Assessing assessment: Evaluating outcomes and reliabilities of grammar, math and writing measures in media writing • Tricia Farwell; Leon Alligood; Sharon Fitzgerald, Middle Tennessee State University; Ken Blake, Middle Tennessee State University • This paper introduces an objective, grammar and math assessment and evaluates the assessment’s outcome and reliability when fielded among 81 students in media writing courses. Additionally, the paper applies the Krippendorff’s alpha reliability measure to four media writing professors’ A-F ratings of end-of-semester writing samples from the same students. The study found evidence for the assessment’s reliability along with significant, although modest, improvement on the assessment. The A-F ratings produced a substandard reliability alpha.

Mastery and modeling in the teaching of news writing: A social cognitive approach • William Nevin, University of Alabama; Wilson Lowrey • Collegiate mass communication students continue to struggle in newswriting courses. In social cognitive theory, self-efficacy is one of the primary motivating factors in achievement. According to findings from a survey of students in an introductory news writing course, self-efficacy is most influenced by previous media experience, whereas peer tutors serve to reinforce course material. This suggests jobs and extra-curricular activities should be examined as a means to support college courses.

The Divided Classroom: Definitions of News and Consumption Habits of Journalism Educators and their Students • Soo-Kwang Oh, University of Maryland; Stanton Paddock, College of Journalism, University of Maryland; Jacqueline Incollingo, University of Maryland • This study compared and integrated perspectives of educators and students in journalism programs by conducting interviews and focus groups. Findings indicated that there was a salient difference in news definitions and consumption habits between the two groups, and respondents also acknowledged a usage gulf. We suggest pedagogical and practical solutions to this divide, which they may be more applicable for smaller programs due to their nature of high levels of interaction between educators and students.

<< 2012 Abstracts

Faculty

Turning the Tide: The Religious Press’ Role in the Passage of the Civil Rights Act • Mike Trice, Florida Southern College • In recent years, much has been said about the religious right’s efforts to play a significant role in policy making in the United States. Such participation by religious groups is not new. This paper examines one of the most aggressive efforts by the church to influence government – the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – and how the religious press played a significant role in those efforts.

Islam, Mediation and Technology • Nabil Echchaibi, University of Colorado Boulder • This paper analyzes how historical reactions to print and writing still inform contemporary Muslim approaches to religious communication. I look at how Muslim jurists and scholars have rationalized their rejection of printing during the Ottoman empire in the 18th and 19th centuries and compare their reaction to how contemporary scholars and popular preachers rationalize their adoption of modern communication technologies both during the modernist period of late 19th and early 20th century and today.

Engaging the Congregation: A Mediated Model of Religious Leaders’ Cues, Environmental Concern, and Environmental Behaviors • Jay Hmielowski, Yale University • Scientists continue to raise concerns about threats from environmental problems such as climate change. Concern amongst scientists have increased efforts to create programs that raise public awareness of these issues and citizens to engage in behaviors that reduce the negative impact humans are having on the environment. These efforts include the use of mass media messages to raise awareness about environment problems and suggest ways to change behaviors.

Muslim media in the United States and their role in the American Public Square • Mohammad Siddiqi, Western Illinois University • This study focuses on emerging Muslim media in the U. S. and their role in helping Muslims understand and participate in the American public square. A content analysis method is used to analyze the contents of a sample of the leading Muslim magazines and newspapers. The study focuses on the general themes and contents of Muslim media and the shift in themes, contents and priorities over a period of the past ten years.

The Megachurch Tweets: How 13 Large Churches are Using Twitter • Sheree Martin, Samford University; Elizabeth Akin; Anna Cox; Ashlee Franks; Rachel Freeny, Samford University; Kadie Haase, Samford University; Ben Johnson, Samford University; Anna King, Samford University; Michael Kline, Samford University; Jackie Long, Samford University; Steven Lyles, Samford University; Megan Thompson, Samford University • This study is a content analysis of all tweets from the primary Twitter account of 13 of the 15 largest churches in the U.S. during the month of February 2012. Results indicate that Twitter is mainly used to promote church activities using a one-to-many broadcast approach rather than conversational and relational communication techniques associated with social media, relationship marketing and relationship management theory. Each of the churches in the study uses Twitter in a different way.

Seeing and Not Believing: Concern for Visual Culture in The Humanist • Rick Clifton Moore, Boise State University • A recent study of a publication distributed by a powerful conservative Christian group determined the organization showed strong concern for “visual culture.” The magazine directed readers on how to understand the seen world. The current study analyzes a periodical of an avowedly secular group to understand how they might manifest similar or different concerns. On the whole, The Humanist appears to indicate that visual culture is as important to agnostics as it is to theists.

Missing Voices: A study of religious voices in Mainstream Media reports about LGBT rights • Debra Mason, University of Missouri • A three-year sample of news reports about key political issues within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual (LGBT) community showed that when media outlets cited religious leaders, they consistently used sources from Evangelical organizations to speak about LGBT issues, and the messages from those sources were significantly more negative than positive. The media used far fewer religious sources from Mainline Protestant, Catholic or Jewish sources, but those messages were predominantly positive.

The Environmental Movement and American Religion in the Network Society: Reconfiguring Hierarchies to Exist within Heterarchical Organizational Structures • Kathryn Montalbano, Columbia University • This essay is concerned with the characterization and appropriation of the environmental movement by three prominent religious institutions in the United States today―Catholicism, Evangelical Protestantism, and Judaism―and how such religious organizations are affirming human responsibility for global warming (though the Christian campaigns seek to protect the humans over the non-humans).

Student

Christian Communication in 140 Characters or Less • Brittany Pruett • The purpose of this paper is to examine how Christian leaders utilize Twitter. This paper took Rybalko and Seltzer’s (2010) study of dialogic principles in Twitter and applied it to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler, using a sample of his tweets from February 2012. This was done by categorizing the dialogic principles based on the two main functions of Christian mass communication, evangelizing non-Christians and edifying current Christians.

Rational Choice in Religious Advertising: American Religions Adapt to the Spiritual Marketplace • Andrew Pritchard, North Dakota State University; Julie Fudge, North Dakota State University • Content analysis of television advertising by national religions suggests these institutions have accepted a rational-choice view of their place in American religious pluralism. Their ads employ more generic imagery than religious symbols and emphasize religions’ ability meet psychological and social needs more than traditional benefits of religious participation. Presenting a religion as provider of more than explicitly religious benefits is consistent with active competition for practitioners desiring the best cost-benefit ratio from their religious choice.

Holy App! An Exploration of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic iPhone Applications • Wendi Bellar, Syracuse University • The more apps become available for mobile users to download, the more aspects of life that are engaged through mobile technology, including religion and spirituality. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of Christian, Jewish, Islamic iPhone apps using textual analysis of the app pages on iTunes. The intent is to discover what these apps are communicating about religion and also how the apps attempt to help users navigate their religious and spiritual lives.

How Buddhism Communicate via Sina Weibo • Meng Shi, American University; Xiao He, American University • Social media is becoming increasingly popular among various business organizations and other interest groups. Religious groups also have begun to use social media to promote their truth claims and attract followers. In China, Buddhist leaders are particularly active on Chinese Twitter-equivalent micro-blogs. This article will take Buddhism as an example to introduce the Buddhism communication activities on Sina Weibo, which is the most popular Twitter-equivalent in China.

A Parade Or A Riot: A Discourse Analysis of Two Ethnic Newspapers in Northern Ireland • Dave Ferman, University of Oklahoma • The annual marching season in Northern Ireland has long been the site of ethnic/religious controversy and violence pitting Catholics against Protestants. This study analyzes how more than 80 news stories from two Belfast-based ethnic newspapers, the Catholic/nationalist Irish News and the Protestant/loyalist News Letter, framed the 2011 season.

More Diverse Images of Women Found in Smaller Niche Magazine: Diverse Feminine Images Presented in Christian Teen Magazines • Charlotte Martinez, Ohio University • This research seeks to broaden the knowledge and scholarly literature about teenage, female, Christian magazines and the ideologies they present about femininity. A content analysis of two Christian magazines targeting young girls was undertaken in order to assess whether diverse images of females were present. The study included every image of a female in a composite year for both Brio and Brio&Beyond.

The Muslim Fallacy: An Examination of Public Opinion and the Framing of Barack Obama’s Religion • Joseph Kasko, University of South Carolina • President Barack Obama has consistently stated that he is Christian and numerous media reports have repeated his pronouncement. However, there has long been confusion over the president’s religious beliefs. The confusion seemed to grow when only 34 percent of Americans correctly identified Obama as Christian in an August 18, 2010 Pew Research poll. That was a 14 point decline from a March 2009 Pew poll the previous year and a 17 point drop since October 2008.

Male in the Masjid: Framing men on Little Mosque on the Prairie • Rosemary Pennington, Indiana University School of Journalism • Little Mosque on the Prairie premiered on the CBC in 2007 to an audience of 2.1 million viewers. The sitcom focused on the lives of a small Muslim community living in the fictional rural town of Mercy, Saskatchewan. This textual analysis of the first season examined the framing of Muslim men on Little Mosque and found several different types of Muslim men were featured, all representing a type of Muslim at ease in the West.

The Othering of Terrorists: An Analysis of Two Major U.S. Newspapers’ Use of the Word Terrorist and Subsequent Mention of Religion • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University • This study analyzes use of the word terrorist in the headlines of the New York Times and Washington Post and the subsequent mentions of specific religions. A six-year content analysis revealed a strong relationship between the word terrorist in these publications’ news story headlines and mentions of Islam within the stories. The argument is made that the word terrorist in the headline of these news story serves as a prime, which is then continually associated with Islam.

 

<< 2012 Abstracts

Bamboozling the Public? Developing a Theory of Strategic Misinformation • Michelle Amazeen, Temple University • This paper explores whether there is any relationship between how candidates are perceived by the public and whether candidates distort claims in their political ads.  A theory of strategic misinformation hypothesizes that candidates are more likely to use inaccurate claims in their attack ads for dimensions on which their opponent is perceived more favorably.

Caustic comments: Measuring incivility in online comments and testing its effects on political participation • Ashley Anderson; Michael Xenos; Dominique Brossard; Dietram A. Scheufele • In this study, we use computer sentiment analysis to analyze the content of online comments in blogs and news stories between November 2010 and January 2012. Results reveal that, on average across two distinct issues, 17% of online comments contain an uncivil tone. Follow-up experimental analysis among a sample representative of the U.S. population demonstrates that exposure to uncivil comments following a newspaper blog post decreases likelihood to participate in a public forum.

When political comedy turns personal: Humor types, audience evaluations, and attitudes • Amy Becker, Towson University; Beth Haller, Towson University • The current study brings together research on the effects of political comedy with a focus on disability studies and disability humor. Satire surrounding David Paterson, New York’s first blind and African-American governor, is featured as stimuli in an experiment conducted during Spring 2011. The results compare the differential impact of exposure to self-directed humor and other directed hostile-humor on evaluations of humor types, favorability ratings, perceptions of disability, and attitudes toward blindness.

Framing in the last fifteen years: Examining definitions, citations, mechanisms and antecedents across fifteen disciplines • Porismita Borah • A content analysis was conducted of the framing literature from 93 peer-reviewed journals for fifteen years. First, every journal in the Journal Citation Report, (ISI) identified as a “communication journal” was included. Second, keyword searches in electronic databases were used. Findings reveal most common definitions, most cited framing scholars, psychological mechanisms, and the antecedents of frames. The variables are examined across fifteen different disciplines. Future directions are discussed.

Is Facebook making us dumber? Exploring social media use as a predictor of political knowledge • Michael Cacciatore, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sara Yeo; Leona Yi-Fan Su; Doo-Hun Choi, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Michael Xenos; Dietram A. Scheufele; Dominique Brossard; Ashley Anderson; Jiyoun Kim; Elizabeth Corley, Arizona St. University • Two-thirds of adult U.S. Internet users report using social networking sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn (Madden & Zickuhr, 2011). Perhaps not surprisingly, Facebook is most popular, with more than 130 million active American users at the end of 2011 (Mitchell, Rosenstiel, & Christian, 2012).

Need for Orientation, Selective Exposure and Attribute agenda setting effects: Change versus Reinforcement • Lindita Camaj, University of Houston • This study explores the interaction between the concept of need for orientation (NFO) and selective exposure to explain citizen’s motivations to seek information from specific media sources and the consequences of this behavior for attribute agenda setting effects.

A Tale of Political Trust at the National and Local Levels: Examining Media Effects on Political Trust in China • Chujie Chen, City University of Hong Kong; Mengqian Yuan • Compared with Western people, the Chinese were reported to have higher level of trust in national political institutions than in the local ones. Employing secondary data from ABS (Asian Barometer Survey), this paper examined the media effects on national political trust and local political trust, and the significant gap between the two levels. Logistic regression coefficients indicated that the gap of political trust in China was associated with Internet exposure, trust in traditional media, social trust, and perceived corruption of government.

Stumbling Into Action: How Incidental Exposure and News Consumption Influence Social Capital and Civic Participation • Mark Coddington, University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Texas at Austin; Thomas J. Johnson, University of Texas at Austin • As the rise of social networking sites has increased the breadth of information to which online media consumers are exposed, researchers have begun to more closely examine the social and political effects of incidental exposure to news online. This study builds on that research by measuring the relationship between online incidental exposure to news and social capital and civic participation, particularly in how they interact with overall news use.

Covering the Veil: France 24.com and CNN.com’s Framing of the French Burqa Ban • Sally Ann Cruikshank, Ohio University; Joachim Hechinger • This study examines how France24.com and the U.S. edition of CNN.com framed France’s burqa ban, which went into effect on April 11, 2011.  Results showed that both websites primarily framed the ban as a human rights issue.  France 24 covered the ban in a negative tone in two-thirds of its stories, while CNN’s coverage of the issue was mainly neutral.  The findings contradict the propaganda model, which suggests media coverage often reflects the policies of their government.

The Effects of Social Media on Political Participation and Candidate Image Evaluations in the 2012 Iowa Caucuses • Daniela Dimitrova, Iowa State University; Dianne Bystrom • Much academic debate has centered around the impact of new online technologies on democracy. This study examines the effects of social media on political participation and candidate image evaluations in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. Multivariate analyses show that social media have no effects on likelihood of caucus attendance, but significantly influence perceptions of candidates among the sample of Iowans drawn here. The implications of these finding for future political communication research are addressed.

Discourse architecture, issue stances, and democratic norms in online political discussion • Deen Freelon, American University • Studies of political discussions online have been dominated by approaches that focus exclusively on deliberation, ignoring other equally relevant communication norms. This study conducts a normative assessment of discussion spaces in two prominent web platforms—Twitter hashtags and newspaper comment sections devoted to particular political issues—applying the norms of communitarianism, liberal individualism, and deliberation. The platforms’ distinct design features and users’ left/right issue stances emerge as significant predictors of normative differences.

Civic Responsibility or Consumer Desire: Morning News and Priming Support for a Social Cause • Melissa R. Gotlieb, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Southern California • This study extends research on media priming effects to investigate whether the news media environment can prime support for a social cause. Consistent with the matching hypothesis, we found that among those high in materialism, exposure to morning news segments focused on consumption, as opposed to civic practices, resulted in a decreased willingness to engage in conscious consumption and make a charitable contribution in support of efforts to reduce bottled water consumption.

Parent-Child Communication Patterns, School Political Discussions, News Media Use and Adolescent Knowledge and Political Interest in the 2008 Presidential Election • Chang-Dae Ham; Joonghwa Lee, Middle Tennessee State University; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri-Columbia • The focus in this study concerned whether two family communication patterns, socio and concept oriented, interact with news media exposure and youth classroom experiences with civics. These relationships were examined in a national sample of adolescents 12-17 and their parents. Youth political interest is indeed predicted by some complex interactions of family communication, news media, and classroom communication, but when you look at political knowledge, political interest mediates most all of those effects.

Wishful Thinking and Predictive Accuracy in U.S. Presidential Elections from 1952 to 2008 • Barry Hollander, University of Georgia • When asked to predict who will win an election, individuals tend to choose their preferred candidate as the likely winner.  This preference-expectation link, called wishful thinking, and its subsequent effect, predictive accuracy, are explored through analysis of U.S. presidential elections from 1952 to 2008 and an in-depth look at a panel study of the 2008 election.  Several factors are found to enhance and moderate the effect.

Who Leads Media Agenda? • Jeong Ran Kim, University of California at Davis • This study examines the roles of official sources and non-official sources in an agenda-building process. Focusing on the Korea-U.S. beef negotiation and second-level agenda building, this study compares the agenda-building influences of the government with influences of activist groups. This paper uses intermedia and intercandidate agenda setting to analyze intersource relationship between the government and activist groups.

Partisanship, Message Framing, and the Effectiveness of Negative Political Advertising • Kenneth Kim, Oklahoma State • While voter judgments in the election process emerge through multiple layers of influence, the current study focuses on partisanship as an individual characteristic that may influence how people process negative political advertising messages. The main purpose of the study is to explore interaction between partisanship and gain-loss message framing as a specific persuasive appeal strategically placed in a negative political ad. The obtained data showed the main effects of partisanship on attitudes toward the target and voting intentions.

The Effects of Politician’s and Constituency Characteristics on Political Use of Twitter • Cheonsoo Kim, Indiana University School of Journalism • This study examines the effects of factors related to individual politicians and their electoral constituency on political adoption and use of twitter in the context of Korean politics. The results show that, among politician’s characteristics, prominence of politician is significantly associated with political adoption and use of twitter but constituency-related variables do not account for political adoption and use of twitter significantly.

Thinking About in Political Comedy: Comparing the Role of Ability on Cognition and Political Attitudes between Late-Night Comedy and Cable News Audiences • Heather LaMarre, University of Minnesota • Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as the theoretical framework, this study examines differential cognitive responses to political entertainment and political news under varying ability to attend to the political messages.

Examining news coverage of HPV vaccine policies: Can outrageous claims shift journalists’ focus? • Kelly Madden, University of Maryland • HPV vaccination mandates became a controversial issue in the Republican presidential primary of 2011 when Congresswoman Michele Bachmann made a claim linking HPV vaccines with mental retardation. The medical community lashed out, asserting evidence supported no such link. Bachmann’s comments and the medical community’s response ultimately altered news coverage of HPV vaccination mandates. This paper employs the Health Belief Model to evaluate the inclusion of health information related to vaccination and also analyzes journalists’ dependence on medical professionals as sources.

Bibliometric Analysis of Communication and Terrorism Scholarship • Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University; Elizabeth Stoycheff • Bibliometric measures were used to evaluate 20 years of communication and terrorism scholarship, revealing the most-cited articles, most co-cited articles and journal impact factors. Analysis focused on two co-citation dimensions, strength of ties between two articles and centrality of the articles in a network, plus how articles were co-cited. Implications and suggestions for the future are discussed.

Belief of Policy? Religious Cues and Voter Evaluations • Bryan McLaughlin, University of Wisconsin, Madison; David Wise, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Scholars contend that correctly applying religious cues is crucial to winning political elections. By conducting experiments on two national samples, we examine whether religious cues gain the support of religious voters when they are not tied to specific policy positions. Our findings provide strong evidence that explicit religious cues turn off those who are not religious, but minimal evidence that religious cues secure votes from those who are religious.

Perceptions of Influence On and Of Political Bloggers: A Survey of Top Political Bloggers • Laura Meadows, UNC at Chapel Hill • This study attempted to elucidate the factors that influence political bloggers’ decisions to choose particular blog topics and to analyze their perceptions of the influence of their own work on a variety of outcomes, groups, and issues.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Newsmagazine Coverage of The Republican Party as a Social Movement • Kevin Musgrave, University of Oklahoma; Bryan Carr, University of Oklahoma • This paper performs a rhetorical analysis to examine the ways in which the relation between the news media and politicians affect the way that the Republican Party, after the 2008 election of Barack Obama, has been covered in two mainstream news magazines (Time and Newsweek).  Utilizing literature from Thomas Patterson and Todd Gitlin, these authors argue that the Republican Party’s leadership vacuum is being filled by leaders chosen by the media, based upon “newsworthiness”.

Does Twitter Motivate Political Engagement?: Tweeter, Opinion Leadership, and Political Discussion • Chang Sup Park • To examine the pattern of how opinion leadership influences political engagement among Twitter users, a web-based survey was conducted. Traditional opinion leadership successfully predicted public-affairs related motivations including information seeking, influencing others, and public expression. Nonetheless, the impact of opinion leadership on Twitter was mediated by these aforementioned motivations. Among three motivations, only public expression was significantly related to political discussion behavior. No significant relationship was found between Twitter use and political discussion.

The Radio President: Herbert Hoover on the Great Depression • Youn-Joo Park, University of Missouri • The mass media influence how a president is evaluated during the administration and remembered in history. A U.S. president who suffered from an image problem is Herbert Hoover whose term is negatively linked to the Great Depression. This historical study explores how he used radio to speak to people about the nation’s economic problems. An analysis of Hoover’s radio speeches provides insight on his presidential rhetoric and suggests applications for media relations in modern presidencies.

The Use (and Misuse) of Reframed News-Mediated Content in 2008 Presidential Campaign Ads • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • Exploratory content analyses of ads from the 2008 presidential campaign, and a selection of available newspaper and wire service articles mentioned in those ads, show that campaigns were more likely to cite news stories than opinion pieces inside ads. Campaigns used news-mediated content more often to attack opponents than to acclaim themselves. The analysis identified six general ways that campaigns reframed news-mediated texts that differed from the original meaning created by newspapers and wire services, potentially misleading ad viewers.

“Three Versions of Jimmy Carter”: Paul Szep and the Production of Presidential Political Cartoons • Amber Roessner, University of Tennessee; Denae Darcy, University of Tennessee • On February 22, 1976, just two days before the New Hampshire primary, dark horse Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and his Peanut Brigade were fanning out to suburban homes, office complexes, and factories in an attempt to maintain their momentum after upsetting early presidential favorite Birch Bayh in Iowa. On the very same day, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Paul Szep offered Boston Globe readers his first statement on Carter.

Effects of Opinionated Media and Selective Exposure on Economic Perceptions during Two Presidential Elections • Rosanne Scholl, Louisiana State University; Ashley Kirzinger, Manship School, LSU • Citizens’ perceptions of the health of the economy loom large in Presidential elections. Where do these perceptions originate? Critics have worried that partisan and ideological news media polarize the public, and that political flacks want to manipulate perceptions in favor of their candidates. This study uses content analysis and secondary survey data to examine whether opinionated media and reinforcing selective exposure affect voters’ economic perceptions.

The Free Binayak Sen Campaign: Framing to Mobilize Collective Action for Social Change • Siobhan Smith, University of Louisville; Margaret D’Silva, University of Louisville; Nicole Meyer; Greg Leichty, University of Louisville • In 2007, Dr. Binayak Sen, an Indian pediatrician, was arrested and charged with sedition by the Chhattisgarh Government in relation to his prison visits of a jailed Maoist leader. Sen’s case was extensively covered by the Indian media and sparked a grassroots social movement aptly named the Free Binayak Sen Campaign.  This research explored how the messages of a successful social movement were represented and framed in two national Indian newspapers, The Hindu and The Times of India.

New Media Influences on Political and Media Disaffection • Younei Soe • This research assesses the impact of new media on two civic dispositions: disaffection toward politics and disaffection toward media.  As a primary method, thirty-one focus groups were conducted with young adults between 18 and 34 at two Midwestern and two East Coast universities. This study found that new media use has both positive (e.g., enhancing healthy skepticism) and negative (e.g., deepening political disaffection and causing confusion and anxiety) influences on civic-oriented outcomes.

Talking or Thinking? Pathways from News to Political Learning among Children • Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri-Columbia • Using a three-wave panel data, we tested the cognitive mediation model to explain political learning among children. Panel studies allow a stronger argument for causality. We found that news media use does not exert consistent direct effects on political knowledge. However, news media use predicts news elaboration and news discussion (Time 1) which both lead to subsequent political learning (measured at Time 2 and Time 3). News elaboration also predicts news discussion among children.

I’m Done! Causes of Selective Exposure:  Interaction Effects of Incivility and Partisan Incongruence on Dissonance • Stephanie Jean Tsang • This study examines selective exposure by manipulating the tone (civil vs. uncivil) and partisan target (Democrats vs. Republicans) of a blogger’s critique on a news story in an experiment. Incivility is found to amplify the effect of partisanship incongruence on belief-driven dissonance and negative emotion. The emotion aroused in turn mediates the relationship between dissonance and selective exposure, while issue relevance plays a moderating role in the latter relationship.

Ratcheting up the grassroots rhetoric: Tea Party candidates and Twitter in the 2010 midterm elections • Jason Turcotte; Chance York • During the 2010 midterm elections 15 Tea Party candidates sought U.S. Senate seats; 95 sought bids to the U.S. House of Representatives; and 8 ran in gubernatorial campaigns. The movement produced a slew of victories in GOP primaries – including Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland and Nevada – in addition to key general election victories. Furthermore, Bachmann and Cain’s 2012 presidential campaigns and the derailment of debt ceiling negotiations suggest Tea Party momentum continues to grow.

Explicating the Values-Issues Consistency Hypothesis through Need for Orientation • Sebastian Valenzuela, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile; Gennadiy Chernov, University of Regina, School of Journalism • Previous research has found that values moderate agenda-setting effects, so that when the topics in the media resonate with people’s values, the power of the media to set the agenda is stronger. However, we know little about the process by which values affect issue salience. Using an experiment, this study found that need for orientation-—the key psychological variable in agenda setting-—is a mediator of the values-issue salience relationship.

Which Candidates Can Be Mavericks? The Intersection of Issue Disagreement and Candidate Biography • Emily Vraga, George Washington University • In recent elections, candidates have often presented themselves as mavericks, willing to speak hard truths to the American people and counter their party on issues. An experimental study tests whether this approach is equally viable for all candidates. Manipulating the amount of issue disagreement for a feminine vs. masculine candidate demonstrates that a feminine candidate is consistently penalized more harshly for disagreeing with her party. Implications for campaign strategies and political decision-making are discussed.

The Civic Engagement and Psychological Empowerment of Micro-blog Usage in China: A Case Study of Sina Weibo • Keyi Xu, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of HK; Yang Liu, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of HK • This research focuses on civic engagement and psychological empowerment of Micro-blog in China from the approach of uses and gratifications theory. Sina Weibo, the most popular micro-blog service is taken as a case. Weibo usage is considered from two dimensions, usage pattern and motivation. Usage pattern refers to frequency, and five motivations including interaction, entertainment, expressing, political reading, and passing-time were investigated.

Talking as communicators: Effects of group communication, government-citizen interaction, and perceived media importance on online political discussion • Na Liu, City University of Hong Kong; Xinzhi Zhang, City University of Hong Kong • This study makes two contributions to the research aiming at predicting online political discussion. First, it provides support for a theoretical model that better accounts for the relationship among online political discussion, perceived importance of new media, group communication, and government-citizen online interaction.

<< 2012 Abstracts

Gender, Personality Attributes, and Predictors of Career Success in Media Professions • Roger Cooper, Ohio University; Tang Tang, University of Akron • This study, developed through established theoretical foundations in psychology and vocational choice, explores the role of gender in assessments of which attributes are most important for career success in the media industries. Forty-two attributes were assessed by current media professionals (N=1,122).  t tests revealed significant differences between women and men on 17 of the 42 attributes measured.

Help Wanted 2011:  An examination of job skills required by top U.S. news companies • Lynn Owen, Peace College; Deb Wenger, University of Mississippi • In order to prepare journalism students for the dynamic nature of the industry, it has become more important than ever for educators to stay abreast of the evolution of skills and attributes that are most important for employment and success in the journalism profession today.

Get With the Program: A Content Analysis of Undergraduate Advertising Program Websites • Erin Schauster, University of Missouri; Joonghwa Lee, Middle Tennessee State University; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri; Seoyeon Kim, University of Missouri, Missouri School of Journalism; Kim Sheehan • Today’s digital age and increasing competition to attract students to higher education mandate an online presence. Prospective students, interested in a career in advertising, must be able to access information that is well-developed and thoughtfully presented. This research is one of the first to examine the prospective student’s access to advertising education information online. A content analysis of 143 advertising program websites was conducted based upon 20 variables.

Reshaping the Classroom & Workplace Communities?: Millennial Graduates Rate Their Job Skills & Professional Characteristics • Vicki Todd • In this study, Millennial communications graduates rated themselves based on job skills and professional characteristics at their first job position after college graduation versus their current job position after gaining industry experience. The graduates rated eight job skills as significantly more outstanding in their current position, although entry-level job skills were in the above average and outstanding ranges.

<< 2012 Abstracts

Refugee Status: Tracing the Global Flows of M.I.A. • Brian Creech, University of Georgia • This paper studies how Sri Lankan pop star M.I.A. forms an ideal site for the textual study of globalized identity, particularly amid discourses of state power, terrorism, and violence. Rooted in the literature of media and terrorism and grounded in post-colonial theories of hybridization, this study analyzes M.I.A. and her music as globalized media objects, looking at how they use hip-hop as a cultural form to constitute a dual identity of refugee and interest in order to launch a critique of state power.

Can the General Learning Model predict more than Antisocial and Prosocial Behaviors?  The Links among Video Games, Mental Well-being, and Physical Fitness • J.J. DeSimone, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Given their nearly ubiquitous presence in the American and larger, global society, it is important to study how video game play may affect people on the physical and mental level. The General Learning Model predicts either prosocial or antisocial behaviors based on the content of video games. However, the model ought to be able to predict additional behaviors; limiting the predictions to just antisocial and prosocial behaviors, while important, is not reflective of the diverse content and ways in which players interact in game worlds.

Preparing PhDs: a survey of journalism and mass communications doctoral course faculty • Jack Karlis, University of South Carolina; Caroline Foster, University of South Carolina; Matthew Telleen, University of South Carolina • This research describes PhD level course and program outcomes, expectations and rigor by surveying journalism and Mass Communications faculty nationwide. Our findings also look at differences in those outcomes among academic ranks. We find that a commonly held view of the requirements and value of a journalism and mass communications phd exists across all levels of faculty.

U.S. Media Frames of Egyptian Revolution Participants • Andrea Guzman, University of Illinois at Chicago • In early 2011, the Egyptian people protested for 18 days to force out President Hosni Mubarak. The drama surrounding the Egyptian Revolution received record-breaking news coverage in the United States. This study aims to understand how two U.S. news organizations, CNN.com and FoxNews.com, portrayed key players in the revolution: the anti-government protesters and Mubarak and his government. Grounded in framing theory, this study employs critical discourse analysis to identify the media frames that characterize the revolution participants.

Rethinking and Reexamining Theories on Information Age • Chia-I Hou • This paper examines scholars’ discourses on the coming of the Information Age. It starts by discussing scholars who measured the emergence of the Information Age in the early 1960s. Machlup and Galbraith used economic indicators, followed by the exploration of network and knowledge sharing, which is a crucial process in the formation of the Information Age. Ellul (1964) paralleled humanity with technology as a “system,” and Mumford (1966) coined the term “megamachine.”

Determining the Ethical Duty of Public Relations Practitioners within the Online Space • Katie Ingold, Saint Louis University • As the role of the public relations professional adapts to the ever-evolving media landscape of today, it has become increasingly important to develop relevant codes for ethical decision making to ensure its role as a credible communicator. This exploratory study looks at the transitioning ethical role of the public relations practitioner in a digital age by uncovering practitioners’ motivations to act ethically, along with key online communication dilemmas.

Tracing African Mass Communication Research Trends From 1980 To 2009 • Kioko Ireri, School of Journalism Indiana University-Bloomington • This research traces African mass communication research trends in the last three decades – from 1980 to 2009. The study analyzes methodological approach, data collection methods, medium of focus, use of theories, use of hypotheses or research questions, and country of study focus in articles published in two journalism and mass communication journals. Findings show that qualitative research approach dominated during the period with historical research being the most popular data collection method.

Framing protest: A discourse analysis of US TV news coverage of the Iraq War protests on February 15th, 2003 • Anmol Kalsi, University of South Carolina; Matthew Ross, University of South Carolina • The authors analyzed transcripts of TV news broadcasts with a view to determine how the major networks framed the Iraq War protests. The findings reveal that the majority of coverage was episodic in nature and that the dominant frames depicted the protesters as anti-American, ill-informed and extremists. This study further suggests that a great deal of uniformity permeated the coverage, signaling a worrying symbiotic relationship of complicity between the state and media.

Media Coverage Regarding the International Conflict Stemming from NDM-1 • Jihye Kim, University of Florida • The observation of the three international newsprint media coverage presented noteworthy results concerning the controversy of the antibiotic resistant bacteria, NDM-1. The social representation theory was applied to examine the international relevance within the United States, United Kingdom, and India while establishing the media definition of NDM-1. An application of media framing was utilized to provide an analysis of headlines and content media coverage of NDM-1.

Younger generations’ use of social media for college athletics: A uses and gratifications approach • Daewook Kim, Texas Tech University • This study examined characteristics and trends in the ways college students utilize social media for college athletics. The results of this study suggested four motivations—entertainment, information seeking, social interaction, and surveillance—for using social media of college athletics. Thus, information seeking and social interaction motivations, both motivations for using social media for college athletics, were related positively to gratification of social media use for college athletics.

Effects of anonymity on online group opinion polarization • June Yung Kim, University of Florida • As the number of Internet users has rapidly increased in past few decades, effects of computer-mediated communication (CMC) have been studied by many researchers. However, researches on impacts of an anonymous online setting has showed mixing results. This paper tries to provide a conceptual model about how anonymity of CMC settings leads to group opinion polarization rather than diverse opinions among individuals. Factors from societal and individual levels are taken into consideration in the model.

The Tiger Woods Scandal in the Media: Measuring Attribute Effects on the Public • Claudia Kozman, Indiana University • This study examines the Tiger Woods sex scandal using second-level agenda-setting, compelling arguments hypothesis, and attribute priming as its theoretical structures. A content analysis of print and broadcast media is employed to determine the dominance of scandal stories in general, and the “sex/adultery” attribute in particular. This study also uses attribute priming to measure the presence and direction of opinion in the public. The data come from a nationally representative survey of the American public.

Spectacularizing queers: How young females are embraced by the media industry in South Korea • Jungmin Kwon, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign • This paper concerns itself with the role of media and their institutional actions in the commodification process. In particular, it aims to investigate what kinds of roles the media industry plays in the commodifying process, the process by which the popular culture of South Korean female adolescents became marketable, and how its consumers, young South Korean women, responded to the commodification of their culture.

The Changing Nature of Information Exchange for Online and Social Network Site Political Participation: A 2008 to 2010 Comparison • Timothy Macafee • Examining what types of people participate politically online as well as distinguishing between online and social network site participation may illuminate their impact on political processes. Using representative sample survey data, the current study compares the relationship between individual orientations and information seeking and sharing behaviors across both online and social network site participation in 2008 and 2010. The results indicate differences between both time and type of participation.

Describing the Shared Experiences of Being a High School Journalist: A Phenomenological Study • Adam Maksl, University of Missouri • Using the qualitative method of phenomenology, this paper describes, in detail, the essence of the shared experience of being a high school journalist. The study found four themes to be present in the experience of the high school newspaper editors: high school journalism is real journalism; being a high school journalist conflicts with being a regular student; high school journalism is about its didactic purposes; being a high school editor is about leadership.

Have We Moved? A Content Analysis of Food Advertising Aired during Popular Children’s Programming • Charles Meadows; Cui Zhang • Given the fact that childhood obesity rates in the U.S have tripled over the past 30 years, health communication practitioners are paying great attention to media content in terms of food and beverage commercials targeting children. This study analyzed food and beverage commercials aired on programming most likely to be viewed by U.S. children on five networks during three months (May to July).

Presidential Crisis Communication in Environmental Disasters:  A Content Analysis Comparing White House Responses to Hurricane Katrina and the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster • Cayce Myers, University of Georgia; Nicola Corbin • This study is a content analysis of the White House communications concerning Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill using Coombs’s crisis communication matrix and crisis frames. Findings show both administrations employed similar crisis communication strategies as prescribed in Coombs’s (1995) flowchart as well as the similar frames to characterize these disasters. Particular strategies were employed by various officials suggesting political crisis communication is affected by the speaker and the timing of the communication.

Journalists Back to School: Korean Journalists’ Perception on Further (Continuing) Education • Sangwon Park • This study investigates Korean journalists’ perception on further education issues. In order to explore further, this study adopted two forms of analysis: a secondary analysis of surveys carried out by the Korea Press Foundation (KPF) regarding “Journalists’ Perception on Further Education/Continuing Education,” and an analysis of interviews conducted with former Korean journalists currently studying at American institutions.

A Case Study of Grantmakers’ Use of Technology as a Public Relations Strategy • Geah Pressgrove, University of South Carolina • This pilot study explores what the leadership of South Carolina-based foundations feel is the value of their experience with participatory online strategies, also known as Web 2.0.  Through in-depth interviews with relevant dominant coalition staff, the author investigates how, when and why technology-driven communications are utilized by foundations, and grantmaking organizations as part of public relations initiatives.

Attention Please! Why Facebook Use is not Enough To Make People Buy From Facebook Ads • Heather Shoenberger, University of Missouri; Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia • This study sought to explore the relationship between frequency of social media use and levels of advertsing trust on social media. Practitioners of advertising may use our findings to note the vital importance that trust plays in advertising in the social media environment. It should also be noted that the social media environment may be significantly different than more traditional media such as news websites, magazines or television.

How News Media Use Affects Political Discussion in a Transitional Society: Evidence from the China Survey • Jia-Wei Tu, Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong • This study is an investigation of the relationship between use of news media and political discussion in a transitional society with fast-changing media landscape. With the analysis of rare national-scale survey data in China, the author argues that embedded in the socialist political system, the traditional mainstream media, particularly the newspapers and TV news, play the major role in generating and sustaining discussion concerning political issues in Chinese society today.

A Lame Law: A History of Criminal Libel • A.Jay Wagner, Indiana University • The paper traces the history of criminal libel, from its origin in England’s infamous Star Chambers to its odd current status. A particular focus is given to the original intention of the law as a protector of society’s best men and as a method for sustaining public order. As our society has matured and law developed, criminal libel has become unnecessary and redundant, used only intermittently and inconsistently.

In Media We Distrust: The Interplay of Message, Context and Media Trust on Political Evaluations • David Wise, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Bryan McLaughlin, University of Wisconsin, Madison • This experiment tests the effects of the interplay of media trust, media context and message content on attitudes and support for a candidate. A national adult sample viewed a candidate profile on either the candidate’s website or CNN.com, and the profile contained either subtle or explicit religious cues. Those high in media trust who saw the CNN profile rated the candidate highest, but only when it contained subtle religious cues.

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