Minorities and Communication 2019 Abstracts

Faculty Research Competition

Doesn’t Beto Look Hispanic? Perceived Co-ethnicity and Voting in the 2018 Texas Senate Election • Oluseyi Adegbola; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University • Existing research has shown that Hispanic voters are likely to support Democratic candidates as well as candidates with matching ethnicity. However, voters’ decisions are influenced by a host of other factors including, but not limited to, political advertising, agreement with candidates’ issue positions, and candidate evaluations. The current study examines how these factors collectively guide Hispanic voters using survey data (N = 424) collected during the 2018 Texas senate election featuring Anglo Democrat, Beto O’Rourke, and Hispanic Republican, Ted Cruz. Results suggest that different pathways led to support for Cruz and O’Rourke. Hispanics exposed to advertising supporting Cruz also perceived him to be Hispanic, leading to shared issue positions and support for him. Hispanics exposed to advertising supporting O’Rourke were more likely to share his issue positions, leading to positive evaluations and electoral support for the congressman. Implications for future research on Hispanic voting are discussed.

What do scientists look like? Race, Gender, and Occupation in Children’s STEM-Focused Educational Television • Fashina Alade, Michigan State University • This content analysis draws attention to race and gender representation amongst the characters in STEM-focused children’s television programs. Across 90 episodes, 1,086 unique speaking characters were coded on their demographics, physical attributes, centrality to the plot, and modeling of STEM behaviors and occupations. Findings align closely with prior character-focused content analyses, with female and minority characters being underrepresented compared to U.S. population statistics, but also present some areas in which the industry may be improving.

Perpetual foreigners: negotiating the framing of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans via Twitter after Hurricane Maria • Maria DeMoya, DePaul University; Vanessa Bravo, Elon University • In September of 2017, Puerto Rico was hit with Hurricane Maria, one of the costliest and deadliest storms in U.S. history. Its effects on the island’s infrastructure and socioeconomic situation are still felt more than a year later. The media attention that this crisis brought resulted in coverage not only about the hurricane but also about the island and its people, bringing renewed attention to the territory status of Puerto Rico and the different type of citizenship held by its residents. As with any modern natural disaster, people relied on traditional and digital media to obtain need-to-know information and make sense of the situation. In this process, Twitter users articulated a place for Puerto Ricans in the American imaginary. Through a critically-informed content analysis of Twitter conversations, this study explores the question of the treatment of Puerto Rico and its people, and how this treatment was shaped by Twitter discussions.

YouTube’s content influence on college-aged Black women’s decision to transition to natural hair • Cameron Jackson; Vanessa Bravo, Elon University • Not knowing how to care for their natural hair and not wanting to be judged by older generations, young Black women are turning to YouTube to gain information and support for their decision to go natural, and to become part of a larger online community. To understand their motivations, this study analyzed the narratives of 17 Black, college-aged women, from five universities(two private liberal arts universities, two large state universities and two historically Black universities), about their experiences of going natural and the role YouTube played in their journey. The different meanings of transitioning to wearing natural hair and the role that YouTube played in the process of making that decision, according to the participants’ narratives, are discussed in the study. Findings suggest that YouTube videos about natural hair have helped these women to overcome challenges encountered during their natural hair journeys, such as facing societal judgment and going against familial norms. However, the participants also revealed concerns surrounding the accuracy of YouTube depictions in regard to colorism, hair textures and branded content. Implications of how YouTube has influenced these Black women’s sense of identity and how it has given them a shared online community are discussed.

JMC Deans of Color Lead with a Purpose: A Qualitative Study • Keonte Coleman, Middle Tennessee State University School of Journalism and Strategic Media • This qualitative study contextualized the leadership experiences of journalism and mass communication (JMC) deans who self-identified as persons of color. These deans expressed bringing a higher purpose to leading their programs while anonymously participating in a virtual focus group. This study aims to elucidate the benefits of increasing the diversity of JMC leadership and to illuminate the need to improve the working environment to help recruit future JMC leaders of color.

Expanding the Theory of Planned behavior: Implications for Media Use, Race/Ethnicity, and Pro-Environmental Intentions • Troy Elias; Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University • Using a purposive sample of 302 Latinos, 305 African Americans, 310 non-Hispanic Whites, and 299 Asian Americans, we examine the relationship between media (e.g., liberal, conservative, and non-partisan) and pro-environmental intentions. Existing studies show the impact media’s ideological perspectives have on shaping orientations. We propose a mediated moderated model examining whether the conditional indirect relationship of various media outlets on behavioral intentions through key components of the Theory of Planned Behavior varies by race.

“I am Enough”: (Re)Constructions of Gendered and Racialized Subjectivities in Crazy Rich Asians • Marianne Fritz, California State University, Los Angeles • As the first film in 25 years to feature an all-Asian cast, Crazy Rich Asians has generated a lot of interest among profession film critics and, more importantly, film spectators. The present paper considers the film’s counter-hegemonic depictions of Asian Americans. In addition, I examine the film’s depiction of gender roles within heterosexual romantic relationships, and the way it normalizes Asian-Asian pairings, while at the same time sexualizing the image of the Asian male.

Latina Millennials in a Post-TV Network World: ‘Anti-stereotypes’ in the Web-TV Series East Los High • Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante, University of Arizona; Jessica Retis, Cal State University – Northridge • This paper analyzes the emergence of ‘anti-stereotypes,’ and attempts to locate Latina millennial latinidad in East Los High, by paying specific attention to the topic of teen pregnancy. In addition, we aim to identify attempts to create collective action through scale shifting strategies (Livingston and Asmolov, 2010; Author 2014). The chapter interrogates how Latinas are being represented and representing themselves in a historically political and transformative mediatic era, and what might be the prospects for social change. In addition, the chapter examines the potential for collective action among producers and actors of East Los High through the process of “scale-shifting”. In Tarrow’s (2005) definition, scale-shifting involves ‘‘a change in the number and level of coordinated contentious actions to a different focal point, involving a new range of actors, different objectives, and broadened claims. It can also generate a change in the meaning and scope of the object of the claim’’ (p. 121).” While, Tarrow, Livingston and Asmolov were concerned with the potential for activists to side-step bona-fide political actors and structures in nation-states, we focus our attention on the structural issues involving the entertainment industry, and the ability of Latina/o producers and actors to circumvent traditional power structures to contribute to collective-action to effect social change. They argue that “the growth of networked non-state actors and scale shifting sometimes bypasses both states and traditional news organizations” (Livingston and Asmolov, 2010, p. 751). We ask in this post TV-network era, whether approaches involving transmedia and edutainment (using entertainment outlets and content to entertain and educate) strategies (Ramasubramarian, 2016; Wang & Singhal, 2016), and/or the use of social media by entertainment actors as activists may contribute to create a sense of collective action. We suggest that there is room and need for more programming similar to ELH that incorporates the dual functions of entertaining Latina youth and education about relevant social issues.

News media apologies for racism • Robin Hoecker, DePaul University • Should news organizations apologize for racist coverage? What should such an apology look like? This study looks at three case studies of publications that apologized publicly for their contributions to slavery, racism and racially motivated violence: The Hartford Courant in 2000, National Geographic in 2018, and the Montgomery Advertiser in 2018. It reviews the elements of an effective apology and then evaluates each publication’s statement on those parameters. It compares and contrasts these efforts and discusses potential best practices for publications considering apologies in the future.

Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Patriotic Advertising to Ethnic Minorities • Gawon Kim; Jun Heo, Louisiana State University • This research revisits the identity complexity, identification, and distinctiveness theories to understand how ethnic minorities in the U.S. respond to patriotism-themed advertising. The significance of acculturation was emphasized in evaluating patriotic ads, beyond the ethnicity itself. Online experiment revealed that Americans, regardless ethnic backgrounds, preferred patriotic advertising, and the preference improved with an ethnicity-matching appeal. The authors argue acculturation of new generations among ethnic minorities reduces the gap between ethnically dominant group and minority groups.

She’s not one of ours: Social identity, black sheep effects and transgressive female athletes • Lance Kinney, University of Alabama; Dylan Teal; Amanda Flamerich • She’s not one of ours: Social identity, black sheep effects and transgressive female athletes. This research reports the results of a 2 (female athlete race: Black or White) x 2 (female athlete appearance: threatening or non-threatening) experiment. Participants read a simulated media report and recommended punishment for an athlete accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Participants with high levels of personal racial identity recommended significantly harsher punishments to athletes of other races. Sex effects were observed for White female participants and Black male participants.

Learning to be More or Less Prejudiced? How News Media Moderate the Effects of Ideologies and Partisanship on Attitudes toward Migrants • Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Yuki Fujioka, Georgia State • Using a large national survey, this study investigated the predictors of Americans’ attitudes toward migrants. Younger, better educated, non-White, liberal, and Democrat-leaning individuals are more supportive of migrants. Political partisanship mediates the relationship between ideology and attitudes toward migrants. The number of television news programs watched, and the number of radio news and talk shows consumed, have a moderation effect on the connection between the support for migrants and one’s ideology as well as partisanship.

Does Professor’s Gender or Ethnicity Matter to College Students? A Case of Prejudice in Higher Education • Moon Lee, University of Florida; Povedano Shiselle • This study investigated how college students rated professors’ qualifications and their intention to take a course based on a professor’s race and gender after reviewing an identical syllabus of a communication course. The purpose was to investigate whether a professor’s ethnicity/gender influences college students’ perceptions of the professor and their evaluations of the class. Five hundred twenty-seven undergraduate students participated in this post-test only group experiment. We found an interaction effect between a professor’s gender and ethnicity on a student’s perception of the professor’ qualifications, likability, and student’s intent to enroll in a class.

Latino Trust in Journalists and the 2016 U.S. General Election: An Analysis of Voter Responses • Maria Len-Rios, The University of Georgia; Patricia Moy, University of Washington; Ivanka Pjesivac, The University of Georgia • This paper reports qualitative and quantitative data from a national online panel survey of Latinos (N=720) after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Participants reported in their closed-ended responses a level of distrust toward the news organizations that largely parallels national figures. In open-ended responses, Latinos cited cable news journalists most as trusted journalists, with additional differences by partisanship and whether individuals were U.S. or foreign born. Implications for political news consumption and identity are discussed.

Muhammad Ali in New York, 1967-1970: The Media and an Exiled Boxer Fight the Establishment • Raymond McCaffrey, University of Arkansas • This historical study explores the relationship between Muhammad Ali and the New York media from April 1967 to October 1970, when the boxing champion was exiled from fighting after refusing military induction. The study examines Ali’s relationship with powerful media personalities who stood by him when many journalists refused to even use his Muslim name. This examination reveals Ali’s skill and daring as he publicized his fight against the U.S. government and the boxing establishment.

The Supreme Court’s Plessy and Brown decisions, democratic rights, and journalism ethics in the battle over segregation in the South, 1960-1964 • Ali Mohamed, UAE University • We examine the role of the Southern press in the “massive resistance” to the High Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling of 1954 to integrate schools, and the extent to which newspaper editorial arguments relied on legal and social rationales for segregation from the High Court’s earlier Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896. Plessy’s three rationales for institutionalizing segregation — the “separate but equal” doctrine, state’s rights, and a tiered system of “social rights”, were widely adopted by the press. However, newspapers took the “equal” part of Plessy’s “separate but equal” doctrine much more seriously than did elected officials in the South. A content analysis of the Birmingham News from 1960 to 1964 found support for Thornton’s (2002) thesis that post-Brown electoral politics in Alabama produced staunch segregationist officials whose relations with the press became highly adversarial. While the News supported segregation and states’ rights, after George Wallace was elected governor in 1962, the paper opposed his policies and the editorial page became a platform focused more on advocacy of greater equality, voting rights, and the rule of law.”

Advertised Stereotypical and Masculine Images of Black and White Men: Where Are We Now? • ADRIENNE MULDROW, East Carolina University • To assess the portrayal of hegemonic masculinity from Black and White males in magazine advertising, an in-depth content analysis of advertised imagery appearing in two representative genres of two mainstream, male-directed magazines—men’s lifestyle magazines and sports magazines from 2015 to 2017–was completed. Drawing upon Mahalik and colleagues’ (2003) conformity to masculinity inventory and using social identity theory and cultivation theory, the primary aim of the study was to compare stereotypical images of Black men and stereotypical images of White to determine the frequency of these images and if there is a significant difference in these images by race. Overall results from 2,135 images from 72 magazines indicate that the image of Black men in contemporary magazines is improving and most images, favorable or unfavorable, are comparable to those of White men. Images of Black men were shown in equivalent percentages as White men with regard to primary roles, professional roles violent imagery, and with the most desirable body type. The study relates current findings to prior findings of stereotypical images to determine how advertisers in these magazine genres are choosing to display images of Black and White men and with what possible effects.

Thinking Black: an Analysis of the Impact of Black Racial Identity on the Discourse and Work Routines of Cable Media Practitioners • Gheni Platenburg, University of Montevallo • Black journalists working in the mainstream press face an “identity crisis: Am I Black first and a reporter second? Or do I owe my primary allegiance to the newspaper (or other media)?” The researcher explores this concept through semi-structured interviews with black, news practitioners from FNC, MSNBC and CNN. Findings revealed race further impacted black media practitioners’ discourse through employer-mandated limitations, on-air interactions with colleagues, considerations of audience reactions and more.

Preparing for the worst: Lessons for news media after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico • Bruno Takahashi, Michigan State University; Qucheng Zhang, Michigan State University; Manuel Chavez, Michigan State University School of Journalism • Hurricane Maria was the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico in the last 90 years. The entire communication system collapsed, including cellular networks and telephone system. Media organizations in Puerto Rico, with the exception of one radio station, were unable to transmit much needed information during and immediately after Maria made landfall. The present study examines changes in journalistic practices, organizational readiness and disaster coverage plans, and infrastructure preparedness almost 18 months after the event. This study extends the limited research examining long-term changes to news media preparedness plans in the context of disasters, and expands theoretical understandings of media practices in the context of the hierarchy of influences model. The results suggest that infrastructure damage severely hampered the ability of news organizations to perform their work, but solidarity among media was useful in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Each media played a differentiated and important role in the aftermath of the disaster based on their resources and organizational structure. The study shows that preparedness plans were inadequate and that changes are slowly been implemented to deal with challenges related to infrastructure, electricity, and technology, but with limited focus on the long-term well-being of media workers. Recommendations to improve communication responses to future natural disasters are presented.

Exploring Psychosocial Comorbidity Messages and Illness Perception: A Focus Group Study With African American Survivors of Prostate Cancer • Sean Upshaw, University of Utah • Prostate cancer remains a health challenge in U.S. health care, especially among African American men, who experience elevated levels of prostate cancer diagnosis compared to other racial/ethnic groups. However, psychosocial comorbidity challenges often affect the perception of illness and engagement with prostate cancer. This qualitative focus group study explored the implications of illness perception (IP) and psychosocial comorbidity messages (PSCM) concerning prostate cancer among 12 African American survivors. Findings suggest that IP that can identify existing mental health barriers associated with prostate cancer as influenced by PSCM in African American survivors. The findings also indicate that PSCM can provide insight into how African American survivors developed an IP framework about prostate cancer through communication.

The Black Digital Syllabus Movement: The Fusion of Academia, Activism and Arts • Sherri Williams, American University • As Black America experienced some of the most profound shifts in politics and entertainment in recent history, from the Ferguson rebellion to the release of Beyonce’s Lemonade, Black academics worked to find ways to help Black people and the nation understand and contextualize these major events and connect them to history. Using social media Black scholars curated lists of texts, films and music that related to the Black American experience of the present and past and shared them on social networks giving birth to the Black digital syllabus movement. The Black digital syllabus movement taps into the amplifying power of Black Twitter and Black digital culture to bridge the gap between pop culture, politics and scholarly work and spread contextualized, curated lists of important Black works. The syllabi analyzed in this study, created between August 2014 and August 2017, are the Ferguson Syllabus, #BlkWomenSyllabus, Charleston Syllabus, Lemonade Syllabus, A Seat at the Table Syllabus and the 4:44 Syllabus. This study uses the historical method in qualitative research to examine the syllabi and the context in which they were created.

Meaning Co-creation and Social Influencers in Race-relevant Crisis: A Social Network Analysis Study of Starbucks’ Crisis in Philadelphia • Ying Xiong, University of Tennessee; Moonhee Cho • The purpose of the research was to explore how meaning co-creation by the publics during the Starbucks’ crisis in Philadelphia and examined who were the social influencers in Starbucks’ Crisis in Philadelphia. The research applied semantic network analysis and social network analysis. Research results found the co-created meanings addressed three issues: Starbucks’ racial training, racial identity, and other celebrities who have received racial critiques. Mainstream media, celebrities, and activists were social influencers in the crisis.

Beyond the Reversal: Imagining New Ethnicities in Self-Representation • Sherry Yu • The under- and mis-representation of minorities in the media comes as no surprise. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s sitcom, Kim’s Convenience, is an interesting case study in this regard, as it is not only about representation of a minority group, but also about self-representation by a minority. A Critical Discourse Analysis of Kim’s Convenience explores ethnicity at the intersection of various social characteristics, and suggests the potential to imagine Stuart Hall’s new ethnicities.

Student Paper

Politicking While Black: News and Social Media Representations of Three Black Female Political Candidates Running for the House of Representatives in the 2018 Midterm Election • Zeina Cabrera-Peterson • African American women have been the leading force in political campaigns long before they had the right to vote and hold office. Today, roughly 5% of African American woman hold political positions (CAWP, 2018). However, despite their political participation, there are few studies that examine representation of Black female political candidates in news media. This study employed a content analysis of news reports and three Black female candidates’ Twitter campaign accounts to examine how news media represented these three, first-time candidates and to analyze how these candidates represented themselves on Twitter. Based on the overall analysis of a census of newspaper articles and Twitter candidate accounts, the study found that race and gender was not a leading area of news coverage or self-representation in tweets. The research found that these candidates were mostly identified by their former occupations and were not questioned because of who they are, but because of what they do. These findings are significant because it challenges and reshapes gender and race identities.

Puerto Rican college students’ experience with Post-hurricane María media environment • Laura Canuelas-Torres; Naiya Brooks • Utilizing a Digital Diaspora framework, researchers explore the experiences of Puerto Rican college students during and after Hurricane Maria. We conducted and analyzed 13 interviews, examining media use, the impact of communication interruption, and opinions on media coverage. Results show that students used both mainstream and social media to learn about the hurricane’s impact and reported feeling uncertainty, anxiety, and anger related to the inability to reach family, and the American government’s response.

“Zero-Tolerance” Transnational Motherhood: Images of Mothers and Children at the U.S.-Mexico Border • Ana R Good • It all began during a law enforcement event in Scottsdale, Arizona, when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new, “zero-tolerance” policy in the handling of illegal border crossings. Though at the time, Session’s announcement did not generate much buzz, the United States was soon faced with an onslaught of gut-wrenching images. Using the lens of “transnational motherhood,” this paper will argue that the images taken at the border of the United States employed humanizing effects.

Black bad men or bad niggers: Popular culture and hypermasculinity in Black Greek letter fraternities • Rafael Matos, Indiana University of Pennsylvania • Black Greek Letter Fraternities are influenced by popular culture to maintain hyper masculine beahviors. The study will explore the impact popular culture has on the way NPHC fraternity members reinforce constructs that encourage hyper-masculinity through new member presentations.

Buying Blackness: Black Audience Decoding of Nike Advertisements • Diamond Stacker • This study reviews representations of Blackness in media, specifically in sports media, to uncover the harmful, yet subtle stereotypes in sports advertising. Applying Hall’s (2001) encoding/decoding theory to analyze the impact of selling Blackness, the research used focus groups to examine how Black, college-young adult audiences engage with and identify racial constructions in Nike advertisements, and thus, how that influences their views on Nike as a brand.

Adapting to Change: Rethinking Advocacy in the 21st Century Black Press • Miya Williams Fayne • The black press is often conceptualized as an advocacy press but in the current digital environment this definition is malleable. Black press websites that primarily produce entertainment news create ambiguity about advocacy as a requirement. Informed by interviews with journalists and focus groups with readers this research finds that advocacy in the black press is fraught as entertainment advances it, by providing increased representation of African Americans, and threatens it, by decreasing hard news content.

< 2019 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society 2019 Abstracts

Open Competition

Sharing Native Advertising on Twitter: Evidence of the Inoculating Influence of Disclosures • Michelle Amazeen, Boston University; Chris Vargo • Based upon a large data set of tweets linking to native advertising in leading U.S. news publications, this study explores whether the practice of native advertising disclosure in the field serves the inoculating function of resistance to persuasion. Leveraging the Persuasion Knowledge Model (Friestad & Wright, 1994) and inoculation theory (McGuire, 1964), results show a) regular use of disclosures on publisher landing pages, b) the absence of disclosures in over half of publisher thumbnail images, and c) a negative moderating effect of disclosures on the valence of organic comments.

Effective Targeting of Youth through Online Social Networks in Diverse and Multicultural Marketplaces: New Developments and Perspectives. • Mian Asim, Zayed University • This study examines and compares the effectiveness of social networks to target youth for precision marketing under the conditions of cultural dispositions, innovative aptitude, and perceived medium credibility in emerging marketplaces. Under the premise of Social Identity framework, the results reveal external factors like recommendations, product offers, and appearance are more relevant than an individual’s traits and dispositions when evaluating products on social networks. The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

Ads for Forever Families: How Public Service Advertising Portrays Adoptive Children and Teenagers • Jackson Carter, University of South Carolina; Taylor Jing Wen, University of South Carolina • There is a dearth of research in mass communication regarding family adoption, which may hinder meaningful progress to help policymakers, academics, content creators, and families. The current study adopts a qualitative approach to identify the persuasive appeals, dominant frames and media representation of adoptive parents and children in the PSAs that promotes adoption. This research informs social work professionals about how media portrait family adoption, and allow them to strategize how to shape future communication.

Developing and Validating the Scale of Parental Social Media Mediation Across Child and Parent Samples • Liang Chen; Shirley Ho, Nanyang Technological University; May Lwin; Lunrui Fu • “This research aims to enhance the conceptualization and operationalization of parental social media mediation. First, we conducted focus groups with both children and parents in Singapore to categorize parental mediation strategies of social media. Then, a survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 1,424 child participants and 1,206 parent participants in Singapore to develop and test the scale. The results of focus groups identified four conceptually distinct parental mediation strategies of social media – labelled as active mediation, restrictive mediation, authoritarian surveillance, and monitoring as well as developed an initial scale of them. Based on the data from survey questionnaires, we investigated both inter-item and item-total correlations and performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which developed and validated the scale of parental social media mediation.

Third-Person Effects of Fake News on Social Media • Yang Cheng, North Carolina State University; Zifei Chen, University of San Francisco • This study proposed and tested a model to understand the antecedents and consequences of third-person perceptions of fake news about a company on Facebook. Survey results (N = 661) showed impacts of self-efficacy, social undesirability, and consumer involvement on the perceived influence of fake news on self and others. The perceived influence on others served as a mediator in the model and positively predicted support for corporate corrective action, media literacy intervention, and governmental regulation.

Local civic information beyond the news: Computational identification of civic content on social media • Yingying Chen, College of Communication Arts and Sciences, Michigan State University; Kourtnie Rodgers, Michigan State University; Kjerstin Thorson; Kelley Cotter; Sevgi Baykaldi • This study proposes a conceptual definition of local civic information to guide computational analyses of the civic information health of communities. We define civic information by the functions it could serve in a community, rather than producer. To demonstrate utility, we use structural topic modeling and human coding to identify clusters of Facebook posts which may serve a diverse community functions and demonstrate that these posts were produced by a diverse set of community organizations.

Outside of Spiral of Silence?: Examining Partisans Outspokenness on Social Networking Sites • Stella Chia • This study discloses the direct and the indirect effects of issue involvement on partisans’ outspokenness on SNSs in the context of legalizing same-sex in Taiwan. The indirect effects appear to offset the direct effects. On one hand, partisans are motivated to speak out online by their strong involvement; on the other hand, their strong issue involvement leads to presumed media influence, which prohibits them from expressing opinions on SNSs. Their offline participation is also affected.

Uncertainty Management in Mass Shootings: Antecedents, Appraisals, and Communication Behavior • Surin Chung, Ohio University • This study investigates how situational antecedents affect perceived uncertainty and how uncertainty appraisals influence publics’ communication behavior about mass shootings. A total of 637 responses were collected through an online survey. The results revealed that situational antecedents were significantly associated with uncertainty. The results showed that uncertainty had a positive indirect effect on information seeking intention via anxiety and hope. Also, uncertainty had a positive indirect effect on information attending intention via anxiety and sadness.

Combatting science myths: The effects of fact-checking and platform congruency on hostile media bias and news credibility perceptions • Raluca Cozma, Kansas State University; Xiaochen Zhang, University of Oklahoma • An experiment was conducted to examine differences in story credibility and hostile media bias perceptions between readers assigned to attitude congruent vs. incongruent cable news platforms and between readers who read stories fact checked by a reporter, a scientist, or not corrected at all. The study advances understanding of the effects of fact checking in the realm of science news and found attitude congruency to be a predictor of news credibility perceptions.

Audience’s Emotion and Sense of Social Solidarity during a Media Event: Examining the Effects of Two Media Platforms • Xi Cui, College of Charleston; Qian Xu, Elon University • This study examines audiences’ emotional and social experiences of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration through television and social media. A survey of a national sample (N = 420) was conducted following the inauguration ceremony. Drawing on media events, emotional appraisal and identity self-categorization theories, the study found that television was socially integrative while social media was socially disruptive. Media events’ influences on audiences’ social and emotional experiences depended on both their identities and media affordances.

How is CSR covered in news media? A cross-national study of comparative agenda setting of CSR news coverage using topic modeling • Chuqing Dong; Yafei Zhang • “This study explored multifaceted corporate social responsibility (CSR) covered in major news media in the UK, US, Mainland China, and Hong Kong (HK) from 2000 to 2016. Under the theoretical framework of agenda setting, 4,487 CSR-related news articles from both business and nonbusiness news sources were analyzed using computer-assisted content analysis (LDA) techniques. This study contributes to CSR communication research by adding a global media perspective regarding what CSR means and should focus on.

Identification with stereotyped social groups: Counter-stereotyped protagonists and stereotyped supporting casts influence on symbolic racism • Joshua Dunn, Texas Tech University; Bryan McLaughlin, Texas Tech University • While exposure to stereotyped minority characters reinforces prejudice, when viewers identify with counter-stereotyped characters prejudice tends to decrease. This study examines the juxtaposition of identifying with either a counter-stereotyped Black protagonist or a stereotyped supporting cast. Participants read a prompt (group vs. individual salience), watched a television episode, then reported their identification with the protagonist and the social group. Findings suggest that individual identification reduces prejudice, while social identification with a stereotyped group does not.

Making sense of Harvey: An exploration of how journalists find meaning in disaster • Gretchen Dworznik-Hoak • Thirty journalists who covered hurricane Harvey and who also lived in the areas affected were interviewed in order to explore how journalists make sense of and cope with their exposure to the trauma associated with a natural disaster. Baumeister’s (1991) four needs for meaning framework was used as a guide to uncover how journalists used justification, purpose, efficacy and self-worth to find meaning in their traumatic experiences. Implications for news managers and future research are discussed.

Engaging the Dark Side: Fictional Antagonists and Real World Attitudes toward Criminals • Rebecca Frazer, The Ohio State University; Emily Moyer-Gusé • This work investigates whether moral salience (vice salience vs. virtue salience) and the revelation timing of a character’s immoral behavior in a fictional narrative (late reveal vs. early reveal) impact identification with morally ambiguous antagonists. Further, real-world attitudinal outcomes of antagonist identification are examined. A two-part study (n = 173) demonstrated that identification with a fictional antagonist can significantly impact real-world attitudes. Additionally, gender differences emerged in the impact of revelation timing on identification.

The Hostile Media Effect in Coverage of International Relations: Testing the Relationship Between Source, Nationalism and Perceived Source Bias • Guy Golan, Center for Media and Public Opinion; T. Franklin Waddell, University of Florida; Matthew Barnidge, The University of Alabama • The significant expansion of government-sponsored news organizations across traditional and social media places mediated engagement of foreign audiences at the heart of the global news ecosystem and modern international relations. While governments compete to build and shape the desired foreign policy frames, there is some reason to believe that foreign audiences may view foreign media sources as biased. The current study aims to investigate this possibility. Drawing upon the rich body of scholarship on the hostile media phenomenon, the study experimentally compares perceived media bias in foreign versus domestic news sources.

A crisis in pictures: Visual framing of the opioid epidemic by the Cincinnati Enquirer • Matthew Haught, University of Memphis; Erin Willis, University of Colorado Boulder; Kathleen I. Alaimo, U of Colorado • Local newspapers often are on the front lines of reporting about drugs, particularly the current ongoing opioid epidemic. The present study builds on a case study of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s heroin and opioid reporting by considering the visuals used in the reporting. Thorough a visual framing analysis, this research finds that while the previous researchers’ case study found a dominance of thematic framing in reporting, its accompanying photojournalism tends to be more episodic in nature.

Spatial Dimensions of Latin American Journalists’ Role Perceptions: A Hierarchy of Influence Analysis • Vanessa Higgins Joyce, Texas State University; Summer Harlow, University of Houston; Amy Schmitz Weiss, SDSU; Rosental Alves • Local, national, regional, and global networks of power intersect in this digital era, raising questions of how re-conceived notions of space are transforming the hierarchy of influences model. This study surveyed (N=1,543) the journalism community from 20 Latin American countries examining how spatial influences are changing journalists’ role conceptions. Findings suggest that, at the organization-structure level, spatial dimensions are related to role perceptions, and regional-institutional forces remain strong influences over how journalists see their roles.

An Examination of Information Behaviors Surrounding Controversial Sociopolitical Issues: Roles of Moral Emotions and Gender • Cheng Hong, Virginia Commonwealth University; Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Wanhsiu Tsai, University of Miami; Bo Ra Yook, University of Miami • Given the emotion-laden nature and moral considerations of controversial sociopolitical issues, this study examines two key antecedents of information behaviors regarding controversial issues. We focus on the under-researched emotions by investigating the effects of moral emotions induced by controversial issues, and a key demographic factor, gender, on information behaviors toward such issues. Results of this study highlight the significant role of moral emotions and expand theoretical understanding of public advocacy on highly divisive sociopolitical issues.

Will Consumers Silence Themselves when Brands Speak Up about Sociopolitical Issues? Applying the Spiral of Silence Theory to Consumer Boycott and Buycott Behaviors • Cheng Hong, Virginia Commonwealth University; Cong Li, University of Miami • To investigate boycotting and buycotting as responses to brand activism, this study adopted a 2 (consumer stance: consistent vs. inconsistent with the focal company) × 2 (public support of consumer stance: majority vs. minority) between-subjects experiment, with a third factor (perceived credibility of public opinion survey) measured. Findings showed brand attitude mediated the effect of consumer stance on boycott and buycott intention, moderated by magnitude of public support and perceived credibility of public opinion survey.

The Safety Dance: Examining the Reasoned Action Approach in Severe Weather Preparedness • Jue Hou, University of Alabama; Cory Armstrong; Nathan Towery • In light of the recent national-scale severe weather hits from Hurricane Michael to wildfires on the West Coast and blizzards in the East, this study sought to investigate factors that may advance residents’ disaster preparedness behaviors. In particular, this paper examined the model of Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) under the context of severe weather preparedness. A number of natural disaster-related concepts, from prior experience to the perceived knowledge base, were examined regarding their predictive ability towards subjects’ behaviors against severe weather outbreaks. With data collected from 1,035 participants, findings indicated that people’s disaster preparedness behaviors generally fit the reasoned action approach model. In specific, background factors would predict behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, as well as control beliefs. These factors consequentially influenced people’s preparatory intentions, which would eventually impact extreme weather preparedness behaviors. Academic insights regarding severe weather protection as well as practical implications on public disaster education were discussed.

They said it’s ‘fake’: Effect of ‘fake news’ online comments on information quality judgments and information authentication • Rosie Jahng, Wayne State University; Elizabeth Stoycheff, Wayne State University; Scott Burgess; Annisa Meirita Patimurani Rochadiat, Wayne State University; Kai Xu, Wayne State University • Using a mixed-design online experiment, this study examined how individuals determine the quality of information they encounter online and what factors motivate individuals to engage in information verification and authentication processes. The effect of a heuristic cue typically encountered when reading online news articles, i.e., online comments labeling presented contents as ‘fake news’ was tested. Results showed main effects of ‘fake news’ label in online comments on participants’ accuracy in identifying fake news, need to authenticate the information encountered, and their reliance on legacy news channels to authenticate the information.

Press, Protests and The People: How Media Framing and Visual Communication Affects Support for Black Civil Rights Protests • Danielle Kilgo; Rachel Mourao, Michigan State University • This study tests the impact of news frames on audience support for a civil rights social movement. Using a 3 X 2 experimental design, we explore how frames and visuals affect audiences’ criticism of police and protesters, support, and identification with the movement. Findings show legitimizing narratives have limited impact on increasing support and identification with protesters, and police criticism. Delegitimizing frames increase criticism towards protesters, decrease support and identification, and decrease criticism of police.

Children’s Fear Responses to News: A Survey on Fear Evoked by Children’s Television News • Mariska Kleemans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Ming Ebbinkhuijsen, Radboud University Nijmegen; Serena Daalmans, Radboud University Nijmegen • To get up-to-date insights into children’s fear responses to children’s television news, a survey was conducted among 892 children (9-12 y/o). Results show that children’s television news is still an important source of information. However, a majority of children reports being frightened by this news, in particular girls and younger children. Thus, it is necessary –for both theoretical and practical reasons– to further investigate how news can be more adapted to children’s social-emotional needs.

Examining the Paths of Influence between Individual Motivators, Information Behaviors, and Outcomes in Disaster Risk Reduction • Chih-Hui Lai, National Chiao Tung U • Building on the integrative models of media effects and audience activity, this study conducts a cross-lagged analysis of two-wave data in Taiwan. The results show that the relationships between individual characteristics and disaster risk reduction (DRR) information behaviors are driven both by media effects and selection effects, depending on the type of information behavior. Different mediating mechanisms exist as personal factors influence DRR information seeking and sharing differently, which then predict outcomes of DRR.

Complementary and Competitive Framing: Framing Effects, Attitude Volatility or Attitude Resistance? • Shirley Ho, Nanyang Technological University; Yan Wah Leung, Nanyang Technological University • This study is designed to answer two big questions regarding framing theory. First, what happens when frames are challenged? Second, how resistant are the opinions that initial frames induce? 1,006 participants completed an online experiment where they were randomly assigned to first view a blog post with either complementary or competitive framing on driverless cars. Participants also viewed a blog post that challenged the stance of the first blog post. Participants indicated their attitudes and levels of support for driverless cars after viewing each blog post. Results revealed that complementary frames polarized opinions, while competitive frames neutralized opinions. Further, competitive frames induced more resistant opinions than complementary frames did. Overall, we found that attitude and support were exceptionally susceptible to new, antagonistic information. Taken together, this study found that framing effects are typically ephemeral and easily challenged by new information. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Power Exemplification of Minority Members in the News Can Influence Attribution of Responsibility for Social Issues, Intergroup Attitudes, dehumanization, and Aggression • Minjie Li • This study experimentally investigates how the power exemplification of minority members (i.e. High-Power vs. Low-Power Transgender Exemplar) in the news narrative interacts with the audience’s sex to redirect people’s responsibility attributions for transgender issues, intergroup attitudes, dehumanization, and aggression towards transgender people. The findings demonstrated that after reading the news article featuring a high-power transgender woman, cisgender women respondents reported significantly higher levels of transphobia, individual attribution of transgender issues, and dehumanization of transgender people’s human nature.

Exploring the Role of Perceptual and Affective Factors in Predicting K-Pop Gratifications and Transcultural Social Networking • Carolyn Lin; Suji Park; Xiaowen Xu; Yukyung Lee, University of Connecticut • This study examines how K-pop (Korean popular music) promotes social media use among non-Asian college students via testing a Transcultural Communication Networking Model. Findings indicate that perceived social distance, cultural familiarity and perceived cultural similarities (between K-pop and American pop music) have either an indirect or direct effect on attitudes toward K-pop. While attitudes are linked to K-pop gratifications, these two variables and perceived cultural dissimilarities contribute to transcultural networking frequency on social media.

The Effects of Framing and Advocacy Expectancy on Belief Importance and Issue Attitude • Jiawei Liu, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Min-Hsin Su; Douglas McLeod; Joseph Abisaid • Message frames have been found to influence relevant issue attitudes by influencing the weight of issue considerations emphasized in the message. This study investigates differences in the framing effects of advocacy groups, depending on whether the message fits readers’ expectations for the communicator’s issue position (expected advocacy) or not (unexpected advocacy). Findings suggest that frames with unexpected advocacy significantly influenced readers’ perceived belief importance, which in turn influenced issue attitudes.

25 Years of Thematic and Episodic Framing Research on News: A Disciplinary Self-Reflection through an Integrative Process Model of Framing • Lesa Hatley Major, Indiana University; Stacie Meihaus Jankowski • This current study analyzes over 25 years (1991 – 2018) of research in academic journals on thematic and episodic frames in news coverage of social issues. As Peters states at the onset of a lengthy piece on the struggle of the communication field to define its purpose and institutional focus,“self-reflection is a key part of healthy social science” (1986, p. 527). Our purpose in this paper is twofold: 1) an examination of the research conducted on thematic and episodic frames in news coverage of social issues (1991 – 2018) using Matthes’ coding concepts from a 2009 study on framing research, and 2) an exploratory exercise of systematically organizing and analyzing our research using deVreese’s integrative process of framing model (2005) to understand our findings about episodic and thematic frames in news coverage, while positing a path forward for research on these frames in news coverage. Without the first part of this study, we could not undertake the second part of our theoretical exploration. While we do not address the current debate on framing research, it’s fractured state or declared demise, we believe our work in this study sheds light on the value of framing as a theoretical and practical foundation and articulate one path for its continued use to conduct research in communication.

#Blocked: Engaging with Politicians on Social Media in the Age of Trump • Gina Masullo Chen, University of Texas at Austin • This study sought to understand the phenomenon of Americans being blocked on social media by politicians, including President Trump. Using qualitative interview data (N = 22), this analysis reveals that blocking constitutes a threat to democratic norms and damages American’s perceptions of political actors and the health of democracy. Findings also show that some Americans perceive blocking by Trump as a badge of honor, while blocking by other politicians is an unfair act of silencing.

Viewing media about President Trump’s dietary habits and fast food consumption: Partisan differences and implications for public health • Jessica Myrick, Pennsylvania State University • A nationally representative survey (N = 1,050) assessed connections between Americans’ attention to media about President Donald Trump’s preference for fast food and public perceptions and intentions regarding fast food. Results revealed a significant positive relationship between attention to media about Trump’s diet and perceptions that fast food is socially acceptable, as well as intentions to consume it. Additionally, some differences emerged for audiences who identified as Republicans versus Democrats.

Credibility Effects of Fact-Checking Labels on Social Media News Posts • Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, University of Connecticut; Mike Schmierbach, Pennsylvania State University; Alyssa Appelman, Northern Kentucky University; Michael Boyle, West Chester University • With most Internet users now getting news from social media, there is growing concern about how to verify the content that appears on these platforms. This study experimentally tests the effects of fact-checking labels on social media news posts on credibility, virality, and information seeking. Results indicate that fact-checking labels do not have a beneficial effect on credibility perceptions of individual news posts, but that their presence does increase judgments of the site’s quality overall.

Testing the Viability of Emotions and Issue Involvement as Predictors of CSA Response Behaviors • Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Jane Weatherred, University of South Carolina; Nanlan Zhang, University of South Carolina • Corporate Social Advocacy (CSA) has become more prominent as companies continue taking stands on politically charged social-justice issues. This study examines emotions and issue involvement as antecedents of theory of planned behavior variables (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) to predict CSA response behaviors. A survey (N = 373) was conducted to examine the public’s response to a recent CSA example–Nike’s ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

The Representation of Stigma in U.S. Newspapers • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Nicholas Eckhart, The University of Alabama • A content analysis examined the representation of stigma in 1,524 stories published by U.S. news outlets between 2000 and 2018. Stigma was discussed in relation to dehumanized conditions such as schizophrenia, drug addiction, and HIV/AIDS. However, journalists frequently trivialized stigma by referencing it in relation to football teams, food, and objects that do not experience the stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination inflicted upon certain social groups.

Something is better than nothing: How the presence of comments may decrease the sharing of fake news on social media • John Petit; Cong Li, University of Miami; Barbara Millet; Khudejah Ali; Ruoyu Sun, University of Miami • This study used a between-subjects experimental design to examine the effect of user comments on news readers’ perceived news credibility and sharing intention. It was found that, regardless of the type of news, participants who read news with no comments were most likely to share the news. This effect was mediated by perceived news credibility and news liking. These experimental results have important theoretical and practical implications for future research on fake news on social media.

Interlocking Among American News Media • Adam Saffer, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Deborah Dwyer, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Jennifer Harker, West Virginia University; Chris Etheridge, University of Arkansas Little Rock; Mariam Turner; Daniel Riffe, UNC-Chapel Hill • In today’s media landscape, companies seem to be more intertwined than ever. But are they? Is interlocking affecting journalists and the content being produced? This examines the networks at play among today’s media organizations and corporate businesses by using a three-method design. The first phase network analyzed interlocks among news media companies’ board of directors. The second phase surveyed editors of newspapers owned by these companies to assess the influence on the newsroom from the board and parent company. In the third phase, news coverage of directors and their affiliated organizations was content analyzed for newspapers whose editors perceived pressure “from above.” The network analysis results suggest a monolithic structure that Han (1988) and Winter (1988) feared has emerged. Unlike previous studies, we took this investigation two steps further to examine whether interlocks were pressuring newsrooms and influencing the news content produced. For about one third of survey respondents, interlocks were seen by pressured editors as having influence on the newsroom. Pressured editors indicated significantly stronger perceptions of financial pressures emanating from the newspaper’s boardroom, board of directors, “ownership/upper management,” and business interests than editors who did not indicate pressure from interlocks or their corporate parent. So, what was the pressured newsrooms’ coverage of the interlocks? Routine coverage of interlocks and their affiliated organizations was lacking. Even the disclosure of a relationship between a director or affiliated organization and the newspaper was disclosed half of the time and traditional journalistic scrutiny was applied to less than half of the time.

Effects of Narrative Political Ads on Message and Candidate Attitudes • Fuyuan Shen, Pennsylvania State University; Guolan Yang, Pennsylvania State University; Jeff Conlin, Pennsylvania State University; Pratiti Diddi, Pennsylvania State University • This study examined the effects of narrative political ads on message attitudes and candidate evaluations. We conducted a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects online experiment whereby participants viewed political ads manipulated by message valence (positive vs. negative), message format (narrative vs. non-narrative) and message focus (issue vs. character). Results suggested that both message valence and message format had some significant main and interactions on message and candidate evaluations.

How does Profanity Propagate Online? Measuring the Virality of Swearing on Social Media • Yunya Song, Hong Kong Baptist University; K. Hazel Kwon, Arizona State University; Jianliang Xu; Xin Huang; Shiying Li, Brown University • Swearing, also known as profanity, refers to the behavior of using foul language that is often linked to online incivility. In China, state government has been actively censoring profanity under the rationale of protecting civility in digital space. This study examines the diffusion of profanity in social media, based on the case of China’s microblogging service, Sina Weibo. The study utilizes computational methods to reconstruct the cascade networks of sampled swearing and non-swearing posts and compares various structural features of diffusion networks, including size, depth, width, and interlayer width ratios, between the propagation of swearing and non-swearing posts. The study contributes to the understanding of the diffusion process of profane speech online, and expands discussions about the impact of online incivility in shaping online discursive culture in China.

The Rise of Fact-Checking in Asia • Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Lim Darren, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Weng Wai Mak, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Shawn Tan, Nanyang Technological University Singapore • This study seeks to understand the roles, ethics, and routines of fact-checking organisations in Asia through interviews with 11 fact-checkers in the region. Results showed most fact-checkers developed similar routines whether they have a journalistic background or not. Leveraging of social media and technology were common answers given in searching for issues to fact-check, with those single operator or smaller fact-checking operation being dependent on their audience to bring trending issues to their attention. When it comes to the ethical principles that guide them, our participants identified the values of impartiality, independence, and accuracy. Finally, our participants conceptualised their role in society as educators, disseminators, and watchdogs.

Serial Tweeters: The individuals and organizations that sustain attention to the climate issue on Twitter • Luping Wang, Cornell University; Aimei Yang; Kjerstin Thorson • The study examines a group of serial participants who consistently tweeted about the climate change issue over five years. The findings suggest a once loosely connected set of Twitter users have become more akin to a community of practice over time. Their network positions in serial participants’ network correlate with their positions in the broader network of Twitter users discussing the climate issue. Organizational actors continue to play a strong role as attention hubs.

Who speaks for the majority? Comparing exemplar indicators of public opinion in a social media setting • Jinping Wang, Pennsylvania State University; Mike Schmierbach, Pennsylvania State University • This study explores both the origins and consequences of perceived opinion climates in an online environment, combining exemplification theory and the spiral of silence. Using a 3 x 3 experimental design, we examine the effects of exemplars within news stories and subsequent social media comments. The results showed that the news exemplar shaped the majority opinion perception among one’s close friends, which predicted one’s willingness to express opinions, moderated by fear of isolation.

The Medium is (Indeed) the Message: The State of Social Media Research at the AEJMC National Convention • Amanda J. Weed, Kennesaw State University; Chris McCollough, Columbus State University; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville; Enakshi Roy, Western Kentucky University • A systematic review of AEJMC national convention abstracts (n = 1,345) examined the state of social media research from 2009 through 2018. Analysis of abstracts examined volume of social media research, what platforms were studied, which research methodologies were employed, and how research was practically applied in 10 unique content areas of journalism and mass communication. Findings revealed social media research has grown from 3.8% to 25.0% of total research presented at the national convention.

The Public and the News Media: How Americans Think About Journalists and the Media Before and After Trump • Lars Willnat, Syracuse University; David Weaver; Jian SHI, Syracuse University • Based on two national surveys conducted among U.S. citizens in 2014 and 2018, this study analyzes how political polarization and social media use might affect perceptions of the news media. While perceptions of the media improved from 2014 to 2018, Republicans have become significantly more negative in their views of the media. Traditional media use, social media interactivity, and perceived effects of social media on journalism were associated with more positive evaluations of the media.

A New Era of Para-social Relationship: Mapping the Value of Social Media Influencers • Shupei Yuan, Northern Illinois University; chen lou • The current study investigated the determinants of para-social relationship (PSR) between social media influencers and their followers and the effect of PSR in explaining the value of influencers via an online survey. Results showed that influencer traits and fairness of communication procedure significantly predicted the strength of PSR. PSR was a significant mediator that drove followers’ interests in influencer-mentioned products. The findings extended our understanding of PSR and provided practitioners insights in enhancing the relationship strategically.

Hostile Media Perception and Intention to Participate in Public Discussion of Mental Health: An Examination of the Role of Involvement • Xueying Zhang • The current study tested the “corrective action hypothesis” (see Rojas, 2000) by analyzing intentions to discuss mental health issues publicly after the exposure of news coverage of a mass shooting using a “dangerous people” vs. “dangerous gun” frame. 300 respondents were recruited through Qualtrics national research panels. The results of the survey suggested potential benefits of employing HMP (hostile media perception) in educating the public by appealing to empathy and value systems.

Keeping Up with the In-Crowd: The Extent and Type of Substance Use in Celebrity Gossip on Twitter • lara zwarun, UMSL • Following celebrity lifestyles via Twitter is a popular pastime. This study examines how often references to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs appear in tweets sent by celebrities and gossip media, and on webpages linked to in these tweets. It also considers whether the substances are portrayed in a positive or a negative light, using measures based on social cognitive theory. Substance references appeared occasionally but consistently in tweets, whether from celebrities or gossip organizations, and more frequently in content on the linked webpages. Portrayals were varied: some contain humor, slang, and appealing photographs that make substance use sound interesting and attractive, while others mentioned negative consequences. The findings suggest that people who follow celebrities and celebrity gossip via Twitter are likely to encounter substance use messages, and that some, but not all, of these messages may glamorize that substance use.

Student Competition

“Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t create it”: Online community formation through shitposting • Yi En Ho; Dion Loh; Tsi Ying Au; Celine Mok • This exploratory study provides a structured understanding of shitposting and examines its form and role in online community formation by conducting interviews and a content analysis on Facebook’s largest closed shitposting group, Spongebob Shitposting. Results revealed that members defined shitposting as posts with unfunny and nonsensical humour that require online cultural literacy to understand, having a recognisable form that are created with varying intentions. Findings also gave insight to shitposting’s role in forming a community.

Examining Media Modality and Social Media Engagement: A Content Analysis of Police Departments’ Facebook Posts • Rachel Italiano, Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University; Anthony Ciaramella, Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University; Jessica Wyers, Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University • This content analysis examined if modality (text, photo, video) used by police departments (PDs) in Facebook posts impacts post engagement. Poisson regression results show that modality impacts post engagement. Posts using photos and videos increased engagement. Significant differences were found between large city PDs and small city PDs. Small city PD posts have less engagement than large city PDs. Overall, these results suggest how PDs can use social media as a community engagement tool.

A serial mediation model of media exposure on body shame: The role of internalization of appearance ideals and self-objectification • Lin Li, Michigan State University • Building on objectification theory and media effects research, this study found that image-focused magazine and Instagram use was associated with higher levels of internalization of appearance ideals, which in turn was related to increased self-objectification; this greater self-objectification translated into greater body shame. Image-focused TV and Facebook use were directly related to greater body shame. Snapchat use was negatively related to body shame through reduced internalization of appearance ideals.

Where Local Meets Plethora: Patterns of Media Usage and Community Integration • Meredith Metzler • Communication scholarship is seeing a renewed interest in the question of the impact of declining local news media. Underlying much of this research is the assumption that local news media will be used if it exists. This qualitative study uses the case studies of two rural communities to understand which media connect and disconnect individuals from their geographic community. The findings reveal that media use often relied on affinity for outlets and were contextually dependent.

Disposition Theory and Protest: The Influence of Media Frames and Individual Disposition on Audience Response to Protest • Hailey Grace Steele, University of Alabama • This study examined the influence of news frames and individual disposition on audience response to protest. The study sought to determine whether the social group depicted as the main actor in news coverage of protest would influence audience support for protest. Informed by disposition theory and tested using experimental design, the study found that certain audience characteristics can significantly predict attitudes toward protest based on the types of media content to which audiences are exposed.

Beyond the Differential Gains Model: The Effects of Authoritarian Orientation, Social Media Use, and Political Discussion on Political Participation in Taiwan and South Korea • Yan Su, The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University; XIZHU XIAO • In an attempt to investigate the roles of authoritarian orientation, social media use, and political discussion in shaping political participation in transitional democracies, this study analyzes nationwide surveys from two third-wave democracies: Taiwan and South Korea. The regression results show that in both societies, the effects of social media use and political discussion are positively associated with political participation; authoritarian orientation was only negatively associated with political participation in Taiwan. This study does not find significant moderating effects of communication variables on their relationships with political participation, which expands extant research on the conventional differential gains model research that mainly focused on liberal democratic countries. A significant three-way interaction also emerged in South Korea.

#Ageism: Exploring aging issues on Twitter • Tammy Walkner, University of Iowa • Twitter is a microblogging site that many people use to share their opinions on various topics. It’s not just young people who tweet – 28% percent of Twitter users are 55 or older. People in this older age demographic are using Twitter to speak out about ageism and the discrimination they have faced. This research examined tweets using #ageism, #agism, and keywords ageism and agism to investigate if the tweets discuss stigma or activism.

Moeller Student Paper Competition

Does Internet Access Still Matter?: A Lesson from China – How VPN Usage Influences People’s Attitude towards China-US Trade War • yezi hu, Washington State University • Digital divide studies have shifted from access problem to use problem because of the high Internet penetration in the world. However, the case of China is challenging such an optimistic bias. China has the most Internet users in the world but also has strict censorship. Chinese people have to use a VPN account to access the uncensored information on blocked websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Youtube. Using a survey, this research studied predictors of VPN usage in China and found that age and income play pivotal rules. Moreover, revolving around a case of China-US trade war, this study found that the more frequently people use VPN, the more they support American positions. This study alerted us of the threat from censorship to the Internet access and made us rethink the definition of access. Therefore, it extended our understanding of access studies of the digital divide.

Two Sides of the Bed: Does Mood Affect Consumer Response to Controversial Advertising? • Chris Noland, University of South Carolina • Mood management theory posits that people try to maintain intensity of good moods and diminish intensity of bad moods. This study uses mood management theory to examine the interplay between mood and controversial advertising. The results suggest people in positive moods have more positive attitudes toward non-controversial ads and less positive attitudes toward controversial ads. Conversely, people in negative moods have more favorable attitudes toward controversial ads and less favorable attitudes when evaluating non-controversial ads.

Post Facto: Experimental Test of a Game-Based News Literacy Intervention • Tamar Wilner, University of Texas at Austin • “Online misinformation abounds, from the long debunked link between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, to doubts over climate change, to rumors that have stoked ethnic violence in Myanmar, India, and Sri Lanka. One way to address the misinformation problem may be news literacy, which aims to help people think more critically about the media they consume. But little is known about whether the current crop of news literacy interventions empower people to discern credible from non-credible information online, especially in the contexts of social media and news websites – a skill I call “digital news literacy.” In addition, most news literacy curricula do not take into account research findings related to selective exposure, which can substantially influence what media a person consumes and, therefore, what information they’re exposed to. This study sought to test, using a two-condition, single-level experiment (N = 228), whether a game-based news literacy intervention could improve the news literacy of adults outside a formal educational setting. Results showed that playing the game did not increase news literacy scores by a statistically significant amount compared with the control condition, in which participants played an unrelated game. However, people with more education were significantly more likely to score higher on news literacy, compared to those with less education. The results highlight the difficulty in affecting news literacy using short-term interventions, given that news literacy skills are likely built up over many years.

< 2019 Abstracts

Law and Policy 2019 Abstracts

Open Competition

Boycotts, Blacklists, and De-Platforming: The ACLU Wrestles with Private Censorship • Stephen Bates, UNLV • In the late 1940s and the 1950s, the ACLU wrestled with the concept of “private censorship”–protests against speech that have the effect of suppressing the speech. The issues arose over identity, such as the NAACP’s protest against the TV adaptation of “Amos ‘n’ Andy”; over morality, such as the Legion of Decency’s protest against the film “The Miracle”; and over ideology, such as the American Legion’s protest against films featuring Jose Ferrer and other purported communists and fellow travelers. The issues were difficult, and the ACLU tried various tests and formulations for distinguishing proper counter-speech from improper suppressive speech. This paper is based on internal documents from the ACLU, now in the Princeton University archives.

Lost in translation: The disturbing decision to limit access to audio court files for podcasters • Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina • In its October 2017 decision in Undisclosed LLC v. The State, the Georgia Supreme Court recognized that Georgia Rule 21 allows for public access to court files including both inspecting and copying records. However, the court held that a court reporter’s audio files from trial are not actually court records because only the official transcripts, not the audio tapes, are filed with the court. Therefore, audio tapes cannot be copied by the media for use in podcast production. This article explores the problems with this Supreme Court decision and argues that the courts need to revisit the right to access and produce a definitive answer to the current dilemma for emerging media in the wake of true crime podcast growth.

Troll Storms and Tort Liability for Speech Urging Action by Others • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • This paper examines when speakers, consistent with First Amendment principles of free expression, can be held tortiously responsible for the actions of others with whom they have no contractual or employer-employee relationship. Recent lawsuits against Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin for sparking “troll storms” provide timely analytical springboards. The issue is particularly problematic when a speaker’s message urging action does not fall into an unprotected category of expression such as incitement or true threats and thus, were it not for tort law, would be fully protected. The paper also reviews the U.S. Supreme Court’s “authorized, directed, or ratified” test for vicarious liability established more than thirty-five years ago in the pre-Internet era case of NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. The paper concludes by proposing a framework for vicarious liability when speakers urge action that results in others’ tortious conduct.

Media Mea Culpas and Journalistic Transparency: When News Outlets Publicly Investigate Their Reportage • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • This paper examines some important legal issues and implications surrounding reports commissioned by journalism organizations like Rolling Stone to investigative their own journalistic flaws and failures. Specifically, the paper explores how such reports carry the danger in cases such as Eramo v. Rolling Stone, LLC of blurring the crucial line separating journalism ethics from media law. Additionally, the paper examines the possible impact of third-party reports on the critical issue of truth and falsity in defamation lawsuits.

Wither Zauderer, Blossom Heightened Scrutiny? • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • This paper examines how the United States Supreme Court’s 2018 decisions in the First Amendment cases of National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra and Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees muddle an already disorderly compelled-speech doctrine. Specifically, dual five-to-four decisions in Becerra and Janus raise key questions about the level of scrutiny – either a heightened test or a deferential variant of rational basis review – against which statutes compelling expression should be measured. Critically, Becerra illustrates the willingness of the Court’s conservative justices to narrowly confine the aging compelled-speech test from Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Furthermore, the paper explores how Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence in a third 2018 decision – Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission – heightens problems with the compelled-speech doctrine. The paper concludes by proposing multiple criteria for the Court to consider when determining the level of scrutiny to use in compelled-speech cases.

Exploring Legal Solutions to Address the Problem of Hate Speech in the United States • Caitlin Carlson, Seattle University • This paper explores potential legal remedies for addressing the proliferation of hate speech in the United States. Solutions include an anti-hate speech law, a change in the federal threats statute, group defamation, and reconsidering intentional infliction of emotional distress as a viable response for victims of hate speech. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach are analyzed in light of existing jurisprudence and intentional infliction of emotional distress is identified as the best path forward.

‘Funding Secured:’ A Forty Million Dollar Tweet that Highlights First Amendment Issues Associated with Regulating Speech on Social Media • Samuel Cohn • The following article is written in the wake of a legal battle that began in Augusts 2018. The parties involved are Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission. To limit the discussion of Musk’s behavior on Twitter to Securities law, largely the way mass media has done to this point, ignores Constitutional realities with respect to the use of social media in 2019. It is true that the legal battle between the SEC and Musk has more significance for corporations and their executives than the average person posting online. This reality does not discount the gravity of Musk’s situation. It is also true that Elon Musk is not the average Twitter user – he is a billionaire with twenty-five million followers and stands at the helm of multiple corporations. And yet, Elon Musk is an American citizen with the same rights as any other American in the United States. As such, he deserves the same constitutional protections. We can look at his recent involvement with the SEC as a prime example of the issues associated with regulating individual speech online as well as the chilling effects that stand to follow if said regulation is executed without considering the potentially adverse effects to the exercise of protected speech. Federal agencies, such as the SEC, should act with extreme caution when regulating the communication of individuals on social media as the legal boundaries of this new mode of communication are not fully understood.

Privacy Exceptionalism Unless It’s Unexceptional: How the American Government Misuses the Spirit of Privacy in Two Different Ways to Justify both Nondisclosure and Surveillance • Benjamin W. Cramer, Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University • This article explores the American government’s contradictory stances toward privacy, via an analysis of the jurisprudence surrounding the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act, while comparing that to surveillance-oriented jurisprudence surrounding the actions of the national security and law enforcement establishments. The article argues that the government has displayed two contradictory stances toward privacy in these endeavors: it cites privacy concerns to withhold documents while ignoring privacy during its mass surveillance of citizens. This contradiction allows the government to violate the spirit of government transparency and the value of privacy in two different ways while becoming more secretive across the board. The article starts with an analysis of trends that have enabled agency rejections of FOIA requests for often facetious reasons of personal privacy – what researchers have dubbed “privacy exceptionalism.” This is followed by a similar analysis of the Privacy Act as another example of the American government’s professed concern for protecting personal privacy. The article then reviews how the national security and law enforcement establishments have largely ignored personal privacy as they conduct widespread electronic surveillance of citizens. The evidence will point to a new type of “privacy unexceptionalism” because privacy values have been unable to overcome the excesses of the surveillance state. The article concludes that the contradictions between these two views of privacy in the American government have enabled new patterns of secrecy and nondisclosure.

Past Imperfect: Packingham, Public Forums, and Tensions Between Media Law’s Present and Internet Regulation’s Future • Anthony Fargo, Indiana University • Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested in Packingham v. North Carolina that the internet had supplanted physical spaces as essential public forums for many users. The analogy is problematic because public forums are usually government-controlled spaces, while internet platforms are privately owned. Comparing the internet to other media generally is similarly problematic because the internet has no comparison. This paper argues that courts should view the internet as a unique medium with unique issues.

Forum Delegation: The Birth and Transposition of a New Approach to Public Forum Doctrine • Brett Johnson, University of Missouri; Shane Epping, University of Missouri • This paper explores the concept of forum delegation: the power of government officials to suggest which forums to allow speakers to use. The concept is born out of a recent legal battle between the University of Minnesota and conservative speaker Ben Shapiro, in which the UMN required Shapiro to speak in a venue away from the heart of campus due to concerns over the school’s ability to provide adequate security for the event. The paper first analyzes the UMN case to assess the constitutionality of forum delegation in the context of regulating speech and public universities. Next, it applies Robert Post’s theory of constitutional domains to transpose forum delegation from the public university context to situations in which cities must deal with controversial speakers. The goal in explicating the concept of forum delegation within this latter context to is give cities a tool in which to constitutionally balance the interests of speakers, audience members, public safety concerns, and efficient resource management. Such a tool can be especially helpful at a time when provocateurs have sought to weaponize the First Amendment through politicizing and polarizing free speech principles.

TL;DR and TC;DU: An Assessment of the Length and Complexity of Social Media Policies • Jonathan Obar, York University; Andrew Hatelt • A study of the length and complexity of terms of service (TOS) and privacy policies (PP) for 10 social media services. Average TOS is 26,320 words and PP 7,984 words, with most policies written at a grade 12 or college reading level. These findings may contribute to critiques of notice privacy policy, providing empirical evidence that policies continue to be “too long” and “too complicated”, contributing to users that “didn’t read” and “don’t understand”.

“I also consider myself a First Amendment lawyer” • Jonathan Peters • Charles Harder. Lin Wood. Tom Clare. They are among a small number of American lawyers who have significant experience bringing claims against news organizations for their editorial activities. They play important roles in the news ecosystem, and they are subjects worthy of scholarly attention. Their perspectives about their work, which is reshaping media law, can contribute to a better understanding of claims against the press. With that in mind, we interviewed eight such lawyers about their practices.

Deciding Fair Use • Amanda Reid, UNC Chapel Hill • The epic legal battle between Google and Oracle is knocking on the SCOTUS’s door – again. Viewing the jury verdict “as advisory only,” the Federal Circuit independently re-weighed the fair use factors and concluded that allowing Google to commercially exploit Oracle’s work would “not advance the purposes of copyright.” This case raises important and timely questions about how to conceptualize and operationalize fair use. The ontological nature of copyright fair use is often misunderstood. As a mixed question of law and fact, fair use does not fit neatly into the law/fact paradigm, which typically guides decision making authority. Is fair use a fact question for the jury or a legal question for the court? On appeal, are fair use decisions reviewed deferentially or de novo? In other words, is fair use a question of fact for the jury and off limits to appellate court second-guessing, or is fair use a question of law for which an appellate court can decide anew? Rather than hiding behind the “slippery” distinction between “fact” and “law,” this essay highlights the plainly political nature of allocating decision making authority. The policy question is whether we want speech-protective rights assessed by a judge or a jury. Who has the institutional capacity to do a better job? Who do we trust more?

The Trouble With “True Threats” • Eric Robinson, University of South Carolina; Morgan Hill, University of South Carolina • With abusive language endemic online, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Elonis v. United States did not resolve many issues in determination whether a statement is a “true threat.” In the absence of guidance, courts have applied various factors to rule in these cases. This paper quantifies and analyzes how courts have applied these factors in various cases, showing the need for clear standards for what communication can be considered “true threats.”

The Tribal University: Factions, iGen and the Threat to Free Speech on Campus • Joseph Russomanno, Arizona State University • The American college campus was once the ultimate marketplace of ideas. Now, speakers are sometimes shouted down or disinvited. Fear of trauma abridges classroom discussion. As the nation tribalizes, so do college students – members of iGen and psychologically fragile. This paper examines the interconnectedness of these issues. It also invokes factions – the tribalism of America’s founding era – and illustrates how James Madison’s approach to control them can be applied to speech on the contemporary campus.

A Structural Imperative: Freedom of Information, the First Amendment and the Societal Function of Expression • A.Jay Wagner • In the United States, the ability to gain access to government information is predicated by statute, the 1966 FOIA. Despite influential First Amendment scholars asserting access to government information to be a necessary corollary, the Supreme Court has only partially recognized such a right. The manuscript tracks this legal trajectory and examines international constitutional rights of access and explores why access has been rhetorically identified as an imperative yet has not received legal priority.

The Understanding of Absolute Right to Freedom of Expression Concerning Hate Speech in the Case of the Charlottesville Incident • Qinqin Wang; Roxanne Watson, University of South Florida • The purpose of this paper is to explore whether there is an absolute right to freedom of expression with regard to hate speech, and more specifically, whether tolerance should be exercised toward speech even in circumstances where this speech presents a clear and present danger to the public. The paper will delve into the decision by the Virginia Court that allowed the rally in Charlottesville which resulted in the death of a 32-year old woman.

Algorithms, Machine Learning, and Speech: The Future of the First Amendment in a Digital World • Sarah Wiley • By mediating how information is produced, distributed, and consumed, algorithms have a vast impact on how individuals perceive the world and thanks to machine learning and big data, they do so more autonomously than ever. This article examines how First Amendment jurisprudence has struggled to keep up and recommends a way to realign the doctrine with its underlying values of democratic self-governance, the distribution of knowledge and ideas, and individual autonomy in light of machine learning.

Neutral Reportage “Missing In Action” In U.S. Law But Expanding In Foreing Law As A Libel Defense • Kyu Ho Youm • Few media law scholars and practitioners in the U.S. have paid close attention to neutral reportage in foreign law. To fill the glaring void in the study of neutral reportage as a fascinating export from American law, this paper examines neutral reportage as a case of “reverse perspective.” Three questions provide the main focus of this study: (1) Why was Anglo-American law on republication of defamatory statements problematic for news reporting?; (2) How has neutral reportage been recognized as a libel defense in foreign law?; (3) How is neutral reportage similar to, and different from, the “public interest” defense in England and other countries?

< 2019 Abstracts

International Communication 2019 Abstracts

Robert L. Stevenson Open Paper Competition

“Newsmaker-in-Chief”? Presidents’ Foreign Policy Priorities and International News Coverage from LBJ to Obama • Kirsten Adams, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Daniel Riffe, UNC-Chapel Hill; Meghan Sobel, Regis University; Seoyeon Kim, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Through a mixed-method analysis of country mentions across 50 years of U.S. presidents’ speech transcripts (N = 284) and New York Times’ international news coverage (N = 20,765) across nine presidencies, we find the phenomenon of an “echoing press” following the “presidential gaze” toward foreign-policy priorities steadily declining over time and within administrations. This study examines the complex roles of the “newsmaker-in-chief” and the press who cover – and sometimes “echo” – his administration’s foreign affairs agenda.

Investigating Empathic Concern, Reporting Efficacy & Journalistic Roles as Determinants of Adherence to Peace Journalism • Oluseyi Adegbola; Weiwu Zhang, Texas Tech University • This study examines the influence of empathic concern, perceived journalistic roles, and reporting efficacy on journalists’ adherence to peace journalism. Quantitative surveys (N=324) and semi-structured interviews (N=10) of Nigerian journalists were conducted. Results suggest that Nigerian journalists adhere to peace journalism more than to war journalism and that empathic concern, perceived reporting efficacy, and subscription to the interventionist role are strong predictors of adherence to peace journalism.

Reporting Bias in Coverage of Iran Protests: An Analysis of Coverage by Global News Agencies • Oluseyi Adegbola; Janice Cho; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University • This study examines reporting of intense Iranian protests by global news agencies located in the United States (Associated Press), United Kingdom (Reuters), France (Agence France-Presse), China (Xinhua), and Russia (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union). A census of reporting (N = 369) was content analyzed. Results show reporting remains influenced by political systems. News agencies also vary in their assessment of causal agents, moral evaluations, and treatment recommendations. Implications for reporting foreign conflict is discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence: What do Nollywood Movies Teach Us? • Ajeori agbese • Scholars have long criticized mass media for largely ignoring, negatively stereotyping and downplaying the seriousness of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, considering few studies have examined this issue in movies, this paper examined Nollywood movies to determine the messages audience get about IPV in Nigeria. The paper also wanted to find out if the movies challenged societal stereotypes about IPV and gender roles in intimate relationships. The contents of nine IPV-themed movies were interpretively analyzed, using social learning and cultivation theories as guides. The analysis showed that while Nollywood movies depicted the severity of the issue, the portrayals mostly mirrored the stereotypes and beliefs people already have about IPV and gender roles in intimate relationships. The movies largely blamed victims and other outside forces for abuse in intimate relationships. In addition, the portrayals barely challenged the perception and problem of IPV in Nigeria and did not provide realistic solutions.

The role of media for young Syrian Refugees at a time of uncertainty and changing living conditions • Miriam Berg • A considerable number of refuges that came to Germany in 2015 and 2016 were unaccompanied minors. This study examines the Syrian minor refugees among them, who now, as young adults, are using media as a whole in their everyday life and how their usage has changed since their arrival in Germany. There is a particular focus on correlations with the changing living conditions of the minors from mass emergency shelters to refugee accommodation and youth flats. The study also explores how media was used in their home country and during their flight to Germany. The research was carried out in the form of 30 semi-structured interviews with refugees between the ages of 18-21 who arrived in Hamburg, Germany in 2015 as unaccompanied minors. Findings of this study have shown that digital media and internet connectivity is seen as a necessity in contemporary living for young refugees and is considered as important as food and shelter to survive. However, despite internet access being seen as the most efficient way to stay informed and connected with families, friendships developed offline were found to be more important and helpful in terms of adjusting to a new environment, coping with loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted in their host country.

Journalists, Newsmakers and Social Media in East Africa • Steve Collins; Kelly Merrill; Chad Collins; Kioko Ireri; Raul Gamboa, University of Central Florida • This study involved an analysis of 1,784 Twitter accounts representing journalists, news organizations and newsmakers in East Africa. An analysis of social media influence metrics suggests that although news organizations are on even ground with the people and organizations they cover, individual journalists are not. The data suggest a digital divide, with Kenya and Uganda ahead of Rwanda and Tanzania. By one measure, female journalists have more social media influence than men.

Framing Syrian refugees: US Local News and the Politics of Immigration • Aziz Douai, Ontario Tech University; Mehmet Bastug • The article investigates news coverage and media framing of the Syrian refugee debate as a public opinion issue in US local news in 2015. Political response to the Syrian refugee crisis was divided, but public attitudes shifted after the terrorist attacks on Paris in November 2015 with calls for more restrictive immigration policies and smaller refugee quotas. In the US, GOP leaders demanded “extreme vetting” and “screening” of refugees and many opposed resettling them. The study analyzes local news coverage variation across the states that welcomed, not welcomed or did not commit to accepting Syrian refugees at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016. The findings of the study demonstrate that the editorial framing of the Syrian refugee crisis downplayed the global responsibility and international commitment of the US, highlighted the administrative costs, and framed them security threats. The implications of these frames are discussed.

India’s Mediated Public Diplomacy on Social Media: Building Agendas in South Asia • Nisha Garud Patkar • One tool in India’s mediated public diplomacy is the increasing use of social media platforms to build agendas among foreign audiences. In 2017, the Indian government ranked seventh in the world in its use of social media for diplomacy and had more than 1.2 million users following its diplomatic accounts on several social media platforms. Despite this high ranking and a sizable following on social media, little research has been done to understand India’s mediated public diplomacy through Twitter and Facebook. To address this literature gap, this study examined: (i) the agendas the Indian government builds on its social media accounts and (ii) the rank order of these agendas with the perceived agendas of the followers of these accounts. A quantitative content analysis of 6,000 tweets and status updates published on the 15 Indian diplomatic accounts along with a survey of 500 followers of these accounts were conducted. Results showed that politics, culture, economy/finance, and infrastructure were the top-ranked agendas of the Indian government on social media. These agendas rank ordered with a few top-ranked agendas for followers which were education, health and medicine, environment, economy/finance, and infrastructure.

Gatekeeping and the Panama Papers: an analysis of transnational journalism culture • Nana Naskidashvili, University of Missouri; Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri; Astrid Benoelken; Diana Fidarova • ICIJ’s Panama Papers transnational journalism project was analyzed on three levels suggested by Hellmueller (2017): the evaluative, the cognitive and the performative. The gatekeepers interviewed demonstrated a common understanding (evaluative) of what it means to be an investigative journalist. Regardless of a journalist’s location, prominent people were deemed newsworthy (cognitive), and the journalists created rules for searching and double-checking their data. At the performative level, the gatekeepers agreed when the stories would emerge.

Cognitive and Behavioral Factors of Online Discussion as Antecedents of Deliberation and Tolerance: Evidence from South Korea, United Kingdom and United States • Irkwon Jeong; Hyoungkoo Khang • The current study examined cognitive and behavioral factors of online discussion as antecedents of attitudes toward opposing views and two aspects of social norms, perceived importance of public deliberation and social tolerance. Employing surveys in South Korea, United Kingdom and United States, this study found that adjustment motive and discussion heterogeneity are positively associated with perceived importance of public deliberation and social tolerance in all three countries.

Framing Newsworthiness on Twitter: Analysis of Frames, News Values, and Tweet Popularity in Lebanese Media • Claudia Kozman, Lebanese American University • This content analysis of Lebanese newspapers and television stations’ accounts on Twitter revealed the media frame their tweets in terms of conflict and responsibility, while relying mostly on the news values of prominence and entertainment/human interest. Compared to newspapers, television stations were more likely to use impact instead of conflict as a news value. Judging tweet popularity, analysis revealed conflict and impact stories are the most attractive in terms of favorites, retweets, and comments.

Mainstream media, social media, and attitudes toward immigrants: A comparative study of Japan & South Korea • Heysung Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Gaofei Li ; Yibing Sun; Hernando Rojas • The paper examines media effects on attitudes toward immigrants in Japan and South Korea, through an online survey with 500 respondents from each country. Analyses show mainstream media associates to positive attitudes in both countries. However, regarding social media, Kakaotalk use in South Korea elicits negative attitudes, while Line use in Japan is not related to attitudes. The interaction effects indicate that Kakaotalk dampens the positive effects of mainstream media, whereas Line amplifies them.

Will internal political efficacy predict news engagement equally across countries? A multilevel analysis of the relationship between internal political efficacy, media environment and news engagement • Shuning Lu, North Dakota State University; Rose Luwei Luqiu, Hong Kong Baptist University • This study serves as the first to document the current status of news engagement with regard to the three proposed dimensions (e.g., overall news engagement, user-user, and user-content news engagement) across 36 countries. We employ hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to test the individual, aggregate, and cross-level effects on news engagement based on the multi- national cross-sectional survey data (N=72,930). This study demonstrates how internal political efficacy, the media environment, both political and technical, together shape news engagement. The findings reveal that internal political efficacy is positively associated with news engagement. Internet penetration could negatively predict the three indicators of news engagement. Press freedom moderates the effect of internal political efficacy on news engagement. The study contributes to the existing literature on the formation of news engagement regarding both individual and contextual mechanisms.

Africa in the News: Is News Coverage by Chinese Media Any Different? • Dani Madrid-Morales, University of Houston • In recent years, Chinese media have been challenging European and North American dominance of African news. While Chinese journalists claim they Africa coverage is quantitatively and qualitatively different, previous research has challenged this claim. Based on a content analysis of 1.1 million news from two Chinese and two non-Chinese media (2015-2015), this paper shows that Chinese reporting is more abundant, positive and diverse. However, for most countries, coverage is rare, episodic and monothematic.

Portrait of an Azerbaijani Journalist: Unpaid, Dissatisfied, but nevertheless Passionate and Committed • Rashad Mammadov • This study seeks to partially fill a gap in knowledge about the practice of journalism in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic. The study proposed here represents the first time Azerbaijan has been studied in a systematic fashion consistent with the literature of comparative journalism as represented by The Global Journalist (Weaver & Willnat, 2012) and Worlds of Journalism (Hanitzsch, 2011), studies well recognized as the standards against which all such efforts should be measured. One of the primary goals of the project is to explore the roles these journalists believe they play in the controlled, post-Soviet environment. Data, collected through an online survey of journalists indicate that several identifiable, perceived professional roles existed along the dimensions of Hanitzsch’s (2007) journalistic milieus. In addition, three other dimensions were identified that did not fit the model, but proved to be specific to the Azerbaijani media environment: Political Activist, Citizens’ Helper, and Entertainer.

Press Freedom in Ghana • Jason Martin, DePaul University • This paper analyzes original survey data (N=241) to investigate Ghanaian journalists’ attitudes toward libel law protections, Right to Information legislation, and professional ethics. Journalists in Ghana perceive themselves as straddling normative press freedom roles of watchdog and social responsibility while incorporating unique elements of their culture in their work. The results provide context for the successes and challenges of Ghana’s journalists and contribute to the more precise theoretical explanations of international press freedom protections.

Diagnosing Newsjunkies: Fielding and Validating a Measure of Intrinsic Need for Orientation in Three Arab Countries • Justin Martin, Northwestern University in Qatar • This study introduces an intrinsic need-for-orientation scale, and assesses reliability and validity of the measure in nationally representative samples from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE (N=3,239). Since the 1970s, need for orientation has been called an intrinsic motivation to consume news, but in operationalization, relevant research has not measured an inherent motivation, but rather the strength of political party identification and interest in an upcoming political event—usually an election—as the markers of a strong need for orientation. As this approach is inappropriate in many countries, which may not have political parties or campaigns, and also given there is likely a broader, intrinsic need for orientation (INFO) that motivates people to regularly seek news about current events, this study tested a parsimonious, four-item scale. The scale demonstrated robust internal reliability in both Arabic and English, and among nationals and non-nationals in the three countries. In line with the hypothesis that news use and certain media-related attitudes, such as support for freedom of expression, should be positive correlates of an intrinsic need for orientation, regression models of media-use variables and media-related attitudes explained considerable amounts of INFO variance in Saudi Arabia (52%) and the UAE (30%), and a more modest share in Qatar (15%).

Journalism during global disasters: Healing, coping and recovery • Michael McCluskey, U. Tennessee-Chattanooga; Lacey Keefer • Journalists often apply themes of healing, coping and recovery in news following significant traumas. Eight natural disasters on five continents were analyzed for the presence of nine themes of healing, coping and recovery in both international and local news outlets. Analysis (n = 528) found evidence that contextual factors like centralization of the disaster, type of disaster and number of casualties, along with structural factors like political freedom, had significant influences on the nine themes

Explaining the Gap Between Journalist’s Role Conception and Media Role Performance. A Cross-National Comparison • Claudia Mellado; Cornelia Mothes; Daniel Hallin; Maria Luisa Humanes; Adriana Amado; María Lauber; Jacques Mick; Henry Silke; Colin Sparks; Haiyan Wang; Olga Logunova; Dasniel Olivera • This cross-national study combines survey (N=643) and content analysis data (N = 19,908) from nine countries to investigate gaps between journalists’ ideals and their media organizations’ performance of the interventionist, watchdog, loyal, service, civic and infotainment roles. The findings show significant gaps for all roles across all countries, with the ‘civic’ and the ‘watchdog’ role showing the largest gaps. Multilevel analyses also reveal that organizational and individual-level influences explained the gaps better than country differences. Implications are discussed with regards to journalism as a profession in times of increasing media skepticism.

Public Diplomacy for the Media: A Survey of Exchange Program Alumni • Emily Metzgar, Indiana University; Yusuf Kalyango, Ohio University • This research surveys alumni (N=66) of the American government’s Study of the U.S. Institute for Scholars (SUSI) on Journalism and Media. The program brings scholars and media professionals to the United States to study and build professional networks. Framing discussion in the international communication literature, we assess SUSI’s potential as a public diplomacy effort with implications for both the study and practice of journalism and promotion of improved attitudes toward the United States.

Esto no es un problema político, es moral: Examining news narratives of the 2018 border policy • Lisa Paulin, NC Central University • This study analyzes the news narratives of a controversial U.S. immigration policy that included the separation of children from their families when attempting to enter the United States along the border with Mexico during the spring and summer of 2018, under the Donald Trump administration by analyzing the stories in Spanish-language media and English-language media by two news services: EFE, in Spanish and the Associated Press (AP), to see how these stories fit into cultural ideologies. The AP told a story of a political battle while EFE told a story of immoral policy and community solidarity.

Global media and human rights: Teaching the Holocaust across national fault-lines • stephen reese, university of texas; jad melki, Lebanese American University • Media literacy requires a ‘global outlook’ in dealing with issues across national and tribal affiliations. These challenges are explored here with a multi-national group of student, engaging with the Holocaust to better humanise global issues and understand how media are implicated in genocidal dynamics, using a survey of 165 previous participants in the programme over 11 years. We find that a historically-rooted but globally reflective approach is needed to understand genocide across national fault-lines.

Testing the Spiral of Silence Model: The Case of Government Criticism in India • Enakshi Roy, Western Kentucky University • This study extends the spiral of silence theory to India and examines self-censorship on Facebook and Twitter with regards to government criticism. Survey (N=141) results suggest while respondents with liberal attitudes were unwilling criticize the government on social media, respondents with pro-censorship attitudes, even if they deemed the opinion climate as hostile, were willing to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media. Findings from this study expand understandings of online opinion expression and self-censorship in India.

Everybody Loves a Winner: Legitimation of Occupational Roles among Award-winning Financial Journalists in Africa • Danford Zirugo, City, University London of London/University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Jane B. Singer, City, University of London • Through an examination of award-winning stories and the discourse around them, this study explores how the interpretive community of African financial journalists defines and legitimates preferred occupational roles. Contrary to research immediately following the global financial crisis, which suggested that financial journalists primarily serve elites in their everyday coverage, this study concludes that stories deemed exemplary by the community are instead public service-oriented and fulfill a watchdog role.

Naming names or no? How Germany fits in an international comparison of crime coverage • Romayne Smith Fullerton, University of Western Ontario; Maggie Jones Patterson, Duquesne University • “Naming names and ethnicity or no? How Germany fits in an international comparison of crime coverage” offers the final installment of a nine-year study examining mainstream media’s crime coverage choices in ten democracies, and how journalists’ voluntary ethical choices reflect underlying cultural attitudes. Previously, the authors have argued protectionist policies that do not identify accused persons are common in Northern and Central Europe and are part of established cultural attitudes that construct everyone as community members, but new German data, collected in 2018, suggest journalistic choices to protect an accused’s identity, and all that practice implied, is no longer the reporting default.

The Aftermath of 2019 Pulwama Terror Attack • Nihar Sreepada, Texas Tech University; Ioana Coman, Texas Tech University; Simranjit Singh, Texas Tech University • The study analyses the coverage of the 2019 Pulwama terror attack by two major newspapers of India and Pakistan – The Times of India and Dawn. The online news stories and the dialogue within the comment sections are compared and examined through a qualitative content analysis. The findings are explored from a social psychological perspective along with the ramifications of the conflict on the international community.

Automated framing analysis of news coverage of the Rohingya crisis by the elite press from three countries • Hong Vu; Nyan Lynn • Triangulating several methods including automated framing analysis and critical assessment of texts, this study examines how the press from three countries frames the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2017. It finds that The Irrawaddy (Myanmar) tends to incorporate a nationalist narrative into news content. The New Nation (Bangladesh) frames the crisis according to the country’s priorities. The New York Times uses a Western hegemonic discourse. Findings are discussed using the lens of ideological and cultural influence.

Welcome to Canada: The challenge of information connections for resettled Syrian refugees • Melissa Wall, California State University – Northridge • Based on interviews with Syrian refugees resettled in Canada, as well as volunteers, NGO workers and government officials, this paper considers the ways the refugees interact with both formal (government, NGO) and informal (family, volunteers and shared heritage Canadians) in their communication practices. Refugees (“newcomers”) use a combination of digital tools such as social networks and interpersonal interactions to access information and work toward understanding and adapting to their new environment.

Distinguishing the Foreign from Domestic as Defensive Media Diplomacy: Media Accessibility to Credibility Perception and Media Dependency • Yicheng Zhu, Beijing Normal University • Given the fact that some foreign media (e.g. Twitter, The New York Times) have limited accessibility in China. This study conceptually distinguishes foreign media and domestic media, and examines the relationship between perceived media accessibility, media credibility and media dependency for both foreign and domestic media. It found that foreign media accessibility perception is an antecedent of foreign media credibility and foreign media dependency. In terms of foreign v.s. domestic media credibility competition, the final model showed that foreign media credibility positively relates with domestic media credibility. In sum, the model illustrated the role of accessibility perception in the media dependency formation process, the results imply that controlling foreign media accessibility may be an effective method to limit foreign media influence domestically.

James W. Markham Student Paper Competition

A devil’s dissection: Thematic analysis of the discussion of the Mexican documentary The Devil’s Freedom on Twitter • Gabriel Dominguez Partida • Mexican documentary films have tried to raise awareness among citizens against violence – for instance, The Devil’s Freedom, a story of violence’s testimonials of victims and victimizers. Three months of tweets related to the film’s discussion were analyzed to identify how people react to the message. The analysis suggests a group of citizens concern and sending signals to others about a social change; however, they urge the government to take actions instead of themselves.

Trollfare: Russia’s disinformation campaign during military conflict in Ukraine • Larisa Doroshenko, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Josephine Lukito, UW Madison • This study explores the strategies of information warfare of the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) against Ukraine during the military conflict in Donbass. Using a 10% Twitter gardenhose archive, we investigated the type of information spread by the IRA accounts and analyzed how they increased followers. Our study shows that the IRA created news websites and spread links to these pages on social media, accumulating followers by including these links and @mentioning other IRA accounts.

Health information sharing for a social exchange on WeChat in China • Lu Fan • WeChat has become an important platform of high sociability and social exchange in China. This study conducted a survey (N = 329) in China to understand people’s health information sharing behavior with the purpose of social exchange. The results reveal that people are motivated by the goal of sharing useful information, showing care and maintaining the social relationship when they share health information on WeChat, and older people are more likely to do so.

For whom do we do this work and in whose voice? Examining the role of International Communication in Africa • Greg Gondwe, University of Colorado-Boulder; Rachel van-der-Merwe, University of Colorado-Boulder • This study offers an overview of the state of the field of international communication in Africa. It argues that despite the boom in international communication scholarship, a schism still exists between theory emphasizing the perpetuated colonial tendencies and those that seek to situate African scholarship at an interactive position with other continents. The study operates under some founded hypotheses that International Communication studies in Africa are peppered with tales of marginalization, poverty, wars, and tribal conflicts. Literature asserts that such labels have impeded the quest for African scholars to realize the true definition of the field, therefore, reproducing a systemic litany of what the other world expects of them. While some scholars call for a broader and mutual interaction of the global communications systems, others hanker on ostensible arguments that perpetuate the propagandist approaches, which emerged as a result of the cold war. The two approaches underscore the western values versus the ‘African’ communication and postcolonial debates that have characterized much of the postcolonial discourses.

Social media network heterogeneity and the moderating roles of social media political discussions and social trust: Analyzing attitude and tolerance towards Chinese immigrant women in Hong Kong • Macau K. F. Mak, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Lynette Jingyi Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • The social and political antagonism between China and Hong Kong has led to the stigmatization of mainland Chinese in Hong Kong. In particular, the Chinese immigrant women, a minority group faced with social and economic plight, have been viewed as locusts who exploit social resources in Hong Kong without any contributions. This study examines how social media network heterogeneity influences the social tolerance and political tolerance of local citizens in Hong Kong towards the Chinese immigrant women through general attitude towards these women. It also addresses the moderating role of social media political discussions and social trust in the influencing process. The analysis of survey data (N = 728) illustrates the moderated mediation process in which a more heterogeneous network on social media is indirectly related to higher levels of both social and political tolerance towards Chinese immigrant women through a more positive attitude towards these women. This indirect effect is enhanced by more political discussions and greater social trust. Implications of the results are discussed.

Reporting (ethno)political conflict in former colonies: An exploration of British and French press coverage of the Cameroon Anglophone crisis • Pechulano Ngwe Ali, The Pennsylvania State University • This study explores how the press in Africa’s former colonial masters frame (ethno)political crisis in their former colonies. Using a qualitative textual analysis approach, the study investigates how British (the BBC) and French (Radio France Internationale; rfi) framed the ongoing Cameroon Anglophone crisis, using news stories published from October 1, 2016 to April 2018. The case of Cameroon is unique because what has been politicized is a nexus between ethnicity and linguistic identity where a minority ethnopolitical group that is seeking greater rights. Findings point evidence that suggest that the British press validates and legitimizes the ‘actions’ and ‘requests’ of Anglophone Cameroonians (the return of federalism or complete separation of the duo), while the French press outlet suggest alignment with the ideas of the Cameroon government (one and indivisible nation), casting doubt on marginalization claims of Anglophone Cameroonians. Considering that the current Cameroon Anglophone is historically rooted in European (British and French) colonialism, it is important study from a postcolonial perspective, how the press in these countries that and created what is now a bilingual and ‘bicultural’ Cameroon, would report political crisis half a century after independence. Findings have implications on the development a fresh perspective of postcolonial media theory.

East Asian man ideal types in contemporary Chinese society: fluidity and multiple parameters of masculinity • Janice Wong • Asian masculinity is always an important, but under study area. There are concrete ideas of masculinity in the Western society, but in the East Asian culture, masculinity is not well-defined. Moreover, the way man tackles the fluidity and multiple parameters of masculinity is always changing in modern East Asia. Male surely have some ideal types of male images in their mind that they will try to manage their appearance included face and body, impression and images to achieve an ideal type. This study tries to generalize those male ideal types in East Asia culture through the wen-wu dichotomy. This exploratory study found that there are about eight ideal types of masculinities in East Asia. These ideal types are models or categories that for man to achieve. During the process of achieving an ideal type, male disclosed their reasons: social “other’s” expectations, institution’s expectations and also constructed by the consumer market, and the strategies they used to modify and improve their face and body. For men, they will depend on the inherent they owned, which can influence their self-perception, then select an ideal type that they can associate with or the standard they can reach and go toward that type. Men will control and modify their appearance, both face and body, manage their impression (or their front stage) toward the ideal beauty image standard or improve their impression (through symbolic capital) to satisfy the criteria of an ideal type.

The Moderating Role of Media Freedom on the Relationship Between Internal Conflict and Diversionary External Conflict Initiation: 1948-2010 • Kai Xu, Wayne State University • Conflict-as-functional theorists argue that since a critical function of initiating international conflicts for a country is to divert public attention away from its domestic problems, there must be a significant relationship between a country’s internal conflict and the likelihood of creating external conflict. This study aims to further examine this relationship by introducing a new moderator – the effect of a country’s domestic conflict on external conflict initiation is moderated by its media freedom level.

< 2019 Abstracts

Advertising 2019 Abstracts

Open Research
Puffing on Instagram: Effects of Puffery Claim Types on Assessment of Persuasive Intentions and Knowledge • Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Olivia JuYoung Lee; Anastasia Kononova; Jef Richards; Na Rae Park; Tao Deng, Michigan State University; Jessica Hirsch • The current study examines the effects of puffery in persuasive posts on Instagram. Findings indicated that attribute puffery claims were rated higher on sincerity, understanding persuasive intent and tactics, and purchase intention, while they were rated lower on skepticism and deceptiveness, in comparison to comparative and negative puffery claims. There were significant two-way interaction effects between familiarity and puffery type. The results are discussed using theoretical framework of puffery advertising and persuasion knowledge.

Reconsider Media Multitasking and Counterarguing Inhibition: Empirical Evidence of Underlying Mechanism and Offline-to-Online Advertising Effects • Yuhmiin Chang • Two studies were conducted to elucidate the underlying mechanism and subsequent advertising effects of counterarguing inhibition while television-internet multitasking. The two studies involved different product categories and measures and did not support counterarguing inhibition hypothesis. The results consistently showed that media multitasking increased capacity interference and cognitive load, which did not lead to fewer counterarguments. Media multitasking directly produced fewer counterargument which lead to lower urge to search and buy the target products.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Help-Seeking and Product-Claim Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA): A Persuasion Knowledge Perspective • Ida Darmawan; Hao Xu; Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota • This study examined the effects of help-seeking direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) as a form of covert advertising and compared its effects with those of product-claim DTCA on consumers’ persuasion knowledge activation and its outcomes. An online experiment was conducted with adults experiencing symptoms mentioned in fictitious experimental ads. Help-seeking DTCA was less likely to activate persuasion knowledge than product-claim DTCA, resulting in lower skepticism, more positive attitude toward the ad, and higher behavioral intentions.

Context Matters! Effects of Contextual Information on Processing of Social Media Ads • Kristen Lynch, Michigan State University; Tao Deng, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Ali Hussain, Arizona State University; Olivia JuYoung Lee • The individualized social media experience and the algorithmic approach to media buying highlight the importance of contextual effects in advertising. This study explicates the effects of sequential information processing as it pertain to ad processing through the lens of Zillman’s (1971) excitation transfer theory. The study focuses on the effects of emotional content preceding the ads, where ads were placed after pictures that varied in valence and arousal. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Privacy tradeoffs, localized deals, and consumer acceptance of mobile advertising • Lisa Farman, Ithaca College • This study explores consumer acceptance of mobile advertising, using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults from the Simmons National Consumer Survey (N=19,657). Consistent with privacy calculus theory, willingness to make privacy trade-offs positively predicted acceptance of mobile advertising. However, desire for a specific trade-off (local deals) was a stronger predictor than a more general theoretical willingness to make privacy trade-offs. Privacy self-efficacy positively predicted mobile ad acceptance, while Internet use had a negative effect.

Does In-Stream Video Advertising Work? Effects of Position and Congruence on Ad and Brand-Related Responses • Jason Freeman, Pennsylvania State University; Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Hyun Yang; Fuyuan Shen • This study examined the effects of in-stream video advertising on consumer responses to the ad and brand. A 2 (ad position: pre versus mid-roll) x2 (congruence: low versus high) between-subjects experiment was conducted, whereby subjects viewed a short narrative video with embedded ads. We found that mid-roll advertisements led to higher levels of perceived intrusiveness and anger than pre-roll ads. Advertisements more congruent with the content elicited less anger, reduced perceived intrusiveness, but lowered brand attitudes.

Children and Unboxing Videos Online: Implications for Advertisers and Policy Makers • Deepti Khedekar; Harsha Gangadharbatla • Sponsored content, particularly content targeting young children, is on the rise on new media platforms. One such type of sponsored content is unboxing videos on YouTube that young children often watch on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets (Kabali et al., 2015). Using a sample of 421 parents with children between the ages of 4 and 10, our study investigates the role of parental mediation and the influence of selling and persuasive knowledge on such mediation when it comes to children’s consumption of unboxing videos. Results indicate that unboxing videos are highly effective in eliciting purchase demands and, in the absence of strict regulations online, parental mediation through higher levels of selling and persuasive knowledge might be the only line of defense in combating the persuasive effects of unboxing videos.

“Vioxx Provides Powerful 24-hour Relief of Arthritis” but “Vioxx Has Caused Number of Deaths from Strokes and Heart Attacks!” – Should I Continue to Take My Medicine? • Heewon Im; Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota • DTCA promoting the benefits of medications and drug injury ads emphasizing the most fatal side effects present consumers with extremely contradictory information about the same product. How would exposure to these types of ads influence consumers of prescription drugs? Addressing this question, we investigated relationships between exposure to DTCA and drug injury advertising and consumers’ beliefs about their illnesses and medications, and their medication adherence behavior. Findings offer important implications for advertising research and practice.

Antecedents of Ad Avoidance in Different Media Contexts • A-Reum Jung; Jun Heo, Louisiana State University • This study aims to a) identify a comprehensive list of the antecedents of ad avoidance and b) examine how strongly they relate to ad avoidance, and (c) to investigate how those relationships differ across media formats (traditional vs. new media). In order to fulfill these purposes, a meta-analysis was conducted. This study found 52 antecedents. Consumer perception of advertising was the main predictor of ad avoidance. The antecedents of new media ad avoidance were not much different from traditional ad avoidance although their degree of influence on ad avoidance differed across media formats.

Interaction Effects of Source Type and Message Valence in Instagram-Based Advertising Messages About Veganism • Joe Phua, University of Georgia; Seunga Venus Jin; Jihoon Kim • A between-subjects 2 (source type: celebrity versus non-celebrity) x 2 (message valence: positive versus negative) factorial experiment (N = 288) examined the effects of source type and message valence on various outcomes of Instagram-based advertising messages about veganism. Results of data analyses indicate significant main effects of message valence on perceived information value of pro-veganism posts on Instagram and significant interaction effects of the two manipulated factors on consumers’ intention to spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about pro-veganism. Furthermore, perceived prosocial characteristics of the pro-vegan source and intention to build an online friendship with the source significantly moderated the effects of endorser type and message valence on perceived information value and eWOM intention. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

How Hateful Social Media Content Spills Over to the Adjacent Brand Ad: Implications for Brand Safety • Junga Kim; Chunsik Lee, University of North Florida; Joon Soo Lim, Syracuse University • This study proposes and tests negative spillover effect in the brand safety violation context. It created the two different experimental conditions that varied the levels of the offensive content-ad association and tested consumer responses to the advertised brands. The findings of the experimental study demonstrated that when the ad was highly associated with the offensive content, the negative emotion evoked by offensive content spilled over to the brand. The study also found that the negative spillover was amplified by ad intrusive perception and mediated by blame attribution to the brand. Lastly, negative emotions contributed to heightening negative word-of-mouth intentions.

How to Promote Health Products Online • Gawon Kim; Chun Yang, Louisiana State University; Yongick Jeong • This study examines the impacts of three critical factors on the effectiveness of online health product/service ads. Using a three-way mixed-repeated design, this study conducted online experiments with previously identified indicators of health advertising effectiveness, 2 (contextual similarity) × 2 (health threat orientation) × 2 (digital ad type). The results indicate a strong influence of contextual similarity on both Aad and PI, along with partial interaction effects of digital advertising type and health threat orientation.

Keeping up with influencers: Exploring the impact of social presence and parasocial interactions on brands • Hyosun Kim • A between-subject experiment was conducted to examine the mediating role of parasocial interaction in influencer marketing on Instagram. Drawing on the computer-mediated communication literature, the level of social presence was tested as a predictor of parasocial interaction. In a fitness blogger’s Instagram posts, social presence significantly predicts purchase intent of the brand featured in the posts as well as self-efficacy, working through parasocial interactions. Thus, parasocial interaction serves as a mediator and influencers act as role models to motivate people to exercise and benefit the brand featured in the post. Higher social presence in the posts led individuals to feel that the posts were less promotional. The effect of parasocial interaction, however, is moderated by advertising recognition, such that lower social present posts appeared to suggest promotional appeal and negatively affect purchase intent.

Can Visuals Mislead? A Test of the Visual Superiority Effect in Advertising • Kyongseok Kim, Towson University; Hyang-Sook Kim, Towson University • Based on the visual superiority effect and message framing, this study examined the role of an image in the processing of an advertising message. When the message content was ambiguous and difficult to grasp, participants tended to rely more on the image than its textual counterparts (e.g., a framed headline and/or body content) in forming attitudes toward a potential health-risk behavior (coffee drinking). Psychological mechanisms of the visual superiority effect and practical implications are discussed.

The effects of message framing and image valence on consumers’ responses to green advertising: Focus on issue involvement as a moderator • Jinhee Lee; Moonhee Cho • This study examines the effects of message framing, image valence, and issue involvement on consumers’ responses in the green advertising context. A 2 X 2 between-subjects experimental study was conducted. Significant main effects of message framing and image valence on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions were found. Regardless of message framing, positive images triggered stronger consumers’ responses than negative images. Lastly, this study revealed issue involvement’s moderation effects, and theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Going Native on Instagram: The Effects of Product Type and Endorser Congruity on Native Advertising Effectiveness • Susanna Lee; Huan Chen, University of Florida; Yu-Hao Lee, University of Florida • In recent years, brands have been actively using self-promoted individuals, also known as “micro-celebrities” or “influencers”, on native advertising to make the ad resemble a post uploaded by one’s online friend (Marwick & Boyd, 2011). This study explored how self-expressive product and perceived product-influencer congruence affect Instagram native advertising outcomes. Findings revealed that native ad with a high self-expressive product and product-influencer congruence positively influence attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, source credibility, and eWOM intention. Furthermore, results showed that people’s persuasion knowledge moderate the effect of product-influencer congruence on the source credibility.

When Online Behavioral Advertising Mistargets: The Underlying Mechanism of its Negative Impact • DongJae (Jay) Lim, University of Georgia; Shuoya Sun, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georgia • The present study sought to define and test the effects of “mistargeting” – that is, the phenomenon in which consumers are delivered online behavioral advertising (OBA) that has served them an irrelevant ad based on misinterpreted characteristics. Results of a 2 (ad mechanism disclosure: present/ absent) x 2 (targeted ad accuracy: high/low) between-subjects experiment (N = 109) show that mistargeting produces higher reactance than simple low ad relevance, and subsequent negative effects for brands.

Effects of Disclosing Ads on Instagram: The Moderating Impact of Similarity to the Influencer • Brigitte Naderer; Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna; Stephanie Schäfer, U of Vienna • We investigated the effects of ad disclosures on Instagram and explored the moderating role of similarity to the influencer. We conducted a 2×3 experiment with N = 396 women, manipulating the presence of an ad disclosure and follower-influencer similarity. Findings suggest that ad disclosures can foster persuasion knowledge. However, disclosures can also lead to increased influencer trustworthiness when there is high similarity. Trustworthiness, in turn, impacts purchase intentions and future intentions to follow the influencer.

Fear of Missing Out: Components of the Experience and Experiential Variations In Different Contexts • Dominik Neumann, Michigan State University; Esther Thorson, Michigan State University • Fear of missing out (FOMO) has gained increased attention in recent years. However, dimensionality and context-dependency of the concept remain unclear. Using semi-structured interviews we examine three possible attributes of FOMO: social comparison, counterfactual thoughts, and negative affect. We examine whether these dimensions are context-dependent, that is, whether they vary in application to advertising versus social relationships. Findings suggest the importance of all three dimensions across contexts. Implications for theory and scale development are discussed.

“The Algorithm Follows Me:” Knowledge and Experience of Targeting and Re-Targeting in Online Advertising Across Age Cohorts • Olga Shabalina; Michelle Nelson • Personalized online advertising is becoming more common across online environments, especially the use of re-targeting across media devices. Research has shown that the practice can be relevant and creepy. In our exploratory study, we interviewed people of two age groups (ages 18-27; 55-67) to gauge their knowledge and experience. Both age groups developed tactics to avoid retargeted ads, but behaviors varied given differences in media experience, feelings towards OBA, and level of privacy concerns.

Chatbots as the Next Frontier for Brand Communication • Ching-Hua Chuan, University of Miami; Wanhsiu Tsai, University of Miami; Yu Liu, Florida International University • This study presents one of the earliest empirical studies on the use of chatbots for brand communication. Specifically, this study evaluates how chatbots’ anthropomorphic design and communication that projects social presence jointly influence perceptions of parasocial interaction and dialogue, which in turn improve consumer evaluation and overall brand-liking. The findings advance the emerging research on chatbots for brand communication, and provide strategic guidelines to help advertisers capitalize on the power of chatbots to engage consumers in interpersonal communication.

Exploring the effects of compliance/non-compliance framing, desirability of end states, and brand zealotry on consumers’ responses to wearables advertising • Ruoxu Wang; Yan Huang; George Anghelcev, Northwestern University in Qatar • This study examined the combinatory effects of compliance/non-compliance framing, desirability of end states, and brand zealotry on consumers’ responses to wearables advertising. Results showed compliance framing was more effective than no-compliance framing on ad attitude, purchase intention, and WOM intention. Desirable end-states was more effective than undesirable end-states on ad attitude, purchase intention, and WOM intention. Brand zealotry moderates the interaction between compliance/non-compliance framing and desirability of end- states on purchase intention and WOM intention.

Message Features Predict Engagement with #MeToo Tweets • Nathan Lemburg; Ming Wang • This paper examines how message features affected engagement with #MeToo posts on Twitter. This study analyzed a dataset of 393,135 tweets with the #MeToo hashtag dated between November 29 and December 25, 2017. Focusing on three message features – personal reference, time orientation and emotions – results show that these three features were associated with the liking and sharing behavior toward the #MeToo tweets in different ways.

Writing Style Matters: Comparing Narrative and Expository Native Advertisements with Different Disclosure Levels • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina; Naa Amponsah Dodoo, Emerson College; Chris Noland, University of South Carolina • Previous native advertising research has reported inconsistent findings related to the impact of advertising disclosure, implying the existence of potential boundary conditions. This study compared the effectiveness of narrative and expository native advertisements with different disclosure levels and confirmed the moderating effects of the writing style. The results of an online experiment indicated that the negative impact of explicit disclosure on content liking and share intention was only significant for the expository native advertisement, but not for the narrative native advertisement. These findings are believed to be meaningful to theory building for native advertising and to advertising professionals who are running native advertisements.

Native CSR Advertising: How Does Advertising Recognition Influence Public’s Responses to Proactive and Reactive CSR? • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina • Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication has started to take the format of native advertising. Noticing its growing popularity and the lack of research in this area, the present study was conducted to fill this gap. Through an online experiment, this study investigated how advertising recognition influences the public’s responses to a proactive and a reactive native CSR advertisement. The results indicated that participants expressed more favorable attitudes and greater WOM intention toward a proactive native CSR advertisement than a reactive one only when they did not recognize the persuasion purpose of the native ad. This study also confirmed the mediation of perceived manipulativeness for the effects of advertising recognition and the mediation of values-driven motivation for the effects of CSR type. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Exploring the Effects of Facebook-Use Fluidity, Flow and Motivations on User Interaction with Newsfeed Advertising • Xiaowen Xu; Carolyn Lin • This exploratory study tested the relations among technology fluidity, social media motivation, flow and consumer responses to newsfeed advertising. The path analysis results suggest that fluidity may impact social media motivation, social media motivation could help elicit flow and perceived ad usefulness. While flow may influence perceived ad usefulness, social media motivation and perceived ad usefulness could help shape product attitude. Perceived ad usefulness and product attitude in turn may help explain purchase intention.

Teaching and Pedagogy
The Ideal Advertising Professor • George Anghelcev, Northwestern University in Qatar; Shageea (Gia) Naqvi; Sela Sar; Jasmine Moultrie • Advertising faculty and program administrators would benefit from knowing what advertising students expect from the “ideal” advertising professor, yet no research has examined the topic. The present study constitutes a first step towards building knowledge in that specific domain. We explored the issue directly by attempting to answer the question, ‘how do students imagine the “ideal” advertising professor’?, in a manner that allowed the students to freely define their expectations without being constricted by the researchers’ views. The results were partly intuitive and partly surprising. They revealed a nuanced and rather sophisticated set of expectations from the ideal advertising professor, and have actionable pedagogical implications beyond the study’s contribution to literature and methodology in advertising education research.

Inter-Agency Collaboration: Account and Creative Teams Speak Out About Their Relationship • Robyn Blakeman, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Eric Haley, University of Tennessee; Maureen Taylor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville • The relationship between account management and creative is a complicated and ever-changing one. A common theme in the advertising literature is that account and creative teams sometimes struggle with inter-agency communication. This paper looks at why communication is still an issue today and what knowledge modern account and creative teams need to know about the others role in the agency to close the long-standing communication gap. We asked both account and creatives what they wished the other understood about their roles within the agency. From their answers, we identify pedagogical suggestions for advertising professors as they work to better prepare students for careers in the industry.

Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R)
Gender Expression and Contribution Amounts in Social Responsibility Advertising for Pride Collections: Does Doing More Make a Difference? • Sara Champlin; Minjie Li • One social issue that has gained popularity in recent years is representation of LGBTQ models and messages. Using samples of heterosexual and LGBTQ participants, this study examines the impact of boundary-crossing model gender expression (masculine, feminine) and non-profit contribution amount (1%, 100% of sales) on consumer responses to advertisements that feature a social justice topic. Findings from this study suggest that complete (100%) donations may elicit skepticism among consumers, implications for practitioners are discussed.

Are Digital Natives Naive About Digital Influence? An Exploration of Generational Differences and Understanding of Social Media Influencer Marketing • Brandon Boatwright; COURTNEY CHILDERS, University of Tennessee • Influencer marketing has upended traditional notions of celebrity endorsement, as advertisers partner with social media users with smaller followings but higher levels of engagement among key audiences. Twenty-five (n=25) diverse participants between the ages of 18-51 years shared their experiences with and opinions of influencer marketing via personal interviews. Findings suggest that there are differences between generational groups’ perceptions of social media influencers and move us closer towards establishing a model of audience-influencer relationships (AIRs).

Gender Portrayals in Adverts in the Gulf: A Content Analysis of Gender Portrayals in Television Advertising • Ali Khalil, Zayed University; Ganga Dhanesh • The stereotyping of women in dependent and familial roles in advertising has traditionally prevailed according to numerous studies. This study examined the level of gender stereotyping in television advertising in the Arab Gulf region, where conservative traditions and patriarchal structures remain strong among native populations. There is very little research into gender portrayal in advertising in this region. Following the lead from previous studies, this research has found that traditional stereotyping patterns mostly hold ground in the Gulf region, but change is starting to appear in certain areas.

Special Topics in Advertising
An Eye-Tracking Approach to Evaluate Personalized Advertising Effectiveness on Social Media: From Attention to Click • A-Reum Jung; Jun Heo, Louisiana State University • The main purpose of this study was to (a) examine how personalization influences advertising effectiveness and (b) investigate the roles of ad types and privacy concern during the persuasion process by employing eye-tracking equipment. The results revealed that perceived personalization of Facebook ads is positively related to (a) ad attention (i.e., total visit duration) and (b) ad clicks (i.e., click count). However, the positive effectiveness was significant only when participants viewed native ads and when they reported low privacy concern. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Power Users’ Branded VR Experiences on Immersiveness and Sharing Behavior: Moderating Effect of Prior Company Schema • Yoon-Joo Lee, Washington State University; Mina Park; David Silva; Jinho Joo; Pritha Agarwal • Virtual reality advertising campaigns allow consumers to interact with a company offering the VR experiences in a novel way. This study examined how individuals’ differences in power usage (confidence levels in using technology in an innovative and a functional way) and the company schema (trustworthy-related perception of a company) interact in experiencing immersion and evaluating attitudinal and behavioral intentions (share and recommendation of the VR experiences). The findings revealed that power users are more likely to be immersed into the VR environment, have positive attitude toward the VR experiences, and sharing the experiences, but less likely to recommend the VR experiences than non-power users. These effects of power usage were moderated by the trustworthy-schema toward the company providing VR experiences. Power users were less sensitive to the company schema than non-power users. The implications of the findings and future studies were further discussed.

Will Location Privacy Concerns Influence Location-Based Advertising Effectiveness? • Yowei Kang, National Taiwan Ocean University; KENNETH C. C. YANG, The University of Texas at El Paso • An important, but less explored, question about location-based mobile advertising (LBA) is how location privacy concerns would affect its effectiveness. Empirical results from an online survey of 391 U.S. participants found that location privacy concerns negatively predict attitudes toward, intention to use, and actual use of LBA. Positive attitudes predict a higher intention to use LBA, but not actual use. Overall, location privacy concerns predict LBA effectiveness even after considering users’ demographics and previous LBA experience. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Graduate and Undergraduate Student Research
He Said, She Said: The Role of Gender in Influencer Marketing in Saudi Arabia • Khalid Alharbi, University of South Carolina • This study uses social learning theory and congruence between social media influencers (SMI) and consumers to evaluate the impact of gender in influencer marketing. The findings indicate that SMI-consumer congruence positively increases the attitude towards the brand and the endorsement, especially when the endorser is a male influencer and the consumer is female. Also, influencer marketing appears to be a useful tool to increase consumer purchase intention and generate positive eWOM.

Advertising and Ethics: Theme and Community Segregation on Chicago’s Rapid Transit System • Ava Francesca Battocchio, Loyola University Chicago • Home to the United States’ second largest public transportation system, Chicago has a long history with economic, educational, and racial disparities amongst its 77 neighborhoods. Through content analysis, this study examines and categorizes 1,048 advertisements by their community demographics such as education, income and race, to examine theme variance within the context of residential segregation on Chicago’s rapid transit rail system.

The Impacts of Consumer Personality Traits on Online Video Ads Sharing • Chang Won Choi, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina • Despite the increasing importance of advertisement sharing, research on the characteristics of people sharing advertisements with others is limited. This study examines the impacts of personality traits on online video advertising sharing intention. Structural equation modeling test results show that neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion among big-five personality traits have positive impacts on the intention through the advertising message involvement. Implications of the findings as well as suggestions for further research are discussed.

Conflicting Messages: Eye Tracking Participant Outcomes of Empowerment and Objectification in Contemporary Advertising • Amelia Couture Bue, University of Michigan • Empowerment-themed advertising (ETA) is becoming a popular marketing strategy, and ETAs often pair ostensibly empowering messages with objectifying visuals. This study explores the independent and collective contributions of text and visual messages on women’s self-objectification and felt empowerment, including message processing. Results indicated that ETA visuals paired with empowerment-themed captions produced the lowest objectification scores, but the presence of the photo decreased feelings of empowerment. Limited differences in message processing differences were found across conditions.

Transparent Deception: Exploring the Relationship between Moral Ecology and Native Advertising • Jason Freeman, Pennsylvania State University; Michael Krieger • This study examined how the moral ecology of advertising and public relations agencies influence native advertising attitudes and practices. Six in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with advertising and public relations executives working at two New York based agencies. Participants discussed their views on native advertising using a dualistic perspective, at one moment speaking as a consumer, and then in the next as practitioners. Insights into the structural forces that shape a practitioners’ ability to negotiate their work are discussed.

The Effect of Verbal and Visual Product Information on Cognitive and Affective Responses • Xiaohan Hu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Chen Chen, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign • Visual and verbal are the two primary presentation formats in online information consumption. We conducted an experiment to investigate the effects of different presentation formats, as well as Internet use motivations, on the audience’s cognitive and affective responses respectively in the context of online product information search. Results revealed that verbal presentation led to better cognitive responses (i.e., the perceived amount of information). Utilitarian and hedonic motivations positively influence the audience’s attitudes and behavior intentions toward product information.

The Influence of Beauty-Related YouTube Content on Consumers’ Purchase Intentions • Kyungji Lee • Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is considered an effective tool in appealing consumers. Previous studies primarily focus on text-based eWOM. This study builds on earlier studies by applying the Information Adoption Model to beauty-related videos on YouTube. It confirms that information quality and source credibility are important determinants of perceived information usefulness which positively influence information adoption and purchase intention. It also found expected relationships between dependent variables within the elaboration likelihood model (ELM).

Exploring Musical Characteristics in Public Service Announcement: A Content Analysis on PSA Videos • Bitt Moon, Indiana University Bloomington • This study analyzed the PSA advertisements to examine how music is associated with message framing and message appeals. A content analysis was conducted on a total of 362 PSA ads. The results showed that background music with positive music emotion was observed most often in PSA ads. The findings also revealed the significant relationships between musical characteristics and message components. Theoretical and strategic implications were discussed.

Listicles vs. Narratives: The Interplay Between Mood, Message Type and Disclosure on Native Advertising Effectiveness • Chris Noland, University of South Carolina • Two studies examine the interplay between mood and native advertising type (listicle and narrative) on attitudinal and behavioral response. Study 1 suggests that people in a negative mood find native ads presented in a listicle format more appealing while people in a positive mood prefer native ads presented as narratives. Study 2 added disclosure language as a potential moderator; however, the results showed consistent findings as Study 1 and suggested disclosure language did not influence the effectiveness of native advertising. Furthermore, Study 2 also identified manipulativeness as an underlying mechanism which explains the interaction between mood and native ad type.

Effects of celebrity, social media influencer, and peer endorsements on attitude and behavior towards a celebrity-owned brand: The role of source credibility and the concept of congruence • Shiyun Tian, University of Miami • Product endorsement is a widely used advertising technique. In addition to traditional celebrity endorsement, electronic Word of Mouth appears to be highly effective for brand promotion, either through online opinion leaders (i.e., social media influencers (SMIs)) or through consumers’ peer reviews. This study investigates the effectiveness of three types of product endorsement (i.e., celebrity, SMI, and peer endorsements) from the perspectives of source credibility and congruity theory. Results indicated that source credibility, especially perceived expertise, play an important role in consumers’ evaluation process of product endorsement messages. In addition, the endorser-consumer congruence and the endorser-product congruence can serve as a moderating role that reinforces the effectiveness of product endorsement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Product Category Involvement Moderates Emotion Spillover Effect on Advertising Effectiveness • You Zhan, University of California, Davis • This study proposed and tested the idea that product category involvement could influence the elaborative level of advertising processing, and therefore moderate the effects of preceding emotional content on subsequent advertising effectiveness. Verbal and visual recognition, product attitude, and purchase intention data were collected to examine the predictions and research questions. The results demonstrated the interaction effects of preceding emotional content and product category involvement on advertising processing, product attitude, and purchase intention. The recognition data showed as the product category involvement level increased, more cognitive resources were directed from visual information to verbal information, improving the elaborative level of advertising processing. In addition, the preceding arousing content had greater influence on the elaborative level of advertising with moderate or high product category involvement compared with that of advertising with low product category involvement. Similar pattern was found on product attitude. And the effect of preceding arousing content on product attitude was smaller when the product category involvement was low compared with when the product category involvement was moderate or high. Furthermore, a three-way interaction of preceding valence, preceding arousing content, and product category involvement on purchase intention was observed. Particularly, the purchase intention for low-involvement product categories benefited most from the preceding positive arousing content while that for moderate- and high-involvement product categories was the highest when the preceding content was positive calm. Practical implications of the study and suggestions for future research have also been discussed.

< 2019 Abstracts

2019 Abstracts

AEJMC 2019 Conference Paper Abstracts
Toronto, Canada • August 7 to 10

The following AEJMC groups will conduct research competitions for the 2019 conference. The accepted paper abstracts are listed within each section.

Divisions:

• Advertising
• Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk (ComSHER)
• Communication Technology (CTEC)
• Communication Theory and Methodology
• Cultural and Critical Studies
• Electronic News
• History
• International Communication
• Law and Policy
• Magazine Media
• Mass Communication and Society
• Media Ethics
• Media Management, Economics, and Entrepreneurship
• Minorities and Communication (MAC)
• Newspaper and Online News
• Public Relations
• Scholastic Journalism
• Visual Communication (VisCom)

Interest Groups:

• Community Journalism
• Entertainment Studies
• Graduate Student
• Internships and Careers
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer
• Participatory Journalism
• Political Communication
• Religion and Media
• Small Programs (SPIG)
• Sports Communication (SPORTS)

Commissions:

• Status of Women

<< AEJMC Abstracts Index

Visual Communication 2018 Abstracts

From Reel Life to Real Change: The Role of Social-Issue Documentary in U.S. Public Policy • Caty Borum Chattoo, American University School of Communication and Center for Media & Social Impact; Will Jenkins • This study examines three digital-era U.S. documentary films – Sin by Silence (2009), Playground (2009), and Semper Fi (2011) – to reveal cultural and narrative elements of influence that underscored their successful U.S. policy engagement on federal and state levels. Expanding the coalition model of documentary’s political impact (Whiteman, 2004) through case studies constructed by interviews with the collaborating policymakers, policy advocates and film directors, this study finds that social-issue documentaries may be influential for policy engagement because their narratives are perceived as emotional, factual, and nonpartisan. Documentary narrative is positioned as “situated knowledge” (Epstein, Farina & Heidt, 2014), narrative that presents human implications and lived experiences within the policymaking context. Ultimately, the policy impact of these three social-issue documentary films can be attributed to the dual defining characteristics of documentary as a visual mediated storytelling genre: both creative artistic expression and reflection of truth.

Giving Guidance to Graphs: Evaluating Direct and Indirect Annotations of Data Visualizations for the News • Russell Chun, Hofstra University • This study quantifies the effectiveness of information recall with direct and indirect labeling of the annotation layer in a news data visualization. Three variations of a New York Times graphic were presented to participants in a crowd-sourced experiment to measure their story comprehension. Our results demonstrate that direct labeling offers no advantage over indirect labeling. More significantly, annotations on visualizations do no better to enhance comprehension than visualizations without them, contradicting data visualization orthodoxy.

“This is still their lives:” Photojournalists’ ethical approach to capturing and publishing graphic/shocking images • Kaitlin Bane, University of Oregon; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon • Graphic and gut-wrenching images of death, violence, and the aftermath of pain fill our news media. This paper uses in-depth interviews with photojournalists to explore fundamental ethical questions about the decision-making process and ethical considerations involved in photographing and publishing such images. Research found participants utilize an ethic of care and focus on subjects when taking pictures, and consider audience effects only tangentially. Additionally, they maintain that images can create positive change, but not always.

To tone or not to tone: A hierarchy of influences examination of photojournalistic image manipulation • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Ross Taylor, U of Colorado-Boulder • This study investigates how professional photojournalists apply toning ethics in their news routines and whether those ethics vary by organization. Utilizing data collected from in-depth interviews with professional photojournalists and a hierarchy of influences framework, we found that while some ethical decisions are embedded in photojournalists’ news routines, these do vary greatly by organization. These findings illustrate how journalistic norms could be potentially changing and that individual news organizations are applying ethics differently.

Recoding Language with Fatty Memes: How Chinese Netizens Avoid Censorship When Referring to North Korea • Bingbing Zhang, Texas Tech University; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; David Perlmutter, Texas Tech University • Memes are humorous images, often featuring captions with superimposed text, that are shared online. In an effort to avoid censorship, Chinese netizens strategically use memes to discuss political issues. This study content analyzes memes that feature an image or likeness of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un posted by Chinese social media users on the Weibo platform. Results highlight how politically astute, tech-savvy publics can express political dissent, even in a high-censorship online environment.

Capturing the Crisis: A Content Analysis of News Photographs of the Syrian Refugee Crisis • Tamar Gregorian, The University of Southern Mississippi; Elizabeth Radley • The Syrian refugee crisis, the largest migration of displaced persons in recent history, has been widely documented through photographs. In an attempt to understand the media frames and tones that the media used in covering the crisis through photographs of the refugees, the researchers conducted a content analysis of 629 photographs and captions from The New York Times and The Washington Post from May 2014 – May 2016. Results indicate that the majority of the photographs containing Syrian refugees had a negative tone, a main message of migration, and stereotyped the refugees as victims.

Mobile Augmented Reality through the Lens of Eye Tracking • Sheree Josephson, Weber State University; Melina Myers, Weber State University • This eye-tracking study compared the usability of Yelp’s Augmented Reality app with its familiar map-based app. Results showed AR users could successfully find a destination using the location-based technology that augments a display of the physical landscape with digital information. However, AR users took longer to find the location. They also spent more time looking at the mobile screen and looked back and forth between the screen and the environment more often than map users.

Effects of Playfulness on SNS Emoji Uses • Yeon Joo Kim; Jaehee Park; Jong Woo Jun, Dankook University • This research tries to verify, from a marketing strategy perspective, various purchasing motivations and factors affecting the purchase of special emoji graphics and explore the relationship between these purchase motivations and psychological factors, including playfulness that contribute to emoji purchases. For this study, Kakao which is the number one SNS service in Korea was selected as a research target and examined relationships among four latent constructs: Self-presentation, symbolic values, playfulness, and purchase intentions. The results illustrated that self-presentation influenced symbolic values, and self-presentation is positively related with playfulness. Symbolic values influenced playfulness, which in turn lead to purchase intentions of the characters. Direct relationships between symbolic values and purchase intentions were also found.

All About the Visuals: Image Framing, Emoticons and Sharing Intention for Health News Posts on Facebook • Yen-I Lee, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georiga; Katherine Keib, Oglethorpe University; Brittany Jefferson, University of Georgia; Jennifer Malson, University of Georgia; Hyoyeun Jun, University of Georgia • Responding to calls for research on effects of visual communication in the cognitive processing of health information, a 2 (visual framing: gain/loss) x 2 (personal relevance of topic: high/low) x 2 (emoticon valence: positive/negative) mixed-factorial eye-tracking experiment tested effects of photographic images (gain-or-loss framed) and visual sentiment displays (emoticons) on sharing of health news posts. Negative emoticons led to greater sharing intent, while image framing shaped perceptions of disease severity and susceptibility.

Who Can Be Put at Risk by “Virtual Makeovers”?: Self-Photo Editing, Disordered Eating, and the Role of Mindset among Adult Female Instagram Users • Roselyn Lee-Won, The Ohio State University; Dingyu Hu, The Ohio State University; Yeon Kyoung Joo, Myongji University; Sung Gwan Park, Seoul National University • We investigated the relationship between self-photo editing on Instagram and disordered eating among adult females. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with U.S. female Instagram users (N = 382). Results showed that more frequent self-photo editing was associated with greater rumination about eating, weight, and shape, which in turn was associated with disordered eating. Furthermore, a moderated mediation analysis revealed that the mediation was significant among those with moderate and high levels of fixed mindset.

Social beautifying: How personality traits and social comparison affect selfie-editing behavior • Yu Liu, Florida International University; Weirui Wang • Individual users worldwide purposefully and selectively edit their selfies and post their photos on social networking sites. Based on social comparison framework, this study examines how personality traits affect individuals’ selfie-editing behavior through social comparison process: downward identification, downward contrast, upward identification, and upward contrast. The findings suggest individuals with high public self-consciousness, low self-esteem, and high neuroticism tend to engage in different types of social comparison, which are associated with their selfie-editing behavior.

Two days, twenty outfits: Coachella attendees’ visual presentation of self and experience on Instagram • Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin • This study uses visual discourse analysis to study how people utilize social media and photography at events such as a music festival, theoretically guided by how technological affordances allow for a new way of presentation of self. Analysis of 200 Instagram posts from attendees at the 2017 Coachella music festival reveals they care less about sharing photos of the concerts and more about curating a sense of taste, sense of embrace and sense of place.

Celebrating Life or Adversity? The Redefinition of Features in the Pictures of the Year International Contest • Jennifer Midberry; Ryan N. Comfort, Indiana University Bloomington; Joseph Roskos, Indiana University-Bloomington • “Photojournalism contests have been criticized for continually awarding top prizes in hard news categories to images that depict conflict, disaster, poverty, and other problems. Pictures like these, which have a social issues visual frame, usually focus on people from countries other than the United States and on minorities. Some photojournalism contests, like Pictures of the Year International (POYi), include a features category. Traditionally, feature photos capture

humorous, tender, or picturesque moments of everyday life, and their purpose is to celebrate the human condition. The feature photo category should theoretically be an area in photojournalism contests that breaks from the pattern of emphasizing social issues. However, in recent years of POYi the features category appears to also be dominated by images that stress hardship. To investigate whether this represents an increasing trend in POYi of awarding prizes to pictures that focus on social issues, a content analysis of the winning photographs from the past twenty years was conducted. Understanding whether the feature category in POYi has evolved is important because when it comes to shaping discourses about social issues, national identities, ethnicity and race, feature photos have the potential for emphasizing commonality. If the newsworthiness of feature photos starts to become tied to similar criteria as hard news photos, that potential will be diminished.”

Internet memes and copyright law: The transformativeness of memes as tools of visual communication in remix culture • Natalia Mielczarek; W. Wat Hopkins • Internet memes have become popular artifacts of visual communication in digital culture. They are, by definition, reiterative as they remix already existing content to produce new rhetorical statements. This interdisciplinary study explores the legal implications of such “produsage” vis-à-vis the U.S. copyright law. With the help of legal research and theoretical framework of remix culture and memetics, the study shows how and why memes deserve legal protection as transformative work.

Reinvestigating the Beauty Match Up in Food Ads • Juan Mundel, DePaul University; Patricia Huddleston, Michigan State University • In two studies, we explore how males evaluate models of different body sizes in snack and fast food ads, and the effects of the pairing of different models with products perceived to be healthy (vs. unhealthy) on participants’ evaluations of the the product, the ad, and purchase intentions. Overall, participants had better evaluations of the ads when presented with unhealthy foods and models with idealized bodies.

The Visual Framing of Immigrants and Refugees in U.S. News: Content and Effects • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Jennifer Hoewe, Purdue University; Minghui Fan, The University of Alabama; Keith Huffman, The University of Alabama • This research examines the visual framing of immigrants and refugees by U.S. news outlets and its effects on news consumers. In Study 1, coders examined the photographs used in stories about immigrants and refugees that were shared on Twitter by regional news outlets in each of the 50 states. Stories most often contained one of two visual foci: a human interest frame, featuring immigrants and refugees as everyday people; or a political frame, showcasing politicians. In an experiment, Study 2 determined the equivalency framing effects of these visuals on participants’ emotions and, in turn, their attitudes toward immigrants and refugees. Exposure to a human interest visual frame predicted more positive emotional responses, leading to greater support for immigrants and refugees. Conversely, exposure to a political visual frame predicted more negative emotional responses and then less support for immigrants and refugees.

Profile Pictures Across Platforms: How identity visually manifests itself among social media communities • T.J. Thomson, Missouri School of Journalism; Keith Greenwood, University of Missouri • A profile picture is a ubiquitous and salient part of almost any online account and provides a window not only into the individual user but also to the larger online community’s culture. Profile pictures have been called “one of the most telling pieces of self-disclosure or image construction” in online communities and users face dizzying freedom when deciding on their selection. Such choices have been studied in discrete contexts, such as how personality type affects profile picture selection on Twitter, but they have not yet been studied across platforms to see whether the same photo is used across multiple sites or whether users select different photos for different communities and what such differences or similarities reveal both about the users and about the communities from which they originate. Informed by literature in social psychology and self-representation, this study offers a seminal look into how profile pictures differ across platforms and how user personality and perceived audience affect such decisions. It does so through a three-pronged approach of personality assessment, textual analysis, and in-depth interview. The findings reveal that the younger users sampled in this study overwhelmingly prefer polychromatic images and a majority preferred to have a unique picture on each platform. These same users are comfortable having their identifiable features in their profile pictures and those who are more extroverted preferred to share the frame with someone else. In many ways, the users in the sample rejected artifice for authenticity in terms of their profile pictures’ form, content, and the the way they were processed, if at all, in post-production.

Analysis of Photographic Representation of Refugees in France • Anna Warner, Biola University; Tamara Welter, Biola university; Jason Brunt, Biola University • This research investigates the photographic representation by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) of Middle Eastern refugees seeking asylum in France. The objective is to determine how refugees were represented to audiences and whether that depiction changed in the wake of the November 2015 Paris Suicide Attacks. Analysis shows that refugees were represented differently after the attacks, in a way that aligned more closely with French collectivism than before.

Feminine, Competent, Submissive: A Multimodal Analysis of Depictions of Women in U.S. Wartime Persuasive Messages • Easton Wollney, University of Florida; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication • This analysis used Peirce’s triadic approach to interpret 58 public depictions of wartime women from 1914 to 1918 and from 1941 to 1946. The images appeared in government posters or as ads and illustrations in U.S. magazines and newspapers. Aligned in five thematic clusters, many invited polysemy through discrepant visual and verbal cues aimed at different audiences. Women as viewers and as objects of representation were addressed in the context of both citizenship and consumption.

It Costs a Lot to Look This Cheap: Preference for Low Quality Graphic Design • Shannon Zenner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Some 1000 surveys were conducted on Amazon’s MTurk, asking respondents to rate a high and low-quality visual design, in this case, a billboard ad. While most respondents preferred the high-quality ad, over a third opted for the low-quality design. The qualities they described liking in the ad differed from those respondents who preferred the high-quality design. Age also played a role in preference. Implications for many different types of visual communication are discussed.

Effects of Visual Theme and View Perspective on Visual Attention and Brand Constructions: An Eye-Tracking Study on Instagram Posts • Lijie Zhou, Southern Utah University; Fei Xue, The University of Southern Miss • This eye-tracking study examined the effects of visual theme and view perspective on Instagram users’ visual attention. It also explored whether visual attention influenced brand attitude and recognition. Results showed that participants spent the longest time viewing and paid the most attention to customer-centric images with a first-person view perspective. When in a third-person view, product-centric images received the longest fixation duration and most fixation frequency. It was also found that brand recognition was positively influenced by fixation frequency but not by fixation duration.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Public Relations 2018 Abstracts

Doug Newsom Award for Global Ethics Global Diversity
Julia Daisy Fraustino, West Virginia University; Sang (Sammy) Lee, West Virginia University; Ji Young Lee, WVU Public Interest Communication Research Lab • Being Bad Abroad: Effects of Stealing Thunder by Self-Disclosing Corporate FCPA Violations • Tensions between legal counsel and pubic relations counsel, especially during crises, are well established. For example, legal and PR professionals might find themselves at odds when an organization learns of its officials’ possible global ethics violations. Publics relations crisis best practices urge for quick, accurate, and full disclosure with publics; and the US government may require reporting; but legal and business teams may hesitate and request organizational silence, fearing image and financial concerns. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the public relations outcomes of voluntary disclosure to publics and the US government regarding corporate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. Primarily using the situational crisis communication theory and stealing thunder frameworks, this work offers a moderated serial mediation model of the effects of stealing thunder (i.e., self-disclosing crisis information first before a third party breaks the news). A 2 (stealing/thunder: organization vs. media) x 2 (corporate social responsibility history: CSR vs. no CSR) experiment probes participants’ responses. Results indicate a significant mediation effect of stealing thunder x CSR history on (a) attitudes toward the company, (b) perceived company ethics, and (c) investment intentions serially through perceived crisis severity and level of anger. Ultimately, results practically provide evidence to support legal teams joining PR teams for a transparent and perhaps more ethical approach to communicating about FCPA violations—while theoretically adding to SCCT and crisis communication literature by advancing knowledge about the mechanisms driving the scarcely researched but meaningful effects of stealing thunder in a global ethics context.

Open Competition
Alan Abitbol, University of Dayton; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication • Championing Women’s Empowerment as a Catalyst for Purchase Intentions: Testing the Mediating Roles of OPRs and Brand Loyalty in the Context of Femvertising • This survey of U.S. adults (N = 419) examines company–cause fit, CSR association, purchase intention, organization-public relationships, and loyalty for four Fortune 500 companies in the context of messages that portray girls and women positively through empowering words and imagery. Results show consumers believe the women-empowerment messages fit with the tested companies. Company loyalty, by itself, or combined with OPRs, mediates the CSR association–purchase intention relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; George Diepenbrock, University of Kansas; Patrick Miller • Research exposure: Associations between university news release features, news coverage, and page views • This study identified the features of a university’s news releases about faculty research and expertise that were related to news coverage of the university, and to unique page views on the university’s website. More than 800 news releases generated by one university’s news affairs office over nearly two years were examined. News release subjects (i.e., social sciences, arts and humanities), and the use of adverbs and distribution tools, were related consistently to news release effectiveness. Labeling the news release as an advisory, headline length, and the use of a video were not related to news release effectiveness.

Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University; Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University • Ultimate Crisis? An Examination of Linguistics and Ultimate Attribution Error in International Organizational Crisis • Through an experiment, this paper examines linguistics and ultimate attribution error in international organizational crisis. Findings suggest that attribution error exists when additional attribution information is minimal (e.g., low attribution victim crisis). Crisis attribution (crisis clusters) directly affects publics’ use of abstract language in describing and commenting on the social media crisis news. Results empirically test and apply two attribution-based theories, Linguistic Categorization Model and Ultimate Attribution Error, in international organizational crisis contexts.

Nicholas Browning, Indiana University; Sung-Un Yang, Indiana University; Young Eun Park, Indiana University; Ejae Lee, Indiana University; Taeyoung Kim, Indiana University • Do Ethics Matter? Investigating Donor Responses to Primary and Tertiary Ethical Violations • Using 2 x 2 experimental survey, the researchers examined how frequently committed (single vs. repeated occurrence) ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned to an organizational mission (primary vs. tertiary values) affect stakeholders’ attitudes toward, support of, and relationship with an offending nonprofit. Findings showed negative main effects on attitudes toward the organization and donation intention. Additionally, perceived organizational responsibility for ethical misconduct and deteriorating organizational-public relationships (OPRs) significantly mediated the effects of primary ethical violations.

Zifei Chen, University of San Francisco • Examining the Impact of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Responses toward Company: An Alignment-Social Influence Model • An Alignment-Social Influence Model is proposed to examine the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by addressing its alignment with prior corporate associations and anticipated interaction on social media. Through a 2 (associations) x 2 (valence) x 2 (interaction: lurker vs. poster) experiment, three-way interactions showed lurkers who saw aligned negative eWOM had greater attitude shift than lurkers who saw nonaligned negative eWOM; no such difference was found for posters. Positive eWOM helped maintain positive attitude.

Ying Xiong, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Brandon Boatwright • Hashtag Activism and Message Frames Among Social Movement Organizations:  Semantic Network Analysis and Thematic Analysis of Twitter During the #MeToo Movement • In the recent #MeToo movement, social movement organizations (SMOs) establish an emotional bridge between the target public and the appeal for feminism. Applying both semantic network analysis method and thematic analysis, this study explored how SMOs address feminist activism and they use hashtags to participate in the #MeToo movement. Findings of the study enhance literature of social movement organizations and activism as well as provide practical implications for effective social movement.

Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University • Strategic Value of Conflict, Activism, and Two-way Communication: Examination of Activists’ Public Relations • This study investigated the relationships between activists’ perceptions of conflict, activism, and two-way symmetrical communication, and their use of public relations tactics, by surveying activists in Korea. Two conflict subdimensions, conflict and mediation approach, had significantly positive relationships with activism perception. Conflict approach had a positive relationship with a few legal and informational public relations tactics. This study found that activists are more likely to focus on informational activities through two-way symmetrical communication.

Angie Chung; Kang Bok Lee • Dealing with Negative Publicity: A Dual Process Model of CSR Fit and CSR History on Purchase Intention and Negative Word-of-Mouth • This paper proposes and tests a dual process model of CSR communication. Building upon the framing theory and associative network theory, the authors examine how including statements about a company’s CSR fit and CSR history in apology statements can impact purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. Perceived integrity, attitude towards the apology statement and attitude towards the company are the sequential mediators that will subsequently affect purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. The results show that CSR fit will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. The findings also show that CSR history will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. For managers, the results of this study suggest that communicating a company’s CSR activities after bad publicity can help increase purchase intention and reduce negative word-of-mouth but two factors—CSR fit and CSR history—should be taken into account.

Hue Duong, University of Georgia; Hong Vu; Nhung Nguyen • Grassroots Social Movements in Authoritarian Settings: Examining Activists’ Strategic Communication and Issues Management • Triangulating 16 in-depth interviews with activists and campaign participants, news coverage, and social media content related to the campaign “6,700 people for 6,700 trees”, this study identifies activists’ strategic communication and its influence on a public protest in Vietnam. Results indicate that activists strategically used social media and interpersonal communication to advance an issue to the public arena. Activists’ unique strategies were key to the protest’s success. This study offers meaningful theoretical implications on issues management and practical lessons for activists on how to apply these strategies to foster social change.

Savannah Coco, Wayne State University; Stine Eckert • #sponsored: Consumer Insights on Social Media Influencer Marketing • Through in-depth interviews with 15 women, this study begins to fill the gap in scholarship on consumer perceptions of sponsored content posted by social influencers online. Findings show women follow social influencers because of prior topic interests, when they can relate to them, and find them authentic. But social exchange and relationship management theories cannot account for purchasing decisions despite negative views of consumers. We argue for a new theory called Influencer Relationship Management Theory.

Virginia Harrison; Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Pratiti Diddi; Jeff Conlin • What about Our Cause? The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Nonprofit Reputation • While research has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can boost a corporation’s reputation, little is known about how CSR impacts the nonprofit partner’s reputation. An online experiment tested how corporate reputation (high vs. low) and CSR message credibility influenced a high-reputation environmental nonprofit. While credibility and corporate reputation increased the nonprofit’s reputation, only the partnership with a low-reputation corporation increased supportive intention toward the CSR initiative. Implications for nonprofit CSR messaging are discussed.

Seoyeon Hong, Rowan University; Kyujin Shim, University of Melbourne • ETHICAL PUBLIC TYPOLOGY: How Does Moral Foundation Theory and Anti-Corporatism Predict Public Differences in Crisis? • This study proposes a new public typology utilizing Moral Foundation Theory and anti-corporatism. Based on a survey using population representative data (N = 1124), four ethical public types are classified as moralists, antagonists, optimists, and pragmatists. In testing the applicability of the new typology, our results suggest that ethical public types react differently in attributing crisis responsibility, expressing their emotional responses, and showing boycott intentions in evaluating a corporate crisis.

Hyun Ju Jeong, University of Kentucky • The roles of self-identity cues and public self-consciousness in supporting stigmatized causes on social media • The current study examines whether and when socially stigmatized cause (e.g., prochoice) campaigns can fuel the volunteering intention of young people through effective communication on social media. A 2 (self-identify cues: group vs individual) x 2 (public self-consciousness: high vs low) online experiment study found that the group-cues were more effective in generating the intention to volunteer than the individual-cues, in particular for those low in public self-consciousness. For those high in public self-consciousness, however, the intention to volunteer was not differently shaped by the type of self-identity cues soliciting the causes. Public self-consciousness negatively influenced the intention to volunteer. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.

Jeesun Kim, Incheon National University; Hyun Jee Oh, Hong Kong Baptist University; Chang-Dae Ham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Leadership Matters: The Role of Values Congruence between Leadership Styles and CSR Practice in Corporate Crises • Studies have examined the role of CSR in the crisis context; but no studies examined the role of values congruence between leadership styles and CSR practice. We aim to fill this gap by conducting a 2 (crisis type) x 2 (leadership style) x 2 (CSR motive) between-subjects experiment. We found that insulating effects of CSR practice were maximized when leadership styles and CSR motives were congruent, but only when a victim crisis occurred. Implications are discussed.

Arunima Krishna, Boston University • Climate Change Lacuna Publics: Advancing a Typology of Climate Change Disinformation Susceptibility • The purpose of this study is to (a) identify lacuna publics about climate change, and (b) reconceptualize Maibach et al.’s (2009) Global Warming’s Six Americas segmentation into a typology of disinformation susceptibility by integrating it with Krishna’s (2017a) operationalization of lacuna publics. Surveys were conducted among American adults to understand lacuna publics’ information behaviors compared to non-lacuna publics, and to identify individuals falling within four zones of disinformation susceptibility conceptualized in this study.

Seow Ting Lee, University of Colorado Boulder • H1N1 News Releases: How Two Media Systems  Responded to a Global Health Pandemic • Pandemics, as non-linear, atypical health communication contexts characterized by high uncertainty and information scarcity, present a valuable opportunity for explicating the relationships between health authorities’ information subsidies and news coverage. This study is based on a two-country comparative analysis to examine the intersections of public relations and journalism in the U.S. and Singapore with respect to the use and influence of information subsidies in shaping news coverage of the H1N1 Influenza A pandemic. It examines framing characteristics related to episodic-thematic frames, gain- and loss-frames, and tonality and traces the development of framing devices in two public health agencies’ news releases to subsequent news stories about the 2009 H1N1 A influenza. Findings reveal parallels and differences, and salient patterns that are contextualized to assess the relationships of variants between the two distinct media systems.

Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Yeuseung Kim • The Co-Creation of Shared Value: What Motivates the Public to Engage with Participatory Corporate Social Responsibility Activities • The purpose of the study is to explore contextual factors—an organizational factor and four issue-related factors—that might influence the public’s intention to engage with a participatory CSR activity, based on the scholarship on organization–public relationships (OPRs) and the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS). We conducted a survey with 698 respondents living in the U.S., and we tested the model across two issues (girls’ empowerment and deforestation). The results showed that constraint recognition, involvement recognition, and a referent criterion, and OPRs were significant factors, and that OPRs and involvement recognition were the strongest predictors. Problem recognition, however, did not have significant relationships with CSR participation intention. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.

Zongchao Cathy Li, San Jose State University; Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina • The Love-Hate Dilemma: Interaction of Relationship Norms and Service Failure Severity on Consumer Responses • This study aims to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes after service failure encounters with companies they previously established good relationships with. The study argues that consumers’ decision making is guided by the conformity or violation of relationship norms, and that their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes are further dependent on the severity of the service failure. Through a 2 (relationship norm types: exchange vs. communal) ✕2 (service failure severity: minor vs. major) between-subjects experiment, the study shows well-maintained relationships can help companies mitigate the negative impact of service failure under the minor failure condition. Such a buffering effect holds true for both communal and exchange relationships. However, the study also evidences a counterintuitive situation where communal relationships backfire and induce more negative consumer responses than exchange relationships when the severity of the service failure becomes extreme. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Wenlin Liu, U of Houston; Weiai (Wayne) Xu, University of Massachusetts • Tweeting to (Selectively) Engage: A Network Analysis of Government Organizations’ Stakeholder Management on Twitter during Hurricane Harvey • The ability to manage a multitude of stakeholder relationships has long been viewed important for effective crisis management. With stakeholder communication increasingly taking place on social media like Twitter, however, it remains less explored how organizations may selectively engage with multiple stakeholders (e.g., citizens, NGOs, media, businesses) on this networked platform, and how engagement priorities may shift dynamically across different stages of a crisis. Using stakeholder theory for crisis management, the current study examines the stakeholder engagement network on Twitter by 42 government and emergency management (EM) organizations across three stages of Hurricane Harvey. Organizational actors’ reply and mention networks were analyzed, suggesting that government and EM organizations prioritize engaging with primary stakeholders including citizen groups and peer governmental agencies during crisis, whereas secondary stakeholders like media and nonprofit organizations are more prioritized only at post-crisis stage.

Hua Jiang; Yi Luo, Montclair State University • Driving Employee Organization Engagement through CSR Communication and Employee Perceived Motives: CSR-Related Social Media Engagement and Job Engagement • Employee engagement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been two important issues attracting an increasing amount of attention from both public relations and CSR researchers. A theory-driven model that conceptualizes employee social media engagement, job engagement, and organization engagement and explicates how they are related to CSR communication strategies and motives is still lacking. To place our study in the context of employee/internal communication and CSR communication, we proposed a strategies-motives-employee engagement model. Results from an online Qualtrics survey (n = 836) supported all our hypotheses except for the direct link between interacting CSR communication strategies and employee organization engagement. Interacting CSR communication strategies significantly predicted employees’ CSR social media engagement and job engagement. Employee perceived intrinsic CSR motives were significantly associated with all three engagement variables in our model. We conducted a two-step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis to test all our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Liang (Lindsay) Ma, Texas Christian University; Joshua Bentley, Texas Christian University • Understanding the Effects of CSR Message Frames and NWOM Sources on Customers’ Responses on Social Networking Sites • Negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) communication on social networking sites (SNSs) is influential to customers’ responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. This study examined how strategic framing of CSR communication can better counter the effects of online NWOM, depending on the NWOM information source. Four hundred Starbucks’ customers recruited from a Qualtrics panel participated in this 2 (strategic framing: company-centered vs. engagement-centered)  2 (NWOM source: stranger vs. friend) online experiment. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Angela Mak; Song Ao, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University • Revisiting social-mediated crisis communication model: The Lancôme regenerative crisis after Hong Kong Umbrella Movement • This paper intends to 1) identify how this case follows the regenerative crisis model, 2) explore the trends of emotions and engagement of different publics and Lancôme in the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication model, and 3) identify the roles and strategies used by social media influencers. An online content analysis revealed the interlocking connection among the involved publics. Followers’ emotional responses were not only attached to Lancôme, but also the re-framing strategies adopted by the influencers.

Menqi Liao; Angela Mak • “Comments are disabled for this video”: A heuristic approach to understanding perceived credibility of CSR messages on YouTube • Scarce research has focused on the technological aspects of social media in CSR communication. This study explored how bandwagon heuristics (more likes/dislikes) and identity heuristics (enable/disable commenting) influence the perceived source credibility assessment (trustworthiness, goodwill, and competence) on YouTube through a 2 x 2 experiment (N=108). No main effects were found separately, but an interaction effect existed towards perceived competence of the company. Implications of CSR communication research and effectiveness of using YouTube are discussed.

Brooke McKeever; Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina; Geah Pressgrove; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina • Predicting Public Support: Applying the Situational Theory of Problem Solving to Prosocial Behaviors • This study explores the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) through a survey of people (N=1,275) who supported issues they care(d) about in 2017, a year filled with social movements, natural disasters, and other important issues. Beyond finding support for the STOPS model in terms of predicting communicative action, this study found support for situational motivation influencing other behaviors, including volunteering, donating, and other forms of advocacy. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Rita Men, University of Florida; Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Creating a Positive Emotional Culture: Effect of Strategic Internal Communication and its Impact on Employee Supportive Behaviors • The study surveyed 506 employees in the United States to test the effect of strategic internal communication (i.e., corporate-level symmetrical and leadership-level responsive communications) on fostering a positive emotional culture characterized by companionate love, joy, pride, and gratitude. In addition, we tested the interplay between corporate internal communication and a positive emotional culture and its influence on positive employee behaviors, specifically, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee advocacy. Results indicated that symmetrical communication and responsive leadership communication cultivated a positive emotional culture in organizations. Such culture also fostered employee OCB and advocacy. Moreover, corporate symmetrical communication directly and positively influenced employee OCB. Finally, this study found that employee OCB positively affected employee advocacy. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for public relations scholars and practitioners were discussed.

Tham Nguyen, University of Oklahoma; Robert Pritchard, U of Oklahoma • Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes from the Business Side of Student-run Public Relations and Communication Firms • Existing studies found pedagogical benefits of public relations and communication student-run firms. Yet, very little research has been done in this area. In a recent study, Bush, Haygood, and Vincent (2017) found that although interviewees placed the highest value on real-world experiences, developing soft skills, securing first jobs as well as career successes, student-run firms fell short in providing a better understanding of the business process and protocols of public relations and communication firms. This study examines the student learning outcomes from the business and financial side of student-run firms. Specifically, four research questions are proposed, including (1) To what extent are the students involved in determining services being offered?, (2) How do student-run firms approach potential clients?, (3) How do student-run firms formulate fee structure?, and (4) What business process and protocols do student-run firms teach their members? The study included an online survey, followed by interviews with firm advisors at different universities in the U.S. A preliminary report from the online survey data revealed that students mostly suggested offering multimedia/digital media services, or expanding their scope of services beyond their traditional services. Word-of-mouth and referrals were the most popular ways to recruit new clients, while sales pitches were undertaken only occasionally. Fee structures were formed depending on the firm’s business objectives and learning opportunities for students. Teaching business processes and protocols was also discussed. Theoretical implications for experiential learning theory as well as practical implications to enhance learning outcomes from the business side of student-run firms are offered.

Chuka Onwumechili • The Sun (UK) Newspaper: Strategic Audience Choice in Crisis and Reputation Repair • Organizations and individuals depend on the mass media to transmit a transgressor’s apologia to the public. However, agenda setting scholars point out that such a transgressing party (Organization or individual) is forced to depend not only in its ability to choose effective apologia strategies but also on the media to frame the apologia in ways that the party may be successful. Unfortunately, with most studies focused on transgressors who rely on media as third party, little is known of what happens when that third party (media) is the transgressor. This study on the Sun newspaper explores media as transgressor. It investigates the following: (1) how do other media react when a competing medium transgresses? and (2) how is audience reaction shaped, considering that the transgressing mass medium has direct communication line to that audience?

Jo-Yun Queenie Li, University of South Carolina; Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; nandini bhalla, University of South Carolina; Won-ki Moon, University of South Carolina; Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Nanlan Zhang, University of South Carolina • What Shapes Environmental Responsibility Perceptions? Measuring Collectivistic Orientations as a Predictor of Situational Motivations and Communicative Action • “This study investigates individuals’ cognitive, motivational, and communication responses regarding an environmental CSR issue using arguments from the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) with a cross-situational factor as an antecedent. Survey results provide empirical support for the application of the STOPS in a CSR communication context and suggest that a collectivistic orientation predicts individuals’ situational perceptions and cognitive reactions toward organizations’ environmental CSR efforts. Theoretical and practical implications for strategic communicators are discussed.”

Yufan Qin, University of Florida; Rita Men, University of Florida • Exploring Negative Peer Communication of Companies on Social Media and Its Impact on Organization-Public Relationships • This study examined whether and how the publics’ negative peer communication (NPC) about companies on social media could influence the quality of organization-public relationships through the theoretical lens of social learning theory. It also explored the sundry individual (i.e., social media dependency, tie strength) and corporate-level factors (i.e., perceived corporate reputation, public interactions with companies on social media) that could affect the publics’ engagement in NPC behavior about companies on social media. Through an online survey of 356 social media users in the U.S. who have discussed negatively about companies and brands on social media and a structural equation modeling analysis, results showed that NPC about companies on social media negatively influenced the quality of organization-public relationships. Publics who were more dependent on social media and who had stronger ties with their peers on social media tended to engage more in NPC about companies. Publics who perceived a favorable reputation of the company were less likely to engage in NPC about companies on social media. Further, perceived corporate reputation and public interactions with companies on social media positively predicted the quality of organization-public relationships.

Hyejoon Rim; Jisu Kim, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Chuqing Dong • A Cross-National Comparison of Transparency Signaling in CSR Reporting • This study examines the level of transparency signaling in CSR reports in three countries: the U.S., South Korea, and China. By analyzing 181 CSR reports from 2014 to 2017 with a computer-aided content analysis program, Diction 7.0, this study found that the three dimensions of transparency signaling – participation, substantial information, and accountability in CSR reports were varied across different countries. In CSR reports, companies in the U.S. and South Korea showed higher scores in the participation and accountability dimensions than China, while companies in China showed high scores in the substantial information dimension. In CEO letters, we discovered that the U.S. companies emphasized the participation aspects, while South Korea and China companies underscored the accountability aspect of transparency signaling. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Erin Schauster; Marlene Neill, Baylor University; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore • Public relations primed: An update on practitioners’ moral reasoning, from moral development to moral maintenance • To understand how professional identity influences moral reasoning and guided by theories of moral psychology and social identity, 153 public relations practitioners working in the United States participated in an online experiment. According to the results, moral reasoning scores have remained steady since the last time they were measured in 2009. Professional associations appear to be a valuable resource for socialization as members of PRSA who, in addition to engaging in higher levels of moral reasoning than the average adult, report they have access to regular ethics training, ethics resources and mentors, and are familiar with their industry’s code of ethics. In addition, socialization in later career stages appears to incorporate aspects of maintenance rather than development, helping to sustain levels of moral reasoning. Other communication disciplines should take note of public relations’ strong commitment to ethics education and implement similar professional development opportunities.

Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Yang Cheng, North Carolina State University • The Relationship Exchange Theory: Organization-Public Relationship (OPR) in the Big Data Age • With the expressive behavior on social media in the big data era, public relations researchers can easily track the information flows among organizations and their publics on common issues over time. Instead of examining organization-public relationships at a static point by using experiments or surveys, this study posited the relationship exchange theory, including an issue-stance-relationship phase framework and the operational six relationship modes aiming to provide a longitudinal approach to examining the relationship dynamics among two or multiple parties. Empirically, this study presents a case study on the conflicts between McDonald’s and its activist publics. By tracking the changing stances of the organization and its publics longitudinally, results show how the relationship exchange theory can help examine the intensity and direction of OPR over time.

Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Hua Jiang • Dedicated to Our Work? An Employee Engagement Model in Public Relations • Engagement has emerged as an important concept in public relations scholarship. Yet a theoretically-informed model with a clear and coherent explication of the construct is still lacking. By situating our study in the internal context, we provided an updated conceptualization and operationalization of employee engagement and proposed a strategy-engagement-behavior three-step employee engagement model. Results from an employee survey (n = 568) supported our conceptual model, showing that organizational engagement strategies positively predicted employee engagement, which in turn accounted for employees’ positive and negative messaging behavior as well as their contextual performance behavior. After controlling for significant demographics variables of gender, age, organizational size, number of subordinates, and level of management position, we identified a complete mediation effect of employee engagement in our two-step structural equation modeling analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Melissa Dodd; Hilary Sisco, Quinnipiac University; John Brummette, Radford University; William Kennan • Developing a Measure of Social Capital for Public Relations • This research synthesizes literature in order to propose a comprehensive conceptualization of social capital as a resource- and exchange- based function of public relations that provides an ontological argument for the discipline as a whole. More than conceptualization, this research proposes and empirically tests a disciplinary-specific measure of social capital among a random sample of public relations professionals. Findings suggest some relational factors of social capital shared a significant predictive relationship with public relations outcomes.

Diana Sisson, Auburn University • Control Mutuality and Social Media Revisited: A Study of National Animal Welfare Donors • Guided by OPR, relationship management, and social media literature, this study employs an online survey panel to examine national animal welfare donors’ (n = 1,033) perceptions of control mutuality and its role in social media engagement. Findings suggest that heightened perceptions of control mutuality may have positive implications for social media engagement on a national level. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for strategy development.

Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Cheng Hong; Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai, University of Miami; Bora Yook, University of Miami • Publics’ Communication on Controversial Sociopolitical Issues: Extending the Situational Theory of Problem Solving • Capturing a unique moment within a particularly volatile political climate where various issues such as climate change, immigration, and healthcare are increasingly polarized, this survey examines the factors driving publics’s engagement and disengagement in communications on controversial sociopolitical issues. It applies and expands Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) by integrating the theoretical insights from the literature of information omission and avoidance. Results not only support the applicability of the STOPS model in explaining publics’ communication on controversial sociopolitical problems but also the viability of integrating two new behavioral outcomes of information omission and avoidance into the STOPS framework. Theoretical and strategic implications on social issue advocacy are provided.

Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University; Janice Sweeter, Northern Arizona University; Elizabeth Candello, Washington State University; Kirsten Bagshaw, Northern Arizona University • Examining Efficiency and Effectiveness in Online Interactions Between United States Government Agencies and Their Publics • Text-based computer-mediated communication (e.g., email) has become indispensable for U.S. state agencies to respond to requests and engage with citizens, thereby contributing to build public trust in local governments. Despite the essential role of digital communication in enhancing public engagement, there is limited understanding of how government agencies manage generic queries to maintain relationships with publics. By synthesizing chronemics research and organization-public relationship (OPR) scholarship, we introduce an original Response Engagement Index (REI) consisting of response speed, communicated commitment, and conversational voice to measure various levels of communication engagement. We conduct a field experiment encompassing emailing a request for information to 438 state agencies based in New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Rhode Island. A total of 293 organizational responses were manually analyzed to reveal the usages of engagement strategies. Results show the interactive potential of e-government communication is largely underutilized as the average scores of response engagement remain low. Human responses are less engaging than auto-reply messages, and require one-day waiting period, if not longer. Response types and gender significantly differ in response time and engagement strategies. Findings advance the OPR literature and identify best practices for government communicators to promote citizen engagement.

Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Denise Bortree, Penn State University; Christen Buckley, Penn State University; Pratiti Diddi, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY; Anli Xiao • Combatting fake news: Examining the role of crisis response strategies and issue involvement in refuting misinformation on social media • The dissemination of fake news has accelerated with social media and this has important implications for both nonprofit organizations and their stakeholders alike. Hence, the current study attempts to shed light on the effectiveness of the crisis response strategies of denial and attack in addressing rumors on social media. Through an online experiment, users were first exposed to a fake news Facebook post accusing the American Red Cross of failing to protect its donors’ privacy because of an alleged data breach, and then participants were exposed to a version of the nonprofits’ rebuttal. Results show that highly involved individuals are more likely to centrally process information and develop positive supportive intentions toward the affected organization. In addition, low involvement individuals who were exposed to a denial response rather than an attack response rated fake news as less credible. Finally, the attack response was more effective for high involvement individuals (for whom privacy was important) than those with low involvement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Rachel Deems, Moroch Partners; Jan Wicks, University of Arkansas School of Journalism & Strategic Media • Exploring Tweeting at the Top: Do Goods-Producing and Service-Producing Firms Appear to Set Different CSR Agendas on Twitter? • This exploratory content analysis examined how 33 Global 2000 companies portray corporate social responsibility (CSR) on Twitter, and whether the agenda firms appear to present varies by industry category. Goods-producing firms appear to set an environmentally-friendly agenda, tweeting about sustainable development and using interactivity to promote their agenda widely. Service-producing firms appear to set a customer-friendly agenda, tweeting about philanthropy topics affecting many people, perhaps to transfer salience to the largest number of stakeholders.

Chelsea Woods, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) • Responding to Product (Mis)Placement: Analyzing Crock-Pot’s Paracrisis Management • Social media can breed publicly visible threats, known as paracrises. In 2018, an emotional television episode sparked online chatter surrounding Crock-Pot, which effectively managed the threat, turning the event into a public relations opportunity for the brand. This case extends our knowledge of effective paracrisis management by describing how humor can be used alone or with denial, altering our perception of ‘credible’ sources during these unique threats, and introducing two new paracrisis management strategies.

Xiaohan Xu; Maria Leonora Comello, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Suman Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Richard Clancy • Exploring Country-of-Origin Perceptions and Ethnocentrism: Implications for PR Efforts to Introduce U.S. Dairy Products to China • American dairy producers face an unprecedented opportunity to export products to China. This study examines the influence of country-of-origin effect and ethnocentrism (COO) in purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products by conducting an online survey of 505 Chinese urban consumers.  Results suggest that purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products are positively associated with higher levels of affective and cognitive COO, as well as lower ethnocentrism.  Implications for PR efforts are discussed.

Aimei yang, University of Southern California; Yi (Grace) Ji, Virginian Commonwealth University • The Quest for Legitimacy and the Communication of Strategic Cross-Sectoral Partnership on Facebook: A Big Data, Social Network Study • Nowadays, many wicked problems such as environmental issues require organizations from multiple sectors to form cross-sectoral alliances. Cross-sectoral alliance networks can transfer resources and they can also signal affiliations and value alignment between strategic partners. The communication of cross-sectoral alliances is a form of CSR communication that serves organizations’ strategic goals and objectives. Drawing on the literature on digital CSR communication and legitimacy theory, this article examines what legitimacy needs shape the formation of cross-sectoral ties on Facebook in addressing environmental issue and sustainable development issues in the United States. Combining data-mining, text-mining, social network analysis, and exponential graph modeling, this research investigates the structure of a network among 3071 organizations across multiple sectors. Findings show that organizations’ cross-sectoral tie formation is mainly driven by social legitimacy and alliance legitimacy needs. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Su Lin Yeo, Singapore Management University; Augustine Pang, Singapore Management University; Michelle Cheong, Singapore Management University; Jerome Yeo, Singapore Management University • Emotions in Social Media: An Analysis of Tweet Responses to MH370 Search Suspension Announcement • Considered one of the deadliest incidents in the history of aviation crises and labeled a “continuing mystery”, the ongoing search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 offers no closure. With endless media attention given to the crisis and negative reactions of stakeholders to every decision made by the Airlines, this study investigates the types of emotions found in social media posted by publics to the MH370 search suspension announcement. It content analyzed 5.062 real-time tweet messages guided by the revised Integrated Crisis Mapping Model. Our findings indicated that, in addition to the four original emotions posited, there was a fifth emotion because of the long-drawn crisis and only two dominant emotions were similar to the Model. A redrawn version to better encapsulate all the emotions is offered for one quadrant in the Model. Implications for both crisis communication scholarship and the importance of social listening for organizations are discussed.

Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University; Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University • Linguistic Crisis Prediction: An Integration of Linguistic Categorization Model in Crisis Communication • Through two experiments, this study examines the relationship between linguistic choice and attribution perception in organizational crises. Results showed that abstract (vs. concrete) language in crisis news elicited higher attribution and lower purchase intentions. High (vs. low) attribution crisis led to higher usage of abstract language and that language mediates crisis types’ effect on purchase intentions. The findings empirically connect two Attribution Theory-rooted theories: Linguistic Categorization Model and the Situational Crisis Communication Theory.

Ziyuan Zhou; Xueying Zhang; Eyun-Jung Ki, The University of Alabama • Were These Studies Properly Designed?: An Examination of 22 Years of SCCT Experimental Research • This study examines the current state of the application of experiment method to studies investigating SCCT published between 1995 and 2017. Through a content analysis of 55 experiments in 50 articles published in 16 journals, the results revealed that the use of manipulation checks is questionable in the field. One-fourth of the published experiments failed to provide any information about manipulation checks, which poses a serious challenge to the validity of the experiments. The generalizability can be significantly improved if researchers set up crisis scenarios in diverse situations, such as a different way of presenting the stimuli, a different medium of the stimuli, a different industry the organization belongs to, etc.

Student
Sarah Aghazadeh, University of Maryland • “Recovery warriors”: The National Eating Disorder Association’s online public and rhetorical vision • This paper explores how organizations facilitate shared meaning with publics in an online context. I used Bormann’s symbolic convergence theory to identify rhetorical vision on the National Eating Disorder Association’s (NEDA) Facebook page. The results suggest that NEDA facilitated rhetorical vision of eating disorder “recovery warriors” by extending its rhetorical community and encouraging the “chaining” process. Lastly, I argue for theoretical and practical implications of NEDA’s efforts.

Brooke Fowler, University of Maryland, College Park • The internal angle of police-worn body cameras:  A hommo narrans approach to understanding patrol officer perceptions of body cameras • Relatively little research is available on how patrol officers perceive body cameras.  This paper conceptualizes patrol officers as an internal public and utilizes the homo narrans approach known as the theory-behavior complex, which combines symbolic convergence theory and situational theory of publics (Vasquez, 1993, 1994).  Twenty six semi-structured interviews were conducted.  This study adds to the limited number of homo narrans pieces in PR and proposes a new type of covert internal activism, under-the-table activism.

Virginia Harrison • “I Don’t Consider Myself a Corporate Fundraiser”: Understanding the Nonprofit Perspective in CSR Relationships • Taking an often-neglected viewpoint, this study examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships from the perspective of nonprofit beneficiaries. In-depth interviews with corporate relations officers at public research universities across the U.S. revealed three main factors have contributed to a rapidly evolving climate for corporate partnerships: CSR partnerships help universities build their reputations rather than endowments; feature new preferences in communication-based stewardship practices; and raise questions about university autonomy and authority. These findings contribute new understandings to how CSR-related communication creates mutually beneficial relationships.

Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Exploring Publics’ Expectations for Crisis Outcomes: A Communication Mediated Psychological Mechanism in Social Media Era • The study conceptualizes consumer publics’ expectations for outcomes, in times of a preventable crisis, as a construct with three dimensions—organizational accommodation responses, punishment of the organization, and societal level regulations. The study also develops a reliable and valid scale to measure the construct. Using an online survey in Beijing China, this work empirically investigates the degree to which publics’ crisis blame and varied communication behaviors (i.e., information seeking and online expression) serially mediates the relationships between publics’ causal attribution and various publics’ expectations. The simple mediation results of crisis blame indicate that the largest mediation effects were on the psychological mechanism leading to publics’ expecting the organization to be punished. Moreover, the findings regarding serial mediation—crisis blame and communication behaviors as two mediators—suggest that active information seekers expect organizational accommodations and societal level interventions. Active online expressers, in contrast, expect to see the organization punished.

Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Moderating Effects of Perceived Government Controllability over Crisis Outcomes and Consumer Collective Efficacy on Responsibility Attribution and Demands for Regulatory Interventions • Through an online survey of Beijing consumer publics, the study empirically examined a moderated mediation model of public demands for regulatory interventions. The findings revealed that as issue involvement improved, publics—who perceived both high levels of government controllability over crisis outcomes and consumer collective efficacy—attributed less responsibility to the in-crisis company and were less likely to demand regulatory intervention. The study also found that perceived government controllability had larger impacts on public demands for regulatory interventions than responsibility attribution did in China. By delineating the relationships among issue involvement, responsibility attribution, perceived government controllability over crisis outcomes, and consumer collective efficacy, the study outlines a comprehensive psychological mechanism of public demands for regulatory interventions in times of crisis.

Keqing Kuang; Sitong Guo, University of Alabama • Being honest to the public: Lessons from Haidilao’s crisis responses in China • On August 25th, 2017, the news was reported by Legal Evening News in terms of a restaurant in China named Haidilao Hot Pot’s irresponsibility to its kitchen hygiene and it went viral on social media and online news websites. Facing the scandal, Haidilao uses several crisis-response strategies to win back public support as well as to save its reputation and image. The purposes of this study are twofold: (1) understanding publics’ responses regarding Haidilao’s crisis communication, and (2) examine whether publics think the organization being honest or not. A content analysis is conducted through collecting publics’ comments and reposts on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China. The results indicate that publics respond to Haidilao and its crisis communication strategies positively and favorably in general, and results of perceived organizational performance of Haidilao are mixed.

Ejae Lee, Indiana University • Authenticity in Public Relations: The Effects on Organization-Public Relationships • This study aimed to explicate an organization’s authenticity, develop the authenticity measurement, and investigate the effects of perceived authenticity on OPR outcomes to address the implication of perceived authenticity of an organization in public relations. The study examined the validity and reliability of the proposed authenticity measurement with two constructs, awareness and consistency. The results of SEM found the direct and indirect effects of authenticity on transparency, trust, distrust, commitment, and switching intention.

Jungkyu Rhys Lim, University of Maryland • How Public Relations Builds Mutually Beneficial Relationships: Public Relations’ Role in Creating Shared Value (CSV) • Public relations strives to build mutually beneficial relationships. However, public relations scholarship has not clearly developed strategies for mutually beneficial relationships. Creating Shared Value (CSV) is one answer, as CSV strengthens the company’s competitiveness and improves the communities simultaneously. While public relations scholars have studied Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSV is understudied. This paper examines how public relations contributes to CSV and mutually beneficial relationships, through a case study on a multinational company’s CSV program.

Keonyoung Park, Syracuse University • Sharing the Problem-Solving Experience with Corporations: How Brand Activism Creates Brand Loyalty • Brand activism is a corporations’ advocacy on social issues. Although corporations’ social engagements have been already popularized phenomena, there are only limited academic attention on brand activism. Building on social identity theory, this study investigated brand activism as a shared problem-solving experience between publics and a corporation. The current study tried to suggest a comprehensive social media brand activism model showing the relationships between individuals’ activism engagement triggered by a corporation, brand trust, and brand loyalty. In doing so, this study conducted an online survey adopting the case of #AerieREAL campaign. Results showed that brand activism has impacts on mobilizing public engagements, which increase brand trust and loyalty. Practical implications of the study were discussed, considering both activism- and business-perspectives.

Patrick Thelen • Supervisor Humor Styles and Employee Advocacy: A Serial Mediation Model • This study examines how supervisor humor styles influence employee advocacy by building the linkage between affiliative humor, aggressive humor, supervisor authenticity, employee-organization relationships, and employee advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 350 employees who work for a variety of organizations, this study’s results indicated that the relationship between supervisor humor style and employee advocacy is fully mediated by supervisor authenticity and employee-organization relationships. Significant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Teaching
Gee Ekachai, Marquette University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Lauren Olson, Marquette University • Does your PR course syllabus excite, intrigue, and motivate students to learn? • The purpose of this study is to examine how a format of a syllabus influences student motivation and engagement in a public relations course and impression on the course and course instructor.  The course syllabus functions as a pivotal role in evaluating initial course perceptions by students that could lead to student motivation to engage in classroom activities.  However, there has been a lack of research that examines how a format—design or length—of a course syllabus can affect or promote student engagement in PR courses. To fill the research gap, two studies, focus group interviews (Study I, N = 10) and a lab experiment (Study II, N = 84), were conducted with undergraduate students. Results from the two focus group interviews revealed that students preferred the long version of the visually appealing syllabus. However, findings in the experimental study indicate the importance of a visually-appealing and short syllabus as an initial point of positive impressions on the course and instructor in a public relations classroom.

Hong Ji; Parul Jain; Catherine Axinn • Perceptions of Guest Speakers in Strategic Communications Courses:  An Exploratory Investigation • Using linkage beliefs theory and focus group methodology, we conducted a systematic investigation to understand students’ perceptions of having guest speakers in strategic communications courses. Our findings suggest that students prefer speakers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences with whom they could relate and prefer to hear about tips related to networking, job search, and career advancements. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Carolyn Kim, Biola University; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville • Online Pedagogy: Navigating Perceptions and Practices to Develop Learning Communities • With the maturation of online education, there has been increased attention given to standards, motivations and best-practices within online education. This study is designed to explore the intersections between perceptions and practices that educators who teach online hold in relation perceptions and practices of students who are taking online courses. Implications from the findings on online education and ties to the recommendations from the Commission of Public Relations Education Report are noted.

Christopher J. McCollough, Columbus State University • Visionary Public Relations Coursework: Assessing Economic Impact of Service Learning in Public Relations Courses • Literature in public relations education on service learning offers strong examples of a wide variety of benefits, yet little is said about the potential long-term benefits for economic development. Given the obvious connection between public relations functions and successful businesses, this paper dis-cuss the course development, execution, and subsequent early indicators of economic impact of a collaborative project to promote a visionary arts venue and the community that neighbors it.

Amanda Weed, Ashland University • Is advertising and public relations pedagogy on the “write” track?: Comparing industry needs and educational objectives • Writing skills are paramount to the success of entry-level employees in the fields of strategic communication, yet sparse pedagogical research has been published in the past decade that specifically address methods to teach unique writing skills in the strategic communication curriculums. This study examines three unique categories of written communication—business writing, creative writing, and writing pedagogy—to provide a set of pedagogical recommendations that address the needs of the advertising and public relations industries.

2018 ABSTRACTS