Communication Theory and Methodology Division

Re-thinking the Role of Information in Diffusion Theory: An Historical Analysis With an Empirical Test • Eric Abbott and J. Paul Yarbrough, Iowa State University • The 1930-1960 period, during which much of communication theory began to develop, was a time of “rediscovery” of the group-the idea that the group serves as the interface between the individual and society. In the case of diffusion theory, this rediscovery engendered a “dominant paradigm” focusing on group processes interpersonal communication, and influence-informed by a spurt in empirical research and several new conceptual leaps-that shaped and was itself influenced by researchers whose funding base and interests were practical and applied.

Pleasant Company And The Construction Of Girlhood: Cultural Studies Theory And Methodology, A Case Study • Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Georgia

Young Adults’ Processing of Messages in Alcohol-Related Public Service Announcements and Advertising • Julie L. Andsager, Erica Weintraub Austin and Bruce E. Pinkleton, Washington State University • This study’s purpose is to determine how a primary audience for anti-drinking public service announcements and advertisements evaluates those messages. Evaluations of 246 college-age respondents to 10 alcohol-related ads and PSAs produced differences in quantitative and qualitative responses. Results indicated that perceived realism is an important factor in PSAs’ persuasiveness. Respondents rated PSAs as more realistic than ads, but questioned their realism and relevance. More research is needed regarding young adults’ processing of persuasive messages.

The Operationalization Of “Political Knowledge” In Communication And Political Science Research • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Few studies examine what the construct “political knowledge” actually means and how it should be measured. This paper reviews the operationalization of political knowledge in scholarly research over the past eight years. One hypothesis was that even though the political knowledge questions are used to measure how effectively the media transmit political information, researchers will rarely use a content analysis or review news stories to develop the knowledge questions. This hypothesis was supported.

The Media and Smoking: Predicting Attitudes and Norms in the Theory of Reasoned Action • Michael Antecol, Stanford, Esther Thorson, Missouri and Andrew Mendelson, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville • In this paper, we examined how exposure and attention to different mass media predict attitudes and norms that individuals have regarding smoking. It is our belief that the mass media play a pivotal role in creating individual attitudes and subjective norms regarding smoking. The results showed that, while neither the news media attention variable nor the PSA attention variable predicted attitudes and norms, these two variables did interact in an unexpected, yet consistent way.

The Relationship of Parental Reinforcement of Media Messages to College Students’ Alcohol-Related Behaviors, Age of Experimentation and Beliefs About Alcohol • Erica Weintraub Austin and Yin Ju Chen, Washington State University • Alcohol consumption is a problem on the college campus, but beliefs and behaviors predictive of alcohol use are in development in children as young as third grade and develop partially in response to interpretations of media messages, for which parents can have an influence. As a result. this study examined whether college students’ recollections of parental reinforcement of media messages were associated with alcohol-related beliefs and behaviors. Recalled positive mediation was negatively associated with skepticism, and positively associated with desirability and expectancies.

In the Public’s Interest or Interesting to the Public? • Clyde H. Bently, Oregon • The concept of what constitute “news” is basic to journalism. Nevertheless, there is little consensus about who “owns” the definition-the journalist or the audience. This paper explores the literature on the definition of news, outlining a schism between those who believe news is information provided to the audience in the public’s best interest and those who believe news is information the audience finds interesting and useful.

Don’t Look At Me! Third-person Effects and TV Violence • Lois A. Boynton, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper assesses the role of third-person effects-how people overestimate influences mass communications have on others-on attitudes toward television violence. A statewide poll measured respondents’ estimated impacts of television violence and investigated demographic and sociopolitical factors that shape people’s attitudes and reaction toward television violence. Results indicate that people perceive a greater degree of influence on others than themselves; discriminant analysis of third-vs. first-person effects did not yield conclusive findings.

An Efficacy Model of Electoral Campaigns: The 1996 Presidential Election • Mahoud A.M. Braima, Southern and A&M, Thomas J. Johnson and Jayanthi Sothirajah, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • This study developed and empirically tested a conceptual model of political efficacy during an electoral campaign. We used structural equations to simultaneously assess 12 causal links between campaign interest, political news exposure, political ads exposure, internal and external efficacy, political participation and voting intention. Data from a survey of 362 adult residents of Pulaski County in Arkansas provided support for the hypotheses that campaign interest leads to exposure to information-rich sources which, in turn, political efficacy.

Attention To Counter-Attitudinal Messages In Tile 1998 Election Campaign • Steven Chaffee, Melissa Nichols Saphir, Joseph Graf, Christian Sandvig and Kyu Sup Hahn, Stanford University • Attention to counter-attitudinal political messages is worthy of study even though previous research following the “selective exposure” model has focused on avoidance of such messages. Surveys of youth (N = 417) and parents (N = 432) examine attention to newspaper, television and Web messages about candidates. While there is slightly more attention to consistent messages, forms of political involvement (knowledge, curiosity, discussion) that predict consistent attention also predict counter-attitudinal attention.

Forestry Referendum and the Press in Oregon: The Role of Demographics, Attitudes and Priming in Voting Behavior • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • The role of demographics, environmental attitudes, political attitudes, communication channels and priming effect in voting behavior regarding Oregon’s defeated forestry regulation, proposed to ban clear-cutting and pesticide use by the logging industry, is investigated using content analysis and two-stage regression. The research revealed that age, in addition to media use and interpersonal communication, is a strong predictor for the priming effect and certain voting behavior. But, individuals’ long-held environmental attitude was the greatest indicator for voting decision.

The Influence Of Mass Media And Other Culprits On The Projection Of Personal Opinion • Cindy T. Christen and Albert C. Gunther, Wisconsin-Madison • The study reported here analyzed the relative predictive power of four theoretical models that have been widely and variously tested as explanations for the projection bias – the tendency for people to see others’ opinions as much like their own. Our analysis focused particularly on audience processing of information in mass media, and in doing so we proposed a revision of the standard logical information processing model. We tested this set of hypotheses using data from a random telephone sample of over 600 U.S. residents who answered opinion items about four current science, environment and health issues.

News Media, Racial Perceptions, And Political Cognition • David Domke, Kelley McCoy, and Marcos Torres, Washington • This study examines the linkages among news media, racial perceptions, and citizens’ political cognitions. We theorize that news coverage of political issues not only influences people’s thinking about the issue, but also activates associated racial or ethnic stereotypes held by individuals and then influences whether these perceptions are applied in politically meaningful ways, such as in the formation of issue positions or evaluations about whether certain political, economic, or legal outcomes are positive for U.S. society.

Impact of Order on the Third-person Effect • Michel Dupagne and Michael B. Salwen, Miami and Bryant Paul, California-Santa Barbara • A nationwide telephone survey was conducted to investigate the impact of question order on the. perceptual and behavioral hypotheses of the third-person effect. Key questions included estimated effects of media issues on self, perceived effects on others, and support for restrictions on the media. Four question-order conditions (restrictions-others-self, restrictions-self-others, others-self-restrictions, self-others-restrictions) were tested with three issues (television violence, televised trials, and negative political advertising). In line with past research, the order of the self, others, and restrictions questions did not affect the perceptual hypothesis.

The Third-Person Effect and the Hierarchy of Communication Effects: The Perceived Persuasive Power of Public Relations • Martin Eichholz, Syracuse University • This study is the first to link the third-person effect with theories of hierarchical communication effects and to use the public relations domain to test the third-person effect. Results of a regional telephone survey (n=368) support the notion that people perceive others to be more strongly affected by public relations messages than themselves. while the perceived effects of public relations on self follow the traditional communication effects hierarchy, the perceived effects of public relations on others follow an alternative sequence.

The Power of the Story: Narrative Analysis As A Tool For Studying The News • Christopher Hanson, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper discusses how narrative analysis – a branch of rhetorical study that focuses on story lines and why they resonate – can best be applied to the analysis of news reports. The paper surveys several strands of narrative analysis, including mythic study, which posits that some modern story-lines resonate powerfully because they evoke the plot-lines of ancient myths. It describes how each of these strands can provide insights into the power and resonance of news texts.

The Third-Person Effect: Social Cognition or Academic Creation? • Yu-Wei Hu, National Taiwan Normal University • While most studies of the third-person effect assumed that people naturally think about the influence of media while they are exposed to media presentations, this study provides evidence to show that this assumption may not always be true. Some individuals may have never considered the impact of media on others until researchers ask them to make a judgment. In this case, their third-person perception is actually an elicited social comparison rather than a spontaneous social cognition.

A Reconceptualization Of Cultivation As A “Good Theory” With Help From The “Thin Ideal” • LeeAnn Kahlor, Bradley W. Gorham and Eileen Gilligan, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper tries to argue for a refinement of cultivation based on critiques lodged against it for the past 30 years. If a reconceptualization, including an acknowledgment of varying content and psychological processing, for example, can be considered, cultivation could fit into the realm of “good theory.” The “thin ideal” is used as a model case for applying this broadened approach to cultivation as a working, explanatory theory.

Setting the Proximity Frame: Distance as an Affective Attribute in Reporting Terrorism Events • Kenneth Killebrew, South Florida • This research examined proximity as an element at the second or attribute level of agenda setting theory. Using two nations, the United States and Great Britain, the study examined potential correlations between distance and how stories were reported. VBPro, a verbatim text computer analysis program, was used successfully in identifying and counting selected terms for observation. While the hypotheses were not confirmed, there were findings that are encouraging for future studies on affective attributes.

Opinion Expression As A Rational Behavior • Sei-Hill Kim, Cornell • This study understands individuals’ opinion expressions as a rational behavior based on a conscious calculus of expected benefits and costs. The influences of “issue benefit”; “opinion congruence”; and “issue knowledge”, as sources of benefits and costs, on opinion expression were hypothesized and tested. This study also examined the interaction effects of those factors and the types of opinion expression. For the tests, 171 university students were surveyed in 1997 regarding their willingness to express opinions on the issue of “doctor-assisted suicide.”

Looking Beyond Job Approval: How Media Coverage of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal Influenced Public Opinion of the Presidency • Spiro Kiousis, Texas • Last year’s Executive scandal involving Monica Lewinsky perplexed many media experts because a story of such magnitude would normally be expected to heavily sway public opinion of the presidency, yet most media accounts described minimal fluctuations. Anchored in agenda setting, priming, and the elaboration likelihood model of attitude change, the purpose of this paper was to, over time, trace and compare media coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal to public opinion of the presidency.

Does Media Publicity Matter? An Analysis of the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis across Issues with Differential Degrees of Media Publicity • Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin-Madison • This study was an attempt to analyze the role of differential degree of media publicity in the knowledge gap phenomena, and has investigated three main issues: (1) whether differential levels of media publicity influence the education-based knowledge gap; (2) whether the extent of publicity given to issues results in a differential relationship between education and motivation in the context of the knowledge gap hypothesis; and (3) whether differential effects of newspaper news use and television news use on the education-based knowledge gap vary across issues with different levels of media publicity.

Emotional Experience and Physiological Arousal During Violent Video Game Playing: Gender, Experience, and Presence Matter • Annie Lang, Indiana University; Edd Schneider, Instructional Systems Technology and Rick Deitz, Indiana University • This paper examines the effects of action required by the game, gender, and experience on violent video game players strategic, physiological and emotional responses. Results show that playing violent video games is a positive, arousing, and dominant activity. Experience increases dominance and decreases arousal. Gender has no effect on dimensional emotional experience. When comparing types of action (hunt, see, fight, kill) results show physiological arousal increases over game playing for fighting and decreases for hunting.

Contesting “Lie Significance Of A Global Media Event: The Case Of Hong Kong’s Handover • Chin-Chuan Lee, Minnesota and Joseph Man Chan, Zhongdang Pan, and Clement Y. K. So, Chinese University of Hong Kong • The world media had expected to cover Hong Kong’s handover with various constructed scenarios of major conflicts that did not happen. The media spectacle became as important as the event itself. Hong Kong’s handover, as a media event, was treated as a coronation. The journalistic community could only try to “hype” the event as if to make up for deficiency in conflict, drama and theatricality. International news discourse, however, represents ideological contestation over the significance of nationalism versus colonialism, democracy versus authoritarianism, and capitalism versus socialism.

Personal Involvement as a Mediating Variable in the Agenda-setting Process • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This study examines personal involvement as a mediating variable that affects the agenda-setting effect. It content analyzes both newspaper and television coverage of obtrusive and unobtrusive issues and finds a dichotic phenomenon: Newspapers, with their verbal information, tend to have a stronger agenda-setting effect on people with a high level of personal involvement, while television, with its visual images, tends to have stronger influence on those with a low level of personal involvement.

How Sexual Strategies Theory, Gender, and the Third-Person Effect, Explain Attitudes About Pornography • Ven-hwei Lo, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, and Anna Paddon, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • The inter-relationship of the factors that influence attitudes in support of restrictions on pornography are explored using third-person effects theory and sexual strategies theory, which contrasts the sexual pairing behaviors of males and females. From survey data of Taiwan high school students a model was constructed depicting these relationships. All subjects perceived pornography to have greater negative influence on others than on themselves, but females had a lower level of past exposure to pornography and perceived greater negative effects of it on themselves and others.

Behind The Third-Person Effect: How People Generate Media Impact Assessments And Link Them To Support For Censorship • Douglas McLeod, Delaware, Benjamin H. Detenber, Nanyang and William P. Eveland, Jr., California-Santa Barbara • This study investigated factors related to two types of judgments that make up the third-person perception: media effects on others and effects on self Specifically, separate regression path models revealed that estimates of effects on others are based on a relatively naive schema for media effects that is similar to the “magic bullet” model of media effects (i.e., more exposure leads to greater effects). On the other hand, assessing effects on self involves a more complex, conditional effects model.

Understanding Community: A Closer Look at the Categorization and Complexity of Citizens’ Understanding of Community • Jack M. McLeod, Dietram A. Scheufele, Jessica Hicks, Nojin Kwak, Weiwu Zhang and R. Lance Holbert, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper explicates individual-level perceptions of community and their role in communicatory and participatory processes. A strong emphasis is based on a meaning analysis of the construct that we label “understanding of community,” including both the breadth and depth of people’s understanding of community. We also differentiate this more individual-level, cognitive variable from more objective, structural links that individuals have to their communities. In a second step, we explicate measures of different dimensions of understanding of community.

Mass and Interpersonal Communication Effects On Public Deliberation • Patricia Moy, Washington • This study examines the extent to which engagement in the public deliberation process is influenced by three distinct groups of antecedents: demographics, interpersonal influences, and mass communication. Analyses of data from a Midwestern city (n=416) indicate that demographics exert no influence. The diversity of one’s discussion network and political discussion enhanced the likelihood of engaging in public deliberation, and the only media effect to emerge was for newspaper reading. Implications for civic journalism and democracy are discussed.

Influence of Political Campaign Advertising • Michael Pfau, R. Lance Holbert, Erin Alison Szabo and Kelly Kaminski, Wisconsin-Madison • Spending on soft-money-sponsored issue advocacy advertising has grown dramatically in recent years and, in some campaigns, now approaches levels of candidate-sponsored advertising. However, the question of the influence of soft-money-sponsored issue advocacy advertising on the electorate or its indirect influence on democratic processes has received scant attention in political communication research. This investigation examined the influence of soft-money-sponsored issue advocacy advertising in House and Senate campaigns, comparing its effects with candidate-sponsored positive and negative advertising on candidate preferences and matters intrinsic to democratic processes.

Sounds Exciting! !: The Effects of Auditory Complexity on Listeners’ Attitudes and Memory for Radio Promotional Announcements • Robert F. Potter and Coy Callison, Alabama • This experiment tested the ability of a limited-capacity model of cognition to predict listener reactions to changes in the structural complexity of radio promotional announcements. Past research shows that certain auditory structural features cause listeners to automatically allocate cognitive resources to message encoding. This study shows that increasing the number of such features in promos leads to better recognition, free recall, delayed free recall, and more positive attitudes about promos and the stations that produce them.

Opinion Leadership And Social Capital The Role Of Dispositional And Informational Variables In The Production Of Civic Participation • Dietram A. Scheufele and Dhavan V. Shah, Wisconsin-Madison • In recent years, a number of scholars has bemoaned declining levels of social trust and civic engagement in our society. A decline in trust, some have argued, is reciprocally linked to a decrease in civic engagement and vice versa. Our study examines the processes through which social capital is maintained. We differentiate three dimensions of social capital: social trust, life satisfaction, and civic engagement. Further, we examine the influence of demographic variables, opinion leadership, political interest, and informational variables on these dimensions of social capital.

A Systematic Approach To Analyzing The Structure Of News Texts • Michael Schmierbach, Wisconsin-Madison • Despite increasing research examining media texts, there is no systematic approach to news discourse. This paper considers some of the issues raised by work in framing and discourse analysis and then suggests a systematic approach to analyzing media texts – such an approach could provide data that would be more useful for the development of theories about how the structure of news discourse influences audiences, authors and the texts themselves.

The Cognitive and Affective Dimensions of Gun Control: Framing Campaign Issues and Voter Decision-Making Strategies • Dhavan V. Shah, Wisconsin-Madison, David Domke, Washington and Daniel B. Wackman, Minnesota • This study examined the relationships among cognitive and affective media frames of gun control, voters’ interpretations of this issue as well as their emotional arousal about it, and patterns of decision-making. Subjects were presented newspaper articles about a simulated election contest and asked to make a candidate choice. Within issue environments containing candidate stands on four issues, the textual frame of a single issue, gun control, was altered within a 2 x 2 design.

Does Social Accountability Ameliorate Television’s Effects on Social Reality? • Michael A. Shapiro, Cornell University • The meaning of relationships between television viewing and social reality estimates continues to be controversial. Less attention has been paid to whether television’s putative distortions of social reality influence real-world decision making. Many, if not most, decisions are made in a social environment in which people feel somehow accountable to others. In an experiment, shopping mall participants who anticipated discussing their social reality answers with an expert whose viewpoint was uncertain or an expert who believed that people usually overestimate, gave lower social reality estimates than participants assured their answers were completely private.

The Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model: A Framework for Theoretical Development in Persuasion and Message Effects • Michael D. Slater, Colorado State University • This paper overviews the Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model, and reviews recent research supportive of the theory’s claims. The Extended ELM argues that involvement should be conceptualized in terms of message recipient’s goals in processing the message and the resulting processing strategies. Based on this premise, propositions about processing of persuasive content across message genres including entertainment narrative, news, and persuasive messages have been articulated and tested.

When Evaluation Design Affects Results: Meta-Analysis of Evaluations of Mediated Health Communication Campaigns • Leslie B. Snyder and Mark A. Hamilton, Connecticut • To examine how methodological choices and artifacts of evaluations affect the likelihood of detecting health behavior changes in media campaigns, we meta-analyzed 48 mediated health campaigns. Effect sizes were greater when evaluations maintained experimental control, used a cross-sectional sample, measured close to the end of the campaign, and used more equivalent intervention and control communities. Using a self-selected sample inflated effect sizes. The results are useful for evaluators and researchers to understand the precise impact of methodological factors.

Cognitive Filtration of Crime and Violence News • Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia and Michael Antecol, Stanford University • The study examines the impact of news media consumption and attention on knowledge of and attitudes concerning crime and violence. Crime and violence coverage in news is argued misrepresent reality in a variety of ways. The more people watch local television news and read a local newspaper, the more they overestimate the occurrence of violent crime, the more they fear victimization by crime, the less likely they are to know crime has decreased in their city, and the more they support punitive and reject preventive solutions to crime.

Challenging the ‘Mobilization Model’ of Agenda Setting • John Bentley Zibluk, Arkansas State University • Agenda-setting researchers often assume an underlying “mobilization model” of mass communication in which citizens supply story ideas to media outlets. The resulting stories serve as catalysts for change in politics and society. However, in the last decade some studies have questioned that model. By revealing who influences or controls the agenda presented to the readers of three small daily newspapers in Northwest Ohio regarding local school coverage, this paper examines that model.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Communication Technology and Policy Division

Blind Spots of the Communications Decency Act Debate: A Critique of Jeffersonian Free Speech • Misook Baek, Iowa • This paper criticizes that cyber civil liberty groups in the Communications Decency Act (CDA) debate only paid attention to government censorship, ignoring pervasive market-based constraints on free speech and public interests. Then, the paper reveals that these groups held profoundly different political philosophies of and policy strategies for free speech and universal service (access), although they held the same view that universal service, as well as, free speech, is essential in democratizing new technologies.

Free Air Time for Candidates: An Attempt to Improve Political Discourse • Douglas Bailey, Ohio • Many Americans think the costs of campaigns are increasing at an alarming rate. One proposed solution to the perceived problem of the money-chase is free air time provided by broadcasters. This paper begins with an historical perspective of political advertising and campaign finance laws. Then, the arguments pro and con are examined followed by some recent proposals. Lastly, a look at recent free air time experiments points out some of the benefits and weaknesses.

Comprehension and Recall of Internet News: A Quantitative Study of Web Page Design • D. Leigh Berry, Louisiana State • This experimental study examined the effects of multimedia on internet news readers. Subjects viewed one of two versions of the same Web site-one with multimedia and one without. Dependent variables were comprehension, recall, and response to site. Findings did not support a significant difference in comprehension, recall, or response arising from presence or absence of multimedia. Comprehension and recall with regard to items such as current events knowledge, gender, and advertisements are also discussed.

Computer-Mediated Communication in Education: Student Perspectives • Amy Nelson Bosley and Michael A. Mitrook, Central Florida • Colleges and universities are adopting computer-mediated communication (CMC) into the classroom with unprecedented speed without questioning the end-user, the student, as to its efficacy. A series of focus groups was conducted to gain insight into the ways students are using and perceiving CMC in the classroom. Several key CMC issues were identified across the focus groups, including student/faculty relationships, components of successful classes, levels of skill and access to computer equipment.

An On-line Study of the Uses and Gratifications of Internet Pornography • Ryan J. Burns, Oklahoma • Despite the controversy over Internet pornography, relatively little is known about users and patterns of consumption of Internet pornography. This research investigated individuals consumption of Internet pornography, the types of Internet pornography consumed, and reasons for consumption. Data for this research were obtained from an on-line survey of 231 consumers of Internet pornography. Statistical results revealed that individuals did not consume different amounts of Internet pornography compared to traditional pornography; they favored the consumption of hardcore rather than softcore Internet pornography.

Internet Use and Issue Knowledge of the College-Age Population • Alice P. Chan, Cornell and Teresa Mastin, Middle Tennessee State • This paper reports on the findings of a study aimed at investigating how college-age young adults use the Internet, as well as the extend to which this new medium affects students’ knowledge levels of issues particularly salient to their age group. Our survey of 496 university students show that the Internet is a consulted information source, complements other selected mediated and interpersonal information sources, and does affect issue knowledge.

David Meets Goliath: Portland, Oregon, Takes on AT&T-TCI over High-speed Internet Access • Constance K. Davis, Iowa • In June 1998 AT&T and TCI announced plans to merge. Nearly 1/4 of the 4,000 communities in which TCI holds a cable franchise were required to approve the franchise transfer to AT&T. All of the communities approved the transfer – except Portland, Oregon. It required nondiscriminatory access for ISPs to provide high-speed Internet access through cable modems. AT&T sued Portland, claiming it had no authority to require that access. Portland may, indeed, have that authority.

Examining Information Processing on the World Wide Web Using Think Aloud Protocols • William P. Eveland, Jr., California-Santa Barbara and Sharon Dunwoody, Wisconsin • A substantial literature indicates that whether or not learning takes place depends on how information is processed. Theorists have argued that the Web encourages individuals to process information efficiently and effectively, producing meaningful learning; however, critics have claimed that Web navigation often results in disorientation and thus can inhibit learning. This study examined the processing of information conveyed via the Web, using think aloud protocols and a newly-developed quantitative coding scheme based on existing theory.

Telecommunications for Rural Community Development: The Effects of Community Projects on Attitudes and Adoption Among Community Members • C. Ann Hollifield, Georgia and Joseph Donnermeyer, Gwen Wolford, and Robert Agunga, Ohio State • In the mid-1990s, rural communities began investing in local telecommunications development projects. This study examines the effects of two of those projects on resident’s attitudes towards, and adoption of, new technologies as compared to residents of control communities. Results show the projects have had some effects. However, differences in adoption were not significant, raising questions about whether investments in such projects are justified. Residents of project communities did, however, have significantly more positive attitudes towards new technologies.

Japanese Television Broadcast Policy-Making Analysis: From Analog to Digital 1987-1997 • Tsutomu Kanayama, Sophia University, Tokyo • This paper has chosen to examine the way Japan came to make the transition from analog to digital standards in terrestrial and satellite broadcasting from 1987 to 1997, an earth-shaking decade for Japan’s broadcast industry. Particularly, this study is to investigate political actors involved for the policy-making processes which affected television broadcasting based on the central question of who were the most influential actors.

Broadening the Boundaries of Interactivity: A Concept Explication • Spiro Kiousis, Texas • The use of interactivity as a variable in empirical investigations has dramatically increased with the emergence of new communication channels such as the World Wide Web. Though many scholars have employed the concept in analyses, theoretical definitions are exceedingly scattered and incoherent. Accordingly, the purpose of this project is to engender a detailed explication of interactivity that could bring some consensus about how the concept should be theoretically and operationally defined.

Privacy in the Information Age: A Socially Learned Concept • Linlin Ku, National Taiwan University, Taipei • This study focuses on the attitudes of college students toward privacy. Questionnaires were distributed among students from four colleges in northern Taiwan, and a total of 319 completed questionnaires was returned. The research findings show that the respondents were most concerned about telephone privacy. Most disagreed that the government could wiretap telephone or intercept e-mail messages for various reasons. Women were more concerned about information regarding private matters or their body, whereas men were more concerned about information regarding finance.

Privacy, Security and Intellectual Property: Proprietary Interests over the Internet • Laurie Thomas Lee, Nebraska-Lincoln • The Internet presents a kind of tradeoff between incredible gains in economic, political, and social opportunities, and corresponding losses in privacy and intellectual property rights. While it offers exciting new ways to communicate and collect, market, and deliver information, some of the online information is considered proprietary. Who has the right to access, collect, use, and exploit this online, digital material? This paper provides a useful overview of the online issues and policies associated with privacy, security, and intellectual property rights on the Internet.

The Effects of Three Different Computer Texts on Readers Recall • Moon J. Lee, Mary Ann Ferguson and Matthew C. Tedder, Florida • This study investigated the effects of three different computer texts on readers’ recall based on working memory capacity, risk-taking tendencies, and hypertext familiarity and knowledge. The results varied by gender. There was a significant text format effect on the male subjects’ recall but not on the female subjects’ recall. The subjects’ risk-taking tendencies were shown as significant factors for the males’ recall while the working memory capacity (reading span) was a significant indicator for the females’ recall.

Tracing the Evolution of Interactive Media and Funding Models through the Trade Press • Sally J. McMillan, Tennessee • Analysis of a five-year sample of trade publications suggests interactive media and funding models are stabilizing but still diverse. Sixteen types of interactive media were identified, but the World Wide Web has become dominant. Five funding models were analyzed. Advertiser Support dominates the advertising trade press, User Fees are the primary model in the computer/telecommunication press, and more than half of all broadcasting/publishing articles mention multiple funding models.

Credibility and Journalism on the Internet: How Online Newspapers Handle Errors and Corrections • Berlinda Nadarajan, Stanford and Ang Penghwa, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore • The Internet, with its speed and unlimited capacity, poses several challenges for journalism-in particular, the issues of how to ensure accuracy and reliability of information, and whether the online medium might require certain journalistic practices to be redefined or modified. This paper examines how online newspapers are applying correction policies to the digital environment and the problems that arise, with the aim of pointing to issues that need to be addressed in online editorial policy.

Adoption of Audio Information Services in the United States • Kimberly A. Neuendorf, David Atkin and Leo W. Jeffres, Cleveland State • Ongoing deregulatory measure, such as the Telecommunication Act of 1996, should hasten the arrival of telephony as a dominant player in the electronic media environment. This paper outlines adopter characteristics for audiotext broadly defined to encompass such vehicles as most 1-900 systems, many 1-800 numbers and related audio-information services.

The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere • Zizi Papacharissi, Texas • The Internet and its surrounding technologies are frequently touted for their potential to revive the public sphere. Several aspects of these new technologies simultaneously curtail and augment their ability to transform the public sphere. First, the information storage and retrieval capabilities of net-based technologies do infuse political discussion with facts otherwise unavailable, however, information access is not universal and equal to all. Second, net-based technologies do enable discussion between people on far sides of the globe, but also frequently fragmentize political discourse.

Creating Cable Television: Technology, Policy and the Development of the Cable-Satellite Distribution System • Patrick R. Parsons, Penn State • This paper examines the development of the cable-satellite distribution system through the 1960s and 1970s. While typically acknowledged as an important step in the evolution of the modern telecommunications network, the story has never been adequately told. While filling a gap in the narrative history, the examination also offers lessons concerning the interaction of technology, regulation, and economics, the relationship of influential individuals to established social conditions, and the incremental nature of technological change.

Son of CDA: Will the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 meet Constitutional Muster? • Johanna M. Roodenburg, Florida • Congress has recently passed a second law to regulate on-line speech. Although arguably more narrowly tailored than the 1996 Communications Decency Act, the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA) still suppresses a large amount of speech that adults have a constitutional right to receive. This paper compares the two laws and finds that while there are slight differences between the two laws, the differences are insignificant compared to the COPA’s remaining constitutional defects.

Toward a Typology of Internet Users and Online Privacy Concerns • Kim Bartel Sheehan, Oregon • Americans overwhelmingly report that they are concerned about their privacy online, yet online commerce continues to grow and few users report any incidence of privacy invasion online. Privacy has always been considered situational, the contextual nature of the Internet enhances its complexity. This is explored using a national sample of online consumers. A previously-developed tripartite typology of consumers and their approaches to privacy is used to examine online users privacy concern.

Do They Need a “Trick” to Make Us Click? • David Thompson, Columbia Daily Tribune and Birgit Wassmuth, Missouri-Columbia • A new form of online banner advertising is emerging. It uses “tricks” to generate clicks. This paper defines the term “Trick Banner,” introduces two main types of trick banner ads (verbal and visual), and creates eight categories of visual trick banners (fake pulldown menu, fake keyword search, fake horizontal scroll bar, fake vertical scroll bar, fake play button, fake error message, fake forced choice, and redundant button). A pilot study of the use of visual trick banners by online newspapers is summarized.

Media Convergence on the Internet • Mark Tremayne, Wisconsin • This study involved an examination of 14 national news web sites in 1997 and 1998. Print sites initially presented more stories and used more interactive features than broadcast company web sites, while the broadcast sites made greater use of nonlinear storytelling. The longitudinal study found print and broadcast sites converging on the number of front page stories and on the use of interactive features. Print and broadcast web sites were found to be diverging on the use of hypertext links.

The Effects of National Policy Initiatives on ICT Adoption: A Taiwanese Perspective • Eunice Hsiao-hui Wang, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan • Increasing the pervasive adoption of ICT has been strongly emphasized by most East Asian countries. This paper examines the effects of Taiwan’s policy initiatives on ICT adoption and applications. The top management of respondent firms evaluated building telecommunications infrastructure as the most effective ICT policy measure. Further, the importance of upgrading human resources in Taiwanese enterprises was confirmed by the respondent organizations, as another greatly effective national policy measure.

Blurring Public and Private Behaviors in Public Space: Policy Challenges in the Use and Improper Use of the Cellular Mobile Telephone • Ran WEI and Louis Leung, Chinese University, Hong Kong • This study examines issues arising from the popular social use of the cellular mobile telephone. Findings of a general survey show that the use of mobile telephones has gained tremendous social popularity. Improper uses of the mobile telephone in public places were on the rise. Complaints of respondents focused on the “loud talk,” the “ringing,” and the “widespread discourteous uses” that blurred the boundary between public and private behaviors. “Self-discipline” was the favored solution.

FCC Policy Considerations in the Development of Advanced Television, 1987-1997 • Scott D. Wiltsee, Georgia • Much of the discussion surrounding advanced television has focused on the technological innovation involved. However, the interest in ATV in the United States has not been strictly technological. This analysis examines the history of U.S. efforts to develop standards between 1987 and 1997. It attempts to identify reasons for ATV’s high-priority status in government, broadcasting, and manufacturing circles. In addition, it identifies some of the major debates that have threatened to block the technology’s development.

Killing Physicians with Fighting Words: A Free-Speech Challenge to Internet Community Building • Terry L. Wimmer, North Carolina • A February 1999, decision by a federal court jury in Oregon raised intriguing questions about free speech on the Internet when a group of physicians were awarded $107 million because of a campaign by anti-abortionists that created a “hit list” against the physicians because they perform abortions. The challenge to free speech centers on issues of incitement to harm and on immediacy of reaction to speech that does incite.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Advertising Division

PF&R
A Content Analysis of Black-and-White Advertisements Used in Magazines • Euijin Ann, Michigan State • This study employed content analysis to examine the usage pattern of black-and white (B&W) advertising in magazines. Results showed that (1) B& W ads appeared to be an important type of advertising tactic, (2) of the B&W ads examined, color-highlighted type appeared most often, (3) B&W ads appeared most often in ads for health care, publication, services, and fashion and beauty, (4) most B&W ads employed emotional appeals rather than informational appeals.

Ethical Issues Associated with Qualitative On-Line Research: Toward a Common Platform • Denise E. DeLorme, Central Florida, George M. Zinkhan and Warren French, Georgia • This paper examines the possibility of a unified professional code of ethics which has the potential to provide solutions to ethical conflicts in qualitative on-line research. A national mail survey and replication e-mail survey were conducted with an interdisciplinary sample. Overall, respondents felt that there should be an ethics code, indicated all core value statements presented are important to include, and noted challenges in industry acceptance of a code. The paper concludes by offering guidance in constructing, implementing, and enforcing such a code.

Perceptions of Harmful Female Advertising Stereotypes and Eating-Disordered Thinking among Female College Students: a Q Method Analysis • Robert L. Gustafson and Mark N. Popovich, Ball State and Steven R. Thomsen, Brigham Young • This study employs Q methodology, personal interviews and a self-administered questionnaire to explore how female college students, a population segment with one of the highest incidences of anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders, rank magazine advertisements that feature a variety of potentially harmful female stereotypes. Specifically, the study examines how ads that feature stereotypes promoting the “thin ideal” rank in comparison to other harmful stereotypes. The findings are compared to measures of the subjects’ anorectic cognitions, body anxiety and dieting behavior.

The Emergence of Integrated Marketing Communications: A Theoretical Overview • John M. McGrath, Pittsburgh-Johnstown • This paper traces the origins of the emerging field of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), critically reviews research literature which is seminal to the field, and discusses the future of IMC, including an opportunity for new research.

Research
Complexity and Blame Focus in Anti-Smoking Television Commercials: The Role of Complexity and Individual vs. Industry Blame on Smokers and Non-Smokers • Michael Antecol, June Flora and Lisa Henriksen, Stanford University, Esther Thorson, Missouri, Annie Lang, Indiana University, Robert F. Potter, Alabama • Two experiments are reported. They address these research questions: (1) how does the structure and (2) the blame focus of anti-smoking ads affect ad-specific responses of smokers and non-smokers? Structure was examined by varying an ad’s global complexity scores. Blame focus was examined by comparing “individual blame” anti-smoking ads to “industry blame” ads. Experiment 1 showed that complexity has an effect on the effectiveness of anti-smoking ads, both at autonomic and self-report levels.

Cyberbrand Development: A Study of the Impact of Self Concept and Web Site Personality Congruity • Kelli S. Burns, Florida • In cyberspace, traditional rules for brand building are currently being tested and challenged. Understanding consumer personality may further the ability of an online advertiser to project the appropriate brand image. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the congruity between a Web site and the user’s personality is related to the user’s evaluation of the site. Strausbaugh’s brand personality instrument was used to measure the personality of 157 undergraduates and two Web sites.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Political Advertising in the 1996 Presidential Election Campaign in Taiwan and the United States • Chingching Chang, National Cheng-chi • This study applied Hall’s (1977) culture-context theory and Hofstede’s (1991) individualistic/collectivistic aspects of cultural differences to understand how content and appeals of political advertising in Taiwan and the U.S. differ from each other. The aspects examined included the presence of direct and indirect attacks, the presentation of issues in the ads, types of settings, and the use of metaphors, symbols, and songs. Analyses showed that most of the findings were consistent with cultural expectations.

Advertising vs. Public Service Announcements: The Role of Message Type in Safer-Sex Campaigns and Third-Person Perception • John R. Chapin, Penn State • Fifteen years ago, Davison introduced the third-person effect hypothesis, that individuals believe they are less influenced than others by media messages. Although third-person effect is a perceptual bias, Davison believed that individuals act on such misperceptions. Few studies since have tested the behavioral aspect of the third-person effect. In addition, previous studies reporting differences in third-person effect due to message type (i.e. PSAs vs. advertisements) controls to isolate the effects of message type from content and context.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion After Two Decades: A Review of Criticisms and Contributions • Sejung Marina Choi and Charles T. Salmon, Michigan State • Over the past twenty years, the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM) has emerged as one of the most influential theories of persuasion in the fields of communication, psychology, and by extension, advertising. In spite of its prominent contributions, the ELM has been criticized in detail for both theoretical and empirical limitations. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the current status of the model through revisiting the criticisms as well as replies to those criticisms by proponents of the ELM.

Effects of Culture and Self-construals on Comparative Advertising Effectiveness • Yung Kywn Choi, Gordon E. Miracle and Linda Cowles, Michigan State University • This study examines cross-cultural differences in comparative advertising effectiveness by tracing possible links between culture, individual values, and advertising effectiveness. A significant main effect of culture was found and a path model was proposed for illuminating the underlying process between culture and advertising effectiveness. The data were generally consistent with the model. Culture was systematically related to self-construals. However, the relationship between self-construals and advertising effectiveness were different depending on the type of an advertisement.

A Content Analysis of Internet Banner Advertising: Focusing on Korean and U.S. Cultural Differences • Hwi-Man Chung, North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Euijin Ahn, Michigan State University • The Web is emerging as a new advertising medium vying strongly with the more traditional media. Despite the Web’s capability of becoming a potentially powerful medium, there is little empirical studies about the banner advertising in the Web. Previous studies about traditional media have suggested that there are differences among different countries and cultures in terms of advertising types and degree of informativeness.

Qualitative Evaluation of Print Ads by Assessors Using the Creative Product Semantic Scale • Alisa White Coleman, Texas at Arlington and Bruce L. Smith, South Dakota • The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether advertising professionals judge advertising creativity in the same way as college students who have had no advertising training, and whether demographic variables significantly affect judgments about the creativity of advertising. Fifteen print ads were evaluated using the Creative Product Semantic Scale. The judgments of students and professionals were significantly different. There were also significant differences on the basis of demographic variables.

Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter: A Content Analysis of Male Images in Female-Targeted Magazine Advertising, 1978-1998 • Mikalee Dahle and Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • A content analysis of ads featuring men was undertaken for women’s magazines published in 1978, 1988, and 1998. Ads in 1978 publications tended to feature men in a clear role and related to the product; those in 1988 presented men in no clear role and unrelated to the product (a purely decorative role); and images in 1998 served as the middle ground between the two extremes. Clear trends also emerged across different magazine titles.

The Effect of Idiocentrism and Involvement on Attitude, Cognition and Behavioral Intention with respect to AIDS Appeal Types • Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Minnesota • This study looks at the role played by idiocentrism/allocentrism in shaping consumers’ attitude, cognition and behavioral intention in the context of AIDS appeal types. The level of involvement emerges to be a significant moderating factor that interacts with idiocentrism to shape audience preference. This provides direction for an entirely new dimension of research in public health both from theoretical and applied perspectives. Cultures and sub-cultures may be studied in the context of individualism and its effects that may be observed at a cultural level.

Excessive Drinking by College Students: When Advertising and Ritual Behavior Intersect • Edward R. Frederick and Joyce M. Wolburg, Marquette • This study examines university student drinking as part of campus culture. It uses survey data to explore whether students perceive that student drinking rituals influence their drinking and tests a set of survey items for measuring the impact of student drinking rituals. It found evidence that Community and Order rituals do. It also explored whether alcohol advertising influences student drinking. Results show that attention to television alcohol commercials is related to self-reported drinking behavior.

A Study Of The Facets Of The “Country-Of-Origin” Image And Its Comparison Among Different Countries • Wang, Jang-Sun, Tennessee-Knoxville • “Country-of-Origin” image is an important factor, which affects consumers’ evaluations of foreign products in the international marketplaces. This study aims to compare the CO images of three countries – Japan, South Korea and India-having different levels of economic developments, and to explore the components of CO image. It examines the three CO facets of each country and their interrelationships. Additionally, it is observed if CO effects vary by the patriotism, a critical factor affecting CO.

Made In Taiwan And The U.S.A.: A Study Of Gender Roles In Two Nations’ Magazine Advertisements • Kim E. Karloff and Yi-ching Lee, California State • While American women can be found in the driver’s seat, literally, in American magazine advertisements, the same cannot be said of Taiwanese women in Taiwan magazine advertisements. And the American image of the lone cowboy means little to Taiwanese ad-makers. Family, however, means mom and dad in both countries. Such are the findings in this study of gender roles in a cross-section of magazines found in the United States and in Taiwan.

Advertising Representation of Female Bravery During the 1990’s and it’s Relationship to Creative Production • Linda Jean Kensicki, Texas-Austin• Through the work of previous scholars and primary focus group research, this study defines bravery as an essential characteristic of the creative individual. In an attempt to address decreased creative production in women, imitation effects on televised commercial content is examined as a possible collaborator in the development of creativity within women. An analysis of over six hundred commercials during the 1990’s found few women working in advertising agencies and almost no instances of female bravery in commercials.

The Impact of Culture on Political Advertising-A comparison between the U.S. and Korean Newspaper Ads • Chun-Sik Kim, Mokwon University and Yoo-Kyoung Kim, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies • This study examines the impact of cultural characteristics on political advertising between the United States and Korea. A total of 446 advertisements from 1963 to 1997 were content-analyzed in this study. Results of the study showed that there were differences of contents and valences of political advertising between the U.S. and Korea. Also, discussions based on study results showed mixed and intertwined arguments against or for the expectations for this study.

The Impact of Market Mavenism and Shopping Orientation on the Consumer’s Use of the Web, Catalogs and Retail Stores as Shopping and Buying Channels • Cheng Kuo, National Chengchi University and Hairong Li, Michigan State University • Through an online survey, information about 999 Internet users was collected and analyzed with a view to examining their channel selection behavior Two path models were proposed and tested to examine the effects of the individual’s demographics, market mavenism and shopping orientation on their use of the Web, catalog, and retail stores as shopping and buying channels. LISREL covariance analysis was used in testing the models. Results from the analyses have indicated that the level of market mavenism and certain shopping orientation indeed affected the respondents’ channel selection.

Information Cues In Renmin Ribao Advertisements (1979-1998) • Susanna W.Y. Kwok, Hong Kong Baptist University • A content analysis of 448 print advertisements in Renmin Ribao from 1979 to 1998 was conducted. The Resnick and Stern evaluation criteria were used to determine the level of advertising information content and to trace its development. The result indicated that both product nature and medium characteristics had a significant effect on the information level of advertisements in China. Nevertheless, the changing information levels over time were conflicting and called for further study.

Communication Effectiveness of Print Advertising Endorsement in Hong Kong • Vivien S. Y. Leung, Hong Kong Baptist University • This study examined the communication effectiveness of advertising endorsement on consumer purchase intention in Hong Kong. Two products, life insurance and wholesome beverage, were chosen to represent product category with high and low consumer involvement. Two of the eight print advertisements using three types of advertising endorser, celebrity, typical consumer and expert, and a no-model (control) advertisement, were randomly distributed to 120 Hong Kong Baptist University students in April 1998.

The Power of Words: Another Look at the Verbal and Visual Components in Print Ads • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This experimental study compares the effects of three types of ads-verbal, visual and verbal-visual combined-on people’s ad attitude, brand attitude, recall and purchase intention. It finds that verbal ads are more powerful and effective than visual ads, and that the visual component in a verbal-visual combined ad may interfere with the effect of the verbal component on people’s brand attitude and purchase intention. It also finds a superior effect of brand attitude over ad attitude.

The Presence of Nostalgia in Television Commercials • Wendy Martin and Wei-Na Lee, Texas at Austin • This paper reports the results of a study examining the use of nostalgia in marketing/advertising communications. A content analysis of 2,208 television ads was performed to examine the use of nostalgia in advertising, including the concentration of ads and products advertised and possible segmentation based on age or sex differences. Nostalgia was used in 8.3% of the ads sampled in this study, as compared to 10% found in an earlier study.

Does Good Work Pay Off? A Preliminary Study Of Advertising Awards And Financial Growth • Ann Maxwell and Charles Frazer Oregon and Wayne Wanta, Florida • No abstract

Does Reputation Management Reap Rewards? A Path Analysis of Corporate Reputation Advertising’s Impacts on Brand Attitudes and Purchase Decisions • Jongmin Park and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri and Lisa Lyon, Georgia • Claims are made for the importance of corporate reputation as essential to the effective, integrated marketing of a company’s branded products. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood and Combined-Effects Models of persuasion theory, an experiment was conducted to examine the value of one tool in corporate reputation management – the corporate ad or corporate image ad. Using path analysis, findings indicate that the corporate reputation ad had a greater impact on purchase intention under low involvement conditions than under high involvement conditions.

This Page is Brought to You By… An Experimental Test of Sponsorship Credibility in an Online Newspaper • Shelly Rodgers, Glen T. Cameron, Ann M. Brill, Missouri-Columbia • Advertisers are being asked to sponsor pages in online newspapers. E-newspapers and advertisers have anecdotally reported success, however, no study has examined the effects of such sponsorship. This study seeks to remedy that through an experiment that tests the effects of sponsorship on memory and credibility through the manipulation of timing, story type and sponsor type. Findings suggest that there are steps advertisers and e-newspapers can take to optimize the relationship between advertising and news content.

Recall, Liking and Creativity in TV Commercials: A New Approach • Gerald Stone, Donna Besser and Loran Lewis, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • Three advertising effectiveness dimensions were linked in a local random telephone survey asking respondents’ most disliked or liked commercial. The survey included describing the commercials, brand preference, television viewing hours and demographics. Seniors in advertising judged the ads’ creativity. Among many findings related to past research was the suggestion that people “carry a set” of liked and disliked commercials. The study’s major contribution may be its novel way of identifying memorable ads and assessing creativity.

Who We Are and What We Choose to Read: A Psychological Exploration of Media Use • Fang Wan, Ken Doyle and Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Minnesota • This study expands the advertising literature by demonstrating the usefulness of personality types in identifying patterns of media usage. On a quota sample of the US adult population, ordinal and quasi-interval analyses showed that Introverts used print media substantially more than Extroverts, except for special situations, “Tenderminded Introverts” were the most frequent print media consumers. Discussion addressed the use of this information to improve the cost-effectiveness of media planning.

Everything Old is New Again: The Use of Nostalgia Appeals in Advertising • Jennifer L. Williams and Ronald J. Faber, Minnesota • The use of nostalgia in advertising, as well as in other elements of the culture, has been growing as the end of the millennium approaches. Yet little is known about how nostalgia is portrayed in advertisements. This study provides an examination of the content of 108 television commercials that utilize nostalgia in their appeals. The results support the notion that the definition of nostalgia needs to be expanded to include both negative and positive memories and both personal and historical references.

Teaching
Group Personality and Performance A Model for Managing Advertising Student Teams • Shannon Richard, Marilyn Roberts and John Sutherland, Florida • Effective teamwork and interaction skills are a necessity in today’s world. Students are in need of these skills if they are to become successful team players in the work place. Educators are in need of cues as to which group interaction skills are most essential and how to incorporate them into course content. This paper outlines such essential tools in a model for effectively managing student teams. The group behavior of an advertising campaigns course is evaluated to provide a picture of these tools in action.

Incorporating a Promotional Products Teaching Component into the Advertising Campaigns Course: A Partnership Pilot Program • Denise DeLorme, Central Florida • Since the emergence of IMC, it has become increasingly important for students to have an understanding and appreciation of a variety of marketing communications tools. One industry segment that is sometimes overlooked is promotional products. This paper describes the process of incorporating promotional products into the campaigns course through a partnership pilot program. The program’s three phases are discussed: preparation through six instructional planning steps, implementation involving four major learning activities, and evaluation including five key outcomes resulting from surveys of students. The paper concludes by providing educators with future recommendations.

How Media Planning Professionals See Changes in the Marketplace Affecting the Teaching of the Media Planning Course • Carla V. Lloyd, Syracuse University, Jan S. Slater, Ohio University and Brett Robbs, Colorado • Those involved with today’s media-planners, buyers, sellers and distributors must cope with these changes daily, while anticipating the changes yet to come. Not only has the landscape changed, so have the players. Technology is fueling immense competition, creating an overly crowded marketplace vying for limited advertising dollars and waning consumer attention. Media planning professionals, who must navigate through all this change to find ways to deliver clients’ messages to consumers, work during a time that is perhaps like no other in media’s history.

A Practical Exercise of Teaching Ethical Decision Making to Advertising Students • David L. Martinson, Florida International University • Students too often do not understand the important role that ethics plays in their personal or future professional lives. The Hastings Center suggests that the first two steps in teaching ethics center around stimulating the moral imagination in order that individuals will be able to recognize ethical issues. In this paper the author presents a practical exercise that moves ethical decision making out of the strictly theoretical.

Contract Teamwork: A Tool for Tearing Down Ivory Towers • Sally McMillan, Tennessee-Knoxville • How can teamwork be implemented effectively in university-level advertising classrooms? This paper reviews literature on the nature, structure, and function of teams and processes for managing teamwork. Based on this literature an innovative approach to contract teamwork is introduced. The author provides information on implementation and evaluation of that approach with suggestions for improving and expanding contract teamwork in advertising classrooms.

Special Topics
Branding Religion: Christian Consumers’ Understandings of Christian Products • Eric Haley, Candace White, Anne Cunningham, Tennessee • Recent years have witnessed a boom in Christian marketing, both the marketing of Christian products and the use of “Christian-owned” as a loyalty building tool for businesses. Despite the enormous growth in Christian retailing, researchers have paid little attention to the phenomenon. This study offers an entree into the subject by examining how self-described Evangelical Christians, who are the primary consumers of Christian products, make sense of their purchase and use of Christian products.

Testing An IMC Evaluation Model: The Impact Of Brand Equity And The Company’s Reputation On Revenues • Yungwook Kim, Florida • This paper is trying to establish the relationships among variables in corporate communications, especially between advertising and public relations, and to establish an evaluation model for integrating the effects of communication activities in the context of integrated marketing communication (IMC). For testing, a new approach for integrating the effects of communication activities was introduced and the IMC evaluation model was specified. The proposed model was tested with existing secondary data.

Driving Toward Equality: Automobile Advertising and Gender Views, 1920-1940 • Erika J. Pribanic, Alabama • Automobiles have long been considered a masculine area. In Taking the Wheel, Virginia Scharff wrote, “The automobile was born in a masculine manger, and when women sought to claim its power, they invaded a male domain.”’ This theme is often parodied in the modern television sit-com Home Improvement: the car is powerful, dirty, masculine, and off limits to women. The automobile’s inherent masculinity reaches back to the Victorian age, when women were considered too feeble-minded and flail-bodied to even leave their homes, let alone drive automobiles.

Not on Target: Effects of Gender-Targeted Web Sites on Liking and Visit Intent • Shelly Rodgers, Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri-Columbia • This experiment addresses the effects of gender-targeted web sites on likability and visit intent. A 3 (male vs. female vs. neutral web site) x 2 (gender) between-subjects factorial design was used. Findings suggest that neutral sites are preferred over gender-specific sites. In fact, both genders rated the neutral site as more likable than either the male or female sites. Intent to revisit the neutral site was also more likely for both genders.

An Exploratory Study Of The Synergy Among Ad Attention, Promotional Offers And The Use Of Grocery Buyer Cards In Building Customer Loyalty • Mary Alice Shaver, Hyun-Seung Jin and Carol Pardun, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study measures the impact of having a grocery card on using advertising and responding to promotions on shopping habits and customer loyalty. A statewide survey of 589 adults found that, while heavy users of grocery cards do pay more attention to advertising and plan shopping to take advantage of advertised specials and promotions, this behavior does not result in loyalty to the store as defined by regular shopping.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Commission of the Status of Women

Fresh, Youthful, and Female-Positive: Analyses of Feminist Identity in Web Sites for Women • Debashis ‘Deb’ Aikat, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The research for this study was based on concepts related to cultural studies and detailed discourse analyses of top four mainstream women’s Web sites • Chick Click (http://www.chickclick.com/), Cybergrrl (http://www.cybergrrl.com/), iVillage (http://www.ivilla~e.com/) and Women.com Networks (http://www.women.com/). This study examined the level of discourse regarding feminist identity based on five specific categories: 1. Empowerment, 2. Sexuality, 3. Justice and equality, 4. Action for Social, Political and Economic Change, and 5. Other Pertinent Themes.

Images of Women’s Basketball Players on the Covers of Collegiate Media Guides • Kiki Nigel Baker, Louisiana-Lafayette • In the advertising and news media. female athletes are consistently trivialized and marginalized through stereotypical images and minimal coverage. These media seem to still ignore the fact that female athletes have professional careers and continue to emphasize the personal areas of their lives. This image of a female athlete may begin at the collegiate level and may be encouraged by stereotypical portrayals of female athletes in publications produced by sports information departments. The purpose of this study.

Career-Related Advice and Information in Women’s Magazines: A Content Analysis of Work Options and Topics • Kimberly K. Cass, Drake • Career-related messages in magazines tell women what to think about their careers and how to act at work. This study examined such messages in Mademoiselle from 1961 to 1999. The 1960s and 70s were characterized by a focus on appearance and its relationship to obtaining employment. By the 1980s-90s, focus expanded to address a variety of topics. However, coverage throughout the study period was shallow, and types of careers covered were unrealistically glamorous.

Nurturing Motherhood: The Portrayal of Gender Roles and Childbirth in “A Baby Story” • Erika Engstrom, Nevada, Las Vegas • The author examines portrayal of gender roles and childbirth in The Learning Channel’s “A Baby Story,” a thirty-minute reality based television program that traces the story of couples anticipating the birth of their child. The show provides a medium for public discourse about childbirth while embodying several themes related to gender roles and childbirth in the 1990s, including conflicts experienced by women regarding careers and motherhood, and increased involvement of male partners in childcare.

Four Gender Equity Models and Why They Matter to Mass Communications Education • Kim Golombisky, South Florida • With women comprising the majority in mass communications classrooms, “gender equity” in education must be a priority for mass communications educators. This essay provides a general review of the issues. First it critiques four “gender equity” models • “equal,” “equitable,” fair,” and “affirmative” • and then it examines how these models relate to mass communications education. Finally it suggests a classroom “gender equity” audit and offers some practical strategies for developing a” sex affirmative” mass communications learning environment.

“You Can Never Be Too Thin” – or Can You?: Presenting Research Intended to Combat the Effects of Digital Manipulation of Fashion Models’ Weight, Leg Length and Skin Color • Jacqueline C. Hitchon, Shiela Reaves, Sung-Yeon Park, Gi Woong Yun, Wisconsin-Madison • Media scholars have recently linked the consumption of magazine images to eating disorders. Exposure to the thin ideal has been shown to create body dissatisfaction, reduce women’s self-esteem, encourage attempts at dieting, fuel a drive for thinness and contribute to eating disorder symptomatology. Previous research has neglected the role of digital manipulation of images in creating the thin ideal, which can better be described as a mirage. The paper explores the relationship between digital manipulation and focal psychological indices that lead to eating behavior problems.

The Last Male Bastion Enters the 21st Century: The Changing View of Women’s Professional Basketball In One Newspaper’s Sports Department • Lynn Klyde-Silverstein, Ohio • This qualitative case study uses participant observation and interviews to examine the way one newspaper sports section has covered the Women’s National Basketball Association in the three years of the league’s existence. Grounded in framing theory, standpoint theory, and critical theory, the study looks at the sports department’s changing relationship with its hometown WNBA team.

A Woman’s Place: Newspaper Advice Columns in the Wake of the Nineteenth Amendment • Jacquelyn Lowman and Lucinda D. Davenport, Michigan State • The Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the vote, was just one manifestation of the social, political, legal, and economic changes that roiled the United States during the 1920s. Traditional roles filled by men and women were being questioned. In a world where such customary sources of support and information as kin and local community were weakening, newspaper advice columnists filled the void as objective, sophisticated authorities. This study examines more than a decade of national advice columns in the wake of the Amendment, and finds them to be both a promoter of new ideas and a reflector of reality.

Does Sex Make a Difference? Job Satisfaction of Television Network News Correspondents • Cindy J. Price, Wyoming • Women have been entering the work force in large numbers starting in the 1940s and been increasing ever since. However, the number of women in network television news has not grown at the same rate as some other industries. This study surveyed all network television news correspondents at ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and PBS to determine if there were any differences between men and women in their job satisfaction.

The Language of Abortion: A Case Study of the Des Moines Register and the Quad-City Times, 1992-1999 • Heather Wiese Starr, Drake • This case study/content analysis examines newspaper coverage of Planned Parenthood and abortion and reproductive services in two city newspapers. In Des Moines, IA, Planned Parenthood has a long-established presence, and the DM Register was found to cover abortion in a balanced manner. In the Quad Cities, IA, a new Planned Parenthood clinic will open this year. Coverage of women’s reproductive rights was minimal before the clinic was announced, and noticeably negative during construction, in the Quad-City Times.

Margaret Sanger as Dissident Journalist: Demanding Wider Access to Birth Control Information • Rodger Streitmatter, American University • This paper documents the central role that Margaret Sanger and her two magazines • Woman Rebel and Birth Control Review • played in creating and sustaining the Birth Control Movement in America. It also identifies and articulates the major themes that dominated the editorial content of the two magazines. Although numerous scholarly works have previously been published about Sanger, they have portrayed her primarily as an activist. This study posits that Sanger also should be recognized as a highly effective dissident journalist.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Small Programs Interest Group

Assessing the Need for Change: A Survey of Grammar Curricula in American J-Schools • Marc Seamon, West Virginia • Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and AP style errors are among the factors that are hurting media credibility in the public’s eyes. Some have said J-schools share the blame for sloppy grammar because they don’t properly prepare students. This survey of 100 J-schools and examination of their syllabi found plenty of awareness that spelling, punctuation, grammar, and AP style are important. However, the standards of instruction and assessment varied widely, suggesting the need for a new, consistently high standard for teaching grammar in all J-schools. Improvements and future research are recommended.

<< 2000 Abstracts