hashtag #ModeOwesBloggers, I argue bloggers used Twitter to create a sense of solidarity in a time of struggle by advocating for change, empathizing with other bloggers, and communicating feelings to Mode Media.

Meeting the New Players: A Study of Digital Native Journalists’ Professionalism • LU WU • Digital native journalists have brought new blood and challenges to journalistic professionalism. This paper surveyed digital native journalists and legacy journalists on their three dimensions of professionalism. Findings show that digital native journalists are both preservers and transformers of journalistic professionalism. Identifying how digital native journalists differentiate from legacy journalists on aspects of professionalism has afforded some clues of how journalistic professional values and practices will develop in the future.

Social News: Enhancing Media Richness by Connecting Virtuality with Reality in Cyberspace • Yanfang Wu • Utilizing a purposeful snow-ball rolling strategy, the investigator conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews from June to July 2014. Thirteen interviewees titled journalists, convergence journalists, editors, community editors, and engagement editors, from thirteen different newsrooms of multiple platforms, varied from newspaper, radio, television, magazine to online only news organizations were interviewed. Their affiliated news organizations vary in size, from large to small. Based on media richness theory, the study shed light on how journalists, using social cues, delve into the virtual world, build connections between the “virtuality” and “reality” through finding sources, interacting with audiences, constructing virtual communities in the cyberspace and integrating the “virtuality” with the “reality” into the news production process. With its rich multimedia function that allows immediate response between journalists and audiences, social media becomes a rich medium that connects the “virtuality” to the “reality” in news.

Creating Spaces Revisited: Students Perspectives on International and Multi(inter)cultural Public Relations Education • Kiaya Young • In a global market employees need the skills to be able to work in a multicultural market. International public relation skills are becoming a necessity. Public Relations practitioners are educated on various fundamental skills through their educational programs, but there has been a lack of international and multi(inter)cultural education. This paper is a restudy of Nilajana Bardhan 2003 study Creating Spaces for International and Multi(inter)cultural Perspectives in Undergraduate Public Reactions Education

Perceptions of Advertising with Interracial Couples: The Influence of Race and Attitudes Toward Interracial Dating • Taylor Young, Oklahoma State University • The present study analyzed how models’ race or ethnicity influences attitudes toward advertising that portrays interracial couples. A survey of college students (n=309) was conducted to examine whether the type of couple (interracial or same race) or the configuration of the interracial couple (Black female – White male or Black male – White female) influenced their response. Additionally, it explored how respondents’ race or ethnicity and preexisting attitudes toward interracial dating impacted their response to the ad.

Culture, Media, and Depression: A Focus Group Study in Understanding International Students’ Mental Health Literacy • Nanlan Zhang • This study employed qualitative, in-depth focus groups with international students and U.S. students to explore their perceived mental health literacy and perceptions of information portrayed in mass media regarding depression. The results found that American students showed openness and sufficiency in talking about depression. International students assigned stigma in the Asian and African cultural values as a major barrier to discussing personal experiences regarding depression in public. Both groups held negative attitudes toward media in conveying messages about depression but showed more trust on social support, which implied a need for improving public’s mental health literacy.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Cultural and Critical Studies 2017 Abstracts

Judging the Masses: The Hutchins Commission on the Press, the New York Intellectuals on Mass Culture • Stephen Bates, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • To qualify as an intellectual, according to Edmund Wilson, one must be “dissatisfied with the goods that the mass media are putting out.” This paper dissects and compares two prominent midcentury critiques of the mass media that have rarely been considered together: the critique of the news media by Robert Maynard Hutchins and the Commission on Freedom of the Press, and the critique of mass culture by Dwight Macdonald and other New York intellectuals.

Detecting Black: Urban African American Noir • Ralph Beliveau, University of Oklahoma • A critical and cultural perspective leads to the notion that Film Noir’s sense of location is tied to urban spaces. The context of post-WW II cities, depicted as an expressionist play of revealing light and disguising shadow, defines the cultural universe for these stories of crime and conflict. However less attention has been paid to the notion of race in relation to noir, though the varieties of stories that are discussed under noir (and neo-noir) include significant treatments of African American characters in these urban contexts. The relationship between cities and black culture(s), therefore, offers an opportunity to explore American cities at the intersection of race and the concerns of noir. A deeper noir context is presented in the Los Angeles of Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), the Hughes Brothers’ neo-noir Brooklyn in the film Dead Presidents (1995), and the adaptation of a Chester Himes story in the “Tang” episode of the anthology pilot Cosmic Slop (1994), by Warrington and Reginald Hudlin. In these examples the noir setting is increasingly constrained, the urban landscapes, through racially inflected noir terms, are a shrinking labyrinth. The uncomfortable politics of race that are just beneath the surface of noir are brought to the forefront. Where mainstream (i.e., racially transparent) noir finds threats in how the system is perverted by evil men and femme fatales, by shifting attention to attitudes about race, these evil actions are matched by injustices and evil in the epistemology of ignorance in the systems themselves.

Athleticism or racism?: Identity formation of the (racialized) dual-threat quarterback through football recruiting websites. • Travis R. Bell, University of South Florida • This study uses racial formation theory to explain how football recruiting websites oppress high school quarterbacks of color through the “dual-threat” code word. Analysis of 125 top-rated quarterbacks from 2012-2016 is explicated as a sporting racial project. Inequality is embedded in the coded difference between predominately white “pro-style” quarterbacks and “dual-threats.” Racialization of the quarterback position reduces upward mobility and serves as a site of new struggle for quarterbacks of color to overcome as teenagers.

Faith and Reason: A Cultural Discourse Analysis of the Black & Blue Facebook Pages • Mary Angela Bock, University of Texas at Austin; Ever Figueroa, University of Texas at Austin • Highly publicized deaths of Black men during police encounters have inspired a renewed civil rights movement originating with a Twitter hashtag, “Black Lives Matter.” Supporters of the law enforcement community quickly countered with an intervention of their own, using the slogan, “Blue Lives Matter.” This project compared the discourses of their respective Facebook groups using Symbolic Convergence Theory. It found that the two groups’ symbol systems are homologous with America’s historic secular tension.

Deconstructing the communication researcher through the culture-centered approach • Abigail Borron, University of Georgia • The culture-centered approach (CCA) model, as a research methodology, critically examines the contested intersections among culture, structure, and agency, specifically as it relates to marginalized communities. This paper examines how CCA challenged the researcher to personally evaluate ethical and academic responsibility, recognize marginalizing practices on behalf of the dominant paradigm, and integrate elements of CCA into course design and student mentorship regarding future journalism and communication careers and scholarly work.

Differential Climate: Blacks and Whites in Super Bowl Commercials, 1989-2014 • Kenneth Campbell, University of South Carolina; Ernest Wiggins, University of South Carolina; Phillip Jeter • A content analysis of Super Bowl commercials from 1989 to 2014 finds that Blacks as primary characters exceed their proportion in U. S. population. However, they appear much more frequently in background roles and are associated with less prestigious products more than with higher-status products, which is consistent with the presence of Blacks in other TV commercials and findings of a climate of difference in commentary about Black athletes and White athletes during sporting events

“Trust me. I am not a racist”: Whiteness, Media and Millennials • chris campbell, u. of southern miss. • This paper examines “whiteness,” a contemporary form of racism identified by Critical Race Theorists, in media created by and/or designed for the Millennial generation. Partially through a textual analysis of white comedian-actress Amy Shumer’s peculiar take-off on superstar Beyonce’s “Transformation” video, the paper argues that even politically progressive Millennial media reflect similarities to racially problematic media produced by previous generations — especially the notion of post-racialism. The paper raises the possibility that post-racial whiteness will continue to haunt media texts and delay yet another generation of Americans from arriving at a more sophisticated understanding of racism and its impact on our culture.

“We’re nothing but the walking dead in Flint”: Framing and Social Pathology in News Coverage of the Flint Water Crisis • Michael Clay Carey, Samford; Jim Lichtenwalter, Georgia • This framing study uses news coverage of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis to examine representation of social pathology. Ettema and Peer wrote that the use of a “language of social pathology to describe lower-income urban neighborhoods” has led Americans to “understand those communities entirely in terms of their problems” (1996, p. 835). Urban pathology frames discussed in this study suggest a lack of agency among residents and may distract from broader questions of environmental justice.

Navigating Alma’s gang culture: Exploring testimono, identity and violence through an interactive documentary • Heather McIntosh; Kalen Churcher, Wilkes University • Testimonios bring oppressed voices to the masses, motivating them toward political engagement. Alma: A Tale of Violence is an interactive documentary that draws on this tradition. It tells the story of a Guatemalan woman who joined a gang and struggled with marianismo expectations within gang culture machismo. This paper argues that while Alma provides expansive information unavailable in other mediated testimonio forms, it offers a limited experience in terms of audience participation and interactivity.

Of “Tomatoes” and Men: A Continuing Analysis of Gender in Music Radio Formats • David Crider, SUNY Oswego • The 2015 radio controversy “SaladGate” revealed a lack of female music artists gaining airplay. This study expands a previous gender analysis of music radio into a longitudinal study. A content analysis of 192 stations revealed that airplay is increasing for females; however, it is mostly limited to the Top-40 format. The results suggest the existence of a gender order (Connell, 1987) in music radio, one that works hand-in-hand with the music industry to exclude women.

Considering the Corrective Action of Universities in Diversity Crises: A Critical Comparative Approach • George Daniels, The University of Alabama • Using both the theory of image restoration discourse and critical race theory, this study takes a critical comparative examination of the university responses to diversity crises in 2015 at The University of Missouri, The University of Oklahoma, and The University of Alabama. All three institutions took “corrective action” by appointing a “diversity czar” and a committee or council to investigate concerns of students protests.

Preserving the Cultural Memory with Tweets? A Critical Perspective On Digital Archiving, Agency and Symbolic Partnerships at the Library of Congress • Elisabeth Fondren, Louisiana State University – Manship School of Mass Communication; Meghan Menard-McCune, LSU • In recent years, the Library of Congress has announced plans to archive vast collections of digital communication, including the social media tool Twitter. A textual analysis of white papers and press briefings show the Library is trying to make born-digital media accessible by increasingly partnering with private vendors. This study attempts to narrow the gap in understanding why cultural organizations have an interest in preserving social media as part of our collective memory.

A Seven-Letter Word for Leaving People Out: E L I T I S M in The New York Times Crossword • Shane Graber • This study examines the discourse that The New York Times crossword puzzle uses to define, protect, and exclusively communicate with the culture elite, a privileged group of people who tend to be wealthy, male, and white. Using a critical discourse analysis to study clues and answers, findings show that puzzles in the world’s most important newspaper skew favorably toward the culture elite and often portray marginalized groups such as women, people of color, and the poor negatively—or ignore them altogether.

When Local is National: Analysis of Interacting Journalistic Communities in Coverage of Sea Level Rise • Robert Gutsche Jr, Florida International University; Moses Shumow, Florida International University • This study examines the interaction of journalistic communities from local and national levels by examining moments when local issue for local audiences was thrust onto a national stage by national press for wider audiences. Through this analysis, we argue that local press positioned themselves as authorities on local issue, ultimately positioning national press as “outsiders” so as to reaffirm local news boundaries, a process we refer to as boundary intersection.

Silly Meets Serious: Discursive Integration and the Stewart/Colbert Era • Amanda Martin, University of Tennessee; Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee; Barbara Kaye, University of Tennessee • This paper traces political satire on U. S. television. Using the theory of discursive integration, the paper examines the satire of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and the scholarship about their respective programs, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Discursive integration explained well the look and sound, as well as societal function, of such programs. Each blurs lines between news and entertainment, and helps audiences decode meanings from the hubris often in the news.

Remote Control: Producing the Active Object • Matthew Corn; Kristen Heflin, Kennesaw State University • This study argues that remote control is not merely a human capability or feature of a device, but a type of human/device relation and agency with deep roots in broader attempts at control from a distance. This study discusses the concept of active objects and provides an historical account of the emergence of remote control as the means of producing active objects, thus revealing the insufficiency of Enlightenment/empiricist divisions between acting humans and acted-upon objects.

Social Identity Theory as the Backbone of Sports Media Research • Nicholas Hirshon, William Paterson University • The impacts of group memberships on self-image can be examined through social identity theory and the concepts of BIRGing (basking in reflected glory) and CORFing (cutting off reflected failure). Given the interaction between sports media narratives and identity variables, this paper charts the simultaneous developments of social identity theory and BIRGing and CORFing and examines how social identity can serve as the theoretical backbone for sports media scholarship.

Challenging the Narrative: The Colin Kaepernick National Anthem Protest in Mainstream and Alternative Media • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri • In 2016, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, stirring debates in the media over appropriate methods of protest. This study used textual analysis to compare mainstream and black press coverage of Kaepernick’s protest and also analyzed forums on black press websites. The findings show how mainstream media focused on a protest narrative, while the black press struggled to promote racial uplift and to use forums for productive discourse.

National Security Culture: Gender, Race and Class in the Production of Imperial Citizenship • Deepa Kumar, Journalism and Media Studies, Rutgers University • This paper is about how national security culture sets out, in raced, gendered, and classed terms, to prepare the American public to take up their role as citizens of empire. The cultural imagination of national security, I argue, is shaped both by the national security state and the media industry. Drawing on archival material, I offer a contextual/historical analysis of key national security visual texts in two periods—the early Cold War era and the Obama phase of the War on Terror. A comparative analysis of the two periods shows that while Cold War practices inform the War on Terror, there are also discontinuities. A key difference is the inclusion of women and people of color within War on Terror imperial citizenship, inflected by the logic of a neoliberal form of feminism and multiculturalism. I argue that inclusion is not positive and urge scholars to combine an intersectional analysis of identity with a structural critique of neoliberal imperialism.

Searching for Citizen Engagement and City Hall: 200 Municipal Homepages and Their Rhetorical Outreach to Audiences • Jacqueline Lambiase, TCU • U.S. cities rely on their websites to enhance citizen engagement, and digital government portals have been promoted for decades as gateways to participatory democracy. This study, through rhetorical and qualitative content analyses, focuses on 200 municipal homepages and the ways they address audiences and invite participation. The findings reveal very few cities have: platforms for interactive discussions; representations of citizen activities; or ways to call citizens into being for the important work of shared governance.

California Newspapers’ Framing of the End-of-Life Option Act • Kimberly Lauffer; Sean Baker; Audrey Quinn • In 2014, Brittany Maynard, 29, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, moved from California to Oregon, one of only three U.S. states with legal physician-assisted death, so she could determine when she would die. Three months after her Nov. 1, 2014, death, California lawmakers introduced SB 128, the End-of-Life Option Act, to permit aid in dying in California. This paper uses qualitative methods to examine how California newspapers framed the End-of-Life Option Act.

When Cognition Engages Culture and Vice Versa: Conflict-Driven Media Events from Strategy to Ritual • Limin Liang • Amidst the recent turn towards power and conflict in media ritual studies, this article proposes a new media events typology building on Dayan and Katz’s (1992) classic functionalist model. Events are categorized according to how a society manages internal and external conflicts in ritualized/ritual-like ways, and at both formal and substantive levels. This leads to four scenarios: rationalized conflict, ritualized trauma, perpetuated conflict and transformed conflict, all of which can be subsumed under Victor Turner’s useful concept of “social drama”. Further, to bridge ritual and cognitive framing studies, the article compares the two fields’ central frames for studying social conflict – “social drama” vs. “social problem” – and their mechanisms of achieving effect, namely, salience-making and resonance-crafting. The article tries to move beyond the “media events vs. daily news” binary to study communication along a continuum from strategy to ritual.

Re-imagining Communities in Flux, in Cyberspace and beyond Nationalism: Community and Identity in Macau • Zhongxuan LIN • Based on four years of participant observation on 37 Macau Facebook communities and 12 in-depth interviews, this paper inquires the research question that how Macau Internet users resist legitimizing identity, reclaim resistance identity and restructure project identity thereby constructing re-imagined communities in cyberspace. This inquiry proposes a possible identity-focused approach for future community studies, especially studying re-imagined communities in flux, in cyberspace and beyond nationalism.

Clustering and Video Content Creators: Democratization at Work • Nadav Lipkin • Much has been written on the democratizing potential of YouTube and other video-sharing sites, but scholarship generally disregards professional independent video content creators. This article explores these content creators through the concept of clustering that suggests firms and workers benefit from co-location. Using a case study of video content creators, this study suggests these workers are less positively affected by clustering due to political-economic conditions and the digital nature of production.

“Kinda Like Making Coffee”: Exploring Twitter as a Legitimate Journalistic Form • Zhaoxi Liu, Trinity University; Dan Berkowitz, U of Iowa • Through an eight-week field research, the study provides an in-depth inquiry into journalists’ use of Twitter and what it means to their craft, foregrounding the issue of artifact boundary while exploring its deeper meaning from a cultural point of view. The study found journalists had contradicting views on the issue of artifact boundary, and faced contradictions and uncertainties regarding what Twitter meant for their craft. The paper also discusses the finding’s implications for democracy.

Editorial Influence Beyond Trending Topics: Facebook’s Algorithmic Censorship and Bearing Witness Problems • Jessica Maddox, University of Georgia • In 2016, Facebook found itself at the intersection of a controversy surrounding media ethics and censorship when it removed Nick Ut’s famous “Terror of War” photo for violating its community standards policy regarding child nudity. The social media giant defended its decision by decreeing its image scanning algorithms had functioned correctly in policing the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. This contentious situation highlights many nebulous issues presently facing social media platforms, and in order to assess some of the dominant forms made available from press coverage of this issue, I conducted a textual analysis of the top ten international newspapers with the highest web rankings. This research shows that one, blurred boundaries of media, communication, and content are even more tenuous when considering social media, technology companies, and algorithms; two, that with great media power comes great media responsibility that Facebook does not seem to be living up to; and finally, that a fundamental flaw with algorithms, writ large, lies in their inability to bear witness to human suffering, as exemplified by international news coverage of the censorship of “Terror of War.” By regulating all human duties to computers, individuals absolve themselves over moral duties and compasses, thus presenting a perplexing ethical issue in the digital age.

Intellect and Journalism in Shared Space: Social Control in the Academic-Media Nexus • Michael McDevitt • This paper highlights interactions of journalists and academics as deserving more scrutiny with respect to both media sociology and normative theory on the circulation of ideas. Three sources of social control that impinge on the academic-media nexus are examined. A final section contemplates the implications of risk-aversive communication in higher education for public perceptions of intellect and its contributions to policy and politics.

Blending with Beckham: New Masculinity in Men’s Magazine Advertising in India • Suman Mishra • This study examines the representation of the “new man” in men’s lifestyle magazine advertising in India. Using textual analysis, the study explains how certain kinds of western masculine ideals and body aesthetics are being adopted and reworked into advertising to appeal and facilitate consumption among middle and upper class Indian men. The hybrid construction of masculinity shows a complex interplay between the global and the local which overall acts to homogenize the male body and masculine ideal while simultaneously creating a class and racial hierarchy in the glocal arena.

Digital Diaspora and Ethnic Identity Negotiation: An Examination of Ethnic Discourse about 2014 Sewol Ferry Disaster at a Korean-American Digital Diaspora • Chang Sup Park • This study examines how the members of a Korean-American online diaspora perceived a homeland disaster which took 304 lives and to what extent their perceptions relate to ethnic identity. To this end, it analyzes 1,000 comments posted in MissyUSA, the biggest online community for Korean Americans. This study also interviews 70 users of the ethnic online community. The findings demonstrate that the diasporic discourse about the disaster was fraught with discrete emotions, particularly guilt, anger, and shame among others. While guilt and anger contributed to reminding Korean Americans of their ethnic identity, shame has resulted in the disturbance of the ethnic identity of some Korean Americans. This study advances the ethnic identity negotiation theory by illuminating the nuanced interconnection between online ethnic communication, emotions, and ethnic identity.

Non-Representational News: An Intervention Against Pseudo-Events • Perry Parks • This paper introduces a journalistic intervention into routinized political “pseudo-events” that can lull reporters and citizens into stultified complacency about public affairs while facilitating highly disciplined politicians’ cynical messaging. The intervention draws on non-representational theory, a style of research that aims to disrupt automatic routines and encourage people to recognize possibilities for change from moment to moment. The paper details the author’s coverage of a routine political rally from a perspective untethered to normalized journalistic or political cues of importance, to generate affective and possibly unpredictable responses to the content.

Is Marriage a Must? Hegemonic Femininity and the Portrayal of “Leftover Women” in Chinese Television Drama • Anqi Peng • “Leftover women” is a Chinese expression referring to unmarried women over 30s who have high education and income levels. Through a textual analysis of the “leftover women” representation in the television drama We Get Married, this study explores how the wrestling of tradition and modernity exerting a great impact on the construction of the femininity of “leftover women.”

Every American Life: Understanding Serial as True Crime • Ian Punnett, Ohio Northern University • Serial (2014), a podcast in 12 episodes on the digital platform of the popular NPR radio show, This American Life, reached the 5 million downloads mark faster than any podcast in history. Although a few scholars identified the podcast as part of the true crime literary convention Neither the producers nor the host ever referred to Serial as true crime. Using textual criticism, this analysis proves that it was.

Journalist-Student Collaborations: Striking Newspaper Workers and University Students Publish the Peterborough Free Press, 1968-1969 • Errol Salamon • Building on the concept of alternative journalism, this paper presents the Peterborough Free Press as a case study of a strike-born newspaper that was published by striking Peterborough Examiner newsworkers and Ontario university students from 1968 to 1969. Drawing on labor union documents and newspapers reports, this paper critically examines how this alliance collaboratively launched the Free Press to fill a gap in local news coverage, competing with and providing an alternative to the Examiner.

“You better work, bitch!”: Disciplining the feminine consumer prototype in Britney Spears’s “Work Bitch” • Miles Sari, Washington State University • Using Baudrillard’s theory of consumption as a theoretical framework, in addition to support from Horkheimer & Adorno, Foucault, and Bartky, this paper examines how Britney Spears’s 2013 music video “Work Bitch” articulates a violent capitalist narrative of consumption. Specifically, the author argues that the clip advocates for a collective submission to the sadistic, social discipline of the female consumer body as a means of accessing the social and material luxuries of the bourgeoisie.

Color, Caste, and the Public Sphere: A study of black journalists who joined television networks from 1994-2014 • Indira Somani, Howard University; Natalie Hopkinson, Howard University • “Grounded in critical and cultural studies this study examined the attitudes and experiences of a group of Post-Civil Rights black journalists who face some of the same newsroom issues their predecessors faced, despite what was recommended in the Kerner Report in 1968.

Through in-depth interviews, the researchers uncovered the organizational and cultural practices of 23 black journalists aged 23-42 working in television network newsrooms, such as NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and Fox. The participants included executives, anchors, reporters, producers, associate producers and assignment editors, who reveal how anti-black cultural norms are re-enforced by mentors, colleagues as well as superiors. Participants talked about culture, hair, skin color, grooming, and African American Identity and how conforming to white hegemonic norms were necessary for career advancement. This study also examined the degree to which color and caste continue to influence both the private workplace and the public sphere.”

Sights, Sounds and Stories of the Indian Diaspora: A New Browning of American Journalism • Radhika Parameswaran; Roshni Verghese • Using the concept of cultural citizenship, this paper explores the recent growth and visibility of the Indian diaspora in American journalism. We first begin with an analysis of the South Asian Journalists Association to understand the collective mobilization of this ethno-racial professional community. Gathering publicly available data on Indian Americans in journalism, we then present a numerical portrait of this minority community’s affiliations with journalism. Finally, we scrutinize the profiles of a select group of prominent diasporic Indian journalists to chart the professional terrain they occupy. In the end, we argue that Indian Americans may be a small minority, but they are poised to become a workforce whose creative and managerial labor will make a difference to journalism.

The securitization presidency: Evaluation, exception and the irreplaceable nation in campaign discourse • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This discourse analysis uses securitization theory to examine the maintenance of the Other in the discourse of the 2016 US presidential campaign and the early stages of the Trump presidency. The taken-for-grantedness of American exceptionalism, combined with the general orientation of the press toward narratives of power, explains the maintenance of identity through the construction of Iran, Islam and the spectre of “political correctness” as existential threats. This paper advances the understanding of the specific mechanisms by which “security” is invoked; securitization is a fundamentally political move, though its goal is to move an issue like Iran beyond the realm of political debate and into the realm of security.

SNL and the Gendered Election: The Funny Thing About Liking Him and Hating Her • Wendy Weinhold, Coastal Carolina University; Alison Fisher Bodkin • Feminist theories of comedy guide this analysis of journalism in the New York Times and Washington Post dedicated to Saturday Night Live’s 2016 election coverage. The analysis reveals how SNL’s election sketches and news about them focused on the candidates’ celebrity, appeal, and style in lieu of substantive critique of their positions, policies, or platforms. The personality-based comedy and resulting news emphasized gender stereotypes and missed an opportunity to put real-life political drama in perspective.

Emotional News, Emotional Counterpublic: Unraveling the Mediated Construction of Fear in the Chinese Diasporic Community Online • Sheng Zou • Examining a popular news blog targeting Chinese diaspora living in the United States, this paper explores how emotionally-oriented digital news production sustains the Chinese diasporic community online as an emotional counterpublic sphere. This paper argues that the mediated construction of fear as a predominant emotion holds civic potentials, for it bridges the political life and everyday life, and connects a potentially more engaged diasporic counterpublic with the dominant public sphere of the receiving society.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk 2016 Abstracts

Using Visual Metaphors in Health Messages: A Strategy to Increase Effectiveness for Mental Illness Communication • Allison Lazard, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Benita Bamgbade; Jennah Sontag, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Carolyn Brown • Depression is highly prevalent among college students. Although treatment is often available on university campuses, many stigma-based barriers prevent students from seeking help. Communication strategies, such as the use of metaphors, are needed to reduce barriers. Using a two-phase approach, this study identified how college students conceptualize mental illness, designed messages with conceptual and visual metaphors commonly used, and tested these message to determine their potential as an effective communication strategy to reduce stigma.

How Journalists Characterize Health Inequalities and Redefine Solutions for Native American Audiences • Amanda Hinnant, University of Missouri, School of Journalism; Roma Subramanian; Rokeshia Ashley, University of Missouri-Columbia; Mildred Perreault, University of Missouri/ Appalachian State University; Rachel Young; Ryan Thomas, University of Missouri-Columbia • This research investigates how journalists for Native American communities characterize health inequalities and the issues with covering determinants of health. In-depth interviews (n = 24) revealed a tension between “medical” and “cultural” models of health, contributing to the oversaturation of certain issues. Interviews also amplified the contexts that shape health inequalities, illuminating the roles of historical trauma and the destruction of indigenous health beliefs and behaviors. Failure to recognize the issues can stymie communication efforts.

Poison or Prevention? Unraveling the Linkages between Vaccine-Negative Individuals’ Knowledge Deficiency, Motivations, and Communication Behaviors • Arunima Krishna • The last few decades have seen growing concerns among parents regarding the safety of childhood vaccines, arguably leading to the rise of the anti-vaccine movement. This study is an effort to understand situational and cross-situational factors that influence individuals’ negative attitudes toward vaccines, referred to as vaccine negativity. In doing so, this study identified two categories of reasons for which individuals display vaccine negativity – liberty-related, and safety-related concerns – and elucidated how situational and cross-situational factors influenced each type of vaccine negativity differently. Specifically, this study tested how knowledge deficiency, or acceptance of scientifically inaccurate data about vaccines, and institutional trust influenced negative attitudes toward vaccines. Using the situational theory of problem solving as the theoretical framework, this also identified and tested a knowledge-attitude-motivation-behavior framework of vaccine negative individuals’ cognitions and behaviors about the issue.

Chronic pain: Sources’ framing of post-traumatic stress disorder in The New York Times • Barbara Barnett, University of Kansas; Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common reaction after witnessing a violent event. While nearly eight million Americans, including combat veterans, have PTSD, few studies have explored how the condition is represented in mass media. This content analysis examined sources’ characterization of PTSD in New York Times articles. Results show that news stories framed PTSD as a long-term problem, with little chance for recovery, a frame that could negatively affect public policy decisions.

This Is Not A Test: Investigating The Effects Of Cueing And Cognitive Load On Severe Weather Alerts • Carie Cunningham • Climate change is increasing and causing more severe weather events around the globe. Severe weather events require effective communication of incoming dangers and threats to different populations. The current study focuses on investigating ways in which severe weather alerts are attended to and remembered better by audience members. To this end, this study used a 2 (primary task cognitive load: low vs. high) x 2 (weather alert cueing technique: cued vs. non-cued) within-subject experiment to understand how television weather alerts evoke attention and memory from viewers. Participants were exposed to TV films that varied in cognitive load, through which they were exposed to both cued and non-cued weather alerts. The findings show that cognitive load changes viewers’ recognition and memory of the weather alerts, but not of the main content. Furthermore, the interaction of cueing and cognitive load influenced fixation and gaze in attention measures, but not the recall measures for the weather alerts. Results are discussed in the context of dependent variables: visual recognition, information recognition, cued recall, free recall, fixation, and gaze. The findings support some nuances to television viewing under different conditions.

A State-Level Analysis of the Social Media Climate of GMOs in the U.S. • Christopher Wirz, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Xuan Liang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Michael Xenos; Dominique Brossard, UW-Madison; Dietram Scheufele • This study is a state-level analysis of the relationship between the social media, news, and policy climates related to GMOs. We performed a systematic and exhaustive analysis of geographically-identified tweets related to GMOs from August 1, 2012 through November 30, 2014. We then created a model using a variety of state-level factors to predict pessimistic tweets about GMOs using states as the unit of analysis.

Psychological determinants of college students’ adoption of mobile health applications for personal health management • Chuqing Dong; Lauren Gray; Hao Xu, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities • “Mobile health has been studied for patient care and disease management in the clinical context, but less is known about factors contribute to consumers’ acceptance of mobile health apps for personal health and fitness management.

This study serves as one of the first attempts to understand the psychological determinants of mobile health acceptance among millenials – those most likely to use mobile apps. Built on an extended model combining the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Reasoned Action approach, this multimethod study aimed to identify which proximal determinants and their underlying salient beliefs were most associated with intention to use mobile health apps in the next twelve months.

Results from the qualitative belief elicitation data analysis indicated 14 different positive and negative consequences (behavioral beliefs) of using mobile health apps, 11 social references (normative beliefs) important to the use of mobile health apps, and 9 behavioral circumstances (behavioral control beliefs) that would enable or make it more difficult to use mobile health apps. Results from the quantitative Reasoned action data indicated perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the app were positively correlated with attitude towards mobile health app use and perceived usefulness was also positively correlated with intention to use it in the next twelve months. Instrumental attitudes and perceived behavioral control (capacity), as well as several of their underlying beliefs, were the strongest predictors of intention to use mobile health apps in the next twelve months.”

Talkin’ smack: An analysis of news coverage of the heroin epidemic • Erin Willis; David Morris II, University of Oregon • The number of heroin users continues to rise in the United States, creating a public health epidemic that is cause for great concern. Recent heroin use has been linked to opiate abuse and national organizations have identified this issue as a serious public health challenge. The Obama administration recently directed more than $1 billion in funding to expand access to treatment and boost efforts to help those who seek treatment. Newspapers are seen as reliable and credible sources of information, and newspapers’ portrayals of public health problems influence readers’ perceptions about the severity of the problem and solutions to the problem. The current study examined national and city newspapers coverage of heroin. The results of this study inform health communication and public health education efforts and offer practical implications for combatting the heroin epidemic.

Exchanging social support online: A big-data analysis of IBS patients’ interactions on an online health forum from 2008 to 2012 • Fan Yang, Pennsylvania State University; Bu Zhong, Pennsylvania State University • This research conducts a big-data analysis to examine why IBS patients offered social support to peer patients on an online health forum. Social network analysis of 90,965 messages shared among 9,369 patients from 2008-2012 suggests that although having received support from others encourages individuals to offer support in the online community, being able to help others previously also emerges as a significant and long-lasting impetus for social support provision online. Reciprocating support with one another, however, prevents one from keeping offering support on the forum over time. Furthermore, based on sentiment analysis, it is indicated that the extent to which one could freely express emotions for support seeking also serves as a significant predictor for the amount of social support he/she could obtain from others. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

To entertain or to scare? A meta-analytic review on the persuasiveness of emotional appeals in health messages • Fan Yang, Pennsylvania State University; Jinyoung Kim, The Pennsylvania State University • This research conducts a meta-analytic review on the how appealing to positive vs. negative emotions in health messages could persuade. Emotional appeals significantly enhance the persuasiveness of health messages on cognition, attitude, and intention, but not on actual behavior. Appealing to negative rather than positive emotions appears to be more persuasive. Furthermore, richer formats of presentations of health messages are significantly more effective than plain texts. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

A Disagreement on Consensus: A Measured Critique of the Gateway Belief Model and Consensus Messaging Research • Graham Dixon, Washington State University • The newly developed Gateway Belief Model suggests the key to scientific beliefs is one’s perception of a scientific consensus. However, inconsistent findings question the explanatory power of the model and its application. This paper provides further depth to the explanatory power of the model, suggesting consensus messages affect audience segments in different ways. This nuanced perspective of the model can usher in future research seeking to close belief gaps between the lay public and experts.

Communicating inaction-framed risk: Reducing the omission bias via internal causal attribution • Graham Dixon, Washington State University • Despite identical outcomes derived from actions or inactions, people often experience more intense affective reactions toward action-framed outcomes. This “omission bias” presents challenges to communicating various risks. Reporting on two experiments, findings suggest that the omission bias occurs across various risk topics and message stimuli. Importantly, dimensions of causal attribution, such as locus of causality and stability, play a mediating role on the omission bias. Recommendations are made for more effective risk communication practices.

You Win or We Lose: A Conditional Indirect Effect Model of Message Framing in Communicating the Risks of Hydraulic Fracturing • Guanxiong Huang, Michigan State University; Kang Li; Hairong Li • This study explores the effects of message framing and reference frame on risk perception and associated behavior intent. Using an environmental hazard of hydraulic fracturing as an example, a 2 (message framing: gain vs. loss) × 2 (reference frame: self vs. group) between-subject experiment shows significant interaction effects between message framing and reference frame, in that gain-framed message paired with self-referencing frame is most effective in enhancing risk perception whereas the loss-framed message paired with group-referencing frame is most effective in increasing willingness to sign a petition to ban hydraulic fracturing. More theoretical and practical implications for environmental risk communication and persuasive message design are discussed.

Messages Promoting Genetically Modified Crops in the Context of Climate Change: Evidence for Psychological Reactance • Hang Lu, Cornell University; Katherine McComas; John Besley, Michigan State University • Genetic modification (GM) of crops and climate change are arguably two of today’s most challenging science communication issues. Increasingly, these two issues are connected in messages proposing GM as a viable option for ensuring global food security threatened by climate change. This study examines the effects of messages promoting the benefits of GM in the context of climate change. Further, it examines whether attributing the context to “climate change” vs. “global warming” vs. “no cue” leads to different effects. An online sample of U.S. participants (N=1,050) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: “climate change” cue, “global warming” cue, no cue, or control (no message). Compared to the control, all other conditions increased positive attitudes toward GM. However, the “no cue” condition led to liberals having more positive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward GM than the “climate change” cue condition, an effect mediated by message evaluations.

An Enhanced Theory of Planned Behaviour Perspective: Health Information Seeking on Smartphones Among Domestic Workers • Hattie Liew; Hiu Ying Christine Choy • This exploratory study investigates the antecedents of health information seeking via mobile smartphone (HISM) among migrant domestic workers. 320 Filipina workers in Hong Kong were surveyed. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was extended with health literacy and external factors like needs of workers’ family as predictors of HISM intention. Findings support the TPB as a predictor of HISM and suggest the importance facilitating health information literacy and technical know-how among migrant domestic workers.

Need for Autonomy as a Motive for Valuing Fairness in Risk Communication • Hwanseok Song, Cornell University • Research shows that people strive to restore autonomy after experiencing its deprivation. An experiment was used to test whether people’s need for autonomy explains why they value non-outcome fairness (i.e., procedural, interpersonal, informational) in risk management contexts. Partial support was found for this effect, moderated by attitudes toward the risk itself. After experiencing autonomy-deprivation, participants who were more negative about the risk valued non-outcome fairness more and technical competence of the risk manager less.

Humor Effects in Advertising on Human Papillomavirus (HPV): The Role of Information Salience, Humor Level, and Objective Knowledge • Hye Jin Yoon; Eunjin (Anna) Kim, Southern Methodist University • As human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, it is imperative that health communicators seek message strategies that educate the public on prevention and treatment. Guided by the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), an experimental study tested the effects of sexually transmitted disease (STD) information salience, humor level, and objective knowledge in HPV public service advertisements (PSAs). The findings show objective knowledge moderating responses to advertisements varying in STD information salience and humor levels. Theoretical implications for humor and knowledge effects in health communication and practical implications regarding the design and targeting of HPV campaigns are provided.

Media Use and Antimicrobial Resistance Misinformation and Misuse: Survey Evidence of Information Channels and Fatalism in Augmenting a Global Health Threat • Jacob Groshek, Boston University; James Katz; Chelsea Cutino; Qiankun Zhong • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is giving rise to a global public health threat that is not reflected in public opinion of AMR. This study thus proceeds to examine which individuals among the general public are more likely to be misinformed about AMR and report misusing AMR-related products. Specifically, traditional media (newspaper, radio, television) consumption and social media use are modeled as factors which may not only reinforce but perpetuate AMR misinformation and misuse.

Who is Scared of the Ebola Outbreak? The Influence of Discrete Emotions on Risk Perception • Janet Yang; Haoran Chu • Utilizing the appraisal tendency framework, this study analyzed discrete emotion’s influence on the U.S. public’s risk perception and support for risk mitigation measures. An experimental survey based on a nationally representative sample showed that discrete emotions were significantly related to public risk perception. Further, fear exhibited an inhibitive effect on the relationship between systematic processing of risk information and institutional mitigation support. Systematic processing, in contrast, had the most consistent impact on mitigation support.

Sexual Health Intervention Messaging: Proof Positive that Sex Negative Messages are Less Persuasive • Jared Brickman • As comprehensive sexual health education programs are adopted by universities, there is a need to evaluate what messaging approaches might connect best with students. This study measured reactions to sex positive or negative messages, framed as a gain or loss. Participants evaluated 24 messages on their mobile phones. Gain framing was preferred over loss framing, and sex positive messages were rated as more believable and persuasive. An interaction between the two concepts was also found.

Examining the Differential Effects of Emotions: Anxiety, Despair, and Informed Futility   • Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University; Rebecca Donaway, Washington State University; Yiran Wang, Washington State University • Using survey data collected during the fall of 2015, we examine the role of different emotions in increasing and decreasing active information seeking and processing behaviors. We replicate results from the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model focusing on anxiety as a key variable that triggers these active information seeking behaviors. We also test the informed futility hypothesis, which proposes that learning about an issue leads people to become disengaged with solving the problem.

Public Support for Energy Portfolios in Canada: How Cost and National Energy Portfolios Affect Public Perception of Energy Technologies • Jens Larson; Jiawei Liu, Washington State University; Zena Zena Edwards; Kayla Wakulich; Amanda Boyd, Washington State University • In this study, we examine current energy perceptions in Canada, exploring how regional differences of current electricity-producing energy portfolios and evaluable information affect support for energy sources. Our results show that individuals support electricity-producing energy portfolios that vary significantly by region. We demonstrate through the use of a portfolio approach that evaluable information could significantly change support for electricity-producing energy technologies.

The effects of gain vs. loss framed medical and religious breast cancer survivor testimonies on attitudes and behaviors of African-American female viewers • Jensen Moore, University of Oklahoma • African-American women are at elevated risk for the most advanced form of breast cancer due to late detection. This 2 (Message Type: Religious/Medical) X 2 (Message Frame: Loss/Gain) X 4 (Message Replication) experiment examined breast cancer narratives aimed at African-American women ages 35-55 who had not had breast cancer. Narratives contained medical/religious messages and gain/loss frames. Effects of the narratives on attitude, credibility, behavioral intent, arousal and emotions were examined. Results suggest medical, gain framed narratives were the most effective. Specifically, gain framed narratives increased attitudes, mammogram behavioral intentions, arousal, and positive emotions while medical narratives increased credibility, mammogram behavioral intentions, and arousal.

Gap in Scientific Knowledge and the Role of Science Communication in South Korea • Jeong-Heon Chang; Sei-Hill Kim; Myung-Hyun Kang; Jae Chul Shim; Dong Hoon Ma • Using data from a national survey of South Koreans, this study explores the role of science communication in enhancing three different forms of scientific knowledge (factual, procedural, and subjective). We first assess learning effects, looking at the extent to which citizens learn science from different channels of communication (interpersonal discussions, traditional newspapers, television, online newspapers, and social media). We then look closely into the knowledge gap hypothesis, investigating how different channels of communication can either widen or narrow the gap in scientific knowledge between social classes. Our data indicated that among the four mass media channels examined, television was the most heavily-used source for science information in South Korea. Also, television was found to function as a “knowledge leveler,” narrowing the gap between highly and less educated individuals. The role of online newspapers in science learning is pronounced in our research. Reading newspapers online indicated a positive relationship to all three measures of scientific knowledge. Contrary to the knowledge-leveling effect of television viewing, reading online newspapers was found to increase, rather than decrease, the gap in knowledge. Implications of our findings are discussed in detail.

Beyond the worried well: Emotional states and education levels predict online health information seeking • Jessica Myrick, Indiana University; Jessica Willoughby • This study combined conceptual frameworks from health and risk information seeking, appraisal theory of emotions, and social determinants of health literatures to examine how emotional states and socioeconomic status individually and jointly predict online health information seeking. Using nationally representative data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 4, Cycle 3), we found that different discrete emotions predicted information seeking in different ways. Moreover, education levels interacted with anxiety to predict online information seeking.

The Effect on Young Women of Public Figure Health Narratives regarding HPV: An Application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model • Jo-Yun Queenie Li • “The Genital Human Papillomavirus (also called HPV), the most common STD which causes virtually all cases of cervical cancer in the U.S, has been overlooked by society due to a lack of knowledge and stigma surrounding STDs. This study explores the effectiveness of public figure health narratives and different media platforms on young women’s awareness of HPV and their behavioral intentions to receive vaccination. An online between-groups experiment with 275 participants based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model revealed that the effectiveness of public figure health narratives on individuals’ awareness and behavioral intentions are maximized when the messages appear in newspapers rather than in social media, and when the message recipients are in high involvement conditions. The interaction among the three variables is discussed, along with implications for health communication and HPV promotion campaigns.”

“I believe what I see:” Students’ use of media, issue engagement, and the perceived responsibility regarding campus sexual assault • Jo-Yun Queenie Li; Jane O’Boyle, University of South Carolina; Sei-Hill Kim • The topic of campus sexual assault has received much news media attention recently, prompting scholars to examine media effects on students’ attitudes and behaviors regarding the issue. Our survey with 567 college students examines how students’ media use have influenced their engagement with the issue of campus sexual assault and their perceived responsibility regarding the issue, looking particularly at the question of who is responsible and the perceptions of rape myths. Results revealed that newspapers’ coverage regarding campus sexual assault may contribute to college students’ victim-blaming and enduring victim myths. However, these may be minimized by raising students’ perceived importance about the issue. And the most effective media channel in which to increase students’ perceived importance is social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Cultural Representations of Gender and Science: Portrayals of Female STEM Professionals in Popular Films 2002-2014 • Jocelyn Steinke, Western Michigan University; Paola Paniagua Tavarez, Western Michigan University • This study focused on a textual analysis that examined representations of female STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) characters in speaking roles and portrayals of female STEM characters in lead, co-lead, and secondary roles in popular films that featured STEM characters from 2002 to 2014. Findings indicated that female were outnumbered by male STEM characters in speaking roles by 2 to 1. Portrayals of female STEM characters were varied. Some portrayals revealed gender stereotypes although scientist stereotypes were rare. Most female STEM character were portrayed as equal members of research teams, almost all portrayals focused on their attractiveness, and about half of the portrayals highlighted their romantic relationships. The findings from this study were compared with those from previous research in order to trace changes in cinematic representation and portrayals of female STEM characters over time. A discussion of the implications for future research in this area and implications for broadening participation in STEM will be addressed.

“You Made Me Want to Smoke”: Adaptive and Maladaptive Responses to Tweets from an Anti-Smoking Campaign using Protection Motivation Theory • Jordan Alpert, Virginia Commonwealth University; Linda Desens • The F.D.A. developed the Real Cost campaign to prevent and reduce the number of teens who experiment with smoking and become lifelong tobacco users. The $115 multimedia campaign utilizes channels such as television, radio, print and online, including social media. Since social media allows for interaction and immediate feedback, this study analyzed how Twitter users responded to anti-smoking messages containing fear-appeals created by the Real Cost. Over 300 tweets exchanged between a Twitter user and @KnowtheRealCost were gathered between 2015 and 2016. Through the lens of Protection Motivation Theory, content analysis discovered that 67% (220) of responses were maladaptive and 33% (111) of tweets were adaptive (intercoder reliability, κ = .818). Iterative analysis was also performed to identify and categorize themes occuring within threat and coping appraisals. For threat appraisals, it was found that perceived vulnerability was lessened due to incidence of the boomerang effect, perceived severity was reduced by comparison to other dangerous activities, and rewards included relaxation and reduced anxiety. Coping appraisals included evidence of self-efficacy and social support. Results of the study indicated that although users reacted in a maladaptive manner, Twitter can be a powerful platform to test messages, interact with users and reinforce efficacious behavior.

“Pass the Ban!” An Examination of the Denton, Texas, Fracking Ban • Judson Meeks, Texas Tech University • This paper examines how groups on both sides of the fracking debate presented their cases to the public by conducting a visual and textual analysis to examine campaign materials. The study found that anti-fracking advocates presented the issue as one about local control and unity, whereas the pro-fracking advocates presented the issue as an economic threat the local community and the financial well-being of future generations.

Promoting Healthy Behavior through Social Support in Mobile Health Applications • Jung Won Chun, University of Florida; Jieun Cho; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • Mobile health applications serve as a venue for promoting personal well-being by allowing users to engage in health-promoting behavior, such as sharing health information and health status/activities with each other. Through social interactions enabled by mobile health apps, people are likely to engage in healthy behavior and well-being with support from others. The current study explored which factors of smartphone use and motives for using health applications influence the perceived social support from mobile health applications. It also investigated the effect of perceived control as a mediating variable on the relationship between perceived social support in the applications and healthy behavior and well-being. The results showed that perceived social interaction and technological convenience were the main predictors of perceived social support in mobile health apps, which have indirect effects on exercise and perception of well-being. Perceived control positively mediated the relationship between perceived social support in the applications of both exercise and well-being.

Are you talking to me? Testing the value of Asian-specific messages as benefits to donating healthy breast tissue • Kelly Kaufhold, Texas State University; Yunjuan Luo; Autumn Shafer, University of Oregon • The Komen Tissue Bank at the Indiana University collects breast tissue samples from volunteers but suffers from a dearth of donations from Asian women. This two-part study was devised to test messages targeting Asian women. Applying Health Belief Model to a survey and five focus groups, low perceived susceptibility and severity yielded increased barriers and lower benefits among Asian women. Asian-specific messages showed significantly higher benefits for Asian women who suggested even more Asian-specific messaging.

Sources of Information About Emergency Contraception: Associations with Women’s Knowledge and Intentions to Use • Kyla Garrett, University of North Carolina; Laura Widman; Jacqueline Nesi; Seth Noar • Emergency contraception (EC) is a highly effective form of birth control that may lower rates of unintended pregnancy among young women. Currently, lack of adequate information and misunderstandings about EC hamper efforts to disseminate EC to women who need it. The purpose of this study was to determine the sources from which women had learned about EC (including health care providers, friends or interpersonal sources, media sources, or no information sources), and to examine whether source credibility was associated with accuracy of knowledge about EC and intentions to use EC. Participants were 339 college women (M age = 18.4) who reported where they had received information about EC, if anywhere, along with their EC knowledge and behavioral intentions. In total, 97% of women had heard of EC from at least one source and 49% indicated they were highly likely to use EC in the future, if needed. Results demonstrated significant positive relationships among higher credibility of EC information sources, more accurate EC knowledge, and greater intentions to use EC. Moreover, EC knowledge mediated the relationship between source credibility and intentions to use EC. Future EC education efforts should capitalize on credible information sources to positively influence EC knowledge and increase uptake of EC in emergency situations. Additional research is needed to examine the content, quality, and frequency of messages young women receive about EC.

Stymied by a wealth of health information: How viewing conflicting information online diminishes efficacy • Laura Marshall, UNC Chapel Hill; Maria Leonora Comello, UNC Chapel Hill • Confusing information about cancer screening proliferates online, particularly around mammography and prostate antigen testing. Whereas some online content may highlight the effectiveness of these tests in preventing cancer, other sources warn these tests may be ineffective or may cause harm. Across two experiments, we found support for the notion that exposure to conflicting information decreases self-efficacy and response efficacy, potentially discouraging the likelihood of behavior change that could prevent cancer.

Thematic/Episodic and Gain/Loss Framing in Mental Health News: How Combined Frames Influences Support for Policy and Civic Engagement Intentions • Lesa Major • This current research tests whether changing the way online stories frame depression affects how audience members attribute responsibility for depression and their civic engagement intentions towards policy solutions for depression. This study uses two framing approaches: 1) emphasis on an individual diagnosed with and living with depression (individualizing the coverage or episodic framing) and 2) emphasis on depression in more general or broader context (thematic or societal framing).This research examines gain (emphasizes benefits – e.g. lives saved) and loss (emphasizes costs – lives lost) frames to measure the interaction effects of frames (e.g. thematic-loss coverage or episodic-gain coverage) in news stories .A significant contribution of this research is the construction of the episodic frame. Findings of this research indicated loss-framed stories increased support for mental health policy solutions for depression, but the episodic frame increased societal attribution of responsibility for causes associated with depression.

Obesity News: The Effects of Framing and Uncertainty on Policy Support and Civic Engagement Intentions • Lesa Major • This study examined the effects of episodic (individual) frames and thematic (societal) frames in news on the causes (causal attribution) of and treatments (treatment attribution) for obesity. Interactions are investigated in this research by including gain and loss frames. Gain and loss frames have been examined in health messages, but have not received as much scholarly attention in terms of framing effects in health news. Finally, this study explored the effects of uncertainty and certainty on responsibility attribution. Findings suggest combined frames could influence support for obesity related policies.

Examining Ad Appeals in Over-the-Counter Drug Advertising in Japan • Mariko Morimoto, Sophia University • A quantitative content analysis of Japanese OTC drug TV commercials broadcasted during prime time was conducted to provide an overview of pharmaceutical advertising in Japan. In the sample of 204 ads, nutritional supplement drinks were the most frequently advertised drug category. Ad appeals including effective, safe, and quick-acting were popular. Additionally, these ads predominantly used a product merit approach, and celebrity endorsers, particularly actors/actresses and “talents” (such as TV personnel and comedians), were frequently featured.

Effects of Persuasive Health Information on Attitude Change and Health Behavioral Intentions in Mobile Social Media • Miao Miao; Qiuxia Yang; Pei-Shan Hsieh • Previous research has shown that online health information suffers from low credibility. Drawing on the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM), the central and peripheral routes were operationalized in this study using the argument quality and source credibility constructs respectively. We further examined how these influence processes were moderated by receivers’ health expertise. A between-groups, 2 (argument quality) × 4 (source of credibility) factorial design was tested from WeChat which is the dominant mobile social media in China.

Health Literacy and Health Information Technology Adoption: The Potential for a New Digital Divide • Michael Mackert, The University of Texas at Austin; Amanda Mabry, The University of Texas at Austin; Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas; Erin Donovan, The University of Texas at Austin; Kathrynn Pounders, The University of Texas at Austin • Approximately one-half of American adults exhibit low health literacy. Health information technology (HIT) makes health information available directly to patients through electronic forms including patient portals, wearable technology, and mobile apps. In this study, patients with low health literacy were less likely to use HIT or perceive it as easy/useful, but perceived information on HIT as private. There is room to improve HIT so that health information can be managed among patients of all abilities.

Sharing Health-Related Information on Facebook: An Integrated Model • Ming-Ching Liang, Metropolitan State University • This study proposes a model that explains proactive and reactive information sharing behaviors. In the context of sharing influenza-related information on Facebook, a survey study (N=338) was conducted. Results confirmed the applicability of the proposed information sharing model in current research context. Perceived norms of information sharing, need for self-presentation on SNSs, and sense of virtual community were identified as predictors for proactive and reactive information sharing behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Impact of Fear Appeals in The Tailored Public Service Announcements Context • Nam Young Kim, Sam Houston State University • In the context of an anti-binge drinking health campaign, this study particularly tested how the emotional content (i.e., fear appeals) in tailored messages influences people’s messages processing as well as their attitudinal/behavioral changes. Using a 2 (regulatory fit: fit vs. non-fit) X 2 (level of fear appeals: low vs. high) experimental design, the findings indicate that the influence of tailored messages should be discussed cautiously, because the tailored message’s effectiveness is reduced when combined with a high fear appeal. The findings have theoretical and practical implications on the use of emotional appeals in tailored communication.

Testing the effects of dialogic communication on attitudes and behavioral intentions related to polarized and non-polarized scientific issues • Nicole Lee, Texas Tech University • Dialogue has been presented as an alternative to the deficit model. This online experiment tested the impact of dialogue on trust in science, relationship qualities, and behavioral intentions. In order to examine the influence of political polarization, the issues of climate change and space exploration were compared. Dialogue significantly affected relationship qualities and behavioral intentions for space exploration, but not climate change. Results serve to integrate public relations theory and science communication scholarship.

Science in the social media age: Profiles of science blog readers • Paige Jarreau, Louisiana State University; Lance Porter, Louisiana State University • Science blogs have become an increasingly important component of the ecosystem of science news on the Internet. Yet we know little about science blog users. The goal of this study was to investigate who reads science blogs and why. Through a survey of 2,955 readers of 40 randomly selected science blogs, we created profiles of science blog users based on demographic and science media use patterns. We identified three clusters of science blog readers. Super users indicated reading science blogs for a wide range of reasons, including for community seeking purposes. One-way entertainment users indicated reading blogs more for entertainment and ambiance. Unique information seeking users indicated reading blogs more for specific information not found elsewhere. But regardless of science blog users’ motivations to read, they are sophisticated consumers of science media possessing high levels of scientific knowledge.

Using Weight-of-Experts Messaging to Communicate Accurately about Contested Science • Patrice Kohl; Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Research indicates that balanced news coverage of opposing scientific claims can result in heightened uncertainty among audiences about what is true. In this study, we test the ability of a weight-of-experts statement to enhance individuals’ ability to distinguish between more and less valid claims. An experiment found that the WOE narrative led participants to greater certainty about what scientists believed to be true, which made participants more likely to “buy in” to that belief.

Framing climate change: Competitive frames and the moderating effects of partisanship on environmental behavior • Porismita Borah • The present study conducted both focus groups and experiments to understand the influence of frames on environmental behavior intention. The focus groups and the first experiment were conducted with undergraduate students for pilot testing while the main experiment used an U.S. national sample. Findings show that a message with elements from both problem-solving and catastrophe frames increases individuals’ environmental behavior intention. This relationship is moderated by political ideology, such that only those participants who identified as Democrats and Independents showed more willingness to pro-environmental behavior. Over all, Republications were low on pro-environmental behavior intention compared to the Democrats. But within the Republicans, participants showed more likelihood for pro-environmental behavior intention in the catastrophe framed condition. Implications are discussed.

Abstract or Concrete? A Construal-level Perspective of Climate Change Images in U.S. Print Newspapers • Ran Duan, Michigan State University; Bruno Takahashi; Adam Zwickle; Kevin Duffy, Michigan State University; Jack Nissen, Michigan State University • Climate change is one of the most severe societal environmental risks that call for immediate actions in our age; however, the impacts of climate change are often perceived to be psychologically distant at a high level of construal. This research presents an initial exploration of newspapers’ visual representations of climate change using a construal-level perspective. Focusing on the recent years from 2012 to 2015, this study content analyzed a total of 635 news images with regards to image themes and nine other factors in relation to construal level (e.g., image formats, chromatic characteristics, etc.) Unexpectedly, the results show that overall, climate change has been visually portrayed as a relatively concrete rather than abstract issue and has mostly been portrayed with a high level of specificity. In particular, USA Today visually covered the issue as most concrete, followed by the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. Human themed images were the most concrete images as compared to nature themed and industry themed images. Findings indicate that construal level aspects in the news images provide another way of understanding and interpreting climate change imagery in the media in the U.S.

“Standing up for science”: The blurring lines between biotechnology research, science communication, and advocacy • Rebecca Harrison, Cornell University • Targeted for their vocal support for genetic engineering and their work in science outreach, upwards of 50 academic agricultural biotechnologists have received Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests since February 2015. The U.S. Right to Know (US-RTK), a self-described watchdog organization who filed the requests, sought to uncover any conflicts of interest (COI) between industry and tax-payer-funded scientific research on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The action has been called a “witch hunt” and “bullying” by supporters of the scientists, and an October 2015 Nature Biotechnology Editorial challenges its audience to “stand up for science” in the wake of this “smear campaign.” The dominant view of science communication is rooted in the idealized assumption that the very act of communication is nothing more than an apolitical transfer of a simplified version of scientific knowledge. The conceptualization of general COI by the scientific community often reflects this outdated framework. But, as scientists become politically engaged as advocates for their own work, this framework is challenged. Using the 2015 case of biotechnology researchers and records requests, this paper explores the question: Why is “scientific outreach” often considered categorically different than “research” — both structurally at the university level, but also as a distinction internalized by these particular scientists — and therefore perceived as immune to charges of COI?

Effects of Heuristic-Systematic Information Processing about Flu and Flu Vaccination • SangHee Park, University of Michigan, Dearborn • This study applied the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) in order to explore risk perceptions of flu and the flu vaccination because the HSM explains individual’s information processing as an antecedent to attitude. Accordingly, this study examined how people process different types of risk information applying a 2 (Message framing: heuristic information message vs. systematic information message) by 2 (expert source vs. non-expert source) online experiment. The experiment found that risk perception of flu illness was positively related to benefit perception of the flu vaccination. The result also indicated that heuristic messages affected risk perception of the flu vaccination, but not flu illness perception. Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed.

Exploring the Multi-Faceted Interpersonal Communication Strategies Used By College Students to Discuss Stress • Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas; Gwendelyn Nisbett, University of North Texas • Mental health issues are a prevalent problem on college campuses yet stigma remains. We examine patterns of college students either seeking help for personal stress or providing help to a stressed friend. Textual analysis was used to extract themes of participant comments and identify common behaviors. Results suggest that students use direct, indirect, and avoidant approaches to addressing stress with friends. Distinctions are blurred in self help-seeking behavior. Implications for creating interpersonal campaigns are discussed.

“Warrior Moms”: Audience Engagement and Advocacy in Spreading Information About Maternal Mental Illness Online • Sarah Smith-Frigerio, University of Missouri • One in seven women will experience a maternal mental illness, yet little is known about why individuals seek information about maternal mental illness and treatments, or how they make use of messages they find. By employing a grounded theoretical approach, involving a close reading of Postpartum Progress, the world’s most read online site concerning maternal mental illness, as well as analysis of semi-structured audience interviews of 21 users of the site, this study contributes a more nuanced understanding of how participants use information and peer support on the site. In addition, the research explores how participants move beyond seeking information anonymously online about a stigmatized mental illness or use private support forums for peer support, to engage in online and offline advocacy efforts.

From Scientific Evidence to Art: Guidelines to Prevent Digital Manipulation in Cell Biology and Nanoscience Journals • Shiela Reaves, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Steven Nolan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • As technological advances have made it easier to digitally manipulate images, the scientific community faces a major issue regarding ethics of visual data. A content analysis of editorial guidelines for the scientific images in cell biology and nanoscience journals demonstrates differences between the two disciplines. Cell biology images in high impact journals receive detailed guidelines about digital manipulation. However, nanoscience journals and low-impact journals have less detailed instructions to prevent misleading visual data.

The Influence of Internal, External, and Response Efficacy on Climate Change-Related Political Participation • Sol Hart, University of Michigan; Lauren Feldman, Rutgers University • This study examined how changing the type and valence of efficacy information in climate change news stories may impact political participation through the mediators of perceived internal, external, and response efficacy. Stories including positive internal efficacy content increased perceived internal efficacy, while stories including negative external efficacy content lowered perceived external efficacy. Perceived internal, external, and response efficacy all offered unique, positive associations with intentions to engage in climate change-related political participation.

Recycling Intention Promotes Attitudinal and Procedural Information Seeking • Sonny Rosenthal; Leung Yan Wah • Information seeking is more likely to occur when the information has utility to the seeker. Prior scholarship discusses this property of information in terms of instrumental utility and, more recently, informational utility. Research on information seeking describes various factors that may motivate information search, but none has directly modeled behavioral intention as an antecedent. The current study examines the effect of recycling intention on intention to seek two kinds of information: attitudinal and procedural. Results show strong effects, which suggest that in the context of recycling, information seeking may serve functions of behavioral and defensive adaptation. Additional findings suggest that recycling personal norms and recycling-related negative affect influence information seeking, albeit indirectly, as forms of cognitive and affective adaptation. Results have implications for selective exposure theory and the practice of environmental communication.

The Effects of Environmental Risk Perception, and Beliefs in Genetic Determinism and Behavioral Action on Cancer Fatalism • Soo Jung Hong, Huntsman Cancer Institute • This study investigates the effects of environmental risk perception, and beliefs in genetic determinism and behavioral action regarding cancer development on cancer fatalism, as well as the moderation effect of education and the mediating role of environmental risk perception on those associations. Nationally representative data from the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) was employed. Findings reveal interesting and meaningful dynamics between those variables and suggest directions for future research.

Perceptions of Sexualized and Non-Sexualized Images of Women in Alcohol Advertisements: Exploring Factors Associated with Intentions to Sexually Coerce • Stacey Hust; Kathleen Rodgers; Stephanie Ebreo; Nicole O’Donnell, Washington State University • The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with college students’ intentions to sexually coerce. An experiment was conducted with (N= 1,234) participants from a college sample. One condition was exposed to sexualized alcohol advertisements and a second condition to non-sexualized alcohol advertisements. Identifying as a man, adherence to traditional gender roles and heterosexual scripts, and exposure to alcohol advertisements with sexualized images of women were positively associated with intentions to sexually coerce.

Enabling Tailored Message Campaigns: Discovering and Targeting the Attitudes and Behaviors of Young Arab Male Drivers • Susan Dun, Northwestern University in Qatar; Syed Owais Ali, Northwestern University in Qatar; Rouda almeghaiseeb, Northwestern University in Qatar • Citing the preventable nature of traffic accidents and the unacceptably high number of causalities, the World Health Organization recently issued an international call for action to combat the needless loss of life and injuries (Nebehay, 2015). Because of dangerous driving behaviors 18-25 year old men are the highest the risk group for accidents, yet they are resistant to typical risk communications. Young Arab men are particularly at risk within this group. The study reported here discovered the driving attitudes and behavioral intentions of young Arab men to enable communication campaigns to specifically tailor persuasive messages for this high-risk yet understudied group in a bid to save lives and decrease the injuries from accidents. We suspected that they are high sensation seeking, fatalistic, and as members of a collectivistic, masculine culture, likely to engage in risking driving behaviors. Using a culturally contextualized focus group setting, we confirmed that they fatalistic, value assertive driving by equating good driving with high-risk behaviors, dislike fear appeals and blame other drivers for accidents. Suggestions for risk communication campaigns are provided. We discovered tensions in their belief systems that could provide an avenue for persuasive messaging, by exposing the contradictions and resolving them in a pro-attitudinal direction. Basic safety beliefs need to be targeted as well, such as the importance of seat belts and defensive driving. Finally, a novel campaign that is not recognizable as a dramatic or sad safe driving campaign is a must, especially initially, or the message is likely to be ignored.

MERS and the Social Media Impact Hypothesis: How Message Format and Style Affect TPE & Perceived Risk • T. Makana Chock, Syracuse University; Soojin Roh, Syracuse University • This study examined the effects of narrative transportation and message context on third person effects (TPE), perceived risk, and behavioral intentions. A 2 (Format: Narrative/Factual news) X 2 (Context: news site, news story on Facebook page) plus 1 (personal account on a Facebook page) between-subject experimental design (N=269) conducted in South Korea examined the differences between reading news stories about the risks of The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in different media contexts – online news sites and Facebook pages – and different formats — narrative, factual, and personal accounts. TPE were found for factual news stories read on news sites, but not for the same story when it was read on a Facebook page. Narrative versions of the story elicited greater transportation and limited TPE regardless of whether the news stories were read on news sites or Facebook pages. TPE was found for personal accounts read on a Facebook page. Source credibility and identification were found to partially mediate the relationship between narrative transportation and perceived story effects on self. In turn, perceived effects on self contributed to personal risk perceptions and risk-prevention behaviors.

Tracking public attitudes toward climate change over time: The declining roles of risk perception and concern • Tsung-Jen Shih, National Chengchi University; Min-Hsin Su; Mei-Ling Hsu • Increasing public risk perception of and concern over climate change has long been regarded as an effective strategy to motivate environmental-friendly behaviors. However, the levels of risk perception and concern may be volatile. For one thing, people may deny the existence of climate change when they feel threatened and, at the same time, do not know what to do. Furthermore, the concept of “issue fatigue” may occur when people are chronically exposed to threatening information. Based on two nationally representative telephone surveys conducted in Taiwan (2013 and 2015), this study examines how people’s risk perception and concern may change over time and whether the impacts on the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors will be different. The results indicate that, although people were more likely to take actions aimed at mitigating climate change in 2015 than in 2013, the levels of risk perception and concern declined significantly. Regression analyses also showed that the effects of risk perception and concern were moderated by time. Implications of the findings will be discussed.

On the Ever-growing Number of Frames in Health Communication Research: A Coping Strategy • Viorela Dan; Juliana Raupp • Recent years have brought a large number of studies citing framing as a theoretical guide in science and health communication research. Keeping track of this literature has become increasingly difficult due to a “frustrating tendenc[y]… to generate a unique set of frames for every study” (Hertog & McLeod, 2001, p. 151). In this study, in an attempt to assist those intending to keep track of this literature, we report the results of a systematic review of literature on news frames in the media coverage of health risks. In the studies scrutinized (k = 35), we found forty-five frame-names for just fifteen frames. They were: attribution of responsibility, action, thematic, episodic, medical, consequences, human interest, health severity, economic consequences, gain, loss, conflict, uncertainty, alarmist, and reassurance. In the paper, we address the overlap between some of these frames and other concepts and frameworks. Also, as some frames entail others or intersect with others, we provide a visualization of how frames relate to each other (see Figure 1). We suggest that building framing theory is stalled by the use of various frame-names for the same frames; yet, we realize that scholars using framing in their studies may follow other goals than building framing theory. However, those new to the field may have difficulty coping with the ever-growing number of frames. In this regard, we hope that our systematic review can help towards reaching consistency, a characteristic indispensable to any theory.

Who Are Responsible for HPV Vaccination? Examination of Male Young Adults’ Perceptions • Wan Chi Leung • HPV vaccination is an important public health issue, but past research has mostly been done on the HPV vaccination for females. An online survey was conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, and responses from 656 males aged 18-26 in the United States were analyzed. Attributing the responsibilities for getting HPV-related diseases more to women and to the self were associated with weaker support for the HPV vaccination for males. Attributing the responsibilities for getting the HPV vaccine more to women and to the self were associated with stronger support for the HPV vaccination for males. Findings point to suggestions for future promotions of the HPV vaccination for males.

Media Use, Risk Perception and Precautionary Behavior toward Haze Issue in China • Xiaohua Wu; Xigen Li • The study examined to what degree people’s risk perception of the haze in China was affected by mass media exposure, social network sites involvement and direct experience towards haze. The risk perception was examined in two levels: social risk perception and personal risk perception. Impersonal Impact Hypothesis was tested in the digital media context. The study also explores the influencing factors of precautionary behaviors. The key findings include: 1) mass media exposure and SNS involvement regarding haze issue mediate the effect of direct experience on risk perception; 2) Impersonal Impact Hypothesis was not supported in the context of multi-channel and interactive communication; 3) vulnerability slightly moderates the effect of mass media exposure on personal risk perception; 4) mass media exposure and SNS involvement positively affect precautionary behavior mediated through personal risk perception.

Expanding the RISP Model: Examining the Conditional Indirect Effects of Cultural Cognitions • Yiran Wang, Washington State University; Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University; Rebecca Donaway, Washington State University • This paper attempts to connect literature from the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model with the cultural cognitions literature. We do this by assessing the relationship between cultural cognitions and risk perceptions, then examine whether these risk perceptions are associated with the three outcomes of interest relative to the RISP model: Information seeking, systematic processing, and heuristic processing, through a full serial mediation model using 2015 data collected from ten watersheds communities across the U.S.

Introducing benefit of smoking in anti-smoking messages: Comparing passive and interactive inoculation based on Elaboration Likelihood Model • Yuchen Ren • This study tested the effect of message interactivity in inoculation (interactive inoculation message versus passive inoculation message) on children’s attitude towards smoking based on elaboration likelihood model. Eighty-two primary school students were recruited from Shenzhen, China. Experiment results showed that compared with passive inoculation message, interactive inoculation message generated more negative attitude towards smoking and higher involvement in both central route and peripheral route. Moreover, mediation analysis showed that only the central route indicator mediates the effect of message interactivity on children’s attitude towards smoking. In conclusion, this study not only introduces message interactivity to inoculation theory in smoking prevention context, but also reveals the mechanism of the proposed persuasion effect.

Adolescents’ Perceptions of E-cigarettes and Marketing Messages: A Focus Group Study • Yvonnes Chen; Chris Tilden; Dee Vernberg • “Prior research about e-cigarettes has rarely focused on young adolescents exclusively and explored their perceptions of the industry’s marketing efforts. This focus group study with adolescents (n=39) found that factors that motivate them to experiment with e-cigarettes (e.g., looking cool, curiosity, flavors) are identical to traditional tobacco uptake among adolescents. E-cigarette advertising was memorable because of color contrast, sleek design, and promised benefits. Restricting flavors and advertising may reduce e-cigarette experimentation and future tobacco use.”

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Texts? Investigating the Influence of Visuals on Text-Based Health Intervention Content • Zhaomeng Niu; Yujung Nam; QIAN YU, Washington State University; Jared Brickman; Shuang Liu • Healthy eating and exercise among young people could curb obesity. Strong messaging is needed for weight loss interventions. This study evaluated the usefulness of visual appeals in text messages. A 2 (gain vs. loss) X 2 (picture vs. no picture) design with pretest and posttest questionnaires (N=107) revealed text-only messages with loss frames had an influence on affective risk response, while text messages with pictures had a positive effect on attitudes, intentions, and self-efficacy.

2016 Abstracts

Religion and Media 2016 Abstracts

Just a Phone Call (or Facebook Post) Away: Parents’ Influence at a Distance on Emerging Adults’ Religious Connections • Andrew Pritchard; Sisi Hu • New communication media have to a great degree erased the barriers of distance that once diminished parents’ ability to keep their emerging adult children (ages 18 to 25) connected to the family’s religion. A survey of emerging adults (N = 727) finds that parents’ influence is greatest when they communicate through media in which emerging adults are willing to discuss intimate subjects, and when religiosity and spirituality are frequent topics of conversation.

Moral Mondays in the South: Christian Activism and Civil Disobedience in the Digital Age • Anthony Hatcher, Elon University • This paper is a case study of the 2013 Moral Monday movement in North Carolina and the use of progressive Christianity and religious rhetoric as tactics for protest in the modern media era. Themes explored include: 1) the role religious rhetoric played in this 21st century protest movement; 2) the tone of media coverage; 3) how social media was used by both protestors and their critics; and 4) the political effectiveness of the protests.

Defining the Christian Journalist: Ideologies, Values and Practices • Brad Schultz, University of Mississippi; Mary Sheffer, University of Southern Mississippi • This study sought to understand how working Christian journalists perceive themselves in terms of how their faith shapes their professional practice. An international survey of self-identified Christian journalists showed that they perceive themselves differently from their secular counterparts primarily in terms of ideology (ethics and public service). Younger Christian journalists were the drivers of these perceptions more so than older journalists, who remain more tied to traditional journalistic practice. Interestingly, those who worked at non-religious media outlets were more connected to ideology, while those at Christian outlets were more committed to journalism practice. The implications of these findings were discussed.

Morality and Minarets: The moral framing of mosque construction in the U.S. • Brian J. Bowe, Western Washington University • Journalism is a moral craft with particular social obligations. Moral evaluations are one of the main functions of media frames. Yet morality is a complex concept that includes both individualizing and binding elements. This study applies Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) to examine the moral dimension of frames. Analyzing news articles (n=349) from five newspapers about controversies surrounding the construction of mosques in the United States, this study found four moral frames: Ethnocentric Loyalty, Social Order, Altruistic Democracy and Moderate Individualism. These frames were strongly rooted in socially binding moral foundations, and they were connected to enduring values of journalism.

“I Pray We Won’t Let This Moment Pass Us By”: Christian Concert Films and Numinous Experiences • Jim Trammell, High Point University • This manuscript analyzes the Christian concert film Hillsong United: Live in Miami to investigate how mass media evoke numinous experiences. Using a framework that locates technological determinism within theories of religious encounters, the analysis explores how Christian concert films create numinous experiences through shot composition, editing, and content selection. The manuscript argues that mass media technologies and aesthetics can create expectations of religious encounters, and challenges the use of mass media to manufacture religious experiences.

Thoughtful, but angry: Media narratives of NFL star Arian Foster’s “confession” of nonbelief. • John Haman; Kyle Miller • In 2015, Arian Foster became the first active professional football player to announce he was an atheist. To analyze the media’s framing of Foster’s nonbelief within the context of the overtly evangelical Protestant religious culture of the NFL, we analyzed all news and editorial coverage of Foster’s “confession.” By extending Silk’s methodology for examining religious topoi, we examine how journalists use familiar themes to negotiate the boundary between belief and nonbelief in American culture.

Religion, coping and healing in news about school shootings • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga; Hayden Seay • Religion offers comfort to those undergoing trauma, including communities affected by a school shooting. News content offers one means to heal. Analysis of news content about school shootings showed the presence of five key functions of individual religious coping methods identified in prior research. Most common were comfort/spirituality, meaning and control, followed by intimacy/spirituality and life transformation. Presence of healing and coping themes in the news reflect a journalistic role to heal the community.

Believing news from the Christian Broadcast Network: The intersection between source trust, content expectancy, and religiosity • Robin Blom, Ball State University • A randomly-selected sample of 200 U.S. adults indicated their believability of a news headline attributed to the Christian Broadcast Network to test whether an interaction between news source trust and content expectancy could predict believability levels. Overall, the data indicate that certain non-religious people or those with low levels of religiosity considered the Christian Broadcast Network headline highly believable, whereas some people with high levels of religiosity did not—depending on whether they were surprised on unsurprised that the headline was attributed to CBN—and not just because of their religiosity level. In fact, religiosity was not a statistically significant predictor of believability in a regression model with news source trust, news content expectancy, and its interaction. This provides new insights to whether non-secular media outlets could be considered valuable news sources for people outside the traditional, religious target audience for those organizations.

Media Framing of Muslims: A Research Review • Saifuddin Ahmed, University of California, Davis; Jörg Matthes, University of Vienna • This study provides an overview of English language academic research on media framing of Muslims from 2001 to 2014. Through content analysis of 128 studies we identify patterns involving research trend, methodological approach, media analysis, and authorship. A qualitative review results in presentation of seven common frames. Attention is paid to frame commonality across media sources and regions. Current research gaps are highlighted and findings point to key directions for future scholars.

2016 Abstracts

Visual Communication 2016 Abstracts

Perceiving Health: Biological Food Cues Bolster Health Halo Health Perceptions • Adrienne Muldrow, Washington State University; Rachel Bailey, Murrow College of Communication • This study investigated the impact of food claims, food cues, and objective health characteristics on believability of claims and perceptions of health and taste. One hundred twenty-four individuals were exposed to counterbalanced product images, which varied in a fully crossed design by directness of visual food cues, type of food claims (health vs. taste), and objective healthfulness across three different food product types. Participants evaluated the perception of claim believability and perceptions of health and taste after exposure to each of these images. Generally, results support that direct visual cues, especially when used in coalition with health claims, improve health perception ratings and aid believability of health claims even for objectively unhealthy food products.

Good Crop, Bad Crop: Composition and Visual Attention in Photojournalism • Carolyn Yaschur; Daniel Corts, Augustana College • An eye-tracking experiment was conducted to determine whether cropping of professional photojournalistic images affects visual attention within the frame. Building on Entman’s principles of framing theory, photos were cropped according to or in defiance of strong composition to increase or reduce saliency of areas. Findings suggest participants took longer to find all of the important areas in poorly cropped photos than professionally cropped photos and preferred uncropped and professionally cropped photos over poorly cropped photos.

See it in his eyes: Linking nonverbal behavior to character traits in impression formation of politicians • Danielle Kilgo, University of Texas at Austin; Trent Boutler; Renita Coleman • This study examines the roles that specific non-verbal behaviors play in the forming certain impressions about the character of politicians. Theoretically, we tie the concepts of impression formation to the study of attributes in second-level agenda setting. Using published images of a politician and an experimental design, our results reveal eye contact was significantly better a conveying leadership and intelligence than other nonverbal behaviors, such as arm and hand positions, and smiling.

The Public Relations and Visual Ethics of Infographics: An Examination of Nonprofit Organizations’ Transparency, Clarity, and Stewardship • Diana Sisson, Auburn University; Tara Mortensen, University of South Carolina • This study employs a visual and textual content analysis to examine transparency, clarity, and stewardship practices in nonprofit organizations’ infographics (n = 376) that have been released on Twitter. Broadly, the findings suggest that nonprofit organizations are not following all of their own ethical guidelines with regard to infographics, and they are not translating these ethics to the world of visuals. The results extend current knowledge about nonprofit organizations’ stewardship and infographic visual ethics practices. Practical and theoretical implications are offered.

I AM NOT A Virus: A Comparative Analysis of Liberian Identity through the Photographs They Produce • Gabriel Tait, Arkansas State University; Viet Nguyen, Arkansas State University • “In 2014, the World Health Organization and various media outlets reported that the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea were the epicenter for the Ebola Virus. As the media transmitted images of sick West Africans, four Liberian women decided to develop a photographic social media campaign to offer an alternative narrative. This study examines the 2014 -15 visual media campaign #IamaLiberiannotaVirus. By using content analysis to examine 75 photographs taken by Liberians of Liberians, this study offers a unique opportunity to view and understand how Liberians represent themselves in the midst of the Ebola outbreak. The findings reveal the complexities and possibilities that arise as others are empowered to construct their own visual communication narrative.

Evoking Compassion, Empathy, and Information Seeking: The Human-cost-of-war Frame, TOP student paper • Jennifer Midberry, Temple University • U.S. media consumers in an age of globalization regularly encounter mediated depictions of war. Sontag (2003) argued, “the understanding of war among people who have not experienced war is now chiefly a product of the impact of these images” (p. 21). Yet, exactly what type of impact war photos have on people is a question that remains largely unanswered in terms of visual communication research. For all of the theories and newsroom anecdotes about how audiences react to images of wartime suffering, empirical research on the capacity of news photos to move people to action is sparse and contradictory. This study aimed to fill that gap in the literature. Through a series of focus group discussions, this study investigated how media consumers generally make meaning out of images of conflict. It also specifically examined whether photos (from conflicts in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo) with a human-cost-of-war visual frame evoked different empathic, compassionate, and information seeking responses in participants than photos with a militarism visual frame. This paper is a condensed version of a longer, in-progress monograph. The findings expand our understanding about the way audiences react to conflict photos, and they have implications for how photo editors might present audiences with images of war that will engage audiences.

Selfies and Sensationalism on the Campaign Trail: A Visual Analysis of Snapchat’s Political Coverage • Jerrica Rowlett, Florida State University; Summer Harlow, Florida State University • This exploratory, qualitative visual study of Snapchat’s Live Stories about the 2016 U.S. political primaries explored how this social media application, with its ephemeral, user-generated content covered political news. Few studies have examined Snapchat, let alone its political coverage, allowing this present research to advance the literature, informing our understanding of political communication in the digital age of the selfie. Findings suggest that Snapchat features like filters, emojis, and captions sensationalized the news.

Does Image Brightness Matter?: How Image Brightness Interacts with Food Cues When Viewing Food Pictures of Healthy and Unhealthy Foods • Jiawei Liu, Washington State University; Rachel Bailey, Murrow College of Communication • Given the high prevalence rate of overweight and obesity among the US population and its consequences, it’s important to understand how different mediated food information factors affect consumption and related responses and behaviors. This study examined how food image brightness interacted with food cues (direct visual food cues, indirect food cues) to influence affective responses and purchase intention toward different food products. Results indicate that individuals exhibit more favorable attitudes and greater purchase intentions when food information contained direct visual food cues and had greater image brightness. This was the case regardless of the health level of the foods (healthy and unhealthy). Implications and future research are discussed.

Exploring Relationships Between Selfie Practice and Cultural Characteristics, Second place student paper • Joon K Kim; Hwalbin Kim, University of South Carolina • The present study explored the relationship between individuals’ cultural characteristics and selfie practices such as posting and interacting with others on Instagram. Cultural characteristics include individuals’ independent and interdependent construal. Using an online survey (N =354), we found that the use of verbal information on selfies – captions and hashtags – was related with both independent and interdependent characteristics, while the use of nonverbal information – filter and geotags – was associated with only interdependent characteristics.

Seeing Another Way: The Competitive Spirit, Innovation, and the Race for the Better Visual • Julian Kilker, UNLV • Photojournalism faces well-known threats of deskilling and credibility associated with the shift to digitization. This paper finds evidence for an expanded notion of photojournalistic “workflow” that incorporates the activities of photographers shaping emerging technologies and techniques to handle new challenges. Technology “lead users” identify “reverse salients” in their workflows and resolve them. In doing so, they develop and propagate visual innovations. The broader implications for journalism practice and education are discussed.

Picture Perfect: How Photographs Influence Emotion, Attention and Selection in Social Media News Posts, TOP Faculty Paper • Kate Keib, University of Georgia Grady College; Camila Espina, University of Georgia, Grady College; Yen-I Lee, University of Georgia; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georgia; Dongwon Choi, University of Georgia, Grady College; Hyejin Bang, University of Georgia, Grady College • Social media has the primary conduit to news access for an increasing number of consumers, yet little is known about how consumers view social media posts containing news, and on what basis they make decisions about selecting and sharing this information. In a within-subjects eye-tracking experiment, this study examined the influence of image presence and valence on attention to and engagement with news stories on social media. Participants (N=60) viewed a series of 29 social media posts of news stories, each of which was either paired with no image, a positively valenced image, or a negatively valenced image, while their attention to images was recorded with an eye-tracking device, and subsequently completed several dependent measures about each image viewed. The results show that posts containing positive images elicited a higher level of emotion than those with negative or neutral images, which led to higher intentions click and share posts with positive images. The results provide a deeper understanding of how social media drives news consumption, and offer practical implications for journalists, news organizations and groups using social media to spread a message.

Framing the Migration • Keith Greenwood, University of Missouri; T.J. Thomson, Missouri School of Journalism • Human migration due to political upheaval is rapidly accelerating yet scholarly attention to refugees’ visual news representations has lagged. Using a framing analysis informed by visual symbolism and the politics of belonging, 811 images primarily depicting migration from Turkey into Europe in 2015 and submitted to the Pictures of the Year International competition were examined. Analysis determined the migration was framed in terms of scale and refugees’ hardships and lack of belonging.

Framing gender and power: A visual analysis of Peng Liyuan and Michelle Obama in Xinhua and the Associated Press • Li Chen, Syracuse University; Stephen Warren, Syracuse University; Anqi Peng; Lizhen Zhao • This study used visual framing analysis to investigate if and how gender and power are differently framed in First Ladies’ photographs between Xinhua and the Associated Press. Although communication scholars have paid attention to comparative framing analysis across cultures, there is limited scholarship focusing on the visual comparative analysis of women in politics between the US and China. This comparative content analysis explored how the interpretation of gender display, dominance, and valence of First Ladies is framed through visual language and the texts around it. 400 photographs of Peng Liyuan and Michelle Obama from Xinhua and AP were sampled, coded, and analyzed. The results indicate both differences and similarities in framing gender and power between two leading news services in the US and China. Specifically, the interaction between First Ladies and news services was found to impact the physical dominance and photo valence of First Ladies. The present study contributes to the scholarship on women in politics, visual communication, and content analysis.

Picturing Power: How Three International News Agencies Used Photos of A Chinese Military Parade • Lijie Zhou, The University of Southern Mississippi; Christopher Campbell • The current mixed-analysis study examines how three international news agencies, Xinhua, AP, and Kyodo, used news pictures in their coverage of China’s 2015 massive military parade. Based on a quantitative analysis, this study compared the major visual cues of the pictures used by each of the three news agencies. Beyond frequency calculations and statistical comparisons, the study also examined how the news images related to cultural and political hegemony through a critical visual analysis.

Building-Up and Breaking-Down Metaphoric Walls: A CDA of multimodal-metaphors in front-runner Super Tuesday victory speeches. • Marguerite Page, Southern Illinois University • Multimodal CDA following a social-semiotic approach using Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework. An abridged version of Sonjia Foss’s metaphoric criticism, and Charles Forceville’s visual metaphor theory was utilized. Text: March 1st, 2016 Super Tuesday victory speeches of front-runner’s Clinton and Trump for verbal and visual metaphors. These multimodal metaphors presented on a micro-level operate on a macro-basis and work to frame the understanding and ideological positioning/underlying beliefs of the American public during the 2016 Presidential campaign.

“Her” Photographer: The Roanoke Live Shot Murders and Visual Communication’s Place in the Newsroom • Mary Angela Bock, University of Texas at Austin; Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin; Deepa Fadnis, University of Texas at Austin • Abstract: This study analyzes newspaper and television coverage of the shootings of two journalists in Virginia in 2015 in order to compare discourses about the victims, a videographer and an on-air reporter. Working within the larger framework of Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, the analysis considers the way various subgroups within journalism maintain borders and work to establish hierarchies. Meta-journalistic discourse is one way to learn how an interpretive community represents and reproduces professional norms. This analysis focuses on how the reporter, a female on-air presenter and the videographer, a man who worked behind the camera, are discussed in terms of their contributions to journalism, their newsroom and their personalities. Three tensions that exist in the larger journalistic field: reporter-photographer, print-television and male-female, guide our analysis. Our findings suggest that coverage of the Roanoke murders offers insight into the way these tensions are navigated within the field and serve to communicate journalism’s value to the public.

Storied lives on Instagram: Factors associated with the need for personal visual identity • Nicole O’Donnell, Washington State University • This paper examines how sharing photos on social networking sites (SNSs) contributes to an individual’s sense of identity. A survey was conducted with Instagram users (n=788) to understand how they frame, annotate, and share their lives with others through digital photography. Results from a serial multiple mediator model shows that the frequency with which individuals post on Instagram predicts their need for personal visual identity and this relationship is mediated by self-objectification and self-esteem.

Machismo and marianismo images revealed in outdoor advertising: Argentina and Chile • Pamela Morris • Machismo and marianismo are important concepts for how men and women perform gender, create identity and build social relationships in Latin American cultures. In attempt to better understand these elusive concepts, this exploratory investigation reviews outdoor advertising images of men and women from Argentina and Chile. The qualitative study uses a constant comparison approach with literature of machismo, marianismo and advertising and consumer culture as a framework for theoretical development. Findings show the concepts’ subtleties that are taken for granted making them powerful forces to create inequalities between the sexes. The research expands scholarship on gender and communication in cultures little studied.

The Islamic State’s Visual War: Spotting the Hi-tech Narratives Within the Chaos • Shahira Fahmy, U of Arizona • Soon after the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (so-called ISIS or DAESH) declared itself to be the new Islamic State and the new ‘Caliphate’ on June 28 2014, it put out its official glossy English-language magazine called Dabiq. The magazine covers the Islamic State’s strategic direction, military strategy, and alliances, making it crucial to analyze. Given the geopolitical impact and context of ISIS today, and based on research that suggests almost 90 percent of what its media’s apparatus produces is visual, the current research sought to explain the role of Dabiq’s photographs in communicating the group’s ideological narratives. Drawing on recent works, it incorporates new ways to operationalize and measure visual framing in the context of visual communication and terrorism, with specific emphasis on three dimensions: themes; objectives and messages. The work concludes by a discussion and implications of the findings and pointing out limitations and suggestions for future research.

Towards an Association Between Expository Motion Graphics and the Presence of Naïve Realism • Spencer Barnes, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Expository motion graphics are usually encountered within a digital news package and they are dynamic visual communication devices capable of both informing and entertaining because they provide visual explanations and present narratives to an audience. This paper explored how viewers interacted with motion graphics that offered exposition and two theories were utilized to frame this inquiry: the theory of naïve realism and cognitive load theory. Each theory described complimentary aspects of the motion graphic viewing experience and an experiment conducted by the author indicated that visual clutter is detrimental to the viewing experience associated with motion graphics and a viewer’s proclivities about motion graphics can be altered after exposure to multiple motion graphics that vary in fidelity or representativeness. These findings have implications for the application of expository motion graphics within journalistic contexts.

Politicians, photographers, and a pope: How state-controlled and independent media covered Francis’s 2015 Cuba visit • T.J. Thomson, Missouri School of Journalism; Gregory Perreault, Appalachian State University; Margaret Duffy, Missouri School of Journalism • Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to Cuba provided a unique opportunity for a comparative study of state-controlled and independent media systems. This study, grounded in the interpretivist tradition, uses symbolic convergence theory and fantasy theme analysis to explore how visuals created by U.S.-based AP Images, U.K.-based Reuters, and Cuba-based Prensa Latina reveal the underlying rhetorical visions, news values, and priorities of each culture’s media production.

Fungible Photography: A content analysis of photographs in the Times Herald-Record before and after layoffs of the photojournalism staff, Second place faculty paper • Tara Mortensen, University of South Carolina; Peter Gade • A constructed-week sample was developed from six months prior to and six months following the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, NY laid off its entire photojournalism staff. Images from each time period were content analyzed for variables pertaining to photo quality in professionalism and professional news values. The results are mixed, but broadly suggest that many variables did not change at all, while some qualities actually improved. Number of photos decreased, as did the size of images. The gap left by staff photos was filled largely with wire images. Only a few photo quality values studies underwent the degradation feared by some industry professionals.

2016 Abstracts

Newspaper and Online News 2016 Abstracts

Open Competition
Can breaking news coverage fix lack of government openness? A case study of content strategies at Egypt’s increasing popular Youm7 online newspaper • Ahmed Orabi, Journalism Department, College of Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Eric Meyer, University of Illinois • “Increased attention to breaking news coverage of incremental developments rest have helped make Youm7 an Egyptian online newspaper one of the nation’s most frequent online destinations since Egypt’s Arab Spring unrest. This qualitative case study examines how and why the transformation occurred. It is based on four weeks of field work between April 8 and May 3, 2015, inside Youm7’s newsroom using three tools: ethnographic observation, in-depth interviews with 20 journalists and content analysis.

The Costs of Risky Business: What Happens When Newspapers Become the Playthings of Billionaires? • Alex Williams, University of Pennsylvania; Victor Pickard • This manuscript analyzes the actions of individuals that purchase struggling metro newspapers. We first contextualize the journalism crisis by reviewing the business model of the newspaper industry in the 20th century. To understand who buys metro newspapers, we then chronicle the most prominent newspaper acquisitions in 2011 and 2012: The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Orange County Register. We discuss three types of new owners: politicos; venture/vulture capitalists; and benevolent billionaires.

Tweeting news during a crisis: How professional norms influenced Ferguson coverage • Amber Hinsley, Saint Louis University; Hyunmin Lee, Saint Louis University • “This study explores journalists’ professional norms during a crisis by content analyzing their tweets in the week following Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Mo. It also identifies norms that resonated with the public and compares print and broadcast journalists. Journalists adhered to their objectivity norm, but broadcast journalists’ opinion tweets were more likely to be retweeted. Implications include whether journalists should have different social media policies, and if certain audience engagement measures should be reassessed.

The Portrayal of Schizophrenia in Legacy and Digital Native News • Anna Rae Gwarjanski, The University of Alabama; Scott Parrott; Brian Roberts; Elizabeth Elkin • A quantitative content analysis compared coverage of schizophrenia in legacy news websites and digital native news sites. Researchers coded 558 articles for the presence/absence of stereotypes concerning schizophrenia, the number and type of sources directly quoted, and the valence of source commentary and overall articles. Articles from legacy news sites stood greater chance of containing stereotypes about schizophrenia. Articles from legacy news sites stood greater chance of containing an overall negative valence about schizophrenia.

The Disappearance of the Front Page: Measuring Heterogeneity of Newspaper Stories in Print, Online and Mobile • Arthur Santana, San Diego State University • This paper examines the uniformity of news stories across three platforms – print, online and mobile – from the same newspaper, on the same day, at the same time of day. Using 50 U.S. newspapers in two constructed weeks, this paper quantitatively investigates the similarities of the top stories (N = 6,300) in each medium. Findings build on the theory of agenda setting in a digital age and prompt new discussions about the effects of media fragmentation.

Framing the same-sex marriage ruling: How audience ideology influences newspaper coverage • Brandon Szuminsky; Chad Sherman • This 487-newspaper study investigated the substantive differences in the media agenda of the 2012 Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, as represented by newspaper front page coverage, with emphasis on differences in coverage between “red” and “blue” states. Framing decisions expressed through headline word choice and space allocation were analyzed as examples of variation within the media agenda. The findings suggest the media agenda is in fact significantly impacted at the local level.

A network approach to intermedia agenda-setting: a big data analysis of traditional, partisan, and emerging online U.S. news • Chris Vargo, University of Alabama; Lei Guo, Boston University • This large-scale intermedia agenda-setting analysis examines U.S. online media sources for 2015. Based on the NAS Model, the results showed news media of different types set network agendas to various degrees. Agendas were highly reciprocal. Online partisan media best explained the entire media agenda. The agendas of the New York Times and the Washington Post were more likely to be caused by emerging media. NAS effects varied by media type, issue type and time periods.

Newspaper front page photographs: Effects of image consumption in a digital versus print news format • Daniel Morrison, University of Oregon; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; David Morris II, University of Oregon • Based on a volume of scholarship citing differences in recall and knowledge of text-based content consumed from print versus digital platforms, this experimental research found certain significant differences regarding the same visual content viewed in a print versus digital format. Study findings indicate that technological change (digital consumption) has effects for communication consumption regarding images, which may underlie the changing nature of iconic images and iconic image formation in the age of digital news.

Did Black lives matter? The evolution of protest coverage after the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown • Danielle Kilgo, University of Texas at Austin; Rachel Mourao; George Sylvie • “This study utilizes devices from the protest paradigm to examine news media coverage of protests surrounding the judicial decisions of George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson. A content analysis of national newspaper coverage shows that coverage prior to the judicial rulings focused on protestors’ tactics (violence versus peaceful) and changed to the realm of ideas (grievances and demands) after the acquittals. No progression was found in legitimization of protests.

Why editors use human interactive features: Individual, organizational, and community level factors • Deborah Chung, University of Kentucky; Seungahn Nah • Employing Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy of influences approach (1996), we investigate factors affecting U.S. daily news editors’ use of human interactive features that facilitate the expression of ideas (customization features) and dialogue/discussion (interpersonal features). Individual-level factors were found to predict the use of customization features while organizational characteristics predict the use of interpersonal features. When individual and organizational variables were removed, the community structural variable emerged as a predictor for use of interpersonal interactive features.

Who Is Willing to Pay? Understanding Readers’ Payment Intention of News • Donghee Wohn; Mousa Ahmadi, New Jersey Institute of Technology • Despite the increase of people paying for digital content, media companies have been experiencing limited success to get people to pay for news. We conducted interviews (N= 25) to examine why people are inclined or disinclined to pay for news. We then conducted a survey (N= 250) to examine how much people would be willing to pay for news and the differences between fixed rate and pay-what-you-want models. We then examined differences in motivation and news engagement between three groups: those who did not want to pay anything (savers), people who were inclined to pay very little (scrimpers), and people who were willing to pay for news services (spenders). Understanding differences between these groups not only helps inform business models, but also demonstrates that changes in design could alter people’s attitudes about paying for news.

5 Ways BuzzFeed is Transforming (Or Preserving?) the Journalistic Field • Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University • Guided by field theory and the concept of journalistic boundary work, this study sought to examine whether BuzzFeed, a new agent in the journalistic field, is participating in the preservation or transformation of journalism. This was carried out by analyzing its news outputs based on the markers—or boundaries—that defined traditional journalistic practice, such as news values, topics, formats, and norms. The analysis found that while news articles produced by BuzzFeed are exhibiting some departures from traditional journalistic practice, in general BuzzFeed is playing by the rules, which might explain its legitimation as a recognized agent in the field.

Giving in or giving up: What makes journalists use audience feedback in their news work? • Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado • Guided by the theory of planned behavior, this study sought to identify factors that lead journalists to monitor and incorporate audience feedback in their news work through Twitter and web analytics. Based on a survey of 360 online journalists in the United States, this study found that journalists’ personal attitudes toward using audience feedback, organizational policy on the use of audience feedback, as well as how much knowledge and skill they think they currently have to use audience feedback in their work, affect their intention to use, and ultimately, their actual use of, audience feedback in their editorial decisions.

Divvying Up How We Spend Time With News Devices and Channels • Esther Thorson, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Samuel Tham, University of Missouri – School of Journalism • Americans spent around 70 minutes a day consuming news. With so many ways to access news, what variables determine how much time we spend with legacy media like newspapers and television, and what leads to digital and mobile usage. This study develops a model of the variables that lead to device and channel choices for news, which is tested in a national sample of 1000 adults.

Differently Pitiless: Representations of Immigrants in Episodic and Thematic Frames. A Transatlantic Comparative Analysis • Francesco Somaini, Central Washington University • This study investigated the representations of immigrants emerging from news stories in Arizona and Italy and the relationship between online comments attached to those stories and the episodic or thematic frame used to tell them. Quantitative content analysis was used in a comparative approach across regions that constitute borderlands between first and second world countries. Implications of framing for journalists covering minorities and disempowered groups are discussed.

Local Newspaper Use in Hawaii Fosters Acculturation to Local Culture, Community Ties and Involvement • Francis Dalisay, University of Guam; Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany – SUNY; Chamil Rathnayake; Joanne Loos, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Kapiolani Ching, University of Hawaii at Manoa • We use the case of Hawaii to test a proposed mediation model positively linking local newspaper use with community ties (i.e., social cohesion and trust) and community involvement via acculturation to local culture. Findings revealed acculturation to local culture was associated with higher social cohesion, trust, and community involvement. Also, local newspaper use had an indirect positive association with sense of belonging, feelings of morale, social trust, and community involvement through its positive association with acculturation to local culture.

News of the future: Journalism organizations’ members look at content, news practice, their jobs and their organizations • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This paper uses an online quantitative survey to explore the attitudes of members of journalism organizations toward journalism and the workplace, likely trends in employment, and what services those organizations should – and do – provide. By examining multivariate relationships rather than univariate measures, it offers suggestions for journalism organizations, employers, educators, and others interested in how journalists and colleagues in related professions see the world after the impact of the recession and the loss of revenue.

Normalizing Online Commenting: Exploring How Journalists Deal with Incivility on News Sites • GIna Masullo Chen, The University of Texas at Austin; Paromita Pain, The University of Texas at Austin • In-depth interviews with 34 journalists reveal they are becoming more comfortable with online comments and often engage with commenters to foster deliberative discussions or quell incivility. However, our data also suggest some journalists feel discomfort with engaging in this way for fear it breaches the journalistic norm of objectivity. Overall, findings suggest journalists are not ceding their gatekeeping role to the public through comments, but rather re-asserting it through moderating objectionable comments and engaging.

Active yet Passive: Students media habits begin with active choice, evolve to passive consumption • Hans Meyer, Ohio University; Burton Speakman • The definition of media habits must include more than one dimension: active choice. LaRose (2010) calls for expanding the theory to include active and passive use. This study advances LaRose’s call through at nationwide survey of more than 1,000 current college students. It finds that the main attitudes that drive frequent media usage are active, such as need to be involved, and passive, such as the need to know. In fact, the media students use demonstrate an evolution from a one-time active choice to passive attention. This is especially true for social media where students mainly seek entertainment and connection but end up getting a lot of important news and information.

The Reluctant Prosumer/Produser: Limited User Interest in Interactivity Offered by a Metropolitan Newspaper • Jackie Incollingo, Rider University • A mixed methods research project combining two quantitative survey results (n=632 and n=1,248) with semi-structured interview data (n=30) explored how users of a newspaper’s digital content engage with interactive features, and whether these features satisfy their desires. Although the literature celebrates the potential of prosumption (where the activities of consumer and producer converge), this research indicates that digital users do not prioritize sharing stories online, and reported little desire to leave comments or create content.

Groundbreaking Storytelling or Dancing Hamsters? What Eyetracking Tells Us About the Future of Longform Journalism • Jacqueline Marino; Susan Jacobson; Robert Gutsche • As journalists continue to integrate multimedia into longform journalism, news organizations wrestle with questions of audience interest and economic sustainability. To investigate audience reception to digital longform journalism, this study employs eyetracking technology and interviews with audience members to understand their interactions with text, video, and other elements. It also explores how digital longform journalism may attract and retain audience interest. Keywords:audience, digital journalism, eyetracking, longform journalism, mobile

Driving Las Vegas: News Coverage of Uber’s Clash with Unions in Sin City • Jessalynn Strauss, Elon University; Lauren Bratslavsky • This paper looks at the framing of Uber’s expansion into Las Vegas by the local newspaper of record, the Review-Journal. It examines and unpacks the complicated context of the fight between Uber and taxicabs in Las Vegas, taking into account the city’s strongly union history. The framing analysis pays particular attention to the portrayal of union opposition to Uber expansion in an attempt to determine how the newspaper mediates understanding of organized labor in this particular case.

“Two Cheers for ‘Doing It All’: Skills and Newspaper Reporting Jobs” • John Russial, University of Oregon • “This study looks at newspaper reporting jobs ads in order to examine whether reporters need to be able to “do it all” ¬– producing text, video and photography and using social media. It is based on content analyses of JournalismJobs.com, a major online marketplace. Photography and social media are mentioned considerably more often than video skills. Photo skills are more important for weeklies and social media for dailies. The results raise questions about what type of cross-platform training is necessary.

Journalists’ Use of Knowledge in an Online World: Examining Reporting Habits, Sourcing, and Institutional Norms • John Wihbey, Northeastern University • There has been little empirical study of how journalists are drawing on and applying academic research and systematic knowledge. This paper examines data from an original online survey (n = 1,118). A multivariate analysis finds that knowledge usage is more likely among journalists with certain forms of training, a national audience, and more coverage specialization. Politics and television reporting were associated with lower levels of engagement with expert knowledge.

The contextualist function: U.S. newspaper journalists value social responsibility • Karen McIntyre; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; Jesse Abdenour • A survey evaluated U.S. newspaper journalists’ attitudes toward contextual journalism — stories that go beyond the immediacy of the news and contribute to societal well-being. Results indicated that journalists highly value professional roles associated with contextual journalism. Responses revealed new journalistic role functions, including the “Contextualist.” Contextualists and traditional journalists expressed positive attitudes toward contextual journalism forms — solutions journalism, constructive journalism and restorative narrative — while adversarial and market-oriented journalists had negative attitudes toward contextual journalism.

The Viability of Peace Journalism in Western Media Environments • Kimberly Foster; Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri School of Journalism • “Conflict is pervasive and inevitable. Although not all conflicts lead to violence, violent conflicts have left a measurable toll of devastation. Peace journalism, a concept born in the 1970s, aims to frame news in a way to provide a comprehensive understanding of conflict that empowers more insightful critical public discourse. This paper addresses the theoretical challenges to peace journalism practices and provides insight into opportunities for in-depth reporting from conflict zones by Western media practitioners.

#LoveWins: Sharing breaking news of the marriage equality act on Instagram • Leslie-Jean Thornton, Arizona State University; Sonia Bovio, Arizona State University • On the morning of Friday, June 26, 2015, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, commonly known as the marriage equality ruling. Within the minutes of the announcement, social media exploded with posts about the news. Participants in the online celebration rallied around the hashtag #LoveWins, with Twitter posts using the hashtag cresting at 5,187,809 when the day was done. But while Twitter garnered the most traffic, Instagram offered a different experience, along with a steady traffic flood of more than 1,500 posts using the #LoveWins hashtag within the first 20 minutes of the announcement. However, unlike Twitter, where imagery is an option, Instagram is fundamentally more visual as every post is image-driven. The #LoveWins feed on Instagram was awash in news reports from a wide variety of news organizations. Overwhelmingly, however, those breaking news posts did not come directly from the news organizations themselves. This qualitative study examines the visual messages of people using #LoveWins to share breaking news via Instagram. In light of those findings, it examines the visual messages and hashtag use of news organizations cited in #LoveWins breaking-news posts as news sources, and the potential news audience in Instagram communities.

Journalistic Identity as Branding: Individual, Organizational, and Institutional Considerations • Logan Molyneux, Temple University; Avery Holton, University of Utah; Seth Lewis • Journalists, scholars and industry observers have noted a rise in journalistic branding, especially on social media. To what extent and in what ways are journalists constructing social identities online? This study conducts a content analysis of Twitter profiles and tweets from a representative sample of U.S. journalists. It finds that nearly all journalists practice branding in some form (in bios, in tweets, via links), and branding is concentrated at organizational and individual levels.

Effects of News Framing on Reader’s Opinion of E-Cigarettes • Lu Wu, UNC-Chapel Hill; Rhonda Gibson • Electronic cigarettes have gained great popularity in the past few years but remain a novel and controversial subject in news coverage. The current study is an experiment that builds on existing content analyses of media coverage of e-cigarettes to determine what effects common news frames (those focused on regulation, health effects, and tobacco/smoking industry concerns) have on news consumers. Results show that different framing tactics in news can sway people’s attitudes towards e-cigarettes, specifically when it comes to discussion on regulation and youth smoking. Framing has little effects on people’s social norms towards e-cigarettes or their intention to use e-cigarettes.

Gathering Evidence of Evidence: News Aggregation as an Epistemological Practice • Mark Coddington, Washington and Lee University • News aggregation is often presented in opposition to reporting, though the two practices have much in common as journalistic evidence-gathering techniques. Using participant observation and interviews with aggregators, this study explores aggregation as an epistemological practice, examining the ways aggregators weigh evidence, evaluate sources, and verify information. It finds that narrative is a form of second-order newswork, built on the principles of reporting and reliant on it for secondhand evidence.

All The News That’s Fit To Post: Millennials’ Definitions Of News In The Context Of Facebook • Megan Mallicoat • The current study purposed to investigate the content of millennials’ Facebook news feeds with the intent of assessing how information therein compares with previously defined traditional news topics. The social-psychological theory of self-presentation was also considered: using Facebook can be a very public action, and so this study purposed to determine how self-presentation behavior might influence Facebook actions and news feed content. A purposeful sample of participants between the ages of 25-34 was selected (n = 20), and a computerized content analysis was conducted using Provalis Research’s program WordStat. One-on-one interviews were also conducted.

Framing Occupy Central: A Content Analysis of Hong Kong, American and British Newspaper Coverage • Mengjiao Yu, University of South Florida; Yan Shan, University of South Florida; Scott Liu, University of South Florida • Grounded in framing theory, this paper presents a quantitative content analysis of newspaper reporting of the Hong Kong protests, also known as the Occupy Central Movement or the Umbrella Revolution, between September 28 and December 11, 2014. The political, economic and legal implications involved have made the protests one of the most newsworthy events in the history of Hong Kong since the transfer of its sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. This study aims to examine the various frames used in the coverage of the protests in three major newspapers that operate within different political, economic and ideological boundaries: South China Morning Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Results of the content analysis supported the hypotheses that significant differences existed in the newspapers in their framing of the protests, the protesters, the government, news censorship, and politically sensitive issues. While the frames used by The New York Times and The Guardian were in agreement with the Western democratic-liberal press system, the frames used by South China Morning Post reflected the authoritarian-liberal nature of the Hong Kong press system.

Now You See Me, But You Don’t Know: Consumer Processing of Native Advertisements in Online News Sites • Mengtian Jiang, Michigan State University; Brigitte Balogh McKay, Michigan State University; Jef Richards, michigan state university; Wally Snyder, michigan state university • “Native advertising has become increasingly popular among publishers and advertisers to indirectly compete for consumer attention. Guided by the Information Processing Theory and using a mixed method design, this exploratory study investigates consumer’s cognitive processing of online native advertisements in terms of attention allocation, native ad recognition and brand recall. Results showed that participants had a relatively low literacy for native advertising. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions suggested.

The Effects of Native Advertising on Legacy and Online News Publishers • Michelle Amazeen, Rider University; Ashley Muddiman, University of Kansas • Extending research from Wojdynski and Evans (2015), this experimental study replicates the challenges of effectively disclosing native advertising and demonstrates a promising inoculation method that increases likelihood of recognition. Moreover, this quantitative research indicates that both legacy and online news publishers were punished for displaying native advertising. Attitudes toward the publisher and perceptions of its credibility declined for both, although online publishers suffered greater attitudinal damage than did legacy publishers who may benefit from their established reputation.

Micropayments for News: The Effects of Sunk Costs on News Engagement • Nicholas Geidner, The University of Tennessee; Jaclyn Cameron, University of Tennessee Knoxville • Survey walls – a micropayment scheme where users answer survey questions in order to access content – represent a way news organizations are monetizing content. This experimental study examines the effects of survey walls on engagement with online news. The results demonstrate that survey walls alter individuals’ engagement with news content. Specifically, individuals in “pay” conditions spent more time on the article and were less willing to share the content than people in the “non-pay” condition.

Who’s in, Who’s out? Constructing the Identity of Digital Journalists • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado; Tim Vos, University of Missouri • Through the framework of social identity theory, this study utilizes in-depth interviews with 53 digital journalists to see what they believe is essential to their work and who falls outside the label of digital journalist. The results support the notion that changes to the digital media environment have indeed been a new source of professional identity for digital journalists. We then explore what this might mean for the field of journalism.

Journalism Transparency: How journalists understand it as a professional value, ethical construct and set of practices • Peter Gade; Kevin Curran, Univ of Oklahoma; Shugofa Dastgeer; Christina DeWalt, The University of Oklahoma; Desiree Hill; Seunghyun Kim, University of Oklahoma; Emmanuel-Lugard Nduka, University of Oklahoma • This national survey of 524 journalists seeks to identify how journalists understand transparency as a professional value, ethical construct and set of practices. Results identify six dimensions of transparency knowledge, and that journalists strongly embrace transparency as an ethical construct. The extent to which journalists practice transparency is constrained by their existing work loads, concerns about negative outcomes and overall skepticism of change.

‘We don’t cover suicide … (except when we do cover suicide)’ • Randal Beam; Sue Lockett John; Michael Mead Yaqub • Unlike most other unnatural deaths, journalists approach suicide as an occurrence that they are hesitant to cover. “Our policy is not to write about suicides,” they say. Except that often, they do. This paper, based on interviews with 50 U.S. journalists, examines the rationales that the journalists invoke as they decide about whether to cover a suicide.

Twitter’s influence on news judgment: An experiment among journalists • Shannon McGregor, University of Texas – Austin; Logan Molyneux, Temple University • Literature suggests that journalists give a substantial amount of attention to Twitter. What affect might this have on their news judgment, their decisions on what to let through the gates? This study hypothesized a positive bias in favor of news appearing to be from Twitter. Instead, an experiment among working journalists (N = 212) finds a negative bias, suggesting that journalists who use Twitter less in their work tend to discount news they see there.

JOURNALISTS RESEARCHING BIG DATA: A study of research methods and processes in big data journalism • Soo-Kwang Oh; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University • Through a content analysis of data journalism stories from The Guardian (n=260), a pioneer in contemporary big data journalism, we sought to investigate how the practice of big data journalism takes into account rigorous research method and design. Findings suggested that big data journalism lacks discussions of several elements required for proper scientific research, such as size of data, date of collection and methods for analysis.

Advocacy or Objectivity? Role Perceptions and Journalistic Culture in Alternative and Mainstream Media in Brazil • Summer Harlow, Florida State University • Most research on journalists’ role perceptions and journalistic culture remains Western-focused, and is limited to mainstream media. This quantitative study uses a survey to fill two gaps in the literature by examining differences in role perceptions and journalistic culture among mainstream and alternative media journalists in Brazil. Results indicate significant differences in role perceptions, as mainstream media journalists place more importance on traditional ethics, while alternative media journalists value their normative responsibilities more.

Should There Be an App for That? An Analysis of Interactive Applications within Longform News Stories • Susan Jacobson, Florida International University; Robert Gutsche; Jacqueline Marino • The most-read story of 2014 on the website of The New York Times was a news app called “How You, Youse and You Guys Talk.” While news apps can enhance news stories, they cost a lot of time and money to produce. In this study, we conduct semi-structured interviews with 12 Millennial tablet computer users to evaluate longform multimedia news packages that include Web applications as part of the story presentation to better understand what might be involved in creating successful news apps.

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown: An analysis of mainstream and social media in the Ferguson, Missouri Shooting of Michael Brown • Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas; Meredith Clark, University of North Texas; Gwendelyn Nisbett, University of North Texas • Focusing on the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, this study examined the framing of mainstream newspaper coverage of social media activism in the aftermath of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. People of color primarily used the hashtag to draw attention to what they perceived as negative stereotypes perpetuated by the news media. The study employed a textual analysis of news coverage followed by semi-structured interviews with hashtag-protest participants. The analysis found that the mainstream media followed news production rituals by relying primarily on elite, established sources and generally ignoring the social media protestors’ voices. The social media protestors who used the hashtag said they employed it to bypass the mainstream media, and this research indicates they may well have done so and possibly reached a younger generation that relies more on social media than legacy media.

Student Papers
Exploring the Effects of News Personalization and User Comments: Third-Person Perception of the 2013 Target Data Breach • Boya Xu, University of Maryland • It has been robustly supported that media can have a profound social impact indirectly that people’s attitudes or behaviors may be influenced by their perception of the effects of certain content on others, not by the content directly. This impact is particularly magnified when people see others as more negatively influenced than they are themselves, known as the third-person effect. The current study dives into the 2013 Target data breach that has grasped intense attention among the public and media outlets nationally. Survey results show that personalized news content and news sources may encourage individuals to perceive themselves as equally or more vulnerable to the information than others, which was overlooked by the original theorization of third-person effect.

#wjchat: Discursive Construction of Journalistic Values and Norms on Twitter • Frank Michael Russell, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This qualitative textual analysis of posts from @wjchat (web journalism chat) on Twitter provides evidence that journalists and journalism educators use social media to discursively construct institutional values and norms such as verification, objectivity, and diversity. The findings were consistent with and extended gatekeeping theory, the hierarchical influences model, and sociological and discursive institutionalism. Keywords: Gatekeeping, new institutionalism, journalistic values, Twitter. Method: Qualitative.

Carrying Credibility: How News Distribution Affects Reader Judgment • Holly Cowart, University of Florida • This experiment examines the impact of online platforms on source credibility. Using a traditional news media with an online presence, and an online-only news media, it compares news content on three platforms (website, Facebook, Twitter). Results of the 146-person experiment indicate a difference in perceived credibility among platforms. The traditional news media sees a significant drop in credibility between the website and the two social media sites. The online-only news media does not. The implications of these finding are discussed in terms of the changing way that news is presented. News media distribute their content to apps and social media sites. Based on this study, that distribution may result in a loss in credibility for the news source.

Framing EU borders in the news: An analysis of three European news websites • Ivana Cvetkovic, University of New Mexico • Human mobility is widely reported in the news with various framings of national spaces, migrants, borders, home, and security. Using discourse analysis of articles published in the online editions of Croatia’s Jutarnji list, Britain’s The Guardian, and Germany’s Der Spiegel, this research identifies news frames about borders in the European Union context. The analysis produced four micro-frames: borders as lived space, border security, border materialization, and disputes over border-management.

Is That News Story an Ad? News Homepage Design May Mislead Consumers into Sponsored Content • Kate Keib, University of Georgia Grady College; Mark Tatge, University of South Carolina • “While advertisers are set to spend nearly $8 billion on native ads this year, the Federal Trade Commission released a policy on deceptive advertising specifically addressing paid content designed to look like editorial. We execute a content analysis of 60 top U.S. news websites, capturing the design elements of native ads and their similarity to editorial content. Results show that native ads are very similar to editorial content.

An Impolite Conversation: The Interaction between Anonymity and Online Discourse on Political Blogs • Meghan Erkkinen, University of Minnesota • “Previous research has indicated that anonymity is correlated with increased impoliteness and incivility in newspaper comments sections. This study uses quantitative content analysis to examine the impact of anonymity on the comments of partisan political blogs. Results indicate that sites allowing anonymous comments host more impolite and uncivil comments, and that those comments are more likely be directed interpersonally, than sites that require users to verify their identities.

National Issues and Personal Choices, Agendamelding in Iran: A Study of Traditional Media and Twitter in 2015 • Milad Minooie • Building on agenda setting research, agendamelding posits that audiences form their agendas based on social/horizontal media (e.g. Twitter) and their personal preferences in addition to traditional/vertical media (e.g. newspapers). The findings of the present study suggest that social media users adopt their agendas from social/horizontal media rather than traditional/vertical media. One of the implications of this finding is that when the government holds monopoly over traditional/vertical media, personal preferences and social/horizontal media become more salient.

Intermedia Attribute Agenda Setting in the Context of Issue-Focused Media Events: The Case of Caitlyn Jenner and Transgender Reporting • Minjie Li, LSU • On April 24, 2015, Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner confirmed her transgender identity on “Bruce Jenner: The Interview” with Diane Sawyer and started her own reality show, I am Cait. This study identifies patterns of second-level intermedia agenda setting in the framing of Caitlyn Jenner’s high-profile planned media events about her gender transition, examining the extent to which they influence the way national news outlets report transgender-related stories and the salience of certain story attributes. More specifically, through a comparative quantitative content analysis, this study found that transgender-related reports appearing after the Caitlyn Jenner’s interview were more likely to 1) mention alternative non-binary gender discourses to highlight transgender subjectivity, 2) take the intersectionality perspective to address the the complexity of transgender issues from the aspects of race, class, and sexuality difference, 3) differentiate transgender issues from LGBT issues, and 4) take in-depth approaches to report the stories.

How Online News and Informational Media Position Themselves in the Networked Media Ecosystem: A Study of Niche • Mohammad Yousuf, University of Oklahoma • This study used the Theory of the Niche to examine how four types of online news and informational media—Mainstream, Institutional, Alternative, and User-generated—position themselves in the networked media ecosystem. A total of 700 content units—175 from each media type—were analyzed to test four hypotheses regarding the primary functionalities of these media types. Three hypotheses were supported and one was rejected. Data did not find a primary functionality of the Institutional media.

Digital News Sharing: The Role of Influence and Habits in Social Media News Sharing • Samuel Tham, University of Missouri – School of Journalism • 30% of Americans use social media for news. With news organizations seeking to harness more online news sharing from their viewers, questions are raised as to what kinds of users share news on social media. This study proposes a model that examines the impact of technology leadership (social influence), news affinity, digital device use (habits), and the role of demographics to better understand the characteristics of users that share news on social media.

War of Perception: A Habermasian Discourse Analysis of Human Shield Newspaper Reporting During the 2014 Gaza War • Shane Graber, University of Texas-Austin • In 2014, as Arabs and Israelis fought a deadly and destructive 50-day military battle in Gaza, a simultaneous war of perception was being waged in American news media. This study uses a Habermasian critical discourse analysis to examine how five of the largest newspapers reported accusations of Palestinian human shielding. The findings show that journalists tended to report distorted representations of the human shield claims, potentially obfuscating unfairly a highly complex Middle East conflict.

“When India was Indira”: Indian Express’ Coverage of the Emergency (1975-77) • Subin Paul • When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed censorship in the summer of 1975, few newspapers tried to withstand the attack on press freedom. This historical study used framing theory to examine how Indian Express constructed its position against the Gandhi regime during the 21-month National Emergency. The qualitative content analysis of the Indian Express’ coverage demonstrated its struggle to frame the Emergency as authoritarian. More broadly, the analysis provided a way to understand how journalism functions under censorship.

2016 Abstracts