Archives for June 2013

Faculty

Television News Reporting in Salinas, California: Defining and Informing a Latino Community with Excessive Crime News Coverage • Carolyn Brown, American University; Robin Chin Roemer, University of Washington • This study uses cultivation theory to examine how local television news connected Latino identity and violence during a two-month span in 2012, in Salinas, California. Salinas is a predominately Latino community with a significant immigrant population and a reputation for gang violence. Findings indicate a substantial focus on crime news stories and a disproportionate identification of Latinos as perpetrators of crime compared to the identification of Latinos as victims of crime.

Beyond the Positive-Negative Paradigm of Latino News-Media Representations: DREAM Act exemplars, Stereotypical Selection, and American Otherness • Angie Chuang, American University; Robin Chin Roemer, University of Washington • News media research on coverage of Latinos has historically focused on negative stereotyping, particularly representations of the racial group as threatening, criminal, lazy, or a burden on society. The 2010-2012 newspaper coverage of a proposed immigration policy commonly referred to as the DREAM Act provides a unique case study, one that addresses a subgroup of Latinos that inherently defies traditional stereotypes. A mixed-method analysis of the use of exemplars in newspaper coverage of the DREAM Act reveals a portrayal that, on its face, appears overwhelmingly positive. However, by applying Wilson, Gutiérrez, & Chao’s conceptualizations of Stereotypical Selection, this study reveals layers of complexity beyond a traditional positive-negative paradigm of Other representation. Newspapers’ emphasis on signifiers of hard work, academic achievement, self-determination, and other traditionally “American” cultural codes, juxtaposed with signifiers of poverty and financial need, constitute a Stereotypically Selective “success story.” Such semiotic codes connote a dependency on American systems, and a need to assimilate American values, in order to overcome the “deficits” of being Latino and undocumented. The exemplars are ultimately cast in the model of “problem people” who must be addressed by the dominant culture. Thus, the newspaper coverage establishes the DREAM Act as both tool and metaphor for the mediation of American Otherness, or the socially and culturally constructed idea of earned and conditional Americanness, while maintaining the dominant cultural order’s designation of Other status.

‘The Worldwide Leader in Sports’ As Race Relations Reporter: Reconsidering the Role of ESPN • George Daniels, The University of Alabama • Employing the textual analysis technique, this paper examined ESPN’s award-winning Outside the Lines program on Alcorn State’s 2012 hiring of its first white football coach. ESPN Films also premiered Ghosts of Ole Miss, a feature film about the all-white football team that in 1962 had a perfect season as James Meredith integrated the school. ESPN’s Wright Thompson and Jemele Hill both produced 2012 reports on race, but only one was socially responsible journalism.

At the Intersection of Libel and Race, Aaron Henry picks up a Hitchhiker? • Aimee Edmondson, Ohio University • Lesser known civil rights activist Aaron Henry, the long-time president of the Mississippi NAACP, faced many threats of violence throughout the 1950s and 1960s. This included the bombing of his home. He also faced libel suits filed by local public officials in retaliation for his activism. Henry v. Pearson and Henry v. Collins were just two libel cases filed against a civil rights leader in an effort to silence them into submission. These cases are added to a growing list of libel cases filed in the wake of the famous 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan, the most famous libel suit that also was a case about race. Such suits were an attempt to take civil rights discourse out of the newspapers and off television and bog it down in the court system.

Media representations and Latino students’ college experiences • Joseph Erba, American University • The study connects media’s racialization of Latinos and Latino students’ educational challenges in the U.S. by focusing on how Latino students perceive the role media play in shaping their college experiences. It explores the influence that Latino students with different levels of cultural identification ascribe to media representations of their racial/ethnic group. Findings reveal that media representations mostly affect Latino students with high levels of cultural identification.

The Ambassador and the Activist: Reporting the Willie Earle Lynching of 1947 • Craig Flournoy, Southern Methodist University • “This paper examines coverage of a 1947 lynching by the mainstream media (particularly the “New York Times” and “The New Yorker”) and the black press (especially the Columbia, S.C. “Lighthouse and Informer” and the “Pittsburgh Courier”). Comparing the reporting in the black and white press allows some longstanding assumptions to be tested: * That the black press has been a “fighting” press more interested in advancing a point of view than in superior news reporting. * That the “”New York Times”” provided the best coverage of the civil rights revolution. * That John Popham, southern correspondent for the “Times” from 1947 to 1958, did a better job covering the South than any other journalist. To assess the validity of these conclusions, this paper examined coverage of a 1947 murder case that became the largest lynching trial in southern history. The study found that the “”Lighthouse and Informer’s”” John McCray and other African-American reporters produced stories that were well-sourced, explored the white and black communities, provided historical context and identified white bigotry as the key problem. Popham and other celebrated white reporters produced poorly-sourced, ahistorical journalism, portrayed white southerners as progressive and endorsed racial segregation. Still, the mainstream media’s coverage of the Earle case represented significant progress. Despite their often flawed reporting and obvious racial bias, the “Times” and “The New Yorker” and other mainstream publications shed unprecedented light on the savagery of a lynch mob and the South’s all-white system of justice. Dixie would never be the same.

“How Ohioans and their Newspapers Defended African-Americans who Emancipated Themselves from Slavery” • Lee Jolliffe, Drake University • By the 1850s, Ohio had become a welcoming state for African-American refugees escaping slavery, based on a statewide examination of its newspapers of the era. This article traces the specific factors that drew national attention to Ohio as a refuge for the brave African-Americans able to flee slavery and seek personal freedom, then explores how ordinary people in that state, both African- and European- American, responded with direct action against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, all as reported with applause by Ohio newspapers. For comparison, an Appendix provides summaries of public responses to the Act and to African-American refugees in other Northern states.

Beyond the Digital Divide: A Look at Media Expectancies across Seven Media and Three Racial Subgroups • Amanda Mabry, The University of Texas at Austin; Matthew Eastin, The University of Texas at Austin; Vincent Cicchirillo, University of Texas at Austin • First-level digital divide research centered on the gap between people who did or did not have access to the Internet and the subsequent social inequities caused by a lack of access to information. Although such imbalanced access to digital media appears to be dissipating, other social inequities – from health to education – remain a serious concern across racial subgroups. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the digital divide and knowledge gap discourse from a macro-level perspective based on today’s rich media environment. The current analysis supports the notion that although media usage differences based on race alone have waned, racial subgroups do differ in their motivations to use various media. The findings highlight how media is used differently across racial subgroups, which increases our understanding of the relative utility these media – both traditional and new. These insights into which media channels are preferred by certain subgroups are important in order to effectively disseminate information that might narrow any existing gaps in knowledge and other disparities.

Improving Attitudes towards International Teaching Assistants through Perspective Taking • Uttara Manohar, The Ohio State University; Osei Appiah, The Ohio State University • International teaching assistants across campuses in United States are often criticized and negatively evaluated by undergraduate students. The social identity framework suggests that criticism of international TAs can be a result of intergroup bias. Perspective taking is an effective mechanism that improves intergroup attitudes. We conducted an experiment to test whether perspective taking helps improve undergraduate students’ (N = 125) attitudes towards international TAs. Findings support effectiveness of perspective taking but demonstrate gender differences.

The Cosby Show and A Different World: Impact on HBCU Enrollment • Paula Matabane; Bishetta Merritt • “Anecdotes claim that viewing The Cosby Show and A Different World inspires African American youth to attend an HBCU. This study tested that claim through an empirical survey of 265 current HBCU students at seven schools measuring the relationship between racial-cultural needs and traditional needs for attending an HBCU and student reliance on social networks, media content including uses and gratifications associated with viewing The Cosby Show and A Different World when making college choice. Stepwise regression analyses showed different variables explained the needs of males and females in making college choice. Males were more reliant social networks and films set at HBCU’s with strong male leads. Females were more television reliant especially on The Cosby Show and A Different World in deciding to attend an HBCU. Parental encouragement was always most significant for explaining male needs but not those of females. Low religious participation was a significant predictor of female needs for attending an HBCU.”

Whiteness Theory in Advertising: Racial Beliefs and Attitudes toward Ads • Angelica Morris, The University of Texas at Austin; Lee Ann Kahlor, University of Texas at Austin • We argue that ethnic identity and color blind racism exist across audiences, and examine those constructs as they relate to model race and attitudes towards advertisements received by white and non-white audiences. Although ethnic identity and color bind racism were present in both audiences, we did not find significant relationships between race indices and attitudes toward ads. We did find color blind racism was significantly related to black audiences receiving an ad with a black model.

Look who’s talking to our kids: Representations of race and gender in TV commercials on Nickeloedeon • Jack Powers; Adam Peruta • There is a paucity of research examining the representations of race and gender in television commercials featured on popular children’s programs. The few studies that do exist tend to emphasize Saturday morning cartoon ads from decades ago. With that in mind, a systematic content analysis of commercials on the popular children’s cable network Nickelodeon was conducted. This study analyzed the frequency, physical, and appearance characteristics and gender of lead presenters (central characters) in TV commercials featured as part of the weekday after-school programming on Nickelodeon. The analysis of 196 lead presenters suggests that Asians and Hispanics are grossly underrepresented relative to their real-life population numbers; African-Americans are overrepresented; racial/ethnic minority presenters have darker skin, darker hair, wear more makeup, and have more accessories than their white/majority counterparts; and females are underrepresented both as lead presenters and as voiceover actors relative to their real-life population numbers. Further, we found no significant differences between racial/ethnic minority lead presenters and their majority counterparts in regard to a variety of physical and appearance characteristics (weight, height, style of dress, grooming, cleanliness, etc.). Finally, we report that indigenous peoples are absent, and majority presenters are underrepresented.

Invisible struggles: The representation of ethnic entrepreneurship in US newspapers • Leona Achtenhagen, Jonkoping International Business School; Cindy Price Schultz, University of Wyoming • How media portrays entrepreneurship plays an important role in its perception as a career option. During economic crises, self-employment presents an alternative to unemployment. Ethnic minority businesses, which more often are founded in low-threshold industries, represent an example of the struggles of new ventures. Our paper examined US newspaper coverage of ethnic minority entrepreneurs and showed that the phenomenon is almost invisible in US newspapers, despite its importance for the US economy.

We Are Rom. We Are Gypsies: Constructions of Gypsies in American Reality Television • Adina Schneeweis, Oakland University; Katie Foss, Middle Tennessee State University • This study examines two reality television programs that introduce the Roma/Gypsy ethnicity to a U.S. audience – TLC’s My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding and National Geographic Channel’s American Gypsies. Textual analysis suggests that the programs construct discriminatory and stereotypical representations for the fairly unfamiliar American audience, by overemphasizing tradition, gaudiness, and minimizing cultural adaptation. The representations are problematized for the ways in which they other a group of people already under scrutiny.

Social Media, Social Good: HBCU College Students’ Use of Social Media During Superstorm Sandy • Kim Smith, North Carolina A&T State University; Bonnie Newman-Davis, North Carolina A&T State University; Adrian Gray, North Carolina A&T State University; Vanessa Cunningham-Engram, North Carolina A&T State University • “Students at an HBCU used a snowball technique to recruit friends and family members to take an online survey which was designed to learn how respondents–mostly college students– used social media like Facebook and Twitter during Superstorm Sandy to keep in contact with friends and family in the storm in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. The students saturated their social media sites with a link to the survey, whose results revealed: (1.) 46% of respondents spent up to three hours and 13% up to six hours per day using traditional and social media to keep up with the storm and how friends and family members were coping with it, (2.) 91% said keeping in contact with family members and friends via social media was important because it helped ease anxiety, as they were able to communicate–to some degree– with family members and friends, and (3.) 71% said they had become extremely dependent, dependent or somewhat dependent upon social media during the storm. The results speak to (1.) media system dependency theory’s resiliency (people will become more dependent upon a particular medium during a crisis), and (2.) the role of some social support functions, which explain why people use social media. The study illustrates the growing importance of social media during an emergency. The researchers discuss these and other findings.

Race in Virtual Environments: Competitive versus Cooperative Games with Black or White Avatars • Mao Vang; Jesse Fox • Often, virtual environments and video games have established goals, and to achieve them users must either compete or cooperate with others. This research tested how communicative goals in a virtual environment may influence how White users perceive Black and White virtual partners. White participants (N = 101) played an anagram game competitively or cooperatively in a virtual environment with a Black or White avatar. Black avatars elicited more positive assessments than White avatars.

Automatic and Controlled Processes in Stereotype and Prejudice Activation • Ming Wang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • In the study of racial stereotype and prejudice activation, the dual process model of automatic and controlled mechanisms has gained a fair amount of scholarly attention and has been heatedly debated. In this essay, I will first review recent developments in the study of automaticity and control of stereotyping and prejudice in social psychology. I will start with an influential model that integrated both processes in the study of stereotype activation and trace how the model has been refined and extended to this day in three notable aspects. Then I will use implicit priming theory (Mendelberg, 2001) as an example to illustrate how this theory can benefit from the more elaborate and intricate conceptualization of stereotype activation in social psychology. Reciprocally, I will also use an O-S-O-R model (Markus & Zajonc, 1985; McLeod, Kosicki, & McLeod, 1994) developed in the context of campaign communication to elucidate how the program of research in stereotype activation in social psychology can also be synthesized through this framework. Ultimately, I strive to uncover potential nexuses that will bridge theories in the disciplines of communication, political science, and social psychology in their approaches to tackling racial stereotypes.

Linguistic Acculturation Effects on Attitude toward Ad Language among Hispanic Audiences of Mexican Descent • John M. Burton, The Laster Group; Kenneth C. C. Yang, The University Of Texas At El Paso • The growth of the U.S. Hispanic population and its purchasing power over the past twenty years has prompted marketers to look for better and more efficient methods of effectively targeting messages to this important consumer segment. This study focused on the historically dominant mass-reach medium of television and explored acculturation effects on attitude toward television ad language among Hispanic audiences of Mexican descent. In this study, we examined the relationship between linguistic acculturation and Hispanic audiences’ attitudes toward ad languages in television commercials. Ethnic identity and gender were used as moderating variables. The study used a survey method to collect empirical data from 312 college students in a large Hispanic-serving public university in the Southwest. Hierarchical regression results confirmed that, while linguistic acculturation is a strong and positive predictor of Hispanics’ attitude toward Spanish language in television commercials, media content and public language use negatively predict their attitude toward Spanish language in television commercials. Unexpectedly, gender and ethnic identity did not moderate the relationships. Discussion of findings and the study’s limitations are presented and the implications for future research are outlined.

Serving the Needs of the Latina Community for Health Information • Ronald Yaros, University of Maryland; Jessica Roberts, University of Maryland; Elia Powers, University of Maryland-College Park; Linda Steiner, University of Maryland • Latinos remain the largest US population with limited health literacy (Andrulis & Brach, 2007). Concerned with how local media can meet the information needs of underserved audiences, we interviewed Latinas who are pregnant or mothers of young children, living in a community with a high percentage of Spanish speakers, and we surveyed 33 local health professionals. Findings are that Latina women’s most common source of health information was family and friends. They said they tune to television and radio (which they can receive in Spanish), but gave low grades to news media for regular or useful health information. Medical professionals agreed that Latinas generally get their health information through friends and family, and rated the media poorly in terms of serving Latinas’ health information needs. Since this data indicate that local news media are not serving these women’s needs as much as they could, we offer recommendations.

 

Student

Russian ethnic press in the U.S.: a comparative analysis • Nataliya Dmytrochenko, University of Florida • This explanatory study examines the structure and content of Russian ethnic press in the U.S. In particular, the paper investigates the topics that are pertinent to the Russian community, comparing the content of the two largest weeklies in New York and Los Angeles markets. Moreover, the paper elaborates on previous research of Lin & Song (2006), by identifying differences and similarities among Russian, Latino, Korean, and Chinese ethnic newspapers in greater Los Angeles area.

Memory of an Out-Group: (Mis)identification of Middle Eastern-Looking Men in News Stories about Crime • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University; Tanner Cooke, Pennsylvania State University • This study examined White individuals’ (mis)identification of Middle Eastern- and Caucasian-looking men as portrayed in news stories about crime. Considering social identity theory, construal level theory, and the Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern terrorist stereotype, this study predicted participants would correctly identify Caucasian-looking men and misidentify Middle Eastern-looking men as perpetrators. Results show that correct identification and misidentification of Caucasian-looking men is greater. Moderating variables are discussed. A new measure of attitudes toward Arabs and Muslims is recommended.

Economic Goals of Media Firms for Ethnic Groups and Media Firms Owned by Ethnic Groups • Xueying Luo, Ohio University • This study uses secondary data to examine the impact the ownership has on the economic goals of ethnic newspapers. A comparison between 24 newspapers owned by ethnic groups (media-by) and 24 newspapers for ethnic groups (media-for) showed a pattern consistent with media-for newspapers being more interested in making a profit, while media-by newspapers are more dedicated to serving the ethnic groups.

Basket Case: Framing ‘Linsanity’ and Blackness • Kathleen McElroy, University of Texas • In early 2012 commentators eagerly discussed the racial significance of “Linsanity,” when Jeremy Lin became an overnight sensation in the National Basketball Association, “America’s blackest network TV show.” A textual analysis reveals four frames that writers employed at the intersection of blackness and Linsanity: the novel underdog, a reminder of racism, a pioneer, and antidote to blackness. These frames illustrate hegemony and racial triangulation’s grip over Asian Americans and blacks in their struggle for cultural acceptance.

Growing Up Latina: Identity Exploration in Latina Blogs • Marilda Oviedo, The University of Iowa • This paper examines some of the blogs hosted on the Latinitas organization Web site. Members of the organization can post and update individual blogs. The purpose of this papers is two-fold: 1) to explore the ways the ways in which the blogs posts were used as a means of self-expression and 2) to examine how ethnic identity was conceptualized in the blog posts.

Unveiling the American-Muslim press: News agendas and frames in Islamic Horizons and Muslim Journal • Syed Saif Shahin, School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin • This study compares the coverage of Islamic Horizons, a news magazine run by immigrant American-Muslims, and Muslim Journal, a weekly newspaper run by black American-Muslims. Findings indicate both publications are overwhelmingly U.S.-centric, focusing on domestic political issues and community affairs rather than on the external Muslim world. But Islamic Horizons gives a lot more coverage to Muslims from the Middle East/South Asia, and Muslim Journal to black American-Muslims, reproducing a historical schism in American-Muslim society.

<<2013 Abstracts

Motion Picture Firms’ Strategic Use of Product Placement: An Examination of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cues • Jiyoung Cha, George Mason University • This study examines intrinsic and extrinsic factors that impact motion picture firms’ product placement and differences among major distributors in terms of their strategic use of product placement using a sample of 398 movies. Results suggest that intrinsic cues are more important than extrinsic factors in predicting the number of product placements in a movie. Specifically, the number of product placements in a movie depends on the genre, distributor type, rating, and brand extension.

Social Media as Branding Tools: Exploring the Relationship between Perceived Social Media Use and Brand Relationship • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida; Moonhee Cho, University of South Florida • The purpose of this study is to examine the role of social media in cultivating brand relationship and brand equity. An online panel study results showed that the effect of a brand’s social media use on brand equity is mediated by consumers’ perceived relationship investment of the brand. The study also found that consumer and product characteristics moderate the relationship between the perceived social media use of a brand and the PRI of the brand.

Less is Better? The Impact of Reduced Newspaper Publication Schedule on Advertising Revenue • H. Iris Chyi, University of Texas at Austin; James Ian Tennant, University of Texas at Austin • To address an ongoing debate regarding the impact of reducing newspaper publication schedules as a cost-saving measure, this study proposed two analytical models and, based on a national survey of 198 U.S. college newspapers, conducted empirical tests to estimate the plausible effect on advertising revenue. Results indicated a substantial loss in both scenarios, which may cause some proponents of a reduced print schedule to pause before implementing such a measure.

Diffuse Competition and the Decline in Newspaper Advertising • John Dimmick, School of Communication, Ohio State University • The paper introduces a concept called diffuse competition and relates measures of this phenomenon for the decline in newspapers share of all advertising. Although it has been suggested that competition is responsible for this decline, this paper provides the first actual measurement such competition. Time series regression shows a statistically significant negative relationship between the degree of diffuse competition and newspapers share of advertising. The paper also uses curvilinear regression to assess the impact of diffuse competition on newspaper classified advertising. It is suggested that in the current media environment diffuse competition may have more explanatory power than pairwise competition.

Antecedents and Consequences of Social Television Viewing with Network Primetime Programming • Miao Guo, Ball State University • This study investigated viewers’ social television viewing experience by introducing social engagement construct. Three categories of predictors from the perspectives of television program perceptions, social media characteristics, and audience attributes were proposed to predict the social engagement experience. Four possible consequences of the social television viewing experience were tested. The analyses identified ten motives for using social media to engage with television content. The findings further illustrated that the social engagement process is a composite result, which is determined by multiple components jointly. In particular, program-related factors (e.g., program affinity, program involvement, and genre preferences) as well as the individuals’ innovativeness attributes are suggested to predict the social television viewing experience. This study further discovered that social engagement has significant impacts on program attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, audience satisfaction, and product purchase likelihood.

Who’s Minding the Station? An Exploration of Shared Service Agreements within U.S. Local Television Markets • Kevin Hull, University of Florida; Amy Jo Coffey, University of Florida • In a struggling economy, some television station owners have turned to shared services agreements (SSAs) to keep their stations afloat, despite concerns that such business arrangements may violate FCC ownership policy. A national sample of local television stations (N=270) was analyzed to determine the proportion of shared services agreements existing within the United States. Findings reveal that mid-sized markets are the most common locations for such arrangements. Implications for news audiences and industry are addressed.

A Comparative Study: Hollywood and Korean Sequel Films’ Performance in Korea • Dam Hee Kim, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor • Despite the economic and cultural importance, the film industry is notorious for its high risk. To cope with high risk, film studios often make sequels of highly successful films. Also, while in most countries domestic films’ share is decreasing under the strong influence of Hollywood films, South Korea is one of the few countries where domestic films are preferred over Hollywood films. Noting most studies examined determinants for films’ success focused on the U.S., this paper analyzed all Hollywood and domestic films released from 2003 to 2007 in Korea to investigate what types of films were successful. Sequel films attracted more viewers than non-sequels, and newly named sequels attracted even more viewers than numbered sequels. Also, Korean domestic films attracted more viewers than Hollywood films, perhaps due to the improvement in Korean films’ quality, Hollywood studios’ inexperienced local marketing in Korea, illegal downloading of Hollywood films, and Screen Quota.

When Ideology Meets Bottom Line • Seok Ho Lee, University of Texas at Austin • This study explores how newspapers use ideological bias as a strategy of product differentiation in intense market competition, with cases of South Korean conservative daily newspapers. The evidence demonstrates that conservative newspapers tend to use ideological labeling against the liberal more frequently as the competition among newspapers becomes intense, and ideological mood of conservative groups becomes greater. The results suggest that market pressure is a strong indicator for newspapers’ ideological bias.

The emergence and development of hyperlocal news websites: An organization ecology approach • Wilson Lowrey • The organization ecology approach, with its emphasis on legitimacy, mimicry and dependency on past paths taken, offers a helpful framework for assessing budding trends, or even fads. The “hyperlocal news” phenomenon, which emerged in earnest in the mid 2000s, is a good example. The present study examines the quick emergence and development of the hyperlocal news website from within the framework of the organization ecology model. More than 800 operative and defunct hyperlocal sites, sampled from three different databases, were examined for population growth patterns, and correlation between growth and public legitimacy. A smaller sample was examined for evidence of growing mimicry during population growth, and for tendencies toward an institutional orientation over time. In addition, impact of community context was explored. Findings showed that the hyperlocal population development pattern differed somewhat from traditional patterns, with a steeper rise in density. Population development correlated with a rise in public legitimacy of the hyperlocal form, as predicted by the organization ecology model. The hyperlocal population also showed an increased institutional orientation over time, with more ads, more staff, more frequent use of official sources, and more attention to writing errors. Sites showed some evidence of path dependency and increased isomorphism over time (sameness with one another).

Bounded Rationality and Consumer Choice: An Evaluation of Consumer Choice of Mobile Bundles • Miao Miao, Southwest Jiaotong University; Krishna Jayakar, Penn State University • As a potential means of attracting more consumers and increasing average revenues per user, product bundling has become a widespread business strategy in every type of industry. Though numerous prior studies have examined consumer valuation, consumer surplus, and the relative distribution of social welfare in bundling transactions from a theoretical perspective, there have been relatively few empirical analyses with large datasets; the few available papers utilize very small data sets, usually less than 100 customers. In addition, no prior research has targeted the Chinese telecommunication market. To address these problems, we examined the rationality of consumers’ bundling choice in the mobile telecommunication industry using operational data from China Telecom, one of China’s largest mobile telecommunications providers. We use a value model for assessing the rationality of consumer bundling choice, which compares the pricing for a consumer’s amount of usage in talk time, short message service (SMS) and Internet surfing time under the current bundle, and available alternative bundles. We assess the degree of risk aversion inherent in consumer choice by comparing the optimal bundling plan to their chosen bundle for each individual customer, and estimate the influence of factors such as gender, age, user level, etc. The findings suggest significant differences between customers in terms of their choice in telecommunication bundling. The evaluation suggests that many users did not select their optimal bundle, given their usage levels; in general, they paid more than they should. Additionally, the results show that there were no significant differences by gender, age or usage level on decision making. Prior research has suggested that service providers too can benefit from enabling consumers to choose appropriate bundles and service levels through higher retention rates and reduced churn. The recommendations of this paper will therefore be of interest to consumers as well as mobile telecommunications firms.

Do extended brands affect parent brands?: Focusing on feedback effect and expectation-disconfirmation theory • Sang-Ki Baek; Byeng-Hee Chang; Sang-Hyun Nam • The present study constructed the research model about the feedback effects of brand extension and researched the extended channels through South Korean newspapers. It adopted the expectation disconfirmation theory for expansion of brand extension-related theory. The present study constructed 5 latent variables, which are, ‘extended channel evaluation before extension’, ‘parent brand evaluation’, ‘perceived performance’, ‘expectation disconfirmation’ and ‘extended channel evaluation after extension’, and 1 moderate variable, ‘perceived fit’. In the results, the present study found new information that perceived performance affects parent brand evaluation through the extended channel brand evaluation after extension, and expectation disconfirmation negatively affects parent brand evaluation in low perceived fit. It was known that expectation disconfirmation can affect parent brand evaluation regardless the perceived fit(Ed. note: Unclear. Do you mean, ‘of perceived fit’? Please confirm). Finally, we verified that expectation disconfirmation might differ by levels of perceived fit as the expectation disconfirmation theory. We discussed theoretical contributions for the feedback effects of brand extension and the expectation disconfirmation theory, and practical implications.

Windowed Distribution Strategies for Substitutive Television Content: An Audience-Centric Typology • Ronen Shay, University of Florida • An audience-centric typology is proposed to assist media mangers implementing windowed distribution strategies in an attempt to curtail media consumption cannibalization. Diffusion theory identifies the demographics most likely to consume substitutive television content, while uses, gratifications, media habits, and consumption values are collaboratively used to re-segment the audiences based on platform selection motivators. Psychographic labels are then applied using the dominant characteristic of each audience type and then correlated to a specific windowed distribution strategy.

Lost in Transition; Managing convergence at regional newspapers • Marco Van Kerkhoven, Utrecht School of Journalism; Klaus Schönbach • We investigate to what extent and how Dutch regional newspapers implement and manage convergence strategies. Thirty managers, editors and market experts at all six regional newspaper publishers were interviewed. At least 27 factors were mentioned as having a critical impact on the potential success of the transition towards convergence. However, while most regional dailies experiment with convergence, they hardly invest in reskilling journalists or in new content concepts. We conclude that the management of regional newspapers in the Netherlands tends to operate safely. A lack of successful examples and good ideas seem to play a role in the hesitation to invest.

Examining the Effect of Innovation on the Market Structure of the U.S. Media Industry • Tom Vizcarrondo • This study examines if and how technological innovation influences market structure of the media industry. OLS regression analysis is employed to address the following research question: How do technological innovations affect the market structure of the media industry? Results suggest that changes in the adoption rates of television and cable television influence changes in the media industry’s market structure. The study discusses implications of these findings, and recommends future related research efforts.

Bandwagon Effects of Popularity Information on Audience’s Media Product Selection: Information Load and Cultural Unfamiliarity • Xuexin Xu; Wei-Jen Wayne Fu • Building on information cascade theory and dual-process theories, this study examines bandwagon effects of product-popularity information on audience’s media product selection. It further examines whether the strength of bandwagon effects is stimulated by how uncertain people are about the quality of the content offerings. An analysis of box office sales of Hollywood movies in 73 countries during 2003 – 2007 is conducted. The results confirm the presence of bandwagon effects and the influence of quality uncertainty.

Is Online News Still An Inferior Good? Re-Examining The Economic Nature of Online News and Print Newspapers • Mengchieh Jacie Yang, Texas State University • Newspaper companies in the United States face declining print revenue but monetizing online content remains challenging. Research has found news consumers generally have low intent to pay for online news, they hold somewhat negative attitudes toward online news, and they have loose emotional attachments to online news. These reasons led to analysis indicating that online news is an inferior good. This study sought to re-examine the economic nature of online news and print newspapers with dataset collected by the Pew Research Center in 2012. The results did not support the hypotheses. In other words, online news is no longer an inferior good and the print newspaper is no longer a normal good. Important theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

<<2013 Abstracts

Open Competition

The Pursuit of Privacy and Common Good: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Big Data Mining for Socio-Economic Development • Debashis ‘Deb’ Aikat, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper delineates the theory and practice of ethical big data mining for socio-economic development in four parts. This paper also features a list of additional reading and big data terms with concise definitions explicating their relevance to big data mining for socio-economic development.

The Ethical Roots of the Public Forum: Pragmatism, Expressive Freedom, and Grenville Clark • David S. Allen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • The public forum has been connected to the functioning of democracy, expressive freedom, and the media’s role in society. While the public forum’s legal contours have been examined, the ethical foundation of the public forum has not. Relying on archival research, this paper argues that ideas about the public forum can be traced to the pragmatism of Grenville Clark, who influenced judicial opinions through his work on the American Bar Association’s Bill of Rights Committee.

Comparing the Ethics of citizen photojournalists and professional photojournalists: A coorientational study • Tara Buehner, University of South Carolina; Ana Keshelashvili • In the digital news environment, amateur images — citizen photojournalism —  appear next to professional photojournalists’ photos, contributing to a probable tension and sense of professional threat among professional photojournalists. Using the coorientation approach, this study explores the ethical values of citizen photojournalists and professional photojournalists, the extent to which they agree about these values, how accurate they are in assessing each others’ values, and how congruent they perceive they are with each other.

Journalists’ Social Capital and Moral Development • Hyunjeong Choi, University of Texas at Austin • Although there are some studies on whether the media influence social capital such as political participation and civic engagement, and interest has grown in the benefits of social capital to the individual and community, few theoretical models have been advanced to explain the effect of social capital on journalists and morality in journalism. This essay suggests theoretical grounds for the argument that journalists’ social capital influences their morality in their jobs. Drawing on the three-dimensional model of social capital (structural dimension, relational dimension and cognitive dimension), this essay contends that journalists seem to have a high level of social capital; especially, they have a much greater cognitive dimension of social capital (shared vision shared codes, or shared paradigms) because of their professional codes and organizational values, and journalists’ social capital performs a function of an important predictor of their moral development.

Hack, Flacks, and Whacks: A Pilot Study of the Utility of Individualistic Ethical Orientation as a Variable of Interest in the Study of Joye Gordon, Kansas State University; Bonnie Bressers, Kansas State University • This pilot study questioned the utility of examining journalists’ individualistic ethical orientation (based on dimensions of idealism and relativism). It found that journalists’ individual ethical orientations was associated with their allegiance the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. However, individual ethical orientation did not predict journalists’ perceptions of those in public relations professions. Findings indicate that ethical orientation does have predictive value and contributes to the study of ethics in the modern media environment.

Examining the Critics’ Criticism: A Bibliographic Essay on Journalism Review Research • Susan Keith, Rutgers University • This bibliographic essay provides an introduction to sources related to an under-researched topic in media ethics history: the local journalism review movement. From 1958 to about 1986, it produced at least 40 local reviews, including Thorn, Buncombe, Overset, Countermedia, and The Pretentious Idea. Yet scholars have usually focused on just a handful of surviving reviews. This paper, part of a book project, argues that journalism reviews deserve more attention and different approaches.

Keeping HIV/AIDS Newsworthy: Ethical Dilemmas • Ammina Kothari, Rochester Institute of Technology • This study focuses on how two prominent newspapers—the Daily News, which is government owned, and the Guardian, which is private—negotiate the ethical challenges of reporting on HIV/AIDS in Tanzania using limited resources. Interviews with journalists from the two newspapers reveal how the two newspapers’ economic concerns and reluctance to invest money in a disease, which is now perceived as “old news,” has opened up space for official news sources, especially organizations, to gain privileged access to disseminate their messages and shape the discourse on HIV/AIDS. News sources use many strategies, including giving “transport allowance” and offering all-expense paid trips to the field in order to gain journalists’ attention. I also found that the news production processes in Tanzania are further complicated by financial incentives offered by news sources, raising ethical dilemmas for the journalists and concerns about the quality of the news that gets published.

From Thinking to Doing: Effects of Social Norms on Ethical Behavior in Journalism • Angela Lee, University of Texas at Austin; Renita Coleman; Logan Molyneux, University of Texas • Journalists have been shown to be highly capable of making good moral decisions (Wilkins & Coleman, 2005), but they do not always act as ethically as they are capable of. In other words, there is a gap between thinking ethically and acting ethically. Using the Reasoned Action Model (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2009), this study explores the reason for this gap and tests the proposition that social norms can help predict whether journalists will behave ethically or not. That is, social pressure to do what others think we should do, or what we think others actually are doing, can help explain why journalists act ethically or not. It found that descriptive norms were highly predictive of ethical behavior – journalists who thought that others were acting ethically on certain journalistic dilemmas were indeed more likely to act ethically themselves. It also found that injunctive norms were highly predictive of unethical behavior – that is, journalists who thought others approved of certain unethical behaviors were more likely to act unethically themselves. In addition, descriptive norms accounted for more of the variance in journalists’ ethical behavior than did injunctive norms.

The dialogic potential of social media: Assessing the ethical reasoning of companies’ public relations on Facebook and Twitter • Angela Lee, University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga; Tom Johnson; Renita Coleman • Drawing from Excellence Theory and using the TARES test, this study explores Fortune 500 companies’ ethical communication practices with the general public via social media. Results from a ‘constructed week’ content analyses data set indicate that overall, companies use social media to achieve symmetrical communication. Twitter elicits the most efficient interaction to achieve these goals. Finally, while Facebook spurs more authentic and equitable content, Twitter facilitates more truthful and socially responsible content.

Leaving It There? The Hutchins Commission & Modern American Journalism • Emily Metzgar; Bill Hornaday, Indiana University • Using the recommendations of the Commission on Freedom of the Press (Hutchins Commission), we ask today’s media consumers how they rate the performance of modern American journalism. Employing original survey data, we frame findings in the context of the commission’s 1947 ideals. This article makes a contribution by presenting contemporary opinions about the performance of American journalism in the context of journalism ideals articulated by the Hutchins Commission more than 60 years ago.

Manifestations of Moral Courage among U.S. Media Exemplars • Patrick Plaisance • This project provides a phenomenological analysis of the theme of moral courage found in extensive personal interviews with 24 selected “exemplars” in American journalism and public relations. Using an established “life story” interview protocol, the analysis clarifies the link between psychological theories of moral courage and the personal and professional challenges of industry figures known for their ethical leadership. The exemplars’ incorporation of a range of ethical values has cultivated an expectation of themselves that has enabled them to claim ownership of their actions, and thus exhibit moral courage, in ways not possible if their self-identities were less integrated with their moral concerns.

Fit to post but not fit to print: Channel consistency and virtue ethics for legacy print journalism organizations • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • Many legacy print media organizations with Web operations often have differing ethical standards between what is printed and what is posted online. This paper discusses some of the differing standards, suggests some justifications of the differences but the potentially overwhelming deleterious effects of the double standards, and offers the virtue ethics approach of Aristotle, MacIntyre, and others as a guide for decision makers at single news organizations serving multiple communication channels.

In the Shadow of Giants: The Ethics of Crime Reporting Rituals in Ireland & Canada • Romayne Smith Fullerton, University Of Western Ontario; Margaret Patterson, Duquesne University • From a study done in Canada and Ireland, the authors assert that the press council/ombudsman self-governing structure recently implemented in Ireland and employed for decades in the Netherlands and Sweden might help the Canadian press to independence from court controls and regain a deeper sense of its own stated mission: giving the public the information it needs to be self governing in a democracy. The study involved in-depth interviews with journalists and scholars, a reading of sample crime coverage, and an examination of prevailing ethics codes and accountability practices. The Irish are discovering that by foregrounding ethics, they can relax the battle against legal restraints and—to some measure—dig out from under the competitive pressures that sometimes bury their primary mission.

Juan Williams, NPR, and Role-related Responsibilities • Ryan Thomas, University of Missouri-Columbia; Elizabeth B. Hindman, Washington State University • In October 2010, NPR dismissed news analyst Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor.” This study draws on the notion of role-related responsibilities and prior scholarship on opinion-driven journalism to examine mainstream media responses to Williams’ dismissal. Through qualitative textual analysis of 96 unsigned editorials and signed opinion columns, we find media commentators articulated three role-related responsibilities for opinion-driven journalism: Purveyor of truth, facilitator of dialogue, and reflector of national mood. However, we also found significant comment on the definitional uncertainty regarding journalistic roles and responsibilities in a changing media landscape. We argue these findings speak to the confusing nature of contemporary journalism and the evermore-porous boundaries between fact and opinion.

Probing Race: Racial Discourse Analysis in Journalism Practices, an Ethical Approach • Venise Wagner, San Francisco State University • The author explores ethical reasons why journalists should employ racial lenses when reporting stories that are not obviously about race. Because the racial component in many stories is often hidden, journalists must be willing to directly explore racial implications of an issue. Racial discourse analysis is a tool that can help reporters explore racial subtexts. The author provides examples of how to use the racial discourse analysis approach and how to apply the results of such an analysis in the reporting process.

Humanity as an end: Analyzing Trayvon Martin shooting coverage using Kant’s second categorical imperative • Chad Painter, Eastern New Mexico University; Erin Willis, University of Memphis • This textual analysis examined the use of frames in the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman shooting. Journalists at three national newspapers framed the incident using four themes: questioning “Stand Your Ground” laws, rallying for gun legislation, commenting on race, and using “hoodies” for political protest. Applying the theoretical foundation of Kant’s formula of humanity as an end, the researchers concluded that both Martin and Zimmerman were used as a mere means to help journalists attain their goals.

Assessing the Impact of Chinese Journalism Education on Undergraduate Student Professionalization • Jin Yang; David Arant • This study investigated the role of Chinese journalism education in the professionalization of Chinese students and concluded that Chinese journalism education did play some role in the process. A survey of Chinese journalism students found that journalism school upperclassmen embraced a wider understanding of journalistic roles including interpretive, mobilizer and adversarial roles than did lowerclassmen. The study, however, found no difference in how upperclassmen and underclassmen journalism students ranked top six values and in how they perceived the difficulty in dealing with typical ethical dilemmas.

In Search of an Ethics Code for the 21st Century Audience • Mohammad Yousuf, University of Oklahoma; David Craig, University of Oklahoma • Little media ethics literature has directly addressed the responsibilities of audience members in engagement with mediated messages. This paper, taking into account the transformed nature of the audience and its ability to communicate, proposes a code of audience ethics that draws on previous literature and on the prima facie duties of W.D. Ross. This framework is relevant to responsibilities involving messages from both traditional and nontraditional sources of news and information.

 

Special Call For Entertainment Ethics

‘One Night of Prime Time’: An explorative study of morality in one night of Dutch prime time television • Serena Daalmans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Ellen Hijmans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Fred Wester, Radboud University Nijmegen • Research into television’s ethical value has mostly focused on scandal genres, like Big Brother, Jersey Shore and Jerry Springer, only recently have researcher started to explore television’s moral content with a broader focus. In this study we explore and describe the types of morality and moral content of a night of Dutch prime time television, with an open and inductive approach through a qualitative content analysis. We started with a sensitizing concept that differentiated in three general types of morality (formal, informal and intuitive), and through systematic comparison of the material we worked towards a specification of the types of morality that are represented in news, reality and fiction programs. We found that three moral themes (health, safety and family) formed the moral core of the night of television, and that television content shows a plurality of moralities connected to public and private life.

Ethical Issues and Responsibilities in the Production of Reality Shows: Reorienting the Moral Compass • Jelle Mast, Erasmus University College Brussels • Striking a middle ground between an all-encompassing and incident-centered critique, this paper develops a critical, comprehensive yet differentiating account of pertinent moral issues related to the (harmful) treatment of participants in the production of hybrid ‘reality’-shows. Our focus is thus on mapping and schematizing the (potentially) harmful implications of and the responsibilities that emerge from the process of making ‘reality shows’. The analysis proceeds along three broad (not mutually exclusive) notions of ‘intrusion’, ‘humiliation’, and ‘misrepresentation’, and integrates conceptualizations with empirical findings emerging from semi-structured interviews with 12 television professionals (mostly ‘creative’) and 25 participants. We point out the role of structural factors and the relevance of (situational) differentiation, in kind and degree, and argue for the need to bring ethical considerations more squarely into the day-to-day calculations of ‘reality TV’-program-makers.

 

Carol Burnett Award

Hit by the Silver Bullet: When Journalists Consider Withholding Information on National Security Grounds • John Lumpkin, John Lumpkin • This study employs Kohlberg’s hierarchy of moral reasoning to analyze journalistic decision-making over whether to withhold information from the public on national security grounds. It considers cases since Sept. 11, 2001, in which a major American news outlet reported that the government requested it withhold information on such grounds. The study finds that journalists usually reported their decision at Kohlberg’s social-contract stage of reasoning, regardless of whether the information in question was published or withheld. Implications for the role of journalistic ethics in international affairs are discussed.

Manifestation of Stakeholder Model of Communitarian Ethics in the U.S. Newspapers: An Examination of Ethical Concerns in the Promotion of Public Health • Lok Pokhrel, Washington State University • This study examined some of the major communitarian ethical concerns in lifestyle health campaigns as reported in the newspapers by assessing the extent to which the news-reporting manifested the communitarian ethical qualities in such health campaigns. This study also examined the relationship between media’s attributing responsibility (individual and systemic responsibility message attributes) with the communitarian ethical qualities of such lifestyle campaigns as reported in the news media. For this purpose, the study drew on a quantitative content analysis of the U.S. newspapers (2007-2012) that had “lifestyle” “health”, “campaign”, “prevention”, and “promotion” as the key terms. Drawing on an original data set of news reports (N= 59), the study found that the individual responsibility message attribute had a negative correlation with the four qualities of communitarian ethical approach, meaning –the lifestyle campaigns that held only the individuals as responsible for the cause of the health and lifestyle related problems –scored low. However, the message with systemic frame/attributes had a positive correlation with the four qualities of communitarian ethical qualities, meaning –the lifestyle campaigns that held the external factors, such as –environment, social system, government and the role of other stakeholders as responsible for the cause of the health and lifestyle related problems –scored high in terms of communitarian ethical qualities. The study found that the newspaper samples typically discussed how the multitudes of complex factors beyond individual responsibility/control contributed to the lifestyle related health concerns.

One journalist, two roles: What happens when journalists also work as media coordinators? • Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Jonathan Peters, U of Missouri Columbia • Individuals interacting with society possess multiple roles, and yet the study of journalistic role conceptions, based on the assumption that role conceptions influence journalistic outputs, has not addressed the idea that journalists possess multiple roles inside and outside the journalistic field. A peculiar arrangement in Missouri is the appointment of journalists to serve as media coordinators for the courts. Using a symbolic interactionism framework, we explore how media coordinators experience this duality of roles.

<<2013 Abstracts

Measuring News Media Literacy • Adam Maksl, Indiana University Southeast; Seth Ashley, Boise State University; Stephanie Craft • News media literacy refers to the knowledge and motivations needed to identify, appreciate, and engage with journalism. This study measured levels of news media literacy among 500 Chicago-area teenagers using a new scale based on Potter’s model of media literacy and adapted to news media specifically. News literate teens were found to be more intrinsically motivated to consume news, more skeptical and more knowledgeable about current events than their less news literate counterparts.

Why Change the Story? Portrayals of the Arab Spring in the Western and Eastern News Media • Mian Asim, University of Florida; Hyojin Kim, University of Florida • This study examines the content and framing of new stories emerged from the Western and the Arab media, right before and
after the peak period of the Arab Spring while suggesting that the level of deviance employed by protest groups in terms of tactics and goals are equally substantial in affecting their news coverage. This study also hints that media may adjust its stance as time proceeds depending upon the potential outcome of protests.

Facebook “Friends”: Effects of Social Networking Site Intensity, Social Capital Affinity, and Flow on Knowledge-Gain • Valerie Barker, Journalism & Media Studies SDSU; David Dozier; Amy Schmitz Weiss; Diane Borden • Using a subset of data from a survey of a representative sample of U.S. Internet users, 236 participants responded regarding social networking site (SNS) intensity, experience of flow (concentrated engagement in/enjoyment of an activity), social capital affinity (value of interaction/identification with online peers) and focused and incidental-knowledge gains. SNS intensity strongly predicted flow and social capital affinity, but the latter appeared to be a stronger predictor of focused and incidental-knowledge gains from social networking sites.

The creepiness factor: Explaining conflicting audience attitudes toward tailored media content • Lisa Barnard • In an online survey (N=2,002), attitudes toward tailoring were more favorable when tailoring was less invasive – i.e. when it involved impersonal media functions rather than personal ones, and when it used public rather than private information. Four individual difference models (narcissism; open-mindedness; audience selectivity; online media dependency) were tested. Those who were more narcissistic and more dependent on online media had more positive attitudes toward tailoring and thought more types of tailoring should be allowed.

Workplace Characteristics and Limitations on U.S. Journalists’ Professional Autonomy • Randal Beam • Autonomy is a hallmark of professional labor, but for individuals working in complex organizations, such as journalists, it is never unfettered. This study examines constraints on journalists’ professional autonomy. It uses analyses of open-ended and fixed-response questions from a national panel survey of U.S. journalists to explore what news workers characterize as the most significant limitations on their freedom as journalists.

Picturing Collective Memory: What Google’s Doodles Want Us to Think About • Bob Britten, West Virginia University; Mark Poepsel, Loyola University New Orleans • A Doodle is a variation of the logo on the starting page of search engine Google, used to commemorate dates, individuals, events and things. Their novelty, and Google’s widespread use, make them potent elements of collective memory. This research identifies the types of Doodles used over time, comparing which subjects are emphasized and which are omitted. Google encourages memory of artists and explorers, and covertly places itself squarely within that group.

The Influence of Participation and Online Norms in the Development of a Sense of Virtual Community • Michael Clay Carey, Ohio University; Hans Meyer, Ohio University • The emergence of Web 2.0 has facilitated the proliferation of virtual groups and communities. Virtual communities are distinct from online groups in part because their members experience a sense of virtual community (Blanchard, 2008). Participants in a nationwide survey (N=1,014) were asked about their experienced sense of virtual community, and solicits their opinions on other facets of online groups. The study suggests generalizable conditions that may facilitate sense of virtual community.

Transparency in Newsrooms: What’s visible, What’s not and Why • Kalyani Chadha, University of Maryland College Park; Michael Koliska • Facing a decline in public credibility, news organizations have been encouraged to embrace transparency to combat public distrust. In this paper, we examine how journalists at six leading news outlet grapple with the concept of transparency and its implementation in their newsrooms. Our data indicate that news outlets engage in a limited and strategic form of transparency, that enable them to appear transparent without offering substantive insights into the journalistic process.

Visiting Theories That Predict College Students’ Self-disclosure On Facebook • Chen-wei Chang, The University of Southern Mississippi; Jun Heo, University of Southern Mississippi • The present study explored theories that may explain information disclosure behavior on Facebook and provided understanding of each theoretical framework’s contribution in explaining such behavior. Findings suggested the potential of all the constructs tested in this study (the uses and gratifications theory, the social contract theory, trust/self-disclosure relationships, time spent on Facebook, the number of Facebook friends, and gender difference) as frameworks to explain self-disclosure behavior on Facebook. This social media-specific study observed rather interesting evidences that theories may have different implications from previous literature theoretically as well as practically.

Click “like” and share if you’re not affected: Adolescents, third-person perception, and Facebook. • John Chapin, Pennsylvania State University • A survey of adolescents (N = 1,488) documented third-person perception (TPP) regarding Facebook use and cyber bullying. As Facebook establishes itself as the dominant social network, users expose themselves to a level of bullying not possible in the analog world. The study found that 84% of adolescents (middle school through college undergraduates) use Facebook, and that most users log on daily. While 30% of the sample reported being cyber bullied, only 12.5% quit using the site and only 18% told a parent or school official. Despite heavy use and exposure, adolescents exhibit TPP, believing others are more likely to be negatively affected by Facebook use. The current study contributes to the TPP literature by linking the perceptual bias to self-protective behaviors. A range of self-protective behaviors from precautionary (deleting or blocking abusive users) to reactionary (quitting Facebook) were related to decreased degrees of TPP. TPP was also related to optimistic bias, experience, liking of and use of Facebook, perceived subjective norms and age. Implications for prevention education are discussed.

Hong Kong-er Or Chinese? Impact of Mainland Tourist News on Hong Kong Students’ Social Identity • Hexin CHEN, City University of Hong Kong; Wanqi Gong, City University of Hong Kong; Sixian Lin, City University of Hong Kong; Miriam Hernandez, City University of Hong Kong; Jie Ying Wang, Hong Kong Baptist University • Based on the social identity theory, this study examines the impact of news exposure on the perception of the social identities of university students in Hong Kong. We found that exposure to negative news about mainland tourists has a positive impact on respondents’ Hong Kong identity and their superiority sense over mainland Chinese. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Crisis frames across media and distances: An analysis of local, regional, and national news coverage of the Tucson shooting • Bethany Anne Conway • This study examined the evolution of frames in news coverage of the Tucson shooting to determine how traditional theories of crisis coverage map-on to a smaller-scale, domestic terrorism event. Along with adding to the literature on national coverage of tragedy, it provides insight into how crisis coverage differs among local, regional, and national newspapers. Findings reveal that human-interest frames made marked appearances across news outlets. While political frames were prevalent in later stages of coverage, cable and network news outlets emphasized politics to a different extent. Differences were found among the national, regional, and local newspapers, demonstrating how news coverage is adapted to the needs and interests of different audience segments in crisis.

Testing the Utility of Graphic Program Advisory Labels: An Eye-Tracking Study • Glenn Cummins, Texas Tech University; Cam Stone; Boni Cui, Texas Tech University; Hannah Gibby, Texas Tech University • Despite the use of television program advisories for more than 15 years, viewer understanding of these advisories remains problematic. Thus, this study examined the effectiveness of alternate graphic program advisories as a means of attracting viewer attention and more effectively communicating their intended meaning. Results indicated that viewers better understood the meaning of the advisories. Moreover, eye-tracking data revealed that they also allocated greater attention graphic advisories during initial exposure.

“Oh Man! Am I a Woman!?”: Analysis of ESPN.com user comments on the presence of Danica Patrick in NASCAR • Denae D’Arcy, University of Tennessee; Kyle Heuett, University of Tennessee; Katie Reno, University of Tennessee • In the wild world of men’s sports, women are making a showing. This is evident in competitions such as NASCAR where Danica Patrick raced in the 2012 Daytona 500. Some contributors to the comments section on ESPN web stories suggested that she did not belong on the track or in the sport. Three coders analyzed more than 1,300 comments on ESPN online stories before and after Patrick’s Daytona 500 race to find the meaning of her presence in NASCAR.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ambivalent? Analyzing the moral nature of fiction characters over time • Serena Daalmans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Ellen Hijmans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Fred Wester, Radboud University Nijmegen • Recently, the public eye and the academic community have started to focus on the presence and effects of morally ambivalent characters in television fiction. Both assume a prevalence of these characters, but neither is based on more than anecdotal evidence. This study explores the longitudinal changes (1985-2010) in the moral nature as well as the socio-demographic characteristics of the cast of television fiction aired during prime time in the Netherlands, through content analysis (N = 352).

The Chronicle of Current Events: uncensored information from the Soviet Union • Nino Danelia, University of South Carolina; Maia Mikashavidze, University of South Carolina • This study analyzed The Chronicle of Current Events, an underground Soviet publication issued from 1967 through 1982. Using scholarship on political framing, the study found Soviet dissidents using conflict and responsibility frames to write about the dominant themes of human rights abuses and persecutions of ethnic and religious minority groups. The publication was framing the dissidents’ cause as the protection of human rights, and aiming to get the word out to the international public.

The Miami Zombie Attack: How Broadcast News Media Constructed a “Bath Salts Epidemic” • Ruth DeFoster, University of Minnesota; Natashia Swalve, University of Nebraska • Using framing theory and textual analysis, this paper examines broadcast media coverage of a May 2012 crime in Miami that became rhetorically tied to a bath salts “epidemic” in mass media. It finds that coverage focused on bath salts use to the exclusion of other interpretive schema for the event, and finds a marked disparity between the portrait of bath salts use/effects presented in these texts and clinical literature and data on actual usage/effects.

Adolescent Perceptions of Digital Play: A Study in Third-Person Effects • Wendy Blanchard; Bryan Denham • Research on third-person effects has found that, relative to themselves, individuals perceive others as being more affected by media content. In this study, we examined perceived effects of video games and digital play among students enrolled at a charter high school in the Southeastern United States. As determinants of third-person perceptions, the study included measures of gender, race and age, time spent on video games during a typical school day, household rules governing time spent on video games and exposure to violent media content, and communication from parents about spending too much time in digital play. Results showed a consistent pattern of third-person perceptions, with those who reported lower levels of digital play estimating higher levels of adverse effects on others. Females and those who indicated the presence of household rules governing digital play and exposure to violent content estimated especially negative effects on others.

Surfing Alone: Search Engines, Flow, and Positive Outcomes • David Dozier; Valerie Barker, Journalism & Media Studies SDSU; Amy Schmitz Weiss; Diane Borden • This study integrates Stephenson’s (1967) play theory and Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) flow theory to examine the use of search engines. The challenge of an Internet search is balanced against the Internet surfer’s skills, permitting optimum experiences or flow. A national telephone survey, using probability sampling, provides evidence that search-engine flow mediates the relationship between search-engine usage and four positive outcomes: (1) focused knowledge gain, (2) incidental knowledge gain, (3) satisfaction, and (4) reputation.

Three Patterns of News Use in College Students • Eunjin Kim; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Margaret Duffy, U of Missouri; Heather Schoenberger • Through latent profile analysis, the study identifies three groups of college students based on self-reports of news consumption from various news sources. Most fell into Low News group, which also showed high levels of Entertainment Media use. Membership in the groups was strongly predicted by Parent and Friend News Use, needing the news every day, and confidence in knowing what others were trying to express.

A New Model for the Hierarchy of Influences?: Interviewing ‘Front Lines’ National Security Journalists • Heather Epkins, University of Maryland • This paper examines a critical tier in the global flow of terrorism information gathered through in-depth interviews with 35 national security journalists in the Washington, DC, ‘prestige press.’ Rarely studied but extremely influential, these ‘front-line’ reporters offer insider knowledge regarding how the post-9/11 era has altered journalist routines. Findings include evidence to reconsider the Hierarchy of Influences Model (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) using the lens of an important modern frame: the “War on Terror.”

Do college students benefit from their social media experience? Social media involvement and its impact on college students’ self-efficacy perception • Ling Fang, Bowling Green State University • The indulgence in social networking sites (SNS) among college students has drawn scholars’ attention and research interest. Considering the importance of self-efficacy as a behavior indicator in every aspect of life, it is worth examining whether college students’ Facebook usage could influence college students’ self-efficacy perception in learning, socializing, and public participation. Based on a theoretical framework combining social cognitive theory and uses and gratifications theory, this study examined college students’ time spent on SNS as well as other users’ behaviors as indicators of perceived self-efficacy change after using SNS. This pilot study is based on a web survey of 395 students in public university in the Midwest on September 2012. Findings indicate a negative association between socializing use of SNS and perceived self-efficacy after using SNS. Specifically, students’ perception of SNS experience is an important indicator of their perceived self-efficacy after using SNS. However, students’ self-reported social learning behavior on SNS turned out to be a negative indicator. Moreover, positive associations found between perceived general self-efficacy change after using SNS and reported civic and politic participation suggest potential indirect effects of SNS involvement on students’ political and public participation. Interesting findings are discussed in this paper.

Thinking about issues: What drives opinion formation? • Stefan Geiss, Department of Communication, U of Mainz • Outcomes of collective opinion formation processes are often criticized. Obviously, some engage in sustained in-depth opinion formation while others process the information superficially and transiently. To account for this, a cognitive miser model is proposed: Individuals form cognitive appraisals of current issues which influence their motivation for engaging in opinion formation. A three-wave panel study tracks the progress of opinion formation. Findings support the notion that appraisals steer depth and duration of opinion formation processes.

Learning From “Fake News”: Is “Daily Show” Viewing Linked to Greater Political Knowledge? • Jennifer D. Greer, University of Alabama; Brooke Carbo, University of Alabama; Yeojin Kim • Using nationwide survey data from U.S. voters, this study examines whether exposure to “fake news” is linked to higher political knowledge, even when age, education, political participation, and political ideology are entered as control variables. “Daily Show” viewers overall had significantly higher levels of liberal knowledge than non-viewers. By gender, “Daily Show” viewing was linked to higher levels of all three types of political knowledge for women and higher levels of liberal knowledge in men.

Media repertoire and multi-platform media use: Media consumption diversity in a digital age • Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; Yen-I Lee, Bowling Green State University • In this digital age, many media options are available to consumers. People can resist or embrace the diversity based on their own habit and preference. This study of general population’s media consumption patterns including mobile media in a local market shows that media content preference diversity, total news consumption time and household income predict the news media repertoire diversity. But within each medium, the repertoire is narrow with most consumers using only one outlet in newspapers and social media. It advances the media repertoire theory and utilizes brand loyalty and media accessibility to explain why the proliferation of media outlets and platforms may not translate to consumption diversity. To maximize time use and efficiency and for different content, consumers choose a variety of media platforms to satisfy their needs. But in each specific medium, one platform dominates as their primary format to consume.

Victimhood and restoration: Retooling memory in newspapers • Choonghee Han, Hope College • Claiming victimhood provides victims with a sense of restoration, and helps them recover their self-esteem. This seemingly psychological process is, in fact, political. In a nation-state context, remembering victimhood enables a country to avoid division in the society by reminding the public that they shared the memory of national suffering. This paper explores the discursive construction of victimhood and restoration in Asian flagship newspapers. A critical discourse analysis was conducted on news articles.

Can Enduring Values Endure? Examining Professional Self-Image of Local News Workers in a News Community of Constant Change • Shawn Harmsen, University of Iowa; Brian Ekdale, University of Iowa; Jane B. Singer, University of Iowa; Melissa Tully, University of Iowa • “They didn’t know it at the time, but when Tuchman (1978), Gans (1979), and Schudson (1981) wrote some of the seminal works in the area of the sociology of news, they were writing about what some later called the “golden age” of journalism. Part of what they found and described in various ways was a group of journalists who saw themselves as professionals, as part of a special group with its own special history, training, skill, rights, and responsibilities. Forty years later the news industry looks very different than it did in the 1970s. But despite all of the changes, including but not limited to technology, ownership, and job stability, have journalists changed as well? This research uses a case study approach (interviews, observations, and surveys) at a small-market converged newspaper/television/online news operation to explore how journalists define themselves in an ever-changing environment. This paper first discusses the amount of change in general this particular news staff has experienced in the last five years, asks how they feel about those changes, and then focuses in on their feelings about management driven exploration of what is sometimes called “community” or “public” journalism. This paper describes a staff facing its own conflicting attitudes about change and the future of their jobs, while also determined to hold onto what they find to be special about their profession. It concludes with a discussion about the normative implications of these findings for journalism and for the society which the journalists are supposed to serve.”

“Am I Pretty?” YouTube Answers. • Azeta Hatef • The purpose of this study is to uncover the motivations and effects of creating an “Am I Pretty or Ugly?” YouTube video. We are able to infer the young women’s motivations for creating and uploading videos through content analysis of words and actions as well as viewer’s comments. Analysis of data illustrates the strongest relationships correlate with the amount of activity on a YouTube video page rather than the level of attractiveness of the video creator.

Twitter’s Role in the Modern Newsroom: Circumventing the Gatekeepers and Pounding the Digital Pavement • Keren Henderson, Louisiana State University; Andrea Miller, LSU • Is social media so convenient that journalists are replacing traditional news routines with Twitter? Analyzing a survey of 166 local television news workers, this study offers insights into use of Twitter in the newsroom, rates of adoption, who journalists are following, and their attitudes toward the value of Twitter as a story idea source.

Perceived Realism, Enjoyment, and News Perception in the Context of Stereotypes: The Influence of Stereotypic Portrayals of Gender Roles on Attitudes toward News Stories • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University; Alyssa Appelman, The Pennsylvania State University; Elise Stevens, The Pennsylvania State University • This study explores the relationship between stereotypic beliefs and subsequent attitudes, specifically how beliefs about women relate to attitudes toward news stories about a stay-at-home parent. A between-subjects experiment revealed that participants with more stereotypic beliefs about women thought a news story about a stay-at-home mother was more realistic than one about a stay-at-home father. Regardless of story condition, stereotypic beliefs about women were associated with negative attitudes regarding perceived realism, enjoyment, and news perception.

It’s All About Me: Narcissism and User-Generated Content on Facebook • Todd Holmes, University of Florida • It is thought that the content-generating capabilities of Facebook are leading to higher levels of narcissism within our society. A survey (N=344) was conducted that assessed a number of Facebook behaviors: self-promotion, ensuring a large network of friends, retaliation/anger over critical remarks, and entitlement/exploitativeness. Results were mixed concerning self-promotional behaviors and entitlement/exploitativeness, but were consistent with ensuring a large friend network and retaliating and becoming angry over negative comments.

Morally Engaged and Cognitively Mixed: The Prosocial Effects of Exposure to Unpleasant Media Violence on Charitable Giving • T. Franklin Waddell, Penn State; Edward Downs, University of Minnesota Duluth; James Ivory, Virginia Tech; Kwaku Akom, Virginia Tech; Marcela Weber, The University of the South; Desmond Hayspell, Southside Virginia Community College • Although media violence is generally assumed to desensitize psychological and physiological responses to real world violence, it should not be assumed that all violent content produces uniform, negative effects. An experiment found that individuals who viewed a media clip that portrayed the consequences of domestic abuse were more likely to donate money to a charitable organization for international victims of violence. These results provide evidence that exposure to some media violence can promote prosocial behaviors.

Occupying the Civil Rights Movement: Cable News Framing of Contemporary Protest through Historical Memory • Sarah Jackson, Northeastern University • This paper examines if and how public memory of the civil rights movement was put into action by newsmakers seeking to frame understandings of Occupy Wall Street on two of America’s most polarized news networks. A descriptive and discursive analysis reveals the differential journalistic values, and presumptions of core American values, that influence coverage of social movements on Fox News and MSNBC. Implications for debates about social change in the public sphere are discussed.

Promoting broadband and ICT access for persons with disabilities: International comparison of case studies • Krishna Jayakar, Penn State University; Chun Liu, Southwest Jiaotong University; Gary Madden, Curtin University; Eun-A Park, University of New Haven • Despite the promise of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and broadband to improve the lives of persons with disabilities, there are wide disparities in access and usage of ICTs between disabled and non-disabled populations. This paper researches ten case studies of policies and programs promoting ICT and broadband access for persons with disabilities in the leading economies of the Asia-Pacific region, in order to identify successful programs on the basis of effectiveness and cost efficiency.

The Features of Hegemonic Masculinity in Korea • Jaehyeon Jeong, Temple University • This study, focusing on the Korean variety-talk show, investigates how popular media form people’s consent to hegemonic masculinity, and what features of hegemonic masculinity are (re) produced through media discourses. The features of hegemonic masculinity are discussed in terms of the exclusion of the feminine, the exclusion of female masculinity, homophobia, and the division of labor.

The Priming of Arab – Israeli Stereotypes: How News Stories May Enhance or Inhibit Audience Stereotypes • Erika Johnson, University of Missouri • Present research shows that there is no study examining media representation of Arab women and Israeli women as a prime causing stereotype activation in Americans. The goal of this study was to understand how news stories about Arab and Israeli women prime stereotypes in Americans, extending research on priming and ethnic media representation. A 2 (female target ethnicity: Arab and Israeli) x 3 (depiction type: prototypical, non-prototypical, and control) x 3 (multiple messages) mixed factorial design was conducted to examine how depiction and ethnicity in news story stimuli would interact with stereotype activation and accuracy (N = 107). Results showed that participants exhibited higher stereotyping after reading prototypical stories about Arab women and after they were not primed by stories. Also, participants who read non-prototypical news stories about Arab women showed reduced stereotyping. The results give meaningful implications for scholars and journalists, including possibilities for expanding research and improving coverage.

Promoting the Tan Ideal? Does Exposure to Tanned versus Untanned Images Affect College Women’s Attractiveness Motivations for Tanning • Hannah Kang, University of Florida; Kim Walsh-Childers, University of Florida; Sarah Lashley, University of Florida • This study investigated how exposure to mass media images promoting a tanned appearance influence attractiveness motivations for tanning and how exposure affects tanning intentions. The study was based in social cognitive and social comparison theories. The participants were 106 undergraduate women who were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions (light, moderate or dark tan or control). The results indicated that attractiveness motivation for tanning was a predictor of sunbathing expectations and tanning salon use expectations at pre-test and post-test. However, exposure to models displaying different tan levels had no significant impact on women’s attractiveness motivations, body satisfaction, intentions to sunbathe in the future or intentions to engage in indoor tanning. Implications and limitations of the findings are addressed in the study.

Placing Blame and Seeking Solutions: Media Framing of School Shootings • Ana Keshelashvili; Kenneth Cardell, University of South Carolina • Analyzing newspaper articles and television transcripts, this study explores how American news media have framed the issue of school shootings in the United States. More specifically, through an examination at both the individual and societal levels, this research seeks to understand attributions of responsibility represented within the news coverage. Using a representative sample of newspaper and television news transcripts covering school shootings between 1999 and 2012, this study employs content analysis method to explore how the media has addressed the questions of who is responsible for school shootings and what can be done about them. Implications of findings, as well as suggestions for future research are also considered.

News Use and Cognitive Elaboration The Mediating Role of People’s Perception of Media Complex Issues Comprehension • Ji won Kim; Monica Chadha; Homero Gil de Zuniga • Using a two-wave panel data, the study attempted to find the relationship between news consumption and news cognitive elaboration while accommodating for the role of media perception. The results showed the mediating role of media perception in this relationship. The study contributes to the existing literature by introducing a new perception variable and examining its relationships with elaboration to make theoretical advancement and social implications in the democratic society.

Facebook, “Frenemy?”: Examining the Relationship between Exposure to Facebook Profiles and Body Image • Ji Won Kim, Syracuse University • This study examined the relationship between exposure to Facebook profiles and body image. From the online survey of 175 respondents, results showed that the Facebook usage was correlated with higher levels of self-objectification and appearance comparison, and the hierarchical regression analyses revealed that self-objectification and appearance comparison mediated the relation between Facebook usage (Facebook Intensity, Facebook usage for social grooming) and body shame.

Investigating the Role of Motivated Reasoning on Third-Person Perceptions of PSAs • Nam Young Kim, Sam Houston State University • Since Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are perceived as socially valuable and promote positive behavioral changes, scholars have found that people tend to estimate larger impacts on themselves (i.e., a first-person effect) than on others (Cho & Han, 2004; Duck & Mullin, 1995; Gunther & Hwa, 1996). However, empirical studies have shown that individuals’ behavioral differences or a message’s features can evoke different estimates of media impacts on the self and on others (Duck & Mullin, 1995; Duck, Terry, & Hogg, 1995). In particular, when people are exposed to information that is inconsistent with their prior beliefs, it can be perceived as personally irrelevant as a defensive tactic toward the dissonance in their cognition (i.e., motivated reasoning) according to Keller and Block (1999). Using a 2 (Fear Appeal: High vs. Low) X 2 (Prior Attitudes: Negative vs. Positive) factorial experiment, this study therefore investigates how the dissonance between level of fears and individuals’ prior beliefs boosts their defensive information processing and influences the PSAs effects on both themselves and others in the context of an anti-binge drinking health campaign. The results show that there were no significant interaction effects between level of fears and participants’ prior attitudes toward drinking alcohol, which might differentiate third-person perceptions across conditions. However, a negative scores of other-self difference implies that participants generally evaluated the PSA effects on others is greater than the effects on themselves. The findings have practical and theoretical implications for future studies on the use of emotional appeals in PSAs.

Forewarning of Persuasive Intent: The Role of Regulatory Focus and Brand Attachment • Sang Lee; Hongmin Ahn • Forewarning people of incoming persuasive information often results in decrease in persuasion by conferring resistance to persuasion. The present research explored the forewarning effects and the moderating roles of regulatory focus and brand attachment in a public relations context. The results of a 2x2x2 factorial design experiment (N = 217) showed that forewarning of persuasive intent interacts with regulatory focus and brand attachment to influence participants’ attitudes and persuasiveness of the information. Specifically, the study showed that the impact of forewarning is more pronounced in prevention-focused than in promotion-focused conditions. It also showed that the impact of forewarning is less pronounced when participants’ brand attachment is high.

To Boldly Go: A Comparison of Early and Modern Gender Roles in Science Fiction Television • Alicia Linn, Oakland University • Through viewing the long-running United Kingdom shows “Doctor Who” (1963) and “Doctor Who” (2005), along with the United States shows “Star Trek” (1966) and “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” one can see shifts in gender expectations for both men and women in science fiction. These shifts can be linked to cultural expectations of gender roles. Using a list of stereotypical qualities typically associated with each gender, I have determined a few of these shifts. Contentious discourse and dynamic frames: The interplay among online public opinion, media report, and government discourse in public event • Shiwen Wu; Na Liu • How do online public opinion, mainstream media, and government construct interpretative frames towards contentious social events? Employing a content analysis of 765 online posts, 87 commercial media reports, 77 party media reports, and 14 government releases regarding a sociopolitical event in China, we test the frame building and frame interacting impacts originated from the four actors. We find that each actor constructs divergent but interrelated frames by employing different functions of the frames.

Second-Level Agenda Setting in 140 Characters: How Journalists Used Twitter to Report the Newtown Shooting • Megan Mallicoat, University of Florida • This study explores second-level agenda setting and social media through a content analysis of journalists’ tweets during a 10-day period following the Newtown, Conn., shooting. The results show gun control was by far the cognitive attribute most frequently identified, followed by timeline and story details, news content, and emotional reactions. They also show that, in terms of affective attributes, the tweets were neutral in about half the cases, but negativity increased as time progressed.

Educational TV Consumption and Children’s Interest in Leisure Reading and Writing: A Test of the Validated Curriculum Hypothesis • Nicole Martins, Department of Telecommunications; Jakob Jensen, University of Utah • The relationship between children’s TV consumption and literacy outcomes is currently unclear as past research has identified both linear (positive and negative) and curvilinear trends. It has been suggested that one source of variance in this relationship is the content children consume; specifically, researchers have argued that research-based educational TV programming (e.g., Between the Lions) should be positively related to literacy outcomes whereas non research-based programming (e.g., Boohbah) should be negatively related to literacy outcomes (what we refer to as the validated curriculum hypothesis). To test this hypothesis directly, fourth and fifth graders (N = 120) completed a survey assessing educational TV consumption and leisure reading/writing behaviors. The results upheld the validated curriculum hypothesis and revealed several key moderators including composite TV consumption and parent’s reading behavior. The results help to rectify conflicting results in the literature, support the validated curriculum hypothesis, and underscore the value of research-based educational TV programming.

Handheld Media Use at School: Increased Use Negatively Impacts Reading Outcomes • Nicholas Matthews, Indiana University; Jakob Jensen, University of Utah; Nicole Martins, Department of Telecommunications; Rebecca Ivic, The University of Akron • Two studies were conducted to investigate the possibility that portable video game (PVG) devices and cell phones displaced children’s leisure reading. In study one, 120 fourth and fifth grade children completed a survey about their media habits and found that bringing PVG devices to school and talking on cell phones negatively related to leisure reading. In study two, 136 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders completed a similar survey and found that cell phones but not PVGs negatively related to children’s leisure reading. These data extend the displacement literature by illuminating the impact these newer technologies have on reading outcomes.

Vicarious Experience: Experimentally Testing the Effects of Empathy for Media Characters with Severe Depression and the Intervening Role of Perceived Similarity • Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina • This study reports results from a 3-condition experiment (N = 80), wherein participants either read an article about a person (high vs. low social similarity) struggling with severe depression or no article (control), before viewing a stimulus website for a faux peer support organization. The results indicated that the level of empathic responses, positive attitudes, and the likelihood of engaging in helping behaviors, might be enhanced after reading about a socially similar person with depression.

A comparative study of the propaganda devices used by FOX and MSNBC • Aimee Meader, University of Texas at Austin • This study investigates the use of propaganda devices on two cable networks: FOX and MSNBC. These devices work to sway audiences toward a conservative or liberal ideology, respectively, and may increase the political divide through rhetorical manipulation. A contextual content analysis found that MSNBC used more testimonials and name-calling than FOX, but FOX used more fear appeals. The results of this study may partially explain why partisan often fail to see eye-to-eye.

Citizens as Opinion Leaders: Exploring the Effects of Citizen Journalism on Opinion Leadership • Seungahn Nah, University of Kentucky; Kang Namkoong, University of Kentucky; Stephanie Van Stee, University of Kentucky; Rachael Record, University of Kentucky • This study explores the effects of citizen journalism on opinion leadership concerning community issues and nonprofit and voluntary organizations. Results from a quasi-experiment showed that there were no differences in opinion leadership between the treatment and control groups. However, the results also revealed that the diversity of news sources produced (i.e., use of both web and human sources in news articles produced by citizen journalists) yielded a positive relationship with opinion leadership changes.

Public Risk Perception of Food Hazards: Understanding The Relationships Between Communication Channels, Risk Perceptions and Preventive Behavioral Intentions • SANG HWA OH, University of South Carolina; Sei-Hill Kim; Jea Chul Shim, Korea University; Jeong-Heon JC Chang, Korea University; Hwalbin Kim, University of South Carolina • Using food-safety issues in South Korea, this study examines whether two levels of risk perception – personal and societal – are related with people’s precautionary behaviors. Our findings point to the important role of personal risk perception in shaping South Korean’s precautionary behaviors for food-safety. We also look into the role of communication channels in shaping the public’s risk perceptions. Findings indicate that interpersonal communication and reading of online news are positively related with personal risk perception.

“Lord, forgive them; they know not what they do”: The Divine and the Damned in News Coverage of Executed Texas Death Row Inmates • Gregory Perreault; Berkley Hudson; Delia Cai • This historical analysis examines selected newspaper coverage of the last words of executed death row inmates in Texas, U.S.A. from 1982-2000. This study seeks to place the words of those silenced within the context of history and media coverage. It focuses on themes of religion, spirituality, and forgiveness. The findings argue that the prominence of spiritual themes in the newspaper coverage serves as a humanizing story element in contrast with the brutality of the crimes. This research builds on Campbell’s theory of myth (1988), examining the degree to which the newspapers themselves serve as a reifying, perpetuating ritual role in their coverage of executions.

Rediscovering Media-Value Associations in the Internet Age • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • An update and improvement to a 1981 study shows that, more than ever, participants associate specific media channels with specific values. In 2011, digital natives and immigrants replicated 1981 research by associating Rokeach’s 36 values statements with mass media channels. Data were analyzed using Rokeach’s approach and by Schwartz’s and Bilsky’s motivational domains. Adding the Internet introduced many value shifts from 1981, as well as revealing significant differences between contemporary younger and older participants. The Internet was perceived high for “freedom” as well as many instrumental, achievement and self-direction values. Newspapers remained associated with a preponderance of values, but with many changes in intensity. Television remained affiliated with many terminal and self-focused values, while radio and magazine associations remained flat.

Explaining third-person perceptions: Comparing self-enhancement, social distance, exposure, normative fit, and exemplar accessibility explanations • Mike Schmierbach, Pennsylvania State University; Michael Boyle • Although many explanations are offered for third-person effects, few studies directly measure and compare multiple theories. We present participants with three distinct types of media meant to evoke varied third- and first-person perceptions, and measure how well each theory predicts the perceptual gaps. Results show that the acceptability of influence and ability to think of examples of influence best predict both expected influences and perceptual gaps.

Television Viewing and the Cultivation of Attitudes toward American Exceptionalism • Laras Sekarasih, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Gregory Blackburn, University of Massachusetts Amherst • This study examined the cultivation of attitudes toward American Exceptionalism. Controlling for demographic attributes, television viewing predicted pride in being American, but not attitudes toward U.S. unilateralism. Significant two-way interactions between television viewing and gender and political orientations in predicting attitudes towards U.S. unilateralism were found. Among male and liberal participants, more television viewing was associated with more positive attitudes toward unilateralism. An indirect relationship between television viewing and unilateralism was found through American pride.

Effectiveness of Entertainment-Education in Communicating Health Information: A Systematic Review • Fuyuan Shen; Ashley Han • This paper conducted a meta-analysis of published research on entertainment-education and health communication. A search of databases identified 22 studies (N = 19517) that met our inclusion criteria and contained relevant statistics. Analysis of the results suggested that overall, entertainment-education’s effects on health outcomes—as measured by knowledge, attitudes, intention and behaviors—was small but significant, with an average effect size (r) of .11 (p < .001). This effect size did not vary significantly across channels, health issues, study locations, and participants’ gender. However, research designs (surveys vs. experiments) and exposure time were significant moderators of entertainment education’s impact on health outcomes.

Being a Truth-Teller Who Serves Only the Citizens: A Case Study of Newstapa • Wooyeol Shin, University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities • This study explores the boundary work of the Korean independent newsroom Newstapa. The journalistic value of truth-telling is emphasized in Newstapa’s practices. Newstapa journalists, who previously worked in mainstream media, open the boundaries of professional work by embracing the nascent practices of digital culture. Although this process causes the journalists to relinquish their autonomy to the citizens, it leads to their being exclusively accountable journalists who serve only the citizens through truth-telling.

Trust, Happiness and the Watch-Dog: Social Trust in the Context of a Free Press • Heather Shoenberger, University of Missouri; Freya Sukalla, University of Augsburg, Germany • We conducted a hierarchical analysis using data from 45 countries from the World Values Survey wave with data from 2004 to 2008 and matching these with country information on the level of press freedom collected by Freedom House to simultaneously test for differences in levels of social trust among individuals and, more importantly, for variations in social trust between countries with different levels of press freedom. We also extend the theory of trust by examining the influence of press freedom as an important contextual factor. We find that countries with higher levels of freedom of the press (i.e., more free) are more likely to have a citizenry who report higher trust in their fellow citizens.

Media Credibility and Disaster: The Moderating Role of Information Satisfaction in Post-Earthquake Haiti • Erich Sommerfeldt, University of Maryland; Jennifer Mandel • The 2010 earthquake in Haiti left survivors in desperate need of information. This study examined if satisfaction with the availability of information moderated the relationship between frequency of radio use and perceptions of radio credibility. From data acquired in Haiti (N = 1,808), analyses revealed an interaction effect between radio usage and information satisfaction on the perceived credibility of radio. Lower satisfaction levels were found to enhance the relationship between frequency of use and credibility.

Once Upon a [Mediated] Time: How Retrospective Television Programs Shape Cultural Memory • Vivian Sponholtz, University of Florida • This paper examines how television shapes Cultural Memory through episodic retrospective dramas concerning gender equity in the workplace. It argues that television, as a ritually-viewed, performance-based, storytelling medium, which bridges the gap between orality and textuality, influences the cultural understanding of history and sense of identity for women through historic portrayals. Based on Cultural Memory theory, Social Cognition theory, and Transportation theory, and the Bechdel-Wallace Test, a typology of television programs as fables is proposed.

Constructing Digital Childhoods in Taiwan newspaper • Ping Shaw; Yue Tan • With a content analysis of news reports in the most popular children’s newspaper in Taiwan, this study examined the media framing of child computer users in Taiwan by showing how Taiwan media represent and construct childhoods and frame the impact of digital technology on children in order to explain how cultural assumptions of children’s nature, status, and needs influence the media representation, and as being mediated by children’s age and living domains (home vs. school).

FYI on FOI: Exploring the effects of freedom of information (FOI) laws around the world • Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia • Many democracies, young and old, have instituted Freedom of Information (FOI) laws. FOI scholars and advocates argued that having an FOI law contributes to curbing corruption and improving standards of living. But having an FOI law can be different from effectively implementing it. Pooling together indices summarizing data from 168 countries, this study revisits the assumption that having an FOI law and implementing it can curb corruption and improve quality of life.

CNN’s Coverage of the 2012 Presidential Debates: Balanced or Liberally Biased? • Steven Voorhees, Rutgers University • Following the 2012 presidential election season, conservatives charged cable news networks CNN and MSNBC as being liberally biased in their news coverage. While MSNBC openly acknowledges its progressive leanings, CNN has maintained a commitment to balanced journalism. This study conducts a comparative rhetorical and semiotic analysis of both networks’ coverage following the three highly watched presidential debates to see if CNN holds to its balanced commitments. Results indicate a wide separation between the two networks.

Conflict avoidance, context collapse: Young citizens and politics on Facebook • Emily Vraga, George Mason University; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Southern California; Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, University of Southern California; Emily Gee, University of Southern California • Social networking sites like Facebook increasingly shape youth engagement with politics, but little is known about how individuals manage election-related content in this social space. This study combines twenty in-depth interviews with a survey of young adults to examine how individual predispositions and Facebook network characteristics shape attitudes and behaviors towards sharing political content. Our results suggest young adults perceive delicate norms governing political expression on Facebook, where mostly a motivated minority posts political content.

“Unbelievable job numbers”: Bias claims, economic reporting, and the 2012 presidential election • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This content analysis addresses a specific claim of quantifiable media bias arising from coverage of unemployment statistics in the 2012 presidential campaign. Partisan assertions about what the media “always” do for Republicans or Democrats are often easy to dismantle, but the framing of economic issues provides a chance to examine real, rather than imagined, press performance. Results suggest that partisanship is hard to find among the ideologies that appear to influence how economic news is presented during elections. More influential is professionalism – despite the apparently contradictory forms it takes in different media sectors.

Meaningfully Moved, but Emotionally Mixed: The Dual Effects of Inspiring, Meaningful Films on Viewers’ Enjoyment of Media Violence • T. Franklin Waddell, Penn State; Stefanie Davis; Erica Bailey • Recent research suggests that media violence interventions can reduce the negative effects of media violence by affecting viewers’ preferences for violent media content. An experiment tested whether exposing participants to an inspiring, meaningful film could be used to reduce viewers’ subsequent enjoyment of media violence. Results suggest that inspiring films elicit co-occurring emotional responses that both enhance and inhibit the enjoyment of media violence. The moderating role of viewers’ hedonic orientation is also discussed.

She should have/She shouldn’t have: Examining the effect of combined news frames in sexual health on people’s emotions, perceptions of societal responsibility, and social policy intentions • Kimberly Walker, Indiana University School of Journalism, Indianapolis • This study manipulated two variables in an experimental design–cognitive framing (thematic/episodic) and affective framing (gain/loss)–to determine whether changing the way newspaper stories report HPV and teen pregnancy alters readers’ emotions, attribution of societal responsibility, and intentions to support health policy changes. Results revealed the affective gain frame led to more positive audience emotions, support for societal responsibility and intentions to support health policy changes. No interaction effects between frames were found.

Murder She Searched: The Effect of Violent Crime and News Coverage on Residents’ Search for Crime-Related Information • Brendan Watson, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • This paper examines the agenda-setting effect of local news coverage of crime and local violent crime rates on local residents’ Google searches for crime-related information. These web searches can be viewed as manifestations of the latent cognitive salience of an issue. The time-series analysis found that while news coverage, which does not reflect changes in “real-world” conditions (i.e., changes in the violent crime rate), does affect searches in the short-term, in the longer-term violent crime, not coverage, has an agenda-setting effect on local residents’ searches for crime-related information.

‘Child of Mine:’ Impacts of Prolonged Media Exposure on Women’s Fertility Desires • Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, The Ohio State University; Laura Willis, The Ohio State University; Ashley Kennard • A prolonged exposure experiment examined whether media portrayals of women’s social roles affect fertility desires with childless adult women. Participants viewed magazines pages five days in a row. Stimuli presented women either in mother/homemaker roles, professional roles, or beauty ideal roles. Exposure to mother/homemaker and beauty ideal portrayals increased the number of desired children across time. Exposure to the professional portrayal increased the time planned until first birth compared to the beauty ideal portrayal.

Not on my watch: A textual analysis of local and national newspaper coverage of the Martin-Zimmerman case • Erin Willis, University of Memphis; Chad Painter, Eastern New Mexico University • The shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman made national newspaper headlines. Textual analysis was used to examine news framing of race and crime in news coverage. Five themes are discussed: (1) the Sanford Herald compared to national newspapers, (2) Zimmerman’s mysterious race, (3) uneven descriptors of Martin and Zimmerman, (4) the case being used as a platform for discussion of larger issues such as race and gun control, and (5) the infamous “hoodie.”

Use of SNSs, Political Efficacy, and Civic Engagement Among Chinese College Students: Effects of Gratifications and Network Size • Qian Xu, Elon University; Lingling Qi, Nanjing University • A survey (N=471) was conducted to explore the impact of social networking site (SNS) use on political efficacy and civic engagement among Chinese college students. SNS network size positively predicted civic engagement, but not political efficacy. Social connection gratification positively predicted both internal efficacy and engagement in political voice, whereas entertainment gratification negatively predicted external efficacy and engagement in political voice. Information seeking gratification did not significantly correlate with either political efficacy or civic engagement.

A Multilevel Analysis of Individual- and Prefecture-Level Sources of Media Trust in Japan • Masahiro Yamamoto, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Weina Ran • Previous research has examined various sources of media trust including media consumers’ political stands and media use, objectivity in news reports, and perceived biases stemming from journalists’ political leanings. The goal of this study is to examine community contextual sources of media trust. Data from the Japanese General Social Surveys reveal that community structural pluralism and political heterogeneity have independent negative effects on audiences’ trust in the media.

Antecedents to Media Use: Effects of Parent Socialization and Childhood Behavior on Consumption Patterns During Adulthood • Chance York, Louisiana State University; Rosanne Scholl, LSU • Whether the media choices of adults are influenced by the socializing role of family during childhood is a largely unexplored question. Using parent-child panel data, this study shows that parent media behaviors and childhood media use influence news and entertainment consumption patterns later in life. Media consumption patterns, which have been shown to influence political knowledge and voter turnout, appear to be learned and habituated during childhood.

Insight for Policy-Making:Mothers’ Opinions of TV Snack/Fast-Food Advertising Aimed at Children Regarding Its Overall Amount, Content, and Influence on Their Children’s Health • Jay (Hyunjae) Yu • This exploratory study investigated the opinions of mothers who had at least one child between the ages of 7 and 12 on TV snack/fast-food advertising targeted at children. Mothers’ opinions were assessed concerning the amount of this advertising, its content, its influence on children’s health, and the need for stricter regulation of such content. The present research also examined whether there was a social distance or third person effect active in the mothers’ opinions about the influence of TV snack/fast-food advertising on children by identifying their opinions about the effects on their own children, their friends’ children, and the children of people they didn’t know. The results showed that most mothers in this study believed that there were too many TV snack/fast-food advertisements for their children to avoid, and the content of these advertisements should be improved, even if this required stricter regulation. However, it was also found that the mothers believed the children of people they didn’t know were more negatively influenced by exposure to TV snack/fast-food advertising compared to their own children. Thus, the third person effect was observed. There was evident complexity in mothers’ opinions about TV snack/fast-food advertising. Mothers hesitated to say that TV snack/fast-food advertising was the most important influence on their children’s eating habits, and even though they were generally negative about the impact of TV snack/fast-food advertising on their children and wanted to see greater regulation of content, they did not think that adverting was the most important factor influencing their children’s eating habits and health. Rather, they thought that they were, and should be, the most important mediator of how many TV advertisements their children watched and what kinds of food their children ate.

Framing depression: Cultural and organizational influence on coverage of a public health threat and attribution of responsibilities in U.S. news media • Yuan Zhang; Yan Jin; Jeannette Porter; Sean Stewart • We conducted the first study of how U.S. news media covered depression over the past three decades. We analyzed how media framed depression thematically vs. episodically and attributed causal and problem-solving responsibilities at personal vs. societal levels. We also explored how cultural and organizational factors influenced the frame building process. U.S. news media relied on thematic framing to cover the issue but placed more causal and problem-solving responsibilities on the individual than on the society.

A self-created spiral of silence?: Modeling the effects of media reliance and perceived media diversity on opinion expression • Xinyan Zhao, University of Maryland • This study investigated the effects of media reliance and perceived media diversity on individuals’ opinion expression intention and the psychological mechanism underlying such effects. Both direct and indirect effects of media reliance and perceived media diversity on people’s opinion expression were tested and compared. Using data from a survey of 317 undergraduates in China, it was found that: (1) Perceived media diversity does not directly predict one’s willingness to speak out; instead, it moderates the relationship between opinion congruency and individual opinion expression; (2) newspaper reliance has both a positive direct and indirect influence (through self-efficacy) on individual opinion expression; (3) perceived diversity of Internet rather than the perceived diversity of traditional mass media is positively related to self-efficacy and individual opinion expression.

<<2013 Abstracts

“Trail of Corpses”: Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report’s Coverage of Genocide in Southern Sudan, 1989-2005 • Sally Ann Cruikshank • This study examines how three U.S. national magazines, Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report, framed the conflict in southern Sudan. Based on a textual analysis of the reports, the most salient frame associated with the conflict throughout all the coverage was that it was a “religious” civil war. In all three magazines, two dominant themes emerged: famine and the way children were being affected by the war. The implications of these findings are discussed at length.

Magazines in the new millennium: A concept explication • Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri • The format, content, and appearance of magazines have changed considerably during their history. As a result, the already fluid definition of “magazine” is changing. Following the steps described by McLeod and Pan (2005), this paper explicates “magazine.” After describing the history of magazines in America, the paper analyzes the definitions that have been assigned to magazines and examines their empirical properties. Lastly, the author proposes a new conceptual definition of “magazine” and suggests operational procedures.

Development of Men’s Magazines Industry in Taiwan • Chingshan Jiang, University of Nebraska at Kearney • The emergence of men’s magazines in Taiwan forms an interesting case study when looking at the growth of global media. Not only are men’s magazines popular in Taiwan, but they also shape readers’ attitudes about masculinity. International men’s magazines in Taiwan have had a significant influence on the format and content of local men’s magazines. Furthermore, the globalization of men’s magazines which includes foreign fashion, lifestyle, Western masculinity and editorials suitable for advertising has had an impact on the design and content of local men’s magazines in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to examine how men’s magazines in Taiwan are constructed as hybrids incorporating both local and international cultures.

Exploring How College Magazines Portray Science and Scientists: A Comparative Analysis of Harvard Magazine and KU (Korea University) Today • Hwalbin Kim, University of South Carolina; Jeong-Heon JC Chang, Korea University • This study explores how two college magazines – Harvard Magazine and KU Today – portray science and scientists. Based on a framing theory as a theoretical framework, we conducted a content analysis of science stories. Findings of this analysis show that Harvard Magazine framed science as the progress issue while KU Today portrayed science as the convergence and communication theme. As elite media, the university magazine can serve as a guide for news dealing with scientific research.

Between academia and journalism: Formation of the intellectual field in postwar South Korea (1953-59) • Ah-Reum Kim, The University of Tokyo • This study investigates the close ties between the media and knowledge production by analyzing rise of the intellectual field. An intellectual group formed around the magazine, Sasanggye, is considered as a middle range of analytical tool and material conditions of 1950s’ South Korean intellectual society are examined. These conditions situate the intellectual field between journalistic and academic field and suggest the way in which intellectual paradigm of American knowledge was appropriated.

Examining the lens on the world: Reader negotiation of identity through National Geographic coverage of Puerto Rico • Andrew Mendelson, Temple University Journalism; Nancy Morris, Temple University • This study examines how a 2003 National Geographic Magazine article on Puerto Rico was interpreted by Puerto Ricans. Their reactions to their representation by a U.S. magazine that positions itself as an arbiter of cultural knowledge is supplemented by examination of NGM content and interviews with NGM staff. NGM faces new challenges in representing culture in the Internet era in which media representations of the “other” are increasingly available to the “other.”

“50 Ways to Seduce a Man” vs. “The Better Sex Diet”: A Content Analysis • Chelsea Reynolds, University of Minnesota • This study analyzed magazine framing of sex, sexuality, and sexual health. The researcher conducted a content analysis of 134 sex articles in 53 issues of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Redbook, Esquire, GQ, Maxim, Women’s Health, Self, Men’s Fitness, and Men’s Health. Consistent with previous examinations of magazine sex content, women’s and men’s health and lifestyle titles gave more attention sex as entertainment than they did to sexual health or human sexuality. Differences between genres’ frames are discussed.

Portrayal of a Man and his Magic: The Image of Walt Disney in Magazines from 1934-1969 • Andi Stein, Cal State Fullerton • This study focuses on the image of Walt Disney that was portrayed by the magazine media during his time as the head of the Walt Disney Studios and in the years following his death in 1966. The study evaluates the recurring themes that emerged in magazine articles written about Disney to show how these articles portrayed him as an individual as well as within the context of his leadership role in his company.

Men’s images in women’s eyes • Yan Yan • Although women and girls have long been reported under great pressures from the image of “ideal beauty” communicated by mass media, little research focuses on the mediated “ideal male” image and its potential influences on the women’s expectations of the men. The current research examined how the “ideal male” and its related constructs were communicated by four top female beauty and fashion magazines— Vogue, Elle, Glamour and Cosmopolitan in 12 countries. Results showed that the ideal male and its related constructs varied significantly across magazines, indicating that the representation of male subjects was greatly influenced by each magazine’s self-positioning strategies and editorial intentions. Culture played a unique role in the representation of ideal male image. In particular, the U.S. and European magazines kept a relevant cultural independency in male model selection, but other countries confronted with a danger of being assimilated into the Westernized standard.

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