Communication Theory and Methodology 2014 Abstracts
Open Call Competition
How Media Literacy and Personality Predict Skepticism toward Alcohol Advertising • Erica Austin, Washington State University; Adrienne Muldrow, Washington State University Department of Marketing and International Business • To examine media literacy in the context of personality factors, a survey of 472 young adults showed that Need for Cognition and Need for Affect both predicted critical thinking about media sources but explained little variance. Critical thinking about sources mediated effects of personality on critical thinking about messages. The results suggest that media literacy can be taught and that media literacy about media sources is an important precursor to critical thinking about messages.
Digital Media and the Perception of Public Opinion: Evidence from Colombia • Matthew Barnidge, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Perceptions of public opinion can influence political expression and behavior. But digital media may have implications for theories of perceived public opinion. Using a representative survey of Colombian adults in urban areas, this paper examines whether and how digital media use is associated with projection and pluralistic ignorance. Results show (a) a consistent relationship between Internet use and perceptions of the public and (b) that self-reference processes interact with network characteristics and information seeking behaviors.
Online News Sharing: Examining Opinion Leadership’s Discrete Functions in General and Specific Contexts • Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas • This study explicated the five functions of generalized opinion leadership (gatekeeping, legitimizing, harmonizing, influencing, advice giving), and assessed these functions’ independent associations with online news sharing. Online users (N = 198) evaluated their visit to a new news-oriented website. The gatekeeping and legitimizing functions were related to news sharing in general and news sharing about the website. The study contributes to the theoretical development of online information sharing and opinion leadership.
Presumptions and Predispositions: Integrating Self-Monitoring into the Influence of Presumed Influence Model • D. Jasun Carr, Susquehanna University • The conjoined theories of Third Person Effect and the Influence of Presumed Influence have become firmly established within the realm of persuasive literature. However, little research has explored the personal predispositions that may influence the social aspect of these processes. Using the practice of product placement, the practice of embedding of goods and services within media, this experiment expands the understanding of these theories by incorporating individual levels of self-monitoring. The changes in purchase desire engendered by the product placement stimuli were found to be moderated by our perceptions of our close social group, with individual levels of self-monitoring mediating the influence of the presumed exposure and attitude shifts. By moving the analysis of effects beyond simple persuasion and incorporating theories addressing the role others play in the persuasive process this manuscript provides a more fully described model for understanding the observed effects and explores the wide-ranging implications for researchers and practitioners.
The Absence of Women in Media Representations: The Psychological Effects of Symbolic Annihilation of Gender • Charisse L’Pree Corsbie-Massay, Syracuse University; Stephen Read, University of Southern California • Drawing on psychological theories including social exclusion, discrimination, and identity conflict, the current research investigates the effects of gender annihilation from a potential group, Digital Heroes. When watching a video for Digital Heroes featuring all men, women who self-categorize as Digital Heroes provided fewer thoughts, whereas women who did not categorize as Digital Heroes reported more positive thoughts, less negative mood, and better self-concepts. Implications for media effects research and career-based interventions are discussed.
Modeling Longitudinal Communication Data with Time Series ARIMA • hanlong fu, Salem State University • Although it is a truism that communication is a process, communication researchers, for years, grappled with analyzing longitudinal data. In recent years, linear models such as multilevel models greatly expand the analytic “toolbox” of communication researchers in dealing with longitudinal observations. However, these models are often limited because they usually assume a linear trend in longitudinal change and simple error structures. When such is the case, time series ARIMA models may be more suitable for the job, because ARIMA models are better at handling data with many time points and complex serial dependency. This article demonstrates how to model longitudinal data with time series ARIMA models. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we first illustrate the properties of ARIMA models with different sample sizes and coefficients. Then we apply the techniques to analyzing a real dataset. We conclude the article by discussing the implications and caveats of using ARIMA models.
Disentangling the Impact of Centering on Collinearity in OLS Regression • hanlong fu, Salem State University; David Atkin • This article investigates the impact of centering on collinearity in regression models. Extant literature in social sciences suggests that centering can reduce collinearity in linear models by suppressing correlation between variables. Using both simulated and actual datasets, this article shows that centering could both increase and decrease some collinearity diagnostics in multiplicative models. The impact of centering on collinearity is more cosmetic than commonly thought because point estimates, standard errors, and variance explained stay the same after the centering. This implies that correlation-based diagnostics such as VIF and tolerance are insufficient for identifying collinearity. Therefore, researchers should consult a range of diagnostics to identify the problem. Most importantly, only valid research design and measurement could solve the problem of collinearity.
Culture, Power and Political Opinion: A New Model of Media Effects • Matt Guardino • I construct a new conceptual model of how mass media coverage shapes public policy opinions that synthesizes social scientific theories of framing and the survey response, on the one hand, and critical-cultural theories of hegemony, on the other. John Zaller and Stanley Feldman’s psychologically based “question-answering model” is rooted in the ambivalent considerations about public issues that most people hold. Scholars have integrated processes of framing into this theory in order to explain how considerations are activated through communication. I extend these ideas by defining considerations as individual-level manifestations of fragmented popular common sense, as Stuart Hall has developed this concept in his theory of cultural articulation based on the work of Antonio Gramsci. By linking psychological mechanisms of opinion formation to processes of ideological contestation as manifested in media coverage, my framework marries systematic analysis of news content and survey data to theoretically rich critiques of the power relations that shape political communication. I illustrate my model with evidence on U.S. media coverage and public opinion on economic and social welfare issues, and I sketch potential methodological strategies that relax some of the tensions between the divergent approaches to communication and belief formation that my model draws on. My framework speaks to questions that are central to democracy by taking account of how media coverage can enable both elite influence and popular resistance to dominant political understandings.
How Television Viewers Use the Second Screens to Engage with Programming: Development and Validation of the Social Engagement Scale • miao guo • This study investigated second-screen television viewing behavior by introducing the social engagement construct and validating its measurement scale. Two online consumer panels of 1,052 second screen users were sampled to complete the three-stage research strategy. Through conceptualization and operationalization of social engagement, this study identified five underlying dimensions in social engagement, i.e., utility, control, interaction, influence, and attention. These five dimensions demonstrate different functionalities delivered by mobile devices such as laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones. The theoretical and practical implications of the social engagement construct are also discussed.
Uses & Grats 2.1: Considering Ecosystem In User-Generated Content Gratifications • Michael Humphrey, Colorado State University • Uses & Gratifications has long asked a useful question: “What do people do with media?” (Katz, 1959). Numerous critics, however, have called for a substantive response to digital media’s radical change in the way users consume and create content. A new question is in order: “What do mediated people do with their experience?” For the purposes of studying User-Generated Content, this paper builds off Sundar & Limperos “Uses & Grats 2.0” (2013), adding Ecosystem to the MAIN model and concludes with a case for online ethnography.
Social Dominance as a Gateway to Racism in Homicide News Processing • Erika Johnson, University of Missouri • This study was a 3 (race: white, black, control) x 3 (role: victim, perpetrator, control) x 3 (multiple messages) mixed factorial design. The study examined whether news stories about violent shooting homicides would impact implicit (measured by the IAT) and explicit attitudes about race and empathy. Social dominance orientation was an additional independent grouping variable explored. The study found that high SDO individuals expressed more overall explicitly reported empathy than low SDO individuals and that high SDO individuals expressed most reported empathy toward Black perpetrators in news stories. However, for high SDO individuals, perpetrator primes led to more explicit negative Black stereotyping than victim stories. These findings indicate that aversive racism may occur in processing of news stories as primes. This has practical implications for journalists in that while news consumers may be capable of understanding crime as a social problem, bias in news coverage may reinforce implicit aversive racism.
Strengthening the Core: Examining Interactivity, Credibility, and Reliance as Measures of Media Use • Barb Kaye, University of Tennessee Knoxville; Tom Johnson • This study investigated uses and gratifications of social network sites, blogs, and Twitter for political information, and compared the influence of reliance, credibility, and interactivity on motivations. Reliance and credibility strongly influence motivations for using SNS. Blog motivations are most heavily affected by credibility, and reasons for using Twitter are most heavily influenced by interactivity. This study supports reliance as a measure of media use and suggests that credibility and interactivity are also effective measures.
The Allure of Aphrodite: How Gender-Congruent Media Portrayals Impact Adult Women’s Possible Future Selves • Ashley Kennard; Laura Willis; Melissa Kaminski, The Ohio State University; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, The Ohio State University • Over five days, a prolonged exposure experiment presented non-college women with magazine portrayals of females in gender-congruent or gender-incongruent social roles. Responses revealed that 3 days after media exposure, only gender-congruent roles remained salient. Exposure to gender-congruent portrayals induced more concerns about possible future selves and produced more positive affective valence compared to gender-incongruent portrayals. Exposure impacts were mediated by the extent to which women linked the magazine portrayals to their own possible future selves.
The Effect of Message Framing Intertemporal Choices • kenneth kim, oklahoma state • The current study explores the effect of message framing on intertemporal choices in the context of promoting retirement plans. A plethora of research has reported that people prefer sooner but smaller rewards over later but larger options. Few studies have examined the impact of framing on investment decisions that differ in timing. Experiment 1 examines the framing effect on immediate but small amount of investment vs. delayed but larger amount of investment when the amount of saving outcome is fixed. Experiment 2 explores the framing effect on the same intertemporal choices when the amount of monthly contribution is fixed.
Actual or perceived?: Comparing two dimensions of scientific knowledge in the United States and South Korea • Hwalbin Kim, University of South Carolina; Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina; Jeong-Heon JC Chang, Korea University; Ju-Yong Ha, Inha University • This study examines predictors of two key dimensions of scientific knowledge: perceived and factual knowledge about generically modified organisms (GMO) and nuclear energy in the U.S. and South Korea. The findings show that perceived and factual scientific knowledge are conceptually unique across two countries’ samples and not significantly correlated. Most of indicators were not associated with factual knowledge, and attention in newspapers and on the Internet and elaborative processing were related to perceived knowledge.
Communicating with key publics in crisis communication: The synthetic approach to the public segmentation in CAPS (Communicative Action in Problem Solving) • Young Kim, Louisiana State University; Andrea Miller, Louisiana State University; myounggi chon • The purpose of this study is to identify and understand key publics (active and aware publics) and their communication behaviors in crisis communication using the public segmentation framework which has been rarely used in crisis communication. In doing so, the study quantitatively tests a new theoretical framework of Communicative Action in Problem Solving (CAPS) classifying eight types of aware and active publics. Through the new framework of public segmentation, the survey results from 1,113 participants substantiate eight types of active and aware publics as well as their communicative characteristics in a crisis situation. The study methodologically and theoretically not only extends the public segmentation research to crisis communication but also creates better understanding of aware or active publics in CAPS by intertwining cross-situational and dynamic or situational approaches. Findings will contribute to practical and theoretical development in crisis communication by helping crisis managers effectively communicate with the key publics.
The Role of Fear Appeals in the Tailored Health Messages • Nam Young Kim, Sam Houston State University • When a message is tailored to individuals’ interests, can the message be persuasive regardless of other message attributes, and if not, what media content can differentiate the tailored message effectiveness and how? In the context of an anti-binge drinking health campaign, this study particularly tested how the emotional content (i.e., fear appeals) in tailored messages influences people’s messages processing and their attitudinal/behavioral changes. Using a 2 (regulatory focus: promotion vs. prevention) X 2 (message framing: gain vs. loss) X 2 (level of fear appeals: low vs. high) experimental design, the findings indicate that the influence of tailored messages should be discussed cautiously, because the message’s effectiveness is reduced when combined with a high fear appeal. The findings have theoretical and practical implications on the use of emotional appeals in tailored communication.
The Augmented Cognitive Mediation Model: Examining Antecedents of Factual and Structural Breast Cancer Knowledge Among Singaporean Women • Edmund Lee; Min-Cheol Shin; Ariffin Kawaja; Shirley Ho, Nanyang Technological University • The focus on knowledge acquisition is an important component of health communication. This study tests the Cognitive Mediation Model (CMM) in the breast cancer context in Singapore, where a nationally representative survey data was collected from 802 women between the ages of 30 and 70 through random digit dialing. Results supported the augmented CMM model, which proposed structural knowledge as an added dimension of knowledge. Attention to media was found to have indirect influence on factual and structural knowledge through interpersonal communication and elaboration. Interpersonal communication and elaboration were significantly related to both forms of knowledge and they mediate the influence of attention to media and two forms of knowledge. Risk perception is positively related to attention to media; it also has indirect influence on interpersonal communication and elaboration mediated by media attention. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Cues about cues in politicians’ social media profiles: Effects of commenters’ attractiveness and claims of cognitive effort • Jayeon Lee, Lehigh University; Ray Pingree, Louisiana State University • Based on the heuristic-systematic model, we argue that consideration of cue applicability and reliability can facilitates effective heuristic processing. Using an experiment, this present study examines how commenters’ attractiveness and their claims of cognitive effort influence the comments effects. The results indicate that vote intention is significantly influenced by the cognitive effort cue whereas attitude is significantly influenced only when the viewer is interested in politics. The attractiveness cue did have a significant influence.
Lost in Translation: Social Capital in Communication Research • Chul-joo Lee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Dongyoung Sohn, Hanyang University • To examine how communication scholars have imported the concept of social capital from other disciplines, we first analyzed the citation patterns among social capital-related journal articles, book chapters, and books. Moreover, we investigated whether and how communication scholars have cited three pioneering scholars in this area, i.e., Robert Putnam, Pierre Bourdieu, and James Coleman, thereby revealing which aspect of social capital has been emphasized whereas which aspect has been ignored. Based on the analyses of 171 journal articles, books, and book chapters extracted from the Communication Abstracts, we found that the translation of social capital concept into communication research has been driven and dominated by a small group of scholars, Wisconsin political communication scientists. The content analysis results demonstrate that the prominent players certainly favored the work of Putnam over those of Bourdieu and Coleman. The implications of these findings for communication research were discussed.
The spiral of media addiction in the age of social media • Edmund Lee • The study of pathological media use or media addiction is one topic in the field of communication that has drawn much attention. With the prevalence of social networking sites, scholars in recent years have proposed a case of social media addiction. This paper will review some of the existing paradigms of media addiction research, and argue for a case of social media addiction by looking at the problem of addiction through LaRose’s (2010) social cognitive model. This paper will propose a theoretical synthesis of social cognitive model and Noelle-Neumann’s (1974) spiral of silence—the spiral of media addiction which will take into account how the normalization of the surveillance culture can explain high social media usage.
A Quarter-century of Reliability in Communication Content Analyses: Simple Agreement and Chance-corrected Reliability in Three Top Journals • Jennette Lovejoy, University of Portland; Brendan Watson, University of Minnesota; Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University; Daniel Riffe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Study examines reliability reporting in representative samples of content analysis articles (N=581) in three major communication journals—including level and type of reliability assessment. Data from 1985-2010 show increasing reporting of chance-corrected reliability coefficients and reporting reliability for all variables. Results varied with the percentage of articles reporting both simple agreement and a reliability coefficient. Overall, 9% of articles reported at least one variable with reliability coefficient below the .70 “minimum standard.”
Observing the ‘Spiral’ in the Spiral of Silence: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach • Joerg Matthes • Time is of the utmost importance when designing studies to test spiral of silence theory. The theory posits that individuals who feel they are in the majority become more dominant and louder over time while the minority camp becomes increasingly silent. However, few studies have tested the dynamic nature of the theory. Therefore, the aims of this paper are to revisit the role of time in spiral of silence research and to demonstrate how dynamic processes can be modeled with three-wave panel data. Using survey data on the topic of unemployment, the relationship between change in the opinion climate and change in opinion expression is estimated with a latent growth model. Findings confirm the dynamic processes predicted by the theory.
Don’t Call It Polarization: Rethinking the Problem in American Politics • Bryan McLaughlin, University of Wisconsin-Madison • By most accounts, polarization is the biggest problem in American politics today. I argue polarization is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem. Using a social identity framework, I propose that “political conflict” more accurately encompasses the range of problems typically mislabeled as polarization. Further, I offer an alternative account of polarization; ideological polarization has increased because political conflict motivates partisans to adopt policy positions that are more distinct from the political outgroup.
Testing Multi-Group Measurement Invariance of Public Relations Leadership • Juan Meng, University of Georgia • Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis has been suggested as a reliable approach to assess measurement invariance in advancing theory construction in communication research. In this study, the author applied this approach to a public relations setting: to test the measurement equivalence of scales for public relations leadership across multiple samples. Three sample groups (senior public relations executives, mid-level public relations practitioners, and college students majoring in public relations) were surveyed to test the invariance of the measurement instruments. Findings indicate that the measures of public relations leadership can be equivalent across different groups, although partial measurement invariance has been demonstrated in certain dimensions. Implications of using this method for international and multiple-group sample in communication research are discussed.
Better Communications in Crisis Communication • Husain Murad, Howard university • Crisis communication plans were established after the 9/11 attacks and Katrina disaster to help minimize risk factors that come when a disaster occurs. The need of disseminating information accurately and quickly to the public is essential during crisis. The goal of the study is to develop an effective formula for information dissemination to the public during crisis communication. The study develops a crisis communication formula based on the earlier theories of diffusion of information and diffusion of innovation in establishing better communication plans during natural or manmade crisis. The study suggests that a better dissemination of information during crisis can occur when the right innovation or technology is being used toward the right medium choice such as opinion leaders to relay information to the public who vitally depends on the given information. The study proposed a formula aiming toward simplicity. The simpler the message is the more dissemination it gets. The study suggests that natural crisis and man-made crisis create different challenges in dissemination of information.
Theorizing the ‘Risks Sphere’: Cultural Theory of Risk, Communication and Public Policy • S. Senyo Ofori-Parku, University of Oregon • Researchers in the multidisciplinary field of risk perception and communication work from different epistemological and methodological frameworks, often seen as incompatible. One of these perspectives is the cultural theory. This paper examines the foundations of the CT and argues that despite the conceptual differences between the cultural theory and psychometric paradigm, both approaches can benefit from a mutually reinforcing alliance. And the SARF offers the framework for this union. Public policy implications are discussed.
Emotional and Cognitive Dimensions of Perceived Risk Characteristics, Genre-Specific Media Effects, and Risk Perceptions • SANG-HWA OH; Hye-Jin Paek, Hanyang University; Thomas Hove, Hanyang University • This study examined how cognitive and emotional dimensions of risk characteristics, drawn from the psychometric paradigm of risk, affect the relationship between risk perceptions and either news or entertainment media. Survey data among Korean adults about H1N1 indicated that the emotional but not the cognitive dimension of risk characteristics is positively related to risk perceptions. Exposure to entertainment media affects personal-level risk perceptions—not directly but indirectly through the emotional dimension of risk characteristics.
Parody Humor: The Roles of Sympathy and Attribution of Control in Shaping Perceptions of Credibility • Jason Peifer, The Ohio State University • This study explores how impersonation-based parody narratives can generate sympathy for political figures targeted by such humor. It also investigates the implications of feeling sympathy for political figures—as generated by parody humor—pertaining to subsequent impressions of credibility. It is demonstrated that a sympathetic predisposition is positively related to the elicitation of sympathy upon exposure to a parody message. Moreover, attribution of control is shown to interact with sympathy to predict perceptions of goodwill.
The Impact of Information about What Majority Scientists Believe in a Dual-Processing World • Yilang Peng; Patrice Kohl; Soo Yun Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Heather Akin, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Eun Jeong Koh, Department of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Allison Howell, University of Wisconsin; Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Scholars have long questioned the journalistic practice of “false balance,” which gives disproportionate coverage to perspectives that are often less valid than other claims within the scientific community, and proposed that reporters should provide information about the extent of scientific agreement – where the majority of scientists and evidence lie on the truth claim – when covering contested scientific issues. A field experiment implies that false balance and information about scientific agreement have heterogeneous effects on readers’ perceptions of scientific controversies across different levels of elaboration likelihood. For unmotivated readers who have low interest in science news or low need for cognition, false balance increases their perceived support of the minority view within the scientific community and information that presents a majority scientific agreement acts reversely. For motivated readers, however, a majority agreement within the scientific community drives them to carefully scrutinize the arguments presented by the minority side. Thus, they will support the minority perspective most in the presence of false balance but least when a story does not “balance” contested viewpoints. The pattern surfaces both for perceived scientific opinion as well as personal belief.
News as Judge or Stenographer: Partisan Differences in Effects of Adjudicating Factual Disputes • Mingxiao Sui, Louisiana State University; Ray Pingree, Louisiana State University; Newly Paul, Louisiana State University; Isabelle Ding, Louisiana State University • An experiment tested effects of whether a news story adjudicated a factual dispute and whether this adjudication supported factual claims by Democrats or Republicans. Unlike past findings that corrections of partisan beliefs can backfire (Nyhan & Reifler, 2010), factual beliefs moved in the direction of the adjudication regardless of partisanship. Among Democrats but not Republicans, adjudication also increased epistemic political efficacy (EPE), or confidence in one’s own ability to decide which political claims are accurate.
Measuring Perceptions of Stewardship Strategies: A Valid and Reliable Instrument • Geah Pressgrove, West Virginia University • Through a survey of nonprofit stakeholders, this research builds on previous studies that have explored the construct of stewardship and advances a valid and reliable scale. Findings provide a new conceptualization of the construct with five dimensions, rather than the previously theorized four-dimension solution. Theoretical, measurement and practical applications are discussed.
The Word Outside and the Pictures in our Heads: Contingent Effects of Implicit Frames by Political Ideology • Sungjong Roh, Cornell University; Jeff Niederdeppe • Using data from systematic web image search results and two randomized survey experiments, we analyze how seemingly innocuous alternative word choices (implicit frames) commonly used in public debates about health issues affect public support for health policy reforms. In Study 1, analyses of Bing (N=1,719), Google (N=1,872), and Yahoo Images (N=1,657) search results suggest that the images returned from the search query “sugar-sweetened beverage” are more likely to evoke health-related concepts than images returned from a search query about “soda.” In contrast, “soda” search queries were far more likely to incorporate brand-related concepts than “sugar-sweetened beverage” search queries. In Study 2, participants (N=206) in a controlled web experiment rated their support for policies to reduce consumption of these drinks. As expected, strong liberals had more support for policies designed to reduce the consumption of these drinks when the policies referenced “soda” compared to “sugar-sweetened beverage.” To the contrary, items describing these drinks as “soda” produced lower policy support than items describing them as “sugar-sweetened beverage” among strong conservatives. In Study 3, participants (N=1,000) in a national telephone survey experiment rated their support for a similar set of policies. Results conceptually replicated the previous web-based experiment, such that strong liberals reported greater support for a penny-per-ounce taxation when labeled “soda” versus “sugar-sweetened beverages.” In both Study 2 and 3, more respondents referred to brand-related concepts in response to questions about “sugar-sweetened beverages” compared to “soda.” We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and methodological implications for studying implicit framing effects.
Who’s afraid of spoilers: Need for cognition, need for affect, and narrative selection and enjoyment • Judith Rosenbaum, Albany State University; Benjamin Johnson, The Ohio State University • In spite of people’s supposed tendency to avoid spoilers, previous experimental studies into the impact spoilers have on enjoyment have produced contradictory findings. The present study investigates whether personality traits moderate this relationship. An experiment (N = 368) found that those low on need for cognition preferred spoiled stories, while individuals with a high need for affect enjoyed unspoiled stories more. In addition, fiction reading frequency was positively related to the enjoyment of unspoiled stories.
Uniformity in Framing: An Incomplete Model of Quantitative Equality • Jeremy Saks, Ohio University • The following paper attempts to propose a new way of thinking about framing research. Numerous scholars have highlighted the need for agreement within framing research but little change has been made since those papers were published. This paper highlights relevant research and uses it as the basis for a hypothetical model. That model distinguishes between two concepts: quantitative and qualitative framing. Ultimately, some suggestions are made in an effort to increase dialogue on different ways to increase uniformity within the realm of framing research.
Explicit Silence: The Effect of Obviating Media Censorship on the Spiral of Silence • Brett Sherrick, The Pennsylvania State University; Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University • Spiral of silence theory argues that people evaluate whether or not their opinions should be self-censored based on perceptions of public opinion; the current study investigates the effect of a more explicit form of censorship – of online comments at the end of a news site editorial –on spiral of silence variables. This study also advances methodological understanding of spiral of silence research by comparing the traditional willingness-to-share variable to more direct measurements of personal attitude.
Combining Modernization and Participation: diffusing innovations through participatory dialogue • Siobahn Stiles, Temple University • Utilizing data gathered from participant observation and in-depth interviews collected from a development project in the southeastern United States, this paper seeks to demonstrate the need to combine modernization theories with participation theories for successful development work. Despite the often binary understandings of the two paradigms, this case study indicates that the two schools of thought within development communication work best in conjunction and may even call for a “better practices” formula as a combined model. The paper uses the theories of Jurgen Habermas and Paulo Freire to inform the practical application of development communication in a program focused on individual recovery for female addicts and former prostitutes. In the months spent as both a participant observer and interviewer, the author found that participatory dialogue was structured through the diffusion of innovations, the latter of which was the foundation of the program. Both modernization and participation as they were infused and combined throughout this program points to the likeliness that the program’s high success rate is contingent upon the practical application of both theories. Participatory dialogue informed the change agents on how to improve the diffusion of innovations, and set innovations gave structure to participation.
Socialized into using or avoiding news: Family communication, personality, motivations and news exposure among teenagers • Sebastian Valenzuela, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Ingrid Bachmann, Catholic University of Chile; Marcela Aguilar, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile • Adolescence is a key period in the development of individuals’ news habits but little is known about the processes involved in this socialization. This study proposes an integrated model in which the influence of family communication on the motivations and behaviors of adolescents in relation to news consumption occurs through the development of personality traits relating to information processing. Structural modeling of data from a representative survey of 2,273 Chilean adolescents supports the theorized model.
Social News Use, Social Talk: Facebook and the Social Mediation Model of Political Participation • Aaron Veenstra, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Benjamin Lyons, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Chang Sup Park; Narayanan Iyer, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Delwar Hossain, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Cheeyoun Kang, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • One of the primary features of social media is its facilitation of users’ expression within their networks via status updates and shared information, which form the core of the content within social network sites. The lack of any barriers to entry and their functional ease of use have made social media technologies invaluable in fostering community participation and discussion by presenting new sources of information and new pathways to political involvement. This study extends the framework of the communication mediation model by investigating the role of Facebook in each stage of the model, resulting in a set of add-on phenomena we call the social mediation model. The study uses general population survey data to test this new model, with results indicating that the use of Facebook for news plays a major indirect role in promoting both expressive and traditional forms of political participation, in part by driving users to traditional news sources. Findings also show that political talk on Facebook provides direct benefits for expressive participation above and beyond the effects of political talk in general. These findings are discussed in the context of the growing use of Facebook as a primary news source, and particularly as one that is socially curated by one’s own friend network.
Informal Media Literacy Training and the Processing of Unbiased and Partisan Political Information • Emily Vraga, George Mason University; Melissa Tully, University of Iowa • Partisans are poor judges of news content, rating neutral content as biased against their views and forgiving biased content when it favors their side. This study tests whether a short news media literacy public service announcement appearing before political programming can influence credibility and hostility ratings. Our findings suggest a media literacy PSA can be effective, but its impact depends on the position of the news program and on the political ideology of the audience.
An Emotional Opinion Page: Editorial Mood and the Dynamics of Public Opinion • Mike Wagner; Michael Gruszczynski, Austin Peay State University • In this paper, we develop a new measure of editorial mood – defined here as the average emotional tone of the editorial page when discussing a specific issue—across three issues: abortion, taxes, and energy policy. We then examine the factors that influence whether editorial mood becomes more positive or negative over time. In general, we find that general editorial tone is affected by the public mood
Persuasive Storytelling in the Interactive Age: A Theoretical Model Explaining Interactivity Effects in Narrative Persuasion • Amanda J. Weed; Alexandra Beauchamp, Ohio University • The authors propose a Narrative Persuasion Interactivity (NPI) model, which posits that interactive narratives will heighten the symbiotic relationship between character and audience member through promotion of character identification and experience taking to “become the character.” By integrating the existing literature with paradigms that include interactivity, we may expand the knowledge of narrative persuasion and its cognitive processes including character identification, experience taking, spiraling reinforcement, and, ultimately, attitude change.
Perceived Source Similarity and Processing of Social Media Health Messages: Extending Construal Level Theory to Message Sources • Rachel Young, University of Iowa • Social media and other participatory web platforms provide avenues for mediated interpersonal health communication among members of a social network. This experimental study uses construal level theory of psychological distance to predict how health messages from socially proximal online sources influence health-related cognition and behavioral intention. The study represents an extension of construal level theory to testing how source social distance effects whether messages result in concrete vs. abstract thoughts about a health topic. As predicted by construal level theory, participants who perceived sources of social media health messages as highly similar listed a greater proportion of beliefs about the feasibility of health behaviors, while participants who perceived sources as more dissimilar listed a greater proportion of beliefs about the desirability of health behaviors. Practically, results of the study could be useful in determining how health messages from socially proximal others are likely to be processed and thus how messages from these sources might best be employed in health education and promotion, particularly in encouraging individuals to reach health goals.
Content Analysis and Computational Social Science: Rethinking a Method • Rodrigo Zamith; Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota • This article focuses on what the turn toward computational social science means for traditional forms of content analysis. In particular, we consider the traditional way of conducting content analysis in light of the algorithmic coder, assess what is gained and lost in turning to algorithmic solutions, and discuss an alternative approach that leverages traditional and computational approaches in tandem. This approach, we argue, helps keep content analysis relevant in a changing research environment.
Decoding “The Code”: Reception Theory and Moral Judgment of Dexter • Jason Zenor, SUNY-Oswego; Steve Granelli, Ohio University • Dexter has been a popular television show on the Showtime Network since 2006. It is successful because it uses the narrative devices of classic cop shows, while adding the twist of having the protagonist as an anti-hero who kills people. Consequently, this show requires the audience to question concepts inherent to the genre: justice, morality, and good versus evil. Accordingly, this study examines how moral processes and audience engagement are connected in audience reception of morally ambiguous characters. Using Q-Methodology, this study found four dominant audience perspectives: Vigilante Justice, Psychological Puzzle, Gratuitous Violence and Deviant Escapism. Each perspective coincides with both a mode of audience engagement and a theory of moral reasoning. Consequently, this paper argues that there may be a strong relationship between the audience’s mode of engagement and its moral reasoning of anti-heroes that should be further tested in future studies.
