Law and Policy Division

The Rise of the Proles: Regulation of Internet Leaves Masses Free to Influence Elections • Courtney Barclay, University of Florida • Recognizing the capacity of the Internet as a unique outlet for political speech, the Federal Elections Commission originally left the medium out of the realm of campaign finance regulation. However, when the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found this to be unlawful and out of sync with congressional intent, the FEC began the process of balancing which Internet communications could and should be regulated.

An Equal Access Provision of the Internet: Applying First Amendment Jurisprudence to the Network Neutrality Debate • Sarah Barrow and Jeffrey Blevins, Iowa State University • The network neutrality debate has been dominated by technological and economic arguments, while comparatively little attention has been given to First Amendment concerns. We expand upon this important line of inquiry by examining the legal issues and relevant case law. Because the medium of communication has determined the allocation of speech rights between media outlets and users, we posit that an equal access provision of the Internet would be in accordance with First Amendment jurisprudence.

Uniform Defamation Laws in Australia: Have They Struck a Better Balance • Rhonda Breit, University of Queensland • This paper canvasses the Uniform Defamation Laws focusing on the defence of qualified privilege and its capacity to protect mass media publications in the public interest. Whilst the uniform approach expands the circumstances when a fair report of public proceedings will be protected, the statutory qualified privilege appears to borrow from two different approaches: the UK approach articulated in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Limited and Others and the approach outlined in Section 22 of Defamation Act 1974 (NSW).

Free Speech Meets the Publicity Tort: Transformative Use Analysis in Right of Publicity Law • Matthew Bunker, University of Alabama • The intersection of intellectual property law and First Amendment concerns has become an increasingly contested one. The right of publicity has proven particularly difficult to reconcile with free speech values. Recently, some courts have begun importing a “transformative use” approach from copyright law to reconcile tensions between publicity rights and free expression. This paper analyzes the problems with the transformative use doctrine and suggests the outlines of an alternative approach.

The 2006-2007 FCC Ownership Hearings and the Rhetoric of the FCC Commissioners • Clay Calvert, Pennsylvania State University • This paper examines the official opening statements of the FCC commissioners at the first three public hearings now being conducted nationwide on the subject of the review and revision of the FCC’s ownership rules. The paper analyzes how the Democrats and Republicans on the Commission present starkly contrasting viewpoints, divided along party lines, to the public about the alleged influence and effect of corporate media ownership on the public interest and the marketplace of ideas.

Overlooking the Presumption of Openness for State Freedom of Information Laws: State Court Applications of the Central Purpose Doctrine • Erin Coyle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Freedom of Information Act experts contend that federal courts inappropriately favored privacy interests over disclosure interests by applying the central purpose doctrine since Congress arguably nullified the doctrine in 1996. Case and statutory analysis revealed that state courts have continued applying the doctrine, which contradicts the statutory purposes for numerous state freedom of information laws.

The Power of Secrecy and the Secrecy of Power: FACA and the National Energy Policy Development Group • Benjamin Cramer, Pennsylvania State University • This paper analyzes the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), and its effectiveness in allowing access to government information. This paper considers Dick Cheney’s energy task force (NEPDG), and whether or not the media and citizens can successfully utilize FACA to obtain more information about the group. A case study of Judicial Watch v. NEPDG examines the effectiveness of FACA as a public interest statute, and whether the act has been adequately enforced.

Access Attitudes: The Importance of Community Engagement in Support for Press Access to Government Records • David Cuillier, University of Arizona • Freedom of information laws often are strengthened or weakened in response to the public mood regarding personal privacy, national security, and other factors, yet little is known about how people think about access to public information. This study, based on a national phone survey, examines public attitudes toward press access to government records, identifying factors related to support and deriving a political model predicting support.

Internet 3.0: Identifying Problems and Solutions to the Network Neutrality Debate • Rob Frieden, Pennsylvania State University • This paper will examine the network neutrality debate with an eye toward refuting and dismissing the many false and misleading claims and concentrating on the real problems occasioned by the Internet’s third evolution. The paper accepts as necessary and proper many types of price and quality of service discrimination. However the paper identifies other types of discrimination, which operators can obscure, that constitute unlawful and anticompetitive trade practices.

Living With Republican Party of Minnesota v. White • Jessica Gall, Indiana University • This paper examines the dangers facing judicial impartiality and independence after Republican Party of Minnesota v. White struck down judicial speech restrictions. Within a framework of history, First Amendment theory and case law, this paper explores merit-based judicial selection, campaign finance reform, strict recusal standards, and a better informed public as constitutional alternatives to speech-restricting canons. Action is necessary to avoid bias and the appearance of impartiality in a judiciary facing increasing campaign costs and interest group involvement.

From Published to Public: A Typology for Online Free Expression • Seeta Peña Gangadharan and Mike Ananny, Stanford University • This paper proposes a Habermasian framework for evaluating the publicness of online expressive activity. We ask whether the ease of online publishing fosters free expression and develop a typology of blogging technologies and practices in terms of Habermas’s principles of public speech: equality of speakers, inclusion, sincerity, and broadmindedness.

The Debate Over Section 230: Balancing Responsibility and Free Speech on the Internet • Jonathan Groves, University of Missouri-Columbia • Since its passage in 1996, Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act has provided immunity from liability to Internet service providers offering third-party content. As the Internet has exploded with growth, conflicts have arisen that demand more responsibility from those providers.

State Government Speech in a Federal System • Laura J. Hendrickson • This paper explores the status of government speech in a federal system, using a Texas bill that called for creation of a website later deemed to violate federal regulations. The paper concludes that the website, which was intended to inform consumers about Canadian pharmacies, may have qualified as government speech. The constitutional status of government speech is discussed, including whether and when the speech of one governmental entity can or should be restrained by another.

Rwandan Genocide: Showing the Need to Encourage Freedom of the Press and Discourage Ethnic Violence • Kevin Kemper, University of Arizona • In the now infamous “Media Case,” the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, Ferdinand Nahimana, and Hassan Ngeze for direct and public incitement to genocide, among other charges, in relation to mass media they produced during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which killed perhaps up to 1 million people. Belgian Georges Ruggiu also pleaded guilty to related charges.

New Technology, New Market, and Old Fair Use: An Extended Examination of Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc. • Minjeong Kim, Hawaii Pacific University • This study closely examines the recent case of Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc. and addresses how the court employed the fair use doctrine in the dynamic context produced by the interplay between new technology and new market. Exploring the case in the light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s applications of the fair use doctrine along with Professor Wendy Gordon’s market failure test reveals flaws in the Perfect 10 decision.

The Intent Behind the Cryptic Concurrence That Provided a Reporter’s Privilege • Michele Kimball • Justice Lewis Powell wrote a concurrence in Branzburg v. Hayes that, against the majority opinion, provided room for journalists to claim a privilege against testifying in grand jury proceedings. Although he sided with the majority, he seemed to disagree with the majority opinion. By delving into Justice Powell’s personal papers and case files, this research explores his intent when he wrote his concurrence. This research shows that Justice Powell supported a qualified reporter’s privilege.

All Bark, No Bite: State Government Claims to Copyright in Official Codes of Law • Carmen Maye, University of South Carolina • A 2002 judicial opinion prompted a flurry of commentary on copyright protection for privately-drafted “model codes” that ultimately become governing law. That case concerned the copyrights by private authors of public laws. Few commentators, however, have directly addressed attempts by the states to claim copyright protection for their general statutes. This paper explores states’ ability to monopolize general statutes and suggests that state statutes, like federal statutes, should be ineligible for copyright protection.

Liberty of the Press: The Emergence of the Constitutional Doctrine in Colonial Virginia • Roger Mellen, George Mason University • This research explores the origins of liberty of the press in Virginia, following how it emerges within the newspapers and from the struggles with the royal governors. Prevalent legal histories see political philosophers, English legal precedents, and the writings of the American founding fathers as the source of this Constitutional right. This paper explores how the idea of freedom of the press evolved, uncovers more popular sources, and raises questions about prior interpretations.

Don’t Even Ask! A Two-Level Analysis of Government Lawsuits Against Citizen and Media Access Requestors • Cathy Packer, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This article examines cases in which government entities sued citizen and media access requestors under state open meetings and public records statutes. These cases are analyzed on both the level of the individual complaint and the level of social architecture. Social architecture is the idea that law, in addition to settling individual complaints, defines power relationships between various groups in society. The conclusion calls for legislative and judicial change.

“Justice, and Only Justice, You Shall Pursue”: Network Neutrality, the First Amendment and John Rawls’ Theory of Justice • Amit Schejter, Pennsylvania State University, and Moran Yemini, New York University • This study offers a new framework for analyzing the “network neutrality” controversy that takes into account that the Internet is a new medium of “mass self communication,” which requires abandoning the utilitarianism that has characterized U.S. telecommunications regulation – the outcome of which has been promoting the interests of a fortunate few – and adopting an alternative theory, John Rawls’ “theory of justice.”

Terrorism Over the Airwaves? Satellite Television and the First Amendment in the War on Terror • Jason Shepard, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The Bush administration’s addition of Lebanon’s al-Manar television station to a list of terrorist groups is believed to be the first time a television network with an international news organization has been essentially banned from the United States. The prohibition and subsequent criminal prosecution of a satellite-television provider presents new challenges to the First Amendment and its proper role regarding access to international news during the war on terror.

National Security and the Role of the Press: The Government’s Ability to Prosecute Journalists for the Possession or Publication of National Security Information • Derigan Silver, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper identifies existing laws under which the press could be criminally prosecuted for the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, describes how the courts have addressed those laws, and considers First Amendment issues that may arise if the Attorney General sought to apply current law to punish newspapers that publish leaked classified information.

Let the Sunshine In, Or Else: Examining the “Teeth” of Open Government Laws • Daxton Stewart, University of Missouri • Sunshine laws are at the heart of transparent democracy, in place to ensure that government meetings and records are open for public inspection. However, audits and surveys consistently show disturbingly low levels of compliance with sunshine laws. This can at least partially be attributed to the remedies available for violations of state and federal sunshine laws, the so-called “teeth” that should aid enforcement of these laws.

The Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rules and the Public Interest • Lorna Veraldi, Florida International University • More than three decades ago, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules prohibiting future licensing of broadcast stations to newspaper owners in the same market. Currently those rules are under review pursuant to the Congressional mandate in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that the FCC periodically review its ownership rules and eliminate those that no longer serve the public interest.

How Federal Appeals Courts Have Complied with Harper & Row, Publishers v. Nation Enterprises • Jie Wang and Thomas Schwartz, Ohio State University • This paper analyzes federal appeals court cases citing Harper & Row, Publishers, v. Nation Enterprises, the 1985 United States Supreme Court case that held a magazine’s “scoop” of the publication of President Ford’s memoirs was not exempt from copyright liability under theories of either freedom of the press or “fair use.” While the majority asserted that the decision would have no adverse impact on journalism, dissenting Justice Brennan disagreed.

Access to 911 Tapes in 50 States: Balancing Privacy Against the Public Interest in Disclosure • Janelle Weber, Thomas & LoCicero • This paper reviews state statutes, appellate court cases, and attorney general opinions governing public access to tapes of 911 emergency calls in the fifty states and District of Columbia. Additionally, it reviews and analyzes state appellate court decisions applying general privacy exemptions in the context of 911 tapes. This paper concludes that courts have overstated privacy interests and/or minimized the public interest in disclosure.

Liberalizing British Defamation Law in Jameel: Challenging U.S. “Exceptionalism” in Free Speech? • Kyu Ho Youm, University of Oregon • Against the backdrop of the often sweeping conclusions of American scholars and the widely held assumptions that the First Amendment is an exception to international law on freedom of expression, this paper aims to find out whether U.S. exceptionalism is truly valid as a “legal,” not “political,” notion. The framework of this paper on American exceptionalism emanates from the “actual malice” rule of the United States.

<< 2007 Abstracts

International Communication Division

Do ‘They’ Frame it Differently?: Examining the Coverage of the U.S./Al Qaeda Conflict in the English-and Arabic-Language Al-Jazeera Websites • Mohammed Al-Emad and Shahira Fahmy, Southern Illinois University • This study explored the online coverage of the U.S./Al Qaeda conflict in the English-and Arabic-language Al-Jazeera websites. Utilizing prominence, use of sources, and agency as framing devices, it looked at how Al-Jazeera caters the news to different users online. By and large, results showed limited differences in coverage between the two websites. The overwhelming majority of attributed sources were from the United States and its allies.

A Decade of Deregulation: The Changing Structure of Nigeria’s Broadcasting Industry, 1993-2003 • Abubakar Alhassan, University of Florida and Bayero University Kano, Nigeria • It has been more than a decade since Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, enacted a law in 1992 deregulating broadcasting and establishing the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as the regulatory agency for the broadcast industry. Prior to the commencement of deregulation that began in the 1990s, broadcast ownership in Nigeria was the exclusive monopoly of both federal and state governments.

Voices in the Hills of Rwanda: African Press Accountability of the 1994 Pogrom • Emmanuel C. Alozie, Governors State University • Using framing and its theoretical and methodical framework, this study found that bane of a nation, Rwandan national introspection, an(other) African cataclysm, together with world inaction and indifference emerged as the dominant themes in the accounts of Daily Nation of Kenya and Guardian of Nigeria. The article traced the political and socio-economic development of Rwanda.

Music Video Use Among Egyptian and U.S. Young Adults: A Cross-Cultural Analysis • Philip Auter, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Erica Ashton and Mohamed Soliman, Mansoura University • Approximately 360 undergraduate students in the U.S. and Egypt were surveyed regarding their consumption of music videos, affinity for them, and perception of them as reality. Their parasocial interaction with favorite music video performers was also assessed. Results showed that Egyptian young adults scored significantly higher on all measures than their U.S. counterparts. Affinity, perception of reality, PSI, and consumption were all positively correlated. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

U.S. Foreign Policy and Media Framing: A Content Analysis of U.S. Newspapers’ Coverage of the Nuclear tests in North Korea and India • Kanghui Baek, University of Texas at Austin • This study analyzed how the nuclear tests in North Korea (Oct. 9, 2006) and India (May 11-13, 1998) were framed in U.S. newspapers. By using content analysis, the study concluded that U.S. foreign policy was an external factor influencing the U.S. newspapers’ coverage of the nuclear tests in North Korea and India. In short, U.S. newspapers arbitrarily chose a fact or set a news frame reflecting U.S. foreign policy toward North Korea and India.

Nationalism and Media Access in Perestroika-Era Latvia • Janis Chakars, Indiana University • This paper addresses the issue of media access under perestroika in late Soviet Latvia. The scholarly literature on the press and Latvia’s liberation movement is almost nonexistent and so it begins to fill a gap in our knowledge about the reestablishment of Latvian independence, the fall of the Soviet Union and the operation of the press in nonviolent movements and liberation movements. It is based upon archival research, oral history interviews and the press itself.

War and Peace Journalism Frames in Cross-National News Coverage of North Korea’s Nuclear Test • Mun-Young Chung, Meijing Fan and Justin Lessman, Kansas State University • This cross-national study examines differences in news coverage of North Korea’s 2006 nuclear test by newspapers from the United States, China, and South Korea. Findings, based on a content analysis of 290 articles from the highest-circulation native-language newspaper in each country, reveal differences in the way each framed coverage: the U.S. coverage demonstrated the strongest war journalism framing, the Chinese coverage the strongest peace journalism framing, and the South Korean coverage the strongest neutral framing.

Indian Journalists: Democracy Builders or Government Supporters? • Bridgette Colaco and Jyotika Ramaprasad, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • This study reports on Indian journalists’ rating of various journalistic functions in terms of both importance and ability to perform these functions. The functions, rated for importance, coalesced into nine factors, Sustain Democracy, Support Country, Be Public Advocate, Discuss Social Policies, Practice Development Journalism, Provide Cultural Stimulation, Educate Citizens, Support Government, and Provide Information Fast.

Global coverage of efforts to end genocide in Darfur, Sudan: A community structure approach • Victoria Cullen, The College of New Jersey • Using a community structure approach linking national characteristics and cross-national newspaper coverage of efforts to end genocide in Darfur, Sudan, a sample of 11 nations yielded 153 articles. Content analysis combined article prominence and direction measures into composite Pollock’s Media Vector scores for each newspaper, ranging from -.08 to .53.

When a Democratic Revolution Isn’t Democratic or Revolutionary: Press Restraints and Press Freedoms after Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution • Eric Freedman, Michigan State University • Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution of March 2005 was expected to spur democratization by ousting an autocratic government. Journalists and media experts hoped that regime change would loosen press restraints, spur privatization of state-owned media, and make a market-supported media system viable. A year and a half later, however, anticipated improvements in the press environment were slow in developing.

Ambassador of the Airwaves: The Saarlaendischer Rundfunk as Cultural Mediator • Kevin Grieves, Indiana University • The German state of the Saarland and neighboring regions in France and Luxembourg are redefining themselves as a common transborder community within the EU. Because of a distinct historical path, the Saarland and its broadcast station – as reflected by program content – position themselves as a cultural ambassador across national borders. This suggests a new conceptualization of current models of how local, regional and national identity relate to one another via the mass media.

Dependency, Democracy, and the Internet: A Cross-National Study over Time • Jacob Groshek, Indiana University • Increased internet diffusion was shown to be a meaningful predictor of more democratic regimes in this multinational ten year study. This was shown to be most true in developed countries, where nonlinear fixed effects regression models showed the highest coefficient estimates and actual effect sizes. Though these findings were consistent with the expectations of media system dependency theory, results also indicate that the internet should not be overstated or employed as a modern “mobility multiplier.”

What do the Korean youth think of the Japanese mass culture?: Attitude-behavior relationship approach • Jongwon Ha, Sunmoon University • This paper aimed to investigate the reception of the Japanese mass culture in the Korean youth, which had been prohibited until October 20, 1998. Setting attitude-behavior relationship as a research framework, this study showed that the attitude toward Japan itself had some positive relation with receiving the Japanese mass culture. The attitude toward opening of the Japanese mass culture had positive but very weak relation to behavior of receiving it.

News Media and Their State: A Comparative Analysis of Media Systems in 36 Democracies • John Hatcher, University of Minnesota Duluth • The structure of news media in 36 democracies are analyzed in relation to the social and political structures in which they operate. This study asks if the institutional structure of a democracy influences the nature of a media system. Using primarily secondary data and Lijphart’s executives-parties (consensual-majoritarian scale), this study looks at whether news organizations differ with respect to readership, press freedoms and a concept called media orientation.

How Japan’s Shinjinrui Define Their Generation: An Exploratory Collective Case Study • Frauke Hachtmann, University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Yoko Kitagawa • This exploratory collective case study describes how members of Japan’s Generation X, also known as “Shinjinrui, who were born and raised in Japan, define their generation. Typological analysis was used to analyze the interview data. Five qualitative themes emerged, including “Enabling parents: The emergence of a consumer society,” “Economic boom and bust,” “Building a social structure: Relationships with parents, friends and work,” “Forming an individual identity,” and “Advertising: An honest and subtle form of art.

NYT foreign correspondent Larry Rohter vs. Brazil’s President Lula da Silva: misconceptions and stereotypes in international coverage • Heloiza Herscovitz, California State University-Long Beach • This paper analyzes the conflict between the New York Times foreign correspondent Larry Rohter and Brazil’s President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva over a story published by the newspaper in May 9, 2004 accusing the President of being a drunk. Larry Rohter’s piece was criticized for its lack of facts, reliable sources and its ironic overtone.

Democracy and National Identity: The Role of Alternative Media in Taiwan’s Pursuit of Free Expression • Shuling Huang, University of Maryland • Since democratization and liberalization after 1987, Taiwan’s media have gradually escaped from direct political control. Nevertheless, today the news media do not function independently but become extremely polarized according to their political preferences. This paper argues that we can trace the historical origin to the late 1970s and the early 1980s, when alternative media (dissident magazines) launched the rhetorical war against the authoritarian government and the mass media in Taiwan.

Constructing Violence in the Shadow of Death: The Palestinian Intifada in U.S. News Post-Arafat • Amani Ismail, California State University-Northridge • Media make judgment calls on conflict actors, constructing normal/deviant dichotomies. This study investigates Palestinian violence in U.S. news within the Palestinian intifada, informed by primordial and instrumental paradigms, and using Arafat’s death as reference moment. News invoked both primordial and instrumental paradigms; each was drawn upon to serve certain coverage dimensions. News cautiously distinguished between Palestinian violence and the Palestinian cause. Arafat’s death was reported eulogistically, but the news certainly did not legitimate Palestinian violence.

The Role of Superstructures in Globalization: Political, Socio-Economic, and Cultural Determination of Worldwide Public Interests on the Internet • Yongick Jeong and Reaz Mahmood, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examines global public interests through a new methodological approach that enables the public to speak for itself. Analyzing the actual search terms people used in gathering information online, it determines the impact of globalization and cultural imperialism on public interests. Significant differences were detected among countries in differing categories of political freedom (politically free, partially free, and not free), socio-economic status (high, medium, and low SES), and cultural differences (masculine, mixed/neutral, and feminine).

Rethinking the Success of the Korean Film Industry • Jeongsuk Joo, State University of New York at Buffalo • In the past decade, the Korean film industry has successfully challenged the domination of Hollywood films in Korea. Given Hollywood’s long-term dominance in Korea, this success is viewed as a case of local resistance and challenge to Hollywood’s hegemony. Yet, this paper aims to challenge this view by examining how the current success of the Korean film industry has been achieved by following industrial examples set by Hollywood and the ensuing ironies of the success.

Presidential Hegemony in Transitioning Democracies: The Press and Public Attitudes in Africa • Yusuf Kalyango, Jr., University of Missouri-Columbia • Do media serve as a democratizing agent in two African countries that share a history of presidential hegemony and past military regimes? Data were drawn from surveys of 2400 voters in Nigeria and Uganda. This comparative study utilized the OLS regression and case studies. The observed outcome differed between the countries. Media exposure had a significant influence on presidential term limits in Nigeria, but little in Uganda.

Third-Person Perception of Online Political Communication and Government Censorship • Daekyung Kim, Idaho State University and Hyunwoo Kim and Tom Johnson, Texas Tech University • This study explored the third-person effect perceptual and behavioral components of online political communication during the 2006 local election in South Korea. Online survey was conducted to examine perceptions of political messages and the relationship to support for the government regulation. This study found the perceptual component hypothesis for online users to perceive greater influence of political messages on other people than themselves.

Media Use and International Knowledge Gap • Jun Kyo Kim, University of Alabama • Although low levels of international knowledge among the American public, there is little discussion of its theoretical background or specific empirical evidence. Therefore, the present study examines the roles that media use, news attention, interpersonal involvement and interpersonal discussion play in the development of international knowledge. The findings support four of the measures such as media use, international news attention, international news involvement and interpersonal discussion play the positive and predictive roles for international knowledge.

Framing North Korea: Official Sources in the New York Times and Chosun Ilbo • Yeon Kyeong Kim, University of Iowa • This study examines the use of official sources and framing of North Korea in the New York Times (NYT) and Chosun Ilbo (CHO). A content analysis of news stories found there were clear differences between two newspapers. Results showed that NYT’s domestic official sources focused on weapons of mass destruction while CHO did not. Furthermore, NYT either criticized North Korea or supported U.S. views while CHO supported their own views or criticized U.S. views.

Media Effects on Russian Students in the Perception of the United States of America • Anastasia Kononova • Russian students were surveyed to compare media consumption and attitudes toward America and find relationships between the use of media and the image of the United States. Television and Internet were the most popular sources of information about the USA. To get news, students who had never been to America used Russian media, mostly television, while those who visited the USA used mostly American and international media, mostly websites.

In the Shadow of the Olympics: The Olympics Beijing 2008 Promotions and the Image of Chin in Hong Kong • Annisa Lee • Over 1000 Hong Kong residents of age 18 and above were interviewed through telephone about their perceptions towards the image of the Olympics and the image of China after exposure to 2004 Olympic advertising and promotional activities disseminated through mass communication channels.

What’s at Issue with Bush and Blair? The Iraq War in U.S. and U.K. Editorials • Abby LeGrange, University of Florida and Kristen Landreville, Ohio State University • This study investigated newspaper editorials from the United States and the United Kingdom before and during official combat of the Iraq War. This study sought to explore which issues were associated with the leaders of the U.S. and the U.K. and which issues and positions were selected and emphasized in editorial coverage.

Mobile Telephony in China: Negotiating the Good, the Bad and the Profitable • Jia Lu and Ian Weber • China’s telecommunications and information industry has seen unprecedented growth since the turn of the century with the mobile telephony sector driving significant expansion. This article examines the Chinese government’s strategy for managing the complexities of socio-economic changes created by the widespread adoption of mobile telephony.

Explosive Silences: Communist Newspaper Coverage of the 1986 Paris Bombings • Kristi McKinney, University of Minnesota • Coverage of the 1986 Paris bombings in the USSR’s Pravda and France’s l’Humanité using headline analysis yielded surprising results regarding the nature of terrorism coverage in communist newspapers. While there was virtually no coverage in Pravda, l’Humanité covered the events minimally. The results suggest the USSR’s ties to terrorism may have influenced Pravda’s coverage, while elections may have influenced l’Humanité’s.

Latin American election coverage in U.S. and international news magazines: The Economist and Time • Maria I. Miro-Quesada, University of Missouri-Columbia • Building on research on electoral coverage, this study develops seven possible frames for Latin American elections: horserace, leaders, policies, instability, foreign relations, background and party identifier. Through a content analysis of Time and The Economist magazines, findings suggest the region is not a priority for U.S. media. Similarities in both magazines include a preference for descriptive stories, the use of left party identifiers more than right ones and a link to Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

The “New” Arab Public Sphere: Satellite News, Political Identity, and Anti-Americanism • Erik Nisbet, Cornell University • The growth of satellite TV and Internet access within the Middle East, its possible impact on the formation of transnational political identities, and the consequences for regional public opinion toward the U.S. have garnered significant academic and policy attention in recent years. Employing cross-national survey data from six Arab countries collected in October 2005, this paper finds that relying on al-Jazeera as a primary source of news is associated with a higher degree of Pan-Muslim identity, but not Pan-Arab nationalism.

Gender Differences in Facial Prominence in Chinese News Photos • Zengjun Peng and Jing He, St. Cloud State University • Applying the theory of face-ism in visual representation (men are shown more of the head/face, women more of the body), this study analyzed 1197 news photos in four Chinese news magazines. Results show that male images enjoyed higher facial prominence than those of women. Significant gender differences were also found in other categories including age, facial expression, occupation, clothing, and photo background, where women were stereotyped in roles and settings conforming to conventional social and cultural norms.

The Zambian Conundrum: Attitudes Toward Press Freedom Among Members of Parliament • Gregory Pitts, Bradley University • Democracy’s sweep through Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1990s signaled multiparty elections, spawned additional media voices, and led to at least deference to a free press. Zambia, with its newly elected Parliamentarians, is learning what these changes mean to the government and the media. Elections cannot change the political and social values of elected officials.

Media use patterns across countries: Are there any differences? • Jack Powers, Ithaca College and Chris Murphy, Syracuse University • An online survey was conducted (snowball sample) with the goal of gathering media use data from across as many countries as possible. Specifically, hypotheses addressing media use and the reasons for that media use were tested. The results suggest that there is very little variance between media use across developed nations and that, surprisingly, time spent on the Internet rivals (and in some cases surpasses) time spent watching television.

The Politics of Hate or How Media Can Help an Ultra-Nationalist Group in Bulgaria Win Elections • Maria Raicheva-Stover, Washburn University and Elza Ibroscheva, Southern Illinois University • This paper uses a case-study approach to examine the role of mass media in the surprising electoral success of the Bulgarian ultra-nationalist party Ataka. Arguing that it is important to recognize the critical role media play in fueling sentiments of ethnic intolerance, this paper concludes that Ataka’s ascent to prominence was largely aided by its skillfully crafted media blitz.

Journalism and Terrorism Across the Atlantic: A Qualitative Content Analysis of CNN and BBC Coverage of 9/11 and 7/7 • Amy Reynolds, Indiana University School of Journalism • This paper explores, through a qualitative content analysis, the verbal frames utilized in both American and British television coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the U.S., and the July 7, 2005 terrorist attack in London. America’s Cable News Network (CNN) and the U.K.’s British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) are the focus of the analysis.

When Media Portrayals Fail: Campaign Professionalism on German Party Web Sites • Eva Johanna Schweitzer, University of Mainz, Germany • The paper scrutinizes the media portrayal of German online campaigns in the 2002 and 2005 National Elections. Based on a quantitative content and structure analysis of federal party Web sites in both election cycles, the study reveals that the journalistic criticism of a non-professionalization in German e-campaigning was false: The parliamentary Web sites advanced in information density, interactivity, and sophistication. In addition, the home pages were strongly campaign-oriented, party-focused, and highly competitive in their tone.

Perceptions of North Korea and Its Leader: A Comparative Study of South Korean and Western Journalists • Hyunjin Seo • This study investigated whether journalists’ nationality influences their perceptions of North Korea and its leader. To examine this issue, the study conducted a survey of South Korean, U.S., and European journalists who have covered the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. A total of 79 journalists participated in the survey, which included both close-ended and open-ended questions. The respondents include 44 South Korean journalists, 19 U.S. journalists, and 16 European journalists.

Press Freedom Matters Too: A Longitudinal, Econometric Time-Series… Economic Well-Being • Lowndes Stephens, University of South Carolina • Development scholars have long acknowledged the role mass media play in communication and development. Cross-national studies of the relationships among political freedom, economic freedom, and economic growth and well-being have been reported in the literature for a quarter century. Enough longitudinal data is now available on press freedom to add this measure to the mix.

Framing of NGOs: International Media Coverage of the Tsunami, 2004 • Renuka Suryanarayan, Ohio University • Media attention was an important component in developmental work and in the collection of aid during the tsunami of 2004. Through a content analysis of print media from four countries—USA, the UK, India and Sri Lanka, this study investigated elite media attention given to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the coverage of the tsunami.

Promoting Colleges on the Internet: Comparing the Visual Components of Chinese and American Collegiate Websites • Tang Tang, Ohio University • This cross-cultural content analysis was designed to test the differences in visual components between Chinese and American collegiate websites. The results show that pictures including images of people appeared more often on the American websites than on Chinese sites; people were portrayed more often in groups on Chinese websites than on American websites; and that people of authority were also portrayed more often on Chinese collegiate websites than on their American counterparts.

Growing Up Together: Newspaper Coverage of the Legal System in Kosovo • Maureen Taylor and Michael L. Kent, Western Michigan University • Over the past seven years, international donor organizations have spent millions of dollars in civil society initiatives in Kosovo. The purpose of this paper is to explore how one nascent institution in Kosovo, the media, is learning how to report on another emerging institution, the legal system. This research reports on the outcome of a series of workshops devoted to training journalists on the background of the Kosovo legal system.

Asia in Mass Communication Research: A Meta-Analysis of Peer-Reviewed Journals (1990-2005) • Hai Tran, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper represents a status report on Asian communication studies from 1990 to 2005. Findings indicate that the growth in this body of literature remained modest given an abundance of research opportunities in the area. The meta-analysis, conducted on the census of relevant journal articles in fifteen years, provides a unique window to understand how Asian communication has been studied in the United States and where the research is heading.

In Search of an Explanation for Press Freedom as a Function of Culture and Development: Myths and Realities • Hai Tran, Reaz Mahmood, Ying Du and Andrei Khrapavitski, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examines assumptions about factors that influence global press freedom, with the impetus being a lack of sufficient evidence for both traditional and postmodern arguments in the field. Using aggregate empirical data, the findings challenge the established conception of development linked with communication, reveal the non-significance of cultural differences, and indicate the influence of the most widely used press freedom indices themselves on comparative research.

Fueling the Fire: An analysis of the online framing of three terrorist organizations • Lenae Vinson • This study takes a communicative standpoint in exploring media frames present in the coverage of Southeast Asian terrorist organizations. Content analysis is used to examine articles published in the New York Times, BBC, Manila Times and The Jakarta Post. Findings indicate significant differences in the frames constructed by Western and Eastern media outlets along with other trends in the framing of coverage of the Abu Sayyaf Group, Jemaah Islamiyah and Moro Islamic Liberation Front organizations.

American Pragmatism and Chinese Modernization: Importing the Missouri Model of Journalism Education to Modern China • Yong Volz, University of Missouri-Columbia and Chin-Chuan Lee, City University of Hong Kong • This paper argues that the almost carbon-copy transplantation of the Missouri model of journalism education to Chinese universities in the first half of the twentieth century was a success story in the larger context of American expansionism. As an emerging Asian power the United States advocated an open-door policy when joining the fray with other western powers to compete for influence in China.

Crimes and Punishments: Narrative Construction of Milosevic’s Death and Hussein’s Execution in The New York Times • Marina Vujnovic, University of Iowa • This paper provides a narrative analysis of the New York Times coverage of the death of Slobodan Milosevic in March 2006 and execution of Saddam Hussein in December 2006. Although both stories had different antagonist from different cultural contexts, journalists covered both news events in similar vain. Journalist chose to cover these stories as big events in the grand narrative of the rise and fall that is acceptable for the American audience and fits American or western cultural make-up.

Securitization: A new approach to framing and media portrayals of the “war on terror” • Fred Vultee, University of Missouri • To successfully cast an issue as an extraordinary threat requiring a suspension of normal political functions is to “securitize” it. This study uses portrayals of the “war on terror” in three U.S. newspapers from 2001 to 2006 to show how a securitization frame can be invoked or contested and how it changes across time.

For the Good of Public Health or for Political Propaganda: An Analysis of SARS Coverage • Xiao Wang, Eastern Connecticut State University • Previous research on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic (SARS) in China or other parts of the world has documented how governments and the media handled the epidemic in terms of political and social efforts. Such studies largely ignored that SARS, in the first place, is a public health issue and that the mass media can be utilized to disseminate information for public health.

Foreign Countries in American Eyes: Deviance, Personal Experience, Mass Media and National Image • Xiuli Wang, Pamela J. Shoemaker, Gang Han and E. Jordan Storm, Syracuse University • This study examines the relationships among national image, deviance, and personal and mediated experiences using data from a cross-sectional internet survey of 495 American citizens. Personal experiences, mediated experiences, and perceptions of deviance all turn out to be significant at some level in predicting how favorable or strong Americans perceive other countries to be.

U.S Media Coverage of Natural Disasters: A Framing Analysis of Hurricane Katrina and the Tsunami • Worapron Worawongs, Weirui Wang and Ashley Sims, Penn State University • This study examines U.S. news media coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean Tsunami. The frames used to depict these two natural disasters were identified through a content analysis of 457 news stories from ABC, CBS, and NBC. The results suggest the presence of notable similarities and differences. The Katrina coverage framed the disaster from a political and economical perspective while, the tsunami coverage emphasized the causalities and alterations of living conditions.

Globalization of U.S. Law on Press Freedom • Kyo Ho Youm, University of Oregon • From an international and comparative perspective, the Sullivan case is a fascinating illustration of how American law, especially the First Amendment law, has fared as U.S. “export” abroad. Increasingly important to journalists is the growing interaction between U.S. and foreign libel law as American news media are becoming more transnational now than ever.

<< 2007 Abstracts

History Division

The FBI and the Hunt for Newspaper Reds, 1940-1950 • Edward Alwood, Quinnipiac University • This study concerns FBI spying on newspapers during the 1940s and how information gathered during that period fueled McCarthyism aimed at the press. The FBI cooperated with journalists who sought to purge Communists from leadership of the Newspaper Guild. Previously undisclosed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered newspaper surveillance in conjunction with efforts to monitor domestic communism though the FBI lacked statutory authority to engage in domestic spying.

Little More Than Minutes: How Two Wyoming Community Newspapers Covered the Construction of a Japanese-American Internment Camp • Ron Bishop, Drexel University • I explore how two Wyoming community newspapers – the Cody Enterprise and the Powell Tribune – covered the internment of more than 6,000 Japanese-Americans at the Heart Mountain relocation camp from the day the announcement was made that the camp would be constructed to Heart Mountain’s official opening in August 1942.

Jim Murray at Sports Illustrated: The Development of the King of Sports Columnists • David Bulla and Ted Geltner, Iowa State University • “Jim” Murray, one of only four sports writers to win a Pulitzer Prize, helped found Sports Illustrated magazine as a reporter for Time, Inc., but Murray left the magazine after seven years to work for the Los Angeles Times. There he worked as a columnist for thirty-seven years. This study looks at how those years at Sports Illustrated helped develop Murray’s style, voice, and journalistic philosophy, and turn him into a nationally prominent sports columnist at the Times.

“Genêt” On the Air: Janet Flanner’s Wartime Broadcasts • Johanna Cleary, University of Florida • For 50 years, journalist Janet Flanner wrote the bi-weekly “Letter from Paris” column for The New Yorker magazine. Her legacy includes influencing American literary journalism and political commentary. But Flanner also recorded a little-known series of radio reports from the hotspots of Europe in the critical months following the end of World War II.

From Newspaper Row to Times Square: The Dispersal and Contested Identity of an Imagined Journalistic Community • Dale Cressman, Brigham Young University • Until the early twentieth century, Park Row was synonymous with New York newspapers. Of the newspapers that left Park Row, The New York Times was notable for having established a geographic landmark that was identified with the newspaper. In fact, by 1906, Times Square had replaced Park Row as a place for New Yorkers to get election night news or to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Nevertheless, Times Square did not remain associated with its newspaper namesake.

Practicing Free Speech: The Spanish American Press on the Eve of Independence • Juanita Darling, CSU Monterey Bay • Before Spain’s American colonies became independent, they had a dress rehearsal for free speech. A liberal legislature in the mother country passed a constitution that permitted freedom of the press. This paper argues that newspapers published during that era, from 1811 to 1814, set the tone for the role that the press would play in the new republics as they established their national identities.

Online Citations in History Journals: Current Practice and Views from Journal Editors, Daniela Dimitrova, Michael Bugeja and Hye Hyun Hong, Iowa State University • This study examines use and stability of online citations in Journalism History and American Journalism. Content analysis results show that unlike other journalism and communication journals, online citations remain rare in media history articles. Analysis is supplemented with interviews of the journal editors. Discussion addresses factors accounting for the rarity of online content, predicting more as Internet becomes the focus of historical research, and analyzes implications of vanishing primary, secondary and “ephemeral” sources.

Secret Restricted Data, Media Timidity & Dead Cold Warriors: A Study of the Circulation of Classified Information, 1943-1949 • Carolyn Stewart Dyer, University of Iowa • This study addresses government secrecy about atomic energy from 1943 to1949 by focusing on the circulation of information about a toxic substance essential to nuclear reactions. Using declassified Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) documents, medical studies and news stories, it follows open scientific communication in journals to the press. And it documents the AEC’s substitution of propaganda for truthful information about the risk to workers and neighbors, which community newspapers published unquestioningly while local people died.

“To the detriment of the institution”: The Missouri Student’s Fight to Desegregate the University of Missouri • Aimee Edmondson and Earnest L. Perry Jr., University of Missouri • This study focuses on a white university newspaper’s advocacy role on behalf of African Americans and desegregation during the 1930s and 1940s. The University of Missouri’s student-run newspaper took a strong stand on its editorial pages for desegregation while university officials were fighting a protracted legal battle to keep African Americans out of the school. This study is significant because most of the research on civil rights activism at white universities focuses on the 1950s and 1960s.

The “Atomic Bomb” of Broadcasting: Westinghouse’s “Stratovision” Experiment, 1944-1949 • James Foust, Bowling Green State University • This paper examines “Stratovision” a system of providing television via airborne transmitters developed by Westinghouse in the mid-1940s. The company said that it could provide service to 78 percent of the U.S. population. At the time, there was not yet a national distribution system for television. Using Federal Communications Commission documents and Westinghouse records, the paper argues that Stratovision was ultimately doomed because it did not fit within the existing network-local station broadcasting structure.

“Rebellion in the Kingdom of Swat”: How Sportswriters Covered Curt Flood’s Lawsuit against Major League Baseball • William Gillis, Indiana University • In 1970, baseball star Curt Flood sued Major League Baseball in an effort to change the game’s free agency rules. With few exceptions, those who have written about Flood’s case agree that sportswriters of the era were overwhelmingly unsupportive of Flood. The author researched hundreds of newspapers and magazines, and has concluded that the belief that the majority of sports columnists considered Flood’s lawsuit “a traitorous undertaking,” as one author put it, is false.

Bridging the Gulf: Authors and Editors Imagine the Political Work of the American Federationist • Phil Glende, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Labor leaders, economists, reformers, and government officials actively participated during the 1930s in a social action network tied to the publication of the American Federationist, the monthly journal of the American Federation of Labor. Records of correspondence with AFL President William Green, and the AFL’s director of research, Florence Thorne, suggest these writers believed they could educate and influence organized labor, and more broadly, the working class, during the Great Depression.

The Pivotal Role of the Priest-Journalist in the Development of the Mexican Press, 1533-1821 • Victoria Goff, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay • Charles Rosstaeuscher (pronounced ROSS-toy-sher) arrived in Manitowoc in 1853. Well-educated and a brewer and butcher by trade, his fellow Germans regarded him as a bit of a [trouble maker.] The scarlet-colored cloak he always wore did nothing to dissuade the image of mystery which he seemed to want to perpetuate. Though a bit wary, Wilhelm Rahr was willing to give his fellow German a chance[,] and took him on as a partner in his brewery business.

Solving ‘The Negro Problem’: Social Commentary in the Journalistic Writings of Joel Chandler Harris • Cheryl Gooch, Clark Atlanta University • While the controversial themes of Joel Chandler Harris’ famous Brer Rabbit and Uncle Remus tales have been extensively debated, Harris’ journalistic writings about the “”Negro Problem”” have been largely overlooked. During his 24 year tenure at the Atlanta Constitution as associate editor and lead editorial writer, Harris addressed a range of issues affecting Blacks, and later wrote a series of popular articles on “”Negro”” issues for major publications.

The U.S. Information Bulletin and Mixed Signals in the Democracy Lessons for Post-War Germany • Kevin Grieves, Indiana University • In post-World War II Germany, the U.S. military government’s Information Bulletin magazine reflected a fundamental tension between teaching the value of a free, open press and the use of the press as a means to rally support against opposing forces. This paper examines content of the Information Bulletin, tracing this shift from teaching the ideals of a free press in 1945 to a marked anti-Soviet tone in 1950.

The Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings and the Ambivalence of Citizenship in the Film Noir • Kevin Hagopian, Penn State University • The Kefauver Crime Committee hearings of 1952 were a landmark in the developing discourses of television journalism and entertainment. The broadcast hearings intersected the development of the film noir, providing the genre with both a topical subject, and a locus for its analysis of the failure of the institutions of democracy. This paper examines the reflexive relationship between the Kefauver hearings, film noir, and the Hollywood film industry’s ambivalent relationship to organized crime and ethnicity.

Media in the Riot City: How the November 1967 Kerner Commission media conference blamed the messenger • Thomas J. Hrach, Ohio University • In November 1967, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders gathered some of the nation’s top editors and television news executives to Poughkeepsie, New York, for a media conference. The commission, which was known as the Kerner Commission due to its chairman Illinois Governor Otto Kerner, was named that previous summer to study the causes and solutions for the urban rioting that plagued American cities in the 1960s.

Covering a Coup: The American Press and Guatemala in 1954 • John Kirch, University of Maryland • The 1954 coup in Guatemala has been a subject of considerable debate almost since the day that Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas and his ragtag group of exiles toppled the democratically elected government of President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. In the years immediately after the coup, the event was characterized as an internal uprising that pitted the people of Guatemala against a pro-Communist regime.

Dens of Hell in the Cities of Zion: Newspaper Coverage of Opium Abuse in Northern Utah, 1869-1896 • Andrew Kirk, University of Utah • When the habit of opium smoking spread from the Chinese in Mormon-controlled Utah Territory to white people, the local newspapers responded by condemning the drug, but not necessarily the Chinese. Fulfilling their role as organs for the dominant class, the newspapers acted as educators in Gramsci’s “teacher/pupil” hegemonic relationship. The newspapers led campaigns to outlaw, suppress, and eradicate opium dens. Unlike other regions, however, the Utah newspapers blamed the drug’s addictive qualities and did not scapegoat the Chinese.

Another Cuban Story: Ruby Hart Phillips, New York Times Havana Correspondent, 1937-1961 • Christina Locke, University of Florida • The New York Times told “The Cuban Story” of Fidel Castro’s revolution with the help of longtime Havana correspondent Ruby Hart Phillips and editorial board member Herbert L. Matthews. Phillips’ contemporaries praised her objectivity. Matthews was accused of propelling Castro to victory. Fifty years later, Phillips has disappeared into historical obscurity, but Matthews’ name is synonymous with the Cuban Revolution. This paper seeks to remedy the lack of scholarly attention to Phillips’ life and work.

An Army Like That of Gideon: Communities of Reform on the Pages of Free Russia • J. Michael Lyons, Indiana University • This paper argues that the newspaper Free Russia, published in London 1890-1914, established a transnational “virtual community” of readers and helped knit together a variety of social movements of the period behind the cause of Russian Revolution. The newspaper’s editors believed they were embarking on a “new departure in journalism” that connected readers to one another by reporting on events inside Russia but also by chronicling the “Russian freedom movement” around the world.

Editor A.D. Griffin: Envisioning a New Age for Black Oregonians (1896-1907) • Kimberley Mangun, University of Utah • From 1896 until 1907, Adolphus D. Griffin published The New Age, a weekly newspaper for African Americans, in Portland, Oregon. During most of his tenure, the paper was the sole voice for a small but vibrant community. Consequently, The New Age offers important insight into race relations in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the twentieth century.

“It’s Up to the Women”: Edward Bernays and the Ladies’ Home Journal Campaign to End the Great Depression” • Jane Marcellus, Middle Tennessee State University • This article examines a 1932 “Ladies’ Home Journal” campaign, developed by Edward Bernays, aimed at convincing housewives they could end the Depression by spending “normally.” Analyzing the LHJ articles and Bernays’ papers, this article shows how women’s domestic duties were conflated with business needs and patriotism as values shifted from thrift to consumption. Paradoxically, campaign rhetoric resembles that of the Roosevelts in 1933, including FDR’s “”fear itself”” line and the title of ER’s first book.

Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of Newspaper Competition in Pre-Revolutionary Virginia • Roger Mellen, George Mason University • For two hundred years, historians have written that Thomas Jefferson and his fellow patriots brought a second printer into the colony of Virginia so that their radical messages could be heard. This paper uncovers flaws in that interpretation, and attempts a better understanding of what actually happened, and how that influenced the development of a free press. New print competition changed the relationship between printer, government, and readers in crucial ways.

‘One Hell of a Story’: Information Control, News Process and the Hiroshima Bombing Announcement • Samuel Murphey, University of Missouri • This paper analyzes the information and news process leading to the Truman administration’s announcement of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Drawing on Siebert’s Proposition II, the paper demonstrates that the release of atomic bomb information deviated significantly from standard White House public relations procedures and World War II propaganda and censorship systems. Such deviance resulted from increased authoritarian controls of information during a period of extraordinary conflict.

Textbooks and Bombs: A Newspaper Framing Analysis of a Violent Fight Over Book Selections in Public Schools • Mark Paxton, Missouri State University • This study is a qualitative framing analysis of 53 editorials published by West Virginia’s Charleston Daily Mail in 1974 concerning a sometimes-violent protest over textbooks. The editorials, which won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, used seven frames in writing about the protest: the textbooks belong in the classroom; some of the textbooks should be removed from the classroom, based on a vote by the public, protest violence was unacceptable.

The Columnist and the Antihero: Marquis Childs Covers Senator McCarthy • Robert Rabe, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This paper examines the anti-McCarthy reporting and commentary of columnist and St. Louis Post-Dispatch newsman Marquis W. Childs. It makes use of Childs’ extensive writing, as well as manuscript sources from the Childs Papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society, to reexamine this often neglected figure of postwar liberal journalism. The paper argues that Childs was one of the significant liberal anti-communist journalists who led the effort to expose and contain McCarthyism in the early 1950s.

Searching for “Freedom of the Films” • Elaine Reed, Kutztown University • Prior to World War II, with the approval of film czar Will Hays, philosopher Mortimer Adler drafted a publication claiming motion pictures deserved First Amendment protection. Freedom of the Films never appeared in either man’s publication credits, but research proves the work was published under Hays’ byline, marked “Confidential” with only 20 copies printed for committee reference, and presented during Hays’ testimony before the Hutchins Commission’s landmark investigation of press freedoms in America.

The Relevance of Historical Research for the Understanding of Ethnic Press Models: The Spanish-language and Bilingual Press of New Orleans as a Case Study • Ilia Rodriguez, University of New Mexico • This paper presents a critique of functionalist approaches to the development of the ethnic press for their tendency to divorce the journalism produced by ethnic minorities from the major historical movements associated with the development of mainstream journalism. Taking the Spanish-language press in New Orleans (1808 to 1927) as a case study, this paper underscores the value of historical research for the refinement and development of our analytical frameworks.

Public Relations and Corporate Policy: Arthur Page and AT&T’s Financial Policy, 1927-1939 • Karen Russell, University of Georgia • Arthur Page is remembered as the ideal public relations manager because of his influence on AT&T management and policy. Yet scholars have not adequately evaluated the consequences of the policy he helped to design and implement. A review of the Financial Policy and its effects on shareholders, consumers, and employees during the Depression indicates that AT&T upheld its commitment to service and reasonable profits, but the policy benefited investors at others’ expense.

Atrocities and Grisly Souvenirs: Suppressing News of Wartime Brutalities in the WWII U.S. Press • Karen Slattery, Marquette University • In most respects, Byron Price and his U.S. Office of Censorship artfully balanced the inherent tension between press freedom and military security during World War II. But stories of U.S. and Allied atrocities, collected from stateside sources and reported in the domestic press, offended the U.S. military and others. Consequently, the military’s interest in censoring the press was renewed, forcing Price to compromise his own policy.

The Original Bust: A Magazine Offers a “New” Perspective on Womanhood • Tracey Thomas, affiliation • From 1993 to 2000, Bust was a self-published magazine that served as an alternative to women’s and feminist publications alike. Ultimately, its growing popularity led to the end of its days as a self-published publication and, thus, the “original” Bust. This historical research paper analyzed published interviews with Bust’s creators and the fifteen issues that make up the original Bust in order to document the publication’s transition from a ‘zine to mass-produced magazine.

“Activities Among Negroes,” Race Pride and a Call for Interracial Dialogue in California’s East Bay Region, 1920-1931 • Venise Wagner, San Francisco State University • In 1923, Delilah Beasley became a regular columnist for the Oakland Tribune and the first African American woman to write for a mainstream (White) daily. “”Activities Among Negroes”” showcased the inner workings of the East Bay region’s black middle class, and as result promoted interracial understanding between Blacks and Whites, as Beasley transferred the Black press’ journalistic style of advocacy to a mainstream paper.

When the Bomb Plant Came to Town • David Weintraub, University of South Carolina • This paper examines coverage in the Aiken Standard and Review of the U.S. government’s decision in 1950 to build the Savannah River Plant about 15 miles from the town of Aiken, South Carolina. The coming of the Savannah River Plant, a facility to create fuel for the nation’s arsenal of hydrogen bombs, caused massive changes, both positive and negative, to the surrounding area.

<< 2007 Abstracts

Cultural and Critical Studies Division

The Public Sphere in Print: Do Letters to the Editor Serve as a Forum for Rationale-Critical Debate? • Lucy Atkinson, University of Wisconsin • This paper explores the potential contribution to the public sphere made by letters to the editor. Drawing on theoretical claims and conceptualizations about the public sphere by Habermas, Arendt, and Eliasoph, this paper asks to what degree newspaper letters to the editor might be thought of as a kind of public sphere and whether they foster or limit rationale-critical debate. This paper explores this dilemma while incorporating the potential impact of new media technologies.

A Counterpublic Role for the Press: The Case of Latina/o-Targeted Papers in San José, California • Isabel Awad, Stanford University • This paper challenges the assimilation/pluralism continuum as the range of possible functions that media play in the life of minority groups. A comparative analysis of Latina/o-targeted newspapers in San José, California, underscores that a defining characteristic of the media produced by minority groups is their contribution to the existence of minority counterpublics. The study also suggests that mainstream media committed with social diversity should support locally produced media instead of competing with them.

Gender Crime and the Media: The Case of Mary Kay LeTourneau • Sean Baker and Dominique Helou-Brown, Towson University • This paper analyzed the Mary K. LeTourneau child rape case in Washington State, by analyzing televised coverage of the case. LeTourneau was positioned within traditional feminine stereotypes causing the criminality of her actions to be diminished while excusing her behavior. By positioning LeTourneau into an “appropriate” and constructed gender role, the media assisted in the manufacturing and upholding of our culture by rectifying counter intuitive events.

Pedagogies of Journalism and Documentary: Toward a Critical and Rhetorical Articulation • Ralph Beliveau, University of Oklahoma • The relationship between journalism pedagogy and learning in related non–fiction forms offers unique opportunities for developing a critical framework. This essay defines several questions raised by documentary and frames them so they offer critical insights for all media students, and especially journalism students. The paper develops these questions by offering a critical rhetorical analysis of the 2001 documentary Hell House.

Sex! Aliens! Harvard? A Study of How Journalists Participate in Constructing Scientific Authority • Linda Billings, SETI Institute/NASA • This paper reports on a case study of journalists’ participation in the social construction of scientific authority. The case involves mainstream print media coverage of controversial research conducted by a tenured professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Employing the sensitizing concept of boundary-work to guide a qualitative analysis of media content, this study explores how journalists constructed scientific authority in their coverage.

A Framing Analysis of Electoral Reform Process Coverage in Bangladesh’s Newspapers • Masudul Biswas, Ohio University • This paper examined the framing of news stories of five Bangladeshi mainstream newspapers, two of which have political ownership. These stories focused on three events that became issues for determining whether Bangladesh would be able to establish a system of democratic elections. Analysis of these news stories demonstrated a connection between the presentation of news and political economic realities of media, which supports a Marxist interpretation of the theory of the political economy of communication.

Glow, Afterglow and Trick Mirror: Mobil’s Public Relations Campaign and the Influence of Its Archival Legacy • Frederick Blevens, Florida International University, and Vanessa Murphree, University of South Alabama • Mobil Oil’s legendary public relations campaign during the 1970s is framed in archival theory. This research asserts that the record of Mobil’s high-profile public relations strategy (the glow) lives on as evidence (afterglow) in the Center for American History archives of the University of Texas, perpetuating the campaign in the public sphere. The authors conclude that such corporate archives increase pressures on historians to correct the image of “trick mirrors” built into donated corporate records.

From Genre to Art: The Sandman as Case Study in the Social Dynamics of Popular Culture • Mark Brewin, University of Tulsa • The author uses the history of the Sandman comic book character to map out the changes in the cultural construction of comic book characters, their audiences, and their producers. The case study of this character is used to illustrate what the author argues is a larger change in the ways that popular culture is used to create social distinction and forms of cultural capital.

The Politics of Media Literacy: The Daily Show’s Contribution to Sophisticated Citizenry • Dwight Brooks and Kristen Heflin, University of Georgia • The Daily Show combines humor with a newscast format to construct a television program that in its critical commentary on the news media and politics promotes viewers’ media literacy. It contributes to media literacy by representing government, public servants and political news coverage in ways that promote a sophisticated citizenry. This paper’s narrative textual analysis argues for a contextual approach to media literacy and ultimately to assist in understanding television’s role in the public sphere.

Recoding New Orleans: News, Race and Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke • Christopher Campbell and Kim LeDuff, University of Southern Mississippi • This paper contrasts the racial codes that surfaced in mainstream news coverage of New Orleans in the early days after Hurricane Katrina with the racial coding in Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke. The authors admit that there are vast differences between the daily news and documentary processes, but they argue that daily journalism might be improved by approaching stories in the more thoughtful, complicated, but still compelling, manner of Lee’s documentary.

A Rebirth of the Prison: Foucault’s Governmentality and Inmate-Produced Media • Kalen Churcher, Pennsylvania State University • This paper examines how inmate-produced media may be used as a means of (self) governance within penal institutions. Using Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, I argue that inmate-produced media may directly aid in establishing order and maintaining civility in much the same fashion as non-inmate-produced-culture impacts ‘free world’ society. Furthermore, inmate-produced media may become technologies of (self) governance, allowing prisoners, in addition to the state, to become active participants in the governing (control) process.

Social Control in an American Pacific Island: Guam’s Local Newspaper’s Reporting on ‘Liberation’ between 1994-2004 • Francis Dalisay, Washington State University • This study examined news articles, opinion pieces, and editorials printed in Guam’s local newspaper (1994-2004), which reported on the island’s annual celebration of its liberation from imperial Japanese occupation, by U.S. forces. A critical discourse analysis of the items revealed that Guam’s newspaper, the Pacific Daily News, downplayed a pro-local versus pro-American conflict. What emerged were ambivalent portrayals that appeared to hegemonically maintain the island’s social system as an “unincorporated” U.S. territory.

The Last True Believers: The Knoxville Journal in the Late Civil Rights Movement • Frank Durham, University of Iowa • The relationship between desegregation and Communism in the South had been promoted by the mainstream press in and around Tennessee for nearly 30 years when the Highlander Research and Education Center moved to Knoxville in 1961 from its former campus in rural Monteagle, TN. But when the Knoxville Journal launched a last anti-Communist campaign against the Highlander-based movement from 1965-1967, the vigor of its attack revealed the reluctance of the state government and other newspapers to follow.

Ugly Is the New Beautiful: Rearticulations and Recuperations of Ugliness in the Expansive Text of Ugly Betty • Madeleine Esch, University of Colorado • ABC’s hit show Ugly Betty has been lauded for challenging dominant ideas about beauty. I investigate investigate the disarticulation-rearticulation of “ugly” in the expansive text of Ugly Betty and consider to what extent any rearticulation is recuperated through commodification and/or rhetorical strategies via the textuality of websites associated with the show and ABC’s “Be Ugly ’07” public service campaign. I conclude that the resulting rearticulation does not pose a significant challenge to the beauty industries.

Something Careless This Way Comes: Medical Error and Its Consequences (or Lack Thereof) on ER and Grey’s Anatomy • Katherine Foss, University of Minnesota • This paper explores constructions of medical errors on the shows ER and Grey’s Anatomy. Medical professionals err due to overzealous ambition, hospital staffing problems, or distracting patient behavior. Consequences for medical errors include damage to one’s career and legal action. More often than not, however, medical professionals face no consequences for their mistakes. This lack of consequences especially occurs with female patients of lower socio-economic class who have no friends or family.

Representing Women’s Empowerment Online: Postcolonial Feminist Critiques • Phyllis Dako-Gyeke, Radhika Gajjala, and Yahui Zhang, Bowling Green State University • We map out a critique of discourses of women’s emancipation in online spaces from ongoing research at global/local, rural/urban and transnational intersections from three distinct locations. One discursive formation is that of the United Nations Population Fund as it is played out via its website, while a second is an examination of discourses around female genital mutilation in online activism. The third case is based in work offline trying to develop strategies for online marketing.

(Re)constructing Gender Dichotomies in the Media: The Articulation of Lynndie England to Abu Ghraib • Dustin Harp and Sara Struckman, University of Texas, Austin • In this paper, we analyze the process through which news magazines made a strong connection between Lynndie England and the Abu Ghraib scandal and how gender impacted these “articulations.” By making England the symbol of the scandal, the media were able to divert attention away from other problems while reifying dichotomous images of women in the media as virgin or vamp.

Entertaining Reality: Media as Social Experiments • Paul Hillier, University of Georgia • The purpose of this paper is to flesh out and highlight some of the key relationships between a few representative programs labeled “reality TV” and the larger social and cultural formations they are a part of. This paper argues that the practice of social experiments can’t be easily divided between the scientific and those that are not. Indeed, this paper suggests there are correspondences between the scientific and commercial practice of social experiments.

The State’s Management of Homelessness through Conceptualizations of Space: A Textual Analysis of Homelessness Coverage in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor • Teresa Housel, Hope College • This textual analysis of homelessness coverage from The Christian Science Monitor and The Washington Post examines how personal, private, public, and commercial spaces are sites of struggle between dominant groups and the homeless who are routinely marginalized from these spaces. Although there are differences between the newspapers’ coverage, the articles describe how homeless people violate certain spaces.

Sudden Death and Natural Disaster: Journalistic Storytelling in the Wake of Tragedy • Janice Hume, University of Georgia • This study examines local, regional and national newspaper and television coverage of deadly natural disasters in six states to seek to understand the media’s role in the social construction of death. Journalists used a variety of metaphors: descriptions of property damage for deaths of humans; descriptions monsters to personify the disasters; descriptions of war zones for disaster sites. Coverage also memorialized victims, celebrated heroism, and grappled with the nature of God and fate.

The Digital War Hero: A Textual Analysis of the Production of Whiteness and Masculinity in the Metal Gear Solid Series • Robin Johnson, University of Iowa • This paper examines cultural conditions of production of hegemonic white masculinity in the Metal Gear videogame series. The textual analysis is grounded in theories of whiteness, masculinity, and cultural hybridity. Gender and race are implicit in the discursive meanings of production and manifest a hierarchical social organization of gender within the game industry. Changing technology in production emphasizes more “realistic” characters, and production sequences create meanings embodied in a digital body hexis of the characters.

Patriotic Passion and the ‘Sublime’ Science: Un-Searching for Journalistic Truths • Myung Koo Kang, Seoul National University, Nakho Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hak Jae Kim and Sung Min Lee, Seoul National University • In South Korea, controversy on the stem cell fraud in late 2005 created a strong and uniform oppression against journalistic truth-seeking by journalism itself. By analyzing a vast array of media coverage in the initial month of the incident, we attempted to reconstruct the discursive narrative and contexts that caused this phenomenon. With the governmentality of biopolitics as the theoretical background, we explored the major discourse strategies and journalism practices into detail.

Representing Katie: The Media Commodification of the First Female Network News Anchor • Rebecca Kern and Suman Mishra, Temple University • This study explores how women are represented in media, especially those women who seem to be challenging the status quo. Using textual analysis and feminist discourse, this study examines ten weeks of news reports on CBS news anchor Katie Couric and compares it with the coverage of Charles Gibson of ABC. The findings reveal that even though Couric received much more coverage than Gibson, most of the coverage was centered on her appearance, personality, presentation.

A Changing Field Requires Dynamic Methods: Ethnography Rises to the Task • Hillary Lake, University of Oregon • This essay explores issues about using ethnography to study media, and offers insight and information that may benefit media researchers and professionals who seek new modes of inquiry. The author notes the complex crossroads where ethnography and journalism intersect, and reiterates a call for a ”second wave” of news ethnographies that privilege our diverse news ecology and the individuals who work within specific news contexts.

Taking Needlecraft to the Extreme (Right): Rose Wilder Lane and the Woman’s Day Book of Needlework • Amy Lauters, Wichita State University • In the 1950s, journalist and writer Rose Wilder Lane crafted a set of articles about different needlecrafts for Woman’s Day magazine. In private correspondence, Lane called the works a “right-wing extremist” series of needlework articles. This paper interrogates Lane’s 1950s-era needlework features for Woman’s Day magazine and the subsequent Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework, which compiled those articles and disseminated them, as a collection, to a wide audience.

Limited or Limitless? Nokia’s Mobile Regulation of Everyday Life • Jonathan Lillie, University of Hawaii, Manoa • This study used a qualitative textual analysis to examine several online and magazine advertisements that portray mobile devices-in-use as tools of identity performance, presenting the individual to the world, and tools of social and cultural mobility, presenting the world to the individual. The paper, which considers the contexts of the Nokia and postmodern advertising, critiques the limited commercial vision of the company’s marketing narratives and mobile technologies.

Culture + Power: Synthesizing Hall, Carey and Foucault for a Cultural Understanding of the Power of the Press • Lise Marken, Stanford University • This paper approaches the question of the power of the press while viewing journalism as a cultural force, bringing together the thinking of Stuart Hall, James Carey and Michel Foucault. Hall’s model of culture incorporates power, but ultimately allows culture to be eclipsed by ideology. Carey makes space for an understanding of culture, but loses sight of power. These views are reconciled by applying a Foucauldian view of power as positive, distributed, unstable and ubiquitous.

Defining the Community: Constructions of Race and Cultural Identity in a Small Midwestern Newspaper • MaryAnn Martin, University of Iowa • Using a multi-method approach, I examined the ways in which the newspaper in the small town of West Liberty, Iowa, forges a cultural identity for the community, given 40 percent is Latino and the renewed call for immigration reform in the U.S. This study indicates that the news staff and content of the newspaper relegate Latinos in the community to the status of cultural “Other” while maintaining a discourse of inclusivity and diversity.

The Lord of the Rings, “Dépaysement,” and the Neo-Colonial: Film and Tourism as (Problematic) Identity in the Aotearoa New Zealand Context • Robert Peaslee, University of Colorado • This paper problematizes the ongoing concatenation of Aotearoa New Zealand identity with fictional or foreign places such as The Lord of the Rings’ “Middle-earth.” This process, related to “dépaysement” or “out-of-nation-ness,” is intentional and aimed at attracting both tourists and film productions. I argue that it diminishes the importance of biculturalism relative to the indigenous Maori population and risks a kind of neo-colonialism by erasing an important aspect of national culture.

Evidential Bodies: The Abject and Forensic Gaze in C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation • David Pierson, University of Southern Maine • This paper examines how C.S.I. fosters an abject gaze toward the victim’s corpse, which is both repulsive and attractive in its focus on the effects of death on the body. The abject nature of the corpse is mediated by the investigators’ forensic gaze, which seeks to control crime, death, and abjection. The series’ representation of biological identification and surveillance technologies can be associated with changing discourses of crime, identity, and citizenship in the 21st century.

Sex and the University: The Presentation of Liminal Phase Behaviors in Campus Newspaper Sex Columns • Daniel Reimold, Ohio University • Approximately ten years after its debut in a single student publication in California, the campus newspaper sex column has become the most publicized, electrifying, and divisive phenomena in U.S. college journalism. Currently, more than 10 percent of the roughly 1,200 newspapers that claim membership in the Associated Collegiate Press run a sex column. This study aimed to ascertain the social world constructed within the columns, in respect to gender roles and sex and relationship practices.

Sidelined by Gender: Examining the Representation of the Female Sideline Reporter • Lori Amber Roessner, University of Georgia • In this study, feminist critical theory and textual analysis are utilized to examine the representation of the female sideline reporter in the 2005-2006 NCAA Division I-A college football bowl season. Analysis showed that female sideline reporters were under-represented, objectified and commodified in four select games of the 2005-2006 NCAA Division I-A college football bowl season. The study revealed that representations of female sideline reporters reproduce masculine hegemony.

Community Media in the Divided Digital City: When the “Talk of Austin” Turns to Class • Lou Rutigliano, University of Texas, Austin • Newspaper websites are providing more opportunities for readers to contribute content. This paper studied the Austin-American Statesman’s online forum “Talk of Austin,” which launched amid rapid change and development in the city. Through a discourse analysis the author found the voices of the disadvantaged on the Statesman’s forums, but no signs of involvement of political, economic, or media elites, raising questions about the political impact of these online public spheres.

The Marketplace of Ideas and Uncomfortable Speech: The Free Speech Fight of the Unabomber • Karen Sichler, University of Georgia • Theodore Kaczynski (the Unabomber) is attempting to regain possession of his personal property that were seized by the FBI. The federal government has refused to return said items as Kaczynski may not “profit” from his crimes. This paper will argue that the government’s position is flawed as it ignores the rich tradition of the “marketplace of ideas” and transforms the theoretical marketplace into an actual one with the expansion of the idea of profit.

Robert E. Park’s Legacy for Mass Communication and Civic Engagement Research • Susan Sivek, University of Texas, Austin • This paper discusses the legacy of Robert E. Park, Chicago School sociologist and communication researcher. I evaluate the relevance and utility of his theoretical and methodological approaches for today’s communication researchers, particularly those studying mass communication and civic engagement. Park’s work is in fact fundamental to this research, though not always recognized explicitly as such, and more application of his views–plus willingness to help guide solutions to social problems–could enrich this field.

The Hollywood Cinema: Representation of American Hegemony or Universal Values? China’s Debate from 1994 to 2004 • Weiqun Su, University of Minnesota • This study critically analyzes the extensive cultural debate in China that lasted from 1994 to 2004 over the meaning of the Hollywood cinema. Three positions are found to emerge from China’s debate: the belief in Hollywood films’ representations of the American way of life, the argument of Hollywood films’ reflection of universally applicable values, and the understanding of Hollywood films as a carrier of both American spirit and universal values.

Mass Participation, Youth Revolt and Grassroots Idol-Making in the Shackles of the State: Cultural Politics of the Supergirl Contest • Tao Sun, Plymouth State University, and Zixue Tai, University of Kentucky and • This study offers a critical analysis of the Supergirl contest of 2005 in China. An American Idol-type reality show that features live broadcast of participants, the show made ratings history in Chinese television by attracting over 400 million viewers in its finale. The paper situates the phenomenon within the broad sociopolitical context of China’s economic liberalization and media transformation, and explores how audience members, led by Chinese youngsters, engage in collective meaning-making and counter-discourse construction.

You Become the Thing You Hate the Most: Letters to Brill’s Content • Patrick Wehner, University of Pennsylvania • This paper examines the evolving relationship between the magazine Brill’s Content and its readers, examining the nearly 600 letters that were published during the magazine’s three-year run from 1998-2001. The letters published in Content testify to the promises and perils of media-savvy readers as a target audience. Ultimately, advertisers’ reluctance to accept publisher Steven Brill’s category of “media enthusiasts” as a promising audience niche, at least within magazine publishing, sealed Content’s fate.

Promotional Culture and the Aura of Authenticity • James Wittebols, University of Windsor • Promotional media have begun to appropriate authenticity as a vehicle for selling products and experiences by projecting an aura of authenticity on products, celebrities and politicians as a means of generating publicity and/or sales. This paper looks at examples of promotional culture using authenticity to market food and restaurant experiences and identifies authenticity as a key idea in the early discussion about the upcoming presidential campaign.

<< 2007 Abstracts

Communication Theory & Methodology Division

Protesting Immigration: Attitude Congruency and the Behavioral Component of the Third-Person Perception • Julie Andsager and Josh Grimm, University of Iowa • This experiment examined the relationship between attitude congruency and third-person perceptions of influence of news media. It included the effects of this relationship on willingness to support protests, using immigration as a topic. Findings indicate that attitude-congruent news stories have strong perceived influence on individuals, but not on others. Individuals were supportive of attitude-congruent protests, but TPP and the news stories were unrelated to protest support. Traditional operationalization of the behavioral component is questioned.

Agenda-setting and Priming: The Public’s Evaluation of Presidential Hopefuls • Sang Y Bai, University of Texas-Austin • One of the primary purposes of this study is to examine the ways in which both media issue salience and political figures’ attributes in the news media influences public evaluation of political figures. By focusing on main issues in presidential elections and affective attributes of each presidential hopeful’s capability in terms of each of the main issues, this study attempts to further investigate the dynamics of priming effects.

Public Meetings in Entertainment Television Programming: Using Procedural Justice to Analyze Fictional Civic Participation • John Besley, University of South Carolina and Janie Diels, Alma College • Quantitative and qualitative analyses of entertainment television programs depicting public meetings demonstrate that, while citizens are often shown having substantial opportunity to affect local government decisions, authorities are often portrayed quite negatively. In particular, they are often shown as rude and in an obvious conflict of interest. The categories for this content analysis originate in social-psychological theories of justice, a body of research that offers potential utility to communication scholars.

Thwarted by Frames: Attributions of Poverty and Support for Public Policy •
Andrew R. Binder and Eulalia Puig-i-Abril, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines one of the central tenets of Tversky and Kahneman’s prospect theory, according to which the framing of potential outcomes in terms of gains versus losses results in shifts in policy preferences. Instead of using generalized policy options to which respondents will have no prior attachment, and focusing on the issue of poverty, we examine whether framing a social issue in terms of lives lost versus life saved affects responsiveness towards the issue.

When Observation Isn’t Enough: An Experiment Exposing a Moderation Effect • Vanessa Boudewyns, Ryan Paquin and Marco Yzer, University of Minnesota • The effectiveness of mass communication campaigns as a means of encouraging behavior change is greatly dependent upon how well those campaigns target the underlying factors that predict behavior. The current study uses an experimental design to demonstrate that a positive attitude will lead to behavioral intention only to the extent that people believe they are personally able to perform the behavior. Initial empirical support for the hypothesis is presented, as are recommendations for future research.

Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors Associated with U.S. Early Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Media • Jane Brown, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Correlates of use and subsequent sexual attitudes and behaviors related to use of sexually explicit content in magazines, movies and the Internet were examined in a diverse sample of early adolescents (Ave. age = 13.6 years; N = 967). Two-thirds (66%) of males and more than one-third (39%) of females had seen at least one form of sexually explicit media in the past year.

Whistling While You Work Might Hurt: An Experiment on the Effects of Music when Evaluating Job Applicants • Francesca Dillman Carpentier, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • As consumption of music in the workplace increases, and as popular music becomes more explicit in violent and sexual themes, it is important to understand how prevalent musical themes influence listeners as they make work decisions. This experiment evaluates the ability popular music with a sexual, aggressive, or thoughtful theme to prime individuals, biasing their evaluations of job applicants toward the music theme.

Applicability of the Informational Utility Model for Radio News • Francesca Dillman Carpentier, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The informational utility model proposes that information will appear more useful, and become more salient to individuals, if the information conveys increased magnitude, likelihood, and immediacy of consequences for the individual. This model has been tested primarily with online news using selective exposure as the outcome. This study tests applicability of the model to radio news using perceived attention and retention of information as outcomes. Story valence influenced effectiveness of the model for both outcomes.

Moderating Roles of Image and Issues Stories on Broadcast News Scene Order and Proportion Effects • Yun Jung Choi and Jong Hyuk Lee, Central Michigan University and SooYeon Hong, Syracuse University • The study examines how image and issues stories moderate the effects of scene order and scene proportion of broadcast news on viewers’ attitude formation. Both image and issue stories showed primacy and proportion effects. Candidate attributes discussed in early scenes and attributes discussed most frequently in a story determined the overall impression of the candidates. However, image stories showed stronger prominent primacy effects and proportion effects than issue stories.

The Mortality Muzzle: Effect of Death Thoughts on Support for Press Censorship • David Cuillier, University of Arizona and Blythe Duell and Jeffrey Joireman, Washington State University • This study introduces terror management theory to the communication field to potentially explain why public support for press censorship increases during times of strife, such as war or terrorist attacks. Findings from an experiment suggest that people who most value security demonstrate greater support for censorship when primed to think of death than similar security-minded participants in a control group.

The Importance of the Home Environment: Predicting Adolescent Political Communication Behaviors from Parental Communication Behaviors • William Eveland, Tiffany Thomson, Lindsay Hoffman and Myiah Hively, Ohio State University • Communication behaviors are an important aspect of the development of citizenship in young people, ultimately impacting political knowledge and participation. Moreover, communication behaviors have been found to be stable over time. Therefore, examining influences on such behaviors are of critical importance. This study examines three processes through which parents, in particular, influence child communication behaviors: transmission of communication behavior, active mediation, and family communication patterns.

The Path to War: A Second-Level Agenda-Building Analysis Examining the Relationship Among the Media, the Public and the President • Shahira Fahmy, Southern Illinois University, Tom Johnson, Texas Tech University, Juyan Zhang, Monmouth University and Wayne Wanta, University of Missouri • This study combines both the agenda building and the second-level agenda approaches. It proposes an expansion of agenda-building research by examining the interaction among the president, the media and the public for an event that was not considered an existing ‘real-world’ condition.

Covering the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Factors of News Treatment of Official Sources in Four Major U.S. Newspapers • Eric Freedman, Michigan State University • News treatment of official sources has tremendous impact on U.S. politics and policies because unequal treatment can lead to media bias that further complicates political agendas. Content-analyzing four major U.S. newspapers’ coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this study finds foreign policy and press access are strong predictors of source treatment. It raises questions of whether the press may destabilize peace and domestic politics by preferring one side’s sources over the rival’s sources, presenting biased coverage.

The Effects of Color Manipulation of a Political Advertisement on Candidate Perceptions • Nokon Heo, University of Central Arkansas • This study investigated the effect of a black-and-white manipulation of a negative political ad on candidate perceptions, memory, and voting intentions. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) was the primary theoretical mechanism used to generate main hypotheses. A total of 48 college students viewed a 20-minute long video containing a negative political video shown during a regular television program. Participants were also asked to rate their levels of political involvement.

Visual Processing of Banner Animation: A Test of Two Competing Theories – “Distinctiveness” and “Motion Effects” • Nokon Heo, University of Central Arkansas • This study investigated the effect of banner animation on search-reaction time for banner ads. The purpose of the experiment was to test two competing theories about banner animation effects: distinctiveness theory and motion effect theory. All participants (N = 31) in a 2 (Animation) x 2 (Banner Type) x 4 (Number of Animated Distractors) within-subjects factorial experiment were participated in a Web banner search task. Each subject completed a total of 72 trials.

Political Discussion, Efficacy and Engagement: A Moderating Effect • Myiah Hively, Ohio State University • This paper examines the effect of internal political efficacy as a moderator of the relationship between diverse discussion networks and political engagement. Eight hundred and forty-six participants completed an online survey that was collected from a national volunteer sample. Results indicate that there are positive effects on engagement for both dimensions of efficacy and participants’ discussion networks.

Predicting Children’s Political Efficacy, Cynicism, and Participation: The Influence of Parents, Media, and Knowledge • Myiah Hively, Lindsay Hoffman and Tiffany Thomson, Ohio State University • Understanding how youth learn about politics and what influences and shapes their attitudes-and later behaviors-has been a topic of interest to scholars since the 1960s. This study looks not only at a traditionally measured outcome of socialization-specifically, participation-but also examines beliefs that are important for future behavior: internal political efficacy and cynicism. Data were collected from 201 parent-child dyads in 2005 from a 2004 battleground state.

Blogosphere and Participatory Democracy: Hostile Media Perception, Information Selection, and Political Participation • Hyunseo Hwang, Kjerstin Thorson and Rich Cleland, University of Wisconsin-Madison and David Perlmutter, University of Kansas • What could be the possible behavioral outcomes of the hostile media perception? To answer this and other related questions, we explore the paths starting with alienation from mainstream news media leading toward political participation. The results consistently revealed that hostile media perception leads to decreased use of mainstream media while increasing the use of supportive political blogs. The results demonstrate that supportive blog use is positively associated to both online and offline political participation.

Revisiting the Gap: A Meta-Analytic Review of Knowledge Gap Research • Yoori Hwang, University of Minnesota and Se-Hoon Jeong, University of Pennsylvania • Using a meta-analytic procedure, this study reviewed past knowledge gap studies. Specifically, the average size of knowledge gap effects, changes in the gap over time, and the relative impacts of structural- and individual-level factors on knowledge gaps were assessed. In addition, potential moderators of knowledge gap effects were examined.

Pluralism and the Urban Context: How and When Does Community Matter? • Leo Jeffres, Edward Horowitz, Cheryl Bracken, Sukki Yoon and Guowei Jian, Cleveland State University • The structural pluralism model popularized by Tichenor and his colleagues says that that social structure influences how mass media operate in communities because they respond to how power is distributed in the social system, while the linear model says that the increasing size of a community’s population leads to more social differentiation and diversity and corresponding increases in subcultures with their own beliefs, customs, behaviors.

Pondering Media Messages, Talking to Others and Learning: Communication Processes and the Production of Scientific Knowledge • Eunkyung Kim and Dominique Brossard, University of Wisconsin-Madison • We examine how pondering media messages and talking to others during and after media exposure might impact different types of scientific knowledge. Based on national panel survey data, we show that cognitive involvement in the processing of news information during and after mass media exposure play a significant additive role in predicting three dimensions of scientific knowledge. The communication processing variables played a mediating role in linking science news use and issue-specific scientific knowledge.

Mode of Digital Identity: Confirmation Bias and Cognitive Busyness on Impression Formation under Text-based Versus Graphic-based Computer-Mediated Communication • Hokyung Kim, University of South Carolina • Theory suggests that when perceivers regard a target person as negative from a few observable characteristics, they form negative expectations about the target and respond to the target negatively based on their prior thoughts. Perceivers tend to confirm their negative expectations when they consider their target as a possible conversational partner, or when cognitively busy perceivers interact with the target in fact-to-face interaction.

Internet’s Influence on Traditional Media in the Contemporary Media Environment • Su Jung Kim, Northwestern University • This study investigated how traditional media use patterns have been affected by the Internet based on media substitution theory. Using cross-sectional survey data collected biannually from 2001 to 2005, this study analyzed indicators of time and functional displacement in a long-term perspective. The results showed that time displacement effect of the Internet has lessened and relationships between changes in traditional media use and age, education, level of television use were found.

Attribute Agenda Setting, Priming, and the Media’s Influence on How to Think about a Controversial Issue • Seihill Kim, Auburn University, Miejeong Han, Hanyang University and Doohun Choi, Auburn University • Using a controversial issue in South Korea, a government plan to relocate the administrative capital, this study examines attribute agenda setting, which refers to a close correspondence between salient issue attributes in the media and the agenda of attributes among the audience.

The New Logic of Collective Action in the Internet Age: The Impact of the Internet on the Transformation of Political Activism and Mobilization • Young Mie Kim and Seong-Jae Min, Ohio State University • This study revisits and revises Olson’s Logic of Collective Action in consideration of the growing adoption and uses of new communication technologies by interest groups in the U.S. By combining the telephone interview data of randomly sampled 209 public issue advocacy groups and labor unions with the groups’ organizational profiles data obtained from the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), this study examines how new communication technologies, especially the Internet, contribute to the changes in political activism and mobilization.

New and Legacy Media Use for Information and Entertainment 2000 and 2005: Displacement or Complementarity? • Damian Kostiuk, Margaret Duffy and Esther Thorson, University of Missouri-Columbia • This paper examines in a large U.S. sample how use of newspapers, television, Internet, magazines and radio for entertainment and information changed from 2000 to 2005. It tests the changes as reflected in three crucial demographic groups: no children/young; no children/mature; and has children (Cohen & Trahan, 2006).

Refining the Willingness to Censor Scale: Public Censorship Attitudes and Their Predictors • Jennifer Lambe, University of Delaware and Jason Reineke, Ohio State University • Research about censorship attitudes across disciplines shares the goal of predicting and modifying problematic attitudes. This paper reanalyzes existing data sets using Lambe’s Willingness to Censor scale (2002) to produce a more nuanced picture of the relationship between censorship attitudes and predictor variables including age, education, political ideology, political discussion and knowledge, and the big 3 personality traits of neuroticism, extraversion and openness. Results suggest these relationships are more complex than prior research has shown.

Interplay between Television, the Internet, and Interpersonal Health Communication in the Context of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Reinforcing or Substituting? • Chul-joo Lee, University of Pennsylvania • This study aimed to explore how media use for health information acquisition and interpersonal health communication interact in the context of healthy lifestyle behaviors. My results showed that the effects of television use and Internet use on healthy lifestyle behaviors were more enhanced among those who talked about health issues with their family and friends less frequently, which supports the substitution model. The theoretical implications of these findings for future research in this area were discussed.

Do Media Vary in Humanness? An Attempt to Explicate and Measure the Concept of Media Humanness • Hyung Min Lee, Kevin Wang and Brian Southwell, University of Minnesota • Based on the assumption that media technologies may retain a different level of human-like characteristics due to their respective technological attributes, we attempted to explicate and validate the concept of media humanness in this study. In the course of this process, we developed the measurement instrument for operationalizing the concept of media humanness and tested the reliability and validity of the measure with a multi-methods approach.

Effects of Online Community Participation on Real-Life Engagement: A Mediation Analysis • Jong Hyuk Lee, Yun Jung Choi, Central Michigan University and Sung-Un Yang, Syracuse University • This study examined the effect of online community participation on real-life community engagement. An online survey was conducted with 206 residents in New York and the data were analyzed by structural equation modeling and the Sobel’s mediation test. The study found that the overall Internet use has a negative impact on social capital of real-life communities but this influence turned out to be positive if mediated through online community participation.

Framing Policy Debates: Issue Dualism, Journalistic Frames, and Opinions on Controversial Policy Issues • Nam-Jin Lee, Douglas M. McLeod and Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines, on the basis of two framing experiments, how value and strategy frames shape the reasoning processes and opinion outcomes. The results suggest that framed messages failed to change issue opinions directly, but did alter the importance of considerations used to make judgments on relevant issues. Specifically, individuals tend to react to strategy frames by discounting partisan affiliation as a primary consideration, turning to other salient alternatives when making judgments.

Knowledge Flows Dynamics of Core Communication Journals in 2005 • Sungjoon Lee and George Barnett, University of Buffalo • This paper examines the structure of knowledge flows using citation analysis based on 18 core journals within Communication for 2005. Unlike conventional ways of citation networks in the previous research done by Borgman and Reeves (1981) and Rice, Borgman, and Reeves (1989), the unit of analysis in this study is each (citing and cited) author’s membership in divisions/ interest groups in the International Communication Association (ICA).

Origins of Dutiful Voting and Defiant Activism: The Parent Path and the Peer Path to Adolescent Civic Identity • Michael McDevitt, University of Colorado • This study explores a fundamental question about political learning: Does formal education engender compliance or differentiation, and perhaps defiance, in identity formation? Results from a three-year panel study of adolescents and parents support a model in which schools prompt discussion in families and peer groups. Interpersonal influence in the two spheres share common steps but can be viewed as parallel staircases to divergent orientations, with families encouraging voting and peer groups fostering confrontational activism.

Political Socialization Upside Down: The Adolescent’s Contribution to Civic Parenting • Michael McDevitt, University of Colorado-Boulder and Spiro Kiousis, University of Florida • The study of political socialization is in many respects an attempt to understand how parents engender dispositions that are not overtly political but are transferable nonetheless to civic life. In challenging a presumption of accidental parenting, this paper proposes a model of developmental provocation to illustrate how adolescents contribute to purposeful parenting. Results confirm that adolescent discussion during an election campaign predicted civic parenting one year later despite controlling for political predispositions of parents.

Message-Induced Emotions, Faith in Intuition, and Persuasion • Xiaoli Nan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This research examines the effects of message-induced emotions on persuasion by investigating the influence of a message recipient’s emotional responses to a series of PSAs on his/her attitudes toward the advocated issues. Drawing upon the affect-as-information paradigm, recent developments in discrete emotions research, as well as Epstein’s cognitive-experiential self-theory, this research explores the overall impact of emotions on persuasion and how the strength of the emotional impact might be influenced by an individual’s faith in intuition.

The Influence of Liking for a Public Service Announcement on Issue Attitude • Xiaoli Nan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This research investigates the influence of an individual’s general liking for a public service announcement (PSA) on his/her attitude toward the advocated issue. Drawing upon the attitude toward the ad theory, this research argues that one’s liking for a PSA or, in other words, one’s attitude toward a PSA (APSA), exerts a significant positive impact on issue attitude and that the strength of this positive effect varies as a function of a variety of individual and situational factors.

An Analysis of Factors: How Candidate Image Affects Present Day Voters • Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch and Katharine Allen, Pennsylvania State University • With the growth of the media’s role in politics, candidate elections have moved from an issue-based process to a more image-based process such that more voting behavior now stems from superficial characteristics such as attractiveness than the candidate’s stance on an issue. This report investigates these image-based factors as predictors of voter preference for political candidates.

Incredible Media or Incredulous Audience: The Effects of Polarization and Partisanship on Media Credibility • Tayo Oyedeji, University of Missouri-Columbia • This study explores the effects of polarization and partisanship on audiences’ perceptions of media credibility. The results support the hypothesis that audience polarization contributes significantly to the media credibility crisis: religious, ideological, and geographical polarization explains 14.8% of the variance in media credibility. The HME was also confirmed for two of the three layers of polarization: religious and ideological partisans had statistically significant lower perceptions of media credibility than moderates.

An Individual Difference Approach to Understanding Communication Campaign Effects: Self-Monitoring, Perceived Message Effectiveness, and Perceived Media Influence • Hye-Jin Paek, University of Georgia • This study examines the self-monitoring tendency’s role in communication campaign effects. An analysis of survey data in a charity campaign context indicates that high self-monitors evaluate the charity campaign message more favorably than low self-monitors. In addition, perceived message effectiveness and perceived campaign influence are significantly associated with charitable behavior intention only among high self-monitors. The findings highlight the importance of understanding individual differences for more effective communication campaigns.

Effects of Photographs and Geographical Proximity: News Coverage of Paroling Serial Rapists • Chia-hsin Pan, Chinese Culture University • The present study investigated how people process Web-based sexual crime news of interest. Results revealed that geographical proximity of the issue caused greater panic than a distant one. Findings also showed participants using peripheral processes of news photos from a distant school. Specifically, a rapist’s photo from participants’ school would cause greater panic than a woman’s photo. On the contrary, a woman’s photo would cause greater panic than a rapist’s photo in the distant school.

Perceptions of Online Discussion Group Messages: Biasedness, Source Knowledgeability, Perceived Exposure and Influence • Sung-Yeon Park and Gi Woong Yun, Bowling Green State University • As online sources for information and opinions sprout rampantly on the Web and more and more people report the Web as their primary tool of social surveillance, the need to differentiate and understand various types of online sources is increasing as well. This study focused on online discussion group messages by examining audience perceptions of message biasedness, source knowledgeability, perceived exposure, and presumed influence on self and others.

Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Online Material and Sexual Uncertainty: Developing a Recipient-Generated Thought Model • Jochen Peter and Patti M. Valkenbuerg, University of Amsterdam • Analyzing a two-wave panel among 1,426 Dutch adolescents, we found that exposure to sexually explicit online material (SEOM) increased sexual uncertainty. In line with our recipient-generated thought model, perceived female objectification in SEOM mediated the effect of SEOM on sexual uncertainty. Attention during exposure and perceived realism of SEOM moderated this mediation process. If adolescents were attentive and perceived SEOM as realistic, the strongest effect of SEOM on sexual uncertainty via perceived female objectification occurred.

Cynicism Versus Skepticism in Citizens’ Attitudes Toward the Media and Political Decision Making • Bruce Pinkleton, Erica Weintraub Austin, Michelle Arganbright, Erin Bryant, Hua Chang, Francis Dalisay, Evan Epstein, Hanlong Fu, Erin Gallagher, Jay Hmielowski, Yevgeniya Solodovnikova and Ryan Thomas, Washington State University • Researchers conducted a telephone survey of randomly selected citizens 18 years of age or older in Washington state the week before the 2006 mid-term elections to study citizens’ attitudes toward news media and political decision making. Researchers examined the different roles of citizens’ cynicism-which, according to previous research results, reflects a closure to news and information about public affairs-versus their skepticism-which scholars suggest reflects a critical but open attitude toward news and information-in the political decision-making process.

“Corrective” Actions in the Public Sphere: How Perceptions of Media Effects Shape Online Behaviors • Hernando Rojas, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study examine whether perceptions of media influence and perceptions of media hostility towards one’s views, predict taking “corrective” actions to ensure that one’s views are “heard” in the public sphere. Controlling for Internet use, political interest and efficacy this study provides evidence that both third-person perceptions and hostile media perceptions are consistently related with a series of online behaviors that seek to enrich public debate and “correct” potential biases in the public sphere.

The Effects of Moods on Processing of Competitive and Non-Competitive Ad Contexts • Sela Sar, Iowa State University • This study examined the effects of moods and ad contexts on memory. The data showed that positive moods triggered relational processing, whereas negative moods triggered item specific processing. The results also revealed that competitive ad contexts induced relational processing, whereas non-competitive ad contexts induced item specific processing. The processing styles that were induced by moods and ad contexts, in turns, influenced people’s recall, recognition, recall clustering and evaluations of ads.

Toward Improving the Validity and Reliability of Information Processing Measures in Surveys • Christian Schemer, Werner Wirth and Jeorg Matthes, University of Zurich • Measuring information processing strategies is of great value to the study of media effects in the field, but researchers have raised concerns about the reliability and validity of previous scales. Therefore, this paper addresses these concerns and makes a methodological contribution by developing a standardized scale for measuring heuristic and systematic information processing. Based on previous measures, we tested our scale in three independent surveys.

Media Effects on Deliberative Processing: Frames, Congruence and Emotion • Rosanne M. Scholl, Raymond J. Pingree, Melissa R. Gotlieb, Emily Vraga, Ming Wang and Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • An experiment found that news frames, message-attitude congruence, and negative emotions about issue opponents affect the nature and extent of political reasoning. Measures of differentiation, balance, and elaboration of reasons reveal results that support a number of underlying cognitive processes to explain reason giving. For instance, negative emotions moderate the effect of congruence on elaboration such that disconfirmation bias is at play for people with strong emotions, while spreading activation guides those with weak emotions.

Campaign Advertising Effects on Social, Political, and Media Trust: Short-term, Long-term, and Cumulative Models • Dhavan Shah, Melissa R. Gotlieb, Hyunseo Hwang, Nam-Jin Lee, Rosanne M. Scholl, Aaron Veenstra, Douglas M. McLeod, and Kenneth Goldstein, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Prior research predicts exposure to political advertisements will foster cynicism and mistrust. This study investigates effects of campaign ad volume and negativity on political, media, and interpersonal trust using a unique combination of panel survey data and individual-level ad exposure estimates. Notably, these data allow us to test short-term, long-term, and cumulative models of effects. Negative effects on political and social trust are observed for long-term and cumulative effects, suggesting new directions for research.

The Effect of Argument Typicality on Memory for Endorsement Messages • Joon Soo, Middle Tennessee State University • To investigate the role of schema in the audience’s remembering an endorsement message, this study tested the SC + T model of a schema theory. Results showed that recognition performance dropped over time more rapidly for atypical arguments than for typical arguments. There was also a typicality-by-time interaction on the confidence-of-recognition judgments for hit items. These findings resonate with the primary assumption of the SC + T model.

Mass Media’s Impact on Confidence in Political Institutions: The Moderating Role of Political Expectations • Daniela Spranger, University of Zurich • This paper focuses on mass media’s impact on citizens’ confidence in political institutions. Drawing on research within the field of political science that builds on the discrepancy theory from cognitive psychology, the paper argues that citizens’ expectations of how political institutions should work and the outcomes they should produce moderate mass media’s impact. Building on research of media framing effects on political attitudes an expectation-perception model of media effects is developed.

Uncertainty Framing in News Coverage of a Non-Conventional War Disaster • Kristen Swain, University of Kansas • This study explores relationships among factors that modulate uncertainty, including outrage rhetoric, speculation, conflicting reports, and risk comparisons. It presents a content analysis of 833 U.S. news stories about the anthrax attacks from AP, NPR, 272 newspapers, and four national television networks and a qualitative evaluation of 150 excerpts. More stories included outrage rhetoric than risk explanations.

The Structure of Knowledge and Dynamics of Scholarly Communication in Agenda-Setting Research: A Social Network Analysis Approach • Zixue Tai, University of Kentucky • By conducting a citation analysis of bibliographic references and a social network analysis of cocitation referencing in 55 mainstream journal publications in the area of agenda-setting research from 1996 to 2005, this paper is intended to identify current exemplary publications and authoritative works in the knowledge production and dissemination process and to examine the nature of knowledge-sharing networks among the community of scholars who contribute to the growth of common knowledge in the study of agenda setting.

Cognitive Processing During Web Searches: A Cognitive Control Approach • Chen-Chao Tao, National Chiao Tung University • This paper proposes a cognitive control model to understand cognitive processing during Web search. It argues that the number of relevant search results returned during a Web search will increase cognitive load, and the increase in cognitive load augments the processing of peripheral and irrelevant advertisements. Theoretically, this paper draws on working memory theory.

Discrete Emotional Responses to Physical and Social, Immediate and Future Threats in Anti-Substance Abuse Message • Rebecca Van de Vord and Yi-Chun Yvonnes Chen, Washington State University • The study purpose was to disentangle the type of threat (physical or social) from the time of the threat as occurring immediately or at sometime in the future in anti-substance abuse PSAs. Investigators attempted to link prior research based on a dimensional theory of emotion with research employing a discrete-emotions model.

The Internet and Democracy: A Critical Review of What We Know and How We Know • Kevin Wang and Tsan-Kuo Chang, University of Minnesota • This study explores what we know and how we know about the relationship between the Internet and democracy through a review of 40 journal articles that contain empirical data from 2000 to present. Using Hayakawa’s (1941) concept of ladder of abstraction, we outlined the multiple conceptual dimensions of Internet and democracy and applied this framework to treat each article as a narrative.

Integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior and Attitude Functions: Implications for Persuasive Campaign Design • Xiao Wang, Eastern Connecticut State University • This study argues that the integration of attitude functions in the theory of planned behavior can provide a more detailed theoretical explanation and a more precise practical guidance regarding behavioral prediction. Relying on a survey conducted on a sample of 549 undergraduate students, this research found that individuals’ intentions to participate in regular physical activity were predicted by their utilitarian and self-esteem maintenance attitudes, the effects of which were further moderated by individuals’ strength of self-monitoring and self-esteem.

The Impact of Media Relations on Charitable Giving: A Test of the Agenda Setting Theory • Richard Waters, University of Florida • Though many fundraisers believe that additional media coverage of their organizations’ issue would result in increased donations, there have been no empirical tests that demonstrate such a correlation. Using the agenda-setting theory of mass communication, research was conducted to test this belief using the media coverage of the December 2004 Asian tsunami and the charitable giving behavior to relief efforts as reported by the Center of Philanthropy and Indiana University.

A Value-Centered Approach to Social Communication Campaigns: Improving the Interpretive Ability of Attitudinal Models • Olaf Werder, University of New Mexico • This paper adopts the proposition that analyses focusing on values embedded in attitudinal models contribute to theory development. Specifically, the purpose of the present study was to explore what role values play in explaining recycling intentions. A telephone survey was conducted to test hypotheses whether the inclusion of values would increase the likelihood to better explain recycling intentions with the TPB model. The findings suggest that values can expand the applicability of those models.

Advancing Agenda-Setting Theory: A Comparison of the Relative Strength of the Two Levels of Agenda Setting, and Proposing New Contingent Conditions • Denis Wu, Louisiana State University and Renita Coleman, University of Texas-Austin • This study uses data from a survey and content analysis of the 2004 presidential election to advances agenda-setting theory by examining the relative strength of first- and second-level agenda-setting effects on the public. We find that the second-level of the candidates’ attributes exerts a stronger agenda-setting influence on the public than does the salience of issues, or the first level. Even more striking is the difference in effects sizes on voting intention.

Going Beyond Message Framing: Exploring the Relationship between Mood and Framing for Different Health Behaviors • Changmin Yan and Fuyuan Shen, Pennsylvania State University • Through a 2 (Mood: positive and negative) by 2 (Framing: gain and loss) by 2 (Types of health behavior: prevention and detection) mixed design experiment, this study extended current health message framing research by examining the relationship between mood and message framing for different health behaviors. In addition to a framing-behavior match, a similar fit with health behaviors was observed for mood in a mood by types of health behavior interaction.

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