Communication Theory and Methodology Division

Examining Rhetorical Structures in Competing News Frames: How Interest Groups Shaped Coverage of the Late-term Abortion Debate • Julie L. Andsager, Washington State University • In competing to shape policy on social issues, interest groups develop rhetoric to garner more media coverage and a larger slice of public opinion. This study examined how pro-choice and pro-life groups attempted to build rhetorical structures in frames of the late-term abortion debate in 1995-96. Pro-life rhetoric appeared more frequently in six major newspapers’ coverage and was more closely associated with the issue than was pro-choice rhetoric, suggesting the value of its emotional appeal.

Synthesis 2000: A Unified Model of Mass Communication • Michael Antecol and Keith P. Sanders, Missouri-Columbia • Because previous models of the communication process did adequately represent the actual communication experience, there has been a shift in research attention away from holistic models, to ones that more accurately reflected various individual elements within a mass mediated experience. The results of these attempts have disembodied the mass communication process such that there is no longer a unified manner in which to regard the mediated communication experience. Although there have been calls for studies that cross levels of analysis, there has been no recent attempt to synthesize a coherent model of mass communications that would be suitable for the next century.

Predicting Future Risky Behavior Among Those “Too Young” to Drink as the Result of Advertising Desirability • Erica Weintraub Austin, Washington State University • A convenience sample of 273 children in Washington state investigated the validity of a predrinking behavior index as a behavioral outcome to assess media effects on precursors to drinking among children for whom alcohol consumption is not yet occurring. It also examined age trends in relevant beliefs and behaviors. Perceptions of advertising desirability increased steadily from third to ninth grade, whereas identification with portrayals leveled off after sixth grade. Expectancies also increased with age, particularly between sixth and ninth grade.

A Path Model Examining the Influence of the Media On Fear of Crime and Protective Act • Mahmoud A.M. Braima, Southern University, Thomas Johnson and Jayanthi Sothirajah, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • In an effort to understand how the media influence people’s fear of crime, this paper proposed and empirically tested a model of the relationship between (1) demographic variables and crime issue involvement; (2) simple exposure to the media, exposure to crime news and crime information seeking; (3) attention to crime content; and (4) fear of crime and taking protective acts against crime. Data from a survey of 311 adult residents of Little Rock, Arkansas Provided preliminary partial support for the developed hypothesis.

The Crisis of Communication for Citizenship: Normative Critiques of News and Democratic Processes • Eric P. Bucy, Indiana University and Paul D’Angelo, Villanova University • Over the last 25 years political communication researchers have presented mounting evidence of how the press fails its public mission by not adequately informing the electorate, presenting an accurate picture of civic affairs, or fostering a sense of connectedness to governing institutions. Perceived shortcomings of the political communication system and sustained controversy in the field over the nature and extent of media deficiencies have led scholars to articulate a crisis of communication for citizenship and a crisis of political communication research.

The Role of Media Examples in The Heuristic Process Model of Cultivation Effects • Rick W. Busselle, Washington State University • This study explores the influence of specific examples on judgments. Analysis is carried out in light of The Heurisitc Process Model of Cultivation Effects (Shrum, 1996). Ss (197) completed a traditional cultivation survey, and six weeks later were divided into two experimental conditions. Condition 1 performed an exemplar accessibility task measuring the amount of time required to think of an example of an extra-marital affair, a shooting, and an African-American doctor.

Developing an Integrated Theory of Recall of News Stories • Margaret H. DeFleur and Melvin L. DeFleur, Boston University • This paper has two objectives: First, an axiomatic theory of news recall is derived from studies of psychological attention sets, principles of perception, studies of folk-tale recall and theories of memory storage, Its seven propositions predict the general nature of patterns of recall among individuals who attend to and retell a typical spot new story. The second objective is to check these predictions against data obtained from a large-scale news recall experiment. The results indicate that the theory has predictive value.

News Coverage of “Moral” Issues, Priming of Candidate Integrity, and the Vote Choice • David Domke, Washington; Dhavan V. Shah, Wisconsin-Madison and Daniel B. Wackman, Minnesota • Relatively unexplored in political communization research is how issues commonly discussed by politicians and news media in “moral” terms influence citizens’ appraisals of candidate character and, through these evaluations, shape voting behavior. In this research, we theorize that moral issues not only influence electoral choices due to citizens’ acceptance or rejection of candidates based on issue stands, but also that thoughts about these issues “carryover” to other political judgments • in particular, perceptions of candidate integrity.

The Cognitive Mediation Model: A Framework for Studying Learning From the News With Survey Methods • William P. Eveland, Jr., Wisconsin • Often survey research on learning from the news implicitly uses a direct effects approach that assumes that exposure directly leads to learning. This paper provides a more sophisticated, multivariate theoretical framework for this area of research in the form of a “cognitive mediation model” based on experimental research in psychology. Existing survey measure that can use to test the model and existing for individual links in the model is summarized.

A Casual Approach to the Third- and First- Person Perceptions • Koji Fuse, Li Jing and Arthur Chang, Texas • This research integrates various contingent variables into c casual model for media effects attribution bias (i.e., third-person, and null perceptions), and uses structural equation modeling to test all path coefficients simultaneously. The analysis suggests the overall food for of the model to the data. Contrary to past findings, however , the path coefficient of ego-involvement on perceived media accuracy turned out to be positive, and that of ego-involvement on the third-/first-person perceptions negative.

The Effects of Tabloid and Standard Television News on Viewer Evaluations, Memory and Arousal • Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Shuhua Zhou, Annie Lang and Paul Bolls, Indiana University • The application of flamboyant video production features is primarily associated with advertising, movies, and MTV music videos. Advances in television production technology, however, have made the application of lavish production technology, however, have made the application of lavish production features less expensive and time consuming, thereby enabling television news producers to incorporate them into their package of news. At the same time, extravagant production features have become part of what critics refer to in their outrage against tabloid news.

Dependency and Control • August E. Grant, Youda Zhu, Debra Van Tuyll, Jennifer Teeter, Juan Carlos Molleda, Yousef Mohammad and Lee Bollinger, South Carolina • A fundamental criterion of any measure is that is be exhaustive, representing every possible value or dimension of the phenomenon is question. To date, the assertion the Ball-Rokeach’s (1985) six dimensions of individual media dependency are exhaustive has been unchallenged. It may be true that every possible goal related to the consumption of media content can be classified into one of the six dimensions, but there may be additional dimensions of individual media dependency that have not yet been explored.

Information Sufficiency and Risk Communication • Robert J. Griffin, Marquette University; Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati and Sharon Dunwoody, Wisconsin-Madison • Analysis of a survey of two Great Lakes cities develops and tests part of a model that focuses on characteristics of individuals that might predispose them to seek and process information about risks in different ways. Support is found for the model’s propositions that information sufficiency (a person’s sense of the amount of information needed to cope with a health risk) is based partially on affective response to the risk, which is based in part on perceptions of key characteristics of the risk.

Source Perception and Electrodermal Activity • No-Kon Heo and S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State University • The Multistage Sequential Model of Face Recognition was used to hypothesize a relationship between electrodermal activity evoked by various communication sources and audience perception of those sources. Skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded while subjects (N=28) watched images of 22 communication sources. Perceptions of sources were recorded via a questionnaire. Results showed that sources associated with different program genres evoked different levels of SCRs, and familiarity of sources was positively associated with the level of electrodermal activity.

The “Critics,” “Believers,” and “Outsiders” of Election Polls: Comparing Characteristics of the Third-Person Effect, First-Person Effect and Consensus Effect • Yu-Wei Hu, National Taiwan Normal University and Yi-Chen Wu, Catholic Fu-Jen University • This study utilizes the statistical method of discriminant analysis to illustrate the social and psychological characteristics of the third-person effect, the first person effects, and the consensus effect of election poll reports. The results of the analysis show that those who perceive a third-person effect of the poll reports are quite confident in making voting decisions on the basis of their own knowledge of the campaign activities. These people tend to question the legitimacy of election polling and are the critics of election poll reports.

Family Communication Patterns and Personality Characteristics • Li-Ning Huang, Central Connecticut • A survey was conducted to investigate the relationships between family communication patterns and a set of personality characteristics, including self-esteem, self-disclosure, self-monitoring, desirability of control, social desirability, shyness, and sociability. Results showed that subjects from pluralistic families exhibited greater desire for control, self esteem, and sociability, whereas those from protective families were more likely to be self-monitoring and shy.

Cognitive Innovativeness as a Predictor of Student Attitudes and Intent: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Online Learning Environments • Tracy Irani and Michelle O’Malley, Florida • This study, using TOPB as a framework, investigated the effect of internal and external cognitive innovativeness on attitudes, beliefs and behavioral intentions related to desire to experience an online Web-based course. Results indicated high internal and external innovators had more positive attitudes than low. Regression analysis suggested that attitude was predictive for high internal innovators, while for high cognitive innovators, attitude and norms were predictive.

The Therapeutic Application of Television: An Experimental Study • Charles Kingsley, Michigan State University • Television has been criticized for contributing to a great many antisocial effects, but it does have beneficialeffects as well. This study examines television’s effect on the mental and emotional health of outpatients. It was hypothesized that the viewing of a nature video qould significantly reduce the ourpatients’ stress levels. An exploratory filed experiment was conducted to test this hypothesis, and the results demonstated tentative support.

The Ability of the AIDS Quilt to Motivate Information Seeking, Personal Discussion and Behavior as a Health Communication Intervention • Christopher Stephen Knaus, Bruce E. Pinkleton and Erica Weintraub Austin, Washington State University • Several seldom-used approaches have demonstrated significant effects with regard to HIV and AIDS education and prevention. The NAMES Project Foundation’s AIDS Memorial Quilt is designed to encourage compassion and increased emotional appeal, which is intended to lead to increased desire to seek information and develop skills concerning the transmission and prevention of the disease. A field experiment (n=560) was used to examine the ability of the AIDS Quilt to motivate information seeking, personal discussion and behavioral outcomes among those who viewed it.

Revisiting the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis: Education, Motivation, and Media Use • Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin-Madison • The findings of this study support the significance of motivational variable and media use in modifying the relationship between education and knowledge acquisition. People’s behavioral involvement in the 1992 presidential campaign influenced the knowledge gap due to education such that the gap was significantly smaller among those with a higher level of involvement. Also, respondents’ TV news viewing during the campaign significantly reduced the knowledge gap between education groups; thus, the more frequently people watched news stories on TV, the smaller the impact of education on knowledge acquisition.

The Effects of Political Talk Radio On Political Attitude Formation: Exposure vs. Knowledge • Gang Heong Lee and Joseph N. Cappella, Pennsylvania • This paper examines the effects of political talk radio (PTR) on the formation of voters’ favorability toward political candidates. It was found that, when compared to a two-sided message, exposure to an ideologically partisan message has an impact on the listeners’ political favorability toward leaders that reflects the dominant direction of the message. Specifically, there is clear and consistent Rush Limbaugh PTR effect such that his party message undermines the Clintons and presidential performance while upholding the Republicans and their performance.

Predicting Online Service Adoption Likelihood Among Nonsubscribers • Carolyn A. Lin, Cleveland State University • As we approach the dawn of the digital television revolution, the convergence between television and online services continues to progress along technological as well as content dimensions. With further erosion of the television audience on the horizon, it is speculated that PC-TV use will on day displace traditional TV use. This study investigates the relations between perceived television use and online access motives among non-online subscribers • the audience segment that is being courted by the online industry, and how much relations influence the likelihood of online service adoption.

The Third-person Perception and Support for Restriction of Pornography: Some Methodological Problems • Ven-hwei Lo and Anna R. Paddon, National Chengchi University • The third-person effect hypothesis, that people perceive media to impact others more than themselves, also posits this perception may lead to greater support for censorship. Teens from 15 high schools in Taipei, Taiwan, were surveyed and the results support the existence of third-person effects. However, the magnitude of the perceptual bias between perceived first-and third-person effects. However, the magnitude of the perceptual bias between perceived first- and third-person effects did not predict support for restriction.

Television News Coverage of Social Protest: Framing Effects of Status Quo Bias • Douglas M. McLeod and Benjamin H. Detenber, Delaware • This study investigated framing effects of television news stories. Participants watched one of three news stories about an Anarchist protest, which differed by level of status quo bias (High vs. Medium vs. Low). Status quo bias had significant linear effects on perceptions of the protesters and police, tolerance for the protesters’ expressive rights, and estimates of the protest’s effectiveness, popular support and newsworthiness, but not to general perceptions of protest as a form of democratic expression.

Understanding Deliberation: The Effects of Discussion Networks on Participation in a Public Forum • Jack M. McLeod, Dietram A. Scheufele, Patricia Moy, Edward M. Horowitz, R. Lance Holbert, Weiwu Zhang, Stephen Zubric and Jessica Hicks, Wisconsin-Madison • Participation in a deliberative forum has received relatively little scrutiny relative to traditional forms of participation, such as voting or contacting an official. This study examines the role of individuals’ discussion networks in predicting their willingness to participate in a deliberative forum. Using data collected from a midwestern city in the fall of 1997 (n=416), we employed structural equation modeling techniques to examine a provisional model of public deliberation. This model identified two pathways linking network characteristics to participation in a deliberative forum.

Framing the Nicotine Debate: A Cultural Approach to Risk • Priscilla Murphy, Temple University • This study examined Congressional testimony, concerning regulation of tobacco advertising, by three policy factions representing industry, government, and lay activists. It was based on the cultural theory of risk, which divides policy disputants into entrepreneurial, bureaucratic, and egalitarian communities, each with a distinct cosmology. Major themes in the testimony were identified through semantic network analysis and clustering of associated words that revealed discourse patterns peculiar to each group and reflecting the cultural theory of risk.

Viewer Elaboration About News Video • Michael Murrie, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model by Petty and Cacioppo, a Model of Interactive Media Elaboration is proposed to experimentally test the relationships of the independent variables • need for cognition, distraction, pacing (view time and pause time), and repetition • with the dependent variable, elaboration about nonlinear (interactive) video, measured by thinking aloud. Elaboration for linear and nonlinear video news stories was compared using a repeated measures crossover design. Elaboration was greater for nonlinear video.

Mood Congruence and the Utility of Sad Media Content•An Exploration of “Wallowing” • Kimberly A. Neuendorf, Cleveland State University • Drawing on the psychological literature on mood congruence, and the communication literature on mood management and uses and gratifications, an model is developed which examines functional congruent affect-seeking media behavior (i.e., “wallowing”). Questionnaire data from 86 undergraduates reveal (1) the existence of three distinct types of wallowing (active, passive, and “cathartic crying”), (2) no relationship between wallowing and media content preferences, even under conditions of state depression, and (3) some support for the prediction that wallowers will be more likely than non-wallowers to respond to depression with greater functional use of sad content.

Self-Consciousness and Personal Web Presence • Ghee-Young Noh, Michigan State University • This research attempts to test hypotheses regarding underlying factors that cause people to create similar personal homepagers. The results suggest that self-consciousness, especially private self-consciousness, affect several aspects of the Web design concept. Moreover, this research suggests that the concept of self-consciousness may be useful to identify or predict social identity and self-disclosure on Web presence. While public self-consciousness had effects on family identity presence, private self-consciousness had effects on self-disclosure.

Evidence for Selective Perception in the Processing of Health Campaign Messages •Ekaterina Ognianova, Southwest Texas State University and Esther Thorson, Missouri • This study tested the psychological mechanism that operates in audiences’ processing of health or safety campaign messages, specifically selective perception vs. perceptual defense. Three different surveys conducted in two Midwestern states between 1995 and 1997 provided consistent evidence for the operation of selective perception, especially in regards to messages that don’t call for radical changes in behavior. The study has both theoretical and practical implications for the understanding and design of health and safety campaigns.

Effects of Source Power Distance and Collective Versus Individual Appeal Strategies on Mexican-American and Anglo Young Adults’ Responses to Televised Alcohol Warnings • Anna Perea and Michael D. Slater, Colorado State University • This research examined the responses of 73 Mexican-American and Anglo young adults to four televised drinking and driving warnings., Warnings were manipulated into collective and individualist appeals, and to high and low power distance appeals through the use of a Surgeon General attribution. Females rated the collectivist warnings, and males the individualist warnings, more believable. Anglos rated warnings without the Surgeon General as the source more believable than warnings with the Surgeon General as the sources; the opposite was true for Latinos.

Identifying Structure Features of Radio: Orienting and Memory for Radio Messages • Robert F. Potter, Annie Lang and Paul Bolls, Indiana University • This paper examines the ability of nine different structural and content features of radio to elicit orienting responses from radio listeners. It further tests the effect of the orienting response on listeners’ memory for information presented immediately following the orienting eliciting feature. Results show that eight of the nine features elicit orienting responses. On average, memory is better for information presented following those features than it is for information presented before the features.

From Framing to Frame Theory: A Research Method Turns Theoretical Concept • Wim Roefs, South Carolina • Through a thematic discussion of the development of frame research in mass communications studies, the paper explains how ‘framing’ has turned from a research method into a theoretical concept that is increasingly at the center of mass communications studies. At the end, it is proposed that researchers make a distinction between “framing” and “frame theory” to avoid semantic confusion.

Perceptions of Media Power and Moral Influence: Issue Legitimacy and the Third-Person Effect • Michael B. Salwen, Michel Dupagne and Bryant Paul, Miami • A national telephone survey was conducted to investigate whether the perceived legitimacy of issues mediates the third-person effect. The third-person effect involves two general hypotheses: (1) a perceptual hypothesis, which predicts that people perceive other people to be more vulnerable than themselves to harmful media effects; and (2) a behavioral hypotheses, which predicts that perceiving others as more vulnerable increases support for restrictions. Issue legitimacy was hypothesized to reduce third-person perception and support for restrictions.

Persuasive Power and Effect Negativity: Assessing Perceived Media Influence to Test the Third-Person Effect Hypothesis • Dhavan V. Shah, Ronald J. Faber, Seounmi Han Youn and Hernando Rojas, Minnesota • In this study, we posit that two distinct factors underlie both the perceptual and the behavioral components of the third-person effect hypothesis: The estimated power (the amount of influence) and the estimated negativity (the valence of influence) of mass communications. To explore these issues, we surveyed 194 adults, using a mall-intercept procedure, who estimated the power and negativity of various types of advertising messages on self and others, and expressed their willingness to censor these classes of commercials.

Psychological Process in Perceiving Reality • Michael A. Shapiro and T. Makana Chock, Cornell University • Little attention has been paid to the mental processes and story elements influencing moment-to-moment perceived reality judgments. One possibility is that people compare story elements to a typical prototype. In three experiments a manipulation of atypical information in a “soap opera” or a news story predicted about half the variance in perceived reality. In a fourth experiment, participants used dials to continuously rate entertainment television shows for interest, liking, typicality, or perceived reality.

Deeper Into Media Use Motivations: The Role of Biology in Media Use • John L. Sherry, Arizona • Little media research and theory has addressed the contribution of biologically rooted individual differences to media use or effects. This study examines the relationship between television use motivations and individual differences in temperament, a multi-dimensional variable which is biologically rooted, stable across the lifespan and accounts for how individuals differ in behavioral tendencies. A survey was conducted of 285 undergraduates using he Dimensions of Temperament Survey and the Greenberg Uses and Gratifications scale.

The Role of Intentionally in Social Explanation: How Individual Difference Variables Can Help Build Communications Theories of Persuasion • Janas E. Sinclair, Florida •Philosophers of science emphasize that social scientific theories provide the most complete explanation of phenomenon when they account for the intentions of individuals. In this paper it is argued that mass communication theories of persuasion are also best able to explain human behavior when the intentions of individuals are considered. Mass communication theories of persuasion that do not account for intentions are examined. Individual differences variables are also examined as a way in which researchers may account for the intentions of individuals.

Effects of Media Use on Audience Framing and Support for Welfare • Mira Sotirovic, Illinois-Urbana-Champaign • This paper examines cognitive structures underlying individuals’ simple preferential response to a survey question measuring attitudes toward welfare. The closed-ended question was followed by an open-ended question used to obtain cognitive responses consisting of frames used in individuals’ reasoning about consequences of cutting welfare benefits. From the results it is evident that media are important source of frames that people use to think about issues. More importantly, those frames that are related to particular patterns of media use seem to have power to alter even deep ideologically motivated welfare preferences.

Germany and the United States Mirrored: An Exploration of Computer-Assisted Content Analysis • Robert L. Stevenson, North Carolina; Sabine Stiemerling and Antje Brockmann, Ludwig Maximilians-UniversitSt MYnchen and Haoming Denis Wu, North Carolina • Content analysis, used in one-quarter to one-third of recently published communication research articles, has been influenced, albeit modestly to date, by rapid growth in availability of electronic news archives and simple computer programs that expand the range of material examined and, to some degree, emulate traditional coding techniques. This study addressed the question of the image of the United States and Germany as reflected in two major daily newspapers, the New York Times and SYddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, as a case study of computer-assisted content analysis.

Mass Media and Social Change: A Theoretical and Methodological Comparison of the Tradition and the Future • Andrew H. Utterback, University of Utah • The purpose of this essay is to describe and differentiate research concerned with media and social change from two theoretical and methodological camps: the sociological tradition and a cultural studies approach. The essay shows that a cultural studies approach serves to increase our understanding of the relationship between media and social change through an expansion of our filed of objects of study, a (re)valuation of validity over reliability in our choice of methods, and a concrete and explicit concern for the success of the goals of cultural, political, material, and social equality above the myths of scientific objectivism.

Video Violence: Desensitization and Excitation Effects on Learning • Bradford L. Yates, Michelle Ballard, Mary Ann Ferguson, Kirk Filer, Ann Villanueva, Alison Knott and Tracy Cristal, Florida • An experiment tested desensitization and excitation effects of video violence on learning.

<< 1998 Abstracts

Communication Technology and Policy Division

Reassessing Public Support for Public Access Cablevision: A Faded Passion? • David Atkin, Kimberly Neuendorf and Leo W. Jeffres, Cleveland State University • This paper examines performance issues concerning local public, educational and government (PEG) access channels. The study is based on a survey of cable subscribers in a major metropolitan market. The findings suggest that community access channels compare favorably with many satellite-delivered channels, though viewership is not strongly related to use of other media. Open-ended responses suggest that meetings are the most commonly viewed access fare, followed by sports programming.

Old Scarcities, New Spaces, and the Public Interest in the New TV: Stakeholder Arguments in DBS • Patricia Aufderheide, American University • The U.S. Federal Communications Commission proceeding on public interest obligations of direct broadcast satellite service providers provides a sharply defined test case of the meaning of the public interest in rapidly changing environment for U.S. electronic media. It demonstrates remarkable continuity, despite new technologies and competitive environments, with past policy. It also demonstrates the frailty of social institutions and resources to propose and implement such policies.

The Digital Satellite System: Innovation Attributes and Adoption • Ted Carlin, Shippensburg University-Pennsylvania • The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the adoption of a new communication innovation (the Digital Satellite System) and the consumer’s perception of its attributes. A self-administered mail questionnaire was utilized to collect the data. Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that adoption of the DSS was significantly influenced, positively and negatively, by a number of attributes. The objective attributes of receive dish size, monthly programming cost, DSS equipment cost, and DSS channel variety influenced the adoption of the DSS.

Toward Building Issue Awareness and Knowledge: Including the Internet in a Repertoire of Information Sources • Alice P. Chan, Cornell University • Adopting the perspective of a repertoire of information sources, this paper evaluates how the Internet can aid in issue awareness and knowledge building. In the analysis, motivations for information seeking and the respective strengths of mass media and interpersonal communication are reviewed. Then, user and medium characteristics of the Internet are discussed in comparison and contrast with those of existing mass and interpersonal information sources. Implications for future research and public policy are also recommended.

Computerization of Taiwanese Newspapers • Li-jing Arthur Chang, Texas-Austin • This study attempts to describe the adoption of computer technology by the Taiwanese newspapers and explain the adoption process with the diffusion of innovations theory. Findings showed that the adoption process can be explained using the three perceived attributes under the theory: (1) the perceived relative advantage of an innovation over the old idea, (2) it compatibility with existing values and needs of potential clients, and (3) it complexity in use and understanding.

On-Line or Off-Base?: A Pilot Study to Determine Undergraduate Student Perceptions About Offering A Journalism/Mass Communication Course on the Web • Barbara J. DeSanto and J. Steven Smethers, Oklahoma State University • Computer-based distance education is being touted as one of the futurist ways to offer a variety of students courses they otherwise would not be able to take because of distance and/or time. While studies have been done on the designing Internet courses, little has been done to assess student perceptions or preferences about participating in this type of course. This pilot study specifically targets undergraduate communication students to ascertain their reactions to on-line courses in a profession that demands a certain level of social interaction to be successful.

Newspaper Size as a Factor in Use of Computer-Assisted Reporting • Bruce Garrison, Miami • The paper investigates the role of newspaper circulation as a factor in use of computer-assisted reporting resources by U.S. daily newspapers. The study analyzes the relationships between newspaper size and general computer use in newsgathering, the number of staff people involved in computer-assisted reporting, availability of training programs, use of portable computing, use of online research services, online spending, and existence of World Wide Web sites. The study found support for six of seven hypotheses suggesting that larger newspapers have a distinct advantage in computer use in newsgathering.

Interactivity Reexamined: An Analysis of Business Web Sites • Louisa Ha, The Gallup Organization and E. Lincoln James, Washington State University • This study reexamined the concept of interactivity and proposed that interactivity be defined as the extent to which the communicator and the audience responded to each other’s communication need. Interactivity was constructed as comprising five dimensions: 1) playfulness, 2) choice, 3) connectedness, 4) information collection, and 5) reciprocal communication. Business web sites were analyzed in order to illustrate the application of interactivity dimensions on the Web.

Computer • Mediated Communication (CMC): A Response to the Social Information Processing Perspective • Vernon Harper, Howard University • This paper examines one of the fastest growing communication technologies. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has long been the source scholarly inquiry. One of the most substantial theories to explain CMC effects is the social information processing perspective. The social information processing perspective describes how the rate of message exchange creates high levels of impression formation in CMC participants. The present paper explores the social information processing perspective and charts a new course for CMC research.

The Rural-Urban Gap in Community Newspaper Editors’ Use of Information Technologies • Douglas Blanks Hindman, Stan Ernst and Mavis Richardson, North Dakota State University • This paper is an exploration of community newspaper editors’ use of two types of information technologies that are a) compatible with, and b) incompatible with the routine production of the newspaper. Findings were that indicators of social status were closely associated with editor’s use of incompatible technologies. Nationally, gaps between rural and urban communities with on-line newspapers appear to be widening.

Kids on the Net: User Characteristics and Effects of Computer-Mediated Communication on Mass Media and Interpersonal Interaction • Nojin Kwak and So-Hyang Yoon, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper investigated what factors contribute to adolescents’ use of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and how adolescents’ CMC use influences their traditional media use and interpersonal interaction. Four distinct measures of CMC use were employed: exposure, frequency, intensity, and duration. Findings demonstrate that respondents’ social/demographic characteristics, gratifications sought, and psychological attachment to CMC are important correlates of CMC use. Also, family background was found to moderate the association between psychological attachment to CMC and CMC use.

The Effects of Hypertext on Readers’ Recall Based on Gender • Moon Jeong Lee, Florida • This study was interested in the effects of hypertext verses traditional text on readers’ recall with added consideration for gender and gender constancy differences. The effect of different text formats was found significant in on article • traditional text had higher scores. The gender effect was significant in the other article. Males scored higher than females. Gender constancy was not significant.

The Convergence of the Web and Television: Current Technological Situation and its Future • Seungwhan Lee, Indiana University • This paper attempts to conceptualize the convergence of the World Wide Web and television broadcasting. For this purpose, the paper explains the possibilities for convergence using McQuail’s four patterns of information traffic and Hoffman and Novak’s media topology. Then the study compares three current forms of convergence such as “WebTV,” “Intercast,” and “Webcasting,” focusing on comparing the technological advantages and disadvantages of each technology. Using Cherry’s “liberties of action” concept, the last part of the paper discusses the future of Web broadcasting.

Searching for Violence on the Internet: An Exploratory Analysis of MTV Online Music Video Clips • Greg Makris, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study explored violence in the content of MTV Online music video clips. A sample of 150 MTV Online video clips were content analyzed using a normative definition of violence and several qualitative dimensions of violence, including the nature of the violent acts, the consequences of the acts, and the characteristics of the perpetrators and victims of the acts. A wide variety of acts were observed within the sample, however few video clips contained violence, and much of the violence was less-severe in nature.

Interactivity: A Qualitative Exploration of Definitions and Models • Sally J. McMillan and Edward J. Downes, Boston University • The literature on interactivity includes many assumptions and some definitions but few tools for operationalizing the concept of “interactivity” in computer-mediated environments. This paper takes a first step in filling that gap. In-depth interviews with 10 individuals who work and teach in the field of interactive communication led us to a six-dimension conceptual definition of interactivity. Based on these dimensions, we propose a Model of Cyber-Interactivity which we plan to test empirically in future research.

The Unique Nature of Communications Regulation: Evidence and Implications for Communications Policy Analysis • Philip M. Napoli, Rutgers University • This paper argues that communications regulation posses three fundamental differences from the regulation of other industries. These differences are: (a) the fact the FCC regulatory decisions often have a potential for social, cultural, and political impact that extends well beyond the individual institutions or organizations directly involved in these decisions; (b) the difficulty with categorizing FCC regulatory responsibilities and decisions as purely economic or purely social regulation; and (c) the consequent ambiguity and multiple interpretations surrounding the FCC’s mandate to serve the “public interest, convenience or necessity.”

Motivation, Design and Personal Web Presence • Ghee-Young Noh, Michigan State University • This study identified six motives for authoring a personal homepage: escape, promotion, pleasure, contribution, communication, and family. It also identified some connections between those motivation pattern and design/content outcomes using content analysis and e-mail survey data. While the goal-oriented motivation such as promotion and contribution positively affected functional design and media richness, the entertainment motivation such as escape had a negative effect on media richness. The results support that motivation patterns are connected to specific media behavior.

Cyberstalking: Victims Use Online Resources to Fight Back • Ashley Packard and Susanne Gaddis, Houston • CyberAngels, a group that “patrols” the Internet to discourage online stalking, estimates that if ratios of real-world stalkers were superimposed upon the Internet, there would be 40,000 Internet stalkers harassing as many as 3000,000 victims. This article examines the phenomenon of cyberstalking and resources victims have used to defend themselves. It also assesses the effectiveness of state and federal criminal legislation intended to address the problem, as well as civil remedies available to victims.

From the Ether to Cyberspace: Development Patterns in Emerging Media • Randall Patnode, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper outlines a systems model of how emerging media develop based on the historical patterns of radio and the Internet. It identifies three phases of new media development and links these phases to Rogers’ diffusion of innovation s-curve. The three phases are: innovation, driven by individuals experimenting with the new medium; opportunity, driven by system-owners, information producers, and financial speculators; and maintenance,. driven by system-owners and regulatory bodies.

Online Journalism and Media Convergence: Empty Promises for Small Markets? • Ann E. Preston, Quincy University • This case study of a small market television network affiliate, daily newspaper and radio station explores the degree to which online journalism’s promised expansion of archival sources, cross-media collaboration of journalists and convergence of media are being realized. The three media share the same owner and philosophy of communitarian journalism. Findings suggest that while major markets may be reaping the benefits of online journalism, small market journalists rely on traditional skills and conventions.

A Political Economic Review of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 • Julian Rush, Brigham Young University and Jos Blanco, Saint Mary’s College of California • This paper analyzes the political-economic underpinnings and impacts of the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TA), on February 8, 1996. The paper explores the intended market initiatives, the legislative history and political economy of the new law. As with any new legislation, the stated benefits and goals for the American consumer have been obscured due to competitive position undertaken by telecommunication firms. The authors have reviewed the plethora of mergers, lawsuits and administrative agency decision-making and posit whether the competitive end of the law have been justified or fulfilled positive changes in telecommunications markets and improved social welfare.

Digital Imaging and the Photojournalist: Work and Workload Issues • John Russial, Oregon • This paper examines the impact of digital imaging on the nature of newspaper photojournalism work. The shift from chemical to digital processing has brought an increase in staffing. The study, which is based on a national sample of photo editors, offers some support for the view that news production technologies are greeted with some ambivalence in newsrooms because they both enrich the job and enlarge it at the same time. Photo editors are largely positive about digital imaging, saying that it increases photographers’ flexibility in working with images and autonomy but that it also makes photo work more routine and leads to a grater priority on production.

Mass Media and the Concept of Interactivity: An Exploratory Study of Online Forums and Reader E-Mail • Tanjev Schultz, Indiana University • Mass media are well represented on the World Wide Web now. But it is not clear yet how interactive they will be in the online environment. The paper first goes over theoretical implications, discussing lack of interactivity in traditional mass media. Then it identifies concrete settings and levels of interactivity in online journalism. Finally, and exploratory study of New York Times journalists and forum participants helps to illustrate chances and problems of mass media online.

The Tease Effect of Slow Downloading: Arousal and Excitation Transfer in Online Communication • S. Shyam Sundar and Carson B Wagner, Pennsylvania State University • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Online Newspapers: Living Up to Their Potential? • James W. Tankard, Jr. and Hyun Ban, Texas-Austin • McLuhan postulated that new media emulate the forms of old media. This study examined the extent to which online newspapers are taking advantage of the special features offered by the Internet, including hypertext, interactivity and multimedia. While some online newspapers have adopted such innovations as frequent updating, hypertext links embedded in stories, multimedia features other than photographs, and interactivity features other than e-mail addresses and search engines for archives, most have not.

The Role of Local Government in Information Age After the Passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 • Kuo-Feng Tseng, Michigan State University • Convergence of communications technology, such as cable television, telephone, and computer network, has made those primary separate industrial players enter each other’s service. The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 removed barriers to entry and affects cities in management of rights-of-way, local zoning authority and municipalities’ ownership in the integrated telecommunication services. This paper examines related policies of cable television, telecommunications, and wireless services from nineteen Michigan communities, to provide basic principles of regulatory instruments for other municipalities.

Controlling the Uncontrollable: Export controls on Encryption Technology • Rita Zajacz, Indiana University • This paper uses the statist paradigm to examine the state-industry controversy over export controls of encryption technologies from the inception of the debate in 1991 through November 1996. By examining the fate of bills proposed for the liberalization of encryption technologies and the administration’s Clipper chip initiatives, we can conclude that the American state clearly preferred security over wealth maximization in policy making, and it proved to be very successful in fielding Congressional challenge.

<< 1998 Abstracts

Advertising Division

Research
Effectiveness of Negative Political Advertising • Won Ho Chang, Jaejin Park and Sung Wook Shim, Missouri-Columbia • Throughout history politicians have used various methods, such as whistle-stop speeches, political advertising and political rallies, to achieve their primary goal, the winning of votes. However, over the years, politicians have found that it is most advantageous to use political advertising to persuade voters. And a significant trend in today’s political advertising is the increasing use of negative political advertising. Why do political practitioners increasingly use negative political advertising? Do they think negative ads are the most effective way to persuade voters in a short period of time in order to win an election?

Information Processing of Web Advertising: Modified Elaboration Likelihood Model • Chang-Hoan Cho, Texas-Austin • This paper develops Modified Elaboration Likelihood Model to understand how people process advertising on the Internet. An empirical study verifies this model by examining several variables influencing voluntary exposure to banner ads; e.g., level of product involvement, the size of a banner ad, relevancy between the content of a vehicle and the product category of a banner ad, attitude toward the vehicle, and overall attitude toward Web advertising. The findings document significant relationships between these variables and voluntary exposure to banner ads and support the hypothesized model.

Comparing Cinema Versus In-Home Viewing Contexts in Audience Experiences and Interpretations of Brands in Movies • Denise E. DeLorme, Georgia • This qualitative study sought further phenomenological understanding of how brand placement is interpreted within the everyday lived experience of the movie audience. Specifically, this paper compares cinema versus in-home viewing contexts in audience experiences and interpretations of brands in movies. Data collection involved eight focus groups and thirty in-depth interviews with older, younger, frequent, and infrequent non-college moviegoers. Constant comparative analysis uncovered six differences and two similarities regarding viewing contexts.

The Birth of Adwatches: Political Advertising Becomes Front-page News • Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • Political advertising, once virtually ignored by the newspapers, became the subject of journalists’ attention following a perceived rash of “dirty” campaign commercials in the 1988 presidential race. A brigade of “ad cops” was deputized to police false and misleading statements contained in ads. The development of adwatches is reviewed in a historical context of political advertising and journalistic coverage. Emerging research on adwatches is detailed to shed light on this new form of political coverage.

A New Taxonomy with Cultural Reflection for Comparative Advertising Styles • Kazumi Hasegawa, North Dakota • This paper proposes a new taxonomy for comparative advertising styles. The significant attribute is that the model can provide a framework for both intercultural and international analyses/evaluations of various comparative advertising communication styles. It is unique because the new model: (1) recognized the categories that have not been conceptualized previously, and (2) not only provides a basic function of taxonomy which is useful for categorization but also adds an intercultural approach to the form.

A Longitudinal Study of Characteristics and Use of Advertorials in Magazines and Newspapers • Kuen Hee Ju-Pak and Wei-Min Lai, California State University-Fullerton • For the years 1992 to 1995, a total of 447 advertorials were identified from nine magazines and three national newspapers and then content analyzed. The study was intended to build on previous work on advertorial advertising by assessing current trends in advertorial usage and analyzing executional characteristics of advertorials. Findings suggest a notable drop in advertorial use among magazines, with newspapers differing from magazine in usage as well as executional characteristics.

Political Parties and Changes in Taiwanese Electronic Media in the 1990s • Wei-Kuo Lin, Wisconsin-Madison • The study is to present an overall picture of changes in relationships between Taiwanese media and political parties during a pursuit of democracy in the 1990s. Three research questions regarding the long-term effects of the media on an emerging democracy at a macroscopic level have been answered. It applies a methodological combination of historical analysis, theoretical criticism, and in-depth interviewing. This study not only provides exploratory findings on the role of mass media interacting with democratic development, but also, more importantly, bridges these findings to essential theories which enable future researchers to follow.

Differential Effects of Self-assessed Consumer Knowledge and Objective Consumer Knowledge on Responses to Print Ads for Technical Products • Robert Meeds, Kansas State University • The roles of two constructs of consumer knowledge, self-assessed product knowledge and objective product knowledge, are examined in an experiment in which consumers read ads for high-tech products containing varying levels of technical language. Self-assessed knowledge was a better predictor of participants’ cognitive responses and general attitudinal evaluations. Objective knowledge, on the other hand, was a better predictor of ratings of specific product attributes. These differential results are considered with respect to the role of product advertising in consumer information search strategies.

A Content Analysis of Banner Advertisements: Potential Motivating Features • Blessie Miranda, California State University-Fullerton • This study examines, through content analysis, the common content, design, and context features of 200 Web banner advertisements among 50 top web sites ranked by ad revenues. The results indicated that most banner ad designs feature characteristics similar to ads designed for traditional media, as well as unique characteristics of advertising in the new Internet medium. The implications could help advertisers improve their banner design decisions. Knowing the common features could help facilitate future studies of what motivates user click-through behavior.

Adver-Thai-sing Standardization: Can a U.S. Study of Sex Role Portrayals Transcend Cultural Boundaries? • Chompunuch Punyapiroje, Mariea Grubbs Hoy, Margaret Morrison, Tennessee • We report the results of a study conducted among women in Thailand which investigated the influence of three female role portrayals (traditional, superwoman and egalitarian) and women’s gender ideology on advertising effectiveness. We examine two questions: (1) Are research methods and assumptions about consumer behavior that are widely accepted in the U.S. appropriate for other cultures?; (2) If a study yields certain findings in the U.S., are these findings transferable to a Pacific Rim nation?

Assessing Advertising Effectiveness: A Comparison of Two Real-time Measures of Ad Liking • Fuyuan Shen, South Dakota • This paper uses a quasi-experimental approach to examine two real-time measures of ad liking and their relationships with delayed consumer responses such as delayed ad liking, recall and recognition of brand names. The two real-time measures were mean liking and peak liking, which were collected on a moment-to-moment basis while subjects were viewing the television commercials. The delayed responses were collected more than 24 hours after respondents viewed the ads in natural environments.

Placing Alcohol Warnings Before, During, and After TV Beer Ads: Effects on Recall, Knowledge, and Responses to the Ads and the Warnings • Michael D. Slater, Donna Rouner, David Karan, Kevin Murphy and Frederick Beauvais, Colorado State University • This experiment compares the effects of warnings placed before, during or after television beer advertisement. Findings suggest that warnings can increase knowledge relative to the control condition, especially for viewers who consumer relatively more alcohol, and also decrease positive responses to beer advertisements. Warning placement also influences amount of responses to ads. Earlier findings regarding effects of warning topic and quantitative information in the warnings were replicated.

Hard Liquor Advertising on Television: What Do Americans Know About It and Do They Care? • Esther Thorson, Michael Antecol, Missouri and Charles Atkin, Michigan State University • In 1996, the distilled spirits industry discarded their long-held voluntary ban from television advertising. Although their commercials are not currently being accepted by the networks, they are advertising on local television and on cable. The primary purpose of the national telephone survey reported here was to determine whether Americans knew that liquor advertising was now appearing on television, and what, if anything, they thought the impact would be on themselves, on problem drinkers, and on teens and children.

A Cross-cultural Comparison of the Effects of Source Credibility on Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions • Kak Yoon, Washington State University; Choong Hyun Kim, Sogang University and Min-Sun Kim, Hawaii-Manoa • This paper investigated: 1) whether the dimensionality of source credibility is applicable to Koreans; 2) which dimension exerted more influence on dependent variables. Findings suggest that the dimensionality of source credibility was remarkably similar between the two samples. The influence of three source credibility dimensions varied by dependent variables. Attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness were equally important to purchase intentions. All three dimensions affected involvement with the ad message. Only trustworthiness had a significant impact on attitude toward the brand and brand beliefs.

Special Topics
The Impacts of Emotion Elicited by Political Advertising on Candidate Evaluation • Chingching Chang, National Chengchi University • Employing an experiment, this study showed that attacking or promoting itself did not contribute significantly to variation of candidate evaluation beyond what could be explained by ad-evoked emotional responses. This study also examines the role of ad attitude. Integrating all the findings, this study proposes a model that will help understand the process of how positive and negative political advertising may influence candidate evaluation. Emotion theory is applied to explain the process.

Perceptions of Japanese Advertising: A Q-Methodological Study of Advertising Practitioners in Japan • Fritz Cropp, Missouri • Q-methodology was used to isolate the perceptions of advertising professionals in Japan. Three distinct types of advertising professional emerged: The Establishment Types sees minor changes but not dramatic changes precipitated by difficult economic times. The Emigrant Type believes that cultural factors preclude major change in Japan’s advertising climate. The Change Agent Type foresees dramatic change in adverting in Japan, precipitated by difficult economic times and fierce competition. Conclusions and implications of these findings are discussed.

Does it Pay to Have a Web Site? Assessing the Value of URLs in Print Advertising for Non-Technology Products • Deborah A. Procopio, North Carolina • Many businesses today feel pressure to be online but see no real value in maintaining a web site. However, the presence of a URL in a traditional print advertisement may add value. This study found no evidence to support the hypothesis that a web site in a print advertisement for a non-technology product will directly increase brand value. However, large companies (regardless of technological level of product) without a web presence in future may be risking customer relationships. Those companies may also be perceived as being less current.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Advertising: It’s Time for a New Look • Don Umphrey, Southern Methodist University • New insights are still being gained from cognitive dissonance theory, introduced 41 years ago. In advertising, however, usage of the theory has been practically non-existent for the past two decades. This is despite research in the mod-1980s linking the theory with the concept of selective exposure. This paper reviews cognitive dissonance theory from pertinent fields and shows how it might be applied by advertising research in the future.

PF&R
Preparing Students for Real-world Ethical Dilemmas: A Stakeholder Approach • Anne Cunningham and Eric Haley, Tennessee • Advertising educators often ignore complaints that the advertising industry is devoid of all morals. Harrison (1990), for example, found that only 25% of colleges or universities offer a course devoted to communications ethics; those schools that offer a course generally teach it from a journalism perspective. Based on a review of the literature and additional preliminary research, this paper argues for a more business-oriented approach to teaching advertising ethics.

Codes of Conduct: Public Images and Silent Voices • Jean Grow vonDorn, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper looks at the evolution of codes of conducts as they relate to manufacturing policies, brand imaging and youthful consumer responses to these issues. I argue that young consumers are generally ignored by activists who tend to focus on regulation. Yet, these consumers could provide an additional avenue of activism. By consciously engaging young consumers, a vast potential for successful activism abides within the grasp of activists.

The American Way to Menstruate: Feminine Hygiene Advertising and Adolescent Girls • Debra Merskin, Oregon • In American life, menstruation has been socially constructed as a problem•something shameful and dirty. This study explores the content of feminine hygiene advertising that targets pre-adolescent girls in Seventeen and Teen magazines. The findings suggest that not only do the ads carry messages from the past about cleanliness based on societal taboos, but also contribute to girls’ feelings about their bodies in preparation for participation in American consumer culture.

Teaching
Advertising Educators’ Textbook Adoption Practices • Louisa Ha, The Gallup Organization • This article reports a national survey of advertising educators that examined their advertising textbook adoption practices as well as the importance of ancillary materials as desirable attributes of textbooks. Textbooks were used by most of the respondents. Although content is a very important adoption criterion in all courses, in courses that provided ancillary materials such as Introduction to Advertising, the availability of multimedia teaching aids becomes an important criterion and possibly the major source of high satisfaction among the adopters.

Integrating Hypermedia Instruction into an Advertising Communications Graphics Classroom • Stacy James and Sydney Brown, Nebraska-Lincoln • Students and faculty of advertising and mass communications programs are wanting to learn more about the mechanics, and teaching and learning opportunities offered by the World Wide Web. This paper explores some of the pedagogical and theoretical issues with the content and delivery of hypermedia instruction in an advertising communications graphics elective laboratory course, and examines some of the benefits of and problems with integrating hypermedia instruction into the class, from the perspectives of the students and the instructor.

Identifying Critical Teamwork Tools: One Way to Strike a Balance Between Team Training and Course Content • Brett Robbs and Larry Weisberg, Colorado-Boulder • Teamwork is playing an increasingly important role in business and the classroom. Educators need to find ways to include team training in courses without sacrificing other content. This paper addresses that issue. The literature on collaborative learning is reviewed to provide a pedagogical framework. The paper then describes teamwork tools presented to graduate students at a required weekend seminar. The journals kept during a subsequent team project were analyzed to identify the tools students found most essential.

Advertising Ethics and Pedagogy: Findings from the 1995 Advertising Division Membership Survey • Elizabeth M. Tucker, Texas-Austin and Daniel A. Stout, Brigham Young University • The moral development of advertising educators is an important component in understanding the nature of advertising ethics as the topic is conveyed in the classroom. This article describes the results of a survey that explored how advertising educators define and think about ethics. It examines the theoretical foundations of moral development in relation to teaching advertising ethics and provides a summary describing advertising educators’ ideas about the nature of ethics.

<< 1998 Abstracts

Commission on the Status of Women

Craft Traditions as Conveyors of Bias in Coverage of the Second Wave of Feminism • Patricia Bradley, Temple University • The author examines ten metropolitan papers in their coverage of two major events in August 1970 connected to the second wave of feminism, the passage by the U.S. House of Representative of the Equal Rights Amendment on August 10 and the national recognition on August 26 of the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment. In both events, the author sought to determine the role of craft traditions in the selection of news angles.

Displaced Persons: Race, Sex And New Discourses Of Orientalism In U.S. Women’s Magazines • Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Texas at Austin • The popularity of nose-rings, mehndi, and bindis in U.S. fashion is the latest appropriation of Asian culture for Western amusement. This paper employs a critical analysis of magazine images of white women adorned in the symbols of Indian femininity to explore the new media discourses of Orientalism. The analysis reveals that such representation preserves power hierarchies by locating the white female as sexual object, and the Indian female as the disembodied fetish that supports white female sexuality.

“Virtual Feminists”? Women-based “Communities” On The Internet: A Pilot Study • Kathleen L. Endres, Akron • This pilot study looks at five woman-based listservs to determine what functions these groups serve, what exchanges they evoke, whether gendered interpersonal communication styles exist, and what types of communities they foster. Among the findings are: women-based listservs often do evolve into virtual communities-but not all do; gender-based communication styles are not necessarily transferred to on-line women-based communities; and the mobilizing potential of these groups has not been developed.

Gender and Cultural Hegemony in Reality-Based Television Programming: The World According to A Wedding Story • Erika Engstrom, Nevada • A Wedding Story, which airs on The Learning Channel, depicts the real-life weddings of ordinary American couples. In this exploratory content analysis of 50 episodes, the author investigates how televised weddings perpetuate a cultural hegemony that promotes traditional gender roles, rituals, and consumerism. Future research suggestions into the media portrayal of weddings include examining gender-related aspects of the production process, and analyzing contradictory media messages that both promote and challenge society’s expectations regarding women.

Liberal Feminist Theory and Women’s Images in Mass Media: Cycles of Favor and Furor • Sandra L. Ginsburg, Akron • Liberal feminist theory gained favor in the early 1970s during the second wave of feminism. Increased interest in research concerning women’s equality reflected this popularity. The popularity of liberal feminist theory waned by the 1980s under criticism within the feminist research community. This literature review illustrates the evolution of liberal feminist theory in mass media research of women’s images, and discusses the advances and future of liberal feminist theory in media research of the 1990s.

Getting a Sense of Humor: On Sex Scandal and Women Joking in Journalism • Kim Golombisky, South Florida • This essay hopes to initiate a discussion in mass communications scholarship on the subject of women’s humor. The author reviews theories of women’s humor before examining several female newspaper columnists’ use of humor during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in 1998-99. The author suggests that women can make sex jokes without vicitimizing women or bashing men and that the social uses of humor are not as trivial as their absence in the journalism literature would indicate.

The Women’s Suffrage Movement Through the Eyes of Lift Magazine Cartoons • J. Robyn Goodman, Texas at Austin • This article explored how cartoons in the humor magazine Life reflect suffragist and antisuffragist ideologies during the women’s suffrage movement and why certain suffragist and/or antisuffragist ideologies were reflected and others ignored. Finally, it looked at what the implications of the cartoons may be. In investigating these questions, this study incorporated the theoretical framework of cultural studies and used ideological criticism as its methodology. The analysis revealed that more than 80 percent of the cartoons reflected antisuffragist ideologies.

The Right Stuff – or the Wrong Stuff? The Struggle Over News Media Portrayal of Female Combat Aviators • Christopher Hanson, North Carolina • This study analyzes media coverage of a controversy over the first group of women to qualify as U.S. Navy combat aviators – from two standpoints. First is the effort of the conservative Center for Military Readiness to frame the story from its anti-feminist perspective, and its considerable success in doing so. Second is the way in which Dateline and 60 Minutes covered the controversy in the face of CMR’s spin campaign.

The Case of President Clinton and the Feminists: Discourses of Feminism in the News • Dustin Harp, Wisconsin-Madison • Feminism is best understood as a complicated political movement, full of the complexities present in everyday life Using textual analysis, this research examines media discourses in news texts joining constructions of feminism to President Clinton and his extra-marital relationships. The study finds mainstream newspapers and magazines present feminism in a monolithic fashion-represented by white women. The texts offer a simplistic construction that envisions women as feminist or not and presents feminists as hypocrites for supporting Clinton.

Minds in the Mills: The Encouragement of Girls’ Expression as an Unintended Consequence of Economic Policies • Louise W. Hermanson and Kristen Kitchen, South Alabama • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Symbolic Devaluation of Women in New York Times Photograph Cutlines • John Mark King, East Tennessee State University • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Reporting the Birth and Death of Feminism: Three Decades of Mixed Messages in Time Magazine • Carolyn Kitch, Northwestern University • This paper offers a rhetorical analysis of Time magazine’s coverage of the second wave of the American women’s movement, not just of feminism’s “birth” and “death,” but everything in between A close examination of 35 cover stories (1969-1998) reveals that the magazine’s ambivalence, expressed through a mix of contradictory messages packaged as recurring “lessons,” was in place from the start-and that its treatment of feminism has been more complicated than the backlash theory suggests.

The Strategist: Positioning Women as “Outsiders Within” the Public Relations Profession • Julie Ward O’Neil • A review of women’s twenty-year presence in the public relations profession suggests that social and cultural factors may be situating women within “a ghetto within a ghetto.” Through a feminist rhetorical analysis of a leading public relations trade journal, this study seeks to connect the journal’s messages with women’s relegated position in the public relations profession. Although women constitute more than half of the public relations workforce, this study argues that the journal emphasizes the masculine values of individualism, competition, and objectivity.

Are Women Getting a Bad Rap? A Photo Analysis of Age, Ethnicity and Overall Favorability • Shelly Rodgers, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines the portrayal of females in photographs of f/me since the 1970s. Age, ethnicity, favorability and five “characterization” frames were coded. Findings suggest that white adult females were characterized more favorably in terms of social status, physical strength, tenderness, attractiveness and independence. Implications suggest that if the news industry is to improve its credibility with the public, there must be a higher level of accountability to portray all females in an accurate and equally favorable manner.

Setting a Revolutionary Agenda for Women’s Rights • Rodger Streitmatter, American University • The Revolution was a women’s rights newspaper founded in New York City in 1868 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Brownell Anthony. Although the weekly survived only a few years, this paper argues that The Revolution created an agenda that is, in many ways, still being followed today-more than a century later. More specifically, this paper identifies and documents what the 19th century radical weekly had to say about job discrimination, equal pay for equal work, sexual harassment, inadequate political representation, domestic violence, and abortion.

“We Got Next”: Images of Women in TV Commercials During the Inaugural WNBA Season • Stanley T. Wearden and Pamela J. Creedon, Kent State University • One of the biggest changes in mediated sport for women in the United States is the Women’s National Basketball Association. The WNBA began its first season in 1997 with more television coverage than ever before in the history of women’s sports. This study focused on commercials in WNBA television coverage using the assumption that if television coverage could approach the sport in a non-stereotypical way it held the potential for dramatically shifting the landscape of gender-role socialization.

Portrayal Of Women Using Computers In Television Commercials: A Content Analysis • Candace White and Kadesha Washington, Tennessee-Knoxville and Katherine N. Kinnick, Kennesaw State University • This content analysis examines the representation of male and female characters shown using computers in prime-time television commercials. An analysis of one week’s commercials drawn from network and cable programming reveals both positive and negative portrayals of female computer users. While women are shown as computer users almost as frequently as men, they are significantly more likely to be depicted as clerical workers and less likely to be portrayed as business professionals.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Small Programs Interest Group

Integrating Active Learning, Critical Thinking and Multicultural Education in Teaching Media Ethics Across the Curriculum • Tom Brislin, University of Hawaii • This paper presents four teaching strategies, grounded in pedagogical theory, to encourage an active, challenging, creative and meaningful experience for journalism and mass communication students grappling with moral issues, and developing higher order thinking in ethical decision-making processes. Strategies emphasizing critical thinking and diversity awareness have shown success in lower-division media and society classes. Strategies emphasizing active and collaborative learning have been effective in an upper-division journalism ethics class as well as in professional journalism groups.

Codes of Ethics: Shaping the Classroom Environment and Building Moral Decision-making Skills • Carroll Ferguson Nardone, El Paso Community College • A recent study concluded that codes of ethics are not typically used in media outlets to guide journalistic behavior. This is problematic for teachers of media ethics who often point to professional codes as doctrine for students to follow in defining conventional journalistic standards. This case study suggests the creation and use of classroom codes of ethics within media writing classrooms to train future media practitioners and to guide ethical behavior in the workplace.

Teaching Media Ethics to Superman instead of Underdog: A Content Analysis of Three Textbooks’ Cases • Virginia Whitehouse, Whitworth College • Media ethics textbooks may be teaching to Superman (the news manager) rather than Underdog (the undergraduate looking for a first job). Content analysis of case studies from three media ethics textbooks revealed that students were asked most often to take on the role of media managers in making ethical decisions. This pedagogical approach may not help students reach course objectives because the cases do not allow students to exercise critical thinking skills necessary to articulate ethical opinions from low positions of power.