Communication Theory and Methodology Division

Faculty
Profiling TV Ratings Users: Content-Based Advisories and Their Adoption • Robert Abelman and David Atkin, Cleveland State • In the aftermath of the ineffectiveness of the age-based MPAA television advisory ratings, this investigation examined parents’ use of the content-based ratings in their decision-making. The parents most likely to utilize TV ratings information tended to fit the profile of the target audience formed by the literature and set by the television industry: infrequent mediators of their children’s televiewing who are likely to employ a highly restrictive (deprivation-based) method of mediation, believe that television can have a significant impact on children, and are more concerned with behavioral- than cognitive-level effects.

Gender Schema and Alcohol-Related Messages: An Extension of the Message Interpretation Process Model • Julie L. Andsager, Erica Weintraub Austin, and Bruce E. Pinkleton, Washington State • The Message Interpretation Process Model posits that adolescents employ logic and emotion in analyzing messages. Gender schema theory argues that gender roles are internalized by adolescence; gender should affect information processing. We exposed 578 ninth and twelfth graders to eight alcohol-related messages. Boys were more aware of production values, especially in advertisements; girls noted emotional appeals. Both boys and girls found fantasy-based messages amusing; they were affected by realism. The MIP model should incorporate gender.

The Effects of Increased Awareness on College Students’ Interpretations of Magazine Advertisements for Alcohol • Erica Weintraub Austin, Amber Reaume, John Silva, Petra Guerra, Neva Geisler, Luxelvira Gamboa, Orlalak Phakakayai, and Bryant Kuechle, Washington State • An experiment with 496 college students tested whether heightened awareness during media exposure would affect the message interpretation process by enhancing skepticism, with the enhanced skepticism influencing both affective and cognitive aspects of decision making. The results suggest that skepticism has affective and logical components, which can be represented by trust (more affective) and perceived realism (more logical), and that skepticism’s effects on affective and logical decision making are revealed somewhat differently.

Negative Implications of the Third-Person Effect on Program Assessment Validity: An Experiment with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program • Stephen Banning, Texas A&M • While the third-person effect hypothesis has undergone considerable testing since its inception nearly three decades ago, this research is the first project to investigate an applied use for the concept. This study introduces a formula for calculating a differential impact index and demonstrates with an experiment using middle-school age students in a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program that a first-person or third-person effect can produce a confounding variable into traditional program evaluations.

An Effect Model of Political News and Political Advertising: The 1996 Presidential Election • Mahmoud A. M. Braima, Southern University and A&M College; Thomas J. Johnson, and Jayanthi Sothirajah, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • To determine the positive influence of exposure to an election campaign and the negative impact of the advertising campaigns of a presidential contest, we used structural equations to simultaneously assess 11 causal links between issue involvement, political news exposure, political advertising exposure, political news attention, political advertising attention, knowledge of candidates’ issue stands and voting intention. Two data sets, one from a survey of 320 adult residents of Jackson County in Illinois during the primaries and another from a survey of 368 adult residents of Pulaski County in Arkansas prior to the election, were used in the study.

Sex, Alcohol and Billboards: Memory, Attitude Change, and Purchase Intention • Xiaomei Cai, Annie Lang, Kevin Wise, and Seungwhan Lee, Indiana • This study examines the effects of product type and sexual appeals in billboard messages on college students’ recall and recognition in relation to their drinking levels. Results show that alcohol billboards are recalled better than not-alcohol billboards, particularly for alcohol billboards using sexual appeals. Heavy drinkers recall alcohol brands better than light drinkers. However, sexual appeals reduce brand free recall for heavy drinkers. Heavy drinkers also have more positive attitude towards alcohol products.

Conceptualizing and Testing the Construct “Impactiveness”: Analyzing the Effect of Visual Stimuli Eliciting Eye-Fixations, Orienting Responses and Memory-Stored Images on Ad Recall • Fiona Chew and Jay Sethuraman, Syracuse • Impactiveness is coined and proposed as a construct consisting of visual stimuli which elicit eye-fixations, orienting responses and/or memory-stored images. It was conceptualized using the seven-step inductive-deductive process outlined by Donohew and Palmgreen and predicated on theories of attention and involvement. Eighty color print ads from Gallup and Robinson’s 1996 Which Ad Pulled Best were coded and analyzed for impactiveness which was hypothesized to obtain higher recall. Findings seemed to support this hypothesis and validated the construct.

Use of Cause-Related Marketing Ads to Bolster Image in the Light of Negative News • Sameer Deshpande and Jacqueline Hitchon • University of Wisconsin – Madison • This paper presents an experimental study conducted among 178 subjects to test a bolstering strategy from Image Restoration Theory. Three different kinds of ads were compared with respect to bolstering brand image and the reputation of a nonprofit organization (NPO) after the release of an unfavorable news story: brand ads, PSAs, and Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) ads. As hypothesized, CRM ads produced more favorable responses than brand ads prior to scandal, but lost their advantage in the light of negative news.

Transactionalism Revisited: The Development of Transactional Thinking and its Impact on Communication Theory • Wolfgang Eichhorn, der Universitat Munchen • In the first half of the 20th century, John Dewey developed a concept of transaction as an alternative to stimulus-response based theories of human perception and action. Consequences of the transactional paradigm can be found in philosophy, psychology, semiotics and communication theory. This paper gives a short overview over the development of the concept of transaction and the way transactional thinking into communication theory and suggests an increased incorporation of the concept into reception research.

News Information Processing as Mediator Between Motivations and Public Affairs Knowledge • William Eveland, Jr., Ohio State • Empirical support is offered for the proposed cognitive mediation model of learning from the news. The cognitive mediation model is situated within an information processing framework and integrates existing theory and research on uses and gratifications and news information processing. It proposes that motivations for news media use influence the processing to which the news information is put, and that this processing is the proximal determinant of learning from the news.

The Assimilation of Soap Opera Portrayals into Viewer’s Relational Knowledge Structures • Steven J. Hoekstra, Kansas Weslyan and Tom Grimes and Catherine Cozzarelli, Kansas State • Two studies were conducted to test the degree to which exposure to soap opera television influences individuals’ relational schemas. Participants in the first study completed a series of questionnaires that measured their beliefs about romanticism, relationship fragility, the utility of conversation in relationships, and sexual attitudes. All participants reported their habits for television viewing in general and soap opera viewing in particular. Results showed that general and relationship-specific beliefs predicted relationship satisfaction, but that soap opera viewing time did not appear to be a central influence in either general or specific relationship beliefs.

Communication Behavior as a Critical Factor on the Third-Person Effect • Yu-Wei Hu, National Taiwan Normal University • This study examines the influence of communication behavior on the magnitude of the third-person effect. The results of a telephone survey indicate that, during an election campaign, higher level of media use will reduce the magnitude of the third-person effect. Moreover, while previous studies had ignored the possible influence of interpersonal communication on the third-person effect, this study finds a significant negative correlation between interpersonal communication and the third-person effect.

Neighborhoods, Communication and Policial Beliefs • Leo W. Jeffres, Richard Perloff, David Atkin, and Kim Neuendorf, Cleveland State • Although people tend to mobilize around local problems and restrict their political involvement at other times, the political communication literature generally has focused on national politics and elections. This is particularly surprising in investigations of political efficacy since it is at the community level that people should feel more efficacious. Also, both mass and interpersonal communication should be more significant locally given their importance in strengthening community ties. The study reported here focuses on these relationships in a community context, with a survey of six inner-city neighborhoods and six suburbs also classified on status using census data.

Receiver Control of Pacing with Mass Media: Effects on Comprehension and Persuasion • Tom Kelleher, University of Hawaii-Manoa • This study tests receiver control of pacing as a variable for examining learning and persuasion outcomes with mass media. Fifty students participated in the study’s 2X2 factorial experiment. Receiver control of pacing and the presence of images in the stimuli were the dichotomous independent variables and comprehension and attitudes toward the stimulus material were the main dependent variables. Results of the study showed that print and Web conditions • media that allow receivers control of pacing • had a significant advantage over radio and video in affecting comprehension of the science-related stimulus material from NASA. Control of pacing did not have an advantage in affecting attitudes.

Revisiting the News Media’s Liberal Bias: An Alternative Measurement of Journalists’ Political Ideologies • Tien-tsung Lee, Hawaii Pacific • A traditional approach to answer whether the news media have a liberal bias is to survey journalists. Findings of previous studies suggest that journalists tend to identify themselves as liberals and are more likely to vote for Democrats. Such results have been used to support the argument that the news media have a liberal bias. The present study revisits the issue with a more refined measurement of political ideology, and concludes that the liberal bias claim is only a myth.

Media Influences on Voter Learning, Cynicism, and the Vote in an Off-Year Issue Election • Glenn Leshner and Maria E. Len-Rios, University of Missouri • This study examined the influence of campaign news and advertising media on voter knowledge, cynicism and voting in a 1999 issue election. It also compared the patterns of association between three measures of vote behavior • vote likelihood, self-report vote, and actual vote • and demographic, political, and media variables. Two cross-sectional telephone surveys were administered • one month before the vote and the other immediately after the election. Hierarchical multiple regression models were tested. Attention to all of the campaign media predicted knowledge about the dominant issue on the ballot at the beginning of the campaign, but only attention to newspapers predicted knowledge at the end of the campaign.

The Effects of Erotica and Dehumanizing Pornography in an Online Interactive Environment • Chad Mahood, Sriram Kalyanaraman, and S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State • The present study employed a fully mixed 3 (low vs. medium vs. high interactivity) X 2 (erotica vs. de-humanizing pornography) factorial between-subjects design. After exposure to dehumanizing material, subjects held less sexual conservatism. Medium interactivity led to the most sex role satisfaction. An interaction effect showed that exposure to dehumanizing pornography with medium and high levels of interactivity led to more acceptance of violence toward women, while highly interactive erotica led to less acceptance of violence toward women.

Exploring News Media Use and Interpersonal Communication as Correlates of Accuracy and Inaccuracy in the Perception of the Climate of Opinion • Ann Marie Major, Pennsylvania • This study examines the psychological and social correlates of accuracy and inaccuracy in assessments of the climate of opinion about environmental problems from a telephone survey of 1002 adults. News media use, news media influence, and information-seeking were associated consistently with accurate assessments of the majority opinion. Problem and constraint recognition provided a means of determining whether or not respondents were accurate or were simply projecting their own opinions to the majority. Interpersonal discussions and environmental concern were associated with inaccuracy.

Cognitive Structure as a Mediator of the Influence of Communication • Jack M. McLeod and Jessica Zubric, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan; Maria Powell, Weiwu Zhang, and Sameer Deshpande, with Dhavan Shah and Mike Schmierbach, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study demonstrates the importance of examining the processes that mediate the influences of communication on civic life. In this study, we analyzed the role of cognitive structure as affected by media use and interpersonal communication, and its mediating role influencing willingness to participate in a public forum on the urban growth issue. Findings illustrated that various communication patterns had distinct effects on four dimensions of cognitive structure: width, depth, causal attribution and remedy articulation.

The Ideological Dimensions of Stereotyping in the Media: Toward a Conceptual Clarification • Rick Clifton Moore, Boise State • Searching for stereotypes in the mass media is a common scholarly endeavor. Much research assumes that the media are full of stereotypes and their effects are deleterious. This study investigates the concept of “stereotype” as developed by Lippmann and examines current use of the term in mass communication research. The author suggests that most often the term is poorly conceptualized and the implications of this misconception deserve closer scrutiny by the academy.

Discussion Networks, Media Use, and Deliberative Conversation • Patricia Moy and John Gastil, University of Washington • Not all political conversation is deliberative conversation, characterized by an openness to political conflict, the absence of conversational dominance, clear and reasonable argument, and mutual comprehension. Extending McLeod, Scheufele, and Moy’s (1999) model of democratic engagement, we examine the antecedents of deliberative conversation. Structural equation modeling results indicate that network characteristics affected deliberative conversation. Print media use and interpersonal discussion tend to enhance deliberative conversation, while television news viewing hindered logic of argument and comprehension of others’ viewpoints.

Press-State Relations: A Critical Reappraisal • Hong-Won Park, University of Minnesota • This essay offers a critical reappraisal of the current thought about press-state relations. Existing studies of press-state relations are examined in terms of the normative, institutional, and symbolic approaches. To base press-state relations on a concrete theoretical framework, I consider models of power. Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and Foucault’s notion of power/knowledge enables to see the press-state nexus as a discursive terrain, where diverse actors struggle for dominant position.

The Theory is the Press: A View of the Press as Developer of Informal Theory • Robert Pennington, New Mexico State • This article proposes that the press develops and disseminates informal theories, derived from the primary culture, that govern institutions. Press freedom requires freedom from cultural restraints that are difficult to recognize. Emphasis on press content often ignores implicit relationships. In the absence of explicit relationship definition, culture defines the relationships in press content. Conflict occurs when social components reject or ignore an asserted relationship type. This study recommends analyzing relationship as monadic, dyadic or triadic.

Media Articulated Hegemony: A Symmetrical Perspective of Dominance and Resistance • Thomas Ruggiero, University of Texas at El Paso • A media “articulated” hegemony model, while recognizing that domination is presumed in any capitalist system, also acknowledges the possibility of subordinate resistance. It is in the articulation and de-articulation of media rhetoric that a political and/or cultural space is created by the tension between the two, and resistance may occur. Through a rhetorical analysis of the failed 1994 Disney’s America theme park, this study found that specialized media served as circulators of both universalizing and singularizing ideological narratives about American society.

Optimistic Bias and the Third-Person Effect: Public Estimations of Y2K Effects on Self and Others • Michael B. Salwen and Michael Dupagne, University of Miami • Telephone surveys during late November and early December 1999 gauged Americans’ beliefs about the predicted detrimental effects of Y2K and the persuasive effects of news coverage of Y2K. Drawing on optimistic bias and the third-person effect, approaches that share a “perceptual component” • an awareness of the existence of others and others’ beliefs and opinions • respondents appraised effects on “self” and on others. Optimistic bias predicts that individuals believe they are less likely than other people to experience deleterious events.

Real Talk: Manipulating the dependent variable in spiral of silence research • Dietram A. Scheufele, James Shanahan, and Eunjung Lee, Cornell • This study examines a key issue in spiral of silence research: whether the “realism” of the setting in which respondents are asked to express opinions affects their willingness to do so. Some reviews of spiral of silence theory have argued that survey measures do not capture the effect adequately because respondents see them as too hypothetical. In this study, we use a split-ballot technique to compare two closely related ways of assessing willingness to express opinions.

Individual Losses and Societal Gains: Interactive Framing Effects on the Activation of Mental Models • Dhavan V. Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan; Mike Schmierbach, and Jessica Zubric, with Jack M. McLeod, Maria Powell, and Hee Jo Keum, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Although numerous studies have examined the effects of frames on individual behaviors and opinions, there has been a paucity of work looking at the possible interactions among frames. Additionally, relatively little research has tested the multivariate effects of frames on basic cognitive variables, such as common-sense mental models. Using a 2X3 experimental manipulation concerning urban growth embedded within a broader survey, this study tests for the interactive effects of two different frame dimensions on the cognitions of individual respondents concerning this issue.

Self-serving Bias and Self-esteem in Estimating Risk? • Michael A. Shapiro and David A. Dunning, Cornell University • Understanding how people form estimates of risk is important to understanding how people process risk-related messages. One speculation is that risk estimates may be related to people’s motivation to put themselves and their actions in the best possible light • a self-serving bias. Studies in other domains have shown that challenges to self-esteem tend to increase self-serving bias. The experiment reported here did indeed find a self-serving bias about behaviors related to health risk.

Effects of Communication on Economic and Political Development: A Time Series Analysis • Kim A. Smith, Iowa State • Using time series data from 1965-1996 in 107 nations, this paper re-examines effects of social, mass media and telecommunication indicators on economic and political development. Among the indicators of social development, urbanization showed a much stronger relationship with economic and political development than percent illiterate or school enrollment. Newspapers, radios, and televisions per 1,000 people all substantially predicted economic and political development. Only telephone mainlines per capita among the telecommunication indicators significantly covaried over the 32-year period of the study with both types of development.

Modeling Information Seeking, Exposure and Attention in an Expanded Theory of Reasoned Action • Craig Trumbo, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This article examines the use of communication variables in research based on Ajzen and Fishbein’s Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The literature review shows that a significant amount of such work has included communication and information variables, but perhaps not in a manner designed to purposefully elaborate the function of communication and information in these theories. In fact, a recent meta-analysis of the TRA-TPB literatures identifies a half-dozen variables that function significantly in the TRA-TPB, none of which involve communication or information.

Play Theory Revisited: Dimensions of Play in Television and Internet Use • Stanley T. Wearden and Joseph M. Harper, Kent State • It has been more than 30 years since William Stephenson’s book, “The Play Theory of Mass Communication” was published. Since then, an intuitively appealing and plausible theory has been largely neglected. Writing about it 15 years after the book’s publication, Stephenson himself acknowledged that the book had been a polemic for Q methodology and urged that the methodological approach to the theory be broadened in order to better understand it. This study attempts to do just that.

Priming Perceptions of Foreign Countries: How the Media Influence How We Think About Other Nations • Lars Willnat, Joseph Graf, and Paul Brewer, George Washington • This experimental study attempts to broaden the scope of priming research in three ways. First, unlike previous priming experiments, which have primarily relied on television news to test the effects of media priming, this study test the priming effects of printed news stories. Second, rather than assessing the impact of media priming on evaluations of political figures, as has been done in the past, we propose that the media can also prime other, less narrow defined political perceptions.

Show Me Your Beer: How Sex and Alcohol Affect the Cognitive Processing of Billboards • Kevin Wise, Annie Lang, and Xiaomei Cai, Indiana • This study investigates college students’ cognitive responses to the presence of alcohol and sexual appeal on billboards. Results show that subjects orient to billboards, and that the presence of sexual appeal in billboards leads to more attentive controlled processing. Furthermore, the interaction between the presence of alcohol and sexual appeal significantly affects the extent to which orienting occurs, as well as attention, arousal and emotional valence.

Effects of Sponsoring Negative Political Advertising on Political Decision-Making: The Roles of Involvement and Source Credibility in the Development of Voter Cynicism • Kak Yoon, Sogang University; Bruce E. Pinkleton and Wonjun Ko, Washington State • Candidates’ use of negative political advertising continues to generate objections among citizens and concern among scholars and journalists. We examined the effect of negative political advertising on political decision-making by investigating the roles of situational voter involvement and source credibility in participants’ vote determination and their development of cynicism. Research results indicate that participants’ voting intention for the sponsor of negative political advertising was higher for a high-credibility candidate, regardless of their level of involvement.

Agreement Index as a Reliability Indicator for Nominal Scales with Two Coders • Xinshu Zhao, University of North Carolina • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Student
By the Numbers: Documenting the “Newspaper Habit” • Clyde Bentley, University of Oregon • Studies of newspaper readership have traditionally focused on demographic predictors. This study examines whether habit • a factor much less obvious than the powerful predictors of age, education and income • is at work in the importance to the individual of newspaper readership. Based on a statewide telephone survey, the study showed habit is at work in the individual’s perception of how important it is to read a newspaper. Reading habits or ritual not only correlated positively with the importance of newspaper reading, but remained a significant predictor when age, education and income were controlled through regression.

News Framing as a Multi-Paradigmatic Research Program: A Response to Entman • Paul D’Angelo, Villanova • The concept “framing” is at the center of a growing body of mass media research, centering particularly on news framing. The purpose of this essay is to respond to Entman’s (1993) call for the establishment of a paradigm of news framing research. Drawing on work in the sociology of knowledge, it is argued that news framing is a research program that consists of three inter-related paradigms, introduced here as constructionist, critical, and cognitive.

It’s All About the Information: Salience Effects on the Perceptions of News Exemplification • Francesca Dillman Carpentier, Hong-Sik Yu, and Coy Callison, University of Alabama • This study expands upon previous base rate v. exemplification research in examining salience effects on perceptions of mediated messages. Using an ecologically valid news stimulus, salience is shown to interact with base rate and exemplified information with interesting results. Case information is shown to impact issue perceptions under high salience, whereas the more familiar influences of base rate and exemplified text are illuminated under low salience. Implications and directions for further research are discussed.

Issues in Qualification of Electronic Internet-based Sources for Academic and Business Historical Research • Alexander Gorelik and Jodie Peele, University of South Carolina • The paper presents a methodology for qualification of Internet-based information sources. A summary of the existing techniques for qualification of traditional mass communication sources is included. An integrated qualification strategy, consisting of four steps: pre-evaluation, classification, evaluation (application of classification) and criticism is proposed. Techniques and evaluative methods from business are adapted, and new techniques presented, aimed at reduction of ambiguity in “volatile” information and non-linear documents, such as hyper-text or multimedia documents.

News Content Matters: An Experimental Study of the Agenda-setting Effect of News Stories Depicting Negative Consequence • Yulian Li, University of Minnesota • This is an experimental study on the agenda-setting effect of threat messages or fear appeal messages. Applying the protection motivation theory, this study found that there was a positive linear relationship between the amount of threat and people’s perception of issue importance. Obtrusive issues were more susceptible to manipulation than unobtrusive issues.

Substantive and Affective Attributes on the Corporate Merger Agenda: An Examination of Second-Level Agenda-Setting Effects • Joon-Soo Lim, University of Florida • Two broad sets of attributes on the merger agenda were investigated to find whether the transfer of attributes of agenda from the media to the public occurred. Results showed that media affective attributes have varied with time and media types. Combining content analysis and Gallup Poll results, this study revealed there have been similar patterns between public opinion on the corporate mergers and media’s substantive and affective attributes on the merger agenda.

Political Distance and Message Desirability: Three Studies of Political Advertising and the Third-Person Effect • Patrick Meirick, University of Minnesota • This paper conceives of social distance as political distance, using Democrats, Republicans and the public as the groups of others on whom effects of political ads are judged. It also argues that desirability of political ads depends upon the recipient’s affiliation. In three studies using student and non-student samples, a pattern of increasing effects with increasing distance from the self was found for ads from an opposite-party candidate, while the reverse was found for ads from same-party candidates.

Timing of the Third-Person Effect Study and Winter Weather Advisories • Richard Waters, Syracuse • Through surveys before and after a winter ice storm (N=128), this project explores the strength of the relationship between the third-person effect and winter weather advisories. Drawing on previous research, which tested the nature of communications and the third-person effect’s influence on opinions on earthquake predictions, this project found people positively viewed winter weather advisories after ice storms; however, they viewed them negatively before ice storm. The third-person effect was present before the ice storm occurred, and it was not present after the inclement weathers.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Communication Technology and Policy Division

Student and Open Competition
Realizing the Potential Marketplace of Ideas: Utilizing the First Amendment to Advance Universal Service & Access to the Internet • Justin Brown, Pen State • During the last several years concerns have risen over the “digital divide.” This paper examines the potential new marketplace of ideas that exists in cyberspace through adopting a postmodern lens and recommends that we realize the cultural aspects and potential of the Internet. We therefore have an opportunity to utilize the First Amendment to ensure that citizens are provided with universal access opportunities to new media, thereby increasing the diversity of expression and discourse in society.

Opinions Online: The Extension of Computermediated Communication for Survey Research in Research Organizations • Kelli S. Burns, Florida • The extension of computermediated communication tools for survey research is revolutionizing the research industry. The growth rate of online research suggests the Internet may become the most widely used communications tool for conducting research (CustomerSat.com, 1997). The present study interviewed 27 executives to understand the perception and use of online survey methods within their research organizations. Because the literature has yet to examine the use of online surveys throughout the industry, this study is both exploratory and descriptive.

Productivity and Integration in Communication Policy Scholarship: A Content Analysis of the Journal Literature, 1970-1999 • Carl Patrick Burrowes, Umaru Bah and Cleve Mesidor, Howard • This study explores issues of productivity and integration in the communication policy literature based on a content analysis of 288 journals from 1970 to 1999. Productivity was measured by the number of articles published by each author, as well as from each institution and each country. Integration of the field was operationalized as the number of articles published by authors located in a county other than the one in which they reside, and by the number of articles published in a journal located in other countries.

Internet Use and Knowledge About Retirement Financial Planning • Alice P. Chan, Cornell and Teresa Mastin, Middle Tennessee State • We surveyed 189 residents of a southern state on their Internet use, their perceptions towards its credibility and their knowledge about retirement financial planning. While Internet use was associated with higher issue knowledge, interpersonal communication was still the most important contributor to building issue knowledge. Moreover, while Internet users rated the Internet to be more credible than non-users, perceived Internet credibility did not moderate the relationship between Internet use and retirement planning knowledge.

North Korea and the Internet • Jung-Yul Cho, Alabama • North Korea, an output of Cold War, is facing a new challenge with the advent of the Internet. To provide a perspective of how a country tries to control and increase its power as a nation-state in the world of global telecommunication network, this study investigated the development of North-Korean Internet sites and characteristics of those sites. A list of pro-North Korean sites and discussion with experts are also included.

Information Source Use and Dependencies for Investment Decision-Making • Oi-yu Chung and Lulu Rodriguez, Iowa State • This study explores the patterns of information source use of three types of investors: traditional, on-line, and mixed. Testing the uses and gratifications leading to dependency hypothesis, investors’ information seeking behaviors and their dependence on 11 information sources with respect to perceived market uncertainty were examined. The results failed to support the hypothesis that on-line investors are more uncertain about the investing environment. They do, however, have more diversified functional alternative information uses.

Internet Uses and Gratifications: An Online Survey of Bulgarians at Home and Abroad • Daniela V. Dimitrova, Florida • One of the fastest developing technologies of today’s communication world is the Internet. The global “network of networks” provides access to information to people all over the planet, and yet very little attention has been paid to how people use the Internet on the individual level. Even less attention has been paid to non-English speaking populations’ Internet behavior. This study focuses on Internet use of Bulgarians in Bulgaria and Bulgarians abroad.

WANTED: Your News Photo: Police Claims of Fair Use and the Protection of Digital Photos • Victoria Smith Ekstrand, North Carolina • Law enforcement’s use of WANTED Web sites is creating new conflicts with the media. This paper examines two recent incidents in which police took news photos and posted them on their WANTED Web sites without permission of news organizations. This study finds that law enforcement may be successful arguing for the fair use of such photography.

The Transition to Digital Television: A Case Study of KNME-TV • Gillian Kennedy Gonda and Richard J Schaefer, New Mexico • This study applies diffusion theory and understanding based on the social construction of technology toward the implementation of digital television (DTV) at a mid-sized PT V station. The researchers relied on various interpretive techniques to analyze how KNME workers viewed digital television. The findings suggest that public television employees neither accepted the FCCs and other social groups’ technological framing of DTV nor were they prepared to face the funding and organizational challenges posed by the technology.

New Hope or Old Power: New Communication, Pornography and the Internet • Don Heider, University of Texas at Austin and Dustin Harp, University of Wisconsin-Madison • New communication technologies in general and the Internet in particular have led some scholars to speculate that we are ushering in a new era of pluralistic and democratic communication. This paper takes a critical look at this optimistic view. Using textual analysis and a feminist theoretical framework, this research examines pornography sites on the World Wide Web to illustrate how the Internet seems to be reifying existing power structures, i.e. male dominance and the exploitation of women.

Priming Effects of Accidental Exposure to Internet Pornography: An Experimental Study of Construct Accessibility in Search Engine Output • Sriram Kalyanaraman, Chad Mahood, S. Shyam Sundar and Mary Beth Oliver, Penn State • What happens when you type in a innocuous word in a search engine and get a series of search results with links to pornography sites? An experiment was designed to explore the perceptual effects of such accidental exposure to descriptions of pornography. Participants (N = 93) were exposed to a search-results page that featured either none, some or exclusively pornographic descriptions, resulting in differing perceptions of social reality. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

Broadcast Policy Research Of Japan: A Historical Overview • Tsutomu Kanayama, Sophia University, Japan • The expansion of the global media market has led to an unprecedented growth of feedback from news consumers toward media vendors, such as newspapers, television programs, and magazines. Also, the recent digitization of the industry offers media entrepreneurs a good chance to actively participate domestically and globally in the media marketplace. Every country has unique social, economic, political background which shape its media system.

Firm Characteristics Influencing the Extent Of Electronic Billing Adoption: An Empirical Study In The U.S. Telecommunication Industry • Seongcheol Kim, Michigan State • The goal of this paper is to examine the extent to which the U.S. telecommunication service providers are leveraging the electronic billing system to transform their business practices for competitive advantage. We found that electronic billing adoption is still in the early stage in all the basic sectors of the U.S. telecommunication service industry. We also found that big and geographically diversified incumbent firms might be the first movers in the adoption of electronic billing.

The Global Internet Diffusion • HoCheon Kwon, SUNY-Buffalo • Each day, nations, corporations, political groups, nonprofit organizations, and individuals tap into an expansive computer network known as the Internet, and utilize the World Wide Web (WWW) (Bobbitt, 1995; Santoro, 1994). Therefore, the world seems to be on the threshold of a new communicational revolution. The Internet with global reach, communication new technology that has multimedia function, is at the epicenter of this revolution (Atkin, Jeffres & Neuendorf, 1998).

Interactivity: A New Approach • Jae-Shin Lee, Cornell • This paper extensively reviews the various approaches of interactivity studies and summarizes the ample definitions and dimensions of interactivity suggested by researchers. The author argues that there exist two types of interactivity and the researchers’ failure of recognizing such fact has led to the current confusion prevailed in interactivity studies. A new model was developed and suggested to help the future research. The model suggests that the user perception is the key element in studying interactivity.

New Communication Technologies and Market Competition: A Niche Analysis on Internet Shopping, Cable TV Shopping, Catalog Shopping, and Store Shopping • Shu-Chu Sarrina Li, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan • With satellite technology and the Internet rapidly improving, Internet and cable TV shopping emerge as new types of non-store shopping in Taiwan, and are expected to impose a great deal of influence on the traditional store shopping. This study adopts the niche theory that defines market competition by the overlap of resource use to examine the market competition among Internet shopping, cable TV shopping, catalog shopping, and store shopping.

Predicting Online Use Activity via Motives, Innovative Traits and News Media Use • Carolyn A. Lin, Cleveland State • As the 20th century comes to a close, the online industry has taken on a completely different economic as well as social status. The online medium, as a cross-breed of communication technologies, embodies a medium that offers the optimal and perhaps even maximal human communication channel functions. This study intends to address the Internet use activity as a phenomenon where users are set out to get on line with a set of communication motives much like the way they approach other “older” communication media such as the traditional electronic and print media.

Reconceptualizing the Public Sphere: The Differential Role of Media Systems in Enabling Political Elites to set the Public Agenda • Johnette Hawkins McCrery and John E. Newhagen, Maryland • This paper explicates the concept of the public sphere as a virtual space created by newspapers in which political elites set the public agenda. Jurgen Habermas originally conceptualized the public sphere in terms of European salons and coffee houses where the bourgeois gathered to discuss politics. He emphasized that this discussion was both rational and interactive. While he recognized newspapers as important links between these discussion groups, he understated their importance as an enabling technology, bringing them together as a political force.

What is Interactivity and What Does it Do? • Sally J. McMillan, Tennessee • Interactivity has been defined as both process and perception. This study operationalizes measures of interactive processes based on the interactive features at Web sites. Measures of interactive perceptions are operationalized based on individuals’ perceptions of interactivity at those same sites. Relatively few significant relationships were found between processes and perceptions. However, perception of interactivity seems somewhat stronger than interactive processes as a tool for explaining both attitude toward Web sites and future site-related behaviors.

The Internet and The Legacy Of The Communication Decency Act, 1996: Divergent Perceptions of A New Communication Technology • Mustafa Taha, Ohio • This paper examines the legacy of the 1996 Communication Decency Act (CDA) and the controversy it triggered. The paper explores how politicians, lawmakers, entrepreneurs, and educators perceived the Internet as a new communication technology. The paper focuses on how the proponents and the opponents of the CDA envisaged protection of minors from indecent material on the Internet. The paper highlights the analogies presented by the advocates of the CDA, in the Senate, the House, media and courts, and matches these arguments with criticsÕ counter-arguments.

Broadcasters on the Web: Moving From Allocution to Consultation • Mark Tremayne, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study empirically confirmed a model of broadcast transformation proposed by in 1986 by Bordewijk and van Kaam. A longitudinal study of interactivity and nonlinear storytelling on broadcast news web sites found evidence of a shift from the allocution to the consultation pattern of mass communication. However, the statistically significant increases for these variables from 1997 to 1998 are not repeated into 1999.

The Hypermedia News Story • Mark Tremayne, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This two-part study consists of l) a detailed analysis of one WashintonPost.com web story and 2) a longitudinal analysis of the use of hyperlinks in news stories. The study revealed greater context on the web story versus the print counterpart and an increasing use of hyperlinks on national news web sites. The number of initial links in these stories climbed from 4 in 1997 to more than six in 1999.

Global 500 companies’ outreach to worldwide consumers online: A content analysis of corporate web sites to evaluate organizational and intercultural communications • Vandana Vijayasri, Syracuse University • A content analysis of 60 Global 500 corporations’ web sites was conducted using a computer-aided tool specifically designed for analyzing online presence by corporations. The companies’ levels of revenue were used to determine if corporate strategies vary based on their position on the Global 500 list. The results conclusively indicate that visual cues account for lack of multilingual options and that companies’ country of origin affects predomination of English as the lingua franca.

China’s Great Wall Restricting the Free Exchange of Ideas • Xiaoru Wang, Ohio • The Internet has posed People’s Republic China in a complex dilemma. While China needs computer networks to assist the plan for economic revitalization, the government fears the uncontrolled exchange of information between China and the rest of the world over the Internet. In this study, a survey was conducted to examine how China’s Internet: users perceive the censorship. Results suggested that China’s Internet censorship would be effective in the short time.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Advertising Division

Research
The Effects of Ethnic Identification on Multicultural Adolescents’ Evaluations Of Ads • Osei Appiah, Iowa State • This manuscript examines whether the strength of ethnic identity influences multicultural adolescents’ responses to ads featuring models of different races and their responses to ads featuring race-specific cultural cues. The researcher digitally manipulated the race of characters in ads and the number of race specific cultural cues in the ads while maintaining all other visual features of these ads. Three hundred forty-nine black, white, Hispanic, and Asian-American. Adolescents evaluated black character or white character ads based. The findings indicate high black identifiers and low black identifiers responded, in part, differently to culturally embedded ads.

The Effectiveness of Banner Advertisements: Involvement and Click-through • Chang-Hoan Cho, Nebraska at Lincoln and John D. Leckenby, Texas-Austin • This paper explores the relationship between consumer’s level of involvement and clicking of banner ads on the WWW. This study indicates that people in high involvement situations are more likely to click a banner ad in order to request more information than those in low-involvement situations. Meanwhile, it is found that people in low-involvement situations are more likely to click a banner ad when it has a large size and dynamic animation.

Does Humor Really Matter ?: Some Evidence From Super Bowl Advertising • Hwi-Man Chung, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examined the effects of humor on advertised brand recall and recognition and advertising liking through quasi-experimentation conducted immediately following Super Bowl broadcasts. Simple regression shows that humor has a positive impact on advertised brand recall, recognition, and ad liking. Also, this study examined whether the effects of humor vary across product categories. Multiple regression shows that there are statistically significant differences in the effects of humor on recall, recognition, and ad liking among product categories.

Smoking in the News: Intermedia Agenda Setting and The Anti-Tobacco Advertising Campaign • Stacie Lee Greene, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Emotional Responses to Web Advertising: The Effects of Animation, Position, and Product Involvement on Physiological Arousal • Nokon Heo and S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

The Effectiveness of Comparative Advertising Among Koreans: Is It Effective to Increase the Intensity of Comparison over Time? • Jang-Sun Hwang and Mariea Grubbs Hoy, Tennessee • Despite the popularity of comparative advertising (CA), few studies have explored how to develop this strategy outside the United States. This study reports the results of an experiment conducted in South Korea, a country where CA is rarely used. Two hundred Korean college students were exposed to fictitious advertisements in which the independent variable of comparison intensity (non-comparative/low/medium/high/increasing) and exposure sequence (first/second/third) were manipulated. The dependent variables of attitude toward the brand and purchase interest assessed advertising effectiveness.

Influence of Cigarette Promotion on Juvenile Susceptibility to Smoking: A Path Analysis • Hye-ryeon Lee and Kristie A. Taylor, Arizona and Stacey Nofziger, Kansas State • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

The Effects of Threat in Verbal and Visual Print Ads on Perceptions and Behavioral Intention • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This experimental study applied the protection motivation theory in examining the effects of threat ads on the cognitive appraisal processes and the subsequent purchase intention. With verbal and verbal-visual ads manipulated into high and low levels of threat, it was found that there is a positive linear relationship between the amount of threat in verbal-visual ads and changes in the cognitive appraisal processes.

What the Real World Really Wants: An Analysis of Advertising Employment Ads • Sally J. McMillan, Tennessee and Kim Bartel Sheehan, Brandt Heinemann and Charles Frazer, Oregon • This study examines technology-driven changes in the recruitment of advertising professionals. The researchers analyzed content of employment advertisements published in Advertising Age and posted on HotJobs. Differences were found both over time and between offline and online sources. Technology has increased demand for both computer skills and people skills such as being a team player. Advertising educators must adapt to technological change, but the classroom should not emphasize technology at the expense of interpersonal interaction.

Super.Com: An Analysis of Message Strategies Utilized in Super Bowl Ads for Dot.com Companies • Margaret A. Morrison and Candace White, Tennessee • Using a message strategy typology developed by Taylor (1999), a thematic analysis of dot.com commercials appearing in Super Bowl XXXIV was performed to determine which strategies these businesses use. Other aspects of the ads, including the gender of main characters and voice-over narration, were examined. Results indicate that rational and ego message strategies dominated the ads. Male voice-overs and characters dominate. The efficacy of the strategies used, along with the tactical elements are discussed.

Political Advertising and State of the Union Addresses: Distinct or Merging Communications? • Nelson Mumma Jr., North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Political advertising and State of the Union addresses are seemingly distinct types of communication. However, research and existing literature indicate that the gap between the two may be narrowing. This paper reveals that presidents are using State of the Union addresses to deliver what are, in part, political advertisements by previewing television advertising themes that run later that year and by mentioning campaign issues, their accomplishments, and their vice presidents.

The Role of Advertising, Special Promotions, and Loyalty Programs on Grocery Shopping in the New Millennium • Mary Alice Shaver, Michigan State and Carol J. Pardun, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • A random sample of 119 grocery shoppers indicated that most shoppers (95.9%) have at least one loyalty card to use while shopping. In addition, 31.2% were identified as loyal shoppers (those who had one card and shopped at one store) and 67.8% variety shoppers (those who had many cards and shopped at different stores). Both kinds of shoppers disregard newspaper advertising before heading out to the grocery store — and prefer national brands over store brands.

Effects of Violence and Brand Familiarity on Responses to Television Commercials • Fuyan Shen, South Dakota • This empirical study investigates the effect of violence and brand familiarity on an individual’s responses toward television commercials measured in terms of memory, brand attitude and purchase intention. Results indicate that violence has significant effects on the processing of advertising messages. These effects are moderated by brand familiarity. Specifically, on the measures of brand attitude and purchase intention, violence appears to be more effective in generating less favorable responses for familiar brands than unfamiliar brands.

Slackers, Whiz Kids, Introverts and Extroverts: Self-concept, Advertising, and the Susceptibility to Campus Drinking Rituals • Joyce M. Wolburg and Edward R. Frederick, Marquette • This study examines the relationship between self-concept, exposure and attention to alcohol advertising, and the influence of three functions of the drinking ritual among college students. Findings show that susceptibility to the functions of the drinking ritual is related to attention and exposure to alcohol advertising. Influence of the ritual function also varies among four self-identity groups — Slackers, Whiz Kids, Introverts and Extroverts.

Special Topics
The Role of Self in Processing Advertising Messages — An Exploration of Gender Schema • Ching Ching Chang, National Chengchi University • This study examines how individuals’ self-schemata interfere with their processing of advertising messages. It suggests that how subjects perceive themselves on one important dimension of self-schemata — gender schema — affects the way they respond to advertising messages with different user portrayals. Findings show that self-congruent messages generate higher levels of self-referencing, more positive emotions, less negative emotions and higher levels of calmness. Enhanced self-referencing and positive emotions lead to more positive ad liking and, in turn, result in more positive brand attitude.

From European Autonomy to Advertising Autonomy: European Advertising Self-Regulation in the Context of a Unified Europe • Anne Cunningham, Louisiana State • Few critics have questioned the contention — championed by such international organizations as the newly formed European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) — that unfettered advertising is necessary for the development of a free and thriving world economy. In an effort to promote freer exchange of advertising worldwide, many organizations are working to coordinate European advertising self-regulatory codes and practice. However, the literature on the detrimental impact of cultural synchronization and on the media’s, particularly advertising’s, role in transporting culture raises concerns about how standardizing European advertising self-regulation might influence those cultural values that threaten capitalist values.

Threat, Authoritarianism And Political Advertising: An Experiment In Personality And Persuasion • Fang Wan, Patrick Meirick, Jennifer Williams, Justin Holmes and Christina Fiebich, Minnesota • This study explores the interaction of authoritarianism and threat in evaluations of positive political advertisements. Threat and reward versions of ads for three issues were shown to 136 students. As predicted, those high in authoritarianism found threat ads more persuasive when the issues were analyzed as a whole, but this preference was significant for only one of the three when analyzed separately. Attitudes toward the ads and candidate traits, in turn, were related to evaluations of the candidates.

Messages of Hope: Developing Health Campaigns that Address Misperceptions of Breast Cancer Held by Women of Color • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri • Abstract According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among black women. Medical literature identifies two reasons for the high mortality rates for Black women: detection of the disease in its advance stages and/or myths, misperceptions, and fears concerning the causes of and prognosis related to breast cancer. Ninety-two African-American females ranging in age from 20 to 77 were surveyed to determine the beliefs and perceptions held about breast cancer.

Internet Advertising: A Cross-Media Analysis between Advertising Content on the Internet and in Print • Sarwat M. Husain, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This pilot study attempts to compare advertising content between the Internet and a traditional medium. Both media focused on vehicles that ware targeted to women; women’s websites and a woman’s general interest magazine. Information collected via frequency tables showed that print magazines had almost twice as many ads (86) compared to websites (mean 47.5). Therefore, advertising was not found to be as prevalent on the Internet as in the traditional print media.

Television News Coverage of Advertising: A Census of the Last Years of the Twentieth Century • Kevin L. Keenan, The American University in Cairo • This study is a content analysis of all television news stories about advertising on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC during the years 1994 through 1999. Variables examined include the types of advertisers reported on, the tone and theme of advertising stories, the types of sources consulted, and the media categories included. Comparisons are made with an earlier study of television news coverage and with a study of how newspapers cover advertising.

A Niche Analysis of the Web, Catalogs and Retail Stores: A Case in Taiwan • Cheng Kuo and Vincent Huang, National Chengchi University and Hairong Li, Michigan State • This study examines channel utilities of the Web in comparison with catalogs and retail stores from the perspective of niche theory. It identified and measured three channel utilities (communication, distribution, and convenience) with a set of 14 questions. Through on-line surveys, information about 909 Taiwanese internet users were collected and analyzed. Scales of channel utilities were assessed using confirmatory factor analysis and then used to examine the niche breadth, niche overlap, and niche superiority of these channels.

J. Peterman and Seinfeld: Why a Promotional Success Was a Marketing Failure • Richard Parker and James A. Karrh, Alabama • Despite unprecedented exposure as part of television’s most popular show, the J. Peterman Company failed. This paper reviews the Peterman case in light of research on the value of such in-program brand exposures. A set of principles is offered that not only helps explain J. Peterman’s missed opportunities but that also serves as a guide to other marketers seeking to arrange and exploit in-program brand exposures, brand (product) placements, and other forms of publicity.

Advertising and the Consumer’s Hunt for Information: Traditional and Internet Sources • Catherine Ilse Pfeifer, Wisconsin-Madison • “The advertising world is changing.” This is a statement that has been uttered since the dawn of marketing, but it is also becoming truer as time passes. The marketplace is experiencing a shift in both the target audiences and the media. This change in the advertising and marketing situation needs to be accompanied by changes in thinking about how to contact customers.

Underwriting the War Effort: The Advertising Council Organizes the Advertising Industry, 1942-1945 • Inger L. Stole, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • The focus of this paper is on the (War) Advertising Council during the Second World War. It discusses how the Council, acting in a public relations capacity for the advertising industry, spent considerable energy on coaching, encouraging, even guilt-tripping advertisers into compliance. The paper also discusses how the advertising community’s work through the Council was received among the American public. A case study of the War Advertising Council’s controversial 1944 campaign to “Stamp Out V.D.”, offers an interesting look at the extent to which individual advertisers were committed to the Council’s work.

Testing a Fear-based Personality Construct in the Consumer Context • Tao Sun, Minnesota • Based on the DDB Needham Life Style data, this paper validates the fear-based personality construct proposed by Doyle (1999). Set in a consumer behavior context, this paper investigates how people of different personalities, in order to diffuse their unique patterns of fear, engage in such consumption behaviors as saving, innovativeness, brand-name seeking, lottery buying, fashion pursuit, and energy/environment consciousness. Advertising implications (i.e., use of brand personality and of fear appeals) are discussed.

PF&R
Trouble with Angels: A Multi-disciplinary Analysis of Calvin Klein Jeans Advertising • Carla V. Lloyd, Syracuse • The 1995 Calvin Klein jeans campaign stirred up widespread opposition not seen before by the advertising industry. Scholarly research on this controversial ad campaign has tended to focus on the profession by examining the legal, regulatory and ethical ramifications of sexually explicit advertising on the practice of advertising. This study breaks new ground by using a multidisciplinary approach to examine this controversial advertising campaign. The findings of this study suggest that the young models appearing in the ads were posed and stylized to look like cherubs.

The Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility • Cynthia R. Morton, Florida • The evolution in corporate social responsibility is represented by a consistent trend in company activity since the early l900s. Four major areas have contributed to the increasing influence of corporate involvement on issues of broad social concern. This paper examines the progression in corporate social responsibility, from the origin of philanthropic giving to more marketing-based activities such as sponsorships and cause-related marketing.

The Effectiveness of Attack and Response in Negative Political Advertising • Sung Wook Shim, Florida • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Teaching
Teaching Consumer Empathy: Adding a Service-Learning Component to the Advertising Research Course • Beth E. Barnes, Syracuse • Service-learning has been adopted by U.S. university faculty in many disciplines. This paper describes a service-learning component included in the advertising research course at a large university. Unlike many service-learning programs in communications the experience described here does not involve students working on a project such as a survey for a community organization, but instead puts students into organizations as volunteer observers. The mechanics of the program are described as well as preliminary outcomes.

Teaching TV Advertising Creative Using Digital Video on the Desktop • Fred K. Beard, Oklahoma and David Tarpenning, Advertising & Marketing Resources, Inc. • This paper describes the development and presentation of a TV advertising instructional unit based on desktop video technology. The paper (l) describes the authors’ curriculum development approach, (2) reports the results of quantitative evaluations of the unit by both students and advertising practitioners, (3) draws conclusions regarding the feasibility of including desktop video in advertising creative courses not entirely devoted to TV advertising, and (4) provides a sufficiently detailed description of the unit so it can be replicated by interested advertising educators.

A View From The Ivory Tower To The Real World: A Survey Of Those Who Teach Advertising Creative Courses • Sheri J. Broyles, North Texas • A national survey of educators in advertising creative classes asked about teaching challenges as well as the same open-ended questions asked of Creative Directors in the Kendrick, Slayden, and Broyles (1996) study. Results showed some differences, but more striking similarities. Both professors and professionals agree on the importance of conceptual ability and the portfolio for the entry-level creatives as well as bringing working professionals into the classroom. It is suggested that the Ivory tower and the Real World may not be all that different.

Integrating Public Speaking into the Advertising Curriculum • Kim Golombisky, South Florida • Presentations are an inevitable and crucial part of the advertising business. Yet advertising education does not emphasize effective public speaking skills. This essay first argues the need for advertising students to develop presentation skills and then shares a method for integrating public speaking into advertising courses without “crowding out” traditional advertising content. Following “writing across the curriculum” programs, “speaking across the curriculum” provides a model for incorporating oral communication skills into advertising courses.

Student
Advertising Ethics: What is it and who has it? • Kimberly C. Gaddie, Oklahoma • This study fills a gap in prior research on advertising ethics by focusing not on what types of ethical guidelines should be applied in agencies, but rather on what guidelines are applied. This study proposes that advertising practitioners employ a multi-tiered set of ethical codes in those decision-making situations. In-depth interviews were used to gain insight to the foundations and applications of ethics to daily decision-making processes. Findings indicate that elements of different ethical codes do in fact blend together to guide the decision-making processes of advertising practitioners.

Effective Communication of Brand Extensions: A Comparison of Close and Remote Extensions • Jooyoung Kim, Colorado-Boulder • Brand extension is where many branding theories are used since it requires a company to understand the original brand’s brand position, the intended extension category, and various communication strategies. Since brand extension is often a very effective marketing strategy, many scholars have been researching brand extensions, focusing on product development strategies and consumers’ basic evaluation process. However, relatively little research has been conducted regarding the communication aspects of brand extensions.

Differences in the Use of Message Strategies between the U.S. and Korean Television Automobile Commercials • Guiohk Lee, Tennessee • The purpose of the present study is to identify the similarities and differences in the use of creative strategies between American and Korean automobile TV commercials. The cultural differences of the two countries provided a basis for the hypotheses in examining the differences in the use of message strategies. The results show that there are statistically significant differences in the degree of informational/transformational strategies and the use of specific message strategies.

Examining Pathos, Ethos and Logos in Magazine Advertising • Jongmin Park, Pusan National University • Throughout the history of human communication, three different fields of study have developed: rhetoric, ethic, and logic. Manipulative advertising in this study is scrutinized by these three modes. The majority of rhetoricians regard manipulative advertising as a type of discourse used to demonstrate their diverse techniques. On the other hand, when consumers get extra utility and affirmative feelings from manipulative advertising, in addition to information, utilitarian ethicists do not believe it is unethical.

Presidential Primary 2000 Videocassettes: A Framing Study • John Parmelee, Florida • Current research on presidential primary campaign videocassettes provides merely a brief history of this unique type of advertising. This study uses frame analysis to explore the presidential primary campaign videos of Gary Bauer, Bill Bradley, George W. Bush, Steve Forbes, Al Gore, and John McCain. Two researchers systematically viewed the videos and found that while each candidate frame was unique, all six videos shared one frame: mass media as supplier of candidate validation.

Slinging Mud: The Effectiveness of Attack and Response in Negative Political Advertising • Sung Wook Shim, Florida • The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of the attacked candidate’s issue response and image response and the impact of issue and image attack on the attacking candidate. An experiment with manipulated television commercials was conducted to examine the character evaluation, commercial evaluation and likelihood of voting for the attacking candidate and attacked candidate. Issue attack had a more positive impact on the character evaluation, commercial evaluation and likelihood of voting for the attacking candidate than image attack.

What Works?: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Anti-Drinking and Driving Campaigns Aimed at College Students • Katie Wilson, Arkansas • Past focus group research of college students’ perceptions of anti-drinking and driving campaigns and promotions aimed at them is reviewed. The goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of these types of advertising campaigns in changing college students’ behavior. Analysis of the content of a college-sponsored ad suggests alternate approaches and different effectiveness levels.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Commission on the Status of Women

Emma Says: A Case Study of the Use of Comics for Health Education Among Women in the AIDS Heartland • Barbara Barnett, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Since AIDS was first diagnosed more than twenty years ago, international health organizations have designed numerous education and prevention programs using mass media. Many of these health programs have targeted women, hoping to empower them to gain some measure of control over their sexual lives. This paper examines Emma Says, a comic series, designed to educate and empower women in rural Africa. It proposes a new women-centered model for examining the impact of health messages.

HBO’s Sex and the City and the Perpetuation of Myths About Women: A Feminist Cultural Criticism • Tina Carroll, University of Miami, and Ukaiko Bitrus, Beverly Pike, Summer Powell, Mona Moore and Aimee Ivas, University of South Alabama • Sex and the City is a 30-minute cable show depicting the lives of four, single women in Manhattan. The show received a Lucy Award for Innovation by Women in Film for “excellence and innovations that has enhanced the perception of women in television.” Given this, we analyzed the show and determined it perpetuates common societal myths concerning women. Since myths shape our beliefs and perceptions of the world, this question is important to the field of feminist research.

Televised Reproductive Health News Reports as a Public Panoptican Policing the Plagued, Passive, and Perverse Female Patient: A Content Analysis • Marie Dick, Southwest State University • This content analysis of televised reproductive health reports, describes differences in body visibility, invasions and positioning between male and female patients. Based on medical history, post-structuralist and feminist theories, the analysis posits that these images may function as a public panoptican placing women’s bodies in positions that transfer detriments of the medical gaze to a public gaze, and maintain socio-scientific social positioning of women defined as passive, reproductively sick, and as sexual/fetish objects.

The Representation of Women in Prime-Time Television: An Examination of Genre and Stereotypes • Jennifer Jacobs Henderson and Gerald J. Baldasty, University of Washington • This study examines the image of women in TV drama shows and situation comedies in an effort to gauge the impact of genre on TV images. On sitcoms, women were defined primarily by traditional female stereotypes, while women in dramas had more diverse roles and images. In many areas, however, few differences appeared between genres. Women in both genres were often defined according to their beauty and sexuality, and more by emotions, affection and nurturing than men.

Home Court Disadvantage?: Examining the Coverage of Female Athletes on Leading Sports Websites – A Pilot Study • Tara M. Kachgal, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This exploratory content analysis study examined gender representation of female athletes on three leading sports websites (CBSSportsLine, CNNSI, and ESPN) using descriptive indicators and framing analysis. Results show that female athletes received less coverage (i.e., number of news items and images) than male athletes but were not framed any more ambivalently than male athletes. These findings suggest that sports websites may marginalize athletes in the same way that traditional sports media do but may differ in gender stereotyping.

NAMING RAPE VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS: A U.S. NEWSROOM POLICY STUDY, 2000 • Kim E. Karloff, California State University-Northridge • Traditionally, editors of U.S. newspapers have withheld the identification of rape victims, unless the victim was well-known or unless the victim was murdered. This newsroom policy study, conducted in November 2000, focuses on whether or not the major newspaper in each state has a policy regarding the naming of rape victims, and what that policy says and/or what that policy allows its newspaper editors and reporters to cover in reporting on the crime of rape. Based on this study’s findings, most daily newspaper editors support employing and maintaining policies to withhold the names of rape/sexual assault victims. What is new: At least 50 percent of the daily newspaper editors said they would make an exception and name the victim if she or he asked for or consented to identification.

TITLE IX BABIES, SPORTS MEDIA AND ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN IN SPORTS AND SOCIETY • Paula Whatley Matabane and Bishetta D. Merritt, Howard University • The 1990’s are a watershed decade reflecting the impact of Title Ix on American sports with unprecedented numbers of females participating. A study of 189 college students’ use of sports media and participation showed females’ positive attitudes toward women in sports and society were related to watching women sports on television; males negative attitudes were related to watching male sports on television and sports news.

The Olympic Ideal: A Content Analysis of the Coverage of Olympic Women’s Sports in San Francisco Bay Area Newspapers • Greg Mellen and Patricia Coleman, University of Missouri • This study extends previous research on coverage of women’s Olympic sports in selected newspapers. A content analysis was conducted on sports sections from large, medium and small newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area. 513 stories and nearly 18,000 inches of text, photos and graphics were coded. The study supports Kinnick’s findings of equitable and proportional coverage, but finds a bias in favor of “gender appropriate” sports.

VIRTUAL WOMEN: REPLACING THE REAL • Nnedi Okorafor, The Star Newspapers and Africana.com Chicago, and Lucinda D. Davenport, Michigan State University • This is the first study to examine only female characters in video games. Researchers reviewed documented game character profiles, did content analysis of female characters’ appearance in the games, and qualitatively examined a game series within action/adventure, role-playing and fighting types of games. Findings showed that female characters possessed highly exaggerated and negative stereotypes in appearance and behavior that increased over time. These stereotypes may influence boys and girls to adopt the roles and values they see in video games (cultivation theory), but also may affect girls in developing cognitive proficiency and computer skills.

Resuscitating Feminist Audience Studies: Colonialism, Occidentalism, and the Control of Women • Radhika E. Parameswaran, Indiana University • In this essay, I critique recent arguments in cultural studies that advocate for a radical shift from audience studies to textual analyses and political economy. I suggest that instead of abandoning the audience, feminist scholars must instead acknowledge the racial politics of critiques, which imply that cultural studies has finished the project of gathering knowledge on audiences. The paper urges feminist scholars to resuscitate audience studies by paying attention to historical and ideological contexts that frame audience activity. Analyzing a sample of the contexts that determined and shaped the contours of my ethnographic research among young middle-class women in India, I show that feminist audience studies can contribute rich insights into the multi-layered and intricate qualities of women’s resistance against patriarchy. In conclusion, I argue that far from disbanding the study of women audiences, feminist audience ethnographers must enrich their studies by carefully accounting for contexts.

Portrayals of Wife Abuse in the New York Times 1915 & 1925 • Ginger L. Park, Kansas State University • This study seeks to examine how the media has portrayed wife abuse historically. It offers insight into coverage of intimate relationships during the period surrounding the Nineteenth Amendment and of the importance of women’s rights and safety to society. Issues of the 1915 and 1925 New York Times were studied to determine how it portrayed victims, perpetrators and wife abuse in general before and after a major turning point in women’s history.

A Descriptive Analysis of NBC’s Coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics • C.A. Tuggle, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Suzanne Huffman, Texas Christian University and Dana Scott Rosengard, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examines the amount of NBC’s 2000 Olympics coverage devoted to women’s athletics. Analysis showed that women received proportionately less coverage in 2000 than they did in 1996 on the U.S. network, and that coverage focused on individual events, with women competing in team sports receiving relatively little coverage. As was the case in 1996, women who competed in 2000 in sports involving power or hard physical contact received almost no attention.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Science Communication Interest Group

Riding the Hoopla: An Analysis of Mass Media Coverage of GMOs in Britain and the United States: 1997-2000 • Eric A. Abbott, Tracy Lucht, Jeffrey P. Jensen, Zajira Jordan-Conde, Iowa State University • Three models – social amplification of risk, hoopla, and triggering effects – were used to develop and test predictions about coverage of genetically modified organisms in the New York Times, London Times and London Daily mail from 1997-2000. A content analysis showed scientists have declined significantly as sources over time, while citizens’ groups have remained constant Themes, or frames, for articles shifted in response to triggering events. Positive themes declined over time while negative ones remained relatively constant

The Internet and the Environmental Protection Agency: Public Access to Toxic Chemical Off-Site Consequence Information • James F. Carstens, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Final Rule in August 2000 that regulates public access to information about possible dangers to pubic safety involving potentially toxic chemicals used in manufacturing plants (Off-Site Consequence Analysis – OCA). Limited information concerning accidental chemical releases, including worse-case scenarios, is now accessible through federal reading rooms. Law officials were concerned OCA information could allow manufacturing plants to be targeted by terrorists. It is an important and unique ruling, in which the benefits of providing public citizens with information directly related to their health and welfare had to be weighed against the distinct possibility that the same information could compromise national security.

Experts in All Areas: Medical and Scientific Sources in Stories about AIDS • William P. Cassidy, University of Oregon • This study examines attributed comments made by medical and/or scientific (non-governmental) sources in news stories about AIDS in four elite and four non-elite newspapers during a nine week period in late 1986 and early 1987. Results show that 38.4% of attributed comments made by medical and/or scientific (non-governmental) sources fell outside their areas of expertise. Elite newspapers published a higher percentage (43.2%) of such comments than non-elite newspapers

Motivations to Participate in Riparian Improvement Programs: Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior • Julia B. Corbett, University of Utah • This study utilized the theory of planned behavior, a model of attitudinal factors related to behavioral intention, to investigate the lack of participation in government-sponsored programs to conserve riparian areas. A questionnaire mailed to rural landowners whose property abutted a waterway revealed that financial motivations, past behaviors, exposure to government information, and self-efficacy predicted 29% of the variance in intent to participate in future conservation programs. The findings suggest that financial variables are important moderators of perceived behavioral control.

Get Excited! Be Calm! An Examination of Risk-inducing and Risk-reducing Statements in Food-Safety Messages • Joye Gordan, Kansas State University • Risk perception is a well-established factor impacting a host of human behaviors. As such, risk communicators are often motivated to stimulate or allay emotional reactions to physical hazards. This study questioned if governmental versus private sponsorship of food-safety messages was related to the amount of risk-inducing and risk-reducing statements in those messages. Results of a quantitative content analysis found that governmental communicators are saying “get excited,” while private communicators are asking consumers to “be calm.”

The Importance of Being Accountable: The Relationship Between Perceptions of Accountability, Knowledge and Attitude Toward Plant Genetic Engineering • Tracy Irani, University of Florida, Janas Sinclair, Florida International University and Michelle O’Malley, Kansas State University • A survey of 381 respondents was conducted to in an attempt to explore the relationship between perceptions of the accountability of government, industry, and the regulatory process and respondents’ knowledge and attitudes toward potential benefits of food biotechnology. Using regression analysis, results indicated that accountability linkages as derived form Schlenker’s model could be used to develop a prediction model in which accountability was a better predictor of attitude toward potential benefits of biotechnology than respondents’ level of knowledge.

Has Media Coverage Become More Environmentally Friendly?: The Case of Sprawl Development • Patricia M. Kennedy, Syracuse University • Sprawl, for those who may be unfamiliar with the term, is a way of describing the primarily vertical pattern of residential and commercial construction that spreads in a non-contiguous (“leapfrog”) manner outward from a nearby metropolitan core. This paper examines media coverage of “sprawl” and provides evidence that the mass media are behaving in ways that support a more environmentally friendly pattern of development of the built environment. It is the thesis of this paper that journalistic interest has increased the volume, and altered the valence and manner of media presentation of the issue of sprawl development, which is in turn is causing a national “hard look” at the way we construct our built environment. It is the author’s view that in the case of sprawl, the press is acting to inform the public and to frame the issue in ways that influence and shape public opinion in environmentally positive directions. This paper includes a discussion of the history, causes and defining characteristics of sprawl development, a description of what journalists are saying about the newsworthiness of sprawl; a review of previous research in which it is argued that sprawl is a suitable case for studying patterns of environmental coverage, a proposed method for evaluating when the media are covering an issue in an environmentally friendly way and a report of some preliminary findings from a content analysis project examining media coverage of sprawl.

A Comparison of Biotechnology Coverage Across Specialist Journalists and News Organizations, 1995-1999 • Matt Nisbet and Bruce V. Lewenstein, Cornell University • A quantitative content analysis of print media coverage of biotechnology 1995 to 1999 was compared across types of specialist journalists, including science, political, business, and news wire reporters; and across publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Newsweek. Significant differences in patterns of attention, focus on themes, use of framing devices, and featured actors were found across publications and types of specialist journalists. Our findings provide useful indicators for communication researchers, journalists, and policy-makers concerned with mass media treatment of biotechnology, and other political or social controversies related to science and technology.

A Repertoire Approach to Environmental Information Channels • Garrett ‘ÕKeefe, Heather Ward, and Robin Shephard, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study supports the hypothesis that given the multiple functions communication channels can serve, individuals use repertoires or groups of overlapping information channels for various purposes. Landowners in three Wisconsin counties were segmented into urbanites, rural nonfarmers, and farmers. We analyzed the frequencies with which these groups used different channels for information regarding conservation. Channel use by the groups differed although the same repertoires were found for each. Predictors of repertoires varied.

Media Effects on Public Understanding of Salmon Recovery: The Role of Information Processing • Keith R. Stamm, Fiona Clark & Marcos Torres, University of Washington • Weak and inconsistent effects have been reported in recent reviews of research on media contributions to public understanding of environmental problems. A random digit dialing (RDD) telephone survey incorporated a new measure of receiver engagement with media content, as well as new measures of public understanding focused on the political and economic dimensions of a regional environmental problem. The study found that the amount of receiver engagement made a significant difference in effects on public understanding.

Science in Cyberspace: An Analysis of Science Web Sites for Girls • Jocelyn Steinke, Western Michigan University • Girls who have little or no contact with women scientists may develop perceptions about science-related careers based partly on media images of women scientists. This study analyzed the content of 27 science Web sites for girls and examined the themes addressed in 166 biographies of women scientists found on these sites. The findings indicate these sites both teach girls about science and present vocational information about careers in science. The biographies focus on issues considered important in influencing girls’ participation in careers in science. These include encouragement from parents, acceptance by male colleagues, and family-friendly workplaces.

Do New Media Messages Mitigate the Effect of Corporate Environmental Ads? A test of source credibility and message balance • John Trent and Jennifer Greer, University of Nevada-Reno • A quasi-experimental design was used to examine factors that influence attitudes toward an environmental advertisement and its sponsoring company. Subjects were shown one of five news stories to test for the effects of news source credibility and message balance. One-sided stories were more effective at causing subjects to critically evaluate “greenwashing” claims than two-sided stories. Source credibility did not influence attitudes, but age, ideology, and experience with gas companies were related to subject attitudes.

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